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The young mail carrier let out a light sigh of relief when it looked to her that she was set to finish her route on time, her breath still fairly visible against the cold morning air. Lightly tugging at her scarf as she approached one of the residential houses at the wooded outskirts of the village, her mind began to wander a little as her hand dipped into her satchel. She glanced down at the single sealed envelope in her hand. For every person she'd met in the past few years, it seemed like they'd just as quickly move away to be replaced with someone new. She wasn't going to complain about that. In fact, she was used to being the one doing the leaving.If anything, it just felt strange to be the person staying in one place for a change.

Her final steps toward the mailbox were rather listless ones, some small patches of snow steadily compressing underneath her boots. The sound of it was fairly easy for her to tell as far as anything the size of a person was concerned, but she was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the tiny skittering of a small chipsqueek, seemingly one of the first to emerge from its winter den to forage. Swiftly climbing up to the top of the now open mailbox to observe a pleasantly surprised Vivian, the fluffy animal looked to be grooming itself of the minute frost along its vibrantly colored, bushy tail.

"Oh, hello little guy. Feeling brave after coming out of your den, are we? Well you just sit tight, and once I'm done here, I can go and find something for-" the girl had slowly began to lift the letter into the mailbox when suddenly the chipsqueek lunged itself down and grabbed the parcel out of her hands, and scurried on all fours as she immediately gave chase. "H-Hey! Come back! I need that!" she cried out after it, utterly shocked that the little thing would pull such a stunt and truthfully a tad embarrassed to be in this predicament in the first place.

Agnes

The elf Agnes had taken a few glances at the conversation from the merchant and the brewer. That was interesting to hear, to hear about economics from a place like an inn. She didn’t expect that young lady to be quite sober. But now to mention it, she hasn't talked much with Dwarves in this village. Not that she had incurred grudges with them, but they aren’t so easy to get along with. She thought, taking the last few sips off her goblet of wine.

There was not much to do here after returning books, and it was about time to bring her word of thanks to the bartender, “A lot of grudges still seep in the prose of the recent wars.”

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Several hours had passed by the time Shikoi had finally stopped walking. Entering her store, she flipped the sign to "open" and sat behind the counter. There was a lot of commotion going on regarding merchants and the guild. If anything it was going to be a noisy day for the guild master. She somewhat felt bad for him, but why would she care about someone she barely interacted with? The old man was also probably going to get a lot of customers, so good for him. That being said people were coming inside the shop. She stopped herself from scowling and waited for them to get their items.

What she would do to lay down on a bed and relax as the sun rose by. Shikoi began taking the items and priced their products. Unfortunately, it seemed like that her customer wasn't pleased with her products. "What do you mean you don't sell yams!" Shikoi merely rolled her eyes as the man slammed his fist onto the counter. "I'll tell you before and I'll tell you again, we don't sell yams here." The man was obviously not taking her disrespect well. "It's the beginning of winter! You can't tell you don't have any yams here!" Well, actually she did. She had stored them somewhere within this house, but was she going to get them? "You can just buy your crops, or leave." Shikoi said.

After a rather brisk walk, Ailred found himself entering the tree line of the forest. Taking in a deep breath, he enjoys the fresh smells of the wilderness as it enters his nose. It was not to say that the smells of the village were bad, but nothing can quite compare to more earthy and floral smell of nature. It was comforting, to say the least.

Once he had taken in all he wanted, he begins to walk in the woods of the tree line. It didn’t take him long to start finding what he was looking for. Scattered under trees and in the wild grass, certain plants caught his eye immediately. Medical herbs and green grasses. Any herbalist worth one’s salt should be able to know these items at sight. They’re the materials of most basic potions sold within the realm, after all. Nodding to himself, he starts plucking up the two, filling his material bag with a decent haul.

Materials snug within his bag, he makes his way back along the tree line towards the path he had taken from the village. As he does though, his attention falls to something not far out from the woods.

The Graveyard.

Such somber places aren’t his cup a tea. Not like most people would say otherwise. But in looking towards the graveyard, he can’t help but feel that something...just doesn’t seem right about it. Like a disturbance in the air coming from it. Rather curious about this feeling, Ailred takes to leaning on a tree, taking the chance to scan the site a little more closely from the (relative) safety of the woods.

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The snow and frost of winter had not completely melted away by the time much of the guild’s staff had gathered at the hall to pick up whatever they needed before descending upon the village’s easter entrance as a group, a bracing chill greeting them as the sun seemed to just barely begin its climb.

Rowan had met the day with his usual brand of irritable lethargy, the kind that only slightly subsided after a mug of coffee from downstairs. His was the first footsteps within the main hall, setting aside the coffee pot to boil before making final preparations with those that were due to arrive. Normal guild operations would commence for the day in an hour or so.

