The carrot crunched loudly, rigid fibres cracking under the mighty force of large molar teeth. Soft lips finalized the execution, entrapping the carrot within the savage jaws of its fatal fate. A lonely piece was segregated from its greater portion and leapt free of the terrifying maw, dropping to the floor and splashing in a pool of red.


    "Seriously?" a deep disgruntled voice lamented. "You''re contaminating the scene." Wan shook his head, disappointed with his larger companion''s egregious behaviour.


    The larger man gave his companion a wry smile as he answered. "No need to be so uptight. I doubt someone is going to enter the crime scene exclaiming, ''Oh look, there''s a piece of carrot in this man''s eye; that must have been the murder weapon!''"


    The two men stood above the lifeless corpse of a well-dressed butler lying cold by a large table in the center of a dark dining hall. A silver platter of loose salad had spilled over the side of the table and onto the floor. The larger of the two men stood tall; he took in the scene from a bird''s eye as he chewed his carrots. Wan crouched closer to the body, investigating a sizeable concave wound that ground into the butler''s eye, a small chunk of carrot contaminating the evidence.


    Wan carefully plucked the bloody chunk of vegetable with a disturbed grimace and threw it away. "What about professional courtesy? Respecting the dead? General human decency? Our reputation is bad enough without you going around actively smearing it Cloy... and why a carrot?"


    "It''s supposed to be good for my eyes," Cloy replied matter-of-factly despite the matter at hand seemingly rejecting such things.


    Wan simply rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the scene, this time focusing on the mess atop the table. A large chandelier had shattered upon its surface, the incredibly ornamental light source having sent dozens of jewels scattering across the hall. He could feel the aimless gaze of his companion hovering over his shoulder as he spoke. "I''d appreciate it if you actually helped rather than just sharing your dietary practices."


    Cloy dismissed his partner with a hand wave, pulled out another carrot, and harshly bit down. "Seems pretty simple to me, some uppity thug wanted to get rich quick, got caught stealing by the butler, then stabbed him in the eye with his fancy new arcane weapon."


    "Why arcane?"


    Cloy pointed vaguely around the eviscerated crevice of the dead butler''s face. "There''s some residual essence left in his eye, ergo arcane weapon."


    "Why not an enchanted weapon? They''re far more common... relatively speaking."


    Cloy''s following response came muffled through the munching of more carrot, "Way doo mub re-idue to ju be enjanded, I''d ay It- a zbell iv der wer no phy-i-al mar."


    Wan tried his best to parse that nonsense but only got more confused the harder he tried. His larger companion swallowed his mouthful with an audible gulp. " Just use your teleidoscope."


    In response, Wan pulled a small crystalline prism from his pocket and placed it over his eye to reveal a dance of wispy strings and sparkling particles orbiting around the ocular crevice of the corpse. There was so much activity that he could barely see the physical injury through the prism. In the corner of his vision, he saw more wispy strings; his eyes followed along the winding path, which led to a beautifully ornate lampshade. He questioned out to his partner, curiosity colouring his voice. "This lamp isn''t oil?"


    "No way, everything in this place is magic. Guess the noble fancies himself a mage." Cloy chortled to his own comment before continuing. "He can think whatever he wants if he has the money to back it, I suppose. If he keeps placing bounties the size of this one, then at the very least, I''ll call him whatever he wants."


    He scanned around the room, this time peering through his teleidoscope, every single lamp lining the walls were brimming with the dancing strings. The only place in the room dark of magic was the center, where the chandelier lay destroyed. Other than the dead butler''s eye socket, this part of the room was completely devoid of any wispy strings.


    He returned to the deceased and continued his inspection; the butler''s uniform was battered but unscathed, brunt trauma indented the back of his head, and the silver platter was strewn quite far from the body in the direction of the entrance: the spilled salad seeming depressingly green. Wan broke the long-standing silence as he pocketed the magical prism. "Is the bounty large?"


    The large man stopped investigating the shattered glass of the chandelier to give his partner a bewildered look. "You don''t know the bounty?" his partner didn''t respond, and the large man shook his head, muttering under his breath. "Psychopath."


    "You said the murder weapon was stolen from the client?"


    Ultimately, personal neurosis weren''t relevant to the actual task at hand, and it was far easier to simply answer his partner than open the can-of-worms that was his motivational psyche. "Gotta be, you''ve seen all the magic around here. Guy definitely has a secret stash of super swords somewhere. When I interviewed him, he swore he didn''t, but come on, let''s be honest here."


