[CHAPTER SIX]

Three months later.

Sloane rode her horse up the dusty road back to Fort Langton. Like many of the horses in this region it had a spotted coat. Its base was a deep green that shimmered like northern lights in the light and purple markings on the coat as well as a purple mane and tail. Girl and horse were both exhausted. She reached out and patted the horse's neck.

"Almost home Synthe." She said softly. The horse snorted in response.

When she came in sight of the fort she heard a loud whoop from the guard post. Riders galloped out to meet her. She slowed Synthe as they approached and fell in around her.

"You look like a mess," One of the guards commented, "what happened out there?"

Sloane leaned back in her saddle and looked at him over her shoulder. She debated whether she wanted to expend the energy to answer him or just wait and tell everyone concerned about the story at once. With a groan she turned back around in the saddle.

Sloane dismounted at the saloon. She would have preferred to go back to the Traveler's Guild and sleep for a week. But she had a responsibility to relieve the fears of the locals first. She pushed through the doors and ascended the stairs along the wall so that she could address the room.

"The ohmyohme that were plaguing the springs between the Twelve Springs Ranch and the one in the canyon off the road to Ohiris have been eliminated. I located all the nests and destroyed the eggs. I have also accounted for all of the hatched eggs. So, unless another one comes through the rift your water sources are safe again."

"How many ohmyohme were there total?" a man called from below.

Sloane leaned on the railing and swiped open the tally on her bracer window. She was so tired she could barely stand, and every muscle was screaming at her to go rest.

"There were 3 adults with two nesting zones. Each zone had five clusters of eggs. The average number of eggs in the clusters was 9. Of the fifteen eggs that had successfully hatched all hatchlings were eliminated and reclaimed. Anything else?"

The room fell silent.

"Good," Sloane spoke as she descended the stairs, "I'm going to bed."

Three days later.

Sloane opened her eyes, slowly. Her stomach growled loudly, and as much as she wanted to keep sleeping she knew it was time to get up and get some food. Her body ached as she washed her face and dressed to go to the hotel restaurant. She strapped on the quiver as was her habit and grabbed her hat as she stepped outside her room. The door clicked behind her and she trudged down the hall and descended the stairs. She looked over at the quest board as she passed through the lobby but decided it could wait. Food first, quests later.

The hostess took her to the table where Sheriff Sands sat reading a newspaper. A large glass of soda sat waiting for her and a cheese pastry. Sloane dropped into the chair opposite the sheriff and pointed questioningly at the pastry. Sheriff Sands nodded and then flicked his paper and went back to reading. Sloane devoured the pastry and the glass of soda, the wait staff had memorized her preferences quickly. She looked up from her empty glass and read the front page of the paper. An illustration of herself addressing the crowd covered the front page. She had to restrain herself from snatching the paper from the sheriff's hands.

A plate was set in front of her with hashbrowns, pancakes, fried eggs and bacon. She looked up at the waiter who simply smiled and refilled her glass of soda.

"Will you be moving on now?" Sheriff Sands asked from behind the paper.

"I'll clean up any remaining urgent quests, I still have to turn in all the ohmyohme from the extermination order." Sloane replied before shoving a laden fork in her mouth.

The sheriff grunted in response.

Sloane ate the rest of her breakfast while Sheriff Sands waited quietly. Sloane left the payment for her food on the table, pushed back her chair and stood up. Sheriff Sands stood with her and they left the hotel together.

"Come see me before you leave town." Sheriff Sands grumbled at her before turning and heading to his office.

"What was that about?" Sloane mumbled.

When she walked into the Traveler's Guild she paused involuntarily. The room was full of travelers. The grumpy guild attendant looked exhausted and frayed. Sloane pushed her way through the crowd to join the que for turning in quests. The line in front of her seemed to all have the same complaint. Sloane leaned over the barrier to see how the line was progressing.

"What do you mean we can't accept this quest?!" an irate traveler shouted. "If it is still listed on the board we should be able to accept it. Only one person has accepted it, why can't anybody else?"

