Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 034 - Part 2

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The Servant and the Stranger

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TheirWorld

Seeming to be bored now, Reili flicked her tail and looked at Guin. “Perhaps this fool was the one who killed and kept my pelt, but it is as he says, if he ‘left my body to the wolves’, then no law has actually been broken. He could be lying, though, so I won’t let him off just yet,” Reili turned to Jormund. “I shall give you a chance to save your lives...”

“Anything!” Jormund exclaimed, but Dawl only lowered his head.

“Master Dawl,” Guin said to him in a soft voice. “Please raise your head. The fox spirit will give you a chance.” The Master Hunter raised his head, revealing tears that silently ran down his cheeks.

“In order to gain my mercy, there are three tasks you much accomplish,” went the fox spirit, sitting by guin’s side. “First priority will be to cleanse this cave. This quest has already been left to Guin, but I will ask you to aid her. If you could not guess, it is not my spirit that serves as a catalyst for the corruption. This cave is filled with countless restless souls - some of which have been festering for many moons. My power and anger only fed the existing corruption - there is no way to know how long the minor souls have been cultivating it.”

“D-Dozens?” Jormund repeated. “How long has this been going on?”

Reili shook her head. “I do not know,” she said. “I merely awoke here after I died, and I have little concept of how long ago that was as the corruption keeps bodies from properly returning to the earth. That said, these bodies may have been here for years.”

Guin furrowed her brow. “Wait,” she said. “Then… Master Dawl, when did you take the pelt?”

“About six months ago,” he told her. “I had been watching the area that I slew her in in case there were signs of corruption, but there was nothing, I swear.”

“Here?”

Dawl shook his head. “I left her in the woods, a good mile to the west of here.”

“Then,” Guin went. “The corpse was moved to this cave? Why?”

Reili tilted her head. “Now that would be odd,” she said. “Perhaps it is connected to my second task. Of the bodies left here, most had died in traps. Your second task is find out who responsible for setting all those confounded contraptions. More than likely they, and not this fool, are the true cause of the corruption. The culprit must be punished, and the traps destroyed - which, is my third requirement: Bring them justice. Will you accept?”

Nodding enthusiastically, Jomund answered, “Yes! Of course!”

“And him?” Reili nodded to a confused looking Dawl.

“He accepts too!” Jormund vouched quickly, but the fox spirit growled.

“He is capable of using his own voice, idiot!” she said.

Guin relayed Reili’s message to the Master Hunter, who nodded.

“I understand,” he told her, his voice sounding a little faint. “I shall do as requested. I thank you for your mercy, lady.”

“Very well,” Reili stood and began walking back inside the cave. “Now, leave. I am tired, but I will quell the souls for now. Begone from here.”

This is a “Crossroads Quest”, and will only be ended at the discretion of the assigning NPC.

This quest is optional. >

>

For now, Jormund’s only aims are to save the forest and his friend, Euen. In order to so, the fox spirit Relli has assigned them three tasks: [Ritual Cleansing], [The Trapper], and [Put to Justice].

These quests have been upgraded to, or are now assigned as, [Crossroads Quests].

This is a “Crossroads Quest”, and will only be ended at the discretion of the assigning NPC.

This quest is optional. >

> > >

In addition, all of the quests that Reili had given to her before were updated to include Dawl and Jormund in them.

Inwardly, Guin sighed. It was certainly a laundry list. The good news was that there were three of them. In theory, the quests should go a lot faster than if she were to attempt to them on her own. Jormund bowed deeply to the spirit fox and pushed Master Dawl’s head down in the right direction. “Thank you, lady,” he said. “We shall do these things post haste!”

Her nose in the air, Reili spared them one last glance, then trotted off.

Guin faced the two men with her hands on her hips. “Well now,” she scolded. “This is a fine mess, isn’t it?”

Dawl straightened up and said, “I am sorry, Guin. Perhaps if I had told you earlier…”

“Yes…” she murmured. An image of Tik-Tak’s body in the trap appeared in her mind, but she shook her head.

“We cannot change what has already happened,” Jormund’s voice was firm. “For now, we should focus on the things that we can do to fix the mistakes that have been made.”

“Right,” Guin said. “First thing is first - Let’s summarize what we need. Wood, flowers, a scale from the Dragon King, break all the stupid traps, find the person setting the traps, and punish the,”

“The wood and flowers are a simple matter,” Dawl told her. “The traps as well, if you know how to deal with them. The scale…”

“I suppose that that will depend on me…” Jormund rubbed his chin. “Maybe. The investigation…”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and focus on the gathering quests,” Guin said. “If we work on those together, you two can help teach me the ways of the forest. If I am to see the spirits and perhaps help talk to the Dragon King, I’ll need to know at least the basics.”

The two looked between each other and nodded.

While it would have been easy for her to assign them jobs, she would have gained nothing for it. The quest was originally hers, and she figured that she would have to gain some kind of skills or knowledge to complete it - and meeting the Dragon King seemed like a very important aspect of that, even if Jormund was a key figure in the quest line. This way, it would go a little faster than if she were doing it herself, while giving her the chance to build her character and relationships.

“I’d say we should head to where the flowers are first, and find some fallen logs to cop up along the way,” Dawl said. “We can also break any traps we might find. It should be simple enough.”

“The Dragon King’s grotto isn’t far from there either,” Jomund said, nodding his head in agreement.

“Alright!” Guin explained. “Then, let’s work on finishing the corruption once and for all!”