Dressed in nothing but one of Granny’s long shirts and holding the makeshift spear she’d hacked, Red stood impatiently at the door waiting on me. “I’m coming,” I promised her, stomping my foot a few times to force it hurriedly into my boot.

Seeing I was ready, Red impatiently headed out the door, and called back over her shoulder, “So where’s this grave?”

“Don’t worry about it right now,” I ordered Red, walking up and wrapping my arm around her shoulders. “We’re going shopping.”

“Shopping at a time like this?” Red’s voice was incredulous.

“Yes. Shopping,” I repeated, tugging her away from Granny’s and down the street. “We need proper clothes for you, food for both of us, and supplies to go digging around in a tomb, first.”

Grunting, whether in agreement or not, Red walked along beside me without saying anything.

“You know,” I told her, hopefully, “if we’re lucky, we might even be able to get some of those herbs Granny needs before we leave, so she can treat Jewel faster.”

“Then what are we waiting on?” Red enthusiastically dragged me down the street, rushing towards the sign outside the general store.

Being pushed in first, I tried to call out a greeting for hello, but was interrupted by multiple loud ringing from right beside my ear. Wincing at the loud cacophony, I glanced back over my shoulder to stare astounded as Red clanged the red cow’s bell that hung over the entrance relentlessly.

Old man Garn yelled, “I’m coming! I’m coming!”, as he worked his way up from the back of the store. “Keep yer damn britches on!

“Don’t have any,” Red stated plainly, brushing past me and quickly striding up to the counter. “I want all the medical herbs you have,” she demanded firmly.

“Not all of them,” I corrected, heading to join her at the counter. “Just the ones that Granny needs. She’s trying to treat a sick traveler,” I explained to Garn.

“Well,” Red snorted, “I can’t tell one herb from another. I’ll take them all, and you can bill the Moonweavers for them.”

“Moonweavers,” old man Garn asked curiously?

“How about I deal with this,” I asked Red? Giving her a nice smack across her rump, I told her, “Go back there,” as I pointed between two aisles, “and see if there’s some clothes you can wear.”

“Fine.” Even though she didn’t complain, I had the feeling that she was half pouting as she moved behind me.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized to Garn. “Her friends sick and she’s just worried,” I tried to explain.

“Uh huh…” Garn nodded absentmindedly, never taking his eyes from behind me.

Glancing back, I couldn’t help but shake my head in embarrassment. There Red was, shirt tossed off and draped across a shelf, standing bent over and completely naked, sorting through a stack of leathers.

“Uh huh…” It was all I knew to say back to Garn in this situation.

We spent all morning visiting different places in town. Red was now wearing thigh high leather boots and a very short, very loose leather skirt which completely showed the lower curves of her ass every time she walked or the wind blew. I’d tried to suggest she wear a slightly longer, but she said the shorter allowed for greater mobility in combat. Since I’ve never attempted to fight in a skirt, I didn’t argue any after that.

The shirt she had chosen was a skin tight leather tunic which must be amazingly uncomfortable. Her breasts weren’t as large and round as Jewel’s, being more oval shaped and hand sized, but they were squished until they appeared unvisible under the tight top. Leather gloves that went up pass her arms and a leather headband to hold back her hair completed her ensemble.

At the town’s small smithy, we replaced her makeshift spear for a long handled boar spear. Used to hunt wild hogs, the spear was about 8 feet in length, with a twelve inch point that resembled an oversized needle at the tip of it. Directly below the “needle” was a thick round piece of metal, resembling a shield. The spear couldn’t be thrown, but it was excellent for bracing against the charge of a raging boar. The thick needle pierced the hog’s tough hide easily, and the shield stopped it from running up the shaft and goring the hunter.

From somewhere, and I honestly don’t know where, Red had picked up a large leather backpack like mine, and we’d filled both with food as we picked up gossip from the tavern.

According to Joseph – the guy who ran the tavern – he could recall hearing about the “Widow’s Crypt” back when he was a child, from his grandfather. Apparently, the “crypt” has nothing to do with the graveyard at all. Instead, it seemed to be the name used to describe an old mine, which had been shut down over a hundred years ago, because it was so dangerous and collapsed so often, it’d created too many “widows”.

Asking directions to where it was located didn’t help any. All Joseph could recall is that it was somewhere out by the western mill… Or maybe up north, past the split in the highway, out past some bend in the river… Or maybe.. Absolutely nothing which seemed to be of any real use to us, except for the fact that we now know there was an old mine out there somewhere, and it was probably what we were looking for.

Happy that we’d uncovered something, but frustrated that we hadn’t uncovered the most important thing – where exactly to go to look for a “Widow’s Heart” – Red and I split up after leaving the tavern. She’d told me that she could read, so I sent her off to visit our little town mayor and to see if she could dig up any information in the old tax records and town archives.

