“That’s the right idea,” Silence praised Nevada, “Once you arrived at the pond, search for something burnt or overly large footprints. Go from there.”
Silence kept it short as the group continued walking away from the town as the gate closed in on them. There was nothing more that needed to be said.
Once the gate was closed, the gatekeeper asked the question to the Cowboy leader. “You didn’t bother with names this time.”
Silence turned his head slightly to the gatekeeper with a dejected look on his face. “There’s no need if they die. If they do survive their mission, I’ll take consideration of knowing their names.”
“Aren’t they capable hunters though? A few of them had a good record.”
“Not enough. Killing rookies isn’t that much of a big deal. Even a Mature Dragon isn’t that impressive.” Silence started to walk away. “Every punk with a gun can claim victories over them. But that doesn’t defeat the Dragons—these were solo kills. Group ones are the hardest to gauge… since they’re the leading cause of deaths for these Cowboys.”
The Outside of Novissime
“Newspaper?! If I want to know the news, I’ll watch the Telly!” Excalik turned back after the gate closed in on them. “That old bastard still distant as ever. He didn’t even say goodbye to us…” The bandaged cowboy realized that they hadn’t properly introduced themselves to one another after Amy called Nevada by a different name.
“Bastard didn’t even let us introduce to each other.” Excalik pointed to himself. “Names Excalik. Been doing this gig for a few years now since this is the fastest away to make some money.” He smirks. “And so far, it’s sweet. Plenty of beautiful women once I get paid, haha!”
The group would continue to venture out to the pond based on the map. The map was simply a simple map. It had the general area—Novissime including many escape routes, and the partials areas of the outside. Anything beyond that was unmarked and uncharted, with a little warning at the top: Any attempts to travel further than what’s stated on this map… will lead to instant death. Do not travel further than instructed.
To a person who cannot read, it may cause some confusion, hence Silence marking trees. But to experienced person, it is as simple as following the path to the pond. From there, there were several red markings around the pond on the map. It was sloppy drawings of animals with red x all over them. It seems to indicate that they were targeted as food by the Dragons and if you close in on the animals, you may find clues of where they hovered about.
There was another marking on the map as well. Hard caves near the pond with blue x written on top. It seems to indicate that Dragons may wander but there isn’t enough information to report. White markings just slightly ways away from the ponds indicate that there were “noises” that sound like Dragons, but too far away to make proper confirmation. And lastly, green markings that spread just slightly around the pond to showcase hat, despite being spotted, the Dragons hadn’t come any interactions with the pond itself. They were primarily focused on the farm animals.
