The Next Day, A farm beside The Whales’ Rented Farm House

A small group of horned rabbits were making their way down a farm field, digging up for root crops. One rabbit stood up on its hind legs on the lookout for farmers, the sight of three tixi mice happily munching on some green carrots gave them courage to do their own digging.

Satisfied, the lookout rabbit started pawing the ground. A shriek of pain sounded out from the group, then another. In panic, the lookout rabbit started jumping out of the way, as it bounded in the air, it saw that all of its companions had been shot with something, a hole or two on the body or head. As it sailed through the air it felt something break in its ribs and it tumbled down to the ground in a painful thud. Drawing its last breath the last it saw was one of the tixi mice, holding a knife as it approached, squeaking happily as if singing a song. The dog-sized mouse flipped the rabbit on its back and quickly put it out of its misery by slitting its throat.

Charles deftly swung his knife, shaking off the blood from the rabbit before picking it up. As he did, he sniffed the air and let out a few curious squeaks at nothing in particular. A few more squeaks came in response from the bushes ahead. Quietly reaching for his pistol behind him, the mouse let off another few squeaks and a few gold-colored Tixi Mice hesitantly waddled out of the bushes. Setting the safety latch back on. Charles assumed a more natural pose for a Tixi Mouse when standing on its hind legs, slowly he approached the new mice. Bruxing rapidly, Charles undid his pack and offered some cookies to the gold mice, who came closer, he ate one to show it was alright. Emboldened, the newcomers approached. After some perfunctory sniffing and squeaking, he turned back and squeaked at Eli and Brody who came over to make their greetings.

Hidden in the foliage of a tree, Ralph quietly clicked on the safety of his sniper rifle and sat up. He touched his earpiece and made a series of squeaks.

“Thank you Saber!” The elderly farmer said, paying the mice some coins. The mice happily waddled over and gave the farmer a hug before carrying the rabbits back to the Whale’s rented farm house for dressing. As they filed along he had a confused look in his face as he counted fifteen happily squeaking mice instead of eleven.

“Do I count fifteen mice?” Ingrid said as the Tixi Mice filed into the bath and started cleaning themselves.

“Fifteen.” Viel said, sighing as she soaked in the hot tub with Ingrid, Iohann, and Siria.

“There’s golden mice now.” Iohann said, they looked hesitant at first but soon joined the mice in washing, soaping and scrubbing each other, making chirping sounds as they lathered up and rinsed, before joining the girls in the tub.

“Sooo many mice!” Viel giggled as the big intelligent rodents crammed themselves in the tub, squeaking happily. It reminded Ingrid of that zoo in Japan that had capybaras.

“Ingrid at this rate, you’re gonna have a hundred mice.” Siria remarked.

“That would be great…” Ingrid murmured happily, cuddling one of the newcomers, who sniffed then licked her face, causing her to giggle.

“Well at the very least they hunt and feed themselves.” Siria remarked.

“Correction, they’re feeding us.” Ingrid said. “They’ve had a run of the farmhouse ever since Kaguya came here. Everything we’ve eaten since then was made by mice.”

The mice finished their soak before the girls did and they left the bath, shaking themselves dry and toweling off. The gold mice followed the others into the kitchen where they were given some dried sausages which they ate with gusto. Strangely enough, the other mice seemed uninterested, to their surprise one of the white mice started a fire and started cooking their portions while the other mice started chopping up various plants and meat.

“Ingrid, what have you done?” Siria said jokingly as the gold mice are introduced to fire and tools by the other mice.

“I am Prometheus, and I have given man fire.”

“Prometheus?” Viel asked.

“Oh, it’s a popular legend in my world. He was like a god that taught men how to use fire and tools, despite it being against the law of the other gods.” Ingrid explained.

“Ohhh, you mean like that Prime Directive thing Arek mentioned.” Siria said. Ingrid nodded.

“Something like that.”

