Bruna followed him out the door when he left. She might’ve been seeing him out to be polite, or maybe she wanted to talk to him. Brin braced himself for a difficult conversation or a stunning revelation, after all, when a [Witch] wants a private conversation, it couldn’t be anything good.

“Thanks for doing that,” said Bruna. “I haven’t seen Yon laugh like that in days.”

“Huh?” Brin’s brain froze for a second, trying to find a double meaning or hidden threat. There was none. She just wanted to say thank you out of Yon’s earshot. This was ordinary motherly concern. “No problem. Is something wrong with Yon?”

“Oh, no. Nothing like that. Davi’s been home less lately and Yon’s feeling a bit lonely. There’s also the current situation with the town. We don’t discuss it at home, but children are perceptive. They pick up on these things.”

“I could see that. Marksi here is like a sponge. He knows when I’m upset before I do,” said Brin.

“And thank you for coming, Marksi! You’re welcome here any time.” She held out a hand and Marksi leaned into her touch, accepting her scratches with enthusiasm. Odd, since he seemed to be really sensitive to [Witches]. Or maybe just when they used their powers? He had never had a problem with Bruna, but he’d felt the evil magic used on Neptune and Gustaff. That might actually be why he always refused to enter the Peck’s home as well. Maybe he could smell the evil magic that had ruined their minds all those years ago.

Brin said his goodbyes and then made his way back home, and the thought stayed with him. Even if Marksi couldn’t sniff out [Witches], he could still tell when they used their powers, at least in some cases.

“Hey, Marksi. You know the way you felt with Neptune’s hut? Do you ever feel like that anywhere else?”

Marksi swiveled his head in confusion.

“How about I show you?” Brin turned and walked towards Gustaff’s house since it was closer.

The house was now a soot-stained hole in the ground. The [Firefighter] had burned it completely down; not a single wooden beam was still standing. Even so, the taint of [Witch] magic still hung on it, because when they approached it Marksi hissed and pulled on Brin’s shoulder, trying to get him to walk the other way.

“This place. It feels bad, right?” asked Brin.

Marksi twitched his tail in the affirmative.

“Are there any other evil places like in town?”

Marksi twitched his tail side to side for ‘no’.

“If there are any other places like this, we need to know about them. We need to stop them before they hurt the town. Remember how we found this place and then burned it down? It’s like that.”

Marksi eyed the ashen pit fearfully, considering. He gazed at it for a long moment, but Brin waited patiently. Finally, Marksi’s expression seemed to resolve itself into determination, if such a thing was even possible for a scaly lizard face. He nodded.

Marksi hopped off Brin’s shoulder and then slither-paddled his way down the street. He still needed to work on walking without rubbing his belly on the ground. Cute little guy.

Several people on the street called out to Marksi in greeting when he walked by, but he was on a mission and didn’t slow for anything until he was out of sight.

Well, Hogg had told Brin not to investigate the [Witches] anymore, but he hadn’t said anything about Marksi.

A woman stood nearby, looking bored until she saw Brin and Marksi and then her face lightened in interest. Shoot. She was going to talk to him, wasn’t she? The people in this town seem to have a sixth sense for when he wasn’t really busy, and had no inhibitions about chatting with anyone at any time. He didn’t know how people got anything done in this town.

“He’s a clever little fellow, isn’t he?” she asked.

Brin turned behind to the source of the voice. [Inspect] named her Allega Tor, a level 25 [Farmer]. She looked to be in her early twenties, and wore a wide-brimmed hat over a face full of freckles. He’d never spoken to her before, but everyone knew who he was. It was still weird to him after months of near-isolation, everyone in town suddenly went out of their way to be nice to him. Weird, and often a waste of time, but welcome.

“He really is,” said Brin. “Maybe too smart, actually. I’ve never had a pet before that got smarter as time went on. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m doing this right. I know a few other people got snakes from the snake pond, but they all stayed normal. None of them were like Marksi.”

“Hmmm…” Allega fiddled with the ribbon coming down from her hat as she thought. “I seem to remember hearing that Perris had one when he was younger.”

“Yeah, and I’ve talked to him about it,” said Brin. “But Perris’ advice can be a little extreme.”

