Chapter 2) The Mission Request

        It is now mid day, the village is almost as busy as it is during the night. Ripper wakes up in a curled position, light dappling her skin through the window. A soft knock sounds on her door and she lifts her head, still foggy with sleep. The sound comes again and she growls to herself and whoever is ruining her nap. She gets up and stretches then walks to the door, forgetting her lack of clothing in her daze. She opens the door and squints at the being standing in front of her house.
        "Hey Ripp....uh. Did I wake you?" The still fuzzy being asks. Ripper sees the confused and reddening expression on her guest's face. "Oh...s**t. Sorry 'bout that, but yeah you did. Give me a sec..." She closes the door and throws on a large shirt, not helping much but offering some sense of decency. When she opens the door again she recognizes and certain shaman, and she wonders whether or not she should kill him for the look on his face, mean while he's wondering if he can get away with his expression. He laughs and she gives him a good hard knee to the stomach. He falls over coughing and laughing. "Damn, what a guy can't enjoy the sight?" he cackles. "Not when that guy is you, Smiles. What do you want anyway? It better be important." Her tail lashing by this point and wicked claws unsheathed, Smiles calms down and his amused expression turns serious. Ripper realizes that this means he skipped a joint, and that means he was willing to think clearly. "Rip, the Council is concerned with the increase of bodies we keep finding. So far we have found three survivors, two of which died on site. The other made it to my place, but it was obvious she was done for. The humans are upping their game and getting tired of failures. The Council sent me to drag you to a meeting, an important one." Smiles betrays his name and frowns at Ripper's ambiguous expression. She turns around and walks in to her 'kitchen' and gets a glass of water. "We both know, and they do too, that I couldn't give half a damn about their statistics even if I wanted to. I'm in it to save what little life may be left in those building, nothing more. They can call full war time orders, I'm staying put unless they can get me in one of those labs. Plain and simple Smiley. Sending you did nothing but waist my time and yours. Now, if they have any arguments they can come to my doorstep with their tails tucked and I MIGHT listen to the first five words before slamming the door in their sick faces. Understand?" She glared at him with gold eyes when he hesitated and he mulled through his words carefully before opening his mouth. "Ripper, they want to send you and two others on a mission..." he sighed at her expression and continued. "A mission past our normal borders. You are being asked to scout out the land past our usual boundarie-" Ripper cuts him of with a wave of her hand before she replies.
        "There's nothing there Smiles. I've checked dozens of times, it's the same there as it is within our boundaries. Trees, the occasional skeleton from the ones our scouts didn't find but on a grander scale. A guard werewolf or two like we're used to, nothing else." Smiles sighs, knowing this argument is futile. He waves his hand in defeat as he leaves and slams the door behind him, shaking the small house. "Damn fool. Humans may be a pain in the a*s, but they aren't stupid. They cover up their tracks. Even I can't find much out there.." With that she throws her cup into the sink, wincing when it shatters. She hisses at it in frustration and heads back to her bed, basking in the warmth of the dispersed light beams.

        "It's no good. She doesn't care about what you have to say, like always." A knelt down Smiles says. He is in the Council's underground layer. In front of him sits an elder with a face twisted in every emotion possible and skin worn by long years. The old creature coughs and swishes a large tail, glowing like the embers of a fire. "Very well Shaman. You know what our plan B is, correct?" Smiles nods and sighs, knowing that his new job will be anything but easy, or fun. "Good..Take Cobin with you, he's childish but helpful. You'll need to bring Ace with you as well. Good luck, and do try to keep everyone alive." The old man emphasizes the word "alive" with an intuitive gaze. Smiles stands up and bows, albeit clumsily. "Of course Elder." And with that the smiley healer walks out of the gloomy room, leaving behind the Elder to begin questioning his commands. He sighs, "I do hope they don't do something stupid.." 

Reviews

[JetPlaneWriter]

winced at the annoying trope at the start, but otherwise this is very pleasant reading, might have jumped the gun on the writing advice in the earlier review, this is great!