[Loud chattering of passersby rings throughout the town]
"You're overreacting, Egan. Everything's fine!" Sarah said, a warm smile plastered on her face.
Egan looks at her, eyes just as intense as they were. Sarah notices this and acknowledges it to herself, but for some reason, she doesn't fully believe him.
"You said this is your first time visiting a town, right? Maybe you're just on edge and need to loosen up!"
"..."
Egan, looking directly into her this time, slowly feels the presence he felt seep away. Looking at her, he feels a sense of calm, like all the pent-up emotions inside of him just fizzle away. Maybe this is what trust feels like.
"Yeah… maybe you're right." He said, letting go of her hand a looking down towards the floor.
"Yeah! Come on! I wanna show you around town!" Sarah said, a bright smile still stretched across her face.
To Egan, everything around him seems so bright. For spending almost an entire week alone in the desert, and even more time alone in an abandoned homeland, it was almost too bright. Each one of the many lights strewn across the sky tells a story, but the one light he wanted to know about the most.
Was the one right in front of him.
For she shone brighter than them all.
"Alright, let us explore!" Egan said, a subtle smile beginning to encroach on his face.
***
Egan kept looking around at the streets of Vanitinova. Everybody seemed so happy, as though they had no cares in the world. Is this the power of a festival? It was unusually crowded in the town square; everybody hunched in such a small plaza, it was unbearably claustrophobic. Not a lot of diversity was in Vanitinova. Egan could spot the occasional lizardman, but that was about it. He was the only one who had horns. Because of that, people began to stare at him. More and more people noticed Egan and Sarah, both still conjoined by the hand, as he was being dragged around town.
[A familiar dark presence looms from another alley]
"There it is again!" Egan thought to himself, pulling away from Sarah's hand and charging toward a dark alley located furthest away from the plaza.
"Wait, where are you going?" Sarah yelled, her voice getting muffled by the loud crowd around her.
Egan charged through the town square. Bumping and pushing into people as he ran by, eager to find these mysterious feelings. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pair of cloaked individuals lurking in an alleyway to the right of the plaza. They were watching him. He couldn't make out their features, but he could sense their gaze. The instincts of a dragon are never wrong.
Quickly and silently, they leaped from the alleyway and over the house. Eager to follow them, he was preparing to chase after them, but their presence had already gotten too far away.
Was this what Thaerin meant by people would come looking for him? If so, then how in the world is he supposed to protect Sarah if it's already an issue this soon into the game? It concerned him greatly; he didn't want to burden the only companion he had since getting here.
"Hey!" Sarah yelled, still muffled by the loud festivities, but just loud enough that it got Egan's attention.
Looking back at Sarah, Egan paused for a second. He had to inform her of what he had just seen, but he didn't want to ruin her time being back. She looked so happy. He decided he would tell her to just look out and be ready for anything.
Sarah, now running in his direction, was waving a large pink cotton ball on a stick in her hand. It confused him. Its color was so vibrant, and it looked like a cloud had materialized onto a paper stick. Sarah was now right in front of Egan, holding the sweet treat up to his face.
"Loog'!" Sarah said, her face cheek deep into her blue cotton pad, "I gah you sumfin' yummy!"
"What is this weird cloud thing?" Egan said, poking it with his finger.
Sarah, a large smile plastered on her face, and cotton candy still stuck to her cheeks, began to pull off a bit of the cloud onto her hand. Its stringy, fluffy texture was mesmerizing, the young dragon had never seen anything like it before.
"It's sweet!" Sarah said, now handing the paper stick to Egan, "Trust me on this, it's soooo good!"
Egan takes a small bite of the fluffy cloud before him. Upon taking the bite, his eyes lit up like the artificial stars in the festival.
"It's sweet!" He said, mouth now full of the stuff
"It's called 'Cotton Candy', Vanitinova is known for how yummy it is!" Sarah said, digging back into her sweet treat.
"Come on! There's still so much I want to show you!" Sarah said, now, once again reaching for his hand.
***
Egan's hearing goes silent, muffling out all the background noise of the festival. He solely focuses on her. Clenching his teeth and closing his eyes. He thoroughly contemplates letting Sarah know about the weird people scoping the town. He wants to protect her. But her physical being isn't the only thing that needs protecting, no, he wants to make sure she's happy too.
As Sarah begins to pull Egan along with her, he stops, pulling her back a little in the process.
"What?" Sarah says, looking over at Egan, who is visibly upset by something, "Don't like Cotton candy?"
"No, it isn't that… It's just…"
"You can tell me, what's going on?"
"It's nothing… I'm just…"
"Hm…?"
"...So happy I'm here!" Egan said, a smile emanating from his face, a tear shortly following.
Sarah pauses for a moment, now fully understanding the hesitation that Egan felt before. She knows that he is hiding something from her.
"So am I!" She says, another warm smile radiating from her face.
She begins pulling Egan harder.
"This way! I wanna introduce you to a friend of mine!"
"Lead the way, I'm right behind you." He said, looking around to see if anyone is following them.
He knows that something is wrong in this town, and from the look that Sarah saw just moments ago, she is starting to believe him, too. That tear that fell from his cheek was all the proof she needed.
***
[A hazy breeze blows over the houses of Vanitinova]
[Three cloaked figures rest upon the top of the clock tower]
"So, is that him?" Says a female cloaked figure, looking down at the pair running through the main street towards the adventurers' guild.
"Yeah, they rolled into town just a couple of hours ago..." A low, gravelly voice bellowing from another clocked figure.
"Contact the boss…"
One of the eyes of the cloaked figure now began to emit a harsh white light. Pierced; Fixated on his prey.
"Tell him we found our next target."