Slimantha stood in front of a big tree. Samuel and Black stood beside her—Samuel at her left and Black at her right. Slimantha’s black shoes rested in the lush green grass. Overhead, beautiful red blossoms adorned the branches of the big tree. Slimantha stood in Spider-Lily Park at the entrance to a certain swird woman’s lair. She reached forward and rang the doorbell—rang the doorbell on the big tree’s trunk. A moment later, the door in the tree’s trunk swung open.

A beautiful woman with short black hair and an ivory complexion came into view from the other side of the door. “So good to see you,” the woman said. A smile graced her lips, and the likeness of an upward-turned sword showed in each of her golden eyes. A pair of black feathery wings displayed behind her. She stepped out from her lair and shut the door. Then she turned back to Slimantha, that lovely smile still on her lips. Then that smile dropped as she noticed Slimantha was not alone. Her eyes went to Black and then to Samuel. She scowled. Finally, her gaze returned to Slimantha. “What are they doing here?”

Slimantha blinked. “They?” she said. She glanced first at Black and then at Samuel. Then her brown eyes returned to the disappointed swird woman in front of her, Latril. “We are all going to the celebration together.” She blinked again. “That’s not a problem, is it?”

“I”—Latril sweatdropped and forced a smile—“suppose not.” She sighed. “I thought, you know, it would just be the two of us. Clearly, my mistake.” Latril had changed into a flowing black dress and matching high-heels for her presumed date with Slimantha. The low-cut dress hugged her figure and flaunted the cleavage of the swird woman’s moderately-sized bust. She sighed again and then glanced over Slimantha’s outfit, a red short-sleeve crop-top, brown pants, and black shoes. “Would have been nice to see you in a dress.” She blinked and then turned to Samuel. Her golden sword eyes met his blue eyes. She scowled. “This outfit isn’t for you.”

“S-Sorry,” Samuel said, glancing away. Perhaps he had been admiring Latril’s dress a tad too much.

Snickers drew Latril’s gaze to Black, and the swird woman’s scowl deepened. “I’m glad,” she said, summoning a silver sword into her right hand, “you are finding this so funny.” She pointed the summoned weapon at Black. “Tell me. Do you want to become a pincushion? I can make it happen.” She smiled upon getting an eep from Black.

“Bad Latril!” Slimantha said. “No threatening my good friend Black.” She crossed her arms.

“Fine. Fine,” Latril said. She dispelled her summoned sword. She glanced at Samuel before turning her attention back to Slimantha. “What about him? Can I threaten him?”

Slimantha blinked. “You mean the guy I saved from a bear? No threatening him either.”

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Now Samuel sighed. “Please stop calling me that.” He glanced at Black, his eyes being drawn by her snickers. He sighed again.

“Well,” Slimantha said, her brown eyes on the dress-clad Latril, “now that I have you here, there is a question I wanted to ask you.”

“A question?” Latril said. The swird woman smiled. “Go ahead. Ask.”

Slimantha smiled back at her. “Ever heard of a place called Gold Mountain?”

“Gold Mountain?” Latril blinked. “That is the question? Gold Mountain?”

Slimantha nodded. “A dragon woman named Valerie has taken Mimi to a place called Gold Mountain, but we don’t know where Gold Mountain is. Do you know where Gold Mountain is? We kind of need to rescue Mimi.”

“I see,” Latril said. “Sorry, but I don’t know of this Gold Mountain. However, a dragon woman has made off with some of my swords before. Maybe that dragon woman is Valerie.”

Black’s feline tail swished. “You might be on to something about that dragon woman being Valerie,” she said. Her brown eyes went to Slimantha, and her tail gave another swish. “Mind lending me a slime? I’d like to do a reading.”

“Sure.” Slimantha cupped her hands, and a small blue slime appeared within them. She held the slime out to Black.

“Thanks.” Black looked down at the slime, and the slime looked up at her. She maneuvered her hands above the cute little creature. “Let’s see. Dragon. Valerie. Lost swords.” Black the Witch continued gazing into the slime, her black cat tail swishing behind her. “And done.” She pulled her hands away, and the little blue slime vanished. “Valerie is the dragon woman that attacked Latril’s flock, and Samuel’s missing magic sword is at Gold Mountain.”

Samuel blinked. “Gold Mountain?” he said. His face contorted into a huge grin. “The sword the goddess has blessed me with is at Gold Mountain.” A small tremor ran through his form. “We must go! We must get the sword back! To Gold Mountain!” He pointed to the side.

Now Slimantha blinked. “Wait,” she said, her eyes on Samuel the Hero From Another World’s face. “You know where Gold Mountain is?” She turned to look in the direction Samuel was pointing. “And it’s over there?”

“Well”—Samuel lowered his arm—“actually, I was just pointing. I don’t actually know where Gold Mountain is.” He gave a nervous laugh.

“I see.” Slimantha turned to Samuel and pressed up to him. “If we don’t know where it is, how are we going to go?” Her face was close to his. “Think, Samuel. Think.”

“I”—Samuel shrunk away—“see your point.” He gave another nervous laugh. “Guess I got ahead of myself there.” Then he glanced to Latril, and a drop of sweat rolled down his right cheek. “Why are you glaring at me?”

“No reason,” Latril said. Then she smiled. “Actually, I have a great idea. You and Black go look for that sword, and me and Slimantha will attend the celebration.” Her golden eyes settled on Black. “Why do you look like you want to laugh?” Latril’s right hand twitched, and her eyes flitted to Slimantha. Then she returned her gaze to Black. “We’re all friends here.” She smiled a forced smile, but her right hand twitched again.

Slimantha crossed her arms. “We’ll do the celebration thing first and the Gold-Mountain thing later.” She lowered her arms and smiled. “Anyway, let’s head to the pond. There’s supposed to be an entrance there or something.” She pulled a folded letter from her right pocket and unfolded it. Her brown eyes scanned the letter’s contents. “At least that’s what the invitation says.”