Kingdom's fate

A doctor's note

"Welcome to my homeland!" he announced half-heartedly. "The apothecary is just over here."The centaur pointed at a tall stone building with an oak sign above the door saying "Dr Golgors potions and treats".Aelfric frowned. Was this really the finest apothecary in all of Gwendor?Telasius knocked on the door, whistling an old dwarven song from the caving times."Ah, hello! You must be the two elves!" a short, round dwarf exclaimed happily as he burst open the door.For a few seconds, the elf wasn't sure where this voice was coming from before looking down and seeing the little doctor."How do you know who we are?" he demanded, still suspicious of this run-down area, which was very unlike his safe paradise in the Elven forest."Please, doctor. Our friend here has been injured in battle and needs a cure immediately!" Telasisus interrupted briskly."I see," the doctor pondered curiously. He then bustled around his shelves, looking for some kind of potion bottle or plant. Suddenly, a bottle crashed down onto the floor and let out a verdurous puff of green, causing the blonde to cough profusely."Well hurry up then," he muttered.The centaur glanced at him disapprovingly, which only made the elf cross his arms stubbornly and tap his foot on the floor."No worries my friends!" the optimistic dwarf yelled from a corner of the room. "Here is the cure we need! Simply pour it over the wound and he shall be good as new!"Telasisus clasped the glass bottle and pulled up the unconscious elf's leather jacket to reveal a nasty, deep cut singed in his lower back from where the ogre had striked him. Almost as if by magic, the wound sealed up, leaving only a thin vermilion scar. Leaf's eyes shot open with a start."Where am I?" He murmured, in a daze."It's me, my dear friend. And this is telasius," Aelfric pointed at the noble centaur. "You were stabbed in the back, and we rushed you here to be healed."Leaf instinctively felt for where the knife had hit him, but no cut wasthere."Thank you," he said sincerely towards Dr Golgor.The doctor nodded in return and handed him a small envelope containing a note, of which shall become relevant sooner or later.The blonde patted Leaf's shoulder affectionally and beckoned for him to open the note. However, the doctor shook his head."You may only open that envelope when you need it most. Until then, it will be empty."Aelfric scoffed and turned to the centaur."So, where shall you journey now?" Telasius said pensively."We are making our way to Zuania, to find my brother," the prince explained, deciding that's all he needed to know."How strange, I was travelling in that direction too," Telasius smiled. "May I accompany you?"Before Aelfric could say something, Leaf nodded."The more the merrier, right?" The elf said, staring at the grumbling prince, as if telling him to agree whether he liked it not."Of course," he smiled back.So off they set, the three wanderers, along the cobblestone dwarven roads to their next destination. The Orcus mountains.However, these mountains weren't just any mountains. They were where their previous enemies, the ogres, resided alongside the vicious trolls.