Chapter 4: Chapter 3
"There is a reason mages created a teleport spell, and I can't wait to have a mana pool big enough to use it!" Corben ranted while trailing behind Lonaraa.
She glanced back with an encouraging smile. "Some physical activity is good for you."
"We have very different understandings of what is good for me!" He flat-out rejected her encouragement and continued ranting. "Of course, the cheap ass nobles couldn't bother to put some pavement on the road outside Stormwind."
"But adventuring is all about long travels and building character?" Lonaraa continued her unrelenting assault of clueless positivity.
"I should have gotten a gnome companion. They at least share my sentiment of not walking everywhere." Corben suddenly stopped and glanced to his left. With the sun still above the tree line, the area was decently lit and there was a dark patch moving between the trees. "Lonaraa, stop!" He whispered to his companion, who was already a bit ahead of him.
She stopped and turned around as Corben pointed at the moving path. Without skipping a beat, she grabbed her sword and shield and moved towards Corben in a defensive position.
Whatever was moving in the forest was getting closer. Corben stepped behind Lonaraa and prepared to cast slow, a debuff spell. After a few suspense-filled moments, a large black bear came into view.
It stopped about twenty meters away from them and observed the pair with curiosity. Then, it stood up on its back paws and waved at them.
Seeing its blockier build and long claws, Corben could recognize it as a male.
'Great! Another druid either high out of his mind, or just thinking he is funny.' Corben waved back and shouted. "Hey, pal, you lost or something?"
The bear shook his head and then turned to point behind himself deeper into the forest.
"We are not playing your game, transform back to a night elf and tell us what you want!" Corben shouted once again, but the bear shook his head once again. He then pointed at himself, made a motion of having long ears, and shook his head once again with a low grumble.
"What is that creature doing?" Lonaraa asked.
"He wants us to follow him." Corben replied. "I personally prefer to not be eaten by a gang of tricky bears."
"Do these creatures do that?" Lonaraa asked with genuine curiosity.
"Right, you don't know what a bear is. That was a joke. They usually are solitary creatures, but that one is behaving like a druid high on something, not like a forest animal." Corben replied and then shouted towards the bear. "Stop screwing around! We are not following you."
The bear then spread his hands to about his width, then lowered one of his paws showing a height of a short person, and did a motion of shooting a gun. After that, he pointed at himself and let out a roar.
"Wait a minute… are you a hunter's pet?" Corben asked in disbelief. Sure, wild animals could be trained, but this one showed intelligence far above a simple animal.
The bear nodded a few times, repeated the motions describing his master, then pointed at the forest and showed a motion of stepping into a trap.
"So, your owner is trapped somewhere and you want us to follow you and help him out?" Corben asked with suspicion in his voice. The whole scene was too bizarre to be believed.
The bear enthusiastically nodded with a happy rumbling sound and pointed deeper into the forest.
"If his owner is in trouble, then we should help." Lonaraa said, lowering her shield and assuming a more neutral stance.
"I still think we will get jumped by a pack of intelligent bears." Corben remarked.
The bear let out a dissatisfied roar and resumed standing on all fours.
"But we need to help. What if someone attacks this poor animal when he asks others for help?" Lonaraa nudged Corben on his shoulder.
"Fine…" He finally relented. "But there better be a reward at the end."
The pair started to follow the bear who led them northeast through the forest. At least, there was no need to worry about other forest animals as most would not dare go near the bear.
After about a twenty-minute walk, the bear stopped, got on two feet again, put one finger to his muzzle, and pointed north. Seeing that the pair understood him, the bear slowly crept forward without making any sound with Corben and Lonaraa following his example.
A small camp with a tent, a campfire, and a wooden outhouse came into view. There was a man in a Defias outfit and a woman in mage robes sitting by the fire. Another man in the same bandit outfit was sharpening his daggers while sitting by the tent.
The bear pointed at the outhouse with a barely audible rumble.
