A New Beginning

"You worthless child!" the man screamed at an all too familiar merchant's son, "I give you one job and you can't fucking do it!!! It was simple! I had covered the major work and all you had to do was ruin her with debt, I even allowed you to take her as a slave!" The merchant's son received a kick to the chest, "But no, you thought you'd use her to deal with low-rank requests!"

"But father!," the son wheezed from the kick, "It should have gone completely as planned, but there was a man there with an odd powerful weapon!"

"You dare talk back to me!!!!," The father all but screeched kicking his son, "Do you have any idea how important it is that she be suppressed? Only through luck did we deal with her father. I paid large sums in bribes to the merchants guild to have her discredited and denied membership. All you had to do was kill her but instead, you begged me to let you have her. I went as far as to pay off the guards for you and this is how you repay me."

"Father give me another chance! I promise you I won't fail this time! Really, I'll kill her and her mysterious protector! I'll make sure that the threat to our success is taken care of!"

"Fine, but if you fail again there will be severe punishments," the merchant told his son in an icy tone.

The young man shivered, far more affected by the chilling calm than the angered outburst. He nodded rapidly.

"Good, now go get healed you waste."

~~~~

Daniels had once again slept on the floor in the inn room while Lilly slept on the bed. This time however she woke him up as she was excited from his promise the night before. He had promised her that he'd take her out to shoot the gun, but he hadn't expected her to wake him up so early.

He groggily opened his eyes, "I know you're excited but remember who's sleeping on the floor in the room they paid for."

She looked very guilty and uttered an apology, "I'm sorry, it's just that as a magic toolsman seeing that amazing device that doesn't even utilize magic..."

"That's alright I really don't mind you staying with me and I'm certainly happy to show you the pistol. I'm just not great with mornings." he gave her a smile to reassure her.

"I do, however, need to visit the guild to report what happened, as well I'd like to get some breakfast and I'd be happy to buy for you as well."

She nodded and gave him the pleasure of seeing her beautiful smile.

The two of them headed on over and had a nice breakfast together, this time with no strange encounters afterward. He then headed over to the guild to report what had happened.

He stepped into the guild building and headed to a desk with no line.

A familiar young woman treated him, "Welcome back! How may I help you today?"

"About that, I took this quest," he presented her the sheet, "But I was unable to complete it do to being attacked by some rather vicious monsters."

"Oh no! Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine but my friend here was attacked and injured. She recovered fully but if I hadn't found her she would've died."

"There aren't supposed to be any monsters in that area of the forest, this is quite the trouble. Could you please describe what attacked you?"

"They were large canine-like things covered in black rocklike armor or maybe it was their skin? They had a vicious bite and took quite a bit to put down."

The receptionist's face went pale, "Oh dear, that sounds like slate wolfs. They are an incredibly dangerous monster that have been appearing lately. It's very bad if they have been showing up in an area usually filled with low-rank requests. How many did you see?"

"I must have killed about 10 or so with her help," he replied.

"That is quite the feat, could you please describe the area so that we can confirm? If we confirm the story the quest will not be held against you and you will be compensated for the danger you faced," she told him.

He nodded and signaled to Lilly that they were leaving.

As they walked out of the guild he briefed her on what they'd be doing.

"We'll hike a ways outside of town as to not cause a ruckus, and then I'll show you the weapon. Of course, first I will instruct you on safe use. That sound alright?"

She gave a happy nod and they began their trek.

They left the town and made their way a few miles away. He still wasn't quite comfortable referring to things in Kilos, but he'd get there eventually.

He found a few trees and decided this was a good as spot as any.

He stopped and turned around to her. He drew the weapon and held it loosely to show her.

"This is an incredibly lethal weapon, but it can also be incredibly dangerous if you don't know how to handle it. There are a few rules you must always follow when handling this or any other weapon of its type. Never point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy. If you point it at me or yourself we will be done there and then because I don't want either of us getting hurt. Secondly, Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot," he showed her the trigger, "and lastly, always assume it's loaded, and if it's one of my guns, safe to say it likely is."

He had her repeat it back to him before he nodded in satisfaction. He dropped the magazine and emptied the chamber a few times to be completely sure it was empty, before handing it to her. After he slotted the bullet back in its magazine, he began to show her the weapon's functions.

He showed her how to operate the slide, he allowed her to pull the trigger until she felt its threshold, and showered her the magazine release. He also demonstrated the irons for her.

