Part 1: Blood Rose
Ryan was walking through the busy streets of London.
He walked through dirty alleyways, always aware and never looking around.
He adjusted his low-tied blonde ponytail and tugged at his backwards cap.
He had checked the address and studied all the entries and exits, or the lack of exits.
The honking, smell and the begging of bums did nothing to distract the young man.
He didn't like being here, but he moved to the door.
"This is what I deserve," he said aloud to himself.
He opened the door.
To his surprise, it was spotless and smelled nice.
At the receptionist's desk, he was welcomed by a warm atmosphere of nature paintings and soft music.
He tentatively rang the small bell on the desk.
"Good morning, Sir."
Ryan turned to look at the source of the voice.
What he saw was a skeleton wearing a sharp blue suit with a name tag that read "Femur".
"May I have your name, Sir?"
Ryan was quiet for a beat too long before he answered.
"Ryan."
The skeleton checked a pocket watch.
"You seem to be two hours early, Sir. I will go and check to see if the Manager is ready to see you. Please have a seat."
Unable to relax, Ryan sat and waited.
The Smooth Jazz did nothing to help.
Femur came back and led him to a door that read "Manager".
As Femur opened the door, all Ryan could smell was cigarette smoke.
The room he entered was dimly lit, with a desk with papers strewn around and a large, overfilled ashtray.
The man behind the desk looked to be in his late forties with very short salt and pepper brown hair and a short beard.
He was working with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
What stood out to Ryan was the leather jacket and gloves he was wearing; it was summer.
"Why are you early?"
He then motioned for Ryan to sit in the chair in front of the desk as he put out his cigarette.
"I didn't want to be late."
"Did you bring your paperwork?"
Ryan pulled out an envelope, slowly unfolded the paper and passed the open letter to the old man.
He then looked up and lit a cigarette, and stared at the young man, "Why are you really early?"
"I don't have anywhere else to go, Sir."
At the "Sir", the older man held up his hand, "Don't call me that, call me Grizzly."
He looked over Ryan's paperwork.
"According to this, you lived in an orphanage until fourteen, and you disappeared for seven years."
Ryan noticed how the old man studied his face as he spoke.
He gave him no reaction
"What happened to you during that time?"
Ryan clenched his teeth, but he stayed quiet.
Grizzly flicked some ash on the desk and then held up his hands and spoke with a smile.
"Listen, kid, I am not here to judge you. I am just an old guy looking for the truth."
At the young man's silence, Grizzly sighed.
"This is a very dangerous career you want to be part of," he said as he took a big drag, "does that bother you?"
"No."
"It should."
He never took his eyes from Ryan.
"Have you ever worked as part of a team?"
"No."
"I understand. If you join my team, will you follow my orders without hesitation?"
"Yes," he answered in a monotone without breaking eye contact.
The old man stood up and walked around the desk.
He sat down on the edge so that he was at eye level with Ryan.
Ryan held eye contact with Grizzly.
"Wrong."
He took a drag and spoke.
"You need to follow your gut when orders are given."
The smoke burned Ryan's eyes, but he refused to look away.
"People tend to make decisions based on what they believe, and some people believe in horse shit."
Ryan felt a strange anxiety at his words.
Before he could understand the old man's words, he spoke.
"Do you want me to leave?"
Grizzly chuckled as he stood up and moved closer to the door.
"Why would I turn away the first guy to escape the Silver Tongues?"
At the mention of that name, Ryan's eyes went wide.
Without warning, he shot up and tried to run for the door.
His chair flew back as he started running.
Grizzly was quicker and grabbed him by the arm.
"Wait, I don't want to hurt you," the older man pleaded.
"Let go of me!"
Ryan tried to punch at his throat, but the old man easily blocked his attack with the cigarette dangling from his mouth.
As a last resort, he pulled out a dagger.
As he tried to stab Grizzly, the older man casually caught the blade, and it instantly turned into smoke.
"How?"
The young man was so surprised by the display that he stopped fighting.
"You can do magic?"
"I am part of the guild, kid. We have all kinds of people there."
Grizzly put himself between Ryan and the door.
"Listen to me, Ryan, you have to trust me."
Ryan looked at the door through the corner of his eye.
Grizzly loosened his grip on Ryan's arm.
"How about we make a deal, trust me for twenty-four hours and not a second more."
Ryan tore his arm from Grizzly's grip, ready to tell him anything for a chance to escape.
"Fine, but if I sense anything, I'm gone."
The monotone in his voice was no longer there.
"Agreed."
Grizzly held out his hand, and the young man shook it.
The hand was thinner than it was supposed to be.
"Please sit, you deserve an explanation."
Ryan sat back down while Grizzly put the desk back in its place.
"I needed to see where you were, and you passed."
Grizzly pointed to the chair on the floor.
"Do you mind?"
Ryan put the chair back in place while Grizzly lit another cigarette.
"I passed? What was the test?"
His voice was back to its monotone, but his white knuckles on the armrests gave him away.
"Your level of escalation. You tried to run, then fight and then tried to stab. Real killers always go for the throat."
Ryan's jaw tightened, and he whispered to himself.
"Not all of them."
Grizzly seemed to ignore his words as he kept talking.
"I think the Blood Rose could be good for you."
He took another big drag.
"You might even make some friends."
Ryan rolled his eyes.
He was just about to leap out of his chair when the door opened.
Femur burst into the room, saluted and stood at attention.
"We have a Code Blue, Sir. Immediate action is required!"
Ryan was surprised by this new development.
"Why is he here?"
The old man sighed and kept calm.
"He wishes to meet the, uh... newbie, Sir!"
The old man rubbed his forehead.
"Let him in."
The door opened a blue monster with shining blue scales and sharp jagged horns ducked down to enter the room.
It was as wide as the door frame with a face that resembled a Komodo Dragon.
Ryan got out of this chair and slid over Grizzly's desk.
Grizzly slowly walked past Ryan and stood in front of the tall creature.
"I told you to stay back," Grizzly said as he pulled the tall monster by the horn with a cigarette in his mouth.
"Sorry, Griz, I just wanted to meet the new guy," he said with warmth but without any expression on his lizard-like face.
"Sup, newbie, the name is Eragon."
He waved as the much shorter man still had him by a horn.
"You know the effect you have on people," he shook Eragon playfully by a horn as he spoke.
Ryan then scanned the creature, who was wearing stained sweatpants and old Crocs with claws protruding.
When Ryan saw that these two were standing in front of the door, he abandoned his escape plans.
"Hello, Eragon, I am Ryan," his voice cracked a little.
"See, I told you I wouldn't scare him off," Eragon said.
Grizzly let go of his horn, and Eragon stood at his full height, and Ryan properly saw the very muscular beast.
Eragon was monstrous in every sense of the word, but sounded friendly, which confused Ryan.
The older man looked at Eragon and said, "You just got lucky."
Grizzly looked at Ryan and put his hand on the anxious young man's shoulder.
"Eragon is a joker, but he isn't dangerous. Let's get to the ship."