The trip was a staggered one. But, the countryside was a beautiful one.

Although the countryside was beautiful, Filius couldn’t help but contemplate how, or even why, the Guild decided to put him in a party. He knew that he was suspected of killing the Thistle’s Rose, but he couldn’t understand why the Guild Master thought it necessary to slot him into another party. Was he testing him? Or was it blind negligence? Filius didn’t know, and possibly wouldn’t know until the truth of this arrangement came to light.

But as he was pondering this strange predicament, he noticed Sister Flora had been glancing his way. He could see that Sister Flora was giving him a passing smile that seemed almost genuine were it not for the fact that he still didn’t have any idea on where the party was going or why they were out here in the first place.

And just as he was about to indicate his awareness to her glances, the guardsman chimed in. “Where exactly are you kids going? You didn’t exactly specify to the Gate Captain where you were heading.”

Sister Flora, looking at the gruff man, gave a small smile of knowing. “We’re heading to Lamberg Hills just a half day’s walk from here,” she pauses to take in the sights, ”We’re going to collect some herbs for my local monastery. The priestess in charge, Mother Hilda, had personally requested that I take my party to Lamberg Hills to gather some Fire Flowers and Green Leaves.”

Both the guardsman and Filius were surprised by the detailed explanation of the quest in question.

“A personal request huh? I wonder what type of requirements are needed for adventurer’s to take personal requests.” Filius thought about the prospect for a bit before seeing the guardsman understand the details and give a firm nod to what he’s been told. “Also I’m getting the feeling there’s a lot of negligent people in this world.. Or perhaps it's gross incompetence, I can’t quite tell.”

★ ★ ★

After half a day’s march west from the walled city, the party (in addition to the guardsman) would find themselves standing amongst rolling hills with splotches of forest along their slopes and crests.

And in addition to the terrain, one could see that the clouds were growing thicker and thicker with each passing hour. It looked as though it was to rain by the night’s hour.

Since evening was upon them, the party wanted to make sure they had enough time to scour the various patches of forest for the two herbs specified by the young priestess.

As such, the party split into two teams of three and combed the area within twenty (20) meters of the dirt road that had cut its way through the hills. Thus, Filius, Rancort, and Maxim were in one team while Sister Flora, Tarvyst, and the guardsman were in another.

Filius, Rancort, and Maxim began their search with Rancort going on and on, in his broken Common (English), about how he would spend his hard earned gold on a sword that was personally designed for him and him alone.

Maxim, of course, only retorted with realism saying, “The only good thing to come out of you spending gold is a dead mount on the side of the road.”

Rancort, obviously, riposte this by terribly (in the sense of the effort made) insulting the boy’s choice of religion. “Ya dink ya high ‘n mightay, ‘ell yo religon ish bad! Ha!”

The two continued this back and forth before Filius gestured for the two to cease their bickering by shushing and putting a finger to his lips.

Rancort huffed at this while Maxim simply went back to his searching.

“These two will never be on the same page.. Not in an hundred years..” Filius watched the two of them separate further from each other, looking in their own private areas.

★ ★ ★

After an hour’s worth of searching, Filius’ team was able to grab four (4) fire flowers and six (6) green leaves.

And as the trio was stuffing the herbs into Maxim’s bag, all three could hear a gut wrenching scream from their front to the right. The scream certainly sounded feminine.

“Dat ‘ust be Flora! ‘Ets go!”

Maxim nodded, as did Filius.

The trio, accordingly, went in the direction of where the scream came from, hoping to figure out what exactly happened.