Thadrick watched as his friend opened his eyes. He had found the weird undulations of the flesh around the stump too uncomfortable to watch, so he had been looking at Alan’s face instead. When his eyes opened, there was no slow moment of waking. His eyes were closed one instant, and the next they burned with intensity.

  He was already holding down Alan’s arm so that he wouldn’t move it while the beautiful human woman applied the potion. Seeing the life in his friend's eyes he took a hand off of his arm and placed it on his chest instead.

  “Don’t get up, let the lass work. She’s almost done.”

  Alan started to raise his arms, and Thadrick had to bring his other hand back to hold the injured appendage down. The dwarf chuckled as he thought about how terrible men were as patients. They always whined too much and thought they knew best.

  “Really, just wait. It’ll be less than a minute,” Thadrick told him.

  Cassidy had almost finished applying the first potion bottle. Whatever had caused the last bit to soak in so quickly had worn off. She was pouring the orange sludge onto the stump, but she had to wait as it was slowly absorbed before she could apply the rest of it. In an effort to keep him calm while she finished, Thadrick tried to engage Alan in a conversation.

  “Hey buddy, we’re back in the camp, you’re safe now. We had to lug you the rest of the way since you couldn’t be bothered to walk like the rest of us.”

  Alan smiled and laid his head back on the bed. “You couldn’t find anything shorter for me to lie on? Seriously, this thing makes me feel like a giant.”

  “Hey, that’s an extra large bed for my people. It’s not my fault your body didn’t have the good sense to stop growing when it reached a proper height.”

  Thadrick noticed Cassidy had finished applying the ooze and he forced himself to look at the stump. At first there were still strange motions happening underneath the skin, but after a few seconds they stopped. He couldn’t notice any difference in the injury.

  “That’s it? I thought he would get his hand back. What’s going on?” In his shock and confusion he relaxed his grasp and Alan sat up.

  The first thing his friend did was look down at his missing hand. He continued to stare at it, so Thadrick confronted Cassidy.

  “So, what happened? Did the potion get messed up?”

  She too was staring, but not at the stump. Without taking her eyes off of Alan she answered the dwarf. “With a smaller injury, or a more powerful version of the potion, you would have seen more of a result. For something like this, we can expect him to have to go through several treatments. I am surprised at how little improvement there was, though. For some reason his wound will require more of the potion than I expected.”

  Thadrick looked at the smooth stump again. “Little? I don’t see any improvement.”

  It was Alan who replied, “there is. You probably can’t tell, but the arm is slightly longer than before, and my pathways have reconnected to the new tissue. It’s weird, I can see my aura extending out to where my hand used to be, but there is no flesh there anymore.”

  Cassidy knew more about what was going on, both from her apprenticeship and the information in the book. “It would take an incredible attack to sever your aura. At our level, an attack capable of that would be more likely to just kill us outright. It’s actually your aura that the potion uses to help reestablish your body. If we didn’t treat your injury, then over time the pathways in your missing limb would slowly atrophy and the loss would become permanent.”

  When Cassidy spoke, Thadrick watched his friend's eyes jump to her like lightning to a rod. Alan’s attention had been absorbed with checking out his missing hand, and he hadn’t seen her earlier. Now that he knew she was here, he watched her like she might disappear at any moment. Ah, young love.

  Not that Thadrick would have minded if someone looked at him that way. Cassidy was obviously conflicted about her feelings for Alan, but she also clearly had them. The fact that Alan also seemed to be hopelessly infatuated with her meant that Thadrick had no chance. That wasn’t the end of the world. While she was beautiful, he liked his girls to be a little taller. That Parina was a little more to his liking.

  The two youngins were still staring at each other, so he cleared his throat to get their attention. “Should we put more of the potion on then?”

  Alan shook his head, but it was Cassidy who answered. “Unfortunately the potion has a bit of a cooldown, it will be almost a day before we can apply it again.”

