It was the next day at around 12pm. The duo had been traveling all throughout the night. Ryan decided to take the night shift and keep the wheels rolling. Alex was driving her shift and they were just pulling into Simon’s grotto.

“Okay Simon! We are here!” Alex shouts out near the entrance.

“Leave it there and get off of it” Simons ghostly voice says through the sealed rock doorway.

Alex wakes Ryan up from his nap and he hops off the cart.

When Ryan and Alex walk away from the cart, a weird shadowy swamp spell erupts from underneath the Gatorboars and cart. Ryan and Alex then watch the whole rig fall through the shadowy ground and into the abyss.

Ryan when he sees this blows open the door of the grotto and runs inside a little freaked out.

Both of them run to the end of the chamber and Simon’s spirit appears.

“What the hell was that?” Alex asked him

“That’s Just how I receive my quest items from outside” Simon replied to her.

“Hey if its okay can we get those beasts of burden back? They were really useful you know” Ryan asked him.

“Yes, I know I saw. But unfortunately, they are no longer alive. Nor existent. Don’t worry they didn’t suffer or feel a thing” He replied to them while summoning a map for them. “Next task is simple. I need you both collect sixty-thousand demonic sheep hearts from Gnillàf” He instructs them.

Both of them sigh really heavily.

“Hey, don’t worry. Its not going to take that long. These parasitic sheep have two hearts each. Just set a daily harvesting goal and try to meet it. You both will knock this out with ease. That’s my only advice I can give you two” Simon says.

“Okay, hang on. Before we go and do that, we need to ask for a favor. Can we PLEASE use teleportation mages for these quests?” Alex asks in a desperate tone.

Simon then crosses his arms and laughs at her.

“I never said you Couldn’t use them to get to your starting quest zone. I said you could only use your own spells and abilities to acquire or carry the quest items. You both already violated the rule by letting Arcane mages hoist the dragons’ head onto the cart equipment. You should have gotten some hoisting equipment like ropes and pulleys. However, I overlooked that for you since you went out of your way and helped defend a town that Mriya targeted. For that act I have forgiven you but for this quest I expect you both when you get the hearts you only use your own bags, and your own spells to get them here” Simon explains.

Alex and Ryan then turn to each other in disbelief.

“What the hell! We could have taken a teleportation service this whole time!” Alex screams angrily at Ryan.

“Hey don’t look blame me! I didn’t understand the full conditions just like you!” Ryan snaps back.

Alex backs up to a wall and slides down to the floor in shame and starts crying.

“All that walking! It could have been avoided!” Alex cries out.

Simon then laughs at them.

“Hey, its not about the destination, its about the adventure. Tell you what. Why don’t you all just take a little break. I know you’re going through a rough break up, and you probably have things you need to do” Simon tells them.

“To be honest a small break would be nice” Alex replies.

“Okay then. Here I will open up a portal to Sunny Eyefore. Why don’t you both go fishing, socialize, get legal advice, or just go have fun. You can resume the quest in a couple days” He explains to them.

“Alright. Thank you, Simon.” Ryan replies to them.

“No thank you both. You all might Actually help me break this curse that’s keeping me trapped in this Realm” He says while opening up a White rimmed portal.

“We will proceed with the quest in 2 days. Thank you for this Simon” Alex says as she steps through the portal with Ryan.

Both of them are then teleported over to the city of Jerkville, Eyefore

Located on the most Northeastern tip of Eyefore, the two of them arrive on the white sands of a mildly occupied beach.

“I’m craving lemonade” Ryan randomly says to Alex.

“Same” Alex replies back to him.

The two of them walk off the beach and toward the market square that was 3 blocks away.

They find a vender who was serving such an item and buy themselves a pitcher worth. Ryan also spots a metal sailboat that was just laying on the beach. With a cup of lemonade in his hand approaches this small sailboat and inspects it. He sees a huge hole in the hull and an old man approaches him.

“It was a pretty nice little boat. It’s ashamed my son hit a rock coming in. If you can fix it, I’ll give it to you” The man tells Ryan.

“I already have a boat over in Staug, but hell I like a challenge got any Scrap sheet metal?” Ryan replies.

“There are a few spare plates underneath the seats. My son lost interest in sailing and never wanted to get it repaired” The man explains to Ryan.

“Hang on let’s see what we can do” Ryan says while putting his drink down. He reaches underneath one of the storage hatches and pulls out a Six-inch square piece of metal.

