Sugar Hollow

The lizard men from the road had directed the assassin here, to the quaint town of Sugar Hollow, where he should find the subject of the bounty placed by the rather unsavory individuals. The man seemed inconspicuous enough given his profession, wearing the usual travel worn garb seen on those that made their way to this isolated town. Outwardly he seemed unarmed, but he did, in fact, carry some weapons on him, though concealed. 

Noah was his name, he had black hair, and a dark amber gaze. His face seemed a bit grizzled at this point, indicating he had perhaps not shaven in a couple of days. This gave his face the beginnings of a black beard as well, though a somewhat unkempt one. To go along with this, he seemed to be a little worn as well, perhaps tired from travel. 

Noah would walk along the road further into the interior of the town, avoiding interaction with any who should approach him for the most part, though once he reached the center of Sugar Hollow, the square, he would pause. Momentarily, his eyes, ever dark amber, would change. For a few moments, the irises of his eyes would darken into a red hue as they scanned the surroundings. He was able to see perfectly the outlines of various people within the buildings surrounding him, their life signatures betraying them through the thin walls of the town. It was in this manner he would look around, until he found what seemed to be a child, based on their stature, inside one of the buildings. He seemed to be alone with whoever owned the establishment. 

This process would only take a few moments, and then Noah would be off, approaching the building marked as 'Lucy's Oven'. He would soon confirm that this was where his mark was, as he spotted the boy's white hair through the window, but then he would surprisingly spot another standing with him. This would give Noah pause, as he had not detected this presence previously with his magical vision. Either way, Noah would enter the bakery, the bell's toll as he entered announcing his presence. 

Once again he would pause, as the bell rang. Noah closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling for a moment as if the sound of the bell physically bothered him. In truth, it did bother him, however, as it briefly worsened the current migraine he suffered. He would seem to pull a couple seeds from one of his pockets and pop them into his mouth then, before walking into the building completely. 

Now, the lizardman that Noah had encountered previously was out of luck, as even though Xin, his target, was right there before him he would not be completing his mission on this day. Noah had simply entertained the bounty issuer to get more information to help the boy possibly. Noah killed many people, yes, and often for selfish reasons but he did not kill children, and delivering this kid alive would also be a death sentence. 

Noah would waste no time, walking up to the kid who was presumably his mark, and the strange woman who stood near him that he could not detect previously. 

"Do you two have a moment?" he asked.

"hmm, Well I'll show you anyway then I'm off to find this library." Kargth said to the boy. 

Standing up to his full height Kargth began to rearrange his armor plates. At first nothing special, that was until he got to his legs. Bending down Kargth unbuckled his straps and moved the leg and boot plates 180 degrees. Something quite impossible to anyone that had any flesh. Then Kargth turned his arms around as well, and then finally his helmet, appearing to snap his own neck. It was a very odd experience to say the least. Once he was fully turned around Kargth turn around once more to the child, re-buckling his armor straps into to place to prevent the armor from simply falling apart when he took his next large step. 

"What did you think of that?"

The child stepped back from Kargth, eyes wide. He dropped the basket, and the plums fell to the ground.

"H-how did you do that? Are you made of rubber? Is that magic? I've never seen magic before...did you turn yourself into rubber with a spell, or a potion? What are you made of now? Are you still rubber? If you fall off a roof, will you bounce? Can I see what rubber skin looks like under your armor? Will you teach me how to do that? Is the armor magic? Where can I get magic armor?"

With each question, the boy sounded less and less worried, and became more and more excited.

The child watched, slack-jawed, as Kargth walked off. The walking suit of armor would manage to find the library easily, and found that it was open. Walking inside, he saw the cramped shelves full of dusty books. The entire library seemed to hold far more books than should be possible, and was almost certainly a serious fire hazard. An old, tired librarian looked up at Kargth through thick reading glasses. The man looked thin and frail, more like a decrepit skeleton covered in skin than an actual human.

"W-welcome, traveler, to the Sweet Roll Library. Can I help you with anything?"

His voice cracked, as though he hadn't spoken in weeks.

Noah would smirk then, as what he was about to say would no doubt elicit some interesting reactions, to say the least.

"I was sent here to capture you."

Noah would point one of his fingers at Xin, "Either that... or kill you and bring back your head. Some kobolds along the road put the bounty out. Perhaps I would have fulfilled it, but I don't kill children if I can avoid it."

Noah had sat across from Xin and Sione as he said this, leaning forward a bit so as to not be overheard by any of the others within the bakery. 

"Anyways, do you know anything of this? If not then I did you a favor by informing you. Once they find out I won't be fulfilling the bounty they will find someone else to send."

"Uwaa, so colorful!" Wah follows close behind Appopo. "Uh, okay. But Mr. Apapopopoopapapapo, what can I do? I don't know how to do magic like you."

Appopo looked at the woman and pointed waved his wand between him and Wah, "Us? We are here because..." He stopped for a second and tapped the brim of his wizard hat and let out a hum, "We were going to a place and a big meanie giant chicken dragon decided to attack us. So I thumped him on the head with a giant frying pan." Appopo grabbed the brim of his hat with both hands and his yellow eyes widened, "OH MY PO! We forgot Lips!!"

Appopo let out a sigh and dropped his head before popping it back up with a smile that could only be seen by his eyes since his mouth was covered in wraps, "Lips will be fine." He then rubbed his belly as a growl that sounded like a roar was heard, "I'm starving. We should have ate the giant chicken."

Appopo realized he had gotten off track and looked back to the lady, "I think my belly brought us here. It smells so good here that it is magical! And then there was also this." He handed over the paper with the bounty on it for Xin and Noah, "Do you know anything about these two?"