We left the tavern and headed to a local armory surplus store. The only things Arduwan had with her were her great sword, a long bow with arrows, and her brown rucksack. I, however, had nothing.

At the shop, I found a suitable sword for me to use, a short bow, a pack of arrows, a dagger, a set of boots, and some chainmail with a gray undersuit. The mail shirt and coif were so heavy, I had to have Arduwan help lift it on me.

“Alright, this is great. So, what should we do now? I probably need some practice before taking on Davol right away. Any suggestions?”

Arduwan thought for a moment and then reached into her rucksack. “These are some quest clippings I got from the tavern earlier before you came up to me,” she said, “they’re very basic but should serve as a good start for you!”

I took the clippings from her and sorted through them. I needed to find something not too tough but not too easy either, like rounding up chickens or something. Found one!

“This says a nearby Hamlet has been plagued with goblins recently. I know they can be quite vicious, but I’m sure we can handle them together!”

“Goblins? Sure. Let’s do it!” she said, as she raised her fists to the sky and hopped in the air like Chunli from Street Fighter. I’m sorry, but that was supremely sexy. It was really hard being around this chick. Read that again however you want. It was hard to be around her.

We made our way to the edge of town before I stopped her, “What a minute? We’re not gonna walk there, are we? I took a hike out in the wilderness a few days ago and it wasn’t too fun. Shouldn’t we rent some horses or something?”

“Oh, we don’t need to rent any. I can get one with my Call of the Wild.”

“Call of the Wild?” I asked, perplexed.

Right then, Arduwan began calling out, “AHH!!! Ayayayaya!!!! AHHHHH!!! AYAYAYAYAYAYA!! Ahhh! Ayayaya!”

After a moment of doing that, suddenly, a brown stallion came galloping up to the edge of town. She petted the animal's nose and mounted it in one bound. Afterwards, she reached down to help lift me up on the horse's back to ride behind her.

“Come on,” she said, “I know we’ll be riding bareback, but it won’t take long, and I promise it's safe.”

She had to say it like that didn’t she?

We rode off into the setting sun in the direction of the troubled Hamlet. Before it got too dark, we dismounted and made a little campfire. Arduwan shared some jerky and vegetable sticks with me. This was very different from anything I had experienced before, but that could be said about the other two worlds I had previously visited. I guess my life was shaping up to be a series of novel experiences.

As we settled into sleep, I gazed across the campfire at Arduwan and asked, “Hey Arduwan, when you retrieve the Great Horn, are you going to lead your people to try and find the Gorgon that froze your family?”

“No, I already did that,” she said, passively.

“What?!” I perched up in confusion.

“Yeah, I killed the Gorgon that did it a couple of years ago.”

“Wait…then why aren’t you back with your tribe? Shouldn’t they have all been restored?”

“No. They’re all still stone. I sought out a wiseman named Iliad to find out how I could turn them back. He said that when you cut off a Gorgon’s head, it turns into stone itself and the eyes turn into rocks. The gaze of the Gorgon’s head will then reverse the effect of being turned into stone.”

“I don’t get it? Then why are your people still made of stone?”

She sighed and said, “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t work. I sat there for hours looking at that thing and no one turned back.”

Are you serious? She thought that the old man meant that she should just look into the Gorgon’s eyes and everyone else would come back? This sounded like when someone gets stuck in a video game, then read the walkthrough wrong and continues to be stuck.

“Please tell me you know where the head is still?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I’ve got it stored in my village.”

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This is absurd! Did she actually kill the Gorgon and leave its head right there next to everyone who’s still in stone. She’s a complete idiot!

“Why did you want to know?” she asked.

Wait a second, I better not tell her just yet that I know how to fix everything. I still need her to stop Davol and she might not want to anymore if we complete her primary objective first. It’ll be fine, she still needs the Great Horn back anyway, so it won’t hurt to leave them in stone a little while longer. They’ve been that way for four years as it is.

“Oh, no reason. I was just curious,” I said, before the two of us went to sleep.

* * *

The next day we got up and continued onward to the Hamlet that was dealing with the goblin plague. When we arrived, we found weary farmers who said that they were about to give up hope, because the goblins were multiplying and destroyed more every time they came. Fortunately, they told us exactly where they currently were. They were taking refuge during the day in an old barn on a farm just outside of town. At night they would pillage the outskirts.

