The journey went well for the first day or two, no dangerous animals, monsters or bandits showed themselves.

Well, that was to be expected, the Domain was probably the most secure place on Arkadia, and definitely on Fenria. What self-respecting country would let dangerous critters roam around anyway? That was why the Army, the Militia, adventurers and the campground-guards where there to begin with. And the Red Elf Clans. What else would they do instead hunting stuff that would endanger the Domain and its inhabitants?

Sit around in the barracks or a bar?

All went well till they entered the next town. What went wrong was the presence of Glitter Elves. They were mischievous at best, outright cruel at other times – and they hated Humans with a passion, that overshadowed even the Reds. Prof’s Gentleman Perk would probably save him from an outright attack or some nasty pranks, but he would be shaken down for some booze or good food anyway.

That is, if the Glitters didn’t regard him as a curiosity. Then all bets were off.

They needed to leave the town as fast as possible, if the Glitter’s curiosity was awoken, not even Foxy’s status would calm them down.

Of course, the Glitters spotted them almost immediately. No wonder. They were employed as scouts and spies by the Domain, after all. Of course, they found Prof and the party interesting enough to get the Cluster Leader and every last Glitter in town. Luckily Foxy was able to warn Prof against attacking them, no matter what happened. If that happened, even Foxy wouldn’t able to save him – actually, she would have to put him down for attacking an Elf.

Thankfully, Prof could reign in his anger and did not attack the Glitters – not even when they “sexually harassed” him. Foxy wasn’t exactly sure, why he felt that way, she did not see anything that she would consider sexual harassment. There was absolutely no touching only completely normal nakedness. Why the people from Flatsoundingworld were so against being naked, Foxy couldn’t understand. Why they had to complain and whine constantly?

When the Glitters found the Glitter Brandy, the crisis was over. With the Glitters at least. The complaining and whining only started after they left the town. Prof obviously haven’t learned yet that in the Domain Elves came first, second and third, other species only after them, how the Domain’s Laws and Traditions worked, and that the Glitters were completely in their right to demand their due.

When Shinead pointed out exactly that, Prof acted offended. Foxy already noticed, that he wasn’t so in love (more likely horny) anymore, but this little interaction cured him from the last lingering feelings. Good for him, trying to bed a Red wasn’t the best idea to begin with.

For the rest of the day, he sulked like he was insulted. What a child.

In the next three weeks, they continued the pursuit, getting up early in the morning, walking forty-five kilometres a day, just to reach the next camping ground with the last light. They stopped only rarely, mostly just for Shinead going into a town to get information on the Human band. Foxy sometimes accompanied her to submit her next report, or get new orders.

Her superiors were fairly certain by this point, that Prof was indeed a Protagonist – although some doubts still remained. Foxy’s orders were to monitor him till otherwise ordered, even outside the Domain. She was free to terminate him, if he went against the Domain’s interests. As for the Human attackers and their Grey Elf contractors… She was to hold still and observe.

The border town they arrived at – instead of the very poetic and expressive Elven name they had to use Deadbranch – finally provided a bath house, where she could soak in peace for a time. After they were dumped in a low-class guest house by Shinead, Prof left to chat up an Adopted-Blue next door, so Foxy went for a good soak with Mini in tow. Just as they came back to the guest house, Prof was also finished chatting with the caretaker, and since he was… dirty and stinky… the girls decided, he needed some serious cleaning.

Well, they had to dump a few buckets of water on him before he was allowed into the bath.

Small sacrifice for not having to smell him any longer.

During their preparation for the expedition into the Valley of Torment, Prof finally found his spine, and refused to pay for everything on his own. Foxy relented only because they faced an expedition of unknown length without the possibility to resupply, and Prof’s financial situation wasn’t so good that he needed further pruning. With Foxy on an official assignment, she could bill the costs on the Office, so it cost her nothing. She even took Mini’s purchases over.

It cost her nothing to be gallant.

