Without access to booze, the dwarf was a much better company. Or would have been if he didn’t keep grumbling about it.

「Yusdrolir: I need alcohol.」

He yelled behind us for the millionth time. We just kept ignoring his complaints while we rode our horses. The dwarf was keeping pace on foot.

We didn’t encounter any hellhound while crossing the mountains. Either we had scared them for good or they had moved on.

Just as well. I wasn’t in the mood of repeating the whole experience, anyway. My clothes had still a faint smell of burnt.

「Allen: What were those potions anyway?」

Ellin turned to me to answer.

「Ellin: We weren’t told directly, but since I know a little elvish I overheard a few words about magic diseases… apparently we managed to deliver them just in time. They were very thankful.」

「Allen: Not to me.」

I said, scowling.

「Grastel: * cough * Insulting Goddesses * cough * 」

Grastel shot me a grin.

「Allen: Well, that wasn’t the real reason. Whatever.」

I muttered angrily as I corrected the trajectory of my stupid horse, who was on the verge of straying off the path. JUST FOLLOW THE OTHER DAMN HORSES! I slapped the creature’s neck receiving an irritated neigh in return. IT’s MOCKING ME!

「Namrick: You’re fine, that’s all that matters.」

Everything went great until we reached the village. Getting swarmed by hellhounds and dancing with the fire had been much more fun than the disappointing elven town, their scowling people, and their blasted Goddess.

Yes, I think I’ll keep bitching until it gets old. I’ll have to find a way to get back at them. It’s healthy to have some positive objective to focus on.

「Yusdrolir: So… huh… is there any chance I might join yer party?」

Namrick looked back at the dwarf with a raised eyebrow.

「Yusdrolir: I’ve been… kinda… ya know… dumped by my team.」

I could see why and I’ve merely seen the point of the iceberg.

『Namrick: What do you say, guys?』

Namrick spoke telepathically through the ring.

『Grastel: He sounds like trouble…』

What should I say on the matter?

『Allen: I dunno. He’s not a bad guy, but he’s got a problem with alcohol.』

Now that I think of it, I’ve always met him during the aftermaths of his drunkenness. Every single time.

『Ellin: I could sober him up with magic…』

Ellin said blithely. I tried imagining the dwarf’s face after being magically sobered, all his drinking efforts gone and the mug empty. Could be amusing.

『Namrick: We could use another fighter.』

『Grastel: He did fight well that time against the goblins.』

『Allen: He has plenty of stamina and strength.』

He ran for two days straight in that incident with the sand elemental. With the armor on.

『Ellin: It’s decided then.』

We had reached consensus.

「Yusdrolir: So, huh… are you done staring at each other?」

Asked the dwarf, who wasn’t privy to the conversation.

「Namrick: Welcome to the party.」

Namrick said turning his head and grinning to the dwarf.

It’s going to be a train wreck, isn’t it? I thought with my boundless optimism.

「Yusdrolir: Thank you! I promise… I’ll do right by you!」

It would’ve sounded serious, if not for the fact he had been yelling at us while running on foot the whole time.

That night the dwarf was strangely silent.

「Grastel: So, Yusdrolir. What’s your story?」

Grastel asked to break the ice with the newest member of the party.

「Yusdrolir: My story…」

Yusdrolir began, staring in the distance.

「Yusdrolir: Ain’t no story. I got enough of my life and became an adventurer.」

He was clearly withholding a good part of it.

「Grastel: I see. Well, I guess I could say the same… I was just a mischievous kid doing petty thefts. Thankfully I met Namrick and Ellin.」

He said slapping Namrick’s shoulder, who chuckled in return.

「Namrick: Yeah, we caught you red-handed trying to steal my sword.」

Namrick said, shaking his head with a smile.

「Grastel: It was a pretty sword.」

Grastel replied with a wicked grin.

「Allen: Thieving? Didn’t your parents scold you?」

I asked him, wondering what the heck his parents had been teaching him.

