One of the first things that Jack noticed as he trained every day with Rose and practiced his magical abilities with Eleanor was just how much weight he was losing. Something about the quality of the food the two of them were preparing, combined with the huge amount of energy expended in his days, was making him shed weight like he was dying of cancer. And he felt his muscles swelling and hardening from constant use that, even in spite of the limited time he'd been at it, he could see his toes standing up straight, and for the first time in his life, he had clear definition in his arms, chest, and legs. There was still some thickness in the middle, but if I he kept this up, he'd have washboard abs in no time, he imagined.

He also had a creeping suspicion that Eleanor literally sucking the life out of him every couple of days wasn't helping him stay thick and chubby either, but even if it was literally killing him, he wasn't about to stop enjoying himself over something as trivial as his impending demise.

He also, on a whim, decided it was time to be rid of his back-length, ratty hair, and his facial hair. Something about them just didn't feel right anymore, now that he'd begun transforming himself. Simon, with the help of Eleanor's heat-deadening spell, gave him a close shave with one of the kitchen knives, and Eleanor and Madeleine made a small project out of cutting and styling his hair.

Once he finally saw his reflection in the mirror Rose held out to him, he didn't recognize himself. He looked... cool. Like an actual hero. He had to physically pull at his face and hair a few times just to make sure he wasn't losing his mind. It was real. And it gave him the jolt he needed to get back to work.

"So, where exactly do heroes go to find adventure in this world?" Jack asked over dinner one evening about a month into his stay with Simon and the girls. He was enjoying his time with the four of them immensely, Eleanor and Rose especially, but he was finding that he had reached a ceiling in his skills, and the fact that Frumpkin hadn't offered him any more awards since arriving, despite his accomplishments, told him he wasn't making any genuine progress towards his final goal. Which meant either he waited for adventure to come to him, or he went out looking for it. And he had a sneaking suspicion, based on all of his time immersing himself in fantasy worlds before his sudden and untimely death, that sitting and waiting for it to come to him would not be his best option.

"Most everywhere in the world needs adventurers these days, at least in the towns and cities. I think your best bet would probably be to head to one of those and see if the guilds need any help." Rose said.

"W'en I was there'n 'Awkport not two days 'go, them's 'avin' troubles wit' 'em kobolds again." Simon said, chiming in between mouthfuls of chicken.

"Hawkport's where I would say to head first, then." Rose said.

"How far is it from here?" Jack asked.

"About a week's travel, I'd say." Rose said. "If you're walking, at least. Although, in your case, probably a couple hours by flight."

"Yeah, that'd be great. Except I can't fly nearly that long before I'm too drained to stand. And I need a full night's rest to recharge, it seems like." Jack said.

"In that case, I'd just take things the scenic way." Rose said.

"Plus, if you do things the scenic way, we will actually be able to join you on the journey!" Eleanor chimed in with a smile.

"I'm coming too." Madeleine said quietly, and while her speaking didn't catch him off-guard anymore, the fact that she'd want to travel with him did, as much as she seemed to love things around the farm. He also still struggled with treating her and thinking of her like a child because of how she looked, even though he knew that was stupid.

"Well, alright then. I guess I have a party, then." Jack said, grinning. "Let's start prepping for the trip!"

They spent the next several days preparing for the journey. A large part of the work was just making sure Simon was going to be alright without the extra sets of hands, but he was adamant that he didn't need them.

"Don' worry 'bout me, girls! I'm enjoy th' spot o' pers'nal peace for a change" He said, laughing. "Ne'er seem to get much o' those 'ese days, I'm 'fraid."

The girls, rather than taking offense, seemed to be glad that he was glad. Eleanor and Rose both confided to Jack later that evening that they worried about ever leaving him alone, as old as he was, but were grateful at the chance to get out for a change, especially since it'd be with him. Up until he'd arrived, they'd never really been given much chance to see the world, much less meet anyone outside of their family.

They packed provisions in a set of sturdy backpacks that Eleanor and Jack managed to conjure and craft out various materials. Food included a mixture of dried meat, dried fruit, and rendered fat called pemmican that Madeleine and Rose made together in large pots and shaped into log-like rolls similar to beef jerky candy bars, cheese, several large loaves of crusty bread, and a couple bottles of wine that Simon insisted they take from the root cellar for the trip. There were also other supplies, such as a large oilskin tent for shelter, cooking utensils, a map, bedrolls, and other essentials.

