A couple of weeks have gone by. Our mid-terms are looming towards the end of next week, and we've been a bit more focused on studying for those than on our game, for a change, but we're definitely still a sight around Panarena. On that Tuesday night now a couple of weeks behind us, we gathered together with the eight of us--or nine, rather, counting Derwydd--and ventured down into that mysterious subterranean passage via the wayport. It's handy that being in a party allows the whole party to get through, even if they haven't found that specific wayport yet.

Anyhow. With the other six helping, we made some definite progress, finally getting through those statue-monsters and entering a passage filled with mad alchemists, insane tinkers, and lunatic mages. This one was a bit tougher to get through, namely because they could activate or summon up all sorts of weird and bizarre contraptions to help them. But we eventually got through this as well, and then we found a special item that updated our quest log. Then I noticed a secret door after checking around with Shadow Vision to make sure there was nothing else, and managed to open it by having Ariana cast an enchantment onto me that allowed me to pick the otherwise invisible lock. Once it opened, we found a treasure hoard of items, stepping in all too eagerly only to awaken one final surprise boss, a giant automaton that nearly wiped us.

Derwydd managed to trap it at the last second with one of his skills, and Healina quickly restored our health, allowing Maryn, Lizzy, and Lysandra to charge in for a grand finale while the rest of us supported them with ranged skills. We then collected more items from what that thing dropped, along with the rest of the stuff in the room, and then returned to the guard's camp above. An expert mage who was also a royal advisor had come to the site, and when we gave him the object we had found he noted it was a special teleportation device to the Untold Deeps. We were then told that our reward for completing the quest would arrive in one week, real-time, but we were pretty satisfied with the items and resources we'd gathered so that wasn't much of a let-down.

And then on Wednesday, Rachel and I went with Anhe and her mother to their family's restaurant, where we found that several of the other students had also been invited out. Our only instruction for the event: speak only in Mandarin-Chinese while inside. The two of us, at least, managed to pass that test. A couple of the others fumbled, but it wasn't an actual test so much as a practical experience, so at least their school grades wouldn't be affected. Later that night in-game, she took us to a place in Xuanpu for the same reason, where we definitely got some mileage on our practical experience with our foreign language of choice at a special cafe in Xingu where the translators were turned off.

On that Saturday, our club went to tour the radio station as planned. It was a good experience, but I was sure after going there that being a DJ or a broadcaster was not going to be my thing. Thomas seemed to have a bit more fun with it than the rest of us. After our visitation we went to lunch, and then went our separate ways to home or to work.

The next few days were more or less the same old routine. School, learning, gathering for lunch or club to plot out new adventures and discuss more practical club-things to do, studying and doing homework, heading home, eating dinner, and then spending some time in the game, those of us who could, at least. Our average level shot up to ninety-five in the space of time that followed the club trip on that Saturday, by which time Lizzy had managed to furbish us all with new gear, and new weapons for the others as well.

For the most part, we've continued to stock up on resources, mostly of the construction-slash-industrial type. Anhe and I had managed to level up our crafting specialty enough to make a trade-cog, and we were looking at some smaller battle-ship plans to buy from the dock-master at Yu to try those out. We eventually settled on getting plans for longboats and junks, figuring on outmaneuvering any potential rivals and having an advantage with speed rather than fighting strength. So we've been getting materials ready for those, as well as helping Maryn ready some prefabricated wall pieces, roofing, fences, and barricades for building up a PvP fortress in as quick a time as possible, using the method we had talked about a few weeks back. We were going to experiment with them before the event actually started, of course. Hopefully no one would catch on too quickly.

So, basically, there's about two weeks left before winter break. Seven school-days, counting today, that is. Our exams would be held this Friday, which was tomorrow. Try-outs for the musical had concluded; I had somehow ended up with the leading role, and Rachel had won the role of Marion. I wasn't familiar with a lot of the other kids who had gotten their own roles, but I was sure I'd end up getting to know them better by the end of it all.

“Mid-terms tomorrow, huh?” I sighed as I leaned back in the couch next to Rachel. We had been the first to arrive at club for a change, along with Anhe.

