When I took off the Dream Machine, the clock near my bed had six thirty-three as the time. I inwardly grumbled to myself; with the surprise of Venomheart following us in-game, I had only really gotten about four (subjective) hours of sleep at the end of my gaming session. Oh well, I sighed as I got up, heading down to get some coffee. Dad was watching his cartoons, as usual, and mom had apparently gone to work already, judging from the light jacket she always wore not being on the coat-rack.

After I had gotten the coffee and a muffin, I went upstairs again to ensure that I had finished my homework (which I had), and then began getting ready to start an actual day of my life. An hour later I was on the bus, as usual, with Ty partially conked out beside me. He perked up as I sat down, softly punching my shoulder.

“Yo. Where y'all at?” he asked me.

“I think we were just getting to the Veiled Sea when we had to get off,” I replied.

“Damn. That's gotta irritate you.”

“Right?” I said in a deflated tone. “And Venomheart's following us, too, so there's that.”

“Say what now?” he asked, and I summarized the voyage for him thus far. He shook his head, letting out a soft groan. “Man, that's wild. Sounds like you might get there before they do, at least; now you just have to get back before they can get you.”

“Don't I know it.”

“I'mma send Wild and Jans a message right now; maybe they can rig up some help for you somehow...” he said as he pulled out his phone.

“Thanks, pal,” I grinned back. “You can send them messages right to their game accounts, huh?”

“One of the game's best features, man; that's how we've been so coordinated with our guilds the past couple months.” he nodded back.

“Nice.”

“I'd suggest you get in on it, but I don't think you'd appreciate that!” he added with a grin.

“Ehh... maybe Rachel or Andrea can join it,” I said with an apprehensive laugh.

“Right on.” Ty said with a nod. “This is gonna be a looong-@$$ Monday...” he said as he finished sending his message, leaning back in the seat once more.

“Tell me about it...” I sighed. The conversation drifted off then, and it wasn't until we got to school that Ty livened up again in time to flick me before we parted ways, and I found Rachel waiting at our lockers.

“What does our buddy think of our adventures so far?” Rachel asked with a grin.

“He's gonna see if Wild and Jannie can send reinforcements.” I replied with my own grin.

“Oh nice!” she remarked. “I wonder who'll be coming to our rescue...” she then pondered, a thoughtful look on her face.

“Whoever it is, they'll have their work cut out for them,” I said with a wry smile.

“Oh for sure.” Rachel agreed, returning the look. When I had finished with my books, we headed inside for homeroom and took our seats.

“Ellie really skipped, huh?” I said quietly. Rachel nodded back, a mischievous grin on her face.

“Andi's still in shock about it.” she told me, and I softly smirked.

“Wow.”

“I bet you'd have skipped, too, if you weren't in the play.”

“And you?” I returned, and she made a face.

“Got me.” she admitted, and we quietly laughed. Then the bell rang, and our school day officially began.

Welp. Except for the surprise math quiz, our morning classes went pretty okay. Rachel and I headed to the club room after getting our afternoon books--and our lunches--running into Anhe on the way. She smiled as she joined us, and we smiled back.

“Do not forget that we are getting into more intense rehearsals,” she said to us.

“Well sure,” I nodded, “The musical's due to open in about five or six weeks.”

“Time is flying by...” Rachel sighed.

“It really is,” Anhe agreed.

“If you think it's flying now, wait until your senior year,” Mary said with a wry face as she met us at the door.

“Aw, that is right! You will be off to university next year!” Anhe said with a soft pout as we entered the club room. Ellie, true to her word, was not there, but Andrea and Thomas were.

“Yeah,” Mary said with a sad smile as we all sat down with them.

“Hey! Oh, while we're all here--did we ever decide on a final visitation for the year?” Andrea wondered.

“I thought we did? Or maybe we only sketched something out...” Mary replied.

“Wasn't it something about Fun Castle?” I wondered.

“Oh yeah!” Rachel snapped her fingers. “That was it! Ellie was gonna talk to her boss about it,” she recalled.

“Ohh, right,” Thomas nodded. “I'll remind her tonight at work. She may in-game most of the day, but she'll have to leave it for our shift tonight.”

