Meryda and the Fae were looking at the Quest Board, with the Guild Master pointing out some easy Quests for them to do. “What about this one? Gather mushrooms in the forest? A Noble made this Quest. I think he is going to throw a feast for one of his daughters, and these mushrooms are for a dish. Or this Quest, asking for two barrels of Sapnectar? There are Sap trees on the way to that cave where you went with your friends and got lost.”

“Right, I saw those trees when we were returning, and a big Beeker bird was drilling a hole in the tree and a few Grolagians on the floor drinking the nectar that was falling.”

“Well, there is also a Quest asking for Beekers, and another for Grolagians, but those guys are not easy to hunt.”

While Meryda was still looking at the board, her father returned and said, while pointing to the mushroom Quest, “This would be just perfect as a first Quest, don’t you think? Besides, it would probably be a good idea not to go near that cave so soon.”

From behind them, a young boy’s voice said, “And what do you have to do with the Quest our Party is going to apply for? By any chance, anyone invited you?”

Craydon Crawler looked back and faced the frowning Pof Grinun while saying, “Last time Meryda went with you and your friends, she almost died. There is no way I am going to let her go anywhere without me.”

“That would be okay if, and only if, we were going to do some dangerous Quest. But that one is… let me see… picking mushrooms in the forest. Go to the kitchen and do your job, and let us do this easy one. When we apply to anything dangerous, you can tag along, but for this one? No can do!”

Dralro Jic, the Guild Master, said while nodding, “He does have a point, Craydon. Picking up mushrooms in the forest is not dangerous. Not with all of them and Meryda’s Monsters. They can even try the Sapnectar Quest, and hunt Beekers and Grolagians. One of those Quests or all of them are not dangerous, and even if they don’t finish one this afternoon, they can try tomorrow.”

With a grin, Pof continued, “See? Even your boss agrees with me. You should be more worried about Meryda’s Bone Boars. Another group arrived at your farm. We went there before coming here to check how things were going, and we saw a bunch of new females and their young offspring. They probably arrived today after one Bone Boar went to get them in the forest. Probably they figured out your farm would be a safer place to raise those little guys instead of living in the forest.”

With a gulp, Craydon asked, “You mean… There are even more Bone Boars? How many?”

“No idea. We didn’t count all of them because they weren’t standing still. What we saw was a bunch of boars clearing up more fields, making new trenches for water to flow, and planting some bushes they brought from the forest. We thought it could be berry bushes or Brot trees, but we are not sure. We called two boars and asked them to follow us, and surprisingly, they did. I guess telling them this morning that we were Meryda’s friends made them trust us. They are waiting outside the City, hiding in that small forest on the left side of the main road. They can probably go with us as an escort while we try one of those Quests. Who knows? Maybe they can even help with the hunting of Beekers or Grolagians!”

Meryda said with her eyes sparkling, “I have little Bone Boars? So cool! Let’s go! I want to finish one Quest and go home to see them! I will come back later, father!”

Without waiting for anyone else, Meryda ran out of the Guild, holding hands with the smiling Fae, with the Salamander running after them, and the Slime still wrapped around Meryda’s neck. Pof Grinun was looking at them leaving, and he asked, “What the heck? The Fae is going with us?”

With a shrug, the Guild Master answered, “They told us they wanted to join your Party and help carry stuff, cook, or work as a shield by standing in front of Meryda to protect her. Fae are weird, so it would be better not to trust that they will stay for long. It can disappear suddenly like they usually do and only return after a few days.”

With a frown, Pof Grinun left, with his friends going after him. Craydon crossed his arms and stared at the Quest Board, lost in deep thought. After a while, the Guild Master asked, “What are you looking at? Choosing a Quest for you?”

“Some of these look very dangerous. I might need to find a better weapon if Meryda and her friends decide to try one of these.”

“Well, we have a lot of weapons that you can use if you want to, but until now, you always used a sword and a shield.”

While rubbing his chin, Craydon said, “I was thinking about something that I could use from a distance, but a bow is probably not a good idea. It is difficult to master; probably a crossbow would be better.”

“A what? A crossbow? What is that?”

Craydon did his best to explain, but even after going with the Guild Master to his office to make a drawing on a piece of paper, he did not understand what Craydon was describing, making him wonder if such a weapon was not used in that World.

While pointing to the drawing, he explained again, “It is not difficult to use. It loses in distance range against a longbow, but it needs far less training time than a bow, and anyone can use it perfectly after a few days or even hours.”

“I suppose you could take this to a blacksmith to see if he can make one. At least the metallic parts. Then you would need a carpenter for the wooden parts, and you would need to assemble everything in the end. What can this thing shoot? Arrows? Because the scale is not right for a normal arrow.”

“It can use small round marbles or darts, like arrows half the size of normal arrows. Or even smaller. The target to hit would be what would make me choose the right ammunition to use.”

The Guild Master looked at the drawing again and asked, “Where did you see one of these? Because I am very knowledgeable about all sorts of weapons, and I never saw anything like this or even heard anyone talking about it!”

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Thinking about an excuse, Craydon answered, “I normally make a few drawings at night before going to bed. I made this and a few others right when Meryda told me she wanted to make a Party with her friends. This is the one I thought I could use if I went with her.”

“Not a bad idea, actually. The string has to be strong enough, and that is what will make this crossbow shoot longer distances, together with this metallic arch at the front. I know a very good blacksmith and a talented carpenter. What about if we go there to see if they can make this for you? If the prototype works, we might even mass-produce it and start selling it. You would get a fair share of the sales, of course, like half for you and half for the Guild.”

