After the dwarves finished their work, Lucius, Opa Dwarf entertained the heroes led by Alex for a meal. They even took out their best stock of alcohol and slaughtered the livestock that had fled into the forest, due to the goblin attack earlier. The dwarfs also brought several jars full of gold honey that they collected at the hives of the mountain range.After the meal, they all went into the living room to drink. The dwarf king gave a bottle of ale to each of the adventurers. Even Gremio was there.‘This seems like a nice family gathering. I should get closer to them,’ thought Alex.He walked to Lucius and the dwarves, sat down in front of the fireplace, and sipped a sip of the strong liquor that the dwarves offered him.Lucius noticed his guest sitting among them and raised an eyebrow slightly. He smiled and then gestured for Alex to sit closer.Alex approached Lucius and sat right next to him and grinned as he felt the fireplace heat radiating in his side.Seeing the leader sittin
Salieri finally asked the leader, "My music show is over, don't you want to go back to the village?"Alex nodded his head and immediately replied, "Okay, let's go back together!"The two men then led the children outside to walk back to the village. When they arrived, the children hugged both Salieri and Alex, thanking him for their songs while asking Salieri to sing more of his songs next time."You are a good musician, my friend!" said a cheerful little girl.When they arrived at the village again, Alex found from a distance, Gremio still looked gloomy. He also drank alone. As soon as Alex arrived, ya gaped at how many bottles were around the feet of his friend who was sitting gloomily. "Damn it, Man... how many bottles have you finished? How come you're not sober? I just finished a hangover trip. The alcohol kicks hard!" Alex exclaimed as he lightly punched Gremio's upper arm. The short man just snorted and replied arrogantly, "A drink like this would never get me drunk. This is j
After the departure of Alex, Gremio and the heroes party, the remaining dwarven folk were left on the village square staring at the place where they disappeared from sight with puzzled expressions.Somehow, the atmosphere of the entire village was changed by what happened during the last few hours.But Alex took no notice to turn his head back. Instead, he kept on looking forward and walking. Soon, they arrived near the entrance of the valley. At first, nobody uttered any word, even they were still curious of why they would enter the valley."Let's go!" said Gremio as he walked toward the road at the east part of the valley.The others followed after him, eventhough Salieri and Rasheed still had no idea of what they were roaming about.As they reached the valley entrance, Alex said, "Alright, everyone, I will let Gremio to explain our ongoing mission."Everyone nodded their heads silently, even they didn't understand a thing that Alex was saying.Gremio didn't seem to expect get Alex
Salieri nodded in agreement and walked with Alex as the two heroes started running back to the palace.Alex and his companions were walking back through the woods when they heard footsteps coming closer. They hid behind the bushes, hoping they won't be seen.Soon, the source of the footsteps became clear: it belonged to a unicorn who was galloping through the field.When she passed the bushes, they saw she moved forward with her tail wagging, they could hear her purring. She was clearly happy and enjoying herself."Whoa! That' s a beautiful animal! What is she called?" whispered Salieri."She's named Freya. Her favorite color is red and she loves to roam around and eat anything," explained Gremio."Do unicorns eat plants?" asked Rasheed.Gremio thought for a few seconds, before replying, "Yes actually they do. So... Freya eats all kinds of vegetation. Freya seems to be quite intelligent, maybe even smarter than most horses or cows.""How can a Freya make a human sick? Is it the same w
Finally the party agreed to begin their mission. Except Helene who needed to stay at the Shrine for administration matter, and Pandora who was nowhere to be seen.“We’re incomplete without Hel and Pan, so that means we have to work hard for their share as well,” motivated Alex to his companions. “Prepare yourselves well, we don’t know what’s lurking inside the forest.”“Yeah, you guys don’t know a thing, but I do. Please stop lumping me together with you guys,” responded Stella with air of fake arrogance. She was just trying to be funny, but Gremio took it the wrong way.“Typical of the elves, their ego is as high as their pointy ears,” retorted Gremio, resorting to body shaming behavior.“Hey, what did you say, you midget? Want to have a go, huh?” reacted Stella who lost her temper after hearing Gremio’s bigoted remark.Salieri went in between the two of them and attempted to diffuse the ticking time bomb.“Come on fellas, we’re here as a team, please stop in-fighting among us. Stell
Ignoring Alex’s astonishment of finding the fact that her daughter was a princess, Stella’s mother threw him a question.“Pardon the late introduction, I am Stella’s mother, Martha,” said the mature elf. “It’s quite rare for humans to wander around the Elf Forest, mind to let me know what brings you here?”“My name is Alex, Ma’am. The reason why I am here is to find the flowers unique to this place. Perhaps you’ve heard about it,” explained Alex.“Well, if you agree to tell me the name, perhaps I can be of some help to you guys.”Alex’s eyes shone brightly to hear that offer. Witnessing the elf rangers’ hostility back then, he didn’t expect any cooperation from the local residents. Surely this brought his mood up to the roof.“That’s great, Ma’am! The flower we’re looking for is known as Randaelwiz flower!”Martha’s expression turned into that of disbelief and a hint of suspicion.“By Randaelwiz flower, you mean that Randaelwiz flower?” confirmed Martha. “Interesting fellow, aren’t yo
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!”The rooster’s crow was the first sound that woke Alex that morning. He was quite surprised to find out that even in the depth of this lush forest, there was still a rooster around. What a bizarre forest, he thought.Alex sat and stretched out his hands while yawning widely. Then he rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked around. It was Stella beside him.IT WAS STELLA BESIDE HIM?!“Damn, what happened last night? Surely there was nothing going on, right?” asked Alex to himself in panic. He became more nervous when he realized his upper body was naked.“Rasheed saw nothing,”That statement caught Alex off guard. With his trademark straight expression, Rasheed attempted to calm Alex down, which ultimately made Alex more flustered than before.“Nothing? Uh, haha, what is nothing?” responded Alex awkwardly.“Urgh... five more minutes...” Stella squirmed, making Alex felt more inconvenient and quickly grabbed his shirt to cover his exposed chest.Just when the things start
“Human, do you also speak to your king like that?”Olivia opened the conversation as the trio began their journey to the nest of Giant Azure Crow’s nest.“Uh, yeah? Is there anything wrong with that?” replied our Hero with a genuine curious look whilst at the same time keeping his fast step. He must know that their destination was still quite far.“Without any respect nor high regard?” followed Olivia. “Humans are such brutes, true as the rumor says.”“Well, I prefer to call myself straightforward, or direct to the point,” uttered Alex. “And for your record, not all humans speak like that to their king, so I suggest you quit with your stereotyping, Ollie.”“Don’t give me such a weird nickname, human!” retaliated Olivia who actually found that nickname quite cute and lovely. But of course, she couldn’t let him know about that.“And stop calling me ‘human’, I have a name and it’s Alex,” countered Alex apathetically, increasing his pace to secretly give the elf duo some time to reminisce