The overgrowth incident derailed Hans’ plans. The time they spent culling the extra monsters was meant to be spent with the upper-ranked adventurers, fighting harpies and ogres. To their credit, Becky and the Silvers didn’t complain. One cavern with fifteen iron elementals put their large humanoid training to work, giving them a great deal of practice minding the range of nearby enemies and avoiding strikes in the process. By the time the culling was complete, everyone welcomed a break.

Carrying a sack of fool’s root over his shoulder, Hans walked back to Gomi with Kane, Quentin, Terry, Olza, Tandis, and Willow. When the workers yanked stumps out of the ground to clear the way, they also leveled as much of the path as they could in anticipation of regular wagon traffic. Now more road than trail, the journey was less of a forest hike and more of a long walk.

Aside from Willow peppering Olza with questions about alchemy, many of which were her pointing to a plant on the side of the path and asking what it was and what it could be used for, the walk home was quiet. The adventurers looked forward to sleeping in their own beds, and Tandis was content to watch her daughter revel in curiosity.

A sparrow landed on Hans’ shoulder and chirped in his ear. Hans stopped.

“You all go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”

“Everything okay?” Terry asked.

“Yes. I’ll be along soon.”

When the party was out of sight some ten minutes later, the sparrow departed.

The Lady of the Forest took shape before Hans’ eyes. Gravel from the dugout sections of road connected with sticks, leaves, and ferns to form the shape of a woman. When Hans looked more closely, he saw that most of the leaves were poison ivy, green and lush.

“Guild Master,” the forest spirit said in greeting. Her voice was a blend of branches cracking and wind howling over a rocky mountainside. “I see you have accepted my gift.”

“Wasn’t what I expected it to be, but I won’t complain about a steady supply of fool’s root.”

“I know this.”

“Are there people crossing the forest border?”

The dryad twisted her head as if confused by the question. “No, there are no invaders. When most people wake in the morning, they look to the sky to see if the day will be sunny. You, however, always expect rain.”

Hans had heard similar criticism from old friends and past girlfriends. He was even less excited to hear it come from a forest spirit. “What is the reason for your visit then?”

“I am here to ask you to take an oath.”

“No.”

“You may–”

“I said no. I won’t make an oath.”

The wind blew, rustling the greenery giving the Lady shape. “I saw your love for Buru. Surely you’d hear me out for his sake?”

“Are you threatening him?”

“Again, you expect rain. No, I care for the boy as well, but I saw that your desire to protect and nurture him was stronger than even my love for the young Druid. Will you show me a courtesy and hear me out before giving me your answer?”

The Guild Master agreed to listen.

“Buru and his familiar are nearly bonded. They will soon depart for Gomi, and I worry for the familiar’s safety. Buru is strong, but he is but one Druid. I would ask you to provide the familiar sanctuary and your protection. I would ask that you swear to take no part in bringing harm to the creature, and that you will defend it if you can should it be in peril.”

Hans raised an eyebrow.

And spring had been so peaceful… goblin berserkers aside.

“What kind of creature is it?”

“It is one both known and unknown to you.”

“No riddles, please,” Hans said flatly.

He thought he heard the Lady sigh, but it may have been a soft breeze. “If I revealed the creature now, your judgment would begin here, far from any interaction with the familiar. I withhold the answer not in trickery but in fairness.”

“I can’t swear an oath that vague, sorry.”

“I can ease your worries with promises of my own. I promise this familiar will not attack the people you care for unless it was under attack itself. I promise that this familiar will be loyal to Buru for life and that the depth of their bond will rival any friendship this world has yet known. Do these promises ease your mind, Guild Master?”

Hans repeated her words in his mind, looking for potential traps. “Is the familiar a danger to me?”

“No.”

“A danger to innocent people?”

“A cornered animal will bite. This familiar is no more aggressive than any other animal.”

The Guild Master narrowed his eyes. He knew spirits and the like were known to talk in these kinds of vague whimsical sentences, and he worried what hid in the shadows that such vagaries cast. After years of holding Devon’s oath against him, he couldn’t allow himself to make the same mistake.

“Do you corner me now?”

The spirit considered him for a moment. “I have come for conversation and brought you no harm. I ask you to do this for Buru out of love.”

