24 – Rosie the bear

  Nura and Gaspard sat on a soft bed of fallen larch needles, leaning against a stone. Bathed in the heat of the Digger’s explosion, it was still heated. The injured heroes, tired but satisfied, were smiling from the bliss of the stone’s warmth and the fact that the fight was over. Slight winces of pain crossed their faces from time to time, when one of their many bruises and minor burns made itself felt.

  “Are you sure, you don’t want to drink those health potions?” Elanil asked one more time.

  “I told you, we’re fine,” Nura said. “Besides, we only have two. What if we urgently need them?”

  “Isn’t this an urgent need?”

  “I’ll admit I wouldn’t mind drinking one,” Gaspard remarked. “But I agree with Nura in her unexpected prudence; we must be frugal with the health potions until we find an alchemist and replenish our supplies. Just think, for this entire week and the entire journey from Hamselton to this northern corner, not a single one we met!”

  “Hey, why unexpected prudence?” Nura exclaimed.

  “Because if it weren’t for my heroic act of dragging you out by the scruff of the neck—which, mind you, also had its consequences for me—you would’ve been roasted inside the bloody construct.”

  “Just admit that you were looking for a chance to hug me,” Nura smirked. “Even if in such an awkward manner and circumstances.”

  “Uh-huh, just like you’ve always dreamed of being a damsel in distress for a handsome prince to rescue you—”

  “Oh, find a room already, you two!” Elanil grumbled. She’d been fiddling with the box she’d retrieved from the Digger’s core for some time now. It was clearly supposed to contain valuable loot. She tried to pry at its edges with Gaspard’s knives to depressurize the dense shell, but so far it hadn’t yielded. It felt more and more like trying to open a flight data recorder, she admitted.

  “Maybe I’ll try?” Gaspard volunteered, watching her futile attempts.

  “I can handle it myself,” Elanil replied coldly. “Sit down and recuperate. Better yet, keep cooing, you lovebirds.”

  “We’re not lovebirds!” Nura frowned.

  “Don’t pay any attention,” Gaspard chuckled, wincing again. “She is jealous of any woman around me.”

  “I can throw this thing at you. Maybe it’ll work,” Elanil suggested, without bothering to look at him.

  “Don’t kick a man when he’s down.”

  Click. The Digger’s core gave in.

  “Finally!” Elanil exhaled with satisfaction. She removed the top—there was a rune inside.

  Item: Rune – The call for ancestors (Archer-Mage)

  Quality: Silver

  Description: The wood elf calls forward two souls of their ancestors. These ghostly creatures will attack nearby opponents and inflict moderate mind magic damage on them, but they also can receive damage from enemies. They fight beside the summoner until their health depletes or the spell ends, whichever comes first. Each upgrade increases the number of the ghosts and their health, damage and duration.

  “Someone else got lucky with a rune; again, not me,” Gaspard complained.

  “Don’t worry, handsome,” Elanil smiled. The success in opening the core and the acquisition of another silver rune significantly lifted her spirits. “You’ll have a lucky break, too.”

  “Have you noticed that we find a rune in every construct?” Nura said. “As if they’re an integral part of them.”

  “Maybe it’s because the runes themselves are a powerful source of magic,” Gaspard suggested. “No wonder Mirdain folks found a way of using them in constructs.”

  “Yeah, perhaps. But I get the feeling they weren’t really put there for that purpose. As if it’s not the source of their power, but their heart.”

  “Are you saying that constructs are actually alive? Don’t be too overzealous with this, otherwise Elanil will forbid us to kill them, just like she did with the wolves.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Nura frowned. “I just think things aren’t that simple with them.”

  “Of course, things aren’t simple. Take, for example, our artifact, which we use to locate the constructs. It seems to me that it not only finds them for us, but also lures them if we’re nearby. Like with those fish in Hamselton. Remember what the fishermen who caught them said back then: that at first they showed no signs of life at all, and they didn’t even notice them among the other fish. But as soon as they docked, the constructs activated.”

