#arc8

In a few days time was the day the train would make its first official trip up the mountain. I've been told there were many test runs before this, but this is the first time it'll actually accept passengers. Meanwhile, the day after tomorrow was the ceremony to make Annesville an official city under the Principality of Sanctuary. Of course, I will be in attendance to give my full blessing.

Foxman drove us down the hill two calendar days before the ceremony. From early morning, we were planning to drive all day, camp tonight and arrive there late afternoon tomorrow. It was just Raina, Panchi, Foxman, and I making the trip down the hill. Granny Sota has already been down there for days, planting some much needed trees and bushes. Auntie Lexine decided to walk down the mountain alone. She said it would be "nostalgic." How she walks a distance that we literally need to build a train line to traverse is beyond me. Though, admittedly it's faster downhill than uphill.

He drove us on a winding path that led us down the mountain. Not far away we can see the train tracks. Eventually, we left the eye of the storm and we were inundated by cloud cover. I watched the trees go by. Eventually, I spotted something very familiar in the forest nearby.

"Ooh! Look over there!" I shouted.

Raina next to me looked around. "What did you see?"

Panchi looked around from her spot riding shotgun. Normally you wouldn't let someone 2 feet tall ride up in the front, but I'm pretty sure she can handle anything this car could dish out.

"That large crater over there! Do you see it?"

"Oh yeah, it looks like some trees got knocked over." Raina noted. "That must have been one heck of a meteor."

"That's where I landed!"

"What?"

I explained how I wound up on the Odd, how the dragons flung me from the veil, how I collided with the planet right over there, and how I scaled the mountain to find Langweilig.

"Woah, it all happened over there?" Exclaimed Raina.

"Yeah, it took me a while to re-solidify after that." I laughed.

"Huh, we were all wondering about that large hole during construction. Mystery solved I guess." Foxman expressed from the driver's seat.

"Seriously, does anything kill you, noodle girl?" Panchi said exasperated.

I sighed nostalgically. "To think I was just a messy girl with no name back then. A lot has changed..."

"To think I was toiling away in prison back then..." Raina said wistfully.

"To think I came here to escape my family, only to stick around when they move in." Panchi huffed. "Maybe you two should stop being so likeable so I can leg it."

"I'm sorry our charms made you want to stay." I jest.

"We'll try to be less lovable in the future." Raina joined in.

"I knew it!" Panchi jabbed a finger in our direction. "You two are being cute on purpose! Stop it!"

Raina and I looked at each other. We then raised our fists into the air and shouted, "Never!"

We all laughed. Foxman just listened quietly from the driver's seat. He had a big glowing smile on his face. Glad our banter wasn't too annoying.

Eventually, our fox driver told us that it was close to "night" and parked off of the side of the road. He set up four camping chairs  and made a fire. Then he pulled out two packages of hotdogs. He was considerate enough to remember to bring the tofu dogs for my girlfriend and I.

As I roasted my tofu dog over the fire, I looked up at the overcast sky.

"I'm glad we planned to do this on a day day." I said, looking around. "It gets pitch black around here on a night day." Heck, even with the light, it's still dim because of the cloud cover.

"I honestly like the darkness." Stated Raina. "Reminds me of the solar eclipses on Sarpanit."

"I thought the Monster Home World didn't even have a moon?" I asked.

"It doesn't. No one can explain why they happen."

"I'd imagine it's dragons." Panchi chimed in. "They can't tell where they are putting their asses."

We all laughed. I quietly hoped no dragons heard that remark.

After we had eaten our dogs and had some roasted s'mores (with vegan marshmallows for the two of us of course,) Foxman made an announcement. "Welp, time to set up the travel fox house."

He pulled something out of his inventory, and out plopped in front of us was a fox-shaped house. Like, it was a house shaped like a cartoon-y fox standing on its hind legs.

"Wha- why is it fox shaped?" I asked.

"It's got everything!" He began his sales pitch. "Bedrooms, baths, kitchen, living room, everything to make your trip feel like home!"

"That didn't answer my question..." My pleas went on deaf ears.

Instead, Raina had her own question. "If you had a kitchen available, why did we have dinner over an open fire?"

"Good question! A question I'll gladly answer!"

"I had a good question, too..." I moped.

"It's not a camping experience without some fire cooked meal! I wouldn't DARE rob you!"

"But," Raina continued, "if you care about our camping experience, why are you pulling the house out at all?"

"Do you want to sleep in the dirt?"

"Well, no..."

"Then that answers your question. Come on! Let's head inside!"

The house only had three bathrooms so Raina and I had to share. I regretted letting her take her bath first as I had to spend the whole time bathing trying not to think about the fact that Raina's naked body was in the water before me.

"Don't think about it, baths are for cleaning..." I'd tell myself, trying desperately to push the mental image out of my mind.

When I finally finished my bath and changed into my nightgown, I went to our bedroom to find Raina sitting nervously on the bed, muttering to herself: "Don't think about how she's currently naked right now, don't think about it, don't think about it..."

Welp, now I'm a tomato. I'll try to forget I heard that.

After breakfast the next day, we packed everything up and headed off. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful.

Later that day, we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain. It was only partly cloudy down here. Apparently, it's usually like this. We passed by a sign that read "Annesville city limits." and quickly the forests were replaced with houses of many shapes and sizes.