"So your owner is trapped in there?" Corben asked with a whisper while trying not to laugh. The idea of a hunter sitting in the outhouse while the bandits roamed around was beyond amusing.
"Let's not rush this. There are three targets and by the looks of it, one of them is a mage. We will wait till one of the three is away from the others and then you two will charge them while I cast silence on the mage." Corben explained his plan.
Both Lonaraa and the bear nodded in silent agreement and all three resumed watching their targets. After about twenty minutes of wait, one of the men stood up, walked to the outhouse and rattled the door that didn't open, then swore loudly. "Which of you bloody morons did this?"
"Did you break the door and blame us, you brainless trog?" The woman shouted back.
The man responded with a rude gesture and walked away from the camp, presumably to answer nature's call there.
The moment he disappeared behind the trees, Corben whispered. "Now! Lonaraa, go for the man by the tent. Bear, you take the mage." 'I hope that animal doesn't mess everything up.'
Both nodded and charged as Corben jumped up and prepared to interrupt the first spell the mage would cast. The man sitting by the tent was first to react and jumped to his feet, preparing to avoid Lonaraa's attack while the mage started to cast a frost spell.
The man managed to avoid Lonaraa's attack and got into a defensive stance successfully to avoid her attacks. The mage, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. She only managed to gasp as her spell fizzled out and the massive bear collided with her. She let out a blood-curdling scream as the bear pushed to the ground and mauled her into a bloody pulp within seconds.
The third bandit ran back to the camp, but seeing one of his companions dead and the other desperately fending off a tall demon, he just flipped around and ran back into the woods, leaving them to their grim fates.
Lonaraa's current opponent was much faster than the bandits they fought in the Northshire Abbey and could easily avoid her sword swings. He even went into the offensive and managed to get past her defenses and stab her in the arm, making her drop the shield and grunt in pain. However, the man concentrated only on her weapon and didn't pay attention to her legs.
Using the opportunity, she kicked him in the knee, shattering it.
The man cried out in pain yet managed to remain standing, but his luck ran out at this point. If there was a chance of fighting this demon, then the bear and the mage, or more likely, the warlock that accompanied the demon, was too much to handle. The trio made short work of him.
Just as the bandit drew his last breath, Corben looked around for any possible threats. Not finding any, he put his attention to Lonaraa, who was bleeding profusely from her arm. He helped her move up her shirt to clean and bandage the wound and then gave her a healing potion to close it up as much as the basic alchemical concoction could heal.
The bear, meanwhile, was scratching the outhouse door and letting out encouraging roars. A faint, deep voice, with a thick dwarven accent, responded from within the shabby-looking wooden structure. "Are ye sure?"
The bear responded with another roar that sounded like he was getting annoyed.
"Dinnae ye start again." The voice grumbled back.
It went back and forth for about a minute until doors flung open and a dwarf came out and stretched, cracking his bones.
He had reddish brown shoulder-length hair and a full beard of the same length. His amber eyes practically disappeared between his bushy eyebrows and large nose. Even for a dwarf, he was massively built and about a meter and forty centimeters tall. In the best traditions of a hunter, he was dressed in brown leather pants and a shirt made out of the scaly skin of a large lizard. He had a single-shot rifle over his left shoulder, commonly used among dwarves.
His gaze fell on Corben and Lonaraa and he gave them a curt nod. "My thanks for helpin me out lad. Names Eldum Lastsone. 'Tis good tae meet ye."
He then pushed the bear to the ground, petting the massive animal and scratching its stomach while repeating. "Who's the good boy? Ye are the good boy, Osbeorn!" In a high-pitched but proud voice. The bear took the assault with happy grumbles and playfully fought back
"How did you manage to get trapped in the outhouse?" Corben couldn't help but ask.
"Erm…" Eldum stood up scratching the back of his head. "Ye see lad… A was inspectin the camp when bandits returned tae the camp an A haed tae hide."
