“Man, we are a bunch of dumbasses.” Said Alaric as all three are just standing there in the rain, and just like that the moment passed. “We are just standing here in the rain, getting soaked.”
Bjorn and Meira just slowly looked at Alaric. Giving him a flat stare. “Thank you for that bud. I really appreciate you ruining my moment.” The sarcasm was dripping from Bjorn’s voice. The moment that felt so right a few seconds ago now felt wrong. “Damn it Alaric you dick, now it just feels wrong.” Bjorn turned around and walked back into the cave entrance. The sound of his retreating voice could be heard over the sound of rain. “Now I’m going to just sulk in this cave until the rain is finished.”
Meira followed Bjorn right after she smacked Alaric on the back of his head. “What? I’m just telling the truth. Gah, fine, you're right it was a dick move. I’m sorry.” Alaric called to his friends as he started following after them into the cave.
They spent the rest of that day sitting in the cave just watching the rain. To pass the day Bjorn spent his time identifying gear and items.
Drow Longbow
Rarity: Common
Weight 12 lbs.
Durability: 178/195
Damage: 6-8
The longbow of the common drow foot soldier. Adds plus 1 to both accuracy and damage.
High steel longsword
Rarity: Common
Weight: 8 lbs.
Durability: 203/219
Damage 7-9
A sturdy solid high steel longsword. Adds plus two to damage.
Leather Ring mail
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 15 lbs
Durability: 196/243
Defense: +8(+9 max)
A simple set of leather armor further strengthened by having rings of metal attached to the outside of the armor.
Drow arrows of +1
Rarity: Common
Weight: .25 lbs.
Durability: 5/6
Deals +1 damage
That was most of his basic gear. After his gear he started identifying his pouch of rings. There were a few of note, but for the most part the rings gave small stat pool increases.
Ring of Blocking
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: .2 lbs.
Durability: 7/7
When blocking with a shield your defense is increased by +2
Ring of flowing waters
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: .2 lbs
Durability 8/9
Increases mana regeneration by 25%.
Ring of the unhinged alchemist
Rarity: Rare
Weight: .2 lbs
Durability 13/14
Increase the effect of any poison made while wearing this ring by 15%.
Quickly he passed out the ring of flowing waters to Meira, and the ring of blocking to Alaric, and with a smile he donned the ring of the unhinged alchemist. Through testing it seemed like he could gain the benefit from having 8 rings worn at the same time. With his ring of the unhinged alchemist, and ring of salesmanship worn he donned 6 other rings of differing strengths, he added plus 53 to his health, plus 17 to his mana, and plus 23 to his stamina. Taking what he had left he let Alaric and Meira each grab whatever rings they wanted from the pool. In the end Bjorn had 6 rings left, all fairly weak with heath, stamina, and mana increasing effects.
Next he looked through the two bags that were in the bottom of the hidey-hole. Inside the first bag it was filled with coins, 34 gold, 92 silver, and 74 coppers, split three ways it worked out to 11 gold, 64 silver, and 24 coppers each, well they needed to find a way to exchange one of the gold for silver and then each would have an equal share. The other bag held a small selection of gemstones, which they all agreed that Bjorn could hold onto until they made it to a place that could appraise them.
The last thing that they had gotten from the gnoll town was the leather-bound book. Opening it up there was a problem immediately. Whatever language it was written in, no one knew how to read it. It was safe to say it was written in gnollish. So for the time being they stored the book in Alaric’s sack.
The next morning the rain had finally lifted, so stepping out of the cave again they looked at their surroundings. They were in a forest, all around them were tall deciduous trees. Looking around they couldn’t see anything that would let them know where they were. Which probably had more to do with the dense canopy over their heads of the leaves of the trees weaving together.
With no way to tell which way led to civilization they just started to wander. Spending the better part of the day moving through the trees, and disturbing small creatures they weren’t in any hurry to try and get somewhere. They were well stocked, and had nowhere to go. They just enjoyed their freedom for the time being. That evening they stumbled upon a small pool of water at the base of a waterfall. Above them there was a 30 foot cliff. Deciding it was as good of a place as any to stop they started setting up a campsite for the night. After a fire was made, food started being cooked over the fire.
