3 The girl of fire

"You done with them?" asked a short but broad-shouldered man. If Marcus remembered correctly, his name was Weld, and he was an adventurer with a sapphire tag. Just beyond the middle of the hierarchy.

"Yeah" Marcus responded and cleaned his dagger from green blood of killed morgles. Those were creatures similar to goblins he knew from games. They were about meter tall, with short limbs, small head and a corpulent torso. Thanks to their big noses morgles had a perfect sense of smell.

"Not bad kiddo, you fight pretty well" the man said looking at over a dozen bodies. "Most of the amethyst guys would have problems with three of them, who trained you?"

"I've trained myself, but thanks for the compliment" he lied. In fact, he was training with someone in the past but that person died three years ago.

'Speaking of time, I'm here for almost two months. I wish something happens soon or I'm gonna be really mad about getting here without a purpose.' he thought. For almost two months nothing really exciting happened and Marcus thought that sooner or later he would have to face the truth and abandon his dreams of adventures and epic battles. Others would add some girls to it but in his opinion "that one" was more than enough and he didn't need more.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Weld asked if there is anything Marcus want from those bodies.

"Nine bottles of blood and seven feet would be enough"

"Seven and five, how about that?"

"Ten and eight" Marcus' voice was calm but firm at the same time. The older man looked like he knew he couldn't argue. With a smile, he said

"Sure, you did a good job there. Anyway, let's take those to the city and then maybe we have some beer. You in?"

"Sorry, I had other plans for today" he responded. The truth was he wanted to hunt some more creatures for extra money. For now, he was thinking about buying a tailored weapon for him. It would be either a sword or two daggers.

If there wasn't anything waiting for him he decided to take some steps and build his path himself. One thing he wanted to achieve was to be known and respected, and for that, he needed good equipment.

They have returned to the city and went straight to the apothecary to sell blood and feet of morgles. With that and reward for completing the quest, he earned a total of 5 silver and 3 copper coins. In his opinion, it was too little and as soon as he has split up with Weld and the rest he headed back to the forest.

It was still a middle of a day and sun was high on the sky so he wasn't worried about damirs that went out of their dens in the evening, late evening.

This time of the day belonged to morgles and those were the target of Marcus's hunt. He couldn't make it to Arcanes with hunting only small creatures but for the start green, goblin-like creatures were a solid source of money. They weren't defeated so easily, especially when met in a group of three and more so only kind of skilled adventurers were able to hunt effectively. They also were reproducing at a really fast pace yet under control so they don't overpopulate the forest so there was no worry that this source will end soon.

"Arcanes" he thought loudly "It has to be an honor to be one of them"

Arcanes were one of five groups ruling this country. At the top, there was a king that had the last word in every matter. To help him and more importantly to watch over him there were five prophetesses chosen by magic elements of fire, water, earth, air and thunder. With the main prophetess in the lead, they have really ruled this country and were most respected figures.

The other three groups were knights, that were the most numerous group yet still elite, the council, that was fusion of legislative and judiciary power from his world and in the end there were twenty-one Arcanes that were outstanding people from any group in society, no matter how rich or poor you were, you could be an Arcane.

Those who were lucky enough to be in this elite group were respected nearly as much as the king himself. Top tier mages, warriors, assassins, mercenaries and a whole lot of other people. No matter how you fought, if you were best at it, you were welcomed.

Marcus was pretty confident about his combat skills, especially since he saw how high-rank adventurers fight and in his opinion, he was kinda close to them. In his mind, he thanked his old fencing teacher, that was training Marcus nearly to death yet he was always kind and understanding. Under his lessons, Marcus has learned not only about fencing but a vast amount of different weapons, even bare hands. Four years of everyday training have finally come to use.

His train of thoughts was stopped by an unusual view. On a nearby road, made just by cutting trees so two carriages can go side by side, stood exactly the carriage, but not the common one that merchants used. It was richly ornamented, made of high-quality materials. As he approached it, he realized, that there was no one inside.

'Nobody just leaves a carriage that expensive on the middle of a road in a forest.' Marcus thought. 'There has to be something more to it'

He checked the horse harness, it seemed, that horses were released intentionally by human hand. Also, he found really fresh tracks of three, maybe four people leading to the forest.

'Let's see what happened here'

After several minutes of running, he saw a group of morgles, he counted five of them.

'Oh boy, it' not gonna be easy' he thought just as he was about to retreat but then he saw one more creature under one of the trees, it was a girl. 'Crap' was the last thing that came to his mind before he ran in her direction.

Her presence was actually working in his favor because goblin-like creatures focused on her and Marcus had a chance to land a clean and deadly slash that cut one head off. Rest of the group looked shocked as their companion landed decapitated on a ground.

'One down, four more to go. Focus...'

The hunt ended with the last morgle being pierced right through the heart.

With his flasks filled and after a short talk with the girl, he let her sleep and with the beauty on his back, he head back to the city.

"Hey! Can you help me?" he shouted as he entered the guild hall.

"What are you doing? You can't just open doors by kicking them, I have just cleaned them!" Kaldia was mad but just as she saw the girl she calmed down instantly.

"Sorry, my hands are a little busy..."

Cindy got out of the backroom, to check what's happening. After putting the blonde down on a bed in one of the rooms. Cindy asked Marcus:

"Do you know who she is?"

"No, not really, to be honest" he answered, and took another sip from his mug. It was still early and there was really no one there but him and the staff. "She was in need, I've met her in the forest surrounded by morgles. I don't really want to say this to her but I think someone is after her life."

"I'm not really surprised..." she whispered, but Marcus heard that.

"What do you mean?"

"You see..." this time it was Kaldia "She is a prophetess, but this is not everything..."

"She's the most hated person in this country, the prophetess of fire" Diane intruded Kaldia, her voice was trembling.

"Wait, aren't prophetesses admired and respected?"

"Well, generally yes... But she's a little different..."

"Everything changed since the wicked prophetess appeared, but that's the story for another time..."

"It's a long story, I guess..."

"But to think, that someone would attack innocent girl" Diane, always calm and kinda aloof, seemed shocked.

"I don't really feel like partying tonight... Here, for me and her" Marcus put some coins on a table and went upstairs.

"So, this is where the fun begins..." he sighed.

The first thing he did the next morning was checking on blonde but she wasn't there. The only thing he found was probably a letter, he couldn't really decipher all the contents of the sheet.

'I should ask Cindy, about it...' he thought.