SCENE 1

The valley had been pristine – verdant willows towered upon rolling hills, shading various chittering and cawing creatures; a weaving river separated the slopes, its banks teeming with wildflowers, its body nurturing fish, both their scales and surrounding water glittering in the warm sunshine – until Maren littered it with corpses of the damned.

She sat on a rock near the river, refreshing her parched mouth with a long draught of water from her canteen. Dealing with the gruesome beasts hadn’t been difficult. They’d appeared from over a hill on the far side of the river, chasing a young blond man. They had been humanoid, colored grey and beige, with bulbous skin and strange, elongated protrusions at the small of their backs – tails? – but only one ran on two legs. Despite the shiver that had gone down her spine at their sight and the sound of their wet, guttural growls, Maren had swiftly crossed the river and sliced the grotesque creatures in two.

Maren had seen a lot in her eighteen years – too much for her taste – but she’d never seen creatures like these.

“Thank you, Blessed Leaper,” the man said, tentative steps slowly crunching on pebbles. “Not sure what I’d have done without you.”

The young man looked several years older than her with blond hair folded back into a half-braid, a sparkling blue stud in his left ear, deep green and blue eyes, and a blue cloak that lay atop his large backpack. A hiker or adventurer, like her, if not wealthy enough to afford size-changing traveling tech. His eyes never left his now-dead assailants.

“Couldn’t just let these things kill you.” Maren pressed the top of her canteen, shrinking it, and placed it back into her small nylon bag. “What are these things, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I was walking near – Aah!”

He cowered back, slipping on the pebbles and crashing to the ground. Maren was already on her feet, between the man and... what the? One of the monsters she’d cleaved in twain stood up. The two halves were reconnecting, drawn into each other by thick, goopy tendrils. Before it became whole, however, it charged.

Maren’s mouth began to dry, water forming at her right shoulder. She lunged, sliding her arm from the river bank to the sky, snaking the liquid down her arm, along her palm, and, focusing on the tip of her pointer finger, expelled a thin, highly pressurized stream. The water carved through the tendrils, separating the figure and causing the halves to plummet and crush some wildflowers.

And for good measure... Maren swiped once, twice, thrice. The resurrected monstrosity lay twitching in pieces. More tendrils reached from the halves of the other creatures. Mouth drying further, Maren diced the soft, bulbous bodies into bits.

“Burn them,” the man breathed. “Please. With as much fire as possible.”

Maren removed her canteen once again from her pack and enlarged it. “Not my Gift.”

“You got a fire-starter in that pack?”

As Maren drank, she eyed the grey chunks. They undulated like a beating heart, those gooey tendrils growing along their flanks.

“Tenacious little assholes, aren’t they?” she muttered.

Maren had several fire-starters. She’d been on the road little over two weeks and was prepared for a much longer journey. It only took a minute to get a blazing fire going, but the tendrils were already beginning to connect with each other. Maren grabbed one, stomach churning as her fingers squelched into the chunk. It was like wet clay that wriggled in her hand. She tossed it into the fire. If this didn’t work, the best she could do was take the man and run.

The blob sizzled, pulsed violently, then blackened and shrunk to a crisp.

Maren gave the man a radiant smile. “Care to help?”

Despite clearly desiring anything but, the young man joined her in the game of blob-tossing into the fire.

“So what are you doing out here?” Maren asked. “And how did you get caught in this mess?”

“Live in Linick,” the man said, cringing every time he grabbed a piece. “But I got tired of city-life, you know? I’m an Autonomous member. Freedom to go wherever the wind blows you. Though, guess I should visit some Quencher temples, huh?”

Maren bit her tongue, as she always did when someone brought up the Titanian Church. Then she mumbled, “Pray to whomever you want. That’s the freedom you’re given.”

With the look he gave her, one might think she’d not only saved his life, but his soul.

“Anyway,” he continued, “there’s so much more than the city. So I finally did it: quit my job, collected my savings, and went hiking.”

“How long before these found you?” Maren asked.

“Almost immediately.” Oddly enough, he chuckled. “Took a scenic route, found myself near Linick’s dumpsite.”

"Normally, when I travel, I stay away from a city’s most hazardous waste.”

“I didn’t mean to go there.” The man blushed, looking down and shuffling his feet. “I got lost.”

Maren wiped her hands after tossing the last blob into the fire. Linick was the largest city in Neirea, the central province of the nation of Talam. It was actually her destination. But she hadn’t realized she’d been within a sprint’s distance of its dumpsite. She almost shuddered.

“So I’m very happy to have run into you, almost literally,” the man continued. “Who’d have thought, meeting a Wielder out here, of all places? What are youdoing out here, anyway?”

Maren beamed. About time he asked!

She found the nearest large rock and planted one foot on it, thrusting her chest out and fixing her hands onto her hips. “I am...” she swished her head aside, her tailed hair flopping against her back, and stared at the eastern horizon, “the leader of Talam’s first traveling guild!”

With the look he gave her, he might as well have found a new Titan to worship. Thankfully, he was so amazed that he didn’t ask the obvious questions which others had done whenever she’d made that declaration.

“I’m going to Linick to recruit members and see if there are any problems I can solve.”

“Well,” the man said, glancing at the fire, “I guess there is one you can look into.”

Maren cut her theatrics. If these creatures were in Linick’s dumpsite, something foul was happening in the city.

“Could you see into it?” the man asked, presenting his left arm. A band with a small screen decorated his wrist. “I can pay you. Half now, half later when the job’s done.”

Maren bit her lip. It was tempting – she hadn’t gotten paid in her two weeks on the road. She still had some savings, but it never hurt to have more. However...

“This might be a big job,” Maren said. “Bigger than me.”

“Then the half I pay now can be thanks for saving my life. Just... please. I left the city, but I have loved ones there.”

It was like an icicle to her heart. Of all the travelers she’d met on the road, she hadn’t connected so closely as with this man.

She smiled, hoping melancholy didn’t show in her eyes. “You got it.”

She expanded a tablet she drew from her bag and he tapped his wrist to it, transferring two hundred credits.

He blushed, turning away. “It’s not much, but –”

“It’s enough,” Maren said. It would get her through the week, maybe more if she budgeted well. “Alright, stay safe. And don’t get lost again.”

“I’ll try!”

She charged up the hill, ready for her first real adventure since leaving her previous guild. In the excitement, she hadn’t realized she never got the man’s name until she reached the crest. But when she turned around, he was already gone.

He hadbeen quick on his feet. Turning from the spot, she faced her destination: Linick. Think about that later, Maren. Right now, you’ve a job to do.