Scrutinizing the crystal bottles handed to them, the trio became more suspicious the more they looked at it.

"It isn't poison or something like that. In fact, it is very good for your body. I am saving up for one myself." Miss Florelle tried to dismiss their suspicions seeing their narrowed eyes.

"Remember to drink it right before you go to bed. You will probably need it for tomorrow. Now, move on, I have other people to tend to." Miss Florelle shooed them away not allowing them to ask any questions and attended to the people waiting behind.

The trio walked the way back to their room in relative silence. Closing the door, they erupted at once.

"What is this?" Ava exclaimed holding the bottle close to her face and inspecting it.

"Is this a Potion potion or some other thing named potion?" Noah eyed the green liquid inside.

"Should we drink it or not?" Shaun was the only one showing some worry over the unknown potion handed to them.

"I don't know but I want to drink it." Ava's eyes were glittering with excitement.

"I'm in. I want to know what it does." Noah showed a similar level of enthusiasm.

"Can we sit down for a moment to discuss why we shouldn't ingest unknown liquid handed to us?" Shaun tried to bring reason to his friends.

"There's no option other than to drink it. We probably would need to do it anyway so why not do it sooner rather than later." Noah presented their situation to counter Shaun's argument.

Not seeing himself winning in an argument with Noah, especially with such points against him, Shaun opted for the desperate measures. He lunged quickly and snatched both their potions from their hands before they could react.

"Hey, give it back" "Did you really have to do that?" Ava and Noah voiced their complaints at this apparent injustice they felt was done against them.

"We.Need.To.Talk." Shaun declared setting the potions on the table far from their reach.

"You really are no fun. Just give the potions back. We will listen quietly and not drink it till we reach an agreement. Right, Ava?" Noah said turning to Ava who was bobbing her head clearly just wanting to get her potion back.

"Fine, here you go." Shaun sighed and handed their potions back to them. Noah's eyebrows raised seeing him give up so easily, like he didn't even try to make a comeback. Something was off.

Ava snatched her potion while Noah also looked glad to get his back.

The trio then took their position around the table at their usual positions.

"What did you want to say?" Noah asked placing his potion at his side.

"Did you think what this potion could possibly do? Even if it doesn't have poison, It may have some hidden curse." What Shaun was saying was quite a reasonable source of worry but something told him he wasn't really serious about it. Being best friends with someone has at least one perk. You know when they are speaking bullshit. Still, Noah decided to entertain him.

"We don't know. Actually, we know nothing. That's the point. We can't just run away from this town." Noah looked at his friends with a sombre expression.

"The moment we got here until this very moment now, we were just following what we are told. This is just adding another one on the list."

"So, we just do what they told us to." Shaun questioned with his face frowning.

"Yes, We do just that." Noah answered glaring at Shaun.

"Noah, can you stop being a dick and just tell him the truth. Also, Shaun, what are you hiding? You are not fooling anyone here." Ava intervened seeing the argument heat up.

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"I am not at fault. He's the one acting abnormally." Noah said trying to shift the blame.

"I am behaving normally. What are you two saying?" Shaun genuinely looked confused about the question.

Both Shaun and Ava also became confused by his behavior.

"You are acting suspicious, Shaun. Even I can see it, much less Noah who spends way more time with you." Ava explained.

"You were not serious when you were mentioning about the potion's dangers. Yet you keep trying to prolong the argument. What is with that, huh?" Noah joined the assault.

"I was just-" Shaun suddenly shut his mouth up and was now clearly hesitating to speak up.

"I was just what. Speak up. We need to know the reason." Both Noah and Ava pressured him with their gazes.

Eventually, Shaun crumbled under the combined weight of their gazes and sighed.

"I was really not stopping you to drink the potion. It was just you were both acting recklessly. So, I thought to at least remind you about it." Shaun finished but both Noah and Ava weren't buying into that. He was still hiding the full matter.