“Hmm.” Rachel nodded. “Halloween went by, the Tournament went by, Thanksgiving went by... I hope it slows down now.”

“Me too,” Anhe agreed. “It has all gone by so quickly; even my mother is bewildered!”

“It is bewildering, huh...” I said in agreement.

“We should go out as a group this weekend or next, or definitely plan a winter trip!” Rachel said.

“Ahh!” I suddenly sat up, a thought suddenly in my head. “Hollydale Resort would be fun!” I then exclaimed. Rachel looked at me curiously, and Anhe responded with a thoughtful look.

“Hmm! My cousin Mi-Sun went there with her family one time; she really enjoyed it there. I think that would be a nice idea!” she agreed with a nod.

“What's Hollydale Resort?” Rachel asked.

“What's this now?” Ellie said as she and the others came in.

“Ellie! Ellie! Sean thinks we should go to Hollydale for a winter trip together! Give him all of his missing points back!” Anhe quickly said.

“Ehh?? But I just took them all away at lunch for that crack about my--” she started, but then relented with a smile. “Hehh... you're right, that's a nice idea. What do you say, boss?” the blonde girl said to Andrea as they sat down. Our club-leader pondered for a moment as her boyfriend sat next to her, and then smiled.

“I think there's some details we'd need to go over, but let's all talk to our folks and see!” she agreed.

“If it's Hollydale we're going to,” Mary said as she pulled out her lunch, “I have an aunt who might help us out.”

“Gotta love the family connections in this city!” Ellie beamed.

“Definitely.” the older girl grinned.

“I know there'd be no problem for me, just as long as we have supervision.” Thomas said.

“Oh! What about Belle or Lysandra? They'd probably count as adult enough!” I suggested.

“Yes!!” Rachel almost jumped out of her seat. “Ahh! But we're still keeping Lana a secret from them, right?” she asked.

“Vote time!!” Ellie said. “Who wants to potentially humiliate our fearless guild leader on our winter vacation?” she asked, raising her hand all too high for my liking. To my relief, none of the other girls (or Thomas) raised their hand. “Boo! Losers.” she quipped as she put her hand down.

“I'm mostly neutral on the matter, but I think you torment Lana enough in-game without getting Sean in real life,” Thomas said with a bemused grin.

“Bleeehh.” the blonde girl sighed. “So we'll just keep it from them for now, huh?”

“Maybe next vacation we'll tell them.” Mary smirked.

“Definitely. We'll just see what they think of him this turn around.” Andrea nodded.

“Hee!” Ellie grinned. “Be on your best behavior, dork!”

“I-I know that!” I griped back at once.

“So they'll probably be on tonight, right? Let's ask them then!” Rachel said.

“I'll be at work, and I guess you'll be there too, huh?” Ellie said, turning to Thomas.

“Yeah,” he nodded back. “I only get a couple days a week, though, unlike you. Have to make the most of them!” he remarked.

“Right?”

Oh yeah. Thomas went for that audition at Fun Castle after all, and he now gets at least two nights a week per week as one of the entertainers there. I think Ellie is also nudging Andrea to join them, but Andrea often had her younger cousins to look after, so she hadn't taken Ellie up on it yet.

“Hmm... but you do end up logging in for the 'night-shift', as you like to call it, while we're all actually asleep!” Andrea said with a soft smirk to Ellie.

“Of course I do! And I sleep better there a lot of the time anyway.” she shrugged. “But anyway... exams tomorrow and then a week of not really doing anything at school, huh?”

“We'll be doing some pre-production for theater,” Rachel remarked.

“Oh! Right!” Andrea exclaimed delightedly. “You two are gonna be so good!!” she said in that pitch girls get to when they're super excited about something.

“Right?!” Mary agreed at once. Rachel and I exchanged amused grins with each other.

“Hm? Thomas, aren't you in that class also?” Andrea suddenly asked.

“Huh? Oh, right, in the class before theirs. I'm just doing stage-crew, though.” he said.

“Boo.” she returned with disappointment.

“Hmm? Did you guys get to vote on the play?” I suddenly wondered.

“We did. Everyone thought it would be that romance play!” he said with a grin.