The thing about Annesville is that unlike Sanctuary which already had buildings to set the city's look and feel, this town was built from the ground up (or more like they pulled out houses from their inventories.) So it had a very different feel from the capitol on the top of the hill. In fact, it looked more like the Monstre distinct, the only part of Sanctuary that's 100% entirely new.

Some of the houses were modern suburban style homes. Some were tree houses. Some were built into the side of a hill. There was even a little old lady who lived in a shoe. It was just a hodgepodge of aesthetics all mashed together. It was wonderful.

We drove right up to the Annesville Hotel. It was a luxury establishment, clearly created in anticipation of all the tourists coming their way. Not that we could see much considering what was in front of it.

"What in the..." Raina was the first to see it.

I looked where she was peering and apparently a huge crowd had formed in anticipation of us. There was a red carpet spread out down the middle leading to the front doors.

"Foxman, did you know anything about this?" I asked.

"Nope!" But his smirk said otherwise.

Tricksterish fox, I thought.

The crowd saw us approaching and started to cheer. Foxman pulled us up right to the carpet. Just when I didn't think I could possibly step out into the lion's den, the fox jumped out and opened the door for me. Thanks a lot.

My legs touched the red carpet and the excitement around me swelled. I tried my best to wave around to the people, but I think my movements came up as robotic. Raina had exited from my door and nervously joined me by my side. I immediately wrap my arm around her missing one to ease my nerves. This just made the crowd even more fervent. These were just a bunch of shippers, weren't they?

Lord Panchi jumped out of the car from the opposite side of the carpet, then dramatically slid across the hood of the car like an action star. This got another rise from the crowd. She quickly joined us by our side. She switched to her "I'm security" strut as she scanned the crowd for threats. Not that there was much to worry about considering there was a line of blue shawl security people lining the perimeter of the crowd.

A cute fluffy white bichon frise woman approached us down the red carpet. I recognized her, the dog named Elodia, one of the people that was traveling with Foxman when he first arrived. She was his accountant, but he sent her to Annesville to oversee construction. She wound up moving here permanently and was elected to become the town's first mayor when it gets established tomorrow.

By her side was the bear bodyguard Mathias who now protects the dog mayor. He looked at me nervously. I wasn't sure how Foxman got by letting go of both his bodyguard and accountant, but I'm not going to judge his life choices.

She came right up to me and gave me a curtsy. "It's an honor you would join us at this historic week, Princess Anne!"

"It's my pleasure, Mayor Elodia." I returned her curtsy. I hoped I did my curtsy perfectly. I didn't want Lexine to find out I was a few centimeters off. I don't know how she would know, but I figured she had a way to get those kinds of details.

"Please, I'm not mayor until tomorrow! Just call me Elodia until then!" She insisted. She turned to look at the others beside me. "I'm glad you could come, Duchess Raina. And Lord Panchi, too!"

"I'm the bodyguard." Panchi stated.

"That you are!" She responded with a smile.

Raina simply curtsied nervously. I think she was slightly off. I pray the vampire doesn't find out.

"Well, on behalf of the people of this town, I welcome you all to Annesville!"

There’s a time, early on, when Serena forgets to take her pills.

Hey guess who added another short little work to their arc8 au ? *finger guns*

(CONTENT ADVISORY: Racism, authority figure abuse)

I think I was 7, or maybe 8.

The forest had changed a lot. The town had developed a great ammount in the years since, and because of it, a number of the trees were cleared out. Because of that, there was a huge hole in the canopy that my mother and I could more clearly see the stars from. At the time I was overjoyed at this. I was too young to understand what was fully happening to the world around me.

I would learn later that the town size had been bolstered because of the discovery of mana-ore in the middle of the forest, a vital material in magic device creation. As soon as it was found, much money flooded into our little village, and with it came a swarm of opportunistic businessmen. Foxman would grill into Anne's head later on about the importance of keeping people like that on a short leash, but our town would learn that the hard way.

At this point, I had started school. School was very lax in the monster kingdom. If you missed the morning classes, the classes would be available again in the afternoon. It has a leveling up system, starting at Tier 1 and going up to Tier 10. Once you finish all the Tier 1 classes, you can start attending the Tier 2 classes. You can clear them at any pace you want, and there's no social pressure to rush it. It's a system Sanctuary would eventually adopt.

As the years went on, the powerful rich and wealthy merchants wanted to reform school to better train students to be valuable pawns. I would be long gone before they would follow through with their plans. I continue to be grateful to be out of there.

It was Physical Education, my worst subject. Not because I was unfit, (though, I was,) but because I was bipedal. Competing against creatures with four legs was very discouraging, no matter how much the teacher pretended I was doing good. Even the ones with two legs, many of them still had legs that were built to outperform me in every way. I so badly wanted to RNG edit my weaknesses away, but my mom believed that'll get us both caught.

Of course, before I could attend, I had to get scanned for enchantments. I stood in front of a white wall facing the nearby lake where our classes would happen. A tentacle monster working for the school waved a glowing stick over my body as I cooperatively stood in an A-pose.

BEEEP! Goes off the machine. I had worried for a second that it was on my side, but I looked over to find that Vixy the kitsune just got busted for enhancing her legs again. Her family was fairly rich, so she probably bought someone to give her a bit of a boost.

She was escorted to the principal's office. Meanwhile, I got to my class unscathed.

Our PE teacher was a fairly strict Loch Ness monster that ran the entire class from the water.

