With a weary sigh, Maury drops herself down in a patch of luscious green grass, tilting her head up to face the sun and closing her eyes. All around her, she can hear birds and other small animals going about their day, talking and singing as they go. It is actually quite pleasant. The sun is not too warm, there is a nice cool breeze ruffling the feathers on her wings, and if it wasn't for the strident whine of a certain bulbous companion she wouldn't mind staying right in this spot all morning.

"Why are we stopping already? Why do I have to come with you? Why can't I have legs?"

Not bothering to open her eyes or turn her head, Maury still manages to make it clear that she is glaring at him. "I thought you wanted to come?"

"The blue girl is nicer, and I bet she is smarter too. She could probably turn me into a human again, no problem." Neumann hops over to a large daffodil and lands on top of it, both squishing it and absorbing it as he eats it.

"Okay, one? Pixiesnort is definitely not smarter than me. She is obnoxiously cheerful, so you are right about her being nicer. And two, she would turn you into a human only to be able to get your soul. Right now, we don't know if your soul would still count as a human one since you are currently a slime." Cracking one lid and angling that eye at him so her glare will be more obvious, she sighs again. "She has the same school assignment that I do, No-brain. I don't know the details of her collection plan since she can't get near humans, but she wouldn't pass up a free soul, especially if it meant she could destroy your human body and not get hives."

"What is wrong with you people?" Neumann bounces off of the former daffodil, leaving only the stem behind. "Is it some kind of joke to kill humans?"

Maury pulls herself back to her feet, dusting the stray bits of greenery off of her pants. "If you are going to ruin my break, we might as well keep going, No-brain."

"My name is Neumann!" He shouts as he trails behind her, using all of his energy to make one giant bounce to land on her shoulder. "Why did you need a break, anyway? We can still see the school from here!"

"Because I am tired and I haven't walked this much since I entered the school years ago. I would be stopping more, but it is nice out."

They walk in silence for a while, to her delight. Spring is always an unpredictable time of year in the Northern territories. Some days it is warm, but pleasantly so, like it is today. Some it is unbearably hot for even those without Maury's...delicate constitution. Saying delicate constitution sounds nicer than aversion to sweat, or so she decided years back. The sky is clear of any clouds that might bring one of the torrential downpours that provide enough water to flood the creeks and streams and keep the rice fields going. And there is no bite to the breeze that could mean there will be one last not-quite-winter snowstorm.

Overall, it is heckin' darn pleasant out, and Maury couldn't have asked for a better day to set out on her money-making journey. If she has to do it, she might as well do it on a nice day.

"So," Neumann starts again once they have passed a bend in the road that takes the road into a wooded area with trees spaced reasonably far apart, allowing little patches of sun to come through the canopy overhead. "Why do you have to kill humans and take their souls for school? Is it for, like, Murdering for Beginners class?"

Maury debates for a moment if she wants to answer him. One one hand, answering will take energy. On the other hand, her legs are aching, and answering him might take her mind off of it until she can get far enough along that he won't whine so much when they stop again. "Soul energy is more powerful than any of the other energy sources known. Five souls can power the lights in the school for a whole day. Solar energy is the next best choice, but it is slower to collect, and during the winter, there is so little that gets through most days that we would all be sitting around in the dark. And don't get me started on the smell from Compost energy..."

She shudders, her face screwing up at the memory of the "Poop to Power" lecture in her early year Energy Generation class. The smell hadn't come out of her clothes after multiple washings.

"But why humans?" He presses on, insistant.

"Why not? You multiply almost as fast as rabbits. You kill everything in your path. You are a danger to every other species on the planet."

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"That's not true!"

"You seem surprised about being turned into a slime, but not about talking to a different species. So does that mean that in your world, humans work side by side with all of the other sentient species?"

"No, but that's because-"

"That's because all those other species are mean and bad, and we killed them all," Maury interrupts him and finishes his sentence. "That almost happened here too, thousands of years ago. The Celestim had to interfere to stop the genocide."

"And now you are doing the same thing!" Neumann wiggles on her shoulder, like he isn't sure if he wants to jump off.

"No. Humans were beaten back and chased underground. When their numbers started to grow, they began killing everything in their path like locusts again. It happened again and again every time they were beaten back. This soul gather is stupid and a sweaty pain, but if the schools and local government don't send out parties once a year, the humans would kill every other species on the planet."

"I don't believe you."

She sighs, counting it as her sixteenth sigh since they started out that morning. "I don't care, Newfangled. That is your problem."

