Springvale Ranger

Chapter 1

Laura woke to a rhythmic beeping, groaning before her eyes had even opened. Why were mornings the absolute worst? She slapped her hand on the nightstand next to her bed, missing the source of the alarm several times before finally slapping the screen of her cell phone. The alarm stopped, and for a fleeting moment the thought of going back to sleep crept into her mind, but her body had other plans and kicked into muscle memory of sliding to the edge of the bed and sitting up.

She sat at the edge of the bed, rubbing her emerald eyes and face with her fingers and palms. Most of the sleep had worn off with a few strokes, but Laura kept her face in her palms, groaning again. The cool air from the air conditioning unit above her bed caressed the creamy skin of her upper body. She shivered and released her face to cross her arms over her chest as she stood up. Cool air was a blessing when covered with sheets and blankets but damning in the morning with nothing.

Ten steps from her bed she walked into her bathroom, not bothering to shut the door behind her. She lived alone in her studio apartment, and there was no one to impress with the myth that girls never use the restroom; though she would have to agree that the first pee of the day was always better than sex, at least in her experience. When she was done, she walked over to the shower and turned it on, making sure the dial pointed to the red portion of the temperature gradient.

The water would take a second to heat up, so she paused in front of the full body mirror along the bathroom wall. Her chestnut hair was an absolute disaster, knotting in various places as well as looking like it was reaching out to grab onto what only the Gods knew. Her lithe, athletic frame seemed in contrast to her ample breasts. She hooked her thumbs in the waist band of the plaid pajama pants she was wearing, which happened to be all she wore to bed the night before. They weren't even her pants; they technically belonged to an ex-boyfriend, and she had refused to give them back. She called it the girlfriend tax, and it probably wasn't the only article of clothing she had from him and others.

She pulled the pajama pants down and stepped out of them gracefully, then turned and stepped into the shower. Her muscles seemed to relax the instant the hot water splashed over her. The thought of curling up and staying in the warmth of the shower forever crossed her mind but staying employed was a big driving factor. It took her ten minutes to lather herself with soap and rinse it off; five of those minutes were spent sitting in the water enjoying it.

After drying off and returning to main area of her apartment with a beige towel wrapped around her, she made her way to the kitchen. It had a bar that separated it from the "living room" which was really an open space in the apartment that Laura had put her television and couch. The "bedroom" was a straight shot from the opening of the kitchen but at an angle to the living room, giving the feel of a normal apartment but with the openness of a studio.

Laura stopped at the coffee machine. She opened the top to find she hadn't filled it with water or grounds. Of all the things to forget to do the night before, she forgot the one thing that got her through the mornings. Pinching the bridge of her nose she cursed herself before setting about to fill the coffee machine with water and grounds and pressing the "brew" button. The appliance sputtered to life and began dispensing coffee.

Since her life blood was being prepared, Laura walked back to the bedroom area, specifically to dresser in the corner. She flung the towel that was wrapped around her onto the laminate wood floor and started with her underwear drawer. She pulled out a black pair of athletic panties and a black sports bra, sliding into them quickly. A white short sleeved shirt was next, followed by a pair of grey tactical trousers. She dawned her hiking boots and a black hoodie and made her way back to the kitchen.

The coffee was done, and Laura poured it carefully into a travel mug. One ice cube to drink it in ten minutes, two ice cubes to drink it now. She dropped two into the coffee and screwed the lid on tightly. No use being ready for the day without your coffee.

Laura made her way to the apartment door, grabbing her duty belt on the way out and locking the door behind her. She was greeted with a staircase immediately on the other side of the door and as she walked down it saw the familiar garage of her landlord with the door already opened. Her landlord owned a house but rented the space above his garage. It was a good and cheap living arrangement, and the landlord was nice to boot. She hadn't even made it out of the garage yet before an older man, clearly in his late fifties waved to her.

"Mornin' Laura!" the man said. The cheer in his voice was somehow soothing and aggravating at the same time. Jay, the landlord, was always cheerful for as long as Laura had known him. Never once let life get him down. How dare this man be happy on a workday! Laura smiled anyway, waving back.