"Alright, get those stretches in! Work those calves! Now do some jumping jacks!" She couldn't even do the exercises herself, outside moving her flippers in a pale imitation of the motions.

The activity for today was bubble ball. Basically, you try to keep the ball in the air, if it lands on your team's side of the field, your opponents get a point. Basically volleyball but with full teams and no net. The class was divided between students with hands, and those without, which was a partial relief to me as some of the best bubble ball players were on that side. The no-hand side had so many students that they had to divide up into many teams before they could play.

The ones with hands barely had enough for two teams. On my side was a kappa, and a faun. On the other team was a slender, a human, and a pair of floating disembodied hands.

The game started and I wasn't much help. Everyone else ran so much faster than me and it was all happening too quickly for me to follow. At one point, the human on the other team was about to bounce the ball when the faun shoved him to the ground, causing the ball to land on the opposing team's side. The coach didn't see that and a point was awarded to us.

The human, a pale skinned boy named Travis, wouldn't take that lying down. "No fair! He pushed me!"

The red haired faun named Tris responded, "No I didn't! You're lying just because you missed it!"

"Yes you did! You shoved me!"

None of the other students were getting involved, but I couldn't sit still. "I saw the whole thing, he really did push him."

The faun glared at me, but his scowl quickly turned into a grin. "Got your girlfriend to back you up?"

Because they thought I was human, and because Travis was the only human in the class, they always assumed we were dating. It was annoying, but even more annoying for Travis because...

"For the last time, she's NOT my girlfriend!" Shouted Travis, looking as if a vein was going to pop out of his head. "I wouldn't date a ni████!"

...yeah, he said that...

Almost to punctuate that word, he shoved the faun on the second syllable. The faun pushed back and they quickly started throwing fists.

"Hey! Break it up over there!" Yelled, the coach.

Feeling like I had to do something, I walked over to try to grab their shoulders and pull them apart. However, as soon as my hand touched Travis' shoulder, he threw a fist at me and punched my lights out.

Travis and I were hauled to the principal's office. A stern faced Minotaur scolded us for starting fights. We were placed on a bench, so we basically had to sit right next to each other. He would go on and on about responsibility, and how this dishonored the school. He even referred to me as Travis' girlfriend at one point. I tried to argue my case, but he read this as talking back and smacked my shoulder with a ruler. Travis simply said nothing. He probably knew better than to argue back when the school decided what the truth was.

We were both given detention for a week and our parents were called. When Travis' parents arrived, they saw me with him and gave him a big scolding for even coming near me. Soon after, my mom arrived to pick me up.

As we walked home, I told her the full story. Upon hearing it all, she could only sigh. "Raina, what were you thinking about getting involved with those two boys?"

"I wanted to help out." I meekly said.

"You knew it would have ended badly no matter what!"

"I know just... the royal family is supposed to bring people together. I was trying..."

"They don't know your royal family, and even if they did, there was no guarantee they would have even listened to you!" She let out an even deeper sigh than before. "Maybe it was too soon to tell you about our family. Maybe informing you was a mistake..."

"Mom..."'

"We're supposed to be laying low, Raina! What were you thinking?"

We were silent the rest of the walk home.

We approached the bakery. Mom unlocked the door and clutched the doorknob, but stopped herself from going inside. She sighed and turned to me. "Raina, I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to do the right-"

But before she could finish that thought, the man in the suit and tie from the last memory came out from the darkness.

It was clear from the shock in my mom's face that she wasn't expecting him. "Oh! What are you doing here all of a sudden?"

"Why does Raina have a black eye?" Asked the man.

"She got in a fight in school, that's all." She gestured towards the house and looked at me. "Why don't you go inside and wash it out, Rains?"

I entered the house and washed it as I was told, but as soon as I did, I quickly went back to the door to listen to their conversation from the other side.

"You can't protect her, you should leave her in our care."

"You know I can't do that!"

"She is the future of monsterkind, if anything happened to her..."

"I'm not going to let you groom my daughter into becoming a god! She deserves a normal childhood!"

"She is not normal. She needs us."

"You're not having her and that's final!"

The man frowned and stepped back towards the shadows. He turned back one last time. "If it becomes clear that she's no longer safe in your care, I will personally take her from you. That's a promise." He stepped into the shadows and he was gone as quickly as he arrived.

Mom flew the door open and quickly noticed I was listening. Upon seeing me, she looked away. "Raina, there's some leftover bread in the shop. Please help yourself to dinner tonight." She climbed upstairs and slammed the bedroom door behind her. She clearly didn't want me to know what happened next, but the walls were thin, I heard every tear she shed. She sobbed well into the night, and I couldn't do anything to help her.

All I could do right now was eat my dinner. It was very stale, and salty.

-----

Oh! It's you again! I'm glad you came back! I was hoping for a second chance.

Last time was a bad example. I was trying to create an underdog type story where a newbie rises up to avenge his father and takes his place. However it didn't pan out at all like I wanted it to. Who knew someone called "Toothpick" wouldn't be up to the task.

Also, when I had my son go back there, I found that they ransacked their own village, decorated it with skeletons, and vanished without a trace. So in retrospect, I might have made that whole situation worse. Either that or it was one hell of a Halloween party that went wrong.

But, I'll make up for it this time! I will prove that I CAN write a heroic character and that my son is the best there is at it!

So my son was waking up in the bed of the Queen of Berry Blitzkrieg. They've been getting it on a lot lately. She's even been providing magical birth control spells. If she wasn't married, she'd be a keeper!

