As they walked into town, Dawn could tell that this whole place was going to smell like fish. It was a pretty decent sized town; they could see several buildings just from the entrance. To the left there were some men moving around logs and cutting them into fence posts. To the right a decent size market area with dozens of stalls with only a few empty. It was wide open with seating around for people to eat or just relax. While the fences seemed rushed, the roads here were not. The roads were made of fine stone and rather pleasant to walk on. This port town probably holds more than three thousand people, Dawn thought as she continued walking.

  Dawn looked around a bit and pointed towards a building just past the market. “That looks like the general store, should we head there first or the market?”

  “Let’s head to the general store first and then see how much money that leaves us with.” Said Leo as he started to walk straight for the general store.

  “Sounds like a plan, hopefully we have enough for some other clothes.” Dawn then sniffed her leather bracers and gauged a bit and said, “also maybe enough for a bath as well.”

  They walked past the market. I am amazed how busy it is already this early in the morning. Everyone also looks pretty happy. There are a few people just sitting around in dirty clothes though. I wonder what taxes are like here. I know that wouldn’t happen in the Fire Empire or at least in the capital. Our rehousing projects are top notch.

  Leo was looking around and said, “I am not seeing a bath house but there is a pond in the middle of town… Or you could bathe in the river to save money.”

  Dawn looked at the pond with a bit of disgust and audibly sighed. “I am not going to do that... Let’s just play it by ear, maybe it will be a reward from our first goblin hunt.”

  “I doubt they would give out bath tokens for killing goblins.” They then reached the general store, Leo opened the door and bowed. “After you princess.”

  “Thank you, Leo.” Dawn walked in and looked around the store.

  There were several tables scattered about with anything from tents, potions and even basic clothes. Leo headed up to the counter. A nice younger looking woman maybe in her mid-twenties was behind the counter. She was wearing what looked like nice quality leather armor with metal shoulder pads.

  The clerk spoke right before Leo made it to the counter. “Hello, is there anything I can help you find?”

  Leo responded with, “hello, yes there are a few things I would like to get. First off, how much would a tent and backpack cost?”

  The clerk replied with a slight smile, “that all depends on what you are looking to spend. We have anywhere between a 2-person tent to a tent for 10 people. As for backpage we have a few too but the one that has a nice amount of space is 2 silvers. If you want bedrolls, those are 1 silver piece.”

  Leo scratched his chin, “hmm, how much for the 2 or 3 person tent? We will take one of the backpacks and two bed rolls for sure.”

  The Clerk looked up and down Leo and then Dawn. She stopped for a bit at Dawn and then spoke, “wow those goblins must have gotten you good. I will make a deal with you, for the 2-person tent, the 2 bed rolls and the backpack…” The Clerk pauses for a moment. “I will do 5 silver pieces.”

  Dawn looked down at herself for a moment. Do I really look like some goblins could get the best of me? Then her mind remembered the goblins destroying their carriage. Dawn could feel herself getting angry and skin turning red. Stupid goblins, I would have a change of clothes if it weren't for them.

  Leo proclaims, “deal! Do you have any meat or rope we can buy? How did you know about the goblins?”

  “There have been reports of a lot of goblin attacks recently, people getting attacked on the road. You do not look like you are from around here, so if you are getting beginner gear… It would only make sense. One moment while I gather your gear.” The Clerk then started to go around and collect everything.

  Starting with the backpack and then putting the other items in there. Then the clerk continued, “no to the meat but you can go to the market for that. The fishermen and other stalls should be open by now so you will find plenty there. As for the rope… for a quality rope you are looking at 10 silver or 1 silver for standard rope. Oh, that would be 50 feet of it, I will just go ahead and put that in there.” She then walked back to the counter and said with a smile, “That will be 6 silvers please!”

  Leo grabbed onto his money pouch and held it next to his mouth for a moment and whispered, “I will miss you little guys.” Then he grabbed 6 silvers out and handed it to her.

  “Thank you, here you are!” The clerk said as she handed him the backpack and accepted the money.

  Leo put his arms through the straps of the backpack and jumped a little to gauge the weight. “Little heavier than I thought but not bad.”

  The clerk, “Yeah I make lighter stuff that's more durable, but that stuff costs a lot more silver.”

  Dawn spoke up, “no worries he will be fine. Have a nice day!”

  The clerk said with a smile, “okay. You as well!”

  Then they waved and turned around and walked out of the shop.

  Dawn spoke as soon as they closed the door behind them, “Wow things cost a lot more money than I thought. We are already down to just 2 silvers now.”