“Look, I respect that this forest is your home. I recognize the wisdom of your age and the power you wield. I am grateful for the kindness you have shown me and for the benefits of our partnership. However, I also know that my kind has been known to enter in oaths where the true consequences are deliberately hidden.”

“Yet more rain.”

Hans coughed, restraining his nerves as best he could. “I disagree. Am I wrong in my assessment?”

“You are not.” After a pause, the Lady said, “I offer to share in the oath with you.”

A tingle of curiosity buzzed in Hans’ brain. He knew it was dangerous to satisfy that curiosity, as that was the kind of hunger that beings like gods and fae used to trick mortals, yet he couldn’t resist.

“Explain.”

“What would you ask of me? My oath is for life as is yours, but I have more years to serve than you ever will.”

“Anything?”

“I cannot make a promise without knowing your desire.”

Now who ‘expects rain.’

Thinking carefully, Hans felt the allure of the oath-exchange growing. A corner of his mind shouted for him to pull back, to stop the slide here and now.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Suppose I asked you to swear an oath of protection for the citizens of Gomi. Would you grant that?”

“I ask what would constitute protection?”

Hans smiled. Look who is concerned about the wording of an oath.

Stop! This is a bad idea.

“You would swear to do everything in your power to protect them from outsiders who would do them harm.”

For a moment, the dryad’s facsimile of a face seemed pensive and oddly human. “I cannot intervene directly, but I can call for my friends to act on my behalf.”

“Every friend in the forest, and your request will be a sincere desire to protect the people of Gomi.”

“How am I to know who is truly ‘of Gomi’ as you say?”

Thinking, Hans pulled up his sleeve and showed the Lady of the Forest his Repel Possession tattoo. “Anyone who has this tattoo, and the protection you give them extends to their children as well, whether or not the child is tattooed.”

“If you swear an oath to protect Buru’s familiar, I will swear to treat anyone bearing that design as an ally, worthy of assistance and protection should they be under attack from an outside enemy. I cannot, however, intervene in conflicts originating within this forest.”

“What would you have me swear?” Hans asked.

“I’d have you craft your own oath. You already distrust my words.”

That was true. Hans thought carefully, composing and revising an oath in his mind. He stopped suddenly.

Are you really considering this? You’re really considering this!

All of the classic pitfalls were there. The Lady’s request seemed benign. Why would Hans ever kill a familiar anyhow? Typically he wouldn’t, but he could think of several scenarios where he might, like if the familiar was used for evil or had broken its bond and ravaged innocent villages, which was rare but happened. She had no reason that he could see for using Buru for ill, but she had centuries to perfect her strategies and tactics. How’d that saying go? It’s the attack you don’t see that kills you?

The potential upside was significant, yet academically he knew that was the true danger of oaths with supernatural beings. They would make the mortal feel like the reward was worth the risk and lull them into believing that the mortal was dictating the terms and getting the best of the bargain.

This is exactly what happened to Devon. His intentions would have been better than mine even.

“I have a proposal,” Hans said finally. “When you gave me the memories of the zout, you could read my intentions, right? You knew when I was being genuine?”

“That is true.”

“I have no such ability, and that puts me at a disadvantage here.”

“Another truth.”

“My oath is voided if I truly believe your intentions are evil. If the desire for the oath to be broken is driven by a desire to trick or manipulate the oath for my own hidden gain, you may brand me your enemy. If my intentions are pure, then we release each other from our oaths.”

“That is–”

“There’s one more piece.” Hans believed he saw the Lady scowl. “As you said, you will long outlive me. To balance the oath, I will be permitted to pass it on to another caretaker who you may assess by the same standards you assessed me. You will know their intentions are pure before the oath is transferred.”

“I will swear to uphold the terms as you have spoken them if I find your oath to be acceptable. Do you agree to deliver no harm to Buru’s familiar and to protect it as you would a familiar of any other ally?”

“If you uphold our terms, I swear to deliver no harm to Buru’s familiar and to protect it as I would a familiar of any other ally.”

The various sticks and leaves comprising the Lady of the Forest’s body fell to the ground.

New Quest: Greet Buru when he returns to learn more about his familiar.

***

Hans knocked on Olza’s door.

“Are you just getting in?” Olza asked, glancing up at the moon.

“I got sidetracked being a huge hypocrite.”

