Chapter 11
The guild had not changed much in the twenty minutes we had been gone. I waved Mike up to the counter, and he went through the registration process as well. The globe lit up white for him, which was apparently the default, and his registration took a lot less time than mine. Quickly paying his fee, we went over to the board, looking for a quest that we could do.
"Here’s one," Mike said, pointing at a quest on the board.
Cryotte PackA pack of Cryottes have begun attacking my farm at night. One of my dire horses was injured last night. An enchanter has been hired to come and ward the pasture, but I need someone to guard the foals until he arrives tomorrow night.
Requirements:Pay:
"It’s a good contract for us. We can take night watches and I can set the drone to orbit the area. Let’s ask about these Cryottes at the counter."
We walked back over to where Aurelia was working.
"Hello again, you two. What can I do for you today?"
I took the lead. "Hi Aurelia, we’re thinking about taking the Cryotte quest, but we want to know what Cryottes are before we step into something we aren’t ready for."
Aurelia nodded. "A good first quest, honestly. If it wasn’t for how expensive dire horses are and the fact the guild would have to pay for any losses, it would be a copper-type quest. Cryottes are ice elemental canines that often hunt in packs. They can let off frost at night or in winter, but their main danger is the ability to fire small, sharp ice crystals. Their effective range is about 20 yards."
I shared a look with Mike. We could engage them well beyond their effective range if we just paid attention.
We thanked Aurelia and registered ourselves for the quest. Receiving the directions that had been left with the guild, we went out back and were about to pay for another day of motorcycle storage when Mike had a look.
"Hey, what if they have a bottomless flask?"
I stopped. "You mean like the kind you put a fluid in and they refill over time?"
Mike nodded. "No way, that’s not possible, right?"
Mike shrugged. "Want to go ask?"
I nodded.
Mike went and filled an empty water bottle with some fuel from one of the extra gas cans we brought. We walked back to the magical shop.
"Hello again, customers. Back so soon?"
I smiled at the portly merchant. "Yes sir. We are looking for some help. We have a type of liquid, like lantern oil, that we have a limited supply of. We were hoping you might have an enchanted item that could help us with that."
The merchant looked thoughtful. "I do, but it’s expensive. It’s 20 gold pieces. It would make just over a gallon every 2 hours and can hold a total of two gallons. It needs about half a gallon as an initial sample and takes four hours to integrate."
I looked at Mike. "Can we have a minute?" I asked the merchant.
"Of course. This is a big decision. I understand—take your time."
I turned to Mike. "That’s like 36,000 dollars. It would take like 20 years to pay off."
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Mike shook his head. "You're thinking too small. If it was just me and you using it, maybe ten years. Add Jess and we’re down to eight. Plus, I have an idea for this side of the portal that could use it."
"Oh?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I’ll explain later. But let’s just say I bet we could strip down a Willys Jeep and get it through the portal."
I thought about it a little more. Mike was right—free gas was free gas. I could get a tank on the property to store the fuel, and I could find a use for it.
"Fine, but I am going to have you pay me back your half."
Mike smiled and held out his hand. "Deal."
We shook, and I took out the gold. Tallying what I had left, I was down to 46 gold, 15 silver, and some copper. Knowing that it would take 80 or so silver to be worth a gold back home, I asked the merchant to swap ten silver for a gold, which he did happily, leaving me with 47 gold. With another cheery wave from the merchant, we left.
We retrieved our bikes and, following the directions given by Aurelia, rode out to the farm. We rolled up to a gate an hour later and shut down the bikes. Our arrival attracted the attention of the residents, and an older gentleman came out to investigate.
"Hail the farm! We are looking for a Mister Doocanian? We are adventurers from the guild," I said as the man got close to the gate.
"I’m Charles Doocanian. Welcome, adventurers. Thanks for coming so quickly. I’ll show you to the pasture. You can park your mana wagons by the house."
He opened the gate, and we gently drove past and up a wagon path to the main house.
We parked our bikes and got off, switching to our rifle loadouts. Mike checked the chamber of his M4, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, then double-checked his Trijicon red dot and magnifier. With a final check on his suppressor, he looked over at me and nodded.
My loadout was a lot less fancy, as I hadn’t had the funding until recently to buy the good gear. I was rocking one of Grandpa’s DSA FALs with a 21-inch barrel, a 6x optic, and a bipod. The optic and bipod came off my 5.56 build, and I had spent the day before we left re-zeroing the rifle out to 200.
The farmer rejoined us, looking at our gear in surprise, but then shrugged. "Haven’t seen rifles like those before."
I paused. "Yeah, they’re custom stuff we got access to."
The farmer shrugged. "Well, they look like they can do the job. Follow me."
We headed around the back of the house. Down a slight slope was an open paddock with a simple wooden fence. The closest point had a three-and-a-half-sided barn structure where the dire horses bedded down at night. In the middle of the paddock was a small hill maybe seven feet tall with a few large rocks. We decided to set up there. We laid out two sleeping rolls and a small fire pit.
As the sun was about to set, the farmer came out with a few mugs and a percolator.
"Here you go, boys. Brought you coffee."
We thanked him, and he went to put the dire horses into their stalls. Mike opened his backpack and pulled out a handheld device that looked like a bulky rifle scope.
"Oh, is that a night vision scope?" I asked as he powered it on and began adjusting settings.
"Nope, thermal. I got it a long time ago but haven’t had a good chance to use it. Although I guess I’ll be looking for colder-than-ambient signatures instead of hotter."
We passed the evening chatting and occasionally using the thermals to sweep the woods east of the property, where the Cryottes were likely to come from. We were splitting the night into two 6-hour shifts. I’m more of a night person, so I took first watch. In order to hopefully not disturb the horses or the residents, I used Mike’s rifle. The suppressor would hopefully reduce the noise enough to keep from startling the horses. The farmer said they were trained for mounted shooting, but better to avoid the potential issue.
It was getting close to midnight when Igni suddenly stood up and began growling towards the woods. I switched through the modes on the optics until I got to the classic rainbow of reds, yellows, and purples. In the woodline were eight purple shapes, all crawling low through the shrubs. One was half again as large as the others.
"Contact!" I called, and Mike rolled over.
"Bearing 093 through 098, range 160. The woodline. Eight canine quadrupeds."
Mike lay down next to me, and I handed him the thermal scope while holding the compass up for him to check.
"Got them," he said, taking his rifle as I grabbed mine.
The moon was clear, but I lacked night vision gear, so I was limited to about 60 meters. I sighed but got settled. Then I felt a weight on my back and suddenly— from a perspective slightly over my shoulder— I could see in grayscale but with much longer range and clarity than I could see naturally. Looking up, I saw Igni leaning low over me.
"Hey Mike, as the first one gets to the fenceline, let’s give them a warning shot. The farmer doesn’t need them dead—just gone for the night."
Mike nodded. "Fair enough."
We watched them approach. As one of the smaller ones got close to the fence, Mike let his breath out and, as it bottomed out, pulled the trigger. A round smacked into the dirt in front of the Cryotte, who whimpered and backed off. For a second, it looked like they would run off, but then the large one leapt the fence and let out a loud howl. Mike and I both turned our rifles to line up on the obvious pack leader.
Then from my back, Igni let out a war cry of her own and leapt off toward the Cryotte. The thought filled my mind.
"Check fire, check fire!" I called, and Mike and I both pulled our rifles off-line as Igni sprinted toward the Cryotte. Igni’s charge turned to a jog, then a walk. Then she stopped with thirty feet between them. Then, with a mutual howl, they charged.
