With nothing else better to do, Robin trailed after the human whenever possible. That meant she also saw him attempting to wash his clothes. It didn’t go well, since the bloodstains didn’t want to come out at all. Robin didn’t know a way to help either, so she just watched as the man scrubbed his shirt in the water, trying to get it clean. At some point he also got hungry, so Robin left out a small pile of berries for him on a rock near the river. It took him an embarrassingly long time to notice and by the time he did, Robin was mentally screaming at him.

 

 A few hours later, Jason was in cleaner clothes - still stained brown, though - and with a big hole in his shirt where his wound was. Robin felt kind of bad for the man but didn’t bother to assist. It wasn’t her place to poke her nose. So she let the man be and didn’t miss him when he decided to leave and walk in the direction Robin had pointed when he had first woken up. Robin continued her usual day of walking around patrolling the woods. She didn’t find any other humans and by the time it had gotten dark, she was already sleeping in her tree with Fluff by her side yet again.

 

 Robin woke up when the first rays of the Sun reached into the tree. She nudged Fluff a little, also waking the little fox. The two of them climbed out of the tree and Fluff went to find some breakfast. Robin, being a spirit, didn’t need to eat as much and stayed by the riverside in her favourite spot, listening to birds sing. Fluff returned with a rabbit a while later. Robin gratefully accepted a piece of raw meat that the fox offered up and bit into it as he did. She did feel bad, because it had been another animal just ten minutes ago, but nature was harsh and the balance needed sacrifices. Even if they were just innocent rabbits. After having breakfast once in forever, Robin cleaned up by the river and went to patrol around again. She found nothing interesting.

 

 When she got back to the river, she was surprised to see Jason there, in new and clean clothes, looking around, searching for something. Robin walked up to him with a confused look. Jason, too busy to notice Robin standing behind him, kept looking around, analysing the bushes on the other side of the river. Robin coughed to signal her presence, to which Jason flinched violently, almost falling over. “Oh! It’s just you! I was looking for you- Uh… Robert?” It seemed Jason had forgotten her name. Robin stared at the human with disappointment. “It’s Robin,” she corrected a few seconds later. “Why are you here again? I thought you left?”

 

“I did. And then I came back. I managed to find the river and walked upstream a little while to find the familiar rocks, see-”

 

“But why did you come back? Humans don’t come to the forest on their own accord unless they need something. What do you need?”

 

“I came to thank you for helping me. I brought you some sweets.”

 

“Sweets?” Robin asked, a bit sceptical. She hadn’t heard of that before.

 

“Yes, sweet foods. Here, try some!” Jason reached into the basket - “He had a basket this entire time? How didn’t I notice it?” - that had been hidden behind his leg and pulled out a small oval piece of bread wrapped in foil on one side. “This is an apple pie,” he explained happily, presenting the food item to Robin. “I had it specially made smaller since I wasn’t sure if you could eat a big pie all on your own.” Robin took the pie from Jason’s outstretched hand and examined it a little. She pulled the shiny wrapping aside and took a small bite, revealing the soft sweet inside of apple jam. The pie was gone in under a minute, leaving Robin eyeing Jason’s basket. “It was good. Thank you,” she said. Jason smiled. “Glad you liked it because I brought more foods for you to try!” Robin’s eyes lit up in hopes of more of that heavenly sweetness. Jason handed over the basket and Robin dug in, searching through it and trying out various sweets like berry pie, sugar bread, caramel, pudding, and many more different foods.

 

 Robin was still eating various foods when the Sun started to set. Jason stood up. “I’ll have to go back to town now. I’m going on a quest with my friends tomorrow. Do you want to come with? It would be a nice trip and I could buy you even more sweets,” he suggested. Robin saw right through the bribe, but the sweets had truly been delicious. She had never eaten anything so good before, so going into town really was worth it if she got to eat more of these human foods. It took a few hesitant seconds, but Robin made her decision. “I’ll come with you,” she said, looking at the ground. “But not for long. I’ll come back into the forest.”

