P2: Chapter Eghteen

KnightShade

The quiet and stillness of the morning called to KnightShade.The only sound in the cave was the ringing splash of water falling from a height into the pool. Trying to move quietly, DreamCatCher86 was meditating not far away, he made his way to the mouth of the cave and peeked around the waterfall, the clearing and pool appeared peaceful, empty of any other principles. With his back to the rock, and taking pains to remain dry, he made his way around the wall of falling water out to the sun-dappled clearing.

Once outside he stretched and breathed deeply of the cool, fresh air. Being early in the morning the sun had yet to reach the floor of the forest. The mist from the night before had retreated to the depressions in the ground, with wisps of mist floating around the roots the forest maintained a spooky feeling despite the bright sun.

A little later while KnightShade was stretching, both the sun and DreamCatCher86 entered the clearing. Her smile warmed him almost more than the sun. Moving away from the waterfall, close to KnightShade, into the sun. She started stretching, and for a time they stretched together. Later she stopped, rolled her shoulders, “You ready?” she asked.

“The question is, are you? Have you beaten me yet?”

She snarled and leap at him bringing her bow down in a vicious overhead swing. KnightShade dived forward avoiding the blow. He rolled on impact, a paw swiped DreamCatCher86’s ankle as he rolled by. KnightShade had kept his claws retracted, so the blow had no effect at all. But he knew that if this had been a real battle, this would have marked the beginning of his inevitable victory. In this battle, the fight continued.

For a while they fought, DreamCatCher on the attack, working on her melee skills. KnightShade dodged, leaped, rolled and parried. Had this been a real battle, they both knew he would have won, but this wasn’t a real battle this was practice and warm up. The truth was it would be much harder to win now than when they started KnightShade had to admit.

Movement in the clearing distracted him and he missed a block, as a result, he caught a painful, preventable blow to the chest that sent him sprawling. Remembering that he had seen movement, he regained his feet as quickly as he could. Sultry laughter rolled through the clearing. That his sanctum had been violated filled KnightShade with rage, he was annoyed.

He focused on the offending principle.

aSTARTe

Level 3

Wallet-10Au

“Well, aren't you two cute, practicing in this idyllic little clearing.” aSTARTe’s voice was low and sultry, a hint of a laugh hiding behind her words. The clatter and slide of an arrow being pulled from a quiver as well as the sound of a bowstring being drawn told KnightShade that DreamCatCher86 was not entertained by the condescending tone aSTARTe had taken. aSTARTe didn’t miss it either as she quickly held her arms out to show she held no weapons, “Oh no! I’m not here to fight, I’m so sorry if I gave the wrong impression if I startled or offended you in any way.”

KnightShade was having a hard time looking at aSTARTe, she was easy on the eyes, but her black skin tight outfit was made of a material that seemed to move, writhing constantly, over her body, he couldn’t look at it without feeling queasy. If this was a problem for DreamCatCher86 she kept it out of her voice. “Why would a bounty hunter of Tokener be here, and not want to fight?” Her voice practically dripped with derision and doubt, “Speak quick,” she continued in a cold voice, “Give me a reason not to put this arrow through your eye.”

aSTARTe’s hands went up higher, “No, no, no, no. Really, I’m not here to fight, I’m here to make you an offer.”

KnightShade held a paw out towards DreamCatCher86, “We’re listening.”

“Speak quick.” DreamCatCher86 snapped.

“I will,” aSTARTe said, “I take it you know what I do and who I’m affiliated with. Good, the Golden Hand was great when we started it. The problem is we were too good, too effective. While we got a bunch of bounties to start, we were quick to complete them. Maybe it was because we were so effective, or maybe it was something else, I don’t know, whatever the reason the amount of Toking seemed to  plummet. A few weeks ago we stopped getting new bounties completely. Because of this, we have had to rethink our business model.”

“I’m not hearing an offer,” KnightShade said.

“Wait,” DreamCatCher86 interrupted, “what do you mean change business plan? Are you going to stop bounty hunting?”

“Yes,” aSTARTe said, “there is just no money in it. We were thinking of a more active pay model. A leading idea is a monthly pass, we will guarantee if a principle pays they won't get Tokened.”

“That’s extortion!” DreamCatCher86 burst out.

aSTARTe shrugged, “maybe, I don’t think of it that way. I call it safety.”

“Safety for pay is extortion!” DreamCatCher86 said like she was talking to a small child.

“Whatever,” aSTARTe sounded as if she had lost interest in the topic. “I’m here to give you the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.”

KnightShade and DreamCatCher86 spoke at the same time. “Why us?” he asked, “what if they don’t pay?” she wanted to know.

“Whoa, whoa, one at a time, I heard a question of if they don’t pay, right?” aSTARTe held her hand before her body as if in defense against the questions. “If they don’t pay, they are on their own, if they go above level two…” She shrugged. “As for your question of why you.” she continued looking at KnightShade, “it’s simple, you’re Tokeners who are not affiliated with the Band. In our new venture, there will be a few key roles that could be perfect for you.”

“Can we have some time to talk this through before we give you our answer?” KnightShade asked.

“What is there to talk about?!” DreamCatCher86 asked incredulously.

KnightShade held one paw out to her, silently asking her to wait, to be calm.

aSTARTe spoke up, “do all the talking you need. I fact we have maybe two weeks worth of things to do before we will be ready to roll out this new business model, I’ll come when everything else is ready to go. Will that work?”

“Sure, that’s great, thanks,” KnightShade answered, without breaking eye contact with DreamCatCher86. Neither reacted,  or  spoke  when  aSTARTe  slipped from the clearing. Finally, DreamCatCher86 broke the silence, “you can’t seriously be thinking about accepting that offer?”

“I’m not. I just didn’t want to tell her no and risk a confrontation.”

“Why, together we could have taken her no problem.”

“I agree, but then what? I mean when we won we would have Tokened her, right?”

DreamCatCher86 shrugged, “Yeah, probably.”

“No probably about it. I can’t think of a situation where I wouldn’t have done it. I would have Tokened her, and then she would come down on us with the full strength of the Golden Band, or whatever it’s called. But if we wait, when they roll out this new business plan they will have their hands full. We will probably never see her again.”