Terexia's Unwanted Growth rough draft

Terexia’s Unwanted Growth

The pale light of the moon shone over the small town of Cresthaven. The residents had all turned in for the night, the cobblestone streets now deserted and only a few lanterns burning. A few stray animals were still wandering the streets, looking for what scrapes they could.

A lone wooden door creaked open on the edge of town as a young elven woman stuck her head out, checking the street. Terexia checked from one end to the street to the other looking for any guards. Satisfied that she didn’t see anyone she stepped out into the alleyway and closed the door behind her. She then pulled the gold bracelet out of her pocket that she had just swiped from the household. “Last thing I need is someone seeing that I had swiped this and calling a guard.”

She shoved the bracelet back into her leather pocket and walked down the street humming to herself. Terexia ran her hands through her blue hair, letting it fall onto her left shoulder and behind her long ear. She had been contracted to acquire a few items from Cresthaven for a man named Ulex. He was paying her five hundred gold coins for the job, a job that she didn’t exactly want to do. It was true, she was a mercenary known for her talents at liberating things that didn’t belong to people. This though felt more like robbery of a petty crook.

Still it wasn’t like she had much choice. Ulex was one of the Cresthaven guards and he was going to have her thrown into jail if she didn’t get him what he wanted. She was robbing a few places in town all because this enforcement officer didn’t want to dirty his fingers.

Terexia pulled out her list. “I only have one more item to get and I can be done with this distasteful business.” She sighed. “One bottle of scale alteration.” She scratched at her head. “I know Ulex has scaly skin but is this really the answer?” She flipped the paper around to look at the map. “Well luckily I don’t have to run all of town for this.” She turned around and looked at an unremarkable stone building with a stone door. “It should be right in here.”

She walked up to the door and took out her lock picking kit and then carefully picked the lock. Moments later Terexia was able to open the door and creep inside. She looked around the room as she closed the door behind her. The only light came from the moon shining through a dingy glass window. There were multiple crates sitting on the floor and what appeared to be shelves along the walls with multiple small bottles sitting on them.

This appears to be some kind of store house. She tip toed her way over to the door at the far end of the room and opened it. On the other side was another room with even more small bottles and boxes but nothing more. “Good I am alone in here.” She turned towards the window. “I should cover that so I can light a lantern and search the place.”

Terexia pulled a cloth off of one of the boxes and used it to cover the window. She then pulled a match out of her pocket and lit it off the same box, illuminating the room. “There that is much better. I wouldn’t want to accidently knock one of these bottles over. No telling which one of these might have alchemical properties.”

Terexia was weary with dealing with these types of elixirs and potions. Most were harmless and used in medical purposes but some were considered magical. One time she had been liberating some coin from an unsavory man and found herself accidently knocking over a bottle that she had thought was just whisky. Next thing she knew she had to escape as her body slowly froze. She spend the next few hours sitting next to a furnace as her body shivered in its new icy form.

She held up the match to a lantern on the wall, letting the light flood the device. She then took a few steps back and began to peruse the room. “Ok scale alteration. Where are you?” With the amount of vials in the store house it felt like she was searching for a needle in a hay stack. “Who organized all of this? Someone could at least put some kind of method to this madness.” She picked up a vial. “Why is Herbal Soothing Mist next to Yen’s Gold Dust?” She shook her head. “I don’t have time to be here all night looking for some stupid bottle.”

She sighed. “Might as well start searching the next room.” Terexia made her way over to the door when she saw a vial she had missed before by the door. It had blue liquid in it and a gold cap. She gently picked it up and twisted the bottle around to see its label. “Scale Alteration. Bingo. Ugh why is the side of this wet? Opps.”

The bottle slipped out of her fingers and she fought to grab it. The vial bounced out of one hand and into another. “Come on, you slippery little devil.” The vial slipped out of her hand again and began to spin rapidly in the air. “Oh no.”

Terixia watched the bottle as it spun in the air before reaching out and snatching it out of the air. “Got you.” Only after she had the bottle in her hand did she notice that the cork was missing and she had blue liquid all over her hands. “Great. I better get something to wipe this off.”

Before she could move the liquid sank into her skin. She held up the bottle and read the fine print on the lable. “No need to drink this fourla, the contents will absorb into the skin.”

“Wait what?”

Terrexia set the bottle down as her body began to throb. “Ugh.” She held her arms around her waist. “I feel so weird.”