Cyrus and Doran sat at their table in awe, their pheasants half eaten, but what they were looking at was the massive plate in front of a sleeping Abby. The plate once held an entire boar, complete with a shiny, red apple in its mouth and accompanied with a mix of vegetables. The plate now held only a large pile of bones that had been stripped completely clean of their meat, some of them even had cracks in them from where marrow had been sucked out by the hungry woman whose head was now resting on the table.

Silvern just gave the sleeping woman a look of mundane boredom, this wasn’t the first time he’d seen his friend devour a whole boar after a long job and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Though the reactions from his guests were more than a little amusing, he couldn’t remember the last time he saw such shocked faces from two grown men.

“Wh.. where did she put it all?” Cyrus asked as he looked at the woman’s body, she didn’t show any signs of increased body weight despite her meal. He swore her toned stomach just gained extra definition.

“How can she sleep like that?” Doran asked with a raised eyebrow, observing how Abby was hunched over the table, snoring with a bone in her mouth. That position had to be uncomfortable but she was sleeping like a big, violent baby.

“Don’t worry about it and I have no clue.” Silvern replied to each question as he ripped off a wing from his own pheasant and began to pick off the juicy meat before popping it into his mouth. Eating the cooked bird with more dignity than Abby had with her boar, one would think that someone was trying to steal it with how she devoured the poor thing.

Cyrus turned his attention back to his own food and began digging into it like he hadn't eaten in weeks, Silvern was sure he could see faint hints of tears in the corners of the spear fighter’s eyes as he picked the drumstick clean. Doran, on the other hand, ate at a more reserved pace and more or less picked away at the dish. Almost as if he was already getting full despite hardly finishing half the meal.

It wasn’t too much longer before Silvern heard a woman call his name, the elf turned his head to see a very rare sight. The guild cook, Jessica, was walking to their table with a confident stride and a stern look on her freckled face. By the time she reached the table, Silvern was barely able to swallow down his mouthful to properly greet the talented chef as Cyrus continued to rip apart his food.

“Hey, Jessica.” Silvern said with a smile. “Not everyday I see you out from the kitchen, you practically live in that oven. What do you need? Another spice run?” Jessica turned down his offer and took a good look at Cyrus and Doran. Her attention was more focused on their plates and her stern expression turned into a proud smirk. she slapped her hand down on the stone table, pulling the two traveler’s attention before speaking.

“My waiter says you were destroying my cooking, what do you think?” Cyrus looked up at the young woman with a face of joy and said it was the best food he’d ever had, the dark elf could clearly see a tear fall from the man’s eyes. Just had he and Doran really been living off of that dried meat for that long?

Doran apologized for his friend's reaction before saying the woman was a marvelous cook. Jessica only laughed, her stern face completely gone as she took the dark skinned man’s words as the highest compliment anyone could give.

“Well, if it’s really that good then the next time you order, it’s on the house! It’s always good to keep travelers fed, makes all that hard work I put in worth it.” Silvern gave a small sigh, she was always like this when someone complimented her cooking, it was definitely worth the praise at least.

“I take it you didn’t just come out here to get an obvious answer, Jessica. What’s going on?” Silvern asked, his narrowed eyes practically screamed ‘you want something’.

“You’re needed in the communication room,” Jessica said, her delicate face lost its smile and became more professional and serious. “You and Abby that is, take these two with you.” The guild’s cook finally noticed how the beast woman was passed out on the table and was instantly irritated, she raised a hand before bringing her palm down onto the back of Abby’s head with a loud smack. The shield bearer shot her head up in annoyance and looked up at the group with a sharp glare but immediately dropped her look when she saw Jessica was the one who did it.

“Hey, Jess…” Abby said almost nervously as she continued to chew the bone in her mouth.

“Why do we need to go?” Doran asked inquisitively, making the cook forget about the rude table manners that were just on display. “I don’t see what I would be needed for.”

“It ain’t a big deal, Doran.” Cyrus replied. “Maybe the guild has use for a knight like you.” The swordsman looked at his cheerful ally with an unamused frown, he was the one who wanted to join the guild whereas Doran already had his own responsibility. The dark elf could tell the priest was about to fight back against the request and decided to chime in.