  Leo sighed and said, “you are right. We still have food to buy and should probably get something to cook it on too.”

  “Well let's head over to the market then and see what we can find.” Dawn said and started walking to the market.

  Heading into the market they looked around a bit to get a lay of the land. It was now around noon, so it was warming up, lots of people around trying to sell and buy a multitude of things. No matter where I go in this town, all I can smell is fish. I mean I get it this town likes fish but wow is it overpowering.

  “Hello, pretty lady with the horns! Over here.” Yelled one of the men from behind his market stall. He was a rather well-dressed man with lots of gold accessories around his neck and arms.

  Dawn looked around for a moment to see who he was talking to. Oh, he means me, she thought, shrugged and headed his way. His stall was filled with a multitude of gems, jewelry and adornments. Leo would kill me if I bought any of this but it's free to look… Right?

  “Please look around, I have many different items to choose from.” The man said as he looked over her gear and body. “You must be from the fire realm!” He grabbed a golden bracelet with a red gem in the center and two smaller ones on either side of the big one. “This bracelet is perfect for you and it's on sale! It gives whoever uses it a big boost to their fire power.”

  Dawn looked at it for a moment, it was really eye-catching, and she thought it would be a perfect accessory for her. Oh perfect it's on sale! Leo cannot get mad at me if it's on sale, how can I resist? Dawn always gave off an aura of nobility but she made sure to lay it on thick. “Sir, how much would this bracelet cost?”

  The man had a glint in his eye as he said, “for you today… it's only 100 gold!”

  Leo spoke up, “sorry sir but we are on more pressing matters. I do appreciate you letting us look though.” Then Leo started walking away.

  Dawn looked a little sad, I really wanted that though. Wait he's still walking away, is he not going to wait for me? Oh I think I know what's going on, “I should probably go with him. He has the money but if I can help it, we will be back… When we have time.” She nodded with a smile and walked towards Leo.

  They passed by a few different stalls. Then Dawn saw one that had a few cloaks hanging on the sides of the walls of the stalls. She stopped to look around. She could not see anyone around the shop.

  Where is the clerk, is no one watching these cloaks?

  Dawn heard a deep voice speak in front of her, “hello, is there anything I can help you find?”

  Dawn looked from where the voice came from but didn’t see anything. Squinting really hard she saw an outline of a person. He pulled the hood back and it almost looked like a fog had been lifting. His body slowly came into view. He was an older man with a scar near his left eye. The cloak looked like a simple brown leather cloak, but Dawn was sure there was some magic to it.

  Leo spoke up, “hello sir. We are looking to get some cloaks to help us keep warm and hide a bit on our journey. What would you recommend?”

  The man looked around, and opened his arms wide. He spoke calmly, thoughtfully and with respect, “there are a lot of things I would recommend. I sell many a cloak, the one you see me wearing keeps your body warm in the winter as well as cool in the summer. It can also hide you in plain sight, which is rather useful.”

  Dawn said with a smile, “oh that sounds lovely. How much would that be?”

  The man responded with, “50 gold coins.”

  Dawn now realized that things were a lot more expensive than she thought. She never had to buy herself anything in the past; everything was just given to her. “What could we get for 1 silver piece?”

  The man looked around for a bit and then went behind his stall and grabbed two tattered up clocks with a few patches on them. He put them on the table in the stall and said, “these have seen better days. I patched them up myself and would give them both to you for only 8 copper pieces.”

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  I get we don't have much money but I would rather wear anything else. Look at those they barely look like they could be called cloaks more like patches. Dawn giggled to herself at the thought.

  Leo handed him a silver piece and was handed back 2 copper pieces and the cloaks. “Thank you, sir, we will put them to good use. Here you go, Dawn.” Then he handed the other cloak to Dawn.

  I mean it's better than nothing, Dawn thought and threw it around her shoulders and tied the string to keep it up. Dawn then managed a slight smile and said “yes, thank you. Have a great rest of your day!” They then waved and walked away.

  We will have to buy better cloaks as soon as possible. Her scent hit her again, well maybe after a bath.

  They walked a bit more around and spotted a fish vendor and picked up some fish only spending 4 coppers on them. They looked around a bit more for a pan to cook it with. The ones they saw were way too expensive for what little they had left.

  Leo spoke up after some walking, “maybe we can see if the guards have an old pan, they are getting rid of?”

  Dawn responded with, “sure doesn’t hurt to ask. Plus, we can get a bit more money.” She spun in place and said, “I say we upgrade these cloaks first. I am a princess and this simply will not do.”

