Forgotten Greed: Volume One: Greed's Bonds

Fast Companionship

Jack's nose rose as he gained conciseness, a gust of wind blew the scent of firewood and freshly cooked stew through the air; penetrating his nostrils with a comforting spell. as he opened his eyes light burst through a small tree he laid under. The bright sun poking through the leaves as the blew through the wind. A flash of relaxation filled his mind and he rested his head on the patchy brown stiffened grass. "It's been a while since I've been able to relax like this." he said as he sat up from the grass. Brown and red leaves crunched under his palms as he lifted his upper body off the ground. He relaxed his hand against his leg and opened up his fingers; a gust of wind swept the crushed leaves from his hands. Jack crunched his brow and clenched his head as a memory of ashes falling from the sky flickered in his mind. He looked in the distance; seeing a briefly familiar town. large walls surrounding a city with few visible rooftops poking just out of the top of the walls. "Phanlinde?" He said, scratching his head. "Well i guess this is a good place to start looking." He continued, beginning to walk through the lightly crowded streets of the once small town of phanlinde. The chatter of local villagers talking about the morning's sale and the whispers of adventurers, planning their next quests, ran through the air as Jack looked around for a clue as to what to do next. The warming scent of stews and firewood soaked the air, becoming more pungent the closer he walked towards a large building; the building was larger than any of the ones near it having multiple stories and a large sign out from with the picture of a sleeping serpent like creature with four muscular limbs with patches of hair growing on it. "Smairtan." Smairtans are large nocturnal creatures of the night, they have a large scaly appearance and can often be confused with dragons but Smairtans can shapeshift their limbs making them extremely deadly. "Man, I feel weird coming back here." He said standing in front of the tavern that he had walked into many years earlier. "years" he thought to himself. "more like decades." Jack began to walk through the doors of the tavern when he was stopped.

"Get out!" an older man yelled, throwing a glass at another man, who was running out of the door; slamming into Jack. glass shattered around the two men as light flickered through them creating a reflection of the person that slammed into him. 

"Blue?" He said as he caught a glimpse of the person's face.

"You might want to start running." He said grabbing Jack's arm; pulling him down to avoid another glass thrown at them; the man's hand was cold as ice and was giving Jack the chills as he was pulled forcefully by the stranger. "Come on!" The man yelled, still holding onto Jack, forcefully dragging him through the streets.

"Hey you two wait there!" A burly man said, chasing after them; Jack noticed the man wearing what looked like a guards uniform as two more men followed behind him wearing the same outfit.

"Why the hell are we running?" Jack yelled, finally saying something to this stranger.

"I'll tell you when we don't need to anymore." The man said, yanking on his arm again to avoid slamming into a group of villagers that were staring in confusion at the two of them, Jack allowed his body to flow freely with this person's motions. "Why is it that when I try to look for something to do, I always end up getting in trouble?" Jack said under his breath. After what seemed like an hour of running around avoiding the guards, the two ran around a building into an alleyway, hiding behind piles of trash; barely avoiding the guards that were much slower than them. Jack's breath left him quickly as he realized that his body felt more tired than usual, weakness and dizziness coursed through it as he tried to catch his breath quietly.

"Where did they go?" The guard said confusedly, as his voice passed the ally that the two were hiding in. "This way!" Another guard said, thinking he found Jack and the man's trail, fortunately for the two hiding just meters away; the guard was wrong.