Arduwan and I took the horse just over a ridge that overlooked the barn. Just before dark we decided to leave the horse there to not cause any unnecessary disturbance. We couldn’t tell how many goblins there were but there must have been at least two dozen or more.

“Got any ideas,” I asked.

“Hmm, it’s possible I could kill them all myself, but they can be rather vicious bastards,” she said.

“Hey, you don’t gotta do this all by yourself. That’s what I’m here for!”

She smiled at that and said, “alright. Well, here’s an idea then. Are you sure you’re confident with that bow?”

I said, “As long as my targets are within forty yards, I can hit them nine out of ten times.”

“Excellent,” she said, “then here’s the plan. I’ll take off running down there and create as much ruckus as I can. You follow me, but at a slower pace and keep quiet. When they start coming after me, I’ll pivot and lead them back as thinly as I can away from each other, and you pick them off with your bow until there’s few enough of them for me to handle without much problem.”

“Arduwan! That’s an incredible plan,” I take back what I said before about her being an idiot.

We got ourselves ready and when the time was right, she took off running down the hill towards the barns. I followed her with my bow at the ready but stayed a good thirty yards behind. She was making all kinds of noise and was holding her greatsword up over her shoulder. Right before she reached the barn door, several goblins started coming out. She swung mightily and obliterated the first one in range before pivoting to the left. That was my signal. I stopped advancing and knelt down.

The goblins came out like a Conga line after her. I fired the first arrow. Hit! I felled the first one and the other goblins didn’t seem to notice. Arduwan kept running. I fired another arrow. Hit again! This was awesome. She started running back towards the hill we had just come off of with the line of goblins in tow. By now I had taken out about five goblins, but I noticed something. She was running in a circle. A circle around me! If you had looked from an aerial view, it looked like she was drawing a number nine with goblins across this farm, and I was in the closed part of the loop!

This was bad. This was really bad! The goblins were starting to notice me there picking off their friends. I fired another arrow and killed another, but they were now closing in, so I dropped my bow and drew my sword. About eight goblins had gotten within a few feet of me. I fairly easily took two of them down but there were too many. They had clubs and jagged pieces of metal they used for makeshift short swords. They started beating the ever-living shit out of me and I fell to the ground. I dropped my sword and yelled, “Arduwan! Please, help me!”

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to kill the two goblins that were following closest to her. When she realized what had happened, she charged toward my location and killed every goblin she encountered.

By this time, I was on the ground shielding my face and neck since that was the most exposed, I was with my chainmail on. The goblins battered and bruised me with their clubs and the ones carrying blades cut my arms and legs. I was about five deep when Arduwan reached me. She quickly dispatched them and attended to me.

“I’m so sorry, Eric! I didn’t know that would happen. You said you needed them to be within forty yards so I figured the best thing to do would be to lead them around you.”

Yep, she was a total moron. I was too beaten and bruised up to argue with her. I could feel my own blood turning cold as it streamed down my arms. Thankfully, all my vital organs were protected.

“Oh, what should we do?” she cried.

“Is there…a place to get…some magic healing potions or something?” I managed to muster.

“Healing potions are rare and really expensive. I wouldn’t even know where to look.”

I reached in my pocket and took out the only thing I could think of. A rudimentary map I had been making that could lead me back to the spring in case I got lost. I showed it to Arduwan and said, “Do you…know where this place is?”

“I believe so. It’s in the desert, east of here. Why?”

“Take me there…please.”

She wasted no time. She gathered up our belongings, called down the horse, and hoisted me on its back. This time, she rode behind and leaned over me as I gripped the horse's neck, hanging on to my consciousness. Arduwan rode hard, all through the night. Just after first light, we reached the spring. When she dismounted, I told her to take me down into the cavern of the spring.

“I’m not sure if I can descend that rope and still hold on to you,” she stated.

“Just…just throw me in,” I whimpered.

Arduwan picked me up, carried me over to the top of the spring, and dumped me in. I plummeted fifty feet down into the water. Once submerged, I garnered the strength to try and find the stone all in one breath. Thankfully I could see it there emitting its red glow. I grabbed it and didn’t even try resurfacing. I just held it and waited for the process to take care of itself. I’m not sure if I dropped it myself or simply let go at the right time, but it sank back down and teleported me to the well at home.

Luckily, it was early morning at the Mansion and Higgin’s quarters were in the basement.

He had just gotten ready for the day when he heard me splash inside the well.

“Good heavens, Master Noble,” he shouted out as he ran to pull me out, “what on earth happened?!”