I waved over to Shamus and Nina and we started walking towards them. It must've been funny seeing me with new dangerous animals almost every time I entered the town. I thought that maybe next time I should have a squirrel or something with me.

They could probably tell by the smile on my face that I had good news as they welcomed us into town.

"The dragon is dead," I said as I took Shamus's outstretched hand.

"That's fantastic news!" Nina said as she put a gentle hand on Shamus' arm. "We need to celebrate this victory."

"My thoughts exactly," I said looking at Shamus. He didn't react the way I thought he would. I figured he would match my happiness, but he was somber.

"We have been talking about all of the members of this town that the dragon took from us. Everyone in town lost someone. Many lost a friend, some lost a relative, and a few lost a child," said Shamus with his eyes welling up with tears as he finished speaking.

"A child?" I asked noticing that Nina had joined him in his sadness.

"Our daughter, Mara, was killed in the attack," said Nina as a tear rolled down her face, "we have been trying to be strong for the town and focus on rebuilding."

"Thanks to you we can mourn her properly knowing that her killer has been brought to justice," Shamus said as he wiped his eyes. "A parent losing a child so young is a terrible fate."

"I'm so sorry," I said to them matching the somber mood. His statement brought to mind my death. I saved those parents from losing their child. That should make me feel a little better, shouldn't it?

We stood there for a few quiet moments. Sometimes the best way to support people who are hurting was to just be there with them and say nothing. My mom taught me that and it seemed to help both parties a little.

Nina broke the silence.

"There will be time to mourn and complete this sadness, but for now we need to celebrate the defeat of the dragon and get the whole town involved. I will arrange everything. Why don't you rest up a bit? Tonight will be a night of food and merriment. You can tell the story of how you defeated him as we sit around the fire as the big finale."

"Sounds good," I said then turned to walk to the barn. I laid out the mattresses for the wolves, Mr. Snuggles, Honey, and myself and we all took a well-deserved rest. I lay there thinking about what Mae and I had spoken about on the trip. Even though I now fully believed that I had died, what were the implications of that fact? I felt like I had more questions than answers and knowing the truth just made more questions.

What did I have to do to move on to whatever was next? If I had my choice between sitting on a cloud playing harp or staying in an adventure game for the rest of eternity, I'd choose the game. The questions that were really eating at me were about Paige. What was she doing now? She told me that she hadn't planned on ever getting married before we met and this situation probably pushed her back into the never getting married life again. Am I worried that she's going to get remarried and forget about me?

I tried pushing that all out of my mind and to think more about the present and my next move after realizing I was making myself sad just thinking about her. I thought back and realized that I was so stuck in the coma fiction that I had made up that I was pushing any thought of her out of my mind and just thinking that I would see her when I woke up and so I shouldn't worry about it.

"Focus," I told myself as I had started to drift back into thinking about her.

I quickly brought up each menu and just looked through each page. My attributes were rounding out nicely, although I didn't really know what a good point of reference was for the numbers. I felt stronger and faster, but I didn't have data on how much I could lift or how fast I could run. I may have to do some experimenting to see if I could get some answers or at least a better estimate.

Looking through my magic I saw that I actually had some interesting spells and tried to think up different combinations to try and creative ways to utilize what I had. I remembered I was getting close to unlocking the fireball spell as well. That would be great to learn another spell just from using scrolls.

Next, I started playing around with the sorting tabs in my inventory menu. I had a ridiculous amount of stuff in there. I'd probably be on one of those anti-hoarding shows if I had all this stuff at my house back home. I wasn't attached to most of it though. I guessed that was the difference between having a problem and just having random stuff to use to barter with a trader or blacksmith.

The amount of raw ore and metal ingots I was carrying was enough to outfit a small army. I could outfit a second small army with all the junk equipment I had. I told myself it was only a problem if I couldn't let go and moved on. The last menu I brought up was my map. I saw the, slightly larger than Roseglen, town to the North, but the city I was really interested in was to the Northwest. It looked like it would be a huge city and could have thousands of residents according to the faint overlay on the map.

I'd have to talk to Shamus and Nina, but maybe that huge city was a good next step. As I was thinking about the huge city, Shamus walked into the barn.

"How are you doing, my friend? Feeling rested?" he asked with a smile.

"Definitely well-rested," I responded getting up off of my mattress. "These mattresses are a manna from Heaven."

"Everyone in town is feeling the effects of the magically boosted rest and it has increased productivity by almost double. We'll have everything in town rebuilt in no time thanks to you."

"I wanted to come and offer you a permanent place here. You have helped the people of this town more than we could ever repay," he said with a smile, but there was a flash of sadness there as well. I can't imagine losing a child and having random memories bring back all the pain unexpectedly.

"I would be glad to accept, but I was actually going to ask you about where I should travel from here. I'd hate to take up a residence and leave it empty when I'm out adventuring," I said as graciously as I could. I didn't want to refuse his kindness, but I also didn't want to take a home away from another resident.

He smiled at my response and said, "Well, you'll always have a barn to sleep in with your menagerie of friendly animals."

"That works for me," I responded matching his smile.

"The party will be starting soon," said Shamus turning to leave. He stopped short of the door, "Oh yeah. This is for you."

He pulled out a beautifully made fishing pole and handed it to me. I was taken aback by the craftsmanship and by the thoughtfulness of the gift.

"A trader from a large city nearby passed through town while you were away and we all pitched in to get it for you," Shamus explained turning back to leave, "We'll have to test it out tomorrow."

"Thank you, Shamus, but it's too much," I said as I held it in my hands and motioned it towards him.

"Nonsense," he said, "You earned it and the whole town agreed."

I gave him a nod to show my gratitude and thanked him again.

"Okay, animal friends, time to eat," I said to all the amazing wildlife around me. They got up and I gathered the bedding. We walked to the center of town and began the festivities. There was plenty of food to enjoy together and everyone in town participated. As the night wound down I was asked to share the story of my journey and the defeat of the dragon.

As I shared about the final confrontation and then the death of the dragon people cheered and then fell silent. The moment of unplanned silence was broken by an older woman who shared what she loved about her son who had died in the attack on the town. A few more townsfolk followed in the same fashion and spoke about the person they had lost. I think there was healing there as they shared and people cried together.

This was the weirdest party I had even been to, but it was good to be a part of their community.

As the party ended I got up to head back to the barn.

"Thank you again, Theodore," said Shamus clapping a hand on my shoulder, "we all needed that."

"Glad to help," I said.

"What do you think about an early morning fishing trip? We could talk about what you plan to do next as well."

"That sounds great, Shamus. Wake me up when you want to leave in the morning," I said.

"Oh, I will," he said.

He got an evil little grin on his face and I knew he was going to wake me up way too early to go fishing.