「Grastel: Parents, huh…」

He lost his smile. Uh oh… Too late I realized I had made an inconvenient question.

「Grastel: I don’t remember my father. My mom told me he was a soldier but he died when I was little…」

He stared at the campfire.

「Allen: Oh…」

「Grastel: My mother… she did her best to raise me. But one day she got sick.」

He tossed a wooden branch into the fire.

「Grastel: She got worse and worse until she lost her job and could hardly rise from her bed…」

A few seconds of silence, filled by the crackling fire.

「Grastel: We had run out of money and we needed food. That’s when I became a thief. Stealing a few scraps here and there, just enough for getting by. Then more pricey items, trying to get enough to buy a healing potion.」

He looked downcast.

「Grastel: But it was all too late…」

He said, closing his eyes. The dwarf stared at him, furrowing his brows.

「Yusdrolir: Sorry lad. I too lost my father when I was a kid. He was a damn fine blacksmith, best in town, but one day he was ambushed while traveling and never returned home.」

The dwarf closed his eyes and shook slowly his head. Damn, I didn’t like this heavy mood. Grastel sighed.

「Grastel: What can I say, these things happen all the time. I met many kids in similar situations, we stuck together and helped each other. But some ended up walking darker paths.」

He shook his head.

「Grastel: But it’s all in the past now.」

He forced back his smile.

「Allen: The past…」

Echoes of old memories tried to resurface but I kept them at bay.

「Yusdrolir: What about you Allen? How did a great chef like you become an adventurer?」

「Allen: For starters, I’m only an average chef. I’m afraid there isn’t much to tell about my life, I was a stupid kid but I grew up. Getting what I needed was never a problem, but I could never reach for what I really wanted.」

Not even once. I shrugged.

「Allen: The reason I became an adventurer is quite simple, I needed golds to get magic lessons. I was lucky to meet these capable kids here who brought me along in their adventures.」

I waved my hand at the trio.

「Namrick: We’re not kids!」

Namrick retorted, pressing his lips together. The dwarf burst out laughing.

「Yusdrolir: HAHA! Say what? You haven’t even grown a beard yet!」

I nodded in agreement.

「Yusdrolir: And you, young lady? What made you become an adventurer? You can’t fool me, you stink of a noble-born through and through.」

「Ellin: I don’t stink!」

She complained, then continued.

「Ellin: I became a healer because I wanted to save people, but I couldn’t save anyone from behind the safe walls of my home. It was hard but I convinced my father to let me go. He said that if I wanted to be an adventurer then I had to learn to pay for myself and complete a quest he would choose for me at the Adventurer’s Guild.」

Ellin looked up to the starry sky, a faint smile spreading on her lips.

「Ellin: The next day I mustered up my courage and registered myself at the Guild. The clerk gave me the details of the mission–I had to slay a pack of wolves–and he said I had to form a party with at least another person. No one wanted to join me because I was too inexperienced and the reward too low.」

She looked at Namrick.

「Ellin: But then when I was about to give up Namrick stepped forth and said he would help me.」

She grinned. Namrick smiled and nodded back.

「Ellin: It turned out the quest was a sham. My father wanted to scare me away from adventuring, so he had hired some people to keep an eye on me, but with Namrick at my side we and my spells we defeated the wolves before they could intervene.」

Namrick nodded and added.

「Namrick: You should have seen her. Her legs were all trembling but she had not given in to panic.」

Ellin stuck her tongue out at Namrick.

「Ellin: Then he yelled…」

「Namrick: Who’s there hiding behind the trees?!」

Namrick said dramatically and Ellin continued.

「Ellin: Then my father’s men came out congratulating us for not having needed their help.」

「Namrick: I had already run with other parties, a pack of wolves was nothing to me.」

Namrick said puffing out his chest.

「Ellin: I still had to heal your wounds, though.」

She grinned while Namrick scratched his head.

「Yusdrolir: So you were already adventuring before you met her? I’m sure your parents weren’t too happy about that.」

Yusdrolir said to Namrick.

