- 28 -

At the edge of town, just beyond the sturdy gates that marked the boundary between safety and the untamed wilderness, Drew watched seven children forage through the tall grass.

They were each clad in traditional canvas tunics. And each carried a small gathering knife, and either a wooden short sword or a sling and stones.

Today was a special day. The first day of the season, when all newly ranked children received their starting gear and their first quests.

On their way out of town, the shopkeepers handed them small scones as part of the celebration. Their mission seemed simple enough to the town guards manning the gate, but for these young adventurers, it was an opportunity to prove their worth outside the safety of the town walls.

As the children spread out in their search for mint, their excited voices mingled with the rustling of leaves and the occasional chirp of birds.

They all knew to stay far back from the edge of the forest where the more dangerous monsters roamed.

"Hey, Sarah, over here! I found a bunch of mint sprigs!" called out a boy named Ethan, waving his discovery in the air.

Sarah, a girl with long braided hair, replied. "Great job, Ethan! Let's gather as much as we can. We need a lot for all our quests.”

Sarah was the oldest of this group, having ranked up 2 weeks after the previous season started. She stood an inch taller than her peers and spotted two siblings nearing the fence.

“Gessica, Gonnathan, don’t wander too close to the fence. We have to find mint somewhere else. My momma says you will attract a dragon to eat you right up!" Sarah shouted.

“There’s a bunch of mint over here tho. We can grab it quickly. It will be fine.” Gonnathan said.“My momma says there are no more dragons around here. She says our grandpa killed the last one 50 years ago!”

Gessica replied as she pulled her brother back towards the group empty handed.

Gessica's eyes widened in surprise as she noticed a black shape swoop down on a mint plant close to the fence.

"Hey, guys, look! That gallow bird is picking the mint too, that’s amazing!" Gessica pointed in Drew's direction.

Her brother Gonnathan frowned, crossing his arms.

"Hey! He’s taking our mint! Why should a bird get any? We're the ones doing the quests. It's not fair." Gonnathan grumbled.

Gessica glanced at Ethan.

"I heard that gallow birds make mint tea. Maybe he’s got a girlfriend and he’s bringing it as a gift?”

“Who said birds make mint tea? That’s a lie. Birds can’t make things.” Gonnathan replied as he came back to the group with another handful of mint leaves. Gessica ignored her brother’s interruption.

“Hey Sarah, I wonder if it would help us? My cousin has a gallow bird as a pet and it can fetch him anything he asks for." Ethan said.

Sarah looked over at Drew.

"Alright, let’s go ask if it wants to team up. It's not like we are getting close to the wards, the gallow bird did. But keep your weapons ready if it causes any trouble, we'll have to send him away.”

The children approached Drew with a mix of curiosity and caution. Gonnathan had a hand on his wooden sword.

Sarah, the group's unofficial leader, took the initiative to speak to him. She spoke gently, as if expecting a response.

"Hello there, little bird. What a pretty necklace you have. It seems we are all looking for mint. If you want to help us with our quest we would share what we gather.” Sara paused. “We aren’t allowed near the fence over here at the edge of the forest, could you look for mint over there?"

Drew tilted his head to look at Sarah.

These kids seem nice enough. But I’ll be here all day if I’ve got to collect mint for all of them. And I’ve got a good thing going so far with my sneaky solo act.

Sarah had recently gained two points of charisma, she had been helping her mother do the shopping and knew when someone was close to agreeing.

“If you can get us 15 mint sprigs, I’ll make you a basket.” Sara said. “And we will share some of our food.” Gessica chimed in.

You've got a deal kid.

Drew, unable to reply in words, dipped his head and let out a soft caw, to acknowledge their partnership.

The boy named Ethan, who had a natural affinity with animals, knelt down and extended his hand, offering a bite of scone to Drew.

"Here you go, Buddy. Thanks for joining us."

- 29 -

The children continued to chat and direct each other as they moved on from gathering mint to gathering fiber from the tall grass near the road.

Drew was able to gather mint quickly from the plentiful outcroppings near the fence. He would snap a few sprigs with his beak and fly them over to Gessica who would bundle them up in sets of 15.

As the sun cast its midday heat over the forest, the children's conversations simmered down. They discussed how they would present their completed quests to the guild and what fighting classes they wanted to be.

Drew remained silent, his actions speaking louder than words. He diligently continued gathering mint until he had 4 times as much as the children needed. He also had enough for himself to complete the quest four times over.

His portion was stashed up in a tree near the fence line.

Quest Progress: Gather Herbs: (60/15)

Quest Progress: Gather Fiber: (5/15)

Drew watched the kids gather fiber, noting the specific ways the children were gathering grass and twisting it to make fiber.

