Despite Strongarm's words, the two heirs began following him around like colour coordinated ducklings. The way Julius talks about him, you would think he planned to follow him for his whole life. If Juste Strongarm really is Leon Fou Bartfort then he did, and not even the Blank could stop him. I think Bartfort would have appreciated that more than he let on.

Huan Strongarm: A Bartfort Folktale, by Lufas Maphaahl

"Mr Strongarm!"

"Urgh!" groaned Leon, glaring at them like a cranky old dog. "Didn't I say to leave me alone?"

"If you did then I've forgotten!"

Leon looked at Jilk, who avoided his gaze. Clearly, both of these fools had learned nothing. "If the two of you don't get out my face right this second then I swear to… Yes, I love you too."

Korel's Warhorse still hadn't gotten tired of him, and had taken to play-biting his head and soaking his hair in drool. Leon mostly let him get away with this, as it couldn't be overstated how easy it would be for this creature to kill him. It had already killed eight people and Leon didn't know how to stop it.

"Aw," cooed Julius, flinching as Leon quietly seethed. "I-I just thought that it likes you."

"He's a Warhorse," said Leon flatly. "I'm probably never going to be good enough to ride him for as long as I live. I'm a pet at best."

Jilk laughed a little, but Leon let it go because he thought it was funny too. "We noticed that the merchant gave you a Copper Oak Leaf," he remarked. "Are you trying to get that music box?"

Instantly his hackles rose. "Listen, I'm getting sick of explaining that-"

"Is it for your significant other?" Jilk asked curiously. "Or a family member?"

Leon was surprised by this, and ever so slightly softened up. "For my mother," he admitted. "I noticed that when the King gave his speech that you were after the Brass prize. It's a decent starting weapon. You have a good eye."

Julius puffed up a little in recognition of how rare Leon's praise really was. "How many Leaves are you up to? We have two."

"I have three. One more and I'm set."

"Do you want to-"

"No." He walked off, and the boys quickly trotted after him. The Warhorse huffed sarcastically and followed.

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I didn't need to."

"We could cover more ground!" Julius insisted. Leon firmly ignored him, the final clue shifting back and forth in his mind. Unlike the first three it had nothing to do with any side quests he could think of, leaving him stumped. He wasn't really that good at riddles. "The reason we went after Korel was because we got stuck on our third clue! Help us with ours and we'll help you with yours!"

"I'm fine, thanks." Leon considered talking to Jinyan, but he really didn't want any of the Warden's men to spot him. It was possible to just give up and keep the Leaves he already had as souvenirs, but now that he had three he kind of wanted to go the distance.

"You're walking in circles," said Jilk suddenly. "Are you stuck as well?" Leon froze in place. "We might have some better luck with yours if you help us with ours. Fresh eyes!"

Leon pulled a series of faces in rapid succession, cycling between his stubborn need to finish the race and dire unwillingness to spend any more time in their company than he had to.

"Don't you think your mother would love that-"

"Fine!" Leon snapped angrily. "Just… Just tell me the damn clue!"

"There's no rush. We can help you with yours first." Leon just stared him down.

"What, do you think I'm an idiot? If you solve my clue and I can't solve yours you'll just use it as an excuse to drag me on one of your hair brained adventures! Or worse, ask for my real name!"

"I would never!" Jilk protested, even though he had been planning on doing both those things. "I would never be so dishonest as to…" He trailed off as he saw both Leon and Julius were looking at him. "What?"

"Just tell me the damn clue. You have until the count of one."

The two idiots began taking turns to deliver each line. They did it so well that Leon realised this had always been the plan and they had probably practised this in advance.

"Before the gate a guard stands tall…"

"Watchful eyes 'pon one and all…"

"Before the castle in shirt and trousers…"

"Feeling the wind betwixt the houses…"

"In one or the next be a Leaf so fair…"

"There you shall find it, on this I swear!"

When they didn't flub their lines (as he half-expected them too) Leon clapped politely, as did a few people nearby who didn't know what was happening but wanted to be involved. Someone cheered, and a few people threw coins at them.

"I know where it is," he said flatly, then walked away without context. They once again began trotting after him.

"We've already asked the guard," puffed Julius. "He swears he doesn't have it."

"Would you like me to walk you through my thought process?"

"Yes, please!"

