A-LAC Of Light

-Shadow Island, early afternoon-

Stepping off a boat that had brought her here and onto the shore of Shadow Island, the very first thing that Victoria noticed about the place was just how dark it was. The clients did not lie when they told her that the island was 10 times darker in daytime than every other location in Earthland. It was early afternoon and the sun was high in the sky, but the island was so dim that it looked almost like sunset. Victoria produced a bag of Jewels and paid the captain for the time and risk. He nodded to her and turned on the boat engine, then he carefully navigated his way clear of the shore and took off for home.

Victoria had worn her Azure Armor over a blue t-shirt and black skirt with bike shorts on underneath. She took off her backpack and put on the Bandolier and moved the Silver Dagger to her skirt pocket. The island was said to be crawling with territorial animals and she had to be ready to deal with them at a moment's notice.

Victoria had been sent here on behalf of the Magic Council and the clients to find evidence of Kerwes' work on Project Lacedaemon and shut it down. Her secondary objective was to apprehend Kerwes and bring him to the Rune Knights, but if that was not possible she was tasked with eliminating him to ensure that the threat of Agent Lacedaemon died with him. She had been told that the island's residents were on edge after attacks on their town by humanoid creatures that looked to be mutated humans. The brunette remembered the details of the project and wondered if Kerwes had "improved" on the formula to get rid of the worst of the effects, which included bleeding from the eyes and nose and heart failure in a matter of minutes. If that was true, he had made viable soldiers that were horribly mutated to the point they could barely be called human anymore.

The brunette found a wooden arrow sign that pointed straight ahead towards a beaten dirt trail cutting through a forest that led to a town called Shadow's Edge. It was hardly a creative name, but it was what it was. She would head there first to get the lay of the land and talk with the residents about what was happening on this island. The locals would know more about what was going on here than anyone, so it would be prudent to talk to them first. Victoria put one foot in front of the other and started walking the path, looking out for wild animals who took umbrage to humans trespassing on "their" turf.

-On the trail-

Victoria marveled as her surroundings somehow got darker thanks to the thick canopy of trees that loomed overhead. She was in dangerous territory now, so she would need to be careful and keep an eye out for trouble. Animals could be lurking in the tree branches, in the abundant brush off to the side of the trail, or even behind the trees. It was just like Lycan Woods except for the fact that she would not be going up against werewolves... at least she hoped that she would not be fighting them. She would be expecting the usual suspects like bears, lions, wolves, maybe even a panther.

She had no idea of what to expect, which was why she needed to be careful. She was on unfamiliar ground with only a wooden sign for guidance. At least it was warm on Shadow Island and not unbearably cold like it was on Snowfall Island. That was one thing that worked in Victoria's favor. It might be the only thing that worked in her favor on this job.

[Word Count: 638]
[Total Word Count: 638/12,500]

-Inside the forest-

Victoria walked through the forest on her way to Shadow's Edge to see if the locals knew anything about A. Kerwes or A-LAC. She had heard growling somewhere in the forest but could not spotted its source. The dense foliage all around her had made certain that she was unable to see the source of the noise. She heard rustling nearby, prompting Victoria to bring out her Shotgun so that she was armed in case a predatory animal jumped out of the brush looking for an easy snack.

That decision was prescient because moments later something did jump out of the bush, but it was not a wild animal. It was a teenage girl with shoulder-length black hair, a green t-shirt and khaki short shorts with legs sporting numerous cuts from the thorns in the bushes. The panicked teenager turned towards Victoria and ran towards her. Victoria lowered her weapon to avoid an accidental shooting.

"There's something in those woods! Something that's not entirely human!" She gasped to the brunette. Victoria raised an eyebrow as the girl turned towards Shadow's Edge and began running for her life before the brunette could ask her any questions about what she had seen. The Sabertooth mage was left with only a vague hint about danger and nothing else, so she had no real choice but to continue onward to the village. Maybe she would encounter someone who knew about the humanoid creatures running around the woods.

-One hour later, Shadow's Edge-

Victoria dispelled her shotgun and walked into the town to try and get some answers. She entered the town that looked just like any other small town in Earthland with shops, taverns, restaurants, and other buildings made in a contemporary architectural style. It had numerous street lamps on metal poles lining the streets for much-needed lighting. The brunette walked into the town and noticed that not too many people were on the streets even though it was afternoon and afternoon was typically the busiest time for taverns and restaurants. Something really bad must be going on here if the lunch crowds were not out and about.

Victoria walked towards an empty park in the town square and looked around for people, but she did not see anyone. This place was like a ghost town. Maybe it had something to do with those humanoid creatures the girl in the forest had warned her about. Victoria stood in silence as she tried to figure out where Kerwes could put his lair and not draw too much attention to it. She thought that he had built it somewhere in the woods so that the territorial animals could serve as a first line of defense that had the benefit of discouraging people from investigating too closely lest they become a meal for the forest predators.

The Sabertooth mage sat on an empty wooden bench and looked around for someone, anyone to talk to about the happenings around Shadow's Edge but saw no one. There was not even a rebellious teenager flouting the rules to be spotted in the deserted streets. The brunette was resigned to being alone when she heard a voice call out to her from somewhere close by. She turned around to find a member of the town guard standing with the black-haired teenager from earlier.

"I can't believe you're still alive!" The teenage girl exclaimed. Victoria raised an eyebrow to the girl. She had kept a brisk walking pace and had kept a weapon handy for the entire trip. Why would she not be alive now?

"Those humanoid things are dangerous. I saw one while trying to pick wild berries and ran for it before he could spot me. At least I thought it was a he... half of its face was all twisted and stuff." The girl continued. The town guard member soon picked up where the girl left off.

"She's right. We've been dealing with them for the past three months now. No one goes out at night anymore, not after what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Jones when the attacks first started." The town guard member, a young woman with shoulder-length brown hair, said to Victoria. Victoria stood up and faced the pair. They seemed to know what was going on here, so asking them a few questions would be a good first move.

"What happened to Mr. and Mrs. Jones?" Victoria asked them. The town guard member closed her green eyes for a moment, then opened them again and started the story.

"They were returning from a night at the local tavern. They had had a bit too much to drink and had gotten lost on the way home. They had wandered onto the town outskirts, which was where we found them about six hours later after someone reported a lot of screaming that had gone silent. We found that someone had torn off the legs of Mr. and Mrs. Jones and had beaten both of them to death with bare hands." The town guardswoman reported. Victoria winced when she heard the part about their legs being ripped off before they were killed.

