The quest was easily completed, even though there had been no one to greet Trevor at the mill. Far from the river was an area where the rain slid off of an invisible bubble. The sky was still falling like cats and dogs, but it had let up enough for the young man to find it.

Entering the area was an experience. The bubble had stopped him from going in, and he realized that it was because his clothes were soaked. With nowhere for the water to go, he had to resort to rolling up his sleeve and putting his arm through. It left his skin feeling dry, but Trevor was able to complete the quest as he dropped the logs within.

[[Quest complete! You’re getting good at going from one place to another, aren’t you?

You’ve saved Laric a lot of trouble, most of which was caused by those gremlins. Six Firesap logs would be a bigger loss than you’d think, and he was doing as much as he could to make sure they got back before it started raining. Fun fact: the second team of workers he had sent didn’t make it in time. There’s a log somewhere behind you in the rain that’s becoming waterlogged as we speak.

If only they had an inventoryman to do the work, then everything would have been fine! Regardless, enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.

Five silver coins have been added to your inventory.

You need to complete one more quest in order to level up.]]

Trevor did enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done for a few seconds before he decided he was very sick of being soaked through and constantly being pelted by raindrops. The young man went home.

The streets were empty on account of the weather, and he had no problem getting back to the Hero House. More specifically, his home. He barely made it through the front door, shivers now painfully wracking his body, when he pulled his clothes into his inventory, water and all, and headed straight for the shower. The warm water felt great after being stuck in the chilling rain.

Starting a fire afterwards, Trevor made sure to dispel the water and dirt he separated from his clothes in his inventory outside before getting wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. He closed his eyes for a moment as he took in the atmosphere.

In front of him, the fire crackled and radiated a comforting warmth. He was still chilly despite the shower and figured he had been outside for too long, but he didn’t mind it at that moment. The rain pounded on the roof, and thunder rattled off in the distance. Trevor smiled; he had hoped for an atmosphere just like this one not too long ago, and now that he had it there was very little he would trade it for.

Thinking about the quests he had gone on today, Trevor was reminded of the “weird fish necklace” he had received from Thimbleden. The gold coin was sitting in his inventory, too, and the young man wondered if it might have been a mistake. He’d have to ask later, for now he popped the necklace on.

The fish pendant appeared near a leather cord around his neck. Not on, he noted, but near. It was facing the cord, but hung about an inch lower than what it was supposed to be attached to. Whenever he tried to move the pendant, the cord moved as well, and decided that’s just how it was supposed to be. The fish was made of metal with two orbs slotted into it, one red and one white, and a spot for a third.

[[New Trinket! The Language Fish!

This fish has it all: Lucern! Gnomish! And that’s it. There’s one more slot but you don’t have anything to put in it.

While wearing the Language Fish, you can understand any Lucern or Gnomish writing that you see. More than that, you’ll start retaining the skills required to read them without the pendant. The more you read, the more you’ll remember. So go on, read as much as you can and babble about it to anyone willing to listen!]]

“That’s exactly what I needed, Mr. Thimbleden,” Trevor said quietly to himself as he stretched and yawned, closing his eyes again. “You really pulled through for me.”

At some point he must have fallen asleep. A knock caused him to open his eyes and Trevor immediately noted that the fire was starting to die down. Sniffing loudly, he stood up and tossed in another piece of firewood.

“Trevor?”

The young man blinked as he heard Adabelle’s voice over the rain. “Come in!” he yelled. His voice was deeper than it was this morning, and he could tell that he might actually get sick soon.

“I can’t, I don’t have a key to your house,” she called.

Just as he was about to say that it was unlocked, he remembered Jackson’s letter. Unless their key was enchanted to allow it, no one else could enter another’s house here. Except Mr. Tiggles, apparently, though that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the letter.

Walking around the couch in a giant puffball of a blanket, Trevor opened the front door to see Adabelle standing there. She was mostly dry aside from her shoes and around her ankles, and he spotted an umbrella on his porch. The white shirt and black skirt she wore suited her well. Balancing on one hand, she had a large wooden box.

