Menacing Misfits: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Darkthorn Academy Book 1)

by Robyn Wideman

  Talia sighed dramatically. “Seriously. Look at Stann’s armor, Lana’s new bow. Obviously those things are real.”

  “I can see that,” Colin snapped. “Look, the odds of meeting some benevolent badass mage who needs help against a few creatures, no matter how scary they are, who can portal you all over the Ancient Lands is hard to adjust to. Don’t get me wrong, it is awesome. This is going to help us a lot, I just need to think.”

  Jack snapped his fingers. “That reminds me. Stann, grab the knife we got from Nasgrin.”

  Stann dug through his satchel until he found the dagger. He handed it to Jack.

  Jack handed the knife to Colin. “The rest of us have been getting more upgraded equipment than you’ve been getting. I thought you should have this.”

  Colin frowned. “I’m not an adventurer, I don’t need a knife for the map room.”

  “You never know. I’ve seen some pretty vicious map geeks get angry when someone beats them to a really juicy map,” Talia said.

  “Ha, ha, you’re funny,” Colin said.

  “Seriously, we’re a team, and besides, this knife helps your mana regardless of being used or not. Even if you aren’t out in the Ancient Lands you are going to need to keep improving your mana skills.”

  “Good point. Thank you,” Colin said as he took the knife. “So what is first on our to-do list?”

  “I think we visit Chef Ramsey first. Find out how he knows Mage Nowak, and then we do the normal stuff. Sell our loot to Chadwick and then we go back to doing classwork and practice.”

  Colin frowned. “You don’t want to head back out right away?”

  Jack shook his head. “No. I think we stick with the original plan. Do a trip, stay here and do normal academy stuff and then go out again later. Keep a balanced approach, otherwise we’ll fall behind on schoolwork. I am already far enough behind everyone.”

  “You know, now that you’re a quester, you don’t have to do classes, not really.”

  Jack knew that, but he also knew that if he and the others relied solely on their gear, they would become too reliant on it. They needed to improve all of their skills to become the best they could be. Mage Nowak had warned them that they probably weren’t ready for the more dangerous areas of the Ancient Lands. Jack wasn’t going to let greed lead to someone getting hurt. They had good areas to explore now, and there was still no hurry before the end of semester so they didn’t have to panic about making their dues. They were already well on their way, and after they sold this batch of weapons to Chadwick, they’d be even closer. “I know, but we stick to the plan. Quest, study, quest, study.”

  “I think we should change the plan,” Stann said. “Quest, quest, quest.”

  “Speak for yourself, I want to eventually be a dragon rider,” Talia said, slapping Stann on the shoulder.

  “I want to ride dragons too,” Stann said with a frown as he rubbed his shoulder, pretending she’d wounded him.

  “Well, big boy, that means you have to attend dragon classes. They don’t make exceptions, not even for questers. Don’t pass dragon class, don’t get the dragon.”

  Stann sighed. “OK. We stick with the original plan.”

  “Speaking of dragon classes. While you guys have been questing, I’ve been going to my classes and I just got bumped up to Advanced Dragon Studies.”

  Jack smiled. “With Dragon Keeper Clifton?”

  Colin nodded. “Having a roommate with a dragon has its perks. She says I have a better understanding of dragons because of the amount of time I spend around Lord Scratches.”

  “I like Dragon Keeper Clifton, she’s a good teacher.”

  Yes,” Colin said. “I bet the rest of you can get bumped up, too, if you attend more classes.”

  Talia gave Stann a withering look.

  Stann threw his hands up in the air. “OK. I get it. Classes are just as important as questing.”

  “Jack, do you need us to talk to Chef Ramsey?” Talia asked. “If not, Stann and I are going to go talk to our instructors, see if we can make up extra time this week.”

  “No, Colin and I can do it, or I can go myself. The rest of you can focus on your studies if you want. Stann, just leave your satchel.”

  “I’m actually caught up on all my studies,” Lana said. “Once we became questers, I talked to all my professors to make sure I wouldn’t fall behind. I wouldn’t mind going with you to talk to Chef Ramsey.”