    "What if he was telling the truth? It could have been the culprit''s personal weapon."


    "Man, don''t jinx us like that! People with arcane weapons don''t need to steal for quick cash. We start entertaining that rabbit hole, and all of a sudden, we''re talking about plots and conspiracies, and then the crown gets involved, they make us work twice as hard and then take our pay. It''s best to just pretend it''s not even an option."


    "We can''t completely discount the idea. Someone with this much money could certainly invite the attention of more than just thieves."


    Cloy palmed his face, "You are jinxing us."


    Wan quickly stood. "Shall we make our way to the kitchen?"


    Cloy raised an eyebrow, confused by the non-sequitur. "I at least had the decency to bring my own carrots."


    Wan threw his partner a glare. "To investigate. The butler must have come from the kitchen if he had a food platter."


    Cloy laughed as he followed his partner out the hall, "Not a good one, by the looks of it. Like, seriously, add some colour to that poor salad!"


    Wan smirked as they wound through the labyrinthian mansion, "Like an orange carrot?"


    While they walked, Cloy explored the many idle displays with his teleidoscope pressed to his eye. There was nothing useful to gather, but they were fascinating to see through mage sight. Meanwhile, he half-mindedly answered Wan "Would be better for your eyes."


    The mansion was massive and wholly devoid of its usual staff in the midst of their investigation, yet still, the halls filled with the lively sound of the two''s banter. Their conversation only stilled upon arriving at the kitchen.


    The two were greeted with an explosive mess, vegetables scattered all across the tables and shelves, a half-eaten fruit slowly putrefying in the corner of the room. The servant''s table was toppled over, and the cold storage vault was left ajar, allowing a slight wafting scent of rotten meat to leak out.


    Wan gasped, shocked at the dire state of the room. "Holy devadoots, this place is a mess! You''d almost think the murder happened here."


    "Or our wizard wannabe needs to hire better staff."


    Wan raised his coat collar in a vain attempt to abate the smell and pushed through. As much as the two would jest, something clearly had happened here. Cloy toddled to a stool and righted it so he could slouch down and rest. His partner shot him a glare, but Cloy ignored it to play with an oversized bowl of chopped onions left on the counter.


    Wan clicked his tongue but chose to ignore Cloy''s antics and started investigating. The first thing that caught his attention was the half-eaten fruit overturned on the floor in the corner of the room. He squatted down to the half-eaten fruit; it looked relatively fresh, entirely edible if it weren''t for the wet, glossy fungus glazed over its flesh. His investigation was interrupted by his lackadaisical companion. "It''s just an entire bowl of chopped onions. Who needs that many onions?"


    Wan stood, choosing to leave the grody fruit where it was. He wandered to where the servant''s table had fallen over as he absentmindedly answered his partner, "Rich people that can afford lots of onions." He could see the imprinted lack of dust from where the table had probably stood for years without being moved; the table hadn''t moved far, more likely fallen than thrown.


    "I guess. Client''s a vegetarian apparently. Could you imagine that? Being so rich you could live off fruit and veg. You know my sister survived her fifth winter ''cause of meat? Crop yields weren''t great that summer; she was the youngest and always too weak to help in the fields, so the choice was obvious."


    Wan had to stop what he was doing, " That''s messed up. I didn''t even know you had a sister. Why are you telling me this?"


    Cloy dismissed his partner with his usual hand wave, "I''m telling you because I hunted a buffalo just as the snows hit that year. That one creature fed us for the whole season, and I got to keep my sister." Cloy pulled another carrot from his seemingly endless pockets. "I mean, I eat my veggies now, but I''ve come a long way since then. All I''m saying-"


    "What are you saying?"


    "All I''m saying is I feel bad for the servants. Sure, the nobles can gallivant whatever diets they want, but what happens when one of the servant''s daughters starts starving, and they can''t afford to feed their kid without losing their job."


    "The servants can''t eat meat either?"


    "Nope, meat is a huge no-no for this guy. No meat allowed on the premises, and he doesn''t even want them eating it at their ho-" Cloy suddenly cut himself off, his own words sounding back to him.


    Another sniff of the air reminded the two of the odd rotting smell coming from the cold storage. The two exchanged a worried glance, then hurried to the storage room. Pushing the door open revealed a massive chamber holding rows of crates adorned with simple vegetable drawings and the overwhelming stench of rot. "Guess we better start searching."


