The rest of that weekend proceeded pretty normally. On Sunday night, when we got into Panarena, we learned that Garth had since disappeared. Not even his former guild-mates knew what had happened. ⸸SOVEREIGN⸸, by the way, elected Humphrey as their guild leader. As per their guild-system he was named Lord Humphrey, and he promised to exonerate the name of the guild from thereon out.

All the guilds now have a friendlier relationship again, by the way. Aldholt City saw a big gathering Sunday night to both celebrate the end of the conflict and give all of us a chance to shrug off the idea of being enemies. There was music from a player-band; they were part of Shamrock's Luck, and had created their own in-game hits as well as learning some traditional songs from the British Isles.

In one corner I saw Wildeye and Humphrey chatting each other up like old friends; in another part of the Grand Pavilion, Angela was laughing away with Magisteria, Jannie, and Applebell. Tom O'Dell and Tyman were having a drinking contest (yes, you can do that in-game... online interactions not moderated by the ESRB and all that), and Lizzy was with Healina and a few other people from several different guilds. Ariana and I sat at a table by ourselves, sharing a drink. I felt less self-conscious about it now; especially since I had seen that no one was really paying us any mind.

Angelfire came up to us after a while; she had a sheepish grin on her face, and she extended a hand towards me. I let out a smile, and took it to give her a friendly shake.

“I still feel the need to have a rematch with you; but Friday night I was way too wound up with Garthism. So... sorry.” she said before letting go, and I nodded back.

“Yeah... I am too,” I replied. Kinda, I inwardly smirked.

“That really was an epic beat-down, never mind the ambush.” she remarked with a grimace of amusement.

“Lizzy is not subtle.” I shrugged, and Ariana giggled.

“Yeah, really; but anyway. So what's next for you guys? We're gonna train up a bit for the holiday events and the guild competitions-slash-tournaments coming up; should I be extra prepared when the day comes?” she asked with a smirk.

“Hmm... I forgot about those; we're gonna head through the Marshes to Xuanpu for now, though. We'll have to look at the events sometime and see what we want to do about them.” I returned, and she nodded.

“Nice. That's a long journey though, even for this game.”

“Like really.”

“I heard there was a special short-cut or so, but no one's put anything on the forums yet. They all like to 'tough it out' in that place and let the newcomers be surprised.” Angelfire said, a bemused look on her face.

“I can understand that mentality a little bit,” I replied.

“A bit, yeah... it's so boyish, though!” she remarked with a shake of her head.

Heh. Heheheheheh.

“Right?” I laughed back, and Ariana affected a sly smile.

“Well anyway, good fight--and good luck on whatever's next for you all!” Angelfire said, and then she surprised both me and Ari by giving each of us a hug in turn. She then went to rejoin the main festivities, and Ari and I exchanged glances.

“What do you know, she's actually super nice,” I remarked softly, and Ari nodded back smiling at me.

“At least if you're another girl.” she winked.

I had neither reply nor comeback for that. Instead, I turned back to gaze around at the party; Lizzy had inserted herself into the drinking contest. I could see Healina in the background with a mildly flustered expression on her face; it occurred to me then that she was always kind of mothery to Lizzy in real life, and that clearly didn't stop in the game.

“Now this is enjoying a game.” I said as I leaned back.

“Ahh--Lana, the chair doesn't have a--” Ariana called out a bit too late. I fell out of the chair and onto the floor. A few laughs were heard, and Ari came over to help me up.

“Remind me earlier,” I quipped as she did so.

“You commented on it when we sat down!”

“Did I?”

“Yes, you did, silly!”

“Oh yeah! I did... why did I forget that?” I wondered confusedly.

“Heavens; sometimes you can be such a ditz!” Ariana gently ranted at me.

“Sorry!” I raised my hands in surrender.

“You don't have to apologize,” she said with a laugh.

“I kinda do?” I returned softly, rubbing the back of my head.

“Okay. True.” she agreed.

