Zorion arrived at the black witch's house, mute as he was, he said nay a word and handed over the docket with quest description over. Amused, the witch reciprocated with the silence as well, and simply pointed to a chair and table, there waiting was a single potion
The potion was in geometric diamond shaped bottle and its contents seem to be a liquid, obsidian in colour and boiling without heat. The smell... it smelled cabbages...
In one swoop Zorion quaffed the potion. unlike the smell it tasted of strawberries. At first nothing happened, then as if a candle was blown out, it was dark. He opened his eyes but did not recall closing them.
He found himself near outskirts of Scribel, as he exited the edge of the forest he saw the city. It was in ruins but it was not recent, it looked to be a long time since the city fell.
To what?
The sound of a war horn could be heard, and cavalry, warriors coved in plate and steel charged across the flat ground outside the city walls. Zorion searched for their target... and there they was, a swarm of slimes! The blobs were size of horses, bouncing and jiggling they rushed rushed to met the horsemen.
The cavalrymen drew their weapons, weapons not made of steel, but made of light. Swords, lances and halberds made of a maleficent red energy. At first the outcome seemed obvious... but after watching a moment Zorion was not so sure. The slimes made whips from their bodies swiped down foes in a deadly arc, and at times, one slime would be bisected only to have two rise in its place.
"Well what do we have here? Enjoying the show?" Zorion turned to find a gang, a troop of fighters.
Zorion started to write a question in the air with light "What-"
"You fool! You can't use magic in a Dead Zone!" The man, the leader of the group moved in quick, too quick for Zorion to see, And his magic casting hand was secured in the leader's grip, "We have to going!"
No magic? then what of the red energy?
The leader looked to another man and put more emphasis on his words, "We have to go NOW!"
Horses were brought forth from the woods, and the gang of fighters mounted. Zorion recalled his chalkboard and wrote, "Adventurers?"
"Aye, that's us, there is only us now, no quests, no
Guild master, Just us." The leader offered a hand to Zorion, "Are you coming? Or are you with them?"
Zorion looked at where the leader of the adventurers was pointing, the cavalrymen, they were all dead, he could see the markings on the men, vaguely resembled a
golden Rose.
No, Zorion shook his head, he secured his chalk board and took the Leader's hand. And with a pull Zorion mounted the horse the leader was on.
As they trotted, the leaded declared without turning his head, "I am
Clive, I used to be a city guard... I think I have seen you before... Well... it don't matter now."
And life changed for Zorion. for two years he lived in a harsh unforgiving world, but he lived he worked hard he learned and he lived, until he didn't. One day he died, he opened a chest that turned out to be a
mimic, reacting too slowly he was was killed most of his body bitten off in a single chomp,
That was when he woke up.
He lifted his head off the table with a start, breathing heavily,
That was traumatic
The witch simply sat there watching, still seemed mildly amused, after a moment Zorion took out pen and paper to write down his experience lest he forgets,
As he did so something odd happened, more odd than anything he had experienced so far, which said something, he hear voices, voices from something on the table, Zorion looked over, and saw two apples in a bowl,
"Its over for us, Bryan"
"Oh don't be so grim, Kate. you do this every hour, We'll be fine"
"O'Jean was right, he used say "hold on for dear life. Hold on, don't fall or its all over!' and that's what this is now, Bryan OVER, it all over Bryan!"
"Oh don't be like that Kate, there's a chance, we can still... we can.... Hey, what's that guy look at"
"I think..."
It wasn't sound Zorion was hearing it was thoughts, at that moment both Zorion and the fruit heard each other's voices in their heads, they both thought the words, "I can understand you."
"Hey! Hey! You! You did this! You and your kind!"
Ignoring the fruit's rage, Zorion picked up one of the apples to examine it, to see if there was any gimmick in the fruit, he could sense no magic from it.
"BRYAN!!! NOooo! Y-you monster! Let him GO!!"
"Kate! GOODBye! I... I have always loved you..."
Zorion was not sure what to do, so he placed the apple back down.
"Bryan! Bryan! A-are you alright?"
"I, I am f-fine... no bruises... just a bit shaken up, s'all." Bryan said meekly.
The two apples were silent for a moment then Kate spoke first. "Did... did you mean what you said?"
The two apples then started to speak in a low whisper, Zorion was perplexed by the situation, so he wrote down the side-effect in the report as a postscript, hopeful that this effect would go away eventually.
