After dinner, Sabrina acted upon her soft threat, giving me a tight hug for several moments and then telling me she was looking forward to the musical. Rachel then gave me a hug herself, deciding to go with Andrea in Mandy's car to simplify things for our drivers. Ellie had me sit up front with her this time while Mary and Anhe sat in the back, and a few moments after Mandy's car headed out we took off.

Come to think of it, if I get dropped off last this'll be the first time I've seen Mary or Anhe's home, I thought to myself as we headed down the road.

“Right--Mary's closest, Anhe's next, and this one's last!” Ellie said, softly patting my head for a brief moment.

“Oy...”

“Pffft!” Mary began shaking with laughter while Anhe giggled.

“Poor Sean!” the younger girl smiled, reaching up to pat my arm.

“Hahh...”

“No ninjas tonight, kiddo.” Ellie said with a grin, but I could tell she was being more serious than her expression let on.

“Y-yeah,” I managed to reply.

“I hope they catch that guy soon.” Mary remarked. “Dad knows a few of the officers who came to help watch the school today; he says they're hopeful about it.”

“Huh. Good.” Ellie nodded.

For some reason... now that I'm thinking about it again, that really didn't feel like a normal attack... I mean, nunchaku? Even for a street robber that feels way too dramatic... I mused to myself for a moment, then put it out of mind as we got to one of the fancier residential districts of the city.

We made our way through a series of elegant streets with what amounted to mini-manors and proper mansions and their demesne on either side; I was both awestruck and nonplussed. One of the larger ones had a party going on; there were a couple of pavilion-tents and a large pool, and on a stage we could see an all-girl band.

“Ooh, fancy,” Ellie noted as we passed by.

“Yeah, I think that's the Wallace's house. It's their diamond jubilee, mom said.” Mary replied.

“Wow!”

“Oh wow,” I said as Ellie nodded with approval.

“How nice for them!” Anhe smiled.

“Right? And I think that band is their granddaughter's.” Mary added.

“Huh, neat!” Ellie said in reply.

No really, that's definitely cool.

“And, here we are!” Ellie then announced as we pulled into the roadway of a mini-manor a few moments later. It wasn't as fancy as most of the others, but somehow the austere simplicity of the design seemed to suit Dr. Robertson. “We'll have to have a party at your place sometime. Like for real.” Ellie said as Mary unbuckled herself, and the older girl laughed.

“Maybe!” she half-agreed. She opened the door, and then put a hand on my shoulder. I looked back at her; there was a tenderness in her eyes as she smiled at me, then she gave me a firm pat and slipped out of the car, shutting the door before heading in to her home. Ellie waited until she was inside, and then we set off for Anhe's.

“Ooh, we should also have a party at Anhe's, now that I think about it.” Ellie remarked, and Anhe grinned.

“I do not know what my father or grandfather would say about that.” she replied.

“Ehh, well, I guess we'll have to make-do with a vacation home!” Ellie beamed back.

“Exactly!” Anhe nodded. “Although maybe I might convince them to allow you over for New Year's this year!” she then added.

“Sa-weeet!” the other girl smiled.

“That does sound fun,” I agreed.

Not long after, we pulled up to what seemed almost a castle. Anhe's family was one of the oldest in this area; it made a certain sense to me that her family home would be one of the proudest, even if it was pretty mind-boggling to me at the moment. It was almost as if the entire place, styled in traditional East Asian architecture, by the way had been transported piece by piece from China itself. Anhe got out of the car, waving to us.

“I will see you in-game after homework!” she called.

“Yep! See you then!” Ellie called back, waiting again until Anhe was inside.

“Ugh... homework...” I recalled with disgust.

“Heh... right?” Ellie softly groaned. She then set off for my house, which we arrived at about twenty minutes later on account of traffic.

Right... we're here. There's no way that guy is around the house; there's a police car on the other side of the street, after all. They'd have spotted him by now if so, I reasoned to myself as I started getting out of the car.

“There's a cop, and your adopted sister is right here. Go on.” Ellie gave me a gentle bop on the shoulder, and I smiled back as I got out. Sure enough nothing happened, and I got inside safely, hearing Ellie beep her horn before she set off for home herself.

