He crested a hill next to town some hours later. He had a new black cloak, a heavy new backpack, and a much lighter coin pouch.

Uunda had found a comfortable pocket on the inside of his cloak, and had burrowed away in a safe place.

There was a small patch of trees growing that the woodsmen were planning to harvest soon. The trunks were huge and cavernous, and his friends had found a comfortable nook in one of them that they were using as a place to gather. He was hoping Annabell and Coil would be there since he hadn’t seen them at the market. To his relief, he heard their voices slowly getting louder as he climbed the tree.

“It’s not that hard” Coil boasted about something.

“How would you know?” Annabell scoffed.

“It’s just a ship, turn left, turn right, go up or down and you’re sailing” He said.

He was talking about stealing a ship again. It was one of his favourite topics whenever the caravans showed up.

“You can’t even drive a feather-link” Murphy said, pulling himself into the tree cave.

“And I never will” Coil scoffed, looking sideways at Murphy immediately. “You’re mad if you think I’m trusting a giant bird”.

“They’re harmless” Annabell laughed.

He looked back at her with shock “They have teeth” he said, “birds shouldn’t have no teeth, how people ride those things is far beyond me”.

“Most things are far beyond you” Murphy said, sitting down on one of the stools they had dragged up the tree.

“So you’ve been to the market then?” Coil said, changing the topic immediately. He looked Murphy up and down, admiring his cloak.

“What did you get?” Annabell asked, leaning back to see his backpack.

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“A few things that I might need for my journey”, he said triumphantly.

“What journey?” Coil scoffed.

“I’m leaving Malnir”, he said, trying to appear brave.

His friends stayed silent. They didn’t seem surprised though.

“When are you going?” Annabell asked eventually.

“Tonight” he said, “not much time left in ol’ Malnir I’m afraid”.

“Why so fast?” Coil asked, “I can talk to my father if you’d like it” he offered.

“No need for that” Murphy said, shooting his friend a smile. “You know why I have to go, it's for the best I’m told” he said.

Again they stayed silent for a time. The sound of birds outside and the wind in the trees filled their little cavern while they all looked at anything but each other.

Coil cleared his throat. “What did you get then?” He said, gesturing at Murphy’s bag.

The question broke the tension, and they all calmed to their usual dynamic while Murphy showed off his new toys.

They were particularly excited about the chips board that he had bought, and Coil immediately insisted they set up and play a game. Murphy obliged, hoping he could figure out the rules while he played, without Coil catching on. While they played, Annabell sat back and kept rifling through Murphy’s things.

“What’s this?” she asked, flipping through the pages of what looked to be an old journal.

It was worn around the edges, and the pages were worn and brown with age. Each page had a different dried and pressed plant. Some were flowers, others roots or leaves, but each seemed to have a detailed description surrounding them. The language used was Dolmic, and Annabell had no idea how to read it. Murphy only knew how to read a little, which is how he recognised the language.

“I’m not sure” he admitted, “I didn’t buy it, a beggar gave it to me” he said.

“That’s stupid” Coil interrupted, moving one of his soldier pieces to take one of Murphy’s. “Beggars don’t give you things, it’s the other way around you idiot” he laughed.

“This beggar gave me something” Murphy insisted. “When I put a coin in his cup, he stopped me and gave me the book” he said.

“It sounds like you just bought a book from him” Annabell said, smirking.

“No” Murphy said, “It wasn’t like that, you had to be there”.

“Most beggars I meet don’t sell me things” Coil said.

“Me neither” Annabell giggled, “Some merchants sell me things though”.

“Could be you don’t know what a merchant is?” Coil asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I know the difference” he huffed, feeling a little flustered. “An old man, with magic tattoos on his face, begged me for a coin, then gave me his journal as thanks. It’s that simple” he declared. “Why are you getting so stuck on this?” he asked.

“Sounds made up” Coil decided. “No such thing of magic tattoos”.

“Well he had them” Murphy pleaded.

“If you don’t want to tell us where you got it, you don’t have to” Coil said, putting his hands up in a gesture of innocence.

“But I did tell you” Murphy said.

“You can keep your secrets then” Annabell jested with a smile.

They stayed in their hideout and joked with each other for the rest of the day. Coil relented to teaching Murphy how to play chips, without being condescending the whole time. He introduced them to Uundah. Annabell spent most of the day scratching the little beast behind the ear, he seemed to like her quite a bit. At the end of the day, it came time for goodbyes.

He did his best to stay strong, though he faltered and cried when Coil had given him the red crystal that he always wore around his neck. He hugged his friends, and left each of them with a little wooden statue of a monster, before climbing down the tree, and heading back to the smithy.