Everyone sat at the tables of the Seared Tusk. Aiden found his eyes glancing back to Selene, who he had offered dinner after hearing her stomach growl while he was giving the other three an earful for being rude.
She did not even sit down with them. She just sat at the bar and glanced over at Aiden from time to time.
"So who exactly is that guy?"
Liora asked, glancing over at Selene, who averted her gaze.
"That guy is a girl named Selene who was trying to seek a remedy for a condition she has. One of the remedies is in the form of energy potions before you three barged in."
Aiden explained angrily this while sipping on the glass of water he had been given.
Jax jumped up, looking at Aiden.
"If we can find the recipe for energy potions, we may be able to fix our problem of fixing the damage I can take."
Aiden stared at Jax who once again was not reading the situation. A part of him wanted to punch Jax, but another part held him back noting how he would just hurt his hand.
"She didn't have the recipe for energy potions. Only mana, aura, and faith potions, and they don't have a common element. So making an energy potion would be a shot in the dark. I was planning to talk to her about it until you all charged in like a bunch of bums off the street."
Aiden said this, gritting his teeth at the last part in annoyance.
Kaelen reddened in the face a bit at this comment, but that may have just been because he was on his third mug of ale already.
"I think I know why you can't hike worth a damn. Your body has already withered away due to chronic alcoholism."
Liora said in a mocking tone.
"I don't have a problem with alcohol. It's a sport, and it's called Liver Crossfit. I am a proficient athlete."
Kaelen said, slightly slurring his words.
Jax turned to Selene and walked over, placing his paws on the counter to be eye level with her.
"Sorry about interrupting you earlier. You're welcome to come over if you want to finish your conversation with Aiden here."
Aiden turned to him with a look and made a mental note to teach him social cues when he got the chance.
After a moment of looking around nervously, Selene walked over to their table and quietly stood until Eustus saw her and wordlessly moved a chair under her so she could sit down.
She pulled off her hood with her right hand, being careful to keep her left within its folds. With it down, she did appear more feminine, but it was still 50-50 if someone did not already know whether she was a guy or a girl. This might have come from her figure being hidden by the cloak, but her simple and rather boyish haircut didn't help. Her face was red from embarrassment as she stared at the table and mumbled again, nobody hearing anything because of the sound of the bar overshadowing her already quiet voice.
"Hey, what's your level?"
Jax asked, sitting back down in his seat.
Kaelen, Liora, and Aiden turned to Jax with open-mouthed surprise.
Asking for someone's level was something you only ever asked friends because it could easily get you attacked in the wrong parts of a city.
"I'm a-almost level 6."
Selene said in a muffled voice, mostly because of the scarf still around her neck.
"Does that mean you're an adventurer? If so, we're a party looking for two more members. Plus, we're both looking for the energy potion recipes, so we can work together."
Jax said this without a care or clue that what he was doing was weird.
Aiden turned silently to Liora, who nodded.
Turns out Jax's way of recruitment was running up to someone and saying, Hi, wanna help me go on adventures?
Aiden turned to Selene, who seemed almost zoned out, probably from a mix of timidity and extreme extrovert meets timid introvert causing social battery to plummet through the floor.
He saw Jax was about to continue and held a hand up before he overwhelmed her any further.
"The current plan is to travel to the library to look up some information about a monster we may be fighting for our plate quest. How about you and I head to a shop I know that often sells potion recipes? We may be able to find the potion we are looking for before these numbskulls get me sidetracked again."
Selene nodded slightly, seeming relieved she didn't have to speak and could answer in head bobs.
Aiden ordered dinner for himself and Selene as the marked page flew back over to Eustus who nodded and got to work.
The others looked at him expectantly. Jax even doing what me must have assumed was puppy dog eyes but looked more like he was trying to see something on the end of his nose
"You pay for your own meals, you freeloaders!"
"We are *hick* so not freeloaders."
Kaelen said as he missed his drink and poured it down his fancy robes.
Considering how scrawny he was and how there were 6 empty mugs beside him, the fact he was still continuous was an achievement in itself.
While they ate, Selene ordered three meals and ate all three in a voracious way that made Aiden think she had been hungry on the caravan ride but too timid to speak up about it.
