"Drana. Help."
The voice was quiet, pitiful, like nothing more than a starving dog whimpering in the streets for a scrap of food. For a moment, the lazing girl paid no mind, quite sure that it was just a trick of her mind, a dream trying to surface. If it wasn't, and it was who she dearly hoped it was not, things wouldn't be quite so serene and quiet.
"Drana. Please help me!"
She sat herself up, lifting from the strangely comforting surface of a cobblestone outcropping. Above, small beams of sunlight managed to break past the layers of iron grating, and the undulating form of a monstrous beast. The metallic centipede hovered above her, eyes quite distraught. Even behind its skull-like mask, Drana could tell it was suffering from some petty annoyance, as if crying out, 'I'm useless'. Despite its massive, unnerving body, the girl felt little inclination to run, scream or otherwise; she was the one in control here, after all.
"Damnit slug, what do you want?" she grumbled, brushing her hair of moisture. She sat upon a flat stone outcropping the protruded from a narrowing channel, and water gushed from its hollowed center into the river below. Above, beyond her troublesome partner, metal grates prevented anyone on the surface from falling into the waterways. The humidity had collected on the cold stone, and transferred to her black hair. Luckily, it wasn't a waste-water system of the city, and so Drana was spared from being painted with a foul odor during her rest.
The vampede slithered to the side, crawling across the angled walls of the channel to present the length of his body to her. Part of it was obscured by the blue cape he wore, but it was quite evident something had been placed upon his armored carapace that normally wasn't there; paper.
"I woke this morning and someone had glued all these flyers to my armor! I can't get it off, please help," Nolox pleaded. Indeed, there were quite a few of the flyers plastered upon his rusted armor, quite haphazardly at that. Either the one who did it was drunk off their mind, or had such terrible eyesight in the night that they could easily miss a thirty-foot long monster covered in metal. That or he was mistaken for abstract art.
"Where the hell did you sleep?" Drana questioned, ripping one of the flyers from his body.
"In one of those sewer entrances, in a channel. I figured it was far enough away from the hubbub of the city that being slightly in the open wouldn't matter much." The potential answer as to why anyone would go down to such a place was as clear as day on the paper. A huge reward for fighting monsters.
Well you certainly don't find mercenaries walking around in the aristocratic districts, Drana thought to herself. "You read this?" Drana asked the vampede, waving the paper at him. The number presented as the reward certainly had a lot of zeroes, but must enticing of all, it meant a job taking down creatures of the night. Or the morning, Drana didn't care.
"That I did. Not only did I come here for you to get them off of me, but also to notify you of the request!"
"Uh huh," Drana dismissed his apparent thoughtfulness. She pressed the flyer back onto Nolox's side.
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Wholly on purpose, Drana found a flyer that wasn't now a second layer of Nolox's armor above ground. Folding the paper into a pocket within her grungy, worn out vest, she proceeded on her way towards the indicated meet-up spot. The vest was a size to large for her, and displayed a number of bloodstains she was absolutely sure weren't brought about by her, but if she didn't want to get apprehended again, it was necessary. No way in hell would she be arrested for public indecency on her way to making an amount of cash that she couldn't see being easily carried in her pant's pockets.
If there were nay others even remotely like her, she would have to face working with a group. Teamwork wasn't something that gave her a cough, but in the end her own methods often deterred further interaction. In any case, Drana had steeled her mind to simply deal with it if the situation ever came up. The others would have to deal with it too, she mentally grumbled. Such a reward was hard to pass up; it was a high probability others would turn up.
With a strong familiarity with the streets of the capital, Drana easily found her way there, taking every shortcut a less adventurous citizen would think architecturally impossible. Coming upon the establishment, she found herself recognizing a certain guard standing at the doorway. With so many misdemeanors, Drana had come to know quite a number of uniformed individuals. For a moment she considered if he would stop her, state, "Wait, I know you," and force her to use a terrible persuasion skill, hack up what little cash she had, or face evisceration, all in the name of not being arrested. She really just wanted the money. Fortunately, he did not apprehend her, and simply allowed her in without a word. Maybe it was because she was wearing something over her chest this time.
Drana entered the building, unfettered by the group that had turned up beforehand. If there were a limit, no- there had better not be a limit to the number of participants. Finding her way towards the front, she buried her hands into her pockets and gazed on as the coordinator began.