Street Rat vs Sewer Rats [Quest: It's Always Rats]

[Ash]

Ash bit into the nail of her thumb from the shadows, glaring at the man who seemed all too comfortable with just standing there and minding his own business. She's been here for half an hour, hoping the brother just needed a drink at his favorite back alley pub, but it would appear he was there to stay. Which probably meant that the reason the world force fed her this quest was in there. But this realization only made her groan out in frustration and fall against the building beside her, tapping her head against the hard stone. How was she supposed to confront the bouncer? Her scrawny little but can only do so much..

At that exact moment there was a big of disturbance down the block. Loud enough to catch her attention and probably anyone else who was standing within the quarter mile radius. She was glancing in the general direction of the noise when something slapped her brain from the inside and she realized this might be an automated response to a player character stuck on the quest, that big, bald, and scary might be programmed to go look for what was causing the commotion and would leave his post. She looked at his direction, but he only looked pissed off that someone was at it again, and remained in his spot.

Come to think of it.. That mechanic never made sense to her. If the enemy knew someone was sneaking around and heard a noise in the background, why would the leave their guard posts? She knew it was because the object of the game was to give her a challenge and several ways around that challenge. But it was so.. Unrealistic. 'Funny.. My game wasn't real enough for me..' She thought as this came to mind, rolling her eyes at herself. But that didn't change the fact that tall, dark, and tattoo'd wasn't moving. She sighed, and ventured closer to the noise.

When she arrived, a solider - identified as such by his armor - was shaking his head at the inside of a storage unit. The person who had made so much noise was still making a big deal. He was making the most exaggerated hand gestures one could while talking in a different language. He looked even more average than the brothers, but was concerned about what was happening in the storage box. The solider turned back around to talk to the man, only in English. "Rats I can believe, but the size of dogs? Are you sure you aren't drinking my friend?"


"I haven't touched the bottle in 2 years!" The man followed the change of language. Or maybe it was translated for her because of how important it might be. Or because language barriers.. And a game would normally give her subtitles. "No. Nonononononono, and NO! They were the size of house cats. Look! You think a mere rat could take such a chunk out of my cheese? I'm surprised there's any left!!" He was apparently very excited about this.

She heard the guard muttering, and saw his lips bring her thoughts to words. 'A pack of rats could..'

He glanced back at the unit, then to the citizen. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do about it.. The sewers are full of rats and we have more pressing issues than to clean the place out right now. We're advertising help for it, but you can imagine how often anyone comes along who wants to do THAT job. You are more than welcome to higher someone to watch your food all night, but good luck with that." He said, then gave him a nod as if dismissing himself. "Good night."

As the solider started to leave, the man went back to disbelief and exaggerated motions of his hands and language. It all seemed rather wasteful of her time, until the grate from earlier flashed before her mind. Sewer systems.. Maybe that's how she can track her boring friend?

Ash pulled her hood firmly against her head to insure she was hidden, and moved out of the shadows. "Wait.. You say you are having rat problems?" She asked, stopping the solider in mid-step. He turned to look at the girl who just spoke. "What's the pay look like?" She asked, trying to sound desperate for money to escape his suspicion.

"Its as good as you expect to be paid to hunt sewer rats." He responded, moving to face her, closing the gap between their bodies and giving her a good hard look. "Are you interested?" She nodded. "Well.. Then come with me." He said, then began to lead the way. Away from the alley way pub and the poor soul with less food than he had this morning. She tried not to sound horribly upset that she was being taken away from her objective instead of closer. But three more blocks and they stopped at the top of a hill, a five by ten foot stone hut with a single door wrapped in chains and with a padded lock. The guard produced a key that unlocked the chains and pushed them down out of the way. The door was unlocked and had no way of being locked from the outside other than the chains. When your ready, we will pay you for each rat tail you bring back. No funny business either, each complete tail that is at least 4 inches long."

When the door was opened, she tried peering in as far as it would go. But it was just a stair case, and she could hear the water running down below. As he explained the rules of the side-quest she nodded. She knew the jest of things, she's done a million side quests for all kinds of games. They were usually tedious and not worth the reward, but wroth the drops and experience. She had no way of knowing if it was worth it, or what her experience would be like after this - mostly because she didn't know what it looked like even now, but it was a means to an end. She nodded once more for confirmation, and then began to descend.

"Good Luck." Said the solider behind her as he closed the door and left her in complete darkness.