I turned and left the office, making my way through the halls of the guild, and keeping my eye on the minimap to avoid getting lost. I emerged from the door behind Kleyn’s desk in the lobby of the guild hall, greeting him as I walked around it.

  “Hm — it seems congratulations are in order,” he said. “Goldenpuddle. Hah! It also seems condolences are in order. So, congratulations, human, and my condolences. And good riddance.” He nearly spat the word ‘human.’ I hated to think of what his reaction would be if he knew my true race, considering his strong feelings towards humans.

  “Thank you, Kleyn,” I said. “Hopefully I won’t need the condolences. I’ll see you around.” I placed the key on his desk.

  “I hope not,” he replied, returning to the book he had been reading.

  I glanced around the guild hall to say goodbye to Helga, but she was nowhere to be found. A portly humanoid kangaroo beastkin of some kind hopped across the crafting area, carrying a large stack of boxes. He had a different nameplate above his head.

  I took a few steps and was able to make out their name, ‘Abernathy.’ A player.

  The nameplates of the others in the guild were a light blue, depicting them as NPCs, but his was golden with a faint blue hue.

  He looked busy, and I decided not to interrupt whatever it was he had going on. I wasn’t even a full member of the Adventurer’s guild yet, so I didn’t think I could party up or anything.

  The sounds of the bustling city washed over me as I stepped out of the guild hall and into the bright sunlit day. Most of the surrounding buildings had one or two stories, and were hewn from stone. A few towers peeked above rooftops.

  I pulled open my map, and confirmed the quest indicator was in a distant part of the city that I had not yet explored, to the northeast. I merged with the foot traffic on the main road, heading that direction. I pulled up the minimized notifications as I walked.

  Dwarven form (Mountain) obtained through passive racial ability Absorb Essence.

  Elven form (High) obtained through passive racial ability Absorb Essence.

  I walked for an uneventful hour, sticking to main roads. I was forced to backtrack due to dead ends a few times, since my map didn’t populate until I had explored an area. Eventually I began getting a rudimentary understanding of how the city streets were laid out.

  I was taking what I hoped was a shortcut through a series of alleyways, when I heard rapid footfalls approaching around a corner.

  I heard the sound half a second before a small girl turned the corner and ran right into me, nearly sending us both sprawling backwards.

  I felt a haptic buzz at the impact, a notification appearing and minimizing in an instant.

  The girl bounced off of me at an angle, falling to the side. She was sobbing, breaths coming in ragged gasps. Her skin was the color of caramel, with blonde hair tied in a messy ponytail, with arrant locks protruding in various places. Her ears were somewhere between the round shape of a human’s and the pointed, long and slightly drooping ears of an elf. They resembled inverted teardrops with a gentle curve near the tapered tips. She couldn’t have been older than six or seven.

  New Quest! Decide the girl’s fate. There is a little girl in need. What will you do? Rewards: To be determined based on your decisions.

  What would I do? What else was there to do in this situation?

  “Hey, hey, it’s alright,” I said as I helped her up. She looked up at me, her eyes darting from my ears and eyes, before grasping onto my forearms with the force of someone drowning. She spoke at the same time as a series of voices called out from where she had come. Heavy footfalls approached.

  “Please help me.” The girl whispered.

  “Hey! You there, stop her!” called a concerned man, dripping with an accent I associated with sophistication.

  “Good, he has her!” A deep voice growled.

  “Hells, she’s fast.” A high-pitched, nasally voice intoned.

  Three men had turned a corner further down the alley and hurried over to us. They wore mismatched leather armor. One, a wolf beastkin, held a lasso in his left hand, attached to lengths of rope held in his right. The second man was smaller, some kind of weasel beastkin. His hands were empty. A dagger hung at each hip, and a shortbow was strung across his back. The third was elven, tall, with pale skin and dark metallic gray hair.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  The elven man took point, the other two falling a step behind him and fanning out to either side, to fully block the path. He had been the one to call out for me to stop her. He smiled, spreading empty hands to the side.

  “Hail, and well-met, friend. Thank you for finding my niece. She has a tendency to run off,” he said as he approached.

  The girl began to shake. She was wearing a tattered and filthy dress that looked like it had not been washed in several days. Bruises and shallow cuts ran up and down her arms.

  “He’s a liar,” she whispered, as she tried hiding behind me.

  I pulled the lute off of my back and held out a warning hand to the approaching men, who stopped their advance fifteen feet away, eyeing me warily. The wolf beastkin eyed my lute and chuckled, elbowing the weasel and pointing. The weasel snickered.

