Corrupt Blood

The sun rose early, shining through the window of Derk’s bedroom, rousing the grumpy paladin from his peaceful dreams of a day off in bed. Quickly dressing he made his way downstairs, where a warm bowl of Westfall wheat porridge greeted him at the breakfast table. Finishing quickly he stepped out into the morning light shining on Goldshire’s side roads.

“You’re late, lazy-bum.” Called Sam from his left. She was leaning on a nearby wall, her hood down, her staff resting on her shoulder, and a shy smile on her face.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, as he closed the distance between them. “Any pain from the injury? Did you sleep alright?”

She blushed at his concern but waved them off. “I’m fine, but we should get moving, things to do today you know?”

“Ah yes, the day of fun you promised me. What will we be doing?” He asked, like a child waiting for his birthday presents.

“We, will spend the day, picking flowers.” She smiled at his reaction, as if someone had let all the beer from his keg. She giggled and elaborated. “The supply of potions is at an all time low, we need more healing potions to supplement our first aid supplies. With all of our healers busy, everyone else who gets injured needs something else to heal them. So we’re going to be picking peacebloom and silverleaf.”

Derk did not look enthusiastic; he was raised with a pickaxe in his hand, scouring dark caves for ore, pounding out molten metal in blistering heat. If his dad knew he was going to spend the day picking flowers with some girl… well he’d know what Kerk would say, “If the girl means enough to you, she can damn well dress you up in a dress and call you princess polka-dot. You go out there and find someone who makes you happy, then you do everything you can to make her happy, got it?” always a romantic…

Derk sighed, his hand over his face, before drawing it away to reveal a smile. Somehow, between working with Sam, and nearly losing her in the stockades riot, he realized he does care about her, and besides, the potions will make his life easier. “Alright, but you’re going to need to tell me what I’m looking for. And I’ll warn you now, I’m a slow learner.”

She laughed and nodded, and the two continued their way out of town. “I’m serious, when dad was teaching me and Berk to mine, he once sat me down and told me ‘If my head was any thicker, I could run headfirst into a cave wall and pray ore falls out.’ He wasn’t the gentlest of dwarves, but he was a good father.”

“You still call him dad, even though… you know…” She said, quietly, not wanting to bring up any sore subjects Derk guessed.

“Yeah I know he’s not my biological father, but he always told me blood doesn’t make family. He used to tell me stories of my parents, about how they were great heroes. My Mum was some great mage and my father the bravest warrior ever. He wanted me to look up to someone, the way Berk looked up to dad’s skill on the blacksmith.” He shook his head, smiling slightly, “Turns out they were just some average people, my father was killed in an ogre raid on Loch Modan, and my mum was gravely injured. Kerk agreed to take me in, as a promise to my mum right before she died.”

Sam seemed sad, pondering his words, so he decided to change the subject. They had arrived in a small clearing in Elwynn forest. “Best get started then right?” Derk said, waiting for instruction.

“Right, we’re looking for peacebloom and silverleaf. Peacebloom grows in direct sunlight, you can find it in clearings like this one. It’s a stalky flower with 13 white petals around a yellow center. What we need is the petals, so pick them and place them in this bag.” She handed him a leather pouch, inside were a few petals to give him an idea of what he was looking for.

“Silverleaf, grows in partial sunlight, you’ll find it near large trees. It looks like long leafy branches, like lettuce, and its green with silvery ribs. We need the leaves, so pick them when you find them, and place them in this pouch.” She handed him another pouch and he took a moment to examine the leaves.

“Now, as for collecting the herbs, these are very basic ones, and easy to pick, but there are rules. Never take more than 1/3 of the available resource, otherwise we’ll pick Elwynn clean, and it will take forever for new herbs to grow, also, we are only allowed a maximum of three flowers or leaves from each plant. For example if a peacebloom plant has 3 flowers, only take one flower’s worth of petals, if it has 15, we’re still only allowed 3 flowers. Also, when you pick the petals off of a peacebloom flower, cut the stem near the top, so a new flower will grow.” Derk nodded dumbly, trying to make a mental list of all the rules.

Together they found a field of peacebloom flowers, and after a few demonstrations Derk and Sam set out on different plants to begin harvesting. It was tiring work, but as they picked they kept steady conversation.

“I’ve been studying herbology and alchemy since I could read. I inherited a whole library of books on the subject from my mother. I never really knew her, so I feel that by reading them all we have something in common.” Sam said, filling another pouch of her bag with petals and moving on to the next plant.

“Can I ask what happened to your parents?” Derk said, not wanting to impose but genuinely curious. “You haven’t really mentioned them ‘till now.”

“Mum and Dad were adventurers, Mum was a Warlock, and Dad was a rogue. They were quite the pair, both somewhat infamous really. Anyways one day a trip into Upper Blackrock Spire went terribly wrong, Mum was killed, and Dad escaped. Its what he was good at I suppose, escaping.” She said softly, hands working on auto pilot on the nearby herbs.

