"No. If we make an excuse now, we will just keep on making them. We had a time limit from the start and now it is up. We will be parting ways here Bull. Oh, I noticed you don't have a weapon, do you need one?"

Bull says "Mine was destroyed in my last fight. I can make another but I will need to collect the materials first."

"Here, you can use this in the meantime. Don't worry, I have other weapons I can use."

Bull says "Alright. If I find anything useful I will be in touch. Oh right, this is an island right? How far from the continent are we?"

"A decent distance, but I can gate you to the continent if you are ready to leave."

Bull says "Yes please. I would do it myself but I can't be sure that the locations I know are still there."

"Unfortunately, I don't have my map with me, but this is our general position."

As I speak, I sketch out the shape of the main continent to the best that I can remember. Then once Bull selects a location I open a gate as close to it as I can. Bull says goodbye to everyone before he heads through the gate and then I close it.

Lin says "You gave him your fire sword? What are you going to use?"

"I will use the swords that I bought at the auction."

Lin says "Oh yeah. I forgot about those. So, are we heading back now?"

"No. First we have to go back to camp and break it down."

Lin says "Oh, right. I forgot about the camp."

With a chuckle I lead the way through the tunnel and back to our camp. It only takes a few minutes to take down the tents and pack everything up. Then I open a gate back to the ship and wait for everyone else to go through first.

When I follow them through, before my eyes even clear, I feel two small bodies climbing my front legs. Of course, it is Mulan and Mushu, it seems that they really missed me. That is completely understandable, so I grab them and cuddle them against my face.

Silverstream says "Welcome back! They were okay the first couple of days, but after that it was easy to tell how much they missed you."

"I hope that they didn't cause you too much trouble."

Silverstream says "No, not really. They were well behaved for the most part. They were just sad and mopey for the last couple of days."

"Thank you for taking care of them. I shouldn't be leaving for long in the future so you won't need to worry about them again."

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Silverstream says "Alright. Let me know if you need anything."

Silverstream leaves after saying goodbye and Brightfire does as well soon after. I had planned to sleep with Lin tonight, but Mulan and Mushu refuse to be separated from me. So, I end up sleeping with the two of them in the nest with Nala and Albion.

The next morning they are mostly back to normal and even accept Lin feeding them instead of me. I shouldn't have left them alone for so long, they are too young to understand. They probably convinced themselves that they had been abandoned.

Even as Lin is feeding them, they both keep glancing at me to make sure I haven't moved. It makes me feel pretty guilty, so I spend the rest of the morning playing with them. Luckily, with how young they are, they soon forget about me leaving and start acting normal.

"Lin, when was that holiday you were talking about?"

Lin says "It should start here in the next few days."

"You don't sound very sure about that."

Lin says "It is embarrassing, but I have lost track of the current date."

"Oh, that's understandable. Well, you can come with me to scout the city and find out the date."

Lin says "Are you sure? After the trouble I caused last time I didn't think you would want me to go with you again."

"You didn't cause that trouble, the noble did. He had elven slaves and didn't treat them well, he would have ended up dead even if you didn't go with me."

Lin says "That kind of thing always happens to me. It would be safer if I stayed here."

"You don't need to worry about causing trouble for me. I will deal with anything that happens. I want you to come with me."

Lin says "Are you sure?!"

"Yes. Absolutely sure."

Lin says "Well, alright. What about Mulan and Mushu?"

"We won't be gone for long and Nala and Albion will be here with them."

Lin says "Okay, are we leaving now?"

"No, let's wait a bit. We will leave after they wake up from their nap. I don't want them to wake up and find us gone."

Lin says "That makes sense."

"Do you know anything about this city?"

Lin says "Unfortunately, no. I never got the chance to travel so my knowledge is limited to what I have been told or overheard. Sorry."

"Don't be. It's fine. From what you have said, the north is less developed, so it is no surprise you don't know much about it."

Lin says "Thank you. So, any special plans this time, or just scouting?"

"The only special thing is that I want to get the most up to date charts I can find. Other than that we are just scouting for elves."

Lin says "Sounds good."

"Is there anything you need?"

Lin says "Nope. I got everything I needed the last time when I went shopping. I wasn't expecting to get many chances so I bought everything I could find."

"Oh right, I still owe you some money."

Lin says "Don't worry about it."

"No. When I was looting that noble's estate I specifically took some jewelry to repay you with, but then I forgot about it."

Before Lin can argue, or I forget again, I take the jewelry out of my pouch and hand it all to her. At first she still looks like she wants to argue, but her expression changes when she sees the jewelry. Her expression changes to shock when I continue taking handfuls of jewelry out of my pouch to hand her.

She happily starts going through all the jewelry, sorting everything into piles. Seeing how happy she is while playing with the jewelry I decide to create a cabinet for her. I make sure it has lots of different sized drawers so she can keep things organized.

Lin says "Thank you, but you didn't need to give me all of this."

"I know that. I wanted to. Besides, what am I going to do with it?"

Lin says "I don't know, some of these might look good on you."

"Ha ha, very funny."

We joke around and just enjoy each other's company until the babies wake up from their nap. We all have lunch together and then I head out onto the balcony where Lin climbs onto my back. In full view of the babies I take off and circle the ship once before heading towards the city.