Meira started rummaging in her pack. “Ah ha!” She exclaimed as she pulled a bar of soap out of her pack. “I don’t know about you guys, but I think a bath is in due order.” Looking over at her companions, she wrinkled her nose. “On second thought, after my bath I would highly recommend you also take a bath.” With that declaration she stood and started walking towards the pool.
An hour later Meira came waltzing into camp with her clothes slung over one arm and the bar of soap in her other hand. The sound of her walking back to their campsite made Bjorn and Alaric turn to see what was making that noise. What greeted them was the view of a stunningly beautiful elf girl naked. Before her bath they could tell she was attractive, but underneath the layers of dirt and grime that had been caked onto her body while a slave had done a lot to cover up her beauty. With all of that gone though, she was a vision of perfection, she had smooth flawless skin, small round breasts, a flat stomach, and curvy hips. Her face had gone through a bit of a transformation as well, with all the grime wiped off of her face her vibrant green eyes stood out on her smooth angled face.
Needless to say both men sat there staring at the naked goddess that just walked into their camp. “Oh please.” Meira said. “It’s not like I have anything to hide from you two. You both have seen my body naked on more than one occasion, and my clothes were dirty, so I washed those as well.” She walked over to a low hanging branch and set the clothes on them to let them start drying. Walking over to her pack she started pulling some of her spare clothes out of it. “But if you would prefer, and if it would stop you from staring I could cover up.” She said with a wry smile.
Both men started speaking over each other. “No it’s alright, you don’t have to get dressed.” “I don’t get where Bjorn gets the gall to stare at you naked like that.” “It’s a lovely night, are you sure you won’t get too warm putting your clothes on?”
With a chuckle. “Nice try, I already gave you more than you deserve.” Meira said as she started tugging clothes on. After she was fully dressed she threw the bar of soap at Bjorn. “You smell the worst. You next.” Bjorn grabbed the bar and started walking away. Meira called after him. “Don’t forget a change of clothes, I don’t want to see your skinny ass naked.”
With a hurt pride Bjorn turned back around, digging in his pack he grabbed a second pair of clothes, stood and started making his way to the waterfall. He didn’t make eye contact with either Alaric or Meira the entire time as he left camp. As he made it to the waterfall he quickly stripped down and taking the advice of many people just dove into the water. As soon as his head surfaced he took a quick breath, the water was frigid. Standing in the water it was deep enough to come to his pec muscles.
By the time Bjorn made it to the waterfall and got himself clean it was full on night. But tonight it wasn’t entirely dark. For there were 5 moons in the sky tonight and the combined light from all 5 moons was enough to illuminate his surroundings. 3 of them were waxing, 1 was waning, and the last looked to be a full moon. Spending a few minutes looking up at the sky he just lay there in wonder. There were hundreds of thousands of stars in the sky, these stars were not the same ones he was born with. None of the constellations he was used to could be seen, there was no obvious north star. But it was a wonderful view.
After he had his fill of the starry sky Bjorn started to make his way to the shore, when he had almost made it something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Turning he saw a soft green glow emanating from the water. Turning back towards it he put his head under the water and looked at what was making the light. It was a small stone. Moving towards it he grabbed a hold of the stone and brought it above the surface of the water.
Earth Stone
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 1 lbs
This stone emanates an earth attuned power. It is a common ingredient in making earth based potions, and focuses for staves, increasing earth based spells.
With his new found prize he made his way back to shore and quickly washed his clothes, donning his clean and dry ones he made his way back to the fire. Walking into camp Alaric spoke up.
“What’s that there in your hand?”
“Oh it’s an earth stone, apparently it’s a good focus for earth based spells. I found it just below the waterfall.” Taking the hunk of soap he threw it at Alaric. “You're up next.”
With a grumble Alaric got up and made his way towards the waterfall dragging his feet the entire way. After Alaric’s footsteps and grumbling faded away, the camp was silent.
“Where are you from?” Asked Meira, breaking their silence.
