Broken

Hope

"What debt?" he asked, squinting his face. "I've saved you're life at least 3 times, not including what I just did, and frankly I've payed your drink tab over a-hundred times." I responded, He tilted his head showing his acknowledgement. "So what do you want?" He asked while tilting his head back into upright position. "We've spent our whole lives just trying to make it a little bit further, surviving off of small bounties, but I think I found something that could take us to the top." I paused and checked to make sure no one was listening, "I found some weird artifact that has Shepherd markings all over it". "You kidding me?" he asked, "are you insane? You expect me to get wrapped up with the Shepherds?" Krux asked with an angry tone. "I don't think you have a choice, they're gonna be killing anyone they see me even pass by on the street. That toxic cloud they control has been spotted north-west near The Peak" I explained, "If they can make it past The Peak that means they can take The Eye, and if they can manage to do that they won't have a problem taking Forlorn Fortress. We need to get to the eye as soon as possible or it could mean death for nearly everyone on this island." Krux scratched his chin, examining his limited options. "You're right." He said, "I don't have much of a choice, but we need my sword first." "Great, where is it?" I  questioned. "That asshole in the armory has it. He deemed me a 'public threat' 'cause of my drinking habits. If we want it back you're gonna need to bail it out." He explained.

Problem was, neither of us had money. I had spent my money trying to get to Drymouth and Krux spent his money on drinking away his problems. We needed work to get some money. so we went to the guard barracks to find some bounty work. As I approached the door, it was loudly kicked open, the hinges let off an ear destroying screech and the door almost breaking my nose. I kicked the man in the door right in the knee causing him to collapse to the ground. Lucky for me it was a criminal, as if that was a guard I'd already be pinned to the ground by five different mercenaries looking for a bounty. A guard came up ready to drag the criminal off to a cage. His officer just said "thanks" without a care as a cigarette hung out of his mouth. He pulled some coins out of his pocket, I cupped my hand and caught them quickly inserting them into my pocket. "My friend here got his sword confiscated by one of the guards." I started, "I just prevented the escape of a dangerous criminal, you give me that sword and we'll be out of town within the hour." "Listen friend, if he managed to make it through the door he would've been pinned to the floor by any guards on patrol. Sure, you saved us some time but we didn't need the help. You keep those coins," He said, as he pointed to my pocket "and earn some more and you'll have your precious sword back by the day after tomorrow."

Krux piped in, "What've you got for work?"