Talk to the guards

Willow and Joy stand across from the bank near a random building as people pass by them. The two were spit balling ideas at each other before Willow thought of something.

“How about we talk to the guards out front? Maybe they heard Oakstaff in the forest somewhere?” Willow suggested.

“Hmm, not a bad idea, Willow. I’m sure Sage at least heard something,” Joy replied.

So without hesitation, the two went back to the entrance of Bohirom to meet back up with the guards. As expected, they were both standing on each side of the entrance, with the left guard standing straight and alert while the right guard was leaning up against his poleaxe.

“Sage! Did you hear something odd while on watch?” Joy asked the guard on the left.

“Nope! If I did, it would have been reported to the mayor!” Sage replied in a monotone, but stern voice.

“Are you sure? We’re looking for a lost person, an elf named Oakstaff!” Willow asked sincerely.

Sage stayed silent for a second before replying, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary regarding an Elf.”

Willow felt disappointed, feeling a bit of self doubt, while Joy was more annoyed than anything. It was back to the drawing board for our adventures until the guard on the right suddenly spoke up.

“I reckon that I heard somethin’ suspicious out in the woods about a couple hours ago!” Said the guard.

“Really! What did you hear?” Joy replied in shock.

“Yessireee! You see, Sage was taking a piss in the pub a couple blocks back when I heard this real girly scream, like really girly! You shoulda heard it, it was pretty funny!”

“Okay? But where was it?” Joy asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Oh well you see, as I was listenin’ to the girly scream, I was thinkin’ to myself, gee, that person seemed quite troubled and all, but the. I thought I was some kind of sick wolf or somethin’ an—” The guard continued ad nauseam.

Joy tapped her feet in annoyance as the guard talked on and on about everything but where the screaming came from, but Willow noticed something moving in the forest out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head right towards the forest, where she saw a bush moving against the nonexistent breeze. Willow looked closer, trying to see what was moving inside the bush.

“So my sista was all like, you didn’t give ya brother a Gloria-day gift!? Like yeah! I didn’t know I had a brother up until a couple hours ago! So I—”

“For Gloria’s sake, Where did you hear the screaming from Buldorf!” Joy screamed angrily!

Buldorf was taken aback, loosing his grip on his poleaxe in the process. Suddenly it dropped forward towards Willow, aimed directly for her head!

“Willow!” Joy exclaimed, trying to get her attention.

Willow just narrowly dodged the blade of the axe as it crashed to the ground! Willow held her hand against her chest as she felt her heart racing! She turned her head back to the forest and saw something scurrying off deeper into the woods. When Willow looked back at Joy, she looked shocked, with her eyes looking down at her hips.