On the outskirts of Do Vodata, they came across a lonely building. It was a house build out of stone, surrounded by a wall about Garvin’s height. The gate was open and they could hear a man hammering. As they passed the gate, they could see a man hammering spikes through a wooden beam.

He turned around as if to meet them, ’You come to laugh at me, too? Just leave me alone!’

The Dragonslayer shrugged and continued. But to Garvin, it spiked his interest.

‘Why would we laugh at you, sir?’ he asked.

The man put his hammer on the ground. ‘Well, that’s what everyone does when they pass my house. They think I am crazy. But I’m not!’

‘Of course you aren’t,’ Garvin said.

‘Have you seen them too?’ he asked. He got up and came closer. ‘The shadowbeasts?’

Garvin stammered as he tried to remember where he read about them.

‘I don’t know,’ Garvin said.

‘But you believe they are out there!’ the man stood so close a bit of his spit dripped on Garvin’s eyeball. He blinked.

‘So?’

The Dragonslayer came back and puffed his chest, ‘Yeah, they might be out there, we didn’t see them, however. Now please back off.’

The man, realising how close he stood, took a few steps back.

‘Now, what’s up?’ the Dragonslayer asked.

‘I have seen them. I swear I did! I tried to warn the village, but they laughed at me.’

The door of the house opened, and a lady with long, curly brown hair stepped outside.

‘Harold, are you scaring the villagers again?’ On top of the door was a snapdragon like they saw in Greed. The plant was a symbol of good luck.

‘No! They believe me! Don’t you?’

Garvin nodded, the Dragonslayer shrugged some more.

‘Perhaps they can help you? There is food enough,’ the lady said.

The man turned back around. ‘So? You want to help me out for a few days? I just need some help constructing a few things.‘ He stared the Dragonslayer in the eye.

Garvin looked at the man. Saliva was drooling out of his mouth. His eyes seemed they would pop out should one tap him on the back of his head.

The Dragonslayer stared at the woman. The woman smiled.

The Dragonslayer coughed. ‘Yeah sure, we have a few days to spare.’

The woman clapped in her hands. ‘You see Harold? The people are not so bad!’

‘Humph, not all of them.’

The rest of the day, they helped Harold build a shack and reinforce the gate. They dug holes, dragged beams around, and hammered. When the sun went down, a sturdy shack stood against the walls of the house. Harold would dry his wood there, once he chopped down a few trees. The three just started to talk about the weather for the upcoming days, when the lady called them inside.

Garvin’s hands were dirty and rough, with blisters all over his palms. His back hurt, as did his wound. He stretched his back and heard his spine and ribs crack. Like an old man, he followed Harold to the bathroom. Though the bathroom would be too romantic to describe the room. They had bathrooms at Maegis mansion back in Greed. This was a dark room with a large basin and a few buckets with cold water.

Harold had left for the kitchen when the Dragonslayer felt Garvin staring at him while they washed their hands in a large basin.

‘What?’

‘I just find it weird you would accept this,’ Garvin said.

‘What? To help a crazy guy build his private fortress?’ The Dragonslayer dried his hands and quickly went to the kitchen. Garvin followed soon after.

The main room smelled of bacon and eggs. There were four large bowls of tomato soup on the table. Fresh bread and pieces of white cheese with green veins. There was a fire burning in the fireplace. The lady of the house smiled and gestured to take a seat.

‘It smells delightful,’ the Dragonslayer said. ‘Beg my pardon, but I didn’t catch your name.’

‘Elia,’ the woman said. She grabbed a piece of bread and broke it with her hands. So they started to eat.

Garvin had not eaten that good since Greed. Bread so soft and still warm. The cheese spicy and made from goats milk, it wasn’t his favourite but it was salted and hearty. He closed his eyes and thought about the days before. It had been a few days since they had stolen the farmer’s food. The Dragonslayer knew the lands well enough to provide a minimum of nourishment. Berries and weeds and once meat. Yet, his stomach had been complaining ever since they left Greed.