“'Ey, lovebirds, just kiss and make up already!” Lizzy called over to us, and the whole place started laughing as the two of us looked at her in shock. I could see Healina rolling her eyes, trying her best not to laugh.

“Yeah, they're not gonna do that.”

“It's just a rumor!”

“Weren't they dancing somewhere though?”

“Huh?”

“From the forums?”

“Oh yeah!”

“Maybe they will do it!” people began chattering.

“Ah-heh-heh-heh... ehh...” I nervously laughed.

“Well if Ariana won't, then I will!” Angelfire suddenly piped up, heading towards us.

Eh?! Huh!? Ehhhh???

I backed up a pace in surprise, but apparently that jibe was more than Ariana could take. She quickly twirled me around, wrapped her arms around me, and locked our lips together. There were a few people laughing, but most of it was cheering. When the kiss ended I could see Tyman shaking his head.

I'll never hear the end of it from him.

“Aww, too bad!” Angelfire winked as she clapped her hands.

Th-that's your reaction? Wait a sec, you-- you were *interested* in me?!--was what I wanted to ask, but she prowled off like a cat, smirking to high heaven.

“L-let's not go to any more parties for a while...” I whispered to Ari. She smiled at me.

“That won't do. I want to see all sides of you as we keep walking together.”

“I know, but--”

“Shh,” she whispered back, slipping in to my arms as the music softened for a slow-dance. We began gently swaying, and I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That's it. This is our precious time together. Relax. Enjoy it,” she said to me, and I pressed her closer.

“I always do.” I told her earnestly.

“Even if I'll embarrass you now and again?” she asked me.

“Even then.” I promised her. I could feel her smiling as the dance continued; the pavilion forgot about the two of us soon after that, and the party went on until we all went our separate ways for the night to log out.

This is our precious time together--the words echoed in my mind as I pulled off the Dream Machine.

Please. Please, God... don't let it end.

***

On Monday morning I got up and went through the same old routine of readying myself to head for school. I went to the bus-stop at the usual time; the bus arrived as it always did; and I sat in the seat next to Ty, as I had done since I had started at our current school. He looked at me, and then shook his head with amusement as the bus made its way towards school.

“What?” I asked him.

“Nothing, Dans, nothing.” he shrugged.

“Huh.” I returned, and settled back in the seat.

“But that's about the goofiest damn thing I've ever seen or heard of you doing, just so you know.” he said to me.

I wondered about that. Not that we hung out, but I had to have done something equally as goofy in his presence before.

“Yo, I'm glad you really are in that game, though. Now maybe someday we can finish that old scrap we got into,” he said with a subtle grin.

“No teachers or principals to pull us off each other there.” I nodded back with a grin of my own.

“Can't have it be some random duel, though; I wanna have it at one of those tournament things, 'know what I mean?” Ty remarked.

“You got it, pal.” I told him. He smiled, and gently fist-bumped my shoulder.

Monday passed by as it always did at school; then homework, and then dinner, followed by a night of crafting--which more or less got us as high as we could get to in the Aldholt Regions. Tuesday came along in much the same manner, handing us classes and more homework to do before releasing us to go home again. After taking care of real-life things that evening, we headed into Panarena to finish off anything we felt unfinished, and then we made our way to a dungeon on the border of Ghoulwood and Woody Heights.

“That doesn't look like much,” Lizzy said as we approached the place.

“You think so?” Ariana wondered.

We came to a halt at the base of what looked like the remnants of a redwood tree. It was--or rather, it had been huge, judging from what remained. An entryway that looked like the burrowing of some massive creature led down inside. I suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

“H-hey... what's this place again?” I asked, and Lizzy pulled out the map for us.

“'The Ancient Burrow' is what it's called. Not much more info on it than that,” she reported.

“Nothing? Like at all?” Healina asked to be sure.

“Not even the forums had info on it,” our smith-slash-tank shrugged. “Just that it's a level fifty dungeon. Should get us there in one go if we do it all.”

“Ah-heh...” I briefly laughed, looking at the thing with apprehension.