  “Actually, it will be more like twelve hours. I have a nifty countdown timer.”

  The two started to discuss why it was only twelve hours and how many treatments it would take. It was hard for Thadrick to follow, he didn’t have any expertise in what they were going on about. Something about strength of pathways, types of energy, durability of the tissue, blah, blah, blah.

  After five minutes of this gibberish, Thadrick excused himself and went to get a drink. He was happy to see his friend back up and about, and it seemed like he might get his hand back after all, but he also felt like a third wheel. He decided he could check in with Kespar instead.

  He didn’t have any real standing with the town’s guards, but the former prisoners had looked to him as a leader as they made their way home. It was only as his brain looked for an excuse to get him out of that tent that he realized he probably had been shirking his responsibilities.

  When he made his way to the guard headquarters, he was surprised to find it almost empty. The only man on duty there, and he seemed like a relatively junior member, told him they were in the main square with everyone else. Thadrick didn’t even think to ask what he meant by ‘everyone else’.

  As he made his way to the central area, he was surprised to see the streets deserted. As he got closer he heard quite the clamor. Turning a corner he was confronted with a crowd. It seemed that everyone who was able, was gathered here for a celebration.

  On a hastily erected platform, the mayor was speaking out to the crowd. He congratulated the village’s warriors on bringing everyone home and shared his sorrow over those who had died. Much of the crowd was hanging on every word and toasting with mugs full of beer or ale.

  With a little studying it was easy to pick out a few clumps here and there that didn’t seem as excited. He recognized most of them as people who had made the harrowing journey home, whether as freed captives or as the rescue force sent after them.

  Thadrick also noticed Kaspar leaning against a building toward the back of the crowd, and he made his way over. At first the captain paid him no mind, but he did a double take when he realized who was next to him. His normally grim countenance lit up with a smile.

  “Thadrick, good man! Glad you could make it. We wouldn’t have much to celebrate if it wasn’t for you and your human friend. How is he doing?”

  He filled the taller dwarf in on what had been happening in his house. They also spent some time discussing how the rescue had gone. Kespar was deeply grateful for everything they had done. He wanted to find a way to thank them, but he hadn’t come up with anything yet.

  He also shared why some people didn’t seem to be enjoying the party. The mayor was trying to spin this as a grand victory for the town and was giving all of the credit to the townspeople who had been sent to follow Thadrick and Alan. There was no mention of the two of them, other than some words about ‘the scouts’.

  Most of those who hadn’t been there didn’t know any better. Those who made that journey, though, did not appreciate their exclusion. Thadrick was of two minds about it. He was resentful on behalf of Alan, but just as glad to avoid the embarrassing praise for himself. He had never really enjoyed being the center of attention.

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  A few of the disgruntled people saw him and started to make their way over. Not wanting to cause a scene, he said his goodbyes to Kespar and hurried home. He had been gone for almost an hour, but he found those two still going at it when he returned.

  While they finished up their discussion, Thadrick set about making some soup. He’d picked up a pot of stock on his way back from the town square. Apparently not everyone was in the mood to celebrate. Some of the residents were still trying to go about their lives, and he picked it up at a tavern that was still open. It turned out the girl, Parina, was doing the cooking there.

  After a brief conversation about how Alan was recovering, and some failed flirting on Thadrick’s part, he had managed to convince her to part with a portion of the chicken stock she was cooking up for later. He promised to bring back the pot, which just so happened to mean he could make another run at flirting with her.

  His pantry wasn’t very extravagant, but he had a few ingredients. Vegetables, that Alan would have called carrots and potatoes, were tossed in, as well as a few he wouldn't have recognized. He didn’t actually have any meat, but the two humans broke off their conversation long enough for Alan to give him some wolf steaks from a pouch on his hip. Thadrick had never had wolf before, but it seemed to be a stringy, gamey meat that would probably do well with some braising.

