Chapter 84

Through the Portal

Brewer’s Reputation: 85,055

Dream Cutter Stone Shard Quest: 1/15,000 shards.

Hawkin

The jasmine and clematis worked ruthlessly to discover the brewery. Over the months, they had squeezed between the planks of the walls and forced their way in. The fragrance of jasmine overwhelmed the humid smell of malt. The resinous perfume of hops were also subdued by the pollen-dropping flowers. The barrels and tuns; even the coolship was yellow-green with a coating of pollen.

A new smell joined the brewery. Steam rose from our lunch bowls, carrying the punchy odor of caramelized onions and creamed cardoons. Abigail and I sat on barrels after a long morning of brewing spit beer for the upcoming delivery day.

I fetched a second of soup from the cabin. I returned to find Abigail caring for winter mushrooms. Fraize Boules, she called them. Corylus had been teaching her about mushrooms and their decomposing role. Abigail brushed the dirt off the mushrooms and organized them into a reed basket as she taught me a thing or two about mushrooms. I sipped from a simple biscuit-malt mana ale as I listened. Before long, we began discussing her recent visit to Lavenfauvish.

“Once again, your ingredients have caused quite a stir,” she said.

“I figured. My reputation jumped to eighty five thousand.”

“That puts you in gold rank territory,” she said pensively. “Beer for dessert?”

“How about the dreambon beer?” I said.

“I won’t lie; I’m still curious about it.”

I poured us each a small amount in stemmed balloon goblets that Abigail set on a barrel head. The beer was dreambon-red. Perfect circles of sheening silver swirled in the malt. The foam was slight, beady, and textured like moss.

After a quiet clink of our glasses, we sipped.

I heard the sound of ripped paper two times. Before each of us, two gashes appeared in the air. Through each dreambon portal, I saw the same picture. Thrush was in the deckhouse of Barnacle-eyes’ sloop—with Boggo! Mystery solved! He wasn’t in the picture for long. The blue bestie leapt four feet in the air. He landed on the table and scampered off as fast as he could. Thrush let a pair of dice tumble from his paw. He turned to smile a horrible smile at us.

Thrush looked from one portal to the other. I leaned in and tried to touch the portal—just the edges. My hand went straight through. I touched the image of the portal and my hand went straight through. I tried to step through, but it was like walking through a light mist.

Abigail waved at Thrush. The beast’s eyes were looking up and flicking back and forth. I assumed he was working with his system. A moment later, Thrush approached one of the portals. He stepped through. First came his leg, then his arms and head and other leg. When he was completely through, the portal shut like a shrinking ring. No scar was left in the air.

“It worked!” I said.

“My god,” Abigail said. “Can you go back?”

“Yes,” Thrush said. “My system placed what’s called a World Marker. It’s asking me if I want to return to the marker. Good to see both of you. You don’t happen to have smoked fish?”

“You too,” I said. “And I’m sorry; no smoked fish. Is there a time limit? Can you spend some time with us? We were curious about the portal. I obviously brewed a beer with dreambons.”

“My system doesn’t say there’s a time limit. We’re sailing to Lavenfauvish. I have more time than you’ll ever know.”

“We have some leftover soup,” Abigail said. “Want some?”

“Oh yes!” Thrush said. His belly rumbled.

I rushed off to the cabin, dumped the rest of the soup in a bowl and bolted back through the flowers. Abigail had brought out a few pint mugs and was pouring a straw colored beer for us. The foam was gold and appeared like stacked blocks of wood. Something I’d never seen before.

“Estwarden Double Lager,” Abigail said. “Has a malt of sweetgrass and a lick of frozen golden apples.”

Thrush sat with us and we toasted to him. As he enjoyed the beer, his eyes pulsed out of sync. Gold colors bled into his irises. I admired his antlers, and invited him to tell us all about his adventure so far. It had been fun listening to him talk about Omes Arbor and his search for elodon ribs; specifically, Eileen. It was not so fun to hear about Boggo’s battle with the wiregull.

“How is Boggo?” Abigail said.

“He’s still scared,” Thrush said, “but he’s still Boggo.”

“Tough for a small thing like him,” Abigail said. Then, “I have some news. Hiccup found Eileen.”

“I hope to meet her in Lavenfauvish,” Thrush said. “I’ve drawn up a Merchant’s Contract for her. If she agrees, I’ll be able to get my hands on wild elodon ribs everytime we sail down for deliveries.”

“You wouldn’t have to sail anymore,” I said. “I could give you dreambon beers. You could give one to Eileen.”

“Yes. Yes, that sounds delicious. I could reach through my portal like it’s an extra inventory pouch! I could get my paws on elodon ribs by whim!”

“You could give dreambon beers to whomever you want,” Abigail said.

“To Francis!” Thrush said.

“Who?” Abigail said.

“The chef in Omes Arbor,” I remembered.

“You two could call on me,” Thrush said. “I could transport all your beer to Lavenfauvish. I’ll have to give Barnacle-eyes a dreambon beer too. And Boggo. Maybe even Merkul, the god to my quest path.”

“I don’t think logistics is going to be a problem for you,” I said. “This is incredible.”

“All this excitement is making me hungry,” Thrush said.

From his inventory, Thrush spilled a heap of dreambons on a barrel head. He gobbled a handful, and then whipped out half of a deer carcass from his inventory. He chomped down with delight, like he was pulling apart cotton candy instead of muscle and ligament. The sight was so gruesome. Each crack of bone made me cringe. Abigail went pale. She looked like I felt.

As if remembering something, Abigail said, “Hawkin has monster parts for you if you’re hungry.”

“I’ll eat monster parts,” Thrush said. “Could I also get more ethereal ingredients?”

“Sure thing,” I said, and gave him some. “I tried to touch the portal. I don’t think it works on anything else but you.”

“Of course not; I’m Thrush.”

“I’ve been building a stock of Ethereal Dungeon beers. After you and Barnacle-eyes make your first delivery, I could give you everything I’ve got.”

“Hiccup is going to lose his mind,” Abigail said. “He’s very excited to meet you.”

“I’ll have to thank him for finding Eileen. I can’t wait to meet her.”

Abigail looked at me and said, “Thrush can greatly overload his inventory. This is going to change everything for you. If you can distribute vast amounts of your beer in mere seconds, You’ll have solved one of the biggest obstacles to Brewers around the world. I don’t think your Brewer reputation has even begun to climb yet.”