With the scrap metal in his hand, he picks up his drink.

“Alex help me flip this thing over” Ryan asks her.

Ryan and Alex tip the sailboat over on its side and carefully brace the Mast upright that was now laying in the sand. Ryan takes out his spell blade and enchants it with [Black Plasma] He then takes the rusted round hole in the hull and using his blade carefully widens up the hole into a square shape. He then takes his other spell blade and carefully modulates his fire magic into the metal and starts wielding the plate to the hull. The old man who was sitting in his chair smiles at him after he was done.

“Impressive. Well, I am a man of my word. Enjoy your free toy you two” The man tells them.

“Alex lets sail on down to Staug city. It will be fun” He tells her.

“I don’t know how to sail” Alex replies nervously.

“Ahh sweet. Help me push this into the water. I’ll teach you!” Ryan says while pushing the boat back onto its hull.

“Umm alright?” Alex replies.

Both of them pick the boat up and carry it into the water and get in. Ryan hoists the sail and the pushes the dagger board down halfway. Ryan then throws the sheets to Alex and has her sit at the rudder.

“Pull that rope a until the main sail stops flapping. Also turn the rudder that way” Ryan instructs her as he starts to raise the Jib sail up. Alex does as she was told, and they soon start Broad reaching forward. Ryan fully raises his Jib sail and sets it for this heading and then starts instructing Alex some more.

He teaches her all the terms while they sail south toward the inlet opening.

When they arrive at the inlet, Ryan takes her place as this portion of the sailing trip was more advanced and crucial. Ryan successfully transitions them through the inlet and then hands the helm back over to Alex.

“Now all we need to do is travel 34 miles south. At the end of this trip you will have a sufficient skill in sailing” Ryan teases Alex.

“This is pretty fun! Hey throw on some music” Alex requests.

“What are you craving” Ryan asks her while readjusting the jib sail.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Don’t care, I want to listen to a single album from beginning to end. Let’s listen to that one band you put on after you tossed those sluts off that cliff” Alex says while trying really hard to remember the band name.

“Famous Last Words?” Ryan answered while locking his jib sheet into a cam lock.

“Yes, Lets listen that that album! I never heard of the band before. But I felt saved singing that song you played under my tears” Alex says while swinging the boat away from an anchored vessel ahead of them.

“Okay, I’m putting on Famous Last Words “Two- Faced Charade” I never really listened to the full album front to back. This will be fun” Ryan says as he puts on the song “Welcome to The Show”. At Speaker phone volume in hopes to not scare away all the fish the fishermen were trying to catch.

When they get away from all the fisherman Ryan puts the song volume back up to Party mode and they jam out.

Halfway through the album Alex pauses the music.

“Hey, I been listening to the album and I sense a story line with all these songs. It sounds pretty dark messed up so far” Alex tells Ryan.

“Yes I been picking up on that too! So, he loves his next-door neighbor who already has a boyfriend. We all know where this is going to lead to” Ryan replies with dark laughter.

“Ahh I must know more!” Alex shouts while resuming the album.

“Hey the wind is slowly starting to change in our favor. Pull the Dagger board out. Prepare to run downwind. DON’T Accidently initiate a gybe or we might capsize. 25 knots of wind right now isn’t something you want to kiss the Boom too” Ryan says while he adjusts the Jib sheet.

After the readjustment of the sails, both of them sit back and enjoy the story this album was telling.

Some time later at the end of the last song Ryan and Alex look at each other in horror.

“They…. Died?” Ryan asked in disbelief

“Holy shit. He killed her and himself. That was a super dark emo Romeo and Juliet story” Alex says while shacking her head back and forth.

“No, not exactly. He killed her boyfriend dismembered him into a million pieces and kidnapped her against her will. That’s nowhere related to a Romeo and Juliet story. It’s kind of a dark nightmarish murder story” Ryan says while standing up to stretch his legs.

“Ahh so this story ends in a tragedy. I love those” Alex says while dropping the main sail sheet from her hand. She then grabs his phone. “I believe there should at least be a music video we can at least get a ref---” Alex accidently bumps the rudder to far to the left and they accidently gybe. The main sail sweeps hard to other side of the boat and hammers Alex in the head. The weight shift of the sail then causes the boat to capsize over. Both of them then get dumped into the water. Alex who was knocked out by the impact starts to get pulled down by the sheer weight of the armor she was wearing.

