Rethia uncomfortably shifted from one talon to the other, digging into the low perch in the Travelers Lodge.

She had finished drawing an accurate large-scale map of of Nitia and everything in a one day flight radius, taking the time and care to put everything down correctly.

Sven sat on the edge of the table, giving her a withering gaze.

“I still have to write reports…” whispered Rethia, grabbing for a sheet of leather. Paper was too expensive for something like a report.

“Gi gii, gi, GIIGI!” screeched Sven suddenly, ripping the nervous silence apart.

Rethia winced, pulling her claws away before she could grab the leather.

“GII! Gigigi gi!”

“Don’t wanna…” muttered Rethia, turning her head away.

Sven pounded his paws onto the table, chittering angrily at her, then pointing at the door.

“I… I… haah… You don’t understand,” she tried.

“Gii~ Gi!”

I’m running out of excuses… Might as well…

Conciously, she unclenched her talons and stepped down from the perch, feeling the wooden floor. Sven immediately hopped onto her head and tugged at her hair as if they were reins.

“Fine…” defeated by a monkey of all things, she trudged out the door and flew to the shamans cave. Once there, she slowly walked inside, hoping against hope that Celia wouldn’t be there.

But of course the shaman was in her cave. Except for the festival after her First Flight, she had never seen Celia outside of this cave. And as always, it was empty.

“Back so soon, Lost Firewing? The outside winds too scary for you? The open skies too vast for comfort?” asked Celia with her back to Rethia, lighting candles on the altar.

Rethia opened and closed her mouth several times, before she found some words: “How do you know it’s me?”

Celia simply laughed and turned. “I am a shaman. It’s my job.” Then she turned serious. “As it is my job to give you counsel, Lost Firewing.”

Rethia inched closer, wary of what the shaman would do. She didn’t want to be pricked again without her consent.

“I… don’t know where I’m going. I… I think…” she stopped, grasping for the right words. Celia waited patiently. “I have too many options. I could go anywhere. But… what if it’s the wrong direction? I’m… stuck…”

“Hum… Paralyzed by the gifts given to you. Many share this with you. But few have the courage to ask for help.” Celia turned to look at the little statuettes, then turned back to look at Rethia, her eyes glowing slightly. “You have already been given a goal: Soar unfettered through the Skies. To the Edge of the Seas. Through the Heart of Fire. Then, and only then, will you find what you seek.”

“I don’t understand!” whimpered Rethia, huddling under her wings, escaping with her misery from those piercing eyes.

It was silent for a long time, only the breeze moving through the cave. Not a single feather rustled. Even Sven was silent, staring at Celia with begging eyes.

“Fuuh, haah. Silly hatchling. Then I give you a mission. Go to the western coast and find the First Settlement. There, you will find a lead to the Mermaids Lair. Deliver this item to them. Take your time and look at the world. I guess they will send you on another errand. If not, I guess you have experienced enough to chart your own course. Or you’re not suited to be a Traveler.”

Rethia looked up in panic. “No! I don’t want to be chained to the village!”

Celia grinned widely. “Oho? Maybe you really are a Traveler. At least partially. Here, deliver this roll of cloth to the mermaids.”

Rethia grabbed for the thrown roll, juggling it briefly in an attempt to not rip it apart, which made Celia outright laugh.

“It’s special cloth. It won’t rip easily. Now shoo. Talking with you tires me.”

“If… if you say so…” Rethia looked at the roll of cloth. It was the color of freshly fallen snow. Then she grabbed it tight with renewed determination. This is a mission. I finally have a concrete goal! “I will deliver this without fail!”

And with that, she stormed out of the cave, never hearing what Celia said at last.

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Within seconds, she was back at the Travelers Lodge, carefully rummaging through the collected maps.

“Aha! This one looks good. The western coast. Hum… hmm… huh?! Wait a second… It has to be there… I’m sure… haah, seriously? They only put in the largest cities? And none of them is named ‘First Settlement’! What is this? Fine. Then I’ll search for it. Must be really tiny village. And here is… the part between the western coast and this plateau…”

She quickly copied both maps onto a single large sheet of paper, rolling it up and storing it in a pouch.

“Hum… I’ll need provisions. And additional gear. We’ll be sleeping outside at least a few times, Sven. And I guess I need an additional pouch. These four are getting really full.”

“Gi gigi gi…”

“What?! No I won’t throw away my collection of glittery stones! They are special!”

“Gii gigii~”

“And how will I know what glittery stones I have, if I leave them here? Huh? Absolutely no! Instead, we should throw out your rotten sticks!”

“GIGI GIG GI!” Sven instantly rejected the idea.

“See? You better never again say that I should throw my glittery stones away, or I’ll burn your stick collection, hmpf.”

They rose with the sun, took a quick breakfast in the communal hall and left for Nitia, reaching it in record time, an hour before midday.

