It took us two more nights to reach Apple Gate Farm after Lia crossed the first divide. During those two days, Lia and I discussed what had happened during her crossing of the Divide and tried to understand how that might have fed back to me. Or if the title I had gained the moment she did had any actual relation to her success, there was always the possibility that it had been an unlikely coincidence.

It turned out, she had listened to me and didn’t focus on her connection to me, as her Mother with her as the First of her Kind, instead she had focused on the blessing I had shared with her upon her inception. Amusingly, I had a feeling that doing so had inadvertently led to a similar outcome, namely that Luna, the Grandmother and myself had taken the spot of the divine within that Blessing, or something along those lines. There wasn’t any draw on our powers, at least not on Luna or me, but the title I had gained and the even greater connection I felt to Luna seemed to indicate such.

What the title did, was a complete mystery to me, I had tried to meditate, tried to see if I could discern anything about what it might do, where it might come from, but nothing. It just sat there, in the list of my titles and I had no idea what to do about it. Or if I even could do anything about it.

On the bright side, the way Lia had crossed the divide had been a success, not a perfect one, her new class was below my own Draconic Sorceress when it came to attribute increases, but it was equal to the gains of the Lunar Sorceress Class I had on Mundus. In addition, her Blessing was strengthened, increasing her power during the night, while somewhat lessening the damage she took from the sun. Not enough to allow us to be active during the day, but enough to let us move about in the twilight or during cloudy days. Fighting would be risky, sunlight still weakened her a great deal, but, as we tested during the second day, it no longer gave her instant sunburn.

Still, the ever-shortening nights limited us a great deal. With almost fifteen hours of sunlight, not counting the twilight hours, there was only so much darkness for us to work with. In addition, the weather had been what others would call wonderful, with pure, blue skies and only a few clouds in sight, or in other words, utterly horrible for us. Without any clouds to borrow shade from, we could only hide for hours upon hours each day, using what little darkness we could to move about.

And it was getting worse, the days would continue to lengthen for almost two more months until they finally reached the longest day and from then on, darkness would begin its slow crusade for supremacy. I could hardly wait for the winter and was even considering to hunker down for a while, not even trying to get anything done on a large scale. It would give all of us, especially Luna, some time to work on our skills. Luna had gained many levels in an instant but that wasn’t good in the long run, for one she lacked the skills to go with them and she also might have missed out on a useful trait or two, depending on how she distributed her points. Her class required a wide spread of attributes, so the problem was lessened, but the skill portion, not so much.

When we closed in on Apple Gate Farm, I was met with a fairly large surprise. I was used to the Army of Dog moving about as they wished but now, the entire pack was coming towards us with lolling tongues. Not even Silva had received such a welcome in the past and yet, when they came close, it wasn’t Silva they focused on, nor was it Lia or me. No, the dogs were clearly here for Luna and while there was a moment of apprehension, it looked like my munchkin was sharing the sentiment coming from the dogs.

She fearlessly hopped off Silva, who had been carrying her so her shorter legs could rest, and stepped towards them, quietly talking. For a moment, I thought she was just talking at them, as one might do with a beloved pet, but then I realised that no, she wasn’t talking at them. She was talking with them and unless she was making up their part in the conversation, she was able to understand them.

Looking at Silva, I couldn’t help but ask about it, whether Luna was able to understand canine, or whatever their language was called. In response, Silva simply let her tongue loll out before pulling it back in and giving me the most obvious nod, before her tongue lolled back out, making me grumble.

“So, she could have translated for you the entire time?” I grumbled, only for Silva’s tongue to vanish back into her mouth and some of that chuffing sound I considered her laughter to come out. “Or do you prefer if I have to guess what you want to say?” I asked, only for Silva to nod again, clearly amused at the charades I had to undergo to communicate with her.

For a moment, I considered asking Luna to translate but the idea only lasted a moment. If the fleabag thought it was fun to mock me for my inability to understand her language, then I would learn it, just so I could mock her back. Maybe I could also teach Luna some other language at the same time, Luna and Lia, so we had a language we could talk in that excluded Silva.

Or maybe I was just being petty, because my daughter had never told me that she could understand Silva, though it might be because Luna thought I could, too. And it wasn’t like I was completely unable to understand her, by now I was able to read her quite easily but there was the principle involved. If Luna could understand their language in a way I could not, then I wanted to learn. Silva was, after all, my oldest friend in this changed world.

But that had time until later. For now, we had a farm to reach and the sun would soon come up, harassing us with its hated rays. It took fairly little effort to corral Luna and the dogs back into organised movement. Luckily they were dogs, if we had an army of cats it would be much harder.

When we reached the farm itself, I realised that the guards were still a disappointment. Sure, they had improved some of their security features, trimmed back the hedges at the edge, and built a small trench, with earthworks on the other side, there were even a few spears stuck in the earthwork and torches on top. At the moment, the torches were unlit, making them fairly pointless, but they could be easily lit by the guards moving around the area.

Which left the question, how good were the guards? Would they notice my approach or would I remain disappointed, giving Mrs Wu once again the bad news that their community was undefended? Or maybe calling it a community wasn’t sufficient any longer, the amount of construction they had accomplished, the fields I could faintly see in the dark, it wasn’t just a small community any longer, this was starting to become an actual town.

Hopefully, the growth, this renewal of civilisation, could continue. But for civilisation to flourish, they needed protection from those who would prey on them, the things that went bump in the night, the beasts and nasties that crawled around out here in the darkness.

There might have been a small smirk on my face when I disappeared into the shadows, moving forward unseen while the rest of my group continued onwards slowly. Alone, clad in shadows and hurrying, I could cross hundreds of metres in a dozen-odd seconds, even without stepping through the shadows I was like the wind. Unseen, scarcely heard and impossible to detect until I was felt and in this case, I didn’t want to be felt.

It might have been a little unfair, but I wanted to know when exactly the guard would notice the army of dog, they weren’t exactly stealthy in their approach and with me standing behind him, I would certainly notice.

The result of my little test was far from encouraging. The guard noticed the dogs but by the time he did, they were close enough that he couldn’t have done more than raise the alarm and maybe light a single torch before they reached the earthworks and there were simply not enough spears stuck in them to stop a deliberate charge.

But at least they had made progress, even if the guard still squeaked and jumped like a little girl, not my munchkin, a normal girl, when I spoke up behind him, telling him that there was no need to raise the alarm.

His squeak of fear managed to draw the attention of another guard, one who apparently remembered me, though I could see a bit of apprehension on her face when addressing me. Alas, that might just be the price I had to pay for my power, at least they didn’t just fear me, they feared and respected me. I might be a monster, but, luckily, they considered me their monster. Otherwise, the welcome would have been far more pointed, namely the tip of a spear.