“Jubilee! Jubilee!” yells Fresh excitedly, as she runs up to her friend, seeing them standing in the road together with Shamrock, whom she also says an excited hello to. “Look at all of the stuff we found!” exclaims Fresh, as she turns around to show Jubilee the full bag on her back. Basil catches up, panting, as she too has her own overflowing bag on her back, but also two of the three bedrolls, as Fresh was unable to carry anything else.

Jubilee nods to her, looking over at Basil. “You keeping her on a leash, so she doesn’t wander off of a cliff?”

The priestess bends over forward, bracing her hands against her knees, as the heavy fabric bag on her back rattles, its contents shifting around. “I’m- I’m doing my best,” she says between desperate breaths.

“Hey!” pouts Fresh, crossing her arms.

“Strong,” says Shamrock, nodding to the priestess and Basil laughs a little nervously.

Fresh’s posture loosens a second later as she wants to tell them about her morning, but she isn’t quite sure where to start. “Jubilee! Jubilee!” starts Fresh. “We found the dungeon and it’s really great! There’s a bunch of water and crystals and oh! Oh! Jubilee!” Fresh grabs Jubilee’s shoulders. “There’s this really nice shop that makes clockwork toys and -”

Jubilee raises a hand, shushing her with it and pushing her hands off of their shoulders with the other. “Okay, okay. Settle down. Your goo-brain is leaking.”

“Jubilee~!” cries Fresh, leaning in towards her friend. “This city is really great! It’s so pretty and the air is so clean and the -”

“Okay. Yeah, I get it. You like the mountain air,” Jubilee shakes their head. “Listen up, we went to the magistrate and asked about setting up a business.”

“Magi- What does a wizard have to do with anything?” asks Fresh, scratching her cheek.

“A wi- No you dumb-ass. A magistrate has nothing to do with magic. He runs this place,” barks Jubilee at her.

“Oh, wow! You got to talk to him?”

Jubilee shakes their head. “No, just some old goon at a desk, but she told us enough. There are actually a few properties for sale in the city.”

“That’s great!”

Jubilee nods. “Yeah, I asked about ones by the dungeon -”

Basil jumps in. “Is that wise? What if there’s another breach?”

“Don’t worry about it. The gate is pretty well guarded here. There’s no corrupt church to throw us to the wolves this time,” says Jubilee, staring at Basil, who doesn’t manage to find a response. “Anyways. There’s one just outside of the dungeon but…” Jubilee thinks for a second, before looking at Shamrock.

“Suspicious,” says the man as he gazes upwards at a large crystal that flies on by, shimmering as the late morning sunlight radiates off of its glossy, prismatic surface.

“Huh?” asks Fresh.

“It’s too cheap,” explains Jubilee. “They only want half the asking price of any other building. Houses aren’t cheaper by the dungeon here like they are in the north, because the gate here is safe.”

Basil crosses her arms thinking. “So there’s a catch?”

Jubilee shrugs. “There’s always a fucking catch, but she wouldn’t tell us anything. Fucking pen pushers.”

Fresh thinks for a while as they all stand there. The crowd bustles and flows around them. “Is there a merchants’ guild here?” she asks Jubilee.

“No. The magistrate runs everything. He’s basically a king. But, he keeps his fingers out of the pie, as long as it keeps on coming.”

“So we won’t have any dues to pay here? Or any tributes to make?” asks Fresh excitedly. The prospect of being financially unburdened is greatly enticing to hear about.

“Just the taxes and property dues. The rate is a little higher than in the north though, but we’re still coming out ahead.”

“That sounds great, Jubilee! We should take it!” says Fresh excitedly. “Can we look at it? How much does it cost?”

“After we’ve paid. They’ll let us have it for seventy-thousand,” says Jubilee dryly, looking at her and watching as her excited face grows pale in an instant. None of them say anything. Fresh shuffles awkwardly around as she watches Basil fidget much the same. Only Shamrock seems undisturbed as he continues to stare at the giant crystals flying through the sky.

“Jubilee, we can’t afford that,” says Fresh plainly, rubbing her arm, saying it as nobody else was going to, by the looks of things.

“Yeah. No shit. All the money we put to the side is still in the northern adventurers’ guild.”

Fresh suddenly realizes in horror at how much they had left behind so suddenly. “Jubilee! What about… what about your money?”

Jubilee shakes their head once more. “It’s deposited.”

“Oh no…” mutters Fresh, thinking about the adventurers’ guild. She hopes that the scarred barkeeper doesn’t hate her now too. She thinks that she really ended up taking a liking to the elf, despite everything. “So, what do we do now?”

“We earn some money,” says Jubilee plainly. “The property has been available for a while now, so I don’t think there’s a rush.”

