"Wait, that extremely vague letter he left behind for us to find was about a rape, when did you figure that out?" my mother asked my father.
"I still don't know for sure, but it's been a theory of mine since Conlin Sr. took that land from Jenson. I went to him and complained about it. After hearing my complaints, he told me that he had taken the land as a way to ensure his son had something to call his own. Then he basically told me that he didn't care what he had to do to the rest of us in this village, if it meant he could help his son in some way, he would gladly do it," my father said.
"Okay, but how does that lead you to believe that he was gonna frame Sim Sim for a rape?" my mother asked impatiently.
I couldn't believe how perceptive my father was. I purposely didn't say anything too revealing in the letter I left them because I wasn't sure how they would respond if I told them everything. Hearing him take my side without any explanation made me regret leaving them in the dark about the situation in the first place.
"I don't know how he arrived at his conclusion, but he is right, if I didn't leave when I did, Conlin was gonna arrest me," I said.
Admitting that out loud for the first time made me feel lighter, like I had taken off a shirt made of lead. A stunned silence fell over the room as my mother's and Bella's eyes both darted between my father and me. I opened my mouth to elaborate further, but a woman lying behind my father began coughing non stop.
"Here give her this," Bella said and handed my father a potion like the one she had used on Mila.
"What is this?" My father asked her as he studied the red liquid.
"It's a health potion, she saved a little girl with one just like it," I said.
I assisted my father as he poured the liquid into the shivering woman's mouth. She was as hot as Mila was when we found her and had the same dark spots all over her skin. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the same thing Mila had. That reminded me that Bella had some issues with the story we were told about what was going on.
"So, what exactly is happening to these people?" I asked anyone who would answer.
"We were told it's a curse, but I think it's some kind of sickness," My mother said as she watched the woman closely.
"I noticed that you boiled the water you use, explain that for me," Bella said as she fed a potion to the child that my father was helping when we arrived.
"Well, we noticed that this whole curse started when the river began to smell bad. So, I had the idea that cooking the water might somehow clean out whatever is making it smell so bad," my father said.
All of us were watching to see how the woman would react to the health potion. I noticed that she had stopped shivering already.
"She's getting better, her shivering has stopped," I said and smiled slightly.
"So, the health potion is working?" my father asked hopefully.
"Yeah, it's taken away this child's fever as well," Bella said and nodded.
"You saved them! Oh, bless you!" my mother said and hugged Bella tightly.
"Honestly, you two saved them. When you stopped letting them drink that water. Has anyone actually looked at the place where you all get your water? Bella asked.
"Conlin Jr sent a team of people to investigate the water smell and that was when we found out about the wolf man. The poor guy that made it out alive was so scared his hair had turned white," my father said.
"Okay, so this wolf man must be the creature the quest giver was talking about, has anyone ever seen it?" I asked.
"Well, no not that I've heard about. Between the sickness and Conlin Jr's taxes no one here is really in any position to go monster hunting. We're all just trying to stay alive," my father responded with a shrug.
"Well, this sickness is definitely related to your water problem, so that's gonna be where we look first," Bella said and looked at me.
"Yeah, but what can they do while we investigate?" I asked.
"I used the last potion I had with me, but I can make more if you all can gather the ingredients for me," Bella said. She wrote a list of ingredients and gave it to my mother.
"I will try my best to gather this stuff, but honestly it's gonna take me forever. Times like this make me miss little Mila. That girl could get you anything you needed in no time flat," my mother said and slightly smiled.
"Oh, well in that case I'll just ask her to get us what we need?" Bella said and started for the door.
"You know little Mila?" my father asked.
"Yeah, we met her on the road. Bella saved her with that potion, we were too late to save her folks though," I said as I headed for the door myself.
"God rest their souls. We've lost so many good people the same way. I seriously hope you can fix this for us son. Not that we would deserve it," my father said as he led us out of the house.
"We'll do everything we can, I promise," I said.
"And when all of this is over, I want to know everything that happened before you left?" My mother yelled from inside the house.
"I promise, I'll tell you everything," I yelled back and walked away from the house.
Bella and I walked down the main road toward the river. The closer we got to it the more I wanted to turn around. The smell was so bad I was afraid to breathe it in.
"Hey lover!" Teresa's voice sang through the dead silent streets.
She and Mila were crossing the bridge back to the residential section of the village. We left the bridge and walked to the river's edge.
Bella gave Mila the list of ingredients she needed, and she ran off happily to collect them.
"Oh, that stench is powerful, if I fall in there just kill me and save me the embarrassment," Teresa said and waved her hand in front of her face.
"Noted, when the time comes, I'll put you down quickly and with pleasure," Bella said. She had begun walking slowly upstream while staring at the earth near the river.
"What exactly are we looking for, and should we also be looking on the other side of the river?" I asked, both out of curiosity and to change the subject.
"Those mushrooms growing along the edge of the water shouldn't be there, something is contaminating this soil and producing them, since they're growing along this bank, I think it's a safe bet that following them will lead to whatever is creating them," Bella said.
We followed Bella along the river until we reached the entrance to a cave at the base of a mountain.
"Dammit why do all of our quests lead to somewhere dark and isolated?" I asked.