It was a ways into our walk back when we’d emerged from the mist and the girl finally stopped to address what she wanted. “Are you gonna give me an explanation, or what?!”

I’d been a few yards behind her by that point. It’d been a struggle to keep up to her speed, but I was still managing to stay nearby. I was, at the very least, within a close enough proximity to hear the boom of her voice resound throughout the forest. So, upon catching up, I got the chance to respond.

“Explain what exactly…?” Exasperated, I struggled to truly process her impatience.

“Mind telling me why some weak ass chick like you was out there fighting a Rapiter? ...I mean, there has to be an explanation, doesn’t there?” It must’ve been partway through her sentence that the girl realized she might’ve been too harsh and tried to remedy her behavior through forcing a front of concern and shifting into a shaky half smile—her twitching eye only served to further foil the already shoddily constructed ruse.

In a way, it looked as though she’d already had an answer in mind, and she was just trying to lure me into saying it. However, I was just gonna be honest, and if I ended up saying what she wanted me to, I’d deal with it then.

“I’m game to give you the full rundown, that is, if you’ve got the time.” Preemptively expecting a yes, I’d already began the process of situating myself comfortably on the ground. The brash girl followed suit and also sat down, laying her giant sword next to her either as a sign of peace and patience, or simply to get into a more relaxed state.

“Alright, out with it. What’s going on?”

With the go ahead given to me, I wasted no time in spilling out the whole story about the events that had transpired since I’d gotten to this world. Everything from how I’d met Peak, how I wasn’t from this world, and how I’d gotten around to fighting the Rapiter. I laid it all before her.

I didn’t know if she’d truly wanted the whole story, but I’d needed an excuse to be settled for a bit, and a reason to properly vent. In the end, she had probably only wanted a brief synopsis on why I was fighting the Rapiter, but as I went further into detail about my situation, she seemed increasingly more interested and willing to listen.

And when it was all said and done, she was perfectly chill in a way that betrayed my first impressions of her.

“Sigh, it always comes back around to that goon, doesn’t it...?” She spoke while scratching at her head as a final signal that she understood my position.

“Hm…? Peak?” It hadn’t crossed my mind until that point, but I’d finally realized that this girl must’ve came from that village Peak had talked about—Shelter. And if that was the case…

✦✧✦

“Alright then, I’ll take your word for it. But answer me this, why were you so hesitant to tell me this info?” I asked this question expecting the typical cliche of him wanting me all to himself or whatever, so the response I got just reaffirmed me of Peak’s character.

“I’m just not welcome where they are, okay? It’s a little village named Shelter. There’s people there who’d rather not see me, and things I’d rather not deal with.” Peak gazed off into the stream as he talked.

✦✧✦

...Then it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that she held some resentment towards Peak. For what reasons, I still didn’t know.

“Yup. Elklin’s always making my job a freaking nightmare! I swear, next time I see him, I’m gonna let him have it!” A devious light flashed through her eyes as the fire in her voice lit itself anew, before dying down again as she addressed me. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, about that…”

“It’s April. April Fallow.” Taking the cue from her trail off, I gave the girl my name and attempted to point at myself and smile with my usual charisma.

In the end, her resentment towards Peak went no further than being annoyed at his slacking… How underwhelming.

“Huh, weird name.” I hadn’t thought about it, but my name really would seem foreign in this world. Not because the names here were super fantasy as heck—even if they were still very foreign and fantasy—but because my name didn’t have any grounds to exist. April was a month in my world. As far as I knew, they didn’t have those here. In a way, it probably made my story more believable.

Although, people here already seemed relatively quick to believe it, anyways. Just like Peak, this girl hadn’t even questioned me when I said that I was from another world. Not even for a second. She’d just accepted it and continued on listening to my story.

“Well, sorry about that, April. Truth be told, I thought you were some lackey Elklin snagged coming out of the dungeon through an attempt to lighten his workload. Although, on second thought, that doesn’t seem like something he’d do. Plus the dungeon’s entrance is a good ways away, right next to the village… Eh, whatever.” Submitting to a calm, rational mind, the girl finally eased off the gas and returned to a neutral attitude with me. It seemed that when she wasn’t yelling or jumping to conclusions, she could actually be quite courtly.