‘We have wine,’ Harold said as he got up. ‘All the way from Novton. This seems like a good excuse to finally open it!’

The Dragonslayer clapped his hands,’Excellent!’

Harold got up and went to the basement.

‘He’s impotent,’ Elia said. ‘A donkey once kicked him in his crotch.’

Garvin had a spoonful of soup in front of his mouth. ‘Ah.’

‘I am the Dragonslayer,’ his companion said.

‘You already said,’ she said.

Garvin stared from one to the other in the silence that followed. That’s when Harold returned with a dusty bottle of wine in his hands.

‘Today we feast, for tomorrow we work!’

‘Aye to that!’ the Dragonslayer said.

Then followed hot potatoes covered in a different cheese and butter. And dried meat and sausages. Garvin almost forgot the smell and taste of good food. He hoped every place they visited would be like this. Warm, welcoming and plentiful.

The next day, Garvin got up with a sore back. His old wound itched. Yet he did as they promised, digging and hammering away with Harold. The Dragonslayer helped where he could. Yet, his forehead was sweaty. He moaned like a zombie and slumped around. Extra loud as soon as he needed to lift something.

‘Did you get sick?’ Garvin asked him when stretching his back again.

‘It’s like I caught a fever,’ the Dragonslayer said as he coughed.

By noon, Harold sighed. ‘You’re no use to us like that.’

The Dragonslayer had sneezed loudly and dropped a hammer that almost fell on Garvin’s foot.

‘Maybe it’s best if I take a rest for today,’ his companion said.

Harold nodded. ‘I agree.’

They took a break and ate, then his companion was put to bed by Elia. The rest of the day, they ventured to the woods nearby and chopped down a tree. Much like the first evening, Garvin almost had to crawl back to the dining table.

‘You’re not used to working, are you?’ Harold said as they left the forest behind them. ‘You’re a rich kid. How come you travel with the Dragonslayer?’

‘I met him in Greed. I decided to go out with him and leave the city.’ Garvin did not want to discuss the actual terms on which they left the city.

Harold scraped his throat. ‘You thinking about finding those shadowbeasts?’

Garvin nodded.

They walked through the gate, and Harold closed it. For a moment he looked around, like a guardsman at his post, then they went inside. The Dragonslayer was not at the table this time. Then again, the food was much more sober. They had potatoes and sausages and bread. And some boiled cabbage.

Garvin noticed a small creature with a tail crawling in the fireplace. It seemed to enjoy the heat.

‘You have firemanders?’ Garvin said. It reminded him of his house back in Woodholm.

‘Yes, they keep us company. They love the heat. But don’t eat them, they’re poisonous.’ Elia said with a smile.

He wondered whose first thought would be eating beasts that thriving in a fire.

‘Oh dude, how was your day?’ The Dragonslayer said shivering, as Garvin placed himself in the other bed.

‘We chopped down a tree,’ Garvin said. ‘Muscles I didn’t know I had are hurting.’

‘Ha, because you’re not used to working, are you?’

Garvin fell asleep before he could respond.

Staying longer they did. Somehow the Dragonslayer did not get better. Garvin got other jobs, further patching up the roof, riding to the village to buy vegetables. Filling the shack with woodblocks. He and Harold worked hard every day. The Dragonslayer rested some more. Before he realised a week had passed since they first stumbled in front of their gate.

Once, while dragging some firewood to the other side, Garvin saw the Dragonslayer stand up in a window on the second floor. His bedroom was toward the east, he knew. Garvin threw the wood down and stared at him. Elia was in the room as well. Wasn’t he supposed to lay in bed with this strange fever, Garvin thought.

He sneaked to the back door and tiptoed up the stairs, he peeked around the corner. But one door was closed.

‘You’re insatiable, you know that?’ the Dragonslayer said from the room. His voice sounded muffled.

The voice of Elia pierced easier trough the walls. ‘You know how to drive a woman crazy.’

