“Hunt the Orm ourselves - brilliant idea Drak!” Jake yelled, running as quickly as he could in the opposite direction of the large, noisy and probably carnivorous creature that was chasing them.

“It sounded like a great idea!” Drak yelled back, trying to glance back over his shoulder and almost stumbling over a root. Jake reached out, grabbed his arm for a second and pulled him upright so he didn’t fall.

“We have different concepts of a great idea!” Jake replied. He reached into his vest and grabbed a small vial containing a red liquid. He pulled the stopper out with his teeth, calling upon his water essence then making a grabbing motion over the liquid lifted from the vial towards his hand. He gestured towards the creature and the red liquid flew through the air towards it.

It let out a shriek, meaning the liquid had come into contact with it. But it didn’t stop and actually sounded madder than before.

“That didn’t help!” Drak observed.

“You try something then!” Jake yelled back, slightly breathless, his mouth dry from the use of his water essence.

Drak turned towards the pursuing creature and made a sharp gesture, clicking both fingers at the same moment towards it. Jake half turned to see a huge flash of light and heard a massive burst of noise, both of which caused the monster to stop, disorientated.

But neither of the alchemists were hanging around to see how it reacted. They both continued to run as fast as they could, back towards safety. Or at least safety, compared with the deep jungle.

Just as they reached The Vein, a giant bolt of lightning lit up the air and the creature chasing them gave a scream of pain.

“Guess someone else is determined to stop that thing coming any closer,” Jake observed breathlessly as they both stopped running for a moment.

“Sorry?” Drak yelled, tapping his ears as if they weren’t working properly.

Jake repeated what he had said, only louder.

“Would have been great if they turned up just a little earlier,” Drak complained. “But better late than never, I guess.”

“Bit of hearing loss with the sound essence use?” Jake guessed, keeping his voice slightly raised.

The Dragonkin nodded. “It should ease off in a bit. I hope.”

Jake sat on a tree stump. “Well, that went as badly as possible. Four hours running around in the jungle, avoiding monsters and seeing no sign at all of an Orm.”

Drak leaned against the wall opposite the tree stump. “That monster hunter seemed so confident that we would be able to find one there.”

“Guess the old guy was a bit senile or something then because there was no sign of anything even similar to an Orm. Or even that kind of size because all of those monsters were huge,” Jake added, shaking his head.

“Okay, so that didn’t work,” Drak admitted. “Now we need to go back to the store and start planning again. We still have most of the week before Borass will need the potion.”

Jake’s head snapped up. “What?”

Drak looked confused. “Well, we need a new plan.”

“No, what was that about a week?”

Drak frowned. “The potion is needed in a week’s time, that was the deal I made with Borass.”

“You never mentioned that last night!” Jake exclaimed, feeling a little sick. “Even if we had this Orm skin, it would take me a few days to make it and we are nowhere near having the ingredients yet!”

“Calm down,” Drak said, holding up his hands to placate his partner. “We will figure this out. I have faith in us.”

Jake stared at the Dragonkin, a whole litany of sarcastic answers running through his mind. In the end, he decided to say nothing because he was too worn out. “I need a drink,” he settled on replying.

“Let’s head back to the store then,” Drak repeated.

----------------------------------------

The pair arrived back at Jinxs and Tonics as the sun had set, both feeling tired and a bit despondent. They ate a meal together, had a couple of drinks and turned in for the night with Drak saying they would definitely find a solution to the problem in the morning.

Jake woke to see the sun had risen, making it a good lie-in by his standards. He sat up and looked out of the bedroom window.

To see one of the Jeffs that he’d first met accompanying Borass standing across the road, watching the store.

He ducked down and crossed the room in a crouch then stood and banged on Drak’s bedroom door.

“Drak!” he called in his loudest whisper. He knew the guy couldn’t hear him from the street but he was feeling a touch paranoid. “There’s a guy outside the store and I’m sure he was with Borass.”

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There was a murmur from inside so Jake called his friend again, a little louder.

After a mumbled reply and a moment, he heard Drak move around. “I see him. Damn, Borass must have sent him to see how we are progressing with the potion.”

“That’s a question we really don’t want to answer,” Jake pointed out as a crouched Drak opened his bedroom door. “What are we going to do?”

Drak shut his door and stood upright. “We get the hell out of here for a bit, avoiding the front door obviously.”

Jake frowned. “We can’t avoid him forever.”

Drak shrugged. “We can try. At least until we have the Orm skin and can tell him the potion is progressing. You never know if these guys have some essences that lets them see lies or something crazy like that. There’s got to be a reason that a killer like Borass needs bodyguards.”

“Maybe they are there to stop him killing people rather than stop people killing him,” Jake said, shaking his head.

“Okay, grab any essentials you need, keep your head down and we’ll head out the side door, dodge around him completely,” Drak said.

The two went downstairs and grabbed a few essentials while keeping behind the counter and out of sight. They then headed out of the side door but Drak stopped abruptly. “Alley’s blocked,” he said softly. “Damn renovation project.”