  “And I want to go find some maps,” Colin said. “Pailron, Mount Arder, and the City of Borcha.”

  “Don’t worry about the last one, at least not right away. Mage Nowak said that was the most dangerous of the three and that we should wait before going there,” Jack said. “Focus on Pailron and Mount Arder.”

  “Will do,” Colin said.

  Jack and Lana left the apartment and headed toward the kitchen. They found Chef Ramsey talking with a couple of his kitchen staff.

  “Hello, Jack, Lana. How was your last trip into the Ancient Lands?”

  “Interesting, to say the least,” Jack said. “We had an encounter with a man, called himself Mage Nowak. You know him?”

  Chef Ramsey chuckled. “I should say so. I haven’t heard that name is a griffon’s age. Mage Nowak is one of the few mages who I know that has always travelled the Ancient Lands by himself. He isn’t one for teaming up. I’m glad to see that you survived your encounter with him.”

  “Not only survived, but I think we actually made a friend,” Lana said.

  Chef Ramsey frowned and scratched his jaw. He shrugged. “Well, I’ve heard stranger things.”

  “He isn’t a friendly person?” Jack asked.

  “I wouldn’t say that. He can be friendly when he’s comfortable with you. The rest of the time he can be as prickly as a cactus. Over the years there have been many would-be questers, bandits and other assorted thugs who thought he was an easy mark because he travelled alone. Mage Nowak is an elite battle mage, one of the best I’ve ever seen.”

  Lana started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” Chef Ramsey said.

  “When we met him, he was fighting against a dargow and a flock of blackheart buzzards. We thought we were saving him,” Lana said.

  Chef Ramsey chuckled. “That is funny. I can assure you: he was in no danger. He was probably toying with the beasts, amusing himself.”

  Jack nodded. The more he’d gotten to know the mage the more he’d realized they hadn’t really been saving him.

  “I will say it is good if he considers you a friend. He may be prickly towards those he doesn’t know, but a more loyal friend would be hard to find.”

  “He was very helpful. He took us to several locations in the Ancient Lands, let us set up our own portal circles, he even took us to Chajon.”

  “Ah, I haven’t been to Chajon in years. Chajon was one of the reasons I decided to become a chef. Some of the best street vendors in the world, serving the most delicious and exotic dishes. I hope you took the time to try some of the offers.”

  Jack shook his head. “We were a little eager to come back. But we intend to go again.”

  “Do that. It can be a dangerous city, but also a delightful one.”

  “Speaking of delightful, Mage Nowak suggested that dargow was a bit of a delicacy.”

  Chef Ramsey nodded. “Yes, it can be. Dargow is a strange beast. The older it gets, the better it tastes. The hard-outer protective shell tends to make for softer meat. And the flavor also gets better. How big was the dargow?”

  “The size of a large bear. Maybe a little bigger,” Jack said.

  Chef Ramsey’s eyes went big. “Bigger than a bear?”

  Jack nodded and looked at Lana. “Yes. I’d say that, wouldn’t you?”

  Lana agreed. “Yes. Almost as tall as a horse, but way thicker.”

  “Incredible. I suppose you sold the meat in Chajon…”

  “No. Mage Nowak suggested that we bring the meat to you. He said you’d probably give us an excellent price and mayb
e cook some of it for us.”

  “You have it here?” Chef Ramsey said. He looked practically giddy.

  Jack tapped the satchel he was carrying. “It’s in our portal satchel.”

  “I will kiss that man if I ever see him again,” Chef Ramsey said.

  “So he wasn’t wrong?”

  “My boy, besides being one of the most dangerous creatures you’ll ever encounter if you’re reliant on magic, a full-grown dargow is rare, and yes its meat is worth a substantial amount. And I will be delighted to cook it for you. In fact, if you like, you could keep a section of meat with me for future meals, or to cook meals for potential allies. And I will pay full market prices for all of the meat, even that which you keep. The Academy hosts many important guests and will be beyond happy to be able to serve dargow to potential clients. All the best deals are done over dinner and drinks. Naturally-aged dargow is a delicacy among most cultures.”

