The wagon creaked merrily along the paved road. Everyone was piled inside, with Zachary being in the driver’s seat. He looked behind him and saw that everyone was huddled around Annie and looking in her photo album pendant.

“And this is a picture of my son, Robert, when he was two. I did love putting him in animal onesies, back then,” Lucita made an oh sound and snickered. Zachary’s eyes found the road again.

They kept on traveling like that for an hour, then, Zachary stopped. There was a road block on the road with a sign:

This is a paid road.

One stamina potion from each person.

Pay the ogre tribe of Ash Forest.

Zachary hopped off the wagon and went to remove the roadblock. As if he were going to be paying ogres. He tried picking the roadblock and throwing it to the side, but his hands got burned. A fire enchantment?

With a frown, Zachary went back to the wagon and came back with his shield and sword. He bashed the roadblock with his shield, but the only thing that happened was sparks flying in every direction. So, a hardness enchantment too? Stabbing the roadblock, he found that he couldn’t get his sword out.

Zachary tugged, but, to no avail. Oh well, this was a cheap one silver coin sword. He could get another one. With a bowed head, he went back to the wagon.

“There is a roadblock that has a plethora of enchantments on it. We will need to go to Ash Forest and kill some ogres,” said Zachary, and Annie frowned.

“Young man! Just listen to what you are saying! People, even ogres, don’t turn to a life of banditry for fun. This is a cry for help. What is the toll?” Asked Annie, and Zachary looked at her incredulously.

“One stamina potion per person. Granny, ogres are bandits, one and all. We have to make them remove the roadblock so that the traffic on the road can resume. What if Ulssin suffers from lack of foodstuff deliveries because of this?” Zachary pointed at the roadblock, which had already eaten his sword, and huffed.

“Zachary, for shame! We will help those ogres. Surely, they were kind enough to leave a way for us to reach them?” Zachary looked around. There was a goat trail leading into the forest. But that was it. Annie’s eyes tracked his line of sight, and she hopped off the wagon.

“Well, let us go,” Annie headed down the goat trail and the five went in line around her, making sure that she was in the middle with Nyle and Lucita. The deciduous trees rustled around them. It was spring, so, their vibrant green leaves provided plenty of shade.

The forest was decked in forget-me-nots and Annie stopped to bent and pick some every so often. She would dry them and place them in a book when she came home. A nice memory of her challenge as an adventurer.

When they reached the rough camp of the ogres, they were stopped by a tall, but sickly skinny, ogre.

“You are here to pay the toll?” The ogre asked, hopefully.

“My, good man, what happened to you,” asked Annie, her eyes wide. She could count the ogre’s ribs. This was unnatural.

“We have the stamina pox, ma’am. The entire tribe has it. If those who are worst among us don’t get a dose of stamina potion soon, they will die. And, they are just children,” Annie’s hand went to her mouth and she gasped.

That simply couldn’t do! Not on her watch! Annie marched to the front of the party, and she placed a comforting hand on the skinny ogre’s green shoulder.

“I am a Rice Master. I can create stamina rich food and teach you how to make it, too,” the ogre looked like he dared to hope, and he turned around and led the six to the camp.

The huts seemed like they needed some repairing desperately, and the ogres all looked starved. Annie’s eyes watered when she saw children sitting in the shade with sunken cheeks. How could God allow for such suffering?

“We will need rice, and a lot of it,” said Annie when she was taken to the cooking area. Which was just a cooking pit with a giant cauldron. “Do you, have it? Oh, and milk and sugar. Maybe ginger, if you have any?”

“We have plenty of food, ma’am. But our stamina pox eats too much from our reserves. It uses our muscles as fuel, then our fat,” Annie nodded. She knew just to think to make them.

“Bring me…hm, how many are there in the camp?” Annie tried to count them, but guessed that some were too weak to be outside and were in the huts.

“There are a hundred of us. We used to be a hundred and fifty, but,” their ogre guide let out a sob and a tear fell from Annie’s right eye. Behind her, the party of five looked around uncomfortably. Had Annie not been here, they would have hacked and slashed their way through this camp without asking questions. But, now that they knew the ogres were civilians, they felt remorse.

“The nightmare is over. We have a healer here and my food will give you time,” said Annie, and the ogre bent down so that he could take her frail hand in his large ones.

“Thank you, ma’am. No one wanted to send us a healer. You are just ogres, they said, it is better if you all died. But, we must be under a lucky star today. For the six of you to have come,” and the ogre placed a kiss on Annie’s hand and left.

“Nyle, can you heal them all from this stamina pox?” Asked Annie. Nyle pressed two fingers below his chin and appeared thoughtful.

“I guess, if they have the proper herbs. Stamina pox and anorexia are one and the same. These people need a dietician, not a healer. But, I suppose that I know enough to get them on better meal plans. Provided they can really be taught how to make stamina enriching food,” Annie smiled faintly.

Yes, the situation was grim, but everyone could make mana rich food. Not instantly, like someone with her power, and not with the same effects, for the food will have weaker ones, but they could still do it and Annie was sure that they could get the ogres back on their feet.