A serpent man hacked at me to my left, but I caught it on the sturdy wood of the odari staff. I hooked the haft under and around the halberd and shoved it wide, spinning with the movement and snapping my foot out. The creature went flying onto the floor. During my spin I saw a glimpse of the last approaching conquistador. He watched me with hate filled eyes, lurking closer with his hand out and sword leveled like he was a back-alley cutthroat. I pivoted, my footwork a blur as I snapped my staff in time to meet both his sword and the scimitar of a serpent-man who had thought to get a quick kill. Spinning my staff, I shoved aside both weapons and elbowed the merc in the face, sending blood and splittle flying out as I turned my full attention on the unnatural denizen of Tzecholitchi. In three strokes I got the better of him, striking it atop its serpentine head, its yellowed eyes going blank as it fell over, dazed. 

"Beren get the symbol!" I heard to my right and turned. Somehow, Emmaline was pulling herself up across the other side of the abyss as a serpent-man's body disappeared into the endless stygian gloom. My jaw dropped, having just a minute ago seeing her block a bullet to now turning the tables on an impossible situation. I had just beaten three opponents in a handful of seconds and somehow she one upped me. Who the hell was this woman!? She could...[i]do[/i] anything!  

Her cry finally registered in my mind, and my eyes flitted to the dazed mercenary who now stood precariously above the pit and still back up none the wiser! My heart leaped into my throat, and dropping my staff I made a desperate leap for the precipice of the pit as the conquistador stepped on nothing but air, his predicament finally registering in his eyes as he did so. A scream emanated from his lips, and my boots skidded across the stone floor as my hand shot out to grab the symbol in his hands, halting his descent. I weighed more than him likely, but he was armored and my momentum worked against me. 

"I deserve all the gold! All the glory!" He cried, an insane laughing bubbling up from deep inside as he clung to the symbol desperately. Half crazed from delirium or maybe from my elbow strike, I couldn't tell. I tried to yank the symbol away but his weight continued to drag me forward toward the edge. I switched my stance desperately, leaning back. "I can't die! I found the city of forbidden treasures! The gold is mine!" 

"You want gold?" I told him, and made a desperate move. Instead of pulling back, I jumped. My weight was shoved forward, but I was in the perfect position for a drop kick. My booted feet hit him across his breastplate with the force of a knight's lance, and he screeched as he lost his hold on the eldtritch symbol, flying across the expanse to hit the wall Emmaline had just clambered over before sliding into the abyss, his screams echoing in the void of nothingness. I landed at the very edge, my breath caught in my throat and the symbol in my hands, teetering for a brief moment of horror before I could back pedal. I sighed in relief as I stepped away from the edge, and took a gold coin from my purse to blithely toss into the cavernous hole after him. "Have a refund. Hope you visit us again." 

The serpent men, who had regained their composure, halted their advance and actually bowed before us, genuflecting and throwing their arms on the ground. It seemed I only needed to use my will? Emmaline approached from the otherside, giving a smile as she rubbed a bruise on her arm. 

"Good line, but don't make it a habit of wasting gold." She said. 

"I think there's some more where that came from." I said, and we both approached Fletcher and Callibel to help them up. Luckily the woman was a healer, and it looked like my contract was just about over... 

[i]Two days later...[/i] 

The outpost near the river was small. A dozen huts of timber and a jetty where rafts and smaller craft lazily bobbed in the river. Sweat-laden locals and huntsmen gathered to trade and pass gossip and news as travelers and gold-hunters coalesced in the infamous inn known as 'The Maw,' its namesake a large, reptilian skull opened wide above the awning that covered the porch from the elements. A smattering of locals with raised voices swapped money and bet as they gathered around a small pit where a southland smooth-fured aquatic bear fought and began to devour a sort of man-lobster that clicked in panic as it lost its left pincer. 

I had been here before, but not for months. There were always new faces, hardened mercs and grim-faced trappers turning to regard Emmaline and I as we stepped into the insulated common room. Callibel and Fletcher had thanked me profusely once we arrived, but they had business of their own to take care of and they disappeared into the crowd as I led Emmaline for one last meal, one we didn't have to prepare for our own for once. We found a nice corner in at the back where there were cushioned chairs, and my ass felt better for it for the extra copper it cost. 

We had managed to procure a few gold relics that I could sell with passing traders if I ever came back here before the monsoon season. Emmaline had found a serpent armlet with ruby eyes that glittered whenever her slim arm moved, as well as a fistful of gold chunks and coins she eyed greedily. Now that we could sit down and actually think about it, we came out of the insanity more fortunate than we had come in, and I had not expected that once the raft had been destroyed. 

"So, what are your plans for now?" I asked her as I downed my drink. I remembered the sexy conversation we were supposed to have, but here in a modicum of civilization I felt more than ever the fleetingness of our acquaintance and the fact she was ridiculously high birth. "On your way to the Enclave?" 

The Enclave was the famous 'old town' high class grouping of exiled nobles in the great city of Darkwater. They flocked there and joined together to rule the city as their fathers and northern peers had not allowed them to up north. The barons and petty counts were not expressively oppressive, but they did spend the cities gold on parties and trading interests and building projects while the gangs could hold sway over the lower portions of the poorer sections of the city.