"Yeah, it was a mess. After that no one went out at night, but the attacks still continued. This time homes were being broken into and we weren't always able to respond in time to save people. We'd get there to find bodies torn apart like a wild animal had broken in, but it wasn't an animal." The story continued. Victoria picked that moment to interrupt the macabre story.

"I'm here to help put a stop to the attacks." Victoria asserted to the town guardswoman.

"You're a mage from Fiore, huh?" The woman asked.

"Yeah. I'm a mage from Sabertooth. I've been sent here to find the source of the humanoid creatures and stop them." The armored brunette asserted to the pair. Victoria produced the job notice as proof and the guard read over the document carefully, not daring to get her hopes up in case Victoria was a fraud. Victoria wordlessly presented her guild tattoo and the guard was convinced. The latter handed over the job notice and gave a small smile.

"OK, it seems like you're the real deal. The town guard's stretched pretty thin patrolling Shadow's Edge, so you'll have to investigate alone. It's not all bad news, though. I can get you going in the right direction." The guardswoman said to her. It sounded like the past three months had been a tough time for the town and its police force. Maybe Victoria could get rid of the mutants and help the town get back on its feet.

"Where do I need to go?" Victoria asked the officer. The officer pointed a white-gloved hand towards the town outskirts to the north of the park.

"Go that way. That's the direction of the woods where those mutants come from. If you happen to encounter any of them in the woods, shoot to kill and don't let them get too close. We lost Officer Hudson four weeks ago when a mutant grabbed his nightstick and rammed it through his chest." The guardswoman warned Victoria of the threat.

"Do tasers or tear gas work on them?" Victoria asked. The officer frowned and shook her head.

"No. We tried those and the mutant just shrugged them off. After it killed Officer Hudson we had to use lethal force and it took six of us emptying our guns into it to bring it down." The officer answered. It sounded like Victoria would have her work cut out for her. This was not the first time that the brunette had her work cut out for her.

[Word Count: 1,312]
[Total Word Count: 1,950/12,500]

"All right. I'll head that way and see what I can find. Thanks." Victoria told the officer. The officer nodded and spoke again. A look of concern mixed with hope was on her face.

"I've gotta make my rounds, so I'll see you later. Be careful up ahead because those mutants can pop up out of thin air and move really fast. Don't let them get their hands on you or you might not live to regret it." The officer warned her. Victoria thanked the woman and began to walk for the town outskirts. She could not get used to Shadow's Edge being practically deserted when most other cities would be bustling by now. It was a weird feeling to know that so many people were huddled inside their homes because they were afraid to face what was just beyond the town limits. Even staying inside their homes was not sufficient protection because the mutants would break in to get to people... Victoria had to end the threat as soon as possible.

Victoria walked briskly towards the town outskirts but could not shake the feeling that she was being followed. Had one of the mutants managed to slip up behind her? Victoria paused in front of an empty bakery that faced an alley and turned around to face whoever was following her, but no one was there. Victoria shrugged her shoulders and continued to walk until she reached the edge of town, where she was faced with a forest just like the one she had traversed to reach Shadow's Edge.

The brunette took a look around and spotted a humanoid figure darting into the brush just beyond the range where it could be positively identified. She was fairly certain that it was a mutant, but she was not absolutely certain that was what lurked ahead. Victoria refrained from bringing out a weapon and walked into the woods after looking around to check for mutants trying to slip into Shadow's Edge. She did not see any around, so she would leave the matter to the town guard and proceed with the mission to find and apprehend A. Kerwes.

-In the forest-

Victoria walked down the forest path with her shotgun in hand. Trouble could leap from the bushes at any moment and she needed a weapon that would allow her to neutralize a threat with a single shot. The woods had a claustrophobic feel because the canopy was so dense that it blocked out almost all of the light from above. The path was also lined with thick brush on both sides, thick brush that could be hiding any manner of threats. At least the path itself was wide enough for two horse-drawn carts to travel side-by-side or for a group of eight people to walk side-by-side.

The Sabertooth mage had traveled down the path and paused to look at a wooden sign that pointed towards Shadow's Edge when she felt that she was being watched. Victoria stayed in place and swiftly glanced right. She saw a black tennis shoe-covered foot slip behind a tree. She was wary of being followed but pressed on because the mutant threat was not going to stop itself.

The armed mage walked a bit further until she came across a fork in the road. One path branched left into more wilderness while one branched right and led to a place called Dusk Town. Victoria wondered what Dusk Town was but did not have much time to ponder that question because a set of eyes was burning a hole in the back of her head. Victoria spun around to find no one there.

This was getting to be more than a bit annoying. At least she was not being stalked by a mutant because they would already be charging at her instead of playing the waiting game and waiting for just the right time to strike. The time to strike could not get much better because she was alone in the woods and did not know where she was going. She was also traveling on a clearly defined path that was the only one in the area, so it was not like her destination could not be easily predicted.

Victoria made a judgment call on where to go and ended up choosing to go to Dusk Town. If it really was a town, maybe she could get some information on the mutants there. Victoria walked to the right and began the trip to Dusk Town.

-On the path to Dusk Town, forty-five minutes later-

The brunette had stopped in the middle of the path to stretch her legs when the sensation that someone was watching her came up. Rather than spinning around, Victoria had another idea. She reached down to touch her toes, then suddenly peered between her legs to find the dark-haired girl from Shadow's Edge standing a short distance away from her. Victoria frowned.

"L-l-look, I can explain!" The dark-haired girl said, putting her hands in front of her face because she was afraid of the mage. Victoria dispelled the shotgun and walked towards the person who had been stalking her ever since she left Shadow's Edge. The brunette was mildly angry towards the dark-haired girl for making the former so paranoid, but the anger was outweighed by curiosity. Why would the girl spend so much time and effort to follow her into such a dangerous location?

"OK, tell me why you're following me." Victoria challenged the girl, not bothering to mince words.

"I'm... I'm Janine. I'm from Dusk Town." The dark-haired girl introduced herself to Victoria.

"I'm looking for some friends of mine who went missing. They went missing in the woods around Umbra Point, but I couldn't get anyone to help me look for them. The town guard's too busy patrolling Shadow's Edge and Dusk Town to spare anyone to look for missing teenagers." Janine explained. Victoria was relieved that she was not dealing with one of Kerwes' agents hiding among the town populace.

"Do you think those mutants got them?" Victoria asked Janine. The girl nodded.

