It took a good hour for the headache to subside to a very dull roar in the back of my head. I sat up again and I was still naked. That was also a surprise, because usually when I woke up naked, pieces of me were usually missing and the Hag was chewing on them. My chest was whole and since I didn't remember drinking any healing potions, I had to assume that she hadn't feasted on me.

Then again, since I couldn't remember and every single one of the personal potions we had were gone, we both could have drunk the strength, fortifying, poison resistance, and healing potions together and done some terrible things to each other. I looked around at the mess of the hut and that must have been exactly what had happened.

“Hag?” I asked, tentatively. There was no response, so I slid off the edge of her bed and stepped on a bundle of clothes. I was relieved to see that they were mine and picked them up. I had no idea how they had gone through whatever happened unscathed. I didn't question it and pulled on my pants and shirt. My knife was there in the sheath I had made on my own and had sewn into the thigh. It was easier than trying to tie and untie the original sheath from my thigh every time I wanted to change my pants.

I owned three pairs of pants and two tops now. One was a dark green shirt and the other was a smooth fabric that only covered my torso from my neck to my waist and left my shoulders and arms bare. She never told me what it was called, so I just called it a torso shirt. It didn't have buttons and pulled on over my head. My first time putting it on was an experience, let me tell you.

I finished getting dressed and stood perfectly still. I closed my eyes and let my other senses do the work, like the Hag had taught me, and I held my breath. I felt a light breeze, which meant either the door or the window was open. I could smell the moss outside, the spilled ingredients, and the old stew. I pushed those smells aside and took in a long slow breath through my nose.

I couldn't smell her.

I concentrated on my ears and listened. The trees rustled in the light breeze, the water lapped at the dry area around the hut, the sole lamp creaked as it moved a tiny amount.

I couldn't hear her.

I opened my eyes and let my vision widen, as if it was nighttime. It was a trick that the Hag had taught me to allow more light to enter my eyes. She said that it let you see things that you would normally ignore. I let my eyes soak in the entire scene of the hut. I picked out the individual ingredients on the floor, the partially open door, and the very still spider that hid behind the turned over work bench.

I pushed it all aside because I needed to see what wasn't there. I looked at the missing potions. I looked up above the counter and the very sharp cooking knife was gone. I looked to the side to see the Hag's small bag was gone. I finally looked down at my feet where there seemed to be another slightly clear area where another cloth bundle might have been.

She's gone. I thought and took a deep breath. “She's gone.” I said out loud.

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You now have a very important choice to make. Come on! Make the right one!

A) Chase her. B) Curse her. C) Be happy. D) Be sad. E) Hope she comes back. F) Hope she's dead.

G) Be decisive. H) Be indecisive. I) Wallow in pity. J) Kill yourself. K) Live your life. L) Run.

Wow, your choices still really suck for the most part, even with so many to choose from. I thought and read them over again. Well, there's only one real answer for me, since it's what I've been working towards all this time. I smiled. I choose K!

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“This place is a mess.” I said and let out a sigh. “Oh, well. I guess I better clean it up.”

I carefully made my way over to the sacks and grabbed one, then started sorting out the salvageable potion ingredients from the too damaged ones. I pointedly ignored the spider as it tried, quite fruitlessly, to scurry silently out from behind the knocked over work bench and then it squeezed out through the partially open door.

It took me nearly all day to put the hut back to the way it had been before. I had managed to save nearly all of the potion ingredients, mainly because most of them needed to be ground up or boiled anyway. I fixed the work bench with a number ten potion, the glue potion that I now knew was actually a melding potion for similar items. The Hag thought it was one of the weakest potions she could make and I knew differently.

It was actually the best and most versatile potion to ever exist. She just didn't see the value in sticking things together and didn't realize the uses such a potion had. What's that? The push pole isn't long enough? Add a bit of potion and another piece of pole and you had an extra long and strong pole. Is that a hole in your wall? A bit of potion and a piece of wood and the hole was covered. If you took the time to cut out a similar sized piece, it would fit in the hole and it would be like the hole was never there.

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It was quick to make and easy to brew, so I had been stockpiling it while the Hag infused her magic into the normal potions we sold. She knew I was doing it and didn't say anything, even when I asked her to finish it for me, until two years ago when I came to the part of the recipe where it required her to spit in it. She walked over to me at that point and grabbed me by the back of the neck instead.

“This is the crucial part.” The Hag said and put her hand on my belly. “You are not spitting in it. It's not bile from your stomach and it's not saliva from your mouth.” She moved her hand up and poked the bottom of my chin. “You have my blood in you now. There is a thing growing there, just under your tongue.”

“Venom?” I asked and looked into her eyes.

