They put a good distance between themselves and the clearing until they reached a narrow stream. The sound of the water bubbling over the stones was like music to Kate's ears, and she barely stopped herself from sinking to the dirt and sticking her whole face in the water.

  Io sensed her hesitation. Are you not thirsty?

  “I don't want to get some weird alien bacteria from drinking stream water.”

  “Not so dumb as you look,” Gren muttered, ignoring her glare.

  Your natural regeneration will take care of anything like that, Io said confidently. Only Gren has to be careful in that regard.

  She smugly passed on the news to Gren and quickly squatted down to slurp up a handful of the refreshing cold water.

  Rolling his eyes, Gren eased himself onto a nearby log and shrugged off his packs. “Fine, drink your fill. If your little firebug's wrong, you'll be leaking out of both ends later. I'll stick to my canteen, thank you.” He took out some dried meat and gave her half.

  They sat and ate the snack in exhausted silence. Kate didn't miss how Gren kept wincing and shifting his weight. She sent impatient glances towards her MP pool every now and then, waiting for it to fill. She'd lost about twelve HP falling from the tree, but it had already healed itself.

  By the time she was halfway done with her food, her MP was up to full as well.

  She pointed at Gren. “Help.”

  He jumped a little at the unexpected healing. “Warn a guy next time.”

  “You're welcome.” She eyed his HP. 160. “I have to wait one minute before I can do that again. That will bring you up mostly to full health. Then I'll be able to do it again in, uh...” She did the calculations hastily in her head. She needed ten MP for Heal Other, and her MP regained one every ten seconds. “Just under two minutes.”

  Gren peered at her. “This MP regeneration Heroes have is something else,” he admitted.

  She grinned back.

  By the time they'd finished their break she'd gotten his health back to full. His clothes still bore the tears and blood from the fight, but his skin was unblemished. He ran a cautious hand over the spot where he'd been gored, a faint look of wonder on his face. “This is why Hero healers are so important.” He leveled her with a stern look. “As much as I appreciate the patch-up, let this be a reminder that you can't go risking your life like that. Other people need a healer's help much more than they need some grumpy old hunter's.”

  She frowned back, but didn't bother to argue. He and Io were clearly not going to listen.

  Gren collected his things and got to his feet. “We're not far now. Another half hour of walking if we pick up the pace a little.”

  “So who are these mysterious neighbors of yours, anyway?” she asked, leaping over the stream and following him through the woods. “And why do they need a healer's help?”

  “It's a large family, the Piltens. They've lived on the land for generations. They hunt, mostly, and do a little farming. Granny Yala suffers from arthritis, though I'm not sure what you can do for her aside from temporarily ease her pain. It's her youngest great-grandson Hal that really needs your help. Hal's only seven. He broke his back in a nasty fall from a tree last year. He's bedridden. He can speak, but he can't move anything below his neck. It was a real tragedy, the whole family was broken up about it. I'm not even sure if you can help with such an old injury, but I think it's worth the try.”

  “Io?”

  Gren is right, the injury is likely too much for you to simply heal. It would have been possible if you were there when he was first injured, but his body has had ample time to knit flesh and bone around the injury now. You... may not be able to do anything, especially at your level. This one is sorry for the boy, but your current spells are simply not strong enough. Even were you to cast Heal Other back to back in between cooldowns and mana replenishing, the spell itself is too weak and your willpower is too low. Perhaps one day when you are more powerful and have the correct spell, you can come back and try again.

  Kate nodded sadly, but didn't bother to relay the message to Gren and dash his hopes. She could at least try. It was upsetting to think of such a young child bedridden for the rest of his life.

  “I'm not going to tell them,” Gren said suddenly, perhaps sensing her melancholy mood. “What you are, I mean. I don't want to give them false hope. You can sneak in alone with him and give it a try, and if it doesn't work, they never need to know.” He shot her a stern look. “Speaking of which, I'd advise that you keep your class to yourself whenever possible until you have other Heroes' protection. A Hero healer is too tempting a prize for some unsavory characters to pass up. Some might want to keep you for themselves.”

  She nodded, shuddering at the thought of being held captive by criminals. Her ring hadn't reacted to the boar back in the clearing, and she had definitely been afraid of it. Was it because she had touched it instead of the other way around? Or was the ring really junk? She put the question to Io.

  This one is fairly certain they must initiate contact with you, rather than the other way around. It is not broken. Yet she couldn't help noticing the slightly unsure tone to its voice. Io made what sounded suspiciously like a throat-clearing sound. Let us discuss leveling a bit more, since there is a chance you may be able to level up when we reach the Piltens' home.

  “Yes, please,” she said, grateful to talk of something less depressing than poor little Hal.

  Io began its circling “pacing” again by her shoulder, voice once more taking on a lecturing cadence. Every level you will earn more points into your MP and HP. You can also influence this by raising your Willpower and Constitution. Every three levels you will earn a number of attribute points. You may spend the points right away or hold them in reserve if you wish, although this is not recommended. These points can be put into your base stats, such as Willpower. And every five levels you will gain either a new spell or an upgrade to an existing one in your base class. Every ten levels, well... This one will get to that once you're closer to level ten.