“And then she pulled out the Robin Hood one at the last minute to mess with us,” Rachel smiled.

“Oh definitely. I've heard she loves doing that.” Thomas nodded back.

“Heh.” I faintly grinned. A few quiet moments then passed by, then Andrea spoke again.

“We didn't get any homework, did we?” she wondered. None of us had, it seemed, not even Mary, who usually got some no matter what.

“Well, we've a couple hours to go...” Thomas said, pulling something out of his bag, “So why not try... this?” he suggested. It was a portable holo-board game console.

“Cool!”

“Oh neat!” Rachel and I remarked at once.

“And guess what's on it?” Andrea said with a twinkle in her eyes.

“I know what that means,” Rachel answered with a laugh, and Thomas booted up Riskopoly for us to play.

“Nice!”

“Sweet!” Mary and Ellie remarked.

“Hmm... I guess we can have... three teams? Four?” Thomas pondered as he looked around.

“I just want to watch the fun,” Ellie shrugged.

“Then I get Mary!” Anhe said, and the older girl smiled over at her.

“You got it.” she replied.

“Three teams, then!” Thomas said, inputting the information.

“Oh, I could stream this!” Ellie then remarked, pulling out her phone to do so.

“Ehh??” I wondered bemusedly.

“It'll be great!” she beamed back.

“I don't mind,” Andrea shrugged.

“Official policy prohibits it during normal school hours, but a club activity should be fine.” Mary said.

“See? We're good!” the blonde girl said to me.

“Hrrmm...” I scratched my head, resigning myself to the idea. And so we began our second foray with Riskopoly, with two others joining us for the delightful chaos of the game we had adopted outside of Panarena.

It was as I was on my way home later that I realized there was a certain kind of flaw in the previously agreed vote to keep Lana a secret if we invited Belle and Lysandra on a trip with us.

***

So after my usual post-school afternoon-slash-evening routine, I headed in to Panarena, finding Ariana had gotten there first of all. None of the others were on yet. She greeted me with a smile, and I waved, smiling back as she came to hug me.

“Ah, so...” I started hesistantly.

“Hm?” Ari wondered at once.

“Ahh... I know we said that Lana would be a bit of a secret this time, but...”

“But...?”

“Y-you know as well as I do there's a flaw to that intention this time.” I said with a wry face, and her eyes widened a bit as she caught on.

“… Pffffft!” she broke out into laughter with a wide grin, and I had to laugh as well. After it had gone on for a few moments she sighed, shaking her head. “Of course they'll realize it as soon as they meet us, or they'll think I'm two-timing either Sean or Lana...” Ari remarked in understanding. “Hmm, so that's no good!”

“Not really,” I nodded back.

“Let's surprise them anyhow by saying they'll get to meet Lana!” she winked, and I gave her a half-smile.

“Sure.” I agreed.

So with that little amendment settled on by the two of us, we went to work on our crafting skills a bit until some of the others got on. I was experimenting with a smaller longboat-type ship near our refurbished and repaired docks. It was not as big as a typical one, being a mere ten meters in length and three-and-a-half wide; it was more of a personal sailing craft, really, but I wanted to at least try it out.

“Wood amount, good... components, good... ah, just barely enough sail; we'll have to go looking for materials later... ehh, no barrels, but they can be added later... and it looks good on oars, too; color option? Oh, the sail. Hmm...” I pondered for a moment. “Why mess with a classic,” I then said, selecting red. Then I hit the construct button, and the craft materialized upon the water, a decent if not magnificent little longship with the classically ubiquitous red-and-white striped sail. “Nice!”

“Oh, very nice,” the voice of Lysandra came to my ears. I turned to greet her, and she smiled back. “Not the biggest one you can make though, I guess,” she said as the two of us stood together to look at it.

“Nah, but I'm out of material for sails, now... we'll have to go get some from the dock-master again or try locating the materials ourselves...”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Hmm.” she nodded.

“Oh, anyone else on, yet?” I wondered.

“Anhe and Maryn are here; no one's really decided on what to do, yet, though it might end up as another crafting night.”

“Hmm...” I mused, and then grinned as an idea came to mind. “Let's call them down for a little fun!” I said, and she looked at me curiously, then smiled as she caught on.

