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The sun was peeking out behind the horizon, brightening up the sky with its warm light. Barely a soul was around so early, but there were a few faces to be seen. Some of the people looked to have been up all night, judging by the bags under their eyes and the disheveled appearances. No telling what the reasoning for their lack of sleep was. Some seemed drunk, if their stumbling around was to mean anything.

I'd left the house early, in hopes of getting things underway as soon as I could, only for those hopes to be dashed when I came to Pram's. A brick home, painted obnoxiously bright blue, stood before me. The home was rather large, despite the small residents within. Granted, it did house their blacksmithing forge and all their equipment, so I suppose it made sense. The forge itself was off in an oblong side of the house, and for once, I couldn't see any smoke billowing forth from the wide chimney.

I gave a loud knock on the door, but no answer came for a good minute.

"Oh, I swear by the Eternals," I mumbled under my breath. After a second knock produced similar results, I got a bit frustrated and raised a fist, slamming it down onto the wood hard enough to make the door shudder. The pounding rang out loud enough to wake the dead, and I felt damn annoyed enough to not care.

In the midst of this pounding, a yell came from behind the door.

"If don't stop, Dura kill knocker!"

Finally, I thought. Halting the noisemaking, I waited with oh so bated breath as the door was unlocked and swung open. Waiting on the other side was the owner of the voice, a kobar who could have been Pram's identical twin, if not for the fact this one's eyes were a deep orange. She stared up at me as she let out an annoyed huff of air from her nose.

A hand fell to rest on one hip as she narrowed her gaze. "Oh," she said, her tone as dismissive as could be, "it just Cedric."

Rather to meet her rudeness with some of my own, I gave her a friendly smile. "Good morning to you, too. Pram up?"

"With loud knocking he do, Cedric wake up whole town." Dura's eyes somehow became even thinner slits as her muzzle twisted into a deep frown.

"Well, I tried knocking like a normal person, but no one showed up," I explained.

"So he think break door best alternative?"

Bringing a hand up to wave in her general direction, I said with a smile, "Well, it got you to open up, didn't it?"

She made a noise of pure disgust and vitriol.

"Love ya, too," I said with a wink.

After rolling her eyes, she looked over a shoulder and called out, "Pram! Stupid human Cedric here!"

The all too familiar voice shouted back, "Pram packing thing!"

"Alright," I told Dura, "just tell her to meet me back at the Rusty Dagger when she'd done. I gotta go collect Albert."

As I was walking away, I heard the short fox mutter something rather unkind, concerning me and what she could do if she had her own rusty dagger. Taking this as my cue, I hurried along towards the alchemist's home. Being as it was still early, I was partly wondering if he'd even be in yet. Rose could've kept him at her place all night, after all. I didn't have long to guess about this, however, as when I rounded the corner to his place, I could see a certain tall man with disheveled dark hair slouched down next to the entrance.

My feet brought me closer, and I cleared my throat loud enough to make the man jolt upright. Now that I could see him clearer, it was easy to see not just his hair was a mess. His clothes looked a bit ragged, with a bit of the area near the shoulder ripped and the buttons done the wrong way so a few were missing their holes, the pants were missing their belt, and he lacked his socks.

A smirk pulled at the corner of my mouth and I questioned, "Had a good evening?"

He gave a weak smile and nodded. I could hear a few joints pop as he stood up and stretched. A long yawn followed more popping noises as his arms spread out. Finally, he spoke, saying, "By the Eternals, that was by far the most amazing night of my life."

After a deep, self-congrulatory breath, I jokingly punched his shoulder. "Two years I've been telling you to just talk to her. Two long years."

"Yea, yea. You were right, I was an idiot. Is that what you want to hear?"

Giving the biggest shit eating grin I could, I stated, "Yes, actually. It's all I ever want to hear."

"Asshole."

A little laugh came from both of us at the small exchange. When we settled down, I informed Albert about our escort.

After listening to the small story, he made an odd face. "Think he's being honest about his experience?"

Raising my hands in a sort of 'kinda' gesture, I noted, "If he turns out to be lying, we'll figure it out soon enough. Once we get there, if he starts flailing, then I'll just get my money back and we can come up with some kind of plan then."

"Two thousand sol, though," he mused. "I wouldn't give it up lightly if I was him. He might try fighting if it comes to it." As he spoke, Albert reached into a pocket and fished out his house key.

Grunting, I pointed out, "Even so, it'll be three on one." When he gave me a worrying look, I shrugged it off. "Look, I doubt things'll go down like that, anyway. He seems like a decent enough person from the brief interaction we had."

"You talked to the man for all of ten minutes, and you already wanna put your life in his hands?" After a short pause where I couldn't think of some clever remark, he added, "Correction: our lives."

"He's a sellsword," I said as if that was all the explanation needed. Albert looked me over as if I was speaking madness, with one of his eyes narrowed while the other was wide enough to fit a wooden beam through. It appeared as if my point needed some elaboration.

