Maya then heads back a few feet behind a tree, and without thinking pulls her pants down just enough to pee on a tree like normal… Maya forgot she no longer carried the same equipment as normal. “Damn it all, I can’t believe this never occur to me as a problem. Actually, how do I…” she thinks. She runs back up to Emma.
“Wow that was fast!” Emma says teasing her.
Maya, as red as a tomato from pure embarrassment stammers, “Umm, I’ve, umm, actually never, uh, had to pee in the woods before” trying to say it as quickly as possible, tripping over her own words. Maya couldn’t even make eye contact with Emma as she pulled the brim of Enit over her face.
Laughing, “Seriously?!” Emma laughing somehow even harder now, which only intensifies the redness in Maya's cheeks. “You remind me of my little sister the one time we went out together, before she was this sick, and we were out all day in the woods exploring.” with a brief pause, “Just squat with your butt sticking out or sit up against a tree as if you were in an invisible chair like this.” Unfazed by Maya's shyness, Emma enthusiastically demonstrates the art of relieving oneself in the woods with a sense of playfulness. She positions herself against a nearby tree, showcasing the invisible chair pose as if she were basking in the comfort of a cozy seat. Then, Emma playfully crosses her legs and places her hands behind her head, embodying the illusion of a relaxed woodland throne.
"Alright, I think I've got the idea," Maya then runs off a little bit further this time before trying to sit up against a tree and mimic Emma "Oh, wow, this requires more leg and core strength than I imagined," she admits, gradually easing into the awkward yet necessary position. As she settles into her makeshift seat, Maya's mind starts to wander, and a hint of anxiety creeps in. "But with my pants all the way down like this, I'd be defenseless if another animal were to attack," she frets, frowning at the thought. "And I really hope no creepy bugs find their way onto my pants. This vulnerability in the open... I'm not a fan." Taking a few moments to gather her thoughts and regain her composure, Maya eventually catches up with Emma, still feeling a bit flustered but grateful for the advice.
“So how did it…” Emma says trying to tease Maya some more.
“Shut it.” Maya quickly interrupts.
Emma continuing to laugh, “One of the few reasons I would like to be a guy you know?”
“You can say that again.” Maya says under her breath.
They both continue to walk to town with the sun starting to hang a little lower in the sky. They could make out some smoke in the distance as they finally hit a clearing in the woods. “Looks like we are nearly there.” Emma points to the horizon where small silhouettes of buildings and some smoke can be seen from.
“I’ve been meaning to ask; I don’t think I’ve seen a hat like yours before. Like don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen adventurers come through town with similar effects on their backpacks, but never that extreme or small with expanded storage magic. Typically, storage magic can only triple, or quadruple its space and even then, its limited by the size of an object, you know like it can’t be larger than the opening” Emma says as they get closer to town.
Playing ignorant Maya replies, “Yeah, I can’t tell you much about it, but it was apparently found near me when I was found. I’m assuming it was one of my parents. Didn’t know that it was so uncommon.”
“It’s not that the magic is uncommon per say, but the extreme capability that it has would be considered very rare, someone would definitely need to be well versed in the magic arts to create something like that. Your parents must have been friends with someone strong with magic or paid a lot of money for that hat.”
“Good to know, speaking of which where are we bringing the wolves?”
“Oh, we will bring those to the small adventurers guild here, and they will in turn give them to the hunters to be used for food and clothing for the town.”
“This town has an adventurer’s guild. Seems a little too small to have something like that.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, like I said its pretty small. It is used more or less for small and odd jobs around town. It’s also used to help adventurers navigate when they pass through on whatever job they are on.”
"Gotcha," Maya replies, managing to keep her cool, but secretly bubbling with excitement. They strolled through the town, the atmosphere carrying the charming feeling of something similar to a farmers market. Many townspeople were in the process of tidying up their small shops, signaling the end of another day. Maya and Emma pressed on towards the heart of the town. Right next to the town hall, the adventurer's guild awaited their visit—an intriguing sight. A small, rustic building made of stone, it sported a door and an open window, with the silhouette of a man standing behind what resembled a counter.
“Hey Emma, glad to see you made it back safe. Looks like you’ve made a new friend along the way.” the man at the window of the guild says waving at her.
“Of course I would make it back okay Gilbert, you know a pack of wolves couldn’t stop me.” Emma says smirking, “Also this is Maya, she was being attacked by the wolves, so I figured I’d bring her here. By the way, Maya this is Gilbert, he is a guild employee here in Wolfcrest.”
The adventurer's guild's welcoming representative leaned out from behind the counter with a friendly gesture, extending his hand toward Maya. Tall and slender, he exuded an air of experience, evident in the way he carried himself. His attire, a well-fitted vest complemented by a charming bow tie, showcased a touch of professionalism. Short, reddish hair and a bushy mustache on his upper lip curled on each side. His eyes showed a genuine kindness as he looked at Maya, the corners of his lips curling up into a big, welcoming smile. "Nice to meet you, Maya. I'm glad to see Emma here was able to help someone," he greeted.