"Morning," she said quietly. She brought the travel mug of coffee to her lips and took a sip. She was going to need the caffeine just to make it to the street fifteen meters away and she knew it.

"They got you working a weekend?" Jay asked, pointing to her duty belt that hung off her shoulder. Laura looked at it and nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "No rest for the weary." Jay chuckled and Laura smiled, taking another sip of her coffee as she continued toward the street.

"Before you go, when are you planning on transferring your rent this month?" he asked. Laura stopped and pulled her phone from her pocket, tapping the screen awake and then tapping the icon for her bank application. She had enough for food but not enough for rent, and she didn't get paid until the week after. Laura frowned.

"I can probably transfer it next weekend," she said, turning her phone screen off and shoving the phone back in her pocket. "Why? What's up?"

"Well, I might be heading out of town for a week or two, is all," he said. "Man's got to plan around how much funds he'll have. You know how it is." No, she didn't. She was twenty-five and hadn't had a vacation in her entire life. Getting into the Springvale Rangers was certainly a boost in pay, especially when the hazard pay hit, but student loans were unforgiving.

"I'll see what I can do, Jay," she said smiling again. She continued toward the street. Jay didn't say anything after that; he was too busy humming a tune to a song she was too young to recognize. She did see his gaze follow her until she was out of sight behind a thicket of trees, though. A shiver ran up her spine.

The walk to the train station was short but welcomed to help Laura limber up before work. Walking past ticketing and security with her membership card, she sat on a bench in front of the Precinct terminal and pulled out her phone. 7:36 AM; plenty of time before she was supposed to be at work. She opened a match three game and got one swipe in before a figure sat down next to her. Laura looked up from the phone game, casting a quick glance at the figure's face.

He was large, but that was to be expected of a highlander. His stubby nose and single ridged brows gave an almost savage look. Of course, highlanders were generally known for their savagery and skills on a battlefield. They had quite a few highlanders in the Rangers, but highlanders tended to stick to their own in the northern tundra. What was that saying one had told Laura? 'You're not a real highlander until you've tested your mettle in the north.' Laura believed it; she'd rather face orcs than werewolves.

This one had an emergency medical service symbol on his zipped-up sweatshirt. He looked over, catching her in the act of staring. Laura put her head back down to the phone game, her cheeks flushing as she tried to swipe her way out of existence. She matched five by accident.

"You're pretty good at that," the ogre said, his voice deep but far smoother than she had thought it would sound. Laura's cheeks burned hotter.

"Thanks," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. It was harder to act like you couldn't talk after getting caught staring than it was if you'd never been caught. Laura was learning that the hard way it seemed.

"You're with the force?" he asked, nodding toward her duty belt that she had placed around her waist and half hidden with her hoodie on the walk to the train station. Laura took a quick glance at him and then down at her belt and nodded before returning her gaze to the phone game. Another match five.

"Rangers. You?"

"Paramedic," he said, tapping the EMS symbol on his sweatshirt. Laura had guessed it already. She was trying to be polite to make up for her staring, rather, the getting caught part of her staring. "I just started though," he added. "Probably why you don't recognize me." Laura turned her face toward him, raising an eyebrow at first. Then it hit her that he was giving her an out for staring. A highlander that was tactful and social; look at that.

"Yeah, you start to notice after three years of the same faces," she said quietly, dropping her gaze back down to her phone. She turned the screen off and pushed the phone into her pocket. The rumble of a train on the tracks was getting more intense. Their ride was coming closer. Her eyes returned to the highlander, who held out a hand toward her.

"I'm Conall," he said. Laura took his hand with hers, her firm grip meaning nothing in his large hand.

"Laura," she said. After a moment he let go of her hand and she retracted it back to the safety of her lap. It had felt tiny compared to his. If he had wanted to crush it, he very easily could have. The train screeched to a halt, the doors opening a second later.

"Arrived at Cassus Point station. Next stop, Precinct," an electronic female voice announced. The sound echoed off the concrete. Laura stood up, her focus turning to the train. She walked toward it, trying to throttle her speed as to not tip Conall off that she was trying to escape. She couldn't if she wanted to anyway; Precinct boarding was scarce, and he had followed her on the train anyway and sat across from her. At least she was able to fully inspect him and his attire this way without having to worry about getting caught.