“Wanna bet?” Andrea said to him with a smirk.

“She's responsible about work, anyway,” Thomas shrugged.

“Ehh.” his girlfriend shrugged.

“Such a low bar of expectations,” I whispered to Rachel, who stifled a giggle in reply.

“Anyway, forget rehearsals and visitation stuff for a bit; you know we're having a Club Fair a couple weeks before the end of the year, right?” Andrea then told us.

“Hyeck?!”

“Huh...?” Rachel returned with a blank look as I tensed up.

“That's a no.” Mary said, reaching over to pat my head.

“Mrs. Brown did kind of spring it on me, too, to be fair,” Andrea smirked. “But anyway; I think the best approach for our display there is to be simple and concise.”

“D-display?” I gawked back.

“Cookie; eat.” Rachel said as she stuck a peanut-butter cookie in my mouth. I obliged her with a mock dirty-look, which she grinned back at.

“That shouldn't be too hard. Though if we do it too well...” Thomas said with a faint smile.

“We'll be inundated with people, I know.” Andrea smiled back.

“Don't forget that people tend to jump ship or jump around ships the first couple of weeks or so.” Mary said to us. “I remember that happening my freshman year with the Book Club--a lot!”

“Aw, poor Book Club,” Rachel remarked.

“But when people see this is club is, in theory, at least, geared towards being more practical in certain areas, we might definitely get a solid core of folks who want that.” Thomas then added. “And it won't be just a place for us to come in and talk about our game anymore; we'll have to be more pragmatic and less fantastic.” he said to punctuate the thought.

“Hmm...” Anhe sighed, looking apprehensive about that.

“That's true...” Andrea agreed. “But that doesn't mean it won't still be fun, and it won't mean that we can't talk about Panarena; it just won't be the focus, most likely.”

“Agreed.” Thomas nodded back.

“And the entertainment sector is definitely going to be stepping up its game in various ways with Panarena's success; I think that Galaxy Avengers game is coming up next year, and if they do well, then lots of other things will be vying for fame as well.” Mary remarked.

“So we want a display that showcases the group's--err, the club's intent, and the various activities we do to go about achieving that intent,” I said.

“Exactly.” Mary nodded. “I think you two being in the musical would be a good highlight for our board, actually!”

“Don't forget Anhe's helping out!” Rachel smiled, the girl in question blushing faintly.

“Just a little bit,” she herself remarked.

“Bringing down the power on Herby's overhead strike isn't 'just a little bit' for me,” I said with a wry grin, and we all laughed.

“And Thomas working on set design as well,” Andrea smiled. “And I've got some pictures from our last two visitations; those can go on the board!”

“Nicely done!” Mary clapped. “I'll run through them with you to help pick some out if you want,” she then said.

“That'd be great!” the other girl nodded back. “And then we'll need to sneak some shots of these guys at rehearsals and such, not to mention the actual performance!”

“Exactly,” Mary agreed. “That gives us some visuals, now we just need to reiterate them with words so people have a better idea of what our club is.”

“We should get some pics of ourselves in here as well, whether it's playing a game or doing something more practical like career exploration,” Rachel suggested.

“Good catch!” Andrea smiled. “Right, we can work with that, and I'll bring up Fun Castle as a visitation with Mrs. Brown after hearing back from Ellie. That's all our official business for now; let's get to the fun stuff--and lunch, of course!”

There was no need for a second encouragement on that count. We eagerly started in to our lunches, lightly chatting about things at school and such and how the musical seemed to be going or how our classes were. It wasn't until lunch was almost over that Panarena actually came up, which was an interesting switch considering it was usually the first thing we talked about.

We knew the others would be in the Veiled Sea for sure by now; what we didn't know was how long it would take them to get through it, or if our enemy had caught up, or if they had even given up the chase, which I felt was unlikely.

Man... it really does drag to not be in the game at a time like this... ugh, priorities, priorities... I inwardly groaned.

When the bell rang to signal us to move on, we quickly cleaned up the room and then headed on to our afternoon classes, which I was looking forward to much moreso than I ever did my morning ones.