"Alright, you're looking good. I'm going to give you this magazine, go ahead and load it and make ready, but do NOT fire until I give you the go-ahead alright?"

He passed her the magazine and watched her operate it. She awkwardly slotted the mag in place and racked the slide. She waited expectantly for him, and he nodded.

"That tree there," he pointed, "Try to hit it. Fire when ready."

She raised the gun as he'd shown her, lined the shot, and fired. She, however, was ill-prepared for the force of the recoil. Startled she dropped the gun. Thankfully it didn't go off, and Daniels retrieved the weapon.

"That was my bad for not better preparing you for that. I apologize. You see when the gun fires it exerts gas which produces the effect you just experienced. It is referred to as recoil, and it can be a little difficult at first, especially with this being a .45."

She seemed a little hesitant about taking the weapon from him again, but he reassured her.

She took the weapon and he stood behind her helping her get adjusted. He helped her brace for the recoil so that she could shoot better.

She once again squeezed the trigger and thanks to his help she kept control of the gun. He had her fire twice more this way before he had her shoot on her own.

"Don't be afraid of the recoil, you know when it will fire, just pull the trigger straight back, and counter the recoil as it happens." he gave her a nod and she readied the weapon herself this time.

She was a little hesitant the first time and missed, but she gained her confidence and managed to shoot it well after that. He had her empty the magazine, which she did like a champ. She was quite a fast learner.

He clapped his hands and smiled, "Excellent, that was wonderful. You've got the first part down, now I'd like you to try and focus on groupings. I will demonstrate. May I?" he reached out for her to hand him the gun.

She handed it to him in the safe manner he had shown her. He swapped the magazine and aimed at another tree. Thanks to his ability he could easily manage the recoil as well as shooting straight and true. When he emptied the magazine he holstered it and gestured for her to come with him to see.

They walked up and he fingered the holes in the tree of the expert groupings.

"So for this, you will want to not only hit the target but try your hardest to hit as near your first and subsequent shots as possible. I have a special skill that allows me to do this well, so don't beat yourself up if you don't do as well. Remember, this is your first time. Practice makes perfect.

He went back to about 10 yards and handed her the pistol with a fresh magazine, not ejecting the previous to see how well she could hot-swap.

This time she managed to eject the magazine, load a fresh one, and rack the slide with much more fluidity. He smiled and nodded. She then aimed at the target and proceeded to fire while doing her best to achieve tight groupings.

She finished the magazine and they went forward to see the results.

He gave a slight whistle, "That was really good for your first go at it!" It was true, she had made pretty good groupings for it being her first go at it. He was impressed at how quickly she was catching on to this.

He instructed her to continue for a couple more magazines and she was getting better each time. He really admired her shooting, and the seriousness she put into improving.

"Hey, Lilly."

"Yes?"

"I've got an offer for you. You seem to be talented with magic and the craftsmanship of your tools was good as well. Not to mention how quickly you are catching on to this. I understand that you are having issues with money, and I doubt that guy will go away either."

He looked at her to judge her reaction, which seemed to be rather neutral.

He continued, "I could use a partner. I don't know a lot about this place, and even with my weapons and skill I could very well meet my maker alone."

[Or at least, meet my maker again.]

"I'm not sure. I don't really have combat potential. Like I've told you, even though I have decent level magic, I can only use it a few times. I also lack skills with melee weapons. I really appreciate your offer but I don't want to leach off of your kindness," she said with a sad yet firm look.

"Alright, then how about this," he reached into his backpack and pulled out another M45, one with chrome fittings on top of a matte black finish.

He had prepared it the night before. Since he had originally taken her in, and especially since she'd been attacked, he had considered trying to form a party with her. She had knowledge of the land, and after today, he knew she had skill as well.

"I don't understand," she said looking at him.

"It's for you," he said handing her the beautiful firearm, "I'd prepared it because I'd really like to have you as a partner. I don't want to see you get hurt by those fucks, and with how you're living right now you'd end up in slavery or worse. I know you have talent, I saw it in your tools and I see it here once again. Lilly, I'd really like you to become my partner here in this strange land."

She took the pretty M45A1 from him and teared up slightly, "Yes, I'd love to. No one's been nice to me like this since my father..."

She cried a little bit and he embraced her.

He comforted her as she cried. It must have been tough on her, striking out hoping to find success, only to be beaten down by reality. Well, if he had anything to say about it, she'd be beating the crap out of reality soon enough.