I quickly finished eating my lunch after my foot-in-mouth faux pas. Then I decided to go visit with my animal friends to give Shamus and Jen a chance to collect themselves.

I found them near the barn-type building where we all slept and to my surprise, they were all playing with some of the kids in town. Seeing a little kid playing on a huge bear was a little disconcerting, but I let it go and trusted the animals who had all promised not to harm anyone in town. Was I trusting my special ability too much?

There wasn't anything I could do about it now as they all seemed to be having a blast including the animals. I watched them for a minute before they saw me. These wild animals were being so careful and so gentle it was incredible.

The wolves noticed me first and bounded over as if they were the family golden retriever. The big cat was just laying in the sun and lifted his head but couldn't be bothered to come over to greet me.

"Typical cat," I said with a head shake of judgment pointed in Mr. Snuggle's direction.

Honey was the last to come over but seemed excited to see me. She definitely had that momma bear mentality and was enjoying her cub time.

I pulled out a fish for each of them and tossed them out making sure that each animal got a fish. The mountain lion was up and eating almost quicker than I could see.

"All cats are the same regardless of size," I said mostly to myself.

I made sure all of the animals were doing well and asked them about traveling up North pretty soon. They didn't come out and say it, mostly because they were animals, but I could tell that they were wanting to stay in Roseglen.

"I'll have to talk with Shamus and Nina, but I don't mind you staying here until I get back," I said to the animals.

I was feeling pretty confident after defeating Tekosh the dragon who could change into a dragon-man. Or was he a dragon-man that could change into a dragon? I should've asked him before he moved to that farm in upstate New York.

I headed back to the center of town to look for Jen. It didn't take long for me to spot her in sparsely populated Roseglen. I approached her and nodded when she saw me nonverbally asking if she was okay to talk. She waved me over and was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry for being so emotional and having to excuse myself."

"You have no reason to apologize. I'm the one who should be sorry for being insensitive," I said to the young woman whose eyes were still a little red from the most recent cry.

"Hopefully we can move on and work out the details for the trip," she said. "You're still on board with escorting me to my family, right?"

"Of course," I said. "Nothing has changed and Shamus and I want you to get to your parents safely."

Just as I said his name Shamus walked up and joined the conversation.

"Sorry, I ran off like that. I must've gotten some dust in my eyes or something," said Shamus.

Jen and I shared a glance with a little smile since we both knew he was crying like a baby and didn't want to admit it for whatever reason. Every time I saw that smile the feeling of guilt returned and my thoughts wandered to Paige. I needed to deflect so I quickly started talking about the trip ahead of us.

"Is there anything I need to know about the trip up North?" I asked Shamus.

"Not that I can think of," he said pondering for a second. "Although I haven't been up there for a while. The path itself is fairly straightforward and keeping to the roads should be a fairly safe bet. I did have one other request if you wouldn't mind."

"Anything," I said absentmindedly. I probably should have asked what he needed first, but it was too late. A quest notification popped up as he handed me a letter.

New Quest: Deliver Shamus' letter.

Deliver Shamus' letter to the leader of Bettyford.

Reward: 1,000 XP

I checked the quest tab out of habit and reviewed the quest for returning Jen. It was right under the new one.

New Quest: Get Jen home safely.

Return Jen to her parents unharmed.

Reward: 2,500 XP, gift from her parents.

He explained that it was just a request for help from their neighbors to the north.

Roseglen had lost a good amount of key people and Shamus was asking for new residents as much as supplies.

As I was already going to Bettyford and had already planned on talking to the leadership of the town I saw it as free XP. I confirmed that I would complete his request.

"No problem at all," I said after putting the letter away.

"I actually have a favor to ask as well. Would it be okay to leave the animals here while I am traveling? They seemed to want to stay and rest for a while and I told them I would ask."

"As long as you can promise they won't hurt anyone I am fine with them staying," Shamus said as he had the tiniest flash of worry cross his face.

"I will talk to them before we leave. They haven't broken a promise yet and I'm not actually sure that they would be capable of doing so," I said as I furrowed my brow thinking about the possibility of an animal lying.

"I was kind of hoping they would come with us," Jen said looking a little disappointed.

I wasn't sure if she wanted the extra company or the extra protection.

"I'm sure I can wrangle us up some more furry friends on the way up," I said trying to cheer her up. Just then, Jen's face lit up as if a light bulb had clicked on in her mind.

"You okay?" I asked as she stood there covering her mouth as she excitedly thought about whatever she had realized.

"You can talk to all types of animals, right?" she asked.

"I think so," I said still unsure of what she was thinking.

"My horse, Gwen. You can talk to her during the trip. I've had her since she was a filly. I talk to her all the time, but she can actually understand you," she exclaimed talking quicker now and with more gusto.

"I guess," I said not matching her energy.

"I'm so excited for tomorrow morning," she said as she turned to run off towards the other side of town. "Thank you, Theodore."

Shamus and I shared a look.

"That was quite the mood shift," I said watching her run off then turning to Shamus.

"She has a lot of emotions right now and I say any happiness is worth it. Please keep her safe," Shamus turned to me and his mood had also changed but to a more serious one.

"I will," I responded. "She will make it to her parents safely."

He shook my hand and smiled big. It was still early afternoon and I decided to spend some time with the training dummy and then hang out with the townsfolk until dinner. Although I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to find a craftsman who worked with leather. I had an idea.

I found someone that made clothes for the town who was also a skilled leathersmith. I was hoping for some quick specialty arrows but I got something even better. A skill's level up notification popped up

Crafting level 2

I must've gained some experience building that giant bat trap or something because it didn't take long for that skill to level up. He had made the first arrow from one of my junk quality arrows and a bit of leather. He also taught me how to recreate it and then guided me through 10 more.

"This should be interesting," I said to myself looking at the bundle of arrows.

Non-lethal Arrow (Junk) x12

This is a special arrow. It will do no damage on its own but can be imbued with magic.

Damage 0

The arrow had a small ball of leather where the arrowhead should be. I tried firing one at the dummy behind Shamus' house and it hit the shield and fell to the ground harmlessly. I went and picked it up. It looked like it was able to be shot again so this time I imbued a few seconds of water ball and released it with a delay set.

The arrow once again hit the shield and fell to the ground but a couple of seconds later the waterball formed violently from the leather tip. This opened up even more ways to utilize my arrowmancy abilities. I'd have to try to imagine up some new combos and uses for my spells and arrows.

This also got me interested in crafting new arrow types. In the past I had sometimes felt like the bow and arrow heroes in comic books were lame but I was starting to see the appeal. I even kind of wished I had read some of those comics because coming up with specialty arrows may have been easier.

I continued practicing my archery but didn't level the skill. It was dinner time so I went and made sure the animals were able to eat. I also talked to them about what Shamus had said about promising to not hurt anyone in town and they all promised with a tap of their paws.

After dinner we went to bed in the barn building and I fell into a deep sleep. Jen, Gwen, and I would be leaving in the morning and I was already starting to miss my animals more than I thought I would.

I woke up to Mae shaking my arm.

"Wake up, Teddy," she said with frustration in her voice. "You'd sleep the day away if you were given the chance."

I was refreshed because of the magic mattress but still perturbed at the tiny woman shaking me awake all the time.

"Can't I sleep in? I'm dead. Why can't I sleep in?" I said matching her frustration.

"Your mom didn't raise a lazy do nothing," she said.

"How would you know?" I asked.

"I just do. Now get up," she said with one final shake of my arm.

"Fine." I sat up on my mattress and rubbed my eyes. "I'm up, geez."