Oof. I’m not sure which is more tiring, dreamless sleeps, or sleeps where it feels like I’m having an entire extra life of adventure. Oh hey, we’re in The Brook. I don’t sense Dawn’s presence anywhere. Too bad. I hope we’re still on good terms. I don’t know what to do for them though. A partially shredded soul that looks like it’s being stripped away more and more over time? That sounds awful, sad as newts in a desert. Even if that’s not what’s causing their weird curse.

Ah, apparently Teuila is shoving some of the emergency digital fish in my face and other provisions I had left at the Keel Over. Yay non-mastication consumption. Well, that works at least. I’m a lot less hungry. Well, sort of. My belly hurts. There’s a sort of cramped rumble. We don’t have the parts though, so it’s not like I can toot to relieve it. I mean, I guess I could spend a few hours shapeshifting up and down to make one? That, that just seems like a weird use of my powers and time. Plus all the pain I’d incur, and all the bleeding I would do.

Huh, Te’s out of Valkyrie form. I wonder if her transformation went smoothly, or if she ran out of Can’Z’aasian energy and lost the form, or if Rayileklian energy powers it for her now, or, just so many things.

I ask, “Te? Your form? Was it okay?”

Te raises an eyebrow, “Hm? Yeah Dink. It was all good. Could only do the free jumps, but, well, my jumping with the full Valkyrie gear and some zero G. It didn’t take long. I got kinda scared carrying around a copy of the spear. I wish that form didn’t come with that spear anymore. But yeah, the spear is why I dropped the form when we got back to town. Well, a little ways outside, and walked us in. Um, Harriet might want to talk to you. I kinda delivered a dragon head to her and Tiago.”

I snort a laugh as my eyes flare wide. I slap my hand over my mouth, unsure of where I am as I gaze around. It seems like we’re in our room at the Keel Over.

Glancing around the room, I half expect to find some food that Keeley might have left out for us. Spotting none, I pout, “Awe, darn, none of the tavern’s food? How long have we been back?”

Teuila blushes, chagrined as she scratches the back of her head, “Sooooo. Keeley might have dropped off a couple of portions of stew a half an hour ago or so, but you weren’t waking up, and I figured I could at least take care of you the way I used to. I uh, I ate both shares. Sorry my Dink.”

I pout at her with wide, sad eyes for as long as I can muster, playfully guilting her before I burst into a chuckle and reach over to smooch her. My smile angles widely across my face as my eyes begin to droop again.

Yeesh, crap on a cracker Reggie, stay awake for once. Come on pal, you got this buddy. Hah, now I’m talking to myself like Lil in my own brain. Am I really that sleep deprived? What is even going on with me? I stumble off of the bed, falling to the floor, Teuila rushes to my aid but I wave a hand.

I lie, “I meant to do that.” I play it off as if I’m trying to do calisthenics, performing a few push-ups. We’re both laughing too hard for me to take it too seriously, but it does help wake me up a bit.

Teuila hems and haws as she paces around the room a bit, she wants to ask something, but seems nervous to do so. I roll over onto my back and stare backwards up at her as she paces around behind my head. I raise an eyebrow when I catch her glance.

Te says, “I, I know we just went clothes shopping the last time we were in town, but my jammies are ruined from acid, and yours, well, it’s friggin’ vaporized Reggie. You stood in dragon fire ya Dink. Can, can we maybe, later, when you’re feeling okay, go back?”

I chuckle as I smile widely, “Of course Te! You’re so sweet. Why wouldn’t we be able to?”

She blushes and rambles a bit absentmindedly, “Well, I just, I’m starting to kind of like it here, maybe even, ya know, a lot, but, I don’t want to slow down your quest, and you’ve been patient, and said we could slow down, but I don’t think you thought that meant shopping repeatedly, and, and. I just. I don’t want you to hate me.”

I pout, “Te? Te, I could never hate you. I think I understand what you meant, like, maybe resenting you if the quest was super high priority over everything else for me. It’s high priority, but you, Lil, Lu, Lucky, and our fam back home are way, way more important to me than whatever weird self-imposed quest I’ve got going on. I mean, characters from a dream? Well, we, sorta kinda have proof that some of them exist. But that doesn’t matter. You’re what matters. I love you.”

Teuila blushes and fidgets, spinning side to side and back with one foot flat and the other raised, its toes pointed into the floor. I slowly drag myself up to meet her. We happily embrace, and she tries to muffle a Shellcracker Family Squee. I smooch all over the corners of her lips and eyes in response.

Teuila mumbles, “I, um, was playing around with my inventory. I can’t remember what’s in it, but I remember that we hunted the queen a bunch of times, and never even had the time to sit down and look at the loot. Heck, I even got some magic stuff from the insect warrens with Lin, but like, I was, um, kinda maybe a little preoccupied with her lips to think about eye-dee’ing the stuff. Then I forgot I got it. But since I forgot what all I got, I don’t know what to call out of my inventory, ‘cause I don’t know what’s all in there anymore. And, like, I don’t want to cave in the Keel Over if I accidentally summon like tons of gold or something dumb. Ya know?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I’m struggling to hold in my laughter as I respond, “Haha, holy crap, me too! I don’t think I even looked at the loot from the first time I killed the mite-hulk queen on Lord Agni’s back. I was so freaked out about the apocalypse. Everything from then on was just so hectic. Hell, I remember the mite-hulks dropped some really amazing metal materials. I could swear some of it was like, straight up mythical stuff, like large sheets or plates of adamantine or mythril or something. I do remember that the entire adventure on Lord Agni’s back, I shoved everything into one corner of my inventory, kind of like its own backpack in an MMO. Uh, never mind the reference.”

