¤ Damsel in Distress

Backing away, Silver reached automatically for the small field dagger sheathed at her waist. ‘Who… who are you?’ she stammered, wondering desperately if she had time to draw her bow. Trained as an archer, she had little experience with melee weapons and could not possibly defend herself properly with a mere field dagger.

‘Oops.’ The young man realized his mistake just then, and sheepishly sheathed his dagger. Smoothing down the front of his Scorpio armour, he offered Silver a bright grin. ‘Chill. I just saw you looking so beautifully puzzled at that scrap of paper-’

‘Who. Are. You.’ Silver said again through clenched teeth, getting increasingly annoyed. Her hand tightened around the field dagger’s handle.

‘Oh. Um. I’m Jaysen?’ He offered Silver a hand. Slightly more mollified, she cautiously removed her hand from her dagger and shook his hand. ‘Hi. I’m Silver.’

‘Good morning, lady Silver.’ Jaysen bowed exaggeratingly. Straightening up with a grin, he continued, ‘As I was saying before I alarmed you with that unseemly show of weapons, I thought you needed help with that scrap of paper, and I can’t resist damsels in distress.’

‘Uh, okay.’ Silver said, confused by the strange elaborate way Jaysen spoke. ‘What do you think of it?’

His grin grew even wider, if that was possible. ‘I happen to have heard of a Scadur that this stunning damsel might want to meet?’

What? Silver’s face started to grow hot in embarrassment, but all the same, she had to suppress a grin. ‘Quit talking like that, and I’ll take up on your offer. Who’s this Scadur?’

‘Come, I’ll bring you to him.’ Positively beaming now, Jaysen sprang off in the direction of Orbis Tower.

As they went down the stairs at the entrance of Orbis Tower, Jaysen asked, ‘Why do you need to meet this guy?’

Figuring that it didn’t hurt for one more person to know about her quest, Silver pointed to the statue next to the stairs they were descending. ‘It’s got to do with her. I’m trying to figure out her history.’

Jaysen’s eyes grew round. ‘Her? She has a history? I never heard.’

‘Me neither. Which is why I choose to pick up this quest. It’s my job, anyway. Beats dusting the cobwebs in the Ellinia Library all day,’ said Silver.

‘You work for Ellinia Library? You’re an Adventurer Librarian?’ Jaysen said excitedly. ‘I know about those. They travel all over the world and gather all sorts of important information for Projects. You must have had a lot of adventures already!’

‘Not really. I only finished my apprenticeship last year, and just completed one Project.’ Silver smiled. She remembered the sense of accomplishment she got at the end of that particular Project, in which she had researched how the strange Summoning Sacks that had appeared in Victoria Island worked. ‘I’m sure this Project will be even better than the last.’

‘So you think this Scadur can help?’ They entered the portal into the top floor of Orbis Tower.

‘I hope so. I don’t have any other clues to start with,’ Silver said glumly.

Jaysen laughed. ‘Good luck then. I hope you got a tower scroll now, though. It’s such a pain to have to crawl through all twenty levels of this accursed-’ Abruptly, Jaysen halted in his rummage through his backpack, an embarrassed expression on his face.

‘Got a Tower scroll?’ Jaysen gestured sheepishly to the magic rock hovering next to the portal.

Silver rolled her eyes, and opened her backpack to retrieve a Tower scroll. With both of them touching the gently humming stone, she read the words off the scroll. There was a flash of light and a puff of smoke as the scroll vanished, and they were teleported to the first floor of the Tower.

¤ To Please a Hunter

Recovering from the brief feeling of disorientation, Silver glanced over to Jaysen. He had a hand clapped over his mouth, ad looked a little green in the face. ‘You okay?’

Jaysen shook his head, mumbling through his hand. ‘Just can’t get used to it. Beats having to go down the Tower though.’

Laughing out loud, Silver teased, ‘Spare me the sight of your lunch this afternoon.’

Jaysen straightened up immediately. ‘Why, don’t you like meeting new people? I could introduce you to Mr Supreme Hotdog, you know. You’ll just have to excuse his slime covered appearance, he just went on a safari trip down my digestive system.’

‘Eww, gross!’

Bickering like this, they made their way deep into El Nath in no time. Wandering around the snow-covered town, they started their search for a man named Scadur, asking the townspeople and other travelers in El Nath for information. They were directed to the outskirts of the forest surrounding El Nath.

‘There’s his cottage!’ After a few moments, Jaysen spotted the small house with a thatched roof nestled in a clearing. A burly fellow dressed in yellow furs sat outside, leisurely smoking a pipe.

‘He doesn’t look quite like an artist.’ Silver frowned.

‘No other Scadurs around here though.’ Jaysen shrugged. ‘Come on, let’s get your Project done.’

The pair approached the man slowly. ‘Good day, mister. Are you Scadur?’ Silver asked politely.

‘Yea, that’s me name alright. What do ye want?’ Scadur lowered his pipe and said.

‘Does this drawing look familiar to you, sir?’

Scadur took one look, and a queer expression came over his face. ‘Wh-where did ye kids get this from?’ He asked suspiciously.

Silver smiled hopefully. ‘Someone in Orbis-’

‘I don’t know anything!’ Scadur turned quickly away from the parchment, and waved them off. ‘Please leave now, I’m busy.’

However, Silver had spotted a flicker of recognition in the man’s eyes before he turned away. She tried again. ‘Sir! Please. This is important to me. Could you at least give me a small clue?’

‘About what? I don’t know what ye are talking about. I don’t know anything. Now, go!’ Scadur stood up from his seat and made to enter the cottage.

‘Please, good mister. With that look of wisdom in your eyes, surely you have some information this lady here can use.’ Jaysen stepped in front Scadur, forcing him away from the door. ‘Could you help her, please? Else you might spoil the chances of me having a date with her.’ He gave the man a pleading look, but there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

‘Excuse me?!’ Silver gave up controlling the urge to punch Jaysen, and gave him a good one on his shoulder.

‘Ow! Hey, I asked for a date, not a punch!’ Jaysen whined, ‘Those are two completely different foods, you know!’ Silver blinked at the apparent non sequitur, then groaned. ‘You deserve more than just one.’ Jaysen’s face lit up. ‘More than one punch, I mean!’ She corrected herself immediately, much to his disappointment.

‘Young people these days.’ Watching the two argue at his doorstep, a slightly amused look grew on Scadur’s face, but it faded away rapidly. ‘Okay, if ye’ll take out forty of those Yetis out there, and bring me their horns, I’ll tell ye what I know. Now scat!’ He stomped into the cottage and treated Silver to her second slammed door of the day.

‘Yetis? Those… huge, gigantic, white, gigantic monsters?!’ Silver felt like wailing in despair. ‘I can’t even begin to touch them.’

‘Hmm.’ Jaysen rubbed the silver plate on his Identity. ‘I believe you repeated gigantic.’ At Silver’s death glare, he raised his hands in surrender. ‘Okay, okay. I might be able to help you with them.’

Silver’s eyes narrowed, not trusting his careless tone. ‘Really? Why so helpful?’

‘Oh, you know, beautiful damsels in distress and all…’ Jaysen waved a flippant hand, then dashed away quickly as Silver chased after him. He yelled back at her. ‘Violent ones are the best, I say!’

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😀 Attached is a REALLY old picture of the Entrance of Orbis Tower. It is my favourite map in the entire Maple World, and what inspired me to write this story. I hope you enjoyed it. Triple Chocolate cookies for you, reader!