“I’m from a small town, far far away from here. Some place I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get back to.”
Her next question started almost before Bjorn finished speaking. “Why don’t you think you’ll ever be able to get home?”
“That is a complicated question with many different answers. I don’t think I am from this world. That’s not true, I know I am not from this world.” Bjorn told her about his experience dying, and meeting a being that is beyond explication. “When I woke up in this world I was younger, I am currently…” Bjorn quickly pulled up his character sheet. “19. Sometime when I was trapped as a slave I must have had my birthday. I must have spent over a year in this world already. That is crazy to think about. I have learned so much since, and changed so much over this last year.” Bjorn trailed off towards the end of his last sentence, and remained silent for a while. “It makes me worried about how much this world will change me in the end. If my past self saw me today, would he recognize me? Will I recognize myself in the future? Am I losing who I am in this world?”
After what felt like ages Meira replied. “You are changing that is for sure, if you were able to go through the things we just went through and not change, I don’t think I could trust you. Change isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. I think over the last year you are learning who you are. Adversity reveals who we truly are underneath. I don’t know what your world is like, but this one is a hard world, filled with hard truths. Are you afraid that when all of the layers are pulled away you won’t like what you find in the core?”
Bjorn nodded. “It is a scary thought, can you live with who you really are? When I was 16 I watched my entire village get slaughtered by a horde of goblins. My mother tied me up and gagged me while she hid me under the floor to our house.” Her voice grew husky. ”I watched them behead my father, and rape my mother over, and over, until her lifeless corpse lay broken on the ground, and they continued to use her body. I struggled against my own bonds and soon was free, I wanted to run out and try and stop them, but I couldn’t move. Watching that pushed to that breaking point, and I learned who I was. When I was younger I had grand ideas that I would right all of the injustice in our world. But when I was faced with an opportunity to try and stop it, I couldn’t move. I struggled with my own identity because of it. I found that the person I truly was, was not actually the same person I thought I was in my head.”
Meira trailed off, and just sat there quietly. “I’m sorry Meira.” Bjorn had an overwhelming urge to put an arm around her to comfort her, but then he envisioned her blank stare that she had less than a week ago. It made Bjorn realize that a man’s touch was probably the last thing she wanted right now. So instead he sat there feeling useless.
“You are right of course.” Bjorn picked up the conversation again. “The world I came from was a safe world. We had tamed it. We still died, but we had safe places to sleep at night, I never had to worry about someone breaking into my house and killing me. The biggest thing I had to fear were other humans, I never had to fear animals or creatures. We didn’t have monsters, the scariest thing we had were bears, or moose. And because of that I was soft. Don’t get me wrong, I knew how to work, I am not now nor have I ever been afraid to work. But in my day to day, I never had to worry about death, or killing. I had never killed an animal before I came to this world. We didn’t even have magic.”
“What was it called, where you are from?”
“Earth. We called it planet earth. What is this one called?”
“It is called the Eld. I don’t know where the name comes from, or who even named it at the beginning, but everyone knows it as the Eld.” Their conversation stopped and didn’t pick back up. Alaric came strolling back into camp a few minutes later.
“Ah, that feels better, the first time in over a month where my taint didn’t smell worse than my feet.”
“Dude, I didn’t need that visual.”
A broad smile crossed Alaric’s face. “Ah come now, I’ve taught you how to fight, you know what it smelled like down there.” A look of disgust crossed both Meira’s and Bjorn’s face. Which just made Alaric chuckle. “Anyways, I was thinking. What is our plan?”
“What do you mean?” Asked Meira.
“You know, we were only really together because of our desire to fight back against Olvog, and then to escape from the gnolls. Now that we have accomplished that, what’s the plan? I don’t have anywhere I really want to go back to, but if either of you want to go your own way it won’t be breaking my heart.”
Stolen novel; please report.
It was Bjorn who spoke up first. “Since I have come to the Eld I have only ever met 1 person who didn’t want to kill me, or take advantage of me, or want to eat me. Now that we are free, if you guys don’t have any issues with it, I was planning on sticking with you.”
