Fallen Fate Online

Clort sighed, "Well, it looks like you\'re not actually lying about coming here by accident, otherwise you wouldn\'t have that stupid look on your face."

Zayne frowned as he narrowed his eyes with a sharp glare.

Clort smirked, "You shouldn\'t look at me like that. On the contrary, you should be glad I believed you, else, you were already dead! Hahaha!"

Zayne sighed, "If I were you, I wouldn\'t underestimate who you just met. Suddenly, I came here to kill you, and I\'m just playing dumb?"

"Nice try, but I\'m a good enough judge of character to realize that you don\'t understand shit and are completely lost. Follow me, I\'ll tell you a little more about this place, and hopefully, you\'ll help us." Clort waved his hand, heading towards the river.

Zayne stared at Clort\'s retreating back for a while, then he shrugged and followed the mysterious wizard. In fact, it was the best development he could have hoped for.

Now Zayne was in the center of events and had some information about the situation, moreover, he was beginning to understand who he needed to protect.

\'Looks like that village isn\'t inhabited by humans at all, but by some kind of Lizards, well, that\'s not important. The important thing is that they seem to have done something to make that mage angry.\'\' Zayne pondered, pacing behind Clort. Pretty soon they reached the bank of the river.

Clort stopped at the riverbank and gazed at the tree, \'This is the Snake Tree, and it is both a curse and a blessing for this area.\'

Zayne looked at the tree, with a slight nod. It was obvious that this was no ordinary tree at all, it looked too strange.

"Once in a while, we don\'t know for sure since it happens at a different time each time, the Tree blows poison. In fact, we\'re lucky that Snake Tree is by the river, as all the poison goes into the water." Clort calmly said, to him this was something known and commonplace.

"Hmm?" Zayne gave him a questioning look, "Would you call that lucky?"

"Hah, I can tell right away you don\'t understand or know anything about this tree. Like I said it\'s a curse and a blessing. If the poison didn\'t go into the water, it would spread throughout the area, poisoning all living things in the form of fumes." Clort said.

Clort sighed slightly, "However, we\'ve learned to live with it, and predicting your next question, I\'ll answer right away - We\'re not going to cut down the tree as that would be a huge mistake."

"But... Why...?" Zayne asked with a confused expression.

Clort crossed his arms over his chest, "The poison is actually dangerous, but the rest of the time, the Snake Tree fills this river and the area around it with intense energy. It helps a lot with advancement, and creating potions as well as magical equipment."

"Anyway. Snake Tree brings trouble from time to time, but the benefits of it are many times greater. Since the tree only blows poison one day once every certain period of time, but gives you extra energy all the time." Clort explained.

Zayne nodded, he realized that in the long run having the Snake Tree was much better than destroying it. Moreover, Clort was right, one day of trouble was worth the rest of the time to get unique bonuses.

"Hm... While we\'re on the subject, I saw how angry you were when you saw that all the fruits had already gone bad. Will you tell me about them?" Zayne asked, with a slight wave of his hand.

"Well, that\'s the reason me and a squad of knights are heading to the Lizards. If those bastards think they can fool us, they\'re going to seriously regret it!" Clort said menacingly as the aura around him intensified.

Clort inhaled, "The problem is that this fruit is the only antidote. In nature, it often happens that the poison and the antidote to it, grow almost in the same place or even next to each other as in this case."

"Did you have someone poisoned?" Zayne asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah." Clort nodded with a dark face, "Our Lady. She is a talented mage and a kind person. The problem is that there\'s no way to tell when Snake Tree is poisoned and at first it\'s not even noticeable. So, every time, consuming water from the river, someone gets poisoned it\'s inevitable."

Clort continued, "This time, our mistress was unlucky. She was the only one because she was doing experiments late at night while everyone was asleep and it turned out that the water was already poisoned. No one could have predicted it."

"I see... So, you headed to Snake Tree to get the fruit and heal your mistress, right?" Zayne asked.