Together, they scoured the area for tall grass, their hands running through the foliage to collect enough fibers for their baskets and their quests. Drew’s instincts helped him pluck the long strands of grass, placing them beside the children's collection.

My claws work great for slicing up grass. But twisting it into fiber is tricky.

He found a couple short lengths to tie off one bundle of fiber for his own quest.

Fiber wasn’t part of our deal, better not take too much for myself.

Quest Progress: Gather Fiber: (15/15)

As the sun climbed to its peak in the sky, the group reconvened.

Sarah called out to Drew as the rest of the children sat down in the shade of a tree to eat a snack.

“Mr. Bird! That’s enough. We all have a quest to weave baskets so we are stopping for a snack. We have enough mint and fiber now.”

They are good kids. They aren’t thinking twice about treating me like a member of the group. Drew flew over and landed between Sarah and Ethan to munch on bits of scone the boy held out for him.

Quest Complete: Hunger: Reward 25 exp

True to her word, Sarah showed Drew how to weave a basket. Working together, they interlaced the grass fibers, forming a sturdy base for the basket. Drew was able to follow along by sitting in the basket as he wove it. It was an exhausting process, that took all his focus, holding all the different fibers in place with his claws while he twisted the fibers together and wove the basket with his beak.

Quest Progress: Weave a Basket: (1/1)

Strength +1

Alright! That was hard but it paid off. Strength has been a hard stat to raise.

Drew puffed his feathers as he sat in his basket while the other children filled up their own baskets. Though he couldn't express his gratitude in words, the happy caws and squawks and rhythmic bob of his head conveyed his appreciation.

“Look at that! Buddy can dance!” Gionnathyn exclaimed and the other kids cheered for Drew as he flapped up in the air in a tight spiral.

Sarah approached as the other children were packing up to head back to the guild.

“Well Mr. Bird, we are heading back to turn in our quests. Thank you for all your help today. We were able to finish in one morning. I hope you enjoy your basket. Now we can start our combat practice instead.” Sarah knelt down to offer Drew some more scone, which he happily accepted and placed in his basket.

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“Too bad you cannot come back with us and turn in the quests too. Guild points are really useful.” She stood to go, waving goodbye, and ran to catch up with the other kids.

Nice kids, I’ll have to keep my eye on them. I have a feeling combat practice will mean that they are going to fight monsters soon. I could help heal them as they level. What monsters are around for beginners to fight anyways?

Drew continued to worry about the kids as he flew back to his stash of mint and fiber in the tree and brought them over to his basket.

Quest: Puzzling: Strange Symbols (12%)

Drew landed on a fence post to look around.

What set this quest off? I’m out in the middle of nowhere.

The post underneath him hummed to life, more of the strange symbols were carved into disks on the post. With a crash, a massive face ran into an invisible wall, other fence posts nearby in both directions lit up and Drew fell off the post in surprise.

The face was massive, scaly, green, and had horns on its head. It glared at Drew and licked its lips before slinking back into the woods. It was some kind of giant lizard.

Holy crap. I nearly died of a heart attack! That thing’s mouth was bigger than my whole body!

Drew looked at the fence post, it was covered in wooden disks covered in strange symbols. The fence hummed with power. The energy dropped off as the strange symbols grew dim. Some of the disks had cracked and several had broken completely.

Quest: Strange Symbols (32%)

His quest got a massive boost. He reached down and snatched up as many of the broken disks as he could find.

He gathered up all his materials in his basket and flew back towards the safety of town.

As he flew over the gate, an old man with a large toolbox slung over his hunched shoulders passed through the gate and they locked eyes for a second.

Drew gave the man a nod as he tipped his wings like a fighter jet and circled off in the direction of the guild hall.

“Frisky bird, stealing some poor child’s basket.” The old man made a beeline for the fence to start repairs.

- 30 -

An hour later, Drew spotted Sarah and the two siblings Gionnathyn and Gessica speaking with the town guard.

“Alright you lot. Pay attention, the guild master has loaned you to me for a few hours while they get ready for your combat training.” He said.

The children listened at attention while the captain of the guard spoke.

”You kids got your quests done quickly this morning. And you are lucky too, there was a Green Drake around the perimeter and it gave the barrier a good thrashing trying to break through.”

Gessica and a few other kids gasped.

“I told you so.” Gionnathyn whispered to Sarah. “No more dragons around here.” I’ll have to see if I can find out more about this barrier later. It’s likely part of the strange symbols quest.

Drew hopped closer to the group and stood among the children so he could accept the quests again.

