Jane couldn’t fall asleep. She stayed up virtually all night, somewhat terrified of what she’d done.

Though a monster, that thing looked like a person, she burned it. And the man killed it.

She’d heard about monsters that could mimic speech before. They disorient travelers, backstab them, and ultimately eat them. However- that thing wasn’t mimicking speech. It was clearly sentient and definitely….

With the thoughts clouding her mind, she didn’t even realize how bright it was.

“Morning!” The man chuckled, waking up. He’d slept fine.

“Morning…” Jane said, watching the distant frozen ice.

Her magic, particularly her ice spells were special. They didn’t just freeze things, no. Those spells froze things indefinitely, or at the very least a week depending on the size. But she never knew her ice spells were ancient magic. No wonder her grandmother had advised her not to use ice magic unless it was absolutely necessary….

With the large spell Jane unleashed, she concluded the thing would start melting around today evening.

But then what? Will those things come back to haunt her?

“Worried about something?” The man asked. He noticed how Jane was still trembling a little. How her face was pale and how she stared in fright.

“That thing from last night.”

“I told you it’s fine. They won’t bother you for literally half a century.”

“And then what?”

“You deal with again. Not that big of a deal. Just get stronger or rich and hire strong people to protect you.”

“But this stress and-”

“But you’re alive, right? Doesn’t that matter more?” He stared. “This is life. There’s always danger involved. Who knows what might happen on our way to the next village, let alone the next city. We don’t even know if you’ll survive this decade, let alone this half century; so quit worrying about the future.”

Jane sighed, standing up. “Well, you’re certainly not helping,” she shrugged. But she did feel a little better. “But thanks.”

Their journey resumed with the goal to reach the nearest village by evening.

They would have reached the village by the next day, but since they walked nearly all night, they were ahead. Jane didn’t want to admit it but the maggots did play a vital role in quickening this journey.

But Jane understood one thing a bit too well. From now on, even if she knew the maggots weren’t set to get her, she could not rest. She could not just ignore it. they would haunt her forever. However, just like the man said, she was still alive and that mattered more.

So walked, they walked.

Jane expected a lot of problems along the way. Maybe new monsters or devastating disasters. Or maybe even a goblin ambush!

But she got nothing.

And reached the village safely without any issues whatsoever and by the afternoon too. Any issues other than just typical wobbliness thanks to her lack of sleep and appetite. She also felt a little sick.

“Nothing went wrong,” the man said.

“Yet.”

They stared at the village below. Medium large with maybe two-three hundred houses and some even double storied. They even had a waterwheel. This particular village was just next to a river.

Jane and the man happened to be on a hill watching over settlement of sorts. With all the flatland and trees and monsters around these parts, Jane thought the village would have a wall. But it didn’t.

There was no distinguishable wall or even a patrol. People were just going about their day like it didn’t even matter.

“Do monsters not come here?” Jane wondered.

“I don’t think so, no.”

“But there’s fresh water here.” And fresh food no less.

“There’s freshwater elsewhere.” The slope wasn’t very angular, so he casually walked down. “Besides, these people actually eat the monsters, so most just stay away.”

“Makes sense… I guess?” Jane wasn’t sure.

Just because they ate monsters didn’t mean the monsters wouldn’t- wait- “They eat monsters!?”

“Yeah. It’s not that big of a deal,” the man shrugged. “Monsters taste okay.”

“Didn’t you say they pack a lot of disease?”

“Goblins, yes. Almost all the rest, not so much. But just like wild game, you should always pay attention to whether your prey is diseased or not before actually butchering and eating it.”

Jane sighed. “Sure.”

Together they headed for the large village.

***

A normal village.

With normal people and normal things.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Quiet.

Too quiet.

“Why do I get this weird feeling?” Jane wondered.

“Who knows. Probably because you haven’t slept?”

Jane yawned. “Probably.”

There was no real entrance to the village. It was open from almost all sides. The people didn’t seem hostile, but they didn’t seem all that welcoming either.

“We should be able to sell some of our stuff here,” the man said.

“Too bad we left everything behind.”

“Not the peaches though, and-” And he gave the peachfluff a stare.

“Hell no!” Jane shielded the little critter like her life depended on it.

The man chuckled out loud. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”

But how much the man was kidding, Jane couldn’t tell. “Those were pretty delicious peaches, so can we keep some for the rest of the journey?”

“If they pay us enough, sure. If not, then anything for a bed and a roof, right?”

“I guess.”

