Emily emerged onto darkness.

Night had fallen whilst they had been in the dungeon, and the plain now laid covered in the blanket of night. Quiet and calm, like any night; any night before the storm that had taken her so long ago. She was surprised to realize that she couldn’t remember a night so calm; so quiet. Without the sleepless buzz of a city, or the constant clamor of an army camp. And as she looked out across the plains, lit by the pale light of a gray moon, and then at the stars, counting the constellations she did not recognize, she realized—for the first time—that she was free.

More or less.

The threads of fate still pulled on her, but with a hand that meant to guide, rather than lead. For the first time, it felt like she had a choice in where her future lay, and she was not sure what to do with it. But—if she was quite honest with herself—she didn’t really care either way. Fate had never led her astray before, and she doubted it would suddenly start now, she just hoped it could hurry up and bring her and Alex together.

Shaking herself lose, she took in her surroundings a second time. The illusion that had previously surrounded the entrance to the dungeon had vanished, leaving no trace it had ever been there in the first place. Emily didn’t need to be an expert to notice the magic that had suffused the structure had also vanished. The plain was the same as it had been before she had gone under the earth; mostly flat and covered in grass. Though, now the grass was a bit darker, and the air wasn’t quite as warm. Then she looked into the sky again, and if she hadn’t been sure of this being another star before, she certainly was now. For in the dark heavens hung a second moon; small and strangely blue it hung beside its larger brother like a pebble in the sky.

The party came up behind her and spread out on the cobbled ground; a circle of stone with the dungeon entrance at its center. Long strands of grass hung over the stone, but did not intrude upon the circle, as if the edge was regularly maintained to keep the border between nature and the construct clear. Emily stepped over the border and her boots sunk into the grass. She took another few steps away from the dungeon before stopping. “Are there any dangers on this plain?” she asked the air.

Yu answered from behind her. “No,” she said. “The monsters never leave the dungeons, and nothing else lives out here.”

“Nothing but grass,” Ann added.

“Good,” Emily said, and laid down on the ground, her tired limbs delighting in not having to keep her standing. “Then I’ll sleep right here.”

“But…” Ann said.

“What? Do you have a camp nearby? Or perhaps an inn?”

“No…” Yu said. “But our supplies are a little ways away.”

“If you have any water or wine I’ll gladly drink some, but I’m really quite tired.” She closed her eyes and felt the crystal at her hip buzz in a very threatening manner. “Oh, right,” she mumbled, and awkwardly untied the pouch holding the guardian crystal from her hip. Then she lobbed away the pouch and the crystal into the night.

“Eh?” Yu and Ann exclaimed in a chorus.

“What’d you do that for?”

“I don’t want to sleep with an unstable magical crystal at my hip.”

“Why not?”

“You seem to be handling it fine.”

“Sure, whilst I’m awake; whilst I can consciously push back against the magic. Can’t do that when I’m sleeping.” Emily gathered up some grass as a makeshift pillow. “And I would rather not melt in my sleep.”

She heard one of the boys mutter something to the other, then Rory spoke up, “We’ll set up camp further north.”

“We’ll be there in a moment,” Yu shouted after them.

“Are you really going to sleep here?” Ann asked.

“Why not?” Emily yawned. “Is the grass softer over there or something?”

“No…”

“Then yes, I’m going to sleep here.”

There was a moment of silence, then Yu said, “Fine, we’ll get our supplies and be right back.”

“Do as you wish,” Emily mumbled. She could already feel sleep coming on, and the shuffling as the twins walked through the grass barely registered to her numb mind.

Quite frankly, the grass were one of the best beds she had slept on in a long time—more comfortable than army issued blankets on burned and rocky ground at any rate—and it didn’t take long for unconsciousness came creeping. She accepted it wholeheartedly, and when the twins returned, Emily was fast asleep.

***

Emily woke to a weight upon her chest. Her first instinct was to wonder if the squirrel needed her help again. But the thought quickly fled her mind, why would it? Besides, it was much to heavy to be a squirrel, though not heavy enough to restrict her breathing. She wondered if she could just go back to sleep for a few more hours, she still didn’t feel entirely rested. But the sunlight glaring through her closed eyelids told her that wouldn’t happen, and she did need to start finding her way towards civilization. Hopefully the party knew where they were.

