Bittersweet Goodbyes

Kyana opened the wooden door she had brought us to, and upon stepping inside, we spotted the two adventurers we had come to see. "Are you two Otto and Connie?" I clarified with the young man and woman. The young man was in a wooden hospital bed, sitting up, and the woman was sitting in a chair at his bedside, facing him and holding his hand in one of hers. The man, nearly young enough to still be called a boy, had bandages covering his chest and both arms. His right leg had been wrapped in a splint by the doctor to hold the fractured bone in place until it could heal. His right eye was blackened with a bruise that surrounded it.

"Yes, that's us." Connie started to say as she noticed Otto's eyes widen at the sight of us. She quickly stood and spun around. "Master John!" Dropping to her knees, she started to attempt to kowtow before me. I grabbed her shoulder to prevent her from bowing her head to the floor. Simultaneously, Luna quietly and swiftly went to the bedside to stop Otto from attempting the same even with his busted leg. "Please stand," I said to Connie as she looked at me with confusion evident on her face. "And you stay in bed, young man," I directed Otto.

The two followed my orders as they proceeded to thank me profusely for alerting the Guild to their plight that they had walked right into without realizing. After talking with them for about a half-hour, I explained that we had to return to our lodgings and prepare for our quest the next day. We ended up having to promise to let them treat us to a drink in the future upon our next meeting.

Leaving from the guildhall, we headed back to our accommodations as we were not set to go until the next day. When we returned to the resort, we found Emma sitting at the front desk reading a large book. "What are you reading?"

"Eep!" Emma hadn't noticed us entering and jumped with surprise when I called out to her. "Sorry about that," I grinned at her as I tried to hide a chuckle over the young girl's confused expression. "No, my apologies, Mister, I was just reading the new Almanac from the general goods store. I was looking for a gift for my folks. It is their fifteenth wedding anniversary next week!"

Seeing this fantastic opportunity to pay this family back for their hospitality towards Luna and me, I decided to help Emma. Inside my storage, I placed ten silvers into a small leather pouch before making it look like I pulled the purse out of my pocket. "Catch!" I tossed the leather bag to Emma. Making a fumbling catch, she managed to catch it. Loosening the drawstrings, she examined the contents. "T-t-ten silvers!"

I placed a finger to my lips to tell her to keep quiet. After all, we do not want any unsavoury individuals to hear that she now possessed what seemingly several months' pay for the average citizen was. "Shh, don't let anyone see that. Luna and I will be leaving town tomorrow, and I wanted to treat your family to something nice, so make sure that you use that to get your folks the best anniversary gift ever." Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she blinked away some tears that had started to form.

Emma flung her arms around my waist, wrapping me with a bear hug. "Thanks, John, I will miss you!" Patting her head as she expressed her thanks in the form of her (not very effective) version of a bone-crushing hug, I asked where her parents were.

After heading into the kitchen area following Emma, we found her mother, Marcy, sitting in a wooden chair, peeling potatoes for dinner. "Mama, is dad here as well?" "No, he just went out to pick up a few things. Is something the matter?" Marcy inquired in a slightly worried voice as she noticed we were standing behind her daughter.

I explained to her that there was nothing to worry about, as we were looking for them to tell them about our planned departure the following day. "I will miss you two lovebirds. Your generosity and pleasant attitudes are rarer than they should be these days."

Heading back to our room, we packed our belongings, except those we would need to get ready in the morning. Once finished, Luna pushed me back onto the bed. Now sitting on the bed, Luna climbed onto me and sat astride my lap. Her face inches from mine, she whispered, "With this quest starting tomorrow, I think we should make sure we spend extra time together this evening, in case the situation does not permit for the next little bit." Smiling at her and the fake-serious expression she currently had on her face, I replied, "I will try my best, ma'am." Wrapping my arms around her to pull her into an embrace, we locked lips, expressing our deep burning love for one another throughout the remainder of the evening.

Waking the following morning, before the sun had crested the horizon, we took a last shower at the hotel before grabbing our gear and leaving our key at the desk. We made our way over to the Guild. Out front of the Guild was an armoured enclosed carriage, set up with four broad horses. The carriage appeared large enough for two people to sleep inside during the nights or to ride upfront during the day. Briggs was checking over the straps on the horses' bardings while Kyana was double-checking the contents of several chests that Guild labourers were loading into the carriage's rear cargo hold. Kyana looked up from her clipboard as she heard us approach. "Hello, adventurers." She gave a nod towards us with a slight smile on her lips.

Briggs came around from the horses' far side upon hearing Kyana's greeting. "John, Luna, glad you could get here so early. We just got your wagon all ready to go. Now, let us head into the quest board to get you signed up for your missions, and then we can get you the letters you need to deliver." He beckoned for us to follow as we all headed to the main hall's reception area. Standing in front of the large board, from which we had previously accepted a quest, Kyana told us to place our hands on the board once again. This time, rather than a catalogue of quests to pick from, only an icon that looked like a scroll with an exclamation point appeared. Tapping on this new icon brought up three quests which were marked as "Designated Quests."

Kyana explained that when a Guildmaster assigned assignments for rankings, they would appear before us as such. The Guildmaster chimed in to elaborate that the assigned quest system was also instrumental in ensuring that quests that required the unique talents of specific individuals or groups of adventurers could find the needed talent. Once the Guild assigned a quest, it would appear before the adventurer(s) in question regardless of what town or city's quest board they checked. After receiving the explanation, I read through and accepted the three quests.

First was the one the Guildmaster had mentioned before, the delivery of three letters to recipients in the city of Regrad. One to a Mother Superior of an abbey just outside the city, one to a dwarven runesmith and finally one to the Guildmaster of Regrad's Guild. The second was to deliver two chests to a town along the way. The chests contained the ingredients the town required to repair their monster warding barriers. And the final quest was to defend the town and drive back the monsters that had been attacking the settlement while the barrier was down.

Briggs handed me the three letters before taking my right hand in a warrior's grip. "It has been a pleasure, John. Do me proud out there. And if the nation's go to war, I will be heading to the Beast Kingdom's Capital to meet my wife and fight alongside her. Perhaps we will see each other there if such a war comes to pass."

"If such a thing comes to pass, we will see you again there. Take care of yourself, Old Man. And thanks for everything." The Guildmaster chuckled at my friendly jabs as Luna took the reins, and I sat in the shotgun seat next to her. With a crack of the reins, the horses pulled our armoured stagecoach along the main avenue and through the town's open gates, heading west. Looking back, I took in the sight one more time of the town at the foot of the mountain.

Looking forward, I took Luna's right hand in my own as we headed onwards to our next adventure.