70 Bounty

We all turned to see the source of the voice surprised that someone in this tavern would know me. Scarlet's striking red hair made it extremely easy to identify sitting with Paul and Ashley on a table in the middle of a conversation. Ashley noticing me also began waving at me telling me to come over and switched seats so they were all sitting on the same side of the table.

"Do you think we should go?.." Jay mumbled to us quietly.

"Do you want to be rude to Scarlet's invitation?.." Grace asked.

"You're right.... I guess we should got then." He replied.

We slowly made our way to their table, Scarlet's familiar fear thing hitting us as we got closer causing a shiver to run down our spin and straighten our posture. Slowly we all scuttled together on the open side of the table they left us.

"Hey Emilia! and friends!" Scarlet greeted us with a big smile.

"Hey..." We all struggled to reply back barely able to control our hands to wave back.

Paul coughed loudly at our inability to act within close proximity of Scarlet.

"Ohhh shoot... I forgot." Ashley said hearing Paul's cough and began rummaging through his bad pulling out some coins and sliding one to each of us. "Take one each it should help." He said with a smile.

We all hesitantly went to grab the coin Ashley slid to us, instantaneously it somehow stopped the frightening feeling Scarlet emits.

"Thanks....." We all thanked him surprised how a simple coin was able to do such a thing. looking at it closely inspecting every millimetre, 'nope it looks like a normal silver coin.'

"It only lasts a day sadly.... but it will do for now." He smiled.

"So Hello ..... Emilia Jay and Daisy.... and.. sorry I don't think we've met yet." He said waving as us and then stopped looking at Helen and Grace.

"This is Helen and Grace..." I introduced them noticing that they were speechless after they failed to respond after a few seconds of silence staring directly at him.

"Have you been training Daisy?.." Paul asked her with a smile.

"Yes of course, everyday without fail like how we used to." She replied to him speaking very quickly with a smile.

"That's good.... and it's nice to meet you Helen and Grace." He said with a smile and nod towards them.

"So what brings you guys here???.." Ashley asked.

"We needed some gold so we came here to see if there's something we could handle." Jay answered Ashley.

"Ohhhh.... as first years?..." Pauls said in shock.

"Yeah I didn't want to.. but everyone else wanted to go on an 'adventure'." Jay answered with air quotations causing Paul to chuckle slightly.

"Well I'm sure you are all very capable.... so it shouldn't be hard to find something." Paul smiled.

"OHH OHH maybe they can come with us!" Scarlet suggested causing Paul and Ashley to turn to her in utter shock.

"Are you crazy?... they'd be killed....." Ashley responded to her suggestion, "No offense" he said turning to us.

"None taken.." Jay jay nodded in agreement with his statement.

"Yeah it's far too dangerous for them...." Paul replied.

"Yeah but.. come on... we've done plenty of escort missions... protecting normal people... I'm it wouldn't be much harder." She replied.

"... Well I can tell some of you are excited to be here.... so I'll let you guys decide.... It's a little past mating season for Desert Death Worms..... so the females are gonna be very hungry and aggressive in search for food.... today we will be hunting them for their roe and scales and some other parts. So Emilia and Co what do you say?.." He turned asking us with a raised eye brow.

"Absolutely not!..... Death worms are notorious for killing parties and caravans passing through the desert... specially after mating season!" Jay replied to him.

"Woah woah woah... wait Jay..... Don't you want to see them in action?.." Grace asked.

"Yeah.... but they are Death worms!!!.... And way way more dangerous during mating season...." He explained to Grace.

"Don't forger females are stronger and larger than males." Paul added.

"Yeah! That as well!" He nodded.

"Yeah but Scarlet said they will protect us...." Daisy added.

"Yeah... you'll be 100% safe!" Scarlet said with a smile.

"She's being optimistic as always.... there is always risk..... But we should be able to protect you." Ashley said with a smile.

"Ashley is right..... We should be able to protect you..... But things could easily go awry." Paul said.

"I swear you guys are all insane...." Jay said to us causing Paul to chuckle.

"I mean... it does sound pretty dangerous... and they are called Death Worms for a reason...." I said.

"Lets vote on it!" Helen said.

"Okay so all who doesn't want to go hold your hands up." I said to which Ashley, Jay and I held up our hands.

