Taking Rank Read online

  Gale weaves in and out of the underbrush on either side as we travel, jumping up onto fallen branches and diving into bushes only to chase out a rabbit or squirrel. I smile knowing that she is as excited as I am to be off and about again.

  After walking for several minutes, we come to the main road; unlike the drive, this road is paved with asphalt, a material from the old days before magic, and almost looks like a long stretch of stone. We turn right, heading west toward the town of Parston to resupply before heading off to destinations unknown.

  We reach the edge of town after twenty minutes. Parston is a large town but isn’t overwhelming like the other big towns I have been to. The buildings are all smaller and more friendly looking than their blocky counterparts in other big cities, and the people aren’t in as big a hurry, either.

  “Okay, you two,” Kyota says. “Just like last time it may be best for you to carry Gale through town.”

  “Okay,” I answer before turning to Gale. “You ready for a ride?”

  Gale gives a little “Yip” before moving over to me and jumping up into my arms. After a moment to regain my balance from the sudden shift and to position my friend comfortably for both of us, we continue down the road.

  We pass by houses of varying colors and designs as people wave and call greeting to us. Still uncomfortable around lots of people, I stick close to Kyota’s side. A few kids and adults notice Gale but their reactions are very different; the kids all point and talk excitedly to each other while the adults either watch us warily or shoo their own kids inside their houses. Eventually we make our way toward the center of town where the businesses are located.

  “Susan made sure to fill my pack with fresh things,” Kyota explains, leading us through the busier part of town. “So we just need to get some preserved stock from the Adventurer Shop.”

  “Okay,” I reply as I watch the people passing by.

  “I don’t really have a plan on where to go, so how about we grab a quest and let that decide for us?”

  “A quest?” I ask confused.

  “Yeah. A quest is a task or request that people submit to the Adventurer Shops,” he explains. “Adventurer Shops have become a regular place for people who travel—and deal with things like bandits and dangerous animals—to gather. Because of this, if someone wants something done that they can’t or don’t want to do themselves, they post a notice with the local Adventurer Shop. These ‘quests’ come with rewards—money, items, or information. Some quests are easy, meant more to keep the kids who dream of grand adventure happy, while others are more difficult. I was on a quest to escort Zach to Amerton when we met. I don’t plan on taking anything too hard, but maybe you can find a delivery quest to get started.”

  “A delivery quest?” I question.

  “Some people put up quests to have a letter or package delivered. Sometimes that delivery is in another town, which would give us a destination for now and give you a little pocket money.”

  As we talk we arrive at the Adventurer Shop. Kyota holds the door open for me and we step inside. Just like the one in Amerton, this shop is filled with basic traveling supplies like packs, tents, cloaks, walking sticks or staves, and general cooking gear, as well as weapons like knives, bows and arrows, and other sharp-looking things. The weapons are all locked up behind glass doors but the rest is set out on shelves and hooks.

  “The quest board is over there,” Kyota says, pointing to a large portion of the wall covered in papers. “See what you can find while I get our supplies.”

  Seeing that we are the only ones in the store, I set Gale back on her own feet and we make our way over to the board.

  “Hey!” a man calls from the front counter. “You can’t let your dog roam around on its own.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” I apologize, looking back to the counter. The man is tall, taller than Kyota. He has light brown hair tied in a ponytail and a beard that is also tied just below his chin. His tan clothes are mostly hidden behind the leather apron that marks him as the store owner, while his piercing blue eyes are watching Gale and me closely.

  “It’s alright,” Kyota tells the man. “Gale is well-behaved and won’t leave my girl’s side.”

  “Humph,” the man grumbles. “See that it doesn’t, else you won’t be setting foot in here again.”

  “I see you’re just as grumpy as always,” Kyota scoffs, drawing the man’s attention.

  He squints at Kyota for a moment before his face lights up in recognition, “Cole! I thought you were dead or some’tin’.”

  “Not dead, just busy,” Kyota replies.