  “What about those in the Sylvan Reserve?” Nura objected. “We didn’t have that artifact back then.”

  “Maybe it was a coincidence?”

  “Or maybe it’s not the artifact, but our amulets that attracted and angered them,” Elanil noted standing up. “Anyway, enough hanging around here. We’ve collected the loot, let’s take our experience, and head to the nearest village.”

  Quest: Constructicide in the Valey (regional)

  Sub-quest: Lone Digger

  Status: Completed

  Description: May the Digger rest in peace.

  Additional Information:

  Constructs neutralized: 6 out of 7

  Reward:

  +1000 XP

  +1 rune

  [Level Up] Elanil

  Level: 7 → 8

  4 Stat points gained.

  [Level Up] Nura

  Level: 8 → 9

  4 Stat points gained

  [System Notification]

  {Elanil: Skill upgrade} Hawk eye: low-medium

  [System Notification]

  {Gaspard: Skill upgrade} In broad daylight: low-medium

  [System Notification]

  {Nura: Skill upgrade} Crushing: low-medium

  [System Notification]

  {Elanil: Skill upgrade} Dismantling: low-medium

  “Hmm, interesting,” Nura noted, stretching her neck and listening to her sensations. “I feel much better. All the pain seemed to go away!”

  “Leveling up recovered your health,” Elanil said, extending her hand and putting Nura on her feet. “At least partially.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Gaspard admitted. For him getting up, even with Elanil’s help, was a painful little quest in itself.

  “Maybe because you’re an Assassin and have never engaged in a full-fledged fight with a serious enemy before? It’s not like stabbing your contracts in stealth with a poisoned knife.”

  “Hey! Not all assassin work is pure safety. Sometimes they, too, have iron overload in their bodies.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “They?” Nura repeated.

  “Well, I must admit, I’m really good at my work and have never been seriously injured.” He said it with pride. “I mean, until today. And also in my childhood, in street fights. But childhood doesn’t count; children don’t level up.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need a health potion?” Elanil looked at him critically. He didn’t exactly look like he was dying, but he certainly wasn’t bursting with health.

  “Alright, alright, you’ve convinced me,” Gaspard grumbled. “Give me the potion.”

  [System Notification]

  Gaspard’s health partially replenished

  “I don’t see much of a difference before and after,” he said discontentedly. “Maybe it was a fake?”

  “Your injuries are fake. Let’s go then,” Elanil waved her hand.

  It turned out that the village wasn’t that far away. Soon they reached the edge of the forest and saw it below the rise on which they stood. Steep-roofed houses scattered around the gentle slops. The roofs were immense, descending almost to the level of the first floor. Their dark thatch contrasted with the pale walls of packed clay. Their ridgelines were bound with rope and weighted beams. Smoke drifted from a few chimneys, rising lazily in the mild evening air before dissolving above.

  The bubbling creek running down between two large and gentle hills was divided into many smooth channels, like a comb. They stretched through the village, tracing the lanes between houses like fences. Small wooden bridges arched from door to door.

  There was no riot of colors here, white and dark brown dominated the palette, yet this picture did not look despondent but thoughtful, almost meditative. Wood, water, earth, and sky balanced each other in such a manner, as if the village was carefully shaped like niwaki by a meticulous gardener. Some kind of almost transcendent practicality was diffused in the air.

  The party moved slowly down the slope towards the village. When they reached the nearest canal, they saw a multitude of oyster shells in its clear waters.

  “Perhaps they make freshwater pearls,” Elanil guessed.

  “Exactly, I may have heard about this place,” Gaspard scratched his neck. “What was the name of the village again? Biwa, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve never been in the Valley’s northern reach, but I’ve heard that freshwater pearl mussels are common here. People say the water is especially beneficial for them.”