As the girls finished with their bath they later stepped out to watch as the golden mice saw the newly hunted rabbits get turned from raw meat into patties, and the skin and fur being expertly removed that there wasn’t a blood stain on the white mouse’s fur.

“Poor gold mice, they’ll never be able to eat raw meat ever again.” Viel giggled as they crowded the stove and watched as the rabbit meat and onions caramelized, assuming a much more delicious aroma. One of the mice, which had been nibbling on the piece of raw rabbit, spat it out.

Siria looked up at the ceiling rafters. Every single dried, salted, and smoked meat product was done by the mice. Another batch was inside a barrel, buried in salt and spices, and outside a smoke house was being tended by mousy paws every hour to keep it going.

It didn’t take long and the golden mice were getting to work with knives and cleavers, the sight and smells of cooked food had driven them to start processing the raw materials into something more delicious.

Siria then took her early lunch before heading to the city to make the proper formalities as well as finish up her business with the Dismantling Houses.

___

Cecil's Room, a few hours later:

"I'm going to reserve this fancy trophy case for all the magic artifacts now." Cecil said after Viel was able to identify the fancy football-shaped gem. It now rested beside the Totem which generated minor healing pulses as well as portal manipulation. It turns out that the gem was an artifact that doubled yields. The effect however lasted only once but it was far from a paperweight as it affected any container brought in.

As result, it generated duplicates of the consumables they placed in the room, which included, ammunition, grenades, and even food, which Cecil now had to bring out and place into Kaguya's own fridge storage.

The gem was also the reason why the door opened. It opened to a covered roof deck, with an area double that of the bedroom. Interestingly, the door leading back to the bedroom was connected to a structure too small for it. The domed vaulted ceiling was supported by a series of six columns that reminded Cecil of a combination of Greek and Egyptian aesthetics.

For whatever reason, the sun in this room shone directly overhead and like the bedroom, a nice cool breeze was wafting through the room at all times.

Arek, peering into the roofdeck, then said "Wanna talk RPG's?"

Cecil replied with "We're living in one!" causing Arek to chuckle.

"No, I mean RPG-7. Rocket-Propelled Grenades, your roofdeck now gives you all the space you need for recoilless guns."

Cecil looked at him wide-eyed. "You have those?"

"Not exactly" his mandible chittered a bit. "But we got Kaguya, we got dwarves, it shouldn't be too hard to make those. What do you think, Ingrid?"

Ingrid giggled "We're using RPG's in an RPG. Sure!."

Siria looked up at them. "I'm guessing it's an explosive weapon, but why wait until Cecil has a much larger room?"

"The backdraft" Ingrid replied. "It generates enough force to blow someone's head off. "using that in close quarters is suicidal. Let's go, Arek!"

Arek then picked up his bags and prepared to head out to make an order. Ingrid followed him and they talked along the way, discussing something about tactics regarding these new weapons.

Cecil and the mice began organizing the roofdeck, moving all the ammunition and adventuring supplies and designating it as the Battle Deck i.e a roof deck which now serves as Iroquois’ battle station, even the gold mice joined in, something that the other mice squeaked to them had impressed to them the importance of not touching anything unnecessary. Perhaps the experience of handling fires and blades in the kitchen had instilled this lesson to them.

"Kiowa, put your weapons to the sides, You four will be handling the RPG-7's" Cecil directed them. "The backdraft can ignite the ammunition so don't put anything behind you." The Kiowa team squeaked in assent. Meanwhile the new gold mice, seeing Cecil as the alpha of this domain, gave him a deferential kneading, who let out a pleased sound.

“Ingriiiiid your mice are multiplyiiiiing!” but he didn’t sound displeased at all.

Later that day, when the mice brought in their ammunition parts fresh from the shops, each box grew a duplicate, prompting Cecil, Arek and Ingrid to later help with the assembly process. But even more interestingly, after assembling these bullets and placing them back in. It too doubled in quantity.

"Quadruple yields." Ingrid said. "At this rate we're going to have more bullets than metal balls."

