Episode 02: Irena Lionfield
"E-Excuse me!" Eiji heard a voice shriek from behind him. He gave a cursory glance over his shoulder.
It was the female hunter from the tavern. She'd been sprinting up to him, but grinded to a sluggish stride as soon as his crimson eyes stabbed into her.
"U-Um...I...I wanted to say thank you," she continued timidly, fastening her bandana around her head.
Eiji continued on walking with an air of indifference. "Don't know what you're talking about."
She looked back as she struggled to keep up with his brisk pace. She pointed back the way she'd come—in the distance, the large, jagged blotch of red staining the cobblestone in front of the tavern building. "That man you...killed... H-He touched me *most* inappropriately."
"Uh huh," Eiji said flatly.
The sun was quickly fading beneath the zenith of the grassy plains stretching beyond the silhouette of houses and shops, and the town's walls further beyond that.
"A-And he broke my sword!" The girl continued on as she trailed him like a child to parent. Seeing that Eichi was unaffected, she tried to think of something else, anything to get him to stop. "Um...oh!"—she lifted her gloved finger—"And he insulted my father—he called my leather armor a potato bag!"
"You should go home," Eiji told her. They'd arrived at the town square. Townsfolk walked this way and that, light chatter filling the evening air; the clattering of carts could be heard. At the center of the square was a water well, someone was working the rope. But there was something else that was here that...didn't quite belong.
A looming clock tower made of copper and wood. It rose ominously above the humble town square. It clucked obtrusively with every second as the clock hand turned, and even from where Eiji and the hunter stood, its sound was clear and authoritative.
In front of the clock tower was a table. There was a man in armor seated there, busily writing. He wore a cloak that was pinned to his shoulder with a bronze seal.
Eiji had just started to take his first steps into the square when he froze mid-stride, turned to see the female hunter staring longingly at him a few meters behind him. "Did you hear what I said?"
"Well, yes, but... I can't go home..." she replied, hesitantly coming to stand even with him as they gazed toward the plaza. "I'm going on the treasure hunt tomorrow. I've come all the way from Meriland to to be a part of it!"
Eiji appraised the girl, looking her up and down. He looked unimpressed, maybe even a bit concerned. "You're a hunter?"
She swallowed, stammered, "Y-Yes, I am"—she put a fist to her mouth and cleared her throat, tried again, with more gusto—"I am!"
He'd seen her just then try and cover her cracked sword within its flimsy sheath; she turned her body slightly to obscure Eiji's viewing of it. He craned his head to try and re-establish a good look at it, but she turned even more. "P-Pardon me!" she yelped.
Eiji straightened himself up again. "Hunts are no place for a little girl. For your own safety, go home." he started to walk away.
A few townsfolk hurriedly got out of his path with gasps as he strode through the towns square.
A scowl grew on the girl's face, but just as soon as it came, it dissipated—once the visual of Corin exploded into twenty different pieces flashed in her head. In fact, she'd elected to take a few steps back, to re-establish some distance between her and this mysterious, yet highly dangerous man...
"I am not a little girl, if you'd please, sir," she called out to him. In an exasperated plea, yelped. "Please I need your help!"
Her shout had drawn the stares of the surrounding townsfolk, who'd peered her direction curiously; a flock of chickens flapped their wings at a nearby merchant stall.
***
Eiji had trekked beyond the town square, passed through its gates, leaving the modest abode in the dusk of evening and began his journey to one of the Order's outpost stations this side of Kingdom Jersey. He'd trekked a great distance on foot, and soon finally came upon a guarded stone wall. A guard, who'd had a seal on his shoulder plate that wedged the tip of his cloak in place, had put his gauntleted hand out to an encroaching Eiji.
"Halt where you stand," the guard began with a hearty voice. "This is property of The Order—"
Eiji gripped his scarf and pulled down on it, flashing his wolf tattoo. The guard retracted his hand, gestured toward the gate. "Please proceed."
The gate creaked open. Eiji pulled the scarf back up and went through. An ominous, stone compound sat on a hill, flags waving in the wind against the backdrop of a setting sun.