“Dad says it’s time to head back,” Willow said
Hazel looked at her quizzically, “I didn’t hear anything.”
“He used that [Message] spell of his. The mayor is about to show us some houses, he said.”
“Sweet,” said Hazel. “Ewan! Twix! Arlo! Let’s go”
A few minutes later, they turned a corner to see Arden, Nolan, and Mayor Helen waiting for them in front of the inn.
“Where’s Christi?” Hazel asked.
“I sent her home to get some sleep,” Helen said. “Now, let us go find where you all will be sleeping.”
With that, the mayor started walking. Thankfully the village wasn’t exactly large, so it only took them about fifteen minutes before they were stopping in front of a house that looked pretty much like all the others in village, well built but little in the way of adornment. The adults walked through it and talked about it being close to the blacksmith, but Willow didn’t pay much attention as she was playing with Arlo.
Once they left that house, they went two streets over where the mayor showed them another house. Hazel seemed to really like this one for some reason so it was decided she, Ewan, and Twix would stay here and Nolan would get the first house they looked at.
“Well, I think I’m going to go let Nicolaus know I’m moving closer to his forge,” Nolan said. “That ought to make him happy.”
“Sounds good. I think Willow and I will go to our new place and start sorting through things.” Arden said.
“Since none of us have any food, I assume we're going to meet up for dinner back at the inn?” Nolan asked.
“Works for me,” Hazel said, and everyone nodded.
“Sweet. See y’all later. Come on, Willow,” Arden said.
Willow followed her dad down the street a few steps before asking, “Why didn’t the mayor show us a house? Where are we going to be staying?”
“We got the house that the goblins came in through. The Myer residence and everything in it is ours for as long as we want to stay here.”
Willow stopped walking and looked like she was about to cry. “That’s kind of messed up, isn’t it. They were just murdered and now we’re going to just take their home and stuff?”
Arden looked back at his daughter, “If you don’t want the house, we can stay somewhere else. But we do need to go seal up that tunnel the goblins dug. As for if it’s messed up, that’s really open to interpretation. You were starting to build a relationship with Oscar, right?”
“Yes sir”
“Well, would you rather all his things were tossed out and the house to sit vacant or would you rather us move into the house and respectfully go through his things and see if there’s anything the village or we could use?”
Willow didn’t answer but she started walking again.
A short bit later, Willow, Arlo, and Arden arrived at their new house.
"Let’s start cleaning up the basement area and working on that tunnel. We'll work until dinner time and then head to the inn," Arden said. “We can sleep there until we get the house straightened up. But we have to get the tunnel sealed up tonight.”
⚷
The next day found Willow, Arlo and Arden back in the Myer house cleaning and sorting. In one of the rooms Willow found what looked like an old-timey chemistry set with all sorts of specimen bottles on the shelves nearby, as well as stacks of papers tied together in bundles.
She untied the oldest bundle and started to read the notes. Instantly she was transfixed and managed to read through more than a dozen pages before Arden nudged her to get her attention.
“Hey, you ok? I called your name a few times, and you didn’t answer.” Arden said.
“Yes sir, sorry. I just lost myself in reading.”
“You find something good?”
“Yeah.” Willow said before clearing her throat and looking her father in the eyes, “Dad, I think Oscar was from Earth.”
Arden paused to process what he just heard, then he pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards resting his arms on the chair back, “Okay, explain.”
Willow smiled and grabbed the papers she’d already looked through and spent the next half hour going over them and explained her reasoning. When she was done, she looked at her dad and saw his eyes were unfocused. “Dad?”
“I think you’re right. I also think you should keep reading through these notes. I just got a level in Alchemy just from reading these few pages.” Arden motioned to all the bundles of notes on the desk, “I bet if you study all of these, you would be well on your way to becoming an alchemist. If that’s something you’re interested in.”
Me? An alchemist? Willow thought to herself. She considered all the various potions she might be able to make. Healing potions, poisons, antidotes, or even the veritaserum potions like in Harry Potter! Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Willow looked back at her father with a forced air of nonchalance, “Yeah, I think I would like to be an alchemist. I think Oscar would like it, too.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Great. I think it’s a skill that could come in handy. If you could learn to make some poisons, that would be really useful for the goblin problem… but you should probably learn how to make antidotes first. I’m going to continue to sort through things. Let me know if you come across anything else interesting.”
Willow only half listened to her father as he walked out of the room, her mind already going to the next stack of notes.
Arden struggled to process what Willow discovered as he walked upstairs. This couple here, or at least the husband, was from Earth. Why were they here? Arden found it hard to believe it was just a coincidence, but if the gods put them here, then why didn’t they protect them or at least warn them? And if the gods didn’t warn Oscar, would they warn Arden if he was in that situation?
Arden continued to roll all of this over in his mind as he cast [Clean] on pretty much everything in the house while also sorting and moving the personal belongings of the former occupants. Before he realized it, the sun was starting to set, and they had never even stopped for lunch. Getting Willow from the room he was now mentally referring to as the lab, Arden used magic to clean them both off, and they proceeded to The Busted Ax Inn to meet the others for dinner.
⚷
The meal proceeded quickly, and everyone was happily chatting about their new places. Willow shared her discovery about Oscar being from Earth and about how she was gaining levels in alchemy just from studying his notes.
Nolan raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Why do you think he was from earth?”
“Because his notes start off with him trying to verify if the periodic table is the same here. He literally went element by element trying to verify if they existed here,” Willow answered.