Shaking his hand, “It’s nice to meet you too Gilbert.”
“Now Emma, were you able to bring back the dead wolves? You know we can’t pay you without those.” Gilbert says looking back to Emma.
“Yeah, we got them all. Where did you want them?” Emma replies.
Gilbert, now looking around for a cart or sack, thinks it probably just behind them before walking back from the window counter and opens the door, “Well come on in.”
Emma walks in and Maya follows, “Wow she wasn’t kidding this is small.” Maya thinks to herself. The room is not much larger than 15 meters long and about 10 meters wide. On the side is a chair at the window, with a bulletin board and a shelf of just a few items. Other than that, there was a table in the middle of the room and four chairs around it, clean but empty. “Did you just want the wolves right here in the middle?” Maya asks, unsure if dead wolves should just be placed on the ground in the middle of a room.
Noticing there was no cart or sack behind the young girls Gilbert replies, “When you bring them in just put them in the back next to the door so the hunters can take them out easier.”
“Bring them back? I have them with me right now.” Maya forgetting that it’s not obvious since they are inside of Enit now. With that, she walks to the back, Maya took Enit off her head and began to empty its contents onto the ground, a surreal sight unfolded before Gilberts’ eyes. One by one, the wolves emerged from the hat, defying all sense of logic and spatial constraints. As Maya continued to empty the hat, the pile of wolves grew, until the last of the wolf carcasses was on the floor. “There you go, a dozen wolves.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Gilbert was now shocked that much had just come out of her hat. “Are you sure you’re not the one who saved Emma?”
“No, no. She definitely saved me; I just carried them back for her.”
“How could you ever have doubted me, Gilbert?” Emma giving him a hard time.
“A dozen you say, well, that was more wolves than was reported so here is a little extra.” Gilbert hands Emma a small sack with money inside, “In fact you two should stop by here in a day or so, the hunters will have some extra meat and fur left over we can give you.”
“Thanks Gilbert we will stop by and grab that from you, for now we are off to my place.” Emma says as she begins to open the door waving Maya over.
“Bye Emma and Maya!”
“Bye Gilbert!” Emma and Maya say nearly in unison.
They head to the edge of town, she watched as Emma bounded towards the small home, the house was adorned with delicate vines of ivy creeping up its walls, and a colorful flowerbed framed the front entrance, adding a touch of natural beauty to the surroundings. Emma stops just before entering. “Hey Maya, can you give me a moment to let my sister and mom know we have a guest?”
“No worries, I’ll be out here.” Maya says smiling back, as Emma enters her home. “Hey Enit, are there any spells that help with healing someone who is sick?”
~ While some sickness can be cured with magic, it is not the end all be all when it comes to cures. There are spells that can enhance the strength of medicine though. First, we will need to know what ails her, to figure out if magic can be used or if you’ll need to make a potion. Once we know what is causing her to be sick, we can practice on the spell or gather the ingredients that may be required, and assuming it’s as bad as Emma said, we may have to wait until a full moon ~
“Why a full moon? I’m not a werewolf, actually do werewolves exist in this world?”
~ Yes, they do. Now back to the topic at hand. At full moon, we can use spells at their fullest strength, and it is said to help bring forth a lot of abilities to help such as luck and healing ~
“Sounds like we won’t be able to do much at this moment other than diagnose her. Do you think you will be able to help figure out what is making her sister sick?”
~ Only if I have seen it before ~
“Thank you Enit.”
Feeling awkward, still standing out in front of a house, in a place she has never been, Maya begins to walk in circles kicking little rocks out of her way. A few minutes seemed to drag on.
Emma’s head pops out the door, “Come on in Maya.”
Maya stepped inside Emma's home, her eyes looking at the interior that held an air of both comfort and nostalgia. The well-loved furnishings and timeworn decor exuded a sense of warmth, inviting anyone who entered to feel at ease. Despite the slight signs of wear, the place seemed to have a story to tell. Following Emma's lead, Maya was guided to the back room, where a soft glow of candlelight painted the walls with a gentle, flickering ambiance. As her eyes fell upon the figure under the sheets, “Elizabeth, this is Maya. She is here to help.” Emma says reassuring the little girl in the bed. “Maya, this is my little sister Elizabeth, whom I was telling you about earlier.”
Sharing a remarkable resemblance to her older sister, her features echo the same delicate charm that seems to run in their family. Instead of shorter length hair, it was long and golden going about midway down her body; and her eyes were a bright blue instead of green. However, everything lacks the vibrance of a young child. Looking at Elizabeth, the obvious sign of illness is her fatigue, pallor, thinness, and sweating which means most likely a fever. Obviously, she has become malnourished from this, so we need to at least get her feeling well enough to eat and regain some strength, but something feels off. “Hi Elizabeth, it’s nice to meet you. How are you feeling?” Maya asks, looking for more clues.
