“You know, I’ve been thinking,” I said while I watched Stella lurk along the rim of the ravine. Shadows cast by the small cook fire danced over her white and reddish-brown fur. “How do they make those croc-resistant toilets?”

Nora froze with her spoon of Elemental Jill stew (FYI if you catch one of the fire ones the stew gets nice and spicy) half to her mouth. I chewed a spicy chunk of meat as I watched her eyes close and her nostrils flare for the briefest of moments before she dropped her spoon, still filled with stew, back into her makeshift bowl.

“I am a little afraid to ask, but, why?”

I was a little confused by her reaction but I soldiered on. “I would like to have one in our new sanctuary.”

“New… sanctuary. What the hell are you talking about?” she asked.

“I’m sick of all the bullshit that comes with the small pockets of safety. Like at Oliver’s Rest or with the Outsiders. There are always politics and hidden agendas and all sorts of bullshit. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a safe place where we can store all of our stuff? A place we can return to when we have to separate for quests and stuff like that. A place we don’t have to worry about having our throats torn out by monsters while we sleep.”

“That already exists if you don’t mind paying Phlegm a fee.”

“But I do mind! Gold doesn’t grow on trees. Besides, we have better things to spend our money on. Like a brand new shiny axe.”

I couldn’t help but smirk at the glazed-over expression that crossed her face. “Well… a new axe would be nice.”

I opened my mouth to say more but was interrupted by a rumbling snore from Jacob. Both of us whipped around to stare at the boy. I’d fed him the Inferior Potion of Wakefulness hours ago but aside from a little extra flailing activity he had yet to wake. Maybe it hadn’t been strong enough.

“Where would you put this magical sanctuary of yours?” Nora asked after the boy had stopped moving around.

My brain sent me straight back to Percott’s Cattle Farm. It was in the middle of nowhere in a place that was unlikely to attract many Crocs or other monsters that like to lurk about and murder innocent players. Its isolation was as much a detriment as it was a benefit, however. There were no traders around or any access to easy travel.

I stirred the stew in my lap with my spoon. “Maybe Stanthorpe. There’s a Master Smith there and the Red Fox Inn.”

“There’s also a lot of monsters and snakes there,” Nora said.

“You’re right, maybe it's too dangerous.”

“No! I meant that as a good thing. We still need to keep building our levels. A few easy monsters like those silly things will keep us in shape,” she said.

The fact she was getting into the idea was making my random flyaway thought feel a little more real. I was serious about wanting a safe place. It sounds a little silly I guess but I’m sure you’re used to my odd thought processes by now. There were places we could go where we would be safe, but none of them would feel right. It's not like I was trying to build a home or something corny like that. I just wanted a stable base of operations. Pictures of the ramshackle fort Rory and I had built down by the creek came to mind. It was where we would go when things got a little too dangerous at home. Where we should have gone that night when the storm rolled in.

I shook my head to banish the memories and picked my bowl back up, downing the spicy stew with renewed vigor.

“How would we keep it safe when we’re all out?” Nora asked.

“Look, I haven’t figured it all out yet. We can’t do it until we figure out the toilet thing anyway. I don’t know about you, but it’s kind of an important fixture for me.”

“No kidding,” Nora grumbled picking up her spoon again. “There are like three different kinds of beans in this thing.”

I glared at her. “Didn’t hear you complaining when we raided that storehouse and found the tinned food.”

“Still not so sure why you got so excited about the beans. There were all kinds of fruit and soup in there,” Nora said.

“Beans are good for you. Stop complaining.”

“I’m not complaining, you’re complaining,” she mumbled under her breath.

I ignored her as I scraped the last of the stew gravy into my mouth and tossed my bowl aside. Don’t judge me too hard, it was literally a stumpy branch with a deep divot in it. It belonged in nature.

Stella’s growl had me looking up again. She was still crouched by the edge of the ravine, staring into the darkness down below. The hair on her neck and back were raised in stiff wiry threads. I stood, carefully rounding the fire and drawing my sword in one smooth practiced motion.

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Nora stood along with me. Her feet were spread wide in a warrior's iron stance but her grasping hands were empty. Well, they were until she grabbed a still flaming branch from the fire.

“What is it girl,” I asked quietly, eyeing the darkness the way the dog was.

Unfortunately for me, whatever she could see or smell was not visible to me. I focused on my Blindsense skill and still nothing was there. I was beginning to wonder if this skill was even worth it.

“What is it?” Nora asked.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

Stella stood up and snarled again, her tail smacking against my legs as it was flinging from side to side. A faint green dot appeared at the very edge of my vision. I let out the breath I was holding in and slid my blade back into its sheath.