My parents were already asleep; I headed upstairs, simultaneously bemoaning the homework yet also thankful it was just Japanese and History for tonight. And that essay for English will be due this coming Monday... no pressure, I sighed in relief. A few minutes after I had settled myself in to get it done, Rachel video-called me so we could do it together, and between the two of us we got it done pretty quick.

“See? That was easy.” she said.

“Everything is easier without math.” I promptly replied, and she smirked back.

“Yeah, yeah.” she returned with a laugh. “We'd better head in; the others are probably waiting on us by now.”

“True... see you in a few.”

“See you soon, Lana,” Rachel smiled, and I smiled back as the call ended. I then laid myself upon the bed, and set the Dream Machine upon my head so that I could escape the real world once again.

***

I loaded up on “The Sea Dragon” when I got in, and found the ship just arriving at a player-port in Ragnarheim. Judging from the banners, it was jointly owned by Mountain Tigers and †SOVEREIGN†. Most of the others were already on, and Ariana arrived shortly after I did.

“We'll keep it here until the others who couldn't get on now log in, and then we'll sail it around as planned.” Angelfire said to her NPC crew. As for us, we disembarked, and found Wildeye and Jannie waiting for us with Tyman and Winnie.

“Yo!” Tyman called out as we reached them.

“You have it, then?” Wildeye asked.

“Yep! One more to go,” I nodded.

“That demon-thing is making a mess in the Wildlands again. And Kiana said your dragon buddy is hiding out somewhere for now.” Winnie said, and I sighed in relief.

“Right!” Angelfire said as she landed next to us. “Ready to blast some baddies?” she asked me.

“Is it fine if I check out the Torching Mount first? Just to see if...” I trailed off, not sure that I really wanted to encounter one of the poisoners.

“Sure! If you take me with you.” Angelfire quickly returned. “Let's see... Anhe, you come with us. Your auras should be enough. The rest of you should follow Dante; he'll take you to a rendezvous point.” she said.

“Splitting up the lovebirds?” Jannie wondered with a faint grin.

“We definitely need Ariana on the front right away for this one. They won't expect her.” Angelfire shrugged.

“That's fine,” my partner smiled back, giving me a quick hug. “Give them a few whacks for me if you find them.”

“Will do,” I grinned back, and with that, Angelfire, Anhe, and myself took the wayport to the Torching Mount.

It certainly looked no less imposing than it usually did. The wisps of smoke trailed out from the top lazily, and the molten rivers in the distance lolled on through the barren landscape. There was something off about the color of the smoke, though. Anhe put up her auras at once, and I clad us in the shadows, leading the two of them up to the mountain's entrance.

We reached this without incident, and proceeded inside. There was no sign of poison yet; perhaps it was rigged so that it would activate when the dragon returned. Why was the smoke changing color, then? Was it a false lure of some kind, a misdirection to keep Dracuoatlax occupied while they set the poison off themselves?

Who did she say was here... right, Jana, Merc, and Clara, I mused to myself, bringing Myanihia's notes about them to mind. Jana was an herbalist and an archer; Clara was a witch; and Merc was an alchemist. Jana and Merc were definitely the ones who had concocted the dragonsbane poison that was our current concern, and Clara had likely been involved in making it an aerial spell. I wondered if any of the three had a stealth skill.

“Uuugghhhh, he's not coming.” I heard a female voice say. At once I had us halt.

“He's got to check out the smoke. It's scented with the essence of Djaziim. There's no way he wouldn't come.” another girl remarked.

“If he doesn't know it's a trap, sure.” a man, definitely Merc, replied.

“Shut up, Merc! There's no way he'd know!” the second girl replied.

“Unless that brat Mel got full of herself at school or something and ratted the plans to Lana... ugh, I'm so sick of hearing that name.” the first girl sighed wearily.

“Stuff it, Jana.” the other girl, clearly Clara, retorted to the first.

“Oh please. I don't know why you're crushing on that obsessive chick anyway.” Jana snorted back. “You're a better player, too. Oh sure, she's good with her sword. But why do you let someone who barely gets the fundamentals of gaming run our guild when you could run it better?”