But for now, everyone’s effort was directed to prepping for this quest. Nearby cluckadoodles were still vehemently ushering forth the beginning of the day by the time he and a sizable band of workers took to the village’s stone paths. All were carrying something, from wheelbarrows of useful items like rope and tent-making materials, to bundles full of provisions and other useful items, consumable or otherwise.

In a matter of moments the the site became quite the hive of activity, with a number of people guiding in a large, buffaloo-drawn wagon down to meet them there. Able to carry most of the shared supplies along with up to four people not including the coachman, renting this covered was a good call if Rowan did say so himself, a slight smirk about him until he saw who had hitched a ride on it.

“Hi Rowan!” exclaimed an excited Vivian from the back entrance of the carriage once the man came around from the side. “Great day for a hunt isn’t it?”

The man, although not fazed by her outburst, was nevertheless fairly perplexed to see her. “I don’t remember calling you here this early,” he said with a raise of his eyebrow, to which she smiled widely.

“Oh, that’s okay. You didn’t have to. I knew you were renting a wagon from nearby, so when I found out where it was I woke up early to see it myself. There was no way I could help myself when it came to this big guy!” she exclaimed as she turned around and leapt off the front of the wagon and onto the back of the burly beast to give it a hug. If it was almost anyone else, Rowan would have stopped them. But the buffaloo didn’t even raise a foot in protest, but rather lightly shook its head as it grunted at a nearby guild member to feed it more grass.

In no time at all, the eager half-elf dismounted off the beast of burden and stood looking up to a waiting Rowan. “Well that, and I really wanted to see everyone off,” she admitted more calmly, but no less earnestly, the guildmaster smirking at her in return.

It was the day of this grand hunt Rowan, The Guildmaster had organized with his Adventurer’s guild. The town guard as agreed upon yesterday, assembled a crew lead by Mercedes. It was a team of six herself included that showed. At their side was a team of Horse lizards acting as their mounts. The creatures were reptiles capable of a semi-bipedal stance and grasping claws for their forelimbs.

“Good Morning,” The woman said to Rowan, “I take it we’re still waiting on the others to arrive?” She would answer his response and then focus on her teammates. Although they were all dressed identically, as expected of a group like them, each one of them was bring along different weapons and various tools in their packs.

“Hey boss, should we show off our gear for tracking the critters down to the guildmaster? Might be useful if he wants us to pair with the adventurers.”

“Not a bad idea.” She replied. She would then call over for his attention and tell him about her comrade’s suggestion.

Upon seeing the guards draw closer, Rowan simply nodded and rose his hand in affirmation to the squad’s leader, his eyes darting around to the steadily growing assembly and noticing that there were still a fair number of hunters yet to arrive. While he was telling the woman as much, Vivian’s attention would immediately be drawn to her men’s reptilian steeds, a somewhat cautious approach as she gingerly neared one.

“A means of seeking out monsters…” he repeated as his arms folded in preparation of looking this gear of theirs further, though his eye did linger in following the small girl in her curious examination of these formidable looking mounts. “Seems to me that in a mission like this, the kind of monster that needs dealing with are the sort that will make themselves easy to find. When our job is done, any monsters left will be easily taken care of by the security forces hired for the festival. That said, if you truly believe this gear of yours will make a difference, then go ahead and show me or the hunters when enough have arrived. They are the ones accompanying you after all.”

The reasoning regarding the breeding and discipline behind service animals however vicious in appearance for an outfit as honorable as the guard was lost to an extent on the young half-elf, but in no time her hand would be gently brushing along the rough hide along the side of one of the creatures, a giddy smile growing on her face before she looked in Mercedes’ direction. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like these before! What do you call them!?” she asked as she returned to petting it, as though observing what area seemed to relax the creature more. “Wow, these scales are so pretty,” she said to herself, admiring it up close.

“They’re called Horselizards.” The woman replied to the girl. “They’re not that mean tempered despite their appearance. They like to have their necks scratched.” She then made her way to Rowan and listened to what he said. He was skeptical to say the least.

“True enough, we’ll show the other hunters what we have.” She said to Rowan. She then continued, “The issue here is the ones who are currently hidden or are ambushers. Those ones are more dangerous than the monsters that merely wander and attack. Furthermore, the tools are not just focused on tracking monsters but also for reading any magical disturbance which should be useful for finding the root cause of the monster surge.”

Having said that, she then regrouped with her fellow guardsmen. They spent their time idly chattering as well as inspecting everything they had meticulously. There was a brief discussion over tactics, but it was agreed that it would be better to bring that up with the others once they arrive. After all, this was supposed to be a collaborative effort and it would be best to wait and then discuss it.