[The alarm went off, it was 6 AM. Jason was ready to get to work around the farm. He had 39 starting actions]

[Tess’s Almanac: 25th day of Summer! 66 days until the Summer Festival. If you’re out in the fields, watch those Juun bugs! Nasty little things. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to engage them using conventional means. If you’d like to join the search party hunting for the Lonesome Rose, please visit my office. If you’d like to hire a warrior to come fight Juun bugs on your farm, come to the Guild Hall and post your request on the bulletin board]

Jason groaned as his eyes flickered open. Instead of lying in his bed, he was still lying in one of the hospital beds in Theresa’s Healing Den. As he slowly rose up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, the door burst open and Theresa came walking inside.

“Hold on there! No slipping out without your final examination.”

“Is this really necessary?” Jason scowled at her as she pulled back the sleeve of his pajamas. The red welts were nearly all gone now, with only a bit of pink still showing.

“Yes. You did fall unconscious the moment you arrived here, and you’re one of the ones who actually recovered fairly quickly.” Theresa seemed unconcerned by his frustration. “You farmers, always willing to do the dumbest things just for the sake of driving off some sort of pest.”

Jason flashed a crooked smile. “I just-”

“You’re healed enough.” Theresa stood up. Her voice was sharp, but she did have a smile on her face. “Keep taking some of the medicine for another few days until the pink goes away and there’s no more swelling. I know it’s tempting to just quit taking it now, but I don’t want to see you again in a few days because you’re going into toxic shock or something.”

“Fine.” Jason muttered, swiping the bottle of pills off the bedstand. Each of the pills was large enough that he suspected that Lady herself would have a hard time swallowing them, but they did seem to work to reduce the swelling of the welts. Jason quickly made his way out through the den, noticing the dozens of other farmers there sporting the same red welts. There was a line out the front door as he walked out into the town square, and he whistled softly. The Juun bugs were really turning into something, that was for sure.

According to Tess, who had visited him several times over the previous several days, Lady had been stabled in the Guild stable, where she was being taken care of until Jason was ready to retrieve her again. He quickly made his way over to her office. After knocking and poking his head inside, he found that she was missing, though a check of the stables revealed that Angus was still there. Most likely, she was still in the dungeon.

“Hey!” He waved at a warrior who was just walking out of the stable. “Do you have any idea when Tess will be back?”

“Not until tomorrow.” He answered. “Sorry about that. A bunch of newbies wanted to do a dungeon camping trip, and she agreed to guide them.”

Jason grimaced, but nodded. He found Lady in the stall where Tess had indicated, and soon enough, he was back on the road riding to his farm. He didn’t really see anyone along the way, and as he came riding into the driveway, he sighed deeply.

Juun bugs still buzzed across his crops, and while the wheat was still growing, he wasn’t certain at all if he would still have a crop by the end of the season. His discarded bottle of spray still lay in the growing grass, where it had fallen the last time he had fled the scene. He sighed, then slowly stabled Lady and took a long look around the farm.

His body still ached, no matter how brave a face he had tried to put on for Theresa. The bite of the Juun bugs didn’t really hurt that badly at first, at least not compared to how the bite developed over the course of several hours. By the time three or four hours had gone by, they were near-excruciating, and by the time five or six had gone by, it was hard to remain conscious. He had absolutely no desire to go near the creatures, at least not for a long while. That said, the idea of going inside and spending the rest of the day lounging around sounded equally detestable. He wanted to be doing something, and that didn’t leave him with many options.

As he climbed down from Lady, though, something caught his eye. The second bottle of chemical, which still sat in his storage shed. A smile flickered across his face, and he pulled open the gate and slowly picked up the jug. It wasn’t large, perhaps two gallons, but must have weighed thirty pounds.

“Mix two ounces of spray with five gallons of water.” He read the instructions carefully. “Do not allow to come in contact with skin, eyes, clothing, etc. If ingested, there will be no need to induce vomiting, as you will certainly regurgitate everything that your body has inside it. It is suggested not to open this bottle within fifty feet of any plant that you care in any way, shape, or form about. Illegal to use in the Eastern Isles, Western Isles, the Mountain Province, Mechanor, the Confederation, the General Republic, or any of the minor nations that have laws regulating pesticide use. Legal in provinces around Illumitir.”

“Better use this before the legal status changes.” Jason chuckled, then slowly rose. It was as good plan as any. He quickly grabbed the backpack sprayer and filled it with water, then took Lady back out of the stall, mounted up, and rode out.

This time, instead of heading for the road, he entered the small trail that led across the prairie. He had only gone the distance a few times before, but it was a location that he was looking forward to getting back to, if only to once again look over his purchase. Lady was eager as well to get away from the Juun bug, and she lost no time scampering over the hills and through the ravines.

The eighty acres that Jason had purchased was located about half a mile away, and by the time he got there, the farmstead had completely vanished. As he came over the final hill, he found himself looking out across a great field covered Mars Monstertraps.

When he had first planted the weeds the year before, they had seemed like a miracle. They ate up any monsters that came near, and had done wonders cleaning up some of the pests that plagued Jason’s farm. The only problem was that they had soon proved to be incredibly invasive, and utterly took over his farm. It had taken nearly a year to dislodge them from his own farm, and it had only been out of necessity that he had planted an entire field of the plants out in the middle of the wilderness.