  “What about secondary classes?” She saw Gren turn to look at her out of the corner of her eye, but didn't meet his gaze. The less he asked about her class, the better. Luckily, he didn't interrupt. She was glad only she could hear Io.

  Subclasses are a bit different, the Guardian explained. They vary depending on the class. Epic classes like yours have more powerful spells, so they are spaced out more. Unfortunately, you will likely not gain a new spell for Necrotic Healer until around level ten.

  “Bummer.” Oh, well, at least she'd be able to get a new spell for her base class soon. She eyed Gren's broad back. Traveling with a level nine was good for her XP, but it occurred to her that she may not be so lucky in companions again on her way to find other Heroes. “Gren, this might be my last chance for awhile to farm for extra XP. While these things are still a higher level than me.”

  “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

  “It means I want us to pick at least one or two more fights before we get to your neighbors' house. Preferably fights that I can actually contribute to this time, like all the deer and rabbits and stuff.”

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  Gren sighed. “Just keep walking. We'll run across something eventually.”

  Five minutes later a pair of bloodthirsty rabbits the size of terriers came leaping out of the brush obligingly. Gren held them down with a boot to the back while Kate struck each one a blow to the face for a pitiful amount of damage, then he finished them off. Kate was ecstatic. They were only level three, but together they netted her forty points, putting her at exactly 300 XP. She would be able to jump up two levels and be already progressing towards the next. Gren waved her away when she reached forward to loot the bodies.

  “We'll bring these along. They're good eating. It's impolite to show up at someone's house without a gift.” Stringing them up, he slung one casually over his shoulder and passed her the other one. “Maybe this will toughen up those stick arms of yours a bit.”

  Carrying the thirty pound death rabbit was easy at first, but got tiresome quickly. She huffed and puffed and didn't even notice that Gren had stopped some time later until she ran face first into his back.

  “We're here,” he announced, and she craned her head past him to look.

  They'd come to another clearing in the woods, though this one was much larger than where they'd fought the boars. Over the years the Piltens had clearly cut away the trees to make themselves a nice big place to build a family. There was a small fenced-off garden area and four log cabins, one almost double the size of the others. There was even a low barn and a group of what looked like miniature yellow sheep grazing nearby in the shade of a small orchard.

  A tall skinny boy who'd been idly lounging in the grass keeping an eye on the sheep popped up when he noticed their approach. “Ma!” he yelled over his shoulder.

  In the garden, two women turned at his call, shading their eyes. Soon people came hurrying from all over the homestead to meet them.

  Suddenly feeling shy, Kate found herself hanging back as Gren walked forward to hand off his rabbit to one of the men as everyone spoke at once.

  “Gren, you old bastard, I thought you'd died.”

  “You haven't been by in ages, are you really still all alone in that miserable little cabin of yours?”

  “Ohh, rabbit for dinner. How thoughtful, Gren.”

  “Gren, Gren, look, I grew three whole inches!”

  “Who's this, then? Bless me-- Is that a--?”

  Suddenly all eyes were on Kate. She stood stock-still, sweating under the weight of the rabbit. She'd thought Gren had just been unusually tall, but it seemed this was a common trait in Giltarians. Even the women were at least as tall as she was, and two of the men were even bigger than Gren. Their skin was also gold like his, ranging from coppery to almost too bright to be real. They were all dressed in plain clothes that looked hand-made, like something out of an old storybook. Like Gren, none of them had any beards or eyebrows. And all of them, even the children, had the same white hair. All their eyes were pale grey or blue.

  Kate felt small and very alien-looking standing in front of all of them.

  Io was practically hiding behind her ear, but plenty of the Piltens were staring right at it.

  “A Hero,” one of the women breathed. “An actual Hero. All the way out here?”

  “What's her class?” the man beside her asked instantly.

  “That's a Guardian, a real Guardian. Ma, lookit!”

  “Enough, you'll scare the wits out of her, and she hasn't got enough of those to spare,” Gren grumbled, making shooing motions. “Let's get inside the wards first.”

  Looking around, Kate spotted a row of large stones sunk into the ground all around the perimeter of the homestead. As she stepped over one, she once again felt that frisson on her skin that meant she'd passed through some protective wards. Gren had mentioned having someone reset the wards at his own cabin, and she tried to remember if she'd seen similar stones. But she must not have noticed them. Was the spellcaster he'd mentioned here? It would be interesting to speak with someone else who could do magic.

  In front of the big cabin was an enormous table already set with clean dishes, and most of the family hastened to find a seat. Someone took the rabbit from Kate, and she was grateful to give it up.

  “I'll get Granny,” one of the teenagers said, and bolted inside.

