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Within moments, Tavi finds herself looking up at five faces, all looking down at her. Hallie, Sparrow and Petal all looked concerned. Barlemus has a dopey grin of excitement. Arvin looks...well, stoic, as ever. Although she could have sworn she saw a slight smirk on his face.

"Not so fast now," Hallie says. "You almost died out there, you know." There was a hint of sharpness to her voice, like when she would chide Tavi for sleeping in.

"Haha! Told ya she'd make it!" Barlemus says. "Ut, it was touch and go there for a bit, but looks like you're on the mend."

"You aren't going to lecture me about trying to save you two are you?" Tavi asks her sister. "Because I really don't think now is the best time since I'm in all sorts of pain," she jokes. Though, honestly, she doesn't look like she'll mind to much even if she did get a lecture. "...Um, why am I not dead?" she asked curiously.

"A good question," Arvin says. "I don't know much of what happened. I was fighting off a small horde, and by the time I slew them all, everything was over."

Barlemus grins. "After I saved Hallie, and you took that hit for Sparrow, the Shaman realized he had lost. He called for a retreat, and the rest of 'em all took off. I would've gone after 'em, but you were bleedin' out pretty quick. So I had to do what I could to stop the bleedin'. Then Arvin and me, we untied your sisters, and carried ya back here, to Petal. That was like..," he pauses to count his fingers really quick, "over twelve hours ago."

"So then everything worked out?" Tavi asks in disbelief. "Everyone is safe?" Honestly, that sounded very much unreal to Tavi. For the past few days, she knew her sisters were in mortal danger, and now they weren't anymore. How was that possible? How could she have possibly succeeded in what she set out to do? It was unbelievable.

"Heh, heh, yeah," Barlemus says. "We took a helluva beating, but we did it."

Arvin interrupts. "And by 'it' he means we saved your sisters. But we did not stop the Shaman. The Shadowbite Clan is still at large, and all they need to do is find another sacrifice before the next full moon."

Barlemus nods. "But you don't have to worry about that. Arvin and I have decided to go track 'em down and finish 'em off."

Arvin nods. "Once you are well enough for travel, we will escort the three of you to the road to Sturnheim. Then we will return to the hunt."

"Wait," Tavi says, straining to sit up a little bit now. "You two are going to work together?" Now that was really unbelievable. They didn't even like each other! Now they were going to team up to take out the rest of those goblins. She had to be dreaming now.

"Yeah!" Barlemus exclaims. "Ain't it a kick in the butt?"

Arvin shakes his head. "He can prove useful, at least against goblins. As long as he has a cooler head to watch over him, and make sure he doesn't act stupid."

"Ut!" Barlemus responds, rolling his eyes.

"But in any case, he and I are all there is. I couldn't ask you to come with us, especially now as you have your sisters to look after," Arvin says.

"Yep, but dun't worry. Once we kill the Shadowbites, maybe we'll stop by in Sturnheim and check on ya'll," Barlemus says.

Tavi wasn't sure what to say as she looked over the two men that helped her save her sisters. As much pain as she was in, she knew she was going to have to show some sort of gratitude towards them. So she just hugged them both in turn. It hurt like hell, but it was better than not doing anything at all.

"We...we probably shouldn't stay here for too long," Tavi says. "We don't have any food, even though there is plenty of water nearby."

"Don't worry about that," Arvin says. "I've been foraging, and I have gathered enough supplies for the three of you to make it to Sturnheim."

Sparrow then interrupts by giving Tavi a hug, although she tries to be gentle. "Thank you for saving us, Tavi," she says simply.

Looking a bit embarassed, Hallie nods in agreement. "Yes...thank you. But what are we going to do? Even once we make it to Sturnheim...we don't know anyone there."

Tavi returns her sister's hug, looking about ready to cry at that point. Though, she manages to hold it in. "Um," she sniffles. "I managed to collect a little money from the goblins that we killed," she says. "So maybe that will help us find a place to stay. I guess we are going to have to get jobs to be able to survive. We are use to hard labor, so maybe there is a ranch or something close to the city that would be willing to hire us," she offers as suggestion.

Arvin nods. "Just rest for now," he suggests. "One problem at a time. You need to heal and recover before you can even get to Sturnheim. Once you get to town, I'm sure you'll find work easy enough."

"Ut, yeah. Maybe you can be a sellsword," Barlemus says with a grin.

"I don't think they are going to hire a girl with a broken sword," Tavi says with a sigh. "That was dad's sword too."

"There's gotta be a smith in town that can fix that for you," Barlemus says. "Every town has a smith, I think. Besides, ya still got your mace and crossbow. I brought it back in one piece, just like I said."

"You brought yourself back in one piece too," Tavi states. "Or at least I think you did. You are covered in so many bandages, it is hard to tell," she teases. "So you two have been...entertaining my sister's since I've been out?" she asks.

"Yeah, we were just tellin' em about how we rescued 'em, and all the gobbos we fought--oh, and that troll, too. It was a real tale, I think I got everything, though," Barlemus says.

"It is quite a tale," Hallie agrees. "You really fought over sixty goblins since we last saw you?"