"A Refund"

As Howard was left alone once more, a wave of emotions like confusion, shock, dismisses and others formed in his mind, The silence that followed was deafening. Howard sat on the wide branch of the unnatural tree, his mind racing. The pain in his head had faded, but its memory lingered like a ghost. His body felt weak and drained.

He looked at his trembling hands, noticing the faint red marks on his fingernails. They had seemed to be dried-up blood. As Howard thought, his eyes widened even more, and his hand immediately reached his head.

Even though his fingers rapidly moved across his head, they didn't sense anything out of the ordinary. Only when he softly scratched his scalp did tiny red particles rain down as if it were dandruff.

All the wounds he had seemed to have disappeared as if they had never existed.

Howard's eyes widened as his hand rapidly scammed his head over and over again, still only finding the remains of the dried-up blood, he also rubbed his fingers only to find the same red powder and not any injuries

Howard could not hold back his amazement 

As Howard finally stood up he only felt a faint lingering of the pain he had somehow managed to survive before.

Just as Howard had slowly crawled to the edge of the trees brank with much difficulty due to the darkness of the night that surrounded him, it took him some time before he was barely able to make out how high he was his jaw had looked to have dropped to an unimaginable level

The height of the trees had shattered any guesses he had made before, it was as if he was at the top of a skyscraper

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BULLSHIT!??", Howard screamed in his head as all the different emotions and thoughts left his head and immediately being replaced with anger and shock.

Just by seeing how high Howard was, he knew it might take him hours to get down and even then how would he be certain he wouldn't plummet to his death? It would only take one wrong step for him to find out

"How am I supposed to get down? At least leave me on the ground then maybe I could properly be grateful for your help!", Howard muttered under gritted teeth.

After a while of contemplation, he decided to wait out the night and clime down first thing in the morning, as clime down now would most likely get him killed due to the lack of visibility. The thought of climbing down filled him with dread. One wrong step, and he would plummet to his death.

As Howard just sat there waiting for morning, it finally dawned upon him how outlandish his situation was.

If he were to ever tell anyone about his experience they would most likely look at him with eyes full of pity or disbelief, as if he were a madman spinning tales of the impossible, if Howard himself heard these stories he would have the same reaction

With only his thoughts Howard began how odd his situation truly was.

What did that stranger do to heal him so quickly, there seem to be no marks left ?

"Honestly this almost seems like a scamming trick of some sort, I mysteriously get an unknown virus or something and they conveniently come at the right time to save me and charge me... but even then it is quite strange to go to a park and to also to do such thing at the at such strange times, I will probably report this when I ge- WAIT A MINUTE," Out of the blue Howard had a realization, that made him jolt up

" I SHOULD HAVE ASKED DIRECTIONS FROM THAT WEIRDO!" As Howard had this realization he couldn't help but facepalm with full force

"Damn you sure like to talk to yourself and also how are you calling a weirdo?", Suddenly the strange figure's voice echoed in the air with a tint of anger

As Howard heard this his pupil shrunk and he jumped back and almost fell off the branch.

"I thought you left? Why did you come back?" Howard inquired with a trace of fear in his voice before pausing and then continuing to inquire

The figure stood there and there as if he were a lifeless statue

After some moments of intense silence, he finally answered but this time there was no sense of humor in his voice

"You can calm down kid I'm not here to harm you if I even wanted to I wouldn't have saved you and for your first question I am back because I am a businessman"

"A businessman?" Howard repeated his words with a slite eyebrow raise

"Yes! After further analysis of the payment I received for saving your life, I realized that I will have to pay you back a little" the masked figure replied

"So that crap about saving my life because you wanted to was a lie? Did you just do it because you wanted to get paid?" Howard countered with another, question, while finally standing up properly with his guard down

"Well, let's just say I have a habit of multitasking. Saving lives and making a profit aren't mutually exclusive, you know. Besides, you should be grateful. Not many people get a second chance like this." The figure answered but this time with his usual friendly tone

Howard frowned, his initial fear giving way to frustration. "Grateful? You left me stranded on a tree that's taller than most buildings! And now you're talking about paying me back? and what if I want able to pay to back?"