Leon kept walking. "The first line mentions a gate with a guard. That means either one of the city's main gates, the gate to the temple or the gate to the palace. Does that sound right?"

"Yeah!" Jilk agreed, although they had just assumed it meant the palace gates and given up when the guard shot them down. "What about the rest?"

"The fourth line talks about houses. The front of the palace is mainly open space to make it easier to spot intruders and all the buildings near the city gates are facilities for the guards. That only leaves the gates to the temple." He gestured at the temple itself, having led them straight to it. "As you can see, there are tons and tons of houses here."

Julius was virtually squealing with excitement. "Perfect! I'll go talk to the guard!"

"I don't have it," grunted the guard when they asked. The two idiots' faces fell comically, while Leon snorted under his breath. "I guard this temple in the name of the Saintess. I have no time for your frivolities."

"Well? Now what? That was our best… What are you doing?"

Leon was looking curiously up at the sky. "Look over there."

A washing line hung between two houses, with a doublet and a pair of pants draped across it.

"Why? W-What am I looking at?"

"This is the only house in the district with a washing line," insisted Leon. "The area near the temple is prime real estate, so everyone who lives here is wealthy enough to afford magic tools for drying clothes. Remember, the clue said the Leaf was in an item of clothing belonging to the guard. It didn't say anything about him wearing it."

"But I just asked him about the Leaf!" Julius pointed out. "He said that he would never be involved in such things!"

"His boss probably told him to say that." The guard had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Some of these clues play around with words. In fact, they did that with the clue for my second Leaf. A man went to jail over it."

"Holy crap!" Julius made a mental note to look into that later. Or at least make someone else look into it. "Anyway, how are we supposed to-"

The Warhorse suddenly reasserted himself with a whinny, leaping through the air and grabbing the doublet with his teeth. Their heads turned slowly as they tracked his arc through the air, the cobblestones exploding as his massive hooves hit the ground.

Jilk gave Leon a nervous look. "Did you tell him to do that?"

"Nope. He just listened to what we were saying and made an executive decision." Leon smiled and rubbed the Warhorse's neck. "Good horsey."

He whinnied, seeming distinctly pleased with himself.

"I found it!" Julius pulled the Brass Oak Leaf from the doublet's pocket, brandishing it victoriously. "Only one more to go!" Leon cleared his throat, glancing pointedly at the Warhorse. "Oh, right." Julius and Jilk performed perfectly synchronised courtly bows. "Thank you, good sir, for your aid."

The Warhorse bowed back gracefully, deeply confusing the guard.

"Anyway," said the Prince once he'd straightened up. "What about you? What was your clue?"

"Uh…" Leon had to think for a moment. "We sleep in mud 'neath moon and stars, watching the world through wooden bars. Somewhere something cottage… shit! I've forgotten!"

"Do you remember the last line?"

"Known to all as careful beasts, we thrive on acorns but not on Leaves."

"What would a cottage be doing in the capital?" wondered Julius. "Is it possible it was something else? Something that rhymes with cottage, or maybe just sounded like it?"

Leon scowled, pressing his fingers into his temples. "It might've been… parentage? Percentage? Outage? Postage? Pottage?"

"What does pottage mean?"

"Maybe it was cottar?" Everyone turned to look at the temple guard, who looked a bit embarrassed at the attention. "Cottar. You know, it's… it's an old fashioned word meaning farmer. There are a lot of farmers in the marketplace. So, you know, you could… y-you could check there."

Leon stared at him just long enough to make him uncomfortable. "Thank you!" he said, with feeling. "Here! Have your shirt back!" He shoved the doublet into his hands and ran off, Julius, Jilk and the Warhorse hot on his heels.

"It's actually called a doublet," said the guard, repeating himself but louder as they got further away. "IT'S A DOUBLET!"

There were, indeed, a lot of animals being traded in the marketplace, and not all of them existed in Leon's past life. "The wooden bars obviously referred to a fence," said Leon. "So we're looking for a wooden pen."

"They're all in wooden pens, Strongarm," remarked Julius. "We're going to need to narrow it down."

"They eat acorns but not leaves, so… pigs? I guess?" Leon spotted someone they knew, immediately running over to grab his attention. "Jarl! Over here!"

