50 End of trouble

It didn't take her more than 10 minutes to make enough juice for the 3 of them. She had used up most of the herbs for it. She then handed the juice to Cleo.

"How do you want to feed them?" she asked Cleo.

"Just open their mouths, close their noses and I will pour the juice. I hit them hard enough that they won't wake up."

Tina did what she was told and Cleo poured ⅓ of the juice in Alan's mouth and ⅓ in Ginny's mouth. She then handed back the bowl to Tina and said

"Drink up. After that carry both of them out of the forest. I would have preferred to kill him but I don't want the two of you to die with him so I am letting him go. I won't be so merciful the next time. Since you won't remember this conversation anyway, I don't think we need to talk anymore."

"Oh ok. Can you hold this bowl for a moment and feed it to me once I pick them up?"

She bent down and picked up her sister first. Then bent down again and lifted up Alan with a grunt. It seemed that this was actually her limit. She didn't seem like she could carry both of them with ease but she should still be able to carry them with some effort. I didn't know how heavy the guy but his armor didn't look light.

"What about the sword?" Turek asked.

He went to the sword and tried to pick it but. It was so heavy for thim that he could only drag it towards Tina. Cleo took the sword from him and lifted it up easily. She looked it up and down and said, "This sword is too unique. I would have liked to use it but someone might recognize it." She then handed the sword over to Tina. While Tina was able to hold the sword, it was only barely. The only reason she was able to walk is it balanced out the weight on her 2 shoulders. On one shoulder was Alan with his heavy armor and on another was Ginny. Tina held the sword in the same arm that held Ginny.

Finally she was ready and Cleo fed her the juice. Tina said her farewell and started walking toward the city. Her steps were steady but I wasn't sure for how long she would be able to walk like that while carrying so much weight. I looked up at Cleo with concern in my eyes but she shook her head and said "Don't worry about her. She is a strength attribute user. She should be able to make it back to the city even if barely. We are not that far from the city."

I nodded and looked down at my legs. I was still sitting on the ground as my legs were still hurting. Tina had left their bag of supplies here. Turek picked it up and started checking its contents.

The bag contained some food, water, medicine and some of the left over Lichen herb. He also found a small red stone at the bottom. He showed it to us and asked he we know what it was.

Both Cleo and me shook our heads. Cleo then sat down in front of me and asked "Does it hurt much? I was going to beat Tina up but since you said you were fine, I didn't. I needed her to carry the other two back to the city."

"No you did the right thing. She didn't treat me like a threat since she thought I was just a little kid. She didn't injure me severely even when she had the chance. She just got scared when you suddenly started attacking and hurt me accidently. She threatened to hurt me at the end but I don't believe she would have. That's probably why she simply dropped me in the end. She probably didn't want to hurt a child. I think letting her go was right. She won't remember this encounter anyway. Hopefully we don't get tangled up with them again."

Cleo nodded and asked "So do you think you can walk?"

I tried to stand up and was able to with some help from Cleo.

"I should be able to walk slowly. I am not sure if I will be able to run if we get attacked though"

"Don't worry, if it's something I can't fight, I should at least be able to carry you back. Since we took their money, we have more than enough and don't really have to do this quest. Do you want to return to the city instead?"

"No, if we cancel the quest, we will have to pay the guild a fee. It will also be a black mark on Turek's record which will make his promotion harder. I think we should continue."

Considering how easily Cleo beat the guy who was able to wander this forest, it should be fine for us to go further in.

"You don't have to worry about me Ren" said Turek. "I don't care about a black mark on my record."

"If I feel I can't walk, I will let you guys know. For now I think we can continue our quest."

Cleo nodded and looked at the map again. She found the direction again and we started walking albeit a bit slower than before. I was carrying our original bag and Turek was carrying the one we took from those three. Cleo walked in lead like before looking for any sign of danger.