We arrived at the white tree. It was both majestic and sad, with leafless branches contorted and wrapped against each other, spinning in all directions. I was admiring the monumental tree when the Lynx asked me:

“Do you see her?”

“Err, no. Where is she?”

“Down there at the base, walk a little back and forth... There where you are! You should see her!”

I did what he said, and indeed at one moment, I saw a white flower on the ground. She was visible only from a certain position, one step further or back, and she was hidden as if watching through a prism.

It was no simple flower; the petals were thick, elongated triangles, forming a circle above another circle of thick, elongated triangles. It started from about eight to ten centimetres long petals in concentric overlapped circles, the upper petals much smaller, being only half a centimetre long. The colour was mostly white, but a white partially mixed with pink, or rather rosy tainted white, the smaller ones whiter and whiter the closer they were to the centre. In the middle was a small, white puffy circle, whilst on the petals, near the joints, light blue and light red small appendage bulbs appeared. It was strange and beautiful.

I stretched my hand towards the flower but retired it fast as a cloud of fine dust raised from it, wrapped itself in the air, and a fairy appeared in front of me.

An unusual fairy, but they are all strange in their own ways. She was about as big as a sixteen-year-old girl, looking about the age, her skin silver-white with random streaks of black and red mostly towards the ends of her hands and legs and the filigree wings on her back, two small horns adorning her head. She was completely naked, but for a complex kind of body art, paintings? tattoos? streaks? covering her modesty and small breasts and randomly her body. Her hair was silver-white with darker strands, her wings white-rosy. You could recognize the flower colours on her. Or was it the other way around?

She smiled:

“Hi Cala, please allow me to introduce myself; I am White Flower.”

“Hi, White Flower. Who are you? What are you? And what is this all about?”

She repeated:

“I am White Flower the fairy!”

As if the name should have ringed a bell with me. I need to check my open quests; maybe she appears there...

She did not leave me any moment to further examine her as she sighed, rolled her eyes, looked disappointed at me, and spoke with an admonishing tone:

“Humans….Was the message: you are in great danger, leave now, not clear enough?”

OK, she saw my collar!

“Don't put salt on my wounds, lady NPC.”

I wanted to explain that I am big enough to take care of myself, but I realized it was not the moment to make this argument after putting my hand on the collar. OK, but generally speaking, I would have been.

“I do not generally do what others tell me to do, especially when I do not know them and the reasons. It could have been a trap.”

The argument about looking for one white tree in the forest was now moot: once I looked at the forest and saw the tree, I did not mention that...

“I am White Flower, not lady enpiesie, and if you had done what I said, it would have saved both of us some trouble.”

“Us?”

“I wanted to propose you a deal, but that implies you are being free.”

“A deal?”

She continued: “You have a quest to solve, isn’t it? You want to kill the Lynx.”

“Yes. Well, not exactly me but my teammate, so I might have it too...”

OK, this must be it. I will read the quest through when I have time... and have access to the interface. Usually, I let the quests develop and try to solve them without help; this makes it more entertaining. I am not the classic player who runs the most efficient way to gather points through the quests. Anyhow these low-level quests do not bring me any experience. It's just for the fun of it. Actually, just to help Spartacius, he gets experience.

“I need to start to tell you a little about me.”

I almost instantly tuned her out. When an NPC starts telling me their life story, it is like a killing blow for me. Their story is mostly only filler to justify the request: kill that wretch. I let them talk, concentrate on my problems and let my subconsciousness filter their words and flag those that might be relevant.

“I grew up with a good friend, almost like two sisters, me and Araxa.”

Araxa? I know the name. She was a healer NPC that should settle in the area and heal everybody for a penny.

“It was always competition between us; we always tried to outdo the other. With the time I won, I became better, and now I am a much better healer than she is.

Instead of accepting this, instead of working harder to learn and be better, Araxa captured me and tried to extract my essence and in this way take over my skills.”

Oh. 'extract my essence'. I suppose extracting her essence does not have a good ending for her. She continued:

“I managed to escape, but she is chasing me, following me wherever I go, trying to finish what she started. In my desperation, I ran into this forest reigned by a dangerous lynx and found respite for some time. I hid here, healed the animals, and the Lynx tolerated me. After many years of flight, I was finally happy again and slowly got friends with the Lynx; Araxa did not dare trespass his forest.

However, things have changed again, powerful beings are searching the forest, killing the animals, and even the Lynx is in danger of being killed.

Araxa, together with the mayor of a nearby town, has put a bounty on the head of the Lynx. That is bad, but the greatest danger comes from a group of people that call themselves the Abyss Horde.”

All I heard until now was: Araxa, extract my essence, implies Araxa equals wretch. Go kill that wretch. Do I want that?

Abyss Horde? Now she got my attention.

“The Abyss Horde? I think I heard the name!”

She saw my interest and grinned, flapping her wings and raising a couple of centimetres in the air:

“Of course, you heard it; you have their leader's collar at your neck.”

“What? Is Grackak the gnome the leader of the Abyss Horde?”

“Yes, and some of their people are searching the woods for the Lynx and for me. They want to kill us just to absorb the little magic one gets when killing prey. They call this getting experience.”

The fuck? I was stunned to see how an NPC could perceive the action. Is this ok? Should they get this level of understanding?

I swallowed hard.

“How does this link to me? How did you think of warning me?”

