I had picked up Lory and Haley. Funk looked at me, “I told you, we should not scare the crap out of her, and you bring two people?”

I nodded, “If she goes wild, we need them.”

Funk sighed, “Alright, let’s go.”

Haley looked at me, “You told me Abby was your friend, why is she eating sheep?”

I sighed, “I don’t know.”

We made our way to the hole, I called out, “Abby, are you home?”

“Yes, I am home, please leave.”

“We want to speak with you, I brought some friends.”

We heard Abby let out a deep sigh. “Fine, give me a moment.” After about ten minutes, she called out, “Come in.”

We jumped inside, and Abby crossed her arms. “What happened to not telling people about this?”

I put my hand on her shoulder, “Abby?”

“Yes?”

“You need to be honest with me, I know you are shacking up with that creature.”

She shrugged my hand away. “His name is Mimic.”

“Is he friendly?”

“Yes, but he gets hungry, He and I are quite alike, we need to eat weird things.”

Haley looked at me, “She eats sheep to stay immortal?”

I looked at her, “Yes, it appears that way.”

Abby sighed and sat down. “I am not hurting anyone, I was just desiring a special meal, and you shot my boyfriend.”

Lory looked at Abby, “Can we see him? We won’t shoot at him this time.”

Abby shook her head, “He is shy.”

Funk sighed, “Alright, this is just a big misunderstanding. Abby, if you want to eat a sheep, then just ask us. I could have arranged for some meat to be delivered.”

Abby sighed, “Sorry, I just, wanted to keep him a secret.”

Haley started walking around, “This is quite a nice place you have. In my home, we had a dojo in the garage basement. We celebrated everything there, when I was nine, we had this amazing Christmas party. We had this fondue, Riley had gotten it for us, and Megan got a lot of meat for him. She is vegetarian, so we needed a second fondue. Bob tried to sit in the Christmas tree, and it fell over! Luckily, Valentine caught it.”

I sighed, “Yeah, but the star still fell on my head, it left a bruise.”

Lory chuckled, “I think I was vacuuming up needles months after that.”

Haley looked at her, “I will never forgive you for almost vacuuming up my tail.”

Haley hugged me and Lory joined me. Abby got up, “It sounds as if you guys had quite a fantastic time while we were struggling to build up Brickton.”

Funk looked at us, “They seem so happy, yet, they have lost many people.”

I sighed, “We are going to find them. I am sorry, Abby, I just feel a bit disconnected from you, unlike before.”

She nodded, “I understand, I feel the same.”

I stretched my hand, “Can we try to be friends again? You know I care about you deeply.”

She took it, “Only if you ignore my weird habits after becoming immortal, and you need to stay clear of my hideout. You should also stay away from my boyfriend, and I am going to keep everyone to that promise of getting some sheep meat delivered.”

We shook on it. She pointed at the stairs. “Now, leave me be.”

Funk looked at me, “I guess we fixed this situation.”

Haley looked into the other room, “I feel no other energy signature.”

Abby sighed, “You cannot feel his energy signature unless he wants you too.”

Haley looked at her, “You need to teach me that trick.”

Abby pointed at the stairs, “We fixed it, we are friends, I want time alone with Mimic.”

Lory took my hand, “Come, let’s leave these two lovebirds alone. We both know, species does not always say everything.”

I nodded, “That is right, if Abby falls in love with another being, then we are all okay with that.”

Haley smiled, “Until I was eleven, I thought mom and Valentine would get a puppy, and that I was a puppy.”

Funk sighed, “Of course you did, who is coming with me to inform Alice?” Haley raised her hand as we started walking away.

We slowly made our way to Brickton, Funk seemed to be in deep thought. We soon found Alice, she looked at me, “What is with the gathering, Steve?”

“Oh, we wanted to tell you of the disappearing sheep, we fixed the situation.”

Alice laughed, “You think, you can storm in here and resolve problems I cannot?”

Lory sighed, “We did fix it.”

Funk looked up, “Yes, they did, Abby was eating the sheep.”

Alice giggled, “Yeah, right.”

Funk nodded, “We need to deliver her some sheep meat, somehow becoming immortal is making her eat weird things.”

Alice scratched her head, “For real?”

Haley walked closer, “Yep, my dad solved it. You should put more faith in him.”

Alice sighed, “Fine, you may have a point. He is, indeed, a special man, I am still going to kick his ass tomorrow,” then she walked away.

I shrugged, “I am going to check on Bella.”