“I doubt there's bees.” Lizzy looked over at me with a more sincere expression.

“Let's head inside anyway,” I said, and we did so cautiously, Ariana bringing up the rear while I went in as vanguard, leaving Lizzy and Healina in the middle.

“I hope we find a real tank soon,” Lizzy remarked. “I'm more of a DPS when you get right down to it.” she added.

That's damage-per-second, in case you didn't know. How do we rank in that category? Well, Ariana and I are somewhat tied for first in that area, although in certain situations one of us can be better than the other; Lizzy would be second; and Healina lives up to her name so she doesn't quite have the damage we do--not that she can't do any damage, but most of it comes from summoned minions or tamed creatures.

“We'll run into someone eventually, I'm sure,” I said as I kept an eye out.

All of a sudden I heard a chittering sound. And I stopped dead in my tracks. Now, I've played Sorrowdin and Void Crisis, as I mentioned before, and in those games there's ancient ruins filled with nasty, insectoid-type creatures that are very difficult to beat, especially if there's more than two. They made a sound not unlike the sound I heard just now. And it made me recall how much I hated those dungeons.

“Bugs...!” I practically cursed, and the others paused for a moment.

“You see them?” Healina asked.

“I hear them, can't you?” I asked her. “Don't Elves have better hearing?” I suddenly wondered.

“We do,” Ariana nodded, “I can hear them.”

“Wood Elves, anyway.” Healina remarked. “My special hearing really works best underwater.”

“Ah--true... didn't think about that.” I replied, gently bonking myself in the head. I then activated Shadow Vision to take a look, and Ariana turned on her Mystic Vision as well.

“Seems like there's about five types,” she told us.

“I think so too,” I affirmed.

“The really tiny ones shouldn't be an issue; the four bigger kinds don't look hard... but I guess that's deceptive.” she continued, “Especially that super big one.”

“H-how big...?” Healina asked nervously.

“Hmm... if I had to guess, I'd say it's as big as our house... and it's got a lot of others with it; that's the boss, maybe?” Ariana replied.

“Probably,” I agreed, turning off my own skill. “No traps or anything, just a lot of membranous doors that shouldn't be hard to get through.”

“True.” Ariana nodded as she looked the dungeon over with her own skill.

“W-w-what did they... they l-look like?” Healina wondered.

Oh boy. She's nervous. I didn't peg her for the kind of girl who hates bugs, though... I thought to myself, though since I get terrified of bees maybe I shouldn't talk.

“Ahh... what do you think, Ari?” I asked, wondering if maybe her words would be more reassuring than mine.

“Hmm... let's do this.” she said, making it so we could see what she saw as well.

Now, when we were in the Vale of Stingers, I found out that my avatar's voice has a really high-pitched screaming capacity. So I was bracing myself for a scream. When Ariana put up her mystical field of vision for us to see, though, Healina didn't scream. She kind of... crumpled? Eh, that's about the only word I can think to use.

“I thought there would be some sort of wood-demon in here!” she said in a tone that bespoke of misery. “Bugs! God, I hate bugs! I hate them!” she added, and the rest of us looked around at each other.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Ehh... is it no good? Should we try something else?” I wondered, and Lizzy affected a wry expression.

“P-probably... I'm sorry, Heali, I had no idea--” she began, and then Healina placed a hand on her shoulder.

“No--it's not your fault. You've all done so much for me here. Ugh--I hate them, I really do... but let's get this over with! I'm sure there's worse things than this ahead!” she told us, and we looked around at each other again.

“Can't talk her out of it now,” Lizzy remarked.

“I feel like these would be vulnerable to fire,” Ariana mused as she looked at them again.

“Probably,” I agreed. “Healina, they're probably poisonous as well, whether they spit or bite or... whatever they do. Especially the... queen, I guess?”

“I'd say so,” Ari nodded back to me.

“So we'll need you to be extra-focused on healing and warding. You do that, and we'll do as much damage as we can to get through it as fast as we can.” I continued, and our Sea Elf bravely nodded, swallowing a lump.

