Chpt. 3) The Grimoire festival

Once everyone finished their food and sat back happily with full bellies, Amy came by with the check. Lilly looked at it, “Spli’ three ways. Tha’s a silver from each of us.”

Max and Ford looked at each other, slight panic in their expressions, “Each,” Ford said, “I thought you were buying us dinner.”

Lilly locked eyes with Ford and said with eyebrows raised, “I’m happy to buy food for Max, but I barely know ye. So, I am not buyin’ you food,” she stated firmly.

“Well, Max is a good judge of character, and she’s a friend,” Ford countered with Max nodding vigorously, “Plus, I don’t have any money either. So,” she lied and shrugged, “look, I promise to pay you back as soon as possible.”

Lilly scrutinized her for a long while, then finally, “As soon as possible!”

Ford nodded in agreement, “Yes, as soon as possible. I promise.” Lilly nodded and pulled out two silver coins and ten copper coins. Ford looked a little confused and pointed out, “I thought it was three silvers.”

Lilly looked at her sidelong, “Ten coppers per silver, ten silver per gold, ten gold per pla’inum. This is basic knowledge even you should know?”

Ford shrugged and decided to lie again, “I’ve always given the exact amount without substituting like ten coppers per one silver.”

Lilly looked at Ford doubtfully and got up to leave, followed closely by Max and Ford. They walked out the tavern door, giving a cheery farewell to the drunken patrons who responded in kind. As Ford walked backward out the door, taking a few steps, she turned and walked straight into a lamppost, making her Fedora fall off. Max and Lilly watched this and laughed boisterously.

“Ow,” Ford said through gritted teeth, “I don’t remember a pole being here.”

“Tha’s because it wasn’,” Lilly said through fits of laughter.

Max recovered a little bit and tried to explain, “Ha-the-the lamppost-haha-they are,” she took a few laughing breaths and tried again, “The lampposts are stored underground and come up during the evening. Around four o’clock or so.”

Ford bent down, picked up her Fedora, put it back on, and said, “Okay, that would have been good to know before I got my face smashed in. Also, how do you know what time it is? I haven’t seen any clocks here at all.”

“Where’s the fun in tha’,” Lilly said with a big smile, “And we don’ know either. We’re just guessin’ because the only people who know the time are people with Grimoires. Somethin’ to do with havin’ access to the Yggdras system or wha’not.”

“Don’t you mean the I.G.A.S.S. system?” Ford asked, pulling it up and looking through it for a time function. She found it in the bottom left corner of her vision, reading sixteen oh one in nearly translucent numbers; she silently berated herself for not noticing it earlier.

“Tha’s wha’ I said. Everyone calls the I.G… wha’ever, the Yggdras system,” Lilly said.

Before Ford could continue the conversation with some more questions about why people call it Yggdras. They heard fireworks coming from a kilometer north near the giant stone wall. Max stepped in to be a voice of reason, “How about you two stop talking and try and see who gets to the festival first,” she then turned and bolted in the direction of the fireworks as she yelled back, “LOOSER BUYS SWEETS FOR THE OTHER TWO!”

“OI! NO FAIR!” Lilly said as she chased after Max starting to catch up quickly.

Ford chuckled to herself, “Alright, I guess there are worse things than owing two cute girls' candy,” she started to run after them as fast as she could and thought to herself, ‘But I ain’t going to lose.’

Max and Lilly had a good head start and were quickly ten meters ahead of Ford. She looked ahead and saw that they would have to make a turn up ahead, and at the corner was an alley with boxes in it, ‘Let’s see what this new body can really do,’ she thought as the other two turned left toward a different part of the wall.

Ford, however, went straight to the wooden boxes and quickly climbed them. When she reached the top of the boxes, which only went halfway up the buildings, she turned left and ran up the wall two steps, turned again, and jumped to the roof of the building on the right. Ford then ran to the back of the building, where rope cables were spanning the distance over the street below. She ran across it with a dexterity that would make anybody jealous and got to another building, then turned left where she spotted another cable.

“I’m fucking awesome,” she sang to herself as she ran from rooftop to rooftop. Quickly making it to the festival, still standing on the rooftops. Ford looked down and realized a flaw in her plan. She was afraid of heights and had no way down. She looked around and saw nothing but an empty street with nothing and no one to notice her.

