With a start, Jaeger jerked in his saddle, grabbing the horn to break his fall. Blinking his eyes, he was momentarily overwhelmed by the colors around him after spending what felt like days in that gray room.

  “Ah, good, he’s back. See, I told you he'd be fine, no warlock of mine would succumb to a mere shadow.”

  “Well, I am pleased with his performance so far and would hate to lose such a fascinating potente. When he wakes up, tell him I am pleased with his performance.”

  “A potente, eh?” Mischief purred. “I am not a messenger.”

  The cat pauses, a smug tone in his voice.

  “You can tell him yourself; he is awake.”

  Mischief's smug voice made for a good focus point for Jaeger. Slowly, his senses returned and he realized that he was still on Ventress, though she had clearly continued to move as he had plunged into that gray space. She seemed to have reached a clearing and stopped; or been stopped, as he considered the second voice he'd heard. He blinked, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, and he looked to the place where her voice seemed to be.

  On a mossy trunk sat Mischief in his enigmatic cat form, cleaning himself. At a respectful distance from him was the chaos elf, Kaeleth. She looked similar to the last time he'd seen her, but now she seemed less suited for the city and more for the forest.

  Her long midnight hair was tied back, revealing her sharp ears. Her scaled outfit was the familiar dark crimson, with blurred patterns that blended her form into the forest behind her. Knee-high boots were spiked at the back and tipped with metal, hints of ancient gore denoting their hidden lethality. Her hands were bare except for three rings, two on the left and one on the right. She also wore a cloak that seemed to be made of dark green leaves; it matched the surroundings perfectly. Peeking out from under her cloak were hilts to what Jaeger assumed were her blades.

  “So he is.”

  Jaeger found his eyes drawn to hers, those searing hot pools of molten copper. He felt himself drawn in, only to be pulled back by the sound of the soft clink of metal from deep within.

  “And he’s grown once again.”

  The bounty hunter stretched his back before sliding off Ventress' back. Upon landing, he turned, loosened her saddle and told her to stay close.

  “I held up my end of the deal.”

  Kaeleth tilted her head and stared at him, her expression unreadable. Then she nodded.

  “Yes, you have. I have been watching you and am pleased with your performance. I was half tempted to give you credit for allowing the adventurers to help you, but then you took care of the Messenger of Decay yourself.” She moaned quietly, her eyes never leaving his. “The pure chaos of that fight, watching his grotesque form fall before your blade and seeing you restore order to a being who had touched upon a foul corrupted chaos. Delectable.”

  She fell silent, the only noise a fervent deep breathing. Jaeger quickly identified her as the source. He didn’t speak and simply waited for her to continue.

  With a full-body shake, Kaelith regained her composure and held up her hand, counting off with her fingers. “Your combat skills, your negotiating skills, your tracking skills, your magic, and your loyalty. When you are done here, meet me in Patterson, I have a job for you.”

  He moved closer, his hands resting on his hips as he looked at her.

  “It had better…”

  “It does not cross, hinder, or betray your creed. I am not a fool.” Kaeleth rose, slipping to her feet like a cobra. The distance closing the distance between them. “Now go to your little Muri-Gena, she's waiting for you. Be careful though, just because one member of this 'club' has vouched for you, does not mean the rest will.”

  She bowed to Mischief and then stalked off into the forest, quickly disappearing into the trees and foliage.

  “Oh, and pray do not fall to Melinda’s charms. I would so hate to kill you now that you’ve proven yourself interesting.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  A whisper and a cold touch.

  “Ah, obsession. Your plate practically overruns now; you are going to be quite busy; even more so then you’d think. You'd better get going.” Mischief jumped from the trunk and disappeared. “It is said that what matters most is not what is on the plate, but how it is consumed.”

  Calling Ventress back, the bounty hunter tightened his saddle and climbed back into it. He rode towards Clivetown, mulling over the insanity of his new existence. He thought about the people and creatures he’d met; from Lisette a princess in exile to the Guardian of Greenwood, some kind of immortal creature tied to a possibly sentient stretch of woods.

  Despite all the cat's vague and annoying cryptic words, he hadn't been wrong yet. So Jaeger thought about the things he had to do, but for the life of him nothing seemed particularly urgent. Kaelith knew where he was and where he was going, Emilia's team would reach Patterson before him and report back to Lisette so she'd know everything went well. Unless Clivetown turned out to be a difficult affair, nothing seemed important enough to Jaeger to warrant a cryptic warning.

