[Saaxol’s POV]

I saw Mansoon raise his eyebrow at the halfling,

"What do you mean, you've been framed? It seems like all of these people's blood are all on your hands".

The halfling cowers at Mansoon's harsh words as Mansoon draws his sword and points it towards the wide eyed halfling. Hexa and I step in front of Mansoon,

Hexa raises her hand in front of the sword, "Let's not be so fast to draw conclusions. We should at least hear him out."

I turned over to the halfling who had a timid smile after we defended him, "what is your name?"

"It is Presto... And about my potions, they must have been spiked with some sort of transformation magic! I have a fix for that and can save the people transformed by the potions".

Hexa walks up to Presto and crosses her arms, "You say the potions have been spiked but by who?"

Presto thinks for a moment, "I... Have no idea... I have a partner named Hammerhead, but him and I have been partners for years! I don't think he would do anything like that to me or the city..."

Bud chimes in, "Hammerhead mentioned that you were annoying, and I agree with him. So I think you're lying to us."

Mansoon nods, "Aren't you supposed to be a potion master like the title of your shop? I think you should’ve known damn well what you were doing, you should've noticed something wrong with the potion. Right?"

Presto hangs his head down, "I wanted to sell them in a rush... I guess I forgot to check before selling".

Mansoon gives Presto a smirk like he was a cat playing with his prey. I looked at Mansoon with a disapproving glare, and when Mansoon looked over at me his smirk only got bigger.

“Why are you looking at me like that, Saaxol? We found out that this little potion maker over here is a damn fool” Mansoon chuckles after saying his slander.

I brush off Mansoon and remind Presto, "You said you had a fix, Presto?"

Presto looks up at me, "Oh! Yes! My journal may contain a fix for all of this mess, and clear my name" Presto looks away for a moment, "Well... The city isn't exactly a safe area right now, maybe some strong heroes can help?"

Hexa stepped up first, clanking her sword valiantly into the ground, "I’ll help".

Baldr, Bud and I step up too, coming to help.

Mansoon however shook his head with a chuckle, "I don't do nice things for free".

I turn and growl, “Mansoon what the hell is your deal?”

Mansoon gives a cocky smile and winks at me. Turning back over to Presto, awaiting his answer, “It would be stupid to risk my life for free”.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Presto stays silent for a moment, lightly kicking the wooden slab of his wagon underneath him and quietly mumbles, "Perhaps I have some coin to give for your assistance"

I raise my hand up and open my mouth but, Mansoon interjects before I could spit anything out, with another smirk, "Count me in then."

"Mansoon... We don't need to take this poor man's money" Baldr narrows his eyes at Mansoon. With every ounce of my being, I really want to wipe the damn smirk off of his face.

"You should never do work for free" Mansoon says, Bud nodding with the statement. I couldn't do anything to change their minds, Mansoon wins this round. Presto looks at Baldr and I, giving us a slight smile.

Presto jumps and rolls on the ground below the wagon and shouts, "This way! We must make haste!"

Bud tilts his head to the side, "Make haste? How does one make haste?"

Presto stops in his tracks and looks over at Bud with furrowed eyebrows, "Er... No, I'm using the expression? I'm telling you we should speed up and not waste time?"

Bud rolls his eyes and shouts, "Well why didn't you say that in the first place?" Bud shoots his hands up defensibly.

I look at Bud, who looks genuinely mad at Presto. Presto turns around, looking a bit dazed and begins running towards his store. With the group of strange people following Presto closely.

Presto quickly turns left and then right as he navigates through the labyrinth-like city. I could hear loud crashes and deafening roars coming from all around us as they took narrow dark paths that were all in the shadow of The Tree Of Vivgudis. I started to wince every time I heard the wails of other people.

Presto slides over to a front of a door, with a sign roughly placed off to the side saying, "Presto: The Potion Master".

Mansoon scoffs at the sight of this,

"Potion Master? Didn't think a Potion Master would live in this dump" Bud laughs at Mansoon's comment.

Baldr taps Mansoon’s shoulder "Maybe we should lay off on the insults thrown at Presto and actually figure out what's going on".

Hexa and I quickly nod our heads to the comment.

Mansoon rolls his eyes, "Sure, I guess I’ll lay off the fun of this job".

Presto hangs his head low, probably wanting to be invisible, as he opens the door to his shop. Which looks like it had been raided by a tornado. Broken bottles scattered across the room and a counter where the shop keeper would stand was littered with potion ingredients. Presto opens his mouth wide as he runs around the place.

"All my stuff! Who would do this?"

Presto starts maniacally searching through some drawers below the counter. Presto turns pale.

“My journal… It’s missing…” Presto mumbled.

Hexa walks around the broken bottles, "You said you had a partner right? Where is he?"

Presto looks up slowly, "He was supposed to be here..."

I pat Presto's back, "Your partner, do you think he had a part in the potion mishap?"

I definitely think Presto is innocent now, the poor guy probably had been beating himself up thinking he caused the problem.

Presto looks up at me,

"We have been yelling at each other a lot lately... I didn't think he would go this far. Maybe he is still innocent! Maybe he's just at his house resting!" Presto gets up and walks out the door.

"Were going over to his hou-" Presto stops mid-sentence, I look outside curiously seeing a dwarf with black hair and a beard that goes down below his chest, carrying an empty wooden crate.

"Oh it's Hammerhead" Bud points at the Dwarf.

Hammerhead's eyes widen when he looks at Presto. He drops the crate and starts running like a wild animal in a different direction.

"Looks like we found the guilty person" Mansoon pushes pass me and Presto, breaking everyone from a daze and the chase to catch Hammerhead had started.