She ran along the rooftops away from the festival and found an alleyway. There was nothing in it, but there should be enough room for her to jump down. She backed up a bit and took a deep breath, “I can do this. I can do this. I can do this,” she said to herself as she ran toward the gap. She dove back, letting herself skid across the roof and into the gap between them. She hit the wall, pushed off gently to the other wall, and did this a couple of times until she was safely on the ground.

Ford took a deep, steadying breath and said, “Okay, I am a badass master of hardcore parkour. I’m never doing that again.” She jogged to the festival and walked to the front of the festival where Max and Lilly should be arriving. The part of the festival she walked into was a collection of green, brown, and black colored stalls, light by the lampposts along the street. Each one seemed to be showing off an occupation of some sort. One stall was selling blacksmith tools and equipment; another was selling farming equipment and tools, and another had a collection of different knives. Ford was tempted to stop at that stall but decided to wait for her friends.

She came to the front of the festival and waited for them. Ford didn’t have to wait long because, within moments, she saw two girls running at full speed toward her. One minute later, they arrived with Max just barely in the lead in front of Lilly. The two girls stumbled to a stop just past Ford, nearly running into several people as they did so.

Ford gave them aloud, slow clap as she looked at the two bent over and panting, then said, “Congratulations to Max for making it to the festival in second place by the skin of her teeth. Well done.”

Max raised a weak fist in triumph, then dropped it back down, still panting. Lilly looked at Ford from underneath her blond highlighted hair and said through gasping breaths, “How did ye bea’ us here? I though’ we lost you.”

“I decided to take the more direct scenic route,” she said cryptically, then added, “don’t worry about buying me anything, just consider it part of my debt repayment for dinner.”

Lilly nodded, and she stood up straight and rubbed her belly, “I don’ think running was a good idea after ea’in’.” This statement was soon confirmed as Max darted into a nearby alley, and they heard vomiting sounds come from it. Which then made Lilly do the same in a different alley. When they both came out of their respective alleys, looking pale, they agreed never to race again after a meal.

“Well, now that that’s out, let’s go see a festival,” Ford said.

“Was that a pun?” Max asked with malice in her voice.

“Yes, it was. It was also at your expense,” Ford responded cheerfully.

Max looked at her with total misery and disappointment on her face, “I take back every nice thing I’ve said about you.”

“That’s the spirit!” Ford said with enthusiasm and led the way down the festival.

None of them were interested in the first part of the festival because, as Lilly explained, it was about all the different Grimoires and the classes they contain. The first part of the festival was the labor class, which showed all the workers and their abilities. Ford was primarily interested in the chef class; it was the stand that had all the pretty knives.

Next was the assassin section of the festival, which only had three stalls. One of them had a man calling out to everyone who passed by, “STEP RIGHT UP AND PLACE YOUR BETS! IF YOU GUESS CORRECTLY, DOUBLE WHAT YOU BET!”

That caught Ford's attention, and she dragged the other two along. “Welcome, pretty ladies,” he said with a bright smile. He wore a black cloak that obscured most of his body, and he sounded like an old radio announcer, “Would you like to try your hand at a game of cups?” he gestured to a small table in front of him with three cups.

“No,” Max and Lilly said dryly and simultaneously.

“Yes,” Ford said with enthusiasm at the same time as the other two.

The man smiled, “Well, let me explain the game. It’s quite simple. Just find the rock,” he lifted the middle cup to reveal a dark blue pebble.

“Okay, I can do that,” Ford said confidently.

“Alright, place your bet, and we’ll get started,” he said with a smile.

Ford reached into her pocket, opened up her inventory screen, pulled out one gold coin, and placed it on the table. The man's eyes widened, and before he could say anything, Lilly spoke up, “OI! You said you didn’ have any money!”

The man bailed Ford out from explaining by placing ten silver coins on the table and said, “Let’s get started,” He started to move the cups around in circles at a medium speed.

Ford quickly tracked it, and when he stopped, she could tell it was in the left cup, ‘People like this are scammers and let people like me get overconfident and bet too much. Let’s turn the tables and let him be overconfident,’ she thought. Then pointed to the right one, “It’s in that one,” she said with confidence.

“You sure, little lady,” he asked.

She smiled, “Yup.”

He lifted the right cup, and it was empty, “Oh, better luck next time,” he said, then revealed the pebble on the left.

