Later that day, Tess was sitting across from Gramps in the office in their home, looking down nervously at the desk.

“So, why all the formality?” Gramps asked, leaning onto the desk. “Why not just ask me whatever it is you’re going to ask over dinner?”

Tess fidgeted in place. “I…I want permission to stay in the Outlands full time for the next month. If you say yes, I’m going to ask one of The Rumors, probably Alice, and Eyfura to go out on an expedition so we can get at some more out-of-the-way dungeons.”

Gramps raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s this all of a sudden? Before I give an answer, I’d like to know why you want this.”

“Um, I’m sure you heard about this, but Eyfura and Ilmir made a bet that, in a month, I would be able to give her a good fight. I want to go further, I want to win, just to prove to myself that I can.”

Gramps frowned. “While I appreciate the drive, I don’t know if I would get my hopes up.” He said cautiously, “Ilmir is good, and levels slow down dramatically after the first twenty or so. One month of intensive training isn’t going to be enough to catch up to years of her practicing with her kit…”

He trailed off, staring into the space just in front of Tess. He stayed silent for a moment, frown deepening. Then he shook his head, sighing. “I’ll talk with them, set something up. Do you know what you’re going to do about homework? I’m not giving you a free pass to ignore your studies just because you’re not here for a bit.”

Tess nodded, baffled by the sudden change in attitude. “I was hoping Ellie could scan whatever she would bring home and email them to me, and I’d take care of it while I was out, bring a laptop or something. If I end up going with Alice in the hoverer, I’d probably do it while we were in transit, as well as in the evenings.”

Gramps sighed again. “I suppose that works. I’ll let you know what the plan is later tonight. You go back to whatever you were doing.”

Dismissed, Tess gladly took her leave, glad to be done with the somewhat stressful conversation.

“Well?” Ellie asked. She was in the kitchen near the office and looked like she had been pacing for a bit. She had clearly been waiting anxiously for Tess to finish her talk with Gramps and was wearing something of a worried look on her face.

“For the next month I’m going to be staying in the Outlands. Gramps is talking to people right now, but I’m hoping Eyfura and Alice will sort of chaperone me and we can go around and visit a bunch of dungeons outside of town. Like a sort of…boot camp. I want to get strong enough to beat Ilmir.”

Ellie frowned. “Why? What do you have to prove? Who even cares if you can’t beat her, she’s got a huge head start on you, so it doesn’t mean anything if you lose.”

Tess shrugged, looking away. “I dunno. Just something I want to do for me. If I can do this, then to me it means I really will be able to keep up with everyone.”

Ellie pouted, crossing her arms petulantly. “But you don’t have to leave for a whole month, that’s a long time!”

“Weren’t you the one who said that the faster we finish our training the better?”

“That’s…” She trailed off, then sighed. “Fine. But you better call me every night, well, if you have service, anyway.”

“If I’m near a dungeon it shouldn’t be an issue, I believe they act as cell towers.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. Dungeons are weird.” Ellie shook her head. “When are you leaving?”

“I dunno. Gramps is talking with people, he’s going to tell me what the plan is once there is one.”

“Really? I’m surprised he just…let you go like that. You weren’t in there for that long.”

Tess nodded, sitting down at the table. “Me too. He just got this far-off look for a second and then changed his tune immediately. Oh, um, I hope you don’t mind, but I kind of volunteered you to scan my homework and send it to me so I could do it.”

Ellie sat down next to Tess. “I’ll do it, but only if you promise to call me every night you can.”

Tess blushed and looked down. “Promise.”

Ellie gave her a side-hug. “I’m going to hold you to that. Now, let me go help you pack. It’s short notice and you need all the help you can get.”

They stood up and made their way upstairs to Tess’s room, where Tess took out her magic bag and began to put her clothes in. Ellie, on the other hand, began finding other essentials such as toiletries, phone chargers, and the like.

A few minutes passed before Ellie lifted her head. “Uh, Tess, do you have anything to deal with your period?”

Tess started. “Oh, crap. Alice and I were going to pick some up while we were shopping, and I guess we just sort of…forgot.”

