“Ew, why are you so stinky.” The little girl remarked towards her pet, disgusted at the fox. He was covered in a sticky liquid that looked like mud with green accents but smelled like rotten food mixed with cow manure.
Right now they were inside a swamp. The troupe had made a camp right besides a local village, since renting rooms for every member of their group would be ‘sinking deep into the pockets’ to say the least. The troupe was having a stop for repairing items and to buy supplies.
The supplies were already bought, however repairing weapons at the blacksmith or magical items at the local artificer would still take some time. The troupe were in dire need of repaired or new weapons, during their last fight most of the troupe (that didn’t have weapon stories) had to use old, rusty or broken weapons and armour.
She had found her spirit beast returning to her in this condition, he could be called filthy at best. After a few whimpers by the fox, she finally understood what happened to her pet. Turns out he was sleeping atop a wall belonging to the local barn before some mischievous children pushed him into the mud. It being a barn, the mud was mixed with all manner of disgusting materials.
“Well, you should’ve known better than to sleep besides a poop filled field. You absolute dum dum” However honestly, nobody would’ve known better. The most of the swamp stank with the smell of rot and pestilence. At first she had almost fainted by the smell alone, but she now got used to it having lost any sense of smell (temporarily).
Even though it smelled like a plague’s brew pot, it did not harbour any sort of truly dangerous diseases, only some common diseases that could be healed with a couple days of rest. Still, she wondered if making a village and living in it here was actually worth it, even with all the benefits.
The village named ‘Heindria’ was a major exporter of all kinds of herbs, medicinal, for excess, or for combat. The nutritious and mana filled mud and dirt in the swamp made for a prosperous herbs and plants growing site. The village was named after the endemic species that lived here, a blue worm that was as thick and long as an arm.
The omnivorous worms’ presence had a vital key in making the swamp as perfect for agriculture as it is. The worms would mix the mud with their manure filled with mana and nutrients, courtesy of their diet of mana stones, decomposing bodies, and dead plant matter. The beast also acted as a decomposer of dead things, even beating the fungi and bacteria present here.
Without the worms, the famous (or infamous) Heindria’s Swamp would not exist. They were simply too vital to the ecosystem.
The village here cultivate the best quality of herbs only thanks to their benefactors, the worms. And so, for every very high quality potion or dish, would always have an ingredient or two from this very settlement. Not only that, thanks to the ease of planting and cultivating here, buying herbs from Heindria’s Village was a more ‘affordable’ option. Hence their (almost) total immunity to any sort of taxes or government interference.
“Come on lets get you cleaned, I’m not going to tolerate a stinky soggy bag of fur following me everywhere.”
Etta dragged her fox to a patch of stone, not wanting for her spirit to get dirty again when cleaning him. She called forth the water from inside the mud itself separating the two with ease, with her amount of earth affinity she could even separate a miniscule sand particle that had gotten mixed with hard clay.
She showered the kit with the now purified water, inciting a sense of anger and helplessness inside Apita. As a fire oriented beast spirit the act of being covered with water was demoralising, thanks to his innate dislike of the element. Alas, he was nothing in front of his master’s will.
Having rinsed most of the mud off with pressurised water, now it was time to get rid of that disgusting smell. She took out a bar of primitive soap from her crude leather pouch. She had made the bag with the help a kindly troupe member who knew how to sew. Her soap bar was made from ash, animal fat and dried flowers. It wasn’t the good stuff but it would serve its purpose here.
Foaming up a piece of broken off soap, she scrubbed the fox with force. The fox was powerless to stop Etta’s assault, he whimpered in sadness. The fox was now covered with a foam, faintly smelling like flowers.
Then Etta again slammed the fox with a glob of water, rinsing away all the extra foam and soap. The fox was a still very wet, but by lighting his own fur on fire the problem quickly fixed the dilemma. Finally, the fox was now a clean bag of fur who didn’t smell like the dumpsters anymore.
“There you go, isn’t that a whole lot better. Now lets go do the tasks they set us out to do, I’ll need you to drag the stuff, got it?”
“Huf!” A simple response was given. The fox was reluctant to his job, but the promise of beast cores was worth it.
