Back in his clearing, Jack slept like a newborn. Not.

It seems Lola’s blanket had spoiled him somewhat. It was either that or his worries about her and the state of her village, that had him tossing and curling all night. Possibly both.

Still, the night passed and he woke up at dawn, as usual.

Stepping out of his hut, he saw Mrk, already out and about, tending to things. The short Ratling had a pot boiling over the fire and he was in the process of watering some plants, when he spotted Jack.

“Jack. Morning.” He happily chirped. “How has Jack slept?”

“Like a rock.” He lied. “You already up?”

“Yes, Mrk made breakfast. It is soup!” he smiled.

It seemed that while Jack had been away, Mrk had developed quite a passion for cooking and gardening, if the expanded garden and extra clay pots were any indication. Truly, food was the greatest motivator.

He liked that about Mrk. Straightforward and with a tendency to focus on the basic needs, instead of worrying. When he’d told him his story, the night before, Mrk’s seemed not at all surprised about the power struggle in this village. Apparently, his people were the exact opposite, always looking about for the good of the clan as a whole, yet they taught their children that other species were not like theirs. Especially humans.

His only question came after Jack described Lola’s situation.

“Lola girl has Class for mating. That is odd. Humans are odd. My people mate, but we don’t get Class for that. We mate a lot, because a lot of babies is good for clan. Mrk thinks is weird village hates Lola girl for mating.”

And that was… that, as far Mrk was concerned. He was more focused on what his clan, which apparently consisted of himself and Jack, should do in the future.

That brought Jack back to the present.

“Hey Mrk, I have some seeds that we could plant. I got them from that |Herbalist|. Figure we could expand the garden.”

“Oh… Mrk did already. Mrk uses |Find Food| every morning. This morning, Skill pointed at Jack’s pouch.” He said, guiltily. “I tasted some seeds and tasted good. I planted the rest.”

“That’s good. Though… I wonder if my Skills would work on them, if you where the one to plant them? Guess we’ll find out.”

They spent the rest of the morning tending to the garden, before moving on to other things.

“Mrk, Elia told me a list of things she wanted from the forest. She said a few of them are edible. Do you mind if we use your Skill to find them, while I use mine to find the rest?”

“Mrk happy to use-“

“Jack!” a familiar voice called.

“Lola?” he said, turning around.

Surely enough, Lola came striding out of the forest, headed straight at them. She seemed to freeze for a moment when laying eyes on Mrk, but she carried on and arrived with a smile on her face before the two of them.

“Jack! It’s good to see you! And hello.” She said, turning towards Mrk. “My name is Lola.”

“Mrk has heard of Lola girl. I is happy to meet you.”

He sounded simply polite, but Jack could tell by now just how anxious he was, seeing the frantic movements of his tail.

“Can I get you anything to eat? Or Drink? How’s Miss Elia?”

“No, thank you. I actually can’t stay for very long. And… that’s actually why I’ve come to see you.” she said, visibly hesitating.

“Elia received a message yesterday evening, telling her that for as long that she has me under her roof, all the orders she used to receive from Mrs. Winnow will be sent elsewhere. …I imagine the same could be said of anyone who Mrs. Winnow has influence over.”

“…is this woman for real?” Jack asked, in outrage.

“Unfortunately. Elia was also informed that her local suppliers of ingredients will be upping their prices. They’re trying to put pressure on her. To kick me out.” She shrugged.

“Why? I mean… I get that her son has it out for you, but is she really going to go all this way to please him?”

“Honestly, I don’t think so. Not for the most part. I just think she would be really pleased to have a live-in maid. She fancies herself some kind of Mayor’s wife, from a big city, but can’t afford a regular maid to come work in our village. It’s petty, but… yeah. Louis getting me would just be the bonus.”

“Alright. How do we stop her?”

“Mrk proposes we bites her.”

“Yeah, what Mrk said.”

She giggled at the childish display of pique, but continued seriously.

“We can’t stop her from what she’s doing. She’s rich… for a village. And influential. But, Elia asked me to tell you that if you were to find a large amount of those herbs and ingredients she asked you about, she’d be able to expand her business outside the village. Enough that it wouldn’t matter what Mrs. Winnow is doing.”

“I see. Lola… Elia is a nice person, right? She’s not just doing this for the money?” Jack asked.

“Wh- Of course she’s a nice person! She took me in when Mrs. Winnow would have sealed my fate?” she spluttered, going red in the face.

“Alright, alright. I was just checking. My first impression of your village wasn’t stellar, that’s all. Also, I think Mrs. Winnow hurt you enough that you shouldn’t call her that anymore.”

“And what should I call her?”

“Bitch.” Jack deadpanned.

“That’s….” she looked like she was about to get angry again, but ended up laughing. “That’s appropriate. I think. But I think I will refrain from calling her that regardless.”

“Well, you do that. And I’ll do my best do get what Elia needs.”

“Mrk will help.” He piped up, suddenly.

Lola smiled at him, before turning back to Jack.

“Thank you both! Honestly. I have to go back, but… thank you!”

“Mrk thinks this nice human.” He said, after Lola departed from the clearing. “Mrk still thinks we should bite bad human.”

“One can only hope, buddy.”

***

The next week passed by quickly. For some definition of ‘quick’.

Between Jack’s |Resource Vision| Skill and Mrk’s |Find Food| one, they managed to identify most of what Elia wanted, in the first couple of days. The hard part had been getting everything that was needed out of the forest. Lola acted as an intermediary of sorts, since she felt Jack should stay well clear of the village, for a period. Jack personally thought that he would have liked to find out whether his cooking Skill applied to Louis’s hair, but he refrained, for the time being.

