Jon stayed with his parents until he became really tired.

“You should get some sleep, honey,” Vel said. “It’s okay.”

“Yeah, it’s an early morning for all of us tomorrow,” Jassiter added.

Early?

Jassiter must have noticed the bemusement on Jon’s face.

“We’re going to see Graves,” Jassiter said firmly.

Jon was too tired to react, but he definitely knew that he should get some sleep.

“Good night,” Jon said.

His parents both gave him a “Good night,” in return, and Jon went back to his room.

Mercy was waiting on the top bunk as he entered. When Jon sat down, she hung upside down to speak to him.

“Do you need to pack?” Mercy asked.

Jon shook his head. He didn’t see the need for anything.

“...Good night, Jon.”

“Night, Mercy.”

It didn’t take long for him to go to sleep. The anxiety of Graves made Jon retreat into his head, where he dreamed a dream of infinite darkness.

Jon found it calming.

Jon awoke to the sight of Mercy's long shadow stretching from the brightly lit window.

"Am I early?" Jon asked meekly.

"Yep." Mercy looked at him from her place on the window. "It's still early."ddddddd

Jon silently approved of his return to form. At least Jon knew if he wanted to sleep late, he could always come back to the bottom bunk.

Eventually, everyone had made their way out in front of the house.

Dan had brought a new wagon with him. The back was long, and there were benches built into the side. Jon would have ridden these wagons more if he had been picked up for school like the others.

The majestic horses that Hector and Mallory brought with them were tied to the front of the wagon.

“Awesome!” Mallory climbed into the back and sat on the bench. “Sick!”

“We’re not bringing that many people,” Hector said. “But the carriage is broken.”

“Enough for all you people and a date,” Dan commented.

Hector rolled his eyes.

“Besides, you get to keep this one,” Dan continued. “And I’ll try to fix up the nice fancy one by the time you come back!”

“But we won’t…” Hector huffed and crossed his arms. “Sure.”

“You want to go with your parents, Jon?” Mercy asked.

“...Okay.” Jon nodded and went to his parent’s smaller wagon.

The two wagons then set off, Jon sitting between his mother and his father at the front of theirs.

Jassiter hummed whimsically to himself. Jon simply enjoyed the fact that there weren’t any more caimans that he had to be worried about.

“By the way, Jon,” Vel said, breaking the silence. “I packed you a bag.”

“Oh.” Jon didn’t think he needed to bring anything but his blunderbuss. He was glad his mother took care of things.

“Thank you.”

With time, both wagons had finally made their way to Farmer Grave’s house. Jon shivered at the sight of the huge building.

“It would be black, wouldn’t it,” Jassiter said.

“Hey, that material saved our life,” Vel commented.

“I’m just glad I painted the damn thing.” Jassiter and his family stepped off and went up to the front door.

Jassiter raised his hand to knock when Graves suddenly pulled the door open.

“Jasstier, my boy!” Graves said. “How’s it been!”

“I-”

“Sit down!” Graves barked as he went back into his house. “How’s it going, Vel?”

Jon and his family wandered inside the space. Jon watched his father for guidance, but he walked around awkwardly and pulled at his collar.

“Sit down!” The order came again.

Jassiter quickly took a seat in the circle of chairs. It was the chair Jon had sat in.

Aw. Jon took a smaller wooden chair to the side. Jon did notice that there were more chairs in the circle.

“How are you, Jass?” Graves asked.

“...It’s fine…” Jassiter said, mildly reserved. “How about you?”

“My back hurts like hell every full moon,” Graves answered. “But I’m okay. Wasn’t very hard to make you a stranger.”

Jassiter grimaced. “Well…”

“It’s okay,” Graves brought back with him the same grey liquid from before, as well as some cups.

Jassiter noticed the fanciful nature of the cups but declined to say anything.

“I know, I know,” Graves said, “It would cause you a lot of problems, wouldn’t it?”

“Well, I had a lot of kids,’ Jassiter started.

“Bad influence, am I?” Graves asked.

Jassiter frowned. “No. You’ve met all my kids anyway.”

“And they love me!” Graves took a huge chug. “Well, not Jon. I think he’s been waiting on a chance to take a swing at me for a while.

Jon frowned. He hadn’t thought of hitting Graves.

He then noticed that his mother hadn’t sat down.

Instead, Graves held up a full cup. Vel came by and grabbed the cup from his hand.

Obviously, his mother knew Graves more than Jon had realized.

“You know Graves?” Jon asked.

Vel nodded. “Of course I do. I send him letters.”

“How do you think your parents met?” Graves asked loudly. “Vel’s my surrogate daughter!”

Vel rolled her eyes. “Really?”

“Well, you worked here long enough. It wasn’t long before Jassiter started putting eyes on you and-”

“Enough,” Jassiter said. “That’s… for another day.”

He sighed.

Jon couldn’t say if he enjoyed watching his father squirm. It was definitely an experience he was happy to have. At least Graves hadn’t been focused on him like last time.

“Your kids should be calling me grandad, the amount of things I’ve done for you!” Graves added.

Jassiter sunk into his chair. “We can talk later. Right now, we’re waiting to send Jon off.”

“You’re leaving?” Graves turned to Jon. “Wow, you got more gonads than your dad, here! All his kids have.”

Jassiter’s eyes couldn’t have rolled more into the back of his head if he tried.

“Where you going?” he asked.

Jon began to answer when Graves cut him off.

