FicWad

The boy was given a choice. It had been three days since his world was burned to cinder by the monster, and yet the boy had not moved an inch. He remained huddled in the ashes of his reality, starving, cold and parched. The boy felt none of this, however. In fact, he simply felt nothing at all. The new world that had opened for him gave him the choice of pain or numbness, and the boy had chose the latter, for sometimes feeling nothing is better than feeling something. The boy was given a choice when the hunter came and offered his canteen of stagnant water. "Its up to you," he had said to the husk of a child that lay sprawled before him, "do you want to give up and let that thing win, or do you want to come with me, continue living, and become strong? Will you let it kill you, or will you let me train you to kill it?" The boy was given a choice, and he chose correctly.

The shock of seeing the student of her childhood hero must've given Cassandra a boost in strength, because when she turned back to look at Fang, he was on the floor surrounded by broken barrel fragments, writhing and whining about his "broken" hand.

"Whoops, sorry. Guess I got carried away." she let out a nervous giggle and backed away towards Isaac, who was still staring at the newest addition.

"See, I called it. It's all in the man hands." he said excitedly, hopping up to his feet while gesturing with his own hands. Cassandra, however, was much too anxious to notice his insult. Her mind was racing as she thought of all of the ways she could screw up her introduction. She counted up to 37 when she felt a hand wrap around hers, "Don't just stand there drooling, Cass, let's go introduce ourselves already!"

I wasn't...oh my god, I actually was drooling! she thought frantically, blushing hard while wiping her lower lip. I can't meet him like this! Come on, Cass, you're a hunter! He's just a person, just talk to him.

"You're Aiden White, right? Welcome to Val Habar." Isaac asked with a warm smile, which completely contrasted Cassandra's nervous frown.

"Hmm?" the other hunter said, looking up from his registration pamphlet, "Ah, you must be Mr. Mechanos! Nice to finally meet you." he said with a formal bow.

The formality in his greeting took Isaac aback. "I should be saying that to you, man. You're a legend!"

"Come now, don't sell yourself short, . It takes a talented person to get a recognized title by the guild. And "Suicide Sniper", no less!"

"Please, you can just call me Isaac! And this is my friend, Cassandra." Isaac said, stepping aside to show his nervous wreck of a friend, "Cass, say hello." Isaac whispered through his teeth, nudging her forward lightly.

"And you must be Ms. Everly!" Aiden exclaimed, taking her bare hand into his gloved one before she had a chance to speak. "Pleasure to meet the "Dancing queen" of Val Habar." he bowed again and pecked the back of her hand, deepening her complexion to near crimson.

He knows my title! Come on, Cass, say something! Cassandra thought frantically as he stood up. "Um...hi." ...Good. Nailed it. Now I look like an even bigger idiot than before.

Thankfully Aiden was there to tear Cassandra away from her internal struggles, "So, what can I do for you two? You seem eager to ask me something."

"Oh, well Cassandra and I were thinking of expanding our hunting party and we were wondering..." Isaac began as one of the guildmarms shuffled over to Aiden.

" , the guildmaster would like to see you."

"Alright. Sorry to have to cut our meeting short, but I really must be going. Thank you for the warm welcome, and if you need anything, I'm your man!" Aiden said as he turned and followed the guildmarm back to where the master resided.

"Aw man! That meetings gonna take forever!" Isaac whined as he walked back to the dining table with Cassandra in tow, "And right when I was going to ask him too! Whatever. I guess we can just ask him later." he took a sip of whatever was in his stein (FYI it tasted like piss) and turned his attention to Cass, "So, what'd you think of him, anyway?"

"He was ok, I guess." at this point, Cassandra's blush and reasoning skills have returned to manageable levels, "He was too formal for my tastes."

"Cass, I've known you like forever. You've never been that nervous to talk to anyone before. You were literally glowing red, dude!" Isaac observed, eliciting another deep blush from his friend, "You got to admit he seemed pretty cool. He knew our titles and everything!"

"I guess..."

"Did you see his sword?" Isaac asked excitedly, leaning in closer to Cassandra, "It's legendary sword Godslayer! There's only one of those in the whole world!"

"I thought it looked different. Why is there only one?"

"It's made from the scale of an undocumented elder dragon. It's so rare that only one scale was ever retrieved. I wonder how it was constructed from just one, though. It normally takes about 15 scales to make..."

"Hey nerd, you're rambling again."

"Oh yeah, sorry. My teacher had me memorize every way a sword could be constructed for my last test."

"Speaking of which, hows your blacksmith training going? How long till you get your license?" Cassandra asked, happy that the subject had changed.

"At this rate, I still have another 3 years untill I can even take the exam." Isaac answered, noticeably depressed, "Harth blacksmiths teach so slowly. I've been stuck on swords for the past 6 months!"

"Sounds rough, man. Why didn't you just study in Cathar? Wyvernians are great blacksmiths."

"Correction, Wyvernians are great artisans. The best inventors come from Harth, even if Hell will freeze over before I get my license." he moped, face down on the dining table, "Aw, screw it. No time to be depressed, we still got to celebrate your promotion, shrimp!"

"What about White?" Cassandra asked, surprised at how quickly his mood changed.

"You know the guildmaster likes to interview hunters for hours. He won't be done for awhile, so I took the liberty of taking this!" he exclaimed, whipping out a hunter contract from his gunner's pouch. The mission was fairly simple, just protect a caravan while it passes through a hunting field.

"You sure about this one? The environment is unstable."

"If it wasn't unstable, they wouldn't have made a contract for it in the first place." he pointed out, placing a finger on the rewards section, "Plus, look at the pay!"

"Whoa, 20,000z! Just for an escort mission!"

"See? I'm great aren't I?" he said, rolling up the contract, "Let's get something to eat, then we can go on your first G-rank quest!"

"Don't get cocky, dork. We still don't know what we're up against here."

"Oh, come on. What's the worst that could happen?" an audible gasp erupted through the guild hall as everyone's eyes turned towards Isaac, who had a look of confusion on his face, "What?"

"It's bad luck to say that before a hunt, you idiot! That's like opening an umbrella indoors." Cassandra hissed.

"You can't possibly believe in all that crap!"

"Just shut up, Isaac! Let's hurry so that we can make it to the mission site on time."

A small cry from the other side of the hall caught their attention, causing them to turn their eyes to Fang, who was still on the floor.

"My hand..." he whined, flopping around like a fish out of of water. A very hefty fish, mind you.

"Damn. I completely forgot about him." Isaac noticed, standing up to get a better view, "Hey Micah! Could you bring your idiot brother to the infirmary already before he drowns us in tears?"

"Already on it." a tall muscular man sighed, lifting his sibling up like a rag doll, "I'm very sorry about his behavior."

"Don't worry about it, man. No harm done." Isaac said as the two men left the hall, "How could such a good guy like Micah have such a wreck of a brother?"

"I wouldn't know. They're like polar opposites." she noticed, eyeing the door, "I sorta feel sorry for the guy."

"Well, lets just hope we don't have to spend too much of our contract money paying for his hospital visit. You really went all out on him, Cass."

She averted her eyes towards the floor, her blush returning to her tanned face, "Yeah, well he deserved it. Besides, I didn't even notice what I was doing until he was already on the floor."

Isaac reached out his hand and gently ruffled her hair, "I'm sure he's fine, shrimp. Don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried!"

"Sure your not. Lets order something already, our ride leaves in half an hour."