Prina and I have been together for 3 months now. We just finished an extermination job on a horde of ghouls that have been prowling about lately from a nearby skirmish. And we’re arriving back to Winstow after 2 days of trek from the encounter we have with the ghouls.

We come back to Winstow when it’s already mid morning with the sun not over in our heads and a little bit of a way to the east. We go to the eastern gate for the sole reason that there’s less people there and less time to waste on waiting for the guards to check us. At least some of the guards recognize me when I go there and speed up the process.

When we get our turn on getting our identifications checked, the guard sees us checked our identifications for a bit and he lets us in as quickly as he can. Back then the guards had to check Prina’s identification just to be sure but since 3 months has passed and they see her with me they just assume that she’s okay although I do hear that they make gossip about me since I’m with a girl like Prina.

Getting inside the familiar town we head straight for the guild as immediately as we can. If my suspicions and Arn's with Prina is right then I think she would appreciate it if we hurry during daylight. We rush through the bustling town and get to the building as soon as we can.

Once we get inside the guild I see that Sylia is waving at us. We hurry ourselves to go to her desk since people are bustling about, meeting with each other and accepting jobs at this time of day. We get to Sylia’s desk and I tell her the news.

“The job’s done, that horde of ghouls won’t trouble anyone at this point and we made sure that the skirmish comes from is properly prayed over and won’t sprout any more undead.”

“That’s great, job well done as always you two. If you just wait for a second I’ll mark the job as done and give you the rewards from it.”

She grabs the paper for the job and stamps something on it and signs it or whatever she does to say that the job is done and the mercenaries are compensated for it. After a while she grabs a pouch and hands us the money we get from the job. I do remember that we get 80 silver from the job we just did. Before leaving I checked the reward we get and after counting. We say goodbye to Sylia.

“Anyway thanks for the job. We’ll be on our way to sell off the stuff we got from the ghouls.”

“Yeah yeah you want to get something together with the 3 of us at the end of the week?”

“Can’t hurt to be honest, but I can’t promise that I will be there, something might come up for me.”

I wave to her as we leave the guild and go on our way to the market district to find some of the alchemists I frequent. While walking towards our destination I do notice that people are gossiping lately. I do hear some words like a group, deshars, wandering, and if I were to piece it properly they might be saying that a group of deshars is spotted wandering near Winstow.

Although there’s only a few things that we know about the deshars, like for example that they are a force of nature to fight against in the first place. Then they don’t have a territory in Linderal in the first place so they travel as nomads travelling from one place to another. And they scare any Von that sees them at first glance that they run away immediately from them.

I can’t differentiate what exactly are rumors or facts about them since clearly all the information we get about the Deshars are pretty much second-hand and most of the people that hand over that information are scared shitless from them. At this you can just say that nobody knows anything about deshars until you meet someone that’s friends with one.

Travelling to the alchemists guys I know since they have different specialties so it’s best. This one guy I know named Apani specializes in making some potions in lessening the pain from magic usage. Then this other guy named Laeran in strengthening one’s body and another one called Vaan who makes potions that do weird effects like making one completely invisible or be able to see one’s tracks or other miscellaneous effects that wouldn’t hold logic in the realm of magic of the gods and goddesses.

The first one we get to first is Apani. We've known each other for a few years but I haven’t made any visits to him since I met Prina. He handles a stand in the main marketplace and the place is so big you could probably find many like him, but he makes his potions better than the rest. He just hasn’t been able to find the right customers that will invest in him yet.

When we get to his stand he’s seemingly organizing some of the potions he lays out in front of his stand. His stand isn’t shabby and holds up well in the middle of this place. Although it’s his stand he doesn’t make his potions in the marketplace but at his home where he placed his setup.

He looks like just an ordinary town person if you ask me. An Irisitika with his dog-like ears on top of his head with a blonde hair or fur that comes with it. He notices me with his snouty nose, sees me with his emerald green eyes and greets me.

