Buff was a Tier 4 Amber Eyes Bear. They had the reputation of being able to spot honey a mile away. Actually the reputation was false. It was their noses that could smell the honey, not their eyes.

But Buff had an existential problem. He did not want to be an Amber Eyes Bear. He was jealous of humans and the way they used tools. He was jealous of Wilds who were of higher Tier than himself. He was jealous of birds that could fly and fish that swam so well. In short, he was jealous of a lot of things.

The stash of junk in the cave was his result of his jealousy of humans. He had a bad habit of stealing stuff from them, especially from their unguarded treasure-piles! (Mandy: Silly bear, that's the rubbish heap). One day, he even acquired his greatest prize and treasure from it; the Fire Stick! (Remian: Which poor idiot couldn't recognize an Inscription and threw away a perfectly good Fire Ball Wand?)

Despite his jealousy toward humans, he was also fascinated by them and often tried to emulate them. Remian was quite astonished to find him sitting on half a couch wearing a broken monocle and staring at an upside-down stolen signboard. It had taken the bear just a minute to retrieve the items from the stash outside and he now sat there proudly as if he was showing off.

"What are you doing?" The question boggled Remian's mind.

[Reading.] The bear grunted in reply. [Good for the mind.]

"Uh…" Remian scratched his head but ultimately left the bear alone.

They went on clearing the cave and leveling the ground as the rain began to fall heavily. An hour later, they found the bear sitting with legs folded in the lotus position, eyes closed and both hands spread.

"What is it doing?" Mandy whispered in a low voice.

"I have no clue." Remian went over to the bear. "What ARE you doing?"

[Meditating. I will cultivate Inner Force!] the bear yowled.

Remian frowned. "Meditating means you have to focus your thoughts on something."

The bear perked up, very interested. [Like what?]

"Like uh…" Remian scratched his head. "Energy? Or elements in nature. Or nature itself. Or combat techniques. Or weapons. Or even something you want, in order to motivate yourself."

[Motivate… myself? What is that?] The bear seemed even more interested.

"It is a form of self-help. A way of increasing mental and emotional strength, I guess?" Remian was having some difficulty trying to explain self-motivation to a bear.

[Soul cultivation! I understand!] The bear exclaimed and settled back down to meditate. [What I want… what I want…]

"You have to be honest with yourself." Remian gave him one last hint before shaking his head and walking away.

Ten minutes later, he heard the bear's thoughts resonating all around the cave.

[Honey… honey… honey… honey… honey…]

***

At that point, both Carrie and Vigil were rolling around the floor laughing.

"What happened to them?!" Mandy asked Remian.

"It's… a joke." Remian trailed off. "It's a Wilds thing."

But despite their laughter, the bear went on faithfully meditating. Remian felt a wave of sympathy and empathy for the bear. He knew something of what it was like when others laughed at his dreams.

"This bear wants to learn human ways." Remian tried to explain to Mandy. "I actually want to help him."

"That's nice. Shall we teach him how to use a fork and spoon?" Mandy queried.

"Uh… maybe?" Remian wasn't sure. "Something like that."

Mandy looked about and picked up a dirty spoon from the remaining junk scattered around the floor.

"Wait. You're serious?" Remian stared.

"Well… I don't see a fork, but… that's the idea, isn't it?" Mandy questioned.

"And you don't think it's weird?"

"Of course it is. But so what? It's his dreams." Mandy answered. "I will never laugh at anyone for their dreams." She glanced at him sideways. "Anyone."

It was true. Remian thought back. There was a time when Mindy, George and the others were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up. George wanted to be a farmer; n.o.body laughed at that. But Mindy wanted to own an airs.h.i.+p and fly all over the world. Everyone who heard it burst into laughter. Buying a pa.s.senger ticket to board an airs.h.i.+p was one thing. Owning the airs.h.i.+p itself was an entirely different matter. It was the difference between walking into a city and being the mayor of that city.

But Mandy never laughed at her. She had gone on to ask others of their dreams. Eventually she had come to Remian.

Dazed by the look of the sunlight over her hair, Remian had blurted out his actual intentions. He couldn't remember what it was he said exactly, but even Tim and Jane were laughing. Mindy had defended him, and Mandy…

Mandy simply smiled. She didn't say a word.

But she never laughed.

"It is good to have dreams." She said softly, now. "To be able to have a hope in the future."

"Do you have one?" Remian asked.

"Me? Until today, all I had to look forward to in the future was slavery and working as one of Rose's 'employees'." Mandy closed her eyes. "Even now, I…"

"You should have one." Remian encouraged. "Even if it seems silly. Tell me. Anything at all. What is it? To travel the world and see the big cities? Vacation on the islands of the Sea People?"

Mandy drew a deep breath. "I just want to live in peace. Take care of the kids so they never go hungry. Maybe run my own inn. Never lack the money to take care of Mindy. And never, ever have to be afraid of Cruel Rose."

Most of those were basic needs; security, food, resources… except for the inn part. "Why an Inn? The Ravens already have both an inn and a tavern."

"That's just it. Most of the customers at both the inn and the tavern are adventurers, explorers, prospectors and airs.h.i.+p crewmen. I've spoken to many of them and all of them generally want to get out of town as fast as they could. There's always gang trouble brewing in town, and n.o.body wants to get caught up in it." She glanced about. "Maybe we can build one right here. There are quite a few people who live in the wilderness outside town, and who would rather not enter town if they could help it. They mainly come back only to trade. If we could offer them a safe place to rest outside of town, someplace without fear of the Wilds…"

"An inn that's protected by Tier 4 Wilds?" Remian thought about it. "There are a lot of possibilities. Just how many adventurers and such are out there?"

"Hundreds have pa.s.sed through town." Mandy told him quietly. "As to how many survive… I don't know."

Max barked a laugh. "We could do it better. An inn protected by the Iron Legion on the south side right next to the main road would surely be more trusted than a cave protected by Wilds on the west that needs a long trip around the town walls just to reach."

"Then why don't you do it?" Remian asked.

"Not interested. No time. No manpower to spare. It's not our role." Max ticked off fingers. "The worst of it is that the south side is where the Wilds attack. Our camp can be moved, but an inn would likely be destroyed the next time a Beast Wave comes through."

Right. The Beast Wave. The way into town was the south side; they would always attack there. They almost broke the town's defenses last time. That was why Markus was hot mad and yelling for a wall. But the gang leaders wouldn't help, and his bosses only wanted their crew to build a road, not a wall, so…

"They won't attack us here." Remian realized. "They can't get into town from this side. If we built an inn here…"

"Guarded by Wilds? If the Wilds are friendly towards you, it would probably last longer than the town itself." Max figured. "So long as you don't go bankrupt."

"Even if we did, we can just farm or hunt our own food." Remian thought aloud. "We can keep fish. Dig a pond in the stream and keep them there with nets…"

"a.s.suming that the bear doesn't eat them all up." Max rolled his eyes. "Or your wolfcats."

"Then we'll just make it a big pond, let them eat all the fish they want." Remian shrugged. "Although I'm afraid these particular wolfcats have a taste for cooked food."

"Great! Let's name the inn!" Mindy exulted.

Mandy coughed. "You're getting ahead of yourself. We haven't even decided if we're really going to do it yet!"

"I vote for 'the Bear and Wolfcat' Inn!" Mindy exclaimed.

"The Wild Side Inn!" Max suggested.

"West Hillside Bed and Breakfast?" Mandy tossed in.

Remian shook his head. "I was thinking something different. Something that would change the very nature of what the inn would be about."

"What?" Mandy asked.

"The Adventurers Guild."