Shaun put up quite a serious face but wasn't quite a match to the duo's stare.

"Also, I may be a teensy bit interested in drinking the potion myself." Shaun added with an embarrassed look.

The duo stared blankly hearing his confession before Noah's face suddenly break up.

"Pffft" What initially started as a chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh.

"That's all. You wanted to use the potion but couldn't bring yourself to admit it. That's really stupid. But I can totally see you doing that sort of shit. Here I was thinking something was wrong with you."

"Noah, you shouldn't laugh at him, he was ju-Pfft" Ava also couldn't handle it either and joined in the laughter.

"See that's why I did not want to say it. I now have to deal with harassment from you two for the coming week." Shaun sighed seeing the two acting like jokers. He thought it would subside quickly but no, they weren't stopping even after a few minutes had passed.

"We get it. It was funny. Now can you stop laughing? It's not making me anymore embarrassed." Shaun really didn't like the fact that two people who acted like kids all the time were laughing at him just for a single time he acted a bit curious.

"Okay, but you shouldn't try to keep up a serious face. It's really not you. I get that we aren't really in the ideal situation but you don't have to be so stiff. Just loosen up a bit." Noah said getting himself up from the floor while wiping the tears from his eyes.

Ava also got up and sat at her seat quietly with an embarrassed look realizing how silly she must have looked rolling on the floor cackling like a crazy.

"Now that I think about it, that was pretty stupid. The whole argument was baseless. If people here wanted to harm us, they had no need to take such a roundabout way such as the potion. They could do so easily if they wanted to." Noah said with a chuckle.

"What do you think the potion would do?" Shaun asked changing the topic.

"Obviously, it has something to do with Rejuvenation, since it is the name of the potion." Noah commented.

"I think it will restore one's body to peak condition or even work as a youth potion of sorts. Maybe that's why Miss Florelle wanted one. To preserve her beauty. Though there is no way to know other than to try it. I, personally am really excited about the idea." Ava said explaining her ideas about the potion.

"We can try it now, It is already getting late and I am really tired. We should sleep early so that we can start in the morning." Shaun added looking out the window.

The trio nodded at each other. They were heading towards the bedroom before Ava stopped the boys in track.

"Wait, I need to change first. You boys can change here." Ava said quickly closing the partition.

Shrugging, they went to their luggage to take out some comfortable nightwear.

"That was immature of me. I will be upfront with you, It was not the smartest decision." Shaun said suddenly.

"I was also being a bit of a jerk myself. So, it goes both ways." Noah replied and continued.

"You know, I am really thankful you two are here with me." Noah answered without turning his head from the backpack.

A smile came upon Shaun's face hearing those words.

Noah and Shaun quickly changed and then stood waiting in front of the bedroom partition. A few minutes later, a knock sounded out on the partition which then opened up with Ava peeking out and then fully opening it seeing they had fully changed.

They headed inside and took their respective beds.

Sitting on the beds, Noah looked at the potion bottle.

It was made of crystal and had beautiful designs on it. The bottle seemed to be for the rich. The green potion inside made the whole thing look magical. Pulling the stopper, it made a pop sound.

Looking over his friends, he saw them doing the same. Giving a nod to the two, he chugged down the potion. As soon as the liquid touched his throat, a weird taste erupted in his mouth. It was not disgusting per se but it was not good either and it had a slightly slimy texture. Enduring it, he finished the potion.

He started feeling warmth in his stomach soon. Taking it as a sign of the potion working its literal magic, he relaxed. The exhaustion also caught up to him as he started feeling tired. Laying in his bed, he pulled the sheet and tucked his body in comfortably.

The trio waved their hands to turn off the lamps. The room was instantly engulfed in darkness. Staring at the ceiling and going over today's events, Noah soon felt sleepy. He bid goodnight to his friends.

"Goodnight"

"Night" Ava replied.

"Sleep well, we need all the energy tomorrow." Shaun said.

He closed his eyes and sleep took over him soon.