“Alright, let me go grab some of my stuff for you. If it’s gonna be a month, then…”

Tess grimaced. “Yeah, I know. I’m not particularly looking forward to it.”

Ellie patted her on the shoulder. “It’s not pleasant, but you’ll get used to it eventually.”

Ellie left, and Tess resumed her packing. She was about three-quarters of the way through her clothes when who Tess could only assume was Gramps knocked on the door.

“Come in!” Tess said, not bothering to look away from her work.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Well, it looks like someone decided to get serious.” Eyfura said, putting on a wry smile and leaning against the open doorframe. “Mind telling me the reason?”

Tess’s eyes involuntarily flicked over to the direction of Ellie’s room. She opened her mouth to speak, but Eyfura cut her off before she could, her smile growing even wider. “I see what’s going on here. Frankly, I’m surprised it took you this long to notice.”

Tess blushed. “I, um…” Fortunately, she was saved by Ellie herself.

“Oh, um…hi…Eyfura, right?”

Eyfura scowled, straightening up. “That’s Aunt Eyfura or Auntie to you. I will not stand for such unfamiliarity from the grandkid of my dear friend.” She chuckled a little, grabbing Ellie and pulling her into a surprise hug.

“I don’t think I really introduced myself when I brought Ilmir over. I was kind of distracted by her…less than stellar attitude. I do hope the two of you won’t hold it against her too much, we beastkin don’t really start to mellow out until we’re in our thirties. It’s not an excuse for her behavior, but until she grows up a little, she’s going to listen to emotion over logic. But, if you manage to win her over, she’ll be your staunchest ally, I can guarantee it.”

Ellie returned the hug but frowned anyway. “She just…comes off like she’s not thinking at all. I mean…you said you told her Tess was going to be a late bloomer, right?”

Eyfura released the hug and scratched her cheek embarrassedly. “I might have overstated how clear I had been. Evan and I only gave her a brief overview of Tess’s stuff, and I don’t think she had all the context I thought she did.”

“That’s a bit better, but it was still really rude. I’m glad you talked to her about it, though.” Ellie paused briefly before continuing. “Does she understand now or…?”

Eyfura sighed. “I’m pretty sure she does but she’s too stubborn to admit it. I’m hoping we can beat it into her this next month. I’ll be honest, I don’t expect you to win, Tess, but I think you’ll be able to give a good showing.”

“So…why are you here now?” Tess asked, changing the subject, “What if someone sees you?”

“I’m gonna take you back to meet up with Alice, we’re leaving tonight. And if someone sees me…Eh, we’re out in the sticks, and no one is going to believe they saw a real wolf-person when it could just be a cosplayer or whatever they’re called.”

“I guess so…” Ellie said, “But can’t this wait until morning? It seems a little fast to me, it’s been like…ten minutes.”

“I had actually been talking with Alice about where we would take Tess next when Evan came to talk to us, and we want to get on the road ASAP. Overnight we’re going to be in the hoverer on the way to some dungeons that are farther away, and we want to be able to get to our first dungeon around ten in the morning.”

“I suppose that’s fine, then.” Ellie grumbled. “But we gotta finish packing.”

Eyfura pushed herself off of the doorframe and went into the room, where she began to grab Tess’s clothes by the handful and shove them into the bag. “Don’t worry about folding or anything.” She said, “This looks like one of Kane’s best, it should have an automatic cleaning and ironing function, and you’re not going to run into any space issues unless you’re stuffing refrigerators or something in there; it should have about the capacity of this room.”

Ellie walked into the room and handed Tess two boxes. “These are pads and tampons.” She instructed. “I’m sure Eyfura or Alice can give instructions for you when the time comes, so just ask them, alright?”

Eyfura nodded. “No worries, I’ll make sure to show her the ropes.”

Tess grimaced, but stowed away the boxes. “Thanks.”

Eyfura laughed. “You’ll get used to it in time. You just have to learn how to deal with it.”

The rest of the packing didn’t take much longer, and soon Tess was saying her goodbyes. “Um…I’ll see you in a month, I guess.” She told Ellie. “I’ll call every night I can, just like I promised.”

