Regal |Fantasy Ryden AU| DISCONTINUED

-23-

"What do you mean you don't have any in stock?"  The pure fear in Jon's voice was clear as day.

"What, you got cotton in your ears?"  Awsten scoffed, throwing his arms into the air.  "I don't have any in stock!  I ran out!  It's all gone!  You need more synonyms?"

They couldn't believe what they were hearing.  Jon, his hands shaking, tangled his fingers in his disheveled hair and paced around the dimly lit room.  Brendon merely gawped at the purple-haired dwarf in shock and disbelief.  Ryan couldn't quite figure out exactly what was going on, but he didn't feel good about it.

They'd come so far, only to be shot right back down at the very end.  What were they supposed to do now?

"You run an apothecary!"  Jon exclaimed.  "How do you not have the ingredients you need to heal people?"

"Well, I'm sorry!"  the dwarf retaliated, the sarcastic tone in his voice seeming to say he felt otherwise.  "When you're the only person in the goddamn city who knows how to fix dawnwraith toxin, you tend to get a lot of thickheaded travelers stumbling blindly into your shop after getting their asses beat!  I run out fast!"

Jon wanted to scream.  He wanted to drop to his knees and curse the heavens or the Fates or whatever else could've put them in this grim scenario.  He wanted to throttle the dwarf for not realizing he'd run out of ingredients sooner.  He wanted to give up, to throw it all away, because he was at a loss.  He didn't know what to do anymore.

But instead, he tried his hardest to draw in a full breath, to calm his rattled nerves and approach the situation with a level head.  Yelling and screaming would get them nowhere.  "What do we do?"  he asked the dwarf.  He could barely hear his own voice over the ringing in his ears.

"Well, for starters, you can stop yelling at me so I can think for a damn minute,"  the dwarf snapped.  He rubbed his temples and closed his eyes, heaving an aggravated sigh.  "Witch's Oslia grows in snowy places.  I usually pick them outside some old ruins to the northeast of the city."

"How far?"  Jon pressed.  "We'll get them for you."

The dwarf let out a baffled laugh before Brendon had a chance to protest Jon's proposal.  "You numbnuts wouldn't last five minutes in those ruins.  Place is crawling with creatures and borderline feral autonomous machinery left behind by ancient civilizations.  I only get by 'cause I'm small and quick.  You guys, on the other hand..."

Jon was too busy formulating a plan of action to pay attention to Awsten's gibe.  He didn't care how far the ruins were.  He didn't care how dangerous they were.  Nothing was more important than getting Spencer the medicine he needed, and nothing was going to stop Jon from doing the deed.

Not even if he had to do it alone.

"Whoa, where the hell are you going?"  Awsten asked as Jon turned around to make his way to the front door.  "You're not actually gonna go to the ruins, are you?  I just said you wouldn't last five minutes!"

"Well, we need Witch's Oslia, don't we?"

"I'm coming with you."

Despite struggling to stand without swaying, the determination on Ryan's pale face was unmistakable.  He already had his shaking hand around the hilt of his sword as he tried to move to join Jon at the door.

"No, you're not,"  the mage argued.  "You're still weak and need to rest.  Either Brendon and I can go, or I'll just do it myself.  You're staying here."

"What happened?"  the dwarf asked as he hopped down from the counter.  He waddled over to Ryan's side and gave him a hefty sniff, one that nearly startled the boy out of his shoes.  "Use too much magic, eh?  I can fix that.  It'd be stupidly ridiculous of your friend to go to those ruins alone."