Ryan who was uninjured sees Alex sinking and jumps underwater to save her.

“Alex!” He screams in a panic as he dives under.

He dives and gets a hold of her but can’t pull her up. He is forced to let go of her and swim back up to the boat. Ryan surfaces and pulls out one of his swords. He grabs the anchor that was tied to the boat and cuts the connection to the boat. He then dives down into the water and attempts to locate her in this muddy and cloudy saltwater environment. He dives down to 10 feet and can feel his ears experiencing pressure. Not being able to see much He sees the hot pink wrapping outline of her sword and finds her. He quickly wraps the rope around her and starts swimming to the surface. He tries to pull her up but can’t do it. He then hears a whistle behind him.

Arcadia was standing on a nearby oyster bar.

“Stay calm! You got this!” Arcadia shouts. Ryan looks behind him and sees Arcadia casting a spell. She casts [Levitate] on him and this allows him to float above the water. He then starts dragging the rope toward the nearest oyster bar that Arcadia was standing on. The spell allowed him to drag her through the water. Once he got onto the oyster bar, Arcadia lends him a hand and they started pulling her in. When they saw Alex’s head appear underwater, Ryan runs back across the water and grabs her arms pulls her slightly out of the water. This gives Arcadia a clear shot to cast [Levitate] on Alex. When the spell connects, she floats out of the water and Ryan hastily drags her to shore.

Arcadia casts a healing spell on her and also some unknown revival spell on her and wakes her up. She spits out a lung full of salt water and starts coughing for 2 minutes while Arcadia held her upright while Ryan watches the boat sink to the bottom of the water.

“Sorry about the boat Ryan. I should have mentioned I was a little nervous about my Armor’s weight before we got into that boat” Alex says regretfully.

“Ahh I have another one. As long as your fine I’m happy. I can replace a free boat, but I can’t replace my masochistic emo tank” Ryan tells her while gently giving her a shoulder rub.

“Arcadia I swear. You have the most perfect timing” Ryan blurts out in disbelief.

Arcadia laughs and covers her smile with her over length sleeves of her blue and green robe.

“Its easy to save your followers when you don’t have a lot of them to watch over” Arcadia replies back

“Guess being apart of the outcast faction saved my hide” Alex blurts out while trying to stand up.

“Good thing you didn’t end up a tragedy like that album” Ryan tells her sarcastically.

“Like I was saying, I like tragedies. What I don’t like is being apart of them” Alex says.

“Well what do you guys want to do now?” Arcadia inquires.

“I really want to head home to Staug. I wonder if the girls are home” Ryan says.

“They are. Before I teleported out, I saw Zephyr in the backyard fishing with the other girls. Citra is with them as well” Arcadia says to Ryan.

“Ahh that’s good. Hang on I’ll be right back” He says while he walks away from them.

Ryan puts two fingers to his forehead and tries to send a message to Citra.

“Citra, I need a favor. Can you see if the girls are in a mood to see me today? I’m kinda am taking a break from this quest with Alex” Ryan says telepathically to Citra.

Citra who was laying on her stomach in her human form in a bikini by the lake receives the message and smiles.

“Hang on. Glad to hear from you in a while. We just got back from a trip from Cheetoecchi. Let me check with them” Citra replies back to him. Citra then stands up.

“Hey ladies! I just got a message from Ryan. He’s wanting to come see you all today. What’s yall’s opinion” Citra says.

“Send him on over! I miss him!” Zephyr shouts.

“Send the asshole over here. I’m craving a damn hot bath! I think I can start forgiving him” Kannell shouts while floating on her back in the lake.

Citra then smiles.

“Yep, they miss you. Come on over” Citra says telepathically.

“Okay. I’m going make a quick stop downtown first. Oh, Ya tell them I’m bringing company” Ryan replies.

“Will do” Citra says. She then gets up and walks toward the girls.

Ryan walks over to Arcadia and smiles at her. “Can we get a portal to Staug city?” Ryan requests from Arcadia.

“Sure thing!” Arcadia says. She then opens up a portal and both of them begin to walk through it. Arcadia chooses stays behind and both see her wave at them goodbye.

Ryan and Alex then arrive outside the city gates of Staug and then proceed inside. As they walk through the gates Ryan puts on the song “City of Ocala” From A Day To Remember at a low speaker phone volume.