“On a completely unrelated note. Hey Bjorn, do you want to go with me into the woods over there? What did we do with that butcher’s knife?”
“Ha ha, very funny. I am serious though, the only person who didn’t try to kill me was in turn killed by a mauler.”
Meira spoke up. “A mauler? I am sorry, if it was a fully grown one she probably didn’t suffer.” Bjorn shook his head. “That is a small mercy, there are many worse ways to die. As for me, I haven’t really put down any roots over the years, I have always been a bit of a wanderer. It would be nice to wander with friends, instead of on my own.”
This time it was Alaric’s turn to speak. “Then it’s settled, we stick together. Oddly I do think we have a better chance to stay alive if we stick together. The next obvious question to ask is, where do we head now? Anyone have anywhere in particular you’d like to go?”
Both Meira and Bjorn just shook their heads. “Alright, just wander then, that works for me. I guess first things first, tomorrow we should find out where we are. And then from there we can find out where we want to go.”
Standing up Bjorn said. “That sounds great to me. I’m going to head to bed, wake me when it’s my turn to take watch.” As he turned he tried to hide the irritation on his face, and in his voice. It wasn’t fair to the dwarf, but Alaric’s cheerful nature grated on Bjorn just at this moment. Bjorn had a lot on his mind, and had a lot to think about, and something about the jovial Alaric annoyed Bjorn. So instead of letting it out on the dwarf he stalked off to where he set up his bedroll. Laying down he pretended he had fallen asleep but he just lay there awake.
It was around 4 hours later when Alaric came over to wake Bjorn up for his watch. Little did the dwarf know but Bjorn hadn’t actually gotten any sleep, so he instead got up and set to his watch. Soon the sound of Alaric’s breaths slowed down and became a steady rhythm. Bjorn settled into a nook of a tree away from where his two friends were asleep. And spent the next 4 hours battling his own demons again. After 4 hours he got up to wake up Meira, settling down into his bedroll, sleep finally found him. It was a fitful sleep.
The next day when everyone was up and ready Meira climbed one of the large trees disappearing into the canopy. After a few minutes her form came scampering back into view as she quickly descended the tree again. Quickly and deftly she soon landed back on the ground next to the two men. “I can see the serrated mountains off to the south. Forest to the east and west. And the restless volcano to the north. So I think we are on the edge of Escar, in the summergate woods, as long as I haven’t missed my mark.”
Seeing a frown upon Bjorn’s face Meira further elaborated. “Escar is a mostly human kingdom of moderate size, it has 7 or 8 different large cities, and well over 100 different settlements. If I was to guess it has close to 100,000 residents in it. If we want to head into Escar we should head north.”
Bjorn just shrugged. “I don’t really have a preference.”
“Alright to Escar we go then.” Chimed in Alaric as he shouldered his pack and shield and started walking northward. The next three days were pleasant, the weather was warm, the sky clear after the rainstorm, and with no rush to be anywhere the three friends moved along at their own pace. The time was good to start to mend the soul.
On the fourth day they came to a large river over 100 feet across that cut right through the center of the forest. Instead of trying to cut across the river they decided to start heading downstream heading northeast, hoping to find a place that it would be easier to cross. It was around mid day when the river started to narrow and up ahead they could see a bridge spanning the river. As they drew near the bridge, the trees around them started to visibly thin. Soon they could see a village ahead of them. As they drew closer the other bank became clearer to see as well, and on either side of the river there were buildings. The bridge was around 40 feet from one side of it to the other. There weren’t really any defensive structures around the small town.
A small man came out of an equally small house, saw them and raised a hand in greeting. Calling out, “Ho! there!”
It was Alaric who responded. “Hello master gnome!”
At the sound of shouts many of the townspeople stuck their heads out of windows, or doors. A few children came running across the stone bridge connecting the town. By the time they made it to where the gnome had first spotted them a crowd of 30 people were gathered around the three friends. The crowd had a wide array of races in front of them, most were human, but there were elves, dwarves, gnomes, and even one human with a tail and cat ears. When he used his identify ability on the girl the race was anthropomorph.
