"I'm useless as an herbalist. I'm not able to do my duties and me being sick means Bodi has to care for me and comfort me by telling me I'm an 'excellent herbalist'... Looks like I have a lot to learn on the road to being an herbalist. Adventurer, where do you get medicine from?"
For a moment the lady standing over the figure of the herbalist Juneer, began to wonder if this was even worth her attention. However as directly addressed as she was, Illumine Kerael could not simply avoid indulging the man for a moment more. As she recalled, a goblinoid figure had provided her what she had already supplied to a camp southeast of Mudpond Village, and with a slight nod to herself she replied to the man.
"Some little green-skinned fellow gave it to me. They looked a bit like goblins." She said with little confidence that it would settle matters.
Already looking pale as it was, his voice sounded again, weaker than earlier. "That's... ugh... not how I imagined forest fairies would be. I remember when I was young my mother would tell me the legend as a bedtime story. I always wanted to meet them face to face, but never had the chance... If they're not forest fairies, then what could they be?"
"Wait, legend? What kind of legend? Perhaps if you told me..."
His voice perked slightly, "Of course, I'd be happy to. I still remember how my mother told it..."
Considering her prior notices of hearing such things, Illumine seated herself and drew her legs at her side, deciding at last that this could not be so awful after all.
"Long, long ago, hunters entered the Jungle Marsh and disturbed the demon that lived there. When they returned they fell ill, and the villagers could only look on in despair as their friends and relatives grew weaker and weeker. A little boy decided to go to the Jungle Marsh and kill the demon. He thought that if he killed it, his father would return to health. He waited until everyone was distracted, then grabbed a small hunting knife and set out alone. He walked northwards into the forest, but at sunset he still hadn't emerged."
Illumine began to question inwardly whether she should count how many times Juneer could say the word 'he' before he would silence himself.
"Hungry, cold and scared, the lost little boy nestled under a great tree and started to cry. Suddenly he heard singing coming from somewhere just up ahead. He followed the melody until he noticed a flickering light. Can you guess what he saw?"
With a soft laugh, Illumine opened her mouth to answer, but was just as quickly interrupted.
"A herd of forest fairies dancing around a bonfire!" He exclaimed, "The kind-hearted fairies entertained the boy, prepared a great banquet for him and sent him home with medicine to cure his father and the other hunters. Since that time, whenever anyone develops that strange illness the fairies will secretly deliver the miraculous cure. The villagers are very grateful to them, so they pass on the story to their children and grandchildren."
After a long moment's pause, Illumine nodded, about to commend him on telling such a tale while prone and allegedly sick, but again he spoke.
"I didn't inherit my mother's natural talents. She tells this story a hundred times better than I tell it!"
"Will you-?"
"After hearing the story, I was determined to be an herbalist. I hoped to personally administer fine medicine and help people in pain just like the forest fairies. I always thought that there must be truth in the legend and now you have helped prove to me that the fairies really do exist."
With a sigh, Illumine gave up on saying anything until he had at least finished speaking long enough to give her a chance.
"Thank you for patiently listening to the legend of the forest fairies. While telling it, it was as if I returned to my childhood and relived a moment when my mother sat by the bedside and told stories. The hunters in the story went to the Jungle Marsh and contracted a strange illness. I became ill after being attacked by a strange wild beast while going to the northern forest to collect medicinal herbs. There was something stuck on the beast... Yes, it was like sticky blood. It had an evil feel to it, very evil... Yes..." Juneer lowered his head and muttered inaudibly for a long moment, before picking his head up again, "Sorry, I'm too accustomed to being by myself while I gather and prescribe medicine. I often unconsciously mutter to myself. Brave adventurer, thanks to the kind-hearted fairies always giving a helping hand during our difficult times, I can get back to my work of making medicine. Please pass on my thanks to the kind-hearted... whatever... fairies."
He lay still then, and although Illumine had as much temptation to annihilate him with a searing light from above - as was her particularly choice matter of offensive magic - she thought for a moment on what exactly this would accomplish. She had met no such fairies, at least none she could describe as being more picturesque than a goblin - which in itself hardly resembled what she had heard - and it would at least prove an interesting venture. With a nod, she rose to her feet and turned away, her blue and gold cloak flowing about her side.
"I will do that," she said at last, "Get some rest; all that talk must have done your sickness a murdersome twist. Farewell, then."
Before he could even retort, she was back on the road, carrying on with hardly a lead as to where she would deliver these same thanks. All she thought at the time was to return to the same camp she had delivered the medicine to beforehand and see if the odd little goblin was there to greet her...
After several minutes of travel, she reached the camp again, pleasantly surprised that the strange goblin was indeed still standing in much the same place as it had been, leading her to believe it stood as much as a watcher as an aid to the camp.
"Excuse me," she said after a moment, "Juneer sends his thanks."
"Somebody said thanks to Dallas. Why, why?" Illumine took a step back from the growing insistence in its tone, "Aha! Although Dallas doesn't know why, the Goddess once told Dallas, when this happens I should say... What was it again..."
Illumine dropped her head, her own amusement rising just at the thought that one could not simply answer as expected.
"Aha!" The goblin exclaimed again, "Dallas should say: 'You're welcome.' That's what I should say." The goblin gave a stiff bow.
"Dallas has cleansing medicine. This Spring Cleansing should be delivered to Ayak Clan's Hanis, but before you go, can you tell Dallas that legend about the medicine? Can you, Can you? Dallas really wants to know what those humans say about us!"
With a resigned sigh, Illumine nodded and told what she could remember, although deliberately shortening it to a summary in most places. The goblin held out its hand with a strange blue crystal held within it, and with a nod Illumine took it and continued on her way, abandoning her plans for Boulderwind nearby for the time being.