“What?”

“Happy to tell you everything tomorrow if that’s okay. I need to get some sleep.”

A hint of confusion on her face, she said, “Yeah, of course.”

“Thank you. Where do you want the root?”

“Right. You can drop it in the lab.” She pointed to the back of the shop.

He did as she requested. As he ventured back toward the door, Olza called after him. “Oh! I almost forgot. Galinda said Buru is back with his familiar.”

Hans stopped. “In Gomi?”

“Well, yeah. The Tribe dormitories, so not like right next door. I’d love to go see it in the morning if you want to come.”

“What is it?” Hans asked.

“The familiar?”

“Yes.”

“...Galinda wouldn’t say. She said it would be better as a surprise.”

Rubbing his face, Hans said with a sigh, “I’m going now. Do you want to come?”

Quest Update: Visit Buru immediately to learn more about his familiar.

***

A tusk Hans recognized as a parent of one of his students sat outside the Tribe dorms, reading a book by lamplight. He was older for a tusk, though Hans had heard conflicting conclusions for their average lifespan. Most people would say shorter than a human’s lifespan, but a sizable minority argued that was more disinformation against tusks. That minority said that a tusk living to 200 was like a human living to 70.

At any rate, the man had wrinkles, gray in his hair, and one of his tusks was missing. He guarded the door for the children. Though no one had the dreams once the tattoo wards were applied, several adult tusks continued to rotate shifts on watch, just in case.

Hans and Olza stopped to speak with him, asking if he would mind asking Buru to step outside. They didn’t want to wake half the dormitory trying to find where the Apprentice Druid slept.

The man obliged, and soon he returned with Buru’s oversized silhouette following behind. Hans scanned for a creature, but didn’t see one.

“Yes, Guild Master?” Buru asked.

“Heard you bonded with your familiar.”

Buru nodded proudly. “Would you like to meet her? She will be awake for a while yet.”

“Umm… Where?”

“Come. We can use the light in the barn.”

With every step, Hans scanned and scanned for signs of a creature, looking for any shifts in shadows all around him. If the familiar wasn’t out here or with Buru, was it sleeping in the barn? How big would a familiar have to be to need that much space?

Standing in the yellow light of flickering lanterns and surrounded by kegs, Buru stood before Hans and Olza.

“Buru?” Hans asked after they stood in silence for some time.

“My apologies. We are still learning to communicate through our bond. Petal, would you like to come out and meet our Guild Master?”

This was it. Hans was about to see the beast. If the Lady believed Hans would desire to slay the familiar, what could it be? Was there some secret hellspawn in the Gomi forest he wasn’t aware of?

“There you are.”

Olza squealed. “She’s adorable!”

Hans looked where Olza looked. She seemed to be talking over the tusk’s shoulder. At what, he did not know. Could she see it but he couldn’t? What monster had an ability like that? Selective invisibility would make it pretty powerful.

“Petal, this is Miss Olza. She is our friend.”

“I love her,” Olza said.

Buru turned. “And this is Mr. Hans, Gomi’s Guild Master. He is our friend and teacher.”

A flicker of movement drew Hans’ gaze from looking over Buru’s shoulder to looking at the tusk’s thick neck. A small creature, no larger than a mouse, stared at Hans. It had a pointed white furry face with round dark gray ears tipped in white. Its pink nose looked a touch too big for its proportions, like a ball at the tip of a cone. Its whiskers wiggled with its nose as it sniffed in Hans’ direction.

“Mr. Hans,” Buru said like a doting father. “Meet Petal.”

“Buru… is your familiar a baby opossum?”

The giant tusk grinned and nodded his head giddily. “I was hoping for a squirrel, but Petal is so much better.”

Quest Update: You’re too tired to formulate a coherent quest update about the baby opossum familiar.

***

Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

Mend the rift with Devon.

Using a pen name, complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

Expand the dungeon with resource-specific monsters for each of Gomi’s major trades.

Decide whether or not to pursue silent walking and snow walking.

Find a way for Gomi adventurers to benefit from their rightful ranks in the Adventurers’ Guild.

Secure a way to use surplus dungeon inventory for good.

Expand the dungeon using the ogre valley job as a blueprint.

You’re too tired to formulate a coherent quest update about the baby opossum familiar.