Breakwater Wharf

Serenity is running through a backyard, laughing and trying to hide. She is ducking what seems to be pine cones thrown by her brother. A vision of her parents washes over her when reality slams her in the face.

Her eyes open and she is disorientated for a moment from her dream, and she gets pegged in the shoulder by what she thinks was an acorn. Almost falling, she gets herself situated and looks down.

Wilder is looking up to her in the tree, a smile on his face. “Easy now! You sleep like a log!” he yells up, much too loud and obnoxious.

She pauses a moment and then cringes, shaking her head.

“Get it, sleep like a… LOG?!?” he chuckles at his own joke. He frowns. “Fine, lets go, we are moving out.”

The groggy young woman makes her way down, grimacing a bit from her sore shoulder. She checks everything is in order and on her, and walks towards the now gathering group. They are putting out the fire, some rations being tossed to people as they are nibbling on their breakfast. Most look hungover or wishing they were still asleep.

The temperature is warm, almost a bit muggy. A few puffy clouds float along the blue sky with a welcoming light breeze hitting her face.

One of the men looks over, “Some breakfast?” he says holding up what appears to be some sort of jerky wrapped in a thin cloth. She smiles and nods, figuring she was able to save a little bit of her rations.

Throws it to her, and she goes to catch it and she winces a bit from her shoulder, a spike of pain shoots through her.

The rations hit her in the chest and fell to the ground. She looks up to the man who is giving her a look, “sorry, still a bit sore.”

She picks it up and starts to eat it. It was overcooked and over spiced, making her think that this was not beef or chicken but of something from the rodent family.

Eating with some regret, she follows the group as they head out.

For being a ragtag bunch of wanderers, they had a system that seemed to work. From what Serenity can see, two would walk a good 500 feet in front, 2 would trail 500 feet back and they would rotate throughout, keeping everyone fresh and alert.

Serenity found herself in the rotation, and she jogged forward 500 feet with the elf woman that she threatened last night. They kept the same pace as the group, just keeping a better look.

“If you is gonna live in the fog, best do it back in the bunch, here we scout,” she says, her eyes bigger and alert. She nods her head, and continues to talk in her broken common, “this is life, we stay alive.”

After an hour they fall back as another 2 come up from behind.

The day moved on and the weather albeit a bit warm was cooperating.

She overhears Wilder talking to who she is assuming is his right hand man. “We should get to Breakwater by nightfall, as long as there are no delays.” The man nods and starts to bark out orders to stop, get a bite to eat, drink and piss.

Serenity waits for a while hoping for someone to offer her something, but it doesn’t happen. She frowns a bit, grabs some dry cheese and bread and eats it up quick. Grabbing her half full water skin and washes the dry rations down. She tends to other business and it looks like the group is ready to move again.

The day does not bring anything, and the rotation in scouting was a welcome task, keeping her more alert than just trudging forward hour after hour.

The decision was made to just make it to Breakwater Wharf and not stop. Serenity was getting tired and her water skin was getting empty. She was not used to this much physical activity for such a long period of time.

As the sun starts to dip down on the horizon, it is noticeably more humid and somewhat foggy. She can now see and feel the ground starting to drop, the flat land she walked on all day now has a decline to it. People talk amongst themselves and say “we are getting close.” She can then see through the foggy weather, the horizon split. To the west a high hills and cliffs, that drop dramatically down to the real horizon she is walking towards.

The young woman surmises that this Breakwater Wharf, that she has only read a few brief things about, is notoriously humid and foggy.

She remembers reading: A port city on the farthest reach of Weston Gate lands. Nestled in high ranging cliffs, that have the ocean wind hit and create a pocket of fog and water. Many ships have sunk trying to make port. There are small towns around with larger docks to accommodate this. Most make port, and walk the rest of the way to Breakwater. They also anchor out in the sea, and take more manageable smaller boats in.

She huffs a little thinking of “Weston Gate” and her regents who renamed it “Thorn Gate” years ago.

The decline becomes more pronounced and people are leaning back adjusting to it. It finally ends on a large road spanning east to west that is level. “Ahhhh, home sweet home,” Wilder says waving everyone on. The pace picks up as they follow the road west, it winds around heading south, again down an incline but now lights and faint shapes can be seen through the now thickening fog.

Eventually they make it, going through the city gates. The guards at first were startled, but then shook hands with Wilder and the group moved on through. The City itself does not seem to be too foggy, but the moisture is near oppressive. Like standing next to a waterfall.

