...

...

"Beyes? You good? You've been staring at clouds for almost a minute now." 

"8 more seconds." 

"Right."

...

...

"8, that's time."

"Ok."

I put the unopened can in a pocket. Naturally, I'll be sipping the opened one for a while. 

Anyways, as ecstatic as I am about finding out that cola exists in this world, we have other things to do. Well, 'other thing' might be more accurate, I suppose. Whatever.

"Right, should we head to the place?"

"Yeah, seems wise." I said, pulling out the map again.

"Wonder why the duke decided to build the place so far from town?" Catface said as we headed south, down the street. "Think he wanted to avoid the, eh, common rabble, nyess." They said that last part in a 'mocking noble' voice. 

S chuckled.

"I'm sure there was some sort of reason." I said. I doubt the duke's would decide that for such a shallow reason as that. Sure, he's a little odd and seems to be horrible with money (state money, at that), but he doesn't seem like a bad person. I think. Probably.

The town path didn't lead us to far, and quickly tapered off soon after we reached the edge of town, so we walked through open plains the rest of the way. It wasn't that long of a walk, we could see the place from town. I probably could have just warped everyone there, as I doubt anyone's watching, but a short walk in nature would probably do everyone some good, I wager. 

It was pretty nice. Lots of pretty flora, and as we got further away from town, we began to see some rabbits and such hoppin' around, and S claims to have seen a fox. Pretty cool, but nothing really out of the ordinary. 

That's what I thought, at least, until we saw a child running toward us at incredible speed. I initially thought it was just an abnormally fast and energetic kid, just running around in the open plains, but it quickly became clear that that was not the case. Well, it was, but it was more than that. See, he was clad in what appeared to be some sort of perfectly fitted reinforced leather armor (minus a helmet), and he had a greatsword that looked to be the same size of him on his back. And he was running at top speed despite all that. 

"HEY! WHO'RE YOU GUYS!?" The boy shouted in a friendly tone, running towards us, waving, with a huge smile on his face. 

Initially, S had summoned his blade and took up a defensive stance, but as the kid got closer he lowered his guard. 

"I'M S, WHICH STANDS FOR 'SAND'!" S shouted.

"Uh, Beyes." I shouted, rather confused about this whole situation. 

"WHO'RE YOU!?" Catface shouted. 

It wasn't long before the boy came close enough and we didn't have to shout anymore. The boy was short, had tall, spikey, dark blue hair, and sky blue eyes. Also, I think that sword has blood on it. Hooh boy. Man, he couldn't be more than, like, 9, how's he carry that huge sword? "I'm Michaus Nrokhi, the hero!" Michaus said, confidently, still smiling. Certainly a proper name for a hero, that's for sure.

"Hero, huh." Catface said. "That's quite the title." 

"Yeah it is! I'm gonna be the greatest hero in the land!" Michaus asserted. 

"Really? I'll look forward to that." Catface said.

"Right, what're you doing out here, kid?" S said. "And how goes the hunting?" He added, nodding to the blood on his sword.  

"I'd heard rumors of a mad boar close to town, so I went to check it out. Turns out it was just big, normal one, though." Michaus said, seeming a little disappointed.  

He went to take on a mad beast all alone?! At his age?!  Wait, successfully hunting a boar is still an impressive feat, mad or not!

"Right, thought I smelled pork." From just the blood?! "What'd you do with the body?"

"Well, I guess I just left it there, mister." 

"What!? How wasteful! That's good meat!"

"Waste?... CRUD! You're right! I should bring it back to town, and we can have a heroes feast!"

"Right! We'll come with you, you'll need help carry-"

"No need! See you back in town! Thanks, mister!" Michaus said, sprinting off towards the woods again.  

...

And then he ran back.

"Wait! I forgot to ask. Why're you guys out here?" Michaus said, jogging in place.

"We're moving in to that over there. Got it from the duke." I said, pointing over to the duke's old place, our destination.

"Really? Great! It's been so long since we've had new blood! A heroes welcome to you all!" He said, still jogging in place. He's really adamant about that whole 'hero' schtick, huh. Cool. "Okay! I'm off again!" He ran off, towards the woods again.

...

Then he ran back, again. This time, up to Catface.

"Wait! I forgot, you've not told me your name yet, pretty lady!" Does that count as sexual harassment? Ah, he's like, what, 9? I think it still counts as nice at this point. 

"The name's Catface, hero. You're pretty easy on the eyes, yourself." Catface said. Okay, that might be sexual harassment. Also, a lot of other weird stuff. No, no, it's only weird if you make it weird, they're just being nice. Yep. Just don't think about it. 

"Thanks!" Michaus said. "I hope to see you around! See you, misters and cute lady!" He ran off again, towards the woods. Wait, did that just develop from 'pretty' to 'cute'? This is weird, right? Someone tell me it's weird. Actually, don't. It's just normal, innocent compliments. Yep. Definitely.

...

This time he actually ran off towards the woods, like, for reals.

Well, that was weird. Seemed like a decent guy, though. A hero, huh... that's pretty cool. 

"Think he's got it covered? The boar, I mean." I said, trying not to think about his and Catface's interaction.

"Oh yeah. Didya see that sword? He's plenty strong. He'll make a right good warrior some day, I'm sure of that." S said. Okay buddy, let's not get all high and mighty, you're like, 6 years older than him. C'mon.  