"Come back again soon, stranger!" Said the queen, flirtatiously.

"When my shadow once again stops being my ally, I will warm your bed once more." My son spoke in his most grungy voice possible.

"...yeah... you go do that!"

He was about to leap off the balcony and somehow survive a 50 story drop, but they WERE having an affair, so he snuck out the back.

The next stop on my son's journey across the universe was on a planet of people that looked like bunnies. I don't think they were anthros, just some kind of species that looked like hares. I land in a sylvan glen full of sunshine and rainbows. Little cottages made to look like they were constructed out of candy litter the landscape. People were riding around on colorful unicorns.

Welp, clearly I've led my spawn to the wrong location. We won't be staying here long.

However, before I could get him to leap dramatically off this world, I heard a voice calling out to me from a nearby house.

"Hey? Can you come over here?" A blue bunny was calling out to him.

Ah, a citizen in need of help? Well, I might as well hear him out. My son approached without hesitation, keeping his hand on his gun the whole time in case this was an ambush or a solicitor.

"Are you really Nameless?"

Ooh! Even better! This is a fan! "Yes, that is who I am."

"We need your help."

"I'll hear you out."

He led me into his secret hideout where a bunch of bunnies carrying guns and high artillery were scheming.

"Fluffybuns, what the hell?"

"It's Nameless. He was just casually walking down the street! He's agreed to help us!"

"Did you confirm his identity at all?"

"Well... no..."

The other rabbit planted a palm on his forehead and sighed. After looking dead in the eyes for a few seconds, he turns to my son and asks, "can you prove you're the legendary hero?"

My boy, without thinking twice, flipped a coin in the air. Then in one quick motion, he fired his gun off and pierced a hole right through the currency. It landed on the ground where the rest of the guys could see. They were stunned at what they just witnessed.

"I mean... I don't see how that proves that you're Nameless, but I kinda doubt you're a cop and you could be useful."

No matter! He was in!

They brought him to the next room and briefed him on the situation.

"The mayor has won their way into office on fraudulent votes, and now the current administration is running this land into the ground!"

Ah! The typical tyrannical government situation!

"To make things worse, they are executing our babies, and eating our dogs!"

What the?!? That's cartoonishly evil!

"And there's something else I should show you." The radical bunny said. "Something that'll convince you further towards our cause!"

They pulled me aside and in front of a TV screen. They showed me an orange bunny who was talking nonsensically about cannibalism and how you won't need to vote anymore as he'll have everything "fixed" by the next election.

This was a tyrant bunny. He was my target. Or, well, he was MY SON'S target!

"I'll do it!"

He made his way to town hall. They had given him blueprints, I have no idea how they got their paws on that. He witnessed several gummy bear guards marching around. He could do this the sneaky and smart way... but where's the fun in that?

He charged in shooting his trusty handguns. The guards weren't expecting him so he took out over half of them before they had time to fire back. Though, even when they fired back, they were shocked to find that their bullets had no effect on my boy. The worst they could do is-

Suddenly, a stray bullet knocked one of my son's guns out of his hands. He would fumble around on the ground picking it up again as bullets pierced holes in his body. "Goddamn it!" He yelled as the knock back from another bullet made him drop the gun again just as he finally got his hand around it.

He eventually picked the gun back up, but I think they found out that it was a weak point of his because they started aiming for my son's guns directly. After the fifth time, I got frustrated and had my boy holster his guns. He turned his arms into swords and started cutting down bears. Jelly gushed everywhere as he sliced them up. Some of it got on his fine white suit. Annoying.

He cut his way into the building, beheading any bears that got in his way. Eventually, he would find what the blueprints cite as the panic room. My son turned his arms into energy swords and slices open the large vault doors.

Inside were 5 gummy bear guards and one bunny in a pants suit. She didn't look like the target. They must be hiding the tyrant somewhere else.

Nameless re-equips his guns and blows up the head of one of the gummy bears. The other four fire back. He ran up to one and shot them point blank in the face. Then he shot another, the bullet went through the heads of two gummies at once. The final one tried to pull out a shotgun, but he was faster, creating 5 holes in their body before they could get a shot off.

All that was left was the bunny lady. She was glaring at my son. He pointed his gun point blank at her forehead. "Where is the mayor?"

"Huh? I'm the mayor!"

"No you're not! Where's tyrant bunny?"

"E-excuse me?"

"That crazy orange bunny that talked about cannibalism."

In that moment, something clicked in her head. "He's not here."

"Then you're no use to me." And he shot her dead right then and there. Now, he just had to find the orange bunny.

However, suddenly, the bunny revolutionaries entered the room and started celebrating. """He did it! He killed the mayor!""" They shouted in unison.

"Uhhh, I did?" He was lost.

"Now our glorious leader can rule forever more!"

A new figure enters the panic room. It was an orange bunny, my target.

"Now that this evil woman is out of the way, I can be dictator for life! Bow before me!"

"""Dictator for life! Dictator for life!""” They chanted while marching in a circle around the tyrant bunny.

"Tonight, we will feast on the flesh of the former mayor!"

"""HURRAY!!!"""

Ah, I see. I screwed up. Oh well, easy fix.

My son brings up his guns and shouts "DEATH TO TYRANTS!" before gunning down every last one, including tyrant bunny.

Days later, a ceremony is held. The daughter of the former mayor was granting my son a medal.