Wilder stops the group, turns and smiles. “Well done, we did what we had to do and now, let’s go celebrate!” he says with a fist pump.

They all cheer and head further into town, and pile into what seems to be a pub of sorts.

Serenity nods her head, “drinking again,” she mumbles, “shocker.”

Completely out of her element, she just follows them in. The pub is named the “Waterlogged Dolphin” and is fairly big. There were only a few patrons in there before Wilder made his way in. Now it is packed. You can see the man behind the bar, his eyes bulge and he starts frantically pouring beer and such to the group.

Serenity holds back, finds a high table and stool and just plops down on it, welcoming the respite. Her feet were sore, her legs were like goat fat and she was hungry and thirsty.

After watching them all cheer, pat each other on the back and get served ale, the place quiets down to a low roar.

Wilder eyes the young lady up, puts out his hand and a man places some coins in it. He smiles at him, nods his head.

The wily old scavenger walks over to Serenity, mugs in hand and he plops them on the table. “You earned me 4 gold my lovely,” he says with what he thought, a dashing smile.

She looks up at him, then around the bar, then back at him, “glad I could be of help,” she replies wiggling her feet a bit from the soreness.

He slides two gold across to her, “they bet me you wouldn’t have lasted half the trip, let alone the entire trip, you earned this,” he says with a chuckle.

Serenity eyes up the gold, then pushes them back to Wilder; and his eyes get big.

“For your services and protection,” she says thinking she still has to keep tight with him, and he seems to really appreciate loyalty, “it’s the least I can offer.”

He pauses a moment, thinking, then gives the young woman a soft smile, “thank you. That is very thoughtful.” He snatches up the gold, and pushes a mug towards her.

She glances at it with some disdain, but picks it up, raises it a bit in respect, then almost drops it with her shoulder spiking with pain. Serenity winces and puts the mug down.

“Damn, forgot about my shoulder,” she says in some discomfort.

He stands up, guzzles his mug, grabs hers and walks away.

She watches him walk away, worried she offended this man, or something else, maybe worse. She takes a deep breath and wincing, lightly touching her wounds.

He returns with a large plate of spiced potatoes and another mug.

“Eat up, you need your strength,” he says to her, looking into her gorgeous eyes, pausing a moment, then giving her a wink. He turns and walks into the frey of the Pub where people are starting to get loud again from drinking, eating and letting loose.

She looked at the potatoes and was worried at first. They looked and smelled delicious but the “rations” she had this morning did not sit well. Her stomach growled and she pulled on the plate and started to eat. They were wonderful, perfectly cooked and spiced. There were a few strips of meat on the side that she gobbled up and washed it down with some water.

Serenity leans back in the chair, a little sweat on her forehead from eating the hot potatoes. Then it started to dawn on her; where am I going to sleep? What am I going to do next? Where is my guardian? What of Thorngate?

A bit of panic washes over her, but the comfortable seat, the full belly and the sounds of laughter helps wash that away.

After being a wallflower for an hour, Wilder again makes his way over to talk with the now sleepy young woman.

“You look like you could fall asleep just sitting there. I own this place, so just go upstairs, pick a room and crash,” he says pointing up.

She gives him a thank you type smile, grabs her bag and walks up the stairs, avoiding the now drunk group, hooting and hollering.

It is a long hallway, with 3 doors on each side, at the end there is a large window. She walks to the window and checks it. It is big and can be opened.

She nods her head, thinking of an escape route. She walks in the door closest, and looks the room over. A bed, a dresser, a basin, two small windows; she thinks to herself. Checks the door and it does not have a lock on it. She shakes her head. Closes the door, grabs the only chair in the room and pins it up against the door.

She opens the window for a moment and feels this is also an escape route. Closing it, keeping as much moisture out of the room as possible.

After washing up, working on her wound again, she uses the few rags that were laying around the basin to bind it again. It looks much better, but sudden movements send piercing pain down her shoulder.

Serenity keeps her thin bracers on, with her daggers tucked in, she climbs into bed and has little to no problem falling asleep.

Part Two

After getting woken up a few times with drunk people trying to get in the room, Serenity ends up getting a good rest. She wakes up with the smallest amount of muted sunlight sneaking in through the window. Stretching she judges her body as still tired, sore and wanting to roll over and go back to sleep.

As she forces herself out of the bed, she checks her wound and it is looking better and better. Still some pain, but the area has congealed, and looks healthy enough.

