“He’s barely holding on!” bellows Trent from beside the cart. “Quick!”

You see Thomas and the healer rushing towards the cart.

You are relieved and that moment of relaxation finally allows your exhaustion to take hold as you finally collapse.

Endless wars… a sky blanketed in fire… cities burned to the ground…

You wake up from the foreboding and yet familiar dark dream.

A bed has been provided for you, and you see Skybreaker and your pack on top of a table.

You hear the voices of six — no seven people outside the room.

Your body seems to have recovered from most of the damage from the forest adventure — but your psyche is still somewhat affected your previous exertions.

From what you can piece out from the conversation outside — it seems you’ve been out for almost three days.

You get up from the bed and immediately get to your pack for a change of clothing.

You have no idea who’s been taking care of you — but they made sure to put you in comfortable clothing.

You change to your own set of clothes and fold your borrowed ones neatly — before placing them on top of the bed.

Creeaakk….

The slight creak of the door silences the chatting voices.

You see the figures of Eomer and Trent, as well as a few unfamiliar people — most probably Trent’s family.

“Thank God you’ve awakened!” cries Trent. He moves towards you but hesitates as he nears you — fearful of any injuries you may have.

“I seem to be fine,” you declare. “How’s Bruce?”

Trent has this complicated look on his face, as if he wants to answer the question but isn’t able to.

“He’s fine,” answers Eomer. He looks at Trent, “Don’t make the boy worry.”

“You saved him,” says Trent, “but there were other… complications.”

“Complications?”

Trent shakes his head. “The wolf’s claws reached his heart — but it was the damned cold that did the most damage.”

“The healers said the damage would likely be permanent,” Eomer interrupts, “unless we get can get our hands on high-level magic.”

“How is he?”

“He’s doing fine,” answers Trent. “His adventuring days might be over — but he’ll live.”

“No, he won’t,” you worry inside.

Bruce was — is a fighter. He would only be satisfied if he was out there pitting himself against strong opponents. Protecting the town or earning gold was secondary to his primary motivation for being an adventurer — proving himself to himself.

“Where is he now?” you worriedly ask.

“At home recovering,” Trent frowns. “I sent word to Braun, his father, but I don’t know if that bastard would show up.”

You see that even Eomer feels that was unlikely.

“What happened back there?” asks Eomer. “The healer said it was a miracle that he lived for more than an hour.”

“I’m not so sure either,” you reply. “All I know is that I didn’t want Bruce to die.”

He nods in understanding.

“Maybe that old smith was wrong — maybe you have some magic in you after all?” says Trent.

“That seems to be the case,” you reply.

You glance at the two and they seem to be at a loss on what to do now that you’ve recovered.

“I should be going,” you say. “Thank you for your care for the past few days.”

“No, no need for that,” says Trent. “You can stay for as long as you want.”

“I have a place with Thomas — I don’t want to impose.”

“Let the kid go,” Eomer agreed before Trent could even protest. “Let’s just have dinner with the others tonight to let them know that you’re well.”

He takes a small pouch and puts it in your hands.

“We earned more than 1000 gold from those wolves. After the healing and everything — everyone still got 120 gold.”

You gladly accept the coins and head back to the room for Skybreaker and your pack.

“Thank you,” Trent says clasping you in the shoulders. “The boy is alive because of you.”

You merely smile knowing that Bruce might have preferred dying to living a normal life.

You thank everyone once again before you leave the house — especially Trent’s wife and family.

Looking back at the battles — you realize that you made several mistakes and that you were vastly unprepared. That would not be the case next time.

You head to Everett’s book shop to finally learn about magic — humming all the way to practice your blindsight. You’ll need to use everything in your arsenal in every battle to avoid any other unwanted incidents.

“You again,” Everett looks up from reading a book as you enter the bookshop. “I heard you went on an adventure with Eomer and the others — townspeople are already making stories of how the Wolves saved the town from wolves.”

There’s a certain respect in his voice that wasn’t apparent from before.

“We weren’t prepared,” you groaned.

“Yes, the boy — Bruce was it?” he asks with a somber tone.

You nod.

“He needs powerful healing magic that the town’s healers can’t provide…”

“Nor the city’s — or even the kingdom’s,” he interrupts.

“So it’s final?”

“It might not be,” he seems to have drifted off into his memories. “There are other recourses aside from healing — some of them restricted or even prohibited.”

“Can you look them up for me?”

“I could… for a fee.”

You put two piles of 20 gold on the counter.

He looks at you questioningly.

“One for your research, the other for that book on the basics of magic.”

He nods and takes both piles. He enters another room and returns with a couple of books.

“Take your pick,” he says, placing the two books in front of you. “The first one describes a few rudimentary spells as well as their workings, the other one has fewer spells but it has more insights on magic theory.”

Both books are quite large, around a foot in width and a foot and a half in length. They had close to 200 pages each, but the first book had its pages printed on both sides, while the second one left room for notes and commentary.

“I’ll take the second one.”

“A good choice,” Everett says as he gives you the book and stores the other.

“I’ll be back in a week,” you say with a grim tone as you pack the book. “Hopefully you can dig up something by then.”

“Of course, of course. A week should be enough.”

You leave the bookshop and make your way to Glenn’s.