“Oh Santi didn’t see you there forgive me for that.” He places the last of his box on the ground and goes out to me, sees Prina and asks.

“Wait is she the reason why you haven’t been to my shop lately? I won’t blame you if you got a new partner or something but damn don’t let her distract you from going to my shop.”

“Hey hey Veron tells me to mentor her for a while just like the my past associates you met back then.”

“Dude give me a holler next time when you introduce someone like that, especially someone shady with that hood and stuff. What’s her name though?”

“Well this Quaraman’s name is Prina.” She initiates the handshake as Apani returns it. She greets him.

“It’s nice to meet you Sir…..?”

“It’s Apani, it’s nice to meet you Prina. I hope you go to my store from time to time.” I will continue what I’m trying to say earlier.

“Either way though I got some ghoul bones to sell you.”

“Oh thanks, there hasn’t been that much supply lately from the usual business I frequent to lately. Guess I got lucky with you today. Show them to me and I’ll rate your price.”

“Just let me get them out of my bag.”

I place my bag on the floor and proceed to get some of the bones out for Apani and let him check their quality.

“Hmm I guess these are alright, how much are you gonna give to me?”

Thinking about it we got maybe 50 bones from the whole thing, especially since most of the remains are shattered and these are the only ones we got from the whole hunt.

“I can give you maybe 15 that you won’t be using some of them in your recipes.”

“Well that is true but it depends on the person that’s drinking, and for some of the Von I need these bones. Anyway I’ll pay you around 20 silver for these.”

I put the bones to the desk as Apani hides them away somewhere around his stand and will probably work on them in his house later tonight. He lays the silver out on the desk and arranges his stuff more properly in his stand. I tell my farewells to him

“I guess this is goodbye for now. I’ll be back to your place if I need something from you.”

“Yeah yeah sure.” Before we leave I remember the rumors from earlier and ask him.

“Hey have you been hearing about the deshar that are loitering about lately.?”

“Oh those Von? I do hear that they’re in town searching for something. Don’t know what they’re looking for if you ask me.”

“Thanks for that.”

I move on from Apani’s stand and proceed to go to the next alchemist I know. I don’t know why but something is telling me that I’ll have an encounter with the Deshar soon and I need to prepare for that. The best thing to do now is to ask about their location so I can expect when they’ll see me.

“Santi I didn’t know you have an interest in the Deshars.” Prina tells me.

“If you ask me they almost feel like Zokun in how they fight if you ask me, especially their tenacity and ferocity.”

“Well from what I know about them as long as you don’t mess with them or anything they’ll leave you alone.”

“That’s reassuring.” I tell her.

We continue walking to the next person I know. We go to Laeran’s place as she sells and works inside of her home. Laeran’s place is located in the market district as well as it doesn’t consume too much space and won’t take too much time in taking care of her children while doing both things.

We arrive at her place called the Nature’s strength potions. We open the doors and hear that a baby is crying at the moment. What greets us in a desk you see in most stores with some ingredients and potions in display. Meanwhile the female Forlorn behind it is comforting a baby with her coocoo voice and bouncing the baby.

“Hey what’s up Laeran.” I greet her.

“Oh Santi you came at a bad time right now, just let me take care of Tara and I’ll get back with you.”

Laeran’s appearance is what is expected of an ordinary Forlorn. Naturally slim and tall with their bodies. The prominent feature of a Forlorn is their pointy ears that you can see whenever you meet one of them. She has a hair color that resembles more like a wood although her hair style is just a ponytail behind her back. Her eye color is also brown as is with her hair.

As she’s able to calm down Tara she faces me and asks.

“So what brings you here today Santi? Potions to buy or materials to sell me?” After asking that she notices Prina with me.

“Oh another partner by Veron?” she asks.

“Yeah come over here Prina introduce yourself to Laeran.” Prina comes over and does a small bow to her.

“Nice to meet you Laeran, my name is Prina hope to get to know you better for the next few months.”

“Likewise Prina, so Santi what do you need from this housewife?”

