As the sun rose, small rays of its welcome, golden light began to poke through over the rooftops and the tips of the pine trees. Diane was greeted by the smell of cooking eggs and biscuits. She was so excited and full of energy, she hardly felt like the same girl from the night before. She practically ran over Thistle on her way out the door, grabbing her freshly cleaned dress and quickly throwing it on as she hurried towards the stairs.
“Thistle, wake up lazy bones! You don’t want to miss breakfast!”
Thistleman stirred slowly, before yawning and sitting up. His need for food was a lot less than that of a person, and for some reason, the idea of taking the morning slow appealed to him. It was an odd feeling, not having to be worried about being murdered in your sleep. He had no grand ambitions. Yes indeed, he was a lazy bones! Though he didn’t want to miss breakfast! There was a big smile on his face, which lasted for a grand total of three seconds.
Wait. Did I really just think that?
All the energy drained out of him as he realized the terrifying truth: he had escaped one horrible mind-altering influence, only to fall into the hands of one even more overwhelming. She kept redefining who he was. He had severely underestimated the power of contracts. No wonder so few daemons offered them.
“Well, I suppose I better go get some breakfast too, but not because I don’t want to miss it!”
Thistleman declared this to himself, unconvincingly trying to reassure himself he was not being influenced by her. He hesitated long enough to conceal a slight scowl before following after her.
Ryme had been pacing all morning, glancing constantly towards the stairwell. The concerned stares were quickly replaced with a sigh of relief and big smile on the skeever’s fuzzy snout, as a small girl came blitzing down the stairs two at a time. Diane looked absolutely adorable now that she was all cleaned up!
“Good morning, little dearie! Hop onto the stool by the counter and I will have your breakfast right up!”
“Thanks, Auntie Ryme! It smells so great!”
“A-Auntie?!” she exclaimed, followed by a squeak. Ryme blushed a little.
“Yes, you are Auntie Ryme, and he is Uncle Jotuun!”
“If me Uncle, you Niece,” Jotuun said, carrying in a tray. He patted Diane on the head with one of his massive paws and as she started giggling.
“Hey, you’re messing up my hair, stooooooop!”
“Here you go,” Ryme said, placing her breakfast before her. “I hope you enjoy it!”
Thistleman slowly walked down the stairs, taking a good look at the layout of the inn. Aside from Jotuun, there was little security and it struck him as not particularly well defended. He would need to educate Diane, and hopefully the owners as well, on ways to improve this place with magical wards and dimensional expansion.
Thistleman groaned loudly as he climbed up onto his stool. “Itadakimasu (Thank-you for the food).”
What he said and what was spoken… it was definitely different. Why? How? It was just more questions, ones that definitely needed answers.
“Well aren’t you the groggy looking one today, and here I thought with you getting more sleep than Diane!” Ryme hit Thistleman with a bright smile.
Thistleman started eating a biscuit extremely slowly with an empty, deadpan stare.
“Can we get a table for five? A double order of the breakfast special please. We got a request for some tivia wood from up in the mountain and got a long haul ahead. Can’t waste these clear skies, and we will need the energy!” A burly orc bustled through the door, boasting a meaty grin. He was soon joined by a motley crew of equally famished demi humans.
“Coming right up! Jotuun, please get their table ready!”
As Thistle looked back down on his plate, he realized it was empty. He had been so focused on proving his mental independence to himself, he hadn’t noticed that Diane has stolen the rest of his breakfast. Well, he wouldn’t have stopped her from doing so anyway. The faster she healed up and grew, the faster he could recover himself too. He broke out into a big grin.
“Hehe, its fine. Deedee here has enough energy for the both of us.”
“Who are you calling Deedee? Only I can give out nicknames! Its Diane, got it? Miss Di-ane! Anyways, thanks for the food, Auntie! We are running out to grab another quest from the guild. We will see ya tonight! Bye Uncle Jojo!”
Diane grabbed Thistle by the collar as she hopped off her stool, practically dragging him out the door. If everyone wasn’t so busy, it’s possible someone may have noticed the look of absolute defeat on Thistleman’s face.
She could hear Ryme call after them, “All right, be safe out there!” as well as a grunt of approval from Jotuun.
A minute later, the sound of a plate smashing on the floor could be heard followed by a shocked squeak.
“Wait… did she say a quest?! JOTUUN, DID SHE SAY SHE WAS GOING ON A QUEST?”
