Chapter 28

They made it back to the guild in a short time and parked in a small nearby carpark. As they approached the main building they noticed a large gathering of people outside the gates. Amongst the gathering was the unmistakable flash of camera light and the distinctive drone of multiple reporters talking about one thing or another. Oh for Christ’s sake not again. Jack thought in exasperation.

Stacey noticed his discomfort with a small smirk and simply gave him a gentle shove in his shoulder before delving into the crowd. They arrived at the closed iron gate and flashed their licences before being let through. The courtyard this time was empty and so they continued into the guild building and went straight to the guild hall for something to eat. They’d only been gone an hour or so and it wasn’t even midday but Jack always felt famished after a hunt and he doubted he was the only one.

They arrived into the guild hall and despite the earlyish hour it was still relatively busy, Jack had heard once the guild hall had a good brunch selection. The trio found a table and sat down before going through the touchscreen menus. As he was going through the breakfast and brunch menu Jack looked around in curiosity at the hunters and staff, everyone seemed particularly excited for some reason. He shrugged in disinterest before turning back to the menu, as usual a lot of the stuff seemed completely new and strange to him including ingredients harvested from monsters or novel flora and fauna. Stacey got up and went to the bar, she returned a minute later with three glasses of fruit juice.

As he was preparing a new adventure for his taste buds Stacey suddenly called out.

“Cheryl! Hey Cheryl over here!” Stacey called out, Jack looked up and saw Cheryl give them a little wave as she headed over.

“Hey guys, back already? What was the hunt this time?” She asked with a small smile to Jack.

“Wyrms! Big ass Wyrms!” Nate burst out excitedly with arms thrown wide.

“Demi-Wyrms in Dinnington.” Stacey calmly replied as she ducked Nate's swinging arms.

“Oh the one in the playground, I heard about that, a kid nearly got swallowed, they’re fine, well, they lost a leg but they’re fine. Well done guys.” She congratulated them.

“So Cheryl, what brings you here, you on break?” Jack asked.

“Hmph, even if I wasn’t there's no way I’d miss having the ripple berry pancakes they make here, I think I’m addicted.” Cheryl replied.

“Oo, I like pancakes.” Jack hunched over his menu and scrolled through until he found what he was looking for. They were stacks of fluffy pancakes drizzled generously in honey covered in randomly multicoloured striped berries, that must be a new type of berry. His meal decided he tapped one order for himself, paid and sat back to wait and talk with the others.

As they were happily chatting away everything around the hall went quiet before excited whispering broke out all over. Jack and his table looked around to the entrance to see what had captured everyone's attention. Standing there was an extremely beautiful blonde young woman garbed in light white plate and chain armour similar to Stacey. She looked around for a moment before spotting their own table and gracefully gliding over with a smile on her face.

“Whoa, that's Meredith Shriverston, she's the daughter of Imogen Shriverston.” Stacey said in awe.

“Who and who?” Jack asked in confusion.

“Honestly Jack, try immersing yourself into celebrity culture once in a while.” Stacey said with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey I watch the news, it's very informative.” He responded indignantly.

“It's not the same, now be quiet she’s coming this way.” Stacey hiss squeaked in excitement at him.

“Aunty Cheryl!” Meredith exclaimed with a bright smile. Cheryl stood up smiling happily and the two hugged each other.

“Hey munchkin, how’ve ya been?”

“You can’t call me that anymore aunty! I’m all grown up now!”She pouted.

“So I hear, reaching C rank already and you're only twenty. Not bad kiddo, I bet your mum's proud of you.”

At that the girl grimaced slightly. Cheryl put on a knowing look. “Ah, still arguing then?” Cheryl asked in sympathy.

“Ugh, she won’t stop, keeps telling me to take a step back and become a surveyor, help her run the Greater London branch. Ugh, I don’t want to take a step back, I don’t want to become a surveyor, I want to hunt, I want to become A rank like you guys. I want to kill a titan like you two.” She ranted.

At this little revelation, Jack who’d been sipping his juice at the time spluttered and coughed out some of his drink onto his armoured vest.

