It Started with Slime - Part 1

Interlude XI - Haemish, Exploration

Getting to the cottage after Taler started flying had been extremely easy. Not bogged down with the trees and creatures therein. Taler had such a great experience that by the time they got to the cottage he was not even feeling the pain of the previous day, so distracted was he.

Only when Haemish yelled at him to come down and land and then subsequently yelled at him again to get some medicine on his soreness was he reminded of it, and then it hit him so hard that he fairly collapsed onto Bucktooth's neck. It was quite the sight, one second the man was whooping and hollering like a child and then the next he was almost passed out. What an idiot... Haemish thought as he watched the man floundering around.

Bucktooth had quickly landed and the injured man had taken the healing salve and hobbled inside to apply it. Only coming out about half an hour later to the central room huffing and puffing and legs spread so his inner thigh didn't touch. It must have been torture.

"How's it feeling now, lad?"

"Burned like crazy at first, if I'm honest but settling now, still hurts like I've been kicked a few times there..." Taler was red-faced. Haemish grinned as he turned away, he should have warned the man but it was character building, besides it was done now. "A little warning would have been nice..." Taler grumbled.

"What was that, Taler?"

"I was just asking, is it supposed to be sticky?"

"Yes, it is. Should help with your future rides as well, it boosts your natural muscle memory so your muscles will get used to riding faster." Haemish said with more than a hint of pride to his words.

Rion grabbed the bottle from Taler as he walked past. "One of your creations Master Haemish?" this time Rion was pretty impressed, it was one thing to get the skill for a new activity that was not so difficult but even if you had the skill it didn't mean that your muscles were used to the activity. That took time to get used to.

Like when a desk jockey tries to ride a Gryphon like it's a Rabbit.

This salve had been one of Haemish's great successes and sold for a pretty penny in the city. More in Pravwell than Brewyn. I suppose the difference makes sense considering... It was one of a few of his avenues of income allowing him to fund his further research. The King had helped him with the commercial side of things through his own retainers and so Haemish had not needed to worry about it, just giving the King the formula he had discovered and then received a stipend from the production and sales. It was another of the reason the King had such respect for Haemish. Haemish agreed to keep working on new formulae and the King kept up the promotion efforts to popularize them.

It was also one of Darf's major exports, much of the ingredients mined from the Pleutr Forest. Once the formulae were established it was easy to create the factory line and mass produce. Darf could maintain its position at the forefront of the market by keeping the price reasonable and maintaining that trading relationship with the larger nations around it.

After getting Taler settled, things had calmed down considerably with the weather starting to turn after the four months of Agni, they had got a fire going in the hearth, Aera was no joke of a season, the winds blowing and cooling everything down compared to the heat of Agni was even sharper in its contrast. While that was happening Haemish had a wander around his newly rebuilt home. With the repairs having been completed a while ago he had not even noticed that it had been damaged, even the walls had been done with the same brick and mortar as before.

The repair works have been done exceedingly well, Haemish thought. One would not even notice that repairs have been done.

Then he walked into the final and most important part of the cottage. Ahh, yes! It is exactly as I remember it, the shelves have all the enchantments as before and it is clean and neat and tidy...and empty, so very empty. Haemish took a minute to reminisce about what had happened and the loss of many of his valuable and unique substances. At the time it had been chaotic and he had been near death and then it had been important to tidy up and salvage what he could and then Haren had arrived. Not until this moment had the loss truly hit him. There was nothing to be done and he had never been one to dwell, preferring instead to bury them deep down and not deal with them. Far better to do it that way! Besides, seeing my old lab makes me want to brew something! Oh! What's that? Tucked into a corner in one of the cubbyholes was a set of books. They looked familiar and with those books was a note: