Quest Report - Okarin
Several days after attempting to visit the
city temple, Okarin finally mustered up the energy to attempt another quest.
By this point, Okarin had regrown many more inches and was now approximately the size of a 12-year-old. Green Slime was as gluttonous as always, and refused to go anywhere — it wanted to stay in the fields munching on grass all day. This was more or less becoming their routine. During the evenings, Okarin would find some rock or log to sleep underneath, and Green Slime would graze all day and night. During the day, Okarin would leave Green Slime alone and go off to do stuff — although Okarin always had a sinking fear in their stomach that a wandering adventurer would see Green Slime and promptly kill it.
It actually gave Okarin a surprising amount of anxiety.
Like, even doing something as mundane as walking to the Adventurer's Guild to submit a quest report filled Okarin with worry. They constantly thought about Green Slime, and had to resist the urge to run back and check on it every hour.
In either case, after a week Okarin was emotionally exhausted with dealing with this slime drama. They wanted to get away from the city.
...Like... really get away... far away.
Okarin found a quest report that seemed like it would take them far away, so they grabbed it immediately.
+ + +
Unwilling to leave Green Slime behind, Okarin simply picked it up from the ground. Okarin was much bigger now, so carrying the pillow-sized herb slime was no real issue. However, the big glutton was extremely displeased by this, and it wiggled angrily about having its meal interrupted.
Regardless, Okarin made their way to the river and looked upstream.
Last time, they had traveled south — but what laid north?
Okarin had spotted a
quest report in the guild about a traveler who followed the river north to a port city called "Spire Reef".
Would things be better there? Would the people there also hate slimes? Okarin wanted to know.
+ + +
Over the next several days, Okarin slowly made their way upstream, following the northern banks of the river. They took a leisurely pace — because Green Slime liked to eat a lot — and they camped out underneath the stars. They encountered the typical Scribel Region forest fauna, like goblins and wolves, but Okarin had enough transformation tricks up their sleeve to frighten them away without much of a fight.
The course of the River was mostly steady. It was a good depth — deep enough for river barges — and Okarin judged that the river was mostly navigable. Of course, there were typical tough spots like sand bars, eddies, and hidden shoals that might be a dangerous obstacle for an inexperienced boatman, but overall it was generally manageable.
On the third day of Okarin's journey, they encountered a series of swift rapids. The slimeperson noted that this would probably be the most challenging section of the river. Only the most experienced navigators would dare crossing a spot like this, lest their boat get smashed up against rocks. Perhaps there was another way around?
After passing the Swift Rapids, the river broadened extensively, into what was clearly a new biome. This area seemed to be extremely dry and rocky — like badlands. There were dry shrubs, meandering gullies, rock crabs, and lots of red grayish rock. The rusted rock formations looked very strange. With the way that the river carved sharp snake-like corners, it was hard to see what be hiding around each corner.
It was here that Okarin encountered another group of travelers.
They were armed.
+ + +
"Oh my, what do we have here? A little girl? So far away from home?"
There was laughter among the gang of rogues.
"Don't you think it's a little dangerous around here? You know, cuz thieves and stuff." One of the sneered.
"Yeppo, bandits just love to
snack on little girls. Tastiest things to munch on before dinner."
"Personally, I think they're better as dessert."
One of the travelers was enormous as a troll. In fact, Okarin, was almost positive that the man
was in fact a troll. In fact, over half of the group of vagabonds was nonhuman. Okarin couldn't quite tell what all of their species were, but presumably they were mixed — some kind of half race. Many of them were missing limbs and heavily scarred, and they were clearly experienced. In fact, they were easily just as strong or even stronger than most of the adventurers in Scribel. Their equipment was high quality and deadly.
These weren't just ordinary run-off-the-mill rogues.
Okarin knew that they were outclassed from a single glance.
"So, little girl. Don't you think you should turn around and go home? We're pretty much as nice as people get around here."
"I'm looking for a place called Spire Reef. Do you know how I can get there?"
One the vagabonds instantly burst out into laughter.
"
You — a kid — want to go to Spire Reef? Isn't it normally the other way around? Smelly girls like you are always trying to run away."
"Look, we're trying to be nice here. You're in
pirate country. There are no laws here, and Spire Reef answers to no authority. I'm guessing you're a lass from that new tiny human city out in the boonies? Let me tell you — the world is a big place — and out here you bow to the
Pirate Kings with their great armadas across all the seven seas."
"Let me put 1 + 1 together for you. We're pirates. We steal stuff. We smuggle stuff. We kill stuff. If it's illegal and we smell gold, we do it. Little girls like you can fetch a nice price on the market. You should check out the slave market in Spire Reef sometime. We've got half-elves from Tereldria and minotaurs from Sauros. Us pirates are better traders on the sea than anybody!"
Okarin didn't blink, and they were unfazed.
"I'm not a little girl though."
"Haha! You have a funny sense a humor, lassie."
"Which way is it to the pirate city?"
"Huh? Did you not hear anything that we said? If you follow the river — there is a fork up ahead. The northeastern branch runs downstream to the Spire Reef. The northwestern branch runs upstream to the mountains. A small hill marks the fork where the river splits. We like to call it Prisoner's Knoll."
"Thanks for your help. Can I go now?"
Okarin stood up and prepared to push their way through the group of vagabonds.
However, one of the outlaws with tentacles (seaweed?) for a beard stuck out his massive arm, blocking Okarin's path.
"Me thinks that the girlie has been quite rude. Me don't like."
"Me neither. Good call, Gumbo."
"Huh? Leaving already? But we were only just starting to get to know each other" A different vagabond flashed their half-rotting teeth.
"You know," one of original pirates spoke up. "Nothing runs for free here. We gave you advice. Did you think you could get a free lunch?"
"Give us your gold. Then we'll let you go."
+ + +
Okarin stared back at the group of pirates. All of them had their hands loosely on their weapons, although they did not look overly concerned. It seemed that they did not consider Okarin to be much of a threat. In fact, one of them was still laughing and taking a swig of booze out of their flagon.
"Are you robbing me?" Okarin asked simply.
The leader chuckled in response.
"Well, sure, if you want to see it that way. Although honestly, in pirate country it's more like we're saying 'hello'. It's not polite to greet someone without stabbing them first, you see? It's no fun drinking at a tavern unless there's a good brawl and a couple smashed bottles. You don't need to take it personally. You aren't friends with somebody until you've stabbed them at least once."
"Huh... I didn't know."
"So, you paying up or not?"
"Well..."
Okarin walked casually to the edge of the river and peered over the side. The water was quite deep here.
"C'mon, we don't got all day. Chit and Chux, go and grab 'er."
"Sorry. I don't wanna pay. I'm leaving now."
"???"
"It was nice talking. Byebye!"
The pirates stared blankly at Okarin as the supposed 12-year-old girl jumped unhesitatingly straight into the river, carrying a large green slime in her arms.
The swift current instantly swept the two of them away.
They floated downstream on a course that took them all the way back to Scribel City.