"Fair enough, but you owe us one for sticking our necks out for you, pal." Corben responded.
"Sure thing, let's get to Goldshire, all drinks on me for ye and… That's one tall demon lassie ye have there. Ye warlocks never cease tae amaze me." Eldum finally noticed Lonaraa's rather exotic appearance.
"I'm not a man'ari." She protested with a scowl as she rummaged through her bag for the papers proving that she was a part of the alliance to show them to the small-statured man.
"She is not a demon. Her race, the draenei, recently joined the alliance. She would appreciate it if you did not mistake her kind for demons." Corben came to her rescue.
"A'm sorry, lassie, A havenae met yer kind before." Eldum said with an apologetic tone as he bowed his head.
"I just wanted to clear the misunderstanding." Lonaraa replied as she stopped searching for the papers. Having an adventuring partner surely helped in such situations. She then bowed her head, adding. "My name is Lonaraa. It is nice to meet you."
"And I'm Corben. Now then, since we had gotten acquainted it would be best to head towards Goldshire. I, for one, would not want to wander around the forest during the night."
"Agreed. Let's head tae the best tavern the town can offer. Drinks on me. A could go for a few pints." Eldum agreed.
With at least an hour's walk to the town, and the Sun slowly disappearing under the tree line, there was a need to hurry.
Corben and Eldum predictably found a common ground in their love for alcohol and walked beside one another, loudly chatting about their favorite brews, while Lonaraa and Osbeorn walked right behind them.
At some point during the walk, Lonaraa's and Osbeorn's eyes met in silent understanding that their companions were about to get absolutely wasted.
With Goldshire being the central hub of the entire Elwynn region, the town was bustling with people even in the late evening. Not counting the magnificent stone city of Stormwind, which she basically just walked through without much sightseeing and interaction, and the small town surrounding the Northshire Abbey where she spent just two days, Lonaraa hadn't had a chance to spend a lot of time around the civilizations of this world.
She looked around curiously while keeping her eye on Corben so as not to lose him in the crowd. The first thing that greeted the newcomers was a row of inns and taverns clearly catered towards adventurers who passed them down in large numbers. On the other side of the street were the blacksmith, the tailor, and the leatherworker shops, not to mention an alchemist and an enchanter as well.
"I'm staying in that ane, best ale and tavern maids in the town." Eldum pointed at a building that stood out from the rest by its sheer size.
Built out of wood, with a brick chimney sticking out at one end, the blue-roofed building was the very picture of a human-run tavern. Above the door was a huge sign 'Lion's pride inn.' At the main entrance stood a pretty blonde girl, dressed in a traditional tavern maid outfit, consisting of a long dark green skirt, a white blouse, and a black leather corset, handing out coupons for a free mug of ale.
Compared to the rather tame atmosphere of the small taverns in the Northshire Abbey, it came as a culture shock for Lonaraa to see how adventurers spend their time here.
Right away, she was assaulted by a group of drunk people loudly singing with a bard each in their own tone, making a cacophony of noise instead of a tolerable performance.
Next, her gaze fell on a scantily dressed woman who was dancing on the table, cheered on by a group of adventurers. In fact, more than one table was enjoying such entertainment, with one of them having a male dancer dancing for a female adventurer team.
While she took in the sights and sounds with uncertainty, Eldum dragged the whole group deeper inside the tavern to a free table somewhere near the bartender.
To her surprise, no one in the whole tavern protested against Osbourn coming inside with them. On the contrary, the people greeted the bear as an old friend and he, more than once, stood up on two feet and waved back.
The moment all three sat down, with Osbeorn sitting on the floor at the end of the table, a tavern maid showed up with a smile and handed out menus. "Our favorite client is back and with the company. What can I get you all?" She asked, her gaze obviously including the bear.
"A will take ale, and a large portion of the Dalaran sharp for me." Eldum was the first to order, adding. "The tab is on me." Eldum picked his favorite spicy cheese that went perfectly with the drink.