The frayed attendant opened his mouth to reply, Sloane could tell it was going to be a cutting remark from the look in his eyes, she motioned for his attention. The attendant's eyes flicked over to her and he paused. Sloane nodded to him, a righteous gleam flashed across his eyes. He took a deep breath, turned back to the traveler and spoke calmly, "This request is near completion. If you accept it and fail to complete it before another party turns it in you will receive a penalty. That is why it is in a restricted application process. Would you still like to accept this request?"

"Oh my god! An urgent request with only one traveler working on it can't possibly be close to completion. Just do your job! Would you hurry up and let me accept it so I can get started already?" the traveler snapped in response.

"I will take that as an affirmation that you understand the risks." The attendant pulled up a registration book and turned it to face her, "please check this and confirm you understand the risks."

"Ugh," the traveler huffed, "about time." They snatched the faintly glowing book from the attendant and submitted the acknowledgement without reading it.

"Thank you for completing the procedure," the attendant smiled politely, "you may now accept this request from the board."

The line ahead of Sloane flowed away like water down the drain as they each rushed forward to submit the acknowledgement of the risks. She moved up to the front and the attendant motioned for her to come to the counter.

"How may I help you?" he said with a polite smile that almost masked the malicious intent hidden beneath.

"I have a quest to turn in," Sloane had to raise her voice to be heard over the travelers in the lobby. "But take your time, if you need a minute to catch your breath I don't mind waiting."

"In that case, please have a seat to the left while I finish filing these forms." 

Sloane nodded, smiled politely, and took a seat. She turned her attention to the crowd of travelers in the lobby.

"I don't think we should accept this request." a slim young traveler spoke up to their party. "The attendant said it is almost complete, and looking at the details it doesn't seem like something we can tackle at our current levels."

"Why not?" a burly traveler with a great ax strapped across his back asked defensively.

"In our group only one of us has unlocked their elemental affinity. Also after grinding every available request these past couple days we finally ranked up enough to barely meet the minimum requirements for this quest. The risk is not worth it for us."

"That is your opinion." The burly man replied coldly. "If you don't want to do it you can leave the party."

"Understood." The slim hunter pulled the menu up on their bracer, and removed themself from the party registry. "I wish you all success." With that he turned from the group and headed to the request board.

"Boss," one of the other members spoke softly, "he was the one who unlocked their elemental affinity."

"We don't need them." He scoffed. "And we don't need a coward on our team."

"I don't know about that," Slaone said as she rose from the chair to return to the turn in counter, "Seems like he made the right choice to me."

"Why you-" The large man started forward but his party held him back.

"Ignore her!" someone declared, "I haven't seen her around so she must have just arrived."

Sloane's back was to the party so she couldn't see the speaker, but they also couldn't see her smirk as she approached the attendant.

"Are you prepared to turn in the requested items?" the attendant asked with a professional smile.

"Yes," Sloane answered, "can I do a direct transfer since the items are quite large?"

"Of course," the attendant replied, "one moment please."

Sloane could feel that party's eyes on her, but nobody else seemed to notice the exchange transpiring at the counter.

"You may proceed."

Sloane swiped open the inventory window, selected the items and linked the Traveler's Guild inventory for the direct transfer. A moment later the status on her bracer switched from active to complete.

"Congratulations on completing the urgent request. Please wait for your reward to be compiled."

Sloane heard the angry buzz of penalty notifications from clusters of bracers behind her.

"What?!" an enraged voice rose above the crowd. "I just picked this up, how could it be completed already?"

"He did warn you that it was close to completion." Sloane spoke over the crowd. "And if you had read the details a little more closely you would have seen that the targets had been slain. The logical conclusion would be that the next step would be turning them in. And he did warn you of the penalty for accepting an urgent quest at that stage. Did you know that joining and not contributing to an urgent quest gives a penalty rather than a reward?" Sloane turned to face the lobby. "There are many facets to contributing to an urgent quest. You can donate supplies, such as food and medicine, supply maps by scouting territory, even things like cleaning the roads can be counted as contributions. But none of you thought to join those branches of the urgent quest. There is so much more to living in this world as a traveler than hunting and slaying. I strongly recommend each of you reflect on this, and can avoid being penalized in the future."