  While their meal cooked, Alan and Cassidy explained what they had been talking about. For some reason, Alan’s recovery would take more of the potion than they thought. Something about his body or pathways made it less effective. However, he was also able to use it more often. This was apparently due to Alan being able to speed up its absorption with the energy from his minor healing spell. The two effects might have ended up cancelled out in terms of recovery time, except there was a problem.

  Many of the ingredients for the regrowth potion were not replaceable. Some were common, like the fur and a few of the plants, but their only source for others was from the necklace Cassidy continued to wear. Unfortunately that supply was limited. They could make another batch of the potion, but it would exhaust the supply. It was also unlikely to produce enough to finish regrowing his hand.

  The solution the two came up with was for Alan to leave the town and return to his home, wherever that was, and use the remaining plants to grow more of the ingredients himself. Thadrick thought that he would then return for Cassidy to make more of the potion, or that she would go with him, but for some reason that wasn’t an option. Alan tried to explain why, once, but the dwarf had trouble understanding his reasoning. He was about to try explaining again when Cassidy put a restraining hand on his arm.

  “He won’t understand, let’s just agree that it isn’t an option. Instead, I will teach Alan the basics of Alchemy, enough so that he could brew the potion himself. He will have to journey far from here to return to his home where he can grow more of the ingredients. Once there, with more of the plants and his new skills, he should be able to handle brewing and applying the potion. Then maybe one day he will return.”

  Thadrick tried not to take the shot at his intelligence personally. The next several minutes were spent going over the logistics. Alan obviously couldn’t learn alchemy from actually brewing the regrowth potion, instead he would first have to learn how to make basic healing potions. Those ingredients were in abundant supply from the alchemy shop in the camp.

  They figured it would take him at least a week to learn, and then raise, the alchemy skill to a level where he had a chance of brewing the regrowth potion on his own. That was an impressively short amount of time, but most of that time would be spent with the two of them doing nothing but practicing. And Alan assured them he was a fast learner. The last thing they had to settle was where they would do their brewing. Cassidy had her own place in town, but it was small and she had a roommate. Thadrick offered for them to work here, and they graciously accepted.

  After the soup finished, they shared a meal together and then Cassidy finally took her leave. Her reluctance was obvious, but so was her exhaustion. Thadrick offered Alan the bed, but the human took out his own sleeping pad and left the short cot to him.

  The next morning Thadrick was woken by his friend doing some type of strange calisthenics. He could see the strain on his body, but he was moving in slow motion, almost as if he was underwater. Shortly after he woke up, Cassidy made her own appearance. She studied Alan’s movements briefly before imitating them herself.

  A dwarf would never be caught doing something so silly, so Thadrick set about making breakfast instead. The smell of cooking eggs was enough to distract his friend and he came and helped finish preparing the rest of the meal. He seemed very interested in how everything was made and what spices were used. Alan was not very skilled at cooking his own food it seemed.

  Wanting to support his friend as he began his difficult road to recovery, he spent the whole day with the two youngsters. After breakfast they used another dose of the potion. Since Alan was awake this time he could simply drink it. Well, drink might be the wrong word. He had to slurp the orange sludge down. Once again Thadrick avoided looking at the wriggling stump until it finished whatever was going on beneath his skin. This time he thought he could definitely see a difference. Maybe.

  The rest of the day was agonizingly boring for him. Cassidy and Alan sat and studied the cauldron and stirring rod for almost an hour. Then they took out the healing potion ingredients that she had picked up on her way home the night before. These consisted of some roots, monster flesh, and mana infused quartz dust. Thadrick thought back uncomfortably to the few times he had consumed one of those potions himself. He hadn’t known what was in them at the time. Ignorance is bliss.

  After another hour studying the ingredients, they finally got to work. The process was interesting, but you could only watch it so many times before going brain dead. By the end of the day Alan had actually managed to craft a batch entirely on his own. They weren’t very good, only restoring around fifteen hit points, but it was progress. Since Alan had a healer class, he didn’t really need them and gave the vials to Thadrick instead. He said it was a thank you for letting him stay here.

