Aurone talked in length about her life, she spent hours explaining everything. She began with what her mother told her and ended with her finding TehLulz in her house. It turned out that she had been living in the swamp for about twenty-three years. She told them that many more witches used to live near the village before she was born, her mother didn't have a tree house back then, just in a small hut on the ground. Everything had been good until a group of artefact hunters came to the area to hunt the witches, they killed all of them and then burned their huts down. Only Aurone's mother Runa survived because she hid in a cave below the tree the hut was on now, a newborn Aurone in her arms. In the months after that Runa lived in the village and raised Aurone there, hoping the hunters wouldn't come back.

Half a year later the villagers helped Runa build the hut on the tree. Over the months a number of traders passed by, they came there to trade goods to the villagers in exchange for emeralds and mostly ignored the witch hut unless they were wounded and hoped that Runa would heal them. Aurone said that her mother told her that one day there was an unarmed tall man with scales like a lizard, a vagrant who didn't tell his name. It seemed like the villagers didn't want to trade with him because they were afraid of him. He had asked if he could stay in the hut for one night and offered a book with potion recipes as payment. Runa let him stay in the hut for the night and it soon turned out that she had been right in doing so. That night the artefact hunters returned.

Aurone recounted how their torches lit up the night and their shouts filled the air. Just when her mother thought it was over for her, the strange man suddenly rose up, jumped down to the ground and fought the hunters, one against a dozen. The hunters however quickly found out that their own viciousness was nothing against the ferocious fighting style of their opponent. Runa watched the massacre from her balcony, a crying Aurone in her arms. All hunters were killed except one that the man left alive to tell the tale. After that, he climbed up into the house again and laid down as if nothing had happened.

The next morning he had thanked Runa for the stay, introduced himself as Fire and left. Runa would have thought the events of the night were a dream if there wouldn't have been corpses lying all around the hut. That and the book about potions he had left as a thanks for letting him stay. Aurone's life after the attack went on without any bigger events besides her and her mother healing the wounds of travelers passing by and curing diseases in the village.

Aurone explained how she learned how to brew potions and survive in the swamp and also went into detail about the different potions, which only really interested Unchosen, he asked one question after the other, much to the annoyance of the others. She told them about various poisons and their effects, often going into more detail about the effects than would have been needed.

Aurone stopped when she was about to tell what happened when she was fifteen years old and then sighed. She told them that one day she woke up and her mother was just gone. Aurone said that she never found out what happened to her but she knew from the start that she wasn't going to return. After that she continued living in the hut for eight more years up until the day she found the group in her hut.

It was already afternoon when Aurone finished telling her story.

Promptly leaving topic Ambigious said: "Do you have anything to eat here, I am hungry."

freeZe was about to say something but was cut off by Aurone: "Of course. If you like herbs that is."

"I am not picky when I am hungry, just give me something. Don't worry, I have been living in a slave mine for the last few months after all, I am used to eating just about anything as long as it has calories." Ambigious answered and gestured towards his mouth with his healthy arm.

freeZe slowly agreed: "Yes, I would like something to eat too… I think all of us do. Let's find out what the usual diet of someone living in a swamp is."

Aurone stood up and started walking towards the door, she said: "We will have to collect some food, I never store much."

The others stood up and followed the witch through the door and down the ladder. Getting Ambigious down to the ground was a bit troublesome as he could only use one arm but with the help of TehLulz he finally reached the ground.

"What do the plants look like that we are searching for?" Unchosen wanted to know.

Aurone replied: "They grow on the ground and are about half as tall as you, they have four leaves and a round, green blossom on top." She looked around for a bit and then pointed towards a willow tree nearby. "There are some over there."

Aurone went first, then Unchosen and then the others. freeZe noticed how Aurone was barely visible with her grass clothes, Unchosen was similarly hard to see, the leaves all over his body had almost the same color as the grass which made it hard to spot him from a distance. freeZe looked down to her feet and smiled, she herself was very visible in comparison, a pitch black silhouette with green eyes standing in the middle of the grass.

Aurone reached the plant and cut the stem with the knife she had shown TehLulz the day before.

"I am leaving the roots in the ground so it can grow back." She explained and handed a leaf to each of the others.

The leaves tasted very sour and a little bitter but it was far better than the flavorless salad leaves they had been eating in the quarry.

Unchosen asked: "How many do you need to eat every day?"

"They are quite nutritious, it's about twenty for me, for you three I would say thirty and for… what was your name again?" She looked at Ambigious questioningly.

"Ambigious." He answered.

"Ah, right Ambigious. For you I would say thirty-five, you seem quite strong." She said and then added: "You can go around collecting those on your own now but don't eat the blossom, it contains a weak paralysis poison, just give them to me, I might use them for some potions."

"Alright then." freeZe said.