Aside from the zip-up sweatshirt, the Conall was wearing a dark pair of jeans that seemed to stretch over the tree trunks that were his legs, and a pair of black and white sneakers. She could tell that under his hood his hair was fashioned into a mohawk. He wasn't so intimidating now that she could see him from a distance, though he still took up two whole seats. Hell, she bet he could fill out three seats if he didn't scrunch his massive arms toward his center. Laura had to admit, she was impressed with his humbleness.

"Where did you get your license?" she asked, referring to his EMT license. Conall smiled broadly.

"West Vargun Academy," he said. Laura raised an eyebrow.

"What made you want to leave the west coast and come here?" she asked. It was almost always the opposite that was happening. Springvale was what was considered a Bastion for several thousand years; it sat between the Khazadar and Cassus mountain ranges that separated the world of beastmen, orcs, and the undead with the land of the civilized. Many thought Springvale to be a sinkhole of a city due to the amount of crime and savage-borne in the area. It was why the Rangers existed in the first place. They acted as law enforcement mostly but were trained enough to the first line of defense against the savage borne.

"Hmmmm," he hummed, raising a hand and stroked his cleanly shaved chin in thought. "I wanted to make a difference, and the best way to do that is to make a difference where it's needed most. I could have gone back home to the north, but we seem to have things handled pretty well up there."

"Pretty admirable," Laura said smirking. The concrete of the train tunnel gave way to open air and sunlight poured into the train compartment from the large windows. The train turned toward the high-rise buildings at the center of the city as they traveled high above the suburbs. It was Laura's favorite part of the ride, and she looked out the window behind her by turning to her side in the seat and lifting a leg onto the empty seat next to her.

"I figured that with all the crime here I'd be able to save a life rather than fix the life of a grandma that fell down one too many times," he said. Laura smiled, suppressing a laugh.

"Hey, grandmas need saving too sometimes," she said, stealing a quick glance at him before returning to the view of them descending slowly over the city.

"It was fulfilling," he said. "But I needed more action." Laura's smile faded. An EMT's action usually meant she or one of her peers were up shit's creek. She wondered how he'd like his action after seeing what was left from a Syndicate feeding train.

"You'll certainly get that here," she said. The rest of the train ride was quiet, and Laura spent the entire time staring out the window. Then, the outside world disappeared into a bunker of concrete, and soon after the train screeched to a halt again and the doors opened.

"Arriving at Precinct. Next stop: Carscesian Corner," the electronic female announcer said. Laura stood up and made her way off the train. Conall followed closely behind, without a word, until they reached the lobby of the Precinct Train Station.

"Looks like it's time to part ways," he said. Laura wanted to keep walking but stopped. He had turned out to be good company and he deserved a decent goodbye.

"Guess so," she said, turning half toward him. "Sorry about staring earlier."

"Oh, that's okay, I'm used to it," Conall said, waving a large hand dismissively. He could accidentally kill someone just by waving. Laura smiled and nodded.

"I'll see you around, Conall," she said. "Preferably not on the job." Laura turned and walked toward the doors of the station, but not before noticing Conall's cheeks flare red. Her smile deepened. That was surprisingly pleasant.

Chapter 2

"Windham!" Captain Bravrim Redbeard explained, motioning to sit in the chair on the opposite side of his large marble desk. Laura moved and sat down, surrounded by the obsidian glass walls of the corner office. She could see out of the windows, but no one in the cubicle farm outside could see in. She could no longer hear the phones ringing or the keyboards typing. Sound proofing was a wonderful invention.

The office itself was dimly lit by a single lamp on Bravrim's desk. The monitors on his desk shower the stocky dwarf in white and blue light. His stubby fingers seemed to glide over the keys, filling the office with clicks and clacks. A large mithril war hammer was displayed on a mount behind him on the wall, dimly lit but the silver strands coiling around the shaft and hammer glinting as if trying to shatter the shadows. Laura's eyes were fixated on the war hammer. How would one get one of those made?