Lory nodded, “I’ll go see how Paul is doing.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Haley grabbed my hand, Lory had been holding my hand, but Haley didn’t mind. I gave Lory a kiss, “Can you give him my greetings?”

She smiled at me while nodding, “I love you, Steve, you handled Abby well.”

“Thanks, Lory, I love you too.”

Haley grunted, “Are my parents done yet with the icky stuff? Let’s get going, dad!” I saw Funk laugh at us, he seemed to be enjoying our antics.

Haley and I made our way to the hangar and as we walked inside, we saw Bella sleeping on the ground with some tools next to her. Haley and I walked over, “Bella!?”

She shot up, and pointed a tool at me. I chuckled, “Good morning, Bella. How is the airship going?”

She yawned, “It is going well, but this is very high tier science. Nothing too much for me, it is just going to take me more days to get it finished up. The cannons are not ready yet.”

“What, cannons? Do you expect danger?”

Bella shrugged, “I rather have cannons and not need them, than have no cannons, and then we do need them.”

I grinned at her, “You have a point there. Is there anything else that needs to be done?”

Bella nodded, “The engines need to be double-checked, and some other things, like the propellers.”

Haley looked up, “They are massive, I cannot wait to be on an airship.”

I smiled, “Me neither munchkin, me neither.”

I looked at Bella, “Did you find out anything else about that land lost in time?”

She shook her head, “There is not a single piece of information in books, or any other ancient texts. If I do find something, then I will let you know.”

“Thanks, Bella, that means a lot to me.” I looked at Haley, “What are your plans for today?”

She shrugged, “Not much, maybe explore Brickton a bit. There is not much else to do while we wait for tomorrow, and the airship to get fixed.”

I nodded, “I am going home for a moment.”

Haley hugged me, “Alright dad.”

I walked away, it seemed Haley was going to inspect the airship. After I got home, I sat down, tears rolled down my cheek and I leaned heavily on the desk on my left side, where I had no arm anymore, with my right hand, I fiddled with my new necklace.

Lory walked in, “Hey, what is wrong?”

“It is just, this place.”

“You are never going to believe this, but I miss Riley.”

She sat down on the desk next to me, “You can talk to me about it, I miss him too.”

I sighed, “of course we had a rocky start, Riley and I met at work. You saw him at that first office party. He has this big cheesy grin, we had so much fun when he visited us for Dungeons and Dragons. Before we knew it, he was in our home every day. Haley saw him as an uncle, and Megan as an aunt. We celebrated everything together, even Riley’s birthday. Remember that one where Haley got him that special Dungeons and Dragons token? He cried like a big, burly man. He connected perfectly with Haley. Riley felt privileged to be part of our family.”

“When I broke down after I heard my sister passed away, Carly. Riley was there for me. He hugged me, and he gave this huge inspirational speech. He dragged me through the mud and helped me up. When we were at the funeral, he stood by my side as I talked about Carly. You were there for me as well, just like Megan. But Riley had lost his sister as well. All of you were there for me. The days after that were rough. Valentine, she stood by my side as well. We were a perfect little family. And now it is all broken up. We are all lost and scattered. I would do anything to get him back.”

Lory took my hand, “We will get him back. And the others as well.”

I sighed, “I just don’t feel at home here, if you could Lory, would you go back?”

Without hesitation, she answered, “Yes, I would go back, even if this place stopped existing. Even if everything else dies and we can live on there, I want to go back there.”

I looked at Lory, “Then I am going to make you this promise. If it is ever needed to raise not just hell, but a whole universe, if I would need to kill everyone to get you, or the others back, then I will do so without a troubled mind. With conviction and love, I will erase existence, so we can exist with our little family.”

Lory smiled at me, “You would really do that? It would mean, well, the universe to me.”

“I promise you that, Lory.”

She nodded, “And when I, or anyone else comes back from the death, we pick up where we left off, just like we promised each other.”

“It is quite early in the day, but I really need some sleep, Lory. This place is emotionally draining me, the only one I don’t see as a stranger currently is Funk, we have a good friendly relationship, I hope. As for Abby, I am not sure what is going on with her. As for Paul, yeah, he is nice, but I barely feel a connection with him. I am not going to lie, Alice was once a love interest, but she is not the same woman I once met, we are better off without her. Bella is just a friend, I guess. Am I forgetting someone?”

“I don’t think so.”

Lory nodded, “I understand my love, it is hard, you should lay down, you have a rough battle ahead of you tomorrow.” I gave Lory a kiss, and then I fidgeted with my new necklace, “I am happy with this, Lory. It feels as if regardless of where I go, you are with me.”