1 In Line

Ebony stood in a line stretching out the door of the only delivery company in her new town of New Halford.

Not a spot of dirt or grime could be seen on the brand-new building. A magical film of light protected the large clear windows from any possible attempts for a break-in, man-made or not. The polished stone exterior walls glowed with an expensive luster, and the elegant wood trims smelled of soothing Agarwood, which helped to quell the angry customers outside.

Ebony thought the building was excessively fancy and overly embellished for a new colony settlement. It was over the top for a delivery company, but this was no mom-and-pop shop. No, Zingers was the largest and most famous in the delivery business. It operated in the many kingdoms residing in the numerous universes of the Planar Clusters.

However, Ebony didn't care about Zingers being a behemoth business empire. She only wanted her belongings that were supposed to be delivered yesterday upon her arrival.

Her long slim fingers repeatedly tapped against the elbow of her crossed arm. She believed herself to be a fairly patient strong-willed young lady, but today those traits were being tested. She was proving to not be so tolerant. She gnawed on the nail of her thumb while fervently continuing to tap her finger on her elbow. The long wait in the line annoyed her. Understandable though, seeing as how not many could stand in a line from sunrise to almost sunset and not be frustrated.

The sun leaned in the sky as it prepared to set in the next few hours. Ebony needed to get home before dark. The newly conquered world of Liesa in the sixth Planar Cluster was a dangerous place, but also full of opportunities. Cheap and affordable opportunities that Ebony succumbed to despite knowing the dangers.

Slowly, she moved up the line and entered the extravagant interior of the building. The allure of the charming chandeliers and expensive art pieces faded as she was finally one person away from the counters.

"Next!"

A woman in a plain blue uniform hoarsely shouted from the end of the elegant hardwood counter. Seeing a floating orb with the number '5' pulsating with white light, Ebony quickly strode over with her long slim legs, hidden behind her plain sepia-colored pants.

Her frustrations of waiting all day flushed away with the thought of finally receiving her belongings. She politely smiled, arriving at the counter of the rude worker. The lady seemed to be having a bad day.

"Name."

"Oh. Um." Before Ebony could give her name, the haggard-looking lady shouted at her.

"I said give me your name! Do you need me to yell for you to hear me!? Are you deaf?!"

Ebony's smile turned upside down. Her face warped with anger, but she somehow pulled herself back from punching the disrespectful woman. She wanted her items more than being kicked out at this point, but she really wanted to throw fists right now.

"Ebony Summers." Ebony icily stated her name, glaring at the dull-skinned brunette.

The woman didn't even reply and pressed her hands on a crystal ball in front of her. The ball glowed in changing colors before turning red.

"You're stuff isn't here. Next!" The woman abruptly replied with a curt tone.

"Wait! What do you mean?! I was supposed to get my stuff yesterday!" Ebony shouted.

She felt the dam holding back her anger slowly cracking. Spouts of fury began to seep out, but the receptionist seemed to really want to see that dam holding back her anger fully collapse. The receptionist continued to berate and scold Ebony.

"Are you stupid too?! It's not here! What the hell am I supposed to do about it?! Don't like it? Go get a fucking refund! Not my problem! NEXT!!!"

The next person in line walked over, confused at the screaming receptionist.

Ebony was furious and wasn't going to leave without a better answer. "I demand to know where my stuff is, and how much longer it's going to take! I paid extra for timely delivery!"

The receptionist replied by cussing her out.

"Damn bitch! You're holding up the line! MOVE!!!"

The dam holding back her anger burst open and flooded her being with rage. Ebony had slight anger issues, and the receptionist woman soon found out.

"You want a bitch, huh? You asked for it." Ebony put on an emotionless expression, but the sharp glitter of crazy in her eyes made the woman receptionist gulp. But she didn't back down or apologize.

"What the fuck you gonna do about it, bitc.."

Before the woman could finish her taunt, Ebony demonstrated her answer to the receptionist's question.

She walked over and leaned over the counter. The receptionist flinched, but couldn't act fast enough. Ebony's hand moved like a fucking ninja, so fast it left after images. She swiped and grabbed a handful of the woman's brittle hair full of split ends. With one powerful move, she slammed the woman's face into the counter. Her head bounced on the wood, and she tumbled backward to the ground.

Ebony heard sobbing coming from the other side immediately followed by cursing.

"You bitch! How dare you do this to me! I'm going to fucking get you imprisoned by the Knights!!"

A man in an upgraded version of the blue uniform rushed forward and began blaming Ebony, ignoring the insulting actions of his employee.

"What the hell!? Why did you attack our employee?! Look at her! She's bleeding! You're going to be arrested! Don't you dare run away! I'm contacting the Knights of Halford!"

Ebony looked at her handiwork, and amusement tugged the corner of her lip into a smirk. The receptionist's nose broke, flattened, and trickled blood.

Ebony scoffed. "You should train your damn employees with better customer service. I waited all day in line outside for my packages that should have been delivered yesterday, and she has the nerve to cuss me out! I would have been nice if she politely told me why and when I should expect to get my items. But no. She called me a bitch and asked me what I was going to do about it. So I showed her. Now get me my damn stuff! I'm never going to use this crappy service again!"

