The four of them stare out over the giant lake. The distant, opposite shoreline is still visible from this side of the water, but only barely so. Really only the blackened silhouette of the far off tree-line gives credence to its presence. If not for that, Fresh would be sure that the lake simply goes on forever and ever. The moon is full tonight and it shines brightly above their heads, together with the many just as full, hanging stars that fill the night-sky. The celestial bodies seem to weigh unusually heavy tonight, as if they all were threatening to crash down towards the world at any moment, ripping through the fabric that holds them suspended in the darkness above.

“It’s so pretty,” says Fresh beneath her breath, grabbing Jubilee’s shoulder with a free hand and jostling them in tired excitement. She stares out over the calm water of the lake, the light of the night-sky reflects off of the peaceful body, giving it the appearance that the lake itself is simply an extension of the heavens above, which had reached down to the mortal world below.

This is perfect, thinks Fresh. She’ll make some bottles of water with Jubilee’s glass and they can fill them up here.

Wincing, Jubilee swipes her hand off of their shoulder. “No touching.” They look up towards Shamrock. “Good job.” He doesn’t say anything and simply walks off to the side, entering into the forest again off on his own.

“Uh…” Basil lifts a hand. “Should we… should we stop him?”

“Let him go. He knows what he’s doing.” Jubilee points at Basil. “You. Get wood and any plants you can find that are good to eat.” Their finger moves to Fresh. “Goo-brain. I’ll make some glass, make us some bottles so that we can carry some water with us for tomorrow.”

Basil looks up, realizing. “That’s a great idea! We should have done that by the river!”

“Right?” says Jubilee.

“I was going to say that!” cries Fresh, leaning in to her friends with her fists clenched.

Jubilee rolls their eyes. “As if. Come on, let’s get to work. Maybe there are some fish in this lake? I’m starving.”

Fresh sighs, too tired to argue and they all set to work, setting up a camp like the other day by the river. It takes about an hour by the time everything is finished and they have water that is starting to boil in a glass container. Basil had found a few herbs and they had thrown them into the pot, making a very sparse looking soup consisting only of water and a few greens. If there are any fish in the lake, none of them are near the shoreline.

As for the bottles, Fresh had managed to make several of them. She started making the small ones shaped like chickens, but then Jubilee had yelled at her. So she ended up making normal potion bottles instead, just a little bigger.

The fire roars with a comforting intensity, the orange light shimmering off of the water near their encampment. Fresh lets out a long, tired sigh as she stares at the pot of boiling liquid, stirring it with a peeled stick that she had crafted into a spoon.

“Bubble bubble…” says the girl quietly.

“What?” asks Jubilee. Fresh looks back up at them and shrugs.

“Bubble bubble,” she repeats.

“Bubble… What the fuck are you talking about?”

Fresh blinks, staring at Jubilee and then down at the pot. She wants to explain, but she isn’t sure how and she’s too hungry to be able to figure it out at this point. A sharp chime breaks the quiet. But neither of her friends look at it, only she seems to notice, as she lifts her head and stares at the window that then vanishes a moment later.

Warning: [Breach of Contract]{Black-Contract}(Merchant’s Guild)

“- ey.” Something grabs her robe and she looks down at Jubilee. “If you’re gonna fall asleep, don’t do it in front of the fire.”

Fresh shakes her head, not sure what the message means. Did the guild break their contract? About their founding the store? How? Maybe they tried to do something with the building? She taps the stick against the pot and keeps stirring. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“Did it hurt?” asks Jubilee sarcastically.

“Only inside,” answers Fresh, ready for the familiar question this time, yet still surprised that she had anything to respond with at all. She looks around the clearing. Basil sits quietly opposite them. But Shamrock is missing again. Shamrock? Fresh blinks, realizing something again. Though perhaps, once again, too late. “AH!” she shouts in surprise, angry at her own, overwhelming brain fog.

“Ah?” ask both Jubilee and Basil at the same time, staring at her as she digs through her bag.

Fresh pulls out the indistinguishably gray monster-meat, tightly wrapped in large leaves that Shamrock had given to her at the river. “I have this! Should we put it in the pot?”

Jubilee stares at it and then up at her. “How long have you had this?”

“Uh… since the river,” guesses Fresh, scratching her cheek.

“Since the river?” asks Jubilee, their eyes narrowing in agitation.

“Since the river,” repeats Fresh, nodding.

Jubilee looks over to Basil. “You hear that?”

Basil nods. “Since the river.” The two of them look at each other for a while and Fresh’s eyes wander back and forth over them, trying to discern what their expressions are saying.