"Got a big one fer ye," Bravrim said, his typing finally coming to a stop. He sighed and leaned back in his desk chair and crossed his fingers over his plaid button-up covered stomach. Laura lowered her gaze to Bravrim's hard brown glare. "Governor seems to have gotten his daughter snatched by some Syndicate twits." Laura raised an eyebrow.

"What would the vamps want with the Governor's daughter? Hasn't he been giving them more and more rights and accesses in the city?" she asked. Governor Williams had been the most lenient governor towards savage borne than any other governor in history. Two-thousand years of holding the line for the greater country and he was the first to allow races coming from beyond the mountains to integrate into Springvale society. Many saw him as progressives, others as a traitor.

"Aye, he has. We don't know what they want with her," Bravrim said. "What we do know is that Governor Williams came to the Rangers first instead of the police department, so he means to keep her kidnapping low.

"So, we're going dark then," she asked. It was rhetorical. They both knew what it meant. Bravrim nodded and leaned forward, typing quickly on his keyboard and then tapping the enter key loudly. He swiveled his second monitor, mirroring both monitors so she could what he saw on his own. A gallery of pictures and documents filled Laura's vision, the foremost being a picture of the daughter. "Oh, she's pretty."

The daughter had long platinum blond hair with a single braid on either side of her face that went back behind her pointed ears. Her face wasn't as gaunt and angular as most elves, sporting a bit of roundness. She was petite and cute, having inherited the best of her human father and her elven mother, clearly.

"Aye, but vamps don't care about looks," Bravrim said, cycling to the next picture of a group of tall, hooded figures surrounding the poor half elf at the end of her driveway. "She was taken by this lot from her own driveway. She was heading to class at the university. Undead twits snatched her up and tossed her in a van that pulled up, then sped away." He cycled the photo again to show the van with its sliding rear door open and the group of hooded figures pulling the girl inside. "Only reason we even know it was Syndicate is because one of the buggers let the camera get a full view of 'is face. Blackcrag brand under his eye." He cycled the picture again to be of the face he mentioned. A circle with a triangle piercing it from the bottom was branded onto the vampire's face, just below his eye; the emblem for the Blackcrag Family.

"Is it isolated?" Laura asked, her eyes flashing across the screen to soak in every detail presented to her. They hadn't used any familiars or slaves in the kidnapping. That was odd; usually vampires would take every opportunity not to do things themselves and let the undead they ruled over handle things.

"We don't know. We tried contacting the Dracul Family but we're not holding our breath for a response," he explained, pausing and leaning back in his chair again before continuing. "If I had to guess I'd say it's isolated. The Syndicate might be made up of a bunch of criminal savages but they're smart. They wouldn't threaten their growing relations for a single half elf, no matter how important."

"I doubt they'd want an inter-family war on their hands either," Laura said, turning from the monitor and fixating her attention on the captain. "Better just to let us handle it and keep the peace than ignite gang wars throughout the city."

"Aye, yer probably right," he said. "The mission, is infiltrate the Blackcrag estate, find the governor's daughter, and get 'er out of there."

"Who's on the team?" she asked, looking out towards the cubicle farm. She hadn't seen another Ranger in the office at all. Her palms started getting clammy; she shifted them to her lap and started massaging them with her thumbs.

"Unfortunately, yer the only Ranger. Governor Williams will cordon the estate off with 'is private security, but ye'll be the only one going in," Bravrim explained. Laura's heart sank and her stomach churned. That's the exact answer she didn't want to hear.

"Where's everyone else?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. Her nerves were feeling pulses of anger, fear, and excitement all at once.

"There's been an increase in orc activity out in the wastes. I've got most of our teams out figuring out what's happening. Everyone else is buggering with the beastmen herd that made it over the Khazadars," Bravrim said.

"So, I'm all that's left," she asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer. Bravrim nodded.

"Unless you want some pencil pushers out there with ye," he quipped. Laura shook her head and sighed her acceptance. "Mission kick off will be as soon as ye leave. I'll give the governor a call and let 'im know yer enroute." Laura clenched her jaw, trying to release a bit of the anger she was feeling, but the more she let go the more fear started to creep in. Better to be angry than fearful.