The surplus of the bullets emboldened the team to try out the enchanted drum mags, but found that they still carried only 400 rounds. Siria would later postulate that this was probably the result of conflicting magic spells. But what the team did notice however, was that every other ordinary magazine would double its capacity and would still carry on even if the mouse exited the portal. That said, jumping back to Cecil's room would not cause it to double again.

By the time Cecil was done with rearranging his rooms, the UGV tank was brought up by Kaguya from an automated workshop below. Ingrid, Cecil, Iohann, Viel, and the mice were looking at what was once the UGV. It was now much smaller and lacking the armaments it came with.

“The long and short of it is.” Arek began. “The weapons are complete duds, that explains why it was sold to me for cheap. A lot of the mechanical components were poorly made and the programming was outright terrible in quite a few places.”

“Meaning?” Iohann asked. One of the gold mice shyly approached her and she gently pulled it in like a hug. It chirped and sniffed her.

“The construct’s guns don’t work, they lack the actual mechanisms to shoot.The ‘magic’ in a manner of speaking, to control the construct was poorly done. Even if Arek activated it, there was a very low chance it could even work at all, much less properly.” Cecil answered. Looking at Arek he then asked “I’m guessing Kaguya fixed it?”

“Of course! I’m no programming wiz.” Arek said. His lower arms were absent-mindedly petting mice that came close. “The good news is that at least it won’t narc on us. It’s free of viruses and spyware.”

“What’s that mean?” Viel said as she did her signature head tilt, then giggled as her golden mouse nuzzled her ear.

“The construct runs on a set of rules we call programming.” came Ingrid’s reply. She was hugging one of the mice as she sat on a divan and the rest were jostling each other for a turn. After they think a mouse has had enough hugs from Ingrid they push him away for another take take his place “Think of it as the magic that governs how it behaves itself. Because Arek bought this off the black market, there was a chance it may contain malicious programs that could bring us harm, for example, it could be spying on us, or summon evil devil pigs to kill the good people of Teth-Odin, or it bring harm to Kaguya directly. Sort of like a curse.” Ingrid let out a squeal of pleasure as the mice decided to just hug her all at once.

“Exactly.” Kaguya added “It took me several days to carefully check its systems without damaging my own. The reason this UGV is now much smaller is because Arek and I have excised all the unnecessary parts. I have also completely rewritten the programming, so what you have now is a robot spider with me controlling it.” as she said that, she had the spider do a silly little dance.

With all the unnecessary parts excised, the UGV’s body was squarish in shape, a foot in a half tall and wide. The legs were set in the corners of the body and when fully stretched out reached about three and a half feet long. The legs’ final segment was the longest and could be switched to either feet or tread-like wheels. There didn’t seem to be any obvious camera or sensors along Spider-Kaguya’s body but Ingrid and Cecil were sure she probably had close to 360 vision all around her.

“So here’s my proposed idea for Kaguya’s role in our party.” Arek said. “She can take over the porter role, leaving me free for gun duty. In addition, she can also control multiple drones to act as spotters. What do you think?”

Ingrid pondered for a while “Carry some extras just in case the spider goes offline. But apart from that, sure. You’ll be guarding the center along with Siria.”

“Actually, even if the spider goes offline, I can still carry the equipment, it will only take a few seconds. Kaguya’s ability to handle drones will give us better overall vision. Of course, Cecil and I can still carry our tablets with us for redundancies.”

“No skin off my back.” Cecil said. “Our caddies got convenient out-of-the-way mounts for the tablets anyway.” he was referring to the custom-made caddies that were mounted atop each portal. It worked by making use of the forcefield that was present on both portals’ “wrong side.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The mice on the other hand were sniffing the spider bot, squeaking excitedly among themselves. “In that case, Iroquois will be anchored to Kaguya and not Arek when we move as a party.” Cecil said.

“I guess that means I need to bug Siria later to get my guns upgraded.” Arek remarked.

“Don’t you already have a 400-round magazine?” Ingrid asked. Arek nodded and then said.

