“Alright, let’s see if we can find a pce you like! By the way do you have a name?”

  The samander shakes its head.

  “How about I call you Sally? Are you okay with that?”

  The Samander then tilts its head seemingly thinking for a bit and nods.

  “I’ll call you Sally then!”

  Suddenly feeling really dizzy, I sit down. Sally then puts its paw on my cheek as if to ask if I’m okay.

  “Yeah, all good. I probably just stood in the sun for too long. Anyways, back to you, do you prefer being treated in a gendered way?”

  Sally shakes its head.

  “Okay, I’ll refer to you in a gender neutral way then if you like.”

  Sally nods.

  “Alright then! Let’s see if we can find a pce that you like.”

  After resting for a few more minutes, we first go to the metal working district where a bunch of strong looking people tirelessly work many forges and fires attracting loads of fire and earth spirits.

  “Alright Sally, just point at any pce you would like to stay at and I’ll try to make sure you get a good home.”

  Sally nods and points at me.

  “Huh? Are you saying you want to stay with me?”

  Sally nods.

  “Hmm…I’m not opposed to it but you should still look around! I’m going to travel a lot and I don’t even have the fire affinity so things might be uncomfortable for you sometimes. You should at least take a look around and make sure you don’t want to stay anywhere else, okay?”

  Sally nods.

  We then walk through the metal district and while Sally did seem to like looking around whenever I asked them if they wanted to stay at any pce they just pointed at me. We next go to a bunch of restaurants where I show Sally the kitchens but they don’t seem interested in any of the ovens there either.

  “Hmm, seems like we’ve seen most of it. Are you sure you want to stay with me for the time being?”

  Sally nods.

  “Alright, but if you ever feel like you want to stay at a different pce or with a different person just tell me. You’re free to live however you want.”

  Sally smiles and nods.

  “Okay good, come let me show you our guild!”

  We then walk to the guild just in time, five minutes before four pm. It seems Ray, John and Sher Aka are already waiting for me.

  “Yo, Thoma Ahad. How’d it go?”

  “I showed Sally around the pce but it seems like for now they want to stay with me.”

  “Is that her name?”

  “They don’t have a name so I just gave them a nickname.”

  “Why are you calling her ‘they’?”

  “Oh, because they don’t like being treated as a girl or boy so I try to be neutral and ‘It’ just didn’t seem right now that they have a name to go by.”

  “Huh…I don’t get it but I guess if it makes…Them? Happy I don’t care. Anyways, the Guild Master wants to talk to us, it seems like she just got a message from the capital about the investigation.”

  “Oh! Do you know anything yet?”

  “Nope, we were waiting for you.”

  “Then let’s go!”

  We then walk up to Uli’s office and go inside. She looks annoyed.

  “Alright sit down, I just got the news. Thoma Ahad, Ray, do you remember a man called Dan Goldheart?”

  “No.”

  “Can’t say that I do.”

  “He is the racist guy from the capital branch that tried to intimidate you with his weapon. Turns out he is both the son of a noble and his father has connections with the merchants of Berk and the criminal underground. We were able to trace his father as the one that called for your death. The problem is we can only prosecute him and if we do, his son will take over and you will have even more enemies. John, Sher Aka, you’re also on their hit list now because you’re witnesses in the xxx attempt.”

  “What!? That’s bullshit!”

  “So, what should we do, Guild Master?”

  “I’ll be frank, you have two options. One, stay at my pce for the next few years until things blow over and give up on your travel pns or two, leave Berk. Regardless of your decision I have already promoted you to the next rank.”

  “But Uli we don’t have the points for the next rank yet.”

  “I don’t need to give you points for you to get promoted, ultimately it’s my decision as guildmaster what your appropriate rank is based on your achievements. You have managed to kill eighteen enraged Forest Orcs on your own while ambushed, if we had put out a subjugation quest for eighteen Forest Orcs it would have been C ranked. As such I feel comfortable putting you three up to D-Rank and you to C-Rank Miss Sher Aka. You will also be paid for both the fake job and the subjugation, which in total comes down to 18 Big silver and four regur silver, which is 4 Big silver and 6 regur ones for each of you. You don’t have to decide on what you wish to do today, but I expect an answer soon. Do not take on any more quests for the time being, I expect an answer within the next two days, you’re dismissed.”

  Somewhat speechless, we leave the office and sit down at an empty table.

  Ray is the first to break the silence, “I’m sorry that you got dragged into this. I will respect your decision either way whether you want to disband and stay here, disband and leave or stay with us. Personally I think I’m able to confidently say that Thoma and I will choose to leave regardless. We can’t stay here.”

  “Fuck man…We should never have gotten involved with you in the first pce. I can’t do this again, Sherry. I don’t want to be hunted again.”

  “I understand how you feel John but this isn’t their fault. It could have happened to us just the same if we had stayed in Fring for a bit longer…I would like to talk with my brother alone for the next two days. Let’s meet again two days from now at noon. We will have made our decision by then.”

  “I understand, come on let’s go Thoma. We’ll stay at Nekara’s pce for the time being.”

  “Can I just say one more thing?”

  “Sure.”

  “We all have dreams we want to come true. I think we’re a great team, I understand if you don’t want to be near us anymore but I still want your dreams to come true as well. Even if we have to split up, I will support you as much as I can. That’s all I wanted to say, see you in two days.”

  We then leave the guild and I start crying, “I’m so sorry, ane.”

  “Huh, what are you sorry about?”

  “If it…If it wasn’t for me we wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. I’m so sorry.”

  She then takes off my mask, puts her hands on my cheeks and looks me straight in the eyes, “This wasn’t your fault, oki. Neither was it mine. We just had bad luck. Okay?”

  “Okay…”

  “Good, now don’t cry. We’ll just have to see how things turn out. But no matter what happens, we’ll go through it together, okay?”

  I nod with a smile on my face while tears are still flowing, “Yeah… I love you, ane.”

  “I love you too, oki. Come on, let's go tell Nekara.”

  We then walk to the Cat’s Den and as we enter Nekara drops a pitcher of ale when she sees us, “My goodness did something happen? You both look like you were crying!”

  Ray expins the situation and Nekara gets a weirdly calm look on her face, “So you’re going to leave? Do you already know when?”

  “No…Not yet. Might be as early as two days from now or it might be a bit ter.”

  “I understand, I’m going to write a fake letter to your parents that you’ll soon be going to Talon for a while, chances are if they called a hit on you they’ll intercept my letters as well. It should throw them off your scent for a bit and give you time to leave. Also, don’t worry, while you’re staying here you should be safe, everyone knows you two here. If someone is asking questions or looks like they’re going after you they’ll have to deal with the whole block. We might not be adventurers but even an A- Rank will have trouble against a hundred pissed off Beastkin.”

  “Thank you Ms. Nekara…”

  “Don’t worry about it, come on let me make you guys some lunch.”