  “Now, now. No need for this to turn uncivilized,” the elven man said, as he reached down and flipped open a small satchel affixed to his belt, producing a few Gold coins held between extended fingertips. “You can return my niece and be paid for your troubles. We are running late because of her spirited… exploration of the city, and need to be on our way.”

  “He’s not my uncle,” the girl whispered, “he’s a bad man.” She whimpered, her grip tightening.

  The man took a step forward, his companions stepping in tandem. With a swift motion, three more Gold coins appeared in the man’s hand. “This really is none of your concern. Please, be reasonable. This coin is more than enough to get you into some better clothing, a nice meal, and a woman — or women — for the night. Comfortable passage to a city with the patronage an entertainer like yourself deserves. Thank you for helping find her.”

  He took another step closer, his face the embodiment of congeniality. His companions glared with malice, maintaining pace a step behind. The weasel-man’s hands caressed the handles of his daggers. They were about ten feet away.

  My mind raced. The man was obviously lying. His companions exuded sinister malevolence and barely contained violence. The girl was shaking harder, holding on to the back of my shirt and crying.

  I wouldn’t have time to play the only song I knew, and I definitely couldn’t take three of them at once. I was doubtful about my chances at taking even one of them down.

  The man’s quiet insistence that I take the money and go made me think that this was illegal and best kept quiet. I knew there were no guards around, but did they? I might be able to bluff my way out of this.

  “Double it,” I said to the elf, “and don’t come any closer. I want to see the Gold.”

  “A small price to pay to the hero who saved my precious niece,” the elf said with a smile, as he fished a few more Gold coins from his pouch. “I am glad we could settle this amicab — hey! Stop him!”

  I turned, tossing the lute back over my shoulder to hang by its strap, and grabbed the girl before running. The girl was light, lighter than I expected. She yelped, gripping me with surprising strength as the beastkin gave chase.

  “Guards! Guards! To me!” I shouted as I ran. I heard the footfalls of my pursuers abruptly stop.

  The elven man called out, not a shout, but loud enough for me to hear. “You’ll regret this.”

  I ignored him and ran, making my way through back alley streets, twisting and following the map in my heads-up display. It showed small dots, depicting figures of differing color. Most of the colors were a light blue, representing NPCs. The men’s dots had turned red when they gave chase, which I thought indicated someone, or potentially something, with hostile intentions.

  Their dots didn’t follow as I ran, and after a few blocks I stopped and sat the girl down, gulping in breaths of air. She sniffled, rubbing her eyes and staring up at me in disbelief.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Don’t mention it,” I said between breaths. “We need to get you home. Do you know where that is?”

  “In the forest,” she said. “I was foraging for mushrooms and they… I don’t remember. But I live at Faewyn Wood, above the city.”

  “What is your name?” I asked.

  “Cataryn. What’s yours?”

  Quest Update! Help Cataryn get safely home. WARNING! This quest is above your current level and will be rated as VERY DANGEROUS. Reward: 1 Gold Rescuing Hero’s Chest, Silver Coin 10x, Greatly increased faction reputation with the citizens of Moswynd Village.

  I took a deep breath as I read the quest update, suppressing a shudder. ‘Very dangerous.’ Great. I smiled down at Cataryn.

  “I’m Chanter. Let’s get you home, but first I want to try something.”

  I pulled my lute around, and withdrew a Copper coin from my inventory. I sat it on the ground and took a few deep breaths, clearing my mind, before performing Kinetic Overload, focusing the enchantment on the coin.

  Performance Success at 75% strength!

  Stringed Instrument skill has increased! (2/50)

  The coin glowed with a faint red aura, and I picked it up. The song description said that the buff could only be applied to one object at a time, and that it had a duration of twenty seconds before dissipating, but I wanted to see if that timer would continue if placed in my inventory.

  I placed the coin back in my inventory, and was pleased to see it listed as a unique item. The timer paused once it entered my inventory; it seemed the inventory acted as a stasis of some kind.

  The coin was now listed as an Explosive-Infused Copper Coin. I pulled it back out and inspected it. A timer began counting down again, now down to ten seconds. I put it back in my inventory, and tested placing it back in, then quickly withdrawing it, until the effect wore off. The enchantment faded and the red wisps of energy dispersed. Cataryn watched in awe as I practiced. I didn’t want to be caught flat-footed and unprepared again.

  I performed the song at 78% strength and stored the glowing coin in my inventory. Cataryn’s stomach growled and I laughed.

  “Let’s get something to eat, and then see about getting you back to your family.”

  ~Brandon (Isildar)