The others ordered as well, and once they paid, Jax carried the now-unconscious and snoring Kaelen on his back while he and Liora made their way toward the library.
After leaving the tavern and walking down the road, Aiden remembered something and asked Selene,
"Have you ever had a honeydrop? It's a candy specially made in Shortdew and imported by a shop."
Selene shook her head.
Aiden tapped his pendant to wake up Misty, who came out burbling as she spun around, as if looking for danger, before turning back to him with a confused warble.
"Sorry, Misty. We ended up avoiding a fight today, but I brought you to your favorite shop."
Misty whipped around, practically diving at the window as she chirped and bubbled. She spun around Aiden and pulled at his hand toward the door while he chuckled.
Selene looked at Misty in fascination as they walked over to the Sweet Dream.
Stepping inside, Aiden found Xenovia behind the counter reading her book, the walls around her lined with sweets of all kinds and the smell of sugar and honey wafting around in a comforting wave.
Xenovia was a heavier-set woman with curly brown hair down to her mid-back. For a long time, she had used a pipe but stopped because her voice had gotten really bad, and she had to get treatments.
Even now, her voice sounded like she smoked a pipe, but at least it was not as bad as before.
When the door jingled, she closed her book, saw Misty, and called out,
"Dewdrop, it's been too long."
Misty dove over the counter and hugged Xenovia's cheek, nuzzling her for a moment.
"Aiden, good to see you. But you should come more often. And who is this?"
"This is Selene. She just got here from the caravan, and I wanted to show her the best candy shop in Hopestone."
Aiden said with a smile as he walked over to the honeyed candy section while Misty flew around examining her choices.
"I know damn well you're trying to butter me up with that compliment, but damn it if it's not effective. Welcome to the Sweet Dream, Selene. What can I get for ya?"
Xenovia asked, leaning on the counter with her elbow as she made a sweeping gesture with her arm.
Selene stood there for a moment, glancing around, clearly embarrassed.
Aiden pointed at the honeydrops that Misty was flying around and pointing at.
"I was bragging about the honeydrops on the way over, so let's start with those."
Aiden said this while holding up three fingers.
Xenovia nodded and walked over, grabbing three of the small honeydrops by their sticks and handing them over.
Aiden pulled out a gold to pay for two, since Xenovia always said Misty got one free, and then they left the shop.
Misty practically dove at Aiden's hand and grabbed hers, swirling around it as her water body started to turn golden from the honey and a satisfied expression crossed her droplet face.
Aiden handed Selene hers and saw she was unsure how to eat it until he stuck his own in his mouth with the stick hanging out.
The two made their way down the road as Selene turned to him and asked in a still quiet voice,
"Are you really joining an adventuring party with those guys?"
Aiden felt the internal battle in his mind of saying yes or no before he answered.
"It's still up in the air at the moment. I had the dream when I was little, as many kids do, but I kind of accepted that I was just going to be the town alchemist after a few years. Still, I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying adventuring and the quest I'm on with Jax and the others."
Selene nodded and, after a moment, said,
"I don't think I would be a good adventurer. People usually avoid me when they see my arm and my condition. Plus, I'm very shy and have trouble talking with people, so I'm not sure if adventuring is right for me. But I still want to try."
Aiden turned to look at Selene as they walked.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your reason for wanting to become an adventurer?"
Selene stopped walking for a moment before saying, in her loudest volume yet, though still only at the level of a normal conversation,
"I want to grow strong so I can help my dad fight the monsters and protect our city. What about you?"
Aiden glanced at her and tried for a moment to think of better wording before he gave up and said.
"I... I want to be an adventurer because adventurers make a lot of money and usually find a pretty person to marry."
Selene stifled a laugh.
"Hey, what's wrong with that? Name any guy who doesn't want to marry someone pretty and I will show you a liar.
Aiden's face turned beat red despite his retort, and he continued at a speedwalk toward Kinwal's Knowledge Emporium.
Aiden opened the ornate doors to the strange building as they stepped inside the dark room. It was cylindrical going up, having once been a grain silo that was repurposed after the town expanded. Aiden didn't see anyone on the ground as he shifted his eyes upward to see Kinwal hanging upside down from one of the rafters.
