Contractbound

Egon drove the motor carriage to Oosteinde first, because the eastern exit of the city was there. Once past Oosteinde, they came to the last intersection where the streets leading to the north and the south were parts of the giant ring road called the Sloten Ring which encircled the whole city. People could take the Sloten Ring to go around Sloten faster than taking the inner city streets because of the lack of traffic there.

At the intersection, after the light turned green, Egon went straight ahead and exited the big city. The farther he drove, the fewer manmade structures they saw. Surrounding them were now tall trees on the left and flatlands on the right. The trees were almost as tall as a six-story building, and their leaves were still green despite the approaching winter. Those were evergreen trees, but Graham lacked the knowledge of botany to know what kind of trees they were or why they stayed green.

He activated his Supersight and started observing the woods as the motor carriage was driving along the wide, quiet highway. The tall trees were densely packed together, making it difficult for the sunlight to penetrate through and shone upon the soil below. He could see a lot of rabbits with thick fur hopping about, looking for food in preparation for winter. There were also a lot of deer hidden among the trees. The forest looked peaceful on that cloudy morning, although the wind was blowing rather strongly.

Graham was curious about what kind of predator lived in that forest. There had been a lot of wild animal attack reports, and mostly those were done by bears, but there were also a lot of other unexplained ones. The victims told the reported who interviewed them that they were attacked by a black tiger-like animal. Their stories were consistent with each other, so they were probably telling the truth. Although there were also a lot of other wacky stories that just sounded too unbelievable to be true. However, since encountering unbelievable creatures himself, Graham had kept an open mind to more new discoveries.

The highway seemed never-ending. It was just a straight line which would eventually lead to another city. The closest city to Sloten on the eastern side was Rijssen, which was a coastal city famous for its sea products, such as pearls and seafood, and its beaches. It would take them twelve hours of nonstop driving to reach it. However, Graham"s destination was not Rijssen, but a small town closer to Sloten which he didn"t know the name of, and neither did Egon.

"If I may ask, what are you going to do in the middle of nowhere like this?" ask Egon curiously, breaking the silence.

"I need to investigate something in the forest. That"s why I need to go to that town to ask around and to have a base of operation," Graham explained.

"I"ve never been around here before, so I"m sorry I cannot be much help," he said apologetically, then asked, "Have you? You seem to know where you"re going."

"Not really. I"ve never been to this part either. I"ve been to Rijssen, but I"ve never stopped at that town." said Graham.

"Ah, Rijssen! I"ve never been there either. Born and raised in Sloten, you see? I heard they have the best seafood in the Republic. Is that true?" Egon"s tone was full of expectations.

"It"s definitely true. Their seafood is very fresh. It"s a nice city."

The driver and his pa.s.senger went quiet again, and after some time, Egon spoke.

"Anyway, are you going to the woods?"

"Uhm... yes. Why?" answered Graham with a question.

"Isn"t Oostelijk Bos a dangerous place? I heard people are avoiding going in there now," Egon said with a serious tone.

"It"s a forest, so I"m sure there are wild animals. And the people avoiding it must be the tourists because locals surely still enter to hunt for food," said Graham with confidence.

He saw all the fat rabbits on the way and thought that if he were a local, he would surely still go into the forest to hunt them for their fur and fat meat.

"You"re probably right, Sir. But I still wouldn"t risk going in if I were a local. The rumors about the animal attacks are crazy," Egon added, his voice showed a tinge of fear.

"What have you heard?" asked Graham. Usually, drivers like Egon would talk to different people and hear different kinds of stories.

"A lot. They say there is a monster tiger in that forest. It"s black and very fast. Tigers are not black, are they? And they don"t live here on this continent. And I"m sure pumas don"t exist here anymore either-- unless my education is wrong.

"It could have been a black puma. We thought they became extinct around these areas because of hunting, but maybe that is not the case at all. Maybe there are some who still live deep in the forest. It"s a ma.s.sive one, after all, so we can"t explore every centimeter of it," said Graham a.n.a.lytically.

"That"s a good point, Sir."

They kept chatting for a while about different topics, which also served to help Egon not turn sleepy. They had been on the road for almost four hours when they saw a bridge ahead and a sign of civilization. They were getting closer to the town where they were heading. Egon drove the motor carriage across the bridge and kept going until they arrived at the town, but they didn"t stop yet. Ahead of them, there was a fork in the road. Going straight would lead them to Rijssen while turning left would take them deeper into the town, so Graham told Egon to turn left.

Graham and Egon hadn"t seen any signs or arches that showed the town name so far, although right now they were driving in its street. There were not many people either there. The three-lane street only had three or four other motor carriages driving there. Graham saw a hotel near them and told Egon to pull over. It looked promising from so he chose the place as his base of operation.

The hotel was called "Forester", shown by the sign at the front. It had six stories and looked good from the outside. Egon parked his motor carriage and carried his own luggage inside. He had offered to carry Graham"s as well but got rejected politely.