Ford could feel anger and disapproval emanating from Lilly. Doubly so when she pulled another coin from her pocket and placed it on the table. The man raised an eyebrow as he asked, “You sure about that kid?”

“Yup,” Ford said, keeping her smile. The man shrugged and began moving the cups at the same medium speed. Again Ford guessed wrong, and again Lilly got angry. Ford did this three more times. In the last round, the man even went so slow that even Lilly and Max could see it and even pointed it out.

“Well, as fun as it was taking money from you, little lady, but I don’t think you have a talent-”

Ford cut the man off as she put ten gold coins on the table, “Again,” she said as a broad, sly smile spread across her face.

The man looked aw struck for a moment, then fished around his cloak and pulled a bag of fifty silver coins, or so Ford assumed since he didn’t pull anything else out. “Alright, little lady,” he said with glee, “this will be the last time.” he started to move the cups faster and faster until they were nothing but blurs.

When he stopped, the man had confidence all over his face. Unluckily for him, Ford was an expert at this game. She counted three switches, eight faints, and finally, one flick to put the pebble up his right sleeve. The man lifted his hands, a smug smile plastered to his face, “Take a guess, little lady,” he said.

“It is…in your right sleeve,” she said and pointed to his sleeve. His smug smile evaporated and was replaced by a scowl as he reluctantly pulled the pebble from his sleeve. Ford beamed as she scooped the gold coins into her pocket and the silvers into another pocket. She left the ten silver coins the man first put out on the table and said, “Those are thanks for a good time.”

The man smiled and bowed as he said, “Thank you very much, ma’am,” he then pulled a small tile out of nowhere, “If you get the thief class tomorrow, feel free to find me.”

Ford took the tile and read it. ‘Mr. Smith top thief in Banzzap’el’. “Mr.Smith?” she asked. She looked up and noticed the man was gone, and so was the stall.

“That’s creepy,” Max stated.

Ford nodded in agreement and looked at Lilly, who was looking at Ford expectantly. She nodded, pulled out three silver coins, and handed them to her, “Thanks for dinner,” Ford said.

Lilly took them gratefully and stuck them in a pocket. “Thank you,” she said, “for repaying me promp’ly. Now, let’s get goin’. The mage section is next.”

Max perked up at this and said, “Oh, right. It’s always the best part of the festival.”

Ford looked at her curiously, “You’ve been here before?”

Max hesitated a moment before answering, “Um…no, but that’s what I’ve heard.”

Ford contemplated her a moment, ‘She’s surprisingly cute when she’s restraining herself. It must be a fetish of mine if I’m only just realizing it,’ she thought, then said, “I’m sure and- where’s Lilly?” she cut herself off when she realized that Lilly had disappeared into the crowd.

Max looked around and said, “She must already be in the mage section. It is the class she wants to be.” She started to walk through the people to the mage section.

Ford followed her as close as possible, with all the people starting to bustle around them, and it didn’t help that there was the occasional Dwarf or Halfling that blended into the legs of the crowd that Ford had to jump around. She was starting to feel afraid that she might lose Max in the crowd and that something might happen. Eventually, she got fed up with Max’s pace and grabbed her hand. Max turned to her, a little surprised to see Ford holding her hand. Ford walked up to her, still holding her hand till they were side by side.

Ford held her hand as tight as she dared and said, “Please, don’t go so fast. I’d rather not lose you.”

Max blushed a little and smiled as she tightened her grip as well, “No worries. I’ll stay with you.”

Ford smiled and started to lead the way through the crowd of people. Now that she knew that Max was okay, she could look around for the red beret that she knew Lilly had. While looking around, she saw people creating light shows and fantastical illusions. One stall had dwarves that would throw crystal dust everywhere. The dust formed into small six-point diamonds, and then scraps of metal were created around them to resemble fairies and small serpentine dragons. While watching them, she saw a red beret at the stall next to it. She pointed it out to Max, and they started walking toward it.

They caught up to the red beret and were relieved to see that it was, in fact, Lilly. Ford acted on instinct and whorled Lilly around to look at her and make sure she was okay. It startled the elf, and before she could say anything, Ford embraced her in a bear hug and whispered in her ear, “Please don’t wander off like that. I really don’t like crowds, and I was about to freak out.” She was about to freak out; they were at the end of the mage section, and they hadn’t seen her till then.