“Rashie got back, but said she hadn’t seen you since you two got caught in the rain,” she said, fixing her long bangs around her ear as it fell into her face. “When I came for dinner, Wayne said he hadn’t seen you and he was in the Hero House all day. Rashie was tired and he doesn’t like getting his beard wet, so I got, as he puts it, voluntold to bring you some chicken noodle soup. Wayne said you might need some.”

“Yeah, I’m-“ Trevor coughed before taking the box she held in her hand. “Just a little something in my throat. This will be great. Tell him thanks for me.”

“I will,” she said, nodding.

He stood there awkwardly for a moment before realizing that she wasn’t walking away. “Oh, I’m sorry! I’m a terrible host,” Trevor said. “Did you want to come in?”

“Better than being out here,” Adabelle said. She took off her shoes and left them outside before entering the home and looking around.

Trevor walked over to the fireplace, setting the box down on the table, and started poking at the wood to make sure it would stay strong. He turned to see Adabelle looking the place over. “Something wrong?”

“You haven’t decorated,” she stated. “Not that that’s wrong, or anything. Quite the contrary. I was just expecting something more Trevor, Son of Ander, I guess.”

Hiding his frown behind the blanket he kept wrapped around him, Trevor looked around the room. This space was really just a place he had to move through to get outside, or to bed, or the bathroom. Aside from today, whenever he was awake he was either in the Hero House or out and about town. Realizing the door to his bedroom was open, he quietly moved over to shut it.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

When he turned around, he could see the amusement on Adabelle’s face as clear as day, but he also saw how much of a stock photo his home appeared to be. Since he could go back to his own Earth eventually, he hadn’t wanted to decorate because then they’d have to fix it. That was the same reason why he had never decorated his apartments, either, because he would just be moving eventually anyway.

“I guess I’m just not here a lot,” he mumbled. “Here to sleep, get clean, and then I’m out and about.”

Adabelle nodded. “Come on, sit down,” she commanded as she did the same in one of his chairs. While he complied and sat on the couch, she started pulling out the soup, bowls, crackers, and spoons. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’ll be fine by morning,” Trevor claimed. “Just my immune system acting up from being wet and cold for so long. It’s nothing.”

Standing up, Adabelle pressed the back of her hand against Trevor’s forehead. His first instinct was to jerk away, but her skin was cool to the touch and he almost found himself leaning against it.

“It’s nothing?” she repeated incredulously. “You’re burning up.”

“You’re probably just cold,” he said. “I always run hot, even when I’m not doing anything. Even sleeping.”

“Mmhmm,” she said, though it didn’t sound like she believed him. Sitting back down, she started pouring the chicken noodle soup into one of the bowls. “Crackers?”

“Yes, please and thank you,” Trevor requested.

Adabelle set some aside and handed it to him on a napkin from the box before sliding his bowl and a spoon towards him on the table. Trevor crumbled the crackers and threw them into the soup before stirring it in. A quick temperature check told him it wasn’t ready to be eaten yet, and he watched her prepare her own.

“Sorry you got volunteered for this,” he said apologetically. “I could have come to the Hero House, I just fell asleep.”

“Hush, you,” she said sternly but gently. “Why do you apologize so much?”

“Habit,” Trevor quietly whispered. “Easier that way.”

Adabelle paused, and then shook her head. “Why did you decide to take on that last quest?” she asked. “Rashie said it was over some Firesap logs, but that’s not more important than your health.”

“I’m doing just fine,” he lied, dodging the question before checking his soup again. “I was just sleeping, was all.”

“Oh, is that why your voice is deeper?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Because you’re just putting on some kind of act?”

Trevor grimaced and looked away before taking a bite of soup. It was hot, but it bought him precious seconds to think about his answer while he was burning his tongue. “Ith hot,” he said, waving air into his mouth.

“Yeah, Trevor, it’s soup,” Adabelle chastised. “If you don’t want to talk to me, you can just say so. I can head back home.”