“Come on Apita! Just a bit more.” During the past couple days she has been doing menial jobs for other people, in exchange for favours or small amounts of coins. Things such as washing their clothes, fetching items, or feeding their mounts, those small work required time and most people were too lazy to do them.
Her leather pouch was the result of calling a favour with her tiefling roommate, plus she would need the money to buy items, equipment or trinkets that would be useful to her. Every piece of coin was precious in her eyes, especially since she had nothing when she left her old home.
She is with her fox dragging a big basket of herbs to the local apothecary, the quest was courtesy an old farmer. His son was sick today so someone else had to bring today’s shipment of herbs to the village clinic. The payment was a small payment of three copper coins and a bunch of dried minor healing herbs.
“*Thup* Yay! Job done!” With a dull thud the crate was pushed to the wall of the apothecary. She headed towards the door, streams of coloured fog wafted out of the shack’s gaps. If she hadn’t already lost her sense of smell already she would have probably fainted. Its white and red walls was easy to spot from afar.
“Hello! I’m here to bring some herbs for the doctor.” She knocked the door thrice, she was sure this was her destination, judging by the obvious fumes leaking out. She heard the muffled sound of rushed footsteps coming towards the door. “*Tch* *Creeak*” The door’s rusty hinges cried out as it was opened.
The person who opened the door was an older middle aged woman, a few strands of white hair flowing down her black mane. Her figure was tall, almost having to duck to come out of the door. Two bunny ears bent below the door’s frame.
“Huh? Where’s the delivery boy?” The tall woman looked around her, not finding Etta’s short frame. She fixed her crooked goggles, still trying to find the one who came to her, and still failing to find them.
“I’m down here! And I am a girl!” The little girl jumped up and down while waving her arms above her, trying to increase her height and catch the bunny woman’s attention. Her heart hurt a tiny bit at being too short for people to even her, she was insulted but it didn’t show on her face.
“Oh there you are! Sorry little one, usually Mr Crocker’s son would ship them to me. With his high voice I thought you were him.” The patted the little girl’s head softly. She took a paper from Etta’s hand and used magic to burn her signature into it. She lifted the box (that Etta struggled to pull) with much ease.
“Little one, I haven’t seen you before. Are you with that merchant troupe that’s making camp besides the village?”
“Yes ma’am, though I’m not a true member. Just hitchhiking till we reach the capital city.” Etta again felt her heart twitch at the woman strength.
“Then how about you come inside for a bit. I’ll make you some tea, you can bring the receipt to that old man later. I insist”
The woman didn’t even wait for an answer, using force magic to pull the brown hair along behind her as they strode along the house’s interior. With every step the herb mist got thicker, by the time she reached the living room she started to smell again due to the sheer pungentness of the smell.
Etta sat on a floor pillow besides a small table set on the ground. She saw a big stone mortar in the middle of the house, the colourful crushed and grinded herbs inside it the source of the pungent smog. The bunnywoman placed the wooden crate besides the mortar. Then she proceeded hastily to brew a kettle of suspiciously blue tea.
The woman sat opposite of her, pouring them both a cup of blue tea. Etta took a sip…… ‘Oh god! it tastes so bitter, what who serves this to a guest.’ She almost recoiled in shock but managed to control herself at the last moment. “Hihi, you didn’t expect it to be so bitter did you?” The woman grinned slightly sensing Etta’s shock.
“Sorry for making you go through that tea honey, though it does make for a good relaxant. I actually wanted to ask you for a favour, or quest if you prefer that word instead.” The woman actually wasn’t lying, her muscles began relaxing, all her soreness receding.
“A quest?” “I want you to fetch me a Heindria, the big blue worm. I can’t find one myself since I still have too much to do here, and the workers for hire would accidentally scare away the worms and they too high rates”
“But I’ll pay you three silvers for a live one”
‘Three silvers! That’s a whole nine meals or six nights at an inn! 90 whole copper coins!’ Etta thought silently; her face already lit up at the mention of the reward. Seeing her reaction the woman giggled again.
“Deal! I go do it right away!” The girl jumped up and dashed outside.
With her receipt in hand, she was more than eager to get that reward. Even if it takes lots of effort, even if she comes back smelling like cow dump.
The bunny eared woman stood in her doorway, leaning on her doorframe she smiled worriedly. 'That girl definitely will get into trouble *sigh*' She remarked softly.