“If it’s who I think it is that’s calling for the two of you, it would be best to come along. Unless of course you want someone to come and ‘get’ you” Even though this friendly warning was true, Silvern did think that it would probably need to be someone fairly strong to drag him to communications.

“Just come along Doran, it won’t kill you.” Abby said as she stood from her seat and picked up her shield, secretly happy that she was able to avoid having her dinner privileges taken away again. She also made sure to sit her bone out onto the pile that rested on her plate before walking off. Silvern said to follow him and Abby before he stood from his seat, Cyrus looked a little disappointed he couldn’t finish his meal but took one last big bite before following the beast woman and dark elf with Doran close behind him.

Jessica gazed at Cyrus and Doran as they walked with the guild members with a inquisitive look. Lydia asked her to tell Silvern to take the pair with them but the guild hardly ever brought in outside adventurers for work. Her attention was broken when Aaron cried out to the orange haired woman, saying the kitchen really needed her back. Looking back to her little hideaway, Jessica saw that her waiter was waving his arm around frantically as his sleeve was on fire.

“I leave you alone in my kitchen for a second,” The cook shouted back as she calmly walked back to her station. “And you decide to light yourself on fire?! Go put yourself out!”

“Hey, Cyrus?” Abby asked as the four of them walked. “Why do you wanna join up with us? It’s not like we’re that well known, most people even doubt a foolish guild like ours exists.” The dark skinned man remembered how hard it was to find people who knew about the guild and the few that did know said that it was a foolish guild for foolish dreamers. Though if Abby asked Lydia, she’d say that the guild being full of foolish dreamers had quite the charm to it.

“To find the stars,” Cyrus replied quickly, but clearly holding something back. The beastwoman noticed how he was holding back, he said the same thing to Lydia back in Roven and she gave an annoyed sigh before almost snapping at the tight lipped spear fighter.

“No shit, that’s why we’re all hereI. s that all there is though? You just want to find the stars and the kingdom?” Abby continued to say that everyone had a reason why they wanted to find the stars, whether it was the desire for adventure or for a personal goal they felt the lost kingdom could fulfil. “Even Shorty and I have that in mind, so I’m sure your simple mind has something in mind.”

Cyrus grew silent and thought for a moment, his guard was still up and he acted as though saying his reason would make it harder to achieve. Silvern paid attention to how silent the spear fighter had become and how Doran began to adjust his walking to wedge himself between Abby and his friend.

“Abby, enough.” Silvern retorted before turning his attention to the now silent man. “It’s fine if you don’t want to tell us now, but if you want us to trust in you, you’ll need to open up eventually.”

Doran looked to his friend and saw the expression of concern on his face, the swordsman had warned Cyrus he’d have to open up about who he was eventually if he wanted a group of adventurers to trust him. Though, opening up was never Cyrus’ strong point.

Back in Roven, Silvern had asked Doran about Cyrus’ background but the only answer he gave to him at that time was: “It’s his story to tell, not mine.”, he respected his spear wielding ally and knew that he would tell them at least a little bit about him soon enough.

A few moments of walking through twisting corridors later, Abby and Silvern lead their guests to the same book-filled room Lydia had made her call in.

The blonde woman had changed clothes since the group last saw her, her hair was still in a bun that exposed her odd ears but her outfit was more fitting for someone who travels around Granis for a living. Her sword and wand were strapped to her hip, her feet now bore boots that were made of well tanned leather, her legs down to her knees were now covered by grey pants while her shirt’s sleeves only covered half of her forearms, they proudly showed off her guild crest. Her wrists bore bracelets that were adorned with several differently colored gems that seemed to shine with a magic aura. The elegant lady from before was replaced with a well seasoned adventurer, that’s for sure.

Lydia looked up from the book in her hands as her guildmates and guests entered the flower-lit room, she still wore a soft, motherly smile that made the nervous Cyrus feel at ease. She happily asked how Cyrus and Doran liked the guild as she placed her book back on the shelf.

“It’s very energetic,” Doran replied respectfully. “I can tell there’s a great sense of comradery here.”

“You have a pretty fun place here,” Cyrus said with a grin. “I can’t wait to get to know everyone.” Lydia chuckled at the men’s responses before putting on a more serious face before speaking to her friends, it was still rather friendly though.