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The guild was bustling with activity this morning. Many lower rank adventurers were aiming to take advantage of the great weather to complete their quests, while a steady stream adventurers also left the guild, fully packed up. A fair number had accepted the mercenary contracts that had been posted. The recruiters were clearly prepared with food and coin; the burgeoning stream of caravans coming to pickup new recruits had been increasing by the day.
Elsie was worried this might be the last time she would see the guild this full of adventurers for a while. Only the higher ranked adventurers tended to have the budget to afford to travel. The growing outflow meant that there would be fewer adventurers able to take on the local quests, and that there would be inherently higher risk for the remaining adventurers, especially if their groups barely met the mission qualifications.
With how tense things had been in the kingdom lately, this didn’t come as much of a surprise. In order to compensate, the guild would have to dip into their emergency fund and post a gathering quest to purchase supplies of the ingredients for low tier healing potions. They had also just hired a full-time alchemist to produce potions for the guild, which they would sell at a slight loss to the adventuring parties, enabling them to reduce personnel losses until the wars or subjugation missions ended, and the adventurers started coming back to their home branches.
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Elsie bounced on her feet as she made her way to the quest board. “Nyah, listen up! Cyopper rank gyathering quest is now open! Please cyome to the cyounter to accept this quest!”
Catkin were almost always full of boundless energy, and even though she was apprehensive about the guild’s current situation, and the higher-than-anticipated departures of adventurers (after all, dwarven-crafted gear is quite hard to come by), she had a very excited expression as she announced the quest.
Almost immediately, two groups showed up as takers.
The first was a group of two men, one woman, and one male canian. The canian the fighter, with decent leather armor, a small wooden shield, and an iron sword. Among the humans there was an archer, a rouge-like fellow with a short sword and daggers, and a female sorcerer wielding a much-too-large staff and an overly wide-brimmed hat. All of them wore copper plates on their chests and were fairly young, likely between nineteen to twenty years old.
“Good morning Elsie, we are here to pick up the gathering quest!”
“Nyah, its gyood to see you again, Randall! Hiya Jeanne, and Haraldr!”
“Hey Elsie!” Haraldr replied.
“Morning,” Jeanne said.
Once Elsie got to the canian, they both started staring daggers at each other. Much like their distant ancestors, catkin and canians harbored a strong dislike of each other. However, she was the guild official. So instead, she chose to silently ignore Roofus.
“Here, I hyave the quest details for you.”
Elsie proceeded to pass a small sheet over to Randall, which listed the items to collect along with pictures of them.
“Stay syafe out there. Good lyuck, nyah!”
“Thanks Elsie!” Randal replied.
As Elsie waved the group out the door, she heard a very loud, “Excuse me? What about us? We’re here for the gathering quest too!” from below the counter. She looked over the edge again, and saw the small girl from yesterday standing there, tapping her feet impatiently. The unfortunate catkin started to have flashbacks, especially when Thistleman smiled and waved at her. Elsie started bouncing a little faster, as small headache started to form. She did not expect them to be back this soon.
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“Hmmm, so according to this pamphlet, we need crow grass, tonba berries, and tuffle weed? Let’s see… they are paying twenty copper per ounce collected.” Diane mused, as she made her way out of the city with Thistle. The other group had hustled on ahead, showing a clear familiarity with the task at hand.
Unfortunately for Diane, in their exhaustion the night before, they had left their horses at the guild, and by the time they had returned that morning, they were gone.
Thistleman looked over Diane’s shoulder as she read aloud, trying to piece together the words on the page. At the very least, he could connect the words to the corresponding pictures. The sooner he didn’t have to rely on an unknown power, the better.
“And what about that one?” Thistle asked, pointing towards a picture of grass resembling small talons, while forcefully sucking up his pride.
“Oh, that one? That issss… crow grass! Huh, so that’s what it looks like… I’ve only ever seen it after its been prepared. It seems the crow grass is not too hard to find too, as it usually grows in sunny patches within the woods. It actually gets its name from the berries near its base, which tend to attract lots of crows to feed on them. However, the part we need is actually the stem, as the berries themselves are toxic to creatures other than birds.”
“Huh, I would have definitely thought its because it looked kinda like a crows foot…” Thistleman demurred. “So what’s that last ones that we need?”
Diane paused for a moment, giving Thistleman and odd glance, followed by a look of surprise and then pity. Thistle grimaced, as Diane proceeded with gusto.
