"Hey! You four!"

The group of Jake, Bianca, Mia, and Saren had been returning from Lapishores, having been sent out to see if a merchant ship would be arriving any time soon. It seemed that would not be the case, and so, they were to return home, and other messengers would be sent later. They had decided to head down the coast road to get back to their own village, a longer walk, but one that would be a little more scenic, and they had hoped, with less trouble than the forest road.

This girl had other plans. She had been far away from them on the road ahead when she had shouted and ran towards them.

"Yes?" Jake asked, as the others tried to disguise their efforts to be ready to draw weapons quickly.

"Are you doing anything?"

She appeared to be around their age, wearing a relatively plain tunic and brown leggings. She did not openly carry a weapon, and had her hair tied back into two pigtails.

"Returning to our village. What are you doing?" Mia challenged.

"Whoa, hold the horses, mates! Just being friendly, is all." She said.

The girl glanced over them, nodding.

"Hmm... You all adventurers, like?"

"I suppose we are." Jake said. The girl looked at him.

"Ooh, are you an Illithid? Half-Illithid?"

"Yes, but..."

"Oh, and you must be the Cleric." The girl pointed at Bianca.

"What next? You're going to guess what we do?"  Mia sighed. This girl was getting annoying.

"Well, you've got a bow, so... I guess you're the long-range part of the group..."

"And me?" Saren grinned, enjoying something intrusting after the boredom of the town and the trip.

The girl scratched her head.

"Stewth... Tricky one. Well, the Half-Illithid has daggers and a bow, you've just got a sword so..."

She puzzled it for a second.

"You're the arrow fodder."

"What?" Saren said, puzzled.

"See, you're the only one who is close-up only.  You charge in, catch arrows."

"That's not how we fight..." Mia said.

"Really? Well, guess so, he don't seem to have many holes in him."

"So, who are you and why did you shout at us?" Jake asked.

"Oh.. Right... Well, I'm Maria Chronos, but my mates call me Mary. I'm after something hidden near here."

"Some treasure?" Saren enquired.

The girl nodded.

"Yup. Valuable too. I'd give you a nineteen percent share of it each if you help me out!"

"How valuable is valuable?" Mia challenged.

"Er... Not really sure yet, dunno how much there is, Sheila. But..."

"My name's not Sheila, it's Mia."

"...Strewth, calm down, no need to spit the dummy over it. Anyway, you lot look like you'd actually help, not like them bludgers back in the city. None of them would come with when I said..." The girl rambled, halting suddenly.

"Said what?"

"...Said I'd be taking more for myself for a finder's fee." The girl said. Jake had a feeling she was lying.

"So that's why you only gave us nineteen percent each." Saren nodded.

"Did I not mention that when I explained?"

"You didn't explain very much at all..." Bianca noted.

"Oh, well. Follow me!" Maria said, and dashed away.

"Did we agree to follow her?" Mia said, annoyed.

"Well, if this treasure's good, it might be worthwhile." Jake said

Mia nodded.

"Fine, we follow her, but if it's junk I get to shoot her."

***

A short very fast walk later, the group caught up with the girl, who was standing at the edge of a small cliff.

"Come on, it's just down here!" She said, but Jake spoke quickly.

"Look, we need to know more before we follow you. Where you're going, what you're after..."

Maria scratched her head.

"Did I not explain all that?"

"No!" Mia fumed.

"Oh, sorry, folks... Well, I'm going down there..." She said, pointing at a cave down the rockface.

The group groaned.

"That cave's treasure is cursed and turns anyone who steals it into one of the animated skeletons in there. If that's what you're after..."

"Of course not, I'm not pointing at the cave, you go through the cave to reach that little island there!"

Sure enough, there was a small island, and a visible land bridge leading to it. It wasn't easy to reach by boat: Whirpools and jagged cliff edges had to be contended with. Going through the cave to the land bridge was easier.

"There's treasure there that isn't cursed. Supposed to be, anyway."

"Supposed to be treasure or supposed to not be cursed?" Saren noted.

"Well, there's something there giving me trouble to get to it. I don't think it's cursed at all though, just guarded."

Maria then went down the cliff side

"Does she ever sit still long enough for people to ask questions?" Jake grumbled.

***

The cave mouth was where she noticed her unwilling companions were moving slower.

"Come on, mates! You just walk in heading away from the treasure route in these caves and the Skeletons ignore you! " She shouted. The fact a skeleton wandering nearby paid little attention seemed to confirm this.

"Why is there cursed treasure in this cave, and more nearby?" Bianca wondered.

"Maybe a double bluff. The cursed one lures people in and makes guards, while the real stuff is unguarded because everyone's tricked into chasing the cursed one and the skeletons attack them." Mia said.

"Makes you wonder how she found out they ignore you unless you go for the cursed one..."  Saren muttered.

"Makes me think it's a trap."

The skeletons did ignore them, and soon, they reached the land bridge and the small island.

"It's just this way. I started digging it up so it'll be easier..."

"Sure. You open it first." Mia said.

Maria turned to look at them.

"Of course I'm opening it first, it's my treasure! I found it first! I've got a right to give you smaller shares and you might be getting the shares you are getting for nothing!"

"Well, if it is a trap she's a good actor..." Jake noted.

They reached a small pile of dirt, with the footprints of something large nearby, plus a line of human footprints running away.

"So, what happened here?" Jake asked, as Maria began digging again.

"Well, I'd got about halfway when a monster showed up. It was a mighty big critter! So I ran."

"How big is mighty big?" Saren wondered.

"Oh, about the size of a small dragon. It looked like a big pig."

"Like that then?" Saren pointed at the large and surprisingly stealthy creature.

It then charged, forcing the five to dive out of the way.

"Okay, the good news is I don't think it's a guard... But I think we're in his territory." Bianca said.

"Try to just lead it away from Maria while she digs. When you have the treasure dug up drag it back to the land bridge and we'll meet back up..." Jake tried to instruct, only for an arrow to shoot through the ear of the large pig. It promptly turned and fled, screeching in pain at having a new hole in its ear.

"Or that might work." Saren grinned as Mia waved her bow in triumph.

***

The treasure was a buried strongbox, and oblivious to the fact that it was out of mistrust, Maria happily accepted her reminder she had to open the box. She failed to realise the others kept a safe curse-avoiding distance.

"I bet it turns her into a giant pig or something..." Mia whispered.

"You really don't like her do you?" Bianca replied.

"Nope."

There was a clang as Maria began using her shovel to open the box, and a few seconds later, a whoop of triumph.

"See, mates? No curse! Just a nice big pile of gold coins!"

The group wandered over, noting there were at least five hundred gold coins in the box. Not the largest haul, but to Mia's disappointment, not junk.

"Now what?" Jake asked.

"Well, I'll count the coins! I can do it faster than you I bet!" Maria bragged.

"If she counts as fast as she moves and talks, I'm fine with that..." Saren said.

Maria grinned, produced a small blanket, and laid it down before sitting and plucking coins off the pile.

"Okay then! Time to count! One coin... Two coin..."

The group stared as she started piling the coins up

"Are you... Are you going to count one at a time?" Bianca asked.

"Gotta be efficient to give fair shares, mates!" Maria said happily. The group didn't suppress the groan.