I arrived at the main room of the Hop on Inn, tummy protesting its ck of breakfast and the rest of me still miffed that I wasn’t in bed. I was so tired that my feet dragged and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open, but I had stuff to do, so I couldn’t just ze around all m.

  The room was nearly empty of delvers, only a few of them sitting at the bad minding their own business while the barmaid swept the floor or repced chairs. Juliette was in her spot behind the bar, idly flipping through a big book and making notes with quick twitches of a quill. Her own version of the ledger I had found in Threewells, maybe?

  “Heya,” I said as I slumped into a seat before her. I was only wearing my normal clothes because putting on my armour was too much to ask for before breakfast time. “Food, please,” I said before I let a handful of coppers ctter onto the ter.

  Juliette snort-croaked.

  My head nded on the bar and I might have snoozed because the hing I khere teful of eggs and strips of meat and bread waiting for me. That energized me a bit. Juliette obviously hired the very best cooks because the food she served always tasted exceptional.

  “So, what are you doing today?” Juliette asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said after I swallowed. “Dyn gave me a quest yesterday, but it’s done. I guess I go hand that in. But after that, I have no idea. Dunwich was way too scary, I’m not going back there until I’m at least level one hundred.”

  Juliette hummed. “I’ll see you in some decades zen,” she said. “If you’re not going to do anyzing productive, zen you should sider heading out to Port Royal early.”

  “You mentiohat the caravan isn’t leaving for nearly a week,” I said.

  The barkeep started to her ter, a habitual gesture, I noticed. “Zere’s a group leaving today for Port Royal. Just a small one. More danger, but you wouldn’t have to wait as much, and I zink zat maybe more danger doesn’t scare you.”

  “Really? Do you know when they’re heading out exactly? From where?”

  Juliette nodded. “e ba a few hours, I’ll introduce you to zeir leader. Zat is, if you decide to go.”

  “I’ll think on it,” I said as I returo my meal. I was done all too soon and had tue with myself not to order another helping out of sheer gluttonous greed. Bay room I found e sleeping on my still illow. I slid on all of my gear, put on my backpad plopped my hat on. e went into my bandain with minimal protest.

  The weather had taken a turn for the grey, the skies hanging low overhead and the air strong with the st of oning rain. The cheery people I had seeerday were all gone, and the few folk still hanging around the outpost moved around in a hurry.

  I had a few things to get rid of. The pnts for Dyn the alchemist came first though. Stepping into the ic with a spear and a spade was a little strange, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone sihere was no oo bother. The sylph I had seen st time was o be found.

  A few knocks on the window to Dyn’s se of the shop summohe clumsy grenoil alchemist. “Yes yes?” he asked.

  “Hey Dyn,” I said before plopping the haversack full of flowers onto the ter. “I got your quest done,” I said.

  “Truly?” He eyed my sack, then opehe top to peak within. “Incredible. And such a rge haul. I’ll o t these. A moment please.”

  I didn’t get to protest as he moved to the far end of his b space, shoved things aside on one of his ters and dumped out all of the flowers. He didn’t even flinch when one of them ped on his gloved hands.

  I heard him mutter as he ted the pile, then nod before ing back. “Seve in all. Some are damaged. I’d give you less for zem, but yht more zan I expected in one go. You’re quite good. Did you want ze excess back?”

  “Ah, no? I wouldn’t know what to do with them. But maybe we could trade them? I ran into these creepy monsters called Abominations out there and I realized after that I didn’t have so much as a healing potion.”

  “Zat’s foolhardy,” Dyn said. “A good potion be ze differeween life ah.” His mouth turned down in a scowl and he limped off, ing back a moment ter with five bottles. Two were pin old gss bottles with cork tops, but the other three were strahey looked like three separate bottles that had had their tops fused together into one opening. “Two health potions. on quality. Forties. Zree trifectas. Twenties.”

  “Um. Are the he price?” I asked.

  Dyn stared. “You’re not familiar wiz potions?” When I shook my head he went on to expin. “Ze number given to a potion is how much impact it will have, usually as a ft pertage. A good potion maker will round it down.”

  “So those forties give forty pert of my health back?”

  He nodded. “Depending on ze severity of ze injury. Zese won’t regrow limbs, but zey will assist in ze healing process. Scrapes, minor burns, bruising and such.”

  “And the weird three bottle potions?” I poi the three he had set to the side.

  “Trifectas are generally weaker and more expensive, zey are also prized more by ze sort of people who have run-ins wiz Abominations while pig flowers. Zey will increase all of your main stats wizout interfering wiz each ozer. Some potions do zat. You don’t want to take a healing potion, zen learn zat when mixed wiz your water breathing potion it turns into a poison in your stomach.”

  “Yikes,” I said. “Does that happen a lot?”

