Dear Diary,

Welp, definitely got some ideas about Menace's birthday party, not to mention presents of a sort. Obviously if Conrad can swing it we'll have the hang gliders here for all the kids, and if the weather is good they can maybe launch from the top of the West Tower. Even if it's not perfect, or they're not confident enough for that, we can let them do a much lower takeoff point off the roof of the East House. It's not quite as high as the Academy roof, I don't think, but it should be high enough for them to catch some of the perpetual updrafts coming from the valley.

Of course, that's not all. On top of making little flight suits for all of them, Marie is working to make the sure there's cake and confection enough for the whole horde hoard. I got my hands on some thick cardstock, and I'm gonna try to make party hats. Yeah, I know, it's not exactly an X-Box, a clown, and a pony, but I'm doing what I can. Also, when it comes to ponies, I have a Nefarious Plan regarding the retrieval of the Nightmares from Rich Man's Port, since we didn't actually retrieve them during the sleepover, since we wound up nowhere near Rich Man's Port at the end of that.

Of course, that leaves the next birthday in line, which I think is Ria's, which means I need to get my ass in gear finding Adrienne. My next step on that is tryna get in touch with Rabbit and seeing if she rabbited westward. I'm hoping she'll have news, either a confirmed nope or a definite yes, but even a solid 'none of our Gods have seen a Fae heading westward' would be something.

Spent last night snuggling my ladies, and following that dreamt of them, all of them, crooning lullabies to my Maw.

Got up super early, sneaking out of the bedroom and down to the kitchen, where I found my Murder Mittens already working on breakfast. I hopped up and smooched her, then said, "anything ready for me to steal for breakfast?"

She slow blinked at me, then pointed over to the wall next to one of the doors into the dining room. Six smallish satchels clustered around my old tinker backpack where it leaned against the wall. I turned back to Marie and threw my arms around her. "Thanks, Marie. You are already the wifiest wife that ever wifed." She looked down, an arched eyebrow unsuccessfully trying to hide some kind of disappointment, or maybe trepidation. "So imagine how much wifier you're gonna get when Saffron and I wife you proper." A real grin stretched her lips, and I hopped up to hook one hand around her neck and pull my mouth to her ear as a ran my other hand over her belly. "Not to mention when I fill this with kittens."

She blushed so hard I think she lost the capacity to move. Like, totally slack when I gave her one of her own mouth invasion kisses, then dropped down, patted her on the ass just to feel it, and scampered over to gather up the packs she'd prepared. Right before I stepped away, she called out. "Vlickies!" I turned to face her, grinning like an idiot. "Love."

"I love you too, my Murder Mittens."

I stepped to the entrance to the Academy with her purring blush still filling my ears. All six Senior Cadets from last time stood there, although this time along with their weapons they'd each brought some kind of pack. Ryan of all people had a tinker pack like mine. O'Brien was at the other end of the spectrum; he just had a fuckin' sack. Not even a duffel bag, just a fabric sack, like you'd see in an RPG as the cheapest kind of way to carry your shit. Aetos and Chloros both had decent backpacks, just not quite as complex or comprehensive as tinker packs. Mackenzie had a purse. At least it looked like one of the big 'you can lose a small child in this' purses and not a clutch or something stupid like that. Finally Brown had what looked like an over the shoulder messenger bag.

I took that all in while Headmaster Miles stepped over and said, "Champion. Thank you for taking our Cadets along on your reconnaissance in force."