 

“I wouldn’t expect any less of you, Robert. Now, come on! We should at least try to make it to town before the Sun sets.” “It’s Robin,” the spirit protested weakly. The two of them walked off, Robin holding the basket while she trailed behind Jason, occasionally pointing him in the right direction when he wandered off too far the wrong way.

 

 The duo made it to the city gate without much fuss, Robin only hesitating for a second before walking out of the treeline and after Jason, to the gate. Jason walked through without batting an eye, and Robin wished she could too. Unfortunately, her antlers and bright green hair attracted quite a bit of attention from the two gatekeepers. They again let her pass without stopping her but were still looking after her as she walked on the streets of the city. Robin could feel their gazes on her back.

 

 Jason made his way to the Adventurer's Guild. Robin could recognise the building anytime. She followed after Jason, sticking as close to him as possible. Jason headed straight for the counter, where the girls in green robes stood. “I’d like to submit a completed quest,” he said as he slid a small piece of paper across the counter, as well as a handful of leaves. Robin had a peek, but couldn’t read what the note said. She had never had the need to learn to read, after all. But the plants, she recognised. They were ones adventurers often took from the woods. Robin didn’t know why humans took these plants but didn’t say anything to ask either. The woman by the counter read over the document and pulled out a small bag from under the counter. “Here’s the reward,” she said, taking the leaves and placing them in a small box of similar leaves behind her. Jason thanked her and stepped away from the counter. “Come on Robin! Let’s go and check out the quests board while we wait for my friends!” he said enthusiastically, walking over to a wall with similar papers. Robin just stood by Jason’s side. “What are these?” she asked him.

 

“Quests. You can get money for doing them, the amount depends on the difficulty of the task you’re doing. I just cashed in gathering leaves, which isn’t much, but I wasn’t going to go on a more dangerous quest alone with an injury like the one I have,” Jason explained. Robin nodded, pulling another pie out of the basket she was still holding and enjoying the pastry while Jason scanned the board for possible missions. Robin didn’t notice the short blond girl in a dark brown cape approaching Jason until he let out a little yelp when the girl attacked Jason from behind. They got a few looks from other people in the guildhouse for the noise. Robin immediately forgot her pie, rushing to Jason’s aid. She couldn’t have any more sweets if something were to happen to Jason, after all.

 

 Robin grabbed a hold of the girl’s arm that was resting on Jason’s shoulder and pulled it back violently, resulting in the girl tumbling to the ground with a loud thump and Jason losing his balance a little. He started protesting pretty fast: “Robert! Stop it! She’s a friend! Robert!” Robin, a little confused but recognising the meaning of the word ‘friend,’ let the strange girl go and stepped back a little, scanning her head to toe. The girl looked to be in her early twenties, but Robin couldn’t pinpoint her exact age. She was wearing simple pants and a white shirt underneath a cape, with a tool belt around her waist. Robin also saw a bow on her back. She wondered how she hadn’t noticed it before. All in all, she looked like an adventurer ready for a quest.

“It’s Robin, not Robert,” Robin grumbled yet again, sending a warning glare at Jason. The girl gave a little laugh: “Haha, sorry! Totally my bad! Sorry for hugging you from behind, Jason!”

 

“It’s alright. Where are the boys? And Evelyn?”

 

“The boys are coming, but Evelyn called it quits for today. Said it was family business. I just ran ahead. They should be here any moment now.” The girl whose name Robin still didn’t know stood up from the floor and turned to her. “Who’re you?” she asked her, eyeing her antlers and hair. Jason stepped in: “This is the forest spirit! He saved my life yesterday.”

