Five days passed and we were getting ready to head out, considering we’d need a day to walk and an additional day to get situated before the festivities started. Peak had went into overdrive on his work in order to not only remedy his previous slacking, but also to get stuff done in advanced, as he’d be absent.

I’d been asleep when I was startled awake by a cacophony of staggering stomps piercing my eardrums. It was, of course, Peak. So, shaking myself awake, I sat up from his bed and watched him toss stuff around his room, like some sort of crazed madman.

“Uh… Peak, what are you doing?” I attempted to blink away my tiredness and readjust my eyes, as if it’d magically inject some strain of understanding into me. I must’ve worn the blankest most dumbfoundedest expression possible as I wearily spoke to Peak. It was meant to be the day of our departure, but I still felt like it was too early to be getting up. The moon was just barely radiating.

At hearing my voice sound, Peak nearly jumped out of his skin and then turned to me with a dreadful expression on his face. “April! I forgot to pack our stuff! C’mon help me out!”

There it was. I’d started to think Peak had been all too thorough the past few days. Not even leaving room for our collective scatterbrain syndrome to interfere with his almost suspiciously carefully thought out plans. He was reliable when it came to having my back, but when it came to being consistent or well thought out in his actions, that all fell off a cliff quicker than I could.

“Now that I think about it… Packing was left out of the plan, wasn’t it? Yaaaawn… You leave out the most simple of details, Peak. Fine then, let’s get this show on the road!” I yawned away the very last of my sleepiness and pumped myself up for the day, helping in Peak’s scramble to get us prepared. As I packed, I recalled Peak’s plan and just how impressed I’d been by its apparent forethought.

✦✧✦

It’d been four days ago—the evening after we’d decided to go to Shelter—that Peak had sat me down at the patio table to explain our course of action. He’d even had a large map of the plateau spread out and everything. It was a truly baffling display.

“Listen here, April! We can’t just go rushing into this trip, you hear me? So, look here: I’ll show you the path we’ll be taking and the potential hardships we might face. That way we can prepare for anything.” It must’ve been Peak’s attempt at a leader voice, as he talked with an authority I’d never heard from him before.

“Do we really have to…? I’d rather just rush into it and hope for the best. It’s more fun and adventurous that way!” As I stated, it was the evening. It wasn’t necessarily my prime time for thinky situations. So, I bemoaned the idea of having to actually think out a plan of attack.

“No can do, April. Not only are you wounded, but you’re reckless, too. Even with me with you, there are dangers that can rear their heads at any time. Even if it is unlikely, you’ve gotta be ready for anything.” Peak tried to reason with me, but my eyes must’ve been plastered with disinterest. So, he pulled out a book and turned to a page, before holding out an illustration of something in an effort to further persuade me.

“Like look at this, it’s a monster called the Wall Flower. If you wandered off and fell prey to one of these, there’d be very little I could do for you.” The page had an illustration of an oddly cute crustacean-like creature with a shell that sprouted into a vine. The vine ended in a bright red flower. “In order to get to Shelter, we’ll have to pass through many tunnels that house these little guys. And, while they don’t commonly lunge at you or anything, one brush with its flower, and it’ll strangle you within seconds.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’ll stick close and follow the plan. Now tell me, what is the plan?” Not caring enough to argue any further, I conceded my will and went with what Peak was saying. It was hard to fight with someone when he had your best interests in mind.

Then, I took an eyeful of the map and got a lay of the topography we’d be traversing as Peak started explaining our route and key places to avoid.

He started by pointing at an area to the far left of the map marked with dense forests and winding streams that sprouted from cliff sides. “As you can see, we’re over here. Now, I patrol an area up to around here.” Peak then used his finger to draw a line about two thirds of the way horizontally across the map.

“Seriously? I didn’t know you looked after so much…” The area Peak had indicated was rather large, especially when I saw how close in proximity the drop off by where I arrived was.

“Ahaha, it’s nothing really. As you know, I get around quickly, so it’s no big deal.” Peak, modest as ever, just laughed off my awe and got ready to continue before I cut him off.

“—Hey, if you get around so quickly, why will it takes us a whole day to get there? After all, you can just luggage carry me and run full speed like you did that one time.”

“Running at that speed it’d still take at least half a day to get there, but that isn’t the problem. As you can see, where my patrol stops there’s a big body of crags that we’ll have to push through.” Peak returned his finger back to where he’d said his patrol stopped, and I saw that it was indicated to have mountainous terrain. Even more noticeably, though, I picked up on that I’d underestimated Peak’s speed. He didn’t directly say it, but he’d implied he could move even faster than I’d seen. I’d never really thought Peak’s speed was the most impressive feature of his running—rather his stamina was—but if he could move faster, then I might’ve needed to overwrite that conclusion.

“We don’t need to cross over the crags, though. There’s tunnels that weave through them, but you can’t rush through those or, like I said, you might end up victim to some horrible something or another.” Peak continued his explanation, and I was starting to understand the difficulty of our trip.

Peak continued his explanation going over an arsenal of different things to look out for and places we’d be passing through. I sort of zoned out part way through and just started to take in the jist of what he was saying instead of the whole.

Basically, we’d make our way to the tunnels with Peak swiftly depatching anything that approached us along the way. The further away we’d move from Peak’s house, the more dangerous it was likely to become. He wasn’t superhuman, he could only hunt down what he could find, so as we’d reach the outsides of his patrol range, it was more likely that we’d encounter something dangerous.

Then, we’d pass through the lightly patrolled zones—the tunnels. According to Peak, he and Fi took turns dealing with the dangers within them every month. So, while they wouldn’t be teeming with monsters and things of the such, they were much less controlled. Plus, Peak wouldn’t be as acquainted with every little thing that could approach us, meaning we’d have to be much more on our guard.

