The narrow dirt road wound through the grassy hills, almost begging someone to set up an ambush. It was the second of four sunny days in the grasslands. Edge, Daphne and Sakura were well on their way to Cobbletown, though they had yet to reach the infamous crossroads. All three had agreed shortly after their departure to abandon the easy path, opting to walk over the hills, and through vales, rather than be caught unaware on the road by Cassandra or her bandits. Eugene had to admit, after days of climbing up and down, and up and down endlessly, the easy road was a growing temptation. More so since they had yet to see any actual bandits.

On their dull green journey, they ran across an unremarkable farmstead made up of a house, a barn and single farmer living with his small family, which after some coaxing offered up an [F] rank quest that wasn’t worth much [EXP], but rewarded them with a home cooked meal-that wasn’t gecko eggs and carrots-and a place to rest off of their feet and off of the ground. It was a repeatable quest, so Edge marked the farm’s location in his memory in case they ever decided to go back to Baldor’s Loft.

The time spent travelling had somewhat unraveled their previous ignorant attitude. Eugene could see that behind Daphne's fake smile, and Sakura's empty teasing was a real fear of the wilderness surrounding them. There was nothing to be done about it, except to keep moving forward. This time, the danger they faced wasn't a lack of supplies, or monsters. It was a crisis of the spirit, the one kind of pain Eugene had never handled well.

The very next day, they passed an empty wagon. Its driver, a farmer named Orglathe, which was typical of a bad NPC name generator, having delivered her goods to Cobbletown the day prior, was returning home. Although the NPC was void of quests, or any information about where ‘home’ was located, and wasn’t a merchant type either, it was still good to know that their journey might almost be complete. Which begged the question, ‘where were these infamous crossroads?’

Daphne reached the top of the latest hill first; her movement speed was still by far the best in the party. She jumped, spinning in the air, her hands thrust into the sky above her head, her heels slapping against her bottom, and her tail jumping with excitement. “We made it!”

Sakura ran the rest of the way up the hill too, followed by Edge, who would have felt stupid walking alone in the back. The view was incredible, hitting him like a double punch to the heart.

Cobbletown wasn’t just the next backwater village, as the name suggested. It was a city unto itself. Surrounded by semi-circular walls, constructed with massive round stones stacked one atop the other, the gaps filled with an uncountable number of smaller similar stonework. Square towers rose from the city’s center, as if modern skyscrapers had suddenly become medieval castles of stone and colourful mosaic stained glass. Two enormous wooden gates, built as if someone simply cut down the largest trees they could find and lashed them together, stood guard against the city’s Northern and Western walls. The road they’d been following led to the closest Southern gate, and another could be seen at least half a mile away.

But none of this was the truly awe inspiring component that sent Eugene into a daze. The very sky itself stopped as if cut by a knife along the height of some invisible horizon, a curtain of stars fell down like the backdrop of a night sky behind the city. Edge stood, literally, at the end of the world. Everything beyond was the void of space and distant twinkling suns. Cobbletown was a city at the very end of the world, a place of eternal starlit night, and everlasting day.

“We aren’t on a planet. We’re on an island floating in space,” remarked Edge.

“Not quite,” said Sakura. “Actually, the entire world of Levia is an island lifted above the great miasma,” she corrected.

“Is that something you read in your books? Why didn’t you tell us?” Daphne asked, flabbergasted.

“Yes, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant, or if it matters to our purpose,” she answered. “Does it make any difference if the world is round or if it’s flat, to those without the ability to effect such truths?” she asked, rhetorically, as a scholar caught amidst a moment trapped in the numinous.

“Uh yeah it matters. Look, just look.” said Daphne, emphatically. “This really isn’t the real world. It’s a place where everything is different.” She looked down at her outstretched fingers, where her fingernails were more like claws, and flicked her tail over top of them. “Am I a monster here, or some kind of alien? Everyone else looks so normal compared to me. I look like a big-eyed alien.”

“No you don’t,” said Sakura, at the same time Edge muttered, “maybe a little.”

“A really normal looking alien,” he corrected, desperately.

“I knew it . . . you like Sakura.”

“That’s not true,” said Edge. It was cool headed Sakura’s turn to look shaken. There really was no winning for him. “You’re both my friends-” he started, a little shaken himself. He breathed deeply, while slowly building up his courage. Edge stared out over the grand spectacle that awaited them. “You’re my first real friends,” he confessed. “I never had any . . . in the real world, I mean. I never had even one friend. I know this isn’t the real world, and in a way . . . I think we are all aliens here. But I think- No, I know that our friendship is real. And it goes way beyond what shape the world is, or what we look like, or whatever. We are surviving here together, and we are friends because, because, because . . .” He couldn’t finish; he didn’t really know why. ‘Because without you I’d be . . .’ He left the statement deep down inside, unsaid. Some things are too hard to share.

Daphne wrapped her hands around his back in a hug, and Sakura joined in as well. Where had all these feelings come from? Even in a game, it seemed like revelations of the universe held some great sway over human emotions, as if their own individually tiny worlds had suddenly gotten larger, and they needed somehow to cope with the newly found space.

“Edge,” said Daphne, breaking through the moment. “If there weren’t any bandits, why did you make us do all that training?”

(Author Note: And so ends the great ball of fluff. Be ready for the goods tmrw. Big Juicy plot filled goodness)