Trix was someone who spent most of her life dedicated to the arts of healing. She was the first person who anyone in either one of the three villages would want to call the moment they were seriously injured. Yet they knew that they should not call for her if they had minor wounds. After all, the Rodenti healer was always busy trying to come up with new and better ways to treat complicated injuries.

According to Rex, the reason for her almost obsession with healing came from when she was a child. Back then, her older brother got sick, and no one was able to cure him in time. This left a very strong impression on Trix, who made sure never to let anyone else lose a family member because they didn't have the right way to deal with a disease. I considered asking about incurable diseases, but something told me it was best if I avoided approaching that topic. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even sure if the Rodenti in general understood the concept of a disease that could not be cured.

One way or another, Trix was the first elderly Rodenti that we encountered. Not to say that we had not met Rodenti who were older, but she was truly ancient, even for the standards of the Rodenti. Her fur was mostly gray, and not the same gray that Rex's fur had, but a more older gray, as if the fur itself couldn't handle its color anymore. Despite her appearance and the fact that she walked with a cane, she was still very energetic. The moment Rex knocked on her door, the woman opened it with a quick swing and an angry expression.

"Who is it?" She looked around and then down to see our Rodenti companion, and that's when she noticed who had knocked.

"Rex!" she said with a big smile.

"Hello, Miss Trix. Came to ask for help."

"Still calling me Miss after all these years." She smiled warmly.

"Of course. Miss Trix always Miss. You are too sweet. It amazes me that no one was able to snatch you up. But why are you here? As much as I enjoy your company, I know that things are not exactly good for a casual visit."

"Father ask Rex for help. Flower inside cave that make poison. Father said Trix can help find plant."

It was there that Trix paused for a moment, her eyes flaring up.

"He did what? That imbecile is going to send you to retrieve those flowers? Is he crazy? Doesn't he know that there's a tier two monster protecting it? What is the matter with him?"

"It's okay. Friends help," he gestured towards us.

She glanced in our direction and raised one eyebrow. I was about to start speaking and defending ourselves when she said, "You are friends with humans? " Trix shrugged and added, "I've seen weirder."

She opened the door, gesturing for us to enter.

"Come, come. If you're going to do something as stupid as go after that flower, I need to explain to you what exactly you're supposed to be doing."

As we all walked into Trix's house, I noticed how the entire place acted like a greenhouse. There were countless types of plants, flowers, and vegetables growing pretty much everywhere: on the ceiling, on the walls, even patches on the ground that were being cared for by Trix. Even I, who wasn't very knowledgeable about gardening, had to agree that this was quite an impressive display. But of course, Riley was the one who was in awe of the entire situation. This was basically their mushroom farm on steroids, something that was completely created for one purpose. Make sure that plants, any type of plant, was able to not just survive but thrive in this specific area.

Thankfully, they were too focused on looking at everything for now, which allowed us to have a conversation before we got completely sidetracked.

"So, Trix, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is this plant?" I asked.

The elderly Rodenti paused for a moment, analyzing my question before giving a nod.

"Lionsbane. From what I can tell, it's a mutated version of wolfsbane that should not really exist. At any rate, as far as I know, if it's mixed with the right supplements, it can become a very powerful poison, one that can even affect Eaters. I know how to make that mixture, but I am currently missing the main ingredient."

"The Lionsbane?" I guessed.

Trix just gave us a quick glance.

"Exactly. There's a cave to the north of here where the conditions somehow fit just enough for this plant to grow. I had been using it as my own personal garden, but sometime after the other Rodenti started to arrive, a monster decided to use that cave as its home. A bear, I want to say."

"So not really a bear?" I guessed.

Trix shrugged.

"It's hard to tell. I wasn't the one who got in contact with the creature, and the ones that did gave similar descriptions. It is a creature with a lot of fur, four legs, sharp claws, truly big and powerful. By all accounts, it looks like a bear, but it could be something else."

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I nodded, and so did the rest of the group.

"But whatever it is, it is powerful," Trix continued, "One of the people who went after it reported that they found markings that made it seem like an Eater was around. They saw tracks revealing that the Eater fought with the creature."

"And the creature won?" I raised an eyebrow.

"The creature is still alive. So we can assume it won. If it killed the Eater or just managed to scare it away, I don't know. But considering how Eaters act…" Trix stepped closer to Rex and started to pat his head.

"It probably killed the creature," Michael nodded.

"Exactly. Considering how Eaters are supposed to act once you attack one of them, that's the most likely scenario, unless it was a strange variation that behaves differently. But if we're going to start adding the what-ifs, then we're not going to stop."