“Next, we need the tonba berries, see these letters here? They are for the tonba berry bush, and this part says that it grows on rocky areas on the side of mountains. So that one will also not be too hard. The tuffle weed will be harder to find, as it only grows near streams, is apparently rare, and tends to look like the other local plants. What we need from it is the flower, which only opens in the afternoon when the sun is out, and it has a very identifiable crimson color when it does. Luck-yyyy! I knew it, today is finally, really going to be my lucky day!”
Thistleman thought he had heard rumors long ago about something called a jinx, but he decided not to say anything about it as he didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm. Plus, as she chattered one, he was starting to piece together more of their actual language. The price… at least for this moment, was acceptable.
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Randall, Haraldr, Jeanne, and Roofus were very excited. Today had gone exceedingly well. They had managed to get a decent supply of crow grass and tuffle weed. All that was left were the tonba berries, which they saved for last as it was the farthest away, and easiest to find on the mostly barren mountainsides. They had already gathered quite a few, but wanted to evenly match their supply of crow grass and tuffle weed to maximize their reward.
“With this much, we should at least be set for the next month! Maybe we can finally get me a new spell book too??” Jeanne was excited. Learning new spells was an extremely difficult and expensive task for individuals who were not part of a major noble family.
“I might get me a new bow!” Randall said.
“Heh, enjoy your gear. I think I want to use my share for some… more discreet pursuits.” Haraldr had a somewhat perverted look on his face. He had seen the ladies at some of the brothels in the slums, and had always dreamed of losing his V-card. However, due to his shady personality, he could never win any girls the normal way. For him, the brothel was a godsend. Plus, he’d just turned twenty and was officially old enough to enter.
“Ugh, you’re so gross, Haraldr. This is why you can never pick up any girls.” Jeanne feigned an exaggerated expression of displeasure as she chided the young njord.
“Yeah, well why would I need to worry about picking up girls when I can just pay for them?” Haraldr countered matter-of-factly. Jeanne turned a shade of burnt red.
“B-because regular girls are much better and cleaner! You don’t know what the girls, or guys, in a brothel have!” She stammered.
“Ohhhh, and how would you know that, miss Jeeeannnneee?” Haraldr repressed a slight snicker as he pressed a momentary advantage, causing Jeanne to resemble a turnip in color.
The two quickly halted their fight when Randall raised his fist, halting the group. Roofus was scouting ahead, using his keen wolf senses to look for monsters. They could hear him howling in agony.
“Hurry, up around the cliff face!”
Randall dropped his pack with their supplies and drew his sword, Haraldr readied a pair of daggers and stepped back into the tree line, and Jeanne brought up the rear. When they got close to the corner of the cliff, they could hear a loud buzzing noise. Randall held in his breath. He could smell the strong scent of blood, and he could hear the chittering and popping of insects, as well as a mushy, crunching noise.
Randall held his breath, closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them again and looking around the corner.
He saw Roofus, or what was left of Roofus, being shredded by a swarm of giant, red-eyed hornets. Each one was at least the size of a small boulder, measuring about six feet in length and three feet tall. Their mandibles made quick work of his flesh, and crunched through his bone and armor effortlessly.
Roofus’s disembodied hand was holding on to the small stem of a tonba berry bush. In his excitement, it seemed he hadn’t noticed the holes dotting this side of the cliff, marking the giant hornet nest.
Randall gasped at the sight, his body reacted violently and immediately threw up. It was all too late when he looked up, the swarm buzzing in an excited fury.
“RUN!” Randall screeched as loudly as he possibly could.
However, as he began to run, he felt the ground start to slip away from under him and a strong pressure grabbed his waist. Then, an extremely sharp pain cut through his shoulder. He was screaming in agony as he looked over and saw the giant mandibles, easily slicing through his flesh. That’s when he felt the pain shoot through his leg, as another hornet came from underneath and latched on.
Haraldr stood in the trees, watching in horror as he saw Randall’s body stretch and then rip, his blood and organs raining down. Jeanne was pinned beneath a swarm on the ground, her screams quickly turning into gurgles, and then all that was left were the sounds of chittering, crunching bones, and tearing meat.
He regained his senses and tried to quickly move away from the gruesome scene, stifling his urge to retch and hoping he hadn’t been noticed.
Please, god, if you’re out there, don’t let them have noticed me!