She started looking for more of the plants, there were none in her vicinity but she could see a big patch of them a short distance away.

She pointed in the direction and told her friends: "Look, over there. There are some."

freeZe, TehLulz, Ambigious and Unchosen walked towards the patch while the witch wandered off in a different direction, probably looking for different herbs. Ambigious took the lead and then took his stone sword out of his inventory and slashed at the tall grass in front of them, clearing a path. Even though he was using his left hand it didn't seem like he had trouble using the sword.

When they arrived at the patch they carefully started plucking the herbs. TehLulz immediately ate one of the leaves and then shivered, he wasn't used to the strong sour taste but immediately ate another leaf, he was hungry.

"I could get used to this." Unchosen stated as he removed the blossom from an herb and put it into his inventory.

Ambigious agreed: "Much better than the crap we got in the quarry, was probably spawned in, everything tasted exactly the same."

They didn't talk much after that, they were too busy plucking and eating the leaves. About ten minutes later they had eaten a good part of the patch and started walking towards the hut again on the path Ambigious had cut through the swamp.

Unchosen looked at how much of the patch they had eaten and assumed: "I don't think that the swamp can sustain five people with food for a long time, one maybe but not the five of us."

"You're probably right." Ambigious said.

They were almost at the witch hut as they saw Aurone waiting on the lower end of the ladder, a worried look on her face.

"What is it?" freeZe asked.

"I think there is someone or something in the hut, I heard heavy steps a minute ago."

"Interesting… let's check it out then." TehLulz said and proceeded walking towards the ladder.

He was already halfway up the ladder when freeZe said: "Be careful, you don't know it is."

TehLulz reached the platform and took a deep breath. He pressed his ear against the wooden door, at first he didn't hear anything but as he listened more carefully he heard a slow rattling breath and the sound of a chest being opened.

Unchosen asked: "What is it?"

TehLulz replied quietly: "I don't know but it seems to be searching for something in your chest Aurone."

As he didn't get an answer TehLulz slowly opened the door and peeked through the small opening. He could barely see anything, the only thing he could see was a tall figure bowing over the chest next to the furnace. Suddenly he realized something. The figure must be Fire who woke up. It was still a mystery to him how he could live without a working heart, maybe the potion temporarily replaced the need for one? He opened the door completely, which flooded the room with light and surprised the figure, which stopped searching the chest and now faced the door. TehLulz looked at the now illuminated figure and was relieved to see that it was indeed Fire. However when his gaze went lower he saw the wound in Fire's chest. The wound looked bigger than before since Fire was now standing and not leaning against the wall. In front of the shredded heart TehLulz could see a piece of Fire's lungs, which were now operational. It gave the wound an even more gruesome look as it moved, every movement seemed to cause him pain.

"Fire? Are you okay?" TehLulz stuttered.

Fire recognized his friend's voice and faced the chest to continue his search with a rattling sigh, then he raised one finger to a gesture that meant "later", he seemed to be unable to speak.

TehLulz turned around and told the others: "It is Fire, he doesn't seem to be in very good condition though."

"Let me up there!" Aurone yelled and pushed Unchosen aside and then climbed the ladder.

As she saw Fire rummaging in her chest she walked up to him and asked: "What are you looking for?"

Fire once again made a gesture, this time he drew a crescent shape into the air with his fingers, then tapped a yellow stain on his coat. Aurone seemed to understand what he meant and pointed at a satchel.

"There." She said.

Fire nodded and opened the satchel, inside were melon slices, only that they were golden, glistening melons. Fire also had found some bottles and filled them with water, then put them into the brewing stand. He searched the satchel again and fished out a nether wart, which he cut in three parts with his claws and put them into the bottles brewing stand and stuffed the melon slices in afterwards. Then Fire waited, pressing his left hand against the wound, it seemed like the wound started to hurt even more now.

TehLulz just stood there and observed what Fire was doing, unable to do anything himself. Judging by the ingredients he used he was making healing potions. Fire's rattling breath sped up as the pain in his chest increased, TehLulz assumed that Fire had just woken up and his potion was wearing off.

Twenty long seconds later the water changed its color from transparent to a bright red. Fire didn't even wait for the potion to cool down, his shivering hands took a bottle from the stand and emptied it into his mouth. Fire's half-closed eyes suddenly were wide open and his hands dropped the bottle, making it shatter on the wooden floor. Fire followed the bottle and dropped down to the ground where he was lying with his eyes wide open and his limbs in a stretched out position. At first nothing seemed to happen, then suddenly black bones started growing from the sides of his wound, closing up his ribcage again. Muscles grew over the bones at a rapid speed, followed by black skin and scales. At the same time the scales that had been deformed by the magma cube fell off and were immediately replaced with pristine ones. A few seconds later a twitch went through Fire's body, his eyes closed and his body relaxed, he was just lying there peacefully like before, just without the wound.