    The two each went to a crate and removed the lids.


    "Empty."


    "Same."


    They shared quizzical glances before quickly removing another pair of lids, both also empty. Barren container after barren container, it seemed the whole room had been ransacked until suddenly, an explosion of putrid decay.


    Wan whipped away from the opened box, gagging on the wall of death that struck him. He gathered his overtall coat collar in a fist, pressing it to his mouth. He blinked back stinging tears, and leant forth to peer into the box.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Contorted to near incomprehensibility, limbs were twisted and shoved beyond the means of bones and flesh; it actually took him a moment to identify what he was seeing as a body. The size and shape impossible to tell; he could only see the maligned spiralling of death. His eyes followed the curvature of a limb he thought the leg until it ended in the twisted visage of an agonized woman.


    His soul nearly leapt out of his chest when those eyes cried such pain he thought they still lived. A hand clenched over his heart, lulling the overstressed organ until it recalmed to a regular beat. He closed his eyes, ignored the stench of wrong, and let out a calming exhale. He opened his eyes and got back to work.


    The woman was dressed in a long garb and crinkled hat, both soaked in a deep red. Based on the clothes'' quality and the body''s location, he''d guessed it was an apron and she, a cook. He wanted to ignore it but could no longer, so he drew his eyes to her face. Her lips had shrivelled an angry crusting brown, somehow both appearing dry enough to flake off her face while simultaneously wet with a glossy glaze. Below, her throat coloured a deep purple, hand marks clawing deep gouging streaks to leech out any more remaining blood. By this point, Cloy had made it to the crate, this time with no quips to share. He leaned close and swiped a thumb across her lips, tracking some of the wet glaze.


    He brought his now glistening thumb to his nose and cautiously sniffed, his face involuntarily revolting. "Looks like she was poisoned."


    Wan glanced back and forth between his partner''s incriminating thumb and the body. "Think the poison killed her, or just a sedative?"


    Cloy shrugged, pulling out a small empty container from a pouch of his belt and scraping the gross substance off his thumb into it, "Can''t tell from here. Those scratches on her throat, those look self-inflicted to you?"


    "Impossible to say given how... contorted everything is. They''re definitely clawing and not choking, though; signs lean more toward a lethal poison. We should try and find what poisoned her."


    " Poison on the lips? Probably a consumable; whatever was used is probably in her stomach right now."


    "If we''re attributing the wounds on her throat to the poison, then it''s clearly extremely potent; she might not have been able to finish whatever it was before... wait!" Wan quickly left the storage room back into the kitchen, "There was some half-eaten food in the kitchen." He found the discarded fruit and took it. With Cloy soon to follow, Wan showed the fungus-ridden meal to him, and the larger man, in turn, brought up the small container with the poison.


    Two identical glossy fungi, "Well, we found the murder weapon. Do you think the killer used this fruit to stab that butler''s eye out?" Cloy failed to stifle the laughter at his own sarcastic speculation, carrot spittle dribbling down his chin.


    Wan was uninterested in his partner''s ill-mannered jokes and analyzed the fruit more closely. At first, he didn''t recognize it; the shape and texture were utterly unfamiliar to what he was used to seeing growing in Aegis. "Isn''t this fruit a delicacy from the Sodality of Rain?"


    Cloy merely shrugged while looking at the plethora of vegetables covering the cookery. " How should I know."


    "It is."


    "Well, then, at least that narrows down the potential people who have access to it. And by extension, the potential suspects."


    "Guess we need to find who sources the town of Rain crop." The two started their way off, but as one last check, Cloy scanned the kitchen with his teleidoscope, nothing.


    <hr>


    Arriving at the open market, the two were greeted by a rambunctious cacophony of activity, the hustle and bustle of client and merchant, the noisy hum of bartering, cajoling, and the occasional negging. The rich economic breath vitalized the otherwise pedestrian street with energy. Rather than squirm through the entire overcrowded market, it was always easier to simply ask around; people loved to talk. Foreigners always tended to band together, and so the two approached the first exotic-looking stall they could, ignoring any of the wares and heading straight for the vendor.


    The second he spotted them, the vendor''s mood soured into a dark glower. "I don''t sell to hunters."


    Wan put on a strained smile, " That''s alright, we just have some quest-"


    The shopkeep brusquely interrupted him, "I don''t care what you want. Your kind aren''t wanted here."