Washing the best she can with the less than fresh water, she gears up completely and heads out. She opens the door to have a person collapse into the room. They must have fallen asleep leaning against it. She walks over the scattered amount of people passed out in the hallway.

Serenity makes her way down to the bottom floor, and it looks as though the pub is not open yet. Tables have chairs on them, no one in the area. There is a central table that has a mess on it; ranging from half filled mugs of ale, plates of now stale spiced potatoes and other debris. She thinks for a second to search the pile for food, but decides against it, she has at least a little pride left.

She pulls a stool over to a window and peers out. An odd look; a street with a few people going about their business. No sky, no sun, just a heavy layer of fog that sits on top. She can see where the sun could come through, and it does light most of the city, but the layer of moisture and fog keeps this city on a sunless lockdown.

The young woman goes through her bag thoroughly to keep a mental inventory and idea of what she can or can not do with what she has with her. She puts the pack back together, and out of the back of the main room walks Wilder with a woman she has never seen before. She grabs a few coins from him, and he smacks her butt. She jumps a little with a smirk on her face and heads for the door.

Serenity watches as the woman leaves, and Wilder looks over shrugging his shoulder. He reaches behind the bar and grabs a bottle, and heads over to the young woman.

He takes a glug of the contents, shutters a bit and hands it to Serenity.

She gingerly takes it, “a bit early for a shot, even for you, isn’t it?” Serenity says giving the unshaven man a look.

Shaking his head he just gives her a “just drink” look and nod. With a sigh and a prayer she takes a glug. It was powerful, but it was not booze, she thought to herself. She could feel her muscles start to loosen, feel a bit better. The slight headache was now fading.

Handing the unmarked bottle back to Wilder she smiles, “damn, that was good,” she says cheerfully.

Wilder chuckles and sits on a stool.

“What are your plans, beautiful?” he asks in earnest.

The teenage rogue sits there, fidgeting with her bottom lip, shaking her head. “I don’t know. My home was destroyed and my guardian missing. Not a lot of options right now I guess.”

“Well you are welcome to join us for a while,” he says walking over to the bar, placing the bottle back. “It’s not a life of luxury, but you will survive.”

Serenity ponders the thought, “and if I decide to go my own way?” she says, trying to gauge his response.

He playfully bows a bit, “then I say to you fine woman, best of luck.”

Continuing her line of questions, “If I join, what am I expected to do?” she says, looking at him cough and wipe his mouth.

“Good question, miss Blackrose. Eat, drink, protect, fight and survive,” he says somewhat confusingly, “in our own way we contribute, and it always seems to work out.”

She stands from the stool, dragging it back to it’s table, looks over to the man, “I guess I’ll survive a bit longer with you then,” she responds with the best smile she could produce.

Again a playful bow, “I must talk to a few people and then figure out our next move,” he says and then tilting his head, “why don’t you join me, it seems you may be the only one up… and sober right now.”

She nods in agreement.

He walks into the back again, then re-emerges with a different shirt, and a haphazardly made sword on his side. “Let’s go sweet cheeks,” he says walking past her opening the door.

Serenity looks up to the man, who smells of cheap cologne and ale. “Sweet Cheeks?” she asks walking out the door.

He chuckles, “better than pumpkin tits I guess,” wilder finishes closing the door.

Much like before, the air is just wet. They make their way through some streets, people doing their thing and it seems like every other town or city, Serenity thinks. She would not know, living in one city, in the basement during the day for most of her life. But it doesn’t feel off from her small amount of experience.

She can tell the moisture is a regular thing spotting moss and some mold growing just about everywhere the light doesn’t quite make it. Anything wood seems to sag, or have odd stains on them, and the stone and metal all seem to have a sheen to them, with a layer of water and moisture.

Eventually they make it to a large building and he walks in. Almost forgetting she was with him, he closes the door and she scoots inside with her dexterity. The room is brightly lit and very warm. Serenity figures it is because of all the candles, and the few lanterns giving off heat. There are a few tables piled with books, papers, inkwells, debris and such. Two walls filled with book cases, and one large window with drapes across it. A large door on the far wall that is closed.

An older man looks up from his work at another table, only half filled with everything, “Wilder, you back already?” the man states, less than thrilled that he is in his room, by the sounds of it anyways. “Still looking for work?”

Wilder walks over to the man, leans down on the table, “yes, Alfredo, I am. Legitimate work anyways,” he responds tilting his head a bit.

