Hired Wanderer

It was a few minutes since both Minjonet and Stella had left the FrozenHole but within that time Tanner had not left his seat. He was still leaning on the back of his chair musing over the drink that lay before him.

"Is everything alright?" A waitress asked Tanner, causing him to snap upright from the surprise of the question. "You have been staring into that glass for a while now."

"Oh yay." Tanner quickly acknowledging the waitress which had surprised him.

"You seemed to be deep in thought. Does it have to do with the two who left?" The waitress asked

"Yes and no, it's kind of hard to explain," Tanner admitted with a lowered voice

"Well I have to get back to work but if you want something stronger I have a key to our cabinet." The waitress said as she hurried off

With that Tanner turned back to his drink quickly downing his drink and rose from his seat. But before he left the table he left some Lien on the table along with a generous tip. Then left in his own direction heading deeper into the city.

It didn't take long for Tanner to get himself lost within the city, though as he would put it he was off doing some urban exploration. He eventually ended up in the slum section of the city causing him to remember some memories when he was growing up.

Tanner stood down the street to the slums remembering how his brother and he used to play in the street with other kids down there. Never appreciating how much his parents gave up for them, they worked long hour jobs almost always getting home late into the night. By the time his parent got home both him and his brother would be asleep in their beds. And when his parents were home during the day they were usually only one of them and they were usually completely played out. But being kids they never knew what their parents had given up.

For a few minutes, Tanner stood there looking down the street trying to remember the games that he would play with his younger brother. He just stood there for a couple minutes reminiscing on his past then a thought jumped into his head.

"I guess I should go and visit him even if it is for a few minutes," Tanner said quietly under his breath hanging his down slightly.

it didn't take Tanner long to find where he was going even with his track record for getting lost it didn't take any extra time. This area was always quiet even during the day when a couple people might pass by. Though he stood there in silence for a few minutes mixing the words in his head trying to figure out what he would say.

"How's it going?" Tanner asked out into the silent air. "It sure has been a while hasn't Grey?" He stated as he was looking down at his headstone. "Sorry for not coming by in these last five years..." His voice trailing off as he tried to hold back the tears in his eyes. "I ... I just ... I just don't know what to say." he chuckled as a tear rolled down his face. "I know me at a lost for words stop the presses. But yeah it's been an interesting couple of years." Tanner said finally regaining some of his composers. "Well, I guess I should start at the beginning." As Tanner started to look up.

"We're not working together anymore, Stella, Minjonet, and I we all went our separate ways afterwards that night. Princess managed to find a village or something to help protect but I guess that was always the thing she was the best at always trying to make sure no one would get hurt. Though you would think she would have finally gotten a sense of humour by now." Tanner laughing at the end of the thought there. "Angel from what I know is in between jobs right now though, word was it she does a lot of scout and clear kind of missions. Nothing really dangerous but nothing too fancy either. And well for me..." His voice trailing once off again.

"I don't know I have kind of thought about just leave this life behind I was never cut from the same cloth like you three. There was never any real pressure for me to become a Huntsmen. None of my folks were Huntsmen or Huntress' not like Princess there and I never had a role model to follow in like you or Angel there." Tanner acknowledge as he still stood over Grey's grave. "Well, I should get going need to get back to Vacuo sooner or later. It's been good to talk to you there Grey." Tanner said as he turned around and started towards exit though only a few feet away he stopped and turned around. "Miss you man really wish you were still here."

Once he arrived at the terminal he started to look for a flight that was heading to Vacou though unfortunately, no one was making a direct flight. Many were stopping in Vale or were far too late to be any good for Tanner. So he decided to book a seat on the next one that was leaving in the next hour even though it was making a stop in Vale. Even though it slowed him down a bit he would still be able to make it back quicker than any other flight. So he quickly grabbed a ticket for the trip then he went to find a seat to relax in and to listen to some tunes. With that, he just zoned out as he started to bob his head to the beat making sure he wasn't causing a big distraction.