"Yeah, I think they did. I heard rumors about some strange guy in Umbra Point, but I haven't heard anything solid, just hearsay in the bars. I thought about going there myself but didn't want to go alone." Janine said to Victoria. Victoria was skeptical because the girl had no problem following her through the forest despite warnings of predatory animals lurking in the woods. The dark-haired teenager seemed to pick up on the brunette's skepticism and was quick to speak.

"Umbra Point's full of panthers, black bears, and other wildlife. Hunters go there, but only in groups of at least five and they all stick together." Janine explained why she did not travel there alone. It was a plausible reason, so Victoria chose to believe her for the time being. She hoped that Janine was not one of Kerwes' agents blackmailed into serving him like the hapless scientist Currie was back on Snowfall Island.

"Do you know anything about this Dusk Town?" Victoria asked Janine.

"Yeah. My older sister and older brother live there. My sister's a local reporter and my brother's part of the town guard." Janine answered with sincerity. Victoria did not want to leave Janine alone in the woods, so she was going to offer to take the girl with her.

"OK. I'm heading that way now. You can tag along if you like." Victoria said to Janine. The teenager jumped at the chance.

"Yeah, that's a really good idea. I REALLY don't want to be alone out here. I thought that I heard moaning somewhere behind me, but I was too scared to look behind me." Janine said. Victoria raised an eyebrow when she heard that remark. Maybe the brunette was being stalked by a mutant after all.

[Word Count: 1,350]
[Total Word Count: 4,300/12,500]

-Inside Dusk Town, an hour and fifteen minutes later-

"We made it!" Janine exclaimed, rushing into the city limits and leaving Victoria in the dust. Victoria walked into Dusk Down and found that the town guard was out in force. She spotted a team of four guardsmen standing watch in the town square and another team of four escorting an old man and woman to their home. She was met by four male town guardsmen who were on the lookout for someone... or something. Chances were high that this town was having trouble with the mutants just like Shadow's Edge was.

"Welcome, traveler. I don't know what you're looking for in Dusk Town, but you've come at a bad time. You see, we've been attacked by weird mutants over the past few weeks and everyone's on edge." A tall, brown-haired officer explained to Victoria. Victoria wordlessly produced the job notice and handed it to the man. Maybe he could give her some more information to go on before she set out for Umbra Point. The officer read over the notice and handed it back to her with an expression of relief on his face.

"We're glad you're here, kid. We can't spare anyone to go look for the mutants and we're not equipped to handle threats like them. They don't respond to non-lethal weapons and it takes a whole magazine of bullets to bring them down." The guardsman informed her. Victoria had heard the same report from the guardswoman in Shadow's Edge, so she was not terribly surprised by that information. Dusk Town was having the same problem that Shadow's Edge was when it came to dealing with unwanted visitors.

"Do you think Umbra Point's where they're coming from?" Victoria asked the man. He only shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I think so. Like I said, we haven't had the manpower to investigate ourselves. If you're brave enough to head that way, more power to you. You might wanna ask some of the locals what to expect before you head out, though." The man suggested to the mage. Janine turned to Victoria and began to speak to her.

"I have this friend who's a real wilderness fan who hikes in that area a lot, so we should go ask her first once we're finished here." Janine said to Victoria. That was as good a place as any for the Sabertooth mage to start her inquiry into what was at Umbra Point, so as soon as they had finished talking with the town guard she would follow Janine to the friend's house. As it turned out, they would not have to wait too long for the conversation to end.

"We'd better get going. We have to make our rounds because there's no predicting when the mutants will show up. They just appear with no warning, so we've gotta be ready for them. Good luck!" The officer wished Victoria before he and his colleagues turned around and began patrolling the town outskirts. Victoria turned to Janine and spoke to her companion.

"I'd like to go to your friend's house now." Victoria said to the teenager. She nodded and motioned for Victoria to follow her.

"OK, just follow me. She lives in an area close to the woods that separate the town from Umbra Point." Janine informed her. Victoria followed the Dusk Town native as the latter walked through the town square and past the watchful town guardsmen.

-Inside Dusk Town-

The streets of the town were empty except for four-man teams of town guardsmen walking the beat and teams of guardsmen stationed at checkpoints made out out piled-up sandbags. All the stores were closed and most of the restaurants were closed too. The few restaurants that were open only had a few people inside of them. The threat of mutants must have been much worse than Victoria had imagined.

"Man, this place is a certified ghost town." Janine mused aloud. Victoria was inclined to agree with her companion's accurate assessment of the atmosphere of Dusk Town. The medium-sized town looked and felt dead. There was no ambient noise other than the footsteps of patrolling town guardsmen and their own footsteps.

"It wasn't always like this, Victoria. Just a few weeks ago the town was bustling because no one was afraid of the dark. People would go out to eat late at night and stay out late to drink at the bars, then stumble home at whatever time they finally sobered up enough to walk straight. Now people won't leave their homes once they get home from work because they're scared of the mutants." Janine continued the conversation. Victoria did not blame the people for being scared. These mutants sounded like bad news for everyone on Shadow Island. The pair walked through the town and passed by a sports bar with an animated blue neon sign showing a bat hitting a baseball.

They continued their walk through the empty town until Janine suddenly took a right at a crossroads with a straight path that led to the woods that Victoria would eventually need to travel through. At the edge of the town was a checkpoint manned by four town guardsmen. Victoria followed her guide to a house with a brown door and brass knocker.

"Here we are." Janine announced. She walked up to the doorstep and was about to knock when the door opened on its own. Facing them was an athletic young woman about Janine's age with long brown hair that reached her waist, blue eyes, and a black tank top with blue jean shorts.

"Oh hey Janine! Who's your friend?" The girl asked.

"Rayna, meet Victoria. She's a mage who's gonna help get rid of the mutants." Janine introduced the mage to her friend.

"Hey Victoria! I'm Rayna!" The long-haired brunette introduced herself. Victoria raised a hand in greeting and watched as Janine took the lead.

"Victoria's gonna go to Umbra Point to try and find those things. Is there anything else she should watch out for?" Janine asked her friend. Rayna's eyes narrowed and her tone of voice turned serious.

"Come on in. I'll tell you both about Umbra Point." Jennifer told them. The pair entered the home and their hostess shut the door behind them. Whatever she had to say was likely not very good news.