"I will take the same as my new friend." Corben said, flashing the maid a charming smile.
Lonaraa tugged on Corben's robe to help her pick something as she still didn't know how to read the local writing. "Can you read the menu for me?" She whispered in his ear in hopes of being heard over all the noise.
He quickly whispered back all the items on the list, putting a mental note in his mind to teach her how to read common in their free time.
"I will take apple cider, and roasted boar meat." Lonaraa said just loudly enough to be heard.
As for the final customer, the tavern maid went around the table and waited for Osbeorn to point at what he wanted. "A double portion of mud snappers. Do you want them raw?" The maid asked, getting a nod from the bear in response.
"And the drink? Do you want your usual?" She asked, then responded with a smile at Osbourn's affirmative grunt. "One mug of moonberry juice coming right up."
While Lonaraa and Osborn slowly enjoyed their meals and drinks, Corben and Eldum broke into competition and tried to outdrink one another with rather predictable results.
About three hours later, she was carrying Corben to his room while Osbourn carried Eldum to theirs.
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"Lad, A'm never letting ye leave me!" Eldum exclaimed as he gulped down the hangover cure. If only he would have known such a medicine existed earlier. So many hard mornings would have been avoided.
"Not so fast. I'll have to see you in action before letting you join my team. Only Osbeorn has proved himself at the moment." Corben replied, drinking his own share of the wonderful medicine.
"If you two didn't drink so much you would not need it." Lonaraa remarked as she drank her morning tea with a blueberry muffin on the side. Osbeorn nodded in agreement while munching on a large piece of raw meat. The remaining two had decided to skip breakfast.
"You need to learn to live a little, and I can rely on your strong hands to keep me safe when I'm passed out." Corben said to her with a cheeky smile and then turned to Eldum. "But seriously, let's do a few quests as a team and then will see if we are a good fit."
"Aye, we can do that. Ye have something in yer mind?"
"Not yet, but let's start with the notice board and avoid the local marshal for now." Corben said.
"Wouldn't it be better to take quests provided by the militia? They pay more and we are a team of three, plus the bear." Lonaraa asked.
"This area is more dangerous than Northshire. You got wounded by a bandit in one on one. So we better take it slow. Besides, we need to get used to our current setup. We can do the dangerous quests when we have a healer on our team."
"You are right." She replied, touching her left arm in the spot where she was stabbed yesterday.
It was a bit of a hassle to get to the notice board that stood by a blacksmith's shop, as there were numerous adventurer teams picking jobs. But with persistence and a certain black bear in lead, they reached it.
While Corben picked out the job to take, he listened to the local marshal giving out quests. Predictably, the main concerns of the local militia were bandits, murlocs, and the sizable gnoll population of the area.
Finally, he settled on taking a request from a farm nearby belonging to the Stonefield family.
It asked to deal with an animal that was eating their produce and the reward was a few silver coins for such a simple quest. With no one from the team protesting his decision, they took a road toward the farm.
If the farm wasn't just an hour walk away from the town, Corben surely would have started to complain once again. Also, it was clear that he would not get any support, as Eldum, who was a hunter, surely was used to walking long distances through the forest.
Slowly giving in to his fate of from now on spending hours on foot and just walking everywhere, he looked around the roadsides for useful herbs, just as Eldum watched out for a small prey to hunt out of habit. Even in the relatively early morning, the air was warm with the sun slowly moving up from the tree line.
It wasn't long until a large watermelon field came into view with few houses in the distance. At the far end of the west side of the field by the forest line, a blonde girl dressed in a simple blue farmer's dress stood looking around. She quickly noticed them and approached the group with a timid stride.
"Can we help you, miss?" Corben asked once she was close enough.
"Could you deliver a letter?" She asked. Only then did Corben notice a small envelope she was holding in her hands.
"It depends on where you want the letter to be delivered." Corben replied.
