Right as Kerii left Khalash's store done with the job she just completed, Khalash came back out to ask Kerii for another favor. "Kerii!" She turned around and looked at the old man. "What is it?" She asked, wondering if she had possibly forgotten to do something. Maybe she dropped her wallet by accident or maybe he didn't pay her adequately. Maybe he wanted more tests done on his shield, but none of those possibilities seemed to be the case. She supposed that being paid inadequately was the closest thing she thought of to what Khalash wanted, but even that wasn't close. Instead, it was something relatively unexpected.

"Kerii, I have another job for you to do. I completely forgot about it. I was just so eager to test out my new shield I put it in the back of my mind. Testing out the new shield was at the top of my list. I have been working on a new potion and I have just about perfected it. The only thing is that I am missing quite a few herbs. They are essential to the potion and it would be horrible if I delayed getting the potion ready any longer. I plan on bottling it up and selling it. It'll make me a fortune, and I'll tell you why at the end if you help me. So, will you? I'll pay you for it." The answer was obvious. Of course she would help him. What kind of person would she be if she said no? What kind of mage would she be if she denied to give someone help, especially after they're offering to make it a quest? "Of course I'll help," Kerii said, ready to receive instructions from Khalash. He smiled and handed Kerii a list of the ingredients that needed to be collected by her. "All the ingredients can be found in the East Woods. Some are harder to find than others, but as long as they all come back fresh, you'll be fine. Good luck!" Kerii smiled to him and turned around and headed for the forest.

Kerii looked at the list as she made her way towards the forest. There were three different herbs she needed to gather. In descending order, the first on the list was a curly fern. Kerii was pretty sure she saw plenty of those when she went to see the hermit. The second one though wasn't something she'd seen before. It was described to be blue lichen that apparently grew in rotting logs, which would explain why she didn't see it that often. Normal people didn't exactly go looking in rotting logs. Finally, the third on the list was a red leafed vine which was only found deep in the forest on large trees. She thought that the hermit's tree was pretty large, but she couldn't recall seeing any red leafed vines. She guessed that just meant she would have to venture even deeper into the forest, which she was fine with. She just hoped she wouldn't wander into Vulcan territory. She was not strong enough to fight one of those yet, but as long as she was cautious she thought it would turn out alright.

Kerii approached the edge of the forest. She looked up at the sky and saw that the grey clouds were growing closer. If she was going to finish this quest before the rain started, she would have to move fast. And so she did. Being an elf, she naturally moved faster in the forest than she did normally, so it didn't take her much time to arrive at some place deep in the forest. It was darker here and the trees were a lot taller and thicker. She wouldn't be surprised if she found a rotting log in that part of the forest along with the red leafed vines.

Kerii searched long and hard in the deep parts of the woods. She would look up periodically at the sky, looking at the blue and grey spots through the leaves at the treetops. She couldn't tell when the rain was going to start to fall and she couldn't remember how long she'd been looking for Khalash's potion ingredients either. It was truthfully getting pretty annoying. She thought that an elf like her with strong connections with the forest and with the well trained eyes of an archer that would put sharp shooters to shame would be able to find red vines. They would stand out brilliantly against the brown and green scenery, but nothing was popping out at her.

After about five to ten more minutes, Kerii finally came across some of those vines. Thankful that she finally saw them, she eagerly tore some off and went in search of a rotting log, which she found only three minutes after finding the red leafed vines. She broke open the rotting log with great ease and looked for blue lichen, but only found the all too common green and white lichen. She groaned and continued to look around the forest for another log.

A few more minutes passed and Kerii came across yet another rotting log. Thankfully, this one had blue lichen in it. She harvested a good amount of it and teamed with the red vines, she sprinted towards the eastern edge of the forest where she saw an abundance of curly ferns. She grabbed some of those and headed back towards Khalash's store, and not a moment too soon. Right as she was approaching his door it began to drizzle. She came inside and handed Khalash the potion ingredients. He took them and began brewing a potion with them. He told Kerii to wait. He took a small vial and dipped it in the potion. He handed it to Kerii and told her to drink it. She did it hesitantly, but after she gulped it down, she felt a wave of energy rush over her, giving her a similar feeling to that time when she chewed on the licorice root. She explained the feeling she got to Khalash and he seemed very pleased with himself and told Kerii that it went just as planned. The potion he made and the rare licorice root had the same effects. Now, he could sell it to mages to increase their overall strength. After accepting her pay, she thanked him for everything and went back to her inn to get some shelter from the rain.

WC: 1077/1000