The addition of the saddle was fantastic, it was far larger than any other saddle that he had seen, he would compare it to what he could remember of some of the motorcycles from back home, to the point that it even included some saddlebags that were mounted behind the seat. The leather was soft and it felt like it was meant for him, and the fact that there was still a bit of dust settled in the crevasses. He settled into the seat, covering himself with a blanket, still following behind the cart driven by Hugh, Cadence bundled in the seat next to him. Their trip south going smoothly, the roads seemed to be much fuller than any of the other times that they'd come through, Davin grew curious…

"hey, Cadence!" Davin yelled up to them, to which their head popped out of their bundle. "Why are the roads so busy now?"

"It is the middle of the week, everyone is more busy in the middle of the week," Cadence stated.

"Oh, huh, I hadn't thought about that. I'm so used to everything being set to a seven days a week, and some were twenty-four hours a day."

"Your week only had seven days?" Hugh asked.

"Yup, and each day had a name, which seems weird that the ones here don’t have names," Davin said, his voice making a mocking tone as if he was making a bad impression.

"Well from what I've read, some of the original settlers gave them all the names that they used, but as more people came the names faded since they didn’t make any sense, so we just call them first, second, and so on," Hugh explained matter-of-factly.

"That still seems weird," Davin said and shrugged, their walk hampered mildly by the much denser traffic on the road. "So eight weeks for a season, ten-day weeks, is the number of hours in a day still twenty-four?"

"That I don’t know, the clocks are all based on each individual, some say that the time is different, but no one can agree how off it is, so we just all go by what our status says," Hugh said as he opened his status to check the time.

"Judging the time gets more difficult since the winter and summer areas seem as though they warp the way the time and light pass, so the status is one of the more reliable," Cadence added in.

"I do need to get myself one of those patches," Davin said wistfully.

"There are a few that you may want to look into." Hugh pulled up his sleeve, showing off the line of patches that ran down it.

"I agree." As Cadence held out their arm as well, a patch poking out from below their cloak."

"Just another thing to the long list of things to buy." Davin Chuckled.

"That list is getting fairly large, where do you expect to keep all of that stuff?" Hugh asked laughter mixed in with his words.

"Well either patch for my bag to make it bigger, or a bag of holding, honestly, the majority of the list can wait, we have some time before then. One of the big things now is to see what is next on the list of places to go, Compass has a plan, but he wants me in the Bastion before he goes into more, so we wait and find out." Davin shrugged, feeling as though this was kind of becoming his thing.

"And offloading most of the equipment that we didn’t need will be nice, and I will likely get a windfall from the information that I gathered." Hugh bounced in his seat.

"Will they be able to keep the finding a secret?" Davin asked, concern filling his voice.

"Yes, that is a concern of mine, as well, can we talk about what we have learned?" Cadence asked half twisted in their seat to look back at Davin.

Hugh sat rocking his head back and forth as he thought. "Hmm, I don't think that it will be a problem since most of the information from it won't mean anything to anyone else."

"What do you mean?" Cadence asked confusion filling their face.

"Mana density spikes with the increase in light, I surmise that if it were to continue, the potential could lead to massive terraforming of not only the immediate area." Hugh took a clinical tone to recite his own notes about his observations.

Cadence just stared, face crinkling as their jaw opened. "I have no idea what you are talking about…" Blinking repeatedly as if to get rid of a bright flash.

"And that’s the point, technical jargon is its own deterrent, I could likely go on a tangent that would leave you confused for days, but, I think they're safe," Davin said as he remembered every single customer service call that he ever had to sit through.

"Jargon?" Hugh asked.

"Another word for 'words you won't understand', basically industry-specific slang," Davin said with a wide smile.

"Hmm, it is similar to the way that many of the bards and rogues tend to talk in code when talking with others of their profession," Cadence said while nodding along.

"Yeah, basically like that, wizards have an entire pile of nonsense that they call words that none of us will ever understand." Davin chucked as Hugh stared him down.

"You know what the most annoying part of that is? It's that you aren't wrong." Hugh continued to scowl at Davin.

Davin smiled wide and shrugged again, which caused Hugh to chuckle and they continued on their travels, some of the caravans that they passed slowed to look at Truck, the unusualness of what he was catching the eye of many a traveler, some of them whispering dragons and drakes. Which gave Davin no end of amusement, suspecting that most people hadn't seen a dragon in person for some time if they even existed here, Davin hoped that they did, that there was some species out in the multiverse was just that, a massive draconic race… Although he had seen several people in the bastion that had hints of draconic traits… or at least what he hoped was. Davin spent a good chunk of the last leg of their trip dreaming of dragons, and having conversations with his friends. When they stopped for the night they had made it to the edges of spring, the slightly warmer air knocking off the chill that had been lingering. Truck let out a groan as he stretched out, dragging his feet on the ground as he circled where Hugh was building the fire, seeming as though he was seeing where the most comfortable spot was going to be.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"You think he likes the fire?" Davin asked as he pulled out his cooking tools and began to set up for dinner.

"I do believe so, it was one of the first things we all did together. I enjoy it, I do not see why he would not." Cadence dropped a small bundle of wood down.

"I mean, it's a good place to be, I just wish that he was softer," Hugh said as the fire fully sparked to life, the first few waves of heat casting out, sitting and leaning into Truck's side.

