Hilda stepped onto the short cliff overlooking the deserts of Corrvis. Week one of her grand adventure was an uneventful carriage ride to the west. Not very adventure like, she thought to herself, but now, she gets to cross a desert like the heroes in her father’s stories. Step one was just getting down this cliff. She looked over the ridge to the sands below; maybe a forty-foot drop. Hilda removed a length of rope from her pack and walked a short distance away to secure the rope to a shrub. OK, she thought now its time to start her adventure and search.
Hilda began to climb down the rope and descend the cliffside. She got barely ten feet down when the rope jerked suddenly, and Hilda looked up as the rope slowly began to tug.
“No no no no no no, don’t do this” and then the small shrub at the top of the cliff gave out, being torn from the ground and Hilda dropped to the bottom of the cliff, landing in a dune of sand. After laying the sand for several seconds Hilda got up and brushed some of the sand off of herself. “That could have gone better.”
A series of chittering noise began to emanate from the cliff wall behind her. Hilda turned slowly to look at the wall, and from several holes in the stone came worm like creatures with four barbed tentacles surrounding a beaked mouth. They began to come out in droves and Hilda drew her sword to challenge them, for a moment, before turning and running away. “This is not fun at all!!” she yelled as she ran across the sands. Hilda’s hooves found no good purchase in the sands however, and she tripped after only about thirty seconds of running. The creatures were only moments behind. Hilda stabbed at them with her sword, trying to keep them at bay. They screeched in pain but persisted, intent on having their meal. Hilda scrambled back to a standing position while stabbing at the creatures, and at the first opportunity began to run again. She tried her best to run with some careful steps but doing so was slowing her down.
“Why is sand even real!!” Hilda ran to a small rock outcropping, hopping on to it to get her hooves off the sand. “By Vallum, I hate this desert!!” Hilda swung her sword to keep the creatures off the rock and keep herself safe. After a few moments she could here something else approach her from behind at a fast pace. “Gods, you have to be kidding me!?!” Another moment passes and a wave of blue fire sweeps the creatures away. The ones not killed by the attack, quickly slink back to the cliff face.
“Are you ok Ms.?” a man asked from behind. Hilda turned around to face the newcomer. He was a human, almost as tall as she was. Behind him, a short distance away, was a camel, seemingly at peace with anything that had happened or might happen.
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. Thanks for the save.” Hilda took another moment to look him over. His clothes and armor looked much better than your average guard, or even knight. Maybe a noble, she thought. Though he carried a sword that was rusted, discolored, and jagged, definitely not something a noble would be using.
He spoke up after a moment “Well, did you have a caravan or carriage that you got separated from? If so, I can help you get back to them.”
“Huh, no, I came on my own. Doin a solo adventure.” Hilda replied confidently
He raised an eyebrow for a moment “You’re out here alone? Well did you lose your camel?”
“No, I came down that cliff over there and was gonna walk to the next town.”
The man looked at her for a few seconds before speaking again “The nearest town is nearly fifteen days away on foot, and well not to be rude but … should you be walking across a desert?” he did a quick glance down at her hooves before meeting her eyes again.
Hilda scowled “What about it, I can walk just fine. I have enough food for at least 3 days, I just need to … extend that.”
The man sighed “Listen, do you at least have any money, you can at least hire me to escort you to Sovak. This desert isn’t exactly safe for casual travel.”
Hilda rolled her eyes. “Fine, I have some extra gold and I definitely don’t want to deal with those things again.”
“Great, we can worry about price after we get to town. My name is Tyr, while our meeting has been … unique, it is nice to meet you nonetheless.” Tyr extended his hand to shake Hilda’s.
She went ahead and shook his hand “Hilda, thanks again for taking care of those things for me.” after she let go of the handshake, she noticed that his sword was simply gone, but before she could even comment on it, he had turned around to walk back to his camel.
Tyr hopped onto his camel and looked back at Hilda. "Let's get going then. I'd like to find Different place to set up a camp before nightfall, don't want to get caught by Vespin in the night."
Hilda paused a moment before she rushed over to join him on the camel. "So, it should take how long to get to the next city?" She said as Tyr helped her up onto the camel.
"Town, and I'm pretty knowledgeable of the area so it shouldn't take any longer than 3 days." And Tyr whipped the reigns on the camel, and it took off across the desert sands.