Once we’d get through the tunnels, it’d likely be nighttime. Despite that, it’d probably be safe for us to progress to Shelter. On the other side of the tunnels was Fi’s patrol range, and she was a stickler for getting every last thing exterminated. Traveling at night, wasn’t likely to be a problem.

And that was the plan; however, Peak had more on his agenda for me.

Seeing as last time I’d gone off on my own into the wilderness, I was dragged back to him half dead, Peak had me accompany him during his work to “learn from him”.

We were waiting to get a weapon from a person in Shelter, so I was given a large stone chef’s knife to use as a supplementary weapon. While, I was certainly more used to handling a knife like a chef’s knife, especially more-so than the daggers I had, it wasn’t the most effective at taking out enemies… and Peak, unsurprisingly, wasn’t the best teacher. Although, he tried his heart out giving me useless tips and instructions.

Either way, though, it was sort of a fun week, and it beat laying around Peak’s house.

✦✧✦

After recalling the plan, I let out a storage of held breath that contained a mixture of my initial feelings of being impressed and my subsequential let down. “Welp, Peak, are we all good to go?” I called out that I was finished with my own packing.

“One second, April! I’ve still got a couple of things to put together!” Peak had migrated into the main room, and was now packing additional supplies for the trip. I kept everything that I deemed mine under Peak’s bed, so I honestly didn’t have much packing to do.

Peak was incredibly versatile in his skill set and he’d put together a variety of bags for us to haul our stuff in for the trip. At first, I’d figured he’d made an excessive amount that could never truthfully be used, but when I stepped out into the main room to check on Peak, I realized that Peak might’ve thought the opposite.

“What the heck are you doing?! Packing your whole house?!” Everything was everywhere it wasn’t supposed to be, and a giant bag was almost over filling with items.

Peak’s house wasn’t big. I hadn’t seen half the stuff he was packing. Where’d he get it all from? I might never know.

“Huh? Oh, of course not! That’d be crazy!” Peak was oblivious to my criticisms. I suppose, in his mind, it probably didn’t seem like he was packing a lot. In reality though…

“Peak, we’re going to be gone for like three or four days, five tops. Why in the world do you need every single piece of your kitchen equipment and your whole library of books?!” It was insane. His whole house was a husk of what it was. And Peak, he had no idea how to respond. He couldn’t logically account for his actions. “Alright, we’re sitting down and putting some of this stuff back.”

“Mmm… are you sure we won’t need it, though?” Peak was hesitant, but it was clear that it wouldn’t take much further convincing to make him concede.

“Yes, I’m sure. Now, let’s unpack, then pack up, then get our butts moving! Or else, I’m throwing your whole bag into the stream.” I ended my threat with a wink to clarify I was joking. However, Peak still became worried enough by it that a rain of stuff, some of which was sharp or heavy, came pouring down around me, making me dodge the onslaught like some cartoon anvils.

“Phew, alright then, Peak, are you ready to head out?” Half an hour after we were supposed to leave, most of Peak’s possessions were returned to their rightful places, and we were finally prepared to leave.

“Sure am! Although… I feel like we could’ve packed a few more things. Just to be safe. But, oh well.” Peak was a bit wary about leaving his house behind, and it was understandable. He’d worked on this place for five years without end. Whether it was normal or not, I couldn’t say, but I could tell Peak had a profound connection to his house and the things in it.

“Nah, we’ll be fine. The less stuff we bring, the more stuff we can bring back… and the more real the journey will feel! So, let’s get gogogo going already!” I was practically pushing Peak out of the treehouse, trusting that he’d pull out some catlike maneuvers, and land on his feet if he were to fall, which he did.

Once we were on the ground, I raised my arms up in the air, instinctively curled my wings around my body, closed my eyes, and signalled for Peak to lug me under his arms.

“April, what are you doing? Is that a new stretching technique?” Although, Peak didn’t catch onto the cue.

“Just pick me up! The worst part is the initial getting lifted up part, so get it over with! ...It’s kinda humiliating.” I quickly grew impatient, and without changing my pose, more aggressively signalled Peak.

“Maybe, some time I’ll have you lift me up as compensation—”

“I’d break my back.” Without any change in expression, I retorted to Peak’s less than clever idea of compensation.

“Ahaha! Well, I’m sure that maybe one day you’ll be able to, just have faith.” As Peak spoke optimistically of my future, he went through the procedure of picking my up under his arm, and without skipping a beat, launched from the ground.

Our day trip had begun and Shelter was soon within our grasp.

In the five days of our preparation, the weather had grown noticeably cooler. Where it was Spring back on Earth, it was Creation’s equivalent of fall—Necromoon—so a pleasantly cool bite of wind struck at my cheeks, making them a flush red. The weather had a tendency to alter quickly up on top of the mountain, and where it was already cool due to our altitude, it was bound to become far more than freezing in the upcoming days.

Luckily, most of my wounds had adequately healed before our trip.

Other than that, everything was pretty much what I was used to. Become a plow through the woods, get scraped up and bruised by trees—although Peak had gotten better at getting around with me in tow —and eventually arrive at our destination with, fortunately, few interruptions.

On the way, I’d discovered a cool few new critters about, and a neat looking tree or two, but nothing of true value. It was no different than hopping into a car for a trip. I just had to wait out the boredom until we got to the interesting part. And, in no time, we did.

We’d left in the morning and it was a bit past midday, probably two-o-clock or so, when they came into view. Giant spikes that stretched off the ground. Spikes that would be next to impossible to travel over. An ominous fog floating around their tops. This was where our trip would become less of your average, chaotic family getaway, and more of an other world excursion.