“If you grab her arms, I’ll take the legs. I think if we squish her together, she’ll fit into the pot,” says Jubilee.

Basil nods, agreeing. “That sounds like it could work. I think we’ll need some salt though.”

Fresh laughs nervously. “So… you don’t want it?” The two of them stare at her. “I mean, it’s monster-meat, so I don’t know if it's good to eat,” she says, peeling the leaf off to the side.

“Oh,” says Jubilee, relenting with a disappointed sigh. Basil’s shoulders droop as well. “Why didn’t you say that from the start? Where did you even get that?”

A silhouette breaks through the forest as Shamrock returns, tonight with empty hands. All three of them look up at him and he stares back at them with his eyes shining intently. “Giant spider,” is all that he says, as his wet breastplate heaves, lake water still dripping out of it.

“GIANT SPIDER?!” yelps Fresh in disgust, quickly dropping the gray bundle in her hands. “AH!”

It falls down into the pot. Boiling water splashes out on all sides, the fire hisses with a loud searing noise as the flames meet the wet. The three of them scramble back away in that second as the water splashes out in all directions, most of them only barely managing to avoid it.

(Fresh) takes: [ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE {1}]{WATER}

[{9} HP remaining !]

Quietly. The three of them sit there in the circle as the fire rejuvenates itself, not deterred by the little bit of water. Her friends look up at her as Fresh nurses a small burnt spot on her finger where the water had gotten her.

Fresh looks at them and then down to the pot where the chunk of spider meat begins to break apart into a series of stringy strands that float around. Shamrock steps over, sitting down next to them, apparently indifferent. “So… uh…” Fresh scratches her cheek, laughing quietly as she thinks of a way to defuse the situation. Something that doesn’t involve her getting yelled at. “How do you like your spider?” she asks jokingly, with a very meek smile.

Basil seems to be close to crying as she looks at the floating herbs that she had spent the last of her energy collecting. Nervously, Fresh looks at Jubilee, who she can tell is about to shout at her. She winces, getting ready for the verbal barrage to come.

“Ten minutes. Salt,” says a heavy voice.

“Huh?” Fresh opens her eyes, looking at the man from the sect who stares at the pot intently.

“The forest is clean,” he says, as he leans forward, seeming oddly excited about the thing boiling before him. “Ten minutes. Salt.”

Basil and Jubilee exchange an uneasy glance and then look down at the pot. “We don’t have salt,” says Basil. “Besides…”

A smell fills the air. It’s oddly greasy. A film begins to build on top of the pot as all four of them stare at it, only one of them with excitement. Shamrock shrugs. “Ten minutes. No salt.”

“Are you fucked in the head?” barks Jubilee. “We can’t eat monster-meat! That’s a great way to die, dumb-ass!”

“Besides,” adds Basil again, shuddering as she watches a strand of meat rise up to the surface, only to be carried back down by the rolling boil. “It’s… you know…” She plays with her tattered sleeves. “- dirty.”

“The forest is clean,” says Shamrock again. Neither of them seem convinced however.

Fresh looks around. This adventure is already turning out to be harder than she had thought. Her friends are quickly losing faith and are angry at her for having blundered yet again. Or maybe just because she’s useless in general. She can’t decide which it is. Maybe it’s both? Were they going to start hating her? Did they already? Were they going to regret having stuck by her side? Did they already? She feels her legs shake beneath her as she stands on her knees before the fire.

She has to do something. She has to take control of the situation, before it gets bad. They needed to eat. They were all tired and cranky and hungry. She’s the party-leader, right? It’s time for her to lead her party. Fresh gulps. Stirring the pot with the stick that she had carved into a spoon and then pulls it back out, full of oily water and a small, stringy piece of gray meat. “We have to eat,” says Fresh, looking at her friends as she blows on the spoon for a few seconds.

“Don’t eat the spider, goo-brain!” yells Jubilee.

Before she can be stopped, Fresh sticks the spoon into her mouth and closes her eyes. She can hear Basil and Jubilee yell at her, but she ignores them. It’s hot. She can feel a slick grease coating the inside of her mouth as the still too hot soup runs along her tongue, burning it. Doing her best not to chew on the stringy meat in her mouth or to yelp in pain, she swallows it whole. Opening her watering eyes and hitting her chest with her fist a moment later, as she coughs.

Jubilee and Basil stare at her nervously, Basil already having a small glow of white-magic around her fingers.

Fresh smiles at them, waving the spoon as she clears her throat. “It could use some salt.”