“So… what is your job, if Peak’s making it so hard for you?” The girl, assuming our conversation had come to a close, had already began to get up and dust off her leggings when I asked her my question.

“Oh, that’s right. Guess I should introduce myself. I’m Infierna Bustort, Shelter’s village guard. The pleasure’s mine.” Unlike Peak, she didn’t extend her hand upon introducing herself, but she still held herself in a manner that made her appear reverent and open. If you could get past the temper and impatience, you could definitely tell that she was raised to be a respectable guard.

That being said, it made sense that Peak’s job as the forest guardian and her job as the village guard were closely correlated. If Peak failed to zone the monsters away from the village, she was the one who had to deal with them. If she was all the way out here, it wasn’t unlikely she was hunting down Peak to chastise him. Since I got here, Peak probably hadn’t been spending as much time working. However, my mind only subconsciously drew these conclusions as my conscious mind was focused on something much more trivial.

“Infierna Bustort… wow that’s a complicated name. Let’s settle with something else, okay?” Almost immediately upon hearing Infierna’s name, my mind vetoed calling her by it. It was just too wordy, even if it was kinda fun to say. No, I needed something more simple and snappy.

“What do you mean settle with something else? Infierna is my name… What else could we settle for?” I couldn’t tell if Infierna talked in a way that indicated her as more confused or perturbed, but either way, I’d already came up with an answer to her question.

“Fi. I’ll call you Fi. Nice, simple, not three syllables that seem to meld together. Just one little sound: Fi.” I was proud of the nickname I’d settled on, and was having fun saying it.

“Fi… I suppose that’s better than Elklin’s nickname for me…” Shaking off her apprehension, Fi sighed and accepted her nickname. “Anyways, put some of this on you, and let’s head out again.”

Fi tossed me a bottle of some kind of green salve, and then, as she had before, started walking without checking to see if I was following her.

“Wait up! What is this?!” I called after her, and she called back without slowing her pace.

“It’s a healing salve. It’ll stop you from getting an infection. Put that on real quick and then make haste to catch up.” Fi called from over her shoulder.

“Wait you’re not gonna slow down?! And, hold on, why didn’t you give this to me earlier?!” I rushed to lather my wounds in salve, as I continued to cry out to Fi.

“Heheh… Well, if you were some lackey Peak had picked up to do his work, I was gonna let him take care of you and not waste my materials.” With a smug look of pride at her harsh rationalization, Fi waved off my question and pressed forward.

“Yikes, that’s kinda mean spirited...” I muttered to myself and then, finishing the application of my salve, I hurried to catch up with Fi. When I did, I looked over at her face to see that she had something on her mind. “Whatcha thinking about?”

“Hm? Oh, I was just curious. You did all that stuff because you needed to have a blank dream, yeah?” Fi was apparently thinking back through everything I’d told her, and was now taking the initiative to dig deeper into my words.

“Mhm, pretty much. Although, I won’t lie. Wanting to fight a giant man-eating snake was definitely part of it, too.” I decided to be completely open about it. While, I wanted to have a blank dream and use cool abilities like Peak, I also really wanted to fight the Rapiter. It had just sounded so cool.

“Well, then, did you?” Fi held a finger to me, imploring me to talk further.

“Eheheh… did I what?” And I had no idea what she was asking me to talk about.

“Did you have a blank dream, you nimrod? When I found you, you were asleep. If you were going to have one, that’d be when.” Impatience shining through and then subsiding like the reoccuring beast it was, Fi pressed me for answers about a question that, by all rights, I should’ve already asked myself.

Then again, I was very tired. I wasn’t exactly asking myself much of anything.

However, when Fi prompted my recollection, I’d come to find that she had a point. I had been to sleep. Had I had a blank dream? How would I know? When I’d asked that question before, all I’d been told was that I hadn’t had one. That it was something I’d intrinsically know.

If that was the case, then I hadn’t. But for some reason, after all the attempts I’d given to have that dream, I was no longer distraught by its absence. I was left with indifference. I wanted the abilities, but it wasn’t like I was surprised that I didn’t have a blank dream. “I don’t think so. I don’t think I had a blank dream.”