 

 Robin stared at Jason. “He? Does he think I’m a boy? Are you blind? I’m wearing a skirt, you moron!” she thought angrily, giving Jason a glare. Jason looked confused. “What?” The girl who had joined them gave Jason a look too. “You don’t get it?” Jason was even more confused. “What? No? Is there a joke here I don’t understand?” The girl just rolled her eyes and pointed her thumb at Jason while looking at Robin. “Boys,” she stated. Robin burst out in giggles while Jason looked between the two girls. The adventurer girl gave a little salute. “My name is Mona! And you are Robin, correct?”

 

“Correct, unlike a certain moron who keeps addressing me as Robert,” Robin said, sending another glare at Jason. Said moron just shrugged. “It’s not like you told me your gender and Robin isn’t a particularly female name-” he started to argue.

 

“I am wearing a SKIRT,” Robin replied with a pull on the edge of the skirt she was wearing and a point at it.

 

“...You got me there,” Jason admitted, scratching his head. 

 

 It was at that point that two guys stepped into the guildhouse. Two familiar guys. One was wearing an axe on his belt, the other a sword. The axe-wielder also had dark reddish hair, while the swordsman was blond just like Mona. Robin couldn’t quite put her finger on it but she knew she had met both Mona and the two men somewhere before. But it wasn’t that important at the moment, so she let it be. Jason already walked over to greet the men. “Nyx! Firo! Good to see you guys!”

 

“Good to see you too! How’re you doing? Life treating you well?” the guy with the axe replied. Jason laughed. “If you only knew! If it wasn’t for Robin I wouldn’t be here right now!” Jason said, pulling Robin closer to him as if to present her to the men, all the while stressing Robin’s name to make sure she noticed he said it right this time. The two men looked a bit confused, but shrugged it off. “So, what quest will we be doing?” the swordsman asked. “We were in battle just a few days ago, so maybe something more peaceful? Considering Evelyn isn’t here and she’s the one healing our injuries most of the time. You know, we had a really nasty tree monster just the day before yesterday-”

 

“I remember where I know you from!” Robin interrupted, now remembering the battle with the tree spirit just a few days ago in the forest. “You’re Nyx! The leader of the group of adventurers who killed a tree spirit in the woods a couple of days ago!” She herself wasn’t sure if it was an accusation or just a plain sentence, but she didn’t linger on it for long. “You humans never even try to be peaceful, huh? Tree spirits never attack first.”

 

“Uh…” Nyx seemed to be confused. “Do we know you?” This time it was Mona who jumped in. “Oh! Oh! Were you the one who shot rocks? You said you’re a forest spirit right, so it makes sense that you’d be in the forest! Why’d you help us?”

 

“Humans are troublesome. Since the tree spirit was already angry, I couldn’t calm it down. I helped you defeat it so you would leave.”

 

“...”

 

“...”

 

“...”

 

 The group was silent. “So…” Mona broke the silence whispering to Jason, Nyx and Firo. “Who’s gonna tell her?”

 

“Tell me what?”

 

“Nothing special-” Jason said hesitantly. “It’s just that… Have you been seeing a larger amount of humans in the woods?”

 

“I have, how did you know?” Robin asked, squinting a little. 

 

“Well, lately, the Adventurer's Guild has been putting out more assignments to kill creatures in the woods or bring ingredients for potions. The quests are just forest-centred. That’s why everybody is going there.”

 

“That… Makes sense. I just hope it stops soon. Not many humans wander so deep into the forest to reach the river then? I’ve only seen a couple, but from the number of people in the guildhouse, there should be way more,” Robin deducted, having a quick look around. Their group of 5 stood in the lobby, as well as another group of 3 by the table, two groups were looking at quest applications, one a team of 6 and another of 4. A quick count told Robin that there were 18 people here alone. “There’s quite a bit of people around. And it’s already late, too.”

 

“Yeah. I guess most stay by the edge of the forest,” Mona agreed. Firo interrupted with a small cough. “What quest shall we be doing? It is already late, so shall we do it today or pass it on to tomorrow?” he queried. Jason thought for a moment. “The board had a couple of forest quests, ingredient gathering and such, as well as a few combat situations near the swamp. Now that it’s getting dark and I’m injured as well as missing Evelyn, I’d say let’s gather ingredients in the woods.” He sent a glance at Robin. “I hope you don’t mind?”

