Lukas was getting impatient. He didn’t actually counted the days since he registered as an Explorer, but was pretty sure that normally, he would already have an assigned partner.

He actually went to ask Mr. Bald about it, but was told that he was responsible for registration of trainees, and not for their assignment, or pairing.

He was therefore sent to another man, Mr. Wolfgang, who was supposed to have answers to his questions. Luke searched for his office far and wide, and once he found it, he realized they knew each other very well, it’s just that Luke never knew what the man’s name. He was a regular at Inn’teresting, and his wife had a bit of a mean streak, or so he complained. Claimed. Same thing.

(One of the most interesting things about Inn’teresting, was how often middle aged men whined talked about their married lives to a nine year old.)

“Oh, hello! So you were Mr. Wolfgang all along!” He greeted the man.

“Hello Luke. What made you come here?”

“Are you responsible for trainee pairing? Lukas answered question with a question. It would normally be rude, but his question actually answered the one he was asked.

“ I suppose I am. You are her to ask about your partner, I take it?”

“That’s right.” Luke complained. “I should be already done with half of terrain work, but I don’t have anyone to do it with.”

“You know, pairing trainees is a difficult work. Especially when I care for their future.” “And you are a difficult case. Both as a trainee and as a kid I know personally.” “I want to get you someone who actually suits you, not some random kid that will drag you down”

Luke knew when someone wanted to get him off his back. And he wasn’t going to have it.

“Do you not care for others’ future then?”

“It would be unprofessional to answer that question. For several reasons I’m not going to mention.”

“Would that be unprofessional as well?” Asked Mel.

“Somewhat, yes” He answered. “All I can say, is that I’ll try to make it so that you can try for green key this year.”

Huh. So he remembered the words Luke told to almost every customer that cared to listen.

That he would try to get his first key the same year he registered.

Satisfied with that, Luke said his goodbyes, and run off to watch one of town’s entrances. If he was lucky, he would catch a high ranking group returning. Maybe even see a purple key. They showed up from time to time, mostly to look into the Vaults, or take a breather.

They would normally stay farther into difficult lands, in one of their smaller villages, (or whatever those places were called), but apparently, Town of Promise was pretty unique, in a way. It was the only settlement in difficult lands, where maelodor never reached, so if you wanted to relax after a difficult journey full of bleeding from head orifices, Promise was the place to go to.

Pretty excited by his own imagination, Luke run from southern town-leg, towards the north-west one. It was not easy to go through the entire town in one go, but He had practice. Fortunately he knew the tunnels connecting the legs, so all he had to do, was run a lap through tunnels and bridges of three town-legs. Three, because he was already at the right side of a southern one. Right as in, the good one. If you looked at the map, it would actually a left one.

He reached his destination quickly, uninterrupted by trouble makers of the west leg, (or, as its inhabitants preferred, west tentacle.)

There was already a crowd at the biggest entrance to town, “the Father’s door” Lukas didn’t like the name. It was supposedly called that, because it was the place children waiting for their parent’s return would gather, but Luke knew the topic intimately and was of an opinion that reminding him of those fruitless days of waiting was a little uncalled for.

He nevertheless plunged into the crowd, and quickly got to first rows.

He was lucky! The crowd of this thickness meant at least return of a purple key with a team, maybe multiple of them!

As to confirm his suspicions, a woman sporting shirt underneath a pair of overalls, a huge backpack and a hat came out of the entrance, armed with a rifle, on her neck a highest grade of regular keys, Purple.

But even as a pair of blue keys came from behind her, the crowd didn’t erupt with cheers.

Was an expedition a failure? Of course, no one would cheer if a group of explorers was nearly annihilated…

But their smiles were telling a different story… Was the crowd waiting?

Lukas strained his eyes, trying to see deeper into the tunnel. And he saw.

A little trinket shined in the darkness. A piece of jewelry in a form of an oak leaf, its colour hard to define.

Luka’s jaw almost slammed into his sternum.

A Unique Key. There was a Unique Key right in front of him.

How many times did he see one of those Avatars of Adventure before? Twice, thrice? And always from afar. But not now.

He stepped out of the tunnel, his dark brown coat hung loosely from his broad shoulders. He wore heavy leather boots, pants with big pockets, a wide silk belt with weapons’ handles protruding, a shirt with its sleeves rolled up, and a suit vest worn on it. On the vest, there laid a bandolier.

On his head, dark hair with slivers of grey and a triangular hat.