"Your reward is ready." The attendant said from behind the counter.

Sloane turned and extended her money purse. The attendant touched the guild purse to hers and completed the transfer.

"This completes my last request." Sloane smiled at the attendant with genuine warmth. "You won't have to see me anymore."

The attendant almost looked sad. "Safe travels. You may return here at any time."

Sloane left those at Traveler's Guild in a state of silent and impotent rage. All the other travelers could do was stare as she left the building. She headed over to Sheriff Sand's office to say goodbye. He was sitting on the porch with a rifle across his knees. 

"You run into trouble? Took you a while longer than I expected."

"Nah," Sloane smiled, "just a long line."

Sheriff Sands stared at her for a long moment.

"Oh fine I'll tell you." Sloane leaned on the railing, "The guild attendant was getting fed up with a bunch of travelers not listening or reading quest details so he used my quest turn in to teach them a life lesson."

Sheriff Sands burst into laughter. "We try to have an amicable relationship with the travelers," he said between fits of laughter, "but travelers have an advantage because they are the only ones capable of defeating creatures from the rifts. So it's nice to have a rare moment where we can remind them that they aren't gods."

Sloane smiled warmly at him, "At this level how could any of us think we were godlike?"

"What level are you at now?"

"Seven," She replied with a bittersweet smile, "so now I really can't accept any more quests here."

"Come with me," Sheriff Sands slapped his knees and stood up, "I have a going away present for you."

"What?" Sloane jumped over the rail and scrambled after him, "you didn't have to do that."

"I know."

Sloane followed him through the back to the corral behind the building. There stood a large amethyst colored horse with iridescent indigo tiger stripes. The light feathering on its legs was a deep black. It lifted its head and watched her with warm brown eyes. The mane was the same amethyst as the coat except where it had been sun bleached to an intense magenta.

"This is the one…" Sloane's voice trailed away.

"Yep," Sheriff Sands said with a smile, "This is the one you borrowed out at Twelve Springs Ranch. He's young and feisty, but he likes you and he's got a good clean build. He will carry you far as long as you take care of him. Mister Walker was glad to be rid of him, and more glad to be of help to you."

The horse neighed at her happily and pracned over to the railing. Sloane stepped forward and then climbed up to sit on top of the railing. He was already saddled and ready to go. With prancing steps he swung his body around so she could mount easily. She put her foot in the stirrup and swung her other leg over, lifting the reins she guided him to the gate.

Sheriff Sands opened the gate for her, she exited the corral and then waited for him to close the gate. She reached out and leaned down, placing her hand on his shoulder. Her throat tightened, unable to speak she squeezed his shoulder. Sheriff Sands patted her hand.

"Enough of that," his voice cracked, "get on your way, you're wasting daylight."

"Yes sir." she dabbed her eyes and nudged the horse into a walk.

Sloane headed to the main street and turned to leave town. She could feel eyes on her back, but she didn't turn to look. The owner from the hotel rushed out and passed her a packed lunch which she immediately deposited in her inventory.

Before she could continue on she felt a tug on her stirrup. Sloane looked down in 

surprise. The young person that left their party before she turned in her request was there looking up with wide eyes. Sloane realized they were young, about fifteen years old.

"Can I help you?" Sloane asked him with raised eyebrows.

"If we meet again in the future, can I party up with you?" He asked eagerly.

Sloane smiled slightly, "Sure. I hope to see you again." Sloane paused and looked back down at the young man, "I will give you one piece of advice, practice your elemental affinity."

He let go of her stirrup and stepped back. "Safe travels sis!"

Sloane chuckled and urged the horse into a trot. She didn't know if she would ever return here, but she hoped that some day she could come back and show Sheriff Sands her growth. She never expected to become so attached to the people here.