Another day, another job in Era Town.

Amaris wasn’t really into it, but there was not a lot the werewolf could do about her current situation. She needed the money, and this country needed people like her to assist them. It was the money that kept her into it, as well as what little information she managed to gather during those times. Amaris had been keeping herself out of trouble for the most part and she wasn’t too interested about being all up in a messy situation again – it just wasn’t worth her time and energy. She wanted to make money so she could buy herself whatever she needed in order to survive and not get captured again, and she supposed doing simple jobs and working for the rich and wealthy would do the trick. Amaris found the noble people of Fiore to be rather peculiar, although interesting and rather smart. She respected the fact that they clearly only cared about themselves and their own kind, but they were good at it. When the demonic rifts had been opened – a whole other strange event she had completely missed out on, not feeling much of a difference in the air – and the country fell into chaos, everyone made sure to be in the safest place possible.

Naturally, Era Town was one of those places.

It was remarkably well guarded (which wasn’t really a surprise considering that the Rune Knight headquarters were right here, in Era) and the military force was rather strong, she had to admit. Mercenaries were a welcomed sight nonetheless, however, and this was what really enabled her to participate in the whole situation. With demons advancing the world, Amaris really hoped that it would turn the attention away from her kind (not that there had ever been much attention on the werewolves to begin with). There were few of them and the majority of them guarded their secrets well from mankind, who now had much more horrifying foes to worry about – much to Amaris’ delight. She felt weirdly comfortable walking among her prey and found it comical how unsuspecting they were. Not that she was intending on reliving her days as a predator, for now was not the right time for that. Amaris most definitely had to play it smart. And because of that, she left her apartment with the intention of approaching the very same family that had occupied her before. They pay was decent and the work wasn’t difficult at all. It merely required some patience and a lot of time – the latter she had plenty to give. She was heading to one of those camps she had been to before. It was a place where people, mercenaries to be exact, met with potential job givers, discussed the term and then, if a contract happened, they would be led to the specific estate in order to do what they were hired for. A rather simple system honestly, but she liked it. The last time Amaris had worked for the so called Schiffer family.

A rather noble house, but not too noble that they were still willing to pay off random mercenaries to do their bidding. Upon arrival, the female werewolf already spotted the same butler she had spoken to before and swiftly, she approached him again. He seemed to recognize her, since he greeted her with a nod and quickly went through his notes to see if he had something that she could deem fit for herself. “Miss Amaris,” he began and while he was looking for a proper job, perhaps something similar to what she had done the other day, Amaris looked around. It wasn’t quite midday yet, and many people were out. The place - camp, if you want to call it that - wasn’t crowded, but there were a decent amount of humans present. Most of them were mercenaries like her, people who had no use for magic and didn’t really bother with it. They had their physical abilities and weapons to wield that would do the job for them just fine. A few lesser seemed to be actual wizards from what she could tell, as they were often lightly clad and overly confident. Amaris knew that most wizards were part of a wizard’s guild as those were extremely prominent in Fiore. In many ways those reminded her of a pack and she was feeling almost a little bit envious thinking about it. Amaris had never even bothered considering joining a wizard’s guild.

It wouldn’t make any sense for her at all. She wasn’t a wizard and from what she could tell, she would never be one. Werewolves were physical beings, made from bone and flesh - no fancy sparkly magic involved here. In fact, her kind didn’t even bother too much with weapons. Truth be told, she wasn’t really capable of holding one in first place when she was transformed, and if for some reason she decided not to transform during a serious fight it would simply be a waste of her talents and her strength. Magically enhanced jewelry, however, was a different situation. She had played with the idea of getting her hands on those for several times now, although she was never too sure of it. It seemed like a great idea and definitely useful, but like mentioned before: Amaris didn’t really know how to use magic, even less magically enhanced items. Perhaps she would only do harm to herself in trying to control it and that would be fatal of course. Definitely not something she was interested in. She would reconsider it, but definitely continue to consider it nonetheless. Those items were sold at the black markets, some of the most dubious places in the country, at an extremely high price. Money she would rather invest in protein shakes, if she thought about it. Amaris attention was drawn back to the butler when he suddenly spoke up. “Yes, I think I found something for you.” He pointed at a piece of paper he had brought forward and Amaris peeked over to take a look.