“I got some ghoul bones for you.”I reach my bag out and put it on the floor and get the bones out and put them on the desk.

“If you don’t mind can you hold Tara for a bit.” She hands Tara over to me. She then inspects the bones while I wait for her input. I don’t know why but for some reason Prina has been looking at me intensely ever since I got the baby.

“What are you looking at Prina?” I ask her. She seems to be in a daze so I snap my fingers in front of her. She snaps out of it and tells me.

“Oh sorry about that I must’ve been tired from the job that we just did.”

“I know you’re hungry and everything but can you hold on until later?”

“Don’t worry I will. I’ll just go sit in the corner over there.” And so she does once she finishes speaking. She sits on one of the chairs before the desk and relaxes a bit. After a while Laeran talks to me.

“So your bones are good enough to use at least. How many are you going to sell me this time?” She asks me.

“I still got 35 bones including the ones on the table.”

“Okay then I’ll take 15 then. I’m gonna pay maybe 25 silver for that. Can you give little Tara to me before anything else happens.”

“Uh sure.” I give Tara to her as I take the bones out of my bag and place it on the desk before me.

She then goes around the back to find the money she’s going to give me presumably. Thinking about it I have known her for 2 years. I think just way after I met Apani since some of his strengthening potions just don’t match with me. So I opted to find another alchemist that can produce better strengthening potions than Apani. She then says.

“Thinking about it, you met me when I changed places right?”

“Oh yeah a new shop just sprouted out of nowhere and some people were interested in it like me.”

“Then when you entered the shop to know my wares or something you suddenly asked if I made strengthening potions.”

“Right right I was in need of those back then.”

“Ever since then you’ve been a customer to me, albeit not a regular though.”

“Don’t blame me if I don’t need it that often.” I smile at her. She comes back and gives me the silver coins.

“Anyway here’s the money for those bones. It’s a pleasure doing business with you Santi, hope you come back again.” She waves at me as I return it as well.

“I will don’t worry. Come on Prina we still got one more stop before we can finally eat breakfast.” I beckon to her.

Once we get outside the building Prina begins to complain.

“Can we do this faster? I'm already getting hungry from all the stores I’m seeing here.”

“One more guy and we’ll go to the nearest tavern after that I promise.” Then I hear a stomach grumbling.

“Seee my body is also complaining at this point as well.”

“Don’t worry we’re already near to his place.”

“Fine fine I’ll stop grumbling for now.”

We try walking faster than usual knowing Prina, she might as well try going off on her own and eat something at this point. I’m just hopeful that maybe she’ll learn to keep track of the people we’re talking to and do her own jobs at least. I’ll probably let her do one job on her own maybe after 2 months and see how she fares.

I do hope she can take care of her own thing carefully especially with the kind of person she is. Kind-hearted, trying to be secretive about her thing, and kinda cheery if you ask me. But she can be brutal in battle, more brute-forcing most of the time and able to learn properly given time, which she has a lot hopefully.

Once we arrive at the last store which is owned by Vaan we get inside and see a mess of a place. We see a tima at the back conconcting potions at the back. His wings are going off the place giving a slight wind to everywhere else. Vaan must be excited to be creating a new kind of potion again.

Describing Vaan he has a woodpecker’s beak with the blue colored wings he has behind his back with their strange patterns. His head looks like a bird with the same feathers as his back. His eyes are sky blue to complement his wings and head. His clothes are a mess as well, I do wonder if has taken a bath recently especially with the getup and setup he has here. Well I do hope he’s taking care of himself properly or else he needs a caretaker at this point. I call out to Vaan.

“Vaan you got customers over here!” He perks up, notices us near the entrance and stops what he’s doing and goes over to us.

“Santi welcome welcome. Oh you got someone else with you today who’s she?” He asks.

“This is Prina by the way, she's my new partner.” I replied to him. Prina goes to him and tries to shake his hand.

