Year 1212, 6th month, 8th day, North of the Kingdom of Antomea"Guild master, it happened again."
The tall man behind his desk, nervously poses the doc.u.ment he was looking at.
Caius Gerben has led the adventurers" guild in the small town of Griven for almost 15 years. Until recently he managed to run the place properly, but in the last five days some problems have caused him to lose a lot of money.
Fearing the worst, Caius sinks into his comfortable armchair. What happened this time and how much money will he lose?
"Please continue."
A little embarra.s.sed to confess the truth, the young woman with the long blond hair bites her lips.
She"s just a receptionist. An intern and only arrived last month, yet her colleagues still give her the most unpleasant job.
The young woman fears more than anything else that she will be yelled at again by its leader, whose character is often very changeable. Worried about the possibility of losing her job, she swallows her saliva before speaking.
"It seems that someone has still broken into our warehouse during the night. This person has cut off the ears of the goblins and orcs we had collected."
"Cutting? To what extent?"
"Into tiny cubes 0.3 inches wide. This vile person then scattered them all over town, even throwing them down shafts. Guild master, are you all right? Would you like me to open the window?"
The guild master knows he must calm down. To relieve the pressure on his head, he firmly grasps the armrests of his chair which he bought by taking out a five-year loan.
"How many ears has the vandal cut off?"
The young woman now fears for her life. This man, usually so handsome, now looks more like a monster than a Human Being.
Seeing the terror on the face of his young receptionist, the guild master takes a deep breath to calm down.
"When were we supposed to hand over our merchandises?"
"The Merchants Guild comes to take delivery of all our unsold goods every two weeks and... The last time their agents came by was exactly two weeks ago."
"I understand, you can go."
The young woman doesn"t wait for her employer to ask her a second time. Scared, she rushes out of the office of this former adventurer of rank A, hence the furnitures starts to fly through the window.
"Who is the son of no one who confuses me with to a ham? Sc.u.m, when I find you, I"ll beat you till your mother can"t even identify you. I didn"t want to resort to this, I"ll have to use this little artifact I recently acquired."
…
At nightfall, the warehouse of the adventurers" guild is so protected that frightened locals don"t dare to step outside their houses.
Tall men armed with axes or swords are posted every 6.6 feet in the street along the warehouse.
Three powerful B-rank magicians have been waiting on the roof of the building for some time victim of nightly visits.
To prevent suspicious intrusions and attempted leaks, thieves have hidden on every street corner in this area where no rat can move around undetected.
The adventurers" mission is to capture and deliver the rascal to the guild master waiting in the warehouse, (the son of no one who confuses him with to a ham), but apart from a few notorious alcoholics, no one showed up.
At least, no one of visible.
While all adventurers are more or less on the lookout, a small barrel sneaks around in the main street where the warriors share bottles of beer.
The little barrel crosses path with the thieves who have gathered and argue over who has the best throwing knives.
Without waking up the deep-sleeping magicians, it manages to infiltrate the alley perpendicular to this warehouse so rich in toys.
The alley in question is nothing but a pile of barrels similar to herself. A place where an adult cannot take a step without stepping on one of the planks on the floor.
However, slaloming through all these obstacles is not so problematic for the red-eyed little girl who discreetly removes her barrel disguise.
Her little body slips between the various coloured barrels until she reaches a mark she has drawn herself on a wooden plank.
She lies down on the ground facing the mark. She removes the two old, mouldy wooden planks and extremely excited by thinking of the foolishly she will be able to do tonight, she begins to crawl.
The little girl did not think she would come back here after her first visit, but when she heard the angry screams of people the next morning, she found it so amusing that she went back the same evening.
She comes every night to annoy them but they still give her such a gift?
These people are not very intelligent.
That"s what the little girl thinks when she sees the huge monster still whole on a big table in the middle of the warehouse.
However foolish they are, they are now showing some caution.
To prevent all those lookouts outside from hearing her, the little girl joins the monster on tiptoe.
The thing must have been dead for some time. This is what the little girl presumes when she pinches her nose in front of this creature that looks like a two-legged pig.
Ever since the big three-headed dog threw her nastily through the blue thing, Hera has been going from discovery to discovery.
The creatures here are a bit strange. They have no canines, no horns and they"re all grumpy dwarves.
Anyway, her father didn"t find her and a bit lost in this place she doesn"t know, Hera decided to start a game of hide and seek with these little creatures.
Hera opens the little leather bag she stole from a stall yesterday morning. She searches her soft treasure chest and pulls out a small spoon borrowed from a tavern.
No, she mustn"t laugh now. Her free hand comes to cover her nasty little treacherous mouth, while her spoon removes one of the eyes of the two-footed pig that smells so bad.
...
Perched on a beam of the high ceiling, Caius stands by to pounce on the one who amuses himself by ridiculing him.
When he heard discreet footsteps moving towards his position, he began by cursing the adventurers for their uselessness.
Realizing that once again it will be up to him to do all the work, he drew his sword from its sheath and waited to be able to discern the vandal who every night made him a fool in the eyes of all the inhabitants of the city.
[What is this adorable little thing? There"s no way that beautiful child is my sworn enemy.]
Observing the little girl whose two little horns piercing her long brown hair set her apart from the common child, he first believes it must just be a little devil gone astray.
However, seeing her playing marbles with the eyes of the Orc, Caius clenches his teeth.
So the plague would be his vandal. If it is so and as he has decided, even if he cannot hit such a small child, he will use his artifact.
"(Petrifaction)"
The temperature in the warehouse has dropped by half, the ground is completely frozen, but why doesn"t his artifact work on the child? It is still a magical item of rank B bought 5 gold.
Caius, always above the little girl who raised her head and smiles at him, almost falls when his vandal applauds and screams.
"You found me. Now it"s your turn to hide."