It was this girl who stepped forward and introduced herself, “Hello travelers, welcome to Leif’s crossing. Don’t ask who Leif is, Darick over there is the one who got the long straw and got the name our town. My name is Aiko, and I am more or less the acting mayor for the time being. What brings you to our peaceful town?”
The three friends exchanged glances, and it was Bjorn who spoke up. “I am not entirely sure that our story is something you want to know, or even one you want your kids to hear.”
Aiko’s face grew guarded at Bjorn’s words. “We out here are made from sterner stuff that I think you give us credit for. And that is not just us adults, our kids as well. If you don’t wish us to drive you from our peaceful town we will hear your story.”
Bowing his head, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend, our story is not one for the faint of heart. We are less than a week away from being enslaved by gnolls. You are the first people I have seen in over two months who haven't tried to kill, rape, torture, or beat me. For one of us, less time, and for the other considerably longer time. If you wish us to move along we will gladly, but we haven’t had a full night's rest, or been truly warm at night for a long while.”
As she heard the word gnoll Aiko’s face grew worried, then as she listened to the rest of Bjorn’s brief recounting it slowly turned from worry to sorrowful. “I truly am sorry for what you have had to endure, you of course are welcome here, and I think we will be able to find places for you to sleep this night. Come, follow me.”
Aiko led them through the small town to a house slightly larger than the rest. Opening the door she gestured for the three of them to make their way inside. Walking through the door they were greeted by a nice, clean, cozy room, with a small table set in the center. The floor was made of a smooth light colored polished wood. Around the table there were several small woven bags that looked to be filled with something soft. Once again gesturing to the table the three friends hesitated. Aiko looked at them in puzzlement, then she looked down at their feet and their trail stained boots.
Rushing onwards. “There is no need to worry you may keep your shoes on, please sit, I’ll make you something to drink.” She turned and left the room through one of the two side doors.
Looking again down at his feet and then at the polished floor, Bjorn decided to disregard his host's words and took his boots off, both Meira and Alaric followed suit quickly. Maneuvering over to the table they plopped down onto the sitting furniture, and sunk into it. His body began to relax as Bjorn’s lower half became enveloped in what felt like a much softer bean bag chair. The seats were short enough that he had to sit with his legs crossed in front of him. Alaric was able to stretch his legs out in front of him, when he tried to sit cross legged he looked like a child sitting on top of a bed. His mood got worse when Bjorn pointed out that fact to Alaric.
Aiko came back into the room with a tray and teacups on the tray. Taking one of the seats she poured a cup for each of her visitors and then situated herself back down blowing softly on her tea before taking a drink of it.
“So, now that we are situated, and have something to drink, if you don’t mind I would like to hear the rest of your story.”
“Of course not.” Chimed in Alaric. As he started telling the story from his point of view. With Bjorn cutting in every once and a while to correct Alaric’s more outrageous embellishments. Meira sat there and didn’t contribute much to the story, as her contribution wasn’t much until the end.
One of the suns had set hours ago and the second was nearing the horizon when the story was through being told. “Wow, you three have lived through more in the last two months than most people do in their entire lives. For all of that I do not envy you. You of course are welcome to stay here for the night.”
Meira interrupted. “Actually if you don’t mind I would like to stay here for a few days. You see I am a spell caster and the gnolls when they captured me inserted an item into my body that drains away my mana.” Meira gestured towards her solar plexus. “I would like to have it removed, it will take a few days for me to recover enough to travel if that is okay with you.”
Aiko sat there in contemplation for a few minutes. Meira continued on. “Of course we won't be a drain on your resources, we don’t expect to stay here for free, both of my travel companions are strong and hearty men, I have little doubt that they would not be willing to help out.” She could see that Aiko was starting to waver. “And Bjorn is trained in Alchemy, I think he would be able to source plants in the surrounding forest that would help speed up my recovery.”
“Alright fine, you can stay, but we expect you to help out with whoever needs it for the few days you are in town. I also expect you to take care of this matter yourself, we don’t have any healers in town. I would imagine that my people watching you dig something out of your body would take issues with it. I can’t allow it to happen inside the town limits. If you agree to all of the above you are welcome to stay until you are recovered enough to move along. You are not able to stay longer than 5 days, if you are still in town at sundown on the 5th day we will drive you from our town.”