  “No,” Dyn said. “But it has happened before. Zat’s why trifectas are popur. Also, zey help wiz many zings at once. Most delvers zat are low oh are low on ozer zings too.”

  “That makes sense. So the potions for the extra flowers?” I asked.

  “And for my peaind,” Dyn said. He rooted around uhe ter and then plopped down a single gold . “And zis is yours, for ze flowers you delivered.”

  “Thanks Dyn,” I said as I picked the up and csped it close. That was a thousand cht there. A hundred nights at an inn. Totally worth almost gettiacle monstered. “I’ll see you around!” I said once I was doashing away the potions. One of the trifecta potio into my bandoleer for easy access and the rest were dropped into my backpack with some cloth s around them to keep them nid safe.

  It had started to drizzle a little while I was inside, just a faint misting of rain that stopped aarted twi the time it took me to walk over to the general goods store. I sidered selling my spear at the bcksmith’s shop, but the dy w there didn’t seem all that friendly to begin with.

  “Hello,” I called out over the jingle of bells over the door.

  The old grenoil by the ter looked up and gave her a big smile. “Ah, hello zere, young miss,” he said. “Looking for anyzing in particur, or just looking?”

  “A bit of both,” I admitted. “I uff for a long trek. I’ll be heading over to Port Royal ter.”

  “Ah, zen you will need some zings, yes. Are you walking or taking a carriage?”

  “Um, walking, I think.”

  He that. “Zen food, a tent if you don’t have one, a pot to cook in. Do you have a warm b?”

  “I do, but another wouldn’t hurt. Do you have all of that equipment stored in a way that I carry?”

  He smiled wider and moved off to the back with a ‘one moment’ called over his shoulder. He returned with a backpack with a rolled up tarp above it and a pot hanging off one side. “Zis is what zey call a traveller’s pa any proper city. Everyzing you need for a week on ze road. Ze food isn’t tasty, but it’s nourishing enough, and it’s light.”

  We both undid the pack together and what followed was a quick flurry of adding and removing things. I didn’t need some of the things he had added like water purifying tablets, but wahers, like a proper fsk and one of those nifty magic lights meant to be strapped to one’s forehead.

  I made a small tally of all my gear, just to keep track of it because for some reason the world didn’t have handy iories for everyoo use which was just totally unfair.

  One and a half jars of honeyOne silver dle holder with a dozen fresh dlesA small firestarterTwo bsSome bits and pieces of clothA length of ropeHerbology book79 Copper s50 lesser silver s8 lesser gold sA sack full of hardtad beansTwo healing potions (40)Three Trifecta potions (20)A magic headmpOerproof tentA ponchoA tiny pass.

  That--as well as the things I was wearing, my spear and my spade--was the sum-total of the things I had. Not that much, but way more than I had started with. I thahe shopkeeper, handed over a few silver and told him to keep my beaten old backpack. The new one was a little bit more snug anyway, which would make it easier to jump with.

  My final stop was the inn. “Hey Juliette,” I said to the renoil dy who had moved out from behind her bar to chat with someone I didn’t reize.

  “Broccoli,” Juliette said. “You’re almost te. Zis is Milread, she’s ze leader of ze party heading over to Port Royal.”

  I looked Milread up and down, she looked like a bird-person, like the bcksmith. Tall, almost a full head taller than me, with a sharp nose and inhuman eyes set in an otherwise ordinary, if pretty, face. Her uncovered arms had long brown and bck feathers stig out of them with sharp talons at the end and her bare feet were rough and ended in huge cws. “Hey there, lil’ human. Never seen a harpy before?”

  “Ah, not really from up close,” I admitted.

  “If you e with you’ll be seeing plenty of me, at least. Juliette says yood people, and she’s never done wrong by me yet.”

  “Oh, I just helped her a little with the ing, not much else, really,” I said before looking at Juliette. The woman huffed.

  “Broccoli’s a good kid,” she said. “Actually, before you go. Broccoli, you do me a favour?”

  “Sure thing,” I said.

  Juliette reached down the front of her apron and pulled out a letter with a waxy seal on the front. “Zere is an inn near ze east gate of Port Royal. ’t miss it. Ze owner is called Julien. He is my oaf of a husband. Give him zis, yes? I made a o give you a room for ze night.”

  “Thank you!” I said as I took the letter and immediately stashed it away in my backpack. Then I ed my arms around the wide-eyed grenoil. “Thank you for everything, Juliette, I had a lot of fun! I hope we see each ain!”

  “You ready to go?” Milread asked. “The others are waiting.”

  “Yes, I’m ing. I bought everything I need for a few days of walking. Are there a lot of us?”

  “Calm down, little chick, you’ll have plenty of time to make friends,” Milread said, and I instantly knew I was going to like her.