"For overthrowing a violent coup at their moment of victory, we reward you the bunny medal of honor." She pins it on the front of my son's jelly stained jacket.

"It was the least I could do!"

"It's a shame you couldn't get there in time to save my mother."

"Yep, real shame..."

We cuddled until the train was in station. As soon as the train had screeched to a stop, Lexine climbed up the ladder.

"Alright love birds, time to get off!"

I'm so glad we weren't still kissing when she came up here.

The vampire gave us a sly look. "Ooh la la! Sounds like someone took my advice!"

DAMN NARRATION!

She chuckled, but mercifully climbed back down leaving us alone again. I was about to get up, but Raina instead pulled me in for another kiss. After a moment, she pulled away, looking me deep in the eyes. "I love you, Anne."

"I love you too, Raina."

"YOU TWO BETTER NOT BE GETTING FRISKY UP THERE!" Shouted Lexine. "IT'S TIME TO GO!"

Eventually we climbed down. The two of us were practically glowing.

Foxman approached us. "Looks like you two had a good train ride!"

Lexine chuckled under her breath. Hush you!

"It was a wonderful time! Thank you for inviting all of us!" Raina was being way more polite than I was.

I decided to follow her lead. "Yes, thank you!"

"Oh, it was a given to have the local leadership along for the founding of a city! Honestly, the honor was with all of us."

"Welp, I'm heading off." Stated Panchi. "Gotta touch base with the SSD."

"Thank you for coming with us Panchi! Sorry our romance surely tempered your experience a bit." Raina bowed to her apologetically.

"Eh, it's fine.” Panchi apathetically swatted at the air. “You two are background noise at this point. Nothing but two birds mating in a tree nearby."

What a flattering way to describe us. I thought. Panchi took off.

Foxman bowed. "Thank you again for traveling with us! I've got to help out with the train!" He said, running off.

"I have business to attend to myself. Or more like," Lexine grabbed Raina by the wrist, "WE have business to attend to!"

Raina gulped heavily. "Huh? What do you need me for?"

"Your curtsy was off when you greeted Elodia on the first day. We've gotta review."

"You weren't even there for that! How would you know?!?"

"A lady has her ways." She smirked mischievously. "I'll see you later, Anne!"

Lexine dragged Raina away. She reached out for me for help, but I was helpless to help her.

With those two gone, I was alone on the platform... Wait, no, Granny Sota was standing there. Her eyes were fixed on Sanctuary, but her eyes were shaking as if she wasn't even registering what was right in front of her.

"Granny Sota?"

Her lips quivered. "Yes! Yes, I promise!"

"Promise what?"

Then suddenly, tears started to run down her face. I've never seen her cry before. She finally broke her gaze and stared at the ground. Under her breath, she said, "I don't deserve it... Not one bit..."

"Granny?" I reached out and laid my arm on her shoulder. My touch sent a chain reaction through her whole body that spread until it connected with her brain. She turned to look at me, tear soaked cheeks and all. "Are you okay?"

Seeing me only made her tears well up more. "Anne..." She pulled me into a hug and started to sob into my shoulder.. I had never seen her act like this before, so it was kinda awkward for me. None-the-less, I returned her hug and patted her back.

Eventually she parted from me. "Sorry, I was just having a good cry. Crying is nature's stress reliever, it's good to have one every now-and-then." She had said all this in an informative voice.

"Is it something you'd like to talk about?"

"Anne, you're 18. You shouldn't have to play psychiatrist for the elderly. There's professionals for that."

"Oh, well, in that case, I'm always open for more hugs later if you need them!"

"I might take you up on that offer. Thank you, Anne!"

"Anytime, Granny!"

And with that, she walked off. As I watched her back slowly move away from me, I started to feel a paranoia growing inside. Granny Sota was always a mysterious woman who seemed to know more than she lets on. If she's unsettled, maybe I should be worried?

I spent the rest of the evening stamping documents. They really piled up while I was gone. Eventually I decided to call it a night. I had only completed 1/4 of the pile, but I needed to preserve my sanity.

I was heading back to our room when I ran into Raina. She looked way more tired than I was. Understandable considering what she was just caught up in.

"Why did I agree to let Lexine teach me etiquette...?" She lamented.

"Tell me about it!" I sighed. "Does she do that thing where she'll say 'don't you want to show your girlfriend a good time?'"

"Oh my god, does she do that with you, too?"

"I had no idea lesbianism could be used for evil!"

We both laughed.

When we made it to our bedroom, I was going to head to my own bathroom, but Raina caught my arm. I turned to her and she was looking bashfully.

"Um... Anne?" She asked, Pensively.

"Yes?"

She was quiet for a moment as the courage built up in her heart, and then she finally asked: "C-can I get in the bath with you?"

My face immediately went hot. "Are you sure?"

"We've already seen each other... no reason to hide it anymore."

"O-okay! I mean, if you're fine with it..."

We both entered my bathroom. Raina nervously starts stripping off her clothing. Even though I've already seen her, it was still nerve wracking. My metaphorical heart was beating out of my chest.

I had my clothes disappear into my body. Raina was shocked to see it. "Wha-?!?"

"Oh, right, you've never seen me changing."

"It just disappeared into your inventory right off your body? Wait, how did you program it to appear on your body in the right way?"

"I wasn't the one that coded this ability."