“Quiet in the ranks over there! Now you kids are going to be cleaning up our fine city. I’ll pay you a copper for every bag you fill with stones, sticks, leaves, or any trash. We are cleaning a block in each direction of this intersection. Get to it!” The captain shouted.

They ran around, picking up sticks, weeds, and rocks that had popped up overnight. They collected them in their baskets and brought them back to the guard, receiving experience points and copper coins for their efforts as they filled the designated bags.

Drew picked up some branches that had fallen on the bakery’s roof, and was flying it over to the pile for the quest when the guardsman took a swing at him with his spear.

“Hey get out of here you pesky bird!” He shouted.

Drew squawked in reply and threw the branches at the guard.

I can take a hint jerk! You don’t want my help then I’ll find someone who does.

Drew sat beside his basket of mint and fiber on top of the guild hall. He had tried to turn in a single bundle of mint to the guild master. But the man had chased him off. Shouting about thieving no good buzzards.

That’s two bird haters around here. First the guard and then the guild master won’t let me turn in the quests. I need to win someone over to my side and get access to more quests. The children like me, but I’ll need an adult to get the experience myself. The clerk at the front desk was a young woman named Vivian. She was very kind to the children and very stern with the adult adventurers.

She seems to run the guild, or at least the public facing side. If I could win her over, she might be my contact for turning in quest materials.

A man came running into the guild, one arm missing above the elbow, replaced with a sporadic fountain of blood. He finished off a health potion, taking extra time to frantically get every last drop, and the bleeding subsided some.

The two guild healers sat in their corner with at least 20 adventurers in line awaiting healing. The one-armed man tried running to the front of the line.

“Hey, no cutting in line! I’ve been here for 30 minutes.” Said an adventurer with a broken arm.

“My arm is completely cut off!” The adventurer retorted, and took a sip of another healing potion.

Seeing the wait was too long, he ran over to a group of adventurers, asking for a healer.

Why isn't anyone alarmed? This guy is bleeding all over.

The one-armed adventurer got in an argument with a healer, then put his good arm deep into a small bag at his waist.

“I’ve got the arm right here, just need you to reattach it, I don’t need you to regrow it. I’ll pay 6 gold coins for the healing. I’m good for the money but I’ve got to turn in a couple quests first.” But the healer declined.

The man ran across the room to the bar to try his luck with an adventuring party there but was rejected again.

“I’m sorry my healing spell has a long cooldown and we are going to hunt drakes after this.” Their healer said.

Defeated, the man called out to the room.

“If anyone has a healing ability, please, I don’t have more than 3 gold on me right now but it’s yours if you can get my arm attached. I’ve only got a minute left on this Disarmed debuff. I’ve got this one last healing potion. If I cannot get my arm reattached before the time is up then I’ll be done as an adventurer!”

He looked to Vivian the clerk and the room responded with silence.

“I’ll add in one item from my inventory too. Please!”

I’ve got a healing spell but it may not help much.

Drew cawed as he flew down from the rafters.

“No! I’m not dead yet!” the man cried in despair as he saw a juvenile gallow bird land on the table beside him.

He took a couple swings at Drew with his severed arm. Drew took to the air and dodged the feeble swipes. Once the adventurer went down on his hand and knees Drew landed again on the table. The adventurers around him laughed.

Calm down, I’m here to help.

Drew touched the man and activated his Basic Heal spell and Healer’s Blessing ability and the man’s health started ticking up.

“Wait what? Who is using a healing spell?”

Looking around there wasn’t an answer, but the man stuck his arm back on, and tried to line it up as straight as possible.

“Oh damn that hurts!”

MP: 75%

Drew’s MP was dropping rapidly he still only had 4 MP.

[Disarmed] Debuff: (-1) Failed

MP:50%

[Disarmed] Debuff: (-1) Failed

MP:25%

Come on, come on. Work damn you!

The adventurer turned the arm and it seemed to click into place.

[Disarmed] Debuff: Removed: Reward 75 exp.

Mana +1

MP: 1%

Drew dropped control of the spell and laid down on the table with a headache.

“I’m healed!” The adventurer downed the last of his health potion and his health shot up to 90%.

You are welcome. Although you cannot hear me.

Drew chattered with his beak while nearly exhausted. At least it was worth more experience than healing myself.

Skill Upgrade: [Basic Heal 2].

The glow from Drew’s skill upgrade caught the adventure’s attention.

“Was it really you? Did you heal me? Is that even possible? I thought Gallow Birds ate corpses.” The adventure asked quietly.

Yes I’m amazing.

Drew clacked his beak and nodded to the adventurer.