 

“No. I understand that some humans live off the earnings they make by gathering herbs and meat.”

 

“Oh!” Mona chirped. “And we have an advantage! Robin here must know the forest very well! She can help us find what we need! Right?” she turned to Robin, who just nodded. Mona cheered. The team came together to form a quick arrangement of which quest to choose while Robin continued eating her pie. Mona eyed it jealously as she and Jason went over to the board to find something suitable.

 

 Firo was the first one of the newly arrived boys who asked Robin about who she was. Robin summed it up with a simple sentence: “I saved Jason’s life in the woods.” Firo nodded in response. “I was going to ask about the horns but since you’re a forest spirit it makes sense.”

 

“They’re antlers, not horns,” Robin corrected quickly before walking over to Jason and Mona. “What are the choices?” she asked them. Mona was first to reply: “There’s commissions for  lizard’s eyes, black cohosh, whatever that is, hawthorn, elderberry, catnip, linden and dandelions.” Nyx and Firo joined the group as well, listening in on the conversation.

 

“I don’t know any of the plants by name, other than the dandelion, but if you describe them to me I might be able to find them,” Robin said with a small shrug. Firo now spoke up: “What if we got a book with drawings in it? You could determine where the plants are if you recognize them.”

 

“That could work,” Robin agreed with a thoughtful nod. Firo smiled. “Good. I’ll just go and get a book on herbs then because the library is going to close in 10 minutes. Wait for me,” he said before rushing out the door. Jason chuckled. “He sure likes books a lot.”

 

“What’s a library?” Robin asked, turning to Mona and Jason again. Mona was again the first to explain: “It’s a big house where you can keep lots of books in one place! Then other people can borrow them for some time to read them and give them back to the library so others can also read them. It’s gotten very popular lately.”

 

“Good to know.” A few seconds of silence passed, Robin pulling yet another pie from her basket. Mona again eyed the treat jealously. She finally caved after Robin had taken a few bites of the apple pie. “Can I have some?” she asked. Robin looked Mona in the eyes. “Will you cherish it?”

 

“Of course! These pies are from Edith’s bakery! The best one in town! I just don’t go there that often… And they’re heavenly!” Robin took a moment to think about the offer and then moved to the basket again, pulling out another pie and handing it to Mona. Robin quickly turned away, keeping an eye on the entrance instead. Mona let out a happy chirp and took a big bite out of the small pie. “Wai dwidn’t efn know you cwould make pies so scmall!” she said happily between bites. “We really can’t understand you, Mona,” Jason said with a slight chuckle.

 

 Firo returned just a few minutes later with a book in hand, panting a bit and out of breath as he stepped into the guildhouse. By this time, Jason, Mona, Robin and Nyx had moved over to the tables. Firo headed over, waving the book with a green cover. “I got a book on forest plants!” he said, placing the book down on the table in front of Robin, who immediately passed it on to Mona due to her lack of reading skill. Mona opened up the book and started flipping through it, pausing every now and then to check the pictures on the pages. It took a minute or two but she finally found the plants they were looking for. “Here we go!” She gave the book back to Robin to look at the drawings of plants. “This is elderberry,” Mona said, lingering on the page to see if Robin gave any sign of recognition. Robin nodded - she had seen this plant in the forest before, near the thicker bushes. Mona moved on to the next page she was keeping a finger on. “This is hawthorn and the page next to it is catnip.” Robin again nodded. She also knew these plants. “Black cohosh. And linden,” Mona flipped another few pages. “So, know where any of them are?”

 

“There’s a field with some linden trees not far from the forest border. We could check there, it’s the closest of all of these.”

 

“Linden it is! Oh, I love the tea you can make from it!” Mona gushed, already walking to the exit. Nyx was the one to grab the linden gathering quest from the questboard and register it, joining the rest of the group a minute later since they had left the building right after Mona. “Heh, sorry!” she apologized. “Totally forgot about the questboard.”

