Thursday, 7:25 am, Kristina’s and Shin’s apartment

Shin woke up, stretched and yawned. The night before he had played poker with Dorian, Jamie, Torgga, Scan and the President, meaning he had a slight hangover from all the alcohol involved during their games. A year ago, he wouldn’t have even dared to dream of this lifestyle, but now it was just business as usual.

Before “the incident” Shin had traveled from place to place, assassins on his trail, never staying in one place for more than a few days. Sleep rarely came to him and even if he managed to shut his body down, usually forcefully due to the exhaustion, his sleep was so light that even a slight rustle woke him up. The fact that he was the most wanted man of the Kingdom had made his life a living hell. From amateurs to professionals, everyone had it in for his head, but by far the worst pursuers were the holy knights, sent directly by the King.

But then everything changed, when he met two chaotic idiots, namely Dorian and Jamie.

He had just been passing through this town with the worst reputation in the Kingdom, when two guys stumbled onto the main street and started arguing with each other. At first, he didn’t pay much attention to them, after all he could tell by looking at their clothes that they were definitely weird enough to be residents of this town. However just an hour later he had found himself fighting side by side with these two soon to be friends because of the incident. After things finally calmed down, he became friends with them, his first friends in years. After Jamie had convinced Shin to stay, soon he also grew closer to everyone else in town and was now even sharing an apartment with someone.

“Morning Shin.” said Kristina, handing him a cup of coffee. After Dorian publicized the invention for the whole town, most of the residents started drinking the black substance in the morning.

“With milk and two spoons of sugar?” He asked sleepily. Kristina nodded and he gratefully reached for the cup. They both sat down at the dining table where Kristina had already prepared breakfast for them.

While they ate, they exchanged small talk about what they did the previous day and made a few jokes along the way. But then Kristina’s face suddenly turned serious, and she gave Shin an intense look. “I was summoned by the others yesterday. We both knew this would happen someday. Still, this is the first time… And while we did discuss this at length already, do you really think you’ll be okay on your own?” Kristina sounded worried about her friend’s well being.

While Kristina was living a normal life, dating Dorian, living together with Shin and so on, she was still part of one of the best adventuring parties in the kingdom. This meant that from time to time her entire group would assemble to fight on the front lines. Normally this only happened when something big was about to happen, such as when the Demon Lord’s army was about to attack a large city. In an event like that, their leader would call them to assemble and help out at the front until the crisis was over. After that, once again they were all free to live their lives how they saw fit. Dorian had once compared them to a fire brigade, but instead of fighting fires they fought in the major battles of the war.

“What are you talking about? Of course I’ll be fine, I have been living on my own for the last five years until I settled here. You can relax, okay?” Shin smiled, trying to reassure her.

Kristina, however, raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Well, I remember you panicking because you saw a big spider in the corner of the bathroom but if you say so…”

“N-no, I’ll be fine. Besides, I could ask Dorian or Jamie for help, if something were to happen, couldn’t I?” said Shin, embarrassed to be reminded of the spider incident.

“…Mhhh. They both have a lot on their plates so I’d rather you didn’t bother them too much. As I said, I’ll only be gone for a few days and if something were to go terribly wrong, the Golden Blood can help you.” She stood up and reached for the bag that laid besides the door. Apparently she had already prepared everything necessary for such an emergency.

Shin accompanied her out the building where they said their final goodbyes. She swung herself onto a horse and swiftly rode out of town. “Bye Kristina, come back soon, safe travels! Show the demons who they’re messing with!” He said, as he waved after her.

As soon as she was out of sight, Shin went back into their apartment. He closed the door and sighed in relief. “She’s gone… SHE’S GONE!! WHOOO!!” He jumped in the air in excitement. “Oh god, I have the whole apartment for myself, no one to tell me what to do, no one forcing me to do stupid chores, this is awesome!”

Shin had been waiting for this day, usually Kristina gave him so many rules to follow, but now he could do whatever he wanted, just like he had done before he came to this town. First, he ditched his clothes and danced around in the apartment in his underwear. After he got bored with that, he reached for the small collection of alcohol he had hidden from Kristina and mixed himself a drink. As an occasional substitute for the Golden Blood, he knew a thing or two about making drinks and he put his knowledge to good use.

After the first drink, his dancing fever had returned and once again Shin pulled of dance moves too embarrassing to do in public. This was how he had always imagined the life of the rich, and now he could experience it for himself.

"I'm a goddamn king!" roared Shin. He thought that no one could ever stop the feeling of happiness he felt at that moment. That’s when it happened.