Kinwal wore a fancy-looking suit that allowed his wings to poke through on either side that he was currently wrapped in like a wannabe vampire.
He and Aiden had grown up together as friends, but Kinwal had never grown out of his edgy phase. Even now, he practically lived on drama.
Combined with his halfblood bat nature, he looked like a bat given a humanoid shape, allowing him to pull off the vampire act well.
"I have been expecting you. Welcome to my Knowledge Emporium, where-"
Aiden cut him off and yelled,
"Damn it, Kinwal, get your dramatic ass down here and quit with the deeper voice thing!"
Kinwal went from doing a dramatic slow spin to releasing his grip, only catching himself just before he would have fallen on his face.
His deeper, dramatic voice from before was replaced by his actual voice, which sounded like he was perpetually in puberty. Worse still, he was wearing a fake fancy-looking blindfold.
"Dude, you're ruining the vibe with that. What if I had another customer in here and you made me look fake?"
Kinwal asked, storming over and ripping off the blindfold.
He held up his hand for a fist bump. Aiden returned it and said,
"Relax. I brought you some medicine."
Aiden pulled out his two Drowsiness Potions and handed them to Kinwal, who held them like they were gold.
"Dude, you're a lifesaver. Without a little of these, I can't sleep."
Kinwal flew up to his room in the top area away from the front of the shop as Aiden called after him,
"If you slept at night like everyone else, you would be fine. You just refuse to sleep until six in the morning and don't have blinds."
Kinwal flew back down, only just noticing Selene standing behind Aiden. He looked over to Aiden.
"Since you brought someone, it means that you need something. I'm assuming a potion of some kind?"
"Yep. I'm looking for a basic energy recovery potion recipe."
Aiden replied, pulling out 20 gold coins, which was Kinwal's normal rate for hard-to-find information.
Kinwal swept the coins up with his tail and started to look through the shelf of books where he kept notes on information he scried using his abilities as a scryer.
"Oh, Aiden. I heard a rumor about you. Something about you joining an adventuring party with a fullblood wolf named Jax and even getting two new members just a day ago. Does this mean you're finally going to become an adventurer?"
A pang of annoyance hit Aiden. Recently, everyone seemed to be asking the same thing.
"I'm still picking. It's not decided yet."
Aiden said this, crossing his arms.
Kinwal turned back, pulling out a book labeled Aiden Interest Points. He flipped to a page and set the book down, showing a recipe for an Energy Potion that called for one part Alleha and one part Borage.
Aiden quickly scribbled it down as Kinwal asked,
"I heard you and your team were handling a situation on the mountaintop, and I saw what looked like a bunch of fire ghost things when I took a look."
"Yep. They are called Ash Spirits. They're made from people who died in a fire and are carrying out their last strongest desire. But we're more worried about the tree."
"What do you mean a tree? From what I saw, there is a big burned spot where the Ash Spirits are, so I don't think there are many trees around them."
"There is one. There is this shrine on the mountain that the Ash Spirits won't touch, and it has this tree that started bleeding. It was surrounded by a containment barrier magic circle, from what our mage friend said."
Aiden heard a mumble behind him and turned around to look at Selene.
Kinwal, with his big ears, heard better. He cocked his head and asked,
"What's a blood treant?"
Selene stepped forward and said in a still muffled tone,
"It's a rare creature that my teacher told me about once. A type of tree that has extremely long roots and infects other trees to become stronger and make minions."
Aiden tried to rack his brain for a moment, wondering if he had ever heard any stories about something like a blood treant.
"So do they need a living tree to spread, or?"
Realization dawned on Aiden.
The Ash Spirits were not burning the trees for no reason. They were trying to stop the spread of the blood treant. But as they burned the circle bigger and bigger, it became harder to keep up.
That was why they had to rush to stop a tree that was partially infected.
Aiden turned to Selene and said,
"We need to find the others right now."
She seemed bewildered but nodded.
Aiden turned to Kinwal and said,
"Thanks for the info. I'll bring more Drowsiness Potions next time!"
Kinwal waved after him as Selene and Aiden ran toward the library.
If Aiden's hunch was right, they might only have a few days left before this became a big problem.