The man seemed to calm down. This was not the first complaint he received about this employee, but it was the first time any customer took such drastic actions. He looked at the red orb and replied to Ebony.

"Your stuff isn't here. We will deliver it to your home tomorrow. However, you will be permanently banned from using Zipster's services in the future. The knights will be here momentarily. Please wait."

"You couldn't pay me to use this crap," Ebony retorted, crossing her arms, unafraid of the consequences.

The man pulled up the receptionist from the floor. She held her bloodied nose, but she smirked at Ebony.

"You're going to get locked up for this! You fucked up!"

"Maybe I will, but it definitely won't be the last time. I can demonstrate again to you how much of a bitch I am." The menacing death rays shooting from Ebony's wide-stretched eyes made her cower, and she scurried away.

A Knight of New Halford arrived at the scene. The image of a clawing Gryffon, representing the Halford Kingdom, was engraved onto the shimmering silver chest plate. The heavy armor clinked as he walked and pushed through the line of people waiting to get their packages.

Arriving by Ebony, he immediately identified the culprit. He recognized the repeat offender. Furiously, he yanked her by the arm, glaring at her alluring heart-shaped face. She simply shrugged, not caring about the handsome rugged knight's face warping with rage. The brown-haired knight looked at the manager of the Zipster's store and spoke.

"I heard what happened and will now take in the woman and handle the issue. Proceed as you were."

Digging in the bag at his side, he pulled out a metallic neck collar, engraved with glowing geometric patterns. He clamped it securely on Ebony's tender neck. The touch of her soft skin made the knight flinch, blushing pink. He quickly recomposed himself. Ebony snickered at the knight, catching his blunder. He acted as if nothing happened and faked a cough.

"Ahem! Follow me! If you dare try to remove your collar, you will be sorry from the pain!" The knight ordered with a deep reverberating voice and walked off. Ebony straightened her back and confidently trailed after the man's towering burly figure out of the building.

Just like the Zipster store, all the other buildings and paved roads were new and clean. The small town was barely established six months ago, however, the town was developing rapidly despite the dangers. The knight led Ebony through a roundabout path to a quiet and inconspicuous area at the walls on the edge of town.

The knight turned around, grabbing the collar off Ebony's neck. She rubbed the spot where the collar once was, sore from the tightly clamped choker. Putting it away, the knight helplessly looked at his old friend and complained. Trouble followed wherever she went.

"Ebony, you need to stop getting yourself into bad situations. I can't keep helping you out all the time like this. You're going to get me discharged from knighthood!"

Ebony pouted. "It's not my fault, Lunnard! I don't just go beating people up! They asked for it! That receptionist literally asked what I was going to do! So I showed her!"

Lunnard scoffed at Ebony's partial truths. "Knowing you, she was probably partly to blame, but you're not the innocent victim either."

"I am a victim!" Faking as a damsel in distress, she acted like she fainted, falling helplessly into the knight's arms. The corner of her lip arched up in amusement as she looked up at him.

"My hero! My knight in shining armor! Lunnard! You saved me from the big bad manager at Zipster's."

Lunnard rolled his eyes, unamused. He pushed her back to stand on her own two feet. He knew the only ones in need of saving were the ones taking her beatings. Very rarely did she need help in physical fights. Though getting out of the aftermath was something else entirely. She dumped her mess on him many times already.

"You know, you really should go to one of those therapy sessions I referred you to. They really can help with problems you're going through. I didn't see the lady you messed up with this time, but you barely got away from the pervert from last time."

Ebony snapped back, "I could have taken him down if he didn't creep up on me! He would have been no issue! It is always others making problems for me!" Lunnard heard the defensive undertones in her last statements and tried to explain himself to Ebony.

"I'm just suggesting with good intentions. You know I worry about you. Who knows, therapy could help you with your other problems too."

A deadly silence filled the air.

The pebbles on the ground around Ebony trembled and the pebbles and rocks.

"My other problems?" Ebony's hissed through her teeth.

A raging torrent of mana swirled around her, splitting the air and hurling the rocks and dirt away. Lunnard knew he fucked up, mentioning something he shouldn't have. He shielded himself from the rippling winds and made an excuse.

"Oh look at the sun setting in the sky! It's time for me to get back to patrol for Demons. And you, head back home, missy." He turned around to run away but seriously warned one last time before leaving. "Be careful and hurry on your way back, Ebony!"

Lunnard dashed off, tripping over a bump in the pavement but caught himself before falling. He swore and limped back from stubbing his toe.

The funny sight of his massive body in armor almost tipping over cooled Ebony's anger. The wild torrent of mana calmed, and Ebony snickered at the big oaf.

She took in a deep breath and shouted all her frustrations up at the sky. She paused, alarmed at the time. Lunnard was correct about the sun setting. She ran, following the lengthy walls to the gate. Exiting the town, she looked at the safe but longer dirt path, curving around the Forest of Cain.

The setting sun painted the sky shades of orange and red. It was almost dark. She made a bold decision. If she cut through the forest, she would come across to her homestead on the other side probably before dark. Confident, she strode off into the fringes of the Forest of Cain, ignorant of the dangers lurking within.