“This place is almost idyllic,” Leonidas said as he looked out at the farmhouse placed at the top of a series of gradually rising and lowering ridges. The animals moved around the area in their pens with delight.

“I could swear I read about farms like in songs and poems,” Cid followed as he rubbed the back of his head.

Maeryn coughed a little as she looked out.

“You all right?” Cid asked.

“I’m fine, just a few animals are a little ripe,” she said as she wrinkled her nose and snorted.

“It is that bad?” Cid asked.

“Just wait,” Maeryn replied, “you’ll find out soon enough.”

Cid, groaned as he turned back to the farm. “The coin better be good,” he said as he nudged his horse forward. Getting closer to the home, they could see the main building with red shingled tiles covering the roofs. The wood siding and porch were of dark wood, with shuttering of the same hue opened to let out the scent of wood burning from inside. Cid let out a louder cough after he breathed in deep.

“I see what you meant, Maeryn,” he said the elf.

“I’m smelling it, too,” said Leonidas putting his hand over his nose.

“None of you would’ve lasted on a farm,” Jeanne said.

“You don’t mind this?” Leonidas asked.

“You get used to it after a while. Besides, there’s far worse things to do around here.”

“Should I ask?” Cid followed.

“Let’s just say there’s only one way to know if a cow is pregnant.”

The rest of the group looked at Jeanne, confused and concerned before Leonidas said. “Oh gods!”

“There we go!” Jeanne said with a smile as she dismounted and headed towards the house.

Reaching the door, she knocked three times, stepping back and waiting for someone to come to the door. Maeryn and Cid’s ears perked up as they heard something from inside the house. They exchanged glances before turning back to the others. What’s going on? Jeanne signaled to them.

There’s people inside, Cid gestured, Can’t tell how many, but they’re in there.

How do you want to handle this? Leonidas signaled.

Cid bobbed his head back and forth as he collection his thoughts. “Hang back here, I’ll go up to the door, myself,” he said to them before moving up the path.

“Excuse me,” he said as he knocked on the door. “We were hoping to speak with either, um, Ebrulf or Grace Lothran.”

“We don’t want anything thank you!” a woman’s cried out.

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Cid turned back to the others for a moment before looking back to the house. “We’re not here to sell you wares, Miss.”

“If you’re not from the reeve, himself, then please remove yourself from our farm!” the voice retorted.

Cid turned back again. “Well, this is not going as I had hoped.”

Jeanne took a deep breath. “Should we try the Dovel method?”

“Dovel method?” Cid said aloud as Jeanne walked up to the door and after summon a stone scale over her hand and slammed the door, shaking it on its hinges.

Leonidas and Maeryn stared at Jeanne, wide eyed, as Cid groaned while covering his eyes with one hand and shaking his head. “Oh no,” he said weakly as the door finally opened.

From the other side the door swung open, and a halfling woman with frazzled brown hair, blood shot eyes and shoulders stooped forward said, “I don’t know who you are but …” before she could finish, Jeanne raised the stone covered hand to wave.

“Hi,” Jeanne said with a wide smile, “do I look like I’m in a mood for a speech?”

The halfling woman shook her head silently.

Jeanne turned to Cid and as the stone dissipated playfully punched him in the shoulder. “She’s ready to talk now.”

“Thank you, Jeanne,” Cid said, running his hand down his face. “Good morning, miss,” he said the halfling woman with a sympathetic smile.

“I think it’s the afternoon?” the halfling said, looking at Jeanne as if the correction was a possible mistake.

“My apologizes, I tend to refer to that greeting, usually. Always has a more positive connotation than any of the other times, personally.”

“It’s all right,” the halfling insisted.

Cid turned back to Jeanne with a stern glare before turning back to the halfling woman again. “I also apologize for my companion; she can be rather abrupt sometimes. More so than I care to handle sometimes.”

“Perfectly fine,” the halfling woman said, nodding rapidly.

“Would you happen to be Grace Lorthan, then?”

“I’m her daughter, Roselyn.”

“What a cute name,” Leonidas said to Maeryn.

“Thank you,” Roselyn said, a little confused.

“We were hoping to speak to your Grace and her husband about a missing family member?"

Some of Roselyn’s resistance returned again. “Where did you here that?”

“We spoke with the reeve earlier today. He mentioned about one of your kin disappearing?"

Roselyn looked away for a moment, before turning back to Cid with a suspicious look. “What is it you want?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Adventuring types don’t just show up to these situations out of the goodness of their hearts. What is it you want? Gold? Food? Something more private in nature?”

Jeanne began stepping forward towards Roselyn. “And this just keeps getting better.”

“Joan!” Cid snapped. “Stop escalating things.” He then turned back to the woman. “Now miss, I don’t want experience you have with adventures, mercenaries or the like, but I can probably assume not many have to this part of the country to inquiry about your problem. Have they?”

The woman shook her head.

“And is it a safe bet to say there isn’t a trained hunter or tracker here to call on?”

The woman shook her head again.

“Then perhaps being curt to a group offering their aid isn’t what one might call prudent. Unless you want to explain to your parents why your pride was of greater import than finding your kin.”

Roselyn took a breath and tapped her before she stepped away, lifting her arm up and said, “Please, come inside.”

Stepping inside, a small fire crackled comfortably in a fireplace. A long table with several chairs placed around the word wooden slab. Herbs were hung from the rafters near pots and pans suspended nearby. A wash bin half filled with water sitting next to a large block of soap was near by a door on the other side of the home.

Roselyn lifted her hand to the chairs, saying “Please, make yourselves comfortable. I’ll get my parents, they’re in the barn, presently.”

As she left, Cid turned to Jeanne. “What was that about?” he said to her, his eyes glaring.

“She was wasting her time, our time and whatever time we have to find her brother so she make herself feel big,” Jeanne said to him. “We don’t how long he’s been gone, any details that might help us out, and she decides to get on a soap box attached to a high horse!”

“And how does harming her, let alone threatening her, help us in this regard?”

“A sudden and profound reassessment of priorities?” Jeanne replied.

Both stared at each other in silence for a moment. “Jeanne,” Cid said, unamused.

“Fine,” Jeanne followed, slowly crossing her arms and tapping her foot while she looked of an opened window.