Lilly realized this and hugged her back, “Oh, um, sorry abou’ tha’. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Ford released her from the hug and hooked an arm around Lilly and Max as they looked at the stalls performance of turning flowers into trees and then rainbow trees. It was pretty cool.

Ford looked at the time; it read seventeen hundred, ‘Five o’clock and we still have more festival to see,’ she thought. Then explosions went off overhead as the mages on the opposite side of the street fired off explosion spells far above and shot long streams of fire and lightning from their hands. Ford found the lightning to be awesome; it was very Sith. Screw the Jedi, Sith for life.

“Oh, ligh’nin’ mage. He’s lucky to have tha’ essence combo,” Lilly said, admiring the light show the mage was putting on.

“What are essences?” Ford asked, genuinely confused.

Max leaned forward and said, “I would like to know that as well.”

Lilly sighed and explained, “Essence is wha’ makes up the soul. These essences are based on the six elements. Wa’er, earth, fire, air, dark, and ligh’. To make any ligh’nin’, you would have to be born with fire and dark essence.”

“How many essences do people usually have?” Ford asked.

Lilly thought for a moment, “Mos’ people don’ know till they find their soul, but mos’ people only have one essence, maybe two, three if they’re lucky.”

Ford thought back to when she looked at her soul, there was water, fire, earth, and it was in a ball of light. ‘Do I have four essences?’ this thought surprised her, and she shrugged. It doesn’t hurt to have four essences, possibly. “Wait, what do essences do?”

Lilly looked at her with an expression that asked if she had to answer that question. Ford responded with a similar expression that implied she did have to answer. Lilly sighed again and said, “Essences determine wha’ our magic does. If ye’re a destruction mage with fire and dark essences, for example, then you’ll get ligh’nin’ powers there, I said it.”

Ford nodded and said, “Oh, cool,” The light show ended, and everyone clapped and cheered. Ford grabbed Max and Lilly’s hands and led them down the festival to the next section.

“OI! Why are ye pullin’ us along?” Lilly complained.

“Well, I would like to see all the classes. Also, it’s best to see all the classes since there’s no guarantee that we would all get the really cool lighting powers.”

Max shrugged and looked at Lilly, “She has a point.”

Lilly groaned, “Fine.”

The following section was the archer class. It was small, like the assassin class, if not smaller, with only two stalls. One of the stalls was extremely long, and two archers were having a shooting competition. They shot arrows made of pure magic at dozens of targets that sped in different directions. The archers were shooting arrows so fast that each arrow left a magic blue, green trail behind them. All the targets shattered into shrapnel and scattered onto the ground within a blink of an eye.

Lilly leaned over and said, “Okay, tha’s pre’y cool.” Ford nodded and kept moving down the festival to the next section.

This one was full of animals and what looked like beast-men. Some looked like half foxes, with claws on their hands and feet and long ears that swiveled around on their head. In the same section was a petting zoo for massive and highly-dangerous animals like hippos and lions. There were children riding hippos as if it were an oversized dog. Ford never thought she would ever see that, even in a fantasy world.

The next and final section was for the warrior classes. This section was a massive arena in the middle of the street. There were fighters in each class darting around using weapons and abilities that looked like they were trying to kill each other. What was more impressive than this was that civilians were just walking through the chaos of the fight without being hit.

The three of them watched this fight go for a long time, enjoying the skill being displayed and the different lights the abilities produced. Coming to this world, Ford had a general idea of her options, but now she knew what was probably the peak of each of the options. ‘I’ll have to get there if I am going to survive this world, aren’t I?’ She asked herself as she watched, then she looked at the time.

Twenty thirty. It was nearly nine o’clock at night. She tapped Max and Lilly on the shoulder and said, “Hey, we should get going. It’s getting late.”

Max and Lilly yawned simultaneously, letting out a little squeak at the end, “Agreed,” they said.

Ford looked between them and said, “Aww, you two are adorable,” they both started to yell at Ford.

***

As they started back to the Boar motel, they talked excitedly about all the magic and classes they saw and what classes they hoped to get. Evidently, Max wanted to be a creation mage and Lilly, a destruction mage. Ford asked why and Lilly had a solid argument, to keep the forest on her homeworld healthy, they have to trim the tree branches, and the trees are as strong as steel, which was an interesting fact. They stopped at the herb shop where they met Lilly and said goodnight. The rest of the walk home in the nearly empty street was spent in uncomfortable silence.