[Word Count: 1,100]
[Total Word Count: 5,400/12,500]

-Inside Rayna's house-

Victoria and Janine sat down on a brown leather couch as Rayna sat in a brown cloth recliner. Victoria looked around the house and found it to be a comfortably middle-class one with beige wallpaper and decent furnishings that looked used but in good shape. The living room floor was covered in spotless beige carpet. Rayna strolled into the kitchen and opened a stainless steel single-door refrigerator, then ducked into it to look for something to drink.

"Hey guys, do you want anything to drink?" Rayna asked them.

"Do you have a Cherry Charge?" Janine asked their hostess. Rayna stood up and pitched the can to Janine in a perfect arc. The can landed in Janine's left hand. The dark-haired girl opened it without missing a beat and the syrupy scent of cherry soda filled the air.

"What about you, Victoria?" Rayna asked.

"Do you have a Strawberry Slam?" Victoria inquired. Rayna reached into the refrigerator, grabbed the can, and threw it in another perfect arc. It landed in the mage's cupped hands.

"Thanks." Victoria thanked Rayna. Rayna grabbed a Cherry Charge for herself and sat down in the cloth recliner she had claimed for her own a minute ago. She then looked at the pair.

"I'll tell you right now that Umbra Point's dangerous." Rayna said without preamble. Victoria leaned in closer. The brunette's interest in what her hostess had to say was piqued.

"I've seen wild animals in the area, but as long as I keep my distance and slowly back away they don't make much effort to chase me. Those mutants are a different story." Rayna continued. Janine stopped drinking and sat the can down on a nondescript circular brown coaster sitting on a medium-sized glass coffee table. Victoria lowered her unopened beverage can onto the coaster in front of her and listened.

"The first time I saw a mutant I thought it was some kind of mutated monkey, like a bulked-up orangutan. It was hunched over the body of a hiker whose head had been ripped off and was eating from around the corpse's neck. When it saw me, it groaned something and started to chase me. It's a good thing that I'm a cross-country runner because it was persistent... it chased me all the way to the town outskirts, where some town guardsmen shot it to death." Rayna explained her first encounter with the mutants plaguing the town.

"Do you think it followed you back here and let its buddies know where to go?" Victoria asked the long-haired brunette. Rayna frowned.

"I don't think it did. I hid behind the corner of a house and watched the guards kill it. I saw it die. It didn't say anything else once it made contact with me, so I don't know how it could have let the other mutants know about Dusk Town." Rayna answered with audible indignation at the implication that she had led them to the town. The long-haired brunette stood up with an irritated look and Victoria raised her hands in a "I don't want trouble" gesture. Janine felt it necessary to step in to defuse the tension filling the living room.

"This isn't anyone's fault. I think that the mutants were led to the town by the lights. It's not terribly hard for this place to stand out at night." Janine said to her friend. Rayna stood down and sat back in her seat. Victoria tried to find a way to steer the conversation in another direction while the going was good.

"OK Rayna, so you said that the mutant was at Umbra Point, right?" Victoria gently asked her hostess. Rayna nodded.

"Yeah. I was out for a hike because I was tired of hanging around here all day." Rayna replied.

"What time of day was it when you ran into it?" Victoria inquired.

"About mid-afternoon, somewhere around this time." Came the answer.

"OK. You said that you encountered it while it was eating a hiker it had killed?" Victoria asked.

"Yeah. I never saw the head, but it had ripped the guy's head off and was eating him." She answered in disgust.

"And you saw just that one mutant, right?" Victoria continued her line of inquiry. Rayna nodded.

"Yeah, just that one." She answered.

"Is there anything else you can tell me about them? Anything at all?" Victoria asked one last question.

"Yeah. A couple of days ago I overheard the town guard say that those things like to come out at night. That's when they like to slip into town to... feed." Rayna replied.

"All right. I'll set out for Umbra Point to try and get to the bottom of this. Thanks for your time, Rayna." Victoria thanked her hostess. The brunette stood up and grabbed her drink can because she needed to get on the road. Rayna bolted out of her seat.

"Be careful out there, Victoria. It won't be too much longer before it's nighttime. Who knows how many of those mutants are out there!" Rayna warned the mage.

"I'll be careful." Victoria assured her hostess. Victoria then opened the door and walked outside, shutting it behind her. If she got on the road now maybe she could kill some mutants before they got to Dusk Town.

-Dusk Town, security checkpoint at the border-

"So you're going to Umbra Point, huh?" A tall male guardsman with blond hair in a buzzcut asked Victoria, handing back the job notice she had given him as proof of her mission.

"Yeah. I heard that Umbra Point's where the first mutant was seen." Victoria replied confidently. The other three guards at the checkpoint looked at her like she had lost her mind. The brunette ignored them and focused on the conversation.

"I'd be careful if I was you. Those things like to come out at night and they don't travel alone. They travel in groups of three and they really like to eat human flesh. I don't think they eat anything else." The guard told her. That statement confirmed what Rayna had just told her about the mutants being cannibals. Victoria shuddered at the thought.

"Yeah. We've had to keep a close watch on the elderly and the homeless because the mutants seem to like hunting them. It's probably because they can't really fight back if the mutants go after them." The man commented. That comment gave Victoria more incentive to kill as many mutants as she could find before they got to the town. As soon as the conversation was finished she would begin her trip to Umbra Point to find and destroy the source of the mutants.

[Word Count: 1,150]
[Total Word Count: 6,550/12,500]

-In the woods, en route to Umbra Point-

Victoria had left the relative safety of Dusk Town behind a little over thirty minutes ago in order to start the trip to Umbra Point, the location where Rayna had sighted the first mutant. She wanted to get a move on to try and stop the mutants before they got to Dusk Town for another nocturnal feeding session at the expense of the elderly and the homeless. The fact that the mutants preyed on those two segments of the island's population suggested that they had a rudimentary intelligence and were not just mindless killing machines. They knew that the elderly and the homeless were easier targets than younger and healthier people. Victoria summoned her Light Machine Gun and pressed on into the woods.

The woods were like the ones she had traversed between Shadow's Edge and Dusk Town because the width of the path and the dense foliage on each side of the road were also present on this path. That sense of familiarity was about the only advantage that the mage had on the road. Everything else was working against her. The brunette could hear sounds coming out of the forest but was unable to pinpoint their source because the foliage worked to muffle them. She did not have any sound-amplifying equipment or abilities, so she would just have to keep her eyes open and shoot first if she came across any enemies.