“With the war going on, you know the well has dried up. The entities you hunt, were recruited or chased off,” Alfredo starts in saying to Wilder, apparently many times before, “we just can’t…”

The scavenger, leans back up suddenly, “what war? it’s over baby.” he says opening his arms out giving him a wide eyed look. “The City fell a few nights ago,” he starts.

The man behind the desk with bigger circle glasses on his nose, shakes his head interrupting, “I’ll believe it when the reports come in, and I haven’t read any reports saying that. Just a siege.”

Wilder then remembers he has Serenity with him, “my dear, please step forward,” Wilder says beckoning for her.

After casing the joint for windows, doors, traps, possible weapons she looks over to the scavenger and walks over.

“You were in the city when it was getting crushed, right?” he says, looking at her, then back to the man.

Alfredo is genuinely confused seeing this well dressed, well armed and stunningly beautiful girl with him. It has always been a ripe smelling, raggedy clothed person who had a hangover or looked ill, that accompanied him.

“Yes, the City was getting crushed, I barely made it out alive,” Serenity says looking down, the event fresh on her mind, “they had the place surrounded by nightfall, and the city taken by daybreak.”

He smiles softly at the girl, enjoying her unexpected presence (persuasion made). “I can imagine it was frightening, but it does not mean the war is over,” he states, still smiling.

“But, I did get something in today, and I guess you can have a wack at it,” he says begrudgingly, “the town an hour south, Swanley Crow, is having trouble with people going missing. We have sent a few groups down and they have not returned,” he says handing the girl a piece of parchment.

Wilder gives his companion a look and a wide smile, knowing she is bewitching him with her good looks.

The young rogue looks the paper over, and scrunches her forehead. “This is a contract I presume?” she starts. Serenity then starts to talk about the lack of official means, payment and compensation worded in the contract.

After a few minutes, the man with the glasses pushes them farther up his nose, with an annoyed but impressed look says, “take it or leave it.”

The older scruffy man, still impressed with Serenity; her looks, her presence and her smarts, looks at the man, “how much?”

Pushing papers around the desk, he lifts a book, yanks a parchment out. “hmmm, they upped it to 500 gold,” Alfredo says, eyes getting wider.

“Done. We will be back, problem solved as quick as you can say jiggly titties,” he says, grabbing the contract from Serenity, dabbing a quill in an ink well and signing it.

Serenity frowns and even chuckles a bit, “jiggly. Titties.” she mumbles to herself.

“Still getting prime pay for parts?” Wilder asks as he turns to leave.

The man nods, “more than ever,” he says waving the contract around, drying the ink.

“Screw this one up, and you will be out… permanently,” was the parting words of this stuffy desk bound man.

Wilder gathers his companion up and they walk out of the building. Serenity looks back at the sign on the building as they leave and it says “Reaper and Blade, Guild, Est. 288 3E” was on the sign.

The older Scavenger now has a bounce in his step, rolling up the copy of the contract and stuffing it in his belt.

“What was that all about, contracting for… what?” she says, thinking for a moment as they are moving at a quicker pace.

“Monsters, creatures and critters,” he says glancing over at his surprising companion, “you charmed the pants off Gill, he didn’t know what to do when you batted those sparkling eyes. We got this contract because of you, my dear.”

Not really understanding that, she knew she pushed a bit knowing the conversation wasn’t going well, but she was happy knowing, again, she is earning her keep.

“The contracts all but stopped when the war started, those witches started to charm the monsters…” Wilder said, getting interrupted by Serenity.

“The regents, they are regents, not witches,” she says argumentatively.

He smirks, knowing the poor girl bought into the propaganda of the city just nods his head, “The regents, were using them to help fight the war. Even a few miles into Straka Forest was getting empty. No baddies, no contracts. I mean it didn’t help we fucked up on a few of them. But let’s not dwell on the past. Ever have the famous Breakwater Crab Stew?”

The two of them return to the Waterlogged Dolphin, and he starts to clean up. Serenity pitches in, much to the surprise and delight of Wilder. They had the whole room ready to go for business by the time the majority of his group made it down.

The scavenger leader and Serenity were eating some lunch, Breakwater’s famous dish, cold clam stew. At first Serenity did not like it, but was hungry. As she ate more and more of it; it started to taste better and then she ended with her last spoonful thinking that it was excellent. She shakes her head never experiencing that before.

One man, she recognizes as his right hand man, sits at the table, after getting a big mug of water.

