Speak with the guards.

I don't want Alice to feel too left out. Even though I did choose for her to come, she's still a fish out of water, just like me in a lot of ways.

You and Alice leave the inn and try to find where the guardhouse resides. It shouldn't be too hard, given how small the village actually is, but surely there are guards here. You wander the streets for only a minute or two before you see a long building with men and women walking in and out, each dressed in simple chain armour, but the outfits match one another like a uniform. Each has a lantern on their hip, a shield over their back, and a sword at their side, as well as a blue symbol of a bear painted crudely on their chest.

"Excuse me." You try to get a guard's attention as he walks by.

"What is it, citizen?"

"My friend and I are travellers. We heard some... spooky stories about Brumberg. Can you tell us of any strange happenings around the village borders? Monsters, missing people, anything like that?"

He looks nervously around him. "Saying such things in the open? That's bad luck. And you're going the spook the citizens even more. Why do you even ask?"

"Well, we're hoping to do something about it. The rest of my party is at the inn."

"Really? Nobody ever comes here anymore. If you really think you can do something about it, I can tell you what I do know."

"Anything helps."

"Creatures. They come only at night, and though I have no proof, I think they come from the hills to the north. Nobody travels out there due to the monsters that live there, like goblins and such, though I think something worse lurks out there. I've heard stories of an abandoned haunted castle far in that direction."

That's gotta be it. "Thanks. That's actually pretty helpful."

"Do you know if any villagers know much of magic, sir?" Alice asks.

He looks to her. You realize she must look odd to most, with her dark wooden skin, though her green hair is probably not so unusual in a world like this. You assume people mostly think she just has a different skin tone, and some kind of weird skin condition on top, and they don't really know how to inquire about it without sounding rude.

"There is one." He sounds **** when he speaks. "But she lives beyond the farms to the east. Her name is Dixby. A gnome. She's a bit of a strange one, and nobody really communicates with her. She only comes to town when she needs groceries."

"Surely she might know," you say.

"Possibly, but she's rarely helpful. I spoke to her once, and she just kept making fun of me, and dancing around any questions I asked. We've mostly given up on her, and she doesn't seem to care about what happens to us anyway."

"We should still try," Alice says.

You nod. "We should. She also reminds me of a certain pixie."

"Just be careful, travellers," speaks the guard.

"We will. Come on, Alice. Let's meet back up with the others before they burn the inn down or something."

The two of you begin your walk back.

As you do, you look to Alice with a smile, and gesture your hand forward. "You're doing great. Don't be nervous."

She looks to you, and then down to the hand nervously. She slowly reaches out and holds it tight as the two of you continue to walk. That isn't exactly what you expected to happen, so you raise a brow.

"I th-thought you wanted to hold hands!" Alice says.

"Sorry. That's not what I meant, but if you want--"

Quickly, she retreats her hand and her face lights up.

After a moment, you hear a pop. Then, she places her severed hand onto yours and looks away bashfully.

As the two of you walk together back to the Sparrow's Swallow, you continue to hold her hand, though it isn't connected to anything else. What a strange solution she's decided on...