“Freedom!” I bounded out of the tunnel and embraced the grass. Peak had diligently led us out without any problems. He’d made everything look so effortless that I felt embarrassed by the futility of my earlier struggles. We’d even encountered some cool looking monsters I’d never seen before, only for Peak to dispatch of them moments later.

I then rolled from my stomach onto my back and stared up at the purple night sky. Sure enough, it was still night when we exited the tunnels, despite the extra time added by my… excursion—probably just later into it than planned. I didn’t know any concise way of telling time in this world, but I could only figure it was sometime past 12AM. Everyone in Shelter was most likely asleep by now.

“Tell me about it. I hate it in there… it’s all cramped and musty. But that doesn’t me we can stop for a break. We’re almost there, though, so let’s keep pushing through.” Peak dampened my enthusiasm towards our exit, as he helped me off the ground.

“I know, I know. I was just… appreciating the grass. But for curiosity’s sake, would you mind telling me precisely how much longer we have until we get there.” I teetered as I stood. I was very much a daytime person; therefore, the combination of being up late and downright exhausted gnawed away at my consciousness. Although, I knew it was my fault we got out so late, so I did my best to muster up some will to continue.

“No need to worry about that, we’ll go in our classic traveling formation.” Without waiting for my consent, Peak drew me under his arm and took off. The area we were in was much more open than the forests where Peak lived, and I was able to get a good look at it through the pale light of the always-full moon. Just hills, grass, and a sparse collection of trees. Nothing that Peak could accidentally run into and cut and/or bruise me with.

When I realized I would be relatively safe for the first time when traveling with Peak, I allowed my body to go limp and relaxed—my mind drifting through the events of the day. Allowing me to distract myself from the time the trip took.

As we neared the vicinity of Shelter, fields of crops, flowers, and more started to come into view, and not so long after I could start to see multicolored, fluorescent lights in the distance. Seeing all these things woke me right up and excited my lust for exploration.

“Ah, are people still up?!” I implored Peak for an answer, my anticipation breaching through the simplicity of my question. However, Peak didn’t initially notice. So, in order to gain his attention, I tapped him on his shoulder.

“—Oh, it’s always like that at night. If you pay attention, you’ll see that the lights are slowly moving around. That’s because they’re wisps, magical little balls of light. Friendly little creatures that are attracted to areas of dense magic. Since there’s so many Sprites that live there, Shelter’s sorta like one of those areas of dense magic. Pretty much, all they do is make for handy lights.” Peak looked distant as he replied, as though his worries were caging him within his own mind. Although, I could tell that he was also ready to get there and sleep already.

“That’s really cool! What do they feel like? Are they fluffy?” The wisps peaked my interest, so I asked more as we neared even closer to the town. It was almost to the point where I could see it through the cloak of the night.

“I don’t know quite how to answer that. I guess, I’d say they kinda give off a tickly feel if you try to touch them. They’re not really touchable, though. They just phase through things.” Peak screwed up his face thinking of the best way to explain the wisps to me. It made me happy. My question, at least momentarily, distracted him from his worries.

Then, after a bit more walking, it all came into view. Through the luminescence of the wisp’s lights, I could make out the village of Shelter in vivid detail. It consisted of wooden architecture that reflected that of a nicer early colonial America, and I could make out totem-like objects scattered around the town. Styles I expected from the abundance of woods in the area.

However, the more interesting features of the village came from its topography. It was against the front of a large mountain, and because of this, it was steep in nature. Although, the land wasn’t settled on your typical rolling hills or peaking cliffs.

Instead, it was like it was on a shelf with various flat sections of land all at differing elevations. Flat plateau’s with steep dropoffs in front of higher, flatter plateau’s with even steeper dropoffs. It was like someone had taken a grid and raised the city at different intervals according to it, with your occasional creek or waterfall sprouting up here and there. There were rope bridges connecting some of the high points together, likely to make it easier to traverse.

From the distance, I could make out an abundance of flowers and a number of landmark silhouettes: a large tavern, a windmill and some watermills, a church, schoolhouse, another large building, and a street market—along with lots of other unidentifiable house-like building. For what was supposedly a small village, it looked rather developed.

“So, this is Shelter? It’s a lot bigger than I expected.” I tried to strike up conversation with Peak as we made our way into the village. There wasn’t a defined border to the town, nor was there your typical guard post or anything. Although, there was still a defined entry point that we went through to get into the village.