“I'm fine with playing second.” Clara returned as we got into view of them. They were on the ledge just before the descent to Dracuoatlax's nest. “It's more fun, and Mel hasn't been a bad leader. Even you can't say so.”

“… I guess not.” Jana said sullenly.

“If she did leak it, she probably thought they'd never manage to save him... which either means he's still flying or she underestimated their communication with him...” Merc reasoned out.

“That'd be nuts if you could like call up an NPC with your phone or whatever.” Jana said.

“That'd be way too convenient. I bet their alliance has something to do with it.” Clara noted all too shrewdly.

As their conversation went on, I looked over at Angelfire. I signaled her to attack Jana, and she nodded, and then signaled Anhe to activate an attack and defense aura, which she stealthily obliged me with. With my left hand, I counted down from three, and then we pounced. I took down Clara with that fatal combo-skill, and before the other two could react to that Jana was enveloped in a pillar of flames and then surrounded by a vortex of them, screaming as she fell off the edge down into the depths, leaving Merc by himself. He quickly realized his situation, and took off to head for the depths below.

In my head, I had imagined him to be the easiest to deal with without trickery. But he quickly overturned that assumption by laying down a variety of potions and traps that even I had difficulty navigating as he fled down the descent. Or at least he tried to, anyway. Angelfire put a wall of flame in front of him, and while he tried to dig out a potion to put the fire out I managed to use a stun arrow and then a couple poison ones before retreating into the shadows to use the combo-skill on him. He had just nixed the effects stun arrow when I did so, but by that time, of course, he was down.

We then hurried down to see if there was something left of their machinations here; there were three crates of dragonsbane, rigged to be set off by a flame attack. After searching to see if there was anything else and turning up nothing but the three, I sighed in relief, Anhe patting my back.

“See? We made it!” she declared happily.

“Whew!” Angelfire remarked. “They're not much when you surprise them, except that Merc character. But he wasn't expecting us at all or he might have actually made it.”

“You think?” I wondered.

“Oh I'd bet on it.” she nodded.

“I bet none of them will be taken off their guard again so easily after this,” I said with a laugh, and the other two giggled as well. “But hey... we can use these for your plan tonight, right?” I wondered.

“Hmm...” Angelfire stared at the crates suspiciously. “We can at least get them out of here so your buddy can have his home back.”

“That too.” I nodded as I carefully picked up one of the crates. Anhe used another aura to bolster our strength and agility, and we carried the crates out with ease, using the wayport to meet up with the others in the Southern Plains at a town called Fulwick. We received some strange looks when we returned with the crates, which quickly dissolved into looks of shock or astonishment upon revealing what they were.

“Uhh...” Lizzy half-spluttered out, uncertain of what to say.

“You know that stuff is mad to handle, right?” Dante inquired with a quavering laugh.

“Which is why it would make a good weapon against our enemy, right?” Angelfire said with a fierce grin.

“Ahh...” the other returned halfheartedly.

“Well, it'll definitely make them rethink some things, anyway...” another member of Flamehearts said.

“It's true, it's all true,” a third remarked. “The Silvernight Queens are totally bonkers!”

“We're better off destroying them, to be honest.” Healina then said. “Luckily, even though I can't craft something this high-level, I can still use Alchemical Reversion on them,” she added, bringing up the skill to use it on the contents of the three crates.

“Then maybe we can craft something to fake them out with...” I pondered aloud as our healer dealt with the vials of dragonsbane.

“Now there's an idea.” Dante nodded with approval.

“Hmm...” Ariana gazed thoughtfully at the crates, then smiled at me. “I think I know just the thing!”

***

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

About one in-game hour later, we were lying in wait for the guild called Cedar Kings near Loch Ayre, a small lake southeast of Fulwick. More precisely, we were planning to ambush them near Pine Crossings, a ford that led across the river which fed into the loch from the Marshes of the Wyrd. The enemy guild was apparently going to be coming up from a place called the Fir Vales, heading back for one of their headquarters in the Yucu Jungles. Naturally, Angelfire and her guild did not want that to happen.