Garvin fell on his ass. Was the Dragonslayer not sick at all? He wanted to tap on the door, to yell at them. But the sounds are brushing fabrics coming from behind the closed door set him off. The bed squeaked, and he heard a shiver.

With a head full of anger he stormed off the stairs and ran to Harold.

Garvin dashed through the back door. For a second he searched him, then he noticed him in the fields just beyond the gate. His feet quickly covered the thick grass.

‘Sir!’ Garvin’s head was red. He didn’t know what to say now he stood there in front of him. Besides the fact that he was out of breath.

‘Sir, you’re wife. She..’

‘I know, son.’

‘You know? No, I don’t think you can possibly know. She and the Dragonslayer are..’

‘I know son.‘

‘Eloping.’

They said it at the same time. Garvin placed his hands on his knees and took a deep breath. He couldn't believe that Harold knew what was going on.

‘I am so sorry, sir.. I..’

Harold shrugged and placed his hand on Garvin’s shoulder.

‘I can't have any babies, boy. So this is an opportunity for us. To raise the son of a hero.

‘Oh.’

‘He is hated right now, isn’t he? The Dragonslayer has lost his reputation, yes. But his blood is still hero’s blood.

‘So,’ Garvin stammered. ‘You agreed on this with Elia?’

Harold smirked. ‘This is just how it is. I had an accident leading a donkey somewhere once. Not even the witch could fix me up.’

‘Oh,’ he gasped. ‘I’m sorry. Yet still, this is going on for a week. It’s time for us to go. You may think nothing of this, but I am working hard every day just so he can.. He.. Tomorrow we will leave,’ Garvin promised.

‘Let’s haul the rest of the wood to the shack, then try to eat.’

The Dragonslayer was not at the table. Garvin tried hard to keep his posture. To not scream at the elephant in the room. He barely touched his food, then went upstairs.

He smacked the door shut behind him and looked at the lump on the bed that was the Dragonslayer. He turned around in the bed and spoke in a hoarse voice again.

‘Dude, you’re back. How was your day?’

Blood rushed through his body, trough his face. Garvin placed his hands on his hips, like he saw his mother do when she was angry.

‘Are you joking? My day? Hard! Especially knowing you are here, healthy and all, and busy screwing the lady of the house!’

Fast as lighting, the Dragonslayer shot up his bed. ‘Dude!’

‘No more dude! You’re unbelievable!’

‘Stop yelling, man. I was doing her a favour!’

‘A favour? You? You’re disgusting!’ Garvin yelled. ‘I am leaving right now.’

Garvin grabbed the handle. ‘Are you gonna parasite off Harold and do his wife? Or are you coming with me?’

‘If you put it like this..’

Garvin sighed and ran off the stairs. The couple were sitting at the table. Elia held some bread in her hands and Harold stared in the fire.

‘You can both pretend nothing is happening, but we all know. And I don’t agree with this!’ Garvin yelled. They did not make eye-contact. In fact, they ignored him altogether.

‘Fine, if it’s going to be like that. Garvin stepped outside. He yelled,’Goodbye!’ then he smacked the door shut.

He opened the gate and walked towards Do Vodata. From there he would go back home. His adventure seemed over. A cold breeze washed over his back. He heard a branch break. Garvin turned around to see if the Dragonslayer followed after all. For a moment he stood still and waited. Nothing. He turned back around. A man stood there, in the middle of the road. He was cloaked and had a crossbow in his hands.

‘No sudden moves, boy.’

Could this night get any worse, Garvin wondered. That's when another man stepped forward from the shadow. He carried a sword and pointed it at him.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Garvin.’

The two men looked at each other.

‘And where is your friend?’ the man with the sword approached. Garvin could distinguish a smile. Did they know him?

‘What friend?’ Garvin asked.

The man smirked and looked away, then he threw a punch. It caught Garvin on his cheek and he fell to the ground. Blood dripped on the sandy road.