I had to admit, I was somewhat surprised at the prudence that Trix was showing. She was also much more eloquent than any other Rodenti that we had seen, including the elderly Chieftain from the village where we created the mushroom farm. Trix took the time to describe the flower in question, making sure to give us all the details, including a drawing that she made on some piece of leather.

That was the way people tented to write things these days. Making paper was a bit too convoluted to be popular in the current state of the world. More specifically, very few people had the will to break down the fibers by hand, put them to dry, not to mention making the frames properly. Using animal skin was much easier since it was something people already needed to get and even when making clothes there were scraps that would be tossed away.

Still, the drawing was extremely realistic, and Trix managed to do so using just some simple pigments that she made herself as a side project. Those were all things that she was half bragging about when talking about the drawing. Riley took the chance to ask how she made the pigments, and the two started talking about botany extremely quickly. The Witch was very eager to have a conversation about the subject and jumped at the first opportunity she had to change the topic.

I wasn't all that interested in botany, although I probably should be paying attention to the kinds of spices I could use. But instead, I started walking around the house, just looking over the small garden that existed inside. But what really caught my eye was what was happening outside. Across the street from us, there were houses. This house had a couple of windows that were mostly covered by curtains, and across the street from us, there were other houses, the windows completely boarded up or closed with large pieces of rock. I wondered if they were trying to turn the houses into tombs. But before my thoughts could go in that rabbit hole, I noticed something else.

A pair of Rodenti walking in our direction.

A large one and a smaller one. And they felt familiar. As they got closer, I realized where I had seen them before. The small one was part of Rixnala's group. It was the same warrior that fought against Michael, the assassin with the daggers. Beside him was a different Rodenti, but one that came with Rex's older brother. We had seen him on the day we arrived at the house near the Chieftain's place.

They were walking side by side and talking in a somewhat relaxed manner, but that was just on a first look. Their eyes told a very different story. They darted back and forth in all directions, and anytime another Rodenti came into view, their gestures would mirror the new person's location. It was a very subtle way to tell each other where other people were, and something that, unless you were watching them directly, you probably wouldn't be able to notice.

I stayed still as much as I could, not wanting to reveal my position, hoping that the shadows from outside would be enough to hide my presence. Within moments, I watched as they walked past the house that was boarded up and stopped for a few moments. They continued talking, leaning against the wall, but their eyes continued to jump from one side to the other as if they were looking for someone or something.

Eventually, the two, in a quick flurry of motions, darted into the locked house. They were so quick that it was over in the blink of an eye, but my eyes were wide open. I watched as they pushed themselves off the wall and stepped inside, making sure not to cause any noise or make any sound. I couldn't really understand why they were moving with such secrecy. There should be no problem for two powerful warriors to be talking with each other, or maybe there was something to do with that specific house. But before I could come up with any actual reason for their actions, Michael touched the side of my arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I turned back around and shook my head. "I'm fine. What's up?"

"We are just done here. Miss Trix was kind enough to tell us everything she knew. I don't know if you heard all the details." Michael explained.

"Sorry, I got kind of distracted when she and Riley started talking about botany. Was there anything more?"

"Just that the last person who went there reported that the monster living in the cave is supposed to be a tier two creature. And it might be saturated. But Rex still wants to go, so I guess we're going." The archer shrugged.

"He's going to go even if we don't go with him, isn't he?" I said with a sigh and a chuckle.

Astrid turned around. "Yep."

"Man, I don't like this at all."

"Hey, you are the one who decided to make this group, not me, but I'm not going to complain," Michael smiled while he watched Trix try and fail to convince Rex to give up on the mission.

Now that we knew the rough location of the cave, we decided to head out right away. We had gotten some food after we left Ash's house, rations that we took from the room, and everybody was more or less rested for a big battle. The cave in question shouldn't be that far off from the main village, allowing us to possibly finish this today. I could only hope that Ash wouldn't come up with another task for us to do in order to prove our worth. If he did that again, I was afraid I was going to have to call bullshit on whatever he was going to say.

It was also somewhat stupid of him to try to stop us by sending us to a place this close by. If he really wanted Rex to not participate in the fight against the Eaters, he should have sent us on a goose chase that was much, much farther away. Maybe he just didn't think that Trix was going to let Rex come, or that we would be willing to fight a monster that was tier two. Willing was not really the right word to describe our decision, but one way or another, we were going to do this.

First, we were going to kill this monster and grab the flower. Then, if Ash allowed us, we would join the fight against the Eaters. Otherwise, we would need to tell Rex exactly what we believed his father was doing. the real reason why we were going on a bunch of side quests.

So I was basically going to hunt a giant bear monster to help a small humanoid rat convince his larger humanoid rat to let us join the fight against nightmare monsters. All because a group of jellyfish had a vision that the world was going to end.

How did this become my life?

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