"Where are we going, Ragnar?" Suma the faery sat on his bond's shoulder, swaying with the motion of Ragnar's steps. They'd awoken one morning and Ragnar had left the band in Torsten's charge before quietly slipping away. They had traveled for a few days, resting during the worst of the midday heat and movie during the cooler parts of the day. By the time Suma asked this question, it was obvious that they were en route to a certain bog, but it wasn't clear why.
"To Blackbriar Bog," Ragnar said simply. They lapsed into a brief silence. If Suma expected a more in-depth answer, he didn't get one.
"Why are here?" Suma said, amending his question.
"There is a treasure here," Ragnar said. "I need it."
"Oka-"
"Suma. Scout ahead."
The faery snapped his mouth shut, stifled a huff, and fluttered off. The bog was dark, the tangle of its trees oppressive. Clear paths weren't terribly common and Suma had little idea where they were headed. Still, maintaining a lookout would be wise. Sometimes catbeasts lurked nearby - increasingly so, as noulicorn traffic to the bog had become commonplace.
Ragnar watched the faery flit off between the trees, and he thought back to the directions to the directions for finding this odd spring that Scoria seemed interested in, located deep in the heart of the bog. He had come a long way for it, and it wasn't necessarily the water that interested him.
When Suma returned to report the all clear, Ragnar simply nodded. The faery settled back onto his shoulder. "There is a spring in this bog," Ragnar said. "It's rumored to hold clear water."
Suma snorted. "Clear water? In this bog? Unlikely."
"That's what I thought. But we've discovered this bog for a while now. Perhaps it is almost healed. Noulicorns have done quite a good job with it, from what I've heard," Ragnar answered. He picked his way through some trees, following an imprecise path, moving in a direction that he only really knew to be the opposite of where he had come. "If it is here, it would be a sign that this place will soon be healed. And if it is, then that is cause for celebration."
"You're here for that water, then?"
"In a sense." His ears moved back and forth, picking up the sounds of the bog around them. "Scoria, the adept in Homewood. She wants this water."
"Why?"
"It is said that drinking it will lead you to your true love," Ragnar said. "She would like some of this water to test it, I suppose."
"And you don't want any part of that, I suppose?"
"I am uninterested in the prospect of finding my own true love. Besides, if the Grandfather wills it, it will be. This water won't change anything." Ragnar shook his head, continuing on the same trajectory.
"Why would you bring some for Scoria, then?"
"Well, Suma," he said with a little smirk. "She has promised an item in exchange for this water. A stone that I find potentially useful."
Without quite realizing it, their idle chatter had brought them into the heart of the bog. Things looked a little different here than it did on the fringes. It was... less dead. Less destroyed. More soul, beating heart, whatever it was that made the land thrive.
"Look, Suma," Ragnar said with a touch of wonder in his voice. "I didn't expect to see this."
To do his part in helping, Ragnar drew on his power and created a sizable well of it, letting it seep into the land and and dilute some of the poison in the dirt. The faery chattered with excitement, launching himself off of Ragnar's shoulders and into the air. He flew between trees that looked more alive, up into their tangled branches before winding his way back down.
"I see it!" he announced, flying off to the left. Ragnar hastened after him, winding his own way through the trees until they burst into a clearing. In the middle sat a little spring, barely any way, but clearer than any Ragnar had seen before.
"Neither did I expect this..." he said, staring down at the pool. He took the flask he'd brought and dipped it carefully into the spring, bottling up some of the precious water. A small sigh escaped him as he stood, basking in the beauty of this one little spring. "This is what it should look like, Suma. This."
It was almost overwhelming. Long moments passed before he could pull himself away. "Well," he said finally, breaking the reverent gaze he had fixed upon the spring. "We should get this water back to Homewood. The road back is long."
Suma chattered in agreement and swooped down to land on his shoulders. "Let's hurry."
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