Victoria kept walking down the path until she reached a wooden sign in the shape of an arrow that pointed towards Umbra Point. She was relieved to see that she was on the right track. Victoria heard a groaning noise and stayed where she was, aiming the LMG towards the bushes to her left. She heard rustling noises from behind her and jumped back, landing in the middle of the road. Suddenly a gloved hand burst through the bushes and out came something that looked like it used to be human.

The thing wore part of a gray uniform and wore black boots on its feet, but that was where the resemblance to a human ended. Part of its face was still human but the other half was something... something else. Its face had been horribly warped and looked like an alien had fused with it. The worst part about the creature was that its mouth was frozen in a perpetual scream of agony.

Its eyes made contact with hers and it groaned something that further proved that it had a rudimentary intelligence.

"KILL... ME." It said to her before sprinting in a stagger. Victoria quickly raised her weapon and opened fire, holding down the trigger and not letting up. It did a jerky dance as its body was riddled with bullets and did not stop "dancing" until it coughed up blood and twitched on the ground. She walked over to it and took a closer look at the tattered uniform it was wearing. It looked like the ones worn by the rebels from Snowfall Island!

Victoria did not have time to read the name tag because there was more rustling in the bushes before two more mutants emerged from the bushes ready to do battle. The armed mage repeated the performance and ended the life of another mutant with a hail of gunfire, then had to dodge for her life as the second reached for her throat with open hands and grasping fingers. Victoria ducked it and fired into its stomach, making it lurch back and giving her just enough room to finish killing it.

The creature fell to the road and lay motionless. Victoria had just defeated three of the mutants terrorizing the island, but her triumph was short-lived because more of them began to tear down the bushes in a blind rush to get to her. Once all the mutants emerged from the bushes she was staring down nine of them. These were bad odds even for a mage with a Light Machine Gun.

The brunette held out her hand and formed a Flashbang, then threw the cylindrical device to the ground and watched it roll under the foot of a mutant. She turned away and counted to three before it went off and elicited pain-filled groans from the crowd. Victoria turned around and opened fire on the blinded creatures, not letting up until all of them were dead. Almost a minute elapsed before all nine of them were dead and she was sure that more of them were on the way thanks to all the noise her weapon of choice was making. However, when given the choice between stealth and death or making a lot of noise and living thanks to the firepower, the brunette would almost always choose to employ overwhelming firepower against her enemies.

Victoria took a moment to breathe before she had to fight more mutants who were out for blood. She would go deeper into the forest and keep going to Umbra Point to keep their minds off the town and focused only on her. She steadied herself and started off at a brisk walking pace down the road. More groaning was nearby, meaning that soon she would be fighting again when they caught up to her.

-Fifteen minutes later, down the road-

From what precious little of the sky she could see the sky was dark and it was now officially night. The police had warned her that the mutants were most active at night, so she had better be ready for more encounters with them. She did not waver because it had to be done. Someone had to stop Kerwes' plan for Project Lacedaemon before even more people were taken as test subjects and turned into inhuman abominations that terrorized innocent towns and villages across Earthland.

Victoria kept her weapon ready because she heard a lot of groaning and the rustling of foliage. She spotted what looked like a small campground with RVs parked around utility points and canvas tents looming in the distance and was immediately drawn to it. Maybe she could pick up a clue or two at the campground... once she fought her way through the mutants scrambling through the brush to get to her. Victoria needed somewhere safe to make a stand, somewhere that she could fight from without having to worry too much about being surrounded and dragged down to become a late-night snack for cannibals.

She did not spot any such convenient location nearby, so the brunette stood her ground and prepared to do battle again. Another set of nine mutants broke out of the brush and immediately fixed their eyes on Victoria. She aimed and fired a Five-Round Burst to the head that killed one, then repeated the process and killed another with a headshot. Only seven more out of the current batch remained.

Mutants:

[Word Count: 1,150]
[Total Word Count: 7,700/12,500]

Facing down seven mutants in front of her and a campground with an unknown number of enemies behind her, Victoria had no choice but to stand her ground and fight for her life. Victoria opened up on the approaching mutants and killed another two before the remaining five managed to close the distance and force her to retreat or be overwhelmed. She ran for the campground and tried to climb on top of the hood of an RV with a white top and scramble up to the top and fight from the high ground, but that plan was dashed when she saw mutants begin to slowly pour out of the camp and run towards her. Victoria was trapped between a rock and a hard place. She would just have to shoot her way out of this mess.

Victoria turned on the mutants clustered in front of her and began shooting at them, hoping to bag a couple more before she was forced to flee from both them and the new batch shuffling out of the campground. She managed to kill three more of the original group with a Five-Round Burst to the head for each mutant but had to run when one of the campground enemies grabbed at her shoulder with a hand caked in dried blood. Victoria shrieked, spun around and punched it in the face with the knuckle duster of her Trench Knife, then ran forward just as two more grabbed for her arms and caught only empty air.

She dodged the grasping hands of the last two mutants from the woods and fired from the hip, killing one with a sustained burst and turning her attention to its friend before the first dead mutant even hit the ground. She fired again and hit it repeatedly in the chest, then ran by it to avoid a grab attempt from behind by a campground mutant. She felt its fingers brush against the back of her neck as she ran forward, then spun around and let the offender have both barrels.

Victoria finished off the badly wounded mutant before turning her attention to the dozen-strong group that had emerged from the campground with murder on their minds. She gunned down three mutants with a Five-Round Burst to the head each and formed a Flashbang to roll at their feet. The mage formed the gray cylinder and let it roll, then turned away and counted to three. All of them except for one had been blinded, giving her the breathing room needed to kill the one enemy who had not been blinded and then turned her attention to those who were still unable to see. One minute of sustained fire later and it was all over.

Victoria's legs were hurting from all the running she had done, but she lived to fight another day. She stood in place and listened for more mutants groaning and emerging from the brush in the forest just behind her. Three minutes passed before the Sabertooth mage decided that no more enemies were after her and she ventured into the campground to look for clues. The brunette soon wished that she had just left the area alone.

The campground looked like a slaughterhouse. Torn canvas tents arranged in a semicircle bore gashes on the outside and bloodstains on the inside; both told a grisly tale of mutants ripping their way into the temporary structures to get to their victims. The outside walls of RVs had streaks of blood where unfortunate people trapped outside were killed by their attackers. The blood-soaked interiors of RVs with smashed-in doors showed what happened to those "lucky" enough to take shelter in the seemingly safe vehicles. There was no place to run for the unlucky campers... she counted at least three dozen corpses in various stages of decomposition and various states of disassembly scattered across the area in tents and RVs.