  “I’ll say,” the man says, nudging Kyota and pointing at me.

  Kyota sighs before turning to me, “Go on. And make sure you stay close to Sylphy, Gale.”

  We both nod, drawing an interested look from the clerk, before turning our attention back to the quest board. Many of the quests use words I don’t recognize; I dismiss them quickly as probably too difficult. Of the quests that are deliveries, a lot give locations here in Parston while only a few name other cities. I grab one that goes to someplace named Kingston and head back to the counter.

  Drawing near, I notice that Kyota is chatting with the clerk as he prepares our supplies. There are a few stools set before the counter for people to rest on, so I set my pack down and climb up onto one next to Kyota. With a nimble leap, Gale lands on the one to my left.

  “Did you find one?” Kyota asks.

  “Yep,” I answer. “It’s a delivery to…Kingston.”

  “Kingston, huh?” he comments before turning back to the clerk. “John, do you have any good jobs heading in the direction of Kingston?”

  The clerk stops his work and turns to look at us. “You’re planning to take on a job with the little lass in tow?”

  “Might as well earn some cash while helping out,” Kyota replies. “Especially if the job is on our way. And Sylphy can take care of herself.”

  John looks from Kyota to me before looking back to Kyota again. “I know of one. There have been rumors of a bandit gang setting up camp in the ruins of Ashford,” he sets a large box on the counter and starts flipping through papers.

  “Here we go,” he announces after a minute of searching. He hands a paper over to Kyota and explains, “The Kingsford Enforcers sent these out to the nearby towns asking for someone to verify and, if they feel up to the task, deal with the bandits. There is a one hundred Klen reward for a verified report of whether or not there are bandits, and an additional five hundred Klen plus fifty per head for dealing with the bandits as well as full reward for any with bounties.”

  “That sounds almost too good,” Kyota comments. “What’s the catch?”

  “How is it too good?” I ask.

  “That’s because bandits usually set up camps with a dozen or more people,” John explains. “That means that the reward for taking them out would be a minimum of eleven hundred Klen. The catch is that this quest has been uncompleted for a year and a half, the prize has gotten bigger because many people have taken the quest but none have completed it.”

  “What’s the difficulty at?” Kyota asks

  “It started at E-10 but is now a C-9,” John answers.

  Kyota looks to me, “What do you think?”

  “Is C-9 hard?” I ask, unfamiliar with the term.

  “S ranked quests are the hardest but most rare, the next hardest are the A ranked then B, C, D, and E,” Kyota explains. “There are ten levels in each rank, the lower the number the harder the job. The bandits that I rescued you from would rate…somewhere in the upper D’s.”

  “So this quest is a little harder than one to beat those bandits?” I ask.

  “That’s right.”

  “Then let’s take it,” I answer quickly. “We should stop the bandits if we can.”

  “Okay, then,” Kyota says before turning to John. “We’ll take the quest to verify the bandits. And Sylphy wants to take on this one,” he says, handing the paper for the delivery to him.r />
  “You are as reckless as ever,” John says, shaking his head a little. Turning to me he asks, “You do realize you will probably wind up fighting those bandits, don’t you?”

  “We can take them,” I answer with a nod.

  John sighs then starts to fill out the forms. After a minute he hands one to Kyota and one to me, along with a small paper-wrapped box. “Just write your name here on this line,” he tells me, pointing to a line near the bottom.

  I write my name on the paper then Kyota puts the other before me and points next to where he put his name. I write my name there as well and John takes both papers back, gives them each a stamp, and hands them back to us.

  “I sure hope you know what you’re getting this little girl into, Cole,” John worries.

  “Like I said before,” Kyota replies, “She can take care of herself.”

  “Yip,” Gale barks.

  “And Gale is pretty tough, too,” he adds.

  “Suit yourselves, you both knew the risks when you signed the contracts,” John says before lifting a couple of packages up onto the counter. “Here are your supplies, which come to sixty-seven Klen.”