“400 round magazine and the lightening enchantments yes, but not the extra oomph that the 189 have, mine still hits like a regular SCAR.”

“Scar?” Iohann asked.

“That’s the type of gun Arek and our mice on the ground use. Arek planned to sell them to people from beyond the stars due to their peculiar history in our world.” Ingrid explained. “It was quickly introduced to my country’s soldiers and it saw widespread use, and that exposed its fatal flaw. It had a rather high tendency to malfunction at certain points. Arek of course has made adjustments so that won’t happen anymore.”

Arek nodded, indicating she got her history right.

“Very well, I’ll talk to Siria about it.” she said. “We’re in no hurry to leave Teth-Odin. Kaguya, how’s your fuel?”

It took Kaguya a few moments to speak as she was running calculations. “The bigger soulstones and magic items you’ve generously provided will grant us a couple of round trips between Teth-Odin and Fairhaven.”

“That’s good.” Ingrid nodded “If we need to resupply or before a week’s up, we can return to Teth-Odin, so farmer Dax can let us keep our rented space. Now all that’s left is for us to top up our supplies and deal with the red tape.”

“Red tape?” the cat girl asked.

“Dumb boring paperwork the people at the guild do.” Arek replied.

Meanwhile, Jormungandr Guild Hall:

While Cecil got started with working on his room, Siria had gone to the Guild Hall to inform them of the team’s next itinerary. It was a formality as well as a way to let anyone who needed to reach them know where they were.

“Freehaven?” The receptionist asked, her head plumage flared in recognition and looked at Siria. “If you’re interested there’s something you’d want to see.” clucking, she ducked under her desk and rummaged through some documents.

“So there was something!” Siria said, leaning over.”Our cleric, Iohann, she’s from there. She was sort of suggesting some kind of criminal activity.”

“And there is! Present participle.” the receptionist said, clucking. She laid a few reports dating back a few months. “We’ve been so busy with the current monster explosion that we didn’t have time to post these on the board, but now that you mentioned it・here you go.”

Siria’s face darkened with anger when she saw the reports.

“Something personal, Siria?” the bird reception clucked.

Siria took a minute to compose herself. “Yes, quite personal.”

Meanwhile, Teth-Odin Dungeon, Level Three:

Kinu, Kvaris, and Sammy were temporarily signed up with The Shadow Blades. This was the group that initially adopted Selphie as a hanger-on. The trio’s apport rings and wands of duality had given them such a rush that they posted themselves for combat duty and the Shadow Blades hired them.

Sammy’s ability to switch between a greatsword and a halberd seemed redundant at first but the ability to make use of both nuances as well having Guardian Swords to follow up with her attacks made her an unstoppable attacker where there was no hope in interrupting or countering her strikes.

Meanwhile, the kobolds charged with multiple spear strikes from a distance, the apport rings allowed them to summon and unsummon their spears at will, allowing each strike to not only take advantage of their momentum for a full-powered thrust, but also allowing them to quickly and easily position their hand for another optimal position to strike.

Approaching mid-range, they used their apport rings to switch to their two-handed flails. These long-handled enchanted flails manipulated their weight, making themselves extremely lightweight and able to be wielded one-handed. When striking it rapidly increases mass. The result was a blur of white-blue steel as the spiky striking heads were rapidly whirled.

Approaching even closer, the kobolds switched to their bastard swords. The wand of duality was installed on these swords, which allowed them to switch between flails and swords. Another wand of duality was used on their shields which depending on the occasion they used to switch to a second sword, allowing the kobolds to use two at once.

After briefly engaging in close up combat with swords, the kobolds would leap back and swing their flails, striking many in the process before using their spears to further push themselves back as the long weapons embedded themselves onto an opponent’s body.

The two brothers worked in tandem, as one charged the other supported with spears, thrown axes and swords.

