Another week had past since the loss of all those men that went to fight the Demon bat. Yukino had left out of the town to just take a walk through the woods. As she was taking a walk she then stopped when she heard something and looked behind her to see an elderly woman driving a carriage. She seemed to be having trouble so Yukino went to her.
"Excuse me, ma'am, would you like some help?"
The woman looked at her and nodded.
"Yes please."
Yukino climbed into the carriage and began to drive the carriage. As they were riding through the woods the woman looked at Yukino.
"I never seen you around here before, are you new here?"
Yukino smiled.
"I have moved to this area recently."
"I lived in this land for 58 years. My late husband and I were living together in a place that I'm headed to right now."
Yukino looked at her.
"So does that mean you've seen the Demon bat?"
"Yes, in facct the Demon bat doesn't like to get near populated areas so my husband and I had the Demon bat to live in the woods but since the hunting seasons are the only time to get food for the winter many people lose their lives."
Not too long after she said that both of them saw a dead body of one of the men that had left a week before with others to hunt the Demon bat down. His body just look like he had been attack by a lion because of all of the ripped open flesh all over his body and he was missing an arm and one of his legs were broken with the bone sticking out of the leg.
Just the sight of it made Yukino flinch to look away while the old lady just shook her head.
"So many of them died young by the claws of the Demon bat, but as long as someone was in a populated area then they had nothing to worry about."
They went on with their trip and Yukino looked at her.
"Um ma'am, by any chance what does the Demon bat look like?"
The old lady closed her eyes.
"The demon bat is a large bat that is the size of a male lion. The Demon bat has four legs, a pair of large webbed wings and a long black tail. It has a long baby silver mane that hung to it's muscular chest. One could say that this bat looked more like lion because of how it's head looks but it was really a large bat."
"Have you seen it up close?"
"Yes but I wasn't too close there was a large bar gate between us so it didn't attack me but it did roar causing me to lose a quarter of my hearing."
Yukino nodded then they arrived at a manor. After passing the main gate and parking the carriage the woman invited Yukino to come into the manor. As they were walking inside Yukino was impressed by how it looked, she felt like she was walking inside of a castle. They soon got to an office room of the manor then the old woman looked at Yukino.
"Child, what's your name?"
"Yukino."
"Well Yukino, I am Mrs. Redwood. By any chance are you a wizard?"
Yukino nodded.
"Yes ma'am, but I don't belong to a guild."
"Is that so? What magic do you use?"
"I am a stellar wizard."
"If I give you a job will you live here?"
Yukino blinked.
"I'm sorry?"
"I have a job that only a stellar mage could do. If you accept you may live here, you'll be given all that you need such as food, a room and whatever tools you need on this job."
Yukino thought about the offer briefly then looked at Mrs. Redwood.
"Alright, I accept."
Mrs. Redwood smiled then left out of the office with Yukino following her.
"I will lead you to your room."
They went to the second floor of the three floored manor and went to the far end of the hall. When they got there they reached a large pair of doors and went into the room.
Yukino's eye's widen at how beautiful the room was. The room looked like it was a room for a prince with different shades of brown with a golden lighting in the room. It had a large queen size bed and a large desk drawer that had a large mirror. The room had smooth chocolate brown floors, a large walk in closet, a bathroom that was connected to it and the best part of the room, to Yukino at least was that there was a balcony for her to go outside to look at the sky.
Yukino looked at Mrs. Redwood who was looking at her.
"Just as a reminder, you can not leave past the main gate of this manor and you must be in your bedroom by the strike of midnight. If you are not, at least be in one of the other bedrooms."
"Is something wrong?"
"This place is known to be a maze for those who enter into this manor, so here."
She handed Yukino a paper that had a long list of things on there.
"This paper has all the instructions for this manor. In case if you're in trouble you will have this to help you."
With that she left and Yukino had the manor all to her herself.
About 30 minutes later Yukino managed to find the kitchen since it was barely after noon. She was happy to find it because of how hungry she was. As she was eating she couldn't help but think of what her life was going to be like. Here she was, just got offered a quest and was getting all of what she needed for it.
"Who knows, maybe this will be better than being at Sabertooth, it would have to be because I don't have report back to them. No one can talk behind my back."
Yukino lowered her head.
"I know that I'll get lonely but at least no one can hurt me."
She finished her food, cleaned up her mess then she walked out of the kitchen to explore the manor. She didn't want to get lost in the manor so she began to learn where everything was.
For the rest of the day Yukino took her time to learn where everything in the manor was. When she was finished it was night time and she decided to stay in her room. As she was in her room she couldn't help but wonder if everything was going to be alright since she was going to be alone on this quest that not even even she knew much about. Mrs. Redwood wasn't clear about the mission and only told her what not to do such as leaving past the main gate of the manor and roaming the hallways after midnight. Well it shouldn't be that bad, it's not her first time being on a quest alone so it should be alright.
Yukino drifted to sleep after that last thought.
She was woken up by a sound that sounded like footsteps that were outside of the bedroom door. Yukino sat up and listened but she didn't dare to leave the bed as she heard footsteps going past her room. She then looked at the mirror and silently went to it she noticed that there was a face looking in the way of the closet.
Yukino, not one to go explore things that are scary to her went back to the bed and had her back turned to the closet then closed her eyes in hopes of a happy dream.
'It was just a dream. It was just a dream.'
She managed to go back to sleep and somehow ended up with a friendly dream.
AN: Chapter 2 Done! Let me know how I did!
