this valley ain't big enough for two baddies

that walk might have taken over an hour on foot, but in the air it barely took five minutes for Des to return to the entrance to the spider's den dungeon, and now dusk was casting long shadows over everything inside, making it even more dangerous to creatures relying on sight to guide them. Des was no such creature, especially since he had selected the assassin class, which allowed him not only to see perfectly in the dark, but move through it in perfect silence, almost as if he weren't even there. indeed, many of the spider's he came across didn't even register his presence before they were twisting in pools of their own ichor. he found no real threat to his safety, but the dungeon had grown to span several acres of the forest, and was densely packed with spiders. Des smiled, this would take him a while.

Meanwhile back in Shorebreath

Mallory hadn't gotten half-way across the clearing before Tia was already headed back this way with another adult in tow. As they grew closer, Mallory recognized they adult as Veronica, her best friend and self-appointed leader of village protection and safety. figures shed be the first one Tia ran into, she likes to keep an eye on the road into town.

"Malls!" Veronica shouted as the duo approached, turning to Tia as she continued. "See? I'm not sure what your on about, but you sister is awake and looks fine to me. You still sure your not trying to prank me?" she questioned the little girl.

"Of course not!" Tia defended herself. "I Promise its true, sis was asleep, and Des-"

"Hey sis, why don't you head home and let dad know were home while I talk to Roni?" Mallory cut her off. "And if you must tell him we went into the woods, just tell him everything went fine and we didn't find any mana crystals." Tia looked confused for a second after being cut off and dismissed, but nodded and walked off after a moment.

"Okay, as much as I'm enjoying cryptic Mallory, could you please tell me what happened to you two out there? Because I don't think I've ever seen you come back from a 'everything went fine' stroll in the woods with a wrist swollen up like that." Veronica stated, pointing at Mallory's wrist.

"not outside." Mallory stated simply, gesturing her to the small guard shack by the entrance to the village, which they both slid into. it wasn't large, four or five people would make it too packed in to move, but it was out of sight of gossipers and no one ever came in here anymore except Veronica anyways, so there wouldn't be any interruptions. "So this morning me and Tia were in the garden when I saw lightning over the forest, even thought the sky wasn't even overcast, and when I told Tia, she insisted on a mana crystal hunt." Veronica laughed, well aware of Tia's obsession with the rare artifacts. Mallory told her the whole story, omitting nothing nothing but the conversation she had with Des, and just said that he knew she was awake and just set her down and left. "And yea, now your all caught up. weird new creature in the woods, soft spot for kids or something I guess." Mallory finished, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, I might be all caught up, but you aren't." Veronica started, "A new group of travelers came into town today." There was a hard glint in her eye as she caught Mallory up on events in town." Adventurers, didn't see their sigil. And B rank, if they are to be believed. Looks like our spider problem is finally 'worth' it to them. She caught Mallory's look of fear and gave her a reassuring smile before continuing, "Who knows, maybe we'll all have a bit of luck and they'll take care of your monster at the same time." Mallory quivered a bit at Veronica's choice of description of Des, knowing that he didn't like it. Why should that matter to me? she thought, confused enough at her own response at she didn't register what the adventurers were mainly here for.

"They're here for the spiders? Good. Have they left yet?" Mallory asked quickly.

"Nah, from what I heard they're staying at Viggo's for the night, then heading out first thing in the morning, Why, think they'll want a guide?" Veronica asked.

"Maybe maybe not. But if it's the same group as last time then the sooner they get their rewards and are gone the better." Mallory said, opening the door to leave.

She went straight down the main path to Viggo's, the inn/tavern that might as well be the real business in town. When she entered she found it was already fairly busy, but a moment of eye contact with Viggo where he stood behind the bar and he gestured to the far corner of the room where several figures were hunched around a booth. As she approached, she saw that there were 5 of them, an elf and four humans, all male except one, who seemed to be dressed in priestess robes, with the sigil of Areh, goddess of love and healing. two of the men and the elf looked to be average height for their race, but the third human, sitting with his back to Mallory, was absolutely massive, he looked to easily dwarf Veronica, no easy feat considering her half amazon blood put her at almost 7 feet tall. Everyone of them except the priestess wore the color of the red blades, a adventurer's guild that acted a bit too much like a mercenary company that had a nasty reputation of insisting they get their fair value out of a job, and if they didn't get enough loot or payment, rumor had it they're preferred method was to take women to sell off as sex slaves. Mallory set her back straight, soothed her nerves, and marched up to the table. "Your the adventurers, here for the spider dungeon, right?" The laughter died down and they all turned to look at her, and as the leader responded Mallory noted that the huge man just actually a full blooded Amazonian woman that had her hair cut short. 'holy... her arms are about as thick as my waist' she thought. She also realized that the priestess was about her age, quietly nursing her drink while the rest of them laughed and shouted.

"Yea, that's us, what do you want?"

"Here to thank us for risking our lives? I got a couple ideas where you can start, cutey." the elf spoke up while he patted his lap, getting a laugh from the table. Mallory had always found ignoring people like that was the best response, so that's what she did. "I can take you to the edge of the area they have spread to if youd like, probably save you from stumbling around in the forest for hours before you finally found it." She addressed the table as she held eye contact with the leader.

"What's the catch? Guild rules say we can pay non-members for services, so don't think we will be paying you anything." He laughed.

"I'm heading into the forest tomorrow anyway so it's no trouble for me, only catch is I'm leaving at dawn, so you would have to be up and ready to leave then."

"I suppose that's acceptable. We will be saying the night here, meet us outside? Unless of course, you'd like to stay and keep us company?" He gestured to an open chair between him and the Amazon while he leered at her chest.

"No thanks, I've got to get some rest, plenty to do tomorrow. Out front at dawn, or I leave without you, so don't be late." She turned and walked away without waiting for a response, and heard several more catcalls and whistling from them as she left.