Zoe stared into the valley for days on end, losing track of time as the fear of that thing overwhelmed her. The sun rose and fell, and each day began to seem like a blur of fear and anxiety. How long would she need to wait before she felt comfortable again? Before she felt safe?

What if she left, and it was waiting just out of sight to follow her back home? If she dragged it back to Foizo and it slaughtered everybody. Would the royal guards be able to help her? Could they handle the beast without casualties?

She felt the mark on her shoulder fade away — just about a week since she’d left for the moon with Emma. That would make it three days she’d been sitting here? Four? Was that long enough? Were people worried about her?

Tears fell down her cheeks, as they had many times over the past few days. Emotion overwhelming her, a desire to see her friends again, to get back home and tell them that she was okay. This wasn’t supposed to be a long trip, she just wanted to go see a wanderer and come back home after.

What a mistake, she thought. What a stupid, terrible mistake. Everybody down there was terrified of them. Entire cities of high level individuals cowering in fear from even just a single one of those wanderers. Would Zoe be able to take on the entire city of Krol, by herself? Newtown? Alone, and with confidence?

No, of course she couldn’t. Maybe she could take out a few of the people in them, and maybe she could escape afterwards. But the people cowered, hiding away from the wanderers that stalked the night, as though if one so much as caught a glimpse of them they’d all surely be dead.

And in her arrogance, she thought herself better than one of those monsters. Or at least she thought herself its match. Of course she wasn’t. She wasn’t special, she wasn’t some chosen hero that could save the world. All she had was a little luck and a bit of stubbornness. An advantage to be sure, but it didn’t make her some immortal, invincible being.

She stared down into the valley, the darkness beginning to set in again as the dense cloud of whatever filled the valley blocked out the little light reaching down from the setting sun. Every time the valley darkened, Zoe started having visions of that crystalline creature jumping out of the fog to chase her down. The fear was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.

Her first encounter with a boar paled in comparison to the sheer primal terror that overwhelmed her from the wanderer. For a while, she thought she’d get some mental resistance levels or maybe even a fear resistance. It just seemed so much more than what she thought she was capable of feeling, so much worse than she thought possible for herself.

How much of it was from the wanderer, and how much of it was from what it forced her to do to herself? She wasn’t sure. The whole experience was something she never wanted to have again, and yet so terrible that she struggled to take her eyes off of it.

Zoe chuckled as she remembered her peaceful life back home, when a cockroach would sneak into her room and she’d sit on her bed staring at her door hoping more didn’t follow in behind it. Maybe it was a bit of a reach, but it felt almost the same. A fear that she knew to be almost unfounded in reality pushing her to be irrational.

If the wanderer was following her, then it would have been following the black crystals it left on her. Which she’d dumped over the edge along with her old body. There was no reason, no practical explanation for why the wanderer would follow her. Even if she hadn’t dumped the crystals, the wanderers hated the light. It would never come so far up to be in the starlight, let alone in the middle of day.

There was no reason the wanderer would pursue her up here. No possible explanation she could think of that would make that make sense.

And yet she couldn’t peel her eyes away from the dark valley. Her eyes darted back and forth to every flash of movement, a branch from a tall tree that extended above the dark fog or some animal that flew over the fog in the distance. Each time a small surge of fear rose up from in her, her mind somehow convinced that the next flash of movement would be the wanderer defying all logic and rushing after her anyway.

It had communicated, probably. Maybe it didn’t and Zoe was just naïve and hopeful. But it seemed to be communicating. It wanted to help her, to show her its home. Was that how it did that? If she let the crystals consume her, would she have survived and been brought to its home?

She hadn’t even checked her health at the time, too overwhelmed with fear to even think of it at the time. Had her health dropped, or was she still okay despite the creeping crystals?

Zoe shook her head and took a deep breath. It had been days since the incident, and nothing was coming after her. Nothing would come after her. She couldn’t just sit at the edge of the cliff and stare down into it for the rest of her life in some pathetic attempt to protect Foizo from a threat that had no reason to ever come to Foizo. It was irrational.

And besides, what would Zoe do if the wanderer did pursue her and she was caught on the edge of the cliff, alone? She’d already shown herself that she wasn’t its match. Getting to Foizo and having the royal guard to help would be the safest option for herself, and probably even for the rest of the peaks.

But even that was assuming this would be the first time a wanderer would ever step foot on the peaks in pursuit of her, which was an arrogant thought in its own right. There was no reason to be afraid of it coming up. There was every reason to be terrified of going back down, but of it coming up to the peak? Unless somebody destroyed the sun, that just wouldn’t happen.

She stood up and took another deep breath. It would be okay, she told herself. The wanderer wouldn’t chase her forever. It had already given up, or maybe it thought it already got her. She could leave, go back to her normal life and everything would be okay. She would be okay.

Zoe teleported up into the sky, a few kilometers in land and waited for a few hours, staring at the edge of the cliff. But nothing climbed up, nothing poked its disgusting head over the edge. Nothing was chasing her. She knew that, and she could see that. But believing it was so difficult to do, even still.

She teleported further inland and stared back at the edge, obscured by the forest from so far away. And still nothing, no crystal walls appeared, nothing happened. Zoe took another deep breath and turned away, teleporting off towards Foizo.

In a few minutes, she landed back in her home. Emma was sleeping in her bed, with Oliver laying at her feet and Fennel sleeping on the window sill. Zoe teleported into the large cavern she’d carved out behind her home and sat down at the lone desk in the middle of it.

One day, she wanted to make this cavern into something, but every time she thought about it, she changed her mind on what she wanted. A pool, an extension to her library, a forge, an arena maybe. She’d do it someday. Maybe she could finally start on that, settle down and have something to consume her attention for a while. Until she felt safe again.

