The next day, Jess was awakened by the chirping of birds. When he sat up, he found himself lying on an exaggeratedly large bed.
Of course, by exaggerated, it was only compared to the beds he had slept in before.
Looking out of the window, this was Giant Lake Farm. He noticed that the bandages on his wounds had been removed and carefully re-bandaged. There was not much blood on them yet.
Recalling last night, he seemed to have been bitten quite badly.
Just as he was about to get out of bed, he suddenly felt a sharp pain all over his body. His ankles and wrists were aching faintly. He lost his footing and fell onto the table beside the bed. With great difficulty, he hugged the table to prevent himself from falling completely to the ground.
"Gerred?" He called out, but there was no response.
Judging from the direction of the sunlight, it should be just after noon.
He poked his head out and tried hard to look out of the window. He saw a woman sitting on the steps in the open space of the farm. She was holding the sleeping little girl in her arms. There were several young people busy doing something by the granary. The old lady was standing not far away, looking at them motionlessly.
The girl didn't seem to have been harmed. Yesterday, Jess and Gerred really didn't have the energy to carefully check her condition.
After watching for a while, the girl's mother raised her head as if she had noticed Jess looking out from the window.
She ran into the house, carried the girl into another room. When she came out, she happened to see Jess trying to hold onto the table to support himself and stand up.
"Sir!" The girl's mother supported him and said, "You'd better not get up yet. I am Emily Fryer, the wife of the man you saw yesterday. You saved our daughter."
"I remember you." Jess felt a little headache. The woman quickly helped him sit back on the bed.
He looked around and by the window. Seeing his stick and bag placed on the cabinet under the window, he finally felt relieved.
"Where's the dwarf?" Jess asked. "How is his injury?"
The woman said, "Mr. Dwarf has some minor bites on his leg. His body is very strong and should recover in a few days."
Jess recalled the scene of Gerred being surrounded by several old wolves last night. It seemed that he still had some strength left.
However, Gerred was used to going out wearing leather wrist guards and leather boots no matter how hot the weather was. This was also an important protective gear to avoid being injured when dealing with wild animals. Maybe it played an important role.
Jess looked at the bright sky outside and remembered that he had promised to go to work this morning.
It was already too late now, but he couldn't stay here for long.
Before he left, there were unfinished things. That scroll, the scroll written in Orcish language still scratched his curiosity constantly even after such a messy adventure.
"Get me a carriage, Mrs. Fryer." Jess said. "As soon as possible. I need to return to Stormwind quickly. Give the reward to the dwarf. I have urgent matters."
"Is it really okay?" Fryer said worriedly. "Moreover, we haven't had time to express our gratitude. Matt called several helpers from nearby farms in the morning and found some wolf corpses. They prepared a meal of wolf meat. Now they are skinning the wolves... There are several wolves with relatively complete skins. They can sell for some money or be made into winter clothes. These are all given to you as a token of gratitude."
Hearing about wolf meat, Jess's stomach growled for a while. He swallowed involuntarily.
And there were wolf fur coats to take. Coupled with the soreness all over his body, he probably couldn't move at all. It was better to lie down for a while.
He tilted his head, sighed in relief, and said, "I want to eat some fruit. Is there any fruit? Anything will do."
"Ah..." Emily nodded and ran into another room. She hurried back with a wooden plate in her hand.
"Here are grapes from Northshire Abbey. I don't know if you..."
Jess picked a grape from the wooden plate and put it in his mouth. Oh boy, it was so sour that it made his teeth ache. But there was also a little sweet taste and a hint of wine fragrance. It was probably left for a long time.
But he hadn't felt the satisfaction of this sour fruit juice for a long time. After swallowing one, he felt much better. Grapes were really wonderful.
"May I ask, sir, you are not very old, right?" Emily Fryer seemed to be looking for a topic to break the awkwardness.
Jess said, "I will be eighteen soon."
"I was very afraid that something would happen to you last night." She said. "You are so young and doing such dangerous work outside. Your parents must be worried, right?"
Jess took another grape and said, "My parents are not here. They think I am doing physical labor and moving bricks in Stormwind. They won't worry."
"But they..." Before Emily could finish her words, tears suddenly welled up.
"I don't know. But if we lost little Rose, I really don't know how to face Matt. I really don't know how to continue."
Looking at her with her head bowed, Jess also felt a bit uncomfortable. If his parents knew what he was doing here, they might desperately want him to return to Lordaeron, right?
"Okay, okay. Don't try to play the emotional card. Adding another child will cost more money. Do you know how disgusting it is to crawl into a wolf den? Yesterday, we agreed with your man that two silver coins is two silver coins. Your wolf meat and wolf skins cannot be counted as money. I didn't say I wanted these things. This bunch of grapes can't be counted either."
"It doesn't count. It doesn't count." The woman wiped away her tears and forced a smile. She said, "The money is ready. When you go back, we will give it to you."
"By the way." Jess said. "Remember to take your child to see a doctor. Especially find a priest. You know there are some living dead in the south, right? We are worried that the wolf disaster is related to those living dead."
The woman nodded seriously and said, "We know. We will take her to see a doctor when we go to the town tomorrow afternoon."
"That's good." Jess lay on the bed and groaned. He said, "I want to lie down for a while longer. It hurts a bit."
After the young Mrs. Fryer left the room and gently closed the door, Jess finally felt much more relaxed.
He didn't have to think about those annoying and unsolvable problems about his parents.
At this moment, he thought of those wolves last night, the pack of wolves that surrounded him and Gerred, and the fear spell he successfully cast.
He didn't even know if it was a fear spell anymore... Because according to the settings in the game, the fear spell can only affect one person. Moreover, even Gargan on the streets of the Old City didn't scare Surenna Keldon.
The fear spell cast by Jess in reverse didn't affect Surenna who was watching either.
So what exactly was it?
Thinking of this, Jess saw the stick that he had looted from the Orc warlock leaning against the wall.
He still remembered that night. After Jess shouted out the incantation, he couldn't see clearly at all. Only the evil light emitted by this stick with the release of the incantation left a deep impression on him. Now thinking about it, it seemed like an illusion.
He tore off some of the wrapping cloth on the stick but didn't find any magic runes or gems on it that could emit evil light.
Did this staff really have the ability to enhance dark magic?
In the game, he didn't remember any ordinary staff having a similar special effect. But Jess also knew that it was not appropriate to blindly apply the settings and data from the game to this real Azeroth.
Not to mention that an ordinary Orc warlock couldn't possess an artifact with power surpassing countless legendary staffs. Even a member of the Shadow Council couldn't.
Speaking of which, he hadn't deeply understood the specific influence of staffs on magic in this world.
"Jess." Gerred didn't know when he came out. He was standing on the threshold of the door of another room and looking over here. He said, "I suddenly had a great idea."