The butler then proceeded to explain a job that related to the son of Lord Schiffer, Martin Schiffer. Amaris had already met Anna Schiffer, the youngest daughter of the lord who was only sixteen years of age and extremely unbothered by the whole ongoing catastrophe that almost dropped their country into chaos. All she really cared about was shopping and buying sweets for her family and honestly – Amaris couldn’t fault her for it. She didn’t expect much more than that from a rich sixteen year old and the time she spent with her, although it was only a few hours, was easily earned money. Martin Schiffer was Anna’s oldest brother, a twenty-nine year old knight. He was the oldest of the siblings and from what Amaris could tell, there were indeed a few more. Perhaps she would meet them another time though. His intentions and jobs were definitely more noble, which also meant more work but Amaris didn’t mind that. “Lord Martin has been working with and for the Rune Knights for most of his youth, but during this war he temporarily retired in order to serve his family,” the butler explained and Amaris listened. “He, alongside Lord Schiffer, are responsible for keeping the family premises safe. Perhaps it’s better if you speak to him personally to get more information what exactly it is, that he requires you to do.” Amaris merely nodded at that. “I believe it had something to do with guarding the premises down to the countryside, where the family has a farm as well as a few mills that are out in the open. As per usual, you will be paid 250,000 Jewels for your services - I hope this satisfies you.” Amaris nodded again and signed the contract. It was a considerably large sum and she really had nothing to complain about. With the contract now in her hands, the werewolf went on her merry way to the Schiffer’s mansion. There, in a designated conference room, she was to meet the heir of the Schiffer family, Martin.

When Amaris saw him for the first time, she was almost surprised at how stereotypically heroic he looked. It was like he was literally born to fit into this role. He had brown hair, a sharp face and stern looking eyes. Furthermore, he was tall and well trained and he seemed nothing short of extremely professional and probably fairly intelligent. He was also armor clad and seemed to favour a lance as his preferred weapon. This made Amaris believe that he traveled and fought mainly by horse. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that she was a female at all, and Amaris knew that this was uncommon in the human world. The female sex was definitely the weaker one between the two, but perhaps he could tell she was more than that. Not that his opinions and thoughts mattered much to her - the butler had sent her here and so now he was stuck with her. Not much he could do about that.

“Our family owns a number of windmills, that are maintained by John Holsten, his wife Frieda and their two sons. They are all farmers living on the countryside, it’s less than an hour long ride from here. We expect a shipment from one of our suppliers today and the reason I need you there today is in order to oversee said shipment and make sure everything works out normally.”

He then proceeded to explain that the last time the Holsten family had received a shipment, the merchants had been overrun by bandits, who had then robbed both merchants and the Holsten family, which had luckily not caused any deaths but a major financial loss. In order to avoid this, they needed some sort of body guard. Amaris would of course be provided with a horse in order to do the approximately forty minute long ride to the farm where she would stay for the night - in order to take care of any bandits showing up in the night - and receive the shipment in the morning. Once the shipment was completed she would then take a letter signed by the merchants and the Holsten family back to Martin Schiffer where she would then get her reward. An easy enough job, she supposed. Amaris accepted and then was led outside to the stables where she received a decent and sturdy looking brown stallion.

Amaris had ridden on a horse before, although not many times she she preferred to walk by herself, but she supposed she could handle it. The ride was unusual but luckily not very long. The farm was located north of Era, in the countryside. The area surrounding Era was mostly empty and void of any people living there. She spotted a few smaller farms and the one she was heading to in particular, the Holsten farm, was surrounded by three windmills and close to a forest. The forest area was also where the merchants were supposed to be arriving from and where potential threats could be coming from as well. Amaris would have to make sure to keep a keen eye on that area in particular, especially during the night. The Holsten family was friendly and they greeted and welcomed her immediately. “Welcome, Miss. We have been informed of your arrival. Dinner is already done, my wife Frieda has made beef stew, hopefully to your liking. We have a room prepared for you as well.” The beef stew turned out to be delicious and Amaris was glad for the warm meal. After that she decided to scout the area around the house a bit to get a better idea of the situation. The guest room she had been given was actually facing towards the forest. It had its own separate door so that she could enter and leave if needed. There was a road leading down into the forest and a small fence that marked the entrance into the forest. From then on, it was mostly darkness. Amaris went out to the fence and placed two lanterns with large candles inside on each side.