Apparently the Fir Vales have a rare kind of tree whose wood is exceptional for high-level mage staffs and the like. From how I understood it, a combination of this wood with some of the ore from the Untold Deeps was going to be used to upgrade some of the weapons that the members of Flamehearts had, including Angelfire's own sword.

I guess we'll need to take a peek at this vale for ourselves sometime in the future, I mused to myself as I kept an eye out.

Pine Crossings was the only spot where the river could be forded, and they were not a guild that enjoyed going out of their way even to be cautious, we were told. They would definitely have numbers on their side, and they might even have another guild backing them up this time. It seemed Angelfire had tried several times before to counter them with help from one of our fellow Aldholt guilds; every attempt had been either stalemated or rebuffed.

“Still... I find it hard to believe that these guys have bested nearly every guild from the Aldholt...” I muttered softly.

“All of the sane ones, at least.” Ariana quipped back quietly.

“Ehh...”

“We might as well embrace it!” she smirked at me.

“Yeahh... I guess so,” I grinned back to her. “Still, that look-alike you and Heali made is spooky. It looks almost exactly like the stuff we saw Venomheart trying to use against Dracuoatlax.”

“I think it's a hue or a shade off myself, but they'll probably second-guess it long enough for us to get some more confusion going,” she nodded in reply.

“Oh for sure.” I said. “The forum rants are not going to be kind tomorrow...” I added with a wry smile.

“Def.” my partner agreed as she returned the look. I felt a soft hand on my shoulder; Myanihia was there when I turned.

“They're near.” the Snow Elf faintly whispered. I turned on Shadow Vision; sure enough, there were about sixty people heading our way.

Raiding party, huh?

“Looks like they're heading right where we want them to,” I murmured.

“I don't see any carts. The wood could be in their mage-storage, I guess...” Ariana said as she scanned them with her Mystic Vision.

“Hrrmm...” I frowned. “I wonder if they're just messing around as a diversion... they've got to know Flamehearts has it out for them by now.”

“That... is true,” Myanihia agreed. “But, Lana--you are, still essential here. Let me, go and see, if there's a secret group,” she said to me.

“Have Fyu take you,” I said to her in turn, and she nodded back. Fortunately, our buddy was in hearing range, and quickly assented to taking Myanihia on her scouting mission. He padded away softly, then broke into a quiet run when they were far enough away.

“Think they'll find something?” Ari asked me.

“I'd almost be surprised if they didn't find something,” I returned.

“Hmm...” she nodded. “We need to get back to running cargo again after we finish the orb quests.”

“Oh for sure,” I said. “Though let's not forget that's going to bring its own new challenges with that alliance of pirates or whatever.”

“Ooh, right,” Ari recalled. “Ah! There they are!” she dropped her voice to a barely audible tone, and I cloaked us in the shadows as she prepared to activate the spell that would release our trickery.

As soon as a fair number of them had gotten a few paces past the traps, she and a couple other mages began setting them off, and our chosen battlefield was soon engulfed in green smoke. Moments later, walls of fire started springing up around the area to try and box in the enemy. Ehh... why does she need *us*, again? I couldn't help but wonder with a bemused look as I witness the forest going ablaze. A second later I heard the sound of flames being extinguished.

“Oh, that's why,” I said, noticing a frost-fall on one edge of the fiery walls.

“Oh, wow, a frost mage,” Ariana remarked.

“I'm gonna go make them an ex-mage for a few minutes,” I said, dashing off with Shadow Speed as Ariana readied her defenses.

“Got it!” she smiled.

I found the mage in question without incident, and quickly took him down. During the next forty seconds or so after that, I slipped in and out of the shadows to take down a few more before returning to Ariana. By that time Angelfire herself was setting up the walls of flame; the force trying to ford the river was diminishing in the chaos we had created. My fellow guild leader came to lean on a tree next to our position, frowning at the flames.

“Some of us have picked up loot already, but none of them have the wood so far...” she said with agitation. “We've been planning this for days! They've got to have it,” Angelfire quietly fumed, lazily tossing a fireball towards a member of Cedar Kings that managed to get out of the flames. He disintegrated with a yelp, and Angelfire sighed as the loot window came up. “Strike five for me...”

“Hrrmm... maybe they really did have a second party carrying the actual wood...” I said.