"No problems." I turned to them. "You guys ready to go?" At their nods and general mostly awake agreement noises, I said, "okay, join hands." The moment they all did, I grabbed on to O'Brien, who was one end of the chain, and stepped us all to the base of West Tower Hill. Before we started moving, I turned to them and said, "Okay, slightly different objectives this time. I don't remember if any of you met Rabbit?" Brown gave a half nod, half shrug, which I interpreted to say he'd seen me meeting Rabbit. "Yeah, we're on the lookout for her or any of her people, because the Imperator's set me to doing some diplomacy and maybe getting some intelligence on whether a person of interest has been seen anywhere west of the Alliance. Also, I wanna go a little further out this time, even if we don't manage to swing quite so far back north. If whatever has been killing off stuff the size of moose and spawning those Dire Bears is moving south, I want to know how far south it's gotten, and maybe stop it from getting to our new friends. Any questions?"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

O'Brien's hand shot up. "Are we really going to be defending the northern border of whatever... population center the... people we met with last time live in?"

I could tell he'd almost spouted out some seriously bigoted shit there, but gave him credit for, y'know, not doing so. Still, time to set shit straight. "Look, some things, like Dragons, are fuckin' natural disasters. Whether you like their lifestyle or not, our western neighbors seem like civilized folks. They shared their camp with us, gave us some valuable tips, and your fellow Cadets definitely engaged in generating some diplomatic goodwill on both sides of the equation. When natural disasters hit, civilized people help other civilized people. Shit, even in the middle of a war, if there's a plague on, you Cure your enemies, because that shit does not care what colors you wear, it's everybody's enemy. So yeah, both to protect ourselves in the long run and to generate some more goodwill in the short run, we'll help protect them from whatever bullshit the world is throwing at them. Understood?"

When I pointed out the whole 'natural disaster' thing, he lost some of the booger look he'd had when I called the locals 'civilized'. When I reminded him of the relatively recent Plague, he blinked, then nodded like the idea had actually sunk into his brain. "Yes, Ma'am. Understood, Ma'am."

I nodded, keeping my sigh to myself. Yeah, I want people to learn better and stop with all the racist bullshit, not to mention all the other bullshit, but if the only thing that gets them behaving right is self-interest, I can work with that.

Brown raised his hand. "Is there a reason you've Translocated us to this staring position rather than travelling overland?"

I snorted. "Yeah, we could make that run, but I'm pretty sure at least some of the roads aren't clear, and we'd lose days getting to this point. I'm not looking to get to the border and skirt along it, I'm looking to do deep recon past the border, just like last time."

They nodded. "I suspected, but thank you for the confirmation, Ma'am."

"Okay then. Everybody ready?" When they all indicated they had their shit together and were ready to run, I tossed them each one of Marie's satchels, threw my own tinker pack on and started running. By sunrise proper we'd put the Homestead miles behind us, eating as we ran. My breakfast was in the side pouch of my pack, and the whole thing was still warm from the oven. Some kind of meat bread. Like a Stromboli, only without the sauce. All but Ryan made appreciative noises as they nommed Marie's cooking. Ryan kinda blew my mind when she tucked Marie's satchel away in her pack, making room by pulling out a couple Drivers' crepes. Now, I'm not gonna say I like Momma Driver's crepes more than Marie's cooking, but I can definitely see where there's some room for personal preference.

Our tracks from last time had been filled with snow, but we could still see some remnants of them in places; if nothing else the big disturbed areas where we'd wound up going through the snow into streams or other hazards let us avoid them this time. Not long before sunset we found ourselves in that natural orchard again. Picking handfuls of fruit and nuts as we slowed to a jog, we angled our way to the copse we'd met the three locals in last time. Sadly, none of them were there, but I found a little piece of raw leather with a note on it.

Tabitha Diaz,

Our hunt far more successful than we expected thanks to your help, we've returned to our home.

Should you return here, you're welcome to visit.

Closer

The other side of the leather had a kind of half written, half sketched map with directions how to get to their place. I folded it closed and tucked it into my pack, then turned to the others. O'Brien stared at me with something approaching confusion. "You read their language?"

I nodded. "Well enough. They invited us to come visit. Looks like it's at least a day out of our way, but..." I sighed. "Definitely not gonna get there tonight. Let's set up camp. Double watches until morning; I'll decide whether we're going visiting by then. For now... try not to get et."