    The two shared exasperated looks but didn''t deign to fight the agitated vendor anymore, simply walking away. Wan spoke with tired dejection. "We should put away our badges, shouldn''t we?"


    "Yep."


    The two unpinned small circular badges depicting a large ''H'' from their chest and pocketed them away. They arrived at a second vendor who seemed much more amicable to meeting them. The vendor greeted the two with a brimming smile. "How may I help you two strapping young adventurers today?"


    Cloy covered his hand over his weapon, pushing it behind his back out of sight and approached the vendor. "The jewelry you are selling is beautiful. I''ve never seen anything like it before."


    The vendor''s face beamed at the compliment. "Why, thank you. This style of jewelry was once a prideful craft from the Smiling Skies."


    He noted the vendor''s rarer skin tone, odd accent, and, more importantly, age. "Oh, I''m very sorry- "


    The vendor gave her client a dismissive wave and a gentle smile. "No, no, don''t be. I''m very proud of our history, and the Smiling Skies legacy continues to live on in this craft."


    "Well, it is very impressive; Commix is such a fascinating town to have such a rich mixture of cultures. I just came from a vendor who sold fruits from the Sodality of Rain."


    "Oh, you must mean Villein, His fruit is to die for!"


    Wan burst into a coughing fit, steadying his surprise. The vendor gave him a worried look, asking, "Is everything alright, sir?"


    Wan quickly recollected himself. "I''m, I''m fine. Just had something stuck in my throat."


    Cloy looked to his coughing ally with a large grin colouring his face. He continued his interrogation of the vendor. "His fruits are truly delicious; he must make a killing off it." He proclaimed with a mirthful emphasis on ''killing''. " You know Wan, you should get this necklace for your wife."


    Wan gave his companion a bewildered look. "My wife?"


    Cloy looked over to Wan with an even larger and cheekier smile than before. "Yes, I''m sure your wife would love it."


    Wan''s expression quickly turned to sour discontent as he pulled a few silver coins from a locked pouch on his belt. Cloy cheerfully chimed in. "Sorry for my friend''s sour mood, he''s dead tired, you see." The large man couldn''t help but chuckle to himself a little. "You know what, I would like to thank Villein for informing us about your stall, but I must confess, I can''t quite remember where he''s set up. The market can be so maze-like in the rush."


    The vendor turned to surprise, a slight suspicion making it to her voice. "Oh, I didn''t realize Villein was the one who mentioned me. I should thank him later. You can find him down that way."


    "Thank you very much." With a wave goodbye and Wan carrying a gaudy necklace for nobody, the two set off in the direction that the vendor pointed.


    <hr>


    The two arrived at the place that the vendor had directed them to. When the two walked into the store, they were greeted with a collection of strange and succulent fruits that teased the eyes; the store also contained many other strange and foreign trinkets that the two, unfamiliar with the Sodality of Rain, couldn''t identify.


    Wan noticed some movement in the corner of the store behind a shelf. Catching his curiosity, he followed the movement to see what that strange orange blur was. When he turned around the corner, he saw a carrot; the carrot handled a small duster and swiped at the floor, pushing dust to the edge of the room. The tiny carrot was minding its own business, trying to ignore the customer as it continued its work, but it got progressively more difficult to ignore the man as he inched closer and closer. His face had reached inches from the carrot, which nervously turned to face the man.


    "I see you''ve taken an interest in one of my toadies."


    Wan turned to face a tall, muscular man dressed in a foreign blue garb. The man had a muscular build and tall frame; his tanned skin echoed the hard labour he must work daily to grow his plants. His hands were large and calloused, and his eyes stared down at the strange man lying on the floor who had been glaring at a carrot. Wan''s face contorted in confusion as he spoke. "What is this creature?"


    "It is a toady of my magical creation; I use them to help me around the shop and fields whenever I need a helping hand."


    Wan''s companion had joined the two in their corner of the room, or would it be three of them with the carrot there? "I''ve never seen a wizard merchant before. I had heard that wizards had to dedicate their entire life to research and practice without ever a single respite until their dying breath."


    The merchant seemed flattered by the large man''s statement, and his cheeks could not hide a slight reddening. "Well, I suppose some wizards just have more talent than others, allowing them more time on other hobbies."


    Cloy was taken aback by the merchant''s strange response but Wan had ignored their conversation completely while he focused on the carrot intently. Wan''s companion tried to ignore him and continued on speaking with the store''s patron. "I see you also have a hobby in art… your drawing is quite… unique."


