[center][b]Levine’s Countryside, Cormyral[/b][/center]

	Breakfast had been unremarkable. Shredded pork on a buttered biscuit with a small cup of expensive tea for Cyra, and a tall glass of milk along with remarks on how he should probably eat more in the morning for Hildako (who later found himself hungry and fetching a lucky, yet questionable meal from a street vender along with a few [i]I-told-you-so’s[/i]).

	With stomachs full, the two made their way briefly back to the inn to fetch the contracts and before they knew it, they found themselves in one of the many misty forests of Levine’s countryside. Underfoot and undertail, mud from a rain two nights ago was still slick, while the greenery of the leaves remained the rich and velvety green often scene in a thunderstorm. The droplets of the mist formed on Cyra’s tail, making Hildako wonder a little bit about her tropical home back in Xoskea. He stared in what would have be silence if not for the loud caw’s of the forest birds for quite a while. His mind eventually wandered back to about her life back in Xoskea, after all he had known her for about two years now, and he found appropriate to probably know these details about the companion that put up with him for so long. 

	He went to ask, but he retracted his words as he opened his mouth, assuming it would spark another conversation about their possible vacation in her homeland that she desired so strongly. Instead he kept his mind on the business at hand, “So this is just a simple shake down. We throw our weight around a little, retrieve the lost purses and property of the farm these goons sacked, and go on our way. The usual.”

	“That’s not the usual. Not for you at least.” Cyra said with a raised eyebrow. She looked and sounded amused. Perhaps she was in a good mood because she had yet to slither into a tree. Perhaps she found Hildako’s statement funny in an ironic sense. “So” She continued, “I’ll just stay in the back, looking pretty, while you give them your usual scowl.” Not that she knew what his ‘usual’ scowl was or if he even had a usual one.

	“Pffft,” Hildako sarcastically replied, “let’s hope they don’t give up that easy, I didn’t tredge in the mud all this way to go home bored.”

	He shrugged while side stepping a stray bough from one of the trees, “but sure, the usual scowl for the unusual situation.”

	Cyra let out something between a squawk of surprise and a grunt as she smacked her forehead into the branch Hildako had so smoothlysmoothly avoided. “You” She rubbed her forehead, “really need to warn me about things like that.”

	“Sorry!” Hildako yelped, jumping to grab both her shoulders and shift her away from the rest of the tree, “where there are branches…” He murmured, “ let’s hope our targets didn’t hear that.”

After a second of thought he added, “Actually let’s hope they hear us coming.” 

	Suddenly Hildako squeezed Cyra’s shoulder, “There they are!”

	In front of them the trees parted to reveal a haphazardly put together camp. Canvas tents ringed a massive fire pit, where three burly looking criminals were roasting what could only be a poached calf on a spit. It could only be assumed there were more in the tents, as sounds of various activities both ordinary and obscene were taking place. Some tents had more than one shadow cast on them, and Hildako had rather not define what owned them, in fact he found it better to not prepare himself for the numbers, and just dive right in.

	His boots kicked up the dusty dirt of the clearing, scuffing loudly as he exited the trees shouting, “this place smells like shite!” The men around the fire looked him over confused for a few seconds before registering the challenge, hopping to their feet, weapons at the ready. A dumb smirk grew on HIldako’s face, only causing rage to twitch in one of the campers faces.

	“Hil” Cyra’s voice, full of warning, drifted out from the woods. Despite possessing a massive snake tail in place of legs, or perhaps being of it, she could seemingly disappear into the woods when she wanted to. Very likely the group Hildako and Cyra had come to ‘persuade’ had no idea she was even nearby. 

	Hildako’s ear twitched at the sound of his name, but he attempted to ignore it as he started forward. One of the brutes chewed out a threat from a very unkempt mouth but it was so mumbled, Hildako had no idea what he had said and simply walked into the light of the fire, smug face now illuminated below his tattoo. Stepping on foot onto a log used for a seat he leaned forward on his knee and casually gave the large man the finger. 

	Saliva foamed around the man’s mouth as he fumbled for his own blade, cursing. His buddies started to egg him on. “Show him.” “Yeah go get em Big Jeb.” “Snap him like the twig he is.” Among a sea of swears.

	Hildako spread his arms as if inviting the criminal to fight him, impatient eyes staring the criminals down. 

	“WAIT!” A commanding voice suddenly sounded, ordering the obedience of the campers and turning them to silence. A man who had just exited one of the tents stood near the fire now, buckling loose pants, steely eyes trained on Hildako’s forehead. His finer clothes and shaven face either pegged him as a classier rogue or the ringleader, perhaps both. 

	“You fools, can’t you see that’s [i] The Omen[/i],” A steady finger pointed at Hildako’s forehead. A small look of fright crossed the faces of the three campers and there was a rustling in all the other tents at the sound of the nickname.

	“I’d wager the guardian of the shadows that watches over this demon is around here somewhere too,” The ringleader bit his lip, while Hildako stood in surprise.

	“Boys,” the ringleader turned the the emerging criminals from the tents, marking their number at eleven men, all scared. The ringleader kept a finger trained on Hidako while shaking his head in disbelief, “grab the loot boys, and run we will meet at our other location, RUN!” 

	Hildako waved his hands, “wait no!”

	“Stay back, Demon! We’ve heard the stories of all who cross your path!” The criminals were rushing around the camp, knocking down tents to swipe all the loot and stolen goods they could, two men had already fled the camp with arms full of loose goods and cash. A stone dropped in Hildako’s stomach, and his wince twitched, his targets were getting away -- his opportunity was getting away.