“No. It is a catalyst. Without it, the things we make are nothing more than marsh water stew with different ingredients.” The Hag said. “You can't just spit and hope that some of it is added. You need to practice using the gland. Like a muscle.”

I reached up and rubbed the spot under my chin and then I reached out and rubbed hers. “Mine's tiny!”

The Hag cackled a laugh. “You've never used it before and I've used mine for years.”

“How do I do it?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Let me show you.” The Hag said with a grin as she pulled my mouth open and dug her fingers under my tongue.

I gagged for several seconds and felt her fingers press on... something... then a tiny little stream of dark liquid squirted out and into the cooking pot. I forgot that I was gagging and stared at the pot as the liquid quickly dissipated into the glue potion.

“Hmm, not bad for the first time.” The Hag said and let me go. “It's not nearly enough for the general health potion, so you'll only be practising on the glue potion for now.” She said and briefly stood there and used her magic to infuse the potion, then she walked back over to where she was working. “It takes an hour to refill, so you have that long to finish that batch and to make another.”

I finished the steps to make the potion and used an old clay jug to pour it into. I had washed it first, since I didn't want to contaminate it, and put the lid on it. The Hag didn't say anything to me and I did up another potion just in time. She didn't say anything and came right over to me at the right time and I didn't gag this time when she did the same thing and added it to the potion. This time, she pointed to the racks of old and cracked vials.

“Clean those and use them for it.” The Hag said.

“But... I have two more clay jugs to...”

“Do you?” The Hag asked and pointed to the one I had filled. “Check it.”

I went over to it and took the cover off, only to see that the clay jug was now a solid mass of clay. “What happened?” I asked, shocked.

“It filled in the space between the sides of the unsealed clay.” The Hag said and took it from my hands. “The down side is it's now hard and unusable.” She said and casually tossed it against the wall of the hut and the entire thing shattered as if the jug had been empty and clay shards went everywhere. “Clean that up first.”

I ran over and did as she said. As long as the potion was simmering, it would stay that way. Once it was poured into vials and cooled, then its properties would activate and it could be used. The clay jug lesson was one that I would remember for years, because of the implication. That was why I thought of it as the best potion ever.

I had trained my gland over the last two years and now I could use it by just pressing down on it with my tongue. I think I had impressed her by the massive growth of it and she didn't ask me how I had done it. If she had asked, I would have told her.

I cheated.

She had given me the clue when she told me that it took an hour to refill and I didn't have enough for the general health potion. Instead of only using the gland when I was brewing a potion, I used it every hour and gathered it up, let it refill, and used it again. I had to make water skins and used the number six waterproofing potion to seal it, then filled them with my catalyst.

I couldn't keep them around, so when she would go into her drinking binges, I would make the healing potions and added my stored catalyst as well as from my mouth. She would always wake up and use her magic to infuse the cooking pot. She never questioned me when I told her that she had already spit in it and was too drunk to finish it. I had become very good at hiding my real thoughts from her and all she got from me was her stumbling around and flopping into bed.

I stopped my reminiscing and looked around the restored hut. “My home.” I said and had the distinct feeling that it was mine. I smiled and went outside, checked the wards to make sure they were still good, then did a quick check of the traps. I didn't catch anything, so I went back inside the hut and went to bed. I had a long day tomorrow. I needed to keep gathering ingredients to make the next batch of health and healing potions.

My eyes went to the empty rack of personal potions and decided I would refill that again, too. They were just too useful to not have them on hand. In fact, I decided that I needed to fill the rack and also needed to keep a set or two on my person, just in case. Living in a marsh was a dangerous place and you never knew when you would need a potion for an emergency.

_______________

Montage mode engaged.

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Days, weeks, and months passed as I gathered ingredients and made the potions from memory. It felt really weird using my own magic to infuse the potions, though. It left me weak, like after the Hag drank my blood. I filled every vial available with health and healing potions and used up all of my stored catalyst. That was fine, though. I could refill the water skins in less than a day. Then I did.

I found several thick wildwood trees and used strength potions to bring them home. I had watched the Hag make her wards for years, so I knew exactly what to carve into the clean coins of wood. I did them better than her, to my surprise. After I infused the wards with my magic, I used the fortifying and waterproof potions on them. They shrunk slightly and I could feel the pulse of energy from them.

I covered the hut with them and instead of lasting a month like the Hag's did where she had to infuse them again or replace them, mine stayed active for the spring, summer and fall.

_______________

Montage mode ended. Resuming normal play.

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I woke up on the normal day that the Hag and I would deliver the potions to the village before the winter season and I realized then that I had made a very crucial mistake during all of my preparations during the warm months.

The large boat was gone.