  Leo scratched his chin, “I agree they do not look the best but it’s all we can do for now.” He then started walking to the exit of the town.

  They made their way around the fence. On the road they fought and killed 2 more goblins with ease. They looked around for the goblins they had slain earlier with no luck and decided to give up and keep walking. As they walked around the fence they made their way to a gateway in the center of the fence. As they got closer, they saw 2 guards on either side of the gate.

  As they got closer Dawn spoke up, “hello, good sirs!”

  The closer man to them spoke, “hello. Watch out there have been a lot of goblins and other demons about.”

  Leo responded while holding up his bag of ears and tusks, “oh what a coincidence. We were told that you are giving money out for killing goblins.”

  The other guard spoke as he started opening the gate, “we are. Please step through the gate, there is a bigger building just down the road. Go into that building and there should be someone in there that will pay you.”

  Dawn asked as she walked through the gates, “do you know how much money we get per goblin?”

  The guard shrugged, “no clue… I get paid by the day.”

  Dawn paused for a moment, then said, “that makes sense. Have a good day.” The guards just waved and went back to guarding the gate.

  They looked around and saw a few buildings on the road both on the left and right. The main buildings on the left appeared to be made of bricks, while the buildings on the right seemed to be made of hastily put together wood. A little distance down they saw a few guards training, hitting training dummies with all sorts of weapons. The first brick building on the left looked to be the biggest.

  Leo spoke first and pointed at the first building as he did, “I am guessing the big building is the one we need to go to.”

  “Sounds good,” said Dawn.

  They then walked to the door, they could see several vertical and horizontal lines on a sign in front of the door.

  Dawn said, “The sign makes it look like this is the jail. It does make sense, we can probably get paid for all sorts of work here.”

  Leo opened the door and bowed, “After you princess.”

  Dawn walked in the door and Leo shut the door behind them. As they walked in there was a grizzled old man in armor sitting behind a desk on the far side of the room. He looked like he was reading some papers. The older man had an eye patch on his right eye. Even with the patch it was easy to tell it was covering a massive scare. There was a big, barred door to the left of the desk. There was also seating and other desks around. Dawn started to walk to the man, he noticed Dawn and looked up.

  The man spoke in a strong deep voice, “hello. Can I help you?”

  Dawn responded, “hello I think so. We killed some goblins and were wondering if this is where we can get paid for them?”

  The man got up from his desk and started to walk to them. “Sure, happy to take those off your hands. How many tusks have you collected?”

  Dawn could tell he had been around a sword his whole life. He stood a little taller than six feet, his armor was well maintained and looked crafted for him. His hair was mostly white with only a little grey. He had a sword on his side that looked rather well adorned.

  Leo spoke when the man came close. “We have 5 goblins of tucks.” He handed the guard the tusks from his bag.

  The guard grabbed them and counted them. Then the guard reached into his coin purse and pulled out a silver coin. “Here you go, job well done. My name is Alexander. I am the guard captain of Lake Town. I hope to see you slaying a lot more of these demons.”

  Dawn spoke up, “my name is Dawn, and this is Leo. We also hope to be killing as many as we can and getting paid is a nice bonus.”

  Alexander then spoke up, “haven’t seen you two before. You must be from out of town?”

  “Yeah, we are from the fire empire,” said Leo. “Just traveling merchants, our stuff was destroyed by some goblins. So, we need to build back up some supplies before leaving. What demon earns the most copper?”

  Alexander replied, “well the riskiest would be the were-wolves to the south. They pay 5 silver a piece but unless you have a healer, I would not recommend them. If you are looking to make some quick copper, I would say the goblins, or the kobolds would be the easiest. They are plentiful as of late and rather easy kills. There was an orc sighted as well but I would not recommend taking him on without a much larger group.”

  Dawn thought for a moment and said, “we do need a healer. Well, thank you for the information. Any idea where we could find a good healer?”

  Alexander thought for a moment and said, “there are some sailors in the port. They might have one for hire, but I am unsure. Healers are rather rare in town but you could ask around there.”

  Dawn smiled and nodded, “thank you again Alex! We will have to look around. Good bye for now, hope to see you soon!”

  Alexander smiled back and said, “stay safe and you as well!”

  Alexander waved and then they departed, walking out of the door. Dawn felt a chill in the air, the sun was starting to set and it was getting much colder.

  Dawn said, “SOOO we are traveling merchants now?”

  Leo spoke as he started walking to the gates, “it’s a good cover. I do not think it’s a good idea to go around telling people you are a princess. Keeping a low profile would be to our benefit.”

