23 Receiving the Goods
A week has passed since Astur moved her house to the island of the reservoir and the only real change in the daily routine of Astur and Elizabeth is having to use a dinghy whenever leaving the island along with a longer and slightly more dangerous trip for Elizabeth when she goes to Dawn. At least, Elizabeth thought it would be more dangerous, but her observations surprised her. Whenever she is walking out from and returning to Astur's house, Elizabeth always had this strange feeling, as if something was watching her, and this turned out to be true. The monsters of the forest had always been paying attention to her, but strangely none of them ever attacked Elizabeth, not even the more aggressive monsters like the Terror Hawk made an effort to trouble Elizabeth as they passed by. But this was just one of several strange things Elizabeth saw whenever she was walking to and from the Town of Dawn. But whenever Elizabeth tried to tell Astur about the strange behaviour of the monsters, she brushed it off with disinterest and returned her not so new favourite hobby, sleeping all day.
Although Elizabeth is distraught over Astur's attitude, things haven't been all bad. The many new, albeit strange, items Astur made have been popular and sold well, although a good portion ended up in Taurion's and Lester's hands. But most ended up being sold to children. Inflatable balloons that make the sound of a fart when they pop, paper planes that fly on their own, pencils that change colour while writing, and other similarly weird items. Things like these naturally appealed to children, but Taurion only bought stuff as an excuse to talk and spend time with Elizabeth, while Lester only thought the new items were funny.
Today, as Elizabeth is walking up the river to return home for the day, she hears a car horn from behind. Looking back, she sees a familiar car and some familiar faces.
As the car stops beside her and the window rolls down, Elizabeth says, "Hello, Taurion, is there something else? We had just parted ways not too long ago."
"Yeah, I just got a call from my father. He said that the first batch of materials have been prepared for Miss Astur and we were going to accept her deal," Taurion points to the two briefcases in the back of the car.
"And then he saw you and thought it would be fun to go together," Lester adds, laying down across the back seats.
"I don't mind accompanying you, it's actually a good thing, Astur moved the house to the depths of the forest recently so you wouldn't know where to find her right now," Elizabeth says, getting into the car and forcing Lester to sit up.
As Taurion restarts the car and resumes the drive to the Sea of Trees, he asks, "so you two moved, what are you going to do about the previous house and the barrier? And "
"When I said Astur moved the house, I meant it in a literal sense. The entire house moved, along with the barrier, both have been physically moved to a new location."
"Huh?" Taurion says in surprise as the car begins to swerve.
"Pay attention to your driving!" Heinrich shouts. "How did she manage to move everything?" he asks, turning back towards Elizabeth.
"I… don't actually know. I went to sleep and when I woke up the house had suddenly moved to the reservoir in the forest."
"Hmm… I see," Heinrich says, turning his view forward once more.
"So you two live in the reservoir area now. I'm fairly confident that Astur can take care of herself, but are you alright? The monsters that live in the depths, especially around the reservoir, are no pushovers. Even I have trouble with some of them," Lester says.
"Lester is right, the depths are dangerous. He may not be the strongest person around, but he can give most monsters around here a run for their money. If he's saying that even he has trouble with them, you should be careful. If you want I could arrange for some guards to escort you or should I arrange for a place for you in one of the nearby towns?" Taurion asks.
"Thank you for the concern, but it's not necessary. While I don't think I'm as strong as Lester, I can still hold my own, but my trips through the forest aren't really that dangerous. The monsters leave me alone so the journey is more like a peaceful stroll through the forest," Elizabeth says.
"Strange…" Lester says, rubbing his chin. "From what I know, the monsters in the depths of the Sea of Trees are very territorial and will usually attack on sight whenever someone gets too close. And monsters like the Terror Hawk will attack anything that moves within their vision, so long as it's not another Terror Hawk. Well, I guess it's fine as long as you're not getting hurt."
After some idle chatter, the four reach the Sea of Trees as Elizabeth guides them to Astur's new location. Just as Elizabeth had been telling them, Lester is quick to point out several strange actions from the monsters they saw. Solitary monsters like Armourdillos grouping together in what seemed to be large packs, unusually passive behaviour from aggressive monsters like Terror Hawks, and no movements from the territorial monsters as they walked passed them. Another thing Lester noticed was that every monster they came across felt significantly stronger than him. He thought that if a fight were to break out, there was a good chance they wouldn't come out unscathed if at all, but he neglected to say this part out loud and kept it to himself.
Arriving at the centre of the Sea of Trees, the group comes out to the reservoir. Most people would enjoy taking in the beautiful sight of the natural reservoir, but the three men see something very suspicious. Not the inconspicuous barrier that surrounds the small island of the reservoir, but the various areas of the water that seem to be shifting in colour. The first thing that comes to mind is the potion Astur had previously shown and given to them. Slowly the three of them turn their gaze towards Elizabeth, who in turn turns her head to avoid eye contact.
"Astur moved the house onto the island over there. I'm not sure where it came from, but she got this dinghy to use to travel between the island and the mainland. It should be able to fit all of us," Elizabeth says, avoiding any mention of the colourful spots of water.
As they are moving across the reservoir, the men become more and more certain that Astur had something to do with those colourful spots in the water and they're certain that she used the potion she showed before. Although they had already more or less known, this does help confirm that Astur was the one responsible for the recent theft in the potion shops in Dawn and that she used them to create more of her enhanced potions. And as Elizabeth had done before them, Taurion, Lester, and Heinrich can't help but think of it as a massive waste of precious items.
It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes before they pass through the barrier and reach Astur's house. But as they enter her living room, they see various cans of beer strewn about, alongside a few empty wine bottles, and at the centre of the mess is a passed out Astur on the sofa.
As Elizabeth nearly trips over one of the empty cans, Astur wakes up and rubs her eyes, "oh, it's you three," and upon seeing the two briefcases in Taurions hands, Astur sits up on the sofa and continues, "so you brought the goods. I suppose you want me to keep my end of the deal right? Which do you want, the set of enhanced potions or one of the special ones?"
"If I may, I'd suggest using the enhanced ones. From what I saw when Astur was testing them, the other ones all seemed to cause great pain for the monsters that consumed them and Astur herself once mentioned that if they had gotten unlucky they could have died," Elizabeth says.
"Tch, why'd you have to go and tell them that. I wanted to see the effects the elixir had on someone who isn't a monster or like you and generally immune to the effects of my blood," Astur says, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Thank you for the input, Miss Elizabeth, but we had already decided to take the enhanced potions. After discussing it with our fathers, it was decided there were too many risks and variables in taking the potion made from Miss Astur's heart," Taurion says, as Lester and Heinrich also nod in agreement.
"Fine," Astur says, going to her workshop to pick up the items. "Here, three sets of the Enhanced potion, fifteen for each of you," she says, handing Taurion, Lester, and Heinrich a small box full of the potions. "Now then, I have some experiments to do," Astur says, grabbing the two briefcases that Taurion brought and locks herself in her workshop.
Elizabeth can only sigh at Astur's behaviour around guests and says, "I'll bring you three back to the mainland."