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“Damn, that sucks… Guess you pulled that stupid stunt for nothing then, didn’t you?” Fi pulled no punches when it came to saying stuff how it was. To be fair, I was like that, too.

My stunt was stupid. I knew that. I was utterly unprepared and it put my life in danger.

“Yup, guess so.” I didn’t want to press that I’d gained a memorable experience out of that fight with the Rapiter—that I enjoyed the rush of the fight. So, for once in my life, I conceded. I was too tired to explain.

We walked the rest of the way back in awkward silence. We didn’t have much in common to talk about, and Fi was terrible at conversation, either ending everything in a mild rage or a dismissing comment.

✦✧✦

“Apriiiiilllll!” Peak bolted up to me and squeezed me so tight that various wounds of mine opened and started to ooze and burn. It was likely a rather grotesque sight. Like a juice box of painful welcome. “I’d been looking all over for you! Where’d you run off to?!”

“N-Nice to see you t-too, Peak. I-I’ll explain later.” I was struggling for breath as I felt my ribs restrict around my body in a dangerously unnatural way. He was liable to break my back if he kept it up.

Luckily, I had a savior with me, though, and Fi kicked into action uppercutting Peak square in the chin. She was a good half a foot shorter than me, and I was a good bit shorter than Peak, so it was a rather comical sight to have seen as I fell out of Peak’s grasp.

“Ahaha! I see Busty is here with you, too! What brings you around these parts?” Peak, not the least bit put off by the assault on him, lit up upon seeing Fi’s presence with me. Although, he was still rubbing his chin from her fist’s impact.

We’d arrived at Peak’s land sometime, presumably, around noon. And the current scenario had played out near instantaneously after arriving. It was always that way here. Things happened very quickly. I liked that.

“So… heheh... he calls you Busty, does he?” I couldn’t help but show my amusement at Peak’s horrible nickname. It was almost unbelievably bad of a nickname, especially to give to a… erm… well endowed chick like Fi.

“Quiet. I have business to settle.” Fi tried to shrug off my remark, but I could tell through a mixture of her awkwardness and short temper that it had further irritated her. So, as she strutted up to Peak, I feared for his being.

“Oh, what’s up Bust—” Peak was naive and optimistic. He had no idea what was coming. In a matter of seconds he was sent flying by the blunt edge of Fi’s giant blade. For some reason, I felt satisfied. Like all the times Peak had chucked me around were finally being repaid. As much as I liked the guy, it was justice.

“That’s for shirking your work, you big oaf!” Fi, red in the face, put more energy into a fearsome bellow than her actual hit, but Peak wasn’t about to get off easy. Before he could land, Fi moved at superhuman speeds to get below Peak, shouting “Inferno Fury” then leaving a trail of flames in her wake. It was like watching her move with motion blur, just instead of blur, it was a fiery aura that enveloped her body. As her body radiated with fire, a radiant red glow fought through the cracks in her armor. Then, as Peak was about to touch down, Fi batted him back up into the air.

“And that’s for being such a bad influence!” I winced as I saw the bulk of mass that was Peak soar through the air a second time, sympathizing with him under the assumption that the second comment had been about him in relation to me. I was always the reckless way that I was, but to Fi, it might’ve seemed like Peak had rubbed off on me too much. After all, it wasn’t like Peak and I were all that different.

But Peak’s misery wasn’t done just yet, as Fi rocketed off the ground—still leaving flames in her wake—orbited him, and spiked him back down to the earth. He landed in a Peak shaped crater, stuck within a twitchy daze.

“And that one was for that horrible nickname that you continue to use.” Fi gave the stunned Peak a sidelong glance, sheathed her oversized weapon, and then clapped the dust off her hands like she was signifying a job well done.

I stood slack jawed in awe, looking worriedly over at Peak. However, my fears were put to rest, as I was met with a staggered thumbs up and a full smile. I guess, even after being beaten into butter, Peak wanted to calm my nerves. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or freaked out at his dedication to my mental stability and safety.

