The Quest for Zalos's Staff

The group of adventurers sat around the campfire in a circle. The fire crackled and popped as it ate away at the logs.

“You guys think we should have stayed there?” asked Edward, nervously shaking his head back and forth. “I don’t get why they were so interested in us. It was really weird.”

“I think they were just trying to be nice, Ed,” said Jessica, cheerfully. She poked at the fire with a stick she had picked up off the ground. “It was probably nothing. There was no way they knew who we are or what we were doing here. They just thought we were lost travelers or something like that and they wanted to help out.”

Edward sighed and leaned forward to spit out a piece of wood that he had been chewing on for the last few hours. “Yeah, maybe you’re right, Jess. I guess it is better not to let our imaginations run wild with all this stuff going on around us, huh?” He looked over at Jordy and Eliza who both nodded in turn. Everyone was tired after a long day of hiking through the forest but nobody wanted to break up the group by going off to bed alone, especially not now after seeing their first Mountain Dwarves back at the clearing where they had stopped for lunch earlier that afternoon.

Eliza glanced over at Jessica, who seemed to be picking up on everyone else's nervousness. She had initially been quite excited by the encounter with the dwarves but now seemed unnerved by it all. “How far do you think we are from where we need to be?” Eliza asked her in an attempt to take everyone's mind off of their recent encounter with the dwarves. “Do you remember where Zalos is supposed to live again?”

Jessica pulled out a book from her backpack and started flipping through it while Jordy took off his helmet and wiped some sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve. “Here it says that he lives high up in the mountains northeast of where we are now so… I would guess about 2-3 days’ hike from here if we move quickly I would think? We will have to see when we get there though because this old map is hard to read sometimes… there could be cliffs or something blocking our path once we get closer.”

Jordy put his helmet back on and got up from his seat next to Edward whose eyes were still darting around nervously looking for threats among the trees surrounding them as he chewed on another piece of wood that he had picked up off the ground. “Well I say we should keep moving before nightfall because I don’t want to stay out here any longer than I have too tonight… As soon as we find him then this whole quest thing will finally be over and things can go back to normal again!” A big smile broke out across his face as he thought about being able to return home just like that - without having found anything and after only spending a day or two in Larion at most instead of several weeks as planned - and he started picking up his things ready for departure as he waited impatiently for everyone else to finish packing their bags as well so they could get a move on already and start heading north again before nightfall caught up with them once more upon these dark woods!