Directions

The village was called Greenheart, it was a small place with wooden buildings that stood proud against the backdrop of trees from the forest that it adjoined. A muddy track led us through the centre of the village, it seemed busy with people bustling around and dashing from stall to stall. It was not the **** attitude that was found in the city as people tried to get the last items before shops ran out, but the friendly excitement of villagers talking to their friends who had set up for market day. A few eyes were drawn to us as we arrived at the village with hushed whispers beginning at the sight of strangers. I had to smile; the place reminded me of my home.

Rayall parked the wagon on the side of the road, making sure that it wasn’t blocking the path for anyone else that passed through. We all left the wagon and stretched our legs, having spent another couple of hours in the wagon after our ambush by bandits. I had not fully recovered, I still saw the eyes of that nameless man I had killed, but I had been coaxed into talking once more by the others and was trying not to focus on what I had done.

“I’m gonna see if I can find us a stable to keep these in” Korin said as stroked the coat of one of the horses that we had appropriated. “I’ll have a look and see if I can get some more food for us as well” he added, looking at me expectantly.

I shook myself back to the here and now, “What? What do you need?” I asked, my voice still a little shaky.

“Some coin would be nice, and ya really need to snap out of whatever is going on with ya” he said, shaking his head, “It’s not like ya really killed that guy, he did most of the work”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small pouch of coins, I tossed them over to the dwarf. “Yeah, I’ll try” I muttered, mostly ignoring his last comment.

Sara looked at me with concern, “Come on Aucus, we can ask around and see if anyone knows where we should be heading from here” she and Cleo came over to me, pulling me along until my legs started moving to walk with them.

“I’ll stay with the wagon then” Rayall called out. Sara smiled and gave him a simple wave as we carried on walking.

We asked at the stalls, trying to find out if anyone knew where the cave was. Most of the people we asked claimed to live a distance from the village and mostly came there just for market days when they could sell their produce. All they knew from the talk was that the caves were in the forest somewhere, but it wasn’t a place that they cared to visit.

In an effort to cover more ground we split up, Sara and Cleo went to the inn to see if anyone there could help whilst I continued to ask at the market. I had no more luck with finding the location, and when people learned that I was an adventurer they insisted that I show them some of my abilities. I was in no mood to be a source of amusement, so I shook my head and made some excuses to leave, telling them that my mana was drained at the moment.

I decided to try and find Sara and Cleo to see if they had had any more luck than I had. I entered the inn and was hit by a warm pocket of air with the pleasant scent of cooking food. There was a large fire burning in the hearth and a bucket of stew cooking behind the bar. I glanced around the building and saw that the girls were sat at a table with a group of locals.

Sara was holding onto the arm of a villager who plainly thought himself to be the toughest man in the world. I doubted he would last more than a minute against the training that Orion had given me. Both Sara and Cleo were clearly flirting with the men at the table, and apparently that had been enough to coax information out of them.

“Aucus” Cleo called, standing up slightly from her seat and beckoning me over.

“Hello” I said politely to the villagers, “I didn’t have any more luck outside, did you two find anything out” I asked, directing the question to my friends

Sara nodded her head, “Ben here was just telling us about the cave in the forest. Apparently, he went there and found it infested by monsters, he would have killed them if he hadn’t left his sword behind” it was obvious to me that she was holding in a smile as she spoke, mocking the man in a way that he couldn’t understand. She turned to face him again, “You said it was about half an hour away on the north track, right?” she asked

He swallowed his drink, looking at her, he didn’t do a good job at hiding his desire to sleep with her. “Er, yeah. It’s about a half hour walk, you leave the trail when you see the two felled trees and go in that direction, you’ll see the cave in no time” he confirmed.

She gave him a smile, “Thanks for the help Ben, we’ll go and check it out then. Lucky for us, we brought our swords” she said, tapping the scabbard that she was wearing at her hip. My mouth cracked into a smile at that.

Sara and Cleo came over to me, “We’ll let you buy us a drink when we’ve dealt with the monsters” Cleo said as she glanced back to them. There was a hearty cheer as a few of them raised their mugs at her comment and had another drink of the cheap village ale.

We left the tavern and went to find where we had left Rayall with the wagon. Korin was back and was loading a sack of food onto the wooden bed. “You found somewhere for the horses then?” I asked as I saw the animals were no longer with him.

He turned and squinted in the sunlight as he looked at me, “Ay, I found a farmer nearby with a barn that he could keep them in for a bit. I gave him a few coins for the trouble” he said as he finished loading the food and dropped down onto the ground.

“You’re not worried he’ll try and steal them?” I asked doubtfully

He laughed at that idea, “Ay, he seemed pretty excited at the sight of them, even asked to buy them. But no, I’m pretty sure I was the first dwarf he’d seen. I sold the dwarven madman thing pretty well, he’ll be too scared to try and steal them” he was still laughing quietly as he reassured me

“I’m sure it was difficult to make him think you were a madman” I said sarcastically. He frowned at my comment but began to chuckle again.

“Ay, so did ya find out where that cave is?” he asked.

Sara nodded her head, “Apparently, it’s about half an hour north in the forest” she said, explaining what the villager had said to us.

Rayall nodded his head, “We should go whilst there is still light, maybe there will even be time to buy food that isn’t just meat” his voice took on a sterner tone at the end and he stared at Korin.

He shrugged his shoulders and held up his hands, “What? It tastes good, ya should try it sometime” he said defensively.

Cleo broke up their little spat, “Like you said, we should get going” she said to Rayall, “And you can buy some vegetables from that farmer when you get the horses back” she said to Korin, pointing a finger in his face.

Rayall nodded, “Let me find someone to take care of the wagon first, I don’t want someone to take our tents and food whilst we’re gone” he said and rushed off into the village.

Eventually, he came back with a boy who he handed a silver coin to. He promised him two more if he did a good job at looking after the wagon for us. The boy agreed eagerly and stood guard as we walked through the village and found a trodden path that led north into the forest. It took us a while to find the path as it was partially concealed by a blackberry bush, the brambles pricked us as we squeezed past it and delved into the trees.