  “Here you go,” Kyota says, handing the man some money.

  Kyota and I pack up our supplies in our bags then make our way over to the door.

  “See you later,” Kyota says.

  “Bye,” I echo.

  “Be safe now, ya hear,” John calls after us.

  Kyota leads us down the road to the middle of Parston where the two main roads cross, “We need to head north to get to Ashford. It should take us about two days at a normal pace.”

  “Okay,” I announce, excited to be traveling again.

  “Well, then,” Kyota says with a chuckle. Holding an arm out to the north he calls, “Onward to adventure!”

  Chapter 3

  New Encounters

  We leave Parston behind and continue along the road for a few hours before we stop for lunch. Gale runs off to explore our surroundings while I help slice up some cured ham for sandwiches.

  “What is this Ashford place like?” I ask before taking a bite out of my lunch.

  “It was a good sized town, but when the Shift happened the people fled to Kingston, Parston, and Constantine northwest of here,” Kyota answers. “Ashford was much like Parston, a bigger town with a small town feel.”

  As we continue to eat, Gale returns and I set a plate with some ham on the ground beside me for her. Soon we are all full and back on the road. The trees around us grow thicker as we travel, the little clearings becoming fewer and more spread out. Toward evening we come to a T-shaped crossroad with a big clearing on the northern side.

  “We head east from here,” Kyota says. “But I think this is as good a place to camp as any. Why don’t you clear us a spot for our bedrolls and then we can get a fire going.”

  “Okay,” I agree, setting my pack down near a concrete barrier.

  “Do you want to help, Gale?” I ask my furry friend.

  Gale just tilts her head then looks to the woods; I get a sense of curiosity through our mental link.

  “Okay, go explore. Let me know if you find anything interesting,” I tell her.

  She gives a little yip then wanders off toward the tree line. I find a flat area and begin to clear it of sticks and rocks, piling the bigger rocks and sticks nearby for a fire. Soon I have cleared a rough ten-by-ten area of anything that would make sleeping uncomfortable.

  While I wait for Kyota to return from gathering firewood, I conjure my tiny twister on my palm. I watch as the little whirlwind dances around my hand, trailing along the lines in my palm as I tilt my hand in different directions. A few minutes after I start, Kyota returns with an armload of firewood.

  “Gale run off exploring again?” he asks as he sets down the wood.

  “Yeah,” I answer. “I haven’t heard anything from her, so nothing too unusual nearby.”

  “That’s not surprising,” he chuckles. “Now let’s get this fire going and then we can make dinner.”

  Kyota begins to set up the rocks for a fire pit when we hear footsteps approaching. Turning to look at the westbound road where the sound is coming from, we see a young man in his teens approaching. He is wearing traveler’s clothes, a plain brown and tan shirt with matching pants that are durable rather than fashionable. He has blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail that ends just below his shoulders.

  “Hello there!” he calls out. “You have room for a couple more around your fire?”

  “Of course,” Kyota responds. “How many of you are there?

  “Oh, it’s just my sister and me,” the lad answers as he approaches. Holding his hand out toward me he continues, “My name is Erik.”

  “Uh, hi,” I stutter, taking his hand. “My name is Sylphy.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sylphy,” he says before turning to Kyota. “And you are?”

  “You can call me Kyota,” he answers.

  “It’s nice to meet you. I honestly didn’t expect to run into any other travelers, most prefer to stay in the towns or pay for the horses needed to make a trip between towns quickly,” Erik says.

  “Sylphy and I rather enjoy the experience,” Kyota answers.

  I start to build a little teepee out of small branches and twigs inside the circle of rocks. I tune out their conversation while I work. Once the twigs are all in position I use a Fire glyph to light them. As I wait for the wood to catch properly, I fail to notice Erik approaching behind me and jump back and fall to the ground when he talks from just to my right.

  “Impressive,” he comments. “I don’t think there are many kids your age that can start a fire on their own.”

  “Uh…thanks,” I answer as I dust myself off.

