As Grom, Ellen and Syril walked to the gate where they were to meet to continue their way through the caverns Bill had died in, a small boy ran up to them. He was well dressed, and had a face redden by recent tears.

  “Excuse me sirs and—” he began.

  “No side quests,” Grom and Syril said in unison, interrupting him and continuing on.

  “What?” Ellen asked in shock, stopping. “Excuse them, what’s your problem?”

  “I’ve lost my cat ma’am,” the boy said, sobs creeping back into his voice. “He’s been gone for days.”

  “Don’t do it Ellen,” Syril warned. “Nothing good ever comes of it.”

  “You two are heartless,” she said, plucking a shed hair off of the boy’s clothes.

  “It was an orange cat?” She asked, confirming the color and receiving a nod.

  With an arcane gesture and a quick word, she cast a spell. An clear glassy sphere appeared above her hand with the hair trapped within.

  “This will last through the rest of the day. It will turn green as you get closer to your cat,” she assured the boy, handing him the orb which then hovered over his outstretched hand. “Don’t go trespassing or anything.”

  “Thank you, ma’am!” the boy said with hope in his eyes and then he was off.

  “You really shouldn’t have done that,” Grom told Ellen. “That’s how you end up fleeing town and changing your name.”

  “You two are being paranoid, what’s the worst that can happen?”

  ***

  “Equipment check,” Syril called at the gate once they were all present.

  Everyone let out a groan of annoyance.

  “Yes, yes. I’m no fun,” Syril said, “Now who has the rope?”

  Bill rose his hand, gesturing to the rope hanging from the back of his pack.

  “It’s not the cheap hemp stuff again is it?” Syril asked.

  “It was one-tenth the price and we never used it!” Linar protested.

  The continued through the check lists, few items called out not receiving some sort of complaint about their need.

  “And that brings us to rations,” Syril said, turning to Linar.

  “Yeap,” the rogue said, patting a sack over his shoulder. “I got them right here.”

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  Syril was about to wrap it up at that, but Linar kept going.

  “I got a great deal on them too.”

  Syril narrowed his eyes at Linar.

  “How great a deal?”

  “Hal—twenty five percent off what we budgeted for,” Linar said, after adjusting the discount to account for his cut on the savings.

  “Let’s see them,” Syril said.

  Linar begrudgingly opened the sack, revealing individually packed rations, each preserved with magic to keep the food as hot and fresh as they’d been when they’d been made.

  Syril picked one, holding it up to the group.

  The meal was half the size as he expected and fit easily in the palm of his hand.

  “These are for halflings!” Syril said, exacerbated.

  “And gnomes!” Linar corrected, as if it helped his case. “Dwarves too I suppose.”

  “Bah! I wouldn’t bet on it,” Grom called out.

  “Go buy more,” Syril said, throwing the ration back at him.

  ***

  “Who brought the map?” Syril asked as they stood at a crossroads trying to determine which way to go.

  “You didn’t put a map on the check list,” Ellen pointed out, from where she sat atop the spectral mount she’d summoned.

  “That can’t be,” Syril said, “You always need a map.”

  Syril pulled out the list and scanned it.

  “Right here,” he said, pointing to a line. “’Map to caves – Linar.’”

  All eyes turned to the rogue.

  “What?” he asked, “I don’t have one.”

  “Then why did you say you did when we went over the check list?” Syril demanded.

  “Well obviously I didn’t want to get yelled at again after the ration situation, so I held up a random piece of parchment and said it was the map.”

  “We need a map!” Syril shouted, his voice becoming a little shrill in anger.

  “We didn’t use one last time, we got here fine,” Linar pointed out.

  “You weren’t here last time!” Syril said, shouting now. “In fact, you sent a courier in your place, who got lost, and when he eventually found us, we lent him our map so he could get back. The map you were supposed to get back from him.”

  “Well… what about the time before that, I could have sworn we didn’t have a map then,” Linar said, squinting one eye as if it would help him remember.

  “We had a map!” everyone shouted in unison.

  “Fine, fine,” Linar said, lifting his hands up in surrender, “That’s on me. Why don’t we stop for a break and come up with a plan. I kept some of those halfling rations for snacks.”

  A break was had, and eventually a plan was decided. Using the same skill she’d used to help the young boy find he cat, Ellen created a tracker from a key they’d found inside the ruins deeper into the cave they’d been exploring but not yet found the use for. Following this arrow, they were able to learn they’d already missed the turn off, and it was night by the time they arrived at their destination.

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