“After that, Dad wasted away the money they had saved, booze mostly. He quit adventuring, and tried making a living opening locks and picking pockets. Eventually they sent him to the stockades, but he’d send me letters.” Sam said, her voice was wavering. “He hated my choice to become a preist, said there was no money helping sick people. I always wanted to impress him, trying to be like Mum, but really I just wanted his approval. He may be a washed up old thieving drunk, but he’s my dad right?” She smiled weakly.

“Sam…” Derk began, seeing her almost breaking down in tears. He moved close and held her a moment, while she began to cry. “Blood doesn’t make family. It’s what I’ve always been taught, and it’s what I believe. And that goes both ways, just because he’s your father by blood, doesn’t mean he can be your father without trying. There must be some other man in your life, someone you trust.”

She nodded, drying her face on her robes. “Father Michel, he was my instructor when I was in training. He was always supportive, always kind and gentle when teaching me. He supported every decision I made, even if he didn’t approve.” She smiled. “Sorry, for being so… teary… this is supposed to be a fun day.”

“Don’t worry about it, the weather is great, the forest is beautiful, and the company couldn’t be better, how much more fun could I have?” He smiled, and then noticing they were still embracing they both blushed and returned to work.

“That about fills our peacebloom requirements.” Sam spoke up a few hours later. “But still no sign of any silverleaf.”

Together they began searching the area around their clearing, but aside from a few leaves here and there they could not find any significant amounts. Eventually Derk spotted what may have been the problem. “Look!” he called, beckoning Sam over to his position behind the bushes. In front of them, nestled inside of a small cave in the hillside, were a half dozen kobolds. They were loading some sacks of green leaves into the cave. “Silverleaf?” Derk suggested.

“Looks like it, but how will we get it back?” Sam asked, looking at Derk for advice.

The paladin chuckled, but had an idea. “I know I’m supposed to be protecting you, but I think you need to learn how to fight. So I’ll give you some pointers and you go to town on those Kobolds. I’ll be right there in case you need it though.” He smiled.

Sam didn’t look too sure. “I know some holy spells that can harm but…”

Derk interrupted her mid thought. “Just go for it, aim for the one closest to you first, and try to take them down before they reach you. There’s nothing to worry about, just keep your concentration.”

Sam rose from her hiding position, looking determined as she stepped forward and fired off a blast of holy energy. The first kobold dropped immediately, the other 5 shouted and ran for her. The second went down before they could reach her, but the other four bared down on her. With a shriek her composure disappeared and she swung out with her staff, conking one on the head and sending it to the floor. The other 3 panicked and began running around the camp in chaos. Sam, not knowing how to react, gave chase to them, shouting and flailing wildly with her staff. It took 5 minutes, but eventually the last kobold went down with a mighty whack to the head.

Derk rose from the bushes, clapping halfheartedly as he howled with laughter. Sam turned beet red and turned away from him with a huff. “You know, I’ve seen trained warriors break down into just that sort of thing when push comes to shove. You shouldn’t feel too bad, as amusing as that was, you must have strong arms to knock a kobold out with one strike.”

Sam smiled a bit, giving an arm a flex and posing as one of the kobolds woke up, and ran from her in terror. “If you want, I can help you learn some self defense sometime.” Derk offered, seeing the value of at least helping her cope with the pressure of dangerous situations. Sure she had been trained to take someone else’s life into her hands, but when she was in danger, it was a different matter.

She grinned as she pointed to the stack of sacks in the corner. “First things first, we have potions to make.” By the way she crossed her arms, it was clear Derk was expected to carry them back to camp.

The rest of the day was spent learning basic Alchemy. Derk was tasked with hanging the silverleaf on drying racks, while Sam ground the petals into a thick white paste. When evening came Derk brought the dried silverleaf into Sam’s room and set to work crushing it into a powder. Sam was at her desk, mixing the herbs in the correct ratios, and adding basic solutions to several vials.

Finishing with his current pile of leaves Derk stretched and went outside for another batch. When he returned indoors he found Sam asleep in her chair, her head resting on her crossed arms. Derk called her name quietly and shook her by the shoulder gently. But she just mumbled something and continued to sleep.

Derk smiled, gently lifting her from her chair and over to her bed, laying her down with her head on her pillow. He paused a moment, and then carefully removed her robe, so she would be more comfortable. Taking a second he noticed how adorable she was when she slept, her gentle breaths came steadily, and soft moans revealed she must be dreaming.

Derk gave into temptation and softly brushed the bangs out of her face, she responded by curling towards him. With a smile he turned and shut down the alchemy lab on the desk, and then left to get some sleep of his own. He fully realized now, that he was falling for the younger girl. “When this whole mess is over, maybe we can take a nice vacation together. But it’s best not to complicate things by revealing my feelings just yet.”