And so ten Panarena minutes later the five of us, as well as Fyu, set off in the longboat I had just crafted, hastily adding some accessories to it for defensive purposes, deciding that our own skills would have to serve as offense. It certainly moved at a fast pace through the sea; a strong wind came to help us out as we rowed, Ariana keeping a lookout for us in the bow. We didn't encounter much until we got further out from Xunapu, the Wildlands off to starboard and the Firelands yet visible on our port side.

Then we encountered some enemies. Not player enemies, just normal pirate mobs with their own ships. Our own ship was way too small to engage them, which is what I had figured, but I quickly worked around this by having Fyu and I or Fyu and Maryn leap aboard the enemy vessel and scatter their crew a bit, allowing the others to get our vessel close so Lysandra could turn werewolf and climb aboard with Ari or Anhe on her back, depending on whose turn it was to keep our own ship safe.

We did this a few times, and then we ran into a cannon galleon that narrowly missed splitting us in two when it fired, so we quickly tried to retreat. Yet by now there really wasn't much to hide around.

“Tch!” I griped as another cannonball grazed my ship.

“That thing has some definite speed on it's side.” Lysandra noted as she looked back.

“Masters, some of us might be able to swim over to them and take them by surprise; I myself should go, that may help this little craft to move faster.” Fyu said to us.

“I'd go, but I think we need attack power this time.” Maryn said. “And Ari should definitely stay in case of emergency.”

“That means I should stay also,” Anhe remarked.

“All right! Sandra, Fyu, let's go!” I said, and Ariana cast a smoke-screen spell as the three of us dove into the water, Lysandra and I unequipping our gear so as to not be weighted down in the sea.

If it hadn't been a nearly desperate situation, I might have laughed at the sight of our dog-beast friend swimming underwater, but he was swimming faster than both of us, so we grabbed hold of him as his powerful limbs carried us closer to the cannon galleon. He dove under it, heading for the far side of the enemy ship, and then quietly surfaced. Lysandra and I put our gear back on quickly, and then softly climbed up the ship, Fyu coming up after us.

As soon as I was on deck, I entered Shadow World to take out several pirates, including the captain, whom we had usually been saving for last to fight. And then the pirates began throwing down their arms. Lysandra and I remained wary, as did Fyu, who softly growled.

“We surrender! We surrender! Don't kill us!” one of the pirates said. I then noticed an option to accept their surrender and have them work for us.

“Hehh...?” I said with interest.

“What is it?” Lysandra wondered.

“We can have a real pirate crew at our disposal if I hit the option for it,” I told her.

“Hmm...” she mused.

“Masters, I do not usually prefer to align myself with fiends such as these, but perhaps they can be reformed. If you accept their proposition, I will accept your judgment on the matter, provided you can turn them into proper warriors.” Fyu told us.

“Anything! Anything!!” the pirate pleaded. “We will serve you as sailors, soldiers, merchants, boot shiners, just let us live!!”

“How about we keep them out of sight from you, old buddy?” I asked.

“That is also a sufficient plan, master. So long as I do not have to cooperate with them.” the dog-beast agreed. I could hear the pirates still whimpering.

“All right, all right, you rotten layabouts!” I said, sheathing my left sword and hitting the accept button. “Now listen up, scallywags! I'm Captain Lana Windstrider, and I've taken control of this ship and its crew: you'll answer to me in all you do, and if there's any rule breaking I'll let Fyu decide how to deal with yas for it! Got it?!”

“Aye, aye, captain!!” the pirates chorused.

Thus victorious, I appointed one of them as commander of the vessel, handing out a few orders and making some rendezvous arrangements for them, and when I was back aboard my own ship with Fyu and Lysandra we returned to Queen's Haven for the night. The arrangement was simple: they gather intel and resources from enemy ships in the area, protect merchant vessels from other pirates, and then meet with us at Gatz or Yu to deliver a report and-or goods at every end of a real-week, not counting this one. Fyu, relieved that his dignity (and ours) would not be tarnished by cooperating with “sea-scum”, accepted the arrangement. I was more than relieved, suddenly realizing that we may have come dangerously close to losing his services on account of accepting the pirates as underlings.