 

 The group walked off in the direction of the forest together, all worries forgotten as they let Robin lead them to where the linden supposedly was. It wasn’t the same clearing that Mona and the team had fought on, but it wasn’t far from it. There were a couple linden trees by the edge of it, so Robin walked right over and, with a little bit of magic, started gathering the blossoms into a bag. The entirety of the rest of the team - Jason, Mona, Nyx and Firo - just stood there, not really knowing what else to do. It’s not like they could help Robin cast spells - none of them were mages.

 

 Robin was done in a few minutes and handed over the bagful of linden blossoms to Jason. “Anything else? Is that enough?” she asked. Mona burst out laughing. “That was so cool! You got way more than we needed! Haha! Thanks, buddy!” 

 

“My name is Robin.”

 

“Sure, whatever. This went way faster than we expected! Jason, why were you hiding this amazing talent of Robin’s from us?” Mona asked with a smile. Jason was quick to excuse himself: “I met her the day before  yesterday.” The group of adventurers left the forest happily, not noticing Robin’s disappearance a few minutes later. Robin was tired and wanted to sleep, so she went back to her tree and had a long nap without anyone disturbing her.

 

☯

 

 The next morning wasn’t eventful, so Robin woke up pretty late, considering she usually got up near sunrise. Today, the sun was long in the sky when she climbed out of her hollow tree. Fluff hadn’t joined her today, but Robin wasn’t sad. He probably had other business to attend to. Instead, Robin resumed her daily patrol duty. Well, it wasn’t duty, she decided to do it herself, but she considered it pretty important to make sure no big catastrophes had happened in her absence. Robin took the usual route - she went upstream from the river, turned right by a very old oak tree and then straight for a little while, until she reached a big pine tree. From there she turned slightly to the right, kept going for another few minutes until reaching a small cliff. Over the cliff and down, straight some more, all the way to a clearing and then right again from next to a big bush by the edge of the clearing. Forward some more and she was back at the river. She only crossed the river a few times a week, since no humans went there. Only wildlife. The whole patrol took about an hour, since Robin had no rush and she walked pretty slow.

 

 Robin was pretty surprised to be met with Jason’s friend group of adventurers when she got back to the riverside. They were all looking around, though Mona was sitting on the ground with her toes in the water, humming happily as her gaze swept over the trees nearby. Robin walked right up to the group. “What’s this?” she asked, confused. 

 

“Well, you ran off yesterday so we thought we’d come meet you again. Unless you want us to leave?” Jason asked her.

 

“No, it’s fine,” Robin replied, not really knowing what else to say.

 

“Actually, I was thinking-” Mona interrupted, “-if you wanted to come eat some more pie with us in town?” Robin did want to eat pie. But she did not want to go into the city walls again. There were too many humans and she got many off looks. Nyx was the one to wipe away her worries: “If you’re with us, nobody will bother you. We’ll make sure of it.”

 

“...Thanks.”

 

“So you’ll come?” Jason asked, hopeful. Robin shrugged, hiding her hands behind her back. “Sure.” Jason smiled. “Thank you.” He sounded much more sincere than Robin would have thought. So the group headed back into town with Robin walking in the middle of the group, right Behind Jason, with Mona walking behind her. 

 

 Occasionally Mona pointed out a few interesting things she saw on the way, like a big rock or an animal footprint she also noticed a few berry bushes closer to town and grabbed some to eat. Robin didn’t know them as poisonous so she didn’t decline when she was offered one. On all accounts, this was actually pretty fun. Sometimes Firo would direct the group’s attention to a familiar plant they’d seen in the book last time.

 

 Robin almost didn’t notice when they reached the city gate. Almost. She was focusing on the clouds when they arrived and the only reason she noticed was because she saw the wall in the corner of her eye. She almost flinched back from it, but remembered the company she was in and just stared at the ground instead, not daring to look the gatekeepers in the eye. The group had gotten pretty quiet too, Robin wasn’t entirely sure why.