  “Naturally aged?” Lana asked.

  “Old,” Chef Ramsey said. “A dargow the size of a large bear is far beyond the normal size and means it was old, older than old.”

  “Cool,” Lana said.

  “Cool indeed,” Chef Ramsey said. He pointed to a large table. “This table has a magical scale; it will tell us how much meat you have.”

  Jack opened the satchel and they started unloading the meat onto the table. It took almost twenty minutes for the three of them to unload the satchel. The large table was completely covered and heaping. The magical scale was flashing.

  “Three hundred and twelve pounds. That is a lot of meat from a dargow. So much of their bulk and weight comes from their hide and bones.”

  “That’s a lot of meat,” Lana said.

  “I’ll check the market tomorrow for current prices, but I suspect it will be around ten gold per pound.”

  “Wow,” Lana said.

  Jack just grinned at her. They’d get 3000 gold just for the meat? “Wow” was right.

  “Would you like to try some of the meat tonight?” Chef Ramsey said.

  “That would be great,” Jack said.

  “For the five of you?”

  “Actually, I was thinking enough for all the questers having dinner here tonight, along with any Academy staff you would like to invite. If that’s OK with you?” Jack thought it would be a good way to build some goodwill between the Misfits and the other questers, and the Academy staff.

  Chef Ramsey’s head started to bob. “Yes. A grand dinner would be fantastic. I’ll have to modify the day’s meal plan. I need to get started immediately. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get started organizing.” He rubbed his hands together with glee as he yelled, “Tony, quit whatever you’re doing. We have work to do.”

  Jack wasn’t sure who Tony was, but it didn’t matter. It was obvious that Chef Ramsey was a man on a mission.

  “That was awesome,” Lana said. “I thought he was going to start crying, he looked so happy when you asked him to cook for everyone. Not what I was expecting at all. What do you want to do now?”

  “Let’s go see Chadwick Deeter.”

  Lana nodded. “Sounds good to me. Get everything dealt with now. You want to sell any of the gear in town at the markets?”

  Jack shrugged. “We’ll ask Chadwick. I think it wouldn’t hurt to use most of our money to pay our fees. The more time we dedicate to studying, the less time we’ll be questing. What do you think?”

  Lana shrugged. “Sounds good to me. I do think we should establish ourselves with the local markets, but paying our fees should certainly be the priority.”

  Jack grinned. He was definitely flying by the seat of his pants when it came to leadership, and it seemed the group was turning to him more often than not, but it was comforting to know Lana trusted him. Jack had learned trading from Ramy and one thing Jack had learned was it was better to have a few trusted trading partners that got the majority of your business than trading with everyone. Sure, you didn’t put all your eggs in one basket, but you built up your business with your most important clients first. The Academy was their biggest and most important client when it came to acting as a trader.

  They went back to the room and grabbed the orc armor that had been too big for the satchel.

  “Ugh, it’s heavy. Should’ve made Stann take it to Chadwick,” Lana said as they carried it down the hall.

  “I didn’t plan that out very well,” Jack admitted.

  When they arrived at Chadwick’s section, he waved at them and then grabbed a couple of the pieces of armor, lightening their load. He then placed the pieces on an empty sorting table.

  “Hello, Jack, Lana. I hear you’re hosting a fancy dinner this evening.”

  Jack was surprised. “Yes. How did you know?”

  Chadwick chuckled. “Oh, the Academy interdepartmental messaging system is fairly robust. And when Chef Ramsey sends out an invite, everyone pays attention. He’s built quite the reputation amongst the staff. You don’t miss a meal when Chef Ramsey is getting fancy. If the Misfits have done something worthy of a Chef Ramsey meal then I must attend. I might even have to put on my fancy clothes.”

  “I’m glad you’ll be attending,” Lana said.

  Chadwick looked around and then leaned in. He spoke softly, “Can you give me a hint as to the meal? Chef Ramsey likes a bit of mystery.”

  Jack whispered. “Dargow.”

  Chadwick’s lips puckered and he danced a little jig. “I knew it would be something special.” He then stood up straight and spoke with his normal voice, “Just the armor, then?”