"And those who don't?.." Helen said with a giant smile as Scarlet, Grace, Daisy and Helen held their hand up.

"But Paul didn't vote...." I instantly interjected.

"Well I didn't think our votes counted.... and on top I'm neutral." He replied.

I looked at him angrily for not agreeing with me, "Look....it's dangerous... but I'm not gonna lie Death Worm roe is a very expensive commodity so your money problems will be solved for a long time. I which is a reason why you came here..." He said.

"So it's sorted we are gonna join them!" Grace said with a smile in excitement which was slightly unnerving as I haven't seen her so excited before...

"Well..... If you guys do decide to come along we're gonna need to take a pit stop back at school so we can get you guy some stuff to help you guys a little...." He explained.

I looked at Jay defeated... "We lost the vote....." I said to him.

"I know... the other three are crazy...." He replied.

"Okay well.... Let's get this adventure on the way then." Paul said with a smile clapping his hands together.

"Scarlet can you get us some super healing potions?... then meet us back here?.... you always fetch the best prices..." He smiled.

"Sure see you guys in abit" Paul and Ashley stood up to let her out.

I watched her walking out as many patrons in the tavern dropped their drinks in shock as she walked closer behind them some even backing away slowly eyes fixated on her. "By the way..... Why does she always make me so frightened?.." I asked Paul.

"It's her thing...." Paul casually answered, "Right I'll be right back I need to accept the bounty." He said walking off into a room behind the Bar, giving the barman a nod allowing him to enter.

Ashley sat back on the bench sitting opposite to us. "So.... are you guys liking Atlantis?.." He asked.

"It's Great!!!" Helen, Grace and Daisy replied.

"If you don't mind me asking.... what made you two come to Atlantis?... Elves tend to stay in their own communities....." He asked curiously.

"Ohhh... it's because we wanted to explore the world.... and meet others." They smiled.

"Ohhh that's interesting..." He said....."So what do your parents think about coming to a human school??" He asked.

"They pretty much disowned us...." They replied quietly looking down.

"Well its abit fortuitous that you both got into Atlantis and didn't get split up." He smiled.

"If you don't mind me asking.... can you tell me what's gonna stop us getting eaten alive?.. or getting killed?.." Jay asked.

"Well.... You might not know... but I'm a decent Artificer and because we know what we're up against I have some stuff in storage that might help in our upcoming battle." Ashley replied to Jay.

"Ashley?.... do you remember me?.." Daisy asked sheepishly.

"Hmmmm....Sorry I don't... oddly though... in all my adventures I've only seen one Blue Tiefling very briefly but she was in a cult we took down but I'm not sure what happened to her..... I had to take someone away at the time." He answered.

"That's her!!!" I informed him in excitement.

"Wow really?....I'm so sorry for not recognizing you earlier..." He apologized to Daisy.

"It's okay... we didn't meet for long.... but I wanted to thank you for saving my life...." She thanked him.

"No need for thank you, living and being a good person is thanks enough." He smiled at her.

"I will!" she replied to him with a big smile.

"By the way.... Ashley.... what battle rank are you?.." I asked.

"Me?.." he chuckled, "I'm currently unranked." He replied.

"Can I ask why?.." Jay instantaneously asked with a look of worry on his face.

"Because like Paul we don't really care about this 'Rank'.." He replied with air quotations.

"But Paul is ranked one...." Jay interjected.

"Yeah he was placed there by the headmaster..." Ashley answered him.

"So is he actually strong?..." Jay asked.

"I dunno.... I'll let you be the judge of that..." He smiled back at him clearly noticing his worry and playing around with him.

"Don't let Ashley's Rank fool you.... I've seen him beat A or A+ ranks equivalent students when forced to lift a finger." Paul said walking back in, "So I have the contract... looks like we need to kill one Adult Worm assuming normal yield..... But if we need more money we can kill more." He said taking a seat beside Ashley.

"So where are we going?.." Jay asked.

"Well we'll be going to the vast desserts of Eshia..." He answered.

"So we're going to one of the most inhospitable places as well..." He stated.

"We'll be fine...." Paul said with a smile his reply doing little to reassure Jay.

"So while we wait for Scarlet to return.... Drinks? anyone?." Paul asked.

"Sure!" we all replied.