I feel my jaw drop, again, as I stare dumbly at the quest listed on my Heart Scroll. I’ve heard of quests, of course. Every village, town, and city in the kingdom has a Quest Crystal in the central square, placed inside an octagonal gazebo.

  That’s one of the first things they teach when they start to tell kids about the Heart Scroll, skills, and other skill related topics. The biggest shock to me is that my Heart Scroll can create its own quests, just for me.

  “I just got a quest…”

  My voice is so quiet that I’m not sure Brick hears me, but my mind is elsewhere at the moment, so I don’t immediately check for a reaction. Brick must have heard me, however, because when I glance up, his face looks very similar to what I imagine my own to look like right now.

  “Can I—” His voice cracks and he clears his throat, showing his youth in a way that causes a small, imperceptible quirk of my lips. “Can I, um… see?”

  His head lowers in shame as he rubs the back of his neck. Although it is taboo to ask to see someone’s heart scroll, I trust Brick with my life. There’s not a single thing I wouldn’t do for him. He’s earned that much from me, at the bare minimum.

  “Of course! We’re family, so there’s nothing for you to be ashamed of, Brick. Besides, wasn’t I just telling you about my whole main page a few minutes ago?”

  I smile warmly as I turn my Heart Scroll to face him. Anybody can look at anyone else’s Heart Scroll, but it can’t leave the hands of the person it belongs to. I think that’s one way that Mother keeps things balanced.

  “Gaio’s good graces,”

  Brick’s swear comes unbidden as he reads the contents of my ‘Quests’ page.

  “I can ‘ardly believe my own eyes, but ‘ere it is, starin’ me in the face! Ya know we gotta do it, right? That reward is too good to pass up! A full Skill Credit, and five copper rings to boot! That’ll feed ya for almost a week, without ‘avin to dig through trash or steal for your meals!”

  I chuckle good-naturedly as I push my Heart Scroll back into my chest and unsummon my box, a broad smile forming on my face.

  “Of course we’re doing it! There’s no way I’d miss out on a personalized quest!”

  As soon as I’m done putting everything away, I feel a different kind of vibration, this time located in my head. As I turn to look left and then right, the vibration continues facing deeper into the alley.

  I stop to ponder a bit about this new sensation. I get the sense that I’m supposed to follow this feeling, but the alleys aren’t a safe place to be wandering around in. After a few moments of hesitation, I decide to do the right thing, and ask Brick for his input.

  “Hey Brick, I have this feeling that we need to go this way. I’m not sure where it’ll lead us, so I’m split between going along with it or abandoning the quest altogether. This involves both of us, so I wanted to ask you whether or not you want to continue.” I give him a smile as I look between him and the dark alley ahead.

  Brick seems to think about this for a while, before resolutely nodding. “If I know ya at all, and I’m sure I know ya at least a bit,” he winks at me, “yer just itchin’ to go on this adventure. I don’t wanna hold ya back on my account. It may not be the surest of successes, but if things look like they’re hittin’ the shittin’ pit, we turn right back and play it safe. How’s that sound to ya?”

  He doesn’t look nearly as convinced as he sounds, but it warms my heart that he’s willing to put aside his own worries and fears in order to help me experiment with my skill tree.

  “Okay! When we get there, could you look like a rough and tumble tough guy? It said this guy is unruly. Just look at him the way you used to stare down my bullies. That ought to have some effect.”

  I flash him a, hopefully, disarming smile, putting my all into convincing the kind-hearted youth, despite my own inhibitions.

  “If you’re sure…” Brick’s momentary pause is telling though he’s already following behind me before I get too far away. “You know I’m no good in a real fight.”

  “There shouldn’t be a real fight,” I retain my gleaming grin, patting his shoulder reassuringly. “If there is, we’ll just hoof it out of there like you said, no biggie!”

  “Alright… if ya say so… I hope he’s not too unruly.”

  His voice is soft, with hints of doubt and resignation. I can really tell he’s reluctant as a mule to go along with my quest, but he seems to be willing for now. His enthusiasm for the quest must have been quashed by the fact that ‘Old Man Smitty’ is somewhere deeper into the alleys. Even though he’s big and burly, darkness has never been Brick’s friend.

  I follow the buzzing in my head until we reach the far end of the alley. It’s dark here, with the smell of piss and vomit lingering everywhere, the walls and ground covered in stains that stand out enough to almost be seen through the darkness.

  I gag on the stench, and I hear Brick trying to suppress his own coughing fit, the scent of shit permeating everything around us. But the biggest issue I’m having is that the feeling is trying to guide me straight through the wall. There might be a slight angle towards the right, but I could also be imagining that. Either way, I decide to turn toward the slight indication.