“Oh don’t touch my hand, I have been handling the ingredients since last night that might be dangerous for you. But it’s nice to meet you Prina, my name is Vaan.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well Vaan. Hopefully I can buy something from your store.”

“Oh don’t worry about that I can guarantee that you need something from me at one point.” He says with a cocky tone. He continues.

“So what are you doing here today, you need something for a job or something to sell me?”

“I got some ghoul bones for you.”

“Perfect I’ve been needing this for awhile, the supply for the ghoul bones have been dwindling lately.” I get the remaining bones left in my bag and place it on a table near him. He inspects them for a bit and says the same thing as the other two from earlier.

He then rummages his belongings to find the money to buy this pile. Meanwhile Prina here is getting angsty already. She’s pacing around the entrance like she’s pissed or something. Vaan gets back and puts a pouch on the table and says.

“I’ll give you 32 silver for this bunch.” I get the pouch and count the silver inside. “I have so many new things to experiment now I have these bones.” He continues while rubbing his bird head with a bone.

“Hey Santi I think I got something you might like.” He goes to one of his shelves and grabs a bottle of potion and shows it to me.

“This baby right can make your senses go 300% higher than usual. It’s like being aware of everything around you that can hurt your brain at times.”

“But what are the side effects though?” I ask him. I know this because all of his potions always have side effects that come with the intended effect.

“Oh that? Maybe you get more hungry after it happens, your heart can go kaboom if you’re not prepared for it. What else, you kinda get blind after the whole thing but the potion lasts for an hour.” He says with a happy vibe.

“How long does the side effect last?” Last time I forgot to ask this I haven’t been able to take a job for half a week after dealing with the side effects I’m not prepared for.

“Oh maybe a day or two.”

“I guess that’s better than the usual. How much is one anyway.”

“Oh that will be 8 silvers.” I take out the silvers from the pouch he gave me and hand it over to him.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you Vaan. And clean up the place you’re not gonna get more customers if you don’t fix the place.”

“But the knowledge of being able to create different types of potions, Santi, that’s important, especially the different Zokun in this world and what their bodies can do to ours in the first place.” He rants on and on.

“The Zokun that the malicious gods create to counter us Von, there’s so many things we can use from them to be better than them.”

“If you’re going to start your whole rant on why you’re making potion, skip it, just take care of yourself Vaan, you’re gonna get sick at this point.” I warn him.

“Fine I’ll take that into consideration Santi, if you don’t have anything else I still have to make my own potions and test them. Goodbye”

“Goodbye as well Vaan. Don’t blow yourself up.” I wave to him as he goes back into making his potions. We get outside of his shop as Prina points and says.

“Let’s go eat there, you promise we will eat at the nearest tavern after Vaan.”

“Yeah yeah I know Prina, we’ll go to that place.” She runs immediately inside the tavern and presumably takes a seat and orders everything in the menu already.

I follow her inside and see that she’s already ordering food to the cook. Everyone inside is looking at her due to scarlet hair. Her hood must have been blown away from the speed she took when she got in the tavern. For me however I try to steer away from looking at her hair as it reminds me of unsavory things.

I pick a seat somewhere far away from the customers so we could do our own thing. Something still doesn't sit right with me with the deshars. I could just be paranoid since they’re beings that can’t be understood properly until you see them. Being followers of the death god Defari just makes me think about what they’re doing in their day to day lives.

I mean if you ask me the fact that they can crush an army even with only one them just scares me even though I could probably do it given time and preparation. They just can do that with their own strength. I should just wait it out and just let it be. I probably need to consult Arn with this after eating, which reminds me I should probably let Prina take the day off.

Prina goes to where I am and takes her seat in front of me and says.

“Well I got our food ordered already if you don’t mind. You prefer meat and bread right?”

“Good thing you know.” As I rest up and wait for our food to come.

Prina however waits for it eagerly like a child waiting for her mother’s cooking. Well it’ll be nice if we continue like these for a few months before she eventually leaves me. It’s not like she’ll stay with me because she has nowhere to go, there’s the world to explore in the first place.