“But did he say in his notes that he was from Earth?”
“No, just phrases like ‘hydrogen appears to exist in the atmosphere in close to the same relative quantities as back home’,” replied Willow.
“So we don’t know where his home was. It could have been any planet with science on par with Earth in the 18th century.”
“Oh,” Willow replied dejectedly before continuing in a happier tone, “well, his notes are still very well done and I’ve already gained several levels in alchemy just by reading them. I don’t think the notes will be enough for me to master the craft as there’s too much there that I just don’t understand. Eventually, I’m going to need someone to teach me. But I am learning some.” Willow said.
Nolan, realizing he had rained on Willow’s parade a bit, tried to make it right, “That’s awesome. With the potions you’ll be able to make you’ve really found a way to help out the village, increase our combat capabilities, and better yourself all at the same time.”
“Uh, sure,” Willow replied, surprised by the support.
“It seems like our priorities for the foreseeable future are to find the dungeon that’s supposed to be around here somewhere and to learn all we can about the goblins and hobgoblins so that we can take the fight to them and end their threat to the village. From what I’ve been able to gather, this forest is larger than quite a few states back home. So if a dungeon does exist around here, we have a lot of ground to search,” Nolan said. “We’re going to resume training with the guard again tomorrow morning. I believe we all have gained a level with the more common weapons so it’s time to decide which works best for you and specialize in it.”
“I’m a sorceress,” Hazel protested, “Shouldn’t I just practice my magic?”
“Weren’t you out of mana last night during that fight?”
“Yes, which is why I need to practice my magic. As I level up my spells, they tend to go down in mana cost. It’s like, I learn to cast more efficiently.”
“You have a point,” Arden interjected, “But so does Nolan. Remember what I always told you, girls. Always have a plan B. Spend a couple of hours in the mornings improving physically, then spend a few hours after that working your magic. The physical training will be worth it, Hazel.”
“So that’s our mornings then. Work out with the guard, then weapons training. After that, I’ll work with Nicolaus and Willow can work on her alchemy. Hazel can work on her magic. Look for ways to help out the village or to slow down the goblins.”
“Sounds good, Nolan. I’d like us to use magic to help with the crops, but only Willow has the relevant spell right now. I'd like some of our magic training to be all of us going with Willow when she's working the fields. Maybe if we pay attention to what she's doing or something we could learn the spell she's using? I don’t know if it works like that,” Arden said not really sounding all that hopeful, “but we have to keep some crops coming in.”
“Seems like a good chance to set some traps and such, as well,” Nolan said. "Actually, let's plan to go outside the walls just a bit before sunset. Willow can magic the fields, and then we can all get some practice in hiding and stealth."
"What's the difference between hiding and stealth? Aren't those the same skill?" Hazel asked.
"No. That’s like comparing algebra and physics. One is needed to understand the other, but there is a whole world of difference.”
“I never took either of those classes in high school,” Hazel replied.
“Think of it like this,” said Nolan in his lecturing voice, “Hiding is simply hiding. You all have levels in that skill and you’re continuing to get better at it. But what happens when you hide? Nothing. You’re just there, hidden. But once you get enough levels in it, you should unlock stealth, I hope. Stealth isn’t just about being hidden from sight, but being hidden from from as many sense as possible, all while moving.
“If I may,” Arden cut in, “hiding is what prey does. Stealth is what predators do.”
“Exactly!” Nolan agreed. “And I have a feeling we're going to all need some stealth skills when we go after the goblins in order to make sure we are who we want to be."
“Oh, that makes sense,” Hazel said. “Then I can sneak up on goblins and hit ‘em with fireballs,” she finished with a chuckle.
“Okay, so while we’re all working on various things during the day what are you going to be doing?” Nolan asked.
Arden thought for a moment before replying, “I think I’m going to continue to go out into the forest and look for this dungeon. Probably take Ewan and Twix with me most days. We can play hide and seek until we learn to play stealth and seek.” Looking over at Willow he continued, “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to take Arlo with us as well. That way he can help make sure we all stay safe.”
Willow looked to Arlo and back to her father, “He likes the idea. He’s not a huge fan of being in the village all the time.”
“Great. So, physical and weapons training in the morning, magic and job training midday, some free time in late afternoon, evenings outside tending fields, building traps, and training our hiding / stealth skills. Am I missing anything?” Arden asked.
“We need to keep talking to Prit,” said Willow.
“Your father and Christi are interrogating him every morning.” Nolan replied.
“Exactly. He gets interrogated but no one just talks to him.”
“What, you wanna just go have a friendly chat? Become buddies with the guy who led an invasion force against the village?” snapped Nolan.
Willow’s posture straightened as she looked her father’s oldest friend in the eye and set her jaw, “Yes. As a matter of fact I do. It’s clear now that goblins are sapient. I want to talk with Prit and learn more about him and his people. You’ve already made me help you make traps to torture the goblins, which I was against. I’m not going to let this one’s only contact here be hostile.”
Nolan paused for a moment before looking to Arden, “She’s your daughter, dude. You handle it.”
Arden just shrugged and looked to Willow, “Visit him during your free time in the afternoon. You’re not allowed in the jail cell with him nor can you let him out. After each visit, take some notes for the rest of us. I too want to learn more about their society and culture but I don’t get to ask those questions when I see him.”
Nolan just stared at Arden for a moment before shaking his head. “Whatever.”