“Sounds like a fair deal, alright. Let’s go then. I still have time before I need to start preparations for dinner.”

While Craydon and the Guild Master went to meet the blacksmith, Meryda and her friends were already entering the small forest where her two Bone Boars were waiting for her.

As soon as they approached her, she showed them the drawing of the mushrooms she was looking for, which was on the Quest flyer, and next, the drawing of a Beeker and a Grolagian.

Both boars looked at the drawings and snorted, as if pointing out that they understood what she was looking for. One of them signalled with his head for the group to follow him, and the other Bone Boar was the last one of that group, guarding their backs as they entered the forest.

It didn’t take long for the boar at the front to stop near a tree, and while he sniffed something on the ground, the Fae looked down and told Meryda with a smile, “This guy already found a few mushrooms! If you have a bag, you can collect them, but maybe they are not enough, and you need to search for more.”

After Meryda picked the mushrooms, they resumed their search, with the enormous Bone Boar sniffing the ground as he walked. With him looking for the mushrooms, it didn’t take long for Meryda and Pof Grinun to end up with their bags completely full.

As they were all exiting the small forest on the other side, the Fae pointed to the bigger forest at some distance and asked Meryda, “What about if you try to find Sap trees over there? Or hunt Beekers or Grolagians?”

Pof Grinun noticed the way the Fae were staring at the forest while smiling, and something felt off. “You are too eager to go to that forest. Is something there that you want?”

“Not really, no. We just thought we could go there and do the other Quests because it is still early. We took only two hours to find all those mushrooms, and there is still plenty of daylight.”

“Right… You are acting way too weird for my taste. More than usual.”

The green being shrugged its shoulders and said, while disappearing on the ground, “We are acting like always. We will go ahead and wait for you guys right at the beginning of that forest.”

Pof Grinun stared at the ground where the green being had dissolved, and while climbing again to Hazer Cemim’s back, he said, “Yeah, that Fae is acting weird, alright. I wonder what is over there that green bastard wants us to see. It’s probably better if we are careful because I don’t think we find interesting the same things that Fae does.”

As Hazer was running to the forest, following the enormous Bone Boar in front of him, he asked, “Do you think we will get into danger, Pof? I know Fae are strange, but I never heard of one of them putting other people in danger.”

“Me neither, but still, I don’t trust those green things. Meryda goes crazy with them, and she can’t stop sniffing their hair and hugging them, but I am not as gullible as she is. We better be careful, because that forest is way too big for us to enter so carelessly. Remember what the Adventurers told us last week? Most of the prey disappeared from that forest, and none of them is sure if they just naturally migrated or if some Monster killed them all.”

Hazer Cemim nodded and glanced at his sister, who was running on his left with a happy Meryda Crawler on her back.

When they finally arrived at the forest, the smiling Fae was there, peacefully seated on a rock. She waited for them to join her, and she then followed them into the forest.

Meryda looked up, amazed by how the red tree leaves were letting the light of the two suns go through them. On Earth, the trees provided shade, but on Crosslot, it seemed that trees with red leaves let most of the sunlight go through, mostly the red rays, giving the scenery around a light red colour.

It still was strange, seeing trees that were more like barrels because of the way their trunks were so large in the middle as if the trees had fat bellies, but nevertheless, it was a forest, with the sound of wind brushing on the leaves, the chirping of birds, or the clacking of something big around them.

Meryda thought that hearing clacking sounds was a bit weird, even in another World’s forest, so she asked the happy Fae, “What is this sound? It is as if something hard is hitting a rock.”

“Perhaps an animal that is looking for food? We know there are some strange animals in forests, but it could also be a Monster. Perhaps we should walk slowly and in silence, if we are supposed to be hunting, no?” the smiling green being answered in a whisper.

At Meryda’s left, Pof Grinun was looking around as he walked, and when they reached a small clearing, he suddenly raised his fist and said, “Everyone, stop! There is something here. I think we are being watched.”

The smiling Fae put one arm over Meryda’s shoulders and said, “Even if there is a weird animal or a Monster nearby, we have here our extremely powerful Monster Tamer!”

The clacking sound seemed to be approaching, and while the others made a circle around Meryda and the Fae, they waited.

The sound of bushes being slowly smashed came from the left side of Meryda, and next, from the right. Something was walking towards them slowly and carefully, but it seemed to be something very big because, for as much as the things that were making that noise tried to walk slowly, there was too much vegetation around.

Then, Meryda saw six red eyes on her left and another six on her right. She gulped, but then she heard the Fae whispering to her, “Calm down, think about what you did when you first met that Bone Boar and everything will be alright.”

The red eyes approached, and everyone saw two massive dark bodies with six big eyes, pincers next to their mouths, and six long and hairy legs that were connected to an enormous round body. The two Bone Boars stood in front of Meryda’s friends, each one of them facing one of those dark beings.

While everyone else seemed to be petrified in fear except the smiling Fae, Meryda gently pushed her friends aside, and as she was glowing, she spoke, “Stop right there, you two. We mean no harm, and I am sure you also don’t want to harm us. I am sorry if we trespassed on your territory, but we are looking for Beekers or Grolagians.”

The two gigantic spiders began to glow as if they were reacting to Meryda’s Magic, and while one of them made one clack with the pincers, the other one nodded.

With a big smile, Meryda approached the nearest spider and carefully rubbed one of her long legs. “A spider… I never thought there could be spiders this big! I just adore spiders! They are so cool! They make pretty webs, they are fast and deadly to insects, but they are so pretty! And you, my new friend, you are gorgeous! I just want to hug you and kiss you!”