Teuila asks, “What reference, like old wow or EQ or something?”

My brain BSODs super hard. When I return to reality, I don’t remember what was just said that caused me to space out. I rattle my head as I blink repeatedly, “Huh? What were we. Something about loot.”

Teuila frowns at me, “Dink? Are you okay? You made a reference, said to ignore it, and I guess I didn’t ignore it. Did I trigger something bad? You weren’t like panting or doing the eye pupil stuff.”

I flex my jaw repeatedly, not realizing I’d been clenching it as I respond, “Oh, no, no my dearest Teuila. No, we’re cool. I uh. I don’t remember exactly what happened though Te. Guess I was just kind of gone for a bit, spaced out. But yeah, so, if we had a safe place, and like a permanent base of operations, I’d totally do what I think you hinted at, like just summoning my whole inventory just to see what the heck is in it. Right?”

Teuila nods excitedly, then frowns, “Totally! Wait. Poopbutts. We’re never going to have one of those on Rayileklia. We’ve got to do your quest, and hopefully that gives us an answer on how to get home, then we have to meet up with Lil and the two Lus and get them home. We probably won’t stay anywhere as long as we have in Autumn Brook, will we?”

I offer Teuila a sad smile, “You’re, well, kinda right. I mean, that’s what I’m hoping at least. Even if we take it a little slowly. I’m sorry Te. You seem to be really enjoying our time in Autumn Brook. I can’t tell you how happy it has made me to see you so joyful. Just, I truly can’t express it.”

Teuila socks me lightly in the shoulder and literally says, “Awe shucks,” before kissing me and throwing me into a pin. I laugh and trade places with her, pinning her, and we roll around laughing until there’s thumping coming from the kitchen.

Keeley shouts, “Oy, if you ‘ave need of privacy, ask first, and don’t go destroying my room while you’re ‘ankying and pankying!”

I blush, somewhat mortified, but mostly struggling extremely hard to hold in laughter, my face drawn long and my lips pulled tightly backwards. Teuila snorts after seeing my face, and gives up holding in her own laughter. Hah, haha, oh crap. I can’t hold mine either. Ugh, that woman is going to want to murder me before we leave town. We’re such doofuses. Ow, my jaw.

I flex my jaw again several times, just stretching my mouth wide and hanging my lower jaw as far as it’ll go, and then rolling it side to side slowly. Ugh, there was some clicking. That doesn’t feel good. Teuila sees me messing with my jaw, so she grabs her skull from the top and bottom, and cracks her neck hard to each side. I shudder at witnessing her violent display, but she just grins derpily at me. I give her a nervous chuckle. I hope she never does that again, the neck cracking, not the grinning. Yeesh.

Teuila lifts me up and hoists me into the air, tucking me under her armpit, I’m about to object when she shushes me with a finger to her lips. I furrow my brow curiously and try to figure out what she’s up to. Teuila undoes a latch on the window, crawls out of it, holding me, floating just outside the window, and she shutters it behind us. She drops us softly on the ground, and dusts me off. She’s struggling so hard to not laugh. I’m still not entirely sure what she’s up to. Oh no. Teuila leads us around to the front of the Keel Over.

I wave embarrassedly at Keeley as she stands in the kitchen doorway watching us enter with an unamused look on her face. We walk back to our room, and Teuila shoves me under her arm again. Please tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking Te. I won’t be able to keep it together. Yup, she is. We’re out the window floating down once more.

We walk around to the front of the Keel Over again, and this time I have to hide my entire face from Keeley as I wave to her, so that she can’t see how hard I’m fighting laughing. There’s a very “what the devil,” expression across Keeley’s face.

When back in our room, I muffledly mumble, “We gotta go out the regular way Te, I’m about to lose it, my cheeks hurt so hard from holding in this laughter.”

Teuila pouts, but she grabs the large backpack, probably her excuse for us returning. We walk back down the stairs, carrying our belongings, waving to Keeley as we leave. I can see that she peers through the vent and listens to it, possibly to see if there are any more copies of us hanging out in the bedroom.

When we’re a block or two away, I can’t hold it any longer and I lose it, laughing my head off, holding my belly as I double over. I rub tears from my eyes and barely keep upright.

I admonish Teuila, “Te, Te that was so bad, hahahaha. Please, please never do that again to someone who already hates me so much? Hahah. Oh wow, we are soooo on her shid list as she might call it.”

Teuila is actually rolling on her back in the mud with laughter, earning us some stares from the other townsfolk. I blush but just offer them a helpless shrug and laughing smile. Te finally stands, brushes herself off, and thumbs towards the town hall sort of meeting space. I nod, realizing that we should probably speak with Harriet, since Te said she wanted to talk to us.

We head over, and fortuitously, it seems Harriet is in. Less fortuitously, there’s a gloomy air about the place. Harriet bids me sit, but as Teuila begins to sit with me, Harriet shakes her head. Teuila frowns, but the glares exchanged between the two women somehow let Te know how serious Harriet is when she points towards the vestibule, possibly even meaning outside. I gulp as Teuila passes me a sad, frightful glance, worried for me. Teuila mouths silently to me that she’ll be just outside.