Chapter Thirty-One

**The Sage of Adamaxus Part IV**

Jason returned to the inn content with the progress he had made in the Bazaar. On his way, he poked into the horse merchant’s stable to see if Vanna was still there, but was disappointed to not find his companion. In addition, neither was the woman in the inn when he returned.

By the time Jason walked into the swelling barroom the sky had started to hue purple heralding the coming dusk. Jason took his dinner, a thick red stew, and a flagon of ale up to his room. Unlike Vanna, he didn’t enjoy the company of the rowdy sailors and knew staying down in the barroom would only mean losing money in 39 Thieves. After his meal, he dug into his bag and pulled out his book. It’s been a while since I’ve opened this, he thought, then dove back into the story.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Adamaxus thrashed tears like wheat under a scythe. His heart ached and mouth moaned with sorrow for his dead uncle, Adrius. Adamaxus pressed his hands into Adrius’s chest yearning for a sliver of life, but none was found. The decapitated wyvern smiled wickedly at Adamaxus as if the monster were still alive. Its long tongue crested out of its mouth like a happy dog waiting for a reward. Adamaxus screamed at the head, vitriol dripping from his incoherent throngs.

A slight tremor rocked the mountaintop distracting Adamaxus momentarily. Before him, the ground rose into an earthen heap in the rough shape of a man. “The power stone, quick,” the golem gargled, where a mouth should have been was a dark hole dripping with sand and gravel. The details of its person slowly chiseled out, eventually resembling man more than dirt.

Adamaxus stared at the golem dumbfounded, but he quickly recovered and rushed to the Wyvern’s corpse. The corpse was already decomposing. The serpent’s scales hissed as they folded back like rotten rinds and its purple flesh bubbled like oil in a cauldron. Adamaxus hacked at the beast’s chest until he found a glimmering cobalt gem pinned between the beast’s two hearts. Without hesitation, he thrust his hand into the dissolving flesh. His arm erupted into flaming pain as the poisonous blood touched his skin, but Adamaxus availed and pulled the stone from the corpse.

“Quick, press the stone to his chest,” the golem commanded. If Adamaxus hadn’t seen the thing’s emergence from the earth he wouldn’t have been able to tell him apart from any other man now his details were so defined. The golem’s only remaining abnormality was its bronzed eyes. Each swirled like molten metal.

Adamaxus followed the man’s commands and waited for more instructions. No words echoed from the man’s mouth, instead mist the color of dust emitted from his fingers and interacted with the Wyvern’s stone. Soon the stone began to diffuse its own mist, a deep purple. The two streams intertwined, a battle of colors erupted over Adrius’s body. Moments passed and the mist settled into a soft lavender shade. A cloud sprawled and poured itself into Adrius’s mouth, nose, and ears. Adamaxus let out a cry of fear when he saw the stone melt into Adrius’s chest.

“Don’t worry,” the man said, his steadied gravelly voice soothed Adamaxus. When the stone was completely consumed by Adrius’s chest the mist had also completely entered him. A silent moment passed on the mountain top. Not even the angry winds could break Adamaxus concentration on his uncle’s form. And then Adrius’s chest contorted and the dead man coughed wetly.

“Adrius,” Adamaxus cried dropping to his knees and hugging his uncle.

“Up,” the golem screeched. The man grabbed Adamaxus by his shoulders and pulled him up, “give him a moment, the soul takes a moment to return to this world.”

Adamaxus turned on the man. His despair for Adrius had blinded him until then, but now he was alarmed by the mysterious man. Adamaxus wrapped his fingers around the man and screeched, “who are you.” The man didn’t move and Adamaxus squeezed his grip, but it was as useless as trying to bend steel.

The man grabbed Adamaxus’s wrist and gently pulled away the hand from around his throat. The man lowered his eyes and sighed, “forgive me, my son, I waited too long.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Jason! There you are,” Vanna cried interrupting Jason’s reading. Jason looked up from his book and saw his friend standing in the doorway to their room. A pleasant grin stretched across Vanna’s face.

“Vanna, I was reading,” Jason said with mock annoyance.

“Come on I want to show you the pony I bought.”

“What,” Jason exclaimed and shut his book.

“Yeah, now come on,” Vanna said then started moving away from the room. Jason set his book down and followed after her.

The barroom was full by now, but no one bothered them as they made their way to the exit. In front of the stables, the stableboy was holding the reigns of a short, white-haired horse. Vanna reached out and grabbed the reins proudly, “thank you, Honey.”

Vanna led the pony around the small open area in front of the stable in an attempt to show off her new mount. The animal followed behind its new owner obediently, Jason noted. However, the animal’s greying hair worried him.

“Do you like her?” Vanna asked as she patted the pony’s back.

“She’s awesome Vanna,” Jason cried. “How much did she cost?”

“Pretty much all my money, but they gave me a ten-pound bag of oats with her.”

“Vanna? Can you ride her? She seems a little small… and weak,” Jason noted. He trusted the woman knew the quality of horses, but he also could see the beast’s ribs poke through its skin with every breath it took.

Vanna scratches the pony’s noses and the animal pawed its front hoof in delight, “I need her to bulk up a bit, then I’ll be able to ride her. Maybe a week or two of good eating and rest. I’m going to ask Eliza to look after her while we’re gone. I looked at the other animals, too,” Vanna added. “Looked like donkeys sell for about two gold, mules and cheap packhorses are about three, and pony’s and horses are anything higher than that depending on their quality. I got a deal on her,” Vanna explained petting her pony, “ because of her age and I told them I had a friend who was going to buy a packhorse or two soon.”

