Chapter Text
In the small rural town of Charmwood
It was a rainy night where everyone stayed at home and in the Honeydew household, it was no different. A young man with black, poofy hair and beard was curled up beside the window, slowly dozing off while an older, bald man with a goatee sat at a table, reading something from an old looking book and scribbling notes from it quietly. He looked up and saw his companion half asleep and smiled, calmly getting up and draping a blanket over him.
“Huh?! W-wha–??” The young man startled, nearly spilling his now cold hot cocoa by hitting the mug beside him.
“It’s fine, Cesar. Go back to sleep.” The bald man said, smiling. The young man, Cesar, hummed and muttered sleepily;
“Why don’t you sleep as well, Eli? It’s pretty late right now and you’ve been working for so long.”
Eli couldn’t help but mutter a very quiet “Aww” at how cute his best and only friend looked, smiling. The older man always got ostracized for being a necromancer even though he never would use his powers for anything bad or nefarious like so many people of their town thought but Cesar not only had never done so but he both had stayed with him even though people criticized him constantly for it and always defended him whenever people talked behind his back or insulted him to his face.
“I’m fine, Cesar. Just sleep, alright?” He said, softly petting his hair in the way it always worked to lull the younger to sleep. Cesar leaned into the touch, a soft hum of contentment coming from him. Once he fully was asleep though, Eli’s expression changed into one of mild worry as he went back to the table.
“I feel a change in the air. Something is going to happen soon. May the fates be merciful…”
Meanwhile outside the town
Two men stood on the hill overlooking the town, both looking excited in a bad way, almost bloodthirsty.
“We’re finally here! I was wondering when we’d get here.” The shorter one said, grinning as he ran a finger on the special knife on his belt.
“I know right? This dangerous necromancer should be in the next town over but we should be able to do more here as well. Why the hell would a necromancer that “dangerous” would not stay in the Tower of Dark Order anyways?” The other said, rolling his eyes.
“Dunno. We don’t even know what he looks like , thanks to a certain dumbass!”
“Oh come on, Geoff, let me have some fun here. It’ll be far more fun if we play cat and mouse with the asshole. And we can have a good kill count to show later!”
Geoff rolled his eyes but grinned back, also running a finger over the small, specially made dagger he had on his belt like his friend had.
“Come on, Layne. Let’s go and hunt some people.” He said, starting to walk towards town. But then, he noticed that Layne had paused, looking a little uncertain.
“Layne?”
“It’s just… Are you sure we should do this, Geoff? I mean, I do want to have our next kill count but after the rumors we heard about this man, are you sure we’ll be safe?”
Geoff softened a little at how worried Layne sounded. He knew that the halfling Water Fae was scared because he was a family man and he couldn’t let something happen to himself in case of danger to them instead.
“Don’t worry. We haven’t gotten killed at the great Drow lair and we won’t be killed here either. This maniac might have an army of Liches but we have each other and a shit ton of strong artifacts. We’ll take care of this and get the riches like we always do.”
“...Okay. Let’s go then.” Layne muttered, quickly catching up to his friend and partner in crime as he went into town. They posed as two travelers trying to hide from the now heavy rain and luckily, a young woman took them in immediately. Layne and Geoff looked at each other and shared a quick smirk, it was almost too easy.