The ginger blacksmith had to look around for a minute before they caught his eye. "Ah, it's good to see you again, Mr… I apologise, but I don't think you told me your name?"

"I go by Strongarm," said Leon, then gestured to the idiots. "These are my associates, Jules and Green."

"Would it kill you to call us your friends?"

"Yes." He turned back to Jarl. "Do you know of anyone selling pigs in this area? They would be keeping them in a wooden pen."

"Certainly," nodded Jarl, turning to point over his shoulder. "Just go over there and turn that corner. You can't miss it."

"Thanks!" grinned Leon, and gave him a quick thumbs up. Jarl stopped him as the other two ran off, the Warhorse curiously listening in. "I have a daughter, in case you…"

"I'm only in town for the contest," smiled Leon apologetically, "Someone as beautiful as her deserves more time than I can spare."

Jarl gave a short bark of laughter. "Why do you assume she's beautiful?"

"Everyone's beautiful in one way or another. It was an educated guess." Jarl laughed again and let him go.

The pigs snuffling through the mud were enormous mounds of fat and muscle, their skin black and leathery. Many of them were working their way through a trough of feed, at the bottom of which Leon could see a glinting Copper Oak Leaf. "We have good news and we have bad news," said Julius. The good news is we found the Leaf."

"The bad news is they keep trying to bite our hands off." Jilk demonstrated by trying to snatch the Leaf; even when he knew it was coming he almost lost a finger, the porcine jaws snapping at him like oinking piranha.

"Give it a minute," smiled Leon. "Just watch."

The hogs began to squeal as the Warhorse ambled up behind him, sensing on a primitive level what he was capable of. They began crowding at the far edge of the pigpen, trying to stay as far away from it as physically possible.

"There we go!" Leon reached into the trough and plucked out the final Oak Leaf, bringing iim at long last to the grand total of four. "Needs a wipe, but I'll call this a success."

Julius beamed happily. "And it's all because we worked together!"

"Well, really it was the guard who-"

"Jilk!"

"That's right," Leon mused. "I guess that means you owe me a favour now, huh?"

"But isn't avoiding this sort of situation why we did our Leaf first?"

"Blame yourselves for not following my example," snickered Leon. "Until then, see ya. I've got places to be."

"What?" blurted Julius. "But we're one Leaf short!"

"So? When did I say I'd help with that?" He could tell from their faces that they weren't going to let this go. Leon sighed and decided to try going in from a different angle. "Do you guys know why I call myself Strongarm?"

Julius blinked at the unexpected question. "Uh… Because your specialty is punching magic?"

"Close," chuckled Leon. "It's because I want people to think that my specialty is punching magic. My real specialty is knowing things."

This immediately caught Jilk's attention. "Knowing things?"

"Things like secrets, and hidden places of the earth, and things concealed by deceit," he explained. "So when I tell you that that sword is fucking destined for you, then you'd better goddamn believe it!"

"Really?" Julius looked thrilled, then suspicious. "Wait. How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"If you don't want to believe me then don't," said Leon flatly. "I don't care. But this is the last day of the contest, and if you don't find that last Leaf soon then I'm going to be the only one getting a prize at that ceremony. You should get a wriggle on."

"The ceremony…" Julius said slowly. "Yeah! We can see you then!"

Leon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. I'm outta here. Later, kiddos."

"Wait!" Leon was getting a little sick of turning around. "You called us kids earlier as well. Aren't we the same age?"

"I'm forty nine."

Leon didn't bother watching their reactions, slipping into the crowd with the Warhorse in tow. He made his way back to Temple District, looking for a specific hostel sponsored by the priests.

He was cleaner than when they last met, and was wearing a fresh white robe. Someone must have taken the time to cast healing magic on him, as his sores were already beginning to look better.

"Leon!" smiled Iven. "How goes the search?"

Quest: Olgierd and Ulfried

Summary: by the time The Chains of Satinav begins, Geron has already found three Copper Oak Leaves. One of them is stolen in the opening sequence, leaving him with two objectives; find the last Copper Leaf, and find a Brass Leaf to exchange for the one stolen.

I was originally going to have Jilk take one of Leon's Leaves in the same way, but in my version there are different prizes and Leon just isn't interested in the same things as the other two. In the end it was just the three of them hanging out.

Cottar is a real word, and is used a lot in the first act of Summoner.