Chapter 6

‘God damnit! Why did this failure have to identify a child holding a cup as a threat, a child for goodness sake! I thought I finally had something that wasn’t a one dimensional green moron, only to be disappointed! It’s like all those years of cultivating that damned ground was all for nothing. Because it was!’

The old man paced around the small hole the plant monster had dug. Muttering angerly as he paced back and forth, hypothesizing how he was going to make up for this.

‘God damnit’, he sighed, ´I guess I will just try to talk to them, what’s the worst that could happen?’.

He pulled a small disk with a round underside out of his jacket, fuelling magic in it, before calmly speaking into it.

“Hello?”, he said with a quiet and slightly anxious voice, “Can you hear me?”. He waited several seconds, hoping for an answer to come. He knew going back out wasn’t an option, as that woman seemed hellbent on chasing him down.

A raspy and threatening voice came out of the small disk.

“What do you want, you lousy paedophilic gardener?”

The voice carried a certain threat, making clear that he was in no way allowed to come close to the receiver or their loved ones. The old man wasn’t fazed by this, yet he couldn’t help but frown. ‘’Lousy paedophilic gardener’? Really, now? Where the hell did that come from, I am not a damned paedophile! I get the gardener, screw off with the lousy part, but how in the world am I a paedophile?’

The old man quickly snapped out of his confusion, collecting his thoughts, before saying in a quiet and apologetic voice: “I want to talk”. The following silence lasted for a few seconds, before a harsh voice came back through the disk.

“If you want to talk, get back up here. If you can’t say it to my face, then I don’t want to hear it.”

‘Damnit, she’s going to chop off my head if I do that. Well, I can’t really leave it like this, I don’t want the nearby village to see me as a threat. Scratch that, they will see me as a paedophile if it’s up to this woman.’. The old man groaned, realising that he had no choice but to come up and talk to them, or be seen as a paedophile.

He brought the disk to his mouth, before saying with a calm yet restrained voice: “Fine, just don’t try to stab me when I do.”

He didn’t need to wait long for a reply, as the small device lit up the moment he stopped talking. The distortion made the seem almost ethereal, making her statement seem like that of the goddess of punishment.

“I can’t really let a paedophile near a child, can I?”

The old man sighed once again, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to retain his calm. The tight ropes of interwoven vines moved around him, raising his small platform off of the ground and up. The thorns cleaved into the ground, tearing it away right before the old man while shielding him from the dirt. It took only seconds for him to arrive at the edge of the clearing, close to a dozen metres away from the crater.

His eyes were quickly drawn to the dark elf woman with her child. Previously being more fixated on the parents, it was only now that he noticed that the child was a dinol. His eyes widened at the discovery, as he hadn’t seen a dinol older than 20 summers in the forest of Eleanor yet.

‘What in the hell is he doing here and why the hell is that woman defending him? Wait, didn’t she say that was her son earlier?! Is she married to a dinol?!’

His mind was filled with confusion as he stared at the small child, not knowing what to make of it. Unfortunately, Lyvia did.

“Give me a reason to not remove your manhood right now, you leering old fart!”

Her voice boomed through the trees, causing the old man to snap out of his confusion. ‘I AM NOT A DAMNED PAEDOPHILE!’. His mind was awash with rage, yet he took a deep breath and turned to address the Dynn Doriàn woman.

“Let me be clear, I am not trying to do anything to your son, I was just visiting to get the beans that were missing from my farm. I know your husband used them for his alchemy, and I wanted compensation for my stolen produce! And what in the world makes you think I am a paedophile?!”. His meagre attempts at calming himself were quickly reduced to nothing as his frustration took over mid-sentence.

Lyvia was about to burst into a tirade of shouting and cursing, before she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, only to receive a small peck on her cheek.

“Calm down, dear. There’s no reason to get so upset about an old, sex-deprived man.” Grey said with a soothing voice. He calmly walked past her, standing next to her and acting as a shield for Daelyn. His robe was riddled with plants sprouting from each fibre, covering him in a natural foliage of both ubiquitous and unique plants.

Lyvia calmed down, losing her frustration. “What took you so long, putting on that rope should only take you a couple of seconds.”, most, most of her frustration that is.

“I had to grab some extra stuff.” He said before turning towards the old man surrounded by a writhing mass of green. “Could you tell your plant to stand down? Talking with a huge monstrosity breathing down your neck isn’t very productive.”, he said in a loud voice

“Could you sheathe your weapons in that case? Seeing your own reflection in a knife isn’t very fun when you aren’t the one holding it.”

“Fair enough.”, Grey said as he sheathed his dagger, while beckoning Lyvia to do the same. He observed the old man mutter something under his breath before the plant monster skittered off, hiding its large frame behind one of the ginormous trees.

