“I’ll try,” Addie said skeptically, even as she prompted her book to come out again.

The book slowly coalesced into being, streaming out from Addie’s chest and soul. Perhaps reading her mind, the book flipped quickly to an open page. It demarcated the left page and the right page with separate page headers, *Furrian*, and another string of text in the flowy loopy letters of the Furrian language on the other page— one page for the girls, and one page for the Furrians.

“Huh, I didn’t think that would work,” Addie said, surprised. Luckily, the book didn’t bother translating that.

The leader Furrians quickly moved their eyes up to the floating book, easily in view of both groups, but the other spear warriors just kept their eyes on Addie and Nettal, but mostly on Squishy.

The Mushroom Furrian broke the silence, his tone coming up at the end of a whooping sentence in what Addie thought sounded like a question. The book quickly translated, showing, “You will freeze to death out in the wilds, why do you wish to leave?”

Before Addie and Nettal could respond, the lead Warrior Furrian gruffly spoke up— Addie reading the translation as it appeared on the page, “You should stay in the cave with us. We will treat you as magic-leaders.” That last word fluttered on the page like it couldn’t quite figure out how to translate, ‘magic-leaders’.

Addie grimaced, even though they said the girls ‘should’ stay, they clearly intended to force the issue if they had to, otherwise the spear warriors wouldn’t be here, too. Addie almost spoke her thoughts aloud, but Nettal put her hand on Addie’s shoulder and shook her head.

Nettal spoke up next, “We can’t stay here,” she said while forcing a calmness to her tone, “We need to go home.”

“The demon-fog is after you. Our village will protect you, as it strays away from the mushroom light. Come, stay with us, and it won’t chase you.” The Mushroom Furrian said equally calm.

“We can’t stay!” Addie couldn’t help but shout out, causing some of the spear-wielders to glance her way. Looking to her left, she saw Nettal grimace slightly.

“Let me talk to them,” Nettal tried to convince Addie.

Addie huffed out a breath. “Fine, but if they try to attack us I’m taking us to Realmspace— no more talking.”

“Okay,” Nettal agreed nodding her head. Then she said more directly to the group of Furrians, “We have a home to go back to, I want to see my mom.” She said with emotion, then a bit more firmly, “Don’t try to keep us away from our families.”

In response to Nettal’s plea, the Mushroom Furrian winced, but the Warrior Furrian spoke up firmly anyway, giving his fellow leader a slight side-eye.

“You would not be here forever, just until the snow-melts come. We’ll protect you from your pursuers and the environment, and you can share your miracles with us.”

Nettal just shook her head, causing the Warrior Furrian to start baring his teeth and pseudo-growling. The Mushroom Furrian quickly smacked the Warrior Furrian using the back of his hand, shaking his head in reprimand, after which the Warrior Furrian quickly stopped.

“Though my companion is short-tempered, he is correct. You are children, stay with us until the snow melts, your families will be glad you stayed safe at this time. We will treat you well, and the village will happily welcome you back. It wouldn’t be forever.” He tried to convince them with a gentle tone.

Nettal just sighed, then she turned to Addie, “This isn’t going anywhere. I think you might be right. They won’t listen.”

“Ok, so go to Realmspace now?” Addie said, tapping her fingers against her crossed arms a bit. Across from her, Addie could see the Warrior Furrian puffing up, maybe getting ready to move.

“Let me try one more thing,” Nettal asked.

Then, facing the Furrians again she spoke up, “We can’t stay for that long. It’s hard for us to stay away from the sun, but more importantly, we miss our families. We need to find a way home. What if we promise to come back and visit sometime? Would you let us leave without a fight?”

The Mushroom and Warrior Furrians stared up at Addie’s book as it transcribed Nettals words, but the moment the last word finished writing itself out, the Warrior Furrian sprung into action.

He loudly whooped, causing all the spear-wielders to move into a defensive stance as they tried to block the exit with their spears facing the girls. At the same time, the Warrior Furrians jumped at Addie and Nettal, unfolding a net he had hidden within his crossed arms. He closed the distance rapidly, giving Addie only a few moments to act.

While her book flowed back into her soul, Addie and Squishy worked together to form their magic as fast as possible, but even then the Warrior Furrian almost closed the distance before they could finish— forcing Addie to send out her magic before it was completely ready.

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Without any sound, the girls, Lotty, and Squishy all appeared in Realmspace, but Addie had barely put together enough magic to give them a few seconds, not anywhere close to the few minutes they would need to get past all the spear wielders completely.

Addie immediately grabbed Nettal’s hand and started running forward. They would have to move as much as they could in the short time they had.

Even sooner than Addie thought, everyone appeared back in reality, almost directly in front of the Mushroom Furrian.

He blinked in surprise as Addie painfully slammed her bare heels into the ground to try and stop her mad dash before she bowled over the old Furrian.

Perhaps out of surprise, or maybe because he didn’t know what else to do with them, he held the makeshift leather shoes out to Addie. She quickly took them from him with a smile, building up more magic at the same time.

“Thanks!” Addie shouted out, giving him a quick wave.

With what Addie interpreted as a rueful smile, the Mushroom Furrian waved back with one hand.

