The Bounty Hunter (reserved)

[ERedBoyd]

Dominic Nettles road quietly on his horse down the dusty roads between the Kingdom of Mellis and it's smaller supporting towns nearing the twilight of night. As the horse meambled on at her own pace, he studied a series of faded documents he had just unrolled for his scroll case. The parchment were rough around the edges and somewhat faded, but they all revealed the images of different people on them as well as crimes committed, last location, and most importantly, how much bounty they would earn should they be caught.

"Look mommy... it's a hunter. See the bags on his horse?" A child on a wagon sitting on his mom's lap, wrapped in a cloak. The air was cool causing breath to mist up in front of them.

The woman said, "That's rude Hannah. You know better than to stare and point." She said as she snuggled in to her husband.

The husband glanced up holding the reigns of his horses saying, "Begging your pardon sir. Meant no disrespect." The man clicked the reigns and picked up the pace of the wagon that they were in heading towards the town Dominic had just past.

Dominic merely nodded and kept going as he glanced back at the bags the child had referred to. He had collected the heads of two bounties so far. A man from the town of Four Kings who had been wanted for murder and rape. That had been the first bloodied bag hanging on the horse. The second had been a tall lean dwarf who had stank of mead and meat wanted to theft to the Dwarven High King of the Mountain, Thawn. That bastard had been the hardest one to catch of all as he managed to ferret his way into a coal mine not to far outside of the city. None the less, the second bloodied bag held the Dwarf's head.

He paid no mind to the travelers though. It was common practice to, rather than lug the entire body back to the bounty holder, to remove the head and only bring the head back. It helped feed into the reputation of bounty hunters being some of the most fearsome fighters and killers in the land. It also made them a target to other bounty hunters as well being that all that was required to claim the reward was to return the head of the bounty.

This is why he kept his bow out and an arrow notched most of the time, sword and sword breaker unlashed in the event they close too quickly. He smiled as he flipped through bounties. He had one more to go. An elven man known as Merlot. Apparently, he was a con artist and cut purse in the local city. Shouldn't be that hard to capture.

There was one bounty for sure he would drop all the others to get too. He flipped to the kitsune bounty poster and stared at it. This one bounty alone could bring him more than triple what all the others could being in combined. Of course there was the complication of bringing the Kitsune in alive rather than just the head but if he had even a hint of where this bounty was, he would donate the other bounties to another hunter and put all his effort into finding and capturing this one.

He yawned once and looked up the road to see the sun nearly set. Glancing about, he heard the river slowly rolling towards the south and turned his mount towards it, just off the beaten path. Finding a nice spot surrounded by a strange band of mushrooms, he slid off his horse and hobbled it. He then settled in for the night hoping to a night of restful sleep. He kept the heads near him as well as his bounty scrolls though partially opened. After a meal of dried meat and some tack bread, he pull his cloak around him tightly and tried to get a few hours of sleep...

 

[katalynn]

“This is for your own good little fox. You have stolen from the wrong person this time and betrayed me in the process. This is a punishment and to save your petty life…. Little fox...”

The kitsune looked at the fae with some amusement at first, believing that his magic had no power over her. After all, she is far older and much more powerful than he would ever be. She had six out of nine of her tails. There is little that could touch her and she smirked at his words, only to have that smirk wiped clean from her lips as she felt the changes.

“What the hell are you doing to me? Stop this instant you little flea!! You have no right to do this to me!”

It was far too late though; she saw that his ring is somehow connected to the crystal she wore around her neck. Watching in horror as the crystal turned into some kind of aqua color instead of its normal clear crystal. Before she could comprehend the crystal, her body started taking on another form, much smaller than her fox form, shifting into a tiny human as her beautiful black and silver fur turned to flesh, paws turning into hands and feet. Six silver tails shifting into red, autumn leaf like wings upon her back, the only thing that remained of her true form is a pair of red fox ears peeking through the now vibrant red hair and nails remained as claws.

“I am so very sorry little fox, again, this is for your own good and now I have no choice but to banish you from this realm…”

Before she could even utter a word in protest, with both his hand he pushed forward a gust of wind which shoved her backwards, rolling in the small form into some kind of portal. This is where she fell unconscious, slipping into a dream state as the portal took her to the human realm. In the dream she kept hearing the name Amber, however, she had no idea who this Amber could be or why she was dreaming the name.

It was quite late in the day, in fact the sun barely lit the sky when she finally woke up freezing cold and extremely hungry. For a few moments, she sat there thinking it was all just a bad dream and yet, the more she started to wake up, the more her memories faded. The only thing that remained of the dream is the name Amber as she looked around the surroundings. Between the forced shifting and being blasted into a portal, followed by the trip through the portal, she found herself to be pretty weak as she tried to stand up. It freaked her out when her wings fluttered and she spun around, only to fall flat on her butt as she tried to look at the wings.

This new body felt so foreign to her, though she couldn’t understand why. That was when she saw the giant human figure laying down to rest for the night and she quickly hid within the flowers nearby. The papers caught her attention as she noticed the kitsunes face on one, it triggered a strange flashback. Although, it was far to quick and very confusing to register what it could mean. That was about the time a cold breeze hit her tiny body, sending another shiver down her spine as she looked up at the darkening sky, noticing the clouds forming. Without having much of a choice, she crawled into the saddle bags for shelter, believing that she would wake up before the human did and crawl out before he noticed she’s there. Luckily he had food in this particular bag and she munched a few things and soon fell into a deep sleep…

 

[ERedBoyd]

"Hey! Don't move!" A man growled in the darkness!

Dominic's eyes shot open, gripping for his sword, though freezing as he found tip of a sword pressed to the underside of his head! His eyes followed the blade up to the handle and then to the man holding it! A man in a green shirt and red vest stared down at him, his eyes narrowed ready to push the sword deeper into him! His eyes shifted to see two more men standing nearby, one rummaging through the bags on the horse, grabbing pieces of tack and shoving it down his throat and the other acting as a lookout off the main road in case the city guard came through.

"What do you want?" Dominic said knowing what the answer was going to be. His breath misted on the cool air.

"You a bounty hunter are you not? Those heads aren't they? We will be taking them." the man said with a thick Taraboner accent.

"Sure... take them. I don't want no trouble." Dominic said reaching slowly to the bags and pushing them towards the man.

"Nice and slow... nice and slow you hear. Don't do nuttin stupid." The sword holder growled.

"Of course now. All yours." He said.

He was waiting for the exact moment which came the moment the bandit's eyes slid away from him to the bag! A dagger slid out of his sleeve and he threw it as hard as he could while batting the sword away! The steel buried to the hilt through the sword holder's left eye! He screamed out as it happened, causing the other two to spin around! A second dagger was in his right hand and planted it into the man's chest right at the heart to the hilt!

"Hey!!! We need help here!!!" The third man said as Dominic leapt to his feet, gathering the heads and shoved the scrolls roughly into the pouch and sealed it! He yanked the two daggers out getting ready to throw one at the third man when he noticed seven more men that had been just out of sight before looking at him!

"Right..." He spun, leapt onto his horse and was flying away from the campsite leaving half his things there as he rode! He left the sounds of screaming men behind him as he raced along towards the city!