I wake up with a splitting headache.

While I should be focusing on the pain in my head, I begin to think about the past. For some reason, I almost wake up with a headache, or something similar, all the time.

Am I just unlucky, or something?

The pain from a headache begins to slowly increase, and I let out a little groan.

“Hey, are you okay?”, I hear Eros ask a few meters away from me.

I open my eyes and look over at him.

He was sitting on a chair at the table, sharpening his battle-ax with a whetstone. It was a real intimidating sight to behold.

“Yes, I'm fine. I just have this really irritating headache”, I answer him while pointing at my head.

He puts down his battle ax and the whetstone and walks over to his bag. He searches through it for a few moments before pulling out a small glass bottle.

He lightly throws it at me, and I catch it mid-air easily.

The liquid inside the bottle is a lightish blue.

“What is this?”, I ask him.

Maybe a potion? Aren't they too expensive to use on a headache?

“It's a drink that supposed to clear the mind. Helps on headaches too”, Eros explained while walking over to his previous sitting place.

A potion that clears the mind? That perfect for me! When casting magic, you have to really concentrate on staying focused. With this, casting magic will be so much easier! Too bad, I only have so little of it. 5 centiliters at most. It probably isn't cheap, but I have to know where to buy this.

“Where did you get this from?”, I asked Eros, with a voice full of curiosity.

“Got it from my dad when I did meditation training. Had to drink a little to meditate when I was younger. Now I don't need it at all to meditate, so it has just been lying in my bag for a couple of years now”, he explained while beginning to use the whetstone on the battleax again.

“Any idea where your dad got it from?”, I asked him.

“He got it from one of his friends. I think his name was… Sia… Saa maybe? I don't really remember”, he said, while shrugging.

Well, that sucks. I was really hoping to get some more of this stuff.

I pull out the little cork that was on top of the flask. It makes a little pop sound when I pull it out.

Smoke immediately starts rising from the bottle.

That's cool.

“You might want to drink it before the liquid gets completely out”, Eros says, pulling me out of the trance.

Oh, right.

I drop the liquid inside my mouth.

The flavor rushes inside. It has an overpowering bitterness to it.

I'm just about to spit it out before I remember the rarity of this stuff.

Just swallow. Don't taste.

I quickly swallow it, trying, and failing, to not taste it. I briefly thought about holding my nose but decided not to. I would really look too stupid doing that.

I had opened my eyes while trying to ignore the taste, so I opened them again.

Eros was sitting there with a gigantic grin on his face.

That short shit! Oh wait, He taller than me… That tall shit!

“Did you enjoy the taste”, Eros asked, trying not to laugh.

“Fuck off”, I said to him.

Instead of taking offense, he just begins laughing.

After a little while, I begin to laugh too. It's been a while since I have done that.

Before our laughing could come to a natural close, a knock on the door interrupted us.

It took me a couple seconds too shut up, but Eros did it instantly.

I walked over to the door and opened it.

Outside, an old man was standing outside the door. I wouldn't have been surprised if I was told that he had been a bodybuilder when he was young.

“Is there a problem?”, I asked the old man.

Did we laugh too hard?

“There isn't any problem, sir. There is the opposite, in fact. The Lord has invited you to breakfast in twenty minutes. Would you like to attend?”, the old man asked, with an even voice.

There isn't much choice. Not that I don't want to, of course.

“We would be glad to attend. We don't have any finer clothes to put on. Is that going to be okay?”, I ask him. My wardrobe wasn't that big, and it only has the cheap kind.

“It will not be a problem. This isn't anything official, so you can just wear what you find relaxing”, the old man explained.

“Great! Do we go now, or should we wait a couple of minutes”, I asked.

“Now, preferably. I am supposed to lead to the garden where the breakfast will be”, he explained to us.

“Okay. Hey, Eros. Are you finished with sharpening your ax, or do we need to wait a couple of minutes?”, I asked Eros.

The old man flinched a little when I mentioned the weapon.

“Don't worry. I finished the sharpening some time ago. I'm just trying to make it shine”, he said, while putting the ax back in its sheath.

He picks up the sheath-

Oh god. Please don't take it with you!

-and puts it down next to his bag.

Thank you.

I turn around to face the old man again.

“Okay, we are ready to go”

We were currently walking in the garden.

According to the old man, the place we were going to was at the other end of the estate.

Because of that, Eros and I were almost forced to chat about stuff.

“So… this Lord Wolfsbane. Do you know who he is?”, I ask Eros.

From what Eros had told about what happened last night, he must have seen him.

“I don't really know what to say about him. He is really tall. Must be, at least, over 210 centimeters. He had grey hair. That's about what I can say about him. I didn't even see his face”, Eros explained.

That's not much information. Maybe the old man knows.

“Hey, could you tell me a bit about your lord?”, I ask the old man.

“Sure. Lord Wolfsbane is a mage just like you. His talent is Evocation, and is currently at the expert level or expertise”, he explained.

Evocation. What is it? I think I have heard about, but can't really remember.

“What is Evocation?”, I asked.

“Oh, you didn't know. I would have guessed that a mage would know such things, but it seems like that is just a stereotype. Evocation is the act of calling upon or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agents”, he explained.

Oh, he is a summoner.

“Oh, thanks for the info”, I said.

“It's no problem”, the old man said.

Eros and I discuss a couple more things before we reach the garden.

