The group of adventurers didn't notice Quies at first. They were too busy hauling the fragment of the forge to look down and see a man draped in a brown coat holding his thumb in his mouth—staring them down with his faint crimson eyes.
'really don't want to do this...'
"Grah! …Alright, now we just have to figure out how the depths we can get this down…"
The fragment of the forge sat near the edge of the staircase of rocks, where a light push would probably send it tumbling down. There, Quies was able to see two of the adventurers.
He assumed there were more than two—at least three—adventurers up there. He knew that fact because he was able to distinguish three distinct voices earlier: the sharp one, the dull one, and the subtle one. On top of that, he knew one of their names, Elis.
"I think we should just-"
From the top of the ascension, Quies made eye contact with one of the adventurers. She stood on the left, and was the first one that caught Quies' attention. Her long, hazel hair cascaded down from her head in elegant, subtle waves. Strands clung to each other, grasping onto the wisps of mountain breeze blowing down. Her light armor was slightly stained with blood, similar to Quies'.
'Who is she… is that Elis?'
Then, the next adventurer revealed himself, standing next to Elis. He stood to the side of the The wind caught his slightly long, yet well maintained hair. A dull green, it could compliment the fields of grass on the island. The rays of the crossed sun, drifting across the expanse of the azure sky, bounced and gave a glorious silver shine to his otherwise facetless pauldrons and cuirass.
It was nothing out of the ordinary.
The reflected rays broke and scattered as the adventurer's gloved hand jumped to the handle of his broadsword sheathed by his side.
Quies, in response, bit harder—nearly breaking the skin.
"Wait."
The leather coated fingers of the adventurer hovered above the handle of his blade. His sharp serpentine eyes of jade stared with intense focus—studying Quies.
He released the pressure on his thumb a little—just enough to where it wouldn't hurt.
"What? What happened? I wanna-"
A sharp voice broke the thick tension in the air from behind. The two kept their gazes, but relaxed their postures.
"Oh, it's just some guy…"
From behind, another adventurer appeared. Intricate markings danced around his eyes, golden towards his pale blue skin. He, similar to the woman and Quies, wore a form of light armor—though, his was made out of a lightweight metal rather than leather.
'Yeah… some guy, totally.'
Quies' brows furrowed a slight bit lower as his thumb slid out of his mouth—a visible dent left where his tooth nearly bit into the skin. Simultaneously, the other adventurer lowered his hand—away from his sword—to his side. The two other adventurers by his side took a natural half step back.
Still, they kept their gaze.
After a moment of silence, one of them—Elis—asked the question lingering in all of their minds.
"You're not getting this fragment from us."
Quies flicked his eyebrows up, as if understanding a change in the situation.
"That's fine. I'm not here for the Forge fragments."
"So, then, what are you even here for? If you're tryna go to the cave back there, there's nothing. The megalodaunt nest was completely wiped out. "
The sharp adventurer cut in to the conversation. The two other adventurers gave him a short, yet judging glance as he uttered that last phrase.
"What? Look at what we got instead! With this amount of money, we can finally try going to the Central Luminant."
"You know you're the only one who wants that, right? Plus, the void fog."
"Can't blame me, there's barely any other Adretians here, Elis. And for that other stuff I'll find a lightkeeper, or whatever they're called."
Suddenly, the warm, middle adventurer interrupted.
"Let's address, uhh-"
He nodded his eyes and head in the direction of Quies.
"-first, guys. Come on. Look, I don't want a fight to break out here as much as you do, but I can't trust that you won't crash out and kill us for this fragment."
The wind picked up, carrying any momentum of conversation away from the three adventurers and Quies.
'Of course they don't trust me. Well, it's not like I don't trust them either. In fact, I wouldn't trust some random guy either if I were them.'
Persuasion was a tough skill to master. Unfortunately, Quies wasn't great at it either; he wasn't good with words in general. But, what could he do?
"You guys probably think I'm lying right now, but I really can't put it any other way. I could care less about some fragments of the Forge. Actually, I'm looking for the Forge of Sin—a fine swordsman put me up to find it."
The adventurers listened intently, staring at each other intermittently throughout his explanation. However, their expressions seemed to shift at the mention of 'fine swordsman'.
"I don't want to fight either. If you want, I can just… walk away, forget this all happened. Either that, or I can help you get that fragment down and I can learn a thing or two about the Forge of Sin."
The warm adventurer spoke to answer Quies' hidden offer.
"What makes you think we know anything about the Forge of Sin?"