The weight upon her chest stirred, and Emily surrendered to the morning. Opening her eyes she lifted her head of the ground, and froze. For upon her chest lay a ruffled bundle of black hair, and beneath it, a head. One of the twin’s heads, to be exact. The girl had snuggled up against Emily’s left side, her arms across Emily’s stomach and her legs over Emily’s, entwined with a second pair. A quick glance to her right told Emily more than she wanted to know, for on her right, snuggled tightly into her side, lay the other twin.

For a moment, Emily was too stunned to move, then the girl upon her chest stirred again, her fur covered ears flicking against soft breeze. Which one was it? Emily wondered; she guessed Ann was the one on her chest, and Yu the one at her side. Somehow that seemed the most reasonable guess. Then a flicker of movement caught her eye, and carefully turning her head she saw the squirrel—Roco—sleeping within the arms of the girl on her right. Her eyebrows raised in surprise, that must mean the one on her chest was Yu. That felt wrong, but she could not put her finger on why. Either way, she’d need to wake them, and get them off… or did she?

Crap, she thought, what would she even say to them? Should she scold them? Was what they were doing wrong? It certainly didn’t feel wrong. Physical intimacy was something she had struggled with when she was younger, but that was a long time ago, and now she welcomed it, especially if it was from Alex. But she would have preferred if they asked first.

She raised her left, meaning to wake the girl on her chest first, but then she froze again. A soft rumble emitted from Yu as she snuggled closer. Is she purring? Emily thought, her hand in the air, inches above the girl’s head, ready to fall. Instead of waking her, Emily let her own head fall back to the ground with a soft thump and a sigh. It was too damn adorable, she couldn’t wake the girl when she did something like that.

She looked up at the sky; at the endless blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. The sun still hung low over the horizon, and Emily guessed it couldn’t have been up for more than a couple of hours. Still, that would make it quite early in the morning, depending on how far north they were. Which was all to say; she could stay on the ground for a little longer.

Closing her eyes again she basked in the warmth of the sun upon her face; the breeze softly rustling her hair; the soft mattress of grass beneath her; the warmth of the twins at her sides and upon her chest. How had she ended up in such a position? Less than a full day earlier she had been locked in battle against Balthazar, and before that she had met her mother for the first time in her life, only to be forced to cut her down. No, she thought, and rubbed her eyes. No. Compartmentalize, prioritize, focus. All of that was behind her, and now was not the time to go over it. She needed to find a safer location, she needed to figure out where she had ended up, she needed a damn bath.

The head upon her chest stirred again. Emily looked up and watched as Yu came awake.

“Morning,” Emily said.

“Morning,” Yu mumbled and tried to blink the sleep from her eyes, her pupils narrowing in the bright sunlight.

“Slept well?”

“Mm,” Yu purred.

“Good.” Emily resisted the urge of turning to her noble upbringing and putting the fear of the seven hells into the girl. Instead she kept her voice leveled, and her eyes soft. “Then would you care to explain why you are sleeping on top of me?”

The words snapped Yu out of her morning daze, and her eyes suddenly found focus as she realized where she had been sleeping. She scrambled to get off Emily’s chest, on Emily’s other side Ann stirred in her sleep, but did not wake. For a moment Emily regretted the loss of warmth as Yu left, then she wondered what had gotten into her and sat up, or at least, she tried to sit up. As soon as she did Ann dropped Roco—to the squirrels dismay it had to scamper away or get crushed—and grabbed Emily’s arm, snuggling it as she had the squirrel.

Emily sighed. “Could you wake your sister?”

Yu quickly crawled around Emily and grabbed her sister by her shoulder, shaking her. “Wake up, Ann,” she mumbled. “Wake up.”

Ann stirred again, snuggling even closer to Emily’s side, and she could feel the girls warm breath in the nape of her neck, she suppressed a shudder. “Just a few more minutes,” the sleeping girl mumbled.

“No,” Yu said and shook her sister with a vigor. “Get up! This was your stupid idea and you promised me we would wake up first.”

Ann groaned and blinked as she finally woke, Emily turned her head to face the girl, put putting on a face of infinity patience… and just a smidge of annoyance.

“Morning,” Emily said.

“Morning,” Ann mumbled, giving Emily a short bout of déjà vu.

“Slept well?”

“Mm.”

“Good. Could you let go of me then?”