    The merchant seemed slightly confused at first but turned to hearty laughter upon following the man''s gaze to the drawing he was referring to. "My daughter drew that back in the Sodality of Rain before I was a successful merchant; I had saved up the coin for many months to buy her a sheet of papyrus that she could draw on with coal. She ended up drawing that image; it is supposed to be a portrait of her with my wife and me. She was no August Chichi, but that she had chosen to waste that entire canvas I saved for so long to draw her family is the greatest blessing a father could have asked for."


    "This carrot." Wan butted into the father''s nostalgic yearnings while never removing his gaze from the carrot, who was nearly shaking on the spot nervously in fear of the man. "What could it do? Could it, could it kill a man?"


    The carrot looked confused at the man and slowly backed away from the stranger, then with a little distance made, it turned and ran away. The store clerk burst into a fit of laughter. "Could a carrot kill a person!? I''m sorry; I know I shouldn''t laugh at my customers, but you must be joking me; it''s a carrot!"


    Cloy similarly found himself estranged from his companion and his vegetative conspiracies. Although unsure of what Wan''s plan was, he continued to pry even if he knew not what for. "Apologies for my friend; he is inexperienced with magic, and so I''m sure seeing an animated creature must be driving his imagination wild without any concern for physical limits. The reason we came here is because one of our friends shared your fruit with us, and it was delicious; we just had to come to see you. In all honesty, the taste is incredibly unique. You must be known even to the lord of the land."


    The merchant Villein proudly beamed, "Well, I''m sure you know that the lord is incredibly fond of magic, and so he has taken quite a liking to me, so much so that he made me his main supplier of vegetable harvest. He even invited me to dinner once to ask about magic."


    Wan and his companion snuck worried glances. Cloy continued his questioning. "I can understand the lord; your magic is awe-inspiring. Having such a relationship with the lord, surely you must have come acquainted with the staff."


    The merchant snidely grinned as he puffed up his chest and leaned in closer to the group. "Well, I''ve actually gotten into a relationship with the house chef. And let me tell you that there is no better woman than a chef. She even stayed at my house last night, and I can tell you cooking is not the only thing she is great at."


    "I thought you said you were married?"


    Villein turned solemn, his shoulder slunk. "I will never forget my first wife and beautiful daughter, but sadly I lost them long ago to a terrible necromancer and his terrible sycophant of stone. It drives me mad that the vile creature of rock still roams the Sodality of Rain and terrorizes its citizens to this day."


    "I''m sorry for bringing up bad memories."


    The merchant shook his head and raised his arms passively. "No, no worries. This all happened a long time ago, and although I will always remember those two and their contribution to my life and who I am today, I have learned to move on and can now go home to another wonderful lady and live another happy life."


    Wan stood from his lying position and dusted his clothes off, mentally noting that carrots make terrible cleaning staff. There were other thoughts that circled his mind, bothering him even more than just shoddy work. "Is your chef friend still at your house now?"


    "Well, of course, she was let off work yesterday and has been with me since."


    Wan turned to look at his companion to see if he had also caught on, but it seemed his companion was too busy driving the pommel of his weapon into the skull of the merchant, who immediately folded to the floor unconscious.


    Cloy sheathed his weapon and simply gave Wan a shrug. The two were about to pick up the body when suddenly, a searing pain struck Wan''s leg. An enraged carrot with unfathomable strength had shallowly wedged itself into him. Wan snapped the carrot in half with a strike of his mace and pulled out the piece remaining within him. When Wan pulled his head from his injury, he saw ahead of him a veritable army of little sentient vegetables, a small collection of which held on to a large glowing rock whose bright yellow hue lit up the entire room in an overbearing glow.


    The rock kept shining brighter and brighter; Cloy barely managed to ask, "Arcane heart?" before he was interrupted by the chime of a bell. A sudden flash erupted from the rock and hurled an incredible force that shot the two back with such ferocity they smashed through the wall and out onto the city streets.


    When Cloy recovered his vision from the blinding light, Villein and his evil vegetables were gone and in its place was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus that grew out of thin air, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards the large man holding a glowing parchment: It read.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 82.1181%; background-color: rgba(255, 213, 171, 1); border-color: rgba(235, 164, 57, 1); border-style: ridge" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">You have been invited to</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">The Tournament</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">You are The Hunter</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>