Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 026 - Part 2

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The Hunter’s Guild

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TheirWorld

Guin stepped closer to them and watched Dawl carefully as he tilted his head. “Corruption?” he repeated, furrowing his brow. “Spirit Corruption? In the forest?” The entitled air that he had been giving off before, faded. Understanding and sadness flickered across his face, but he gathered composure quickly, shaking his head. “I swear to you, Jormund, I’ve heard nothing about any corruption in the woods. My hunters haven’t spoken of seeing anything terribly unusual of late; corruption would be noticed. How did you hear of this?”

Suspicious, Guin chose to cut in, “The root of it is in a cave - from here, about twenty minutes or so to the northwest. It’d take another ten minutes to fight through the corrupted creatures that garud it, depending on the skill of the fighter.” Dawl looked at her in shock as she continued. “There are dozens of traps set throughout the area - very close to one another - and in them, dozens of animals, all dead. Many rotting. Then there is the cave which hides the many corpses and leaving them in the cave to rot.”

“Y-You..?” the hunter began.

“I was the one that found them and told Pastor Jormund. If you want to argue with someone, let it be me.”

Dawl looked her over, his hand resting on the hilt of a dagger on his belt. “... If it is as you have said, than the Law has, indeed, been broken. Grounds enough, perhaps, to start a corruption - but powerful enough to feed it?”

Looking directly into his eyes, she told him, “On of them was a Spirit Fox.” The man’s adam’s apple bounced at she swallowed. He was hiding something - but Guin didn’t like just how obvious it was.

Dawl’s eyes glistened with understanding and hatred as they shifted to the ground. “I see, he said, looking out into the forest that surrounded them. “A grave error has been made. And this time, there is no one left to bargain with them.”

“How can this be happening, Euen - How can this be happening, again, and on your watch, when you know what is at stake!” Guin’s eyes flickered over to him where he stood with clenched teeth and balled fists. Again?

Dawl chuckled. “What would you have the like of me do, Jormund?” Dawl asked, his voice accusatory. “Even if I find the one who broke the Law and cast them out, you know as well as I that without the backing of the Dragon King, we have no voice!”

“And who’s fault is that, I wonder,” growled the pastor, his voice thick with bitterness and loathing. What is going on here? Guin wondered, looking between the two men as they stood opposed to one another, a great rift between them. As she realized that everything they were talking about was likely to be the next quests for her questline, her heart sank with conclusion: … I’m never going to get out of this tutorial, am I? Graduate to the main game, or see the questline to the end. Her personality lent her to the latter.

“Shut up,” Dawl bit back. “As if you have the right to talk.”

There was a moment of silence until Jormund spoke, “Then what? We let the corruption spread then? That’s it? The forest they gave their lives for dies, just like this?”

“Why do you ask me?” Dawl asked. “I have no power. You should ask yourself these questions, O’ Holy Man! Blame me all that you want, Jormund - I understand what it was that I did, and you you’ve lived with yourself all these passed years - but I am powerless! At most, I could remove a hunter licence - if the culprit is a hunter. If not - well then. Shall we both attempt to convice our flocks and the law enforcement goons your mother trained that spirits are real and are destroying the forest because a fool broke Laws that you Lady speaks nothing of? And while you’re at it, why don’t you tell them what really happened to Melora and Master Rew!”

Looking sick, Jormund looked away.

Deciding she had heard enough, Guin shook her head and interjected, “ Stop this. I don’t have a clue whats going on, but in this case, it’s not worth it.”

The pastor looked at her. “Guin, henceforth I forbid you to go into the forest!”

“Fat chance,” Guin snorted at him. “Technically, I was forbidden until today, and that never stopped me.” Jormund bit his lip with eyes of panic. “Look,” she sighed. “I did leave out a particularly important detail earlier. I have met with the spirit causing the corruption and struck a deal with her.”

“G-Guin!” Jormund scolded, but she spoke over him.

“If I can give the pelt that was stolen from her back, she says she’ll be willing to help purify the damage that she and the other degrading spirits have caused,” she explained. “It may sound ludicrous, but I happen to have run across a bit of leverage over her in my travels, so I have chosen to trust her. If nothing else, I guarantee you that this fox spirit loves this forest - and I don’t think she wants it to rot away because of greed and hate. You can choose to trust and hlep me, or not. I don’t care. But you aren’t going to stop me.”

The two gave her and each other awkward glances.

“Guin…” Jormund started.

“Exactly what is there for you to lose?” Guin asked him, growing frustrated.

“...A lot,” he answered, looking down.

“... We will lose more if we let her act alone,” Dawl growled back at him and looked up at Guin. “You are a precocious little brat, I’ll give you that,” he said. “Give me a few days, and I’ll see about finding the pelt. You’d best prepare yourself for the worst, though, child. Spirits are nt pets - they are more dangerous than any wild animal.”

With a bow, Guin said, “I think you for your aid, Master Dawl.”

“This -,” the pastor started, but Dawl cut him off.

“You rolled over last time, Jormund,” the hunter warned. “Don’t do it again.” Dawl gave a curt bow, and walked back over to the house.

The tension in Pastor Jormund’s body visibly released as he walked over to her. “Nothing I can say will stop you?” he asked her in a soft voice.

Guin shook her head. “Nothing.”

The pastor sighed and egged her to walk toward the village. “Within the next few days, before you go back to the woods, I implore you to visit Alta Noin’s cottage. I will await you there. If there is nothing that I can do to stop you, then I cannot justify abandoning you to your cause. This is, after all, the role of such useless adults as myself. Those who cannot do, teach.”

“Please never say that last bit again,” Guin said, cringing. “Sure, it’s true for some people, but not al - and even them, for many of the them it’s because they lacked the means to to do otherwise, be the cause access to resources or the simple fear of stepping out from the shadow of their doubts. Such rubbish.”

After staring at her for a moment, he burst out laughing. “Indeed,” he said. “Indeed. Now, you run off home. Your mother is sure to give you a beating at this time of night - Apologies, I should have kept better track of the hour.”

Guin looked at her clock - it was nearly midnight in game and out. With a sigh, she bid the pastor farewell, and began her walk back to her mother’s cottage.

She had learned many things, this night. She glanced back at the Hunter’s Guild, her mind busy, her heart sinking.

Master Dawl has said he would get the pelt for her, but which pelt would he bring her, she wondered. Lifting a hand as if to hold the Guild house in her hand, she enclosed her fingers around it as if to trap it within her palm.

Guin snorted. Never underestimate a child.