Now, as he stood there looking over them, he found himself almost in awe at the sheer scope of it. Gaping mouths turned to look at him, and photosynthetic jaws began snapping angrily at his approach.

“Come on, now.” He spread his arms. “Is that any way to greet an old friend? I did give you your last meal, if you’ll remember.”

The monstertraps neglected to return any sort of gratitude, and he sighed and climbed down from Lady. He positioned himself on the edge of the field, just outside the snapping jaws of the monstertraps, and cracked open the lid of the pesticide.

A single whiff of the stuff made his stomach lurch, and all around him, plants began to wilt. Prairie grasses crumpled up, and monstertraps screamed and began to flop over dead. Jason blinked in surprise, then poured about two ounces into the sprayer. At least, he hoped it was two ounces. It was hard to know for sure, since he had forgotten a cup, but it was close. The liquid was a dark brown, though it began to foam and hiss as soon as it came in contact with the water. Golden bubbles formed on the surface of the water, and he clapped the lid of the sprayer back in place before they could pop. With that, he gave the sprayer a few shakes, then lifted it onto his back. The wind was blowing from the south, so he moved himself to that side of the patch of the monstertraps and began to spray.

To say the least, the spray was impossibly effective. Monstertraps blackened and withered as soon as the spray even touched them. The smell was enough to kill them all the way on the other side of the patch, leaving Jason with little to do except to walk along one side of the field, slowly spraying out a bit at a time and watching the results. It was wonderful, in every sense of the word, though he had to admit that he was feeling a bit queasy by the time he finished. His vision still seemed fine enough, and he had few troubles making his way back over to Lady.

“Well.” He took off the backpack and set it down next to the container of chemical. “I have absolutely no idea what I’ll do with the rest of that, but I imagine I’ll find a use.” Lady said nothing back, and he started to look around.

The small patch of ground, while largely being simply out in the middle of the prairie, was located just to the north of a large forest. Jason had been inside the forest in other parts of the land, as there were several other towns that were located within it, but those were all located miles upon miles away. It didn’t look to him as if anything had been inside that part of the forest in years, and a thought leapt into his head.

“Wanna go look around?” He glanced at Lady. She gave no answered once again (which, possibly due to the chemical, rather annoyed him), and he struck off for the trees. The wind soon cleared the air a bit (which made his head quit hurting. Not that he had really noticed it hurting, but he certainly noticed when it got better), and he went back for Lady and led her to somewhat greener pasture as well. He wound up taking her all the way to the forest itself, where he tied her to a small oak tree, and let her graze on the fresh grass that was growing there. And, with that, he entered the trees.

His suspicion that no one had been there for some time seemed to be confirmed, as the trees grew so thickly that he could hardly pass between them. It was a far cry from the other portions of the forest, which was set with roads and walking trails that made it easy to traverse. Here, enormous oak trees grew up with maples, elms, and chestnuts all set right up against one another. It was common for Jason to come upon sudden ravines, carved deep into the soft soil and limestone rock. Small trails of tepid water ran along the bottom of these ravines, and largely looked to be pools of mire that would trap him if he were to fall inside. There were thick vines that grew here and there, largely ancient strands of poison oak and poison ivy. He marveled at nearly all of it, especially when he came to the bank of a small river, perhaps thirty feet across, that wound its way across the land like a snake. The bank dropped away sharply, forming a mud-dirt wall about twenty feet high, all the way down to a narrow bank covered in the footprints of different animals.

Jason whistled softly as he took it all in. It was beautiful, that was for certain. As far as he knew, it was public land, too, which meant that he could take Tess there without worrying about trespassing. He continued to look at it all, then turned to leave. As he did so, though, something caught his eye: A large stone monolith that rose up amidst the trees not far away.

If it hadn’t been for a trick of the light, Jason might have missed it entirely. As it was, though, a narrow beam of sunlight fell across the grey slate, and he frowned. It took him almost twenty minutes to make his way over to it, as he came across one of the many ravines and had to backtrack, but arrive there he did. Rising up amidst the trees, coming to a height of perhaps forty feet, was a simple stone edifice that stared down at him rather like a giant.

He stared up at the monument for many long moments, musing about it. It was chipped around the edges, worn by untold years of neglect. An ivy of some sort crawled up one of the sides, and mushrooms grew across the stone base. Jason stroked his chin as he looked up at it, and slowly he walked up and touched it. There was no reaction, but as he ran his fingers over it, he felt as though he were touching ancient.

“You’re nothing natural.” He whispered softly. “Grey slate… All the stone around here that I’ve ever seen in limestone. You get granite and other stones brought up from south, and some white stone brought down from Illumitir, but… Slate isn’t something you find here. How far did they have to haul you? How was that even possible?”

His voice echoed in the empty air. Suddenly, as he looked up at the monument, he became aware that several of the markings that he had originally assumed to be simple aging marks were actually letters. Or, at the least, runes, or some sort of ancient writing. His eyes ate up the odd symbols, and he did his best to memorize what he was looking at.

“Now this is something interesting.” He crossed his arms tightly. “A mystery. A good and proper mystery!” A smile split his face. It was nothing ominous, nothing that would be marching across the prairie to try to kill him. It was a simple challenge: To figure out what had built the monolith, and why.

And it wasn’t a challenge that he planned to forget about.