The room was silent as they all waited to hear Stalida's response to Lu's question- if she would travel through the rifts again. "Yes." It was a simple answer, an answer that Lu could tell her father was not expecting at all.

"You would leave all of us again, to live in another universe?" He asked her again to make sure he heard her right.

"Yes. Lu wouldn't you go?" Stalida looked over at her great granddaughter with a curious look on her face.

Lu was hesitant to answer but she did, "Yes. Adventure, magic, strange creatures, it's all a fantasy and I want to live it."

"I can't believe the both of you. What is wrong with this universe? The one where both of your families live?"

"It's boring." Lu simply put it. "Nothing really happens out of the ordinary anymore."

"She's not wrong Daniel. I have spent the last twenty years within these walls. The last time I saw the sky and felt the warmth of the air on my skin was when I was ninety years old. And that was when you were dragging me in here."

"Would you adventure into another universe dad?"

Her father thought about it for a moment, "No, I love your mother. Not to mention, my brother and sister."

Silence fell once more. This time lasting longer than the last.

Lu cleared her throat, "Nana, could you tell me more about the clan?" She asked in hopes to recover from the awkward silence.

Stalida nodded, "The clan was of at least thirty goblins at a given time. We did have a hierarchy of sorts. Tut-Man and I as king and queen, then the elders, then the teenage group, then the babies. It seemed just about like every day we were loosing one of our own. Rather it was due to personal fighting or something had gotten ahold of one of us."

"Tut-Man had me primarily stay in the den to watch over the clan as he went out on hunts with his men. I didn't mind that as I often found myself dealing with personal fighting. I admired that he gave me such a roll, with only being with the clan for a few years. It shown that he truly trusted me despite me coming to them as a human. That man, or monster as some would call him, truly loved me. Despite his own strange way of showing it."

Daniel shook his head, "that is the one thing I can not wrap my head around. You loving a monster."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"He was unique. Something I had never seen before and the thrill of being with them, well it's complicated."

"I'll say."

"What did you admire the most Nana?"

Stalida smiled softly, "Well, that's simple. It was how he treated me. Even for a monster, he treated me better than my own family did."

"What do you mean by that?" Daniel asked.

"That is self explanatory I feel like, though if I must. Being the middle child, I never got the attention I desired. My brother Mavrik picked on me constantly, and Novak, well, he looked up to me. Our family was also not the richest in the world, so we had little. Part of me figured, if I jumped through the rift, they would be able to have a better life as they would not have to worry about me. I thought I was doing my family a favor. That I wouldn't be missed because I didn't feel like I was loved at all."

"Well, you were wrong on that one Stalida."

"I figured that out after Mavrik pulled me back through the rift Daniel. I felt horrible for a few years after I got back. My parents, they died due to sickness. Novak told me that. Mavrik died trying to save me, that I knew. I never got closure with my family and they never got closure themselves. I felt guilty once I got back and still do."

Stalida looked upset. Lu was trying to figure out how to change the topic of conversation but her father just keep pressing the same topic at hand. "Then why would you go through the portal with you feeling this guilty about leaving in the first place?"

"Nothing has changed with how my family views me. The only one that seems to love me is Lu."

"That's not true." Daniel tried to protest.

"You don't even call me grandma."

Lu's father didn't even acknowledge her comment he just went silent instead.

"Enough of that." Lu said, "Nana, could you tell me more about the rifts?"

Stalida nodded. “Novak told me that after I left him and Mavrik started searching right away. He told me that Mavrik went crazy in trying to find me as both brothers witnessed me stepping through the rift. Novak studied while Mavrik searched for rifts throughout the city.”

“Eventually they found the right one. They jumped through countless portals, into so many worlds, it was unreal.”

“How many did they go through?”

The more Stalida told, the more Lu became even more curious. The more she told, the more Daniel grew anxious. As he knew that his daughter will want to explore these worlds if given the chance. At least one thing he knew for sure, if his daughter ever explored these other universe, he had something he could give her when they got home. Something that would help her.

“Mavrik went through fifteen different rifts. Novak ten. At least that is what Novak told me.”

Lu watched as Stalida’s eyes drifted between the two of them. Lu knew her father was irritated with how the talk was going. However, Lu was excited, as that meant there were at least fifteen different worlds out there. Worlds that she wanted to explore.

After another hour of visiting with Stalida her father decided it was time to leave and head back home. To which, as soon as they got home Lu's father went into his office and shut his door. Lu didn't know what to say to him, so she just left him be and went up to her room and began typing out her great grandma's story.