The Plague II: The Shrouded Stalker (Closed)

Naphtali sat shirtless on his bed at the Beanstalk village inn. His legs spread open, elbows on his knees, and head on his head. He had spent all of the previous night hunting down strange, mysterious flowers that had been sprouting around the area, and those flowers packed a nasty punch to them. It had to have been around 4 am by the time he had gotten the reward from the client, and he was exhausted. So he got a room at the inn down the street and had been sleeping ever sense.

*Yawn*, rise and shine dick face. Paresse teased, stretching her arms as she floated in the air next to Naphtali’s bed. “Are you just waking up, too?” He asked her. Paresse had taken a lot more damage than he had and had even passed out from it all. Nah, I woke up a couple hours ago. Stretched my spirit around the village, got a good look around. And damn you slept in late, it’s already 5 pm.

Naphtali took a groggy look outside. Rubbing his eyes a little bit, he noticed that the sun had begun to set.

I thought I would let you have your beauty rest, lord knows you need it. But someone slid a letter under your door about an hour ago.

Naphtali let out a sigh and got up from his bed. He took a look towards the door, and sure enough there was a letter. Well, whats’ it say? Paresse asked in anticipation. “It’s the client from last night, she asked us to come back. She’s offering to pay the same as she did for the last job…”

Maybe she’s horny. Was she hot? Paresse laughed.

A shiver flew up his spine just thinking about it. “What? No. She was… weird… and it doesn’t say what the job is, just asks us to come as soon as we can…”  He let out a groan and cracked his neck, standing up and reaching for his cloths.

“Let’s go." He told her, heading out the door.

As he exited the inn, he noticed a strange guy wearing a hoodie creeping around the corner of the inn. He’s been pacing around the inn ever since that latter came in, Paresse informed him. Probably just some perve looking for a chick to jump on.

“Paresse, that's appalling…” Naphtali responded, trying to shake it off.

I agree, so let’s go kill him. You know what tonight is, right? She asked in giddy excitement.  

“A full moon, yes. I know. I’ll find someone before sunrise. Please stop pestering me about this. You know how I makes about the subject.”

Paresse merely rolled her eyes and followed behind him, invisible to the naked eye. you know he’s following us, right? She asked him.

“If he’s still following us when we leave, we’ll confront him.”

Can’t I just get him now? I’m soooo bored,

“And I’m broke. This job is currently more important than you blood lust”

Paresse began to mouth off, but Naphtali just ignored her. They had reached their destination, the same hour as last night. He reached up and knocked on the door. Before he could even move his hand away it swung open.

“Oh lord,” the women spoke, stumbling back a little bit. “Do you have to wear that creepy mask al the time? You're gonna give me a heart attack!” she pestered, reaching up and adjusting her glasses.

“Never mind that, come on in. Now.” She reached forward and pulled him inside.

Handsy, I like her. Paresse spoke, looking around before she slowly followed them inside.

“I know I know, it's creepy that I found you at the inn, but listen. I had no choice. I had followed you to the inn, for my peace of mind last night. And the inn keepers and old friend of mine so when I showed up asking him which room the weird bunny guy was in, he didn’t have any ethical dilemmas in telling me.” She let out a deep breath and looked back up at him. “I’m sure you are wondering why I sent for you, correct?” The strange women asked him.

“I looked at the plant, and it’s magic. Well, I’m sure you could have guessed that by the painful defense mechanism it has going.”

No shit, lady.

“It  grows its roots through literally anything, breaking down the physical material in order to spread.  Once it has spread a good deal, it's roots sprout to the surface and begin to go through some kind of…. Metamorphosis… I was going to send it to a friend of mine, a fellow botanist, just as good. But unlike me she’s a wizard, so I think she could get to the bottom of this. I need to send her a letter.”

The woman finally took a pause in her longwinded lesson on magic botany.

“So, do you need me to deliver this letter?”

“No no no. We got mailmen that'll do that for free. But someone doesn’t want me sending this letter. I put it in the mail this morning, then a few hours later realized I needed to mail in my subscription to sorcerers weekly, and it was gone. I thought maybe I was crazy, so I wrote another letter, put it in the mailbox. Went back outside when the mailmen showed up, and it was gone. Someone’s taking my letters and I need you to find them. Bring ‘em back to me.”

My money's on the guy creepin’ in through the window. Paresse muttered into Naphtali’s ear.

“I bet your right,”

“What was that.”

“Excuse me, I’ll be right back with you letter.”

Naphtali stood up and walked out the door.

The client ran out after him, “Where are you go-“

And with that, the hooded man who had been following them earlier grabbed hold of her with a knife up to her neck. “Don’t move,” He shouted. “Don’t you move!”

Naphtali just starred at the man. It was a little funny, if he killed the women, how would that impact Naphtali? He could easily just go inside, take way more than the 5000 jewels that he was promised for this job. Sounded like a decent plan to him.

“I want you out of my town!” The man shouted. “Everything was going perfect  until you got here. Just Perfect! And you f***ed it all up!”

“No… No no no no no…. I can’t have you leave, no no no, you know too much… I have to kill you… both of you…”

Now that was a problem. Killing the women was fine, but threatening his own life? That was means for fighting.

“Paresse,” He muttered.

THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER ASK! And with that, she appeared. The horned nightmare that followed Naphtali around day and night materialized and threw the bottom of her foot into the mans head.

He let go of the client and they both fell to the ground. The client got up and ran into her home, locking the door, and began peeking through a window.

“no no no,” the man muttered, slowly getting back to his feet.

“Naphtali,”

“I know, I know…” He muttered. “Fine.”

Paresse charged, swinging her fist towards the mans head. As she missed, her hand swung into the concrete ground, and the man swung his dagger towards her. Paresse flipped to the side, dodging the mans advances. But he was better then he looked. He bent down, sweeping her off of her feet and causing her to fall onto the ground.

“Mother f***er,” She shouted, dodging his next blow and getting back up onto her feet. She swung forward, hitting the man’s shoulder and causing him to let go of the knife. “No No No!” He screamed, turning to grab the knife, but he hadn’t been paying attention.

Naphtali stood just a meter behind him, and swung his knee right into his gut. As the man stumbled back, Paresse let out a horrifying laugh as she slammed her head full force into his own.  

The assailant stumbled to his side, acting as if he was in a daze. Naphtali Picked up his knife and made his way forward.

“No no no…” He muttered like a madman, slowly getting up, and pulling out a second knife. “No no no no no no n-“

And with a left hook from Paresse, he fell to the ground.

“It’s a full moon, Naphtali.” She hummed, reminded him as she grinned and pointed towards the sky.

“Like I said, I know.” And with that, he plunged the knife into the back of the assailants head.

He took off the man’s hoodie, ignoring Paresse’s chants of joy. “Well, that’s good enough for me I suppose. Night night,” And with a flirtatious wink, she vanished.

Naphtali walked into the clients house, letters in hand.

“I knew you weren't a legal mage!" the client bickered. "What am I supposed to do about that body? Huh?” She asked him.

“Fertilizer for the garden.” He responded, putting the letters on the table.

The women merely sighed as she reached back into her little box of change, and dug out the reward she had promised him. “Here,” She spoke, handing it too him and turning around. “That’s all. Get out of here,” She told him.

“No, not yet.”

The women stopped in her tracks, turning her head towards the masked mage in her kitchen. “What do you know about this?” He asked her, holding up a lit match, and a coin with a skull on one side, and a hand on the other.

The women adjusted her glasses and walked up towards it. She picked the coin up with her hand, examining it against the light of one of her candles.

“Hmmm…” She muttered in contemplation.

“I have no idea.”