"You did not!"

Rhojeka looked at her long-time travel companion Mervella with big expressive eyes as she listened to the story of the warrior. Mervella on the other side of the inn table nodded and grinned. "I assure you, I did."

Still, Rhojeka couldn't believe it. "You just stole it from him! You, an upright, righteous knight of the king!"

"He was acting strangely, and I feared that this was just some secret magic spell that he kept there," Mervella defended herself. "Too bad that the scroll vanished once I stepped into the box. I would have loved to show it to you."

"And you never thought that this blank looking long scroll might have served a different purpose than you had assumed?" Rhojeka shook her head, and her loose lightbrown hair flew over her shoulders like a flood of grace and elegance. But apparently, her friend did not understand.

"Like what?"

Perhaps it was better not to go into details on that matter. The story that Mervella just told her was probably worthy of any bard's tale, hadn't it been so outrageously insane. Rhojeka could not picture herself standing in front of her audience and giving them that sort of nonsense, not even just for being entertaining. On the other hand, she had known Mervella since childhood, and she knew that her warrior friend could never make something like this up, even if she intended to. Also her aura which Rhojeka knew better than anyone else's did not show any sign of deceit. How crazy this story sounded, it still had to be true.

Perhaps she could turn it into a song? In her head she started putting together a melody that might fit the insanity of her friend's words.

"This might not have been the first time something like this happened," Mervella concluded her tale. "This grey-haired crone seemed to know very much what she was doing. If we ever meet her again, I suggest you better deal with her, because I am still inclined to chop her into pieces."

Rhojeka smiled. "And there I thought I could turn you into a people person like me," she jested. Outside the small room in the inn where the two were sitting, voices grew louder, and Rhojeka glanced at the door leading outside. "I guess it is time for me to continue my performance. We will talk later."

As she rose from her stool and grabbed that little flute, an instrument made out of delicate wood and carved by one of the best craftsmen in the kingdom, with small golden engravings almost gleaming in the shine of the candles and lanterns around them, Mervella watched her. A thousand things went through her head. No matter how many adventures they had lived through, no matter how far they had travelled, Rhojeka would always remain the sweet and innocent little girl that Mervella had grown up with in this small village. The fact that she had turned into a professional bard and also mastered the arcane powers of her goddess Elstar, the divine force over every solid matter and material, had not changed that - though the curious little Rhojeka had turned into a breathtakingly beautiful woman that was also a force to be reckoned with. But that didn't make it any easier on Mervella. Her urge to protect her friend was stronger than ever, even to protect her from herself and her own idealistic foolishness. At times Rhojeka, with all her knowledge of the world she had travelled for years, still seemed unbearably naive. And she spent way too much time and effort on her own appearance, at least for Mervella's taste. Like the grime and slime that some of their exploits brought with them was her own personal archnemesis.

Just as she reached the door, Rhojeka turned around for a moment. Having heard the entire story of Mervella being sent on this quest by the strange grey-haired woman, having to face plagued villages, vampires, ghosts and a man with a weird sense of humour, she finally asked the one question that Mervella had feared:

"How was it? Going back to Teng, I mean."

For a moment Mervella said nothing. A part of her didn't want to answer because she didn't want to do this to Rhojeka. Another part didn't want to do this to herself again. After all, this would not make it easier for any of them.

But still she answered. "It hurt," she said. "It hurt like hell. More than any injury that I had ever taken in any battle that I fought."

Rhojeka said nothing. She just nodded, her face reflecting the pain that Mervella had felt back then, but still with a hint of understanding and empathy. She turned around and stepped through her door, facing an expecting and cheerful audience to make their worries and troubles go away for the rest of the night.