Zoe teleported up to her enchanting workshop to grab some moon rocks and started making some toys for the cats. The rocks were a little rough and had sharp edges, so she started by manipulating the rocks into softer shapes with her Earth skill. A few balls, but Zoe had begun to enjoy the finer details with her skills too and tried her hand out at making some more fun shapes. Mice and t-rexes for the most part, a couple of snakes.

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Then she set up her Enchanted Mirror with her preferred cat toy enchantment — a mixture of Enchanting, Meditation, Space, Gales and Restoration, enhanced with her Everlasting Enchantments skill. Some of them she replaced the Space with Vampyric Empathy to give them various emotions, but Zoe found the cats enjoyed the more powerful bouncing effect more than they enjoyed a little anxiety or fear.

Besides, she wasn’t sure what the ethics were on making cat toys that felt afraid. It was probably fine, but something about it felt a little off at times as she saw the toys bouncing around full of fear as the cats chased after them with joy.

By the next afternoon, Zoe teleported out of her cavern and met Emma in the kitchen.

“Oh! Thank goodness, we were so worried.” Emma said as Zoe appeared in the kitchen door.

“Yeah. I’m sorry.” Zoe frowned.

“No, it’s okay. Did something happen? Are you okay? Do you need help?” Emma said.

“Yeah.” Zoe walked up to Emma and hugged her. “Something happened.”

“Are you okay?" Emma asked, hugging her back.

Zoe nodded and felt the tears falling down her cheek again as the emotional floodgate opened.

“Hey, hey. What happened? Do you wanna talk about it? Do you wanna play with the boys? What’s up?” Emma asked.

“I don’t know.” Zoe said between sniffles. “I wanted to see one of the wanderers again.”

“It didn’t go well?" Emma asked.

“No.” Zoe said as she tried to rub her eyes with the sleeve of her dress, but realized she still hadn’t put on clothes since she tossed what she was wearing down into the valley. She tried to pull out some clothes from her storage bracelet before realizing that all of her storage items were still on her body when she tossed it down into the valley.

“I’m naked!” Zoe shouted. “Dammit. Dammit.”

Emma summoned one of the dresses Zoe brought back from Korna and handed it to Zoe. “Hey it’s okay. You can wear this. It’ll be okay, alright?”

“Everything I had is gone. It’s all gone, Emma. I didn’t even realize it, I was so panicked and freaking out and trying to ignore it all. And now it’s all smashing into me and I don’t have anything. It’s gone. All of it.” Zoe ranted as she slid the green floral dress over her head.

“Hey, hey. You still have us. You have everything you left here. You still have all your levels. You lost some stuff, but it’ll be okay.” Emma said.

“No. I had something really bad in one of my items. I need to get it back. Dammit. Dammit. I really don’t want to go down there right now.” Zoe said.

“Then don’t. You don’t have to. Go clear Flester’s Might a few times and you’ll be alright. I promise.” Emma said.

Zoe shook her head. “I need it back, Emma. Dammit. It went horribly. It went so horribly. I thought we were communicating, we were talking. But then it kept rushing after me and when I tried to leave it caught up to me.”

“It’s okay, it’s not here. You’re safe here. Just take some deep breaths, it’ll be okay.” Emma said.

Zoe’s mouth quivered. “I… cut off my head.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “Oh. I’m so sorry. That couldn’t have been fun.”

Zoe shook her head. “And then I tossed my body down into the valley.”

“And with it, all of your storage items.” Emma nodded. “I’m so sorry. It’ll be okay, you don’t need them. It was just stuff. It’ll be okay.”

Zoe shook her head. “I need one of them. One of my bracelets has a stupid rock in it that’s really important. If I let that go I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

“Then I’m coming with you.” Emma said.

“Absolutely not. It’s dangerous.” Zoe said.

“Then you can’t go either.” Emma said.

“I need to.” Zoe said.

“Then I’m coming, too.” Emma said.

“It’s dangerous, Emma. It almost killed me.” Zoe said.

Emma nodded. “Yup.”

“You can’t come.” Zoe said.

“If you don’t think it’s safe for me, then you can’t go either.” Emma said. “Which means if you’re going, I’m going. And if you don’t like that, then neither of us go. But you’re not going alone.”

“I don’t even really know where I was. I don’t know how long it’ll take to find it.” Zoe said.

“Then we’ll be gone for a while. I’ll find somebody to watch the cats for a bit.” Emma said.

“You’re so stubborn.” Zoe said.

“You don’t need to go there, Zoe. You’ve had this stupid rock for an eternity and never done anything with it. You probably never will.” Emma said.

“But I could have. It was always there.” Zoe said.

“But you didn’t. I know it was powerful and interesting, but you never did anything with it. It took up a whole bag in your storage bracelet for decades, Zoe. It’s okay to have lost it. Maybe one day you’ll find it, or something else like it again. But if you’re going to go put yourself in danger to try and find it, then I’m going to come along.” Emma said.

Zoe sighed. “I hate that you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” Emma said.

“Absolutely not. You’re usually wrong.” Zoe said.

“Name one time when I was wrong.” Emma said.

“You thought going to the moon would be quick.” Zoe answered.

“That one doesn’t count.” Emma said.

“Sure.” Zoe laughed.

Emma smiled. “See? I’m always right. You don’t need it. And you dropped it by the cliff anyway. Is anybody even going to find it there? You can go get it when you’re stronger and not so scared.”

Zoe nodded. “I’m still gonna spend at least a day to see if I can find where I was earlier, though.”

“And I’m coming with you.” Emma said.

“Yes, yes you are.” Zoe smiled. “Thank you.”

“It’s what friends do, Zoe.” Emma said.