If I was asked to describe a garden, this would be it.

The garden of artworks.

Every tree and bush in the garden was an artwork in itself. They were cut in specific ways do well done that they almost looked like sculptures. Some were of people, while others were of animals and monsters. I even think I saw a miniature rat somewhere.

After walking into the garden of artworks, we reach a table. It was a medium-sized rectangular table with 5 chairs on the two sides.

On one side of the table, two people were sitting. Elora and who I assumed to be his father.

Now to a description of this man. While I would like to say that he looked old, saying that would be a lie. While his hair and beard had become a winter-white, his face looked like how a 30-year-old men would look. If he dyed his hair, he would probably look a lot younger.

After a couple of seconds of Eros and I stand to the side awkwardly, they finally noticed. They both stood up and walked over to us.

“Hello, you two. My name is Erik Wolfsbane. Thank you for saving my daughter”, he said in a grateful.

The Lord shook my hand, and Elora hugged Eros.

“Really, It wasn't any problem. We were just going to your city when we were attacked by bandits and found out about your daughter. We didn't really have a choice”, I tried to explain to him.

The lord put on an amiable smile.

“It doesn't matter about your reasons. The fact that you rescued my daughter, is enough to trust you. The fact that you exhausted your mana reserves so much that you could escape without sacrificing my daughter says even more about you”, Erik said, his smile turning pleasant.

“Let's not get too dramatic dad. It's still morning”, Elora said.

Erik put his hands in the air.

“Fine, fine. You know how much I love dramatics”, he said, while walking over to where he was sitting previously.

We all sit down at the table. Erik and Elora at one side, and Eros and me on the other.

Two servants come forth from the right side carrying various things. One of them is carrying four plates with food, and the other is carrying glasses with some liquid and utensils.

The servants quickly put down the food and leave.

The food on the plates looked really good. On each plate, there was a hardboiled egg, a little bowl of oatmeal with pieces of fruit, and what looked to be bacon.

We eat the food in silence. From what Eros had told me, talking and eating at the same time was considered bad manners even if you don't currently have any food in your mouth.

The tasted fantastic. The oatmeal I had tried before, but the bacon and egg, I had not. At first, the bacon tastes normal, and I couldn't find anything wrong with it, but after thirty seconds, I realized something. I could still taste bacon. I tried eating some oatmeal, but the taste was still there. While I could still taste the oatmeal, it had an aftertaste of bacon.

Maybe you were supposed to eat the bacon last?

Moving on to the egg. The egg itself was slightly bigger than normal, but I had no trouble opening it. It how you would expect. Just a slightly bigger egg.

When we were all finished eating, the small talking began. Most of it was boring, but there were a few parts that were really interesting.

“Lord Wolfsbane, can I ask a question?”, I asked.

“Yes, you may, and I would prefer it if you called me Erik”, he said.

“Oh, ok, Erik. The question is simple. How did you get the surname Wolfsbane? Did somebody in your family kill a lot of wolves?”, I asked him.

He chuckled slightly when I finished talking.

“No, my family did not get our name from killing a lot of wolves. My great-grandfather partook in the killing of Fenris. Over a thousand warriors and mages partook in that nasty battle. You would think that with so many, killing one wolf would be easy. It was not. In the first few minutes of the battle, over half of the warrior died. In the next, the wolf killed half of our mages. Only the strongest warriors and mages were left standing after Fenris culled our men. My great-grandfather was one of them.

The battle for survival raged many hours, and in the end, almost every man was dead. The wolf was still standing, but he had suffered many wounds. In the last effort to kill the wolf, the last force made a plan. The last warriors would distract the beast, while the mages summoned a beast capable to kill Fenris. The last mage with Evocation was my great-grandfather. All the mages circled around him, giving him every last bit of their mana. While doing this, the surviving warriors would distract the beast, giving their lives to give us a single second.

My great-grandfather used all of the mana in a mear ten seconds!

The first 4 seconds were used on summoning the being capable of killing the Fenris. It was an angel with six wings. It looked at my great-grandfather for the orders. His orders were simple. Kill that damn wolf! The angel simple nodded and looked at the wolf. Nobody knew what happened as a great light came from the sky, blinding every living thing nearby. When people regained their sight, the wolf laid dead on the ground. Its every limb was cut of from the body including its lifeless head. With my great-grandfather summoning the being, he was giving the name Wolfsbane. Ever since that day, our family has had that surname, and we have always displayed it proudly”, he told us.

Wow.

“That is quite the story”, I said.

While I had expected them to have killed a strong wolf, I did not expect them to have killed the Fenris!

“Indeed it is. Do you have one yourself?”, Erik asked.

“No, I don't. I am the first mage in my family, so I don't have any grand story to tell”, I said.

“That's a shame. Do you have any Eros?”, Erik asked.

“I don't remember any grand ones”, Eros said, while shaking his head slightly.

“Okay. Moving on, have you two considered going sightseeing around the city?”, he asked us.

Sightseeing. That sounds quite fun. We had to find the adventuring guild here eventually.

“We had thought about it, but we don't really have a map to go by”, I said.

“Well, that's no problem. My daughter can just show you around. She knows the name of every place in the whole city”, he said, with a big smile.

I look over at Elora. She is staring at Eros.

“We would be happy to”, Eros said.

Looks like were going sightseeing!