“Never mind! Don’t tell me! Just go as far as possible! Don’t even come back!”

“He has to see his mom, silly.” Vel slapped Graves lightly on the side of the head. She then walked over to Jassiter’s back and put her hands on his shoulders.

“How was it with the caiman?” Jassiter asked.

“Ah, it was fine,” Graves waved his hands away. “Those kids came and helped with the town. I could’ve done it myself, but it didn’t matter. Pretty soon, they all just disappeared.”

Graves looked at Jon. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

Jon nodded. “Me and my friends.”

“Friends? You got some good friends.”

“...And the farm,” Jon added.

Graves nodded approvingly. “You got them all off their lazy asses. That’s good, boy. Now leave, before they start begging you for more. Don’t let them get lazy!”

Jassiter moaned.

Knocking on the door then drew everyone’s attention.

“Excuse me!” Hector called. “I-”

“Door’s open, numbnuts! Just come on through!”

Hector grumbled loud enough just for everyone to hear his discontent as he came in the door.

“We want to get ready to go before it gets too late,” Hector said. “I don’t want us to be in the forest by nightfall.”

“You one of those King’s Guards guys?” Graves asked.

“Uh… yes… I-”

“You make sure you keep my grandson safe!” Graves yelled. “Or I’ll come for your golden ass like it’s hunting season and I need something to line the outside of my stone.”

Hector huffed. “Yes.”

“You’re so silly, with the grandson stuff..” Vel said, shaking her head. “And besides, Jon will keep him safe as well.

“...Sure…” Hector nodded assuringly.

She patted Jon on the shoulder. “You’re ready?”

Jon nodded.

“Yeah.”

The 5 of them made their way out of the house. The new wagon was packed.

Mercy ran up and hugged Vel. “Thank you so much! I’m sorry about everything!”

“You’re fine…” Vel said. “You be safe, too.”

“Thank you for letting us use your house. “ Hector bowed down to Jassiter.

“Of course…” Jassiter responded. “Let’s not make that a habit.”

“You’re the guy with the books,” Mallory said, walking up to Graves. “You want them back?”

“Naw, garbage, keep ‘em.” Graves waved them away. “They’re more useful for you for you scholar freaks anyway.”

Vel went up to Hector and gave him a hug. ‘You be safe too.”

“Yes ma’am…” Mallory snickered at Hector’s bashfulness.

After a large hug with his family, Jon climbed onto the back of the wagon.

“Take care of yourself, Jon,” Dan patted Jon on the shoulder.

Jon nodded. “Thank you.”

“Thank yourself." Dan joined Vel, Jasiter, and Graves at the front of the house.

Mercy climbed into the seat across from Jon.

Mallory and Hector climbed into the front.

“Isn’t Jon’s mom a little young?” Hector asked Mallory as he grabbed the reins.

“Shut up, Hector, she’s married.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Hector’s face showered with redness. “I meant-”

“I know what you meant, Hector. No, she’s not young.”

“Okay…” Hector seemed satisfied with the answer.

Jon watched as the wagon pulled away. Jassiter, Vel, and Dan waved him off as it departed for the large hill back down into the townsend.

Jon watched the last vestiges of his farm life shrink into nothingness as they continued away.

For the next few minutes of the ride, Jon looked down towards the floor, watching it move underneath the wagon.

“...Are you okay?” Mercy finally asked.

“...Yeah…” Jon nodded. It was like he left a piece of him behind, but it was also okay because no matter how far he left it, it never felt like it would truly be lost.

Jon finally looked up at Mercy. She blushed and looked away.

“We should be at the next town by nightfall,” Hector said from the front of the carriage. Jon was amazed at how Hector could make his voice carry over the ruckus of the road. “We’ll take a break partway so that I can feed the horses.”

Jon had noticed that Mercy had put her tattered cloak back on.

“We should be okay, right?” she asked.

Jon nodded. He looked out from the wagon.

Now that they had left the Townsend and followed down the road, Jon could see the forest that surrounded them. Unlike near the farm, there was a large path cleared of trees that the wagon and the horses easily traveled through. It made Jon feel a little more at ease.

Still, it was hard to believe that they were just traveling in the middle of a forest. Jon had no idea where they were going next, except that it would be another town.

The carriage eventually made a large turn that Jon had felt from his seat. He thought they had turned into the trees, but there was just a large clearing instead.

The wagon stopped.

“Alright. Stretch your legs. I’m gonna take care of the horses.” Hector had pushed himself out and came around to the back of the wagon.

“...Could you pass me that bag?” Hector asked, pointing.

Jon turned and saw a brown sack. He and Mercy worked together to push it out of the wagon.

It was so heavy, Jon was afraid that it would fall on Hector. Instead, Hector caught it on his shoulder and immediately made his way back to the horses.

“Not even a thank you…” Mercy muttered under her breath.

“...Thank you!” Hector called, not even looking up.

“Did he hear me?” Mercy asked Jon under her breath.

Hector didn’t seem to respond.

“Jon!” Jon turned and saw Mallory slamming the floor of the wagon.

“Come on! We have to talk!”

Jon climbed down from the wagon. He was impressed by Mercy’s simple leap to the ground but wasn’t ready to try to emulate it anytime soon.

“What do you want to talk about?” Mercy asked.

“We’re gonna talk about mana!” Mallory said.

“...Okay.” Jon said. He didn’t know anything about mana.