“I can't let you leave with those potions.” Mack said as he stepped in front of me and held his hands out to stop me from leaving. “I'm sorry that I tried to trick you.”

“No, you aren't.” I said.

“What?” Mack asked.

“Your eyes aren't slightly closed. Your mouth isn't in a frown. Your head isn't slightly bowed.” I said and he looked surprised. “Diane is sad. She's sorry and I can tell she is. You aren't.”

Mach sighed. “I shouldn't have told you to order the boat and you wouldn't have been thinking about the money.”

“I shouldn't have given Diane the snake juice to save your life.” I said.

“David!” Diane gasped. “You can't mean that!”

“She crushed all my fingers because of it.” I told her. “When she fell asleep, I stole a healing potion from her to fix the damage. When she woke up and found it gone, she hit me in the chest so hard that she broke my ribs and I almost died.”

Diane looked horrified and Mack stared at me with wide eyes.

“It wasn't worth it.” I said and tried to walk by him.

“David, be reasonable.” Mack said and moved to block me again. “I'll pay you half of what I sell them for.”

“No.” I said. “I'm not welcome in your store anymore.”

“I changed my mind about that.” Mack said.

“I haven't.” I said. “As soon as you get these potions from me, I'm nothing to you until you need more.”

“David...” Diane tried to speak and then fell silent.

“If you didn't feel sorry for me, you wouldn't even look at me.” I accused her.

Diane looked like she wanted to argue, then sighed. “You won't believe anything I say, will you?”

“If it's the truth I will.” I said and she nodded.

“I've always liked seeing you here.” Diane said. “The wonder on your face when you saw something new. The happy smile when I taught you how to count to a hundred. Sneakily showing you the things that the Hag never buys when she's not looking.” She stepped close to me and looked into my eyes. “I enjoyed those times, David. I really did.”

I was still using the Hag's technique to stay vigilant and knew she wasn't lying. “I did, too.” I admitted.

“Then please. Please. Leave the potions. Just this once.” Diane said. “I know the Hag will be very angry if you go home with them after coming all this way.” She said and touched my hand. “You need the money and the village needs the potions. You can't stay here all winter and try to sell them one at a time, right? You need to go home to survive the winter.”

I looked down at her hand on mine.

“Did you notice all these years? I've never flinched or hesitated when I held your hand or touched you.” Diane said. “Those missing fingers are not you, David. Your scars are not you. What the Hag did to you is not you.”

“I don't understand.”

“You are you.” Diane said. “No matter what anyone else thinks or does to you, you are you.”

_______________

You have a choice to make. Will it be the right one?

A) Be mean. B) Be nice. C) Compromise. D) Walk out. E) Smash the vials. F) Burn it down.

Goddammit. I thought and tried not to sigh at the mess. All right. I need to try and fix this. I don't like this, since they robbed me and the Hag all these years; but, I need to buy other things in the village and I need money for that. Which means that I have to choose C.

_______________

I looked into Diane's pleading eyes and let out a sigh. “I'll take Mack's offer of half of the sale value.”

“Thank you!” Diane said happily and let my hand go.

“It's for this batch only.” I said and she nodded. “I have to talk to the Hag and she... well, she...” I shook my head. “I'll try my best to stop her from coming here after you.”

Mack let out a swear word that I had heard the Hag use a bunch of times and Diane's face lost all of its color. They had completely forgotten about the Hag wanting revenge on them for robbing her all these years. Mack recovered first and held his hands out for the crate. I passed it to him and he put it back where I got it from.

“The empties are in the shed out back.” Mack said and came over behind the counter. “I'm charging you for them this time.”

“You always charged for them.” I said and he gave me a look. “The Hag always complains about it.”

“Dad!” Diane exclaimed and she glared at him. “How many times have you charged them for their own bottles that they bought years ago?!?”

“Diane!” Mack exclaimed back and glared at her.

“David, you can empty the shed and take every last empty vial that's there.” Diane said.

“I will not allow...” Mack started to say.

“You can have the ones you just delivered in the spring when the vials are empty, too.” Diane said. “You have my word, David.”

Mack held his anger in for a few moments, then he growled about the unfairness of it all. “Let me just get the ledger and...”

“It has to be actual money and not store credit.” I said before he could say anything else.

“Now wait just a minute...” Mack said.

“Dad!” Diane said and came around the counter. “Be. Nice.”

“You know how tight things are right before winter, Diane.” Mack said, trying to reason with her.

“I'm not coming back inside the store, so your store credit means nothing.” I said.

“David, where will you get supplies?” Diane asked.

“Where's the next village?” I asked.

Diane opened her mouth to tell me and her father growled at her. “You don't have to go to the next village, David.” She said instead. “I'm sure that by next spring...”

“...assuming I'm still alive.” I said.

“Y-yes, a-assuming that.” Diane said, her face slightly red from embarrassment. “Things will be better next year. I promise.”

I could tell that she wasn't lying, so I nodded.

“Thank you, David.” Diane said and stepped close to give me a quick hug. She led me over to the counter and they gave me as much money as they could. It was only about three quarters of what they owed me and they explained that they needed money on-hand for people making other purchases. If they didn't have any change, no one would buy anything.

“I need a few things from the blacksmith.” I said.

“Yes!” Diane gasped. “Our store credit might not mean anything to you anymore; but, the other villagers will take it in a heartbeat!” She quickly wrote out the notes of how much they still owed me, then she walked around the counter and took my hand. “I'll go there with you, just so they know you aren't trying to trick them.”

_______________

I'm not even going to bother asking you to choose. It would be stupid to refuse after salvaging the situation like you did, especially since I didn't think you could.

A) Accept her help.

You chose A! That's a great choice. Carry on.