And so in our first foray onto the high seas, we had ended up with a band of pirates -- or privateers now, I suppose -- at our disposal.

We spent the rest of that night doing more work on our crafting skills, Anhe and myself making some repairs and additions to the longship first before helping Maryn out again. I went to a quarry with Fyu to gather some stone while Lysandra and Belle, who had logged on while we were out sailing, headed out to get some wood. Maryn herself took a wayport to one of the mines in the region to gather some ore before we all reconvened at the estate again to process our resources into proper building materials. After finishing with our self-appointed tasks and setting aside a good portion of ore for Lizzy to do with as she liked, we logged out for the night to await the next real day.

***

Exams: the dread of all students no matter how studious and academic they are. Our first one was okay, the second one moreso. But then the third one came along. I wasn't going to get perfect marks on that one by any means, but I knew I could at least get a C. The last one came along to finish us off for the morning, and we were released for the lunch hour. Rachel and I sat down in our usual spot with a relieved sigh when we got to the club room, the others joining us soon enough.

“Ugh!” Lizzy fussed as she sat down.

“No use worrying now,” Andrea said to her.

“Still...” Thomas sighed.

“Rough exams?” Mary asked them.

“Ugh.” the three of them chorused back.

“Same.” the principal's daughter grinned.

“I think I did okay.” Anhe said.

“Me too,” Rachel nodded. “Sean?”

“Ah?” I soullessly returned, and she wryly smiled.

“Are you alive again yet?” Rachel giggled.

“I think I managed,” I then said.

“Now it's just the electives, the ones we signed up to suffer for,” Ellie quipped.

“Pfft!” Thomas grinned, softly chuckling.

“Oh! What did Belle and Lysandra say about Hollydale?” Andrea asked us.

“Hmm? Oh, they were open to the idea, so long as we give them a timeframe for it,” I told them. “As if my folks hadn't had enough to shock them this fall, now I had to deliver that fatal blow to them...” I said with a wry grin.

“But they agreed, right?” Rachel smiled back.

“They did.” I nodded.

“Same. And Ellie's just don't care, usually, so long as I'm with her.” Andrea said.

“I can go for certain as well, and my mother is willing to stand aside as chaperone this time, provided the older girls are definitely showing up,” Anhe told us.

“Aw, but we like Mrs. Liang too!” Mary returned, and the other girl smiled.

“She knows. But she said something about 'enjoying our youth together' this time!”

“Nice.” Ellie grinned. “Ooh, I know, I know, the week right after school's out!”

“That can work.” Thomas nodded. “Though you'll definitely have to get some shifts in, as will I!”

“Hah, I'll just go to the office later and get one of those permit things so I can skip coming to school and work for a week.” she shrugged.

“Oh yeah! There's that option, huh...” he said with realization.

“You only have a part-time position there, so they probably wouldn't let you out so easily.” Andrea reminded him. “But definitely see about vacation time!”

“Right!” he nodded. “We should probably get to eating lunch, too, before the hour is up!” he reminded us with a smile, and the rest of us started out of our seats a bit as we too finally remembered, scrambling to get our lunches out so we could recharge ourselves for the afternoon.

And then the afternoon exams came along; the first one was okay but not great, the second one I was more confident about but not carelessly so, and the final mid-term I was definitely prepared for thanks to Anhe. At the end of that exam, Mrs. Liang promised to have an in-class party next Friday to commemorate our first semester, also noting that we would be watching one or two Chinese films during the next week as well. Thus Friday at school ended on a more positive note for me personally, and I arrived home in pretty good spirits.

“Hiya, buddy,” my dad said as I got inside the door. To my surprise he looked like he was ready to go somewhere.

“Hey; you're going out somewhere?” I wondered. He let out a gentle smile.

“You too, by the way. Get ready... and, if you like, ask Rachel if she wants to come along; it'd be nice to have her with us.” he said to me.

The tone of voice immediately raised my suspicions, but I went along with it, giving him a nod and heading up to my room. I called Rachel a few moments later.

“Hmm? He asked for me to come too?” she said in surprise.