Ann’s eyes went wide as she to snapped out of her morning daze, and she dropped Emily’s arm as if burned. Freed from the twins, Emily pushed herself up onto her elbows, as Ann scrambled to her knees beside Yu, both looking at the ground, avoiding Emily’s gaze. She sighed and sat up, crossing her legs. They looked the part of remorseful kittens, but Emily didn’t let herself be fooled by their appearance. An appearance, Emily realized as she studied them, that were not as identical as she had thought. For Ann had a small scar beneath her right eye, and—perhaps as a way to aid their traveling companions—they had tied their two braids to different lengths. Ann’s right braid was a couple inches longer than her left, and the opposite was true for Yu. Emily made sure to memorize the details, before speaking.

“Now then,” Emily said. “Would you care to explain why you slept with me?” Internally she cringed at the wording, but it seemed to have gotten the point across. The twins looked away, four cheeks coloring with embarrassment as they began mumbling excuses.

“The plains get cold at night”

“We didn’t want you to freeze.”

Emily raised an eyebrow. The sisters looked at each other, communicating silently as only twins could. Then they looked at the ground again, their ears dropping.

“It was cold,” Ann mumbled.

“We get nightmares,” Yu added quietly. “We aren’t used to sleeping alone.”

“And sleeping with me helped?”

The twins nodded in unison. Emily sighed, and rubbed her eyes with her thumb and her index-finger.

“Are you angry?”

“No. But you should have asked first.”

“But you were already asleep.”

Emily ignored the comment. “Why aren’t you used to sleeping alone?” she asked. She’d been doing that since she was a baby, until she’d met Alex, that is. But before that she’d never slept in the same bed as anyone else, much less close enough to touch. Her father had not exactly been the cuddling type, and the staff at their estate had been forbidden from showing her much in the way of affection. Though, Alex had helped her realize how somber her childhood had been, so maybe she didn’t have the best frame of reference.

The twins tilted their heads.

“We are leijons?”

Emily waited for Yu to elaborate, but she didn’t. “I’m not from around here, remember,” Emily said, pointing at herself. “You’ll have to be a little more specific.”

The twins avoided her gaze again, both fiddling with the hem of their tunics.

“You still don’t believe me?”

The twins looked away, but didn’t answer; they didn’t need to, Emily could see the answer written on their faces.

Emily sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Just pretend I’m clueless about anything related to leijons, and help me understand why I woke up to both of you snuggling like kittens.”

The twins faces heated again.

“We aren’t kittens,” Ann mumbled dejectedly. “We are adults.”

“You really don’t know?”

Emily shook her head. “I have no clue.”

Yu looked at her sister, biting her lip, then she said, “We leijons live in tribes. We are from the Ionaka tribe—”

“—It’s one of the largest,” Ann proudly interrupted, receiving a glare from Yu.

“Yes, it’s one of the largest,” Yu continued. “And everyone in the tribe is family. We do everything together, eat, hunt, play. It’s all done together with the tribe.”

“And everyone in the tribe sleeps together.”

“Everyone?”

“The more the merrier.”

“Uh-huh,” Emily said. “I suppose I can understand then.” She was quiet for a moment, then she asked, “How have you been sleeping before tonight? It must have been a while since you left your tribe.”

“Together, but not very well.”

“That’s why we have been having nightmares.”

“Right. What about those boys?”

“That’s obviously what they want.”

“We are young, not stupid.”

“Fair enough,” Emily said and closed her eyes for a moment. The breeze rustled through her hair as she shifted upon her seat of soft grass, and the sun’s warmth pelted her back. It still hung low on the horizon, but soon it would rise, and he cloudless sky promised another hot, sweaty day. She sighed and opened her eyes, saying, “Like I said; I’m not angry with you, and your intentions were not bad, but I would have liked if you asked first.”

“So…” Ann asked hesitantly. “We can sleep together again?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“So… tonight?”

“I suppose,” Emily sighed. She would need the time to think, if nothing else. “But we better get moving. I’m guessing we have a bit of a trek ahead of us?”

Yu nodded. “Vigilfell is quite far to the north.”

“At least a day and a half,” Ann added. “Maybe more.”

Emily ran a hand through her hair, then tightened her improvised hairband. “Right, I’ll get the crystal, you go wake the boys if they aren’t already up.”

The twins did a mock salute, and giggled as they stood and picked up two leather packs Emily hadn’t seen earlier, before heading north, towards the boys’ camp.