 

 They got past the gates quick enough. Robin owed thanks to Jason and his friends since she’d never been into town this many times in a row. It was really giving her a confidence boost, but it disappeared as soon as she saw anyone looking her way, which was pretty much immediately. She was still scared of humans, it seemed. Jason, Mona, Nyx and Firo were exceptions to this rule. The group headed right of the entrance instead of the usual straight forward, so Robin didn’t know where they were headed, but she trusted Jason and walked with the group loyally.

 

“Ta-da!” Mona cheered a minute later. “We’re here! Edith’s bakery! The best in town!” She dragged Robin inside immediately, not even giving her time to ask about Edith. Robin forgot all about it by the time they got inside, because the smell of freshly baked bread and pies hit her straight on. Robin immediately headed over to the counter, looking at the various sweets and drooling lightly of the thought of eating any of them. Mona chuckled. “I guess we’ve found your weak spot!” she joked. Jason smiled. “Where’s Edith? In the back room?” he asked nobody in particular, just wondering out loud.

 

“She is probably in the kitchen, making fresh dough for the pastries. It’s about that time of day. We can wait here for her return,” Firo said, gesturing at the small table by the window. The group headed over and Nyx started a conversation about their favourite sweets. “My favourites are definitely the caramel cookies!”

 

“No way!” Jason argued. “The chocolate cake beats it by a mile!”

 

“I think that the fresh sugarbread is the best of them all!” Mona expressed, not really as involved in the argument as Jason was. She just threw the idea out there.

 

“I enjoy the raspberry cake,” Firo added after a moment of thought.

 

“What about you, Robin?” Mona asked the spirit, pulling her into the conversation.

 

“Apple pie,” Robin responded without hesitation. Of all the sweets she had tried from the basked Jason had gotten for her, the apple pie struck her as the best. “It’s sweet, but not too much and at the same time it gives off a taste of the forest.”

 

“It makes sense that the forest spirit prefers the one with fruit! Did you try the ones with berries though?” Mona continued. “There are berries in the forest after all.”

 

“Blueberry?”

 

Mona picked up the menu from the table. “Who got that? Firo? It must have been Firo, he got the menu when I wasn’t looking,” Robin decided. “I don’t think there’s anything with blueberry, sorry,” Mona said after a second of reading.

 

“Then apple pie,” Robin stood by her initial choice. At that point, Jason decided to go see where Madam Edith was. Mona continued chatting with Nyx as Robin stared at the menu, trying to make sense of the letters, and Firo looked out the window.

 

 Jason returned with an older lady in tow. The first thing Robin noticed about her was that her hair was in a little bun and covered with a layer of fabric. “What can I get you dears?” the woman asked with a smile. Robin was reminded of the lady selling apples at the town square a few days ago, who also used the word “dear” to address people. Firo rattled off the list of foods they had all picked as their favourites and the lady gave a small nod as she wrote them down on a small piece of paper. “That makes two gold coins and three silver ones,” she said as she fumbled around by the counter, getting the requested foods ready on plates. Everybody but Robin pulled out their coin pouches and each gathered a coin, Mona also volunteering to pay for Robin. Jason started to argue that he should pay for Robin, but Mona ignored him and paid for Robin’s pie for her before Jason could do anything.

 

 The old lady Edith put two of the plates on the table in front of Robin and she almost took a bite out of the nearest one right then and there - it just smelled so good! Mona hopped over to the counter to get the remaining 3 plates for Edith, who thanked her and wobbled over to the kitchen again. Robin noticed Firo pulling the plate she almost grabbed for herself his way - that must have been the raspberry cake then, since Firo said he liked that he liked it.