“Do not forget: you have a quiz today!” Anhe reminded us with a smirk as she headed for her fifth class of the day.

“Hai!” Rachel and I chorused together, and the three of us laughed as we parted ways.

***

The expected quiz definitely went much better than the unexpected one. After we had gotten through that and the rest of our afternoon classes we made our way to the theater, where we found the stage crew and set-builders already hard at work. I saw Joanna going at it with her stage-sword, attacking the air in a frenzy and oblivious to nearly all else around her.

“'Ey, Sean!” Matthew grinned broadly, waving us over. “We're getting closer -- y'ready for it?” he asked as we joined them.

“Ehh...” I returned with an uncertain smile.

“He'll be fine.” Rachel said, patting me on the head.

“Sure!” Matthew continued grinning, and then suddenly his smile dropped. “Seriously, though, what's with Joanna? She's been like that since she got here,” he remarked in a quiet tone.

“I mean, dude, she's usually kinda scary anyway, but today she's just--you know?” Herby added as we subtly observed the fencing queen of the school continue to slash and thrust away at her invisible enemy.

“She's definitely more intense this year.” Maggie nodded in agreement.

I bet I know why, I thought to myself.

“Hope she puts it aside long enough to deliver a performance tonight.” Jacob quipped.

“Oh she will.” Leslie shrugged. “Let her be for now.”

“I wonder how things will go later tonight,” Rachel whispered to me.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I whispered back.

A few minutes later, Holly came in and called us to order. We began going over dialogue, songs, and stage choreography for the first act of the musical, taking a brief break before heading back to go over the second act. Joanna was fairly terse for the night, though as Leslie said she did deliver her performance.

Later in the evening we went over the choreography of the Gisbourne-Robin fight, but by this time it felt like Joanna was dropping all pretense of subtlety. I was able to just keep up so long as she stuck to the moves we had rehearsed, but she went off-track a couple times and whacked me a couple good ones on the wrist. Just when Herby is finally being reined in from his overhead kill-shots, I get to deal with this...! I grimaced to myself as I did the stair-tumble for the fifth time. I got to my feet; Joanna was coming at me with a fierce look in her eyes. Briefly I looked around for the adults. Then I remembered they had both gone to check on costuming and it was Stephen watching us. Ah, snap...

There was a keen glint in Joanna's eye, and she then went full fencer on me. Now, several months of video-game fighting is absolutely no substitute for actual swordsmanship, but at the very least I managed to quickly adjust my fighting so that she didn't injure me. The clacking of our stage swords became more audible, and a fair number of our peers stopped what they were doing to watch as Joanna came after me.

“You're eager tonight, huh?” I said to her as I dodged her sword.

“Shut up; shut up, shut up, shut up!!” she said to me with anger. “I don't have time for this!” she lunged at me, and I swerved out of the way, lightly rapping her shoulder with my own stage-sword to try and bring her back to her senses. A surprised squeak came from her lips, and she straightened out at once, looking at me like a deer mesmerized by headlights.

“Jo!” Malcolm called to her as he stepped onto the stage. “What the heck are you doing? Sean's not a fencing opponent, he's Robin Hood!” he said as he firmly gripped his younger sister's shoulder.

“Leave me alone!” Joanna all but hissed back, shaking his hand off of her. “I'm fine! I just... need a few minutes...” she said, tossing the sword onto the stage and heading outside. Murmurs were heard around the auditorium, but a few moments later everything went more or less back to normal. Malcolm came over to me, sighing helplessly as he began to speak.

“Sorry, Sean, she's... hrrmm. You know she's trying to get in to this elite fencing school, yeah?” he said to me as Rachel joined us, and I nodded. “Mom wants her to have a 'normal' career and get married to some businessman's son from across town; Joanna's going all-out with her fencing because that's the only way she can escape it. That was the agreement they made; if she can't get into that school, she has to abide by our mother's wishes, or get disowned.” Malcolm said, a dark look in his eyes. “It's really stupid, something like that in this day and age of all things...”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“That's over-the-top harsh...” I remarked with a shake of my head.

“I don't mind being prepped to eventually take over our family business, being the oldest, but I wish they'd leave my younger siblings out of it....” Malcolm said.