"It doesn't matter who was gonna take the job," I began. "I was always gonna pick whoever came up and gave off a certain...energy about them. This guy's got that spark that lets me know he's most likely genuine."

"Most likely?"

I couldn't figure out what his issue was. We needed an escort, after all. And here was one willing and able, and Albert has to go and act like a child over 'trust.' It was a simple, albeit dangerous, escort job. Sellswords only care about their pay, anyway. So considering that fact, this talk about 'trust' was a bit ridiculous. That being said, I did have a good feeling about Vaughn. If he was telling the truth about his previous treks through Whitefall, then things were really looking up for us.

"Look," I spoke, getting close and dragging the tall alchemist's head down to look me at eye level, "I know I'm not the smartest guy around, but there's one thing I do know: people. Vaughn gives me this feeling like he can be trusted."

"For two thousand sol, I hope be right."

Shrugging, I questioned, "Why do you care? It isn't even your money."

"Still though. Two thousand is a lot more than I was expecting. I don't want you to end up wasting so much on this."

Another shrug of the shoulders. "Laiu and his contacts have always proven reliable before."

Opening the door, he looked back at me as he walked in. "That's not what I mean." He paused, forcing me to ask him to go on before he actually continued. "Whitefall's a big place," he explained. "One single unicorn in that whole mess is gonna be tough to track down."

With my head raised up, I stroked my own ego. "You're talking to one of Zantile's top hunters here. I once followed the trail of a tiny hare through a thunderstorm, all the way back to its burrow. With rain coming down so hard and fast, I--"

"You don't have to sell your accomplishments," he cut in.

Still a bit full of myself, I said, "Just making sure you understand I'm more than capable of handling this."

"I know that, it's just..." After a short breath, he listed off, "You've never been there before, never seen a unicorn and have no way of knowing how to properly track it, have never dealt with most of the creatures native to the area, and we don't even have an actual location to begin this hunt."

That last one made me think. All we'd be told by Laiu was that the beast had been seen entering the area. No actual information on where exactly, such as in the north, east, etc. I hadn't even thought about it before now, but he was right. Laiu had given us--no, me--the vaguest possible directions for this endevour. If I hadn't already had a deep level of trust due to all the good info he'd given me before now, I might have thought he did it on purpose, to send me off on some goose chase. But, knowing him, it was likely just a minor mistake.

Taking this as a cue of sorts, I poked my head through the doorway and stated, "Get your stuff ready. We're meeting at the tavern and then we're heading out." Without even waiting for his response, I turned on my heels and walked onwards to the building in question.

As I walked, my eyes held the glory of the sun's waking light rising up and over the entire town. Birdsong called out from all directions as the little critters woke, and those sounds were met in turn by the noises of the townspeople preparing for the day. Doors opening and closing, footsteps on stone roads, children yelling and their mothers scolding after them, the clip-clop of horse hooves as they pulled their carriages and wagons through the streets.

Familiar faces went about their usual businesses and chores, waving to one another and wishing all a good day and so on. It was, all together, a pleasant walk to the Rusty Dagger. And the pleasantness was made all the better when, as I arrived, I noticed a certain fiery colored vixen with a particular set of goggles resting on top her pretty little head.

Dressed in a nice fitting white buttoned shirt, the fluff around her neck poked out from the collar in an almost amusing way. Made it look like she had a lion's mane in a sense. For her bottoms, she wore a simple set of black cloth trousers. She lacked her usual leather apron, but had replaced it with a large duffel bag hanging at her side, which looked full to bursting with all manner of who knew what.

A welcoming smile spread out my lips. "Good to see you finished up before I got here."

I expected an equal amount of friendliness, but instead got a huff and a groan. Her muzzle turned downwards into a sneer as she spat out, "Speak of get here, where Cedric before? He late."

Feigning harm at the rejection of my smile, I scoffed and made an exaggerated whine as I answered, "Well, if you must know, I went to go collect Albert."

The scowl immediately turned right around into a wry smile. "Ooh, Albert. How night Rose? Them confess love?" The quick swift from mild annoyance to gossiping was enough to make one's head spin.

A soft chuckle escaped me as I explained the alchemist's ragged look and the two of us came to the conclusion his night must have a lot more enjoyable than either of our own. We begun speculating on how the night might have gone down, who did what to who and for how long, and especially which one of the two idiots actually had the guts to start the festivities. So caught up in this little back and forth we were, we failed to notice the man of the hour himself walking up our way.

"...probably didn't even know how to handle a woman like her," I mouthed off, completely oblivious to who was now standing behind me.

"And I suppose you do?"

My muscles went rigid for a brief moment at the surprise, but quickly relaxed as I turned and saw the unamused look on Albert's face. Giving him a charming grin full of teeth, I said, "Oh come on, by the way you looked earlier, it was pretty clear she ran you through the wringer all night."

Taking a second look, I realized he had fixed himself up decently. Changed clothes to something not ripped and torn, his hair had been put back to normal, and thought the bags under his eyes remained they at least didn't seem to stand out as much.