Wilder nods, “Baylor, among the living I see.”

He looks at the now empty bowls of stew, “where is mine?” he asks the scruffy vegabond leader.

“Serenity ate it,” he says, “she deserved it, she got us the first contract from the Reaper and Blade in a year,” he says with some excitement.

The man’s eyes light up, looks at the woman with a bit of surprise and then back to Wilder, “we gearing up? I’ll get the group…” he starts but gets interrupted.

“The job is in Swanley Crow, only a short horse ride from here. I only want you and Lyric to go with me and Serenity,” the gruffy man says to his underling, “scope it out and see what the problem is and what has to be done.”

Baylor looks at Serenity, with a somewhat displeasing look, then gets up and heads for the second floor.

“I am going?” Serenity asks, lifting an eyebrow, “I’m just a little girl,” she continues, trying to persuade him to rethink it (fails persuasion attempt).

“Sorry little lady, you are becoming too valuable to me, and I think…” he stops and smirks a bit, “you are hankering for a little adventure.”

As much as she wanted to disguise it, she couldn’t. Serenity let out a little smile and nods, “I am curious to why people are going missing in this Swanley Crow.”

Eventually the two come down, geared the best they could be and the four of them head to the stables. They all have their own horse, and after a short explanation about never riding a horse in her life, Wilder brings the young woman up on his horse and they ride to Swanley Crow.

Part Three

After a half hour, the fog lifts, the humidity drops significantly and it looks to be a nice day; cloudy but with some bursts of sunshine, a bit warm but the breeze off the ocean is helping.

A fairly well maintained road, they pass a merchant and a farmer as well as some guards assigned to Breakwater.

Hovels and shacks pop up along the road, and it leads into a fairly densely populated town. The architecture was of low class, just making something work. People walking around, doing their business and the town seems to be no less for wear despite their Kingdom falling.

Eventually Wilder gets to one of the only stone building in the town, “this is where we get our information from,” he says. Looking at Serenity, “you are with me, Baylor I’ll be back,” he says.

Baylors eyes get large and some anger washes over his face. He just nods and huffs.

Wilder and Serenity walk into the building, and it is fairly empty. A straight hallway, with some unkept tapestries, a dirty rug and cobwebs here and there. Familiar with the Town Hall, he walks about 20 feet knocks and walks into a room.

Serenity with her instincts is looking over the area, for traps, exits, weapons and the like. Wilder looks back to her after he enters the room, “Come on, we don’t have time to site see,” he muses a bit with annoyance.

Entering the room, it reminds her of the Reaper and Blade, papers everywhere, books, writing utensils, book shelves, etc.

“Anyone home?” he says, and just then a womans head pops up out of the paper pile in the far corner. A blonde middle aged woman with glasses, thin and now somewhat startled.

“uh, what? hello? Who are you?” she says trying to get a better look. Unfortunately the pile of papers she was working on starts to slide and fall all over the floor. Serenity with quick speed catches about half and helps put them back on the table (made a dexterity save to help).

The annoyed woman is picking up the papers on the floor, glances up to see the young woman save the rest of them. She smiles at the stunning young woman.

“Thank you, your name?” she asks, standing straight up and tilting her head a bit.

Serenity is putting the wad of papers back gingerly, to not knock them back over. Then looks at the woman, “serenity, Serenity…” she goes to say her last name but gets quickly interrupted by Wilder.

“Last names… not important, really,” he says quickly hoping to cover up the fact her last name is named after the most notorious, infamous, brutal Assassins guild known to Legon.

“We are hear about the missing people,” Wilder mentions, looking over the table to get a better look at the woman.

She stands up quickly, “oh, dear, again?” the woman blurts out, “they come, they look and they leave,” she says with some frustration, “with little to no communication or obviously any reasons to the disappearances.”

The woman walks from behind the table dressed in some common clothes, but looks to take care of herself. Standing in the middle of, what is apparently, her office she puts her hands on her hips looking at the two. She is giving Wilder a look, “don’t I know you?”she says slowly while she is trying to figure out if she does.

He shakes his head, “maybe, I have been through here before, helping the innocent, fighting evil, you know,” he spouts like someone who was dunked in a rainbow and unicorns farted him out.

Serenity walks over to Wilder, eyes big. She doesn’t know him that well, but that line of bullshit will get him no where, she thinks to herself.

The woman smiles and nods, seemed to have accepted his absurd line (she failed a perception check on the man, he was successful with persuasion).