“Yep... if you can, or want to,” I told her.

“I can, and I'd like to; but where are we going?” she asked me.

“Ehh... I'm not sure... but I have a feeling... please come with us?” I then said, gently pleading. Rachel looked at me over the video-call for a moment, and then gently smiled.

“I'll be ready and waiting.” she nodded, and we ended the call there for now. I got myself ready, and then hurried on downstairs to where dad was waiting in the car, locking the door as I headed out. I looked over at him with an unspoken question as I input the Summers' address for his GPS, and he sighed.

“Your grandpa had a bad fall today, and he came close to leaving us while the nurses and the doctor tended to him,” he told me, and I silently sucked in a breath.

“Is... is he still... in danger?” I asked as the car sprang into motion.

“They're not too sure, but they asked us to come in and see if a family visit might help him get his bearings back.” he replied, and I gently nodded back. He reached over to put a hand on my head. “He'll be glad to see you with Rachel.” he added, and I softly smiled.

“Yeah.” I agreed.

Once we had picked her up, I sat with her in the backseat, and we headed out to the Retiree Village and Care Villas west of the city, where my grandparents still lived. Rachel took my hand as I explained the situation, smiling at me kindly. It was all the answer I needed from her.

It was just as I remembered the place from visiting over the summer, except for the more autumnal vista this time. This particular facility was top of the line, insofar as such things went; the buildings sat on a couple hundred acres of peaceful meadow and woodland, the staff and personnel were extensively screened for their jobs, and there was plenty for the residents here to do and see. We had gone to the art gallery last time; that had been a good day.

When dad had finished parking the car, we headed for the residential apartment where my grandparents resided. It was next to a great pond, where we could see some of the more active residents enjoying a calm afternoon of fishing. I was never actually sure if there were fish in that pond or not, but I supposed it was more of a social thing than anything else.

We entered the building, checking in at the desk, and then headed up to where the elder Daniels' couple now lived. A doctor who had been stationing herself nearby waved to us, calmly explaining the situation and telling us that Mrs. Daniels (my grandmother) was in the room with her husband. Dad nodded, and after a few more pleasantries we headed on in to the little apartment. Grandma looked up, smiling over at us, and then shook her head. Grandpa didn't really make a move yet; he was probably still tired.

“What's up, mom?” dad said as he sat down nearby.

“Alby, dear boy, he's lost the English.” she told him.

“Ahh... the doctor mentioned something like that. Might have happened because of the fall,” he said, reaching over to pat her shoulder.

“Oh, I know it well. He always swore one day he'd stop speaking the language of 'those infernal globalists' and only use the Old Tongue; you've got your wish now, dearie, but it makes it a might hard to communicate, even with this little thing,” she said, holding up the receiver for her translator. Then my grandfather's eyes suddenly alighted on me, and he seemed to brighten up.

“A Sheáin, mo bhuachaill, an dtuigeann tú mo bhriatha fós?” he said to me.

Sean, my boy, do you understand my words still?

“T-tuigim, a sheanathair,” I managed to reply, trying suddenly to recall words I'd learned years ago and bemusedly thinking back to how I had just spent the last four months trying to learn Mandarin just to end up in this particular situation.

I understand, grandpa.

“Hrrmm, 's maith sin. Conas tá tú, a bhuachaill, agus cé hí an chailín sin?”

Hmm, good then. How are you, boy, and who is the young lady?

“Táim go maith,” I said, scratching my head a moment. “Is í mo chailín, Ráichéal.”

I'm okay; she's my girlfriend, Rachel.

“Hm! An bhfuil Gaeilge aici?”

Does she have Irish?

“Níl Gaeilge aici.” I shook my head.

She doesn't. I could see my grandmother softly smiling, along with my dad, and Rachel watching me with interest.

“Óró!” he exclaimed. I then reassured him that I would work on it with her someday, and he relaxed, asking me about school and then my friends as I sat down near him with Rachel. It kind of amazed me how much I could remember, talking with him in that venerable language that had, at last, reclaimed its place in the world. Meanwhile my grandmother and my dad had their own little conversation together. Rachel softly smiled as I carried on talking, sometimes with a stumble, with my grandfather. I was sure she was picking up at least a few things already.