“Same here. It’s really expanded in the past five years…” Peak was equally in awe, as our heads skirted back and forth between the buildings of the town. It was obvious which ones were old and which were new, so we had a fun game to play as we walked the empty, stone paths. The village was large but not dense, meaning it still had an open feel to it.

I looked at Peak, indicating that I wanted him to say more about it. So, he did. “Adventurers come to Shelter to take on the dungeon, but when they fail, they can’t go home. The dungeon’s entry point is on top of this mountain, and the entrance point to mountain is a teleporter up to the dungeon’s entrance… but there isn’t a way off of the mountain, other than, presumably, beating the dungeon.”

“But I thought Shelter Spire wasn’t all that dangerous.” Recalling what Peak had said, the dungeon was relatively tame. When compared to most other dungeons, it was evidently harmless.

“It’s not… It’s just convoluted and weird. I’ve never been in there myself, though, so that’s just the impression I’ve gotten through talking with those who attempted it. ...Anyways, there must’ve been a lot of adventurers who came and failed since I left in order for it to have gotten so much more populated.” Peak scratched his beard to calm his nerves, as he continued to inspect the village.

“If it’s not dangerous, then they should’ve just pushed through! Who cares how much time it might take!” It didn’t make sense to me how someone could give up so easily, just because they couldn’t do something. It was the struggle to achieve that I found fun.

“Well, there are other hardships you can face, y’know, April? For instance, if you run dry of food or water, there’s not much you can do to explore, is there?” Peak tried to reason with my thoughts.

“I suppose… but then why not just try again?” Our trip had begun to weave up a stone staircase as we continued our conversation.

“Most of the times they do, and meet the same results. I don’t know what’s in the dungeon, but it must be confusing. I’d heard from some people that they couldn’t even get past the first room.” Now we were moving over one of the rope bridges. On the other side, was a single run-down home with lots of felled logs located beside it. I could only assume it was Peak’s. Before he patrolled the woods, he must’ve been the town lumberjack or something. Yeah, I could definitely see that.

“You know that just makes me even more pumped to take it on, right?!” My soul ignited at the thought of solving some unsolvable dungeon. That was the type of adventure I was looking for.

“Ahaha! I figured you’d say something like that, but you’ll have to settle your enthusiasm for the night, since we’re finally done with our journey.” Peak stopped and opened the door to his house. It creaked open in an effortless swoosh and revealed the contents of the inside.

The layout looked like it was just a larger, more up-to-date rendition of his treehouse, just with more detailed decoration and an extra room tacked on. The whole place was rather dusty, and cobwebs had settled their ways into the corners of the main room.

“Whoa, this place is totally neat! It’s like I just walked into a haunted house!” I was comfortable about anywhere, and I could sleep about anywhere, too, so the condition of the house didn’t really bother me. Therefore, I did my best to make light of it.

“Not really the feel we were going for when making it, but I’ll take it. Now about sleeping arrangements… You can take the big bed in my room, and I’ll sleep on the couch.” Peak had already begun dusting off the couch cushions while speaking, and pointed towards the room in which I’d be staying. Initially, I thought the other room would’ve been a second bedroom, but I decided not to ask any more questions for the night. We were both tired.

“Okie dokie, sounds like a plan! I’m gonna head off, then. I’ll see you in the morning to begin our Shelter extravaganza, yeah?” I said goodnight to Peak in a way that would reaffirm his agreement to take me through Shelter.

“Then on the day of the festivities when everyone is in a good mood, I’ll help you mend your relationship with whoever you’re avoiding. At least, that’s my goal.” I reminded Peak of the second goal of our trip to Shelter, and after getting a distant nod from him, I headed into his old bedroom to go to sleep.

I didn’t even bother looking around the room. The only mental note I made for myself was that it was a good bit less dusty than the main room. I was just tired, so I threw down all my stuff, crashed on the bed, and immediately went to sleep.

✦✧✦

“Hey, April, get up!” I was shaken awake by Peak earlier than I’d expected.

“Not long enough… need more sleep.” I turned on my side away from Peak, trying to ignore that shaking. I may have been excited to explore the night before, but when I was in bed, the last thing on my mind was getting up.

“Ahaha, of course. That’s fine, I just had something to ask you real quick.” A hearty laugh erupted from Peak, albeit, a bit more forced than normal. He’d been anxious since we’d arrived in Shelter.

“Urgh… What is it?” I turned back around and looked at Peak with partially opened eyes.

“It’s been awhile since I was last here, so I figured I’d get Busty to show you around. In return, I agreed to take over her patrol today.” At the time, I didn’t think more into Peak’s actions, but it was likely he was trying to avoid the public eye of the town. However, barely awake and yearning for more rest, I could have cared less.

