1375 AU.
Bone Dry Desert.
I waited, making sure the stalactites around me hid my body as I watched my target walk closer and closer.
He was wary, I'd give him that, constantly swiveling his head everywhere as he tried to take in as much as he could with what little light the moon provided.
Not that I could fault him for his paranoia, he used to be part of a particularly troublesome bandit group numbering a little over seventy, a group which I had reduced to only him over the last months.
The only reason that number hadn't hit zero earlier was that my little scuffle with his last two "friends" woke up the wyrm nest the idiots had camped over and dealing with forty feet of angry snake dragon took precedence over the quickly fleeing earth pony.
The last month had been spent trying to track his white-furred ass down and just when I was about to give up I happened to see him entering the fang canyon.
It was a dangerous place but it also ended practically on top of Klugetown so it was also the closest thing to a straight road to civilization one could get in the middle of the desert.
I could see that he probably lost what supplies he had at some point and he looked starved and thirsty, and I knew that the nearest oasis was almost a week away so I could see what he was probably thinking.
Traveling the desert is dangerous, especially at night with no one to take turns with to keep an eye out for any possible dangers, so he probably slept little to nothing, he also probably wouldn't last long enough to go the long way around as he would probably starve long before he reached Kludgetown, so it was that or take the risk and do the ten-hour trip through the canyon to reach safety.
Not many went through the Fang canyon for a reason, it was infested with all manner of dessert monsters and the only way to get across it safely is to either fly over it or not go through it at all.
Sure, the monsters were all nocturnal so you could try going through while they were asleep but not even daylight was going to help you if you made too much noise or, Faust forgive you, tried to take some rest in one of the many caves splattered along its walls.
There was also the fact that days during the "winter" months lasted only around six hours at most so you could very easily find yourself surrounded by waking and very hungry monsters looking for breakfast.
So the best time to go through with minimum risk of turning into food was in the middle of the night, while everything was out hunting and what monsters remained were the "prey" hiding in their dens.
So, luckily for me, he couldn't really try to go above along the canyon as that was where most monsters would be hunting and he also couldn't sneak along the walls as even the "prey" monsters weren't going to refuse a meal walking right before their front door, which meant he was forced to walk right in the middle.
There was a multitude of naturally occurring arches along the canyon, each filled with stalactites, perfect for hiding myself as my prey drew itself closer and closer none the wiser to the danger.
I let go of the stalactite, hanging solely from my tail as I adjusted my wings and readied myself.
As soon as he was directly below me I simply loosened my tail and let myself fall, I had fallen from higher at way faster speeds with only light bruising at worst so I only needed my wings to direct myself correctly as I glided silently through the air.
I slammed onto him, and cracking sounds could be heard as he was crushed under my greater size and weight, turning whatever scream he was going to let out into a wet wheeze. I didn't bother with anything fancy, simply latching my jaws around the back of his neck and squeezing.
The bone didn't last two seconds before I bit through it, severing his head from the rest of his body as sweet liquid ambrosia filled my mouth.
I licked my muzzle clean, in other circumstances, I probably would've had a little snack but his body was like honey to bees not just for me and I didn't feel like getting into a fight with everything in the area so I just took off his right ear and flew away.
Hours later.
Klugetown
There was a wet thud as I dropped two bloody sacks onto the wooden counter, the old griffon behind it just sighed tiredly and looked at me with a resigned expression on his face.
"For the last time." He began. "You Don't, Have, To Bring, the FAUST, DAMMNED, EARS!"
The griffon was screaming in my face by the end and the other patrons at the bounty hunter's guild chortled at the familiar scene as I tried to defend myself.
"Sure, I could just bring you the leader's head but the contract said "Eliminate the Hounduras bandits" not "Kill the leader of the Hounduras bandits", I'm not getting cheated out of a single bit over a small detail again Glave."
Glave just sighed again before speaking. "Look, that was one time, and it was years ago Moon Whisper."
"Look, this is the biggest payday of my career, and I refuse to take any chances, so just make sure my money is delivered to my home as always."
Words said I turned around and walked out of the building onto the bustling "street" of the bounty tower, I needed a moment to orientate myself before I opened my wings and flew up into one of the higher walkways.
Sometime Later.
Klugetown was a messy place, not just in appearance but in layout as well.
Sure it had "town" in the name but this was a city, but it was made up of hundreds of towers with the smallest being two hundred meters in height and each one also extended downwards into the underground district.
So yeah, it was a town literally only in name.
Different groups of towers were under the control of different gangs, every little shop, house, and workshop, from top to bottom the local gang owned it all.
There were only three places that were considered neutral.
The first and most important one was the Dock Tower, it was set right on the beach and received ships not only from the sea by the docks at the bottom but also airships from its very top. Almost every gang small or big got a lot of profit from it so it was considered neutral ground on the basis that any kind of messing around would get everyone on your ass.
The second one was the Lotus Tower, also known as the brothel spire, the fun house, and even the big fucking whorehouse. It was run by an old Griffon named Grenda, apparently, she had come to Klugetown when she was barely an adult, joined a brothel, climbed to the top, and took over, and before everyone knew it she had every single brothel in the tower under her control, becoming a major player practically overnight.
Similar to the dock tower its neutrality was sustained by the fact that the only thing that pisses people off more than messing with their money is their sex life, plus the mountain of dirt and favors Grenda had accumulated over the decades didn't hurt either.