	Unknowing in how to stop this, he charged the scattered group of criminals. The forest wind rushed by his ears, howling at him as he kept his sights on the ringleader. Kicking off of one of the stumps used as a seat, he launched himself in the air, turning his foot to make a point at the heel, he smashed it into the face of the ringleader mid jump. The kick burst the ringleaders nose into a cloud of crimson, with a further crunch as he crumpled to the ground, Hildako landing on him.

	Big Jeb saw this and charged at Hildako, club in hand. The large man swung at Hildako , only to find a set of rapid punches slam down his rib cage coupled with a sudden elbow to the neck. The large man collapsed next to his leader, gasping for air. Four more had fled by time Hildako was by the tents, mace in hand. The three remaining criminals were backing slowly to the treeline, two with blades in hand, one shakily holding a hunting bow and all with scared faces worn.

	“We don’t want to fight you, Demon,” one stuttered, causing a deep frown to carve into Hildako’s face. He winced, “do it.”

	“N-no!” One pointed his blade at Hildako, “stay b-back!”

	“Do it,” Hildako hissed through his teeth, taunting them by opening his arms for a strike. His face turned grim, a look of anger turned to a spark of sadness as he started to close the gap.

	“No!” The one holding the bow shouted, releasing his arrow with a twang. The arrow clumsily left the hunting bow and slammed into Hildako’s shoulder, causing him to take a few steps back with a grunt of pain. He felt the small bodkin tip poke out of his shoulder blade, and a warm red spot started to form on his shirt. He looked down, surprised at the sight of the wooden shaft protruding from him, but when he looked back up, expecting the blade of one of the criminals to finish him, they were already sprinting through the woods, terrified and anxious. Hildako just stood there, eyes wide as he stared at his fleeing opportunity, his shoulder pulsing with pain, and his head feeling a little lighter as the red splotch thickened.  

	The man with a bow screamed as a tiger, massive in size, stepped into his path, blocking his way. He took a single stumbling step back towards Hildako as he dropped his bow and reached for a long knife, almost fumbling it several times. The tiger let out a low growl, its eyes closed, but somehow it still seemed to know exactly where the man was at all times. The man screamed as he lunged towards the tiger. The tiger tensed as if to dodge or leap onto its target, surely it had more than enough time to do either. It did not, however, instead it leaned in towards the man, as if willing him to stab it. And he did, driving his knife into the tiger’s should.

	“Hah!” He yelled triumphantly, but let out a terrified screech as the tiger slowly looked towards him and growled. He run away into the woods, so terrified that he didn’t even think to pull his knife out of the tiger’s shoulder.

	The tiger seemed to watch the man flee for a moment before turning towards Hildako and letting out a long growl, one that sounded more displeased then threatening.

	Hildako’s widened eyes narrowed at the growl, “you’re the one who let him stab you,” he answered, slowly using his left hand to add pressure around the arrow shaft that protruded from him in an attempt to slow the bleeding. While he was not opposed to the idea of death, not like this, not while being nagged.

	The tiger let out a second growl as its body began to shift. Within moments it was gone, replaced by one specific lamia that had a knife impaled in the back of her shoulder. “Your actions” She said, wincing as she reached back towards the knife and pulled it out, “have harmed us both.”

	Hildako frowned, clearly unconvinced as he walked over to her, one hand on the arrow, “My actions?” He huffed, “my actions did nothing but attempt to save the contract, but NOW we have to go back to the fat man and tell him it’s all kinds of screwed up before he starts blaming us for tipping them off or whatever fantasy he will conjure up.” He angrily added the last half of his sentence as he ripped his shirt away from his arrow wound, saving the clean bits and stuffing them into some sort of ball as he stared at the hole in Cyra’s back. 

		“Who was it that said we would just throw our weight around a little?” Cyra frowned at him. The wound on her back bleed freely, ignored. “I could practically smell the fear of those men. Actually… I’m pretty sure I did. I think some of them pissed themselves.” She scrunched up her nose in disgust. “Had you demanded they left behind their stolen goods they almost certainly would have. Instead you were too fixated on starting a needless fight.” By this point a bit of frustration had crept into her voice. “How long are you going to keep doing this?”

	“Fear… fear was the problem! If they didn’t fear any of this I wouldn’t have had to act, but noooo- reputation got in the way!” He angrily grumbled behind her, focused on collecting the cleaner fabrics. “They were going to just retreat with everything. It is highly unlikely they would leave anything behind at a simple request! I needed to act.”

 Hildako finished his makeshift bandage while ignoring her final question with a wince. His voice softened from an angry growl to a softer growl, “heads up, bandage going in.” He pushed the bandage into her shoulder with his thumb. He looked over to the still flickering campfire where the large man and the ringleader laid flat, unconscious or possibly dead, “want me to burn it close or can you make it back?” He looked down at his own puncture, the blood having stopped against the shaft.

Cyra winced as he applied the bandage. “You can try and fool yourself,” She said, ignoring his question about cauterizing her wound, “but you will never be able to fool me.” She waited a moment to make sure he was done with the bandage before beginning to slither away. “Just remember that I won’t let you pass away. Not while I still draw breath.”

“A threat if I ever heard one,” Hildako replied, clearly bothered by her statement as he started to walk towards the fallen criminals by the fire.