16 – Away from the cows

  +1 EXP

  Gaspard gave a sigh of disappointment. “One experience point? Seriously?”

  “Gaspard!” the gift of speech returned to Elanil after the stupor from witnessing this swift and unexpected double murder. “Why did you kill them? They didn’t do anything!”

  “Of course, they didn’t. Because I didn’t let them,” Gaspard shrugged. “What’s your problem? After all, I needed to test my new ability in real combat, not for entertainment. You didn’t let me practice on the wolves. Or should I try it on rabbits?”

  “But they weren’t dangerous!”

  “They had swords; who knows what harm they could have done?”

  “They wouldn’t have done anything to us. Did you see how much experience we earned?”

  “True, they wouldn’t have done anything to us,” Gaspard nodded in agreement. “But what if there were unarmed people instead of us? Completely unarmed. Little children, for example. Think of the children, Elanil!”

  It infuriated her every time someone brought children into such conversations as an argument. But what irritated her even more was that Gaspard was right again, at least in part—who knew what those two morons could have done to someone weak and defenseless.

  “Something’s still wrong about all this,” she thought as they walked around the two bulky bodies that almost blocked the bridge.

  When they were close to Clarissa’s house, Gaspard again raised the quest’s moral dilemma. “So, are we planning on taking Bertha to Amanda and getting less for her than we could?”

  “We won’t kill the cow,” Elanil grumbled. “Enough killing for today!”

  “I just suggested,” Gaspard countered in the most innocent voice. “I just wanted to suggest, in case you were to agree with Clarissa, it would be nice to commit this heinous act right before her eyes. I mean, wishing someone dead, knowing that death could mean unimaginable agony and immeasurable suffering, and having no intention to witness this act—isn’t it hypocritical?”

  Elanil merely sighed, deciding not to reply.

  “Speak of the devil,” he chuckled and waved at Clarissa who had just left the house. Seeing them carrying Bertha alive, she didn’t wave back.

  “You’ve chosen to do as Amanda asked after all,” she looked at them coldly, casting a short hateful glance at Bertha. “Well, do as you wish.” When they had already passed her and were continuing on their way to the cow’s owner’s house, she called out to them. “Have you ever seen my sons along the way? Those mischievous lads like to hang out by the river, poking fun at passersby. I thought maybe—”

  “Nope,” Gaspard said without slowing his pace. Elanil was simply astonished at how completely unperturbed he looked.

  “Those were her sons!” she whispered furiously once they were far enough away to be out of Clarissa’s earshot. “You murdered her sons!”

  “That’s not surprising,” Gaspard remarked, just as quietly but completely calmly. “They didn’t appear in this world spontaneously, so they were definitely someone’s sons.” He chuckled. “Funny thing, I must admit. Here’s the moral—don’t wish death on someone dear to the one you pretend to care about, unless you’re ready for it to come back to you in an unexpected way.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Elanil hissed. “Their deaths were absolutely avoidable! And you’re even philosophising here!”

  “How do you even plan to continue your adventures with such attitude?” Gaspard’s voice sounded genuinely irritated for the first time. “Every mercenary you would encounter has a mother who sees them only as a sweet, harmless child who simply took up arms due to some misunderstanding—”

  “Oh, shut up, Gaspard!” Nura interjected, silent through their whole argument. “I’m sure, you know damn well the difference between a murderer who already has blood on their hands, and someone who just picked up a weapon and thinks it’s not a big deal to threaten others with it. Many people think killing is easy because they’ve never killed anyone in their lives. Just admit, you’re an asshole who killed those two idiots only to test out your new ability. And you know they had never killed anyone—finishing off true murderers doesn’t get you one experience point.”

  “Think as you please, orc,” Gaspard snarled and turned away. Elanil gaped—Nura hit the nail on the head. She was endlessly grateful to her for cutting Gaspard down to size.

  They spent the rest of the way to Amanda’s house in silence.

  As soon as the owner saw her cow, accompanied by the party, she nearly burst into tears of joy and began to coo over her pet. “Thank you so much!” she said, beaming with happiness. “I will be grateful to you to the end of my days and will tell everyone how brave you are!”

  “Oh, you don’t have to.” Elanil scratched her head feeling uncomfortable, imagining how soon Clarissa would discover her sons by the river and quite likely connect the dots between their deaths and the fact that their party had recently passed by it. Elanil wanted nothing more than to complete this quest and get away from this village as quickly as possible, never to return, to forget about this place, and for them to be forgotten here too.

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  “It’s the least I can do for you!” Amanda countered. “You risked your lives to save my poor Bertha.” The cow rested its head on her shoulder, and the woman immediately began cooing at her. “My dear, you must have suffered a lot there. Don’t worry, you’re home now, I’ll give you delicious treats later... what are you saying? A whole pack of wolves!”

  Elanil felt uneasy— could Bertha actually communicate with her mistress? How? Mentally? Because they couldn’t hear a thing. She was also worried that the cow had seen Gaspard dealing with those two at the bridge: what if... They definitely needed to get out of this village as soon as possible, away from those two creepy sisters.

  “What about our reward?” Nura brought the conversation back to the matter at hand.

  “Oh, yes, of course, of course,” Amanda clasped her hands. “Wait a second, I have something special for you,” she said, quickly disappearing into the house and soon emerging with an amulet. “Here, this is a thank you. Will, my dear late husband, found it on one of his expeditions a long time ago. It just lay in my house, and I even forgot about it. But today, I don’t know why but I remembered, after you left to rescue Bertha. And I thought, if you succeed, I’ll give it to you too. I have no use for it in my ordinary village life, but perhaps you’ll find it useful in your adventures.”

