Adventure of Mae 1

Mist coils around the half-repaired bridge. Ropes sag between rough scaffolds, and loose planks leave only a narrow path above the churning river.

Mae reaches the near bank as an old hermit drives a nail through a bounty notice and into the bridge's support beam.

The laborers along the riverbank fall silent. Their wary eyes shift from the notice to Mae's glowing blue-green form.

One laborer steps toward the paper, but the hermit raises a weathered hand. Beneath the bridge, something large glides through the mist.

A ripple strikes the scaffold posts. The loose planks tremble under Mae's feet as a shadow turns below, and the hermit points toward the dark water.

Mae shifts their weight onto the first sound plank, then places each step where the ropes and stonework hold firm. The trembling boards settle beneath their careful balance.

The narrow path carries Mae safely onto the bridge, above the mist-veiled current. From here, the shadow below resolves into a long-backed creature circling the scaffold posts.

The hermit snatches a coil of rope from the scaffolding and pulls it free, revealing a looped snare weighted with iron rings.

Below, the creature stops circling. Its pale eyes rise through the mist, fixed on Mae, while the hermit readies the rope at the bridge's edge.

No. The hermit is not planning to share the bounty or merely use Mae as bait. His snare is arranged to catch the creature, but the notice and the rope together reveal his larger plan: once the beast is secured, Mae is meant to be the next prize he delivers.

Mae snaps forward across the planks, their tendrils streaming behind them as one hand closes around the taut rope.

The iron rings jerk free of the Hermit's grip. Mae has the weighted snare, but the sudden pull cracks the nearest plank under their feet.

The rope's weight slams against Mae's side, sending a sharp jolt through their glowing form and dragging a noisy scrape across the stone.

Below, the pale-eyed creature stops circling. Its broad shadow rises beneath the disturbed water, directly beneath Mae and the snare.

Yes, but the creature has not breached the bridge yet; the water swells beneath the cracked span, and its pale eyes remain just below the surface.

No. The creature is not guarding anything beneath the bridge; the depths hold no protected cache or hidden charge connected to it.

Mae pulls the iron-ringed snare tight beneath the bridge, trying to hold the creature alive.

But the creature's sudden counterforce overwhelms the line. The snare slips from its body and bites into a cracked stone anchor.

The anchor tears free. Stones thunder into the river, and the creature surges downstream through the broken span, vanishing beneath the mist.

The weighted snare remains wedged in the fallen stone, its iron ring hooked around a narrow stair descending toward the riverbank. The creature's route is closed by the collapse.

The Hermit's fury falters. The fortune, and the creature carrying it away, outweigh his anger.

Mae works the iron ring loose from the fallen stone. The rope comes free, and the bargain becomes real.

Together they descend the exposed stair to the riverbank. Behind them, the broken span settles with a grinding collapse, sealing the bridge route.

At the waterline, the mist swallows the downstream channel. The creature is alive, but the bounty lies beyond the whitewater and the fallen bridge.

Mae enters the mist along the riverbank, following the creature's fading wake through slick stones and racing shallows.

But the whitewater splits around a shelf of black rock, and the wake vanishes beneath overlapping currents.

Mae presses farther downstream. The bank narrows, forcing them onto a slanted ledge above the churning channel.

Their footing slides. Mae catches themself against the rock, while the freed snare rope jerks toward the water and coils around a stone spur.

Through the mist, a broad wake rolls toward a dark cleft in the far bank, then disappears behind the rock shelf. The creature's route is visible only from across the channel.

The wake does not lead into the dark cleft. It slips past the rock shelf and continues downstream, leaving the cleft empty of refuge.

Mae surges along the slanted ledge, their tendrils streaming behind them as they keep pace with the fading wake.

The ledge drops into a narrow gravel bar. Mae reaches it as the creature's wake folds around the bar's far side.

Beyond the gravel, the pale-eyed creature crouches in reeds beside a shallow eddy, alive and breathing. Its broad silhouette blocks the downstream path.

The creature turns its pale eyes from the Hermit to Mae. Water drains from its ridged hide, and the reeds bow toward a dark passage beneath the far bank.

The Hermit raises his empty hands, waiting for Mae's next move while the creature stands poised at the passage mouth.

No. The creature is not seeking refuge in the passage. It is using the dark opening as a concealed route, and the reeds part just enough to reveal the current pulling inward beneath the far bank.

Mae casts the weighted snare in a clean arc over the creature's shoulders and forelimbs.

The iron ring drops into the gravel behind it. Mae pulls, and the rope cinches firmly without cutting into the creature.

Mae's strength holds. The creature slides free of the inward draw and is pulled onto the narrow gravel bar, alive and secured.

The dark passage continues swallowing river water behind them, but the creature can no longer vanish into it. The Hermit's gaze shifts from the captured quarry to Mae's hands on the rope.

The offer lands between them, gentler than the taut rope but no less weighty.

The Hermit's grip tightens on the empty air beside the rope. Your offer has not won his trust, but it has struck something older than greed.

The creature's pale gaze shifts from the rope to the Hermit's weathered hands, and a safer arrangement becomes clear: the line can remain secure while the creature walks at its own pace, with Mae beside them and the Hermit guiding rather than dragging.

Mae leads at a measured pace along the gravel bank, keeping the snare slack while scanning the reeds and stones for a place to drink.

Therefore, beneath a leaning alder, they find a clear spring spilling from the bank into a shallow basin.

Mae guides the line toward the basin. The Pale-Eyed Creature lowers themself and drinks, while the Hermit waits with the rope loose in his hands.

The creature rises refreshed. Beyond the spring, two routes divide the bank: a dry track toward the old road and a narrow trail beside the rushing water.

Mae takes the dry old road, and the others follow at the slack line's measured distance. The track soon reaches the tollhouse, where the bounty's appointed destination stands open beyond the alder roots.

The tollhouse officials do not honor the bounty. Their sealed ledger and shuttered payment chest leave the promised fortune unreachable, despite the living creature's arrival.

The wax seal on the ledger bears the tollhouse crest, but the ink beneath it is fresh over scraped parchment. A narrow column of erased names and altered sums shows the bounty has been diverted before, making the sealed ledger evidence of fraud.

No. Even if the Hermit presents the creature, the falsified ledger cannot authorize its release, and the sealed payment chest remains closed.

Therefore, Mae works the slack into the iron rings, easing each weighted loop away from the creature's shoulders and forelimbs.

The final ring slips free. The rope falls in a loose coil across the tollhouse floor, and the creature stands unrestrained.

The freed creature turns toward the tollhouse entrance, then pauses beneath the grey daylight. The Hermit watches it go, but does not reach for the rope.

Gain the Hermit's cooperation