  Shit, I was hoping it would direct me in a more detailed way, but once again my shitty luck has shown its face.

  Immediately after choosing a direction, I walk headlong into an unseen spider web…

  I scream.

  I’m not ashamed to say that it was not a manly scream. It was a high pitched, bloodcurdling, ‘something is trying to kill me’ shriek of utter terror.

  “Get it off! Get it off!” I’m not even sure if a spider is actually on me, but I swipe my hands through my hair, all the way down my body. At least I have the cognitive capability to not drop into the refuse and roll around.

  “What?! What’s going on?! Are you okay?” Brick’s tone is trembling, clearly fearing the worst.

  “No! I’m not okay! I nearly died! Spiders…” I shudder. “Why’d it have to be spiders?”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Brick is silent for a bit, so I look back at him, only to see the bastard hiding a grin behind his hand, clearly trying not to laugh. He suddenly points at me with shock on his face.

  “There’s one! It’s crawlin’ up your shirt!”

  I squeal, not as loud this time, and begin to brush my body again. That’s when Brick’s dam breaks, and he bursts into bellowing laughter. “You— you should see your face!” His laughter begins anew.

  “Fuck off… prick…” I turn around in a huff to continue our escapade, followed by the still chortling man-child.

  This might not be as straightforward as I thought it would be…

  I can’t help the shaking that still flows through me every so often as I keep a closer eye on the dark path in front of me.

  At least Brick’s too busy laughing at me to care about the darkness now.

  We continue to move through the alleyway, idly chatting as we go. He catches me up on all the gritty details of life in the orphanage, adding the little things that we hadn’t had time for earlier.

  When he finishes, I weave a grand tale of sleeping anywhere and anytime I want to, not having to follow rules or get beaten by bullies. Those hadn’t been limited to the children of the orphanage. I continue into dramatic retellings of daring dashes to snatch dinner.

  I conveniently forget to mention the trash bins I was digging through noisily, the malnutritious meals I had to steal, and the fact that the dashing had been done to escape retribution. Oops.

  I know that he knows how it goes living in squalor, though, so my show of bravado was completely unnecessary. It’s not a big secret or anything, but it eases my own mind not having to recount the countless times I’ve had to eat garbage over the last few years.

  That was probably the only good thing about the orphanage. We got to eat two meals of slop per day. It was better than nothing.

  We wander the labyrinthine backlanes, taking turn after turn, sometimes backtracking when I accidentally lead us into a dead end while trying to fathom the very vague feeling of direction that permeates my mind’s eye.

  It’s almost like a defunct sixth sense. I chuckle dryly at that thought.

  “We’re lost.”

  Brick states this, not for the first time today, as if it were Gaio’s Father-given truth, an indisputable fact. While I know that it is the honest to goodness truth, I refuse to relent.

  We’re close, I feel it in my bones.

  By ‘bones,’ I’m mostly referring to my skull. The buzzing has been steadily becoming more prominent as we traverse the pathways, growing nearer to our destination.

  “We’re not lost! I know the direction we need to go, I just need to find the right path to get there!” I try to make a fruitless argument, knowing damn well he’s correct.

  “So… what yer saying is…”

  “Yeah… we’re lost…” I exhale a very loud, very long sigh, about to give up. Then I notice something. “Wait! The feeling is moving on its own now, we must be closer than I realized!”

  I rush around the next corner and there it is! A dead end.

  “Father’s farts, we’re fucked!”

  I throw my hands up in the universal sign of defeat, then start to turn around. That’s when I see it. A single ray of sunshine, highlighting one side of the alley. On the wall, perfectly centered in the light, are three angular letters written with charcoal. ‘SoS,’ the Society of Scoundrels.

  I once again choose to omit this information in favor of investigating the source of the sunlight. Opposite the markings is a gap between the filthy buildings, no wider than two feet. The vibrations point straight through it.

  “Here!” My exclamation seems to reverberate through the thin opening, so I drop my volume considerably.

  Wouldn’t want to run across any of the scoundrels. They’re not too nice to outsiders butting into their territory.

  “I found the way.”

  I hope this is a good idea.

  “Finally!” There is a distinct note of weariness in his tone. “I was just about to suggest we give up!”

  Good, he didn’t see the markings. I really shouldn’t mention that I was also close to giving in.

  I inwardly sigh as I lead the way through the gap, trying and failing to keep from touching the accumulated filth. “Let’s go!” My whisper still seems loud as we make our way through, the blinding sun directly in our faces.

  It must be nearly nighttime now. The sun is setting.

