Henry and I joined a party again, this time were all in the same guild.

Also this time I looked at the job description before accepting it but it just said “hunter/tracking experts needed, medicine experts preferred.” No indication on what to hunt or track, but the pay is great and with the two who join our party it’s going to be an easy I believe.

An elf, Sao Pei or something like that, he’s an expert on tracking, and the other one is a dwarf, “Amiz” I think, Henry said he’s great with patching up wounds and with poisons too.

They always correct me on their names but these elf and dwarf names are so different from anything.

-----

Before we arrive at the house next to a river a man hollers us from the riverside next to a warehouse with large logs stacked inside.

“Hello fellas, are you here for Mr Douglas? He’s supposed to arrive soon.” he says from all the way over there and quickly looks up river.

“Actually, we’re here for Ms Douglas.” Amiz says chuckling. “Do you know of a Zelda Lathrop?” Sao unamusingly gets to the point.

-----

As we arrive we see a figure from the house move and soon enough… “Ahh, your early.” she tells us, A mature woman with fancy cloths. “John, I told you not to stay this late.”

She tells the man at the riverside. “But, Zelda, I am worried about you and Mr Douglas. You’ve been cutting down on food, I can tell.”

The woman looks stressed. I look at Henry, he and I know that Sao is too insensitive and Amiz probably has one of he’s many laws forbidding him from consoling her.

“Miss, if this is a bad time we could return at a later time-” Before I finish my words John exhales loudly “Here! Mr Douglas, bring them in!”

A man riding what looks like a long raft made of two large logs. As he approaches John walks up and both John and Douglas reach each other with axes and cross beards.

John slowly drags him ashore and they lift the two logs up, Me and Henry walk up to help them but by the time we make it they are already done. “Who are you? Says the sturdy tall man called Douglas Lathrop.

-----

Sitting at their house, they had to improvise a few chairs but it was not a problem at a lumberjacks house.

John had already left to his own house and now it’s just us and the couple. “What a lovely couple, are there no children in the house?” Amiz says to lighten the mood.

“Not yet, but we are planning soon…” Zelda says shyly and looks at Douglas.

“Zelda! Before you explain to me why we have these guests, what about some food for the visitors?” Douglas tells her almost silently.

“We are full, we’ve had rations just before we arrived.” Henry tries to calm Douglas but Douglas doesn’t fall for that.

“You don’t eat rations at the end of a journey, I was an adventurer once, don’t try to fool me, boy. At least have something to drink.”

“My name is Mythos, this is Henry, this is… Umm… Sao pei… And Amiz.” I try to introduce the party to the couple.

“It’s Cao wei, not Sao pei.” I’m quiclky corrected

“And my name is Amits, not Eimiz, you’re pronouncing it all wrong.”

Douglas turns to his wife “why did you call a party of hunters?” but she doesn’t know what to say.

“umm… it was… Wolves! In the forest, I saw them stalking me on the way from the store.” She answers but Douglas still isn’t sure.

“Why? I was an adventurer, I can take any wolf, I once took on a whole pack.” He looks at the wall where a big axe is mounted.

“With your hand, you can bearly cut trees right.”

His ego seems hurt. "Where did you even get the money?” maybe his pocket even more so.

“well… They agreed to do it for free.”

As she says that Tsao uses a bad tone. “What?! But you said -”

Henry quickly jabs an elbow in his side. “Don’t shout. We were promised as payment that Mr Douglas would give us a recommendation for an adventurers guild.”

Henry is a fast thinker. “What? really?” Douglas is surprised “you plan on using my recommendation to change to an adventurers guild?”

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That was brilliant, I can see in his eyes how he wants to let us help, even if he thinks he could make it alone he probably thinks he can help more adventurers, in a way only he can.

-----

As we leave, Zelda catches up to us. “Thank you, I did not know how to get out of that mess.”

Of course we need to know what we do now. “About the job…” I point her in that directions.

“Yes, of course. The wolves bit was a lie, obviously.” She explaines.

“Is everything you tell your husband a lie?” Amits rudely interrupts her.

“It’s… for his own good. I don’t want to hurt him.” She says with a sad look on her face. “I need you to find me these ingredients.”

I'm handed a piece of paper, I hand it over to Tsao, I only learnt to read and write barely good enough. “A dryad’s kiss, an entire willow imp and fay water… you must mean fay’s favor, the flower.”

Amits takes the note and reads “She needs fay water alright, I know what she needs it for.” instead of sharing with us he just walks off.

“Aren’t you going to tell us what?” without turning to us he says.

“Doesn’t matter, it’ll turn alright.”

A dryad kiss is a flower, Tsao is an elf but he says only wood elves are that nature types. The monster lexicon we carry had nothing about it but Tsao said it was supposed to be in dense forests, normally surrounded by trees and in a well lit area.

We searched for a few hours, but we found one, maybe a few but aside from Amitz not one of us saw one before.

The willow imp got me scared for a moment, but apparently it isn’t a real imp, just a name for a bird that normally harms willow trees.

