Aggy's history lesson was interrupted by a heavy thumping on the front door. Flem stood up immediately. "I'll get it, it's probably the rogues' guild summoning me for that special mission I currently know nothing about," he said with a grin.

He was only halfway to the door when the thumping came again, only louder this time. Muttering, 'wait your bloody patience' under his breath the dark eyed elf flung the door open to find himself confronted with a familiar, six and a half foot lizardman.

"Thisss," Flem exclaimed, "I thought you were still in the hospital!"

Thisss leaned against the doorway before replying. "Their recommended treatment was based on their knowledge of warmblood patients. We lizardmen are far more robust." His eyes then rolled back in his head and the huge lizardman fell forwards onto the floor, almost squashing Flem in the process.

"What a moron." Aggy shook her head as she stood up from the table. "Ok kids, let's see if we can drag the heavy bugger onto the couch."

Thisss returned to consciousness five minutes later to find Terri kneeling beside him and a feeling of wellbeing flowing through his body. He dragged himself upright before reluctantly admitting that he might not have been quite as well as he thought he was. He explained that the physicians had managed to drive the remaining poison from his system the night before but had recommended several more days of bed rest to allow his body to recover from the trauma. "When I awoke this morning," he continued, "I thought that I was well enough to leave but it appears I may have been mistaken."

"Why were you in such a rush to leave at all?" Terri asked.

"Firstly," Thisss replied, "I wished to come and apologise. I have been dismissive of you as teammates and critical of your frail warmblood bodies. Yet without your help I would now be dead. That deserves recognition and appreciation."

No one was more shocked by this admission than Aggy who walked over to the lizard and gruffly patted him on the shoulder. "Well, you may be a big green pain in the ass but you're still a member of this team and we always look after our teammates."

"Secondly, I have been called home," replied Thisss. "Last night I was informed that the matriarch of our clan has requested that I return as soon as possible. I understand that this will limit the kinds of tasks you can take on while I'm gone but there is nothing I can do. In my clan the matriarch's word is law. It is highly unusual that I am being called back so soon, I was tasked with living among you for five years and was not expected to return before my time was up."

"When are you leaving?" Aggy asked.

"Immediately," Thisss responded, "I only stopped here to apologise and to say farewell. I do not know when I will return but it will certainly not be before four weeks have passed."

In the end Thisss' departure was somewhat delayed as Aggy insisted on filling up one of her many backpacks with supplies and then adjusting the straps so they would fit across the lizardman's massive shoulders. Once he had left, the three companions returned to the kitchen table.

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"Well, that was a surprise and no mistake," Aggy said to break the silence. "I thought it'd be a cold day in the hells before the big lizard developed enough humility to apologise."

"I must admit it came as a surprise to me too," Terri replied. "I think we'll miss him on this trip to Valleros though. Even without his fighting skills the intimidation factor alone could have been a big help."

Flem looked up from where he'd been staring into his cup of green tea. "We couldn't have taken him anyway, he'd have drawn too much attention. It's lucky that Valleros has such a strong trading connection with the dwarves or even you would have been a liability Aggy. Valleros is a big place but it's not what you'd call 'cosmopolitan'. People there are very suspicious of strangers, which gives the rogues' guild a good reason for sending me rather than someone else."

-----------------------

Flem was called to the rogues' guild later that morning and returned just before noon. He quickly brought his companions up to speed on what he'd been told. They were to depart at first light as part of a merchant caravan travelling to Valleros. The journey would take at least two weeks as the merchants did not want to push their oxen too hard. When they reached Valleros they were to contact the local representatives of the rogues' guild who would bring them up to date with the latest developments in the investigation.

"And what exactly is the current state of the investigation?" Aggy asked at that point of the discussion.

"Stalled," replied Flem. "The rogues' guild don't have many representatives in Valleros as it's so far north, but they began a preliminary investigation after the..........incident." Here Flem paused for breath and a wave of sadness washed over his face. "This was mainly because they didn't like the idea of anyone trying to establish a protection racket in town that they weren’t involved in. I actually spoke to one of the investigators although I didn't realise it at the time. They were gathering information and wanted my description of the three men who threatened us. The investigation stopped when they couldn't find any of the thugs and there were no more attempts at protection."

Aggy looked at the elf thoughtfully. "And now we're supposed to go up there because someone has unearthed some new information which could link your father's death to this infiltration the professor is so wound up about?" she asked.

"Yes," replied Flem, "although I don't think the information will be coming from the guild itself. While they will bring us up to date with everything they learned during the investigation, we're also supposed to meet with someone called 'Scarlett Rose' who's going to provide further assistance. Until we get to Valleros our only job is to accompany the merchant caravan as common travellers and make sure we don't look dangerous if any noblemen turn up. The feudal lords take a dim view of armed men travelling through their holdings, especially if they come from Gravenhall."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Aggy said. "The roads around here are all pretty safe nowadays thanks to the Lord's Covenant. We'll be unlucky if we have to deal with anything worse than a broken cart wheel between here and Valleros."

The trio spent the rest of the day packing their bags while speculating on the mysterious forces that were driving their trip to Valleros. They came to no firm conclusions but all agreed that a cautious approach was needed. Aggy summed this up just before they all headed off to bed when she said, "All the unknowns in this mission mean that we're probably going in way over our heads. We need to play it safe, and above all take no one's motives at face value. That includes the professor, the rogues' guild and anyone else who's involved in this thing. If we do that we might just make it through this adventure without a huge spider surprise or getting an express trip back to Gravenhall like Terri had yesterday. I don't know about you two, but I for one am very, very keen to avoid that particular experience."