“Mmm… yeah, whatever. That’s fine… just let me sleep.” I was a morning person if I had enough sleep. Peak always got up freakily early to do his job. Considering when I’d went to sleep, I definitely hadn’t rested enough.

“Alright, perfecto! She said she had an errand or two to run before she could show you around, so you can probably sleep some more. I’ll be heading off, now! Bye, April!” Taking my indifference with stride, Peak bolted before I could catch on.

“See you later…” And I went right back to sleep.

✦✧✦

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” A sharp, piercing pain awoke me from my second slumber, and I felt blood rushing out of one of my wings. It was like someone was sawing away at my flesh.

“Oh, you woke up… and I was trying my hardest to be as delicate as possible.” My eyes shot towards the voice that sounded, and they were met with the face of Fi, leaning over me with a bloody knife.

“Fi?! What the hell are you doing—trying to kill me?!” I tried to get myself up off the bed, or to kick Fi away. However, with a single hand, she was restraining me completely.

“Hey, April, where did you get this potion?” When I realized the impossibility of escape, I took deep breaths then examined the situation more clearly. She was holding my knife, and holding the potion I was given. She must’ve seen my stuff scattered all over the ground, and decided to apply it, but still…

“That doesn’t matter! Why didn’t you wake me up before you decided to cut into me?!” I was fuming. She had cut into my flesh without my consent. Who wouldn’t be completely pissed off?

“Last time I tried tending to your wings, you incessantly squirmed and screamed at me. This way, I could constrain you, and it’d be easier.” As she talked, Fi popped the cork off the flask, and after some subtle swishing, dowsed my wounded wing with it.

“That doesn’t mean you can— Grr… It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!” My body instinctively recoiled as the liquid made contact with my wing. It stung worse than hand sanitizer getting into a cut, and completely overrode the pain from the incision into my wing. I had a tolerance for dull or tearing pains, but stings always hurt worse than anything.

“See, squirming and screaming. Well, it doesn’t matter now. We’re done. Let me go get something to wrap your wing in.” Without even checking to see if I was alright, Fi walked away to go and find a cloth to wrap my wing in, leaving me and said wing staining Peak’s sheets in crimson red.

✦✧✦

“Hmph.” Right after the wake up fiasco, I was rushed to get ready, and we headed out into Shelter. Peak had left me a bag on the counter, presumably full of money to obtain supplies, so I’d grabbed it on my way out. Then, we’d headed back across the bridge, down the stairs, and into the more populated sections of the town. The streets were busier than I’d expected, and people were coming and going everywhere—likely due to the upcoming festivities.

I made sure that as Fi and I traversed the streets, we walked in silence. I was still upset at her, and admittedly, being a bit childish about it.

“Can you quit with the pouting already? It was a necessary action, wasn’t it?” Fi was an overly logical thinker, someone that, when her temper was kept under control, would view actions through a severe lens of practicality and underlying smugness. She wasn’t so disconnected with emotion, however, that she didn’t understand where I was coming from. She just didn’t understand why I was holding a grudge.

“Hmph.” So… I continued to pout.

“Sigh… Here.” Fi spread her arms open wide and stared me dead in the eyes. “Let me have it. Punch the stuffing outta me, and let your anger out.”

“—What?! No! Why would I do that?” It made sense to me that this was how she’d see to solving our feud. When she was upset at Peak, she had beat the ever living shit out of him. It’d be a fair exchange, just not the exchange I was looking for.

“You’re upset aren’t you? Let it all out on me. I can take it.” Fi seemed perplexed. She saw no oddities with what she was asking me to do. It really turned me away from being upset with her. It was kind of a sad sight.

“Uh… How about you apologize and we call it a done deal? I don’t think we’re quite close enough to be having friendly tussles.” She didn’t do anything so wrong that it warranted punching her. I thought an apology would suffice.

“Then, I’m sorry. I should’ve woke you before cutting into your wing. That good?” Although curt as always, Fi’s apology sounded genuine. She put forth an honest effort to sound kind and repentant during it.

“Apology accepted! Now, wanna tell me where exactly we’re going?” As I was rushed out of the house, I wasn’t told any details about where we were going.

“Currently, we’re not going anywhere. We’ve actually arrived where we were going.” Following my question, Fi stopped at a nearby building—the large, unidentifiable building I’d seen in the distance coming in. It was situated on top of a hill in the center of the town and had a unique emblem of a bird cresting its top. “April, welcome to Shelter’s Adventurers’ Guild.”