The figure surged "Well that doesn't matter, since your payment was more than enough"

"What are you getting at? You could have simply left me to die back then and taken my stuff why trouble yourself with all this" Howard snorted coldly

The figure tilted his head slightly, the makeshift gas mask obscuring any expression, but his tone remained light, almost amused. "Well, I have a reputation to maintain. Can't just go around looting corpses. People might start calling me a scavenger, and that's bad for business."

After hearing the figures' explanation Howard stopped questioning deeper on this topic and went to the important details

"So how exactly do you want to repay me" Howard asked in a tone of interest

"Well that depends on you I can try to do something small like getting you around but not anything major"

Without any hesitation, Howard immediately asked

"So will you answer my questions?"

The figure shrugged, his torn cape fluttering slightly in the cold night breeze. "Ask away. But don't expect me to spill all the secrets of the universe. I'm not exactly a walking encyclopedia."

Howard took a deep breath. He thought for a while. His questions began pouring into his mind, so he chose to begin with the most critical one. "Where am I? And what is this place"

The question clearly caught the figure off guard before regaining his composure

"You are in the Lanadosian Empire in the southwestern region near the border with Lucilnia near the south. We are currently in the Aelindar Forsaken Woods, the nearest town is to the western side, you can get there in a couple of days if you go by foot" the figure said with a straight tone 

As the figure stopped talking, there was a moment of pure silence

Howard just stared at the figure with wide eyes, unblinkingly

Following the awkward stare between the both of them, Howard replied under gritted teeth

"WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT ARE YOU SPUING!? Do you think I am dumbass to believe such shit?" He said without hiding any anger

"Stop pulling shit out of your ass and tell me where am I? What is this place and What was the shit that caused me to almost die? What did you do to me"

Thereafter the momentary outburst, Howard forcefully calmed himself down, and while rubbing this temple he continued.

"Look I am sorry for shouting but can you be serious, I'm not necessarily the most passant person but please if you want to repay or whatever tell me for real this time, where am I, and if you can't answer that at least tell me what happened to me back then ?"

The figure even though wearing a mask, looked to be a little surprised by Howard's attitude, but he did not show it

"Sighhh... regardless of whether you believe me or not, it is all up to you but I will tell you this anyway I have no reason to lie to some like you,"

After a second of silence, the figure continued in his original joking attitude

"As for what happened to you, you had accidentally inhaled the spores of the crimson morel known to cause severe hallucinations, disorientation, and, in extreme cases, death. As long as you don't get too close and don't inhale too deeply you be fine, but in your case, it seemed to have given you brain damage"

As Howard heard the figure ramble, he could not help but think, how Ludacris all this sounded, even though he might have been the newest to job that didn't mean he didn't have any knowledge about the ecosystem, and he had never heard of the crimson morel or anything close to it.

After the figure stopped talking he could not help but also take a deep sigh and say in a defeated tone

"That is good enough, you can leave now"

The figure replied in a carefree voice

"Are you sure? You can still ask me a couple more questions?"

Howard quickly countered while shaking his head

"No, I think you have done more than enough you can leave now! If I ever require something I will sure come to ask"

The figure seemed to surge and began to leave from the direction he came from, but before he left he told Howard one last thing

"Since I still owe you a little, you came to find me. Just go to the capital of Lumoria and find a bar in the alleyway with a sign that says 'Rowal Extraordinary Bar'. Then tell the bartender, 'Beneath the moon, through shadows deep, I walk the unknown, where secrets sleep.' You will probably find me then."

The figure said that he lapped off the tree, and as Howard watched with surprise, he quickly went to the edge of the tree to see if the figure was okay. To Howard's shock, the figure seemed to have disappeared.