"Huh, I need to study your... coding..." She was so caught up in spellwriting that she forgot for a second that we were both just standing around naked. She glanced away from me, red as a tomato. "Uh, maybe later."

We quietly washed ourselves before getting into the bath. We sat in the tub back-to-back because we didn't think we would be able to look at each other for long.

We were silent for a while, so I decided to break the ice. "Something was up with Granny Sota."

"Oh yeah?"

I explained our interaction earlier to her. "I hope nothing bad is going to happen."

"Well, even if something does, we'll just have to deal with it in our own way. We've faced a lot of challenges already."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"I know I'm right!" She turned me around to meet my gaze. "If there is one truth in this world, one thing I can always count on, is that all of us together can conquer anything!"

"Yeah, you're right!" I said, my spirits already lifted.

Raina leaned in to kiss me. Naked kisses were the best. As she pulled away, she softly whispered in my ear "my beacon of hope!"

It was a couple days later and everyone was busy as all hell. I had more documents to stamp. I decided to take a break and pull out my phone. It's been a while since I've been on Mutter. It’s been doing surprisingly well considering its owner has been deposed. Many people in town still use it, so it’s a good way to gauge what everyone is talking about.

I looked at the mutts from people in town and something caught my eye.

I recognized them as two of the members from the otter team we sent to check the source of the water up on the mountains. The "Ostentatious Otters" as they were called. However, the things they were saying suggested that they were already back in Sanctuary. If this was the case, no one bothered to tell me.

I arranged a meeting with a team later today.

I wonder what kind of story they have for me!

-----

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Anne? I know you can't hear this yet, but I'm hoping your subconscious will pick it up.

I know we'll have a chance to talk soon, but I get the feeling you won't be in the mood for chitchat by then. So, I'm taking the opportunity to say it now.

I'm sorry. I am genuinely and deeply sorry.

Our first stop was the spa car.

Yes, there was a spa car.

We were immediately hit with the aroma of essential oils and incense. A stern looking old cat lady approached us.

"Princess, Duchess, please, allow us to treat you!"

"Oh um..." Before I could even respond, I was led to a changing room where I was asked to strip. Reluctantly I complied and walked out in nothing but a towel. I looked over to see Raina was wearing the same thing and oh god I'm already heated.

We were led to massage tables where we were instructed to lay face down. A big burly cat lady stood next to me and started to rub and press down on my body. However, the people running the spa completely forgot I had no bones and thus I only squished under her big strong hands. It was like trying to massage Silly Putty.

Afterwards, they treated my hair and put it up in a towel. They spread skin care cream all over my face. They tried to give me a manicure and pedicure, but the poor lady found I had no nails to work on.

Instead of waiting for Raina to get done with her treatment, I was directed towards a mud bath where I was told to take off my towel and get in. I didn't see anyone else around, so I reluctantly took off my only article of clothing and slowly dipped myself into the slimy substance.

How long do I sit here? I thought. I just killed time, thinking about Sanctuary and all the tasks I'd needed to do once I was back there. Huh, I was in the middle of the spa and I was thinking about work. Maybe I work too much?

My thoughts were interrupted by a sound next to me. I glanced over just to notice Raina had gotten into the mud bath on my left. I couldn't really see anything because of the mud, but the fact I was bathing with her for the first time made my face hot. She glanced over and our eyes met. It was almost like the same thought came across her mind because she immediately went red. We averted our gazes from each other.

Considering she was as bashful about this as I was, I decided to make a compromise. "When we eventually get out of this tub, I'll get out first. You've already seen me naked anyways..."

"I saw you naked when I was just a girl with a crush." Raina explained. "It kinda hits differently when you're my girlfriend..."

"Oh, I see your point..."

We failed to come up with an exit strategy.

A few minutes later, the lead spa cat came back. "Alright, you two, mud time, over." Completely failing to read the room, she had her assistants pull us out, hose us down and cover our bodies in curative oils. Because the cat failed to pick up on our feelings, she didn't bother to practice discretion and we both wound up seeing everything anyways.

While I was trying to get Raina's naked body out of my mind, we were put back into towels and thrown into a sauna. Were spas really supposed to be this forceful?

We didn't need the heat, I was already hot. Raina was completely red herself.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Maybe I should have shut my eyes through all that..."

"No, no it's okay... It's fine if you see me." Raina said nervously. "W-we're dating after all, I guess it's not a big deal..."

Eventually, we were allowed to put our clothes back on and move on with our tour of the train. After the spa from hell, everything going forward should be easy sailing… At least I hope so.

Our second stop was the dining car. A fancy little restaurant had been set up awaiting guests. It was too early for lunch so I was not surprised to find it entirely empty. However, after a second, a half of a dozen meerkats poked their heads from behind counters to stare at us, which gave the two of us a shock. Upon seeing who we were, a prim and proper mongoose with slick back hair and a waiter's uniform approached us.

"Princess! Duchess! It would be an honor to treat you to an early lunch if you'd like!"

"After the spa from hell, I'm actually starving." Raina said with a sigh.

I nodded in agreement. "A seat for two, if it wouldn't be any trouble."

"Delightful!" She said, leading us to a nearby empty table. She pulled out a chair for me which I gratefully took. She moved to do the same for Raina, but she was already sitting by the time she made it to the other side of the table. Not feeling discouraged, she handed us our menus. "I'll get you some water!"

