“Who was that?” I ask to Malfer as we leave onto the busy street of the “town”(more like city) of safewater.

He responds “That was Bailen, the father of Eleanor.”

What? That guy is Ellie’s father? I might say something like “Ellie and her father are total opposites”, but to be fair, I haven’t actually talked to him yet.

“What’d you guys talk about?” I ask him, I’m a little curious, but not that much.

“You, he asked me who you are, and I told him a friend of Alver and Eleanor.” He looks at me more directly before continuing, “He also asked me your name, which you have failed to give me.”

I feel kind of dumb, how bad am I at introductions that I don’t even get to a name. Did he even ask? Did he even tell me his? I know his name is Malfer but…

“I’ll tell you mine when you tell me yours” I say as a quip. He just blinks, laughs, and responds with “I’m Malfer, but I already told you that when we first met.”

Now I feel like more of an idiot, I remember his name, but I can’t let him know that.

As we walk the streets, I see many different amazing things as the “town” transitions into more medieval styles of buildings. I see many shops, there are aromas in the air, music played by bards or something similar. There are people performing magic tricks with real magic! Or they are really good at magic tricks, but I’m gonna choose to believe it’s real.

Eventually we arrive at some type of plaza, there are many non-permanent shops around here, there is a fountain at the center with a statue of an elf, a human, and a gnome side by side. The Elf has a bow, the human seems to be casting a spell with a floating orb in front of them, and the gnome has a short-sword.

We walk to a specific house to the side of the plaza, the cobblestone beneath my feet is quite loud. The house itself seems to be more of a clinic really, and as we enter the shelves are lined with various herbs and medicines that I have never seen, books, and trinkets. The whole place smells like banana, honey, vanilla, and other herbs, with a vaguely metallic undertone to it.

There is someone sitting at a chair reading what looks to be a new book. The book is bound in leather, but the pages aren’t faded, nor is the leather scratched.

I stop while staring at Malfer and the dirty blonde haired man. The dirty blonde hair man has hair over his ears, so I can’t quite tell his race. But based off of his build and facial structure, I don’t think he’s a gnome.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The man looks up from his book as Malfer walks over to him. “What brings you here today Malfer?” asks the shopkeeper or whatever his job is.

Malfer responds while gesturing at me “I have a patient here that has a bit of a problem, and we need to figure it out, could you and Alberta examine him”.

Malfer then turns to me and says “This is Herbert, or Bert, he is a herbalist and will hopefully be able to help you” he then turns back to Bert and asks “So will you?”

Bert smiles and nods affirmatively and gestures towards the back of the room towards a door. I look at Malfer and he nods.

As I walk towards the door Malfer says “I’ll be back in a bit with a more suitable cloak, it’s fine to take off your cloak in the back room. Make sure you put it back on before you come back to the front of the shop. Bye, see you soon!”

As me and Bert open the door, I hear the front door shut. The door that we walk through leads to a hallway, the floor is wooden, there are a few doorways, some are covered by curtains, and some are open. There is also a staircase at the end of the hall, and a couple wooden doors. The walls have unlit lanterns except one.

The room is so dark that I’d normally not be able to see a thing, but my eyes allow me to see quite a bit better in the dark.

Eventually we get to the end of the hall and Bert takes me to a wooden door, knocks, and after a minute of waiting opens it up.

The room is mostly empty, it almost looks like a doctors office, but has various trinkets that I have never seen. I wonder if the medicine here is magic based.

Bert lights a lantern on the wall, and then gestures for me to sit down on a bench, and I oblige. He then starts to address me, “You wait here, I’m gonna go tell Alberta about you being here, then I’ll do some basic check ups on you.”

He then leaves, but comes back after a couple minutes.

He has various tools in his hands, some have strange carvings in them, some writing, and some have weird crystalline wires around them.

He sets the tools down and closes the door, then turns to me and says “Take off your hood, I need to do some tests on your basic corporeal functions”

I do as he says and take off my hood, and he actually does a double take. He exclaims “Wow!” and comments on my appearance with a “How interesting…”

He then asks me “Is this the problem that you need addressing?”

I answer with a “Kind of, I’m not really sure. I’m not sure that I’m even cursed or anything, I’m pretty sure that I’m how I appear.”

He then tells me that “We can actually test for that, I’ll have Alberta figure out if you are Human, Elf, or Gnome. For now I’m gonna check your hearing, eyesight, reflexes, and sensations. Is that okay with you?”

I nod and then he grabs some type of earmuffs and a bell, but then puts them back when he realizes that they won’t fit on me. He then grabs out what looks almost like a small scale, and sets it on a small wooden table to my left.

He tells me to look close my eyes and to tell him when I hear a beep in my left ear.

I hear a beep and say “Now”, which he says “huh” as I hear a dial turn.

Beep, “Now”

Beep, “Now”

Beep, “Now”

Every time he changes a setting I hear it, eventually we switch to the right, as he moves the device to my right. I hear the series of beeps again, and then he tells me to open my eyes

“You have perfect hearing, or at least hearing so perfect that my devices can’t measure it.” I hear his voice get a little higher as he continues, “Your hearing is more perfect than any Human, Elf, or Gnome, you can hear sounds so high that even children can’t hear them, and sounds that are quite low as well.”

That is not actually that surprising, the other day I heard the whispers between Ellie and Alver. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but now that I do I realize that I have some type of super hearing. I feel like a super human, or cat.

The rest of the time with Bert was spent testing my eyesight, reflexes, and my vocal range. My eyesight and reflexes were excellent, but the latter being a bit sloppy. My vocal is only slightly different than normal, and somehow I find it very easy to meow. This is a very weird situation.

Eventually the checkup ends, and Bert brings me out into the hallway and up the stairs, to Alberta.