Jake pointed to a section of the missing wall towards the bottom of the alley. The two moved towards it, glanced around and couldn’t see anyone.

They hopped over the pile of bricks and inside the building. They were just about to head towards the rear exit of the building when they heard someone shout out. Jake spun to see a dwarf holding a brick threateningly, an angry look on his face.

“What are you doing in here?” he yelled at them.

“The Jeff will hear,” Drak hissed at Jake. “We need to get out of here.”

They turned to run when the brick whizzed past Drak’s left ear, making him jump. Another clipped the back of Jake’s heel, almost causing him to trip.

“Hey!” Drak yelled back at the brick-flinging dwarf. “We just took a wrong turn!”

“Get out of here, you’ll interfere with my stone binding!” the dwarf shouted, gesturing around the building.

Jake looked around and realised they were surrounded by floating bricks that the dwarf was moving into place. Seemed that his stone-binding ability was better than his aim with his arm, which was a good thing for both of them.

“We’re going, so sorry!” Jake said, holding up his hands and then giving Drak a quick push towards the rear door as he could see the Dragonkin was getting ready to use one of his essences on the dwarf. The extra noise would surely catch the Jeff’s attention and they’d have no chance of getting away.

The dwarf glared at them but didn’t throw the brick he was holding. The two didn’t waste any time and ran out of the back entrance into the alley that ran along the rear of the properties.

“Head left,” Drak said. “There will be more people around up there and we can find somewhere to hide for a bit.”

The two left the rear alley into a crowd of people and kept walking at a rapid pace, dodging the slower-moving shoppers with the aim of putting as many people between them and the Jeff as possible.

Ten minutes later, slightly breathless, the two stopped. They were in one of the areas where The Vein was wider and there were fewer buildings around. There was a single, impressive-looking structure in the middle, a circular building made from black stone with goldleaf vines growing up it.

Before Jake could ask what the place was, there was a crash from the street behind them. While there was no reason to think it was connected to them, the pair instantly looked to see where they could go.

The black stone building had a single door with a sign above it which was in shadow at the moment and hard to read. But most importantly, the door was open and that was all they really needed.

They glanced at each other and both headed towards the open door.

Walking inside, the first thing Jake noticed was the bar in the centre of the room. It was hexagonal in shape and in the centre of it was a tree. The tree had shelves all around it and each of them contained a variety of bottles of coloured liquid. He instantly knew by the types of bottles that this was a bar and not another alchemist store.

There was more goldleaf vine growing up the tree and it had spread across the roof with many tiny flowers hanging from it and illuminating the room. There was a set of stairs to their right leading to an upper floor and probably the private residence of the owner. Across the room on the left was a dance floor with a small musicians area while most of the room featured tables and chairs, with booths around the outer wall.

After the impressive appearance of the place, the next thing that Jake noticed was that the place was empty. Or almost empty - there were just three people present.

The first was behind the bar and was a wood elf. He was slender with light brown hair pulled into a high ponytail and was wearing a stylish brown vest with gold stitching, and reading glasses folded into the top pocket.

The other two were classic thugs. One was a tall, stocky Firbolg and the other was a High Elf. Both were dressed in black, the elf was leaning on the bar while the other was reaching across to grab the barkeeper.

“What’s going on?” Jake asked.

The thug elf turned around, sized them up quickly and waved a hand. “Nothing to do with you, head off and mind your own business,” he said dismissively.

“Actually guys, I could use a little bit of help,” the wood elf called from behind the bar.

Drak gave a little growl, instantly disliking the thugs and started to walk towards them, making himself look as imposing as possible.

As he reached the Firbolg, the thug made a gesture with one hand and Drak was pushed back several steps with the force of his magic. Drak hesitated for a moment, deciding what was the best approach.

This is going to escalate quickly, Jake thought to himself.

He glanced quickly around the bar and realised there was a puddle of spilt alcohol on the floor. He gestured to it and grabbing the liquid with his water essence, he threw it into the face of the Firbolg. Being it was strong alcohol, it stung on contact with his eyes and he gave a yell. “In L’emond’s soulless arse!”

Drak saw the opportunity and grabbed one of the heavy bar stools that circled the bar. He swung it like a club and crashed it into the Firbolg’s head, a satisfying thud knocking the thug off his feet and to his knees, grabbing his head.

Jake took the opportunity of the Firbolg and Drak fighting to do something about the elf thug. He reached up with his water essence and grabbed the liquid inside one of the heaviest bottles on the shelves. He pulled the liquid towards him, ensuring the bottle came with it. It crashed off the shelf and smashed straight into the thug elf’s head, soaking him in alcohol and knocking him out completely.

Drak studied the half-stunned Firbolg for a moment then raised a fist, and infused some of his light essence to increase the speed, hitting the guy with a flash of light. The Firbolg collapsed onto the floor, out cold.

The two looked up at the wood elf standing behind the bar. He lifted his hands off the bar to clap them together, a broad grin on his face. “Well, that was interesting!” he declared enthusiastically.