She pointed at the farm in the distance and spoke with a mix of frustration and desperation in her voice. "Oh, I'm cursed! My heart belongs to Tommy Joe Stonefield, but our families are bitter enemies. So I can't see him, even though my eyes ache to gaze upon that handsome face!"
"Sure, we will deliver the letter." Corben responded with a smile.
"Thank you. If he sends a reply, please deliver it to the Maclure farm. It's in that direction." she pointed to the west. "I'll be waiting, but don't let my family see it."
As the girl walked away, Lonaraa remarked. "How odd! You didn't even ask her to pay you."
"I will not ask to be paid for helping two young people get laid in such a bullshit situation. Do you have anything against that?"
"No. I just found it strange that you all of the sudden want to help people for free."
"This is an exception." Corben said as he carefully put the letter in his pocket and resumed his walk towards the farm.
They reached the two houses that had seen better times. They found three women by the entrance of the bigger house. Two of them were in their early to mid-forties and one was much older, at least sixty years old.
It quickly turned out that the animal eating the watermelons was a prized pig of another farmer living to the east. Not exactly the most dangerous mission, but it could cause problems if they were caught slaughtering a property of a farmer.
Nonetheless, they accepted the quest anyway.
On top of that, one of them, a widow, requested them to find her lost necklace, which likely was stolen by a brat from the neighboring Maclure farm. She gave the all to the familiar sob story of losing her husband who was a soldier in the service of Stormwind with the necklace being the last memory of her late husband.
Finally, they found Tommy Joe Stonefield fishing in the nearby river. The young man was about the same age as the girl that gave the letter. He was dressed in patched-up pants and a sleeveless shirt, with a strongly built body and handsome face. No wonder a neighboring farmer's daughter was head over heels for him.
Tommy was so preoccupied with the activity that he didn't even notice the group approach.
"Hey, are you Tommy Joe?" Corben asked.
The man jumped up, spooked, and almost lost his fishing pole. He looked at the group for a moment and then slowly replied. "Yes… what can I help you with?"
"We have a letter from a girl that likes you." Corben said.
The young man's eyes widened in surprise as he exclaimed. "You have what? Maybell is the light of my dull life. Hurry, let me see her letter!"
He tore open the envelope reading it with a smile that soon faded. "Ah! I can't stand us being apart. I have to see her!" he said, frustrated.
"So what's keeping you from seeing her?" Corben asked.
"Our families have been feuding for years. If we would be seen together by our families, we would never be allowed to leave our homes again." He said with a long sigh at the end.
"Seen, you say?" Corben broke into a smirk. "I may have a solution for you both."
"You do?" Tommy asked. "Please tell me!"
"Invisibility potions are not that hard to make. Most ingredients can be found in Elwynn. I could make a large batch for you and the girl so both of you can sneak off and bang in the forest." Corben explained.
"Bang?" Tommy twisted his face in confusion but a moment later he realized what Corben meant and got beet red.
"Why do you have to use such crude language? The young man is uncomfortable." Lonaraa whispered to him while Eldum was completely unphased and was standing a bit further away, puffing his pipe filled with a mixture of herbs Corben had given him.
"Relax. Everyone does it." Corben chuckled. "We'll be back in a couple of days, once I have gathered all the ingredients."
"Thank you. You have no idea how much it would mean for us." Tommy said as he shook Corbnen's hand.
"Oh, I know it well enough, pal. I snuck into more than one girl's room with that method during my school years."
Their next stop was the Maclure farm. Since it neighboured the Stonefield farm and there was only a small patch of the first between them, the group reached it in an half hour.
Maybell noticed them even before they were halfway through the small road leading through the grape field. She approached them once again, and after checking if no one from her family was near, asked. "Did you deliver the letter to Tommy?"
"We sure did." Corben responded in a chipper tone.
"What did he say?" The girl asked, nervously playing with her hair.