“What are you doing?” Nora asked me.

“Whatever it is, it’s a friend,” I said, returning to the stump I had been sitting on beside Jacob.

I nudged the kid with the tip of my boot but all he did was roll onto his side and stick a hand under his head as a pillow. He looked ridiculously comfortable which was just incredibly unfair. You know the world is messed up when you’re envying a drugged youngster.

“How the hell can you be so chill about this?” Nora demanded from her place between me in Stella. She was still holding her burning stick and seemed unsure of which direction to go in.

“I have a skill. It shows me friends and foes within a given range. Whatever is in the ravine is given off a green aura so we’re all good.” The way Nora was looking at me was making me shift uncomfortably on my stump so I added, “I’m not crazy.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Sit down. Whoever it is they’re moving slowly so we’ve got some time. Stella, come over here.”

The dog let out a disgruntled huff and trotted over to lay beside the fire. Her ears were still perked up as she continued to look longingly at the deep ravine. I bent down and scratched her head but she was uninterested in my attention.

Nora shoved her burning stick back into the fire and sat on the edge of her seat. Her hands gripping her knees so tightly her knuckles had turned white.

I opened my bum bag and pulled out an apple still hungry after the stew. You’d think I would be used to a bit of hunger by now but sometimes the urge to eat was overpowering. Even when my health was entirely full and by all rights I should have been satisfied. I kept an eye on the green aura, watching as it steadily grew into a larger ball of friendly energy.

“So, this skill of yours. How far can you see?”

“I don’t really ‘see’. It’s more like a feeling. So far it’s been reliable. There was only one time I questioned it. I think. I wasn’t exactly keeping track.”

Nora slapped her knees and folded her arms over her chest. One of her legs started to bounce up and down rapidly. “None of my skills are like that. They are all focused on how to use my axe better. Oh, that’s not exactly true. I also have something called Tough Skin, that’s been useful.”

I dipped and plucked a pointed stick off the ground. The urge to poke her was a strong one but I resisted it if only to spare my fingers from being broken one by one.

“I guess that’s the difference between a warrior and a thief, yours are all about attacking and mine are about avoiding it,” I said.

“What else can you do?” she asked.

“Oh, I’ve got a good one, watch this.”

I stuck my fingers into the shadows behind my stump and swirled my fingers around before pulling them back. The glob of shadow was there. It morphed into two smaller globs, one balanced atop the other on what might have qualified as a neck, and tilted one of them like a dog might when offered a treat.

Nora squealed and fell off the stump backward. I was too busy being impressed by the sudden backward somersault to laugh my ass off.

“Is that another one of those damn Tentarats?” she bellowed.

Boopzy let out an outraged cry from his place on Sob’s head a few meters away.

“No, it’s not, and stop being so rude to Boopzy. He already has to stay all the way over there because you don’t like him very much.”

Nora glared at me and gestured aggressively as she snapped, “It is a rat that has mated with an octopus. It is not right.”

“I’m pretty sure it has more to do with Melumek mutating, well, everything, and less to do with interspecies breeding.”

“But you can’t be sure,” she scowled through her teeth. “If it isn’t a rat thing, what is it?”

“It’s a shadow. I haven’t named it yet but it comes in handy a lot. It’s like a little lookout I can send into dangerous places.”

The shadow glob shrunk in on itself and began to tremble in my hand. I glared at it, trying to ignore the ball of guilt burning inside me.

“I think you upset it,” Nora said as if it wasn’t obvious.

“I was only joking,” I lied.

Stella growled and from behind us back near Sob Frank screamed, “Shut the hell up!”

I spun in place, flashing up my Blindsense with little more than a thought. The green aura was slowly moving up the wall toward us. Whatever, or whoever, it was had finally arrived.

Stella howled and bolted for the edge. I stiffened even though I knew we weren’t in danger. I still didn’t like not knowing who was approaching in the middle of the night. I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of unplanned guests. I like a little warning here and there to get things ready.

A spindly leg followed by seven more slipped over the rim of the ravine. A bulbous body reared eight feet into the air. I bellowed and yanked my sword out again despite the pulsing green aura I felt from the beast.

“Howdy folks,” the beast said. “Long time no see!”

I blinked and dropped my hand as the flickering light of the fire lit up the man's bare torso with a head full of flaming curls. His green eyes glimmered as he looked down at us from his towering height. The small golden coin icon danced and bounced around the spider monster.

Nora ran up beside me with a big grin lighting up her face. “Red, it’s you!”

Red smiled and swung his arms out wide as he stepped closer to us. “It’s me.”