_______________

I barely nodded and she dragged me out of the general store. We were down the street and walking normally only a few seconds later. We were still holding hands, too. I didn't know what to say about everything that just happened, so I tried to come up with something... anything... to break the silence.

“Um... Diane.” I said and she looked at me expectantly. “I'm just over three hands of fingers old.”

“You're what?” Diane asked, a little confused.

“I'm seventeen. That's three hands and two. Normal hands, I mean. Not mine. I always count the missing one.” I babbled.

Diane looked surprised for a moment, then she laughed. “Are you trying to ask how old I am?”

I thought about that for a second and then shrugged.

“I'm... a lot more than that.” Diane said. “I'm really...” She leaned in to whisper. “...seven hands and three.”

I fell silent as I quickly flicked my fingers and counted. “Thirty eight turns.”

Diane's face flushed red. “It sounds so much better your way.”

“But... I thought...”

“No, Spencer's not my brother. He's my son.” Diane said. “All six foot two of him.”

“He has red hair.” I said.

“So did his father.” Diane said. “Unfortuntately, he also has his father's desire to join the army.”

I wasn't sure what to say to that.

“I probably shouldn't be telling you that.” Diane said with a chuckle. “My son is your age now and he's already gone.”

“He left?” I asked and she nodded. “Why?”

“Fame. Glory. To see the world and then get killed for it.” Diane said, a little bitterly. “I couldn't convince him to stay, no matter what I said, and I cursed and spat at him when he left.”

I jerked in her grip and she stopped walking and looked at me.

“I want you to forget I said that, okay? I was angry at him for abandoning me. I wanted him to stay and... and...” Diane let the tears flow and her face scrunched up as she fought to not cry. “I regret saying what I said to him. Those were my last words to him and... I don't want them to be... how he remembers me.”

“Did you go after him?” I asked.

“N-no. He left on the big boat yesterday.” Diane said. “I tried to get one of the crewmen to give him a letter from me and they all refused.”

“They didn't look like army men.” I said, remembering the uniform of the man I had seen in the inn's lobby years ago. The Hag had told me that they were army and bad news. I had avoided them after that.

“They were only delivering recruits to the next village a few days away by boat.” Diane said, sadly. “Even if I had a fast horse, it would still take twice that long to get there by land.” She sighed. “I can't even send the letter, because I don't know where they are going to send him for training.”

I started walking again because I wanted to get to the blacksmith. Diane held onto my hand and started walking, too. She stayed quiet and I was relieved.

We went to the blacksmith and the man there was happy to take store credit from me for a few things. I bought a new wood carving set that would let me work on the wooden wards a lot easier than using my knife. I also had an idea when I had tied my knife to the end of my push pole and asked if he had anything like that. The man smiled and picked up a long pole with a short blade on the end.

“No, that won't last.” I said and he frowned. “It's too thin and might break off.”

“I'll have you know this is the finest iron...”

“What about that?” I asked and pointed to a multiple pronged thing on the wall.

“That's a pitchfork, not an attack weapon.” The man said with a laugh. “You really don't know anything, do you?”

I frowned at him. “I want a pitchfork.”

The man stared at me for a few seconds, then he shrugged and put the pike back and handed me the pitchfork. I bought four identical wide blade knives and he shook his head at me for wasting my money. I also bought a nice wide metal hammer.

“I've got lots of nails if you're building something like a barn.” The man said.

“A barn?” I asked.

“Yeah. Something you make to raise animals in. Like cows and chickens.”

“You can do that here?” I asked, surprised.

“Boy, this is a farming community. Of course we can do that here. It's all we do here.”

“I doubt the Hag would let you buy animals to raise and feed and then slaughter.” Diane said. “Well, the slaughter part she'll do. Not the rest, though.”

I knew they all knew what she liked to do. I thought. I didn't say it out loud. I wasn't that stupid.

“You won't have the money to do that this year.” Diane said and I had to agree.

I bought a few more little things, like iron ring handles for my door and new pokers for the fire, new stirrers for my cooking pot and potion brewing, and a few other things that were old and needed replacing. I even bought a brand new knife to hang over the counter, which used up the last of the store credit. I left the blacksmith with a large burlap bag that was full of my purchases and a smile on my face.

“It's nice to see that smile again.” Diane said and turned her head away when I looked at her. “I really hope you'll come back next spring, David. I really do.”

“I'm not going back in the store.” I repeated.

“What if my father isn't running it anymore?” Diane asked.

_______________

You have a crucial choice to make. You better make the right one. Never mind. You're doing this.

A) Give her an idea.

Oh, look. You chose A. Have fun.

_______________

“What if you had your own store?” I asked.

Diane let out a womanly shriek and stared at me. “D-David, that... that's a crazy...” Her voice trailed off and she was quiet as she walked me down to the dock. “If I did... and I'm not saying I will... if I did open my own store, I would have to sell different things than Dad does in the general store.”

“I have a marsh panther pelt for sale.” I said and she gasped.

“You killed it?!?” Diane asked, shocked.

“You smelled the blood.” I said with a nod. “I'm tanning it right now and it even has the head.”

“David, that... it's so expensive. I could never afford to buy it from you.” Diane whispered.

“Do you give store credit?” I asked and she stopped walking.

“Don't tease me, David.” Diane said as she glared at me and pulled me to a stop, too

“What's teasing mean?” I asked.

Diane opened her mouth to say, then she smiled. “It doesn't matter.” She said and touched my hand holding the bag. “I am definitely looking forward to whatever else you have for me.”

“I have about sixty sets of near-deer antlers.” I said and her mouth dropped open in shock. “Are you okay?”

Diane took several deep breaths and looked at me with a weird look. “I am going to be fine, David.” She said and pat my hand. “With your help, I'm going to be just fine.”