She poked it.

Nothing happened.

There was a tense few moments with Leoric watching on in tentative horror as his muscles began to shake. He was no longer a young bear… er… gnome any longer.

Satisfied with what she’d done, Scritch opened her magical storage pouch and began the process of trying to fit the boar into the space. She could fit a split hoof of the great beast in, but unfortunately not any more than that.

The little one, it slipped in easily.

“How do we move it?” Scritch asked as she climbed over top of it.

Leoric used his rope to tie the tusks of the boar and drug it with arduous steps towards the clearing where their wagon was parked. Scritch, finding herself mostly useless in the endeavor, hopped up onto the boar and found purchase on its neck. She sat expectantly and watched as Leoric made grueling tugs.

“Hey grandpa?” Scritch asked.

“Not now, Scritch,” He grunted as he hefted the boar.

“Grandpa,” Scritch whined.

“Scritch…not right now,” He said with a grunt. A bird twittered melodiously above his head and Leoric froze as he saw the beady black-eyed evil glare coming from the depths of its hellish soul.

Chirp.

Leoric paused.

“Yes, yes scritch, how can I help you!?” He asked, heaving a breath as scritch waited for him to slow his panting down.

“I got the letters again. They says I can ride boars now,” She said proudly. Her eyes were still a little unfocused as it sprawled across her field of vision.

“What?” Leoric was bewildered. He’d not meant to teach Scritch this skill

“You teached me how to ride a boar, so now I can ride things,” She said with the closest thing to a grin that she could muster on her reptilian face.

“Wait… You mean by sitting on that thing and me dragging it, it taught you the wild mount skill?” Leoric asked.

Scritch’s wide bright eyes blinked in their unsettling one-after-the-other way as she nodded. He took a deep breath, looked down at the dead boar and contemplated it.

It wasn’t something he wanted to do at this moment particularly, but once at camp, if he could, he was totally going to try to get someone to drag the boar for a ride.

When they finally got back to the camp, Scritch scrambled free of the boar, her feet swinging for purchase for a moment before she dropped solidly to the ground. Blast’s little smacking lips were audible even at twenty feet in his bear form.

“Don’t eat it. We have to claim the reward,” Leoric said with a heavy sigh

Blast looked personally affronted.

“Look, it’s either we bring it in whole and get the gold or we eat it. Your pick, master,” Leoric grumbled.

Blast seemed to be weighing her options in her mind. She huffed indignantly.

The bear shape that Leoric took faded away and he sat with a resigned sigh with relief.

“We get up to four gold per boar depending on size.

“Four gold is pretty good,” Baldir said as he pried himself free of the Caravan with a heavy yawn. He eyed the beast.

“Damn if you didn’t pick the hardest task of all of them,” Baldir said as he eyed the beast.

“Killing boars should be easy!” Leoric bemoaned.

“Only if you’re proficient in ranged…” Leoric and Baldir looked to Scritch with scrutiny.

They then looked to the arrows on the boar.

“Well alright, then. Rogue was definitely a good backup plan for you,” Leoric laughed as Baldir studied her.

She scampered off back to the woods to sneak around some more.

“How do we get this big thing back into town?” Leoric lamented.

“Tried that magical sack of hodling?” Baldir suggested.