The path between them was now clear of any obstacles, yet the apparent hostility filled the atmosphere. They walked to each other calmly, ready to draw their weapons and conjure their incantations at the slightest move. The three adults finally halted a few metres from each other, keeping a safe distance from one another while still being able to comfortably hold a conversation.

Daelyn however, was the epitome of obliviousness in this situation, as he continuously attempted to leave his parents to get a closer look at the plant monster. He was curtly reminded that he should listen to his parents with each pull in his hand, yet the curiosity remained.

‘What is it?! The book doesn’t have a monster like that! There are some large plants with mouths, but not arms and thorns!”

The young boy’s mind had a surprising buoyancy, allowing him to veer back from the normally traumatic event by looking past the creature’s primitive instincts which had almost ended him, and peering into the realm of possibilities this particular critter held. The writhing mass of green didn’t move as a solid body, flowing like a river instead. The liquid form of green vines never revealed its core, making it seem like it was an endless tide of green appendages and pale thorns.

Daelyn kept staring at the monster even as the adults were holding their stern expressions locked on each other, conversing while keeping their weapons as close as possible.

The old man broke the silence.

“I wanted to talk, so I could apologise. The plant monster you must have undoubtedly seen is a Liffyd, a beast I picked up recently, yet it still has to learn proper manners and it has the tendency to view anything that nears me as a threat. I just hope..”. He couldn’t finish his sentence as Lyvia couldn’t contain herself anymore.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! A monster that isn’t even fully tamed?! Oh sorry, it just identifies anything it sees as a threat, what the hell is wrong with you?! How in the world do you think it’s a good idea to take a poorly tamed giant mass of razor sharp thorns and iron vines when you visit someone?!”

“Ehm, well I wanted to…”

“And what in the hell makes you think it’s okay to rip a hole in our wall, invade our house and have your Liffey, or whatever you call it, grab our son?!”, she shouted. Lyvia was livid, yet she didn’t get to continue her rant as she once again felt a shoulder on her hand.

“Dear, it’s okay. Daelyn is doing fine and the old man is here to talk, not to get scolded, so please leave him a bit of dignity.”, Grey said in an endearing tone in an attempt to quell the rage of a mother. Luckly, it worked.

“Grey, come on! That man just almost killed Daelyn with that monstrous apparition, and you want me to ‘leave him with a bit of dignity’?!”

Grey continued in a hushed tone, hoping that the old man standing across from them wouldn’t hear.

“Honey, what do you think will happen when we make a ruckus with this man? Thievery isn’t looked kindly upon in the village, even if it’s from an outsider. Please, we can let him go for now and get him on our own terms, but he’s holding most of the cards like this.”

Several moments of silence followed, before Lyvia turned around and walked off with Daelyn in hand. She walked towards their little house, intent on making the necessary preparations for if this man and his abomination ever come close to their home, and a little on more on the side.

Grey and the balding dinol were left alone, following the contours of mother and son as they disappeared into the house.

The old man sighed, visibly relaxing as his lungs deflated.

“Is your woman always that intense? By everything that is up there, that was nerve-wracking. How do you deal with that on a daily basis?”, the old man’s relaxed expression failed to defuse the situation, as Grey remained stoic.

Silence filled the glade for several moments, only broken by the muffled sound coming from inside the house.

“Fine, I guess I will start. I will drop the charges concerning theft, but I want something in return.”, the old man’s relaxed expression had transformed into the sleezy smile of a certain brand of merchant’s Grey knew all too well.

“State you claims, I might be more tempted to deal with the town guard than with you.”

The cold expression on the alchemist’s face could hardly be watered down, so the old man decided that a more direct approach would work on a fool’s game.

“I propose a trade, I have something you want and you have something I want.”

The words lingered in the air for several moments.

“Daelyn is ours.”

The old man smiled gleefully, “I never mentioned what I wanted, did I? It’s quite simple really, I’m but a simple farmer. A man who lives off the produce off his land, yet I’m unable to sell, much less process my own produce.”, the old man waited once again, content to see Grey make his own conclusion.

“So you want to sell your produce to me? At what price?”

“For now, I will keep it simple. You can use anything you want, but I want a share of everything that you sell. Any products you don’t use for experimental purposes are yours, just don’t think I don’t know the difference between experimentation and making small batches at a time and calling that an ‘experiment’.”

“Alright, what share do you want?”, Grey’s stoic expression remained, suggesting that the option of walking out on the deal was still very much a reality.

“I’ll be fair, for every four potions you sell, I want the profits of one. So, twenty out of a hundred.”, the old man stated as if it were a very reasonable offer. However, Grey was screaming internally.

‘What?!?!?!”, was the only thing his mind could produce at such mirthful deal being plopped down in front of him. Luckily, his mind caught up after several moments. His response was blunt yet warranted.

