We walked over to the buff merchant who was flexing his amazing muscles as he directed other workers with his cargo.

“Those crates need to go,” Lance said as he was flexing the muscles in his arms and then pointed over to a wagon while still flexing. “Over there in the back of that wagon.”

We stood in front of the burly man and introduced ourselves. “You must be the group the Cat Kin, Emiko, told me about. The guard position has already filled up so I can’t take any more guards, but I can accept passengers for a fair bit of coin.”

The others seemed to agree and we each paid for the ride to our quest destination. “Excellent. Since you ladies will be passengers you don’t have to worry about any fighting or guard duty. I won’t say no to extra help but that’s your prerogative. The convoy will leave in about thirty minutes. You’re free to choose from any of the carriages transporting people.” Lance spoke as he collected the money.

We found a carriage that had a few other players in it, presumably the hired guards. There was enough room for us and a couple more if needed.

“More people signed up for the escort mission I see.” Another player with the appearance of a wolf had said. He looked to be some kind of soldier or knight, going by his armor.

“No, we are just hitching a ride to a nearby village for another quest,” Alex responded to the other player.

Shortly after the convoy of carriages started to move. We had a pleasant conversation with the other players even when they found out about me being the winner in a few of the crafting challenges. They wanted to look at the sword I had enchanted. Despite the overpowered enhancements, they ultimately agreed that the sword was useless for anyone else because of its wielding requirement.

We arrived an hour later at the village and said goodbye to the group as the merchants sold some stock to the general store and would soon be on their way. The village center was small, with just a few buildings a small general store, and open spaces for what could be an open market for the villagers themselves or festivals.

We walked into the general store and saw who was most likely the store owner, doing some business with the traveling merchants. I walked up to the man and got his attention. “Excuse me. I am looking for a woman named Mary. You know where I might be able to find her” I asked the man.

The man gave me a stink eye before responding. “What business you got with her? She ain’t got no friends outside o’ this here village.”

“She put in a request at the Adventurer’s Hall. So, we are here on business.” I said to the cautions grumpy man.

“This again? I keep tell’n that girl… Look here, you just ignore that job and leave this place, ya hear? She don’t need to be gett’n in cahoots with folk of your breeds.” The old man said as he shook a gnarled finger at us. For some reason, I had a strong urge to grab his finger and break it. I was startled by that sudden thought and quickly discarded it. He was just a crotchety old man.

I was about to respond when a bell-like voice rang out from behind us. I turned around and saw a cute woman carrying some boxes from the merchants into the store. Her face was speckled with freckles, and she had messy long dark red hair and blue eyes. She wore a long plain dress that was hiked up a bit around her shins. Her boots looked a bit big for her and weren’t properly tied up. Her skin was tanned showing she had done her fair share of labor out in the sun.

“Gale! Stop antagonizing folks.” The woman then turned to us. “I am Mary. I assume you’re here bout the job post” Mary asked us.

“Yes, that is correct,” I replied. Gale snorted in disdain and went back about his business. “I needed a break anyway and Gale can get the rest of the boxes. Follow me and we can discuss our business.” Mary said as she sat the box down on the floor. We followed her outside the building for a way leaving the town center. She stopped in the middle of a meadow where you can see the various houses dotted around the landscape. Most of the houses were farmsteads but there were a few ranches included that we could see.

“My place is too far to walk, and I got to be back in town later anyway. Here is a quiet and private enough spot for us. Anyway, as you probably read on that post, I fear this village has been overrun by changelings. I feel like there is some evil faery magic at play here.” Mary said before looking over at Yuki and wincing a little as she realized what she said. “Uh, I mean no offense miss faery lady.”

“It’s fine. None taken. I too have experienced evil faery magic. It gave me wings.” Mary just nodded her head as if she understood.

“Anywho, as I was saying I think this village is under the plot of a hostile takeover by evil faeries. I say this because one night I followed my fiancé, Robert. I wanted to give him a good scare for embarrassing me earlier that day. I followed him into the woods where I saw him meet up with his parents. I waited until they left but then Robert changed! His hair turned white, and his skin turned a pale blueish color. It was hard to see much as the sun was setting.” Mary stopped and looked around as if she was afraid of being overheard by someone.

“I heard them talking and I wanted to get closer to them, but I was afeared that I would be heard so I stayed where I was. I know I heard my name, and they said things like she is not ready. I think they mean to turn me into a changeling. I don’t know how many of the others are changelings, but they must be stopped. First, they start with this village then they take the other villages. Then they take the whole country!” Mary said as she finished up her story.

“So…you want us to investigate every one? What do you want us to do once we discover someone is a changeling” Alex asked.

“Well…I dunno. I guess find out what their plans are. If they have evil plans, then I guess they need to be dealt with.” Mary said, looking a bit unsure herself now.

Alex and I gave a collective sigh as we heard that. I guess she was hoping to dump all the work and responsibility on us. “We will do an investigation first and see what their intentions are first. Then we can go from there. Don’t want to be responsible for an unneeded massacre.” I said to the group.

Alex clapped her hands together and motioned for us all to huddle around. “Two of us have magic eyes that can see through illusions and such. So, we are the best when it comes to finding these changelings. Yuki and I will pair up and Sarah and Naomi will pair up. This way we are in a buddy system in case of ambush, and we can spread the work.”

“Sounds good to me. Naomi and I will investigate Robert then. Mary, I will need you to show us who he is.” I said to the group.

Mary looked at me and nodded. “Just follow me. I will show you where he is.” With all of our plans set, we made our way back to the village center.