“I can kind of relate, being dragged around the world so long because of my mother's job; but if I can get out of that, she can definitely get out of this,” Rachel said confidently.

“Thanks for that,” Malcolm smiled. “That gives me some hope as well. I really hope she does... fencing is Joanna's passion, and she deserves to get into that school with all the hard work she's done. As for her preferences...” he continued with a wry smile. “Well, she'll let go of you soon enough. Maybe not soon enough for Sean,” he added with a sly grin, and then gave us both a pat on the shoulder before heading back to the group he had been running lines with.

“People's lives are always more complicated than we think, huh?” Rachel remarked as she led me off the stage to go and sit for a while.

“For real,” I agreed. “I never thought my life was super complicated, or even complicated at all; but this year... heh, I guess this is the first year I've really started to take notice of other people's lives.” I said with a wry grin as we sat down, and she nodded back, smiling at me.

“Makes you want to do something nice for all of them, huh?”

“If I could, sure.”

“I think you can.” Rachel told me sincerely, running her hand through my hair. “Just be yourself, and you'll find the opportunity. That's how it usually works for you,” she grinned.

“I can't exactly deny that, can I?” I said with a laugh. “And what about you?”

“Hmm... I suppose I have to heed my own advice, huh?” she smirked back. “More importantly, we should go over some of our lines together. At least until you have to run choreography again.”

“I doubt I will--at least for tonight,” I shrugged.

We ran through some of our scenes together, and eventually Joanna came back in so that the whole group of us could do a full read-through of the third act before our teacher called it a night. Rachel and I got ourselves packed up, and found Thomas waiting for us at the door.

“It's a good thing she's let us off early; I have work in an hour!” he said.

“Did Ellie get your memo?” Rachel asked him.

“Oh she did, and Andi sent her one too, so she's finally left Panarena for now -- very reluctantly,” he grinned back.

“Good!” Rachel smiled.

“Ra-cheeell, don't forget! My house tomorrow!” Allie called over to her.

“Got it!” my girlfriend waved back as we got into the car. “Oh, there's this tricky bit of choreography we wanted to go over but we never seem to get time here, so we're gonna do it tomorrow night.” she said to me as we buckled up, and I nodded back.

“Gotcha,” I replied.

Thomas started the car up so we could head out, and began maneuvering carefully around our friends and peers and their own vehicles so that we didn't hurt anyone. I saw Joanna standing with her brother; she seemed more brooding now than agitated, though she did perk up to make a face at me as we passed by. I decided to return the favor with a face of my own, and had the small satisfaction of seeing her crack a grin in reply.

“What are you doing?” Rachel asked me with a grin, softly elbowing me.

“Just taking your advice and being myself.” I shrugged, and she giggled.

“I'm gonna stop at the burger joint for a quick bite on the way; you two want anything?” Thomas said as we got onto the main road.

“Sure!” Rachel said.

“Sounds good,” I nodded.

We got our “quick bite” not long after, and then Thomas dropped us both off at Andrea's house. Andrea managed to snag him for a kiss before he zipped away to the mall, and then we went inside to finish off our meal before working on homework.

“We're just gonna have to look for an apartment together, that's all there is to it.” Andrea smiled as we went over the math homework. “Oh by the way; I got a message from my game account earlier. Something about help coming our way in Panarena.” she remarked.

“Oh, wow,” I said.

“I wonder who's coming?” Rachel said with a curious look.

“I guess we'll see, huh?” I returned as I frowned at the equation before me.

“Like this,” Rachel told me, writing a few notes on my paper.

“Oh!” I exclaimed.

“How's the play going?” Andrea asked us.

“It's going well!” my girlfriend said at once.

“Eh, it is.” I agreed.

“Don't be too enthusiastic in answering,” Rachel softly poked me.

“You're not on the business end of Joanna's sword,” I reminded her.

“Ah--!! Tee-hee!” she giggled back.

“Getting her frustrations out before game-time, huh?” Andrea said with a half-grin.

“Oh for sure.” I nodded. “These five are all the same way, huh?” I said as I looked over my paper again.

“Exactly.” Rachel said. “We'll get you past math yet.”

