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It's early evening as Elan and his new friend Twilly make their way down the road to the western gate of Falconreach. A stone wall surrounds the town, with thatched roofs peeking out above it and the stone Guardian Tower standing high on a hill above the rest.
A cheerful sign by the side of the road says "Falconreach" and then, in smaller writing, "Heroes welcome!"
"Probably not, but Twillies not a water elementals expert and I doesn't know what brand new baby water elementals is like...they gets bigger and tougher and harder to kill when they grows up? And sometimes mean, I guess."
"That happens to a lot of people," says Elan sagely.
He remembers something Vaarsuvius told him about where baby water elementals come from and decides to think about something else instead.
"Well, if it isn't being mean right now I think it should be safe to leave it alone."
Also, it's cute! Weird-cute, but still cute.
The small water elemental squelches away out of sight, and they continue upriver towards the growing roar of the rapids.
"Robina likes to hang out by the waterfall!" Twilly explains. "If she's not there, we's look by the really big oak tree next."
"Okay!" agrees Elan.
He… noticed that Ash was disappointed, but doesn't know how to address that. He should probably try, at least.
"I think it's better to defend yourself than to pick fights. Sometimes you need to ambush a bad guy or at least surprise attack them, but you're still usually defending someone, right?"
"Yeah. I know it's dishonourable to start fights for no reason, and I have to be honourable because I'm going to be a knight. And I know it's...kind of bad that I was hoping it would attack us so we could fight it. But it would have been really exciting!"
Elan almost says something like well, it's just a baby, so probably not that exciting and then considers how he would have felt if someone had said that about a level-appropriate goblin encounter when he was first or second level.
"New challenges are always exciting," he says instead. "Have the other Guardians let you fight any monsters before?"
He shakes his head. "I've never been in a real fight before," he admits. "The Guardians won't let me join until I'm older, not even to train with them! There's no way they'd let me fight alongside them. That's why it's so awesome that you're letting me tag along! Maybe if I get some real combat experience, the Guardians will change their minds."
Elan hums.
"That makes sense to me. Most of the adventurers I know started when they were adults, but I know my girlfriend joined the thieves' guild her dad worked for when she was like sixteen or seventeen, and my best friend's little sister is like third level and she's sixteen… well, she might have had a birthday in the last nine months. And I think our party wizard started studying wizardry when they were like 40, which for an elf is, uh…"
He finger counts and then shakes his head.
"They're like a hundred thirty something now and they're in the same age category as me. Anyway, I can see why you wanna prove yourself. How do you train normally, if nobody lets you train with them?"
"I, uh, mostly just practice against a training dummy. But sometimes passing adventurers give me tips! That's why I practice in the square right outside the inn."
The stream bends around a thicket, and as they round the bend, the waterfall is before them. Water crashes down from a small cliff into a pool, before flowing downstream back the way they came.
(It looks like the sort of waterfall that might have a secret cave entrance hidden behind it.)
An auburn-haired teenage girl, about 17 or so, is sitting under a tree near the waterfall, atop a heap of boxes. She's dressed in green, lightly armoured, and has a bow lying on the grass next to her.
She waves cheerfully when she spots them. "Hi Twilly! Who are your friends?"
"Whoa, cool!"
Elan points excitedly at the waterfall, not noticing the girl until she speaks.
"Is that your friend?" he asks Twilly.
"Twilly says that you know lots about the Surewould Forest and maybe where the sneevils have forts! We're—"
A lone sneevil is skipping along humming to themself, oblivious to being watched.
In their arms is a familiar black-and-gold box.
Holy cow! Elan points at the sneevil too.
"That's the thing we're looking for!" he whispers. "The box!"
The sneevil passes under a tree—
—and, WHOMP, a trap goes off. In an instant, it's hoisted into the air by a snare around its foot, to dangle upside-down. The box falls from its grasp and tumbles to the floor.
Robina, having anticipated the timing, darts over to grab the box.
"Hah! Got another one! Looks fancy, too. Did you say this is yours?"
"It looks a lot like it… Twilly, what do you think? You're the expert here."
Either way, he keeps his eyes on it because he doesn't want it to get stolen again.
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