“Why this song?” Alex asks him

“Sort of… a Personal Tradition for me” Ryan said over the chorus.

“Is it because…this is where you came from” Alex says sarcastically.

“Yep. And I’m Right back at it again!” Ryan said excitedly. He then leads them down the main city street and local people start waving at him.

He leads Alex to Breanna’s Inn, and they sit down inside. He orders shrimp Scampi. Alex who was a little alarmed at that order name grabs the menu from him and sees something she’s been dying to have.

“One Po’ boy PLEASE!” Alex begs in excitement. She then turns to Ryan. “How and why do they have unique earth cuisine items here?” Alex asks him.

“That’s because of me. I sort of… gave Breanna here some earth recipes from my phone” He tells her.

Brenna takes the menu from Alex and smiles. “And I have been making a killing from him” Brenna says while giving Ryan a playful grudgeful smile.

“Glad you are back. I made a killing off of the food festival that you missed. Hey, I was generous and gave you a cut of my profits. I went ahead and put Six Grand in your bank account. Garrison didn’t ask any questions since he likes money” Breanna said while rubbing Ryan’s messy hair. “I still don’t like the fact you hurt Zephyr, but It’s honestly good to know your still alive” Brenna says while pouring Ryan a glass of orange juice.

“Thanks for knowing you missed me. So, what’s changed since I’ve been gone” He asks Breanna.

“We just finished building the Port. I’m getting super great deals from the local fisherman” She informs him.

“Ahh that’s a plus” Ryan says while picking up his glass.

“Yes, it is. But at the same time we are also serving as a damn charter hub for tourists coming from Deland. I can’t believe the stupidity I’ve seen from the damn idiots that set foot off that boat. Sheriff Warren has had his hand’s full lately. We had three armed robberies in the past week alone. I wish we could just blow up the port and make them those tourists dock at Jerkville like they used to” Brenna explains in an aggravated tone.

A businessman suddenly walks up to the bar and Breanna glares at him.

“I already told you. I’m not selling this place to no one. Beat it asshole” Breanna shouts at the man.

“But I----” The man said while Breanna cuts him off.

“I SAID NO. STOP BOTHERING ME. IM NOT SELLING THIS PROPERTY” Breanna said while singling 3 girls who were hanging out in the back of Inn chatting.

Three familiar faces appear and forcefully expel the man from the Inn.

Ryan smiles at them and turns to Breanna.

“You hired them?” Ryan said with super happy tone.

“Yep. They came to town and met Zephyr. Zephyr for some random reason passed them off to me. They did a risky “delivery” favor for me and that favor ended up turning into steady employment for them. Those three sisters are experts at providing security for me when I need them. They also are decent cooks when we get busy.

Ryan smiles and waves at Asylum and she and her sisters both they wave back to him as the drag the annoying businessman out of the Inn.

“Let me get to making your orders” Breanna says.

Ryan pulls out his phone and types in ‘Potato Salad Recipes” into his phone and shows Alex.

“Should I introduce this great gift into this world?” Ryan asks her.

Alex just smirks at him. “Do it” she says

“Breanna, I got another gig for you!” Ryan tells her.

She comes running back and grabs his phone and takes it over to the other side of the counter. She then starts copying down the ingredients and the directions.

“People are going to be thrilled to have another “Exotic” dish added to the menu. I’ll deposit a portion of what I make in sales into your account again” Brenna says while quickly copying the recipe.

“Still glad to help out a friend in need” Ryan says.

20 minutes later their food was served to them and Alex and Ryan dig in. After they get done eating, they then say goodbye Breanna and start walking 5 miles toward the Manson. They leave the city gates and start walking. When they pass the sign that Said: “Lauderdale South-East 255 miles” they stop.

“No matter where I fucking go, I see these things. Every freaking sign, no matter how far you are from Tourterra; has to have this city’s heading and distance on it. It’s so random and weird. Its like puzzling too you know?” Alex says to Ryan.

Ryan smirks at her and stares at the sign.

“You know I’m from Florida and even I don’t even understand the meaning behind this. It’s like some sort of easter egg” Ryan said in agreement.

“I swear before we defeat Yulee, I will crack this code” Alex said furiously.

They then walk another half mile and Arrive at the front door of the mansion.

Ryan turns to Alex and takes a deep breath.

“Time to get my ass kicked” He says as he turns the handle to the front door.