Allega laughed. “True. Well, let's see. They aren’t snakes, but Bruna and Alvir have a very intelligent bull named Poco. There’s old Luciana with her bird, and Jeron has a pig as big as a horse, maybe it’s smart, too, I don’t know. Some [Farmers] keep dogs–I do–but none of those are all that bright. Not like Jaime’s dogs, or Odilon’s. And Clementine has a wolf hound.”

Brin had always been bad with names, and now he wished he had something to write with, because he wanted to investigate every single one of these people. He did his best to commit them to memory. Also, that last name sounded familiar.

“Wait, Clementine? The name is ringing a bell, but I can’t remember when we’ve met.”

“Clementine Agua–”

Brin snapped his fingers. “The [Gatherer]! She’s Luiza’s mom.”

Luiza had mentioned once that her mother had been stuck at level 25 for years since [Gatherer] was so hard to level unless you were willing to travel. It was someone he’d made a mental note to check out. But that didn’t matter unless, hypothetically, he was going to ignore Hogg’s advice and continue his [Witch] hunt. Which he absolutely was.

Allega had given him a trail. He might as well follow it.

Allega nodded. “Oh, you know Luiza? We’re friends! Yes, well, Clementine always brings her wolfhound Ferir with her when she goes out, for protection you know. [Gatherer] doesn’t have the Skills for improving animals, though. I think Odilon does it for her.”

Looking at the sun, he still had three hours before it was time to train with Hogg. Actually, whose turn was it to cook dinner? It was his. He had two hours. Plenty of time to go poking around.

He made small talk with Allega for another couple minutes, and then asked her for directions to Odilon’s house before heading off. "See you later, Allega Tor." He decided to start with Odilon first, because he could confirm whether or not he was actually using his Skills to improve Clementine’s pet.

It also helped that he’d be able to find Odilon out in the fields instead of at home. The thought of knocking on a stranger's door just to have a chat filled Brin with extreme anxiety, even if the people in this town wouldn’t find it all that odd.

Two other people stopped him on his way out of town, both of them sensing that he wasn’t really busy. It bothered him that no one ever actually said what they wanted; they always had to start off with small-talk and then work their way up to it. Sometimes they weren’t working towards anything and small talk was the point. He managed to guide the conversation both times to confirm what Allega had told him. Clementine had a wolf hound named Ferir, but Odilon was the one to talk to.

When Brin exited the town’s gates and followed Allega’s directions, he found that Odilon had a pasture, not a farm. A field of tall yellow grass spread out all the way to the forest, and it was populated by a herd of more than two hundred sheep.

The sheep were larger, meaner-looking than the sheep he’d seen on earth. Their curved horns had barbs like thorns and not all of them had two; some had only one growing out the back of their heads, while others had three or four. Other than that, though, they seemed like normal animals, displaying none of the intelligence and discipline of the Pimental’s cows. Brin would’ve been forced to assume that Odilon didn’t have any animal-based Skills at all if not for the dogs.

A herd of dogs, maybe two dozen in number, surrounded the sheep, circling around and making sure none of them got any ideas about wandering off. The biggest one looked like a saggy hound dog the size of a horse sat solemnly between the sheep and the forest. A few small dogs the size of rabbits ran back and forth, yipping happily and playing with Border Collie-looking dogs that were five times their size.

He saw Odilon, a gray-haired man with a prominent beer belly, sitting on a stool in the middle of the field and smoking a pipe.

Brin started the trudge over, only to be mobbed by all the dogs. They stayed just out of arms’ reach at first until he extended a fist. When a stocky gray dog with one ear stepped forward Brin let him sniff and got right in to scratching him behind the ear.

The flood gates opened, and all of them charged forwards, jumping up on him and trying to get his attention and their shares of pats. Brin worked from dog to dog, trying to give them all a bit of attention, but there were too many, and more arrived every second.

A sharp whistle, and then Odilon yelled, “Leave him alone.”

The dogs scattered, leaving Brin free to walk over unimpeded.

He used [Inspect] on Odilon as he approached.

Name

Odilon Ribber

Age

Level

Class

Sheep Farmer