An Unusual Introduction

Alaine stood around the docks of Valenport Harbor with Verana and the healer/priest of her group, Torvald. She looked around at the dock workers, the ships coming into and sailing out of the port. Hm... Wonder what it's like...? she thought, her curiosity piqued. However, she could not act on it. They were here for a job. It was one of those 'come to x location, we'll give you the job details, and when you're done, pay you' kind of jobs.

Alaine hated those kinds of jobs, and for good reason. After the fifth time falling for one, she decided to burn the parchments that had those words on it. The only reason she hadn't dismissed this one as a trap was that the request had a signature. And not an illegible squiggle either, an actual name.

"Hm?" Alaine noticed a bit of a commotion coming from further on the inland side of the city. "Hey, Verana, what's that commotion there?"

The Wyvern rider climbed her dragon's flank and had it stand on it's haunches. "Looks like some armed group is chasing a guy. Hm. I wonder if it might be the group that brought us here?"

"Why are we here again, Eric?" asked the lance man who was walking behind a man with bastard sword on his back.

"Work, Wolfe, it's work. Also, what else in the world that can motivate mercenaries like ours?" said the one at front.

At one of the docks of Valenport Harbor, two men were walking out from a ship. The one carrying a polearm was also wearing an eye-patch, and this one was not for fashion. He looked over the Ylisse's port town where some nice women were there, selling goods or shopping there. He admitted that the atmosphere was quite nice too.

The was until an unpleasant noise reached his ear, the lancer turned to that direction to see what was it all about.

"What's the matter?" asked Eric, the heavy swordsman.

"Something is up on that direction." Wolfe pointed to the in-town district where he thought the sound came from. The swordsman was a bit confused because he didn't hear a thing, until he tried to. "I think we better stay awa-"

"Let's go and see, I think I somehow smell money." The swordsman interrupted.