Emily looked after them, shaking her head. Was this what it was like having children? She had never the opportunity to really consider what it would be like. But now, the war was over, the gods defeated; and even if they weren’t, well it didn’t matter to her anymore. She had all the free time in the world, and—she realized—there were a lot of things she had never considered before. She shook her head again, this time at herself. If she had all the time in the world, such things could wait just a little longer.

Emily stood and walked in the direction she had thrown the crystal. If she knew herself—and she did—she would find it twenty-three paces from where she had thrown it. A moment later she found the pouch; twenty-two paces from where she had thrown it. She attributed the difference to lying down, and being extraordinarily tired. She tied the pouch onto her belt, and turned to follow the sounds of argument that had burst out in the quiet morning.

She walked past the dungeon entrance, which now looked and felt like nothing more than an old ruin. None of the magic she had noticed the the day before remained, and she wondered if it had been tied to the crystal at her hip. It certainly held enough magic for that to be the case. She shrugged, and continued on, over a hill that blocked her sight. When she crested it she was greeted by the same view as before; grass moving like waves upon an ocean beneath an endless sky, but also two humans, two cats, and one squirrel staring daggers at each other.

She descended the other side of the hill at a light run, her boots finding ready purchase in the rich dirt beneath the grass. “What’s the matter?” she asked as she stopped before the party. “I heard shouting.”

The boy whose spear she had used—Rory—turned away with a scoff, and began packing his gear into a leather pack. Louie quickly followed suit, and in only moments they had stuffed away their bedrolls and few possessions they had strewn about them. They then set of north, without ever saying a word to Emily or the twins.

Emily joined the twins, catching the squirrel as it suddenly leapt from Ann’s shoulder, from which it given the girl’s an advantage in any argument. “What did I miss?” she asked as the squirrel clambered up her arm to her shoulder. She let him, but he better stay away from her hair.

“They don’t trust you,” Yu said, her arms crossed and tail moving quickly from side to side. “You saved our lives and they still don’t trust you. They think you are some demon or a professional adventurer from Eztrenya that’s come to steal all our treasure, or something.”

“They are jealous,” Ann interjected. “Because you got what they didn’t.”

“And what would that be?”

“Ann, no.”

“You got to sleep with us!” Ann cheered and threw her arms into the air, her tail and ears standing up.

Emily suppressed a smile. “Watch your mouth, or it won’t happen again.”

Ann dropped her arms and tail. “Sorry.”

Yu hid her giggles behind her hand. “We should hurry,” she said as they subsided. “Rory has the compass that shows the way back to Vigilfell.”

“We better not lose them then,” Emily said, and began walking after the boys. Footfalls pattered the ground behind her as the twins hurried to flank her.

“Here,” Ann said and held out a waterskin. “You haven’t had anything to drink since yesterday.”

“Don’t worry for my sake,” Emily said as she accepted the skin and took a gulp of water. It was warm but tasted surprisingly fresh. Then she handed it back. “You’ll need it more than me on this trek, I believe.”

Ann took back the skin and weighed it in her hand. “You barely drank any,” she said in an accusatory tone.

“I only needed to wet my throat,” Emily said with a smile, keeping her eyes forward. She didn’t want to lose their only guide to civilization. But she needn’t worry, the boys’ dark clothes shone like beacons upon the vividly green plains, and she did not doubt they could be seen from miles away.

“How large is this plain anyway?” Emily asked.

“Massive,” Ann said.

“It’s almost as large as the Lahn Federation,” Yu added.

“The Lahn Federation?”

“It’s where we come from.”

“It’s the land south of here. It looks almost the same as the plain; though warmer.”

“And more yellow.”

“And there’s water.”

“And animals.”

Emily hummed and looked up, and like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky it struck her, what had felt so wrong about the plain; there was not a single bird in the sky. She had once, long ago, traveled to the Shaarah—the great desert on the southern border of the empire—with her father. It had been a month long hunting trip and she had learned much from the strange people that had lived there for longer than any could remember. She hadn’t put much stock in their ancient traditions or beliefs, but their techniques and secrets for hunting in the desert she had easily taken to. They had told her that to find water in the desert, you looked for the birds, for they could find the sacred liquid from their vantage point in the sky.

But as she looked out across the plains, despite it seeming as if it should be teeming with life, be it plants or animals, there were none. No trees, no animals, and most importantly, no birds. She unconsciously hurried her step, she did not want to get stuck on the plains, for even she would eventually need something to drink and eat, and the plains offered neither.