I looked through the food items available. I've sampled many kinds of food for the first time in the past month or so, but even then, I still couldn't visualize how they tasted. Because of that, I was struggling to choose what to have. For a sec, I thought of picking something randomly. However, I got a brilliant idea. When Raina took her order, I simply said "I'll have what she's having!" Full-proof plan!

With our orders taken, we simply sat and waited for our food to be ready.

"You know, it's funny to think we haven't gone out to eat for a date yet." Raina said.

"Huh, now that you mention it..." We made plans to eat at that vegetarian restaurant when it opened, but we've been so busy as of late, we never could make it work. We've eaten as part of a group before, but never alone together like this.

"I'm glad we came to Annesville." Raina smiled. She reached out to put her hand on the tip of my arm. "I got to spend a lot more time with you on this trip!"

"Any moment with you is a treasure, Raina." I wrapped the end of my arm around her hand and we peered deep into each other's eyes for a time. Our moment was upset by the waiter leaving the kitchen carrying out food. Seeing it, Raina quickly got ready to eat.

I got ready myself. I've spent a couple months learning table manners and I believe I got it down pat. I conjured up a fork and knife. It has specialized octagonal shaped handles. The more sides and thicker grip give me way more control of the utensil. With these puppies, I'm going to show Raina the best table manners she's ever seen!

The plate was placed in front of me... and it was vegetarian tacos.

Raina sees me about to eat tacos with a knife and fork. We look into each other's eyes, and we both burst out laughing.

I still ate those tacos with the utensils btw. How else was I supposed to eat it?

Our third stop was the shopping car. We just wandered around seeing what they had. It was mostly touristy stuff, like plushies of me and my friends. That kind of crap.

We found a soft-serve shop and we shared a cone of ice cream together, taking turns licking it. She held the cone the whole time, bringing it up to my lips every time it was my turn. She looked very satisfied.

The remainder of the cars were passenger cars. We walked through them to at least see them. Some of the passengers gave us surprised looks, while others waved to us as we walked by. Some kids ran up to talk to us at one point. We thought it would be intrusive to go into the engine room, so we decided to head back after we finished visiting the couch seats. We would spend most of the rest of the trip in the royal car with the rest of the gang.

An hour or so later, we got notice that Sanctuary was going to be coming into view soon. Upon hearing that, Raina takes me by the arm and leads me through the back door. She cast an "anti-wind" spell on both of us and led me up a ladder to the roof. Just as the spell advertised, the gust from the train moving so fast just passed us by like we were in our own little pocket.

Raina spread out a little picnic blanket. She sat down and I took up the space next to her. She immediately moved in close so we are literally side-by-side. With our seats arranged, we watched up ahead.

It took 10 minutes or so, but suddenly we cleared the hill and we were suddenly inundated by an orange light. Dawn had broken on this side of the Odd. As our eyes adjusted, Sanctuary came into view. It hadn't even been more than a week or so, but it felt like we've been away from it for months. The light has bathed the entire town in gold. This was something I treasured, too.

I glanced over to Raina to see her with the biggest smile. I guess she felt the same as me. The light made her skin practically glow. She turned and our eyes met.

'just let things happen naturally...' Lexine's words resonated in my mind.

Raina started to lean forward, and before I could think, I was leaning in myself. Raina’s hand reached for my cheek, I could feel her heart punching through her touch. I closed my eyes and the rest happened naturally. Her lips were warm and soft.

That's how we kissed for the first time. The perfect capstone to an amazing trip.

"Wow, so you haven't actually kissed on the lips yet?" Asked Lexine.

It was hard to avoid the rumors that spread from the other day's antics, so Lexine finally asked about it as we were leaving for the train station.

"I mean, we've kissed on the cheek and stuff..." I explained, "but we've always been saving the mouth kiss for a special occasion..."

"You shouldn't let social expectations dictate your relationship like that. You're not in a story after all." The vampire face twisted in thought for a sec before correcting. "Okay, technically you ARE in a story, but you shouldn't let that dictate your life."

"I mean, I dunno about that. The intervention of those children felt a little too comedically timed." I postulated. "I get the feeling it's already dictating my life."

(Author's Note: *shifty eyes*)

"Uh um..." Lexine looked awkwardly around as if she heard the creator of everything intercede in the conversation with random silliness. (Author's Note: Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you could hear me!) She eventually straightened herself out and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Look, just, don't worry about that and let things happen naturally."

I didn't really have anything to say to that, so we just walked silently for a while. It appears just bringing up that event was enough to make Raina blush, as she was quietly focusing on the dirt while walking. Meanwhile, Granny Sota was uncharacteristically elated. She had a bigger smile on her face than I had ever seen on her before, and she was practically skipping as she walked. What was she so happy about?

Eventually, we arrived at the train platform where a large crowd had formed. As soon as they saw us, they immediately parted to let us through. I felt like I was some kind of religious leader escaping desert dwellers.

Foxman was already on the platform. Because the Chaos Rangers were overseeing construction, he left early this morning to finish preparations. We must have been late, because he was already giving a speech.

"...with my new magictech engine, it'll take us up the mountain in no time! From departure to arrival, it's only 6 hours!"

As I said, it's easier to go downhill than uphill. Uphill, that same drive the other day would have taken us several days at least, probably more. I don't know the exact amount, usually I just turn into a light and fly down here. I only rode in a car this time because everyone else was... wait a minute.

"Raina?"

This knocked her from her embarrassed stupor. "Uh, yes, Anne?"