“Oh I do hope so.” Andrea quipped.

“Oy...” I sighed, and the two of them laughed.

“You're okay going home, right?” Rachel asked me as we stood on the porch later that night.

“I'll be fine, like always,” I smiled back. She seemed unsatisfied with that.

“Yeah, but--” she started, and I gently cut her off with a kiss. A few moments later, after it had ended, she softly nodded, smiling at me. “Okay. Hurry home, though.” she said, kissing me again.

“You got it.” I replied, and with that I started on my way home.

It was the same old walk it always was. Definitely warmer on account of the spring season, but still. I put my hands in my pockets, relaxing as I looked around at the neighborhood. The place was well-lit. Even the alleys had lights, the kind that hang on the sides of buildings and such, a mandatory requirement of the city. Not even a shadow could creep up on someone without them noticing.

Yet suddenly I had this sort of gnawing sensation in the back of my mind. It was a partly disused sensation, but it was also one that had been drilled into me by many instructors over my short life. I came to a stop, and the sensation grew stronger. What did Miss Ahn always tell me to do at a time like this? I hurriedly thought back to one of my Tae Kwon Do teachers. It was to... to... I softly knocked on my head, and then it came back with a loud exclamation.

“Duck!!” I said as I dropped to the ground, and I felt the air pressure of something flying over where my head had been.

What the heck?! I'm actually being attacked!? In this city??

I jumped back up quickly as this thought flashed through my mind, and swiftly noticed my attacker. They had a ski-mask on, but otherwise their dress was pretty nondescript. The thing that had whizzed over where my head had been was apparently a nunchaku. My mysterious “friend” was now calmly whirling it around, stalking me like a tiger as I watched them intently.

“What the heck do you want?” I said, not believing they would answer.

Sure enough, they said no word whatsoever. But I could tell from the build that they were a guy. He swung at me with his weapon again, and after dodging it I sent a kick his way.

“Nice dodge.” I quipped when he avoided it. I knew that, underneath the mask, there was a grin flashing. The mystery man then halted his nunchaku swinging to put them in an inner coat pocket. “Don't tell me you're giving up already,” I said, but he began circling me with his hands in a ready position, poising to attack.

This guy seems to know at least as much as I do and maybe even more about Eastern Martial Arts fighting. But really, what the heck? I'm a high school kid whose only claim to fame right now is that I'm the potential star of a musical; what is even going on right now?? I hope this is just some random encounter and he's after my wallet or something...

“Why are you ambushing high school kids anyway? Don't people like you have more important targets?” I continued, hoping a reiteration of my earlier question might pique his interest enough to talk. It did not.

We circled each other a few times, like two lions getting ready to have a go at each other. I couldn't sense any sort of malice from the guy, just a sort of coldness. It made my skin crawl. I glimpsed a metallic glint from his right sleeve when the light hit it, and tensed up.

Knife or gun? I wondered anxiously. I hope it's a knife. I can deal with a knife. Miss Ahn and Mr. Chen both taught me a few tricks on dealing with knives. If it's a gun, I could feel my heart pounding, my number might be up... or at best I get a bullet hole somewhere before I can try and disarm him... snap, snap, snap!! This is *crazy*!!

My mysterious attacker feinted a couple times, trying to psych me out, but I had always been taught not to react unless he actually got within striking distance. We were still about two meters apart. That wasn't quite my reach, and thankfully it wasn't his either.

Should I feint and go in for a couple quick kicks? Maybe that'd be enough so I can get behind him or something, try forcing him to the ground while I call for help... are the people on this street seriously oblivious to this?! How long has it been since this shenanigan started, anyway? I pondered to myself. Fortunately for me, I was too slow in making up my mind as to whether I should try attacking or not.

“Hold it!” a voice called out. There was a police officer standing there. My attacker then scurried off like a cockroach, but the officer did not pursue him, picking up his radio instead. “Suspect in a black ski-mask and a black outfit complete with coat and boots, about one-ninety centimeters in height, running through the residential district near Atherson's Park and Ward Square, over.” he said into his radio. I heaved a very long sigh of relief.

“Copy that; local units on alert now. Over.”