“Alright, you have a deal.” Bjorn said.
Aiko nodded, stood and pointed to the other door. “You are welcome to stay in that room, it is normally my room, but it's the only room we have that isn't taken. We are still a fairly new town so we haven’t built much that isn’t essential.” When she finished speaking she gave the three a small bow with her head and then turned on her heels and walked out of the room.
“Strange lass.” Commented Alaric as soon as the front door closed. “Why do you think she put a limit of 5 days?”
“Who knows? But I am not going to question it, I think this is the best place for us to get me my magic back. Bjorn, would you mind hunting around and seeing if you can find anything to make a healing potion from?”
“For sure.” Bjorn replied. “I’ll see what I can do. I think the sooner the better, when do you want to take it out, Meira?”
“I agree, the sooner the better, let’s plan for tomorrow at midday, does that give you enough time to find ingredients and start working on making me a healing potion?”
“I can’t make any promises, but I can see what I can do, at the very least there is a good chance I can find a herb that will increase your healing.” Replied Bjorn.
“That sounds like a plan to me.” Meira said as she stood up. “Well boys, we have a big day ahead of us, I am going to head to bed, I think we should still set up a watch. I want to trust these people, but we would be fools to do so after one day. I’ll take the middle one, Bjorn, you should take the last watch.”
Alaric also stood. “I agree with your points Meira, I’ll take first watch and wake you up when it is time.”
Raising the three friends all walked into the room that Aiko indicated. It was a small room, surprisingly tidy. Inside the room there was a single bed, and a few wooden shelves with all sorts of knick knacks on it. Taking out his bedroll Bjorn set it out at the foot of the bed and lay down to sleep. Meira took the bed and Alaric sat down with his back to the door.
The night passed without incident, and after waking up his two friends Bjorn took to the woods surrounding the town. He ended up finding a few different herbs that had healing properties. With his herblore given to him by Medera he knew that two of the herbs he found could make a basic healing ointment when combined. It wasn’t great, but it was better than he hoped. Taking those two herbs he set to making a healing ointment for Meira, by the time he was done with collecting herbs and making the ointment it was almost time for them to meet.
Collecting Meira he found out that Alaric got roped into helping a farmer in the fields during the day so it was just Meira and Bjorn. During his explorations he found a small clearing not too far away from town that would work fairly well for whatever they had to do. Leading Meira to it he could tell she was nervous. Meira was silent the entire walk even after a few attempts to get her to engage. Her eyes were downcast and never looked up at Bjorn. And lastly she kept fidgeting with her right hand, sometimes it would be clutching the hem of her shirt, other times she would grab a leaf off of one of the trees and start to shred it.
Bjorn stopped and put his hand on top of hers. “It’s going to be okay, I will make sure you live through this.”
Her eyes were kept downcast. “How do you know? It is right below my diaphragm, if something happens I might suffocate due to my lungs no longer working.” At the end of her statement she looked up into Bjorn’s eyes and he could see that she was crying.
Looking down at her Bjorn was overcome with a want to protect this woman. Letting go of her hands he wrapped her in his arms. “Meira, I promise you that no matter what happens I will do everything in my power to make sure you live through this experience. We got out of the gnoll camp together, I won’t let this glade be where you die.”
Meira didn’t pull away, or even resist; she let herself be hugged, and after a brief pause she hugged Bjorn back. “Thank you, I trust you.”
They stayed like that for a few minutes, Bjorn realized that he, in fact, quite enjoyed hugging Meira, and he also found that his words were not empty words, he would do anything to make sure Meira didn’t die.
The moment passed and they pulled away from each other, Meira used her hand to wipe the tears away from her eyes and nodded. “Alright, no sense delaying. So the plan is to make a cut roughly in line with where the stone was put, and then I am going to need you to pull it out of me. I am not strong enough to go digging into my own flesh. Like I said, I trust you Bjorn, fully. My life will literally be in your hands.”