Ford looked at Max in concern. She kept her eyes on the ground and was gnawing on her lip. ‘Max must have something to say or ask, and since she hasn’t asked it yet, she must be waiting till we get back to the motel. Best wait till she is ready,’ Ford thought to herself. After five more minutes of walking, thank the Gods for adding a time function, they made it to the motel and followed the yelling voices.

“Are they still arguing?” Ford asked, a little astonished.

“Yeah, they're both stubborn and need to be right. Right about now,” Max thought for a moment as she walked up the stairs, “they should be arguing over wearing PJs right now and the minutiae of clothing.”

Ford listened for a moment, and sure enough, they were arguing about Sean having to wear PJs. Max banged on the door, “HEY, SHUT UP! AND PUT SOME PJS ON! People are trying to sleep here!”

Ford could hear some grumbling from the other room, then Sean yelled back, “Fine!”

“Thank you!” a voice from the other side of the hall yelled out.

“You’re welcome!” Max yelled back then entered her room, closely followed by Ford.

She took off her shoes as she entered the bedroom; it was small and cramped. The bed would be just big enough for Max and Ford to fit in if they sleep shoulder to shoulder. Above the bed was a crystal lamp that Max had activated with a switch just past the door, and just beyond the bed was a door Max opened and went through. All ford was able to see was a bucket before she closed the door. ‘please don’t tell me that was the toilet,’ Ford thought to herself as she closed the door behind her and sat on the bed waiting for Max to leave the hopefully decent bathroom. While she waited, she thought, ‘I don’t have PJs, and I don’t want to sleep in the clothes I’ve been wearing all day.’ She sighed and mumbled to herself, “Might as well get comfortable,” then she started to undress.

She unbuttoned and folded the waistcoat, placed it on the floor at her feet, and did the same with her shirt. When she did, she noticed for the first time that she was wearing a black sports bra. She was disappointed in herself, ‘I was a guy in my previous life. I have got to check these things,’ she thought. Then again, she had to stop and admire her defined abdomen enjoying the site. Ford then took off her pants and saw she was wearing boxer briefs. At least, this was one thing she was used to seeing. Then she stopped and admired her quadriceps and calves. Then she laughed to herself as she thought, ‘So it’s true that thick thighs save lives.’ Then placed her fedora on top of her clothes.

She turned toward the door where Max was still hiding in, probably trying to work up the nerve to ask Ford whatever it was that she wanted to ask. Ford still felt restless since she spent most of the day sleeping anyways. ‘Might as well do something productive,’ she thought, then stood, stepped forward, turned left, and did a handstand balancing herself against the wall. She held that position for a moment, taking even controlled breaths, and slowly started doing inverted pushups. She could barely do three, but doing even one was an achievement for her. She slowly lowered herself to try a fourth push-up when she heard Max exit the bathroom.

Max stammered, “W-what are you doing?”

The question caught Ford off guard, and she struggled to push up, let her legs drop forward, and stood. Her arms, shoulders, and chest were burning as she panted an answer, “I was restless and decided to work out,” she then looked up to see that her STM bar had gone down two hundred points, ‘Good to know that can go down when exercising.’

Ford looked at Max, who had turned her back to Ford. Max was wearing a white lace blouse, and she stammered quietly, “O-okay, but do you have to do it naked?”

“I’m not naked,” she argued as she walked up to Max to go to the bathroom, “I’m wearing underwear.”

“You don’t have PJs to wear?” Max asked.

Ford turned and looked at Max’s blushing face as she looked at the ceiling and said, “Nope, but I’ll get some tomorrow when we have time.” She then entered the bathroom, found the light switch, and saw only the bucket bolted to the floor with a hole in the bottom and wreaked of shit, and next to it on a small table was a washbowl. Ford pursed her lips and thought to herself, ‘I should have rejected the offer Tanashi gave me and just died. That way, I wouldn’t have to use a bucket.’