“No, no,” Trevor said quickly, holding up his hand. “Stay, please.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, almost challenged, as she lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah, your presence is soothing,” he blurted out.

Adabelle paused, her ears twitching, and she pulled her bowl up to her mouth. She drank directly from it before nodding. “Good.”

“Yeah, it’s hot but it tastes good,” he said, not looking at her but staring at his soup.

“You may think my hand is cold, but I’m fairly resistant to the heat,” Adabelle told him. “Thanks to becoming, well, you know…” Instead of saying it, she waved her hand up and down her body.

Blinking, Trevor looked away from his soup to take her in. Adabelle’s choice in words didn’t go unnoticed, and he watched her face. It was as neutral as could be, but he saw something in her eyes that he couldn’t quite describe.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Of course,” she scoffed. “I’m not the one who’s sick here.”

“Allegedly. I’m not sick yet, lady,” Trevor said.

“Because you say so?”

“I’ve gotten through a lot of days of being sick by telling myself I wasn’t,” he replied sagely. “Got to make a living somehow, right?”

“Right. And how’s that different from pushing your body when it needs rest?”

“It’s… not,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about you.”

“Excuse me?” Adabelle asked.

“That thing you just said, about becoming what you are now.” Trevor scooted forward on the couch, and Adabelle almost looked concerned at how intense he was staring. “That’s what I was asking about. About if you were okay, I mean.”

“I’m fine, Trevor.”

“I just want to make sure, because your face said that but your eyes didn’t.”

“My eyes?”

“Yeah. Your eyes.”

Adabelle stared at Trevor, her eyes wide with a classic deer in the headlights look. She brushed her hair again before smirking. “Why, Son of Ander, are you finally prying?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I want to know more about you.”

His blunt answer caused her to freeze, and she quickly grabbed her soup to take another sip. Realizing that he was hungry and she had come to eat with him, he grabbed his spoon and started eating as well.

An awkward silence hung over them, with Trevor thinking about how feasible it was to eat with that foot in his mouth and Adabelle quietly contemplating her soup. The air was heavy, but it didn’t stay that way. As they both collected their thoughts on what they wanted to say, the atmosphere cooled down into something approaching comfortable.

Once she finished, Adabelle stood up. She looked towards the fire, but spoke to Trevor. “In the morning, I’ll get some medicine. Just in case you are more sick than you say you are,” she said, leaving no room for discussion. “Then, you’re going to follow me. I want to show you something.”

“What do you want to show me?” he asked, setting his bowl down and standing up.

“My Power,” she said quietly. “You want to pry, to know more about me, then that’s where we’ll start.”

Trevor beamed and adjusted his blanket. “Okay, I’m looking forward to it!”

Adabelle glanced at him, taken aback by his grin. After a moment of processing, she shook her head and chuckled. “Of course you’d be excited about something like that,” she said.

“Oh, but let me do the key thing,” he said, snapping his fingers as the thought occurred to him. “In case I am sick and can’t get out of bed. I’m assuming it's magical medicine, right?”

Nodding and removing a key very similar to his from her pocket, she handed it to him. Trevor could feel it reaching out to him just like his inventory Power, and he allowed it access to the space that was his home. “Man, magic is really intuitive, isn’t it?”

“You probably have a Magic and Mana score, right?” Adabelle asked, and he nodded before giving her the key back. “That’s why. If they were zero, like most people’s, then you wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Makes sense,” he stated as she walked to the door.

Opening the front door, Adabelle hesitated. “Be well, okay?” she said softly before her voice became more stern. "And be good. Don't push yourself, okay? You'll make Wayne and Rashie worried."

“I'll be the best I can be,” he said, smiling as he gave her a thumbs up.

Adabelle smirked before putting her shoes back on, picking up her umbrella, and moving into the rainstorm and out of sight. Trevor smiled at the doorway as he stared, but his eyes were slowly widening in realization. He shut the door and put his forehead against it.

“Oh no,” he whispered to himself as an elusive thought fully formed in his head. “She’s cute.”