“Grackak has destroyed the silver shrine in the holy Silver Town. There was a powerful talisman in the shrine that neutered any magic attack. The shrines were linked with magic, projecting this powerful protection in all towns with a silver shrine. The original shrine was situated in the Silver Town on a magic node and absorbed the power from it.

Now the talisman is protecting only him. As he destroyed the shrine, a powerful magic storm was unleashed that killed every living being in the area, but him, as he was holding the talisman.

With pieces of crystal from the silver shrine, they make further amulets to increase their spell casting.”

“They?”

“He and the remaining of his Abyss Horde, those that were not killed in that storm.”

“Oh”

“He is now recruiting further players for his Horde.”

“Players? You know what players are?”

There was a moment of silence.

“I know you are a player. Only players can be controlled with the bet-collar; normal spawns not. He forces them to bet, or else he will kill them. They become his puppets; they have to do as he says. I was hoping to gain an ally; that is why I warned you. I was not sure you were a player at that time, but there were some signs.”

“I only have a quest to fulfil; then, I will be free.”

“He will renew the ring and ask more and more from you, or else he will kill you. I want to help you to escape. I will support you if you want to fight for your liberty and escape the horde.”

“What's in it for you?”

“Survival? The Lynx and I want to escape from here and settle somewhere else. You will help us once you are free.”

“How could you help me?”

“If you take me with you as a flower, you could conjure me any time to heal you and your friends. But that should not be during a fight. On the other hand, I could hide onto your skin as a tattoo. My magic would still be limited to healing, but in this way, you could heal yourself any time, fight or not, or I could heal you when you are in a fight, and I could even talk to you in a whisper.”

Escort quest with added heal bonus? Not really a bad deal.

“If I put the flower in the item box, is it ok?”

“No, that would kill me; I still need air to breathe!”

Uhm. Carrying the flower with me as such would be a little cumbersome. The tattoo would solve the problem, plus the added bonus of healing during fights. Wow, that would be really good!

“OK, we go for the tattoo version.”

She made a rollover in the air clapping happy her hands.

“Yippie! Would you please undress to let me do it?”

Ahm. Striptease included.

“Sure...”

I stripped, and she came closer to me. There was a bit cumbersome moment when she pressed herself against me, saying some spells, then her body became blurred, and I felt a bit tingly as it prickled all over my left side. The sensation continued for five to six seconds until it settled. I watched as her colours were adorning my left side: from the left ankle up to my shin, up until to my temple, passing under the shoulder and covering a part of my left breast.

“I am done” - I heard a whisper - “I can move and cover what part you want, but please be aware that I am fragile and would suffer if damaged.”

“Then better move on my right side; when I fight, the left side is in front… yaargh!”

The end noise was due to the tingly sensation as she moved over my skin. It was almost as if a slime would have navigated my body, but more complex, a slime with thorns and small electrical pulses. Now it took a bit longer, about ten seconds, for her to settle.

“Sorry, better now?”

“Great. Can I dress now?”

“Sure”

I turned towards the Lynx whilst dressing:

“And what will you do? A lynx tattoo on my back?”

“Ahm, no, I could scratch you a tattoo if you want, but for me, you could tell everybody simply that I am your friend.”

“There are no lynx-friends walking and talking the cities in this world; sorry, this cannot work.”

He sighed.

“That's highly discriminating!"

He said that with a grin, then added:

"Well, this would be degrading, but you could tell that I am your pet or your mount?”

“Mount? Finally, I get my own epic mount! Besides, I am no hunter to have such pets.”

This was one of Cala's deficits. I did not have epic mounts. OK, it was not a dragon, but still epic. Jumping onto his back, I exclaimed my satisfaction:

“Yiiipyy. I think I will keep you!”

He seemed to be a bit alarmed:

“Don't let it get to your head! I meant: you could only tell, not do it!”

“Mounts don't talk! You don't have a harness...”

“I hate harness!”

“A true mount does have a harness...”

“You'll learn to ride without a harness. Maybe you should walk now, or you might get brained by some low branches?”

“No way you will make me walk now!”

“Just for your info, I consume about half a buffalo per day.”

“Cheap!”

“And don't put me to sleep in the barn unless the horses there are meant as food. I could wake up in the night and am always hungry.”

“Cool. Don't talk whilst with other humans; just growl.”

“Grrrrr!”

“Perfect”

My tattoo whispered to me:

“No, wait. A bird just came with a message. Let me hear it!”

The Lynx stopped. Obviously, with his fine ears, he heard her too. I wondered:

“Now, really?”

The bird chirped again, looking at me.

“She says a group of four is following your trace and might be plotting to attack you.”

“Plotting to attack me?”

“That's what the bird thinks they are planning. I cannot guarantee. Maybe they are your friends looking for you?”

“Friends?”

This could be Alice and Spartacius with some guys from his previous raid. But why would they come into the forest?

The bird chirped again louder as if protesting something, then came to me and pecked at my hand.

“What now?”

“She said they are plotting; they are not friends, and she requests a reward.”

“A reward?”

“Yes, the little bird flew all this way through the forest to warn you. I guess a biscuit would be fair.”

“Oh, sure.” I looked into my bag, and as soon as I had a biscuit in my hand, the bird flew, very cheeky, snapped the biscuit, and flew away with her heavy bounty.

I heard my tattoo laughing at my surprised face.