"You were surprised by Foxman's fox house earlier, has he never driven you down to Annesville before?"

"Oh no, I usually teleport down."

"You have teleportation magic?" I had never seen her use it.

"Well, it's more like waypoints." She explained. "The problem with teleportation magic is programming where to teleport to, as the coding would need exact coordinates. You'd have to basically program your wand to measure where you are on the planet at all times, which is quite taxing on the magical power to pull off. And even so, you'd have to physically point to where you want to teleport to so the magic knows where you want to go, and you have to program it so part of you doesn't re-materialize into the ground. Not to mention, you have to consider the positioning of the planet in space which can be different from planet to planet."

"Huh, that makes sense." The more I learn about magic, the more complicated it is.

"However, if I set a magitech gps as my teleportation location, I can just code in that as my destination without all that other gunk. Because of that, I can teleport between Sanctuary and Annesville fairly easily."

"But couldn't you just throw around magitech GPS to teleport short distances?" I postulated.

Raina chuckled. "I mean, that would be like throwing your phone around in battle."

"What if you programmed a magictech GPS into the planet itself?" Suggested Granny Sota. "Then you can at least teleport while you're on the Odd."

Raina was taken aback. "I mean, if the planet itself is doing all those measurements, it would simplify things. But what you're suggesting would need the collective power of a bunch of mages to effectively pull that off."

"Or one with a lot of magical power." Granny glanced at her.

Raina was stunned for a moment. "I didn't know you knew so much about spellwriting."

The elderly woman snorted. "Oh, I've dabbled here and there."

"You'll have to share what you know!" She responded enthusiastically.

"Well, since you're so curious..." The pair would go on to a whole conversation about spellwriting and its many intricacies. This stuff has lost me to be honest, so instead I turned to Panchi.

"So have you ever ridden in Foxman's car to Annesville?"

"Nah, I usually just fly." She responded half-heartedly.

"Wait, you can fly?"

"Yeah, #125: God's Flight."

"I've never seen you do it."

"I only do it when I need to. Kind of takes the fun out of life when you can just float away, ya know?"

Weirdly enough, I don't get it, but I can still vibe with that.

While we were waiting for Foxman to finish, someone approached me from behind. "I'm sorry to bother you, Princess."

"Oh, hello! It's nice to meet-" I spun around to greet what must have been an Annesville citizen, to be face to face with a pile of green slime in the shape of a man. He was wearing spectacles and had a mustache shaped piece of slime under where his nose would be. He had a full bartender outfit made of gelatinous substance.

Behind him were a bunch of slime women in scantily clad slime outfits.

"Greetings, my name is Stinger Slim."

"That's an incredible name." That wasn't just flattery.

"I was going to be running a pub up in Sanctuary and I wanted to meet the lady of the town."

"Oh! Right! I've been receiving complaints about how there wasn't a bar in town!" I don't drink so...

"Ah, nice to know there was a market for my services!"

Lexine looked puzzled. "Huh? Has the monster kingdom started banishing slime people?"

"No. We simply just saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave before things got messier."

I just noticed, but the ladies behind Slim were giggling and looking off to the side of me. I follow their eyeline to see they are looking at a bashful Raina who's trying desperately to not make eye contact.

Realizing the situation we're in, I take a step in front of her. "Let me introduce you all to my GIRLFRIEND Raina."

The slime girls, upon hearing that their prey was the lover of their new town's leader, immediately try to pretend that she never existed and started looking at the sky for nothing in particular. Raina glanced towards me and mouthed "thank you."

"I apologize for my girls, Princess." Slim bowed. "Most of my kind can be quite promiscuous."

"Hey, as long as they don't target any taken people and honor consent, they'll be fine."

Finally, Foxman concluded his speech/salesman pitch and a queue was formed to board the train. It looked like a standard steam engine car despite it not having any steam to spew. I was used to "aesthetics over practicality" shtick by now thanks to Berry Blitzkrieg's influence on Sanctuary, so this nonsense was nothing new to me. The words "The Oddity Express" was affixed to the engine's side.

Foxman walked up to us. "Follow me, ladies and non-binaries!" He glanced at Panchi when he said "non-binaries." He led us to the back of the train. "This is the royal car! You'll be riding back here!"

"Of course we will..." I said. I swear Foxman was doing this to annoy me. He opened the door for us before heading off to tend to other passengers.

The royal car was about as expensive looking as you'd expect. It was a little compact luxury house with lounge chairs looking towards the windows. It actually had a bunch of bedrooms in the back of the car. I guess Foxman was planning ahead for when the train would go on longer journeys.

"Honestly, I was hoping to see the train from the cheaper seats." Raina complained. "Feel like we're not getting the normal experience." She was stating my own thoughts.

"How many people do you think wish they could ride in the royal car?" Reasoned Lexine.

"Think I can trade with any of them?"

"Nope."

We each got in our lounge chairs and waited patiently for the show to begin. Eventually, Foxman gives the "All aboard!" and shortly after the train starts to move. It didn't take long to build up momentum until it was moving faster than what I've seen the fox's car travel.

Raina was astonished. "Mother of Gods! No wonder it gets up the mountain so quickly!"

After about 30 minutes watching the trees go by as the others engage in small talk, I suddenly stand up. "Welp, I'm going to explore!"

"We JUST left!" Exclaimed Granny Sota.

I extend an arm to my girlfriend. "Wanna join me?"

Raina smiled at my invitation. "Gladly!"