“Ten-four.” the officer said, and then came over to me. “You all right, kid?” he asked me.

“Yes, sir, officer.” I nodded back.

“All right; care to explain what that was about?”

“I honestly have no clue, officer.” I said, recounting the experience for him. He took some notes on his pad, and when I was finished he asked a few follow-up questions before driving me the rest of the way home.

“We'll keep an eye out for your ninja buddy. Have a good night, kid.” he said when we had pulled up, and I got out of the car.

“You too, sir.” I replied as I did, and when I had shut the door and gotten to my porch he headed off to join the search. I entered the house with a sigh of relief, finding my dad asleep on the couch and mom with him. Setting my backpack down, I went to pour myself a glass of ginger ale to help calm myself before heading up. Goodnight everybody, I quipped internally as I passed the living room again to head up the stairs. Once I got to my room I quickly changed for the night, and when I had sorted things out for tomorrow morning and finished off my drink I put the Dream Machine on to return to Panarena.

***

“You're late!” Ariana said to me as I materialized on the deck of the ship. “You usually get on twenty minutes after we say goodnight in real life at Andi's house,” she added with a look of concern.

“Hmm? Was I longer this time?” I blinked.

“Forty minutes.” she said, fixing me with the stare that I was helpless against in either world.

“Ahh... I guess so... I'll explain tomorrow, I promise.” I told her. Ari sighed, nodding in reluctant agreement, and we returned our attention to playing the game.

“Welcome back, hon!” Peaches grinned up at me. “We're just coming out of the Veiled Sea now, at least insofar as we can determine from these charts. Lizzy finally left a few in-game hours ago.”

“Ah-heh, I bet she was fuming,” I said with a bemused grin.

“Oh you betcha.” the older woman nodded. “But she'll be back by the time we make landfall, I'm sure of it.”

“What about Venomheart?” I asked.

“Haven't seen them,” Cloveroak said with a shrug. “They probably decided to take the scenic route around the Siren Sea. Wildeye sent Peaches a message two game days ago; said they were sending some help our way.” he added, and his guild leader nodded.

“Yup! Not sure who, though. Probably for the best. It'll be a double surprise.” she said.

“Hmm.” I nodded back. I looked around; except for Lizzy and Derwydd, we were all here again.

“Lana?” Ari said to me.

“Hm?”

“You're shaking.”

“Ahh--” I started, suddenly looking at my hands. They were indeed trembling.

Ugh, was I that shaken up?

“Let's go in the cabin, okay?” she said, and I nodded as she led me back there. Belle decided to come with us, alighting on my shoulder as we headed inside. We sat down near the bed, Ari taking my hands in hers. “Are you sure you're okay?” she asked me.

“Heh... it's hard to hide some things in this world, huh?” I said with a haunted smile. “Someone tried to attack me on the way home tonight.” I confessed, and her eyes widened with alarm.

“Good gracious!” Belle exclaimed. “Well obviously they didn't succeed,” she said at once, more to help Ariana calm down than anything, I suspected.

“Nah. Guess I'm a bit more shaken than I thought I was, though.”

“Oh I bet.” our pixie-girl nodded back.

“Did you call the police?” Ari asked me.

“One showed up right as things were heating up. The attacker ran off then. I think they're looking for him now.” I told them.

“Good!” the older girl said with a clap of her hands, Ariana sighing in relief.

“I should get another Dream Machine so you can just spend the nights at our house instead.” she said with a pout.

“Ahh... I think our parents might... ahh... have things to say on that count...” I said, faintly blushing.

“We're gonna be moving out with Andi and Tom soon, anyway...” she returned, her cheeks reddening as well.

“S-soon?” I wondered. She mumbled something about Lizzy and paperwork, but I couldn't hear anything solid. I let out a quick sigh, and pulled her close for a hug. She clutched me tightly, the two of us sitting together without a word. “Belle?” I said softly, and the pixie-girl smiled, coming over to sneak a kiss on our cheeks before heading back out. Several minutes passed by in silence before Ariana spoke again.

“You're getting into all sorts of trouble lately, aren't you?”

“Ahh...”

