"MORNING FELLAS!!"
Old man Albert's voice resounded through the entire boat thanks to his megaphones.
"Ahhhh". Aki screamed out as he had rolled off and fallen from his bed due to shock and suprise.
He rubbed the sleep off his face with his hands and washed his face in the nearby sink. He folded his blanket into his bag and picked up his scepter and cleaned the gemstone atop it.
He noticed Merlin's things were already folded and he wore his coat as he stepped out of the room.
"You're up early." Aki said to Merlin who was standing on the rail, observing the water.
"I'm always up early." Merlin replied him as he took a drink from his bottle to ease up the cold.
"It's surprising cold here". Aki said out loud.
"Yeah, the weather here is completely different from the other side. This must be one of those anomalies from high mana concentration." Lee answered Aki as he lighted his cigar.
"How about Awia? How's she holding up?". Aki asked Lee.
"She's alright she made some tea if anyone is interested." Lee replied him.
"Okay. Hot tea will really help me right now." Aki said as he folded his arms together.
"I'm good, thank you". Merlin said to Lee.
"Suit yourself, just know that the tea won't be around for long so don't come running back to us mate". Lee shouted out as he and Aki walked into Awia's room.
"We're HERE!!!". Albert yelled out from the captain's room.
Aki hurriedly finished his tea, and rushed out the door. His guild followed behind him.
"Hot, hot, hot". He uttered as he blew his own tongue.
"Woah." Aki and Awia said in unison.
It was snowing.
"This is actually cool, I never left the capital so i never got to see other places and how they worked. This is really nice".
"Put your boots on boys and girls, we're headed towards over twenty inches of snow filled land". Old man Albert alerted the group and they did so.
The boat landed at the shore, it had a sharp blade in front of it that helped tear through the frozen parts of the lake as it finally lodged into the snow.
"Finally". Aki shouted as he jumped off the boat and landed face flat into the pile of snow.
"Heyy, you could get hurt!". Awia yelled at him as she came off the boat with the steps, she carried a bag and her staff.
"Don't worry about the boss, he'll be alright". Lee told Awia as he continued smoking.
Merlin quietly got down the steps.
"So Albert, are you gonna wait for us or?". Aki asked with concern.
"Well yes, i can do that little ol' thing for a top up of 10 gold coins". Albert said with a smile.
"Uhm.. i don't think we have 10 gold coins to spare boss, Merlin bought us food earlier". Lee whispered to Aki.
"Okay Albert, how about 5 gold coins and 2 small gemstones." Aki shouted out.
"Well, it's not something i was expecting but… uhmm".
"I'll take it". Albert yelled out in response as he clicked his fingers.
Old man Albert sat atop the boat waiting for the group to return, if they do return.
"We've got to find the governor here and ask why they rejected help from the knights." Merlin asked as he pulled up his large bag pack which contained the meal for their journey.
"I see the town, look". Aki said as he increased his steps, his legs threw off the deep snow.
A cold breeze blew with snowflake as they approached the town.
It was quiet.
They walked through the center and observed the windows quickly opening and shutting.
"Welcome young travellers". A fair skinned young man in his 30s, who appeared to be clean shaven, fair skinned and had short blond hair. He wore a thick brown coat.
"To our side of town". He added.
"Thanks for the warm welcome".
"My name is Aki and this is my guild." Aki said to the man as he shook his outstretched hand.
"Come in, please in". The young man said as he welcomed the young adventurers into his home.
"As you can see this is my home and my office, my name is Manon and i am the governor here, this is my wife Noëlle".
A young chubby fair skinned woman with long hair, walked in.
"Hello. Welcome to my home". Her freckled smile almost stretched half of her face, she wore a thick coat too.
"Our daughter's are helping prepare a meal for you travellers." Manon said to the group.
"That's nice, thank you Manon." Aki said as he took off his coat and followed Manon to the dining near the fire place.
The young adventurers sat down.
"We were told by Lady Byeol that some fine people were coming so we decided to prepare the meals very early this morning". Manon said with a smile.
"Here they are."
"These are my twin daughters Camille and Élise". Manon said out as his daughters approached with plates. Each twin bore half blond and half black hair on opposite sides of their head.
They presented fine wine, fruit drinks and vast pastries.
The group thanked the couple as they began to feast.
"You guys seem to be doing okay despite being real close to dragon mountain". Aki asked after devouring a large doughnut.
"Where did all these food come from?." Aki further asked.
Manon looked at the group and the inquisitive Aki as they stared back.
"During the monthly meetings some years back there was a agreement with the council and the other governors for food to be sent over here through the other village". Manon answered.
"The other village is nearly destroyed thanks to the dragon so how is your food rations not affected". Aki asked.
"We use those gnome freezer boxes to preserve them and we don't eat too much of the food these days anyways". Manon replied the young Aki.
"So why give us this much cause you're feeling generous?". Lee asked with suspicion.
Tension filled the room.
Crack!
Lee loaded his pistol and pointed it at the young governor. The rest of the guild armed themselves, plates and chairs fell loudly to the floor.
"Wait.. wait". The young governor yelled out with his arms in the air.
His head slowly bent to the floor.
"You can't beat it." he muttered.
"What?". A confused Lee asked.
"I've seen over 10 groups try and fail, you can't beat it but we found a solution".
"What solution?". Merlin yelled out.
"WHAT SOLUTION??". He yelled again.
"Look outside". Manon gently said to group.
A crowd of villagers had appeared in front of the governors house thanks to the noise and were requesting to know what was going on. Lee looked out the window for a minute or two.
"I don't see anything". Lee shouted out.
"Look again." Manon repeated, his hands still in the air.
Lee looks at the villagers for a few minutes and and stops in his tracks.
He rushes to the door and throws up outside, he cleans his mouth with his arms and shoots at the ceiling.
"Did you force them to do it." Lee asked with anger visible on his face, he nearly squeezed the trigger again but this time the gun was pointed at Manon's head.
"NO! Nobody forced them to do anything."
"To save the young people, the children and grandchildren, our old governor starting with himself decided it was best, if the sacrifice was made voluntarily". Manon responded with fear.
"What's going on Lee?". Awia asked in confusion.
"Look outside guys, there's no one above fifty". Lee said as he slammed his fist into the wall.
"We didn't call the knights because we didn't want more people to die because of it our requests for help and so we decided, Four people lasted it two weeks. So every two..". Manon who was explaining was cut short by Aki punching him across the room.
"Let's get out of here". Aki said to the group as he looked away and began to walk out.
"So you were what? fattening us?". Awia asked in disgust.
Manon's daughters and wife rushed to his aid as he struggled to get up.
The crowd cleared for the group to pass as they could sense their anger.
"Don't do it Aki, you'll die. I know you don't want your friends to die too. DON'T DO IT!!!". Manon screamed out, his voice cracked as he coughed.
Aki began to leave the vicinity of the village and approached some children playing in the snow.
"Which one is dragon mountain kid". He asked with a straight face.
"That one". The boy pointed at the only mountain without a frozen peak.
Aki spun his scepter around with his guild following him from behind as they approached Dragon Mountain.
Merlin dragged his axe through the snow as bloodlust begun to fill his mind.