I felt like I’d just seen a real life superhero fight unfold right before my eyes, even if it had only lasted roughly fifteen or so seconds. The one thing that made me upset was that I, in fact, hadn’t had a blank dream. If what I knew was true, then I couldn’t use kickass abilities like the ones displayed in front of me without one.

“Phew, I used up a surprising amount of soul there. Damn it, Peak, why are you always causing me problems?!” Fi, despite being the one to initiate the fight, blamed her fatigue on Peak. No matter what happened, it appeared Fi would find some way to blame it on him.

“That’s kinda messed up to blame him. Aren’t you the one who just beat him—” I tried interjecting on the behalf of Peak, but Fi cut me off.

“He deserved it. Now, c’mon April, let’s rest in Peak’s place while he recovers.”

“That’s even more messed up! Shouldn’t you at least help him out before welcoming yourself into his house?” I once more tried to argue for Peak, only this time to get cut off by the man himself.

“Nah, it’s fine. I told her awhile back that she was free to come by anytime. Y’all go on ahead, I’ll just be laying here...” Peak, no longer stuck in a pained daze, had now repositioned an arm under his head and was lackadaisically staring up at the cloudless sky. He showed a bit of pain on his face, but for the most part he appeared relaxed.

“I think I’ve finally realized just how insane both of you are…” Coming to the realization that both Peak and Fi were so out there it was almost unbelievable, I blinked in an attempt to reevaluate my previous ideas on the world. Then shook my head.

Nothing needed reevaluating. I’d always wanted to live in an insane world.

“Hold still! Stop squirming!” Fi was berating me with commands as I fought back against her operating. After we’d retreated inside, she and her no nonsense attitude—the one that had a tendency to lead to nonsense—insisted that we address my wounds further.

“But it stings! And it hurts when you press down on it!” At the time she was trying to bandage my wing with some salve soaked cloth, and I was fighting back against her, flapping it to push her away. Honestly, I was just enjoying my newly acquired ability to manipulate my wings.

“Didn’t you just fight a frickin’ giant snake?! Why are you just now complaining about pain!” Fi shot words back with a line of reasoning that made too much sense.

“That was then, and this is now! This is a battle!” I kicked a bare foot at Fi’s shoulder as an attempt to separate myself from her. I’d taken off my mud caked boots and hole covered jacket and gloves upon entering Peak’s home, leaving me in only my undershirt and shorts.

“If this is what you consider a battle, what were you doing earlier?!” Fi, poking holes in my illogical logic, retorted and grabbed hold of my leg.

In response, I stopped squirming for a split second, looked Fi dead in the eye, and messing with her I gave my answer. “It was a competition.” ...Then, I went back to fighting back against her help.

“Grr... screw it. If you’re not gonna let me help you through your own volition, I’ll let me help you myself.” Fi, fed up with my fighting back, let go of me.

“What’s that even supposed to—” Then chopped me in the back of my neck, knocking me out.

When I woke up, I was all patched up and she was talking with the now indoors Peak about me. I laid for awhile, feigning unconsciousness and eavesdropping on their conversation.

From what I was able to overhear, Fi had—as I’d expected—come in search of Peak to tell him to do his job better. When she’d arrived at Peak’s place, he’d been out searching for me, so she went out searching for him. She walked what she knew as his regular routine, and eventually encountered me about to fight the Rapiter.

Intrigued by not only who I was, but by who other than she and Peak would be brave enough to take on a Rapiter, she watched my endeavors, and swooped in to save me at the last second.

However, it also appeared that she had a tertiary reason for seeking Peak out. One not of her own will, but the village’s.

Evidently, they had a yearly holiday in Shelter called Talon Day, where they celebrate a worshipped deity—or something like that—with a festival. She’d been asked to extend an invitation to Peak while she was in the area.

“So, you coming or not?” Fi pressed Peak for an answer about his attendance.

Based off her looks, Fi couldn’t be any older than her early twenties, yet she carried herself with an authority that exceeded her age. Listening to the conversation, I could tell that when she was pressing Peak, she was really pressing for him to bring me with him. I could also tell Peak wasn’t exactly catching onto it.