  “I'd suggest introductions, but there's too many of you and she'd just forget,” Gren said, taking a seat. Kate hastily slid onto the bench beside him. “This is Kate. Found her trying to make friends with some Prairie Wolves a mile or so from my place. Apparently there was some sort of mistake and she was dumped in the wrong area.”

  “It's a good thing you were nearby, then, poor thing,” a motherly looking woman on her other side tutted. “A tiny little girl like this would've been eaten alive.” She reached out absently to brush twigs and leaves from Kate's hair. “Well, thank your lucky stars Gren found you when he did, Kate. I suppose you're trying to find more of your own kind?”

  Kate finally managed to unglue her tongue from the top of her mouth. “Yes, ma'am.”

  Several of them laughed, not unkindly. “Listen to her! So polite.”

  “Poor thing, you must have had a rough time of it.”

  “Ulsa, Tern, do something useful and go skin those rabbits. Let's get supper started, we need to put some meat on her bones.”

  A small child reached up as if to poke Io, but it skittered out of reach. “Is this your Guardian? Does it have a name? Can it talk?”

  Kate reached up and cupped her hand around Io to soothe it. “Its name is Io. It can talk, but only I can hear it.”

  “I want one,” an even smaller child whined.

  “Shush. Go back to your chores, children.” The children scattered and the woman who had brushed twigs out of her hair turned to Kate once more. “Gren's right, I suppose there's too many for introductions. But I'm Marla. I'm Granny Yala's eldest grandchild. That one there,” she pointed at the child who'd wanted a Guardian, “is mine. Kel. My eldest is... Well, he's unable to join us, I'm afraid. He can't get out of bed. But we'll bring him out later, he loves the company. And he'll be glad to see someone new.”

  She must be talking about Hal, Kate thought, shooting Gren a quick look.

  “What's all this, then?” a creaky voice called out.

  The teenager who'd left earlier was making his way slowly down the big cabin's steps. Leaning heavily on his arm was the most ancient woman Kate had ever seen. She was stooped over with age, but as she drew closer and Kate got to her feet to greet her, she could see that if the woman had been able to stand up straight, she would have towered overhead. The gold of her skin was faded, and her white hair was tied up in a frizzy, impatient knot at the top of her head. But past all the wrinkles on her face, her silver eyes were sharp and intelligent as she took Kate in.

  “A Hero, eh? Been a long time since I've seen one. It's a shame you had to go through so much peril on your arrival. I hope you appreciate all Gren's done to keep you safe, young one.”

  “Yes, ma'am. I owe him my life.” She stuck out her hand. “My name's Kate. You must be Granny Yala. Gren mentioned you.”

  Yala's smile made the wrinkles bunch up and nearly hide her eyes from sight. She gave a quiet chuckle. “Granny Yala, that's me.” She looked curiously at Kate's hand, then reached out hesitantly with her left hand. Hastily Kate switched to her left as well and shook the woman's hand as gently as possible. Yala's eyes flickered down to the gauntlet, but she said nothing.

  The others stared.

  Yala looked around at them and cackled aloud. “I've seen this before. It's a greeting Heroes use. A sign of respect. Put your eyes back in your heads.”

  Kate released her, feeling a little embarrassed. “Sorry. How, um, how do Giltarians greet each other?”

  Yala raised her hand up and touched her chest briefly, over her heart. “For friends.” She raised her hand again, this time hovering near her ear, palm out. “For strangers.” She chuckled again. “You'll pick things up, I'm sure. But odd customs from your sort are expected, fear not.” She wagged a finger at Gren. “You could have at least shown her that much.”

  Somewhat to Kate's surprise, Gren got up and leaned over slightly to place a small kiss on the old woman's cheek. “We were a little busy fending off monsters for lessons in etiquette, Granny. I brought rabbit.”

  “Ah, good! I love a good juicy rabbit.” Yala's eyes went back to Kate's gauntlet, and she wished now that she'd thought to take it off. Clearly Yala had some experience with Heroes, unlike the others. Did that mean she recognized the weapon and had guessed her class? “Marla, why don't you take Kate in to meet Hal? He'll be wondering what all the fuss is about, and he does so love visitors.”

  She definitely suspected. But there was no way to protest without being rude, and Yala hadn't come right out and said anything about healing, so Kate mutely followed Marla into one of the smaller cabins. Inside it was much nicer than Gren's bachelor pad. Light and fresh air were let in through the open windows and everything looked cozy and clean, with brightly patterned cushions on every chair. Something was clearly baking; the delicious scent filled the whole place. Dried flowers hung from the walls, adding color and a faint floral scent to the large room.

  The cabin was much larger than Gren's, too; there were two doors leading to other rooms, and Marla knocked softly on one of them. “Hal? You have a visitor.”

  Kate quickly stashed her gauntlet in her inventory with a thought.

  A child's voice answered instantly. “Is it the Hero?”

  A fond smile played on Marla's lips. “It seems someone's already come by and spoiled the surprise.” She opened the door and gestured for Kate to enter.