They went over to the market area. It was late afternoon, so the village streets were bustling with activity. This place didn’t have carts going about on the streets but there were horses and large birds carrying people and goods around. Roads were mostly earth, so they were very dusty and often made Jane sneeze like crazy. She had to keep a rag in hand just for the nose juices.

It was annoying to say the least.

They went over to a fruit salesman. And offered five peaches. Pink, almost ripe, good enough to keep for at least a week.

“We’d like to sell these.”

The man eyed the goods, inspected them for a good minute. “Two copper a piece.”

“Pretty sure you can easily sell them for over 5 a piece,” the man said.

“So? I’m taking a big risk, no?”

“Fair enough,” the man shrugged.

And although Jane thought the deal was sealed, it was not. The man just went over to the next store and repeated the whole thing.

This store offered him 3 copper.

Unsatisfied the man took it to some other store and the whole thing repeated over and over again; the salesmen here were somewhat united. “3 copper isn’t so bad,” Jane said.

“Not good enough,” the man snorted, standing next to one of the fruit vendors. Eyeing the customers. “Four a piece, they’re really good; just picked them last night,” he spoke randomly to the customers. And he spoke in a very salesman like voice with a PR grin.

“I’ll take one,” and people were buying too!

Jane stared the whole time with somewhat of a conflicted gaze. Didn’t the people think this man in that absurd hat was somewhat sketchy at least? The fruits did look delicious though and most vendors were selling worse quality peaches for 5, 6 and some good quality ones for 7 copper a piece. So, Jane understood why some customers were more likely to just buy from this sketchy guy. What she didn’t understand though was the fact that none of the vendors tried to get in the way.

“They seem chill,” she said.

They just sold their last piece. They made a whopping 20 bronze. Enough for a night at the village inn and even a full course dinner.

“Would have been a whole different situation if we started selling our whole stock.”  He shrugged. “Getting late, let’s go.”

Evening. Some pyres were being lit and people were going back to their houses.

“Life’s different here compared to the cities. People go back way early,” Jane said.

“Course they do. People value family more than work here. Work’s pretty dull, you see.”

“Work’s dull everywhere,” Jane said. “Some people just value family more regardless.”

She thought back about her parents. Yeah, some people were just…

The man chuckled. “We disagree on that but I suppose that’s good. Discourse is good.”

“Heh,” Jane smirked.

The man smirked too. He was being an influence on the girl and he finally saw it himself. He didn’t care though. There was hardly four days of the journey remaining. And the rest of the path wasn’t going to be remotely as dangerous as before. the most dangerous part was over after all.

***

They booked a room. Just one double room. Apparently, the singles were all booked. And the double ones were 12 copper a piece, so they couldn’t take two.

“Well, that sucks,” Jane sat down inside their room.

The man and the Fluff was there.

It was a single room but with just two separate beds. A table, a glass and a jug. The window was shut tight and had somewhat of a tint to it. There was some mold on the corner of the room, but it was too late to change rooms now. They just had to live through it and hope to not cause any devastating disease.

“We can afford bread, soup and maybe some meat,” the man said. “Should I buy all of them?”

“No, just buy some for yourself. I’m really not feeling hungry. I’ll eat a peach and sleep.”

“Well then, I’ll be a little late in that case. Sleep well miss and be sure to lock up.”

“I will,” Jane snickered.

The man left, she locked up and delightfully ate her peach. It wasn’t fully ripe but it was tasty enough.

Once finished, she snuffed out the lamp and lied down.

Even the bed had somewhat of a smell. But she tried not to think about it.

A little lonely, far from home. “Spee!” But the fluff was keeping her company.

She didn’t know if this journey was the right thing to do. There was so much going wrong with it. And she was just dependent on the man. She basically a parasite at this point. And she had almost nothing to offer. What would she do at the end of the journey? Give her grandmother’s last memento?

Sigh.

I’ve to make some money.

But how? Hunt monsters, and sell them? That seemed to be about right. Maybe she could zap something super strong from a distance or crisp it and sell it and pay the man in full! Yeah, that should do it!

She was both excited, and tired… eventually the tired side won and she fell deep into slumberland.

.

..

…

Knock! Knock!

Jane mumbled something, waking up. she rubbed her eyes, waved a little and made it to the door half asleep.

She opened it and her sleepiness went out the closed window.

“SPEE!!” The fluffball woke up, and hissed instead of the typical purr.

The man had come back. But unlike the time when he left, now- his eyes were a little… red.