Although the orc bow was powerful — it just wasn’t powerful enough to make a difference. You needed a better weapon.

Trriing!

The sound of bells immediately alerted Glenn to your arrival.

He gives you a nod.

“I heard the frost wolf armor served you well in your last outing.” He remarked. “And you bought a lot of those pelts back, it seems.”

You pull out the orc bow and place it on the counter.

“I need a more powerful weapon.”

“That bow is the most powerful we have,” he bites his lower lip thinking. “We have javelins if you can throw like Eomer or…” he hesitates, “you can try our crossbows.”

“Let me see them.”

He heads to the back room and returns with two crossbows while an assistant carries the third.

The first two crossbows had to be drawn upright with a pulley-like device to draw the strings. The third looked like the usual crossbow but it had a coin-sized ring attached to where the bolt would exit.

“The first two are quite powerful, but they take a bit of time to load,” he says

The assistant demonstrates how to draw the crossbow strings using the windlass on the first and the cranequin on the second.

“The third one?” you ask.

“This one,” Glenn holds up the bow, “is magical.”

“You use it as you would any other crossbow — but the ring in front of it enchants the bolts, adding a third to their power.”

“A third?”

“Any bolt that passes through the ring is accelerated by a third of their speed.”

You notice the extra reinforcement on shaft and lath of the crossbow. The force of the recoil from the rings must be quite extensive.

“Can they penetrate armor — magical beast or demon armor?”

“These two should,” Glenn points at the two crossbows. “Heavier bolts should go through thick hides —maybe even penetrate magical ones.”

“The stronger one?”

“That would be this one,” Glenn says, grasping the windlass. “It takes two hands to draw — but it has enough power to penetrate...” he smiles, “…a runed bear.”

“How much?”

“85 — no, 75 gold for you.”

“How much for just the ring on the other crossbow.”

“This crossbow won’t be able to handle the extra stress,” he explains. “Just one or two shots could ruin the frame.”

“How much for the ring?”

“The ring costs 100 gold,” he shakes his head, “but it’ll ruin the crossbow.”

“I’ll sell you back the orc bow for 60 gold and pay the rest.”

Glenn agrees, still mumbling about ruining a good crossbow.

He takes back the crossbows with his assistant for the modifications and he returns after a few minutes.

He gives you the modified crossbow and you give him the gold.

“Those rings,” you ask, “can I get more of them?”

“You can’t use more than one on a crossbow,” he replies with an exasperated tone. “Those rings create a lot of force. That crossbow of yours might not even survive more than a couple of shots.”

“I have other uses for them,” you smile.

“I can get more, but I need money upfront,” he replies. “I’ll need to send word to the capital and merchants won’t even bother bringing those here unless I asked for five or more.”

The concept of those enchanted rings fascinated you and sparked an idea in your mind.

“Wolfram.”

“What of it?” asked Glenn.

“I’ll need a lot of it.”

The shopkeeper gives you a strange look.

“I’ll buy them in bulk in the future,” you explain.

Glenn nods, dismissing your words for a young man’s folly.

You leave the shop and head to Thomas’ place.

You find Thomas practicing his archery at the courtyard.

“Hey!” you greet him raising a hand.

“You’re awake! We were all worried.”

“I heard about Bruce. How’s he taking it?”

“Badly,” sighs Thomas. “He’s determined to come back, but the injury really weakened him.”

“We were unprepared,” you say grimly. “That would not happen again.”

“What did happen? Thomas asks with a hint of worry. “The healer said Bruce should be dead.”

“I don’t know either. It’s like a river opened and I suddenly knew I could take his wounds.”

“Can you do it again?”

“I’m not sure I could repeat that feat,” you admit. “It’s as if the floodgates open when I first used it and now I’m left with just a small stream of water.”

“Can you do other things?”

“Seems like it,” you reply as you summon a pebble from the ground into your hand.

“So teleportation?”

“Not exactly or not just.”

“How so? Thomas asks, an inquisitive look in his eyes.

You pick up a fallen leaf and hold the pebble in one hand.

Reality ripples for an instant and the green leaf slowly turns pale gray and the pebble turns green.

“I switched their colors.”

Thomas observes everything with interest but is clearly disappointed with the outcome.

“A lot of good that would do.”

“Yeah,” you answer.

He clearly didn’t get the implications of your ability or the possibilities it opened.

“You switched to a crossbow,” he finally realized.

“I can’t let you guys do all the shooting,” you reply.

“Try it out.”

You nod as you ready the crossbow. You detach the windlass, put your foot in the stirrup, and just pull it with one hand.

Not effortless — but doable.

Trent looks on in shock knowing the heavy draw of the crossbow.

You load a bolt into the barrel grove and make sure the ring is aligned.

“Let’s see if it works,” you say more to yourself than to Thomas.

You pull the trigger and the bolt flies, just as a flash of black envelops the crossbow.

It hits the target — passing through cleanly and imbedding itself deeply into the wall behind it.

“Seems effective,” says Thomas, a bit shaken.

“I guess so.”

After a few more shots, the two of you head out to the Hungry Cat to meet with the others.

Dinner was not as boisterous as before, even as other patrons congratulated the success of your mission.

Bruce wasn’t there.