And what they found was more than fire mushrooms and other herbs. There was a tree sap that glowed. And was incredibly sticky. That had been a hurdle in itself to transport, but apparently it could be used as an ingredient in pain relieving potions. There were leaves from a bush that shivered when approached and flowers that detached from the stem and flew away, if not handled very gently. They had even retrieved a batch of incredibly foul-smelling mud, which was needed for… something. Jack couldn’t remember.

All in all, it was hard work. Yet rewarding. Miss Elia had leveled up again in her |Herbalist| Class, but that wasn’t the biggest source of her excitement, according to Lola. With the surplus of ingredients and Lola helping out, Elia had started to try her hand at potions again, and was rewarded with a Class. |Potioner|, Level 2. It even came with some Skills, though Lola hadn’t asked.

All of Elia’s good fortune translated into coins, since the news of a new Class or Level traveled quickly in small communities. Orders for her balms and newly-produced potions started to come in from the village and even beyond it, just like she predicted. And since she’s been shouting from the rooftops that it was all thanks to Lola and Jack’s help, the general attitude towards them started to change as well.

“They don’t frown at me anymore!” Lola told him, during one of their daily get-togethers.

“They shouldn’t have frowned in the first place.”

“Well, yes, but now they’re treating me nicely. And I bet, if we go on like this, I could get a real Class. Like |Shopkeeper|. Or |Assistant|!” she grinned.

It was sad that Lola hadn’t received another Class yet. Jack knew what it would have meant for her, to be able to define herself by something other than |Harlot|. Still, he hoped she’d get it. Everybody seemed to be growing up, in one form or another.

Mrk had leveled up his |Scavenger| Class two times and was now Level 4. He even had a new Skill, |Scurried Steps|. It allowed him to move quickly for short distances, in quick bursts and it was very useful when dealing with plant-life that resisted all attempts at being harnessed by floating away.

The most impressive growth, however, belonged to Jack. It seemed that his unnatural speed in Leveling was still maintained, even though the higher the Levels he reached, the slower the growth became, as he had recently found out. Even so, his |Tinker| Class reached Level 9, while his |Gardener| Class reached Level 7, rewarding him with a new Skill: |Ward of Weeds|. It did almost exactly what it said it did. Ward off weeds. Not exactly necessary, but Jack felt it would help Mrk, since the short fellow decided to make a life-long enemy of the weeds in his garden.

All this was nice. But the greatest growth came from Jack’s |Gatherer| Class. It grew by five Levels, almost one per day, reaching Level 11. He only received one Skill from it, which might have sounded disappointing, both for how many levels it took for it to manifest and for how it sounded. |Lesser Stamina|. It sounded… small. Petty. Like a Skill one would get right at the start of his Class. But, oh, did it make a difference. Jack worked hard before, but now he worked almost all his waking hours. He tired, but very slowly. He couldn’t carry greater weights than before, but what he could carry, he could carry for longer.

Makes me wonder what |Greater Stamina| could do. If it exists… Nah, it exists!

Jack was about to challenge Mrk for a race back to the clearing, when he saw it. A shape was moving through the forest. A big shape. Big enough that it was close in height to some of the smaller trees, though it was quite a distance away.

“What do you think that is, Mrk?”

“Me does not know. Me does not want to find out, either.”

“Oh, c’mon. There’s nothing to see in this forest. Aren’t you curious?”

“No. Curious ratlings are soon-to-be tailless ratlings.” He said, seriously.

“Really? Fine, but I’m going after it.” Jack said, moving forward.

He went after the shape, hiding behind bushes, whenever he felt it was staring his way. As he came closer to it, he saw it looked like a giant mound of… dirt. Mud, soil, and plant-life was mixed up into a rough humanoid shape, with thick arms and squat legs. It didn’t have a neck, the head being little more than an outcropping of the body. Jack wondered what it was.

“Mrk thinks that is golem.”

“MRK!” Jack yelped, before remembering he was supposed to be quiet.

“Mrk. I thought you stayed behind.”

“Mrk wanted to stay behind. But Jack went after mud giant, so Mrk went after Jack.”

The simplicity of the argument stunned Jack.

“Alright. Golem. What’s a golem?”

“I don’t know. Mrk heard of golem as big things. Made of mud or sand or water. That looks like what Mrk heard about.” He shrugged.

“Well… is it dangerous? Should we keep an eye out for it, in the forest?”

“Mmm. I thinks-“

He didn’t manage to answer, since Jack chose that moment to put his hand over Mrk’s mouth. Well, snout.

“Shhh.”

Jack motioned over to where the giant stood. Because right in front of it, someone appeared. Someone of a specific skin color, scantily dressed and which inspired fear, in both Mrk and Jack. Though only one would admit it.

As they watched, she walked around the mud-giant, peering at it, looking it up and down. When she finally seemed to be satisfied by what she saw, the Nymph walked forwards a few steps towards a tree and laid her hand on it.

Instantly, the tree started to twist, though Jack soon learned that it had already been twisted. It now untangled itself, until two separate trees reached up from the ground, perhaps a little more than ten feet apart. They looked like completely identical, their branches tangled up together. Like they haven’t been one and the same tree, just a moment ago.

The true magic of the act, though, was in what lay between those two trees. It was as if the very air changed, a shimmering something standing there, like a veil or the surface of running water. Only, what lay behind it wasn’t the forest. Not the same forest, anyway. It was a darkened forest that was reflected in that image, one that was caught by nightfall.

The nymph walked in front of the veil and waited. With baited breaths, Jack and Mrk did too.

It wasn’t long before a second figure appeared in front of the veil, similar to the first.

Only this figure was on the other side of the veil.

“Greetings, sister. I see you have company.”

And looked past the nymph, straight at Jack and Mrk.