 

 Robin dug into her pie as soon as Mona retracted her hand from the plate. This pie was much bigger than the ones she’d gotten before, so she had a tougher time holding it without it falling apart, but she managed. Only halfway through the pie did Robin see everyone else at the table staring at her. They all were holding forks and Jason slid one over to Robin without a word. Robin shrugged and put the pie down on the plate, now using the fork to cut pieces instead of biting into the pie directly. "Thanks for the pie," she said when done. She was the first one, seeing as everyone else was still eating their own pastry. That left her time and she decided to spend it looking out the window.

 

 The house on the other side of the street wasn’t that interesting, but Robin noticed a cat on the windowsill inside the house, which was cute. Robin liked animals. This one was nice white but with orange and brown spots. It had beautiful blue eyes and a cute nose. Robin almost didn’t notice the group standing up to leave, but Jason pulled her up by her arm so she really couldn’t ignore that. Apparently, while she was staring at the cute calico cat, everybody else had finished eating and now they were heading to the Adventurer's Guild. Robin followed suit.

 

 The guildhouse became more familiar every time she went there. She already knew the girls by the counter, the location of the questboard and how many tables there were in the small hall: There were 8 tables, she had counted last time. Jason headed straight to the questboard and began to analyse it, Firo and Nyx following his example. Mona was the only one who instead focused on Robin, giving her an assuring smile and a small pat on the head.

 

 Humans were so tall, why had Robin not noticed it before? Mona could pat her on the head without even raising her hand that high. Robin only reached her chest! She quietly pondered over the height of humans compared to her, ignoring everything else. “Do my antlers count for height? That would be cheating, wouldn’t it? They’re pretty big, after all. I reach Mona’s head with them, even though my eyes are on her shoulder level. Jason- Jason is even taller!” Robin discovered with a look over to him. Jason was indeed even taller than Mona, Robin could only reach his lower chest area. While Robin grumbled silently, she could also notice the group’s expressions turn tense.

 

“What is it?” she asked, confused about the strange lack of joy on the team’s faces. They had just eaten pie and cake! Why would they be so tense? Was it something on the board?

 

“Can’t you see it?” Jason asked, pointing at a certain poster on the wall of quests. It was a new piece of parchment compared to some other, older quests and it had a drawing. Robin looked closer. It was a big lizard with wings. A dragon, if she remembered correctly. And it looked angry in the picture.

 

“There’s a dragon in the picture. So?”

 

“No- Robin, read it!” Jason said, exasperated.

 

“Oh, I can’t read,” Robin stated without elaborating. The group stood in silence for a few seconds. “So that’s why you asked me what the options of quests were instead of looking at the board yourself!” Mona said with a small gasp. Robin nodded in confirmation. “So what does the poster say about the dragon?” Robin asked. Firo was the one to translate: “It says that a dragon has been spotted nearby. And everybody knows that all cities with dragons nearby have burnt to the ground in a matter of weeks.”

 

“So the dragon is a problem? How do we get rid of it?”

 

“According to the poster, we should just ‘get rid of it,’ it isn’t specified how exactly,” Firo explained shortly. “And since the reward is pretty handsome, we should probably go.”

 

“Without Evelyn?” Nyx protested. “She’s our healer, we can’t fight a dragon without a healer! Can’t she come?”

 

“No, she’s busy because her mother’s apothecary needed helping hands. She probably will be by the end of the week,” Mona sighed.

 

“Can’t Robin heal?” Firo suggested. All eyes turned to Robin. She panicked. “No- Uh- I mean yes, I can heal, but not big injuries! Only small cuts and-”

 

“You fixed me up, didn’t you?” Jason interrupted. “And I had been stabbed. I’m pretty sure you can handle it Robin.” Nyx, Mona and Firo nodded in agreement. Robin gave a sigh. “Fine. But not a long journey!” she agreed reluctantly.

 

“I wouldn’t dare part you from the forest for long. You do belong there after all,” Jason said with a soft smile. Mona cheered and Nyx gave Robin a pat on the shoulder. “Welcome to the team.”