Waking in a cold sweat,sitting up abruptly, breathing heavily, Shaun looks around and starts to remember where he is, seeing the Birch counter-tops and smelling the vanilla and sandlewood incense still in the air he unclenches his muscles and heaves a sigh of relief before laying back down, covering his face with his arm, he curses at himself and sighs "Fuck, why do I have to dream about that night, its been so long, I'm over it!" He said trying his best to convince himself, with a grunt he sits up and swings his legs over the side of the cot "Might as well get this over and done with so I can cash in".
Throwing on a pair of black torn at the knee jeans, a red t-shirt and black combat boots, he checks on the magi-crystal that's powering his home, Shaun sees that it still has its faint blue glow inside its power chamber that sat in the corner, even though it should still have power for another 2 years of its 5 year life, he habitually checks everyday since its a small crystal, Shaun was the paranoid type and checked everyday out of habit, he had found a small hovel in the ground six miles east of his home while chasing a fox for dinner, it had scurried into the hole and Shaun wasn't going to let it get away and went into the hole after it, apon going in he had realised it expanded after about 5 feet in into a small 10x20x10 cave filled with small blue magi-crystals scattered all over.
Grabbing his cloak and jumping down from his home, landing with a small thud, Shaun takes off north to a place he hates, Kalgore, a hidden settlement, situated 30 miles up in the hills, no-one non supernatural can see or enter this place, its filled with every type of being you can think of, from pixies to ogres, vampires to dragons who had learned to take human form and everything inbetween, with markets dealing in all sorts of "product" from slaves to body parts, the prefered term being "meat mart" dealing in human and beast alike, strange looking plants and tech and rare goods found from all over, all to be sold here at hiked up prices.
After about 40 minutes of running Shaun finally sees the shimmer of the barrier and slows his pace to a light jog and passing through with no problem, on the other side is what most would describe as a rustic town, big brick townhall doubling as the bounty hall and on either side is about ten to fifteen different buildings of all shapes and sizes, made from a variety of materials for all different lines of work, making his way down the streets, bobbing and weaving his was through the rabble on his way to the bounty hall.
Pushing the doors open Shaun is hit with the smell of cooking meat,alcohol,blood and other unpleasant smells, scrunching his nose he makes his way to the long desk with 3 people behind it, walking up he calls to the nearest clerk "S'cuse me, I need to turn in this bounty" the clerk looks up from their ledger and says "Yes of course, who was the bounty for?", pulling out a bounty sheet and a cloth covered in blood from when Shaun had clean himself up on the rooftops the clerk looks at the sheet and says "Oh Johnathan Blake, he's been a thorn in our side for weeks" taking the cloth and placing it on a red crystal, the crystal glows and confirms its Johnathans blood, the clerk slides over ten thousand and proceeds to mark off his name in the ledger, turning back to Shaun they say "Thank you for your service, if you wish to take another jobs we have some new ones on the board to your right" giving a quick nod Shaun walks over to the board to see what jobs he can take without arousing to much suspicion.
Scanning over the cork board with multitudes of photos and numbers, he spots a pretty easy job paying a high price of seventy thousand for a simple 3 day guarding job, removing the notice from the bounty board and placing it back over on the counter "I'll take this one" says Shaun, "Oh...um that one is quite dangerous hence the high reward, are you sure you can handle this" doubtingly asks the clerk with a quizzical look, "Should be fine, I can handle myself" flashing his red eyes, the clerk reluctantly accepts the contract and tells Shaun he will need a signature of the owner of the place he is guarding to have the contract validated, Shaun nods again and leaves "Another day another job" sighs Shaun as he makes his way back to Gleamhill.