Page 118 of The Protector
Magni was slower than me and I had to pull him down when we entered into a lower part of the tunnel. He had sobered up on our flight here but I wished he hadn’t been drinking before our journey into this uncharted territory.
“Pay attention,” I whispered in his ear.
“I am,” he muttered back.
Papa Hunt’s contact, David, met us at the other end of the tunnel, which ended on a hillside with trees and plants covering the exit. He gaped at Magni and me. I’m not sure if it was our size or the determined expressions on our faces that made him step back.
“Who… who are they?” he stammered.
“These are two of our finest warriors,” Papa Hunt said. “They have both won great glory and the ultimate prizes.” He grinned. “But then they went and fucked it all up and now they need your help.”
“M… my help?”
“Yes, they’re going to retrieve their wives but they can’t very well travel through your lands looking like that, can they?”
“No.” David held his hand to his heart as if to steady the pace of it. It wasn’t that he was tiny per se. He wasn’t. The man was at least five-foot ten, and somewhere in his early to mid-forties, but he just looked so different from us. I leaned in to study him closer. “What’s wrong with your eyebrows?” I asked.
His hands flew to his brows. “What do you mean?”
Papa Hunt nudged us forward. “We don’t have time for that now. David, I’ll get you your deliveries tomorrow; these two big boys took up the space in the wagon.”
“But I… I…” David looked completely overwhelmed.
“It’s okay. I know it’s a change of plans, but consider this a personal favor to me and don’t worry about paying me for tomorrow’s delivery, it’s your payment for guiding these two fuckers.”
“Guide them where?” he asked horrified.
“To their wives, of course.”
“O… okay, but where are they?” David asked.
“They can tell you.” Papa Hunt got into his wagon again and pointed at us. “I can’t wait to meet the women who would inspire two such magnificent warriors to do something this stupid.” With a shake of his head he drove back the same way we’d come.
“All right, David.” Magni leaned into the man. “The first thing we need is a way to blend in. You think you can help us with that?”
“I… I can try,” he got out, clearly intimidated.
“Good, lead the way.” Magni patted the man’s shoulder and David’s knees almost buckled under the force.
It was dark but David knew his way around the hillside and guided us to a drone that he had waiting.
Carrying a bag with him, he didn’t say much.
“What’s in the bag?” Magni asked.
“My payment to Papa Hunt.”
“What do you pay him with?”
“Different things that you don’t have in the Northlands.”
“Oh, yeah, like what?”
“Like beauty products.”
Both Magni and I swung around. “Did you say beauty products?”
David nodded his head, looking like a fucking turtle with the way he crammed his shoulders up in fear.