  “If they make pearls, then perhaps they’re not poor,” Nura remarked.

  “If you’re in the mood to rob them, let’s at least wait until nightfall. I’ll then keep you company too.”

  “What? No! I mean they might be willing to pay us for saving them from the construct.”

  “Ah, and here I was thinking you were fun… And no, they won’t pay us. You forgot the rule of Heroes? First, warn people about the imminent threat, and then heroically save them from it. Now’s too late: the quest is over, we didn’t even get reputation for it, which means they probably didn’t even know about the Digger.”

  “But it wasn’t very far from here.”

  “It might’ve been idle this whole time until we showed up,” Elanil noted. “They couldn’t even understand what it was.”

  “Bummer,” Nura exhaled. “Okay, maybe they’ll have some easy-money quests for us. Why not get a few more silver coins and a hundred points more of Valley reputation, right?”

  “I can’t believe my ears!” Gaspard clicked his tongue. “Back when we were chasing squirrels for the nut farmer, who was the one whining the most about us wasting our time?”

  “Me,” Nura admitted. “But that was then, and now, after another monstrous construct, I’m starting to appreciate the easy tasks of delivering a package, fixing a fence, telling someone not to talk to another one in a rude way, and so on…”

  “Our fearless orc is growing older, I see,” Gaspard laughed. “I’m sure, we’ll find easy-peasy quests here for ya.”

  When they approached one of the houses, a five-year-old girl sitting on its porch saw them and waved her arms.

  “Hey, heroes, heroes!” She ran across the small bridge along the path leading from her house to the main street of the village.

  “And here comes a quest, literally running towards us,” Elanil whispered with a smile.

  “Hello, sunshine!” Gaspard practically dropped to one knee and smiled cheerfully at the girl. “How are you doing?”

  “I’ve a tragedy, mister.”

  “Oh, my goodness! What’s happened?” Elanil and Nura exchanged glances and read the same reaction in each other’s eyes: Gaspard was surely overdoing his sympathetic intonations.

  “My Rosie’s missing. I can’t find her everywhere.”

  “Ah, a missing someone,” Nura nodded contentedly, and winked to Elanil. “Not the first time, right?”

  Gaspard glanced sternly at Nura, as if condemning the frivolity of her intonations when the girl had such misfortune. Then he turned back to the girl.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Emily.”

  “Listen, Emily. It’s your cat, right?”

  “No, Rosie is my friend,” the girl shook her head, her golden curls tapping against her freckled cheeks.

  “Of course she is. Can you show us where you saw Rosie last? This red-haired woman with me will find her in no time.”

  “Mister, is she an orc?” Emily asked in stage whisper, with which children tell each other scary stories.

  “Yes, she is.”

  “I heard that orcs can smell cows and goats from miles away.”

  “Yes, they can. That’s why she’s a good pathfinder.”

  “And then they steal them from us and eat them whole.”

  “Hey, that’s not true!” Nura grumbled. “We spit out horns and hooves. We only eat human children whole.”

  Emily squealed in fright and grabbed Gaspard’s sleeve.

  “Nura!” Elanil retorted quietly.

  “What? She’s telling stupid things,” Nura protested, almost silently too.

  “Nura, honey,” Gaspard stood up and said in the same soundless voice. “Do you want to do simple quests or scare the local kids?”

  “She’s blabbing stereotypes about orcs!”

  “You think that by scaring her you will convince her otherwise?”

  “She’s only four or five, Nura.” Elanil remarked. “She’s just repeating after adults. I bet she’s seeing her first orc in her life. What impression do you want to leave on her after this meeting?”

  “Alright,” Nura grumbled.

  This time, Elanil lowered to her knee. “Listen, Emily, Nura will help you find Rosie. But please don’t call orcs thieves. It’s offensive and untrue.”

  Emily nodded to her and timidly looked up at Nura. “I’m sorry, miss, I won’t do it again.”