"Hmm... hero, huh..." Catface said, seeming lost in excited thought. "This town might be more interesting than I thought." You mean you weren't at all intrigued by that cult lookin' innkeeper guy, or the magic vending machine?! I guess you probably wouldn't fight either of those... These dang combat freaks!

I took a large swig of my drink as we began our trek to the place once again. 

Anyways, we eventually arrived at the place, once I was about halfway through my drink. The location was weird, it was basically the only thing in this vast sea of plains. You can see for ages. Guess the duke likes the 'middle of nowhere' vibe. Maybe it helps him forget about nobility and all that, and gives the illusion of a simple life, a life he never had. Or, maybe he just picked a weird spot 'cus he's weird. Hard to say.

Regardless, it was a lot bigger than I expected. I had expected something more 'small cottage'-y, but this seemed seemed to lean more towards large cabin. I guess the definition of 'small' for a duke is a little different from my definition. Well, no matter, that's more house for me, I suppose. 

Y'know, I didn't really think about this before, but isn't it a little weird that the duke just, like, gave us a house? For free? I know we 'saved' his daughter and all that, but, like, this still seems a bit much, considering how little work we actually did. Maybe he just got tired of maintaining it, or something, and was eager to hand it off? I dunno, I don't know crap about real estate. I hope there's not some weird, disastrous ulterior motive we'll only learn about after we've settled in. Crap, what if it's, like, cursed or haunted or something? Actually, that's kinda cool. I wonder how creatures of darkness would react to someone who commands dark magic? Well, basic dark magic, at least. I really should train more. 

Well, no matter what's going on with the duke or the house, the place is clearly not finished yet. The exterior seems mostly done, but looking in through the windows, the inside still has a ways to go, y'know, the walls and floors and all that needs some more work. 

"Right, this is the place." S said, asserting that this is, in fact, the place, just in case there was ambiguity.

I nodded, and took a sip of my drink.

Catface flew up to the roof, and began looking around. 
"Man, you can see for ages!"

Hey, I already went over that. 

"Right, it's like the only thing out here. Huge, too. Way bigger than I expected. Guess the duke's definition of 'small' is different from ours." S said, eyeing the place.  "Pretty close to done, too. All that's left is the inside."

Oi! I took another sip.

"Man, you really scored big time on this place. What'd you do to get the dukes favor, anyways? Somethin' 'bout his daughter, right?" 

"Right, we just happened to beat some creep that was trying to mug her, and we brought her to the guards or something. Y'know, we really didn't do all that much work to warrant him giving us this place. Hope there's no weird secret or ulterior motive or something."

Ey- y'know what, may as well just go with the flow.

"Crap, I hope it's not cursed or haunted or whatever." I began. "Actually, that might be kinda cool. Wonder how creatures of the dark would react to someone who commands dark magic." I said, feeling a little redundant.

"Yeah, th-" S began, before he seemed to come to a grave realization, and turned to me with a face that said 'oooooh crap, you done messed up.' 

Initially, I wondered what that was about, but...

"Dark magic? What are you on about?" Catface said. 

Oh crap. I sipped nervously. 

"Uhh... nnooooooothin'." 

"Right, uh, just, eh, something some old guy told us about back in Starsford. Nothing, uh, important." S said. 

Ah! I see! That's not technically a lie, mostly! Wisely done, S! Y'know, maybe we should head back to ol' Maurice's shop one of these days. He was a little scary, but he's a good guy, I think, and I ought to thank him for warning me about dark magic and all that at some point.

Though, evidently, I've done pretty poorly at heeding his warnings... I should focus on the situation at hand. I took a sip to help me refocus. 

"Odd thing to ramble about, that's for sure." Catface began, looking up at the sky. "Well, stuff's a myth, anyways. Not something to concern yourselves with." Catface said.

Whew, looks like I'm still good. For now. I guess dark magic must be a really well kept secret if even a mage as skilled as them thinks it's a myth. Man, it's really lucky S knew a guy who happened to know what it is. Huh, lot's of weird coincidences these past few days. Though, I guess I did literally come back from the dead the other day, so a few coincidences are pretty low on my weirdness scale. I took a sip as I asserted my opinion to myself.

Catface stretched. Kinda like a cat, actually. An act or instinctual? Hard to say. "Anyways, this is where I head off. This is a wonderful stage, though, I'll be back soon. Au revoir!" They then rocketed away, and flew off into the distance. Y'know, I could have just teleported them wherever they wanted to go. Ah well.

Well, I guess at this point we ought to head back to town. Not much else to do out here. 

"Well, sh-" I began.

"She didn't buy it. Crap." S said, distraught. Why'd he wait until just now to say that!? 

Wait, that's what's important! "What do you mean? She said it was a myth, right?"

"Well, that's true, but..." S looked down, clearly thinking about something. "Somethin' about her... Eh, it's probably nothin, don't worry about it. Anyways, we should probably head back to town, yeah?" 

Well, honestly, S is generally right about this sort of thing, meaning there's a good chance Catface wasn't fooled, which could, possibly, be bad. That said, they can't prove CRAP, so I have elected to follow S's advice, and not worry about it. I finish my drink with a large swig as I assert my opinion on this matter, and elect to think about something else. 

"Yeah, sure." Time to go back to town. I need another cola. ('Cus I'll be drinking my other one on the way back, obviously.)