"They're losing ground! Let's go!" Kinu yelled in exhiliration. He leapt upwards, his ascent covered by Kvaris' rapid-fire spear assault, preventing any of the bugbears from halting his advance. Kinu's swung his flail downwards, obliterating the head of the bugbear in front of him. As he landed, he swung his flail at a wide arc, aiming at the knees. Simultaenously, Kvaris leapt and swung his flail in the opposite direction, smashing all of the bugbear faces in front of him. The two leapt back as the row in front of them collapsed. Kvaris continuned to smash at the legs of the next row, with Kinu providing support with his spear.

On the other side, Sammy's ability to switch between two highly specialized weapons combined with her guardian swords made getting close to her impossible. It didn't take them long and they were able to make it to the Level Three Vault.

"These are greatshield charms, it's attached to an existing shield. When blocking with your shield it will bring up a greatshield to take the brunt of the damage for you. If the shield breaks, it will restore itself the next day." the mage explained. Kinu and Kvaris tied these charms to their shields quickly. They looked like medallions held up with styled braided rope, with decorative beads that held small channeling stones.

For Sammy, she found a Tusk Boar Hide's Talisman of Protection. Unlike the shield charm, this was attached to her armor. It was like wearing a full-body suit of bulk tusk boar hide, granting her excellent armor against slashing, decent protection against piercing attacks, and a good cushion against bludgeoning impact. The advantage was that she wasn't encumbered. The talisman lasted for an hour of continuous hits; afterwards it required an hour of not taking any hits in order to restore itself.

"What are these?" Kinu said, picking up what looked like a dangling charm. It looked like a little club that came with a very long lanyard. The mage came over and after casting an identify spell identified it as a "Companion Rogue's Shillelagh"

"A companion-what?" Kvaris asked.

"Wear this on a weapon you're most at home / Strike Switft and True / and your Shillelagh will smash their bones." The mage said.

"Oh" Sammy said. "That probably works like my guardian sword."

The kobolds took one each as well as a third for the mice. There were more which was probably made for one party to take advantage of.

"You'll need to designate a weapon, see what's inside." The mage said. Checking the charm, they focused their mana and held out their hand below it as if to grasp something. They pulled out a basic-looking club.

"Let's get something better." Kvaris said, together he and Kinu started looking over the pile for a better weapon.

"Blunt weapons only!" The mage said. The brothers selected heavy war-hammers that didn't have any enchantments on them and registered these to the little charms. Two of these charms then went to their spears.

"Why on your spears?" Sammy asked, thinking it would be better to double dip on their flails.

"Extra stopping power." Kinu said. "An extra hammer blow to the head or legs will bring them down."

"A good point" The Shadow Blades' mage said.

Spaceship Kaguya, Later that Evening.

Kvaris gave the mice the Rogue's Shillelagh charm. After explaining how it worked, the mice quickly scrambled to form the Iroquois team. Cecil brought the Dialogue Window outside to check and true enough, once Eli attached the charm to his pellet gun, all of the mice's shots generated a hammer that smashed hard against the first thing it hit. It didn't apply to extra targets but still, the hammer swung with extra force, which could be helpful against extra tough enemies.

After applying the enchantments to Arek's gun so it was now on parity with the 189, Siria then convened with Iohann and Ingrid regarding her findings with the Jormungandr Guild.

Ingrid predictably was hugging the four gold tixi mice; who in turn smushed Ingrid's cheeks affectionately.

"A crime syndicate in the Koltz Mountains near Fairhaven?" Ingrid said, her voice slightly muffled as the mice played with her face, she responded by playfully ruffling their fur. "Sounds like a job for us then."

"It's only a rumor though." Siria said, patting the mice as they came close, they responded by making a genteel squeaking sound and hugging her.

"Not a rumor." Iohann told them, cuddling one mouse that got too close, it squeaked happily."One of the reasons I left Fairhaven was to avoid the syndicate's attention. They're not like what you'd hear in stories of them terrorizing people on the regular. Most of the ill-gotten gains are done quietly, they just go to the people who actually get the lots of money and extort it from them. Nothing like you'd see in a theater where they openly mug poor people on the street for their paltry gains. Everyone knows in that mining town that nearly half of what they get from those mines are sold to crime syndicates cheaply, and sometimes just given as tribute."