  Jack and Lana emptied their satchels. When they were done, the table was full.

  “Well done, Misfits. This is a quality load of merchandise you have here. Let me see, that will be 16,250 gold for the armor, and another 8,500 gold for the weapons.” Chadwick went to his ledger. “Including your previous earnings, that brings your current total up to 33,734 gold.”

  Jack did the math. With the 3000 or so gold that Chef Ramsey would be adding to their account, they only had around 15,000 gold left before they’d paid all of their fees for the semester. “Excellent.”

  “I’m impressed. I can’t lie, I had some concerns about having a group of first-year students, but you’ve done well for yourselves. Keep this up and you’ll be done in no time. The nice thing is, once you’ve paid your fees for the semester, you can get a head start on next year, or keep it all. Totally up to you.”

  “Thanks, Chadwick, see you tonight.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  …

  When Jack and Lana got back to the apartment, they were alone.

  “You know what we forgot?” Lana said.

  Jack frowned. “What did we forget?”

  “All the books,” Lana said. “We still have all the books from the orc library.”

  “Oh, ya. We’ll deal with that when Colin is here. I’m sure he’ll want to go through them before we do anything else with them.”

  “True,” Lana said. “What do you want to do now? We have a couple hours before the big dinner.”

  Jack thought about it; there was lots that he wanted to accomplish before they went back out into the Ancient Lands. One of his biggest concerns was still his own abilities. He was proving to be decent at healing, despite his early misgivings and ignorance about the position, and his magic abilities were coming along nicely thanks mostly to his improved magical gear. However, the one thing that couldn’t be upgraded with better gear was his own fighting skills. He simply needed more practice, and Lana was the perfect partner for that. Her skills were far greater than his own. “Care to spar?”

  Lana smiled. “Absolutely. Let’s go to the training grounds, maybe if we get lucky there will be another couple training and we can work on team sparring.”

  Jack froze for a second.

  Had Lana just called them a couple? Surely, she meant that as a team and not a romantic pairing like Stann and Talia were becoming? “Ya… that sounds great.” Before he could start blushing, Ja
ck left Lana to put the satchels in his room, and grabbed his armor. To avoid thinking about Lana, he focused on his armor. Soon he’d have to upgrade it, but he wasn’t going to think about it until they had paid off their fees. Maybe if he got lucky they’d find some armor that fit him and was an upgrade on the armor he’d gotten from the Academy, but for now he was comfortable with what he had.

  “Ready?” Lana said as she came out of her room.

  Jack nodded and put his eyes down. He couldn’t help but notice how attractive she was, and the armor she wore did nothing to hide that fact. And it wasn’t just her body that Jack found attractive. Lana was one of the nicest and most positive people he’d ever met. She was also smart and funny. Jack sighed. So much for his plan to not think about Lana. “Ready,” he said as he closed his door.

  They walked together to the training grounds. A small group of older students were training. Jack was impressed by how all the students moved. They were fast and working together as one as they went through a fighting simulation. “They’re good,” he said to Lana as they watched.

  “Yes, they are. Those students will be part of the Empire army soon. Mostly as dragon riders, but as you can see, they’re more than just dragon riders. They’re all excellent warriors.”

  “You think you’ll be a dragon rider some day?” Jack asked.

  Lana threw a practice sword at Jack. “Maybe one day, but for now all I’m thinking about is being the best quester I can be. You know as shitty as it was that we were screwed over by Cara, becoming questers has been great for us. We have been lucky. We’ve gotten good gear, better than many students ever end up with, and we’re only getting started.”

  Giving him only a second to prepare himself, Lana attacked. Jack jumped back and just barely got his sword into position in time. He blocked her attack, and then the next few. He even found a few times where he was able to counter and safely attack her without exposing himself. After a solid minute of sparring, Lana blocked one of his attacks and instead of stepping back like he’d anticipated she moved forward, bringing her leg behind his and with a push against his chest he found himself on the ground.

  “Not bad, Jack. You’re getting much better,” Lana said as she pulled him up.