By anyone’s standards, the small shop that they had purchased was modest but there was an undeniable charm that was felt the moment they set foot inside of its shabby walls. It was a pretty long and extensive conversation that navigated them towards this purchase, but Bula and Harold had decided that what avenues they had gone down so far may have been taking them further from their end destination. For clarity, it needs to be said that neither of them were even sure what that end destination was even meant to be. Their journey thus far had been decided by a series of broken visions delivered by Bula’s Patron but it had been some time since her Patron had reached out, essentially leaving them in the dark with no clear direction.

Being a witch always seemed to have an ability to throw curve balls their way. When she first started her journey (right before Harold’s arrival), her Patron had actually made several attempts to connect with her. Despite a natural curiosity, Bula still seemed to have an incredible gift of ignoring things occurring around her unless it seemed to have a direct influence on her existence. These attempts to connect with her came in the form of dreams across several unfamiliar locations that were preoccupied by nothing but a hazy shadow. It didn’t help that any attempt at perceiving the shadow directly would cause them to dissipate into the ether of her psyche, reappearing in a new location for her to find.

The back and forth left the both of them wanting but eventually the Patron was able to succeed in connecting with Bula as intended. This success happened one fateful evening after she had just consumed the heartiest meal she had eaten in quite some time that eventually led her to fall into a very deep sleep for the first time in ages. It turned out that the root of the problem was an inability for the connection to even be sustained. This was the first Witch lesson that she had learned with many more to come.

When she fell asleep that night, she found herself waking up in a cold arid room. She slowly began feeling around her as her eyes came into focus, uncovering the texture of marble beneath her fingers. As she came to, she was greeted by a glowing crystal that shed a gentle purple light across her whole figure, painting the whole space in its light. Letters slowly appeared from within its form, casting the shadow on the walls in an initially nonsensical order. The more she focused on each one, the more they found themselves sliding into the right place until finally they spelled out one simple greeting:

HELLO, BULA. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU FOR QUITE SOME TIME.

From there it was a series of fractured images that – as she moved forward on her journey – began to make sense. Each adventure along the way seemed to align itself with one of the random pieces of her vision in her dreams. The first one to come to fruition was her connection with her Familiar, Harold – a Talking Skull – right before she took on her first quest. He was locked away in the back of a shop. The owner had approached her, asking for assistance with moving large crates and barrels in exchange for a favor. She complied and used it to gain his freedom.

From there, it was a series of adventures – big and small – that these visions led them through. Slowly as time went by, the gaps between the dreams and their manifesting in reality became longer and longer until eventually they just… stopped.

It was in those aimless times that she was incredibly grateful for her Familiar. Bula hadn’t realized it before, but the thing that seemed to help her the most more than anything when she felt this lost was being able to simply talk.

And if there’s anything a Talking Head is good at, it is – without a doubt – talking.

“Maybe we need to fight a dragon.” Harold mused out loud.

This was the day before the purchase was made as the two were camped out on the road after finishing their last job.

“Destiny seems to like to lead towards big things. A dragon can be pretty big.”

“Mmmm… No.” Bula said, shaking her head. “We fought one already, remember? It was a real mouthy bastard to the very end.” Her nose curled, remembering the insults it hurled as the Barbarian they were lucky enough to have worked with for that job delivered the last and final blow. It really seemed to have gone well out of its way to say whatever it could think of to hurt everyone’s feelings. It wouldn’t have been as effective if it didn’t also laugh at every single hit. The condescension only enraged the Barbarian further but certainly left a few bruised egos among the rest of the group.

“It was really… rude.” She muttered to herself.

Its unfiltered scorn was part of why the party had been hired to deal with it in the first place. The dragon had found a cliff over a village to perch itself on and simply spent all day insulting everyone it could see. To make matters worse, it had a strong predilection for their livestock. Between dealing with its verbal assaults and struggling to defend their goat and sheep, the villagers decided to hire some help for fear of being left without food or self-esteem after this Dragon was done with its post.

The good news was that the job paid well! Very well, actually. The village was a regular trading post and while the traffic running through had slowed down since the Dragon’s arrival, they had more than enough in their reserve to give a hefty incentive to any warriors willing to take on the task.

It was the kind of extra pay that the two really had no idea what to do with. The money they had received up until that opportunity was enough to cover food and lodging at most on their journey. This amount, however, was enough to do more than they could have planned for.

