Side Quest: Ducky Delivery
In this story, you are Ebi, a bright-eyed strygi beginning their adventuring journey!
"We'll hold them back while you grab the relic! Go!"
Keari's signal rang clear as day, even in the cacophany that surrounded you. Lights danced across the walls of the sunken temple as spells flared against tooth and claw, each dazzling flash clearing the path forward — and you knew exactly what you were after.
Tripping over a stone on the path sent you crashing from your action-packed daydreams, back into a far more peaceful reality with an ungraceful thud, muffled only by your puffed-out feathers. You managed to teeter off the path before making contact with the ground, and you thanked the clumpy patches of grass beneath you for breaking your fall.
Out of breath, with aching wings, you reached your destination: a small building with a welcome sign hung above the door, but no sign to indicate who exactly was welcoming you inside. Location Discovered: Lilipond Acres As you approached the wooden gate at the edge of the path, you shared another wordless look with the farmer who led you here, as you both silently asked one another, "how are we opening this, while holding all of these?"
Hearing those words aimed at you stirred something in your heart that you couldn't quite place. Pride? No, that word felt too conceited. You weren't the experienced adventurer from your daydreams. In fact, you hadn't even gone on a proper adventure yet — that's why you were headed down that countryside path in the first place! The Adventurer's Guild in Iverra was stop number one on the path to adventure, and this delivery thankfully brought you even closer, and much faster than your natural pace would have.
You were an experienced adventurer, surrounded, still, by even more experienced — no, renowned — adventurers from the Reliquary League, and it took every ounce of professionalism in your body and soul to not dance with joy when they recruited you for this mission. You steeled yourself in that moment, knowing that this was your chance to prove yourself to the big leagues. Locked in battle with the beasts of the depths, your party fought valiantly to grant you an opening, and there it was, like a neon sign in the dark: the opportunity you were looking for!
The temple relic was in sight, but a touch farther than a hop, skip, and a jump away; you figured that if you performed a mix of the three with a bit of gusto added in, you could grab the relic and fall back before anyone even realized you'd leapt in! Hop! Pressing forward, you nimbly dodged stray attacks as you hopped from platform to platform, bouncing on some heads as you went. Skip! You know, this was actually really fun! You skipped along the larger platform as you calculated your next move, but all you could really think about was your blood pumping! Jump! This is it! You made your final leap and... you grabbed it! The relic was in your hands! Amazing Awesome Super Cool Relic added to inventory.
Tripping over a stone on the path sent you crashing from your action-packed daydreams, back into a far more peaceful reality with an ungraceful thud, muffled only by your puffed-out feathers. You managed to teeter off the path before making contact with the ground, and you thanked the clumpy patches of grass beneath you for breaking your fall.
Man... I knew that had to be too good to be true, you thought, slumping into yourself a little bit. Instead of getting back up and continuing along the path, you took a moment to sit still and look at the lands that surrounded you. Green fields stretched far in every direction; you were in prime farmland, with humble homesteads scattered all throughout the landscape. Region Discovered: Brightfield You quite enjoyed the peace, but you longed for the thrill of your daydreams. Not much action to be found out here, really.
Caught up in chasing after your interrupted fantasy, you scarcely noticed as an anseni farmer toddled past you, overburdened with wingfuls of pumpkins. You blinked a few times in bewilderment as they passed by, noting that there was certainly no one behind you as you walked this path — they must have been keeping a serious pace to have caught up like this! Or, have you just been daydreaming for so long?
As you began to shift from your grassy seat, the rustling of your equipment caught the farmer's attention and, in turning around to investigate, they stumbled and lost grip on a portion of their harvest. It was quite unfortunate to watch, really, as several smaller pumpkins clattered to the ground, and rolled off in different directions. For a moment, you watched as the anseni panicked, unable to decide which direction to reach first, but you quickly emerged from your daze as one rolled right up to your feet.
