18 Meeting

It had already been two days since the boy had sent of his best friend Dick the last time. Since then, only two rumors had come back to them, one about a mysterious flying girl with red hair, the other was about a boy that got covered in a bucketload of shit, literally.

Though he didn't know what the first one was about, it wasn't hard for him to guess what had happened to his friend. Since he was someone close to the victim and knew very well how that person's ability worked, he perfectly knew that this trap was just as effective as it was nasty.

Although the boy normally shouldn't be here at this time, he had made some arrangements, hoping to be able to help his friend as much as he could. Even though it was almost guaranteed that his friend captured, he still made sure that he got to patrol the border to the vultures' territory, hoping that Dick would return any moment.

He had already been tempted to just cross this border and search the territory on the other side for his lost friend. But whenever that happened, he remembered the stories the older generations had told them about the vultures, about what happened the last time that they tried to mess with their territory. After all, there was a good reason why such a small group could keep control over their own territory.

...

It was the middle of the day when the sun was at its highest point, the boy saw three figures moving over the roofs on the other side of the border, closing in on him fast.

For a moment he thought about running away while alarming the other patrols, but his anger won in the end about his reason.

"Hey, you assholes! Give my friend back this instant!"

"Or else what? Well, your one incompetent border guard. And why should we just give him back to you?", Alex asked the guy, sneering.

"It's all those damned wolves fault!"

"Neither do I care, nor do I want to hear that from you. But it's good that that ugly Dick is your friend. Bring your boss here, or you won't be seeing him again."

"Don't call Dick ugly!"

"Pfft, well I won't condemn someone for his tastes. Anyways, get your leader here right this instant or you won't see your Dick again!"

*shwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii*

The boy let out a long whistle. When he saw someone on top of a roof some distance away, he gave that person a sign and ran off a moment later. In his anger, he didn't even realize that Alex had made fun of him.

...

"Here I am, Alex. We haven't seen each other for a long time, for better or worse."

"You are the same as always, Daniel. You should know why we are here, we've got one of your guys. You should know how this goes."

"So you really did catch him. But did you really have to do it like that? The way you caught him is pretty nasty. Whose idea was that anyway? That style isnt like you guys at all."

"Let's just say that we got a little help in this case. If it's our style or not doesn't matter, it worked, and pretty well at that. Well, the cleanup isn't the most fun, but it served its purpose.

Well, doesn't really matter. Why did you try something so stupid in the first place? Actually, you can be happy that we caught him. You still remember how it ended when you guys tried to drive us out last time, do you?"

"It's not like we wanted to do this. But the bears didn't tell you anything? You got help from them, didn't you?"

"What should they have told us?"

"About a month ago, the wolves suddenly invaded our territory and took almost a third of it. It happened all in a single night and they had completely overwhelmed us. We couldn't do anything. After that they told us to pay them a 'protection fee' or they would drive us out completely.

After that, we went to the bears and asked for help, but they declined us."

"What about the Slum rats?"

"Pff, they barely strong enough to keep their own territory, and only because no one else wants it."

"So instead you went and messed with the only group that would have helped you? You know that there is a reason why they call us 'Guardians'."

"Hah, you know exactly what I think of this 'Guardian' shit! And besides, would you have even helped us after what happened last time?"

"Of course we would have helped you, you paid the appropriate price for it, so I consider us even. Not that I like you, but there isn't any enmity either. Well, there would have been a certain price involved of course."

"In the first place, I never expected you to figure out that it was one of us, even for stealth mantras, Dick's is quite special. If everything had worked out the way I planed, we would have kindly helped you out and the one responsible would have been the wolves."

"As expected from the leader of the foxes. Not a bad plan. But we would have found out at some point. And then you would have suffered."

"Yeah, but by then you would have taken care of our problem already. And then you would have to prioritize your own territory for a while before you can mess with us.

Well, now let me guess who that help was. Probably that mysterious flying redhead from the rumors, right? Probably the same one that came into our territory some time ago that Dick ended up knocking out, right?

Anyway, you wouldn't just give him back to us without asking for compensation, am I right?"

"There were such rumors about her? Anyway, her name is Alice, a very likable and motivated girl. The prize this time is food for ten people for a week."

"The redhead is a girl? Well, I will take that, aren't ya in a generous mood."

"Haha, hardly!"

*shwiiiiiiiii shwi shwi shwiiiiiiiii*

Shortly after Alex whistled, Jayden joined them, the unconscious and bound Dick on his shoulder. When Jayden laid him on the ground in front of Daniel, he took a closer look at his man.

"Hey hey, what did you do to him? That is not like you guys at all!"

"Two broken ribs minimum, and a straightened nose. Let's just say he stole something from someone he shouldn't have messed with."

"Ha ha, very funny, not. What the heck did he steal? He should know where to stop... Wait, didn't he take something from this... You called her Alice?"

"Yup, it seems like it was the last memento of her dead father. Anyhow, he was actually pretty lucky to get away with only two broken ribs."

"What do you mean?"

"I heard that she kicked him straight through a roof and even the table beneath it. If it had been anything else, it might have been his spine that broke instead."

"Oi, isn't she a little too motivated? Why did those idiots have to chase her away back then? That's going to get troublesome! Let me guess, you are going to recruit her, aren't you?"