"What's the plan then?" Siria asked, scratching her mouse' belly."We can't just get into town and say we're going to war with them."

Ingrid thought for a bit as she ran her hands up and down her mouse's fluffy back. "We'll just come in as tourists, pretending we've come to rest after a long journey. They probably wouldn't resist trying to get some tribute from us if we looked like a well-off party. We'll land in some forest near Fairhaven, and use a wagon to travel the next mile over."

___

Next Morning:

Saber and Calico were teaching the newcomers how to use guns.

“Well bad news…” Arek said, “the rest of the SCARs aren’t modified yet for full-auto.”

“Why not?” Siria asked, finding it strange that a weapon would lack such an important feature.

“Some dumb laws when it comes to non-soldier use.” Ingrid replied matter-of-factly. “Shouldn’t be too hard to fix now, should it?”

Arek nodded “No it shouldn’t but…the AK’s are done with maintenance, so Kiowa can use them for their battle rifles. The M-14’s can go to Gold’s use.” He pointed at the Gold mice who seemed to prefer their semi-auto firing mode over the M-16’s.

Realizing this, Siria smiled “But of course! Gold mice are a really cautious bunch! It extended to their sense of preserving ammunition, how could I have not seen this?” She laughed to herself.

“EBR’s!” Cecil said. He scurried over to the Battle Deck and produced four of them.

“Oh right!” Arek said, “I totally forgot about those!”

“What’s an Ee-Bee-Arr?” Siria asked.

“It’s basically the same as those wooden M-14 rifles but designed to be easier to handle with its pistol grip and shorter design.” Arek explained “I got them due to their novelty for being an ancient weapon with a new coat of paint.”

“Coat of paint?” Siria raised an eyebrow as Cecil brought one out. This looked more modern than what the other mice were using “it’s a Grudge Bearer in a new suit of armor! You literally took the guts out of an old M-14 and put it into a new shell!” She hefted one and despite being weighty, its improved grips made it much easier to handle.

After some testing by the mice, Gold then agreed to take the EBR as their weapon of choice. With that, Ingrid, Siria, and Viel then headed over to the city to begin retrofitting the EBR’s as well as getting the new mice matching armor and equipment. All the mice came along as well in order to get their last batch of ammunition parts.

“It’s a shame they can’t use their power to make a clone holding a gun too.” Ingrid said as they made their way through the busy streets.

“At the very least they can make use of the glaives.” Siria said. “That will be very helpful in battle.”

“Ummm… will the mice get hurt if their clones take damage?” Siria shook her head.

“Golden Tixi Mice in the wild use it to escape predators as well as safely take down prey.” Viel explained. “Have you given a name for them yet?”

“Gold” Ingrid answered quickly “...Individually they are Gerard, Oliver, Lionel, and Darryl.”

The receptionist nodded and wrote down the names.

"Golden Tixi Mice are also known as the Fool's Gold." The Jormungandr receptionist informed her.

"How so?" Siria asked.

"They're called that because if you think you're looking at a gold Ateroskar, you're looking at it's double." came the receptionist’s answer, stifling a giggle as one of the gold mice playfully nibbled on Ingrid’s ear.

Unlike the other Tixi Mice, Gold had the ability to create a clone of itself. It could not clone whatever equipment it was carrying, but it did get to use the Apport Ring nonetheless. The other limitation they would learn later that day was that the mice couldn't use their ability while inside Cecil's room.

For now, Ingrid took them to Bvalinn’s to equip them with identical lamellar armor and helmets as with the rest of the mice, as well as brooches. At the market, she got them matching scarves and backpacks.