After a couple minutes of listening to his music a young lady sat down next to him at first, he paid no attention at first. Though as time went on Tanner could start to tell that something that was wrong with the way she was hunched over. Once Tanner had removed his head phones he could make the quiet sound of her crying.

"Everything alright there?" Tanner asked the lady who was instantly startled by his question turning to face him.

"Sorry there mister I thought you were listening to your music, I hope I wasn't distracting you there." The young lady stated quickly.

"Oh that, don't worry about that but you kind of dodged the question there" Tanner trying to reassure the lady while trying to figure out was troubling her.

"Well me and my Pa we run a small ranch just north of Vale there. However we started to run into some problems with the Grimm there," The lady stated as she started to stare back down to the floor. "They've only recently started to be a problem for us so I came out here to see if I could wrangle up some defences for our farm though that never happened."

"Why didn't you have problems with them before?" Tanner asked being very confused as to that matter.

"Well it's been usually me and Pa on our ranch so I guess we never made a large presence for them," the Lady stated. "But now, some folks have decided to set up shop around us so we had a few fight with some of our new 'guests.'" With that last word being heavily weighted.

"Well, what about a Huntsmen to help protect your small little community?" Tanner quickly asked in confusion. "You must have placed a request for a Huntsmen though. Right?"

"Yeah, but we haven't much to offer so I am guessing most Huntsmen guess pass it by." The lady said as she still held her head down. "Rotten up nose people." This did sting Tanner there for the simple reason that she did hit close to home with that statement. For the simple reason that the statement was true at least for him, he did actually pass by low-income jobs.

"Well maybe I could help you out a bit" Tanner suggested, "I have been known to help out with situations."

This caused the Lady to just burst out laughing at his suggestion "Right Toothpick because you are nice huntsmen with a heart of gold." With her still laughing through her statement. "Now come on there is no such thing as that."

"Now I never said that I was Huntsmen" Tanner trying to avoid some direct hate "All I said was that I could help and also Toothpick?" he asked being on the receiving end of a tasteless nickname for a change.

"Well, you did help you managed to make me laugh Toothpick so thanks for that." The lady commented with some laughter in her voice. "And for Toothpick look at how skinny you are, your bones have to be the size of toothpicks."

After everything he had heard this was defiantly a huge shot to his ego. "Well what about you, just look at you in or coveralls maybe I should start calling you Covers," Tanner asked trying to regain some sense of his ego. "And just to let you know my name is Tanner."

"Sure thing Toothpick," She said in the most condescending voice possible. "Whatever you say."

Before Tanner could get a word in edgewise an announcement was broadcast over the intercom "Attention all passengers boarding the Airbus to Vale. Please collect your Items and board the flight in an orderly manner." Once the announcement had finished Covers got up from her seat.

"Well it's been nice talking to you Toothpick but I have to get going." She said as she hurried off to catch her flight.

Though before anything else could happen another announcement came over the intercom "Attention all passengers boarding the Airbus to Vacou Please collect your Items and board the flight in an orderly manner" With that Tanner Decide he may as well get up as well and join his flight over to Vacou

But as he was boarding the Airbus and navigating the seats he did come across a familiar face while got to his seat. "Well fancy meeting you here Covers." He mockingly stated to his new friend across the aisle.

"Are you kidding me?" Covers quickly responded, "You're heading to Vale as well there Toothpick?"

"Not really, just a layover in Vale" Tanner responded as he sat down in his seat. "But that offer still stands, it's quite the long lay over."

"Whatever you say there Toothpick" she declared as she laid back in her seat as if she was trying to forget he was there. "Ain't you do us all a favour and shut up."

As she said that Tanner couldn't help but crack a small smile at the edge of his lips as he laid back in his seat. Shortly after the Airbus took to the sky Tanner decide to pull his headphones over his ears and closed his eyes as he got some sleep on the trip over.