They rode on until the night, where they set up on a small rock 'island' In the sands. Hilda sat on one end of the 'island' while Tyr tended to the camel on the other side. She glanced over at him from time to time, just keeping an eye on him. Saved during her first day of 'adventure' by the very first person she met. She frowned while looking at him, her father had warned not to just trust strangers she met so readily. She got up and started walking over to him, she was going to ask about these coincidences. "Hey, what were you even-"
Before she could even finish, a loud roar emanated from behind her and she turned to see a large wyvern climb onto the other side of the 'island'. "oh gods, today is just terrible" She muttered as she drew her own sword
Hilda nearly jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder and Tyr spoke "You don't have to do anything, you've hired me to escort you, even if unofficially, so that is what I'm going to do."
He stepped between Hilda and the wyvern, and she noticed the weapon in his hand, a different blade than the one before. This one was a sabre, but I had that same rusty look to it, for a moment. As he walked forward just a few feet and pointed the tip of the blade at the wyvern. The rust began to peel away from the sword and dissolve into the air. After just a second, Tyr swung the blade, still quite a distance between him and the wyvern, but in that same moment the wyvern let out a pained roar, and began to freeze over, quickly becoming a frozen statue.
Hilda took a few moments to take in what just happened as Tyr’s weapon disappeared before she finally exclaimed “What in the Gods names was that!!”
Tyr turned and gave her a small smirk “Just doing my job,” Said as if that made, anything that just happened, make sense. “, but that should handle that. Did you have something to ask me?”
She just stared, bewildered for a minute “No, it was nothing, I’m just going to go to sleep now.” And before waiting for any proper answer Hilda walked over and climbed into her tent and quickly forced herself to sleep.
The next two days of riding to Sovak were uneventful, and Hilda kept from talking too much to Tyr, still wary of what he might be planning. When they got to town, Tyr rode his camel to the adventuring guild building and dismounted.
“Well, here we are, Ms. Hilda. This is the local guild and you can begin adventuring.”
Hilda hopped off the camel aswell and dusted off her fauAlds “Thanks for getting me here, how much do I need to pay you?”
Tyr waved off the last comment dismissively “You don’t owe me anything, I’m not going to go asking for money just because I took you to town. Especially when it’s clear you may need the money for other things. I’ll maybe see you around though, I have to go take care of something here in town.”
Hilda stopped for a moment. She didn’t know if she should feel insulted or thankful for what he said and couldn’t make up her mind for either one “Fine then. See ya around.”
Tyr got back on his camel and took it down another road into the town. Hilda sighed and entered the guild. The inside was mildy busy with people sitting at tables discussing things, but as Hilda took a look around, alot of these people seemed like.... undesirables. She didnt waste too much time going over to the counter and addressing the Clerk. "Hello, I want to find someone, am I able to just like, ask you guys to find him?"
The clerk thought for a few moments before replying “Well if you want you can fill out a job request and find a party that would be willing to help you.” The clerk reached behind the counter and presented a sheet of paper to Hilda
She stared at the paper for a time before reluctantly taking it “Thanks, I’ll get right on that.” She walked away from the counter, looked at the paper for a several minutes, trying to make anything out. After a while she gave up and just left the building. She sighed heavily, thinking, well that wasn’t helpful.
“Doesn’t seem like you found anything you wanted to.” Hilda jumped just a bit and turned to see Tyr leaning against the wall of the guild. “Was adventuring not exactly what you were thinking it was?”
Hilda stared at him for just a moment, wondering why he was even back “I – uh no, it’s not that. I’m trying to find someone, but they can’t seem to help.”
“Well, do you want any help?”
“Why would you just offer help?”
He shrugged “I did what I came to do, so you could say that I’m unemployed now, besides, you seem better to work for then some random noble who thinks they’re the Gods gift to the world”
Hilda let out a small nervous laugh “Right, nobles.” She thought a couple moments more, she definitely needs the help, annnd he already saved her twice “Fine, I could use some help, I guess. Will this cost me, or…”
He thought for just a moment “Sure, how much money can you spare?”
“I could do 100 gold”
“Great, then I’ll take that as payment. Well, lets go find your missing person Hilda.” And he offered his hand for a handshake
Hilda shook his hand before pausing to think “Cool, well, I’ve got a small lead we can follow in Mercy.”