  When Elanil received the amulet from Amanda, it felt quite heavy for its size. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Nura examining the artefact carefully. Putting it in her pocket, Elanil merely said briefly, “We’ll discuss this later.” Nura nodded.

  “And of course, please here’s your main reward,” Amanda added. “10 silver. Your efforts were worth every penny. I would have given you more if I could, but unfortunately, I’m just a humble peasant and I don’t have coffers full of gold.”

  Quest: A cow in trouble

  Status: Completed

  Objective: You acted nobly, choosing the cow's life over her owner’s sister’s intrigues. You must be proud of yourself.

  Additional Information:

  As a token of Amanda’s gratitude, you also received a mysterious amulet.

  Reward:

  + 300 XP

  + 10 Silver coins

  + A mysterious amulet

  + 50 The Valley of Ringing Springs reputation

  [Level Up] Elanil

  Level: 4 → 6

  8 Stat points gained

  [Level Up] Nura

  Level: 6 → 7

  4 Stat points gained

  “Ugh, didn’t make it to level fifteen,” Gaspard sighed. His voice regained its characteristic mocking, carefree tone, Elanil noted. Apparently, he’d already stopped sulking at Nura after their argument.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find more quests on our own heads,” Nura patted him on the shoulder and, turning to Amanda, raised the almost forgotten issue of selling their loot. “Do you by any chance need some bombardier beetle meat? For your own stew, or if that’s not your thing, for your livestock.”

  “I don’t eat meat myself, and I don’t have any carnivorous animals, just chickens, rabbits, and Bertha,” Amanda admitted. “You’d better ask my sister, Clarissa. She keeps pigs; she might need some. She is not far from here, if you want, I can take you to her.”

  “No, no, thank you,” Elanil protested hastily. “I think we’ll find a merchant we can sell this meat to somewhere else.” She glanced at her companions, as if to say they had no reason to linger here any longer.

  “As you say,” Amanda shrugged and seeing that they were already getting ready to leave, added, “Thank you again for Bertha. If you’re ever in our lands, come visit us, we’ll be glad to see you.”

  Bowing to her, they set off.

  When they had gotten far enough away from Beechville, Elanil stopped the party and turned to Gaspard.

  “You know the Valley of Ringing Springs well, don’t you?”

  “In need to find someone else to help bringing cows home?”

  “How far is it to the nearest village if we continue along this way?” Elanil nodded toward the wide road, hard-packed with carts and boots. She started getting used to ignoring Gaspard’s taunts.

  “Um, if you’re planning to reach any kind of decent settlement by nightfall,” Gaspard glanced west, estimating how much time they had before darkness fell—the sun was already low on the horizon and about to disappear behind the mountains. “Then I think I’ll disappoint you. This part of the Valley isn’t as densely populated as the western reach. So, if we take this route… There is a small charming town called Hamselton, but it is about twenty miles away.”

  “Is there a guild in this Hamsterstone?” Nura inquired.

  “Hamselton.”

  “Whatever—”

  “Last time I checked, it was. A small branch of the Adventurers Guild.” Gaspard scratched the back of his head. “But if you’re so desperate to get a wooden badge on your chest, then we’d better go to Borrenton, the Valley’s largest town. There are at least a few guilds there to choose from.”

  “How far is this Boring town of yours?” Nura asked.

  “Borrenton. You sure are not good in toponyms’ pronunciation,” Gaspard grinned. “It’s about sixty miles west, on the return trip.” He pointed to where their route would again pass the two sisters’ houses, the forge, and finally the ill-fated bridge over the river. Elanil winced.

  “We’ll put it for later,” Nura reasoned, noticing her reaction. “What about other routes? This road will lead us to the north, right? Is there anything in the other directions? Except the south of course, I doubt that something good awaits us at night in the Sylvan Reserve.”

  “There’s big Silverlake over there, in the Valley’s center,” Gaspard pointed west. “To the east, there are a few farms, then the mountains begin. If we follow them north, we’ll reach the mountain pass and border garrison to the Eastern Approach. But we don’t have neither experience, nor reputation yet to get past that gate.”

  “How much do we need?” Elanil asked.

  “The twentieth level. I could sneak past myself—I’ve done it a few times. But I’m afraid I won’t be able to bring you along with me without the guards noticing.”

  “Then that leaves us only one option,” Nura pointed down the road.

  “If you like, we can return to Rosemary’s and spend the night there,” Elanil suggested. “That’ll probably be closer than twenty miles.”

  “Nah, I don’t want to,” Nura drawled, stretching. “I mean, I don’t tend to visit the same place repeatedly unless it’s necessary. You’ll never get a chance to see the world if you do that.”

  “The orc woman is right,” Gaspard nodded. “The way back is boring.”

  “You know my name’s Nura, right?” she frowned.

  “Yeah. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re an orc woman, does it?”

  “You really enjoy teasing others without any reason,” Nura grumbled. “I don’t call you a human bard, for example.”

  “And you’re right,” Gaspard laughed. “There’s little human in me.”

  “For the first time, I agree with you on something,” Elanil couldn’t resist teasing him. Her shock from the events in Beechville was probably gradually wearing off.

  “I’m glad we’ve finally reached some common ground,” Gaspard smiled. “Well, let’s get going, enough standing here like stuffed dummies.”