"He wants to meet you just as much as you want to see him. And we have a solution. We will bring you both invisibility potions so you can sneak off and…" Corben noticed a very judgmental stare from Lonaraa. "Can spend time together."
"How wonderful." Maybell jumped in excitement. "I can't wait to see him."
"It won't take long for me to gather all the ingredients so you'll have to wait only for a few days. Oh, do you know where we can find a boy named Billy Maclure? We need to ask him a few questions."
Maybell's expression darkened. "What did my little brother do this time?"
"We'll just ask him a few questions, that's all." Corben dodged the question.
"You can find him playing on the hill behind the barn." Maybell somewhat reluctantly said and then added with a worried expression. "Please don't hurt him… too much."
"Don't worry, miss. We are professionals." Corben flashed her a smile.
They found Billy poking an anthill with a stick and laughing to himself. The nine to ten year old boy dressed in shorts was clearly amused by the frantic ants trying to deal with the stick that was destroying their colony.
"Hey kid, we are looking for a necklace Bernice Stonefield lost."
The boy stopped his activity and turned to face Corben without a care in the world. "You lost a what? Well, I didn't take no necklace, because I ain't no thief! I might know who did but…" he grinned. "...I'm too hungry to remember. Maybe if I got a pie, I could tell you who has that necklace. And you know, I think that old Bernice lady at that other farm makes great Pork Belly Pies…" The boy stared at him with unshaken confidence that nothing in the world could harm him.
'This little shit! I will punch that grin off his face… no… I have a better idea.' Corben put on the fakest warm smile possible and kneeled before the boy to meet him on his level. "So, little buddy, you are hungry?" He asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.
Billy nodded with a grin.
"You know who else is hungry? That big ol' bear over there. And do you know what his favorite food is?"
Billy stopped smiling and glanced over at the black bear that was staring at him. He slowly shook his head.
"He likes to eat little shits like you. And you know what is the best part?" Corben asked not changing his sweet tone.
Billy started to shake like a leaf in the wind with color draining from his face.
"The best part is bears eat their prey while they are still alive. They just push them to the ground and bite limbs off one by one." Osbeorn, playing along, let out a threatening roar.
The boy gulped and said with his voice breaking. "I was playing near the Fargodeep Mine, and I think I dropped, er… I mean, I saw, the old lady's necklace. Don't ask me how it got there... it wasn't me! I saw this big, gold-toothed kobold pick up the necklace and run into the mine. Go find that kobold and you'll find the necklace, I swear!"
"Oh, you didn't steal it?" Corben asked and then turned to Osbeorn. "Lying boys taste better right?" To which, the bear responded with vigorous nods and a roar.
As Corben turned back to face Billy, a strong stench hit his nose. There was a stream was running down the boy's right leg as he was bawling his eyes out, too afraid to move. "I swear I will never steal again!" He said between sobs.
Corben just stood up and motioned for the rest of his team to follow. Once they were some distance away Lonaraa asked. "Why were you so mean to that boy?"
"I did him a favor. Little shits like him grow up thinking they can do whatever they want and then one day someone stabs them in the face." Corben responded matter of factly.
"He is right ye know. The boy was no guid." Eldum chipped in, with Osbeorn growling in agreement.
"I see. Then his parents had failed to raise him properly." Lonaraa remarked and then asked. "Are we going to the mine next?"
"No." Corben hastily responded. "First we should go to Crystal Lake for kelp that usually grows in large bodies of water. And south to the lake is the farm with the pig we need to kill. After that, we can gather information about that mine in Goldshire."
"A havenae tasted murloc legs in a long time." Eldum chipped in.
The plan of action was clear. Even though Corben wasn't particularly looking forward to descending into another mine in fear of finding a similar monstrosity they fought in Northshire, now they had a larger group and a better chance of not getting overwhelmed.
With the usual group consisting of five people, only two additional members needed to be added, one of them being a healer, which was always such a hassle to find.
Proofreading by Sad_Smiles and Visur Nyxan.
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