  With Alan’s shorter cooldown time, they could have given him another dose of the potion that night. However, since they only had two more, and it would be a while before Alan could make more, they decided to space the treatments out.

  The next day saw Thadrick being woken up again by his temporary roommate. This time he was doing some kind of obscene stretching routine. At first he was baffled, but then he started looking forward to Cassidy copying him again when she arrived, but she showed up later today than yesterday and by then Alan was almost finished. That’s what he got for trying to be a creep.

  After another attempt by Alan to learn how to make breakfast, they started brewing again. After thirty minutes, Thadrick had had enough. He told them he was going to go out for a while and headed to the mining guild. Things had partially returned to normal there, except now all mining runs would be done in larger groups. There were also patrols of guards in the upper portions of the tunnels.

  With only groups being sent out, there wasn’t as much freedom for the miners, but it was a lot safer. He ended up being put in a group of five other miners and they were assigned to a shaft of silver.

  This was one of the deeper shafts they had explored. Silver wasn’t that useful for creating weapons, at least not at the lower grades. It wasn’t as strong as iron or steel, and while making steel was a lengthy process, silver was also harder to find. It could be used, however, by higher level craftsmen, because it could form alloys that were particularly receptive to certain types of enchantment.

  Some of the silver they mined would be shipped back to their kingdom where those higher grade craftsmen would fashion weapons for the elites, but most would be used in the creation of jewelry. Either way, at the end of the day it should turn their group a tidy profit.

  While they were down there, Thadrick started to get an idea. The fact that the mayor hadn’t even acknowledged their contribution to the rescue had been eating at him. More so for his friend than himself. He was trying to think of how he could show his appreciation. Being down here and harvesting this valuable resource gave him inspiration.

  It wasn’t until he was sitting at the Boiling Cauldron, having a pint with some of his miner friends, that the plan solidified. As a group, the miners had the highest percentage of people captured by the kobolds. They had been out in the mines in ones and twos and easy prey. Many of those sitting around him also shared that they were not happy with how the mayor handled everything. They too were eager to show Alan how much they appreciated his efforts.

  There was a strange sensation that seemed to move among the group as they made their plans. It would hit one person and then another before they would shake it off and someone else would feel it. It was like a voice inside of them was trying to tell them this plan was pointless and they should just go home. It wasn’t until someone actually voiced these sentiments and started to get up, that everyone shared they were getting the same feeling.

  It was too much of a coincidence that they all were getting the exact same feeling, and after realizing that, the stubbornness of dwarves won through. Perversely, instead of whatever it was putting them off of the plan, the feeling actually ended up making them more intent on going through with it.

  It wasn’t anything they could do today, but some of them could get the ball rolling. There were people they would have to talk with first. Thadrick’s role had him approaching Kespar at the guard headquarters.

  The tall dwarf was once again happy to see him, and thought that their plan was a great idea. He seemed equally pleased by the sentiment behind the plan, and the fact that it was a way of getting one over on the mayor. Apparently, their relationship was more strained than usual.

  Returning again to his house, he was just in time to see Cassidy leaving. He remembered the first time he had seen her, closed off and moving as if she was one of the fabled dwarven automatons. The woman before him now was instead filled with life. There was still a darkness to her, most likely from her experience in that stone house, but her vitality now shone like a radiance. Spending this time with Alan was doing her good.

  After dinner Thadrick informed his friend that he would be leaving early tomorrow, and might not return for a day or two. It was a sign of how smitten Alan was with the girl that he didn’t even ask why. Thadrick had a little trouble falling asleep that night. Feelings of both anticipation, and not a little fear, were keeping him awake. Alan’s snores ended up being the white noise he needed to distract his brain, and it allowed sleep to take him.