Fresh lets out an unsure groan. She shivers as a cold breeze rushes past them. The frigid mountain winds press through the crowd and cause the entire river of fabric robes and capes to billow along with its gentle current. “But that much? I mean, maybe when we were selling things at the store, but how are we going to do it without a building?”

“It’ll be fine, dumb-ass. We’re an adventuring party,” says Jubilee. “We’ll just go on an adventure.”

“Again?” whines Fresh. “But Jubileeee~ we just got here!”

“What? No! I mean into the dungeon!” yells Jubilee, placing their hands on their hips. “We’re going to start dungeon-diving to earn money. With all four of us, we should be able to get pretty far.” Jubilee looks up at Shamrock. “You ever been here?”

“No,” is all that he says as his breastplate lurches outward.

“What about you?” asks Basil. Jubilee shakes their head.

“Not into the dungeon, no. How much money do you have left?” asks Jubilee, looking at Fresh.

“Uh…” Fresh turns to look at Basil.

“You have just under ten-thousand,” says Basil, pulling on her sleeves for a second as she thinks. “I also have this,” she says, pulling up the fabric to show the golden bangle that she wears around her wrist. “It’s not worth much, but we can sell it?” suggests the priestess. Fresh looks at her somewhat surprised, but also touched.

“That’s really sweet, Basil. Thank you!” Basil doesn’t say anything, but nods with a pleased smile.

Jubilee thinks for a second. “We’ll take what we can get. I might be able to work something out to get to our savings. I’ll have to talk to some people tonight.”

“The thieves’ guild…?” asks Fresh quietly, leaning over towards Jubilee. “Is that a smart idea?” she whispers.

Jubilee ignores her question. “Together with what you have, we only need to get maybe thirty? Yeah. I think we can scratch that together. If everything works out,” says Jubilee looking at Shamrock and at Basil who both nod back.

Fresh beams excitedly. “So we’re going to the dungeon?!”

“Yeah. Don’t get in the way, goo-brain. You two kooks go back to the guild and drop all of your stuff off,” says Jubilee. “We’ll meet up outside of the dungeon in an hour and check it out. We can take a look at the house from the outside at least too.”

After that, the four of them split up again into two groups. Fresh and Basil follow the waterway that cuts through the plateau as they head back towards the adventurers’ guild to drop everything off. Entering into the guild, the two of them are accosted by the loud shouting of the constant party that is happening inside. Fresh ducks down at the last second, as the fairy-waitress zooms past her head, apparently straining herself a lot to carry a single empty mug through the anarchy. People are moving every which way as they fill tables, hopping from one group to the next in what appears to be a strange drinking game that she isn’t really able to decipher.

Quickly, they unlock the sliding door and duck into the room and take a minute to unload their bags. Since they have time, Fresh suggests that they get the new bedrolls ready for tonight. She bets Jubilee will be really happy with her for thinking ahead like this and so, she proudly sets to work. Humming as she rolls the smaller ones out while Basil takes care of the large bedroll for Shamrock.

“Ah!” Fresh realizes all of a sudden that they’re one bed-roll short. She didn’t think about Jubilee, having forgotten that the mattress was being used as a divider rather than to lay on top of. “Basil, we have to go buy another bed-roll for Jubilee! I forgot!”

Basil looks up at her as she tucks in the sheet around the corner of the large mat. “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” starts Basil. “But I didn’t want to be rude…” Basil fidgets a little, pulling on her sleeves. “How come Jubilee is so shy about their appearance?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” asks Fresh. Basil blinks a few times and then shrugs. “You know? The whole mask thing?”

“Oh,” Fresh realizes that she doesn’t even think about it anymore. At this point, the mask seemed to be just as natural a feature of Jubilee’s body as any other part of it. “I don’t know. I never asked, I think?” says Fresh.

“Really? So you don’t know what they really look like?” asks Basil.

Fresh thinks for a second, placing a finger on her cheek. “I guess not,” thinks the girl. “But I mean, I don’t know what Shamrock looks like either,” she laughs. “Everyone is so secretive. But at least I can see your face, Basil!” She lifts a finger as she explains. “It’s really nice!” says Fresh as she goes back to making the bed. A moment later, she stops and thinks for a second. Was that a weird thing to say? Is she being weird again? Fresh looks over towards Basil. She hopes that the priestess doesn’t think that she’s weird now.

Basil mutters a quiet “Thank you,” as she continues to pull on her sleeves, not looking up from them anymore. A moment later she goes back to making Shamrock’s bed. Fresh shrugs, feeling relieved. It looks like everything is fine. The girl smiles, continuing to hum as she works, her eyes shining with the barely contained excitement that grows inside of her at the prospect of going into the new dungeon together with all of her friends.

Fresh is excited about the fact that they could all work together, fight together, so that they all, together, could make a new place to call home.

She can hardly wait.