Cheryl turned around as if remembering they were there.

“Oh, Meredith, these are my friends, that grinning idiot over there is Nate, that's Stacey and this hopeless mess next to you is Jack.” She introduced them. Meredith gave each of them a small but friendly smile.

Some of the juice went down the wrong pipe and Jack began a coughing fit, Meredith helpfully patted him on the back as the coughing subsided.

Once he was done coughing up a lung Jack spoke up in a ragged voice. “She seems way nicer than you Cheryl, are you sure you’re related?” Nate and Stacey sniggered, Meredith giggled lightly.

“I’m as nice as I need to be.” Cheryl replied airily.

“You guys are my aunt's friends, and you’re all hunters?” Meredith asked in curiosity.

“Yep, me and Nate are both D rank and Jack just got promoted yesterday to F rank.” Stacey replied excitedly.

Meredith turned to him with a bright smile. “Oh, congratulations! Your first promotion. What element are you?” She asked innocently.

At this the party tensed up slightly, even Nate winced a little.

Jack sighed. “Lightning element.” He replied blandly with a small shrug.

Meredith cocked her head in confusion, staring at Jack with slightly wide eyes. “Uh, lightning you say? That's……huh……um….interesting. I didn’t know there were erm…any hunters with the um, the lightning element.” She stuttered, clearly trying to find something nice to say but not quite finding the right words. Fortunately for her Cheryl steered the conversation in another direction.

“Meredith has just transferred over here from London, isn’t that right Meredith?” Cheryl interjected.

“Oh? Oh yes! I feel like I got as far as I could in Greater London you know, so many urban areas you know, so I transferred over here. I'm hoping to lead a team of my own and rank up to A rank.” She explained happily. “What about you guys?” She asked with a furtive glance at Jack.

“Same, rank up, take on bigger and better hunts.” Stacey affirmed.

Nate shrugged happily with a wide smile. “I’m just in it for the fight.”

Everyone's eyes turned to Jack. Seeing this Jack spoke up, still feeling slightly subdued like he always did after revealing his element to a stranger.

“Get stronger, get richer, defend people from monsters, the usual hunter thing.” He replied simply. Meredith seemed a little taken aback at this.

“Oh right, well er, I’m eventually hoping to be able to lead a team into the Dire Woods myself, I heard they finally set up a fortified base camp.” She said, regaining some of her cheer.

“Yeah they did, but you have to be at least B rank to be a team leader in the Dire Woods.” Cheryl warned her, sounding serious.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll rank up in no time, I just need to find a team while I’m here, easy peasy.” She smiled brightly.

“The Dire Woods?” Jack spoke up. “I want to get there one day, what rank do you have to be?” He asked in curiosity.

Cheryl frowned at him. “With the founding of the new base camp, the absolute minimum rank of any solo hunter is rank C. But you can go in sooner at rank D with team leader at B or A rank.” Jack sat back in thought, he was probably a ways off at this point, he needed to ask Nate and Stacey how long it took for them to get to D rank.

Meredith meanwhile was watching him intently. “So, what's it like being a lightning element? You guys can’t cultivate can you? How do you erm….hunt?” She asked awkwardly.

“Badly I bet!” A smug voice sounded approaching the table. Everyone turned around and saw Barry with a couple of hangers on walking up to the table.

“Hi Barry.” Jack greeted him in a friendly manner drawing surprised looks from around the table. “You look refreshed.” The surprised looks morphed into smirks.

Barry seemed confused for a moment before frowning suspiciously. He then turned to Meredith with a smarmy smile.

“Hey Mere, it's been a while. Glad to see you come to where the real action is.” He said, walking directly into her personal space.

In response she looked a little ill before replying with a hint of frostiness in her tone. “I told you not to call me that Barry.”

“Aw come on, it's a cute name for a cute girl.” He said, his smug smile never leaving his face, moving closer to her about to reach out and touch a stray lock of blonde hair. Jack mimed gagging from the sidelines.

Barry noticed Jack again and an unpleasant scowl plastered itself on his features.