  “Aah, it’s fine,” Nura waved her hand. “Better show me where you lost your Rosie.”

  “Follow me,” Emily nodded and skipped off to the edge of the village. “It’s here,” she said when they arrived, and pointed toward the edge of the forest. “Rosie stood up and ran there, she didn’t even listen when I called her.”

  Along the gentle slope, beautiful, tall emerald firs quickly began to thicken.

  Nura immediately crouched down, peering into the short grass around her. She sniffed, closed her eyes, then took another deep breath. “It smells strange here, I can’t figure out what kind of animal it is.”

  “But you’ve already picked up her scent, haven’t you?” Gaspard remarked cheerfully. “See, Emily, Nura will find your Rosie without any trouble!”

  “Awesome!” The girl jumped out of joy, clapped her hands and was about to head back.

  Quest: Rosie the bear

  Status: Acquired

  Description: Find and bring Rosie back to Emily

  Additional Information:

  Threat Level: Difficult

  Notable Traits: N/A

  Reward:

  – XP (Conditional)

  – Gift from Emily

  – Gift from Rosie

  – Ringing Springs Valley reputation

  “Er, guys,” Elanil called them, peering anxiously at the quest card. Gaspard and Nura stood up and looked where she pointed.

  “Hm, a strange quest, indeed,” Nura agreed. “Especially the threat level. Even finding the cow was no trouble at all back then.”

  “Oh, please, we’ve already seen how the Threat Level can show nonsense,” Gaspard dismissed. “It marked the fish as an easy task, and the Digger as average. Was either of those really true?”

  “Hey, human girl,” Nura called out to Emily, who was already heading home. “What kind of pet is this Rosie of yours, a dog?”

  “She’s a bear.”

  “You keep bears as pets?” Nura was surprised. “And humans call us, orcs, barbarians!”

  “I think she meant a teddy bear,” Elanil noted.

  “Knitted bear,” Emily corrected her.

  “And you say she got up and ran away? A knitted teddy bear?”

  “Yes. You’ll find her, right?”

  “Sure,” Nura waived to her. “Go home, kid, and wait for your Rosie to come back.”

  “Great!” Emily beamed. “Thank you so much, miss Nura!”

  “Just Nura,” Nura smiled back at her. “You’ll thank me when I find your friend.”

  “Okie dokie!” the girl turned around and ran home.

  “Don’t know about you, guys, but this Rosie has me intrigued,” Nura noticed, turning to them. Her palm lay on her axe’s handle. “Let’s go see what kind of knitted teddy bears can run.”

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Elanil was plagued with doubts.

  “Is it my ears playing tricks on me, or is our miss Completionist about to abandon the quest?” Gaspard smirked.

  “I am not,” Elanil frowned. “There’s just something odd with this quest.”

  “Come on, let’s have some fun!” Nura gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Don’t forget, if anything happens, we’ll always have your back. That’s what the team is for.”

  Elanil sighed and simply walked towards the forest.

  Soon, the fir crowns completely obscured the sky. The fern undergrowth was also quite dense, with vines entwined here and there. It created the feeling of humid tropics transported to temperate latitudes. Someone had done a really good job of detailing the rainforest textures, Elanil thought with some pride.

  Nura walked ahead, carefully peering into the grass, stopping and sniffing periodically. Elanil and Gaspard walked alongside, the bard looking around and occasionally humming softly to himself.

  “I didn’t expect you to be so good with children,” Elanil noted, suddenly, even to herself. Apparently, this was her subconscious attempt to relieve the anxiety still overwhelming her on their way to find Rosie, she assumed.

  “What did you expect from me?”

  “Well, it’s just a strange combination, an Assassin who’s good with children,” she shrugged. “Anyway, forget it, I didn’t want to—”

  “I used to have a little sister.”

  “What—”

  “Quiet!” Nura stopped and raised her hand. They found themselves staying on the edge of a clearing. “Something is coming.”