  They walked out the gate, “I can see your point. We should see if we can find a healer to take on those werewolves. The water nation is known for having the best healers, let’s head back into town and see if any are looking to party up.”

  “We are running out of time in the day, and I do not think we have the silver to stay in town tonight. Let alone enough to hire a good healer to come with us a great distance.” Leo said as he crossed his arms.

  Dawn started walking towards town. “I have a good feeling, there has to be someone that is just looking to go on an adventure!”

  Leo shrugged and just followed along; they made it to town without incident. Everyone in the market was either taking things down for the day or had already done so. The town seemed to be much quieter now. They walked around a bit. They noticed that the further they went from the market the more people were sleeping on the streets. After walking a bit they came to the port. There were many docks on the port but one pulled Dawns attention. On the dock there was an older looking man smoking a pipe looking at what looked like a pirate ship. The man had a black cloak and a black leather hat.

  Dawn said, “that’s our man for sure!”

  Leo spoke with a bit of worry, “I guess it could not hurt to talk to him. He seems rather busy though.”

  Dawn took off in the man's direction and yelled out, “hello sir! Do you have a moment?”

  As Dawn got closer she could see him better, he had a darker beard with hints of gray. He also had a cutlass strapped to a leather belt around his waist. Dawn's instincts flared up when she got closer. What is this feeling, Dawn thought. It's the same feeling I get when I try to sneak up on my mother. This man is strong. I can feel it.

  The man hit his pipe and looked her way, his motions were fluid and masterfully down as he turned her way. “Hello miss. Sure, how can I help you? We are not for hire at the moment.”

  Dawn responded with, “oh no worries. I was wondering if you knew someone who wanted to go on an adventure?”

  The man laughed, “miss I sail the high seas. Every day is an adventure for me and my men. We are docked for some repairs for now but none of my men are available. What kind of person are you looking for to go on this… adventure of yours?”

  Speaking with excitement in her voice, Dawn said, “someone that is looking to go a great distance and help us slay many demons. It would also be helpful if they knew healing magic.”

  The captain put his pipe in his mouth and looked up in thought for a few moments. He let out a big poof of smoke that formed into a hut and said, “I just might know who you are looking for.”

  Dawn got even more excited and jumped for joy, “Leo see I told you! I had a good feeling!”

  Leo spoke standing behind Dawn, “calm down Dawn let the captain speak.”

  The captain scratched his chin, “oh Dawn and you have crimson hair and horns to boot. Pleasure to meet you princess.”

  Dawn was a bit surprised and said, “oh you got that with just my hair and name. Pleasure is all mine sir. May I ask your name sir?”

  He bowed and said, “My apologies. I am Edward Beach.”

  Dawn bowed back and spoke, “nice to meet you Edward. So back on to this person that you think would be a good fit for my party.”

  Edward stood up straight again and said, Marina is her name; she is a great water mage. She lives in a smaller hut to the south of town. She is about your age, which should make her a good fit.”

  Dawn asked, “So what makes you think she would be willing to leave this nice town to go on an adventure? We do not have a lot of money on us to pay her.”

  Edward responded with, “Marina is not liked by the town. She is actually a rather rare hybrid of a human mother and a merfolk father. Very rare for that combo to bear fruit so to speak.” He took a moment to smoke his pipe and then spoke again. “This town does not like the merfolk as they cause them a lot of trouble out on the seas. So, they shun her, I think it would do her good to see the world.”

  Dawn sounded a little sad in her reply, “I see. How do we find her?”

  Edward pointed to the south, “first take the south exit of town. On your left side you will come across a forest pretty quick. Walk through the forest a bit and you will come across a lake, her hut is on that lake. So just walk around until you find it.”

  “Thank you, Ed, I think we should be able to find her with that. It is getting late so we should probably start heading that way.”

  Edward spoke with a bit of worry in his voice, “I do not think you will make it tonight. You should probably stay in town tonight.”

  Dawn smiled and said, “I appreciate the concern. But no need to worry Ed we can manage. We have a rather urgent message to give to your king, I want to get back on the road as soon as possible.”

  Edward shrugged and said, “sure if you say so. Good luck princess. I hope to see you again.”

  “Thank you, Ed, I am sure we will. Goodbye for now!” Dawn said with a smile.

  “Goodbye for now.” They all waved, and Dawn and Leo took off southward.

  I have heard that last name before but where? Dawn shook her head and continued walking. I am sure it will come to me, for now let's look for this Marina.