The next moment, Addie, Nettal, Lotty, and Squishy all teleported back into Realmspace— this time with enough magic to easily get past the group trying to barricade the exit with their bodies.

Nettal let out a breath of relief, “That was close!”

“Really? I wasn’t looking. Here, look what I got!” Addie held up her spoils of war— the somewhat crude leather shoes. She quickly shoved them on her feet. Even though the shoes looked crude on the outside, they actually fit her feet perfectly, and they cushioned the bottoms of her feet much better than she would have expected.

Holding out her hand for Nettal to hold, Addie said, “Let’s go!”

The girls took off at a run, Squishy circling around to take the lead again, with Lotty staying next to his bonded.

“Why are we running!” Nettal shouted next to Addie, “I thought you used a lot of magic this time so we could get far. Far, without...” Nettal gasped as they ran, “Far, without, running.” She managed to get out between breaths.

Addie was less winded than Nettal, she had gotten pretty used to running from all the practice with Christena. “Let’s run! I want to get as far away from them.”

“Indeed, my lady, and it will also make it harder for them to track us. They will have no snow footsteps to follow unless they venture far out into the cold.” Squishy added, his powerful legs sprinting through the darkness of Realmspace easier than anyone else.

“At least, lights... please,” Nettal breathed hard as she pumped her legs, Addie guiding her by the hand.

At Addie’s request, while also waking the poor birdie up from her nap, Ember flowed out of Addie’s soul, her white beak peeking out from her chest.

Silently, Addie sent an image of Ember manifesting some flames overhead. Not a whole lot, just a small fireball to light the way ahead.

Ember sent Addie feelings of reticence, they had used up all of their magic earlier on the flame shield. Judging things from their soul bond, it looked like Ember still needed more rest before either of them could use more soul flames, for now.

“We’re out of flames,” Addie reported back, only a moment after Nettal had asked her question. After all, the earlier interaction with Ember had happened at the speed of thought.

Nettal sagged, roughly pulling on Addie’s arm enough to slightly jar her shoulder joint. The action forced Addie to stop, and she sensed Squishy stop immediately after as well. Lotty easily came to rest next to Nettal.

“Then,” Nettal took a moment to breathe, her hands supporting her upper body by pushing against her knees, “I need a break.”

In response to her request, Addie checked the amount of magic still allowing them access to Realmspace. They could spare a minute or two to let Nettal catch her breath.

“Okay, but let’s at least walk.”

Due to the darkness, Addie couldn’t see Nettal’s face, but she could magically sense when Nettal lifted her head up toward her. Nettal sighed, “Fine.” She huffed out.

Like that, the girls and their bonded walked for a few minutes, then ran for a few longer minutes after that (except for Ember, who got a free ride-along within Addie’s soul, the lucky birdie).

All too soon, her magic ran out, and with it, Realmspace’s attention forced everyone back out into reality.

Addie had to shield her eyes from the blindingly bright snowscape before her. The blue light from the Binary reflected off of the snow, making it glitter and hurt Addie’s poor eyeballs. For the moment, at least, it was easier just to shut her eyes completely and use her spatial sense to get her bearings instead.

Nettal wasn’t any better off, she also flinched and quickly shielded her eyes. She instinctively tried to look down, away from the Binary, just as Addie had done a second ago. But, in the same way, Addie had learned, Nettal realized that the bright snow was almost worse than looking at the sky overhead. Addie giggled at the thought, at least she hadn’t been the only one to get so unexpectedly blinded.

“Gah!” Nettal called out, waving her arms around as if searching for something. Within moments, she found Lotty’s head, and she used him to balance herself. After that, Addie watched as Nettal shook her head, easily opening her eyes right after. She marched over to Addie, placed one hand on her shoulder, and then pulsed a wave of healing right through her.

Her eyes hadn’t actually been damaged by the bright sun, but the wave of healing took off the worst of the pain from the unexpected brightness anyway. The healing also had the side effect of auto-adjusting Addie’s eyes to the brightness, so she was easily able to open her eyes again.

“Can you do it for Squishy, too?” Addie asked politely.

Poor Squishy was trying, and failing, to put his little scaly paws over his eyes.

Nettal huffed out a laugh, “Come here, you lizard-thing.”

Though Nettal couldn’t hear him, Squishy replied, “My thanks, but I am not a lizard.”

Now that she could focus more on her surroundings, Addie took the scenery in. Much like when they had first arrived here, Addie could see mountains surrounding them on all sides. The peaks were higher than even the absolute biggest of trees from the forest. They formed the walls of a bowl shape— Addie and everyone within the bottom, flat portion of the bowl. The name for her location sat at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t quite remember. Something that started with a ‘P’.

“Plateau!” Addie shouted, her voice echoing across the landscape and returning distorted. In the distance, a small pile of snow fell off one of the mountain peaks, pushing past a few scarce and spread-out trees on the way down. “We’re on a plateau,” Addie repeated, this time quieter.

She looked down at her feet and felt smug about the fact she had managed to get those shoes from the Furrians after all. They protected her feet quite nicely from the snow all around them, though the poncho did a terrible job of keeping the wet, icy touch away from her lower legs.

“Where to now?” Nettal asked. “And besides, this isn’t a plateau; it’s a caldera.”