「Namrick: I told my parents I would become a swordsman and adventurer. It had been my dream ever since I saw the fights in the tournament with my father and brothers, back when I was still a little kid. The tales of heroes and adventurers only reinforced my decision. So, one day I woke up and told my father I would learn swordsmanship. So I went and used the money I had saved up to get my lessons.」

Namrick rubbed his nose, reminiscing.

「Namrick: My father got so mad that I didn’t want to become a woodcutter like him, he kicked me outside at night until I’d regain my sanity. Instead, I walked off and joined a group of adventurers to earn real battle experience. When I got back my father and mother were there at the Guild worried sick.」

With a son as stubborn as him, I’m sure those poor parents had to go through a good deal of trouble in raising him.

I could just imagine his father giving him an axe to teach him the art of cutting wood, then Namrick crosses his arms and says “I want a sword,” and his father replies “Son, you can’t cut trees with swords,” then Namrick goes full stubborn “SWORD.” with scowling willfulness engraved on his face.

The thought made me smile.

Then it was time to sleep, Grastel appointed himself to be the first to stand guard.

As I laid down in my bedroll I caught a glimpse of him staring up at the sky with a melancholic expression. Losing both father and mother… he had it hard as a child.

I closed my eyes.

A familiar scene stood before me. A small room with a bed, a desk and ancient wreck of a computer. My old bedroom.

I knew when and what this was. This was a dreaded resurfacing memory.

No, thanks. I turned and walked off through the door.

As I crossed the threshold I realized I was again in the same damn room. I narrowed my eyes. Screw you, dream.

I repeated the process a dozen times, always ending up in the same old room. There was no escape.

No good, if I stay here I’ll…

“Ally!” A smiling girl peeked from the door. “Your mom let me in! What are you doing?”

I was sitting at my desk in front of my powerful computer, a 286 with a CGA monitor, received as a gift from my father because he had bought a newer one. It couldn’t run the cool games because it had only four colors for graphics, but it was so full of mystery and magic that it didn’t matter.

“Hi ███! Let me show you,” I smiled confidently as I inputted the commands on the keyboard so I could launch GWBASIC. The welcoming black screen of my first programming language to ever learn appeared before me. I struck a few more keys to load up the project I was working on.

My friend stared uneasily at the monitor and the characters popping up on screen and said. “I don’t understand what you’re doing…” she said, looking at me with a pout.

I grinned and launched my badly-coded hammered-together sorry-excuse of a game.

“I made a text adventure!” I exclaimed pointing at the screen.

You find yourself in the cursed fairy forest, there’s an elven statue in front of you and a path on your right.

What do you do?

“Woooh!” Her eyes sparkled with wonder. “You’re making a story that is also a game?!”

“Yes!” I nodded, all proud of myself. I had learned it all on my own just by trying random commands from the manual. “Let me explain how it’s played,” I said, eager to have someone to try my game.

I let her take the seat while I stood on the side suggesting what keys to press.

“Hnnn, I got it. Let me try!” She smiled and started giving the commands.

Hehehe.

* BEEP BEEP BOOP * A ugly speaker tone signaled me ███ had picked the wrong choice. I grinned.

The dark elf of doom incinerates you with his magic! You died!

“Eeeeeehhh?! I’m dead?” She said in confusion then she knit her brows and sniffed. “I’m trying again!” She hammered the keyboard one key at a time.

This time she got further before… * BEEP BEEP BOOP *

Sadly the magic box was cursed and you’re swarmed by poisonous wasps! You died!

“Gaaaahh!” She stared at me infuriated. “Ally, your story sucks!” She declared, lifting her chin with her eyes closed.

I laughed heartily. I had purposefully riddled the game with a lot of death scenes. Because it was fun! Writing stories was not my thing.

“Well I’m not a writer… maybe you could help me?” I suggested shrugging my shoulders.

Her eyes shone with newfound light, a radiant smile finding its way back on her face.

“Yes! Let’s make the best story ever!”