They entered the hotel and looked around. The inside was not bad-looking at all. The lobby was s.p.a.cious with wooden walls around them, which made them feel like they were in a cabin. There was a fireplace and comfortable sofas placed around it. The brown wooden floor was covered by a thick carpet under the sofa. It was a surprisingly decent place to be found in such a small town.

"Good morning," greeted he male receptionist with a smile from behind the desk.

"Good morning. We would like two rooms, please." requested Graham straight to the point.

"Can I borrow your ident.i.ty card?" asked the receptionist politely.

Both Egon and Graham offered their cards to the receptionist. It was the standard procedure to stay in a hotel; all the guests must be able to show identification before being allowed to stay.

The receptionist who looked to be in his late twenties wrote down the names of his guests in the guestbook with neat handwriting, which looked pleasant to read.

"Here you go, thank you, and here are your room keys. Your rooms are on the third floor," said the receptionist in a friendly manner. He handed the keys with room numbers on them to his guests.

"Thanks," "Thank you," said Graham and Egon at the same time.

The two men walked up the main staircase in the middle of the lobby to the second floor. There, they went to the stairs at the side and went up to the third floor, where their rooms were.

Graham took the room closer to the stairs, which was number 32. Egon"s room was next to his, deeper into the corridor.

"I"ll be in my room for now. When I need you, I"ll knock on your door. For the time being, you can rest," he said to Egon who was unlocking hir room door.

"Okay, Sir."

Both men entered their respective rooms and locked the door behind them.

Graham looked around his hotel room and was pleased by its interior. There was a king-sized bed in the middle of the room with wooden walls around. There was a thick, soft carpet underneath the bed and extended to the area around it. The brown room had paintings as decoration, as well as wall ornaments. Not only the wall and the floor, the table and the chair were also made of wood there, although the sofa was not.

"Val, this room is astonishing considering we"re in a small town. Remember when we had to sleep on the hard bed in that barrack? That is all in the past; this is the real life," Graham said in contentment.

He went and sit on the chair and placed a candlestick on the table firmly. For divination while in his room, he would use the candle to save up fuel in his lighters. Once he entered the forest, he didn"t know how long he would have to stay there, so he didn"t want to risk not being able to start a fire there. He had also carried a lot of matchsticks just in case. After all, he was a Fire Divinator, so he had to always have a fire ready.

He lit the cheap, white candlestick and began his fire scrying ritual. Since he was already in the town, he should be able to divine the location of the bullet seller.

"Where is the location of the bullet seller in this town?"

An image appeared in the flame and he saw an aerial view of the town. He saw two red dots there; one belonged to himself inside the hotel and the other one should be the bullet seller. It was a small building with a rooftop. The place didn"t look too far away, so he should be able to get there on foot quickly enough.

The image then disappeared gradually. Graham kept staring at the flame and asked his second question.

"What is the danger existing in Oostelijk Bos?"

The hotel room became darker, although the lights were switched on. The flame burned brighter and bigger and little by little an image formed. Graham saw a big, brown bear mauling a deer. And then it shifted to a brown cougar stalking its prey. After that, the image shifted again to a black, four-legged creature that was much bigger than the cougar, but the image was not clear. He couldn"t see in detail what the creature was. The image was then slowly consumed by the fire.

"I definitely need the gun," Graham muttered.

He put out the fire and tore off a page from his notebook. He wrote on it "I"m heading out" for Egon to see so he wouldn"t be waiting for him. He would stick it on his door, but he didn"t have glue or tape, so he used the melted wax from the candle and smeared some at the back of the paper. Graham then got up and brought his briefcase with him, and after turning off the light and sticking the note to his door, he locked it.

He went downstairs back to the lobby to find the receptionist. Usually, hotel receptionists were well-informed about the place around them, so he would ask the guy some questions. The receptionist was sitting at his desk reading a book when Graham got there.

"h.e.l.lo," greeted Graham.

The receptionist looked up and put down his book. He then smiled at his guest and said, "Yes, sir?"

"What can you tell me about the forest around this town-- what is the name of this town anyway? Why haven"t I seen any signs with the name yet?

"This town has no name, Sir. The reason is a very long story, so if you are interested, you can go to the local library. There is a book about the history of this town," he said informatively.

"As for the forest, it"s a very dangerous place. Locals usually only dare to go to the periphery to hunt rabbits or deer. They never dare to go deeper because of the forest dwellers," said the receptionist seriously.

"What dwellers?"

"There is a forest monster that we locals call Zwart. If you"ve heard rumors about its attack, it"s mostly outsiders who have been attacked. We, locals, know not to get close to its territory," the receptionist"s tone was serious.

Graham nodded while listening intently.

"There are also evil spirits deep inside the forest. They are one of the reasons why this town cannot be named. We are safe in this town; they don"t usually dare to come out, especially since the Police from Sloten exterminated most of them," he said with a relieved tone.

"There are also protection talisman sellers around town. It"s one of our attractions here. You should be able to find them easily," he added.

"Thank you very much for your information. Anyway, if Egon comes down, tell him to enjoy his vacation," said Graham.

He then walked out of the hotel and headed towards the bullet seller. After hearing the story of the receptionist, he was more convinced that he needed all the protection he could get.