“Huh?” Angelfire looked over at me, her eyes widening. She looked back towards the walls of flame that she had created, and then angrily raised her sword up to create more as she shouted out her frustration. “Why you rotten, sneaky, little -- uuugghhh, ruuuude!! I'll burn down every freaking tree in that vale day after day from now on just to spite you!! Dirty rats!” she cried out, punctuating every word with a new wall of fire. When she had finished, the entire area ahead of us was literally a large bonfire, and we could hear the panicked cries of the players now trapped or trying to escape the flaming wrath of Angelfire and her guild.

“A-again... w-why did she need us?” I blankly wondered as I stared at the huge fire uncomprehendingly.

“D-dunno,” Ariana replied with a bemused grin.

“Because of the frost mage,” she answered, catching her breath. “That frozen skunk always managed to break our firetraps, even mine. This is the first time we've had a good enough shadow on our side to take him out.”

“Ah-huh...” I slowly nodded. I then noticed a flurry of loot windows opening up near her.

Gyeck!? I inwardly yiped as I counted about twenty before losing track.

“L-leave it to Angelfire,” Ari laughed in an almost timid manner.

“Y-yeah,” I agreed, watching her dismiss each one of them in turn.

“Ugh! Skunks! They really do have another party, don't they?” she griped.

“They did,” Myanihia said as she turned back up. “But, we handled them. And we found, your loot,” she added with the hint of a smile, sending an inventory offer to Angelfire.

“Heh? Whaa--?! Woo! Girl!!” Angelfire nearly pounced on Myanihia, giving her a big hug. Our Snow Elf friend was taken aback, but soon hugged her in return, blushing.

“I-it was, nothing, really...” Myanihia stammered out.

“This is the first reversal we've had on them, ever!” Angelfire beamed with delight as she spun around with Myanihia in her arms.

“H-happy to b-be, of h-help,” our friend shyly replied, and the flame-haired girl set her down.

“Sorry, sorry! I got too excited!” she said with a giggle.

“It's, it's fine!” Myanihia remarked, her cheeks reddening slightly.

“Masters, we should retreat from this position; I smell the forces of our enemy returning to this location, and in greater numbers,” Fyu said to us.

“Right, let's go!” I said, and Angelfire sent up a signal flare to let the others know we were heading away.

We made our way back to Fulwick safely, and after exchanging our goodbyes and promising to send a crate of ore to Flamehearts as soon as we could, we retired to Queens Haven to begin plotting out our next moves for the night. Most of us did, anyway. Lizzy and Lysandra went to scrounge up the ore we needed, and Anhe tagged along with them for support. Myanihia returned to her home on Pirate Isle for the time being, saying that she'd definitely be back to help us on the next actual night of playing.

About two in-world hours later Ariana and I were sitting together near the beach, watching the waves come in and the birds flying overhead. Everything felt still, almost as if we were in a painting. Even the waves seemed to lose their sound as the two of us nearly dozed off together. But at that moment Healina came over to join us, sitting beside us. She tapped Ari on the shoulder, and my partner nudged me.

“Hmm?” I wondered as I became more alert.

“That eight-sided cube Ari had was a weird sort of map. The symbols on its sides were the symbols of the other orbs, but when you write them out in the correct order it reveals a name, courtesy of one of Panarena's ancient languages. That name is the location of the final orb.” our healer told us.

“Hehh...?” I returned with interest.

“You will need the cube to deal with the dungeon, probably,” she continued as she handed it back to Ariana, “And as far as I can tell there's a restriction on how many people can go with you. But the dungeon's location is in Kunlun Province, on the far western side of it.”

“Gyeck!?”

“Ahh...” Ariana and I reacted at the same time, hers being a more bemused one than my red-alert face.

“I know. Guardians' territory.” the Sea Elf girl smiled back at us wryly.

“Hrrmm...”

“How limited would our group be? Actually, why is it limited?” Ariana asked her. I wondered that too, having never found a dungeon in this game with an entry limit on people.

“So the group that can enter the dungeon is limited to three people. When I figured out how to reveal the name, a mysterious scroll appeared in my inventory: there was a really long riddle on it. The wording gave me a real headache,” she said with a painful grin, “But basically it said that with these eight orbs gathered, only one less than half that number can enter the seventh chamber. That means a party of three.”

