//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: The long way around (Revised) 
// by RisuUmbra 
//------------------------------//

Normal POV:
After grabbing my original clothes and leaving my new ones with the tailor who’s name I never asked and set out to find my feathered companion for his assistance in what could be the beginning of an awesome job.
                *Flashback *
“What do I need to do?” I eagerly asked after seeing my new armor and slowly reaching out for it but it was yanked away from me when I was noticed
“In the forest a special blue plant called Polycanthium or more commonly known as Ocean Blossom, I used the last of my stock when I made your clothes and I tend to go through it quite fast but it only grows in the glow of light crystals due to its magical properties and its need to be exposed to it to grow.” I was confused when he told me this part because it sounds like he knows exactly where it is so I asked
“Why can’t you just go grab some yourself if you know where its located?” I was slightly irritated when he started to chuckle at me and when he calmed down he continued
“The plant can’t just be plucked and brought home, its reliance on the crystals makes it so once it leave the light it was quickly start to wither away to dust so I will give you a bag that has a mortar and pestle along with a few vials of cold water to mix with them then use the vials to contain the dye” This seems almost too easy, he was giving me everything to get this right so what is he not telling me? After the silent deadpanned stare he relented and spoke once more
“Well there is another small problem, the area seems to have been claimed by some wild timberwolves so they might serve a small problem but you have a weapon with you so I think you’ll be fine good luck!” He gave a dismissive wave to the mention of living automatus wood wolves that could tear my delicate insides to pieces then handed me my old clothes all patched up and my sword with a messengers bag on top with something heavy inside then happily trotted out of the room with my new clothes in tow leaving me almost naked in a fitting room trying to figure out how I got into this situation.
                *Flashback Over*
Maybe Choose was the wrong word for this whole thing, I felt like the moment he suggested the ‘little’ errand he put me on I had no choice but to accept or he would hold my clothes for ransom. I sighed once more and put my sword over my shoulder and the bag hanging off my left side, speaking of which I opened it up to see how much dye he needed and so my relief there were only three medium clay flasks full of what I assumed was water all sitting inside the mortar next to the pestle. The bag itself had multiple pockets on it but the items were placed in the largest or ‘main’ pocket, the sound of talons hitting the ground alerted me to my friend Triton running towards me then coming to a quick stop in front of me.
“I need your help to get something?. . .”
“I need your help to get something?. . .” 
    The both of us spoke at the same time and we had the same confused face
“What do you need help with?” He asked just as surprised as I was
“I was ‘asked’ to help gather and make some special dyes from the forest that only grow in the light of some magic light crystals or whatever but apparently there are some timber wolves in the area and the only way I know of to make the dye is to mix it in the light of the stupid light crystals” I finished with a sigh and look to Triton who had a growing ‘What?’ face during my whole story then he collected himself then said
“I was just tasked to find the very crystals your flowers grow under and to exterminate the wolves so I was coming to ask for your help with it but it seems we have to help each other if we want to finish our respective goals” he finished with a flat look aimed at the blacksmith down the road. I facepalmed at the mention of him needing the very crystals I need to find, which brought up another problem that needed addressing.
“So, do you know where the crystals even are?” I questioned my friend while having a strange sense of deja vu as he face ’clawed’ at the mention of us having no clue where to go.
“Give me a second, let me think” Triton started to pace back and forth in front of me while I had the idea to check my pockets to see if the tailor stole my stuff while he stitched up my clothes, so far everything was accounted for. I had my wallet, my phone which is for some reason still charging, my bronze pocket watch, but when I patted my back pocket it crackled like paper which didn’t make sense because I didn’t have any paper on me, I reached in and pulled out a small folded piece of scratch paper. I unfolded it and read what it said
“Sorry for not telling you in pony but I am very busy at the moment so to reach the flowers you must go back on the main road through the forest and once you pass an almost dead tree take an immediate left turn towards it and a little ways past it is a clearing housing the flowers and crystals growing from the ground naturally Have Fun!” I stifled back the idea of crumpling up the paper and tried to get the still pacing griffins attention.
“Maybe I could search from the skies? No that would take to long”
“Triton”
“Or I could go buy a map of the area it could have it on there, but we have no more bits to use for anything except for basic tools”
“Triton!”