"Well, you certainly clean up quick," I announced. "I barely even left you, and already you're mostly back to your usual self. Impressive"

A roll of the eyes came as his only response as he walked past me into the tavern. Pram and I followed closely behind, and the small smith began asked the alchemist how his night was.

"Rose nice? Albert treat right? He not offend, yes? He not greedy lover, hopefully. Or she. Pram wonder how Rose..."

"That's enough." His voice held a stern tone, annoyance tinting his voice.

A small yip came from the little vixen as she covered her muzzle with her hands, a sheepish look about her.

"I suppose you're the mysterious Albert?"

The voice came from behind us, and we all turned to see the blue-skinned man from the previous day. He had changed clothes--and had taken a shower, I noticed by the lack of a certain 'road smell' from when we talked yesterday--and was now garbed in a black and white vest and shirt respectively. The collar of the vest was opened in a way to form a small v down his chest, but considering he had the shirt underneath, it was a strange fashion choice in my mind.

The alb extended a hand, introducing himself. "Name's Vaughn, and I suppose I'm gonna keeping you and your pals alive on this trip." No handshake was made however, leaving Vaughn's hand awkwardly hanging around. A brief clearing of the throat later, the blue man looked my way. "Speaking of the trip, I hope you've got my advance ready."

Albert gave me a questioning look, but I ignored it and reached into one of my pockets, fishing out a small slip of paper. Handing it over, I told our escort, "That's a note from the bank. The thousand sol has been transferred to a temporary account I made for you. I didn't know if you already had one."

"I do," he corrected.

"Well, even so, that paper has all the information you need to get your money. I figured it'd be best this way. Don't want either of us walking around with that much sol on us at once, right? Seemed kinda like a bad idea to me."

"Hm." His eyes scanned the paper before he tucked it into some hidden fold inside his vest. A small nod and then, "I suppose this is a better alternative. But just know-"

Before he could make some vague threats, I cut him off. "You've got nothing to worry about. I'm a man of my word, ask anyone."

From my side, I could see a certain fox nod her head in agreement. The alchemist beside her didn't share the gesture, annoyingly enough.

"Bah," he noised off, waving a hand as if to deflect what I just claimed. "I'm not worried. I was about to mention that I'd need your signature in order to transfer the money to my actual account. But we can take care of that later."

"Right right," Pram jumped in. "Talk on how get Whitefall."

Vaughn snapped his fingers at her. "Exactly," he raised his voice. "There's several ways to get there, and since Cedric here is paying me, that makes him in charge up until we actually get there. So," he glanced back my way, "how we doing this?"

Three sets of eyes focused on me, their stares full of questions and possible arguments on what they each thought might be the best means of travel. But, I already knew the true best method. The fastest way to get to Whitefall. The choice that could bring us right to the edge of the area in less than three days.

Not to keep them waiting, I said rather plainly, "We're going by airship."

A long pause, an almost tangible silence, followed my words. I was almost impressed with how dumbfounded all three of them were. But at last, someone had to break the quiet, and it was none other than Albert.

"Woah. Woah. Airship?"

"That's right," I said.

"But that sorta thing is supposed to be kinda expensive," he replied, as if urging me away from the course.

"I know that." My tone was like that of a parent talking down to a child. Calm and slow.

For a brief moment, his words failed him, all flustering and babbling like an incoherent moron. I could almost figure out what Rose saw in him during this. It made him almost seem like a shy schoolboy.

When at last his words came, he bolstered himself up and demanded, "Let me pay for the ride, then."

"Absolutely not," I popped his bravado without a moment's hesitation.

"Then Pram pay ride," came the excited words of the little vixen nearby, who had just jumped onto a table in order to meet us at roughly eye level.

"No," I shot her down as well. "Neither of you are paying. This is my hunt, my trip. My responsibility," I explained.

Albert puffed himself up once more in order to say, "But a ride is almost two hundred and fifty sol a head, and with four of us that's almost another thousand onto what you're already paying him," he jabbed a thumb at Vaughn, "so at least let Pram and I pay for our own tickets."

"No," I repeated, this time more forcefully. "I don't know what kind of ideas you got about me, but I'm not scrounging for every last sol I can get my hands on. I got enough saved up to afford Vaughn's services and four airship tickets, and still have plenty left over to live comfortably even if something were to happen to me during this trip. You can stop this weird obssession you got about my money. I'm fine, ok?"

"Well, look, I just..."

"Ok?" My voice raised a bit more, urging him to just let this go.

When he did, he did so with a defeated sigh. "Yea, alright."

Pram poked my shoulder from my side and said, "Cedric have enough sol? He sure? Not say stop friends worrying?"

I nodded back at her. "I'm not an idiot. I always save my profits from market days and such. Besides, I wouldn't have even put the idea out there if I didn't have enough, anyway."

"Point," she said, accepting my logic.

A rough, dry chuckle sounded out from the lightly colored alb before us. "Gotta say, you're the first client I've had who's ever taken me on an airship. I'm starting to think I'm gonna enjoy this job."