Mission 2: That Damn Dog ~ Part T1

"Chaz, I want you to understand that this is a special mission. It isn't the same as the contracts we hand out on behalf of clients." the secretary said in a surprisingly serious tone of voice, one he had only heard her use when people didn't pay up. It was starting to scare Chaz, "It is absolutely vital that you don't fail this mission."

"I'm allowed to fail the other missions?" Chaz scratched his head. It was still early morning and most of the Hunters, who were either too lazy to wake up in the morning or too sensible to brave the intense desert heat, were still asleep in their homes, except the ones who didn't seem to have homes, who were in the bar. Chaz didn't feel so alive either. He wished he could afford a coffee. The extra high wage on the special commission he was being offered was looking more and more enticing the longer he tried to stay awake.

"Well... no, but you'll be even more severely punished if you fail this one and dare to come back alive." the secretary told him, "The reputation of the entire Hunter's Guild is on the line."

"Chaz..." she said, pausing for dramatic effect, jabbing her paperwork with her fountain pen like a spear-wielding Zio cultist preparing for war, her eyes dark with steely resolve and badly applied eye shadow, "I want you... to finally... find... that... dern... DOG!"

"I thought a team found it yesterday in Piata." said Chaz, It had followed Tinkerbell's brother, now a grown man, to University, whereupon it broke into a graduation ceremony and ate a diploma. The Hunters apprehended it while it was throwing up all over the statue of Lubetz. Apparently it was allergic to ink.

"It escaped from its cage on the way back to Aeido. We think it chewed through the bars." the secretary said, "This is the tenth successive time its eluded a Hunter attempt to capture it so far this week... and its only Monday! We've had half the Guild on the case with no luck. Something permanent must be done about that dog. You have a reputation as the most reliable Hunter in the Guild, Chaz. You take on the most missions and successfully complete them... more or less... you also saved Algol from the Profound Darkness. Every other Hunter in the Guild has failed, Chaz, you're our last hope."

"If I'm supposed to be the best Hunter, why didn't you ask me first?" asked Chaz, "I am the one who originally found the dog when it first went missing!"

"We thought it would be a little demeaning to ask you to look for missing dogs now you're the saviour of Algol and all," said the secretary, "We severely underestimated that dog! It has made a mockery of the Hunter's Guild!"

"So... where'd you last see the dog?"

"The town guards reported seeing it waddling through the front gates. With those stubby fat legs, it couldn't have gone far."

"They didn't just pick it up?"

"One of them tried. It wriggled out of their grasp, then ate their lunch and walked off." explained the secretary, "You may use any method in your power to capture the dog. The owner has, however, requested it be brought back alive. Tinkerbell misses her little Rocky greatly and would be heartbroken if anything happened to it."

How old must that girl be by now, thought Chaz. Doesn't she have better things to do? Maybe if I use Rever on it later...

"And no killing it then using Rever on it later on!" warned the secretary, "We are professionals! We do not stoop to such treachery! Although it says nothing about cutting off its legs then using Nares..."

"Its okay, I wouldn't do such a terrible thing. Rika would kill me if I tried and besides, I don't think Nares actually reattaches legs, only arms. Just leave it to me. At least I don't have to travel too far this time..."


"Hm, you know, Chaz, this stuff actually tastes quite nice." said Rika, "I can see why the dog likes it."

"Rika, stop stuffing your face. We need every last slice as bait for our cunning trap!"

"Aw, the dog won't really eat all of this!" Rika was holding an entire tray laden with freshly baked shortcake. It was still hot from the oven and was exuding a delicious fragrance. Chaz felt like eating some himself, "I only want one more."

"Its only one now but once you're hooked, you'll never be able to stop eating it. How'd you think the dog got that way? Hunters need to watch their weight, you know!"

"Numans don't get fat. We have a perfect metabolism and can digest anything in an instant. Cakes, chocolate, pure sol dew, human flesh..." she gave him a feline look and bared her razor-sharp steel battle claws. Chaz took a step back.

"Okay, okay, you can have one more slice!"

"Thank you again for coming to the Nuara Bakery." said the baker, handing him his change and receipt, "We apologise once again for the..."

"Inconvenient location of your shop." Chaz finished for him, "Do you really need to say that now the entire Hunter's Guild knows where your shop is and buy from it every day? Someone's put a sign up leading to your shop, you know."

"Its our sales gimmick. I'm going to have a word with the town planning council about that sign."

Armed with their shortcake supply, the two Hunters climbed up the stairs of the underground bakery on the outskirts of town, then walked into the wilderness. Aiedo, the largest settlement on Motavia, was built on an oasis. Large enough to survive and rebuild after the natural disasters that wracked Motavia whenever the environmental control systems went haywire or offline, Aiedo wasn't completely surrounded by desert; there were neat rows of crops, patches of scrubland and even a few trees. Chaz followed the paw prints in the sparse soil and the places where plants had been flattened and occasionally experimentally chewed on by the dog. He kept an eye out for monsters as well. Out here in the wilds, a Hunter who wasn't alert ended up dead. The dog had led the last expedition party right into a Sandworm nest.

"Looks like its headed towards Mile." said Chaz.

"Oh yes, it always heads towards settlements after a while, doesn't it?" mused Rika, "I suppose there isn't much food for it out here. I wonder if there's somewhere it goes, some purpose to its wanderings, or if it just likes to be free..."

"Its a dog, Rika. You're philosophising again. What have I told you about..."

Rika laid a hand on his shoulder and shushed him, bringing a steel-reinforced finger to her lips, "Chaz... over there!"

Chaz followed her gaze. There, near the border of the sand flats, was something that looked more like a pot-bellied pig than a dog. It was white with a black splodge on its back, had short legs and a stubby tail and floppy ears. It didn't turn around when Chaz sneaked up to it. It was preoccupied with something edible it had found on the ground. Chaz circled around to approach it from the front, shortcake tray in his outstretched hands, while Rika sneaked up behind it, her animal and biomonster genes making her as stealthy as any predator in the wild.

Suddenly, the ground collapsed beneath them. At first, Chaz thought he had trodden in quicksand or was being attacked by a Sandworm. His sword came out of his scabbard and he righted himself, bending his knees to land as he prepared to strike. Then he remembered that neither Sandworms nor quicksand glowed in bright multicolour fractal patterns.


"The Edge? How can the Edge be here?"

"Your guess is good as mine." Chaz replied, staring at the swirling, pulsing fractals. In his caffeine-enhanced state, the bright primary colours were even more intense. There was something mesmerising about watching those fractals. They seemed to seep into him, as if the raw power that raged around him couldn't be contained by the threshold of four dimensions and was leaking through the cracks until he, too, was part of the fractal pattern, another pulsing moment in the greater consciousness of Algol... He wrenched his eyes away. A person could go insane here. He focussed on his Algo Ring. Rune had told him that the Rings of the Stars were necessary to survive in the Edge. If we didn't both still wear our Rings of the Stars, we'd both be dead right now. Dead because of that stupid dog.

"I'm guessing it can exist independently of the Profound Darkness." said Rika. The Edge didn't feel evil. The Profound Darkness was evil, the Edge was just a place, somewhere in-between Motavia and wherever the Darkness' prison had been. Maybe it wasn't even a place, just a gap, a hole in reality that was spilling out its component parts. "Maybe it never fully closed when the Darkness was sealed. Maybe the tear was just too big. I don't know, but I hope it being open like this doesn't harm Algol. Look, there's the dog again."

As they reached a T-Junction in the path that the Ring's protective field made for them, Rocky waddled past, not even glancing around it at the

impossible chaos it had fallen into.