Title is being worked on please be patient oh no oh gods

Chapter 2

Signifying a good night, the remainder of it was a blur for the young knight, remembering nothing but fuzzy outlines of people and the lights melting darker as he was carried back to his room. He awoke with the sun, dressed in the loose pants and wool shirt that was under his armor-clearly the friends from the tavern had helped him quite a bit more than he had thought. Marcello, like the day before, sat up on the bed with his back facing the wall and his hand resting on his remarkably hurting head, though a grin was spreading through his face as he recalled more of the night before, his memories filling with those of cheers and advice for his newest assignment. Marcello felt at home in that pub, with those people, which is when he decided on something that he had been thinking about since the night prior.

Marcello pulled on his loose pieces of unmatched armor and his heavy boots, marching to the King's castle and up the stone steps, getting stopped by the guards, crossing their spears to stop him from proceeding.

"Do you have a meeting with his highness?" One guard asked robotically, his voice monotone and uninterested, but this being his job, he had to sound like that. Before Marcello got a chance to respond, he heard the King's voice from the garden.

"Is that Marcello? I recognize the angry footsteps, let him by." The King pardoned, waving the guards away and letting Marcello walk through to him.

"Sir, I had a concern regarding the team assignment you gave me." Marcello started, talking quickly. In response, the king sighed and laid his hand softly on the stone wall that surrounded the property of the castle, looking out among the forests.

"Marcello, I know you're not a team player, but this assignment is necessary." the King said with a smirk, his half-smile fueled by annoyance in regard to Marcello's stubbornness.

"I'm not here to debate that. I'm here to give you an ultimatum." This peaked the King's interest, his head turning to face Marcello with interest. "You give me one week to form a team, with my own people, and I'll do the assignment."

"Very well. You can form a four-person team and I will assign the final member. There's no waver on that." The King stated almost instantly, to Marcello's partial dismay. He got to form his own team, which was exactly what he wanted, but he still had to deal with one assigned member. Knowing it was the best he was going to get, Marcello left the castle grounds in search of members for his team.

Marcello acquired the first two new members quickly, both roaming the castle grounds when he started asking around. The first was a young alchemist, Kimiya, who worked for a few knights in the area to keep their strength up, and sometimes taught classes on what how to use alchemy without hurting anyone or, more importantly, themselves. She was sweet, and peppy-quite easily excitable, more than literally jumping at the opportunity to help Marcello on his quest. Marcello had mixed feelings about her energy, but knew that he wouldn't find another alchemist in the week that would be willing to help. On his way to the tavern to announce his search, he-again-quite literally bumped into a Warforged (warforgeds are machines made of wood and metal that can feel pain and emotion, originally made for war but since then going from job to job) that was looking for work, who identified himself as Rooke. Bringing the three into the tavern, Marcello explained the job once again, this time over a tankard of ale. Rooke agreed without a second thought, the three of them knowing that they'll work well together, but still needed to find another member before returning to the king.

"What if we search outside the town?" Kimiya suggested, being so small that Marcello and Rooke momentarily forgot about her presence. Both of their attentions turning to her, they think it over for a moment.

"It's not the worst idea." Rooke stated "It would give us a wider variety of people to choose from. Crowdsourcing, in a sense." Kimiya nodded enthusiastically, appreciating her idea getting actually noticed.

"I have access to a good workshop, we can make sure we have everything. We'll set out tomorrow morning. Marcello, try to get some horses from the king." Rooke instructed, the rest of the trio nodding with smiles. "I'll put a tracking spell on both of you, so I can keep track of where you are and vice versa. Kimiya, do you have potions on hand?"

"Yes! I do! I have one of healing, one of fire breath, and one of love~" She dragged out that last word flirtatiously, pulling out the three potions she used as examples, three differently-colored, glowing bottles. Marcello looked over the potions for a moment, nodding as he built a plan in his mind.

"Alright. Rooke, you get another recruit, Kimiya you need to get all the potions you can, and I'll talk to the king, say that all we need is the new member and a boat." The trio, once again, nodded, memorizing their own parts of the plan as Marcello grabbed another tankard, drinking about half of it before putting it down. Kimiya nodded as she put the potions back into her bag, still excited to be part of a team.

"Let's try to keep this quiet." Rooke stated, a request met with nods by the rest of the team. Marcello was the first to leave, making his way to the castle, hearing the other members of his team walk in opposite directions. If the kingdom was in such ruin as the King described, they had to exterminate the vermin that was attacking it, not just for that kingdom's sake, but also to eliminate the chance of Aramoor falling to the same fate.

Marcello was not met with the same fate upon reapproaching the castle gates; this time the guards let him in without question. Stepping past them, the knight stalked directly to the throne room, finding the King sitting upon the grand chair, next to him sitting a largely-built man wielding a sword about the size of a large branch, clad in heavy silver armor.

"Remove your helmet, knight Marcello." The King ordered, to Marcello's repent. He dropped to one knee and looked at the king, then at the man next to him.

"If it's all the same to you, my liege, I'll keep it on." Awaiting a nod from the King, Marcello planned what he was going to say in his head. Upon receiving the acknowledgment, he continued. "My liege, I have formed a team and all we need is your member and the boat you were going to assign us. If the choice is ours, we would like to wait until morning."

"Very well. Tomorrow at dawn, you and your three peers come to the dock. We will have the ship stocked and ready, waiting for you with the final teammate required. It will be a two-day sailing trip before you reach the kingdom in need. Now, go rest, and remember. Dawn." With that final word, Marcello nodded and stood, leaving the castle and making his way first to the messenger to spread the word to his fellow teammates, signing Rooke's with only 'tell the fourth' before frustratedly walking his way back to the room in his tower.

Waiting for him there was Rose, the young woman from every morning he had stayed there. Marcello stopped for a moment, the clank of his armor loud enough to knock her from what had seemingly been a sleep state. It was odd, she had been there every morning, to the point that he could make it part of his routine-but this was the first time he'd seen her there at night. She sat up, rubbing her eyes

"M-Marcello!" She called out happily, but tiredly. "It's so nice to see you again...I'm sorry, I was waiting for you, and I guess I ended up falling asleep." She chuckled nervously as he sat next to her.

"Why wait for me?" He asked bluntly. He was tired, worn out both physically and mentally, and yet he could use a nice conversation with her from time to time. Marcello felt her hand slide up his back and hold the back of his helmet, pushing it up to the sky.

"I wanted you to see this. You're never here around this time of month, but the moon reflects off the stars in seemingly the only night the goddess plans for it to." Marcello didn't realize it, but it was true, he'd never seen the sky like this before.

Dashing blues of the night sky were blended into watercolor pinks and purples, the mixture dotted by the glistening white stars.

"This sky is more beautiful than any and every canvas in Aramoor," Rose was still amazed at the sight, looking over to Marcello, whom she thought had been keeping his gaze on the sky. "No artist could compare, not in a hundred lifetimes."

"This is why..." Marcello muttered, feeling the shift of Rose's gaze. "This is why I need to be prepared." Colder than stone in a winter storm, he stood and sulked into his quarters, leaving Rose alone on the steps, a feeling that she was all too familiar with.

A/N: I know this chapter was shorter but I swear it's going to get better, I just didn't want this chapter to drone on and I felt this was a natural ending for it.