Chapter 9 - Billy Supplied

Billy slept the night at Farmer Tim’s, eagerly awaiting the dawn. He was excited, but he wasn’t dumb enough to go out into the forest during the night. That’s when the truly dangerous predators came out. He was pretty sure he’d be more likely to die a gruesome death than to be rewarded with some achievement for surviving the night.

As the sun crested the horizon, Billy set off into the forest. He figured that, since Farmer Tim’s farmhouse was a ways out of town, he could cover far more ground if he used it as a starting point.

Energized, he sprinted like a bloodhound, over fallen trees and under branches, following his Gift from plant to plant. He figured that taking his time would only lead to running out of mana half way through again, so he pushed his body as hard as he dared, almost blindly following his Gift’s trail.

This time, Billy’s bag ran out of space before his mana pool ran dry. He contentedly sat back against a tree and guzzled water from a canteen, then snacked on some rations. After catching his breath, he headed back towards Farmer Tim’s.

After a few minutes of hiking through the forest, Billy came upon a fallen tree. He looked around it and figured the undergrowth was too thick and thorny to pass around. Trying to make good time, he wisely got on all fours and crawled under the tree. As he was poking out of the other side, a paw came swinging towards his face. He flinched back, but the claws still raked bloody lines down his left cheek.

He screamed in pain. As he reeled back, Billy’s head smacked against the fallen tree. Stars tried to form in his eyes as he fought desperately to clear his vision and to bring his shield out in front of him.

He caught sight of his attacker as it lunged in again. It was a large cat. Maybe a lynx? A bobcat? Smaller than a lion, but much larger than town cats. Boblynx it is! He managed to get his shield up, but he was too slow to completely block the blows raining down upon him from the feral cat. A few claws managed to scrape his right arm and shoulder before he could fully hunker behind his shield and under the tree.

The boblynx growled menacingly, trying to lunge in and eviscerate Billy. Bits of wood rained down on him as claws tried and failed to cut through the shield and the tree above.

As the shield’s enchantment started to wane, Billy decided to try and channel some mana into his shield. The gray light, which had been fading, instantly blazed back to life. In response, the cat yowled and redoubled its efforts, slashing, clawing and biting, trying to get past the shield’s defenses.

Billy shunted more mana into his shield, keeping the enchantment going strong. As he felt his mana pool start to run low, he peeked around his shield. The cat was bunched up, readying to spring forwards again. As it lunged towards him, Billy angled his shield and punched it forward. The boblynx flew forwards in slow motion, its eyes widening. It knew it had messed up. Billy’s grin widened slowly, revealing his teeth one by one.

He pushed more mana into his shield as time resumed its normal speed. His foe was upon him. The reinforced edge of the shield seemed to lengthen slightly, a gray mana projection of the shield extending a few centimeters beyond the edge. It caught the beast in the throat and bit deep. The cat tried to yowl, but it came out as a gurgle as it flopped to the ground. Within moments, it poofed into uncountable motes of light drifting off into the wind.

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Billy conducted his customary post-fight ritual of sitting against a tree to catch his breath as the beast finally despawned, leaving a single copper coin behind. What a dink. As he pocketed the coin, he remembered the bug jelly and smeared some on the worst of his wounds. Even the deepest of gouges closed up almost instantly. He happily stored the rest in his bag, not wanting to waste it on the shallow scrapes he had left.

As he entered the town, Billy headed straight for the guildhall. When he went to turn in his plants, however, he noticed that the values per contract had halved. He asked Tilly about it, who grumped charmingly.

“Supply and demand. We only get the rare herbalist or lucky wanderer bringing those in, usually. Other than that, some alchemists usually wait until the price is high, then they sell their extras off for some good coin. A certain F-rank half pint has turned in more plant parts than we’ve gotten in months.”

Billy tried not to grouch as he accepted his money for all but one of each plant and left for the market. He had almost two gold coins now, but would have about double that if he hadn’t tanked the prices. It smelled of market manipulation. Maybe he would get a better price somewhere else? He doubted it, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

When he came back to the boisterous merchant’s stall, he couldn’t help but smile. The man’s laugh boomed out as he spotted Billy. “Ha HA! Back again so soon, boy? Oh, you’re one of those crafty types. Come, now, I see the glint in those eyes. What is your offer now?”

Billy couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he pointed to the fire core and said with pride “Nine silver coins, good sir.”

The merchant chuckled. “We are now friends. I am Balthazar. You, child friend, will call me Tazar. Tazar will help. What else you want, other than the core? Maybe we will make a deal today.”

Billy thought for a moment, before responding. “Of course, Tazar. And what are friends for, if not for helping friends? I’m Billy, by the way. I want to make a wand. Farmer Tim told me that it’s much cheaper to make a wand than to buy one, so here I am.”

Tazar nodded along as if this made perfect sense. “Of course, of course. As long as you know an enchanter, making a wand is much, much cheaper than buying one. You have wood?” At Billy’s head shake, the merchant grinned. “Ok, you need a base for the wand, no? I have just the thing.” He took out a rectangular piece of dark, almost purple wood, from below the counter. “Just came in. Leg of a spriggan, if you believe it. Tazar does not really believe it, but hasn’t had the chance to identify it. One gold, five silvers and you get both the core and the wood.” He put the core next to the piece of wood and made as if to push them to Billy’s side of the table. Billy, for his part, pulled out the sheet of beetle chitin and his last heartflower and put both on the table.

“One gold, plus these,” he counter offered. “I know for a fact that the heartflowers were selling for two silver yesterday and this sheet of chitin must be worth just as much, if not more. Plus, we’re friends and friends help each other, as you said.”

Tazar made as if he were wiping his brow. “Friends help friends, but friends don’t take losses for friends, either. One gold, one silver and your bits and bobs, here.”

Billy smiled widely as he shook the merchant’s hand. He rushed over to Farmer Tim’s enchanter friend, Arin, and layed out the fire core, the spriggan wood, and some firethorn berries and thorns. After a bit of negotiating, the enchanter assembled the wand for four silvers and a promise that Billy would go to them first if he ever wanted to sell some beast cores in the future.

He held his new wand and tried not to gape. The enchanter had somehow stretched the spriggan wood to form a cage around the fire core at one end of the wand, then fused it with the essence of the firethorn berries and thorns to make the wand resistant to its own fire. Or that’s what Billy understood from what they said. The end result wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it was beautiful nonetheless. It was his masterpiece.