That way Amaris would be able to see if anyone came out of the forest. Not that she expected any bandits to actually take the road, but it would serve as a warning. Furthermore, should the merchants arrive before sunrise, they would be able to use the light as a guide. Amaris didn’t expect to get such a delicious meal and she very much felt better now after eating. So much that she thought about guarding the forest area herself and perhaps scouting it a little. Although the farmers couldn’t know about that. Outside of the house, there was a large garden with some vegetables that they were growing for personal use, with the fields were the wheats and all the other vegetables were growing that were used to sell and make profit. Overall it was a pretty large property and a pretty large house, but if anything it would be the farmhouse that would be attacked and not the windmills or any other surrounding establishments. Amaris even considered watching the farm house from atop of it since that would give her the best vision. Since she did have night vision, however, and could see perfectly in the dark as well as smell very decently, maybe there was no reason for that. She figured that she would be scouting the outskirts for now and made sure to inform the family before leaving the house. “I’ll be on my way the, warding and seeing if there is anything unusual at all.” She explained to them.

None of them wanted to question it. They went to bed, turned the lights off and with that, the only lights that were left were the ones on the forest’s road and her room. Amaris began her nightshift by exploring the forest a bit closer. She didn’t stray too far from the farm house, but snuck deep enough inside to make sure she would know if there were any intruders. She could not smell or hear or see anything out of the ordinary, however and for the following three hours, it was mostly silence. It was good enough since she wasn’t exactly intent on conflict, but around 1 am in the morning, something did catch her attention after all. Voices, far off from the farm considering her current location, could be heard. The careful whispering of quiet male voices. It seemed as though Martin had been right to be concerned, because upon closer inspection Amaris realized there were indeed bandits. Not many, fortunately, but naturally they still outnumbered her. There were three of them, but only one looked bulky and strong. They had a little camp with a small light in between them and she was almost certain they were readying themselves for an attack. It was the perfect time for it anyways. Of course Amaris couldn’t let this happen. She picked up a little rock and threw it far away from her, onto the other side of the camp. It wasn’t a distinctive sound, but loud enough to turn their attention and heads away from where she was standing.

With that, a wicked growl erupted from Amaris throat, as the werewolf jumped the men and caught them surprised. While her howl could be heard even past the lines of the forest, their short lived screams were quickly deafened and brought to silence. She dragged the corpses away where she was certain that they would never be found and could rot in peace. Then she moved on the scout along the area of the road that let up to the farm itself, but it seemed as though there were no further bandits intending on robbing anyone - at least not here. Amaris returned to the farm approximately two hours later and decided to get some sleep for the night. She was awoken in the morning by the rooster’s call and breakfast was served as well. At the table, no one pointed out anything at first, until Farmer Holsten made a comment. “I’ve heard wolves last night. Usually we don’t have wolves out here, I do hope they don’t become a problem with my sheep!” Amaris could only smile at that. “I haven’t seen any wolves in the woods at all. I don’t think you have anything to be worried about,” she assured him as they ate.

Shortly after they finished their breakfast, they went back to their chores and waited for the merchants to arrive. Much to Amaris amusement, the merchants had a similar story to tell. It was a caravan with a decent amount of items and seven people traveling together, two of which were mercenaries, much like Amaris. They explained that their arrival had been delayed due to fear of running into a wolf pack late at night, because of which they decided to not move until the sun had risen. After that it was just normal business. Amaris received the signed document that proved that everything here had gone according to terms and with that, she was back on her horse bidding farewell to the Holsten family and riding back to Era. She was a bit tired of course, but other than that she felt well. She returned to the Schiffer’s mansion where she dropped the horse off and went inside the same conference room to meet with Martin. Once she arrived, she handed over the document which he checked immediately. “Did you run into any troubles during your journey or your stay?” Amaris had already decided to keep this bit to herself, so the woman merely shook her head. She didn’t know what consequences there were for killing people if the authorities knew, even if it were bandits. “No, Sir. None at all. The farmers and merchants took note of hearing wolves, but that’s it. Personally, I did not see any.” He nodded and reached for a bag that was filled with jewels. “Alright then, Miss Ashryver. I thank you for your services. Here’s your reward. 250,000 Jewels as promised.” He handed her the bag and Amaris thanked him with a nod. “It was my pleasure.” With that, she swiftly left the premises and went back to her apartment.