With all the slightly mismatched pieces, it would be a bit of a crime against fashion, if it wasn’t worn by this person.

“The Forests’Chase returned from His journey!!!”

And the crowd cheered. It was after all, an excellent excuse to get hammered.

The object of all that admiration seemed unimpressed. He spoke to one of the blue keys, and got some kind of answer.

Lukas could somewhat read lips, and his senses were razor sharp. But this time, he caught only couple of words.

“………. Let’s go to interesting…………….” They either wanted to go somewhere interesting, or…

Inn’teresting.

Luke nearly left his jaw behind as he bolted in the direction of his home and workplace.

……………………………..

The caravan finally stepped outside of the maze.

Wandering Rocks ended. Linden was informed that they had only couple of days of travel through yellow mountains before them, after which he would see ‘Something awesome’. Mels’ words.

The guy(?) was kind of nice once you got to know him. Ed was once again reminded of the fact that both himself, and the green key were children. Mel acted very mature, but every single butt joke Ed could remember made him giggle uncontrollably.

They stopped at the exit, recharged, fed the animals, and slept like a group of logs driven down the river. (Except for the poor suckers staying awake in shifts. Shouldn’t’ve lost that game o’ rock paper scissors.)

By the next morning, They were up and ready to depart.

Edward Linden pov……………………….

Okay, I take my previous words back. Childhood can be fun.

Especially when you have a lifetime of stupid jokes and stories up your sleeve.

{“…..His enemies prepared a trap, and covered all the exits… But Stirlitz outmaneuvered them. He escaped by the entrance.” }

{“………..Bormann barged into his office, and grabbed his secretary by her hand. ‘I’ll grab you by something else tomorrow’

Next day, He grabbed her by her tight, and said the same thing. ‘I’ll grab you by something else tomorrow.’

On another day they’ve met, He assaulted his secretary again, and grabbed her by her breast. ‘I’ll grab you by something else tomorrow’ He says one more time.

When he came into his office the next day, there was no secretary, only a note: ….”}

–Even adults got a laugh out of this one.

This, and other, even dumber stories, made Mel completely open up. He(?) was laughing, his entire face red. But it didn’t finish with stories.

………..“Hey, Mel? Riddle me this: Doesn’t shine, and it’s impossible to stick it up your butt?”

A moment of thinking: “No idea.”

“Standard issue ass lighting device.”

The explorer started choking. Mr. Dalton appeared concerned. I’m not actually sure if it was concern for Mels’ health, or for his own safety under care of such a capable guardian.

To his relief, and my disappointment, Mark expressed his bemusement by slapping us both upside our heads. Oh, right, Mel was supposed to be working.

By the way. On the subject of the young Green Key. Coachmen refers to him as a guy, but I’ve never seen him taking a leak standing up, and his name doesn’t really indicate anything either.

I’m not gonna look at his junk, because frankly, I don’t care that much.

The only reason I do somewhat care, is that I know kids with late puberty tend to get sensitive about it. If you want to make an enemy out of a prepubescent boy, call him a girl. But don’t do it too much, that would be bullying.

But I digress.

The Yellow Mountains look, well… Yellow.

That’s thanks to the leaves.

The mountains themselves are pretty steep and tall, kind of like those Chinese tourist destinations.

The reason for their name is pretty obvious once you see them in autumn, like we were.

Entire lower layer was covered in trees, whose leaves were turning yellow. There was occasional red and orange, but Yellow was in the lead by a wide margin.

Some of the trees had fruit, and guess what kind was the most numerous?

Pear and plum lookalikes. Yellow, ones of course.

Above that, were green conifers, mostly pines, but they were small, and not exactly growing one upon the other, so we could see the rock beneath them.

It’s probably some kind of sandstone, I don’t know, I’m not a geologist.

But it was yellow.

Even animals we were passing often, were yellowish. Probably for camouflage.

I admit, it would be hard to think of a more descriptive name.

We were using paths carved both high, and low. All to avoid maelodor, apparently. Krrrt’o meter was constantly making quiet little noises. It was apparently the cause of dizziness for travelers. I didn’t think it was that bad, but some of the coachmen were puking from time to time.

Mr. Dalton actually thought his men got drunk on the job, and was very angry until he got on the wagon, and felt it himself.

I was walking upwind from them whenever possible, to avoid the smell of vomit.

But I didn’t complain, because high places had nice sights, and low ones fruit trees. Their trees had way more thorns than they should, but apparently they were safe to eat, although not fully ripe.

Traveling like this, we were getting close to our destination.