The thus saved money Mini blew on new clothing. Prof often complained about the style females clothed themselves on Arkadia, but he failed to notice that only the richer classes could afford the extravagant pieces. Or adventurers. Actually, that style, while not really convenient in most instances, was around for millennia, and it was virtually impossible to get rid of it. Adventurers and richer people always re-discovered it in short order. One of the most useless get-ups was a two-piece set for females, made out of chainmail. Mini had three of those.

It was speculated for a long time that either the Heavenly Game Master himself was behind the constant re-discovery, widespread use and popularity of the style. Or Travellers.

The next day Prof left for a quick run in a dungeon not far away. Everyone, Foxy especially, was curios, if he found another female in distress to add to his collection. Foxy thought about following him secretly, but finally decided against it. He would be away for only a day, even as a Traveller and a suspected Protagonist, he wouldn’t be able to find trouble in that time. What could possibly go wrong?

The rest of the party – the Kobold excluded, she was confined to the guest house – took advantage of the free time for further purchases, gathering information or just lounging in a street-side tavern. Foxy submitted her last report with her intentions included, restocked some consumables (the ones Prof should not know about) and joined Mini in the tavern. After the last month of constant travel it was good to have a few hours of easy time.

The tavern even served her favourite dessert, sweet cottage cheese coated in syrup, quick-fried and cooled down. It was a pity, that it was mostly sold in the Brown territories, the capital for example had only one pastry cook who made it, and in the East it was almost unknown. She quickly stocked up a couple of servings – her Bag of Holding would keep it fresh indefinitely. It was a miss-use of Office-provided gear, but she was going on an expedition of unknown length, so she was able to justify it for herself.

A few days later, they entered to Valley of Torment – surprisingly without Prof collecting another party member.

It was like the reports described it: the structure of space was weak, chaotic and unpredictable. What was there one moment, was gone the next, Foxy suspected they travelled from one side of the Valley to the other with just a few steps, and ended up somewhere completely else the next hour. Shinead’s compass was basically useless – even if Guillermo’s band stood still, the party still had to travel, and as soon as they didn’t pay attention, they ended up on the wrong side of everything.

It was a nightmare.

The same nature of the Valley made it absolutely impossible to send an army of meaningful size through it, and even small raiding parties mostly just disappeared. The Domain’s Western border was thus secure.

It was speculated, that there were inhabitants in the Valley, remnants of the previous population and survivors of expeditions and the occasional army that was sent into it in the few years after the Cataclysm. There were sightings and traces but no definite proof.

At least no one survived an encounter to tell the tale.

The most perplexing, recurring sighting was of a fur-clad, huge Human, that often lurked in the woods next to camp sites in the night. Since the sightings went back at least three centuries, it was impossible for it being a Human, despite the matching descriptions. It was called the Large-Footed Hairy Human, but Foxy thought it to be a hoax or a hallucination.

Until she saw it one night while on guard duty. One moment it was just there, watching her, the next it was gone again. She started to regret her choice to have entered the Valley. It was not a sane place.

She absolutely regretted her choice when they returned to the old Dragonkin ruins time and again. First, such ruins were extremely dangerous, with vengeful ghost and spirits lurking near and in them – they lacked enough magical weapons, they had only Mini’s sabre, Shinead’s dagger and Foxy’s wristclaws, neither of them really powerful. Secondly, and more importantly, the ruins had no right to be there, even ruined as they were. The war against the Dragonkin was forty millennia ago, what remained of the architecture in the Domain, was gone when the Elven Unity came into being.

The Elves took care of that.

The only silver lining in the whole ordeal of the expedition were the logbooks left behind by Guillermo’s band. Foxy’s [Cryptography] was basically non-existent, but the Office had a few very good code-breakers, so she pocketed every last of them. If someone took the effort of leaving coded logbooks behind in a place like the Valley, the organisation responsible for defending the Domain from threats had to have them.