Eventually we went out to take a walk with them, bundling up grandpa nice and warm before setting him in a wheelchair that my dad gently pushed along. We took a loop around two smaller ponds nestled in scattered pine groves around the area, taking in the sights and sounds of the tranquil preserve. Forty minutes passed us by, at the end of which grandpa had fallen asleep comfortably. We headed back inside, where the nurses helped to put him back to bed again, and then grandma saw us to the door. She gave Rachel an extra warm hug, softly warning her to be careful around “those Daniels' boys”, as she liked to call me, dad, and gramps, to which Rachel responded with a sly grin, nodding back.

Dad thanked us both on the way home, stopping at a small restaurant on the edge of the city to treat us to dinner. When we got back to Rachel's residence, I got out with her to say goodbye, and that goofy old man of mine beeped the horn and took off for home. I watched his car recede down the street with a nonplussed look on my face.

“Y-you crazy, cartoon-watching goofball! Get back here!!” I called uselessly. I was positive that he was cackling to himself. Rachel quietly giggled, and then took my arm, stopping me from further verbal rampage.

“Dessert?” she sweetly asked.

“Ahh--eh--oh... sure,” I replied, and she led me inside, where we shared a bowl of ice-cream together. Andrea came to check on us, snitching a bite for herself before patting us both on the head and heading back up to her video-call with Thomas, promising to be on later in-game. When the ice-cream had been finished, I kissed Rachel goodnight before walking back home, giving my dad a mock-sour face as I entered the door. He laughed twice as hard as I was sure he had been laughing while driving away, and then I went upstairs to head into Panarena.

***

“The winter special won't be here until after our Hollydale trip, huh?” I mused as I looked at the Calendar of Events in-game.

“True, but that's good for us!” Ari said.

“Hmm... I actually don't want to have access to Panarena there myself, honestly,” I said with a smile.

“Ehh??” my partner said, reaching across to feel my forehead as a bemused grin crossed my face. “I was sure you didn't have a fever when you were over at the house; did you catch one on the way home?” she said with such a convincing concern that I wondered for a moment if there really was something wrong with me.

“Oy...” I softly quipped, and she giggled. “We'll have to get some things prepared here for that week, though,” I then said.

“True. I'll work on making some healing or stat potions with Heali, and we can put them up for auction to cover a few things; we set our auctions so that our gold goes into guild-funds, after all,” she returned.

“Good plan,” I nodded. The auction houses are located in all major cities, but you don't need to go there to pick up what you buy or what you earn. It can be set for automatic delivery or deposit, which is handy for us slightly-less hardcore players. “And we can do a few more bounty quests, too. I doubt our gold will actually drop to a point where we get in trouble, but hey.”

“Better safe than sorry!” Ari smiled. “That... earlier. It was nice to meet your grandparents.” she then told me softly.

“They liked you, too.” I smiled.

“I'm glad; I hope someday I get to introduce you to mine, too.”

“That'd be nice. Where do they live now?”

“Hmm, in a similar community up in Canada, where they went for retirement.” she told me.

“Oh nice,” I replied.

“But your grandma though; she's funny!” Ari then smirked.

“Ah-heh, she loves us, but we do have our obsessions. And dad and grandpa both have very off-key humor, dad moreso...” I remarked, my face briefly settling into a mock-scowl before I shook my head. Ari laughed.

“I think you're getting it, too, now that we're getting more and more friends to open up to.” she told me.

“Well I hope it doesn't get too off-key,” I returned, and we both laughed.

The others started logging in after that, except for Lizzy (and Derwydd, who was ending up at our place in-game more often), and we went out to do some bounties and go resource hunting for the night. One party of us went with Fyu, and the other party went with Dracuoatlax, scouring the lands for villains and ore deposits for a whole real night in Panarena until we got ready to log off early Saturday morning. We told Lysandra and Belle about our time-frame for Hollydale, and the two of them said that they would definitely be able to come. Belle promised to meet us at Healina's house with her car next Saturday night, when we had made the arrangements, and with that he headed offline until later that evening.