The RV she was thinking of climbing before the fighting began had a white paintjob with a green horizontal stripe running down the middle. It had a smashed-out window with a human arm cut by glass hanging out of it. She wondered if the glass was smashed by a mutant or by the RV's occupant in a desperate bid to escape. Her mind wandered as she looked to the right and saw the top of what used to be a white leather sofa soaked in blood and the back of a female head lying against the window. The copious blood on the woman's face indicated that she had been punched to death and her face gnawed off by her attacker... hopefully the gnawing had occurred after the victim had died from blunt force trauma to the face.

Victoria was not even sure where to begin looking for clues here. Everything was just such a mess and the place reeked of blood and decomposing bodies. She was so overwhelmed by the stench that she opted to just move on and leave the scene out of a horror movie behind. She would keep pressing forward until she reached Umbra Point, which involved going through yet another dark forest that was likely brimming with mutants.

Victoria walked to the edge of the campground and took a breath of somewhat clean air. She faced the forest and waited to see if any stragglers showed up to try and take her on. She waited and listened and when no new mutants approached she finally mustered the energy to push forward. She walked forward and left the camp behind her.

-In the forest, on the way to Umbra Point-

Victoria walked at a brisk pace as she tried to get closer to Umbra Point before she had to stop and fight again. While on the trail she noticed something unusual. The corpses of dead animals dotted the trail and showed signs of having been partially eaten.

Only a short distance from a patch of bushes coated with blood she saw a dead bear with a good chunk of its neck and right side missing from where strong hands had torn into those spots. She also saw teeth marks on its neck, presumably from where the mutants had feasted on it after bringing down the woodland predator. The brunette also noticed a pair of dead mutants nearby with five diagonal slash marks across their hideously deformed faces... the bear did not die alone.

She walked past the dead bear and spotted what looked like a predatory big cat with its throat torn out and its front right paw missing. The brunette noticed that the animal had light brown fur that was almost tan... judging from the fur color and its feline shape Victoria had come across a dead mountain lion. In addition to a torn throat, its stomach had been shredded open and its entrails were hanging out.

[Word Count: 1,150]
[Total Word Count: 8,850/12,500]

Victoria finished examining the corpse of the mountain lion and continued walking for Umbra Point. The bodies of bears, panthers, and mountain lions lined the path and so did the bodies of the mutants the local predators had brought down. Although that was not their intent, the animals had cleared the path for her because she did not encounter any more enemies on the way to Umbra Point, but she was still armed and ready to fight because there might be surviving animals as well as surviving mutants lurking somewhere in the brush. The mage continued onward through the dark brush and growing fatigue.

-Umbra Point-

Victoria had finally reached Umbra Point and was greeted by the sight of a flat, open clearing with eleven tents dotted about the area. Her stomach sank because she already had a good idea of how this story ended... more campers had been killed by the mutants. She walked over to the campsite and even a cursory glance showed it to be deserted.

There were clear signs that the tents had been abandoned in a hurry. Discarded clothing littered the floors of all the tents and had spilled over to the outside of two tents. Food in a pot suspended over a pile of kindling that was intended to be ignited as a cooking fire had been left behind just to the side of several tents. However, there were no signs of violence anywhere in the campsite, just signs of the occupants leaving in a hurry.

Somehow the lack of blood and bodies was more worrying than seeing the carnage at the last campsite because she had no idea if the campers had managed to escape to Dusk Town or had fled the camp only to fall prey to wild animals. Her attention was diverted from the deserted campsite to the large mouth of a cave situated in a hillside a medium distance away. Since it was the only other point of interest in the area, she would venture inside of it to look for clues.

The brunette left the area behind and walked towards the cave. She looked around for mutants or animals and did not see any. She looked towards the ground to try and spot traps that might have been laid to ensnare intruders, drop them into a pit of wooden spikes... or simply blow them up, if the traps happened to be land mines. Fortunately she encountered none of them and reached the cave without sustaining any injuries. She peered inside the dark cavern and half expected a small army of mutants to be waiting for her; Victoria paused and waited for humanoid abominations to pour out of the darkness and waited for a good five minutes before determining that they were either not there or were just waiting for her deeper inside the cavern.

Victoria took a deep breath, steadied herself, and walked into the darkness with a LMG and a mission of ending Project Lacedaemon and apprehending A. Kerwes.

-Inside the cavern-

Victoria had just set foot in the cave when she noticed a lot of rock lining the walls, more rock than would be natural for a cave of this size. It must have been excavated to make room for something because the cave was wide enough to comfortably accommodate heavy equipment. She walked deeper inside and was halfway through when she noticed that past a certain point natural rock stopped and concrete began. Was this cave used as a secret warehouse by the government of Shadow Island or was it a hidden laboratory used by Kerwes?

Victoria carefully walked into the concrete portion and saw that it stretched straight ahead as far as the eye could see. The natural rock of the cavern had completely given way to concrete and metal construction: the floor even had yellow traffic lines painted on it and reflective squares studded the gaps between the lines. She walked down the long corridor with only echoing footsteps for company and weak overhead lighting to light the way. Sometimes the lights flickered out altogether and left her in total darkness for a moment before flickering back on, giving her the impression that something was waiting for her deeper within. Victoria continued to walk towards the end of the concrete corridor and listened out for trouble; the acoustics of the underground passage would let her know when trouble was coming as it announced her presence to anything with working ears.

After traveling down the passage unopposed, she now faced another long walk down a corridor that curved right. She looked at the wall in front of her and saw a white arrow pointing to the right that had been neatly painted onto the wall. Beneath it was neatly painted the name of a location.

UMBRA COMMAND

Victoria paused to stretch her legs and get some water to drink. She fished a bottle of water out of her backpack, unscrewed the cap, and drank from it while facing the path she had to walk down. She thought that she had seen human figures up ahead, but it could be just a combination of paranoia and the flickering lights. Victoria put the lid back on, pocketed the water, and began the lengthy walk towards Umbra Base.

The place reminded her of the tunnel beneath Hargeon Town. It had the same feeling of foreboding and the same lack of decent lighting. It even had the same feeling of something inhuman waiting for her at the end of the tunnel. She did not dwell on the similarities between this location and Hargeon Town's tunnel too much, but the similarities were too great to simply ignore. She slowly made her way down the expansive tunnel and began to notice some things about it.