"I'm— oh, let me just— ah, sorry!" You stood up, pumpkin in hand, and began gathering the rest that were still on the ground. Farmer's Pumpkins (x6) added to inventory. Ending up with quite the collection, you wondered how this farmer could haul these and more with such haste. You both stood there for a while, staring at each other in silence, until you awkwardly cleared your throat. "Are you, um... from around here? Making a delivery?"
"Oh!" The farmer's exclamation was followed by no words, no answers for your curious mind. Instead, they simply turned around to resume their initial course, the swing of their head gesturing to follow along. A time-sensitive delivery? You didn't have too much time to think about it as you quickly realized that the farmer was, in fact, a very fast walker all along.
Out of breath, with aching wings, you reached your destination: a small building with a welcome sign hung above the door, but no sign to indicate who exactly was welcoming you inside. Location Discovered: Lilipond Acres As you approached the wooden gate at the edge of the path, you shared another wordless look with the farmer who led you here, as you both silently asked one another, "how are we opening this, while holding all of these?"
This was a most curious conundrum, but luckily not one to be pondered for too long, as the door to the building ahead creaked open and a flock of fledgling anseni poured out. The moment they laid eyes on the two of you at the gate with produce in hand, their little faces beamed with excitement. "The pubkins!"
In their excitement, half of the flock scrambled back inside and the other half stumbled over themselves and one another in a race to the gate. Cute as they were, you nearly fell over in exhaustion as the ducklings fumbled with the gate, only managing to pull it open after a hard-fought battle against both gravity and dexterity. You prepared to trudge forward, but the moment the gate flew open, you felt the swarm of ducklings grabbing at the pumpkins you were holding, leaving you with only the largest to carry inside. Farmer's Pumpkins (x5) removed from inventory.
"Nana Liliwen! The pubkins are here!" Summoned to the doorway was another, much older, anseni, who nudged the remaining ducklings forward to take more pumpkins from your farmer friend, and they did so with smiles and laughter, dancing around the two of you as you walked over to the building. Wonderful scents wafted out from the interior, and your stomach grumbled at a volume you yet swear could be heard from the farthest farm on the horizon. You felt a twinge of embarrassment over this, and it must have shown, because the older anseni at the door greeted you with a caring smile and gestured inside. "Don't you worry, young one. You and Farmer Emrys are just in time for supper, and helpers get an extra share of dessert!"
"Oh, no, I—" There was no room for arguments here, as the tidal wave of anseni drew you inside, and the final pumpkin was claimed, to be set alongside the rest in a giant pile on the kitchen floor. Farmer's Pumpkin removed from inventory. Cooking was happening in full force in this house, and its interior buzzed with gleeful chatter. Questions flew at you left and right from the curious young anseni; it was clear that strygi weren't common guests in their home, and they were excited to get to know you, "a real adventurer!"
Hearing those words aimed at you stirred something in your heart that you couldn't quite place. Pride? No, that word felt too conceited. You weren't the experienced adventurer from your daydreams. In fact, you hadn't even gone on a proper adventure yet — that's why you were headed down that countryside path in the first place! The Adventurer's Guild in Iverra was stop number one on the path to adventure, and this delivery thankfully brought you even closer, and much faster than your natural pace would have.
You continued to search your mind for the right description for what you felt and landed on... hope? Relief? Hopelief? Your dreams were always filled with vivid images of high-stakes missions and thrilling battles, and most days you felt like that was the only way to be recognized as an adventurer. However, a new warmth filled you as you sat in this cozy home, with meals cooked with love set on the table, and surrounded by excited kids who are elated to be interviewing their first real adventurer.
"Maybe an adventure really can be as small as helping a farmer deliver some pumpkins to a loving grandmother and her flock of ducklings."
This was so fun, I loved the format. My favourite bits were things getting added and removed from the inventory. :D What a cute story. I love Ebi already.
Thank you! The idea for the inventory notes came to me suddenly, and I'm so happy with them! :D I also love Ebi. She desperately needs some art and her own article soon.
Seek a new dawn, in Malkora!
The Feral Sovereign sleeps peacefully, but will return...