“Hmm...” Ari pondered with a sigh.

“That's gonna bite.” I remarked.

“Right?” Heali agreed. “That's all I have on my end. I would suggest you two for sure, but I don't know who'd be best to tag along as a third.”

“Not you?” I wondered.

“Ariana has some healing skills, and you barely need them some days. I have my summoning skills, of course, but this place may need more actual attack skills than defense.” she replied.

“Huh.” I returned, and then laid back upon the beach.

“Actually, I wouldn't be too hurt if you decide to switch me with Heali and take Lizzy or Maryn,” Ariana herself said.

“You were the one who got the cube, though; it probably did that for a reason.” Healina remarked.

“But you were the one who figured it out,” my partner returned with a grin.

“I'm sure you would have figured it out, if you weren't distracted.” the other grinned back.

At that moment, I got a notification. It was from Valkrysti. The Wildlands were under attack again from Djaziim and the King-Priests, and it looked like there were a couple of Venomheart members with them. I looked over to Ariana, who had read the message with me, and she nodded, opening up a communication spell. A few moments later we could see Valkrysti herself, along with Reginleif.

“It's bad up here right now. We've already lost two of our bigger fortresses,” Reginleif said as soon as she saw us. “Forget the orbs for now, we just need to drive off the players. That will force Djaziim to retreat as well.”

“What about your sea-ports?” I asked her.

“We're at the northernmost one right now, but we might crack in a moment. Our ships are gathering, and Kiana's coming in with more, but...” she sighed, shaking her head.

Tch! What do we do... even if we were there we'd just fall with them... we're not that great at turning the tide, tonight being an exception... ugh.

“What about the other alliance members?” I said as I stood up.

“Wildeye and his gang are fending off a more massive assault from Guardians just south of the Pine Vales near Paxwiss. And Eothane is fending off a surprise attack at one of his northern holds from Nightkin.”

“Ehh??”

“Ahh--!”

“Oh my!” the three of us reacted at once.

“Even if it's just for spite, we need you.” my fellow guild leader implored me.

Okay. Think quick.

“Would just a few of us do?” I meekly replied.

“Anyone at all, Lana,” she returned with a smile.

“Then I'll have a team coming your way in a few moments.” I said, and she nodded, ending the communication. “Heali, see if anyone from Dreamers is still up and running, and ask if they'll go along. Take Lysandra, Belle, Lizzy and Anhe with you.” I told her.

“You're going west with Maryn, then?” the older girl asked me.

“If Fènghuáng and her Guardians are tied up in the Wildlands instead of their own backyard, then heck yes.” I nodded back.

“Got it.” she replied.

“Oh! Take this also,” I said, searching my inventory for my dragon-beacon and handing it to her.

“Ooh, right! You can use this thing, too!” she smiled delightedly.

“I usually prefer going in person, but yeah, he did give us that,” I grinned.

“That'll even out Djaziim for sure.” Ariana smiled.

“Are you taking Fyu?” Heali asked us.

“At least to the entrance,” I affirmed.

“Oh duh! I never did say what the dungeon was called. Here's the coordinates,” she said as she handed me a scroll. “It's called the Cave of Secrets and Mysteries.”

“Got it.” I said with a nod, and then she headed back to the house to round up the gang and send Maryn our way while we went to see Fyu, who looked up expectantly.

“Masters! Is there more afoot this night?” he asked us.

“For sure, buddy,” I said, kneeling to stroke his ears. “We have to get to the west of Kunlun Province, to these coordinates,” I told him, showing him the scroll. He studied it for a moment, and then blinked.

“This will be no small feat, masters. But I can at least provide one shortcut; there is an ancient conduit near my old home that leads to another south of a city called Xia in that land. Xia is but a few hours of journeying to the Guarding Mountains where this place is hidden. We will have to pass through some trials to get there, but I am confident you will not fail them.” the dogbeast told us.

“What kind of trials?” Ariana asked us as Maryn hurried over to join us.