With a quiet shattering, Shin’s happy mood vanished in an instant. The shattering was caused by an artefact Kristina had told him about on more than one occasion. It was a black pearl the size of a tennis ball that Kristina held very dear to her heart. And now with the pieces scattered on the floor, their home almost looked like a crime scene.

“…fuck… FUCK!!” Shin panicked. Kristina would kill him for this, no- maybe she would do something worse like give him more chores to do… What was he supposed to do?

“Okay Shin, first things first, calm down. Breathe in- and out. …Okay, that helped. Now what?” Whenever he was in real trouble, Shin talked to himself. Originally, he did this so he wouldn’t feel so lonely on his travels but by now it had become a sort of a habit he occasionally reverted back to when problems arose.

* * * * *

After thinking it over, Shin had come up with a plan: No plan. He decided to go get some fresh air, so that maybe he’d actually come up with a better plan than ‘no plan’. It was good weather and the sunlight felt good on his skin. Shin wished for all days to be this peaceful and relaxing, when a loud noise snapped him back to reality. Reality being, that he was pretty much done for if he didn’t find a solution for the broken pearl soon.

The loud noise came from Diane, who was shouting and chasing Jamie. Shin stopped to watch them, when he realized that they were actually running at him at full speed. “Wait, wait, wait!” he raised his hands defensively, but as soon as Jamie had reached him, he just grabbed it and dragged Shin along.

“Shin, you’ve got to help me escape!” Jamie sounded desperate.

“What are you talking about, it’s just Dian-” Shin turned his head around to find out that the one chasing them wasn’t Diane. Well it looked like Diane, but her eyes were burning with anger. Shin had fought many assassins before, but none of them had such a terrifying gaze. This wasn’t a chase, it was a hunt and Jamie had been chosen as the prey.

“What the hell did you do to piss her off like that?!” asked Shin, but Jamie didn’t answer, instead concentrated entirely on running.

As they ran through the town, many people casually greeted them. In a town full of “crazy” people, this hunt between Jamie and Diane had almost become a sporting event happening every second or third day. As Shin thought about how common this had become for everyone, he heard a loud voice from the town hall.

“HELLO AND WELCOME, TO THE SIXTH DIANE AND JAMIE GAMES!!! TODAY, JAMIE IS ACTUALLY NOT ALONE BUT HAS SHIN HUNTER WITH HIM!!! WILL THIS FINALLY BE HIS FIRST EVER VICTORY??!! LET’S FIND OUT! ALSO, FOR EVERYONE INTERESTED THE BETTING BOOTH IS STILL OPEN, SO FAR 80% THINK IT’S YET ANOTHER WIN FOR DIANE!! WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN TODAY JEFF?!!”

“Well Fred, chances are that Diane will take the crown once more, however the dynamic with Shin might actually give Jamie the edge here, either way we are going to witness a beautiful game today.”

“OH YEAH, THAT’S WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR!!! OUR SPECIAL MAGIC provided by Scan IS WATCHING ALL THE MAIN STREETS SO WE HAVE AN AMAZING VIEW OF THE GAME! OH GOD I AM SO INCREDIBLY PUMPED UP, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE Jeffffffff!!”

“Me neither Fred. Me neither.”

“Wait, THEY ARE BETTING on this?” Shin asked in disbelieve.

Jamie answered him without slowing down or looking back. “Yeah, not going to lie, betting on Diane is usually the best option…”

“Well not today, I’ll take you to victory my friend!” Shin suddenly was very into this thing. Whenever there was winning involved, he was hooked. He overtook Jamie and as soon as they were out of Diane’s sight, dragged him into a narrow backstreet. Both trying to catch their breaths, they leaned on the walls, watching as Diane ran right past their backstreet.

“Thanks man, you saved me.” Jamie said, heavily panting.

“No problem, but I didn’t know this was happening frequently enough to become a sport.”

“Well, I was the one who invented it, I thought if I bet on myself and won, I could make some quick money but I always lost. Thus, it became more of a principle for me, today I also bet on me!” He sounded almost proud.

“B-but betting on yourself isn’t allowed, is it?” Shin asked confused.

“Yes, that’s why I asked FC to do it for me. Speaking of, he should arrive any minute now.”

Shin looked even more confused. “You mean your Dragon friend? Wouldn’t everyone notice? I mean it is pretty hard not to notice him.”

