Chapter 10

Dellia Lucerne

While I’d set the fish to smoke, I’d taken care of a few things. I chopped wood. I made us some sumac tea. I deliberated over a potential life changing decision. Would I accept the brewer quest path or not?

My thoughts were interrupted when I stumbled upon the four foot long bottle of ale the brothers had shared with me. Except it wasn’t exactly the one they shared with me. It was a new one. Unopened. They’d left it on the other side of the shelf where it was dark.

They did this on purpose. They wanted to hide it from me so I wouldn’t object. That’s mighty sweet of them. Wait, what’s this…

Beneath the bottle was a letter.

Dear Hawkin,

It’s not hard to recognize fate when one of the Sons of Ara meets it. We believe you are fated to follow the brewer’s path. The honor is ours that you could be so inspired by ale from the vale of Ara. You have been most hospitable towards us and we thought this ale might prove to be a proper thank you.

-Arnad, Heldin, & Joul.

-May Ara light your path.

I was touched. The brothers had given me one of the best things I’d ever had in my entire life. The first thing I wanted to do was share it with Thrush. The short big eyed beast sniffed.

“Smells ready,” Thrush said.

He had patiently waited by the stove for the entire time that the fish smoked. Except for when I’d gone out to chop wood. He followed me then. We didn’t talk much. We just enjoyed the warmer weather in silence.

Warm spell won’t last more than another day. Judging by those clouds, we might even see some more snow tonight.

“Sumac tea,” Thrush said. “I like it.”

“Tastes like lemonade, doesn’t it?” I said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had lemonade before.”

“Lemonade tastes just like this. It’s really good when you drink it cold on a nice summer day.”

Thrush ate through most of the smoked fish, while I only had two small filets. He’d open his maw, and throw the fish to the back of throat, and then take one big gulp. It was impressive.

“I’m glad you like the smoked fish,” I said. “This was the last of it.”

“There’s more in the sea,” Thrush said.

“It’s that easy for you to go fishing, is it?”

“Takes some focus and time. Most of the challenge is in finding the fish.”

“Could you go for bigger fish?”

“If I wanted to. Depends on what I find first. Big fish and schools of fish look similar at a distance. It doesn’t matter to me which they are. Both are fairly easy to hunt down.”

“I see. Thrush, have you ever had beer before?”

“Yes. Big brown grizzly ones. Little black ones. All kinds of bears. All the time.”

“Beer.”

“Is that a monster? Half deer, half bear?”

“It’s a drink. Alcohol.”

“I’ve never had alcohol. I’ve never had beer.”

“Look at this,” I said. I retrieved the long stone bottle and gently set the bottom of it on the floor.

“Would you like to try some beer with me?” I said.

“My satiation is close to full, so I’ll only have a little bit,” Thrush said.

“Satiation?”

“Yes,” Thrush said. “I can eat as much as I want. I face a penalty if my satiation goes above full. I am forced into a deep sleep until my satiation goes down again.”

“You have a system? Like humans?”

“System?”

“Humans have a system that exists in their minds. They use it to become more powerful at certain things. The system manages inventory, quests, rewards, and a few other things.”

“My system manages how much food I eat,” Thrush said.

Thrush stared at me without anything more to say. I took the opportunity to rinse out a bowl and the copper mug. Then I popped off the long cork on the squat neck of the ale. The pop echoed in the cabin and Thrush’s ears switched forward. His irises adjusted with quick precise spins. The spongy flesh of his eyes throbbed.

Sparkling foam slowly erupted from the bottle and cascaded over my fingers and down the bottle. It was almost ice cold, though it should have been warmer since being in the cabin. I carefully lifted and tipped the bottle to pour each of us a fill. I wasn’t used to pouring liquid out of such a long and heavy bottle, so I spilled some on accident.

“Sorry about that,” I said and set the bottle back down.

The foam grew over each ale and formed a whipped cloud of glittering foam. Thrush and I raised the ale to our lips and we drank in tandem. The experience was much the same as before. The aromas filled my senses. The same goddess visited me again. She existed like a genie, exhaled from my mouth on a sigh. Her translucent form of pastel yellow floated above the table. From her torso up, she was a woman. From the hips down, she was the tail of a ghost. She smiled at me, leaned forward as if to rest her elbows on a perch, and said, “so soon, adventurer?”

“Who-who are you?” I said.

“Dellia Lucerne,” she said. Then her ghost-like form turned and she spotted Thrush. “A Nightream! What rare and unusual company you keep, Hawkin.”

Just as she said my name, her form broke like wisps of smoke. The sound of her voice seemed so quiet and distant. All I was left with were visions of flowers on summer hills. Fragrances of yellow flowers lingered on my tongue.

Thrush was staring at the space in the air where the goddess had just been. Without blinking, he took another drink of his ale. Foam cascaded around his fangs. The ale trickled over his mouth like a babbling brook. Then his eyes began to throb out of sync. His fur began to waver as though a wind passed over him. His eyes began to speckle with two different colors. Straw white.

“This is a summer ale,” Thrush said. “My composition tells me this is barley, water, hops, and yeast.”

“So you have had ale before?” I said.

“No, I have two systems. Satiation, and composition.”

“Well they would both be from the same system,” I said. “One system. How does composition work?”

“Composition lets me know what I’m made of and what I eat. I am what I eat. For example, I am now almost one percent ale.”

“You’re quite literally one percent ale? You don’t look like…”

Wait a minute. Thrush’s eyes took on the colors of the ale. Is he literally what he eats?

“I have an original form which is quite different from how I look like right now,” Thrush said. If I wanted to appear more human, for example, I’d have to eat a few humans. If I ate enough, I could pass as a human.”

“Same thing with ale?”

“Yes. If I drank enough ale, I would become ale.”

“Wouldn’t you die?”

“Maybe.”

“So, judging by your appearance, have you eaten a lot of bears?”

Thrush stared at me and his eyes stopped moving. The pulsing and throbbing stopped. He tilted his head, and I assumed he was thinking. I gave him his time while I put some more fire in the stove.

“You’ve shared something wonderful with me,” Thrush eventually said. “I’d like to show you something wonderful as well. Let me retrieve my bag. I’ll be right back.”

He left the cabin.

First Thrush. Then the Sons of Ara. Then the ale. Then the goddess Dellia Lucerne. Then my system became enabled. This is turning out to be quite the adventure already. I’m not even on a quest path yet!

I had so much to think about.