It was around this time that the party bumped into Selphie and Cassie. Like Sammy, Kinu, and Kvaris, she was also doing some low to mid-level missions but on the outdoors such as gathering herbs (to also help with her floramancy) as well as helping deal with nuisance animals.

“My dreams for making a wood golem are still as unrealistic as going to the moon.” Selphie sighed, but her antler-like head branches were not more vibrant that ever and she sported more flowers on her body. Ingrid gave her an affectionate hug.

“Don’t rush it. You’ll find your new magic when the time is right.”

___

Three days later, The Whales had all gathered inside the spaceship. All their belongings in the farm house had been transferred to Kaguya’s storage, all the meat and homesteading products as well, all outstanding orders had been completed, and all formalities taken care of.

Kaguya raised her ramp one last time for probably the next week or so.

“Engaging Anti-Grav systems.” She said, The floor below them turned into a view of the ground below, with numbers and diagrams showing the distance from the ground. Gently, Kaguya lifted off. To Ingrid, it felt like she was taking an elevator ride up. Some made sounds of surprise and fright as they saw the ground leave them. Sammy held onto Viel tightly although her feet felt the ship’s floor.

“Take us to Fairhaven, Kaguya!” Arek said grandly.

“Engaging boosters!” Kaguya announced. Everyone but the earthlings marveled as they traveled across the sky. Cassie too was strangely unmoved though him being a bird probably had something to do with it.

“Are you recording the ground below us, Kaguya?” Siria asked. At this point, Kaguya now understood everyone.

“Yes, Siria, A map will be printed out for everyone once we complete our landing.” She replied.

Iohann frowned as she beheld a ravine “the bridge…is gone.”

“Huh” Ingrid sighed. “How would one go to Teth-Odin then?”

“There’s always the Valley of Dews. We could claim we will pass there if anyone asks.” Iohann replied. “But still, that bridge is pretty sturdy, someone like Ingrid would need to hit that for it to collapse.”

The trip to get within a mile of Fairhaven was over in a few minutes. Kaguya selected a convenient clearing to land in and everyone disembarked. Rather than catch attention by setting a round perimeter of sticks and ropes, Ingrid merely planted two rods on the ground where the ramp was to serve as a marker.

Everyone was already set in their adventuring gear. Selphie started to cast a spell, while Cecil opened up a large portal from his room. Out rolled a large comfy-looking wagon, pushed by the mice. Ingrid hurried over and pulled it out of the room, at the same time Selphie then finished her spell and created an Oak Bull. It was a wood golem in the shape of a beast of burden. Rather than needing ropes, the Oak Bull extended tendrils around the two prongs of the wagon.

“All aboard!” Ingrid said. She, Iohann, and Selphie would drive the bull towards Fairhaven. Fortunately there was no one in sight and they carefully moved through the forest before joining the main road.

The wagon was a work of modern engineering masquerading as a high-medieval/renaissance piece. It featured a suspension system to deal with the bumpity roads. Its overall shape was reminiscent of a prairie schooner, although it had a properly covered “driver’s area” that Ingrid, Selphie, and Iohann currently sat in. The inside had cushioned seats and a canvas-look roof stretched over the arch-like frames across the hull. The aesthetics however reminded an earthling of a some gypsy wagon aesthetic.

The most interesting thing was that the wagon was constructed by the mice without any prompting, leading the rest of the party to then pitch in and help. Arthur, Charles, and Gerard were seated on the girls’ laps and being cuddled as the vehicle moved along. Atop the roof, four of the mice would take shifts watching around as well as the sky for anything that might attack the party. Cassie, rather than ride, preferred to walk, staying close except to gobble the occasional horned rabbit that darted out of its hole.

As they cleared the forest and into the open wilderness ahead, Ingrid, Cecil and Arek started singing as they saw rich grasslands and flowers stretching out, the river snaking to the east with its fertile banks and willow-like trees providing shade, barely hiding waterfalls some distance away. To the west a gentle hill rolled up where wild herds of unknown bovines moved.

“Home, home on the range… where the deer and the antelope play…”

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