“You wanna come with me to Allie's tomorrow?” she asked, looking up at me pleadingly.

“I can do that, yeah,” I nodded back, and she smiled in relief.

“I think Joanna is going to be there too; she's coming over with Malcolm and Marcus.” Ari told me.

“Sounds like fun,” I smiled.

“Great!” she said, squeezing my hands. “We can have them take us home after,” she added, and I nodded back.

With that settled, we headed back out on deck. Lysandra came over and gave me a pat on the shoulder, and Myanihia nodded at me. Anhe gave me a soft smile, while Maryn looked at me with concern. I assumed Belle had told them, at least, what had happened to me. I wasn't sure I could repeat that story a third time anyway, I thought to myself wryly. I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

“Come on. We've got an island chain to get to.” I said with a grin, and they perked back up. We resumed our stations aboard the ship, and I headed to the crow's nest to keep watch. Maryn came up as well, softly taking my hand as she sat next to me.

“You're very lucky, you know.” she said softly.

“Well, that,” I returned just as softly, “And I had some good instructors.”

“That too.” Maryn agreed. She took a more firm grip of my hand, sadly smiling at me. I looked over towards her.

“Maryn?” I asked softly.

“I know Ari must have been about floored when you told her. I can understand that all too well. After all...” she said, trailing off to swallow a lump in her throat. “This game is one thing. Real life is another. If anything ever happened to you, none of us would forgive ourselves. Please don't hesitate to accept our help when we offer it.” Maryn said to me.

“I understand. And... I promise.” I said in reply. She squeezed my hand firmly, letting go after a moment with a deep sigh.

“I'm gonna let my dad know, just in case this creep tries coming around to the school.” she then said, and I nodded back.

“I'd be surprised, but better safe than sorry.” I replied.

“Exactly.” she said. “It really is hard to see around here, isn't it?”

“Mirages and fog,” I said with a shrug. “I'm just thankful Dreamers Fables helped get us through the worst of it with only three people or so.”

“You're telling me,” Maryn agreed with a laugh. “I'm gonna go back down and help Heali with the charts. Remember what I said, Lana,” she then said, kissing me on the cheek as she began descending the rope ladder.

“Y-yeah, I will; and... thanks,” I smiled back. She returned the smile, and slid down the rigging to rejoin the others.

Not so tough, are you? I berated myself. As Lana I could face off dragons and monsters without blinking an eye--well except giant bees, of course. As myself I had faced off the school bully. But he was a joke compared to tonight's encounter. Maybe I should carry some sort of non-lethal weapon... I wonder if the girls carry any... Ellie seems laid back and tough, but I bet she definitely has something; Mandy and Chrissy? They're university girls, so I'd bet on them having a device or two. Mary and Anhe for sure have something. Andrea... it wouldn't surprise me, but yet it also would... heh. And I know Rachel has one, I thought to myself with a smirk.

***

“Heh??” I said as I caught a glimpse of a taser in Rachel's purse. It was on one of our early dates, way back in October.

“Hm? Oh!” she smirked back. “You never know. And you can't karate-chop everything.” she told me.

“Ehh, I usually prefer a fist to a chop, if I have to.” I shrugged.

“Oh you.” Rachel patted my arm.

“Still... it's good you have that,” I said.

“You're telling me. I got it a couple years ago when mom warned me about a rough neighborhood we might have been staying in; we ended up in a nicer one, but I kept it just in case. All the same, I can't believe girls still have to carry things like this in today's world, you know?” she said with a slight frown.

“Agree. It's definitely unfair. Though I know my dad carries one, too.” I said in reply.

“Your dad??” she asked me with a funny look.

“He's used it a couple times, actually, when it was just him and my mom--or so he likes to tell me. Not that mom ever denies it,” I said with a faint grin. “I know mom carries a few things as well. She's always swearing she'll use them on an irritating customer some day.”

“Pfft!” Rachel cackled.

***

Guess it's time to stop teasing the old man about his taser-gun, I thought with a sigh as I scanned the horizon. After a quiet hour, I headed back down to the deck. As soon as I had landed a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Ah, snap... I'm gonna be mentioned in a local news report, aren't I...?