“I don’t know how soon that will be,” Jason snorted. It seemed every time he earned money he had something he needed to spend it on right away.

“I don’t think she’ll be able to run with me on her, but she will be at least able to carry me when she’s better,” Vanna finished.

“That’s great,” Jason said.

Vanna smiled, “I see you got new clothes. They’re very... plain,” she snorted.

Jason pushes his friend, “they’re better than my old clothes,” he cried. “Now come on put away... wait did you name it yet?”

Vanna looked between the pony and Jason and finally shrugged, “not yet, but I’ll think of something,” she laughed.

“Alright, put her away and come inside, it’s getting late.”

“Alright boss,” Vanna said sarcastically then handed the pony’s reins back to the stable boy.

*****

History of the Middle Kingdoms (Progress: 23% (19%*))

Experience Gain +51 Exp. (50*1.01)

**Skill Increase: Reading (Beginner II)- +2% to experience gained from reading. 2% reading speed boost. +75 Exp.**

Jason closed the notification and smiled, only 199 more experience points until level four. He shut his eyes and curled into a ball. In moments he fell fast asleep in the warm embrace of his new blanket.

*****

Day Eleven

By now the stableboy knew what time to wake Jason and Vanna without them telling him. With the boy’s slight rap on their door, the rhyme of the day began. They packed their gear, ate breakfast with the innkeeper amongst the sleeping drunks, loaded Skippy’s cart, and departed off towards Finchead.

After over a week together and plenty of time to talk whilst walking, Vanna and Jason had nearly exhausted things to talk about. Their conversations had shifted from stories of the past to plans for the future. To help wake himself up without the aid of coffee, Jason tried to help Vanna think of names for her new pony. At first, Jason had noted Skippy wasn’t fond of the new animal, the donkey spat on the pony shortly after they left the city gates driving the pony into a wild buck. Luckily the beast was still weak and Vanna easily soothed her. A little later on, while Vanna and the pony were walking ahead of Jason and Skippy, the pony decided to relieve itself directly in Skippy’s path. Afterward, the two settled into mutual loathing, but no other attacks were hurled.

“How about Mrs. Skippy?” Jason offered.

Vanna looked back at him with a deadpan frown and shook her head slowly.

Jason threw up his hands, “I was just joking. How about something like White or Ivory for her color? Or hey, Snow? I like that one.”

“There are a thousand horses with those names,” Vanna sighed, she failed to show any enthusiasm in picking out a name for the pony.

Jason snapped his fingers. “I know! What was the name of your first horse?”

“Charlie,” Vanna grunted.

“Oh, um what about your second… female horse? Aren’t they called mares?”

“Yeah that’s what they’re called,” Vanna mumbled, she like Jason wished there was coffee to drink that morning. “ Her name was Juno,” she added.

“That’s a perfect name,” Jason cried.

Vanna shrugged her shoulders unconvinced. “She was an awful racehorse, but she was nice,” Vanna remembered softly. “I guess it will do,” She decided. Juno, the pony, neighed happily and Jason smiled.

“I think she likes it,” he said. Vanna didn’t reply, but softly petted Juno’s mane.

The remainder of their journey went on without issues. Jason couldn’t think of an easier way to gain experience and he was itching to get to level four, so before their last break, he asked Vanna to train his one-handed weapon skill with him for experience points. Using a heavy stick, Vanna helped Jason work on a forward thrust technique. Sadly, even after half an hour of training he only increased his skill by one level to Beginner II, but at least earned 75 experience points.

They made it into Finchead with still a couple of hours until dusk. They stabled Skippy and Juno then checked on Jule who told them that Byron and Trent were both riddled with distraught. Apparently their trip to Fallows hadn’t gone well, but they weren’t letting any of the other villagers know what happened. Byron hadn’t even told Jule why they were upset. They were going to tell the elder council that night about the trip, but the meeting was closed to the public. Jason contorted his jaw, he still felt responsible for the Fallows situation and wanted to know everything that was going on. He would have to ask Byron about it when he saw them, surely he would let Vanna and Jason into the meeting. The pair said their goodbyes to Jule then departed. Vanna returned to their cottage while Jason made a quick circuit around down delivering the goods he picked up for the villager in the Bazaar.

Jason was able to get 3 silver and 18 coppers for the items when he only spent a little more than 2 silvers for them at the Bazaar. But more importantly, the experience rewarded from the quest brought him to level four.

Shopping List (Ongoing Quest)

The villagers of Finchead have given you a list of items to bring back from Laxtar. Reward: Exp. and money based on how many of the items you bring back. This quest will disappear once the player has established a permanent shop in the town of Finchead or when all villagers' requests have been fulfilled.

Current Reward: 210 Exp.

**Level Up: Level Four**

**+1 Charisma, +1 Intelligence, and +1 Wisdom from class bonus**

**You have (3) skill boost available**

Jason’s head rushed with blood and he went light-headed. He clamped his hands to the side of his head, but the pain already vanished. He had never gained so many status points at once and his body was adjusting to the improvements. He tried to notice a difference in himself but failed. I guess they aren’t like strength or constitution where you can feel the improvements, Jason thought.

He still wanted to save his skill boost until level up skills became difficult. Jason closed his notifications and head towards his cottage.