“Well obviously, that’s why he has a human form he can transform to. Why else do you think Dragons are such excellent survivors? They can shape shift.” He dropped this piece of knowledge like it was the most known fact in the world and after a few seconds of Shin being dumbfounded, a person entered their backstreet.

He had shining blue eyes and there was something mystical about him. Besides that, he looked like a god in a human body, not surprising thinking about how Dragons were basically on the same level as the gods.

“You, did it?” Jamie asked.

“Yep, though it really wasn’t easy… My day has been terrible so far.” The guy, apparently FC complained.

“Tell me about it, Diane is really trying to hurt me today…” Jamie sighed.

“Well, you are not alone guys, I screwed up pretty bad as well…” Shin joined in their sorrow.

They all sighed in unison. Realizing they were all in the same boat, they laughed.

FC looked at Shin and smiled. “Hey, I am Frave Codanth but for humans it’s a pain to pronounce so just call me FC.”

Shin shook his hand. “Hey, I am Shin. So, you are… like a real Dragon? That’s Amazing. You said you had a terrible day?”

Jamie interrupted them. “Looks like all of us had one. What do you say boys, care for a drink in the tavern?” They all nodded in agreement. None of them wanted to talk about their problems in some cold backstreet, however the warm and cosy tavern with booze… well that was another story.

“Okay, FC go check if the way to the tavern is free, Diane doesn’t know you are on our side.”

FC immediately nodded and followed Jamie’s plan. After a few minutes he returned, but the look on his face didn’t look promising. “Well, the way to the tavern is free…”

“That’s great news!” Jamie wanted to leave their hiding place, but FC stopped him.

“They way is free, but Diane is guarding the tavern.”

“…Goddamn it.” Jamie cursed. “…Hey guys, did you know that I’ve always wanted to do a heist?”

* * * * *

Diane guarded the tavern as if her life depended on it. With a fierce glare, she searched the area for Jamie. After looking everywhere and still not finding him, she decided to guard the place he’d come back to sooner or later: the only place where you could get actual alcohol.

Lots of people came and went as she stood guard, but after half an hour there was still no sign of her ex-fiancé. Had he already been here before she arrived as a bouncer? No, if so, someone would have told her. He was still out there, waiting for an opening, but tough luck, she wasn’t going to give him one.

After yet another thirty minutes, the doubts came back to her, but then a young man with light brown hair and shining blue eyes approached her. The man in person was none other than FC, the dragon, who occasionally visited town and was generally beloved amongst its inhabitants. However, few knew about his human transformation and when seeing him assumed that yet another adventurer had visited the town. After all, ever since the Golden Blood had come into public view, more than half the people in town weren’t actual inhabitants, but adventurers, staying for only a week or two.

“Hey Diane!” FC casually greeted her.

“…Hey Frave…” Diane being one of the few people knowing about his secret identity, looked at him suspiciously. After all, she knew about his poker nights with the boys and thus suspected him of trying to help Jamie in one way or another.

Of course they had already expected hostility against FC in their heist plan and thus the dragon in human disguise knew exactly what to open the conversation with. “Hey, have you seen Jamie anywhere, I was supposed to meet him fifteen minutes ago, but he didn’t show up…”

Diane looked surprised. She lowered her defenses a bit. “So, you haven’t seen him either?”

“Either? Oh, do you have your whole chasing-thing going on again? Damn, I missed it and now it’s probably too late to make a bet!” He played the part of a clueless bystander perfectly, by the looks of it, Diane had quickly dropped him as a suspect for Jamie’s partner in crime.

It was all going to their plan. While Frave was busy distracting Diane, the remaining team members snuck through the forest to the back of the building, where they’d break into Jamie’s room to steal the goods from right under Diane’s nose. If Frave kept her from going inside, nothing could go wrong.

“Alright, see that open window on the second floor? That’s my room. I like it when the breeze hits my face, that’s why I usually leave it open.” Jamie pointed to their way into the building. “Okay Shin, now you go and throw the hook up there and secure it, so I can easily climb up.”

Shin nodded and swung the hook FC got for them in a circle until there was enough force to reach the window. With scary accuracy he let go of the hook and in a perfect trajectory it landed on the window. After a stern toss from Shin it got properly stuck.

“You’re free to go, I’ll tell you if something goes wrong.” Shin gave Jamie a thumbs up and a pat on the back to wish him good luck.

Jamie took a deep breath and started climbing. Bit for bit he clenched onto the next piece of rope, slowly making progress. His hands started to hurt a bit, but he had to power through for the alcohol that was awaiting them on the other side.

“Can you hurry up a bit?” Shin pressured his friend.