They fall into silence again, Neumann not speaking up even when she stops for another break a few minutes later or during the next two breaks before the sun is directly overhead. If Maury was a people person, she would wonder if he is thinking hard about what she said. But really, she doesn't care enough to spare him another thought. Humans will think human things. At least when goblins go on their killing sprees, it is because their brains are the size of lima beans. It is not for sinister reasons. Not like humans.

The woods taper off and cultivated fields begin, the occasional farmhouse showing that they are once more approaching populated areas. A quick lunch of bread and fruit dulls the hunger gnawing at her stomach, all that she can afford until money starts rolling in from quests completed.

Maury doesn't know much about questing. For magic users, there is not an age requirement to accept quests, but they do have to prove that they can at least best a lutin in battle. She is sure that she can do that. Her hair is too short to cause much mischief with, and a little container of salt sits in the side pocket of her bag within easy reach. That should work against a few of the other denizens of the wild as well.

This is enough to appease the secretary at the Southill Guildhall enough that she is able to obtain an F ranked ID card, letting her accept quests of the same ranking. The first bump in the road, metaphorically speaking since all the roads are 90% bumps and divots in Southill, comes when Maury learns that she can only accept one quest at a time.

"Why can't I just pick up two or three at once and go faster?" She asks the question of the little gnome with the tiny spectacles on his nose.

"Well that wouldn't be fair, would it? Once you take a quest, then nobody else can accept it, and what if you die a horribly messy death with entrails everywhere and fire and stewed eyes, then..."

He continues talking, but Maury is stuck on his needlessly graphic descriptions and stops listening. The board of quests in front of the entry desk is nicely organized by ranking and difficulty, so she lets her eyes roam over the lowest level ones, mentally calculating effort vs. reward for each.

"Alright alright," she interrupts the man who is still waxing on about all the awful things that can happen to keep someone from completing a quest. "I'll accept this one."

She slaps down a slip of paper the size of her hand next to the gnome's record book and presses her thumbprint onto the entry he makes in his book. "And I just bring this paper back when I have completed it?"

"Yes. The sigil in the corner will light up when it is complete."

"Right. Uhm, thanks. I will be back in a little bit." Maury waves the slip in the air as she hurries out the door. If she works quickly enough, she can probably get at least two more quests done before the sun goes down. Then there is just the need for dinner, but with no money...it might be fine dining on sticks and berries tonight.

"What is our quest?"

To her credit, Maury does NOT jump at the sound of a voice right next to her ear. She will not give him the satisfaction of knowing he had startled her. She will, however, make sure he knows that she had forgotten all about him.

"Oh, you are still there?"

For the entirety of the walk to Old Lady Spencer's cottage, Neumann mumbles and grumbles, and Maury ignores him. A single knock on the door and a cheerful little Celestim with a hunched back and silvery grey curls answers as though she had been sitting at the door and waiting.

"Are you the nice girl who accepted my quest?" She asks them brightly, a blinding smile on her face. Maury nods and shows her the slip while Neumann snorts loudly on her shoulder. "Oh, good! I was hoping someone would accept it today! There are so many carrots ready to be pulled, and I just can't get down on my knees like I used to!"

The little old lady bustles outside and around the side of the cottage, eager to show her quester where the items she needs help with were.

"Really? Our quest is picking carrots?"

"What did you expect? That we would be out fighting dragons? This is an F level quest. It is all helping little old ladies get cats out of trees and picking carrots and hoping they tip well if I don't say something rude."

"So you won't be saying anything at all?"

The bickering continues as they round the back corner of the home, nearly running the senior citizen over in the process. Maury skids to a stop just in time, but physics being what they are, Neumann goes flying from her shoulder and lands in the middle of a small square of dirt directly ahead of them. A small square of dirt dotted with what looks suspiciously like empty carrot shaped holes in it.

"My carrots!" Old Lady Spencer exclaims, clasping her hand to her chest. "Where are all my carrots?"

"Well," Maury says cheerfully, " I guess you won't be needing us to pick those, will you?"

"My poor carrots!" The old woman swoons, and if Maury had been paying more attention, she would have moved out of the way. Instead, she involuntarily catches the body falling toward her and lowers it to the ground.

"Alright then," she announces, picking the slip off the ground where she dropped it during the unexpected game of geriatric catch. "I guess that means we can -"

She goes silent, her brows furrow and a frown spreads across her face.

"What's the matter?" Neumann reluctantly asks, jiggling himself to get the garden dirt off before hopping back to his perch on Maury's shoulder.

"The quest," she murmurs, holding the slip up so he can see it. She looks around as though she can make the carrots appear back in their little beds. If screaming wasn't so tiring, she would be screaming loud enough to wake the dead better than any necromancer. "It is still active."