She walked to the center of the clearing and fell into a kneeling position. Then she removed her leather chest piece, and after her shirt. Exposing her breasts to Bjorn again. The scene would be erotic but the seriousness of the situation pushed any thought of that from his mind.
Once she was bare again she pulled one of her daggers that sat at her hip and placed it right below her sternum. “Are you ready?” She asked.
Bjorn walked in front of her and knelt, placing one hand behind her neck he readied his other hand, and then nodded. “Here take this.” Said Bjorn as he pulled out a measure of river moss, “it will taste like dirt but it will help a little.” Meira took it and quickly ate the moss. After she ate the moss Bjorn took a deep breath, settling his nerves. “I am as ready as I'll ever be, let’s do this. On the count of three. One. Two. Three!”
On three Meira took her dagger and plunged it into her own body right below her sternum, the blade sunk three inches into her chest before coming to a stop. As the blade plunged into her body she tensed up as she took a quick shallow breath. A small grunt escaped her lips as blood started to well up from where the dagger penetrated her body. As fast as she could she started moving the dagger side to side trying to make the wound larger. Pulling the dagger out of her body it clattered to the ground as she let go of it.
Without hesitation as soon as the dagger was out of the way Bjorn inserted his index finger and thumb into the wound, staunching the flow of blood a little bit. Hot warm blood coated Bjorn’s hand, gritting through it he pushed further into her body. Meira screamed in pain. Steeling his resolve Bjorn pushed on. He could feel something round and hard against his fingers, working around each side of the object Bjorn squeezed and started to pull. Meira collapsed, fortunately she went limp backwards. With Bjorn’s other hand on the back of her neck he was able to hold her upright as he withdrew the object. His hand came free and in it he held a small stone the size of a large marble. When his hand came free, Meira woke back up. She was bleeding profusely from the wound in her chest and she was starting to grow pale. Setting the stone aside Bjorn quickly picked up the thread and needle that they prepared and took a quick look at her eyes. She had a distant look in her eye, like she wasn’t able to focus on anything. Focusing back on her chest he began to stitch her wound back together, doing small loops he quickly made it all the way across the wound and pulled it tight, she didn’t react. There was a lot of blood on the ground and all over Bjorn.
The stitches didn’t stop the flow of blood, but it did slow down the bleeding immensely. Reaching for her neck he placed two fingers right below her jawline. There was a pulse, but it was weak. With nothing else he could do he just sat there and held her. When the bleeding did stop she was a pale white, and wouldn’t move on her own, she still had a pulse though. Gingerly he picked her up and walked towards the stream that was nearby. Setting her down he took a spare bit of cloth and used it to wash the blood from her body after washing the blood from himself. Moving her back to the clearing he put some of the healing ointment that he made on her wound and then put her shirt back on and wrapped her in a blanket that they borrowed from Aiko’s house without asking. Tucking her away with her back against a tree Bjorn took his alchemy set and set to make a healing potion.
During his search that morning Bjorn found most of the ingredients that were needed for one of the more basic healing potions Medera had taught him how to make. All that he was missing was a bit of snap grass. So he started trying to make that healing potion but substituting the snap grass for different healing herbs. It wasn’t until his 4th attempt at making that potion where he finally had some success.
Weak healing potion
Rarity: Common
Weight: .7 lbs.
A healing potion that is on the weaker side. Restores 36 health over an 8 hour period.
After his success he dropped his alchemy set on the ground and rushed over to Meira, she hadn’t moved the entire time he had been working on making the potion. Tilting her head back he poured the potion into her mouth and held it closed. As soon as he saw her neck move in a swallowing motion he let her go.
Now that she had a healing potion in her body Bjorn wasn’t quite as worried as he had been. Walking back over to his alchemy set he set to make the potion again, even though it was starting to get late. It was dark by the time he finished the second dose of the potion, he had to cast his simple light spell to let him see what he was doing for a good portion of the brewing process. Putting the potion into a vial he set to packing up the rest of what he gathered today. As he was walking over to Meira to take her back to town he remembered something. Turning back around he walked back over to where they had removed the stone and started searching through the grass where he dropped it. After a bit of searching he found it.
