When this somehow weird scene caused by Maverick's bear was over something about my body felt off although I couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was. After this meeting ended it took me one day to finish every business that needed my attention. I searched for a few highly poisonous water snakes to guard the during my absence in case Gabriel and Natalie tended to be lazy again.

Furthermore since I suggested that we would build a residence for future guest I looked over a few designs made by our craftsmen to make it fitting for our future guests.

Last but not least I checked whether the defence buildings and sentry posts were efficient by having my racer lizards try to enter the village unnoticed. Fortunately for the clan they were found very soon. With all these problems gone I was now ready to venture further and on the morning of the following day the eternity of the new tamer clan stood at the northern entrance to say their goodbyes.

Mercy was already waiting and Theresa walked towards him followed by her four Direwolves.

I paused for a moment and looked at Fang and Claw. ?You two and Gabriel are now this towns best defences. Don't let your clansmen down." When I said I gave each of them a Sabreteeth dagger each. ?I used these during our first mission at hunters creek. They didn't let me down and they won't let you down. Farewell"

After this short farewell I caught up to the other two and after each of us mounted up we started galloping towards the north, Theresa on her Alpha Direwolf and Mercy and myself on Bambi.

After a few kilometers we realized that we had finally left the All Human Empire behind us as there was a caravan of dwarfs crossing our path. Many of them simply fainted upon seeing our entourage of beasts. It looked like they were quite scared and didn't really have an intention to talk to us so we simply minded our own business. They had some finely crafted little carriages that weren't pulled by horses but instead by a machine that seemed to be powered by a supernatural source. I was quite intrigued but it would be rude to follow them after frightening them this much.

Instead, I simply memorized this vehicle to the best of my ability to compare it to machines I might see in the future.

This was the only caravan that crossed our path on the way towards the town that would be our resting point before going through the canyon towards Seadawn.

After three days of almost restless travelling we finally reached it. This little place barely qualified as a town. It could clearly be seen that most people who would live in this town would do so only for a short while. The biggest two buildings that were quite populated were the stables and an inn. Besides those two there were some small huts which showed some signs of being inhabited by the villagers of this small town. When the people around the inn saw Bambi and Alpha carrying us towards the inn many rushed inside or trembled in fear. A few courageous ones readied themselves for a potential fight and had their hands positioned on the hilts of their swords.

After approaching the inn without any killing intent except for the hungry noises of our tame beasts many of the alert people in front of the inn calmed down but they were still slightly cautious.

This was the first moment that might have escalated if we brought Natalie or Gabriel along. Even the tamers from both clans were frightened. If those armed people now were frightened by a few Direwolves, a green dotted deer and my Racer Lizards then they would have definitely lost it at the sight of one or two Naga.

One of the armed men walked forward and greeted us. ?A pleasure to meet you, young travellers. Your entourage is quite uncommon. You wouldn't mind introducing yourselves to calm the atmosphere, would you?"

Both Drake and I thought ?He didn't even introduce himself'

?I am Valentinus" I paused for a moment and Theresa continued for me ?...and I am Theresa. We are the representatives of the tamer clans of the south. We wish to introduce a new trade route which is completely free of bandits. Now please return the favor and introduce yourselves!"

?Oh how shameless of me, asking for a name without giving my own. My name is Lander, Lander of the Silver Swords, adventurer of Seadawn's Adventurers' guild. Surely you must have heard of them."

This time he was quite open towards us without holding anything back. Since he was an adventurer I thought it might be a good idea to ask him more about the guild but once again the one who started talking wasn't me but this time it was Mercy.

?What a coincidence! We are currently travelling towards Seadawn to get registered as adventurers."

Lander looked at the three of us and was visibly struggling to contain his laughter. Fortunately he got a hold of himself. ?I see why you would want to become an adventurer, Sir. When I look at your face and body I see a man who was steeled in countless battles but you young man" he paused and walked towards me ?although you possess a well defined body it looks more like that of a noble who will never in his life see a drop of blood leaving his body"

At the mention of these words I couldn't help but feel wronged and happy to equal parts. I indeed had never lost a drop of blood but the reason was slightly different than what this Lander might have thought. I was once struck by lightning but no blade has ever touched my skin.

?Aren't you going to mention me at all?" Theresa's voice came from the side towards our ears.

?What do you mean?" Lander looked quite perplexed after she threw these words in.

?Do you think I would make a fine adventurer?"

Her response was a roaring laughter from all the guys behind Lander.

Theresa was currently wearing slightly loose clothes which covered her whip, sword and the body of an amazon beneath it. Everything these guys saw was a beautiful face and none of them would expect such a lovely lady to be one of the most elite warriors the Night Serpent Clan has given birth to.

These guys didn't know it but they were currently heavily endangered.

The stare Theresa gave them right now was only once before seen by me and that was when the hunters tried to capture or even kill her Direwolves.

I tried to cool the situation down a bit by suggesting:

?How about we do a little bit of sparring and you can see for yourself that the two of us shouldn't be underestimated"

Drake was already giggling although I made it clear that we wouldn't hurt anybody here unnecessarily heavily.

?I am sorry. I can't accept this request" Lander declined ?We are currently in a hurry to finish a mission. We just wanted to go when you came. But if you really want to spar a little then I will be your tester during the adventurer registration. As a C-ranking adventurer there won't be any problem if I appraise new recruits."

Before we could even answer to his suggestion Lander and his party had already saddled up and departed.

After they were gone we walked towards the stables but a very nervous man stopped us right at the entrance.

As I walked forward he immediately apologized for stopping us but he would have to decline the service for the simple reason that carnivores would bring stress to the other animals that were living here for a while.

Fortunately we were luckier with the inn. Since it wasn't a big city it was relatively cheap at a price of one silver for a two night stay for the three of us. Food was obviously not included in such a cheap price but I decided to go hunting while Mercy and Theresa would be in charge of gathering intelligence about the two witches and the canyon the next day.

The owner of the inn was very hospitable. He particularly liked it to search for Cham who tried to hide in the lobby after he talked with us about how interesting he thought it must be to be a tamer. When most of the guests went to sleep I asked him what he knew about the two witches who were somewhere between the canyon's entrance and this little town.

Since he was a little drunk by now he was quite talkative. ?You see, most of us didn't have that much contact with them but the people are always afraid of the unknown. The two witches as they are called are actually two official wizards. One is a high elf and one is a dark elf. I don't remember their names but their existence is often called a curse because something such as the two should be impossible..."

he almost fell asleep right now and I reflected for a moment whether I should hypnotize him to get the rest of this information but I decided against it.

After a few seconds he regained his senses and continued ?yes, impossible! In fact they are sisters. The people around here aren't the most tolerant ones. They won't say a thing against one race but there would be an uproar if two lovers were from different species. It's the same for the elves themselves. That's..."

he yawned ?that's the reason they are called the two cursed witches" and with these words his head that was place on his arm hit the table and he fell asleep. I followed suit and went towards the room that was prepared for us. When I entered the room I was surprised by the sleeping habits of my companions.

Aside from the four little racer lizards and Cham that were fast asleep on the floor Mercy had seemingly falling asleep in the recliner in full armour. As my eyes wandered through the darkness I was once more surprised to see that Theresa did quite the opposite: she was lying diagonally across the sole bed in the room and didn't mind to undress completely. Her tanned skin moved up and down while she was breathing in and out quietly.

I used one of my spare hide armours to cover her to some extent before I lied down beside her and closed my eyes as well.