“What!? Oh what’s this?” After showing him the paper he calmed down just stared at it.
“You ready to go?” I asked to which he stowed the note away in his bag and nodded then we both turned towards the forest and started walking. 
It didn’t take long to walk back to entrance of the town for a second time today so we sped up a bit to get this done faster and within a few minutes we were on the forest path and turned into the forest to find the tree I was practicing at. We had reached the dead tree and were starting to go past it to the clearing where our respective quarries would be growing along with the problems living there. I was just about to ask Triton if he had a plan when he shushed me and pointed in front of us and for very good reason, the crearing was in sight along with the crystals and blue flowers scattered around the area and unfortunately that also included the timberwolves. This area isn’t very saturated in magic apparently so there wasn’t many and they didn’t have that green glow like the ones from the everfree, there are six wolves that I could see and all looked grown so no pups so they must have just migrated here. They were just milling around the area gathering sticks possibly for themselves to regenerate with but other than that nothing else was there.
    “There’s the crystals and flowers, what should we do first?” Triton spoke in a very low whisper to not alert the wolves.
    “I think you should fly up then dive onto one of the bigger ones while I fight on the ground, you back me up if you can and if you have time gather some crystals but that might have to wait till after the fight” He nodded in response and got ready to lift off but as he shifted to the side a sharp *CRACK* rang through the area 
Triton stepped on a branch…
.
.
.
“Oops”
“Fly Now!” I shoved Triton away from me while the wolves all turned and charged our position while I tried to run to the left into the clearing trying to buy time, but I didn’t account for how light wood is compared to flesh and blood meaning they were immediately gaining on me leaving me fumbling for my sword. Right when I was able to unsheath my sword one of the faster wolves lunged at me and I turned to meet it and bat it to the side with the flat of my sword like with a baseball, downside to that though is the vibrations rang through my arms feeling like I had a bunch of needles drilling into my arms causing me to drop my sword but launching and braking the brittle wolves when it crashed to the ground. The next wolf tried to accomplish what the other could not but before it even got off the ground it was slammed into the ground along with another wolf by Triton from above, his attack gave me enough time to dive for my sword next to the slowly reforming wolf. I grabbed my sword with slightly numb hands and kicked the reforming wolf back into pieces for good measure then turned to the remaining three which were circling the bigger catch Triton and disregarded me which gave me the chance to run up while preparing my sword to slash one in the back or neck, I charged this time and caught one unaware and clashed downward as hard as I could lopping its head off with splinters flying from it. Triton took this as an opportunity and grabbed one of the wolves head and slammed his claw straight into it then pulled it back out showing a hollow center and letting the wolf just fall to the ground leaving only one wolf remaining and unfortunately it was giving me the death stare and growling at me like I killed its family…oh
    “Look Out!” I snapped back into reality at Triton’s warning and the wolf jumping at me startling me making me fumble for a moment before falling backwards to move out of the way and thrusting out my sword… I waited for a moment before looking up at the wolf speared onto the end of my sword by its own momentum.
    “That was a complete shitshow” I let my voice show how I felt about this whole thing while I stood up and kicked the timberwolf off my sword leaving me covered in wood pieces and what I think is tree sap.
    “Well… it could have been worse” Triton added with a shrug then started to walk over to the nearest area of growing crystals with me following him to help. The flowers I had to harvest looked almost identical to poison joke but without the yellow stamen which is the fluffy yellow stuff in the center of a flower and is a slightly lighter blue. Wait! are the bottles okay, I hurriedly checked the bag and the bottles were strewn about but still full of liquid good. I pulled out the mortar and pestle along with the water bottles then got to work just grinding up the flowers and adding the water from their respective flasks then when finished I stowed them away leaving my hands with small blue stains on my fingers.
    “It looks like I lost a game of thumb war with a blue marker” Triton snorted from that and went to pull some of the smaller crystals from the ground leaving himself with five and stowing them away.
    “All done here, let’s leave before something bigger comes” He turned to walk away but stopped when I didn’t move with him and was reaching down.
    “What's wrong?” I answered with me holding a another light shard up and grinning
    “First quest, First trophy” I pocketed the shard and started my way back to the town with Triton with my spirits slightly higher