“Abbigail, Silvern, Master Gaius has a job for you two.” Abigail’s eyes lit up at the news, she hoped the job would pay better than her last one while Silvern wondered what the mission was, they were hardly ever specifically asked to handle a job. They’re track record wasn’t always the best. He also wondered why Cyrus and Doran were asked to be here too.

“There’s a city facing a bit of a problem, there’s a series of murders that happened as well as beasts that have breached the city's walls. There have also been reports of bandits hiding out in the forest.” Lydia cleared her throat, still a bit worried about assigning these two to the task at hand. “The city is Heimdallr and they want us to investigate the Evergreen Forest to determine the odd happenings and defend the people from beasts as the local authorities focus on the murder cases as well as repair the walls.”

“The Evergreen Forest?!” Cyrus shouted out, shocked. “Why would you ask them to go there, it’s the most dangerous place in Earth Realm. Hell, who asked for this?”

“Our client is actually King Valden himself.” Lydia continued, saying that normally she’d either turn down the request and have the knights in charge of Heimdallr city to handle it or would have a much larger group take the job. But with the crimes happening and the knights trying to keep peace among the citizens, she and the guild master agreed that they can’t handle it on their own. The tanned man was surprised, the king must have great respect for this guild or has possibly hired them for a task like this before. But he was beginning to wonder what he and Doran had to do with this, Doran was a priest and he himself wasn’t even a member of the guild yet.

“Master Gaius would like your assistance in this matter, Cyrus, Doran.” Lydia continued, as if she sensed Cyrus’ confusion. “I told him you’d like to join us so he’s considering this an ‘entrance exam’ of sorts. Doran, he would like your assistance due to Velina clearly guiding you here.”

Doran began to outright refuse the request, seeing as how the master was basically saying the goddess led him here to be an errand boy. But he held his tongue at the last moment and gave a different response.

“I suppose that’s one way to look at it, I can’t exactly leave Cyrus’ side just yet anyway. I promised him I’d travel with him until he became a member of your guild and I intend to keep my word.”

“Aw, you do care about me!” Cyrus replied as he wrapped one of his arms around his unamused friend’s neck, the swordsman immediately demanded to be released but the spearman was determined to keep the friendly headlock in place.

Lydia continued to explain the situation, saying that their job was to support the authorities. But they would be joined by a knight that had been hand picked by the king to act as a mediator between the guild and Heimdallr. The blonde woman recommended that the small group waited a day or two for Abby to recover, to which the beast woman gave a hardy laugh.

“You act like I’m weak,” Abby smirked, but was grateful for the chance to catch up on her sleep. “If the boss wants me to take on the job, I’ll do it.”

“Same here, can’t let the master down.” Silvern replied.

“I ain’t gonna say no to a test from the boss of this place!” Cyrus said with a grin.

“As a child of Velina, I suppose I have a responsibility to respond to a direct request for my assistance.” Doran replied with a calm face, a little ashamed of how easy it was for him to be pulled into guild work.

“Excellent!” Lydia beamed. “As I said, I informed the King that you will depart in a few days, Cyrus, you and Doran are free to take one of the extra rooms we have for boarding.”

Doran denied the offer, saying that the church should have an open room and that he’d hate to impose. Cyrus had no such reservations and gladly took the offer, saying it’d be nice to sleep in a real bed for the first time in months. Silvern said he’d show Cyrus to a vacant room when he was ready, Abby on the other hand, walked off to go rest in her own room. The dark elf was surprised to see she was still chewing on her bone from lunch, he had a hard time not picturing her more as a dog rather than a wolf with that image.

Doran and Cyrus opted to split up for the day, mostly for the swordsman to report in to his higher ups. The spear fighter followed Silvern through the halls as Lydia guided Doran back to the main hall, although they were splitting up, the men were sharing similar thoughts. The name “Gaius” stuck out in their minds, both had heard of the name but couldn’t remember where from. Also, it was odd how a group of bandits would take refuge in the Evergreen Forest, nearly everyone in Earth Realm knew that the forest was dangerous enough that even most verterain adventurers avoided the woods that laid beyond Heimdallr.

Just what was happening?

Cyrus was led to a large room which looked to be a converted tomb that had the same bright flowers along the walls and ceiling that adorned the rest of the guild. The room was mostly empty save for a bed and a small desk, it seemed spacious enough for someone to stay here with personal belongings comfortably. He saw many other rooms as they worked their way to his, clearly many guild members lived here as their rooms were decorated with flyers of past jobs and other personal touches.

