Heluna declined to give him the gift while they were out in the middle of the jungle. Kaldalis wanted to know why, but she played coy about it. He wasn’t sure if it was because it was dangerous out here in the jungle and she wanted to get to safety, or if she thought the gift was going to lead to something that might benefit from being a little closer to civilization and a little farther from giant toothy monsters.

They walked hand-in-hand wherever possible. That point of contact made Kaldalis feel oddly safe, even though he would be the one to put his ass on the line if they got in trouble - he would respawn, after all.

There were a few challenging areas to cross, which required them to have both hands free to pick their way through dense brush, and they crossed paths with an Irritator and had to part briefly when there were no hiding places large enough for the two of them together - though there was plenty of undergrowth for them to crouch under apart.

A particularly deep ravine allowed Kaldalis to use his Jump cooldown with Heluna scooped up in his arms. With her hands laced together behind his neck to secure herself, and his arms under her knees and shoulders, he hurled himself much higher into the air, carrying her up over the jungle canopy for the duration of the ability.

He briefly felt like a caped superhero taking his love interest on a romantic flight.

Heluna spoiled the illusion pretty quickly, though. Instead of clinging close to him for safety, she whooped and cheered, excited by the wind whipping through her short hair, and hundreds of feet of jungle flying beneath them at speed.

The strangest obstacle was, naturally, the Contender’s line in the sand. After the tight net cast around the other town, Kaldalis had been curious how a Jormongumo had managed to get to the outskirts of Cotanaku and drag him back to their settlement. And he had wondered how Dalgaard had been getting people in and out - including Balrim and Myrin. And it didn’t make sense that Courbois, Reno, Ess, and Heluna had all gotten past the guards so easily without whatever experience the others had.

What he hadn’t expected was that “line in the sand” was overstating exactly how serious the border was.

There was a red section on his minimap - designating an area as trespassing - that encircled Cotanaku. But it was only a few hundred feet wide, and it was so far out from the town that Kaldalis guessed that if it marked a perfect half-circle - with both ends on the beach - it would have been at least thirty miles long. Maybe more. Even the Contender’s forces had limits. They were likely gathered around ruins and the dungeon entrance, leaving only a token force patrolling this border. The only thing Kaldalis and Heluna saw on their walk through the thin red band of jungle was a bit of bootprinted mud that indicated the path the patrols were walking.

“Finally,” Kaldalis found himself saying when they emerged from the jungle to see the walls of Cotanaku at last. “I kept expecting something horrible to happen the whole time.”

“I’m glad it didn’t,” Heluna said with a grin. “If we’d gotten separated, I would have had your gift clogging my fuckin’ inventory for even longer. I like you and all, but it’s been almost a month, and a girl has her own shit to carry.”

To Kaldalis’s surprise, Heluna produced a handful of Pale Perch. The fish he needed for his annoyingly long fishing quest.

“Thank you,” he said, accepting them and putting them in his own inventory, watching the count on the quest tracker tick up from 2400 to 2405. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Hold on, there’s more,” Heluna said, producing another handful from her inventory. “Somewhere in the neighborhood of a shitload!”

The Finnian sailor started to produce more Pale Perch, handing them over. And more. And more. At first, Kaldalis was flattered that she’d found something so thoughtful and practical to give to him.

Soon after, he became tremendously impressed by how much she’d caught.

“Where did these come from?” he asked as his counter ticked up to 3000. “I mean, obviously, from fishing, but…”

“You were gone for a pretty long fuckin’ time, Kal,” Heluna said, heaving a sigh as the fish just kept coming. “Whenever I found myself missing you while you were off in Baimer, I’d haul my ass out onto the pier and throw out a line. Y’know. Like you would. It made me feel… I don’t know.” She visibly flushed, her gunmetal-gray cheeks turning slightly purplish. “It made me feel close to you.”

Kaldalis tried to consider how long this many fish would have taken to catch. He found himself feeling a little heat on his cheeks as well. She must have been fishing nearly non-stop. Hours per day every day. And if she only went fishing when she thought of him…

“This is,” Kaldalis began sheepishly, “this is a lot of fish.”

“Well, I’m exaggerating a little,” Heluna admitted. “I only wanted to catch you a few dozen to fuckin’ surprise you when you got back. And then I ended up catching a few… Lots.”

“I see that,” Kaldalis said, his counter still ticking up as the rhythm of accepting fish and tossing them into his inventory over and over sent his quest tracker up over 3500 fish. “One might venture to call it a shitload. But how are you exaggerating?”

“Well, my drinking buddies caught wind of why I was missing, and their dumb asses wanted to help,” Heluna grumbled. “So they pitched in, too.”

“Why?” Kaldalis asked.

“Because they like you, dumbass,” Heluna said with a laugh. “The whole town knows what you did to keep their asses out of a dozen different fires, but my buddies most of all.”

Kaldalis winced. “Because you’re telling tall tales,” he guessed.

“Hey,” Heluna snapped with a smirk. “You’re pretty fuckin’ tall! You deserve some recognition for it! And I didn’t even need to add that much artistic bullshit to make your stories into some fine folk tales.”

“What stories did you tell?” Kaldalis asked.

“I’m sure you can guess,” Heluna said. “I told them the story you told me about when you got your dumb ass separated from your friends in the Sunken Ruins. Though I may have had to fill in some blanks on you spanking a boss monster by your damn self, since you really glossed over that shit.”

“I didn’t spank anything,” Kaldalis said defensively. He felt his cheeks flush again as Heluna suddenly acquired a very sharp grin but then quickly tried to hide it.