They both stared into the fire in silence, listening to its cracking as it freed tiny little embers from its flame. Nothing the two came up with seemed to spark any sense of inspiration. Either it was something they had done before or it was something that was well above their pay grade.

After their aimless back and forth for an hour or so, the two decided to resign for the night and hope that maybe a break would give them a new idea of what to do next.

─── ❖ ── ✦ ── ❖ ───

Somewhere in the distance was a quiet humming sound. Not loud enough to discern exactly what it was or where it came from, but it was just loud enough to begin stirring Bula awake from her slumber. Or… at least that’s what she assumed it was doing.

She started reaching around her for her dagger – just in case – but the more she felt around her, the more she started to realize that she wasn’t lying anywhere near the damp cold dirt that her bed roll was laid out on. Each touch helped her piece together the sensation of what seemed like a very cold, hard marble.

This sensation immediately roused a sudden bout of anxiety.

Each dream with her Patron happened in a new space. Never once did she dream of the same space twice. This unfamiliarity was a continued comfort for her. As disorienting as it was from time to time, this unpredictability helped her understand the lack of control when it came to fate each and every single time. It was often a pleasant surprise to see where she’d find herself. Once, she was in a flower filled meadow, surrounded by the vibrant company of fireflies dancing in an asynchronous rhythm. Another was in a comfortable lodge surrounded by the softest bedding imaginable.

The more she oriented herself in the space she was in, the more her stomach sank.

To her dismay, she was in the same space as her first dream.

Her mind began racing. Was the lack of communication a sign that they had gone the wrong way? Was she brought back to the same location as her first dream to help her see an egregious error they had made?

The anxiety only worsened the moment she could see the floating crystal. Unlike before, however, this time it seemed to be dancing playfully in the air as it made its way to her.

As Bula stood, it mirrored every movement she made. It lowered herself as she leaned forward and hovered up to meet her where she stood. The gem flitted back and forth almost as if it was eyeing her for something. What it was, exactly, Bula didn’t know, but its close examination left her uncomfortable.

With each rotation around her, a new letter appeared on the wall and with each rotation it began to spin around her faster, and faster until it was impossible for Bula to keep up. Eventually she had to let it do whatever it was that it was here to do, trying her best to not pay too much attention to it as it spun faster and faster, spilling more and more letters around her for her to see.

While the letters spilled before her, she noticed another difference from the first dream she had. Rather than their being laid out in a nonsensical array for her to discern, this time the letters laid the message clearly.

“H. E. L…LO… BULA…” She read quietly to herself. “YOU… HAVE… BEEN… WAITING FOR M-” She stopped reading, flustered over being found out.

“Did I… do something?” She asked, “To upset you?”

“NO.” The letters spelled on the walls.

“Then why have you been silent?”

“DESTINY.”

“Ah…” Bula couldn’t help but feel a little silly for not considering that possibility.

And just as with that first dream, a flood of fractured images filled her mind. Even if she never expected to see the same visions, somehow these made even less sense than before.

─── ❖ ── ✦ ── ❖ ───

“You seem happy.” Said a familiar voice as Bula woke up.

Harold was right. She didn’t realize it but she had woken up that morning with a rather large smile on her face.

“Let’s go.” She said, rolling out of her bedding and quickly jumping to her feet.

“Without breakfast? Did you – OH!”

“Yup!”

“Does that mean -”

“Yup!”

Harold floated around her asking any and every question he could think up as Bula disassembled the small camp they had made for the night. She explained what was the same, and what was without a doubt different than before. As much as she tried to relay the images that were given, her Familiar was just as lost as she was in trying to piece them together.

The only thing the two could do was the exact same thing they did when this all began – go forward and see where this new journey would lead.

It was a half day’s trek on the road that day that led them to their first sign of where to go.

Literally.

The road that day led them to an Outpost that was beginning to rebuild itself after an unknown minor catastrophe. They had plenty of land for cheap and even shops that were for sale. As they wandered around, it’s there that Bula saw the manifestation of one of her visions.

SPACE FOR LEASE
IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE
SPEAK TO OUTPOST DIRECTOR
FOR MORE INFORMATION

Bula tilted her head at the sign in confusion. Of all the images she could remember, this was the one that confused her the most. There were so many glimpses of adventures being shown, new trials to take on and somehow in the middle of it all was this For Sale sign.

“Well, I guess I know where our first stop is. C’mon.” She nodded to Harold who drifted behind her.

“We’re… buying a shop?”

“I guess so.”

“To do what?”

Bula shrugged.

“Guess we’ll have to go and see.”