“Is there anything you can tell us about the disappearances?” Serenity starts in, turning to look at the woman, masking the smirk she has.

She shrugs her shoulders, “they, uh, disappeared,” she says nodding her head looking at them.

Wilder and Serenity stand there dumbfounded, blinking, staring at the woman.

“Might there be someone who would know, a bit more information?” the scavenger then adds, in hopes she has enough brain functionality to give them that information.

She nods and walks to her table, looking over a parchment. “Our head guard Camden, he would know and he is…” she is tracing her finger along the parchment, “on duty. Down the street, 3 buildings on your right.” she says wheeling around and getting a better look at wilder.

He smirks, and she raises an eyebrow.

Serenity catches this, rolls her eyes and grabs the scavenger by the arm. “Thank you for your time,” she mutters and she guides the vegabond out of the room and out of the building.

“What?” Wilder says laughing a little. Baylor and Lyric are looking at them, shaking their heads.

“Friend oy tight I see,” Lyric says with a little bit of jealousy in her voice, “known just moments, best o’ buds.”

Baylor chuckles as Wilder frowns at the Wild Elf. He points in the direction of the guard house.

They head down to the guard house and again only Wilder and Serenity go in. The scavenger looks around and frowns, knowing this place in the opposite way, sitting in a cell for days. But that was some time ago.

A few men sit at a long table, eating some food. One man walks from the back and seems better dressed, better prepared then the other two.

“Camden?” Wilder says walking forward, “we were sent from…” is all he could get out.

The man stops, furries his brow and says, “I told you to never show your face in Swanley Crow again,” with a bit of anger in his voice, “what part of that do you not understand?”

Wilder stops, backs up a bit. Serenity sighs loudly, shakes her head, grabs the parchment and walks in front of him. She hands him the paper with the signed contract from Reaper & Blade Guild.

Camden was taken back a bit by the woman, well dressed and clean, and he grabs the paper an looks at it.

“Official contract from Reaper and Blade, we are here to investigate the disappearances,” Serenity starts and continues, “per orders from the stone building thingy, or town hall is it? That you would show us where these have taken place.”

He is shaking his head, reading the document.

“Official contract, official business. Once that is complete, this, lovely man here, will leave the town,” she says in a clear and precise voice.

Wilder nods his head, “Yes, what she said,” pointing at the young woman in front of him.

Camden begrudgingly agrees to show them where the people went missing. As he is walking them through the town pointing out the places, he also started to acquire a few guards to follow. No doubt to keep an eye on Wilder, Serenity thinks.

They end at the latest disappearance. It is a larger home, more like a shack, that now looks deserted. It is nestled up against the edge of a forest. (Made her investigations check) Serenity rubs her chin, “notice that they are all up against trees and the forest, in the most remote portions of the town?” she says thinking out loud.

The guard nods, “aye, makes sense if you are going to take someone, have an easy get away plan.” He is giving Serenity another look as though to say, what are you doing with this guy?

He goes on to explain that a older couple lived here, and the woman woke one night to find the back door slamming around in the breeze, and her husband missing. They did an investigation and there was nothing that really stood out. The rest of the disappearances have been similar stories. The woman is now staying with friends on the far side of town.

“I ask that you not bother her, this is now three times,” Camden starts to complain, “not sure what is going on, but the last two groups investigated, interviewed the woman, and by the next day, puff, they were gone.”

He waves over two guards, “I don’t have resources like Breakwater, so make this quick, my guards have things to do,” he says looking them over.

Serenity gives Wilder a look, knowing the only reason the guards are sticking around is because of him. He frowns and shrugs his shoulders.

The group then investigates the house. Baylor and Lyric walk in the front, while Wilder and Lyric check out back.

“My old age slows me down a bit, but one thing I am still real good at is tracking,” he says, “well two things I am really good at, and that is..”

Serenity puts her hands up, “save it, save it for the drunk whores you bed,” she says while looking around.

Wilder heads out directly away from the back door, and is looking at the beginning of the forest. He squats down and is looking things over. Walks about 15 feet in and is checking tree branches, leaves, for anything he can find.

Serenity is checking each window, to make sure it hasn’t been used, or if it had, if there is anything she can figure out in regards to time frame or what climbed out.

She turns to tell Wilder something and there is nothing but a forest, with the breeze rustling the leaves.

“Wilder?”

End Chapter Two – Breakwater Wharf