“Then this gold is for you! And here you can have this Gathering Ring too.” The adventurer placed a silver metal ring from his belt pouch on the table.

“This ring can hold 10 of anything that you can hold in your hand… or claw. It's a good quality one that sorts and can hold stacks of 10 of the same items.”

He placed 3 gold coins onto the table beside the ring so Drew could grab them.

New Item: Ring of Gathering - good quality. Equip? Yes/No.

Drew selected yes and the ring shrunk down by about half to hang comfortably under his feathers on his right leg.

“It was my father’s when he was an adventurer. My name is Kent by the way.”

Drew didn’t know what to say so he dipped his head to the man as the children started to cheer.

What? When did you all get here?

Drew squawked at the children and they ran over to hoist him up but he flew out of their reach.

“Yay Buddy, you are a healer huh? Who knew?” Gionnathyn exclaimed.

“I knew he was special, he’s a magic bird!” Gessica cheered.

Vivian came over to see what all the ruckus is about.

"Kent, what is this scene you are causing? Who’s going to clean up all this blood?”

“The kid’s bird healed me Vivian!” Kent exclaimed.

“It’s true, we saw it. And Mr. Bird helped us with our gathering quests this morning Ms. Vivian.“ Sarah said.

Drew broke away from the circle of children and flew up to grab his basket of materials.

“Oh Buddy has gone and gathered more since this morning.” Gionnathyn exclaimed.

Sarah reached out her hand for Drew to land on her arm.

“Mr. Bird, do you need help turning in your quests?” She asked.

Drew clacked his beak in laughter.

Sarah you are a smart Kid. Thank you, yes.

Sarah carried his basket to the desk. Drew landed besides it after she set it down.

“Whoa, shoo! Get that bird off my desk!” Vivian exclaimed, rushing to sweep up her papers as if Drew would eat them.

She does have some shines on her desk though…

“Wait Ms. Vivian, this is our friend, he’s a smart bird, and has been helping us complete our gathering quests since this morning.” Gessica spoke up from beside her brother. “The guards were mean and wouldn’t let him with the clean up quests.”

Vivian looked skeptically at the children and their nods of reassurance. She decided to play along for now.

“You kids are so funny. As if this bird could heal Kent, and skurr cannot accept a collection quest.”

She moved her Guild stamp over the materials as she normally would to distribute rewards and sure enough, there was an active quest. The magic activated, and accepted the materials, and plopped down one stack of copper coins after another.

Quest complete: Gather Materials x3: Reward 9 copper, 75 exp

Quest complete: Gather Fiber: Reward 3 copper, 25 exp

Quest complete: Craft a Basket: Reward 48 exp, you keep the basket.

Quest Complete: All that Glitters: (10/10) - 35 exp

“Oh what?” She looked at the coins for a second before turning to the children. “You kids are playing some kind of trick on me aren’t you? Who got the experience for those quests?”

“It was Buddy! Honest!” Gionnathyn said. And the other children echoed him.

Kent was too busy flexing his fingers testing out his restored arm to answer.

“Show me your guild cards. If you are lying then you will all be in trouble.” Vivian warned. “You too Kent.”

They quickly brought out their official guild status cards. As trainees the children’s cards were enchanted sheets of paper with their name and stats on there and some skills.

Kent’s looked the same but it was metal and had more information.

Vivian used her guild stamp to hover over each card, pulling up a screen for each of them.

“Well if you are tricking me, you are doing a great job of it. And great job on all the hard work today. If you three keep up this pace you will be adventurers in no time at all.” Vivian looked over to the young Gallow Bird on her desk. “And you Mr. Bird, Buddy, thank you for helping Kent and these children I guess. I’ve never seen a bird heal anyone or complete quests before. If you want to bring me more materials I’ll pay you the walk-in rate since you aren’t a guild member.” She smiled towards the children.

Alright! This could not have gone better!

Drew cawed happily at the praise, and clacked his beak in an imitation of a laugh while he gathered his coins into his new ring. Which got the children laughing. They all waved goodbye and headed out to the courtyard for their combat training.

“Vivian, how is this possible?” Kent joined her at her desk as the children and the bird went outside.

“That little bird healed me. Skurr cannot learn healing spells, can they? And he completed quests. Could he become a registered adventurer?” Kent asked.

Vivian looked at her stamp in her hand. “He must be someone’s familiar. Either one of the children‘s or someone else that is playing tricks on us. They are channeling the healing spell through the bird. And accepting quests through it too.”

“But why the charade? Why not come in person?” Kent asked.

“Who knows? You adventurers are a weird bunch.”

She looked at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be out killing Drakes?”