  “Could be the damn cat said that just to stress me out.”

  Deciding that was the case, he spent the rest of the day ignoring it and riding, because getting back to Clivetown wasn't half as fast as getting to the bandits. He could have used his abilities, but he didn't want his tracking skills to become a crutch that replaced his ability to find his way. If spending a night in the wilderness was the price, he was willing to pay it.

  As he made camp for the night, he found himself staring up at the night sky far above him. The many stars were unfamiliar and strange to him. Some were blue, some were green, some moved or blinked; he swore that one even seemed to move with his eyes, staying just in the corner of his vision. Then he saw the moon.

  Ever since he'd arrived here, what felt like months ago, he'd done his best to keep busy. He knew that if he spent too much time alone, he'd become too aware of how different this new world was and he'd have to confront it. Even when he'd traveled for bounties, he'd kept himself in a hunter's mindset, only relaxing behind closed doors. So while he was dealing with new races and new magic, he was able to rationalize it. Nothing had been too far from his old world, until now.

  The moon high above him was a light blue and cracked open like an egg being prepared for a meal. About a quarter of the top was cracked and floating above the rest. Small pieces of the celestial body were scattered about, and what looked like claw marks marred the shell. All Jaeger could think was that something had hatched from the moon. Overwhelmed by the absurdity and impossibility of this thought, he felt himself start to panic, something that had never happened to him before, and all he could think of was to run. To be anywhere but under the moon.

  He jumped to his feet, startling Ventress who lay nearby; his gaze fixated on the moon. He tried to stop his body, but something else was trying to move it. As his mind fought his body, his movements becoming jerky and possessed, a heavy weight crashed down on him, causing him to fall flat. As he landed, a furry body pranced across his face, paws pressing against his eyes, nose, and mouth before settling on his chest and watching him.

  “Hrrm. I forgot the effect this has on the unprepared.”

  Jaeger struggled to speak.

  “You seem to do that a lot.”

  An imperious eyebrow seemed to rise on the cat's face.

  “Forgetting.”

  Mischief considered this before clawing at the hunter's shirt, clawing holes in it until the shirt was more shredded cloth than clothing. Suddenly stopping, the cat began to groom himself as he spoke.

  “Now that you've seen it, you won't react like that anymore, unless you're moonscarred, in which case I'll have to deal with you.”

  “What is it?” The overwhelming panic he had felt was fading.

  “A moon. One that happened to give birth to a Nyxian. No, I won't go into what that is. Certain knowledge is dangerous just to have.”

  “The most dangerous thing is ignorance, knowledge is power and security.” The panic was now a shadow of a thought.

  Mischief smiled, his too wide smile, at that.

  “True, but to give power to someone who can't use it is to offer a tempting target to someone who can.”

  Jaeger began to understand that something or someone out there might kill him for knowing such secrets. Jaeger had considered the knowledge to be similar to the knowledge about the different kinds of orcs, but whatever a Nyxian was, it was far beyond that. Considering that it had hatched from the moon, he shouldn't have been surprised.

  “Fine. The panic is over and I want to eat, can you get off me?”

  Jumping from him, Mischief moved next to the fire.

  “What are we having?”

  The events of the night put Jaeger in a contemplative mood, so much so that he didn't realize he had reached Clivetown until he was stopped.

  “Oi! We’re talking to ya horseman. Best ya answer now.”

  Jaeger looked up to see the same guard who had stopped him on his first visit.

  “I said what’s yer business in Chippy?”

  “You don’t recognize me?” Jaeger replied.

  “Don’t matter. What’s yer business?”

  Sighing, Jaeger told the guard he was here to meet with Melinda, her name quickly quieting the man's grumbling.

  “Why didn’t ya say so sooner? Get going.”

  “Before I do, a question.”

  The guard seemed to be about to argue, but he seemed to think better of it and instead motioned for Jaeger to hurry.

  “Why do you call this place Chippy? I thought it was Clivetown.”

  The guard shrugged.

  “It is Clivetown but ole Clive sold out to Fochabers & Magpie. They wanted to rename the place but none of the guilds want to change the name officially. So FnM pay us to say Chippy when referring to the place.”

  That didn't make any sense to Jaeger, but then again, if he understood rich companies, he probably wouldn't have ended up as a bounty hunter. Nodding to the guard, he rode off in the direction of Melinda's inn.