And finally came the Bounty Tower, home to the Bounty Hunter's guild, sure the name changed depending on where you were but they were all the same entity nonetheless, the guild was a very, very, powerful group, they had branches all over the world and in every city, town, or big enough settlement there was a Guild building.
When they came to Klugetown they pretty much walked in, "Deposed" the Gang Lord of the tower, and told everyone else to fuck off, the minor gangs and "businesses" wisely listened and left, now the tower served both as a Guild HQ and housing for its members.
As a Senior Member I had pretty luxurious (By Klugetown standards) housing, near the top, where the sun shined and the air was fresh, it was a rather large place, even for me, with multiple rooms, working amenities, and even a balcony that let me gaze either into the sea or the desert.
It looked even better after I cleaned up some of the dust carpeting the place and now I was sitting at the table counting the money that was delivered to me some minutes ago.
It was a lot of coins but I wasn't moving from my seat until I knew I had been given every single coin that was promised to me, the last thing I needed was for one of the delivery guys to have skimmed a little of the top, as unlikely as that is.
Finally, after half an hour I finished counting all one-hundred fifty thousand gold coins and had them all stored in one of my satchel's expanded pouches I leaned back and sighed. This truly was the biggest pay in my life.
Ten months, that's how long it took me to finish this Faust-forsaken hunt, When I first saw it on the job board I almost couldn't believe my eyes, something shared by a lot of my "juniors" as evidenced by the fact that they started an actual brawl to get the job first.
You know, even though it clearly said it was an open contract.
It was funny until the weapons started coming out and the rest of us had to break it up.
I was curious, at the time, as to why such a small group of bandits had such a large bounty, and it was a truly ludicrous amount of money, with it I could probably retire for around five hundred years unless I decided to go to the richest city in the world and splurged in whatever whim I had, and even then it could probably last me a good century.
Glave helpfully told me just why their bounty was so high, while the Hounduras bandits were pretty small time despite numbering almost two hundred, they had gotten cocky and sank into the big fish small pond mentality and hadn't bothered to properly scout the next caravan they found and before they knew it over half their number had been slaughtered by the squad of royal guards protecting the fourth princess of Saddle Arabia, who, at the time, had finished her vacation in Oataca and was heading to the city of Hounduras where she would be escorted by the royal navy back home.
The King of Saddle Arabia, predictably, was remarkably unhappy at the audacity of some creatures for daring to try and rob one of his own children and had contacted the guild to issue a bounty.
The bandits either found out about the bounty or just had enough common sense that once they found out just who they tried to rob they ran south, toward the Prancing Planes, not a bad idea on their part, it was just miles and miles of grassland and low hills, it would leave them exposed but the same could be said for any would-be pursuers.
When I took the job I honestly didn't expect it to take this long, sure it took almost two months to actually find them but once I did I already knew how it was going to go, I had gone through this song and dance dozens of times, I would catch them by surprise, kill a bunch of them, then some would gather their wits and charge towards their deaths, and then once I was done with them I would chase down any stragglers.
Instead, it seemed Faust hated me on that particular day, as when I used their griffon lookout as a landing platform the rest proved to be smarter or cowardly than most other bandits I had encountered so far and I was left dumbfounded as all seventy-two of them ran in different directions.
And so what was supposed to take me less than three months stretched over ten as I chased them all down over half the continent, thankfully I had caught their scents so most of my time was taken up by me backtracking every time I found one of them.
The only reason it had taken me an entire month to track the last one down was due to some inconvenient sandstorms throwing off his trail or straight up not letting me move forward.
But, all of that was over and now I was officially one of the richest creatures in Klugetown, Saddle Arabians really had a ridiculous amount of money.
Now I was dreading a certain visit.
Hearth Glow was a pegasus mare, somewhat of an oddity in Klugetown as we didn't get many ponies, she was also a splash of color in a city of browns and greys, what with her salmon pink coat and light blue mane.
What was surprising for many was her chosen vocation as a bouncer working under Grenda.
We have been "together" for some years now, and while our relationship was mainly physical we did care about each other, I wouldn't go as far as to call it love, but there was something there. Almost every time I was in the city and she was free we would go to either of our homes and have some eh... Bonding time, although to be fair most of the time whenever we met up we would both be a little bit too pent up to exercise patience and just found the nearest alley to do our business in, not necessarily a candle-lit dinner and a serenade but we both knew what we wanted.
When I decided to go on this job I had gone to tell her about it and luckily I didn't have to wait too long for her to finish her shift. She was acting somewhat strange but I hadn't paid too much attention to it at the time.
I had told her it probably wouldn't take me more than three months and now I was dreading her reaction when I showed up seven months late.
Hopefully, nothing bad would happen.
"You own me a bouncer boy"
I stared blankly as Grenda pushed an urn forward, my mind not completely present as I tried to process all of the surprises I had just received.
"Bwa!"
On the other hand, the small ball of pink fur I was holding was happy with just using one of my claws as an impromptu chew toy as she stared up at me with a pair of familiar scarlet eyes.
Chapter one END
Author's Note
I LIVE, and with a new story.
I'm also working on a chapter for Child of Grogar so hopefully, I'll have it ready within a week.
Feel free to point out any grammar mistakes you find, English isn't my main language.