Mana Absorption Bead (inert)
Rarity: Rare
Weight: .4 lbs.
When this bead is inserted into someone’s body and powered by a common level soul it will drain up to 15 mana per minute from the host. The bead will stay active and won’t require any upkeep until it is removed from the host body. If you wish to reactivate this gem you must reinsert it into a body and expend a common level soul.
“Soul gem huh?” Bjorn said under his breath. “I’ll have to ask about that later.” Pocketing the bead he walked over to Meira, picked her up and started walking back to town. They made it there without incident. The town was quiet as everyone was in bed. Making their way to Aiko’s house Bjorn pushed open the door, Alaric was sitting at the table. As soon as the door opened his head shot around and looked at the now open door, his face was filled with worry. As soon as he saw his friends his face relaxed.
“I thought the worst. When you hadn’t come back after sundown I feared she didn’t live through the ordeal.”
Walking past Alaric and into the room with the bed he set her down in the bed, and made sure she was situated. “It was a close call, but she will pull through. I think.”
“I wish you had told me where you were doing it. I finished helping the farmer around 7, and all I could do was sit around and wait. Near sundown I tried looking for you guys, after sundown and I still didn’t find you I decided to go back and wait, figuring if I didn’t see you guys by morning then I’d go look for you again.”
“Yeah, that was a boneheaded move. Sorry Alaric.”
“I figured either she didn’t make it, or you two decided to spend some quality time together, if you get what I mean.”
That got Bjorn to chuckle. “I wish, but no, strictly business. Although for her to remove this bead.” Bjorn pulled it out of his pocket. “She did have to take her shirt off, and I did get another good look.”
Shaking his head. “Some men have all the luck. I figured that she was still alive, if she was dead you would have come and got me. Well I am tired my friend so i'll head to bed, you don’t mind keeping watch do you?”
“Not at all, go ahead I’ll wake you up when it’s time to switch.”
Alaric got up from where they sat at the table and went into the room they were sharing, laid down, and went to sleep.
Alone with his thoughts he started to think about what happened that day. All of his stress and worry from the day seemed silly, in the end all of that didn’t help the situation. The relief he felt was palpable. Once the sense of worry was gone all that's left was relief and satisfaction. He was proud of how he reacted. Proud of the help he provided to Meira, and proud of how he handled the whole situation. Instead of freaking out he was calm, calculating, and acted.
The next morning Meira was still out of it, but she did wake up, she regained part of her color but she still looked weak and needing rest. So Bjorn decided to make himself useful around town. In a call back to his earlier days in the eld he helped the town turn the grass paths into stone paths. Three of the villagers set out to collect small flat stones, and Bjorn and another villager then dug up the ground and placed the stones. After the stones were set they took sand from the river bank and placed it in between the stones on the ground, it was slow but satisfying work.
On the third day Bjorn fed Meira another healing potion, and then helped out in a wheat field. Pulling stones from the field, pulling weeds, and help dig a watering trench. It was tedious and slow, but there was something about the work that calmed Bjorn. The farmer was more than willing to have the help, and was not afraid to talk. He spent the entire day telling Bjorn all about farming. That evening Bjorn made another healing potion for Meira.
On the fourth day Meira was feeling well enough that she got out of bed and started helping out around town as well. Her work was simple, she helped clean, or she helped with the wash, or she fed animals. Bjorn and Alaric spent the day farming. The town was pleasant, and by the end of the fourth day they quite liked the townsfolk. At the same time most of the townsfolk were starting to grow fond of the trio as well. But knowing there was a deadline they still prepared themselves to move onward. They spent that evening finding small things to trade, talked to people, and just all around enjoyed the company.
The morning of the fifth day, instead of waiting for Aiko to send them on their way they decided to move on themselves. It wasn’t until mid day before they left, there was a whole round of goodbyes, and well wishes. The townsfolk made them promise that if they ever made it back to this part of the summergate woods again. To which the friends heartily agreed. The townsfolk did tell them about a larger city to the north called Vanta. With no other leads they decided to take off towards the north heading to Vanta.