“Good morning! Can I buy additional Item Pouches?” she asked directly at the counter, meeting her favorite cat receptionist again. “Mine are already mostly full, and I plan a longer journey…”

“They are what?! Full after only five weeks? That’s totally unheard of! What are you hiding away in those bags? Treasures? Whole monster corpses? Wait, no. They wouldn’t fit in, except for rabbits or foxes…”

“Uhm… well… mostly herbs and… some mementos. from the places I visited…” mumbled Rethia, turning shy and trying to hide behind a wing.

“Herbs? And mementos? Wait. Not food or cooking geat, but mementoes?!” shrieked the cat. The dwarf sitting further behind the counter and reading a book grumbled audibly.

“Ahem. You can always sell the herbs to the Guild, you know? And I would advise you to let go of those mementoes. They will only take up valuable space and won’t be helpful at all.”

“This…” Rethia fidgeted. It sounded like a good idea, and she wouldn’t have to buy new pouches, but… they were so beautiful! And they sparkled in the sunlight!

“You don’t have to part with them,” grumbled the dwarf and turned a page. “And stop pushing your ideas onto the adventurers, Yezoe. You were asked for Item Bags, not for a way to organize the bags she already possesses.”

“Fine, fine. What kind of Item Bag do you want, Rethia? I still think it would be better to clear out those mementoes.”

Rethia alternated between the dwarf and the catwoman Yezoe. Then she fixed her attention onto the task at hand. Her precious pebbles seemed to be safe for the moment.

“Something to put on this belt. Otherwise I have no idea. What kinds of Item Bags do you have? And what do they cost?”

“The basic kit can hold twice of what a normal backpack can store. It’s made of three smaller pouches, so each pouch can store two-thirds of a normal backpack. We also sell them individually. They cost about 25 silver Rhamp. If you want a single pouch that can store the amount of two normal backpacks, that would be 2 small gold Rhamp.

“Then we also have the specialized pouches, like your herb pouch. They can store the same as a basic kit, but only for specific item types. Here at this branch, we have them for herbs, paper and beast parts. They cost 1 small gold Rhamp each. If you want them with more storage space, the price goes up fast.” Yezoe added several more prices for different storage spaces.

Rethia stared at Yezoe, then pulled her notebook out and scribbled everything onto the last page. And came up blank.

“Why the price jump? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy two bags for 1 small gold Rhamp and have the space of four backpacks, instead of paying 5 small gold for the space of 5 backpacks?”

The dwarf grunted with interest and turned another page in his book. Yezoe just shrugged with a small smile.

“The basic pouches don’t reduce the weight by much. With your basic kit, you’re effectively carrying around half the weight of what everything would weight normally. If the bags and pouches are given more storage space, they need a higher grad enchantment for weight reduction. Which in turn means higher quality materials and paying high grade mages. Thus the price jump. And let me tell you, putting such an enchantment onto a small pouch so that it keeps, is much more difficult than on a backpack. And before you ask, yes, backpacks in that storage space segment are a bit cheaper than the pouches.”

“Oh… that… makes sense… I guess…” she quickly jotted down several noteworthy points from Yezoes explanation.

“Well then, which one will it be?” asked Yezoe with a business smile.

Rethias face twisted painfully, as she calculated her money and the things she still needed to buy. Her previous thoughts, that she may be somewhat rich now, were crushed.

“You could always sell your herbs and the maps you got in your little book,” said the dwarf from his backseat, pointedly looking at her notebook, before returning his attention to his own book.

“Maps?” quipped Yezoe and looked at the scribbles for the first time. In the upper left corner was something that could be described as a small map.

“You buy maps?” asked Rethia, flipping through her notebook. “What kind of maps? Something like… this?”

The double page showed her proudest map achievement so far: Nitia with everything in a 1 day flight radius. The same map she had copied and stored in the harpies Traveler Lodge.

The dwarf hopped from his chair and stomped over for a look.

Both Yezoe and the dwarf stared at the map. They had seen more detailed maps, sure, but those were rarely sold. Each guild building had at least one map of the continent and a map of their city with the immediate surroundings – courtesy to the guild being an old institution with some wealth, but those maps were old and not necessarily up to date. Maps of smaller regions, fit for merchant or adventurer use, were equally rare. Because merchants didn’t want to give their rivals too much information.

They settled on Rethia drawing each of her maps once, in such a quality that they could be copied by magic. For each copy sold, she would get some coins as commission, marked in her adventurers file, making it accessible from whichever guild branch she wanted.

For the maps themselves, she received a pouch with 2 backpacks worth of space.

Her evening was spent buying other necessary stuff: cooking pot and pan, two wooden bowls, seasonings, jerky for a few days, two new notebooks and a small tent. And a firestarter.

The next day dawned bright and promising. White clouds scuttled along the winds, with nary a raindrop in sight.

“We got everything we need. Time to hit the road, what do you say, Sven?”

Sven licked the remaining grease from the grilled veggies from his paws and grabbed the harness.

“Gigii!”