'All of you, calm down,' Sniff said as they walked to town. 'Alex, that was unnecessary and antagonistic,' he said to the girl in an uncharacteristic display of frankness. 'Pissing each other off is the first step down the road to this team falling apart.'
Everyone seemed to have cooled down, though, as they entered Dandelion Town. The sun was just beginning to set over the bustling town. However, as they walked its streets, some of them felt an undercurrent of hostility. Was it their imagination? Or was it the robberies that had put the town's inhabitants on edge?
Brief inquiries at the nearest inn told them where the bank was. There they were greeted by an extremely grateful, if flustered, Blen Burbank. He was a man of sixty, over weight and with thin greying hair. His pinstripe suit was stretched with the strain of keeping him in it.
'Thank you all so much, thank you, thank you! So good of Master Junsei to send you so soon!' He led them all into his spacious office and they gathered before his desk. Inside was a man of around thirty wearing civilian clothes and with one leg in a cast whom Burbank introduced as Gonshot; he was captain of the men who had been guarding the trains.
Even before they had asked, Blen had begun telling them all about the attacks. The trains ran from Dahlia Town to Daffodil City every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and the last three had been attacked and robbed.
'We were taken completely by surprise, sirs,' Gonshot explained honestly. 'We were utterly overwhelmed the first time it happened. On the next run me and the men were all on edge, but we never thought the same gang would attack again so soon.' The attacks had clearly not only brought harm to his body but had damaged his professional pride as a guard. 'For the run the other night we doubled security and it was no shock when they jumped us, sirs, but even though they didn't take us by surprise there was nothing we could do.'
'How many were there?' asked Sniff sympathetically.
'Around thirty or so, I'd say,' Gonshot replied. 'But it was four or five of them that did most of the actual fighting. The others just waited till we were all beaten, then helped with the looting.'
'And this train appeared out of nowhere?'
'Oh yes - I know it's hard to believe, sir, but that's the truth!' Gonshot was emphatic.
'When they had finished carrying the money onto their train, what happened next?'
'Well, it carried on running side-by-side with us for a while, and then vanished again. I'd say that all in all it stayed for about fifteen minutes before it was gone, sir.'
'Thank you, that's very helpful,' Sniff said gratefully. 'Did you see any mark or insignia that might identify the gang that attacked you?'
'Oh yes, sir,' Gonshot said immediately. 'I er, I can't draw it so well with my busted arm, but it looked like pointy-eared fella with a strike through it.' Sniff and the others exchanged glances - they all knew that to be the Goblin Coin guild stamp.
Burbank then produced a map of the route the train took to Daffodil City. It was about fifty miles and certainly bent in some places, but Gonshot showed them the three different places where Goblin Coin had struck - they were all long stretches of track. Sniff marveled once more at the precision of the Mage that teleported a moving train to exactly the right location at exactly the right time. Could anyone be that accurate without inside knowledge of exactly where the train was at any time? Was it possible that Gonshot had a traitor in his midst? 'When is the next train?' he asked Burbank.
'Why, two days from now, on Thursday,' Burbank replied. 'The train leaves Dahlia Station at 9.30pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.' Sniff glanced up at the clock on the wall. It read 9.25.
'You mean there's a train leaving in five minutes?' he asked Burbank hurriedly.
'Wh-why yes, but you'll never make it! The station is four miles down the road!'
'Come on!' Sniff shouted to his team as he dropped his bag, grabbed the map from the desk and ran from the room. 'We might still catch it!' The Wild Hunt's Mages ran from the office, out of the bank and into the street.
'Herbivore Soul: White Rhino!' Sniff called out and his body began to transform as he activated his Magic. In moments, his entire body had become that of a large, chalk-white rhino. Pedestrians all screamed and ran out of the way, giving them a clear street to charge down. 'Alex, Dante, get on! Let's go!'
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