Davin set up his pot to boil water, adding a few ingredients. "Going to go see what I can find in the woods, spring is a great time for greens!"

Davin hopped up, grabbed his bag, and started off to the woods, this caused Truck to start moving as well to which Hugh quickly shot up and tried to get him to lay back down, seeing as no one else followed, Truck lay back down and settled to bask in the fire.

Davin walked slowly, wanting to not miss a thing, following a narrow animal trail that wove around the trees and shrubs. Davin had missed foraging, and he didn’t really mind, if gave him some alone time as well as just let his mind wander while he gathered different foods. Honestly, Davin was impressed by the large variety of foods that he'd come across so far in his short trip, several diverse biomes of plant growth, likely leaning from the strange growing seasons that existed here. By the time that he made it back to camp, his starter broth was fragrant and spicy smelling, instantly washing away some of the worn feelings that he had from the day of riding.

Cadence had gotten bags of food set for the animals, Truck's pile had a mix of branches and leaves pulled in to help, Nibbles had settled next to the massive mount and was laying on his belly, his feed bag pulled onto his snout. Hugh had dedicated to setting up their tent and had set himself to reading from Leaf, lips moving along as he read. Quietly sitting down at his impromptu cooking station and started to clean the odds and ends that he'd gathered. The fragrant aromas soon filled the air, pulling Hugh and Cadence out of their focuses broken hovering over the bubbling pot sniffing from it deeply.

"What are you making?" Hugh asked as he pulled his hair back and sniffed again.

"Well if I had some milk, it could be a chowder, but for now, it's going to be some spiced mashed tubers and a gravy, we're low on provisions since we spent longer in winter than I was prepared for, and the dried meats don’t rehydrate as nicely as I'd like," Davin grumbled mildly as he cut up some of the other greens.

"It smells fantastic, why do you sound so disappointed?" Cadence asked as they also continued to breathe in the scent.

"Because I wish we had an RV…." Davin shrugged as he added the last of his herbs to the pot.

"Are vee?" Hugh asked as he picked up a spoon to dip it into the pot.

"Basically, it's a mobile house that has all of the modern amenities… which I guess for here… that would be a carriage," Davin grumbled lightly.

"Between us, I do think that we could have that," Cadence said as they looked over their cart. "I think that cushioned seats may be high on the priority list for me." Rubbing their backside in emphasis.

"Oh, yeah, cushions!" Hugh cheered. "Let's get home first, we will hit Malach tomorrow, and I want to take a bath, that should alone be your focus, hot baths." Holding his arm towards the south.

"Yeah, can't really argue against that, I am starting to get a little ripe." Davin held up his arm, sniffing, shivering, and then let out a cough.

"If you desired a bath so badly, why did we rush through Fork in the road?" Cadence asked, their head tilted as they stared at Hugh and then at Davin.

"One big reason," Davin said, somber tones filling his words. "It is way too cold for the outdoor baths that they had at that inn…" He shivered again, holding his hands to the fire to ward off the imaginary chill that ran down his spine.

"They were outdoors? When did you have a chance to look?" Cadence's confusion was clear on their face.

"They were, the fenced-in area behind the inn, they were fire heated, but they were in full exposure to the elements other than a simple roof to keep away the rain."

"I much prefer private rooms…" Cadence whispered.

Hugh nodded, "They are likely not cleaned very often either, the river isn't very close."

To which Davin and Cadence's faces soured in disgust.

"I had not thought of that…" Cadence's face seemed paler than it had been.

Hugh and Davin began to laugh, Cadence began to laugh shortly after, and their spirits lifted, sharing the meal that Davin had made.

Davin took his turn at watch, even though they weren't the only caravan in the clearing they still wanted to make sure that they didn’t lose the habit and rely on the kindness of strangers. When Davin had finished his turn, the fire had burned low, while it wasn't as cold as had been the last few nights, they didn't have as much wood for the fire, Hugh had taken up his place at the side of Truck. Cadence, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.

"Cadence?" Davin asked Hugh, interrupting his reading.

"Firewood, Truck insisted that someone get some, and they agreed, I was content to just use this big guy." Nudging Truck with his elbow.

Truck let out a groan, shifting his leg and knocking Hugh over. Davin laughed, walked over, and gave the big beast a pat on his head and then he settled into his bed, his road-worn body not putting up a fight before darkness took him.

Davin awoke in his dreams, it was getting easier to tell. Walking through the dark halls felt symbolic, as if he was looking for something, his steps silent as they fell, looking down the seemingly endless halls filled him with anxiety as if he was somewhere that he wasn't meant to be. He didn't have control over his movements, following some path that he couldn’t know its goal. When the music began to fill the air, he began to calm, a song that he had known for what felt like most of his life, a simple melody. Starting to sing along, the tempo picking up.

Scooby-Dooby-Doo, where are you?

We got some work to do now.

Scooby-Dooby-Doo, where are you?

We need some help from you now.

The door that Davin stood at reminded him of that of a movie theater, similar to the one that was their dungeon, but this one felt different, when he got inside, instead of movie posters, there were pictures of him, from before, centered around memories that he'd seen so far, ones that he knew that he could remember vividly. Wandering through the halls of the theater of his memories, the part that was discouraging was that every single 'coming soon' poster that usually filled theater lobbies were all dark silhouettes of what could be. Walking into a theater auditorium he easily found a seat, the trailers began to run, the new memories that he'd made while here in the afterlife.