“Got something to say sparker? Huh? I heard about your little promotion, ha! Standards must be really slipping around here.” He smirked down at Jack.

Jack composed himself and replied in a calm measured voice. “I suppose you must be the authority on slipping standards, or do you even have any standards at all?”

“What did you say?! You piece of shit!” Barry exploded.

“You know, I think it's strange that you always seem to explode in anger whenever I say something in retaliation for whatever bullshit you spew at me. Have you tried addressing that in therapy? Or maybe just try a relaxing activity, I hear they have a nice sauna here.” Jack smiled innocently.

Barry gaped at him for a moment before lunging at Jack. Cheryl however had different ideas, she grasped the back of Barry’s armour and flung him to the ground on his back, when he tried to get up she stamped on his chest and pinned him in place.

“Are we really doing this again Barry? So soon?” She purred.

“Get the hell off me you bitch!” He screamed, struggling furiously in vain. “I’ll tell my father about this!”

“Good, tell him, tell him what a whiny little bitch his son is, tell him if he has a problem with me disciplining his son for him then he’s more than welcome to come and have a little chat about it. I’ll even put out tea and biscuits, it’ll be sooo pleasant.” Cheryl’s voice and manner was beginning to take on a feral tone, everyone around them could feel the condensation gathering in the air, with every breath they took it felt harder to breath, like their lungs were filling up with water, people around them began to cough and splutter. Barry himself was gasping for air with a look of terror on his face.

She looked around and saw the discomfort people were in and reigned in herself in with a deep sigh.

“Get up Barry, and get out of my face.” As Barry was scrambling to his feet she gave a swift boot to his side, sending him stumbling to the hall entrance.

Cheryl shook her head at the sight of Barry scuttling away. “Reprehensible child, he really knows how to piss me off.”

“Does that guy ever go out on hunts? He always seems to be here.” Jack wondered.

“Officially I’m not allowed to tell you about another hunter's hunt and job clearance rate, but unofficially I’ll tell you that Barry only does the bare minimum, he generally hangs around here and one or two other places.” Cheryl informed him.

“Ah, so he’s lazy and a twat, got it.” He nodded to himself.

Meredith let out a giggle. “Well it was nice meeting you all, I’ll see you later tonight aunty, thanks for letting me crash at your place.” She gives them a little wave.

“See ya later munchkin.” Cheryl called out as Meredith walked away.

When she was gone everyone turned to Cheryl.

“Did she say titan slayer? As in the Oxford centaur titan?” Stacey asks. Cheryl looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering.

“Yeah, I was part of that team before I left over a year ago to come here.”

“Huh? But why would you leave?” Nate asked. “If I was part of that team I'd never leave! Those guys are rich! They’re like the ultimate hunters! And you’re an A rank hunter, or you could be, what are you doing here?”

Cheryl rolled her eyes. “It's complicated, there was a lot of personal stuff which I’d rather not get into, and I was offered an opportunity to help run the UK hunters guild so I took it.”

“Run the guild? I thought you were a help desk lady.” Nate asked in confusion.

“And a sometimes surveyor.” Jack added.

“I’m a woman of many mysteries and layers.” Cheryl answered enigmatically with a smug smile, sitting down and leaning back in her seat.

Everyone pondered that for a few seconds before Nate decided to renew the conversation in his own special way.

“How old are you?” This time it was Stacey who spluttered into her fruit juice.

“What!? Don’t you know it's rude to ask a lady her age?” Cheryl asked indignantly.

Nate shrugged without a care. “Well, if your niece was twenty, then……..”

Cheryl frowned at him for a moment before begrudgingly answering. “Not that it's any of your business, but Meredith is the daughter of my older sister, I am only thirty. All three of us are water elements just in case you were wondering, hmph.” Cheryl huffed.

“Oh, I was just wondering, thanks.” Nate shrugged again with a clueless smile.

Fortunately at that time Jack's food made an appearance distracting everyone, his selection of ripple berry pancakes was set down in front of him. He warily watched Cheryl who was eyeing his plate before digging in.