Tsao said it was a parrot, but it attacks other parrots and takes their home.

Finding one is a bit of a hassle, we did manage to draw one close, but none of us use bows so we had to use a net trap and it missed.

We chased it, and Henry got it! I hope it’s alright that it isn’t in one piece. Amits says it doesn’t matter but I don’t know.

The last one was a weird one, we had to go to a lake in a forest, so we had to travel quite a while, Then Amits says he’ll continue the rest of the way.

I don’t know if it’s some sort of secret. Me and Henry sparred a bit, we took sticks we found, they weren’t weighted or anything but it was a good workout, even Tsao joined us.

Tsao’s style is different, and he is more experienced than either of us, but he didn’t have many pointers to give us, “Just keep sparring, you’ll both get better.” I sure hope we will.

After a few hours we got worried but Amits came back with a vial of glittering water.

-----

When we arrive back after a few days we see John again, this time he and Douglas are cutting a log with a huge two person saw.

“That was a lot of time for just some wolves, I can see why you want to move to an adventurers guild.” He stops sawing to call us.

“We’re not done yet, lad. Might we have a talk with your wife?”

Douglas answers “Sure, she’s inside. I told her she must have been imagining wolves. Didn’t need to waste so long though.” We head inside to meet with her.

“Finally, did you get the items. I was so worried.” She drops her things in the kitchen and rushes over to us.

“Aye, we finished the list you had.” She reaches for a pot on top of a shelf to take out a purse. “Do you also happen to know any chemist who might help me, the town chemist knew what ingredients I need but not how to-”

Amits stops her “I can make the solution for you. I was trained by a brilliant chemist in the past.” I had no Idea.

“Yes! that would be wonderful. for extra pay, of course.” but he stops her.

“No need, you can pay us for the ingredients, but it is a dwarf law to never distinguish patients when healing, rich or poor, everyone deserves life. Such is Shahina, so should we be.” Another dwarven law, he does that often, but I got used to it.

“I will need a chemists workplace, do you have the basilisk acid?” She seems surprised, as if her secret has been revealed.

“Please, don’t tell my husband. I have troll blood instead, I was told it would be fine.”

I don’t know what it was all about but after another day has passed Amits finally returned from the town with a small bottle with grey looking fluid inside.

We spent the day sparring, even with Douglas, and counting the money, two Silver stones and three silver rocks. It was more than anything I have ever seen.

It’s about three gold marbles worth, that is a huge amount, even split four ways.

“Do you want to do it now?”

“I can hardly wait”

Zelda walks outside to the warehouse where Douglas and John work. “John, you need to go home.” She says firmly.

“What? Miss Zelda, is something wrong? did I do”

“Nothing is wrong, you don’t have to worry about us, worry about your fresh wife.” John is shocked and starts leaving.

“Zelda! what are you doing? we’re working here. John, where are you going?”

“This has been going on long enough, I can just accept this!”

“What do you mean? What is the matter with you?” Douglas speaks softly but Zelda is struck with a frenzy

"Show me your arm!” she almost screams, Douglas shows her his hand. “Not that, your arm, I want to see it.”

Douglas seems almost ashamed, he takes off his shirt and on his left arm a huge grey spot, not just the color, but it actually looks like stone.

“This is it, we can get rid of it once and for all!” she says but Douglas seems angry now, why would he be angry about getting rid of that?

“You know what this means to me! I can’t just get rid of it. It’s a memento.”

“It will kill you! When you returned after that mission it was only as big as a finger. It has been years now, and it’s getting faster."

to think that the spot on his arm extanding all the way from his elbow to his shoulder, and even a part of his back, was as big as a finger once.

“So what? this is what I need to remind me… of them… Kharla, Neal, Elegor, Mythos… Everyday when I wake up I try to move my arms and I remember. When I see my image in the water I remember. When I…” Tears start to run down his eyes, his voice is breaking “When I can’t sleep at night… because it hurts and it bothers me I… remember them! I just don’t want to forget! I want to remember my friends!”

“I know, but I want you to live, Douglas. They can’t return but you can still live the rest of your life.”

“I don’t want to give them up… I don’t want to…”

Zelda struggle with Douglas, weird to see a big man like that having trouble with a small woman like Zelda but the tears and the crying looks like she’s bullying him.

They fall down and a breaking sound leaves everyone in awe.

“No, no no no!” Douglas screams but it’s too late, he’s already soaked with the lotion and the petrification starts to disappear.

“I don’t want to forget them! don’t leave me! I miss you… in the future… when my time comes… I want to remember you… I don’t want to forget you… I don’t want to leave you.”

We leave the house in silence, next to the warehouse Douglas is crying and whining, Zelda is consoling him with an embrace, silently, there is nothing more she can do.

I know she would probably say ‘Thank you’ but I think we should leave them alone. I wonder if Douglas would ever appreciate what we did for him.

I hope he learns to accept the loss of his friends, even though he never wanted to.