Pavas carefully placed three sprigs of yellow grass on an already substantial pile, then began to rummage through the bag where plants had been placed in bulk, without any care to differentiate them.
The agitation due to the sudden arrival of the silver Salamander had passed, giving way to a calm discussion between Ewan and Wynblow, while the young girl had remained a little apart. She had chosen to sort by variety the different herbs collected throughout the day; gathering them in small bundles. This did not prevent her from casting a few curious glances at the man and the dragon, who were sitting opposite each other, and who kept talking together.
The trio, having gone deeper into the forest, had found themselves well away from any unwelcomed encounters with other hunters or harvesters; but this did not entirely reassure Ewan. He knew that the forests of Mount Larshen were much more crowded than they normally were, due to the Behemoth hunt that was going on right now, and a large Salamander, even a medium-sized one like Wynblow, was not the type to go unnoticed.
He was even relieved that the dragoness was rather modest in size compared to her fellow creatures, who could easily outgrow most trees in terms of height.
"Well, if I understood correctly, this little girl got mixed up in all this," Wynblow deduced; "and that's why you decided to take her with you?"
"I could hardly see myself leaving her there," replied Ewan, sitting cross-legged with his head resting against the palm of his hand.
"And she agreed, even though she knew you were coming to meet me?" She asked, incredulous.
Ewan nodded, and Wynblow wagged the tip of her tail slightly, tousling the flower stalks and blades of grass nearby.
The young man then turned his gaze to Pavas, who was still busy sorting the various plants by color or leaf shape.
"She is way more brave than what one would think..." He said absently.
"If she's not scared of me, she sure is!" Scoffed Wynblow, "She's the second person not to run away when she sees me, and I have to say it's kind of nice."
"Don't get too used to it," retorted Ewan.
Wynblow frowned, the two bumps above her eyes drooping to obscure her deep green gaze.
"I don't intend to linger near the humanoids any more than I have to," she replied, lifting her head.
"The same. The sooner I get you to the North, the sooner I can get back on my own path," Ewan intoned.
"However..." She began, suddenly hesitant.
"However?" Ewan repeated, curious as to what she would say.
Wynblow lowered her head, absorbed in observing the ground between them, and put on what Ewan took to be a thoughtful expression.
"To tell the truth, I ran into a woman while I was hiding here..." She began, which surprised Ewan.
"She saw you?!" He exclaimed, lowering his arm and raising his head.
"Not... Exactly..." She replied. "But she seemed to know a lot about curses."
This time, it was the young man who frowned.
In Wynblow's own words, Curses were a forgotten form of magic known to few, due to its taboo nature. So what were the chances that she would run into someone in this usually secluded place who knew about the subject?
"And... She said something curious... About me." Wynblow replied.
Ewan clenched his fists. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like what his traveling companion was going to reveal. Nor could he calm a feeling of discomfort that was growing inside him, like an uneasiness taking over his mind.
"She said I was cursed... Twice..." Wynblow revealed, her gaze focused on the young hunter.
For a moment, Ewan remained silent. Should he believe what the dragoness had just told him? Or should he even doubt the encounter she had made? Was it really true, or was it a lie?
Because if it was the truth, then what the hell could have happened to make someone so resentful of Wynblow that one cursed her not once, but twice?
Faced with the uncomfortable silence that had settled in, Wynblow felt compelled to keep talking to dispel the discomfort she felt.
"She also said I could take advantage of my curses, but I don't really know what she meant by that..." She said slowly as if she was taking every precaution in the world.
An advantage? Who was this person, then, to so blatantly advance such things, after meeting a dragon for the first time? It was more than suspicious, and the young man wondered if Wynblow had really made that encounter, or if she was confusing reality with forgotten memories.
Perhaps she had remembered something, and that memory had seemed real to her.
However, he also couldn't rule out the possibility that the encounter had actually happened; and that assumption didn't appeal to him at all.
"Did this person say anything else?" He asked apprehensively.
The dragoness thought for a moment, her eyes darting left and right upward without really looking at anything, and then a flash of insight ran through her pupils.
"She said I had to see someone who owns a tower!" She exclaimed.
"A tower?" Repeated Ewan, a little unsettled by the wording used.
A tower... That someone owned.
Not a castle tower, or a country tower, but a tower almost perceived as private property. It couldn't possibly be...?
"Why did that person tell you to go there?" He questioned her.
"Uh, if I remember correctly, she said that the person living there could help me, about my curses." She replied, blinking slowly.
So, Wynblow had to go there if she wanted to know more about the curses that struck her?
Conscientiously, he observed the dragoness sitting across from him.
It was a Salamander, of medium size.
There didn't seem to be any wounds - apart from the one inflicted by the fire monster - nor any problem with her body. Its appearance was quite normal, and apart from speaking human language, it was identical to any other fire-breathing reptile.
However, there was indeed one problem in all of this: Wynblow's memory loss.
Could it be that her memory loss was the result of these curses?
Besides, when he heard the word "tower", along with the field of magic, and a single person owning it, there was only one place that came to mind. He just suspected that Wynblow hadn't made the connection because she didn't know or had forgotten this crucial information.
If the dragoness had known, she would have immediately thought of the Tower of Magical Expertise located on the coast near the armored city of Salvie.
This was double bad news for Ewan: not only would he have to make a big deviation from their original route, but he would also be approaching a place he had so far meticulously avoided.