  If I think that I had it bad with the residue on the walls, that illusion immediately gets dispelled when we reach the other side and I see the pure black stomach of Brick’s shirt. The buzzing has reached an annoyingly strong level now. It points straight at the building in front of the tunnel we just came through.

  “Dead ahead.”

  A cold wind ruffles my rags and I begin to shiver for the umpteenth time today, pausing as a creeping doubt enters my mind.

  We’ve already come this far, no point in stopping now.

  “Once we’re done with this quest, let’s find a place to hunker down for the night, it’s getting to be pretty late, so we won’t be able to go far.”

  We walk to the dilapidated dwelling directly in front of us, then I quietly knock on the door. There’s no answer, so I knock again, this time much more forcefully.

  If that doesn’t get his attention, I don’t know what will. Unless he’s not home!

  I briefly worry about this, but as I give it some more thought, I realize that my skill wouldn’t be pointing me here without good reason. He must be here.

  “Go away!” The voice is nasally, with a bit of gravel in it, as if the person the voice belongs to has been smoking backo for a very long time.

  “Old Man Smitty?” As I call out, my voice seems to echo through the seemingly abandoned neighborhood. “We found your left boot!”

  A series of shuffling sounds slip through the thin, deteriorated door. It suddenly flings inward, squealing loudly on its rusty hinges. I feel a tinge of surprise. Not from the suddenness of the act, but more so that the thing stayed attached to the wall.

  It looks like a sneeze could knock it down!

  “Who are you?” The cranky old codger eyes the soot stains on our shirts, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. He’s a short moui, only coming up to my chest. His pointed nose, large round ears, and whiskers twitching with irritation.

  “Um… My name is Luck, and my friend here…” I look back at Brick, to see that his arms are crossed and he is indeed glaring like he’s done so many times before. “His name’s Brick. Brick Walton. Do you want your boot?”

  “Ha! A fancy lad with a fancy last name. But you do have the look of a brick wall, that’s for sure.”

  He momentarily locks eyes with Brick, only to look away when the stocky bolgen boy turns up the intensity of his stare.

  “Ah, forget it. What boot? You don’t have a boot! How would you even know it was my boot to begin with?” His tone is sharp, brooking no nonsense, though I get the feeling that’s just his normal voice.

  I raise my hands placatingly. “Wait a minute, and I’ll show you.”

  I begin summoning my box beside me, as the old man glares with evident dislike. Once it’s summoned, I continue, silently noting that the flaps around the rim of the receptacle are interlocked together, keeping the contents secure.

  “It’s in this box. I can’t tell you how I know it’s your boot, but at least have a look at it.”

  I open the flaps, belatedly realizing that I had forgotten to get rid of the rest of the garbage before coming here. Smitty watches with a critical eye as I remove the bucket, pulling the rock and tankard off the boot and the boot out of the bucket once everything else is removed.

  Smitty reaches out in a flash of movement, and before I know what happened, he has the boot in his hand. “My poor Betty! What have you done to her?! It’s okay, baby girl, Daddy’s here for you. Daddy’s here.”

  He’s… talking to the boot…

  Admittedly, the boot is in rough shape, though most of that happened before I found it. It is a bit… squished now, but how could I have known we were going to return it?

  “I found it like that… mostly.”

  “You expect me to believe that bulouse-shit?! You… obviously… STOLE my boot! That explains how you knew it was mine! Get out of here before I have half a mind to do something about it! GET!” Hugging the boot to his chest, he turns and slams his door as he goes back into his… house.

  “Yeesh, what was his deal?” Brick sighs, exhaustion clear on his face.

  It’s only then that I notice how tired I feel as well. “Let’s go find a hidey-hole for the night, we’ll wander our way over to the market district in the morning. I’ll buy us both breakfast! Mother’s blessed bossom, Brick, breakfast! It’s been a decade since I last had breakfast…” Brick grunts in reply, though I’m lost in my own ruminations.

  As we walk silently through the crumbling constructions, I begin to notice a new buzzing, this time once again coming from within my heart. I pull out my Heart Scroll, focusing on the quest page.

  1x Quest Completed!

  Claim reward?

  Yes! I think it so strongly that it feels like I actually say it aloud, although I’m relatively sure I didn’t. I glance at Brick just to make sure, but even if I had spoken, I don’t think he would notice.

  Skill Credit granted.

  5 copper rings have been added to your inventory.

  I return my Heart Scroll and we quickly find a collapsed building with just enough space for me to lie down under the lowest part, and Brick to squeeze in next to me, closer to the opening.

  Before I get the chance to tell him that I completed my first quest, he begins to softly snore. I decide to join him in slumber, and also quickly fade to a restless sleep, troubled by horrible dreams.