“I can do that,” she squeaked.

“Oh! Don't forget your flame-sprites, also!” I reminded her, and right away she summoned them. That done, we continued on into the dungeon, warding up as we went so as to not be caught unawares.

***

Well, we got through it, at least. The bugs--Woodland Creepers, to be exact; they looked like a cross between a scarab-beetle and some kind of worm--were slightly more resistant to fire than we thought, at least until their exteriors were sufficiently busted up. Once we figured that out it became easier. And they really were poison-heavy as well. Even the little ones.

The big kicker, as you might expect, was the boss. See, what our vision-skills didn't pick up was that the queen's chamber was not only full of minions--but full of eggs as well. Lots. Of. Freaking. Eggs. I mean, I had expected a rough go of it from our earlier preview, but this was bonkers, man. Those things hatched every forty-five seconds or so, letting out a swarm of little ones and even a few bigger kinds now and again.

So while Lizzy kept their attention, I ran around and began busting up the eggs with some help from Ariana every five to ten seconds or so (she was helping to burn off Lizzy's pile as well, after all). As we hoped, Healina kept a frantic eye on our health, becoming too busy maintaining our HP and wards to bother being scared of the dungeon-mobs, to say nothing of making sure her little flame-sprites were around to help us.

All told, this phase of our battle took nearly twenty-five minutes of Panarena-time, after which we spent the next twenty dusting up the remaining minions and helpers, and then finally we began tearing into the boss. She (he? It?) took a half-hour to take down, being especially resilient to magic until we finally cracked open her shell enough so that some major DoTs could hit her. There were a couple surprise attacks that almost got us, but thanks to our healer we narrowly avoided death and managed to beat the living daylights out of the boss and claim our reward: special charms and a few ingredients related to attacking with or defending against poisons.

This seems like an ominous foreshadowing, I thought to myself as I examined them.

“Oh nice! We hit our goal!” I said as I looked at my level.

“Same!” Ari smiled.

“Finally,” Lizzy remarked.

“Hahh... okay... worth it...” Healina said in an exhausted manner. I couldn't blame her; between trying to control her screaming and maintaining her magic-power to keep us healed she had to be totally spent.

“All-right, kiddos; let's get back to our base and I'll upgrade our armor and weapons one last time for the Marshes.” Lizzy said when she had finished allocating her points, and when we had done the same we made our way back to Cloverbell for the night.

While Lizzy made the final improvements to our armor and weapons, the rest of us stayed out on the porch in casual-wear to enjoy the early evening. Healina perked back up once she had a mug of hot chocolate, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh as we sat down on the side closest to the hotspring. A few animals lumbered or scurried by, gazing curiously at us while they did so.

“Well! I hope the Marshes of the Wyrd doesn't have any dungeons like that, although I guess they might now that I say it out loud...” Healina remarked.

“We'll make it through whatever happens.” Ariana reassured her.

“I know... but what about you, though? Things okay at home?” the other girl asked her gently, and I reached over to put my hand on Ariana's as her face clouded.

“I think she's getting serious about leaving. And I hoped we'd finally be in one place for longer than a few months, for once...” she told us softly. Healina's hands joined ours, and she gave Ari a sympathetic look.

“We could probably put you up if you wanted,” she said hopefully.

“I don't know... I haven't really been able to talk about it with my mom.” Ariana returned.

“Or maybe Sean's family can help; isn't your mom involved in housing or something?” Heali asked me.

“Ahh... something like that; I kinda stopped paying attention to it since it's all she ever seems to do,” I remarked.

“I get that.” Heali said with a half-smile.

“I want to stay with you.” Ariana said, and I felt her hand taking mine and holding it tightly. I blushed for a moment, then gently squeezed back.

“I know. I want you to stay too.” I replied.

“Is it no good?” she wondered, looking up at me with a sad expression. For the first time since I'd met her I saw tears in her eyes.

