Layton

I breathed out in exertion. I was doing pushups with Plikt sitting on my back and it was not easy. I grunted and lowered my body so that my nose almost touched the ground, before rising with my teeth clenched and sweat dripping down my face.

I groaned before I collapsed, Plikt quickly standing up so that he didn’t crush me. I breathed heavily and stood up, muscles in pain and my arms throbbing as I stretched.

Plikt had seen me struggle to lift a rock while fighting those weird horse creatures and he had decided that I needed strength training. I had agreed without really knowing what I was getting myself into. I wish I hadn’t. My muscles were screaming in pain with every step and sweat was rolling down my body in waves.

Plikt smiled at me. “Queen is strong. She has muscles that a warrior such as Plikt couldn’t hope to have. Queen is smart and brave and strong.” He said looking at me with pure adoration and my heart broke. He was such a cutie. He sometimes reminded me of my little brother, just with a lot more muscles.

I hugged him and smiled. He was such an amazing friend, I loved having him around.

I heard a loud snort and looked questioningly at the clearing. We had been working out in a small clearing a couple hundred yards away from it. We both looked at each other and he shrugged. I just sighed and started to walk to the clearing before I heard something interesting, a voice I had never heard before.

That concerned me. I thought we were the only sentient species on this island. Maybe not sentient but things that could speak at least. I was pretty sure the Night-Mare was sentient but I wasn’t completely sure.

I glanced at Plikt and saw him narrow his eyes at the clearing, picking up speed. I walked beside him picking up speed as well. We soon broke into a jog and reached the clearing, finding something very unexpected. Another human.

After a second of looking at him, I was pretty sure it was a him, I realized that it wasn’t a human, it looked to be an orc or something like that.

“Greetings humans!” It called to us, “How go your travels? I am a wandering merchant in need of help, and I would be glad to give you something in return for your services.” He told us.

Kent was the only other person in the clearing. “That sounds interesting, what would you need us to do?” He asked him.

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The orc smiles, showing off two large tusks like teeth. “I recently lost some of my wares to a group of imps on the coast, and I need your help to get it. Your reward would be in my pack and I assure you that it would be well worth it.” He told us, smiling jovially.

Side Quest: A Merchants Lost Wares: The Merchant Grog has lost his wares to some imps that live along the coast. Retrieve his wares to get an item of your choosing from his pack. Rewards: Item of your choice and Grog will be much more accommodating to you in the future. Failure: Items lost and Grog will get mad at you.

Oh? Another quest? This one looked quite interesting. The rewards could either be amazing or not very good but the failure was definitely bad. I did not want Grog to be mad at me. He looked like he could really mess me up.

I smiled at him. “We just need to get all of the group back together. How soon do you need us to go after it?” I asked him.

Plikt wandered off to go get the others while Grog responded. “The sooner the better but if you could do it within two days I would be very thankful.” He said, still smiling with those two large tusks of his.

Kent nodded. “That should be very doable. We have been working on our physical prowess and imps are just the way to test how much we have been growing.” He said, looking around for the rest of the group.

Plikt emerged with Emily and Drake with him before pointing at Grog and saying something before wandering off again, presumably to find Brock and Minya, who were both doing physical activities, just separately. It would probably take longer for him to find them than it had to find Drake and Emily.

Grog nodded at Emily and Drake each, still giving off a toothy grin. “Hello there! I have a favor to ask of you! Could you please help me recover my lost goods from some nasty imps? I would be much obliged and would be willing to reward you for your help.” He told them, a smile still permanently fixed on his face. I was starting to wonder how he kept his mouth so wide for so long.

Emily and Drake both got the starry eyed look that meant that they were looking at their newly received quest. They both blinked out of it and Drake nodded at him. “We should definitely be able to do that, Grog. How much time do we have?” He asked, very similar to my own question.

Grog nodded at them. “Your friend asked a similar question. The sooner the better but I could wait up to two days if I needed to.” He says a jovial smile still on his face.

Drake nodded and turned and started to talk to Emily, as he did Minya arrived without Plikt, meaning that he was still off somewhere looking for Brock. That mildly surprised me. Brock was usually the easiest on to find.

As they caught Minya up to everything that was happening, I started to hear the crashing of trees and smirked to myself. Sounded like Brock was on his way. He wasn’t exactly quiet.

Brock stepped through the trees, fully revealing his now 20 foot tall body. I was scared at how tall he would be once he stopped growing.

Brock was told everything that was happening and he was given the quest.

Now, it was time to complete a quest.