It was the same as the entrance tunnel in the sense that it had the same flickering lighting that occasionally plunged her into darkness before reluctantly coming back to life. It also had various pieces of heavy machinery sitting neatly in place like they had been parked there and left for a time when they would either be removed from the tunnel or used to excavate more rock. Near the middle of the tunnel were tunnels that led to other sections of the base with helpful metal signs hung near them to indicate their purpose.

The base had accommodations for a motor pool and a barracks for the people who were assigned to live and work here, but her interest was in the area labeled UMBRA COMMAND. That was presumably the command center of the place and the place where she was most likely going to find answers about the mutants plaguing the island. Victoria walked until she found a thick metal door barring the path to the command center. Keeping the door closed was a keypad with a card reader. Victoria flashed back to Snowfall Island and sighed... she doubted that she would happen upon a keycard hidden in the armory this time.

The brunette stood in front of the panel and tried to figure out a way around the door. Suddenly the small light near the door flashed green and the thick metal door slid to the side, granting her entry. Victoria paused in place. Did the door just open for her without a keycard being used? It most certainly did, but how could it just open without using a card?

Victoria suddenly grew paranoid. Was she being watched through a hidden surveillance system? Did someone choose to let her get this far without having her swarmed by mutants or gunned down by automated defenses? She had no idea. Still, she had entry to the command center, so she reluctantly stepped inside the door and heard it slide closed behind her.

[Word Count: 1,300]
[Total Word Count: 10,150/12,500]

-Inside Umbra Command-

Victoria was cut off from the outside, so the only way to get out was to go through the command center. It was a large rectangular room with banks of computers and radio consoles lining the left and right walls and paper maps of the island and of Earthland on the front wall. She had the feeling that she was standing in the middle of a doomsday bunker intended for the government of Shadow Island in case of a disaster or a war that involved the use of Etherion. She doubted that a concrete bunker hidden under a mountain would help very much against an orbital weapon that used highly focused magical energy to destroy its targets, but the bunker was intended to protect someone against some great disaster. She put that train of thought aside and began to explore the command center.

Victoria paused when she heard footsteps echoing through a hallway to her left. She ducked behind a console and readied herself for a fight with more mutants or a paramilitary force hired by Kerwes to protect the bunker. Instead she was greeted by a well-dressed older man with grey hair wearing a brown suit with a yellow tie.

"Did you honestly think that your intrusion would go unnoticed?" He asked her mockingly. In his left hand was an old-fashioned nickel-plated revolver and in his right hand was a gold pocket watch attached to a chain.

"Are you Kerwes?" Victoria asked the man. He laughed at her and snapped the pocket watch case closed.

"No. I am Franklin Kerwes, his father." He answered without a trace of sarcasm. Victoria stood up and lowered her weapon. He reciprocated by putting away the revolver in a shoulder holster hidden under his jacket and walked over to her.

"I take it you are here to stop Project Lacedaemon and apprehend my son?" The older man asked her.

"Yes." Victoria answered laconically and truthfully. The man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then pointed to a trail of blood snaking from the center of the room to the hall the man had just emerged from.

"Truth be told, I was here to stop him myself. I got one good shot at him, but it was not good enough. He was only wounded. He fled this island for another location." He said to her. Victoria raised an eyebrow. Why was he telling her all of this? Was he in on his supposed son's project and just playing Victoria for amusement before he planned to put a bullet through her head?

"Where would that be?" Victoria asked him. The man only laughed.

"After I shot him, I overheard him muttering something about power waiting for him at a great chasm. There he would increase his power and complete Project Lacedaemon." Franklin answered. Victoria noticed a small bullet hole and a growing bloodstain on Franklin's chest. His eyes met her own.

"As you can see, my son returned fire. His bullet found its mark just like my bullet found its mark." He said to her with a clear lack of concern for his life.

"I was unable to stop him for good, but I did destroy most of his research after he fled. Those abominations stalking the island were a result of him testing batches of Agent Lacedaemon on innocent people he had kidnapped to use for test subjects. My son's ambition has resulted in crossing boundaries that should have never been crossed." Franklin said to Victoria. She flinched as the older man reached into his jacket and pulled out something. She was afraid that a fight was about to start, but she relaxed when the object he retrieved turned out to be two objects... a thick manila envelope stuffed with papers and a stack of computer discs.

"Give these items to the Magic Council. They will know what to do with it. The governments of Earthland are not to be trusted with this research. I fear that they will only start it up again and spawn more monstrosities in the search for so-called super soldiers." Franklin voiced his concern before handing over the envelope and the discs without a fight. Victoria took them and put them into her backpack, then put it back on her shoulders. Franklin took out a syringe with a blue substance in it and injected himself in the left arm. He winced for a moment as his eyes glowed red and he bent over in pain, but the result of the injection was nothing short of amazing. The bullet wound began to heal and the bullet itself was forced out of his chest, the flattened chunk of lead clattering harmlessly to the floor.

"Now my dear, let us go for a walk. I have something to tell you. Follow me." He said to her. He began to walk down the hallway that he had emerged from. Victoria, not knowing what else to do, wordlessly followed her newfound ally deeper into the command center.

-Deeper in the command center-

"What you saw me inject myself with was what Project Lacedaemon originally started out as. The original project was called Project Asclepius and it was meant to create a healing agent, one that could heal any condition. However, my early research was flawed, very flawed. The side effects included bleeding from the eyes and mouth and for those who survived the bleeding, the immediate onset of endless rage. They would kill anyone they could get to without discrimination and without mercy." Franklin explained to her. Victoria reacted to that because those were the effects of Agent Lacedaemon. The older man noticed her reaction and commented on it.

"I see you are familiar with the effects of Agent Lacedaemon. You must have traveled to Snowfall Island and visited the decommissioned base where my son worked on his... his project." He said the word "project" with audible distaste. Victoria nodded to him.

"My son witnessed the results of the very first application of Agent Asclepius, which was given to an old man who had volunteered to be the test subject. He became enraged upon application of the agent and moved and fought with the strength of a man in his twenties. He killed four of my fellow scientists with his bare hands before security finally stopped him in a hail of gunfire. My son saw the military potential of a "super soldier" project and begged me to focus all my efforts on that, but I refused. My son broke all contact with me, stole my early research, and pitched the idea of a super soldier project to any government that would listen." Franklin explained further.

"And Snowfall Island was receptive?" Victoria filled in the blank. Franklin nodded.