“Ari--Rachel...” I put my other hand over hers. Healina slipped away for a moment, giving me a nod. “I promise we'll find a way to stay together. I don't know what I expected to find in this world, passing myself off like this... but now I don't want it any other way. And that goes for real life, too. I want... I want...” I choked up, unable to go on. But she knew what I meant. We fell into each other's arms, holding each other tightly as silent tears poured down our faces.

Healina came out a couple minutes later with more hot chocolate, setting it down before us and hugging us both for several moments before sitting down again. We managed to turn our attention to the beverages before us, calming down as we sipped them and gently leaning on each other.

“I don't think my parents would have an issue with you staying.” Healina said with a smile. “And apparently we live closer to Sean than you do, so that's a plus on your side!” she added.

“Why were we never on the same bus, anyway?” I suddenly wondered.

“Something about districts or routes, I guess.” Healina shrugged. “And then when Lizzy got her license we just never used the bus again. The real question is why you two don't just ride home with us,” she said with a soft smirk.

“Why don't we?” Ariana turned to me.

“Eh? I mean, I'm used to the bus... and Ty.” I returned.

“Speaking of him, he's really softened up on you since your scrap all that while ago, huh?” Healina noted.

“Oh he still wants to settle the fight,” I said with a small grin, “But now he wants to settle it here someday--which is probably better.” I added, and Ariana sighed.

“Should've guessed.” Healina giggled. “But anyway; yeah, talk to your mom. We don't want you to go either.”

“What the heck, don't talk about serious stuff when I'm not here!” Lizzy said as she came out to join us.

“Here, chocolate, drink!” Healina said, handing her a fourth mug.

“Sure! But don't think you're off for it!” Lizzy said as she plomped down with the mug in another seat. “Really though; we gonna make it?”

“I hope so.” our healer returned.

“I'll try.” Ariana nodded.

“Good!” the other two girls replied, and I smiled at her.

“I guess that leaves tomorrow; did you two do that assignment yet by the way?” Lizzy said to me and Ari.

“Kind of?” I replied.

“I'm almost done; it's due Friday, right?” Ariana said.

“Yep, Friday. Lana... might want to get on it.” Lizzy remarked, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

“Yeah, yeah...”

“Oh! Tomorrow. We're starting off for the Marshes tomorrow, right?”

“That was our plan, right?” I asked.

“Just making sure,” Lizzy nodded. “We can get to--what is it, Cedarville? We can get there by Friday; that's the last major town before we get to the Marshes themselves.”

“Woody Heights is wilder than the Aldholt though; the Lightbrook Brigade has their guild there, don't they?” I said as I tried to remember the details.

“True... and guess who else does?” Lizzy said.

“Who?” Healina wondered.

“Flamehearts.” she said, and I almost choked on my hot chocolate. “What's wrong, Lana? Something wrong with them? Or Angelfire, maybe?” Lizzy quipped with a huge grin as I tried to recover.

“Elisabeth Drew, leave her alone.” Healina told her scoldingly.

“Heeey... no names here, Andrea Paige.” the blonde girl retorted. Ariana giggled, and then broke out laughing. I smiled, gently patting her back.

“That reminds me, what's your middle name?” Healina turned to her then.

“Eh? Oh right, we didn't find that out yet!” Lizzy remarked.

“Anne.” Ariana replied.

“Aw, cute!”

“Ser-i-ous-ly... I can't get over your cuteness sometimes.” the other two girls said, and she blushed a little.

“You think?” she said shyly.

“Definitely,” Lizzy smiled. “And what about... you?” she then turned to me, as did the other girls.

“Eh? Oh... I don't have one.” I told them.

“Boo!” Healina returned with disappointment.

“Liar.” Lizzy said as she gave me an inquisitive frown.

“I'm not!” I retorted.

“Some people really don't, Lizzy.” Healina shrugged.

“Tch.” the other girl quipped with a hint of disgust, returning to her hot chocolate.

“He doesn't.” Ariana vouched for me. “I already asked on one of our real-life dates.”

You did? Oh right, you did... I recalled, thinking back to our second official date a day or so before the Garth-Queens War.