“Uh… I mean, do I have to?” From my knowledge, Peak was a hermit. I didn’t figure he’d jump on the idea of going into town, especially when I hadn’t had a blank dream. But, I wasn’t gonna let him say no.

I jerked myself up from my position on the ground, and with a resolute grab of Peak’s shoulder I made his decision for him. “Fi, sign us up. We’re going!”

“Sigh. Figures you’d be listening. Eavesdroppers die horrible deaths, you know that, right?” Fi took an exasperated breath and warily looked me in the eyes.

“Wouldn’t want a boring death, anyways. Now, sign us up!” Back to life, I pressed further.

“A-April, you didn’t even have a blank dream, what’s the point of going?” This time Peak was the one to ask me a question, but I’d prepared an answer while laying down.

“Hey, if I was brought into this world, maybe I already have the ability to use that Crystal Tree thingy, you ever thought about that? Or maybe, I had a blank dream in my world, and just don’t remember. We should go just to try it out, shouldn’t we?” Truth was, I was just throwing down any excuse to go to a fantasy world village and experience a fantasy world holiday.

“April…” Peak was talking almost in a whine at this point.

“Besides, I lost your daggers, and I’d feel bad if I had to get you to make me another pair. Maybe we can find someone there to hook me up with some, you know?” I’d left my daggers at the scene of the Rapiter fight. Realistically, we could go back and find them, but Peak didn’t need to know that.

“Busty… But I don’t have money!”

“You know BC would be down to cover the costs if it’s a request from you. So, you’ve no need to worry about the price.” This time, Fi came in with the assist for me, confirming her allegiance with a wink. If I were to take a guess, she was helping out due to a mixture of genuinely wanting me to have the experience, spite for Peak’s slothful nature, and potentially some other reason.

“But my job—”

“You aren’t doing it, anyways.” Fi tagged in with another assist.

“But your injuries—”

“Pfft, I just walked all the way to your place, partway without any salve. I’ll be fine.” I reasoned again.

“But my home—”

“Will be fine.” This time, both Fi and I delivered the finishing blow together. And with that, Peak was out of excuses.

“...”

“We’re going, Peak! As much as I appreciate what you’ve done for me and respect you as a person, I’m not missing out on this.” Despite having already won the argument, I decided to give Peak one final bit of reason and awaited his response.

“We can go…” Defeated and… scared? Peak had conceded to let us participate in Talon Day.

“Wahoo! Victory for April!” I jumped and struck a celebratory pose, before keeling over in pain from my wounds—I’d reopened some of them through the sudden motion.

As I fell to the ground, I heard Fi sigh once more. “Seems like this year’s Talon Day will be rather interesting. Good luck, Peak. There’s no more running away from him.” With a signature sidelong glance and a mimicking smile, Fi turned and raised a hand goodbye as she was about to head out.

“Hm? Going so soon, Busty?” Even though her back was turned, I could feel her eyebrow twitching as Peak called Fi by his nickname for her.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve done all I had to do here. Keep up with your work, and we won’t have any further problems, alright?” Upon concluding her sentence, she began walking towards the exit before stopping once more.

“Oh, and Peak, you’d better show up to Talon Day next week. Otherwise, I’ll never let you live it down. Remember, you’re not going for yourself. You’re going for April there, okay?” She motioned over her shoulder to me, still sprawled on the ground like a child, and then resolutely exited.

As soon as she left, the tension in the room cleared and Peak fell to his knees and started pounding the ground, repeatedly cursing the world. “Crap! Crap! Crap!”

“Peak... uh... you gonna be alright?” I was starting to worry about him. He was acting uncharacteristically loathsome.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” Peak ignored me and continued to pound the ground in his despairing fit.

“Seriously, what could be so bad—”

“CRAP!!!” Before I could finish asking my question, Peak returned to his normal self. Why? He punched a hole in his floor. “April! Watch out, don’t come anywhere near here. I’ll repair it in a jiffy.”

And just like that, Peak rushed out of his house to grab wood to repair his mistake. It was almost as if he hadn’t been upset at all.

“Yup. Some things never change…”