Jack also packed several sets of his new tunic and breeches that he'd made with the help of the girls. He hadn't planned on getting rid of his old world clothes, but even in spite of magical cleaning and restoration, they'd completely fallen apart into a threadbare mess over the last month or so of constant wearing and battering. It had finally gotten so bad that Rose insisted he find new clothes for basic decency's sake, forced him to strip behind the barn, and burned them as he stood there ass naked, trying his best to keep the important parts covered with his hands.

Though, to be honest, he wasn't sorry for the change. It made his "hero" status feel just a little bit more official. And honestly, the new clothes were just a whole heck of a lot more comfortable, for some bizarre reason.

After several days, they were finally prepared to go, and decided to set out early the next morning. Not knowing for how long they would be gone, they decided to hold a small party together with Simon, drinking and eating and laughing well into the night, until they all finally drifted off to sleep with bellies full of meat and wine, and heads full of anticipation for their coming journey.

Awaking some time after dawn, they stepped out of the hotbox of the house and into the comparably chilly air of the early morning. A thin layer of fog blanketed the ground, and the sky was largely raked over by clouds that dulled the glow of the sun. But, as he shouldered his heavy pack and plopped his axe haft on his shoulder, nothing in the world could dull Jack's excitement. He felt for certain his heart would beat completely out of his chest. He turned to the girls, who were all dressed and geared for the trip.

"Are we ready?" He asked.

"I think so. I went back through all of the packs this morning before we put them on." Madeleine said simply. "Yours is the heaviest."

"Of course it is." He said with a mock sigh, and readjusted his pack.

"Alright then! Let's go!"

The land south of the farmstead was a series of low, rolling hills covered with tall green grass and various kinds of small undergrowth, with the occasional tree and rock outcropping here and there breaking up the smooth planes of the earth. The four of them followed a beaten earthen path that wove up and down and around the hills, taking occasional breaks in the shade of one of the trees or stones. The sun had risen to midday by this point, and the day had become had enough that Jack and the girls were sweating ever so slightly, even in spite of their leisurely pace and light clothing. At one point later in the day, they came to their first river crossing.

The river stretched about 150 feet in width, but didn't appear to be flowing with much force, and from the looks of it from the water's edge, wasn't very deep, either. As if to confirm Jack's suspicions, Rose led the way into the water, lifting Madeleine up to sit on her shoulders as she crossed. She motioned for Jack and Eleanor to follow. Eleanor came immediately after, choosing to hike up her dress up around her shoulders to avoid it getting wet, causing Jack's face to turn beet red when he saw she had nothing on underneath it. She glanced back over her shoulder with a knowing smirk as she stepped into the water, and he quickly averted his eyes as he followed her into the stream. While not looking, he could still hear the hiss of steaming water with her every movement, and the resulting fog in her wake made whatever part of him that wasn't in the water damp anyways.

The water was freezing cold, seemingly unaffected by the warmth of the sunshine at all. When he remarked on how unbelievably cold it was, Madeleine replied boredly with "It's icemelt from the mountains up north", as if that should have been obvious to him from the start.

After crossing the river, the four of them took a few moments to dry off. The three girls, with their natively high body temperatures dried in a few moments naturally. Jack, for his part, tried out a water control spell, and found that with a little effort and concentration, he could draw the moisture out of his clothes and hair into a floating ball of water, which he then sprayed in the direction of the three girls. This led to Eleanor casting a counterspell that dissipated the spray, only to have it reverse direction and catch Jack square in the face before he could react. For the first time since he'd met her, Madeleine laughed, a pleasant, bell-like giggle that made him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, despite his wet and freezing exterior.

Towards nightfall, shortly after sunset, they crested a final hill and saw a large, flat valley spread out below them, dotted with clumps of trees. In the center, several dozen lights shone brightly in the dimming evening, denoting a small village nestled in between two smaller clumps of trees and flanked on one side by a smaller river.

"That's Arrowmeade. There are a couple inns here we can stay in for the night, if you'd prefer not to camp off the side of the road." Rose said, pointing in the direction of the small village.

"Sounds good with me." Jack said.

"I want real food." Madeleine said simply, and Eleanor agreed.

As they began their way down the hill, however, they heard a loud scream carried faintly across the wind from the village. And then another.

And they watched in horror as one of the buildings in the center of the village burst into flames.