“Hrmm...” Lizzy said with a huge disappointment, making bubbles in her drink. “I guess that's fine. So anyway; we should take the waggon. It'll take longer and we won't be able to use wayports with it, but I'd like to have as an extra storage place as well, for anything we find in the way of crafting resources and such.”

“Gotcha,” I nodded. “We'll do that then. And Cloverbell... it'll always remain home, so it's safe.” I said as I looked around.

“Whatever place we end up at in Xuanpu, it better have a hotspring.” the blonde girl said.

“Amen.” Healina nodded.

“Absolutely!” Ariana agreed.

“No argumen--I mean, we'll see what turns up,” I said, hastily amending myself so I didn't come off the wrong way.

“Oh don't be shy now, Lana,” Lizzy grinned.

“Ah-heh...”

“Let's not go there,” Healina interrupted her.

Thank you.

“Okay, we won't; but I'm still getting in anyway.” Lizzy said, standing up. “Oh! Right; I finished reworking our equipment, so we're good to go... here!” she said, returning our items to us.

“Cool!”

“Nice!”

“Thanks!” we all said at once.

“Now then--hotspring!!” Lizzy crowed, rushing over as she got out of her outfit to slip in. We joined her seconds later, spending the rest of our evening in there until it was log-out time, at which point we resumed our casual-wear and headed out for the night.

***

Classes passed by slowly throughout the next couple days; homework, chores, and dinner puttered along; and then at night we were released so we could enjoy the current pinnacle of the gaming world that was Panarena Fantasy Online. Rachel also talked with her mom this week; the rest of us kept hope that it would go well and she would be able to stay in the area.

Until Friday night, we traversed through the Aldholt with the waggon. You can't just cut across country and such with it, after all; and the roads wind around a bit through all sorts of places. Besides that there were still the obvious dangers of outlaws, both NPCs and players, and a few non-humanoid monsters as well. To our great amusement we saw no sign of Blackwood Patrol; perhaps they, too, had left to terrorize a new area.

We passed by the Vale of Bright Flowers that night as well. It was almost odd to see it so peaceful, but then, it was probably meant to be that way. The pristine vale looked radiant and magical to our eyes this night, and we felt a little sad when at last we came to its boundary and entered the northernmost sub-region of the Aldholt, Woody Heights.

A no-brainer on the name, right? Lots of trees, and lots of hills and cliffs that generally sit at a higher altitude than most of the other Aldholt Regions. The landscape continues rising on the western edges where Heimgar and Varkstania are, but it descends along the border of the Marshes of the Wyrd and the Southern Plains east of them.

Around nine pm real-time, we entered Woody Heights and set our course for Cedarville, the region capital and town with probably another obvious name explanation. It began waning into afternoon for Panarena; we passed by some large farmsteads as we rolled along the southern roads of the area. Green and golden fields stretched out almost infinitely before our eyes, and there were meadows with flowers and babbling streams crisscrossing here and there as they flowed where they would. There were a few small villages nestled in clearings or on the periphery of a farmstead (or vice versa), and in their midst we could discern a hillfort.

“That's Duncara,” Ariana told us as she looked at the map.

“That's Irish!” I remarked with interest.

“Really?” she replied as she looked over at me with interest.

“Yeah; I think it means something like... oak-fort, or fort of oak.” I told her as I tried to remember grandpa's lessons.

“Cool!” she smiled.

“Makes sense I guess,” Lizzy said as she guided the waggon along the roads. “Woody Heights has a generally Celtic-theme to it, for the most part.”

“Like Ipping Forest,” I nodded back.

“And what about the Marshes?” Healina asked.

“Hmm...” Lizzy pondered for a moment.

“I think that one's more mixed-fantasy, isn't it?” I said, recalling some of the forums written about it.

“Mostly?” Lizzy said. “It has a bayou theme overall though, someone told me.”

“Oh cool!” I returned.

“Definitely!” Ari agreed.

“Well we'll definitely see for ourselves by tomorrow or so,” our smith shrugged.