When Ford exited the bathroom, if it could be called that, she found Max staring at the door. When she left, Max immediately blushed and looked at the ceiling as if she didn’t see anything. ‘That’s cute,’ Ford thought as she walked up looked Max in the eyes. She stood close enough to feel the heat on Max’s face. Then said, “Sorry if I make you feel awkward, but I don’t mind if you look at me like this. I insist you look at me. It’ll make me feel less awkward,” she then bopped Max’s nose with a finger and walked around to the other side of the bed.

“O-okay,” Max stammered as Ford started to do dips on her side of the bed.

After the twentieth rep, Ford felt impatient and started doing planks, then said, “If you're going to ask me something. Mind asking now?”

A minute passed, then Ford got on her elbows as her STM bar hit fourteen hundred, and Max asked, “What did you mean?”

Ford waited thirty seconds, lifted her right leg, and asked, “What did I mean when?”

Thirty seconds passed, and she switched legs, “What did you mean,” Max started to ask, then stopped for a moment, “What did you mean when you said that you don’t have a heart of gold and that you weren’t a hero?”

Ford finished her thirty seconds and collapsed on the floor. She pulled herself into a ball and then stood and sat on the bed across from Max, who was looking at her expectantly. Ford turned her back to Max and spoke in a somber tone, “When the bandits were attacking us, and I killed Jaine. You saw it as me killing a bandit that took your mother, but I saw it differently,” she took a deep, quivering breath as she felt tears well up in her eyes, “I saw it as taking the life of a mother doing her best to care for her son,” she blinked and felt the tears roll down her face as the emotions she created during the day and tried to bottle up spilled out, “I’m no better than the bandits that did kill your mother.”

Ford felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she tensed as Max pulled her into a hug. She then whispered into Ford's ears, “I don’t see it that way, and I don’t see you that way. You might think of yourself as a bandit or a monster, but I will never see you that way.”

Ford chuckled a little bit and asked weakly, “Promise?”

“Promise,” she said, still holding Ford.

Then Ford sat up straight and took a deep cleansing breath, “Let’s get some sleep,” she said, “It will be a big day tomorrow.” Max agreed and crawled under the sheets. Ford got up and turned off the lights. She then stumbled through the dark as she untied her hair and crawled into bed next to Max. Before she tried to sleep, she turned, opened up her Yggdres system, and read the changes.

Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: none; class: none; Level: one. Abilities: STR: twenty-one; PER: fifteen; END: eighteen; INT: seventeen; AGI: twenty; CHR: twenty-one; LCK: twelve; WIS: nine; SOL: five. Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred-five kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. HP: one-hundred ninety-eight; STM: one-thousand eight-hundred thirty-six; MN: six-thousand seven-hundred sixty-three; EXP: zero/one-thousand.

‘Points across the board…I’m glad Max won't hate me for what I did. But I know I did something terrible. That means I’ll have to pay my dues sooner or later,’ she thought as she closed her eyes. She felt Max roll over and scootch in closer to Ford a moment later. Just about pressing up against Ford, she started to fiddle with the strap on the back of Ford’s bra. Not trying to take it off or anything, just playing with it as a distraction.

It quickly annoyed Ford, and she rolled over to face Max, and she whispered, “Please stop that.”

“Sorry,” Max said a second later, then she rolled over again.

Ford tried to sleep again and couldn’t sleep. She had developed two habits when she tried to sleep. One was holding onto the post above her head, and the other was cuddling a pillow or a dog. There was a wall above her head, and there were no spare pillows, but there was Max.

Ford tapped Max on the shoulder and whispered, “Hey, Max. Umm, can I ask you an awkward request?”

Max slowly rolled back over and skeptically asked in mumbled tones, “Sure. What do you want to ask?”

“Well, umm, I can’t sleep, and I wondered if you could help with that?” she quickly added, “If you want, It’s alright if you're going to say no. You don’t have to.”

Max was silent for a moment, then stammered, “O-okay, what do you need me to d-do.”

“Just let me hug you till I fall asleep,” she said weakly, “Again, you can say no if you don’t want to.”

Max was silent again, then scooched forward, “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

Ford reached her right arm under Max then rolled onto her back, letting Max rest her head on her chest as she interlocked her fingers. Max hugged her back and pulled herself closer. Ford could feel her heart start to race, and she took a few deep breaths through her nose to calm herself. She soon felt a feeling of familiarity that she couldn’t place as sleep overwhelmed her, and soon after fell asleep.