“Dude, this is really hard! I don’t have much strength! Sure, I have a nice body but it’s only for show, no muscle strength attached to it!” Jamie remembered PE classes, where despite his looks, he always lagged behind everyone else, was often picked last and in general was one of the least athletic kids… just like Dorian. While Jamie was neither skinny nor fat and on the surface he had nice muscles, with a six-pack and all, in reality these muscles were good for nothing but fighting.

“All right, I’m almost there!” Indeed, only a few centimetres were missing till he could reach the windowsill.

That’s when it started going south. First Jamie only heard him. “Meow!” Then his fluffy ears poked out the window, followed by his curious eyes, staring at Jamie. Newton was in the room and apparently had taken an interest in the strange string hanging out the window.

Jamie could feel the sweat building up on his forehead. “Newton, don’t do anything stupid.”

He tried to go up a bit further, but the swinging of the rope only made Newton more curious. He climbed onto the windowsill, his tail hanging down into Jamie’s face.

“…D-don’t do it. Newton I am serious, STOP.” Jamie could feel how his grip got weaker and weaker each second that passed. He needed to get up quickly, however he wasn’t confident enough in the hooks ability to stay stuck.

Meanwhile Newton had begun to hit the rope a bit, causing Jamie to panic more and more.

“Shin, we have a problem!” His voice was shaking a bit.

“…Hmm? What’s up- Oh god…” Shin looked up to the mess that was taking place.

Newton, frustrated that nothing had happened (except for Jamie having a slight panic attack), turned around to look into Jamie’s frightened eyes.

Jamie sighed in relief, the rope and hook were still holding him in place, for now. What he didn’t know however was that something indeed had happened due to Newton. The hook had loosened up.

“What are you planning on doing there buddy? You aren’t going to jump on my face, right? Because you look like it and I don’t like it one bit.” Jamie was talking to Newton, but with each word the cat just seemed to get more eager to jump.

Newton slightly raised his butt and then made Jamie’s fear come true. The ball of fluff landed directly in his face and hell started to break loose.

The impact of him landing on his owner caused the rope to strain enough to pull the hook out of the wood, meaning the whole contraption fell down. Jamie first, Newton, now panicked, on his face second and the hook third.

Jamie landed in the soft grass, Newton landed on Jamie’s soft face and the hook landed on Jamie’s soft stomach.

“ARGHHHHHHH!!!” He screamed in agony and a few seconds later Diane came rushing around the corner.

“I finally got you! I knew Frave wouldn’t want to talk about human politics for this long!” She shouted and immediately started running towards them.

“Damn, she’s cute even while she’s angry. It’s kind of an ‘angry-cute’…” Shin mumbled but Jamie began dragging him along once more.

“Scatter!” Jamie screamed and he, Frave, Shin and this time Newton as well started to run into different directions, barely escaping the ‘angry-cute’ Diane, leaving the tavern behind them.

* * * * *

They met up at the spot from before, this time with Newton as well and began to brainstorm once again.

“God damn it Newton, you really screwed up back there!” Jamie exclaimed, as soon as everyone had arrived. “Urgh, I mean I love you man but that was not cool… Next time, YOU’LL be the distraction.”

The only answer he got was a loud meow from Newton, but Jamie took that as a confirmation of their deal.

“All right, don’t worry about it.” He petted the cat softly with a smile. “Ah, anyway, we need a new strategy. Does anyone have any useful abilities or tricks that could help? I have my mind control but the drawbacks are way too high for me to use it in anything that isn’t a life or death situation.”

“Well, as you all know by now, I can change my appearance, though it’s not that I can change everything about myself. I can simply turn into a human and only into that one human-form I have. After all this ‘ability’ was given to us by the elder dragon as a way to protect us from humans.” Frave explained. Jamie of course knew about this already but the dragon thought that maybe Shin could come up with something useful, however to his disappointment, Shin had no idea how that could be useful for their plan. “…My other ability is the one most dragons have, ‘Fire-control’. It does pretty much what the name implies, so yeah. Maybe not that useful but just keep it in mind.” Everyone nodded. “Okay, now you go Shin, what is your ability?”

Shin thought about it for a bit. “I don’t know what the name of this ‘ability’ is, but ever since I’ve been a child, I could control objects, kind of like telekinesis but way weaker. I mostly use it to improve my aim, for example shifting arrows to always hit a bullseye.”

“That’s awesome! And definitely useful. Okay boys, I think we can work with this, let’s get the booze and vent about our problems!”

“““Yeah!”””