A twig snapping underfoot is all it took to awaken him. Within the span of three heartbeats, he was up, woodcutter’s ax in hand, glaring out into the groove panning the trees for the beast. But, beast it was not.

The leader of the party stood with hands raised cautiously.

“Easy now, we didn’t know you were sleeping there. We mean no trouble.”

Tightening his eyes, he allowed for a flow of energy to fill his pupils, coating his vision in a layer of red-hot heat. Once his eyes adjusted to the new plane of view, the leader appeared to glow in fiery red light, and right next to him a new form that wasn’t visible before was crouched and ready to strike.

Gotcha.

“I won’t lower this ax until your buddy next to you comes out and drops his weapons.”

The leader’s eyebrows shot up, then his eyes began to look for answers, and it wasn’t long before he rested his sights on the man with the ax’s eyes.

“Come out of stealth, Rickon. He’s a Red-eye.”

“Damn, really. We ain’t seen many of them anymore.”

A cascade of light began to crescendo and flow in the space next to the leader. After a few moments, a young man adorned in the cloth of a sneak appeared.

“You the boy who went for the farmer’s daughter,” he said with the hints of a smile.

“Yeah, yeah and you’re the drunk that we bought drinks for all night.”

“You're right, well…” He put his ax back down and relaxed his eyes. Blinking twice, three times, when that didn’t work, he rattled his head a bit, knocking it with an open palm until finally the red in his eyes fled away like water down a drain.

“Please don’t enter stealth again, damn things a pain to control sometimes.” He grinned at the boys and they seemed to relax as much as they could.

“What are you boys doing out here, there ain’t anything to be done in these woods. No jobs, bounties, or quests ever require you to venture out to these parts.”

“I could ask you the same, but I feel from the fact that you appear to be solo-adventurer answers that. Or, maybe it's just that you aren’t particularly fond of the company.”

“How are you so sure my parties not just over yonder or in stealth-like your buddy was.”

“I guess you don’t remember even half of our conversation last night.”

“You got me. I travel alone. You still haven’t answered my first question, boy.”

“Stop with the boy, there’s hardly years between the two of us.”

“Nah, I bet you’re older Roy. You just look young. This guys gotta be younger than you. It’s just the eyes and his sad pouty nature that makes him seem old.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Okay, Roy. Why are you and your thief out here.”

“Rogue, I ain’t no thief.”

He sighed. This was not how he expected to awaken. A trampling Elite Hog would have been easier and quicker than navigating a conversation with these two.

“My mistake, you and your rogue. What brings you and your ROGUE around these parts.”

“Thank ye.” The rogue nodded his head and grinned.

Damn punks enjoying this. There’s not a shot in Hell he isn’t a pilferer.

“I know nothing worthwhile spawns here, but I like to survey the area just in case. You never know what you’ll find.”

Roy walked over and placed his hand on the nearest tree.

“Like this, for instance, look here Rickon.”

Rickon joined him at the tree.

“Feel this bark.” Rickon did so.

“Damn is this shit rough.”

“It’s Armadillo Cedar. Worth a pretty penny on the open market. Its value comes from the fact that it can be used as a proxy for many different alchemical ingredients. Practically anything rough in a potion or mixture can be replaced with a bit of these here bark.”

“Damn, nice, we should really farm some up then.”

“Ahem.” He interrupted the two before they could continue.

They both turned to the man as if forgetting that he stood there, so lost in their own conversation.

“I’m sorry to break up your tutoring session, but I would like it if you stayed away from here and didn’t farm these trees.”

Before they interjected, he lifted the trunk that rested on the ground near his feet, revealing a stash of fallen Armadillo Bark.

The leader whistled a high note and Rickon merely looked confused

“Take as much as you need for your journey as long as you promise me not to sell it. I wouldn’t want you disrupting the market.”

“You drive a hard bargain.” Roy gave the man a coy grin, knowing that the deal was ever in their favor.

“Whatcha mean. I get it it’s a lot, but we could just farm this tree ourselves and sell it off and keep enough for ourselves.”

“Rickon, do me a favor and try harvesting some of this here bark.” He pointed to a section on the tree for Rickon to try.

“Alright.”

At first, he went about it with his hands, but once that proved useless he tried cutting with his dagger and once that failed as well the point became evident.

“Why do you fear disrupting the market? If you wouldn’t mind enlightening me.”

“The bark sometimes drops from creatures in lower areas. If any of us sold an exorbitant amount that would dilute the prices of all Armadillo bark, causing a loss in gold a newer adventurer would receive on such a lucky drop. Which is the humane answer, my selfish one is simple. Someone could easily trace where the abundant Armadilo bark is being sold, see that it is Albion, and decipher that there must be a great farming spot nearby, destroying my...before the arrival of you two- solitary encampment.”

The leader of the party whistled once again, and Rickon looked even more confused.

“And you called what I did earlier a tutoring session, let us take notes next time.” he laughed and Rickon followed suit out of what had to be confusion rather than any semblance of understanding.

“So, we have a deal.”

“Yup, we sure do. Come on Rickon let's fill up a couple of sacks of the stuff.

After a few minutes, they had their sacks full and began to head back to Albion.

Before leaving, the leader had one final question to ask.

“Your name, you never told us.”

“Does it matter?”

“Matters to me.”

“And me.” piped in Rickon as he was attempting to rip off some bark with the woodcutter’s ax.

“Damn, you were right, this ax doesn’t help squat.”

Seeing the boy make a fool of himself and not care brought a grin to the doomed adventurer's mouth.

“My name….My name’s Sebii.”