Myself, I decided to visit everyone I knew around town, with a twofold purpose.

First, I wanted to check on anyone who might have some of the herbs which Granny needed. You never know what some old lady has growing out back in her garden, and from the way Granny talked, she wanted as much of the medicinal herbs as we could get our hands on. Being able to promise that the Moonweavers would pay for them was just an added boon for the town’s folks. I certainly hope that I don’t end up getting stuck with the bill. If I do, I suppose I’ll take the cost out of my share of the jewelry which we’d brought back. After all, the girls had claimed it was the bandit’s loot, so by anyone’s definition, the least I should get would be an equal share in retrieving it.

Second, I made certain to ask all those other folks if they ever remembered hearing any tales about old mines, “Widow’s Crypt”, or anything else of the type. There were a few who could verify that the crypt was indeed some supposed mineshaft, but nobody could give me the direction to find it. A few times, I had the impression that some of the older people could’ve given me directions, but they wouldn’t. Everyone who knew about the old mine was convinced that it was too dangerous to ever visit.

As the sun moved higher into the sky, I returned back to the tavern feeling rather dejected. I couldn’t be certain if there were enough herbs in town to fill Granny’s needs, and I had no true idea where to go to find the mine. All I could do is wait for Red to meet me, and hope she had better luck, as per our agreed upon plan.

I hadn’t been sitting too long, sipping on my honey mead, when Red came bouncing enthusiastically into the tavern. “GOT IT,” was the first thing she screamed, as she pounced over, threw herself into my lap, and gave me a deep, passionate kiss.

Blinking confusedly, I tried not to pay any attention to the catcalls and laughter from all the other patrons in the tavern. “Got what?” I asked, as the blush heated rose up to my cheeks.

“I know where we’ve got to go,” Red promised, waving a rolled up parchment in her hands. “According to the land maps from blah blah, I don’t care, years ago, the mine was located a little further than a full day’s walk to the northwest. There used to be a road which went up that way, that we can follow, unless it’s completely overgrown by now.”

“Kerf. Kerf.” Joseph fake coughed slightly as he came up to the table and placed another glass of honey mead down in front of us. “Would the young lady like something to eat this afternoon, or…” Pausing, a large smirk ran all the way up both sides of his face as he asked, “Or perhaps the two of you might want to rent a room for a little while?”

“Ummmm….” My face turned several shades of red and purplish, and I had no idea how to even attempt to respond to his leading question. Maybe part of it’s just the prudish memories of an old man from my first life, but we certainly didn’t ask such things when I was a youngster!

“No room for now,” Red waved her hands dismissively, completely laughing off the sinuation, “but I do want a quick meal. Grab me two bowls of whatever soup you have ready to serve, a quarter of bread, two chunks of cheese, and a couple pieces of your best pie.”

Laughing himself, Joseph gave a half bow, turning to leave our table, when Red reached out and grabbed him by the sleeve. “Wait a moment,” she ordered, squirming to look back at me. “What did you want to eat, Mi’Lord?”

“Wait a moment…” I couldn’t help but blink several times, stupidly. “Does that mean you’re planning to eat all that for yourself?” I’d thought she’d ordered enough for the both of us!

Joseph’s laughter was full and hearty, as he stood there patiently and waited on her answer.

After leaving the tavern, I walked with my arm wrapped around Red’s shoulder and with her pulled up close beside me. “Two last stops,” I informed her, “and then we’ll head out. I’d like to make at least enough distance today, that if all goes well, we’ll be at the old entrance to the mines tomorrow night.”

“So what’s our last two stops?” Red asked, while bouncing lightly beside me. She truly seemed to be an endless bundle of energy. It was almost impossible to look at her and believe she’d just been the victim of a savage bandit attack, and stripped, beaten, starved, and then escaped, all in just the past week or so!

“First stop this afternoon,” I told her, “will be the town’s storage. We keep all sorts of supplies there for the holidays, festivities, celebrations, and holy days. We should be able to easily borrow a few lanterns, some olive oil, and some general supplies like rope and digging tools from there, without anyone caring.”

“We’ll just have to pay to replace them,” I warned her, “if anything happens to them.”

“And second,” I winced as I said it, dreading even to think about the situation. “We’ve got to go and pay a visit to my parents. They’ve bound to have been worried about me, me being out during the storm. Coming back in the middle of the night and then passing out at Granny’s probably hasn’t helped the situation any," I added, ruefully.

“Add the fact that I’ve been walking around all day with a beautiful girl on my arm that they’ve never met, and I’m actually dreading going home,” I confessed, while trying to not show too unmanly of an appearance to Red.

She just laughed merrily, as if she felt my misfortune with my parents was one of the funniest things she’d heard all day.