“As long as there's no bugs...” Healina sighed.

“Ehh...” I remarked in a somewhat sympathetic way, uncertain of how to assure her. “Oh! Did we find out about that short-cut or quest Angelfire mentioned?” I then said, and Ariana nodded at me.

“It starts at Cedarville apparently,” she reported. “That's literally the only information about it; you'd think after a few months people would have more things posted!” she said with a slight irritation.

“Posts will turn up before the end of the year I bet.” Lizzy said. “I think we beta-testers have a sort of unspoken treaty about not spoiling too much this year,” she added, winking back at us.

“Heh...?” I said with a bit of surprise.

This was a new one to me. Most games had help posts or guides on their forums within the first couple months or so, updated as often as the game was, for the most part. But the PFO forums were being intentionally slacked off on for the sake of an enticing mystery, I suppose; it was certainly true there was enough on there to entice even casual players into checking this place out. I could only imagine how they would look this time next year.

Since it was Friday night, we lingered on longer than we normally would, and arrived at Cedarville around eleven in real-time. It was around the same time in Panarena as well, and we approached the simple palisade gates half-asleep.

Cedarville, as you might expect, was named for the titular trees that grew in and around it, towering over the other trees in the area. A good part of the city was actually built into them, with a few buildings like the stables, inn, and a couple taverns on the ground, along with what was probably a barracks. We made sure to get the wayport, and then stabled our waggon and its faithful beasts for the night.

“All-righty, should we go for an inn on the ground or in the trees?” Lizzy asked.

“Let's go for the trees!” Ariana said, her energy renewed at the prospect of being in a new place, and I nodded as well.

“Sure!” Healina agreed, and we wound our way up one of the spiraling stairways into the boughs of the trees where one of the inn and taverns was situated. After paying for a room, we went down to join in the night's festivities for a bit. Ariana convinced me to join her for a dance, while Healina and Lizzy sat down and talked at one of the tables.

It was a pretty lively dance at first, with the music rolling and flowing swiftly from the musician NPCs seated on a raised stage in the midst of the open-air plaza up in the tree-tops; after several reels and jigs it slowed to a ballad, and then progressed into a graceful air that we swayed to together.

“Doing okay at home?” I asked her softly.

“I think so.” she nodded back. “Mom's talking with Healina's parents about the details. I'm glad you were all here to encourage me with that,” she smiled, and I smiled back.

“I'm glad too.” I replied.

“Honestly I didn't think it would be that easy,” Ari said with a laugh. “I'm so used to being the nearest thing to a piece of luggage, I just...” she trailed off, and I pulled her closer for a hug.

“We'll be fine--you'll be fine.” I told her.

“I know.” she replied. “I almost don't know what to think; the next few years are finally going to be stable for me... that's a weird feeling after all this time.”

“I think you deserve it, though... stability, I mean.” I said, quickly amending myself.

“I knew what you meant.” she giggled back.

The slow air continued playing as we gently swayed; a soft breeze blew by, caressing us with its touch before it meandered on elsewhere. I'm pretty sure the rest of the night passed by just as calmly; or at least that was the impression I got from how soundly I slept.

On Saturday morning we continued our journey, making note of a few seasonal quests that were hinted at by various things in Cedarville before heading out. Most of them seemed to be pointing at winter holidays.

“It'd be nice to come back here for that sort of thing,” Healina said as we headed out of the northeast gates.

“It really would,” I agreed, and Ariana nodded. “Oh, we got that quest, right?” I said, checking my log to make sure.

“Yep, I got it from the tavern last night and shared it before we logged out.” Healina replied.

“Oh, right...” I suddenly recalled.

The rest of that morning was spent continuing northwards towards our destination. We talked lightly about things in both the real world and our world here in Panarena, laughing and carrying on with each other until we saw it: around noon in Panarena-time, we came to an ancient and weathered gate fashioned of wood, situated between two great trees that seemed as old as time. On it were words that were just legible enough for us to read:

The Marsh Gate.

We had arrived at the Marshes of the Wyrd.