Chapter 11

Use Fable Stone?

Thrush returned with a shoulder bag. It was made of burlap and must have been found, or taken from someone. It was slightly amusing to see this small round eared monster waltz in with a bag. He looked like a bonafide adventurer. He smiled at me with rows of sharp fangs. He sat at the table and plopped his bag down. Then his eyes began to pulse and throb.

“I wanted to share this with you,” he said, rummaging through his bag.

He brought out a strange fruit. It was almost perfectly round and thin silver bands circled the fruit. There were small gold flecks along half of the fruit. Both the gold and silver reflected light.

“What is it?” I said. “I’ve never seen such a fruit.”

“Of course not,” Thrush said. “This is a dreambon fruit.”

He handed me the nightream fruit and I was surprised with how heavy it was. It felt like I was holding a ball of metal or something. I heard a crack and looked up in time to see Thrush break a dreambon in half. It was filled with a liquid that was cider gold. The inner walls of the dreambon were alabaster white.

Thrush tossed half of the dreambon into his mouth, then slurped and chewed on it while smiling.

I broke mine in half and drank from one half. The gold juice was phenomenal. It tasted completely different than it looked. It was sweet and creamy. When I bit into the shell, it broke apart like fine thin chocolate. Though it was sweet and tangy. I devoured the second half.

“Wow,” I said. “These are incredible.”

“Much more incredible than you will ever know,” Thrush said.

“Why do you say that?”

“They…”

Thrush trailed off and turned his attention to the stove. His eyes did that throbbing pulsing thing again. His ears switched as though a fly were pestering them, and I could have sworn his ears were pointer than they were now. They were perfectly round. Without his mammoth eyes and terrifying mouth, I’d have called him cute.

I didn’t press Thrush to talk. Perhaps that was a characteristic I’d learned from my time in these woods. There was no rush. The seasons eventually passed. Food eventually grew. So I thought Thrush would naturally come to tell me the things he wanted in his own time.

“Ale?” I said as the evening began to darken.

Thrush leaned back in his chair and nodded.

I poured each of us another fill. Although I wasn’t visited by a goddess again, my system screen came up again, asking me to begin the brewers path. I collapsed the prompt and let my senses be filled by the ale.

“I felt something in the air when you took your first drink of ale earlier,” Thrush said. “I felt a presence. A ghost.”

“I was visited by a goddess,” I said.

“Hmm. I’ve seen gods before. I caught one of them.”

“You caught a god?”

“I let him live. My satiation was near full.”

Thrush let a god live? Let? The more he talks, the more dangerous he seems. Dellia referred to him as a nightream. That’s something I’ve never heard of before. What manner of beast is Thrush?

“You weren’t worried that a god might kill you?”

Thrush chuckled, though the sound was a grating of false chords and vocal fry.

“Gods cannot touch me. Listen, Hawkin. I’m tired. I’m going to lay by the stove and sleep.”

“By all means. Just a moment though, let me see if I can make you more comfortable.”

I pulled out a few bundles of wool stored on the shelves at the end of my bed. After scooting the table back, I laid the blankets down for Thrush and fetched him a pillow and a thicker comforter.

“Bedding,” Thrush said. “Why thank you, Hawkin.”

I lugged the four foot bottle of ale near my bedside and tipped it against the wall beside my axe. I refilled my mug and slowly drank as I watched the firelight dance from the stove.

Thrush was asleep in moments. His breathing evened.

Such a strange set of events. Such a strange creature. Such a strange and beautiful ale.

I drank in solitude at my leisure. The flavors of summer flowers bombarded me. Each time I closed my eyes and sipped, I was convinced I’d open them to find myself atop summer hills.

I thought about what the brothers had said, where questing was concerned. I didn’t have to accept quests that would have me traveling all over the world, killing monsters, exploring deep dungeons, and whatever else adventurers were up to these days. The quest path could adapt to my preferences and still move me along.

Would the brewer path be so bad? Especially if I had the chance to stay here? What’s the worst that could happen? I answered that thought immediately. The worst that could happen is I’m seduced into traveling once again.

I had a few more mugs of ale. Enough to weigh my eyelids and ease my bones. Strangely enough, I was still quite alert, even as my eyes began to close and I lay back on my bed.

In a world between my closed eyes and the cabin, I lay upon fresh summer grass. The sun was hot and I rested in the shade of a honeysuckle in full bloom, wet with fragrant pollen and dew.

“Hawkin,” Dellia Lucerne said.

I sat up on my elbows and searched for the goddess. She came around the honeysuckle bush in a dress made of daffodils. Her hair was a garden with rows of daisies that stretched to the horizon. I could not tell where she ended and the earth began.

“Why?” I said. I was bewildered. Why did this goddess keep coming to me? I was a mere human. I hadn’t used a fable stone—the only way to meet gods.

“Why do I seek you out?” she said and came to lay beside me. “There’s something you’ve done with yourself. Something that has opened you to become one of the greatest brewers your world has ever seen.”

“What is it? What have I done with myself?”

“If I told you, I would risk breaking it.”

“I feel…”

“You feel things that others only dream of feeling,” she said with sudden fervor.

Her hair shook and dew felt like rain from every green leaf and colored flower petal. Her eyes were the skies and her emotions rolled in them like clouds.

I opened my eyes and she was gone. The raining dew was gone. The summer hill was gone. All that remained was the cabin and an icy draft.

I corked the ale and had a few mugs of water while I watched the stove light dim over the next few hours. All I did was think. At the end of my thinking, I decided I would dip my toes in the water and see what the brewer’s path had to offer. I could always forfeit the path after all.

[New Quest Path: Brewer!

Would you like to begin your new Quest Path: Brewer?

You will receive a Fable Stone if you accept Quest Path: Brewer.]

[Y/N?]

Yes, I thought.

[New Quest Path Acquired! Quest Path: Brewer!

Reward: Fable Stone!

Fable Stone has been added to your system inventory.]

Another screen popped up.

[New Quest Objective: Use Fable Stone!

Reward: The favor of a god.

Use Fable stone?]

[Y/N]

Yes!