Clort frowned slightly as if Zayne had asked him a very uncomfortable question. Zayne didn\'t know what the reason for this reaction was, so he decided to just wait for an answer.

"Not really. In fact, we had already taken one of the fruits earlier. Two days ago." Clort replied, "The thing is, the fruit ripens more often than Snake Tree blows poison. Thus, when the first fruit ripened, the mistress ordered us to pick it, which we did. Each fruit contains a huge amount of energy, a very valuable resource. Also, they spoil very quickly, so preserving them for the future is impossible."

Zayne raised an eyebrow, the tree situation was getting more complicated with every word.

"Well... Correct me if I\'m wrong. You took away one of the fruits because you didn\'t know that Snake Tree would soon release poison, and because the fruit was already spent, now you can\'t cure your mistress who was recently poisoned. Am I understanding this correctly?" Zayne asked, watching Clort\'s reaction carefully.

Clort nodded, "Yeah. Looks like you\'ve been listening carefully to me that\'s good to know."

"Only one thing I don\'t understand. Why are you so angry at those Lizards? What did they do?" Zayne asked, with a shake of his hand.

Clort frowned, "That\'s obvious! Because they stole the remaining ripe fruit! Don\'t get me wrong, we\'re not greedy bastards who wanted to take all the fruit for ourselves. There\'s a treaty between our fortress and Lizard Village where we share them equally!"

Clort waved his hand, "If four fruits are ripe, then two are ours, and two are theirs, if six are ripe, then three are ours, and three are theirs, and so on! However, this time they got cocky and took more fruit than they should have! Now they have all the fruit, and our mistress is dying from this poison!"

Zayne\'s face darkened slightly. Things had changed after the last part of their conversation, now he could see some inconsistencies and complexities that he needed to learn more about.

"Fine. I\'ve got it all figured out. Thanks for the explanation." Zayne nodded, with a calm expression.

Clort stared off into the distance for a while, then he turned to Zayne, "You\'re a stranger here, but since you\'re also human and already know about the whole situation, I suggest you help us. If you\'re helpful, I\'ll reward you handsomely. Rest assured, I always keep my word."

Clort held out his hand, "I would be truly pleased if you would help me save my mistress!"

Zayne glanced at Clort with cold eyes and with a handshake accepted his offer.

"Sure. If the Lizards have in fact violated your treaty, then they should be prepared to face the consequences." Zayne pronounced in a calm tone.

Clort didn\'t notice it, but for a moment, Zayne\'s gaze became much darker, as if inside himself he had already made a different decision, but everything depended on the situation.

Zayne realized that he had only heard one side of this conflict, and there was no telling what the Lizards were thinking. He accepted Clort\'s offer, but it was not his final decision, first, he had to have all the information he could to make sure he didn\'t make a mistake and make things fair. 

"Fine, in that case, let\'s join the others. I think they\'re already waiting for us, and we need to hurry. We\'ve spent quite a bit of time on this conversation." Clort said with a serious look, heading towards the river.

"Hmm?" Zayne raised an eyebrow in confusion, "How do we cross the river? Unlike you, I can\'t teleport. Do you have any suggestions?"

Clort smirked, "Don\'t worry. I don\'t expect you to have the same abilities as me. Each of us is unique with our own advantages and disadvantages. I\'ll take care of the problem."

Then, Clort struck the ground with his staff, causing the orb to glow brightly. The light traveled forward, in a straight line, creating magical, transparent platforms leading from one bank to the other.

Zayne\'s eyes went wide, \'Not bad... Sometimes I wish I\'d gone the way of the mage, they actually have a lot of useful spells. Though... they also have a lot of downsides."

Step. Step. Step

Clort stepped onto the platform, and turned around, "Hey, are you coming? I\'m not going to maintain this spell forever."

"Sure. I was just thinking about it." Zayne nodded, quickly catching up to Clort.