In a weak, quiet, raspy voice Elizabeth replies “Hi Maya *cough* just call me Lizzy. I don’t know, not so great, just tired and everything hurts like normal. *cough* Sissy says you can help, but can you really help?”
“I may not be able to solve the problem today but with some time I believe I should be able to make you feel better.” Maya replies trying to sound confident. “How long have you been feeling this way?”
“She has been like this for about a year now.” Emma says chiming in.
“Hmm, everything is telling me this is just symptoms of a flu but there is no reason it should be going on this long.” Maya thinks, “If it’s just the flu then getting her to feel better should be plausible in the near future.”
“Is everything ok Maya?” Emma asks.
“Yes, sorry I was lost in thought. I may need a little time to do some research, but I do think I can make something to help with feeling better until we fix whatever the true underlying issue is.” Pausing a moment, “I’m going to step out for a moment to think.” Maya then steps out and goes back outside in front of the house.
“So Enit, what do you think? To me it just looks like normal flu symptoms but the longevity of it is extremely odd.”
~ It could very well be just that, but from what I noticed I believe little Lizzy in there has been cursed ~
“Cursed? Who would curse a small child?”
~ Couldn’t say for sure, it’s hard to say someone would curse a child unless it was some sort of revenge toward maybe the mother or Emma. With that said, curses aren’t always brought up by people, sometimes it could be an object or a very rare species of plant here in Miradia. Similarly to how poison ivy can give people a rash. Either way it would take time to investigate the origin and that isn’t our priority at this time. ~
“Do you think it’s something we will be able to cure?”
~ Yes, with some practice and training until the next full moon. Not all curses are strong to break but at your current level of magical understanding it would be safer to wait. However, making something to help her feel better temporarily or even just take the symptoms down should be possible until removing the curse ~
“Awesome! I guess I first need to find out when the next full moon is and make something to help soothe her sister until then.” With that, Maya walks back inside to Lizzy’s’ room, sticking her head inside, “Hey Emma, could I see you outside for a moment?”
Emma walks out of her sister’s room and meets Maya outside, “What’s up Maya?”
“On the bright side, I should be able to relieve some of the symptoms soon. I just need to acquire the right ingredients. Now for the not so bright side. I believe the reason this has been so bad for so long is that Lizzy could have some sort of curse.”
“A curse?! What do you mean? Is someone trying to attack her or my family?”
“I don’t know at this moment, however, for the best chance to remove this curse we will have to wait until the next full moon. Do you know when the next full moon will be?”
“It’s nearly a month away, last full moon was 5 days ago.”
“Ok, that should give us enough time to prepare. I should be able to whip something up by tomorrow so hopefully we can get her eating more again.” Maya smiling trying to reassure Emma.
Emma immediately grabs and hugs Maya, “Thank you.” she says softly in Mayas’ ear weakly as if hearing this broke her resolve to being let down once again.
Some time passed before they go back inside, “It’s starting to get late Maya, how about you stay here tonight? Tomorrow we can look into other options around town…if you were planning on staying in town for the next few weeks.”
“This does seem to be a nice and peaceful town, and I wouldn’t want to go anywhere until we get your little sisters health back to normal.” Maya says, “Maybe we can look into a more permanent solution for living here or nearby town.”
“Well in the meantime it looks like I should make some space for you in my room, I should have a spare mattress we can put down for you to lay on.” Emma says.
As Emma gets her room ready Maya follows her in; Emma's room has a cozy and comforting atmosphere, embodying the essence of home. Soft candlelight twinkles in the corners of the room, casting a warm glow throughout the room. The main focus of the room is Emma's bed, neatly made with crisp, clean sheets, taking center stage of the room. Emma is now laying out a plush, inviting mattress on the floor at the foot of her bed. Spare sheets and fluffy pillows are placed neatly. A small wooden desk stands by the window, adorned with trinkets, and a stack of parchment and a quill rest beside an inkwell. After getting settled for the night, it occurs to Maya that she didn’t have any evening attire and she has never had a sleepover, especially with another girl. Nervously she slips into bed, telling herself this is completely normal, just sleeping in dirty clothes.
“Maya, you know you don’t have to sleep in your dirty clothes it’s just us girls here. Only my mom lives with us, my dad left when we were young, so you don’t have to worry.” Emma says trying to make Maya feel more comfortable.
Maya who is already under the covers on the mattress facing the opposite way from Emma, flushes red, “It’s not a problem, I think I’ll just sleep in my clothes tonight. Thank you though.” Maya says without turning around to face Emma. Unbeknownst to her that Emma had thrown her own clothes on the ground before jumping into her bed.
“Suit yourself” Emma says tucking herself in “Good night, Maya.”
“Good night, Emma.”
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