“Of course, every fucker on the islands knows how you basically founded Cotanaku and Panbu single-handedly,” Heluna said, instead of making whatever comment had popped into her mind.

“I couldn’t have done it without my friends,” Kaldalis said, almost amused at his defensive tone. Didn’t he want to be recognized as a hero? Wasn’t he upset when he’d felt overlooked? Why was he trying to backpedal so hard now? “Besides, you’re the hero of the story in Panbu. Without you getting Garyung to ride to my rescue, that was a disaster of epic proportions.”

“Bullshit,” Heluna scoffed. “As if anyone would want to hear a story about my boring ass when you’re right here.” She smiled, still handing him fish by the armful, the motions long since becoming automatic. “It’s a better story if it’s all down to one asshole, anyway. Not to mention, you know. The Big One.”

“Uh,” Kaldalis said, trying not to get distracted as his quest counter went past 4500. “What’s the big one?”

“Well, you know,” Heluna said, voice going a little quiet. “There were a lot of wild bullshit stories about… I just fuckin’ wanted to make sure… Well.” She took a breath, seeming to decide to just rip the band-aid off. “Nobody was sure how Onirioago got her ass caught and arrested. I was super fuckin’ drunk and some asshole guessed you were in on her plan, and… Well…”

Kaldalis winced.

“I didn’t, you know,” she added quickly. “I just told a short version of the story. Not about the trauma or anything. I wouldn’t fuckin’ do that do you.”

“Okay,” Kaldalis said, pushing his anxiety down. “What did you tell them?”

“I said it was you who got her arrested,” she explained. Her hands started moving faster, as if she feared he might stop accepting the fish at any moment. “And I was super fuckin’ drunk. Did I say that already?”

“Yes,” Kaldalis said, forcing his tone to stay calm. “What did you tell them?”

“You’re gonna hear it sooner or later,” she grumbled, more to herself than him. “But I told them that you marched your sexy ass into the bedroom of the queen bitch and out-seduced her so bad you got a full confession of her crimes.” Her cheeks flushed again. “Anything besides that is just asshole sailors embellishing. That’s really all I fuckin’ said! There’s guys saying you had to get her by the horns to get it out of her, if you know what I mean. But I didn’t fuckin’ say that! I promise, Kal.”

Kaldalis shook his head. It wouldn’t be the first time in his life that an exaggerated fiction of a sexual escapade got out of hand. At least in this tale, he was with a woman.

“It’s fine,” Kaldalis said at last. “At least I can say I’m a folk hero. Is there a song in my honor yet? Maybe a statue?” He imagined what Myrin and Balrim would say if they happened upon a statue of him in the middle of Cotanaku, looking at them like they owed him something.

“Anyway, that’s a long fuckin’ way of saying that the boys pitched in, too,” Heluna said, visibly relieved that he didn’t seem too upset. “So, you know. Lotta fish.”

“I see that,” Kaldalis said, the counter reaching 6000 and still going. “This is more than twice what I’ve gotten since I got the quest. Thank you. And be sure to pass your thanks along to the boys. This is literally months off of my projection for getting… Whatever it is Foturns has for me.”

“Oh, one of the boys knows Foturns, too,” Heluna said quickly. “That asshole, Bastijn. He had a good guess at what your fuckin’ reward might be, if you’re curious.”

“I mean, you know I am,” Kaldalis said, surprised that the fish seemed to show no sign of stopping, barreling towards 7000.

“Foturns is old guard,” Heluna began. “And I mean really fuckin’ old. His ass is only in Cotanaku for his retirement from the Adventurers League. Don’t fuckin’ ask me why he’d retire here. Fucked if I know. But they say he’s a relic-bearer. He’s got some shit handed down from the old days.”

“Relic?” Kaldalis asked. His first instinct was to think of the Ultimate Weapons from other videogames. Internally, he scolded himself for comparing this world to a videogame, but the Calamity had happened centuries ago. The old days where such an item might originate from might actually have been a creation of Monsoon.

“Some kind of fuckin’ legendary fishing rod,” Heluna said. “There’s only a few dozen of the fuckers in the world. If Bastjin is right, it might let you hold your breath forever when you’re holdin’ it.”

That was an interesting prospect. Considering that he’d seen at least one boss fight where the breath bar had doubled as a fight mechanic, the ability to bypass it by swapping from a weapon to a fishing rod after establishing aggro might be valuable. Not to mention the options it would open up for exploration of the ocean.

“That’s the last of the fuckers,” Heluna said, finally handing him the last of the Pale Perch she had. “They’re your problem now, bitch,” she added with a smile.

Kaldalis had to admit, it was a lot of fish. His counter had finally come to rest at 8048. Heluna and her friends had collected over seven thousand fish for him. It was an absolutely spectacular number for three weeks, even if Heluna had a half-dozen friends helping her.

“Thank you, Heluna,” Kaldalis said, putting as much sincerity into his voice as he could. “I mean it. This is a great help.”

“Shit,” she said, blushing again. “I like you, Kal. If there’s anything else I can do for you, just ask. Or else I’ll have to fuckin’ figure it out myself and devote myself to it for weeks to surprise your ass.”

“Well,” Kaldalis said, looking at his other quests. He searched his newly-fish-filled inventory and produced the Lataxinan case he’d found the previous day. “Maybe if you want, you could help me find a starting point for this thing?”

“You know,” Heluna said with a grin, “I think I might know just the asshole for this.”