Fern Skysh rofoundly miserable.

  Hero missions from the guild teo be ungmorous affairs in general, certainly; but this one in particur had pushed her to the absolute limits of her willpower. For nearly six full days now she'd traveled after leaving the city, and the st two she had barely slept at all; this awful forest and all its creatures, both magical and mundane, refused to let her rest as if they all held personal grudges. Her long brown hair had bee an u mess, esg its snug tai of clips and ties, and she was sure it'd be getting a sed streak of gray in it at this rate. After the st i with the pnt mohis m, her face got spshed with streaks of something sticky, sap or resin or whatever it was, and even after washing herself in the river she could still feel a faint itbsp; And to top it all off, she was running low on food, thanks to her shielded supply bag getting cracked open during a previous fight and the forest's energies creeping in and inating it while she was busy fighting for her life.

  She didn't even have the energy to work up a proper burning hatred that would keep her moving at a det pabsp; It took all she had right now just to put one foot in front of the other and not colpse, every movement a horrible straining effort. She just wao get to the damn tower so she could shelter for a bit - and just sit down for a while.

  Normally Fern wouldn't have so much as cast a sideways g a job that meant traveling this far out in an area as hostile as this one. Sure, the reward was really attractive - assuming she survived the trip there and back, let alone whatever still lurked ihe old mage tower. If it really was abandoned, as the mission notes seemed to imply, then the challenge should be limited to a, unteraps and maybe a few erras - whatever had crept in and taken up residenbsp; If she was lucky, that is, and it wasn't home to some awful menagerie or byrinth ods knew what else.

  It came as no surprise that she couldn't find a single person in the guild to join her on a mission this... variable. Apparently, no one else was quite as desperate. She'd had one bad run after aely; irely her fault, of course, but Ferainly had some share of the bme to call her own. At least that's how she saw it, aainly the guild's tavern regurs saw it that way too, from the whispers and grumbles she'd heard behind her back.

  So this time, she had set out from Pinsgate - the city - alone. And by now she sorely regretted it, even if it seemed iable in hindsight; but she had no way to move on with life other than pressing forward, through the absolute worst bits of it. After all, if she couldn't keep up with hero business... she really didn't have much else left to do.

  Not a thought she wao deal with right now. She pushed it down somewhere deep within, and pushed herself onward, oep after another, like some mindless automaton.

  For a blessing, she saw the curling, grees starting thten up and thin out after another few miles or so of w her stream along the treacherous riverbank. It had certainly taken long enough to push through this nightmare; the Wicked Wild Woods had earheir name, and she'd be happy to be out of them at st, no matter what awaited her oher side. Even the forest creatures had left her alone now, and she was gd of that too - whatever magic twisted the Woods into its dreadful state agitated them as well, so if it had begun to recede, then she robably in the clear for a while.

  Finally, Fern crossed the treeline and caught sight of her goal: an aower of stone brick the color of the mountain it artially set into, the top of it ed in a thick fog. Even the dreary, drizzly day with its overcast gray skies - now finally visible, outside the forest opy - couldn't fully quench her sense of relief from seeing it at st. Gods, she was so, so very tired. Just a little further now and she could rest, surely.

  The tower had most likely been occupied by a powerful mage at some point during the st tury - the records weren't particurly clear oails, what with the Woods plig most attempts at leisurely data colle. Probably a dark mage, with how her luck had been tely. But all she had to do - in theory - was find a way into the tower, ideally something ructive, and firm whether or not it was still in use. Once she had established a safe location and prepared the site, she could set up the transfer bea that was essentially the purpose of the mission; it would guide in the research team so they could do the rest of the job cataloguing and surveying and whatever else they o do.

  Simple - in theory, of course. But just how much she'd have to do to make sure things were 'safe', she had no idea. It might require a fierce battle to do the job - or even multiple battles. She could be out here a long time settling affairs, and she already didn't have much left in the way of supplies...

  But she had to press forward, regardless of her s. Had to. She didn't have any other optiht now.

  Fern tirudging onward, step by step; moving a little faster now, as the thidergrowth of the forest gave way to shrass, and then finally to hardened, barren dirt and rocks. There existed a sort of buffer betweeower and the forest, it seemed, where nothing grew; whether that was hopeful or ing, she couldn't tell, and didn't particurly care at the moment.

  The river she'd been followi right up to the base of the tower, then split around it; probably fed by a spring, or melting snowfalls, or both, she thought idly. Either way, she wasn't in a dition to cross the waters at present, and it didn't have any obvious portals or openings or anything of the sort. She paused for a moment to cast her gaze upwards...

  There. Maybe half, a thin stonework bridge stuck out from one side of the drical tower and ected to the almost sheer cliff opposite it. Fern fumbled inside her short leather jacket for a moment with tired, almost nerveless fingers, and finally pulled out a tiny well-worn spygss, peering for a closer look. The other end of the bridge ected to a staircase of sorts, the steps jaggedly beaten out of the rocky mountaihout much care for uniformity. Her gaze traced it all the way down to where it ended: in the shadow of the tower, not too far from the river's edge, and fortunately on the bank she already stood on. One small mercy for what would surely be a brutal climb.

  She took a deep breath of the moist air, and then exhaled, slow and even. Deying here wouldn't make matters any easier. She just o get on with it - climb the mountain, cross the bridge, clear the tower, deploy the bea. Just do it. Stop standing here wasting time and just go.

  With a quiet grunt and a fiery pain that nced up both legs, she started moving again; and this time she didn't stop.

  By the time Fern got to the base of the mountain, the drizzle had turo rain. Halfway into the climb, it had grown to a downpour, soaking her all the way to the skin.

  Once again, she was miserable.