"Yes. Almost pathetically so. They wanted something that could help prepare their military to stop the wizard who caused Snowfall Island to plunge into the state that it is now." He answered. Victoria walked with him until they reached a room with a metal door and a sign to the right of it that read INFIRMARY. Franklin's fingers danced across the keypad and a green light flashed, opening the door to show a large square room lined wall-to-wall with tubes of green solution that had mutants floating inside of them. Next to each tube was an EKG monitor showing lifesigns. Victoria gasped when she realized what she was looking at.

"Yes. This is the fruit of my son's twisted ambition. All of these people, turned into the mutants plaguing this island. All of these people, sacrificed to my son's pursuit of the ultimate form of Agent Lacedaemon." Franklin explained grimly. Victoria's shock was replaced by deep revulsion. How could anyone do this to other people?

"I am afraid that there is no way to reverse what my son has done to these people. If we released them, all they would do is kill more innocent people. Even if they did not kill anyone, there would be no place for them here." He said to her as he walked over to the panel of the monitor and flipped the switch on the life support of one of the mutants. In a matter of seconds the mutant began to twitch as the abomination's life signs flatlined. Victoria watched as the mutant twisted in agony before expiring.

"Mercy is the only thing we can give them now. Remember this day. Remember what the cost of ambition can be." Franklin commanded as he grimly walked over to each tube and turned off its life support. Victoria stood stone-faced as she watched him do it. He was right... there would be no life for these people because they would be too dangerous to free and even if they were freed and did not display violent tendences, they would never be accepted on this island again. Victoria felt another piece of her soul slipping away with each mutant that was cut off of life support.

Victoria had no right to judge Franklin for what he had just done. Once all the mutants were dead he began to turn off the monitors to end their endless extended beep. It was over.

Franklin Kerwes:

[Word Count: 1,550]
[Total Word Count: 11,700/12,500]

Victoria faced Franklin in the infirmary of the dead and looked into his eyes. His face showed a grim resolve to stop what his son had started and do whatever he could to make things right. He faced Victoria without flinching and spoke to her.

"Now that this grim business has been concluded, let us leave this place. Follow me, my dear. I know the way out. We have much to discuss." He said to her. Victoria was eager to leave this awful place, so she followed him without a word. The pair left the room of the dead behind and walked until they re-entered the command center, which Franklin opened with another display of dexterity as his fingers danced across the keypad and tapped in an access code. The door to the corridor opened and Franklin let Victoria through. The older man followed soon afterward.

-Outside Umbra Point-

After retracing their steps through the corridor leading to the cave the facility was housed in, the pair stepped out into the murky darkness and breathed fresh air. Victoria was glad to be out of that place. Franklin turned to her and began to speak.

"I must ask something of you, my dear. I am an old man in his seventies and I will be no match for my son. I would like to ask for your help in ending my son's insane ambition once and for all." He asked her plainly. Victoria did not have to think too hard to come up with an answer.

"I'll do it." She said to him laconically. Franklin gave a small smile.

"Splendid. It will not be easy, but it has to be done before anyone else gets hurt. Far too many people have died already because of Project Lacedaemon." Franklin reminded her of the human cost of the project. She did not need a reminder. The sight of those hapless people who had been forcibly turned into mutants was all the reminder she needed of why the project had to be stopped no matter what it took. If they did not stop his son while they could, they might not ever get a chance to end the project.

Franklin took out a phone and spoke into it. A minute later the sound of a helicopter's whirling blades filled the air as a black helicopter hovered overhead. Victoria listened to Franklin talk to her one last time shortly before the transport started the landing procedure. The old man took out a large bag of Jewels that he handed to her.

"Be prepared for the worst before we set out to end my son's ambition once and for all. There may be a chance that neither of us will come back. I will be in contact when your services are required." He said to her as the helicopter landed and the side door opened to admit its passenger. Franklin looked at her as the black helicopter took off into the night sky and left the island behind. Victoria was left with ringing ears and no quick way back to town. She had better get to walking.

-Dusk Town, two hours later-

A tired Victoria walked up to the same security checkpoint that she had left behind earlier and was greeted by the sight of two dead mutants lying on the dirt and four armed town guardsmen holding pistols were manning the checkpoint. They looked glad to see her.

"Hey kid, did you stop those things at their source?" The blond guardsman from earlier asked hopefully.

"Yeah. I stopped them." Victoria answered without elaborating on what it took to stop them. The guard appeared to be elated.

"Great work, kid! As you can see, we had to kill two of those mutants, but they were the only ones to reach town thanks to you. We heard your weapon in the distance and knew that you were on the job." The man thanked her for helping to stop the cannibals before they got to the town. Victoria was glad that at least one good thing had come out of this job. Now she would have to go back to Shadow's Edge and see if they had suffered any mutant attacks while she was busy at Umbra Point.

"I'm glad to help. I've got to get back to Shadow's Edge, so I'll see you guys later. Good luck with the cleanup." She wished them before leaving them behind to walk to Shadow's Edge. Maybe there was a boat that she could hire to get off the island. If there was not, maybe she could at least get a place to stay for the night.

-Shadow's Edge, one hour later-

Victoria walked into Shadow's Edge to find a solitary dead mutant sprawled on the dirt with multiple gunshot wounds and six guardsmen standing nearby. They greeted her with open arms.

"Hey kid, we heard from our pals in Dusk Town that you stopped the mutants at their source! You did a good job!" The young woman from earlier praised the Sabertooth mage for her work. Victoria waved a hand in recognition and stopped to speak to them.

"I'm glad that I was able to help." Victoria said to the guardsmen.

"Help? You just saved two towns on this island. You're practically a hero!" An older guardsman with a golden monocle over his left eye said to her. Victoria did not consider herself a hero because Franklin Kerwes had done most of the heavy lifting to stop the mutants. She had helped out by killing those mutants outside of Dusk Town and on the way to Umbra Point, so she had helped out in that regard.

"I hate to sound rude, but is there a boat I can hire to get back to the mainland?" Victoria asked them.

"There won't be one until morning, but there's a local inn you can stay at. I'm sure they'll give you a steep discount after they learn that you saved the town from mutants." The young woman said to her. Victoria felt that she had already pressed her luck just by asking for a boat to leave, so she would not insult them any further. She would just spend the night here.

"OK. Where do I go?" Victoria inquired.

"Follow me." The brown-haired guardswoman insisted. Victoria followed her through the town and to an inn called Shadow's Repose. The Sabertooth mage was glad that the island was finally safe from the mutants.

[Word Count: 1,100]
[Total Word Count: 12,800/12,500]