“Are those all of your conditions? It’s hard to believe that you would give me such an unfair deal.”

“Only time will tell if this little agency of buyers and sellers will hold up. Decide Theandor, yes or no.”, the old man’s smile hadn’t waned for a second since the beginning of the conversation, cementing Grey’s image of the man as a sleezy old merchant, a silver tong and a bag filled with gold.

“I agree, on one condition. You promise me no harm befalls to me or my family. The contract will be voided the moment one of your little monsters show up and causes mayhem, understood?”

“I agree to your little contract. Your family will suffer no harm by me or my creations, but I have the feeling such a condition would hardly be necessary.”, the old man nodded towards the house behind them, where Lyvia and Daelyn were looking at the large plant monster lurking about on the edge of the glade. The two were engrossed in observing the large creature, both in their own ways. Lyvia had the look of a stone cold killer on her face, betraying nothing except the silent urge to end whatever had met her ire. Daelyn on the other hand, looked at the mass of vines and thorns with amazement, as the little boy couldn’t help but be hypnotized by the Liffyd and its odd behaviour.

“There is no such thing as too much safety, especially when it comes to family.”, Grey’s voice suggested nothing but an iron will and a plight to protect his loved ones.

“You certainly are wiser than you seem, Doriàn. I hope your son learns something from you two. Few dinol realise the importance of family nowadays.”, the old man’s voice went quiet as he stared off into the woods. Grey’s stoic expression finally broke, as the unexpected remark caught him by surprise. The silence lasted several seconds, before the old man snapped out of it with a shake of his head.

“Expect the first shipment of produce in a few days, it will mostly consist of sample sized products, so don’t expect much.”, the brisk pace of the old man was in line with his voice, as the inhibited tone suggested both a control over the situation and a small amount of trust in his new business partner.

Grey watched the old man mount his monster and disappear into the woods, the only sound breaking the silence of the small glade being the leaves rustled by the wind. The odd encounter had left a bad taste in his mouth. He couldn’t pinpoint the cause, yet he knew that this man would be playing a bigger role in their lives, for better or for worse.

Grey had never been very religious, yet in that moment, he prayed to whatever being there was that governed the threads of fate upon which they wandered to save his family from harm.

He turned around and strode off towards the house after peering into the woods for one final time, assuring that there was nothing more to be seen aside from the usual flora and fauna. The small glade quickly passed by, the doorframe to his home welcoming him with the smell of warm tea, and the voices of his wife and child bringing joy to his heart.

Lyvia and Daelyn were sitting on the floor, legs crossed, and Daelyn in Lyvia’s lap. She was reading another one of his books to him, a tale of an unlikely romance between one of the high nobility and a commoner, culminating in a scandal of unknown proportions. It was quite comical to see the two of them read through it, as Lyvia became more and more ensnared by the story, while Daelyn just seemed confused with the inconsistencies in the plot showing up from time to time.

He knocked against the wooden doorframe to draw their attention, earning a smile from both of them. Lyvia stood up, leaving Daelyn alone with an encyclopaedia and a map of the forest pinned to the wall. They had been lucky to pick those two up, as the local owner of the bookshop seemed to have a weak spot for their little bookworm.

“Did you two come to an agreement? I can make him pay if he threatened you in any way.”, a gleam in Lyvia’s eyes suggested that she was more ready than her tone suggested, yet Grey didn’t pursue the subject any further. The experiences of his lovely partner expressing her rage in morally ambiguous ways couldn’t be counted on two hands, feet, and nights of sleeplessness caused by them.

“We did come to an agreement. We have come to a deal where I process part of his produce, sell that, and give him a part of the profits. In return, he allows me to use any of his produce for experimentation for free, and has vowed to never harm us.”

There was a silence for several seconds, before Lyvia sighed and turned around, stomping off towards the room on the far end.

“Grey, I know you love you trade, but can’t you think straight for one second. What kind of fumes got into you this morning that you came up with this idea?!”

“Lyvia, I know it seems dangerous, but there’s a lot for us to gain from it! Selling potions made from that produce could put me on the same level as the alchemist’s conglomerate. It could even set my products above theirs!”, Grey’s voice began to pick up as he recounted the benefits he had thought up.

“Grey, that is all well and true, but at what price? What do we know about this man, this old dinol with a giant ‘Lyffid’ who destroyed the wall to your atelier? How do you know we can trust him, how do you know he isn’t just some old freak who wants to use us?”, Lyvia’s worries were loud, clear, and reasonable.

She opened the door, revealing just a glimpse of the usually locked and forbidden room. It revealed little, but a gleam of metal and the outlining of a chest studded with iron. The door closed quickly after Lyvia entered, cutting off any conversation as Grey was sentenced to think about his wrongdoings.

The evening passed quietly after that, as even the local fauna remained quiet.