“Good.” Ellie said, giving Tess a hug. “I’m going be waiting every night, so make sure you let me know if you don’t think you’re gonna make it for a bit. I’ll be sad if I’m waiting and you don’t call!”

Behind Ellie, Eyfura gave Tess a huge wink. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure she doesn’t forget. Now let’s get going, time’s a-wasting!”

“What about Gramps?” Tess asked, extracting herself from Ellie’s embrace.

“He’s with Alice, he’ll say bye when we meet up with her.” Eyfura answered, opening the door to the Outlands and stepping through.

“Alright.” Tess replied, following after. Eyfura lead her through the back halls of the guild to another of those private rooms, where Gramps and Alice were waiting.

“Got her!” Eyfura announced.

“Ah, Tess.” Alice said. “You really surprised me with this, you know? I had just been telling Eyfura that I was wishing we had more time with you so we could go a little farther out and get some other stuff and…well, here we are.”

Eyfura smirked. “Just call it fate.”

Gramps rolled his eyes. “Don’t get dramatic. Tess, do you have everything you need?”

Tess patted her bag and nodded. “Yup. It’s all in here.”

Gramps smiled. “Good. Have a good time out there, call back every once in a while, and make sure you do your homework, alright?”

“Yes, Gramps.”

He ruffled her hair. “Love you, kiddo.”

“You too, Gramps.”

He cast a glance at Eyfura and Alice, gaze hardening. “Take good care of her, got it? If I hear she goes through unnecessary hardship, then we’ll have to have a…talk.”

Alice gulped and gave a shaky nod, but Eyfura was unfazed. “Don’t worry about a thing, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens.”

“Good.” And with that unusually threatening talk, he left the room, leaving the three women alone.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief. “That was scary. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the guildmaster get like that.”

Eyfura shrugged. “He’s really protective of his family. Don’t worry about it too much, I can take responsibility if anything happens.” She looked at Tess’s face, then hurriedly added “Which it won’t. But I know how to handle Evan, so don’t worry about that.”

“That’s good to hear. Thanks, Eyfura.” Alice said, visible relief flooding her face.

“It wouldn’t be that bad, right?” Tess asked.

Alice looked away. “The guildmaster can be a scary guy. You really don’t want to see what happens when he gets angry.”

Tess frowned. “Last time he was angry at me he just grounded me. The lecture was stern, yeah, but…” She trailed off as Eyfura started laughing.

“He’s got three kinds of angry. There’s angry at people he really cares about, there’s just angry, and then there’s angry because someone he cares about got hurt. The consequences for the third…let’s just say that you really don’t want to see what happens then.” Eyfura explained. “You fall squarely into that first category, so you don’t ever really catch the brunt of his wrath.”

“Oh. I…didn’t know that.”

“There are a lot of stories about times he’s been angry and the consequences.” Alice added. “I don’t know how much of it is true, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“Most of it is exaggeration.” Eyfura confirmed. “But you still don’t want to see it.”

“Right.” Alice said, “But, uh, that aside, why the sudden desire to go all in on training?”

Eyfura grinned. “She finally realized that Ellie’s been hitting on her this whole time. I think she wants to impress her by getting strong fast.”

Tess blushed. “Well, I mean, I…”

Alice grinned too. “We get it, we get it. I won’t rib you any more about it, then. We’ll just make sure you’re strong enough to knock her socks off.” She stood up, stretching a little. “Are you all ready to go?”

“Um, yeah.” Tess replied.

“Good. We’re going a few hundred miles outside of the city, there’s a dungeon that’s a step up from the beginner dungeons there, so it’s the logical next step. It should take quite a bit longer to complete that if we want you to do it by yourself.”

“I’m thinking we’ll just carry her through it after ten or so runs of doing it herself.” Eyfura said. “No use wasting time when we’re on a deadline and we know she’s got the point.”

The three chatted a bit more on their way out of the city, and soon they climbed into the hoverer, and Tess’s sudden month away had begun.