“Make yourself at home,” Silvern said as he stood to the side, tossing Cyrus a ruby from one of his pouches. “If you need anything or get lost, just call me using that. I’ll leave you to it.” The tamer waved as he left Cyrus alone in the stone room. It was at this moment that Cyrus felt the time was right, now that he was alone and no one could see him.

It was time to make the move he waited all this time for.

The spear fighter fell face first onto the soft bed and let out a comfortable load, comfortable groan.

After sleeping on the ground for so long, this mattress felt like his own personal paradise. He unstrapped his spear from his back and rested it on the bed with him, he thought about how long it had been since he had slept in a place without Doran now that he was alone. The two had been traveling Earth Realm for over a year, and had spent a lot of time together in their five years of knowing each other. It felt odd and lonesome, but knew it was going to happen sooner or later, he couldn’t rely on Doran forever after all. Cyrus’ goal was his own and he couldn’t pull Doran around any longer after this test. So he decided to enjoy it and prove his worth to the guild.

Suddenly, he felt exhausted and his eyes began to grow heavy. Cyrus yawned and decided that Abby wasn’t the only one who needed rest and closed his dark eyes before drifting off to sleep.

After some walking, Doran finally made it back to Roven and entered the church. The head priest welcomed him back with a firm handshake, he was more than happy to let the swordsman have a room when he was asked.

“For a knight of the church, you can stay as long as you like, Sir Doran.” The priest said happily.

“Just Doran is fine, Father.” The pale man gave a slight nod of his head in response. “I’d also like to request use of your Plane Garnet, if you have one.” The grey haired man confirmed his suspicions and guided him to the neatly cut jewel that rested in his office. Doran picked up the stone and channeled his aura through it before speaking aloud, asking for the Fioran Vatican.

After a moment of silence, the face image of an elderly man appeared on one of the jewel’s cut sides. The wrinkled face was wearing a compassionate smile while on the top of his head was adorned with a large, intricate hat with flower patterns and coiling vines embroidered on it. The clergyman that had led Doran to the gem was stunned when he saw the face on the gem.

“Good evening, your Holiness.” Doran said respectfully.

“Good morning, Doran.” The man responded with a loving tone, implying it was earlier in the day for him. “How is your mission? It’s been a month since your last report.”

“It’s going well, we’ve finally located the guild and Cyrus has been given a task to see if he’s worthy of joining.” Doran continued to say what the task was and that he was asked to join in. The man laughed, saying it was just like the serious man to help others.

“Very well then, just be careful.” The elder said as his face shifted to that of fatherly concern. “And please call again soon, Victoria misses you.” Doran’s voice got caught in his throat for a moment before saying he would contact them again once his task was done. The two said their farewells before the image faded, the swordsman placed the gem back down before turning to leave the room.

“Excuse me, Sir Doran,” the priest said, his voice and stance showing even more respect as he stood up straight. “But… was that the pope?”

“It was, actually. I’m one of his personal knights in fact.” Doran gave another polite bow as he casually responded to the priest and the expected follow up question before looking for a room to sleep in, leaving the priest standing there in utter shock and amazement. He wondered what someone from the Realm of Angels was doing in the Realm of Earth.

Abby and Silvern met in another hallway that led to their rooms, the warrior pulled the tamer off to the side and gave him a knowing look. Silvern nodded as he understood what that look meant, the two guild members clearly had a second job to do and it involved their guests. Worked for them, the pair still had a few questions about Cyrus that needed answers to. This job was just a good opportunity.

The beast woman turned away from her comrade and stepped into a room that was adorned with hanging barrels, some small plants and fabric on her desk, a weapon rack that rested in a corner, and a bed and floor that was covered with pelts of slain beasts. The room was apparently hers because she didn’t hesitate to toss her shield onto the rack before falling onto her mattress.

Silvern, on the other hand, continued down the corridor as he debated on what he should bring with them on the trip to Heimdallr. The elf also wondered who the king would be sending with them, though he wasn’t going to complain with getting some extra help. Even he was worried about what could be going on in the dangerous forests, but he was very excited to see what types of beasts he could get to see. His serious thoughts shifted to that of cute animals that he could possibly add to his little family.

One day, this love of animals would get him in trouble, if you were to ask Abby anyway.