Monster Rancher

Good News

As I stood out on the mostly deserted dirt road, my back aching once more, and eyes directed to the thick grey clouds above, I ruminated on the odd quirks of my mental state. How was it that a splash of blood on my hands could send me into a mental break down, but a day of helping an old woman disassemble and carve up various monster corpses didn't affect me at all.

"I have to admit." Laughed Beryl, the elderly butcher of Soren. "That you are far better at this than I would have thought."

Unable to go back into the forest till the Stormwolf issue was taken care of, and also unable to do any work towards my house, had me hunting out odd jobs to keep me occupied. Yesterday I had come across Beryl, a woman of -cough- years, with long grey hair braided in twin plaits either side of her head and a pair of the kindest blue eyes I had ever seen. I over heard her talking to Brond outside the tavern about needing to put in a request with the guild for a helper.

I had jumped at the chance, cutting her off before she could put a job request in at the guild. She seemed skeptical at first, but agreed in the end with a little cajoling from the tavern keeper.

"You didn't think you were the only woman able to dismantle monsters, did you Beryl?" I answered with mock offence, causing the older woman to smile.

We had just finished the work for the day, and were both out at her little well out front of the shop, where I had just finished drawing up enough water to fill a metal tub at our feet. Beryl would be using it to soak our soiled aprons and gloves in a moment, once we used it to wash off the gore from the places the apron couldn't cover.

"You have me there. But I learned from my father, and grand-father too! Are you not supposed to be an alchemist?"

I shrugged. "I like to keep busy, and often find odd things to occupy myself with." I said, doing my best to avoid further questioning. Beryl had been a kind and pleasant hostess, but she was also a very curious old lady. When I passively commented on her prying habits, she merely laughed and said 'Old women need some way to amuse themselves, Dear.' and we both got back to work.

The truth was that it had been a good long while since I had fully dismantled a monster. I learned how in an elective class back when I was in school, again, my need to keep busy having me jumping from one thing to another. Besides, the image of my father's face if he knew a daughter of his was elbows deep in a monster corpse had it appeal, to be honest. But, normally I just do a quick field work on the corpses these days, storing the monster in my magic bag and having the guild handle the rest.

I could still commission the guild, but it would just lay more work on poor Beryl here, as she was the one the Soren Adventurer's guild used to dismantle the monster remains brought into them. And, even in a small town like this one, there were quite a few corpses to get through. Maybe more then normal, as a matter of fact. After all, since the guild here was so small, the majority of jobs we related to the hunting of monsters. Its not like there were a ton of fetch jobs.

Though, once I got my potion making room all set up, I could very well be the one posting requests to the guild for adventurer's to find me herbs. What a strange circle my life has taken, going from job taker to job giver.

"Cass! There you are- ugh... That is an interesting smell."

Annoyed, I turned to see the hawk master, Alex. On his face was a mischievous grin, and on his shoulder was the teal tinged Sky Hawk, Blaze. The tamer and his alpha tame were not alone either; I nearly didn't recognize Randolph out of his red uniform, but he was apparently keeping the cheeky tamer company for the time being.

Alex laughed. "If looks could kill."

"Afternoon Beryl." Sighed Randolph, shaking his head at the leather clad tamer. "I see Cass is lending you a hand today."