  “Sorry,” he apologizes. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “Don’t worry about it too much,” Kyota tells him. “She’s naturally jumpy around people, so it doesn’t take much to surprise her.”

  “Oh,” Erik says. Turning to me he repeats, “I really am sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” I tell him.

  I get a sense of curiosity from Gale as Erik steps around me and tells me, “Stay back. That fox is probably dangerous; a normal one wouldn’t come so close.”

  Looking around him I see Gale giving him an odd look.

  Erik pulls out a bow and arrow and takes aim at Gale.

  I dart around him and stand between them, facing Erik, and yell, “Don’t you dare hurt her!”

  “This isn’t some fluffy bunny,” he tells me in a low, even tone. “A fox can be very dangerous.”

  By now Gale has come up beside me and sits down so close I can feel her fur on my bare ankle.

  “You should probably put down the bow, Erik,” Kyota suggests with a smirk. “Those two can probably tear you apart.”

  “I can’t do that,” he answers with a glance over to Kyota. “Sylphy is in dan—did you say ‘two?’”

  “Yes, I did. That fox is Sylphy’s familiar.”

  Erik looks back to Gale and me for a moment before lowering his bow, “You really are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

  Gale gives a very distinct chuckle, but I just continue to glare at him.

  “Look,” Erik begins, slipping his bow back onto his back. “I’m not going to hurt her now, okay?”

  “Good,” I state angrily.

  “Come on Sylph,” Kyota calls. “He was just trying to protect you. And neither of us told him about Gale so just let it go.”

  I glance over to Kyota before crouching down, “Okay.” I give Gale’s ears a ruffle before looking back up to Kyota.

  Behind him I can see a woman approaching from down the road. She appears to be wearing travel clothes similar to Erik’s and has blonde shoulder length hair that is died light blue at the tips. As she draws near I can sense a strong magical aura emanating from her, one that is comparable to Kyota’s.

  “I do hope my brother hasn’t caused you folks any trouble,” she calls ou
t.

  Kyota turns to look at the newcomer whose face brightens up when she sees him. She runs forward and catches Kyota in a hug. He is clearly surprised as his arms remain held out at his sides.

  “Kyota!” She exclaims happily. “I didn’t expect to run into you here. What have you been doing? Are you alright? Are you happy to see me?” That last question is almost too quiet for me to hear.

  “Enough, Poseidon,” Kyota declares. “I’m fine.”

  The woman, Poseidon, releases Kyota with a pouty look on her face. “That’s mean. One of these days you will realize what a great catch I am and stop pushing me away.”

  “You’re a great woman, you know that, I know that, but I am just not interested,” Kyota counters. “Besides, I doubt you’re ready to be a mother.”

  Poseidon blushes, “Who ever mentioned kids!?”

  “I did,” Kyota replies. “Poseidon, meet Sylphy,” he gestures toward me. “Sylphy, this is Poseidon, another member of the Order.”

  I watch as Poseidon looks from me to Kyota then back again a few times.

  “Hello,” I say as she continues to stare at me.

  With a start she seems to gets a hold of herself again and replies, “Hello.” Turning to Kyota she asks, “Is she your daughter? When did that happen?”

  “Wait a minute,” Erik interrupts. “You know this guy?”

  “Yes, he’s a member of the Order of the Dragon,” Poseidon answers. “He’s among the group of us that lives in the area.” Turning back to Kyota she asks again, “What’s with the girl?”

  “I have a name you know,” I say, irritated. I like my name so use it!

  Poseidon looks over to me then back to Kyota.

  “As I said,” Kyota begins, “this is Sylphy. Yes, she is my daughter; I adopted her a few weeks ago.”

  “You adopted. Since when are you the type to adopt a kid?” she asks. “Let alone a little girl.”

  “It just sort of happened,” Kyota says, holding his hands out to either side. “Although,” he goes on, heading over to me, “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Things have been much more interesting since we ran into each other.”