“There is the Forest of the Tiger-god, Shiar Ghan; he is a creature as ancient as I, and much more prone to the ways of battle and cunning. West of that forest is the River Sh'ang, which should prove no trouble for us, but in the mountains themselves there are rumors of new perils since the time I last visited there. Whispers I heard of ape-men in their heights, who come out at night to terrorize the villages that dare stay in the shadow of the mountains.” he said.

“So nothing too hard for us, then.” I said with a shrug, and the dogbeast grinned back.

“No, masters; but let us be cautious at least of Shiar Ghan. He is no easy beast to overcome, should we have to fight him.” Fyu said in reply.

“Right,” I nodded.

“I'll get the waggon.” Maryn said as I stood back up, and Fyu nodded.

“We shall need it.” he agreed.

While we got ready, I saw Heali and the others heading to the wayport. We exchanged farewells for the time being, and they headed out to a rendezvous in the Wildlands; hopefully others from Dreamers Fables besides Derwydd would join them. I looked to the northeast with a bemused expression for a few moments. G-good luck up there, I almost whispered aloud, and then headed to the waggon. Maryn flicked the reins gently when I got aboard, and Fyu Dongtian took off at a gallop.

***

It felt like ages since we had been in the forest where we had found the dogbeast. Fyu himself slowed down as we got nearer to the Cavern of the Divine Beast, his old home, and began sniffing carefully. Through the ancient trees and bamboo stands I could see birds fluttering about, and at one point we could see a group of pandas idling about in a small clearing. Ari and I smiled to each other as we caught sight of them.

“Aw, cute!” Maryn said with delight when she saw them.

“It is a peaceful forest,” Fyu agreed. He sniffed again, and then more confidently pulled us to the left, heading up a very disused trail to a grove atop a hill. There were three great stones fashioned in the likeness of a doorway here.

“The portal?” I wondered.

“Indeed, Lady Lana,” Fyu replied. “And now!” he said, then unleashed a howl.

A moment later, a shimmering energy filled the space between the stones and the ground, and he pulled us through it. We emerged on the other side in an open clearing. To the south, east, and northeast were grasslands with sparse scatterings of trees; in the distance to the north of us was a great city; and directly west of us was a vast forest, the Forest of the Tiger-god, beyond which we could see the peaks of the Guarding Mountains.

“I shall hurry, masters, but let us not trust to fortune in this wood! Shiar Ghan is, as I have said, a cunning creature well-suited for battle and trickery in battle.” Fyu told us as he began picking up the pace once more.

“We'll be ready,” I returned.

Just then I heard the sound of a horn. Turning my head towards the direction of that sound, the northeast, I saw a few dozen riders sweeping towards us. A few of them held banners in their hands. Guardians?! I nearly spluttered.

“Fyu, hurry! There's another enemy behind us!” I called, and the dogbeast valiantly went to his top speed, keeping the riders behind us at a constant distance.

“How?!” Maryn wondered in shock.

“At least it's a few dozen and not a few hundred.” Ariana quipped.

“That doesn't make me feel better.” the older girl shot back.

“They must have eyes all over the place in this region...” I said. “Though that is some ridiculous 'minutemen' summoning if I do say so myself. They must have been here already when their watchers spotted us.”

“Fènghuáng has definitely been cautious since you smashed her shipyards, for sure,” Maryn said in agreement. “Our battles with her won't end easily.”

“Heh... I doubt we'll find a counter for her namesake, either,” I said with a hopeless grin.

“Hmm? Her namesake?” Maryn wondered.

“Her name means 'phoenix' in Mandarin,” Ariana explained.

“Ahh. Gotcha.” the older girl nodded. “No, I don't suppose we will.” she faintly grinned. “Can't stop them all!”

“I'd kinda like to, but hey.” I shrugged back.

Another horn sounded at that moment, and I saw the mass of riders halting. Their leader shouted something to them; I couldn't tell what he had said, but they turned around and headed back north to Xia. My brow furrowed, and I frowned.

“What does that mean?” Ariana wondered, looking over at me.

“Either we're not worth it, or Fènghuáng wants us to succeed in getting the orbs,” I mused.

“Then let's not disappoint her.” Maryn said, and we returned our attention to our journey as the riders faded into the distance.