EPILOGUE

Two months later

There was nothing quite like fresh air.

As Chloe stepped off the boat and onto the dock, she put out her arms and stretched, enjoying the chill of the morning wind. It blew through her hair, her clothes, but someone beside her who had much longer hair and a dress, no less, seemed to be catching much more of it.

When Luka stepped off the boat and onto the dock beside her, a crowd of other passengers making their way to land beside them, she ducked around Chloe and grabbed her arm.

“I realize now I don’t like heights or boats…”

Chloe laughed. “You won’t have to worry about boats for a while, Luka!”

And so, they turned around—the ship was heading back, but even so their new friends had seen them off; Daphne, Reiji, and Mizara stood at the edge, right beside the loading ramp.

“We’ll write!” said Chloe, and she held up Mr. Feather’s totem. “He’ll find you wherever you are!”

“We’ll write too!” said Daphne, and for the first time, Chloe saw her smiling, genuine and wistful. The catgirl waved them off, as did Reiji, and Mizara, who both also smiled.

Chloe had promised to stay with them, and that was true. Soon, they would regroup for the next adventure. But for now, the journey was over, and though Chloe did not come home with the Ronin’s Ruby, she looked back to her new closest friend, and truly believed she’d found something much greater.

The ship set sail. Soon, it was only her and Luka standing at the dock.

“Come on,” she said. “I have so many things to show you!”

…

Luka shoveled the pie into her mouth at lightning speed. So many days of nothing but witchcakes and rations would do that, it seemed. “This is DELICIOUS, Mrs. Wolfhound!”

Chloe’s mother, a dog-kin woman with purple eyes and blonde hair like she, but ears a bit floppier and over all, just the tiniest bit plumper and shorter than her daughter, blushed at the table. “You really think so?”

Luka nodded, face caked with crumbs. For a rich girl, she was a terribly messy eater.

Chloe’s father, a dog-kin man with a full beard and long golden hair tied back into a braid, grinned, his tail wagging between the hole in his chair. “We’re just glad you and our girl made it back safe, Miss Lovecraft.”

Luka smiled, and Chloe did too.

“Where’s Max?” Chloe asked, for her older brother was curiously absent.

“He went off on his own adventure, not long after you left,” said her father. “To collect spices for the bakery from a land a bit beyond the nearest island. He said he should be home in a couple weeks.”

“Oh! Then I know just the person to help him!” she said, and resolved to write to both Mizara and her brother and get them to meet.

As her family and Luka spoke over their lovely pies, all of them really hitting it off Chloe sat back and watched in contentment she hadn’t previously appreciated. Her parents were still with her, healthy and living, and her brother would come home soon. The village, as she and Luka had noticed, was doing well; the harvest that had come in when she’d been gone had been plentiful, there had been many new healthy puppy babies born into healthy families, and everyone had been elated to see her back.

She looked down at her plate. She’d eaten less than the others.

My village is fine, isn’t it, she realized. And it always has been.

She recalled a passing memory of Billy, always reaching for her pie even when he had muffins. Was it really greediness that motivated such things?

Chloe’s thoughts seemed stuck on this as she and Luka finished their meal and made it over to the sunflower valley. The sun was setting, but even so the last few bees were out collecting pollen. Birds chirped in the trees, and the wind, which had calmed since their arrival, blew softly all around them.

“If I could stay here forever, I would,” said Luka. “As long as there’s a library.”

“There is,” said Chloe. “It’s just not huge.”

Luka said, “Then maybe on our next journey we can bring back some more books and make it larger.”

Chloe nodded. “Add it to our list!”

She and Luka walked side by side through the flowers. The beauty of the Sunflower Empire had never been lost on Chloe, but something about it seemed so much more beautiful today.

Soon, they were at the cliff. She looked down.

Luka did too. They each said nothing.

Chloe could remember it like it was yesterday.

Luka reached out and grabbed her hand. “I still have one mana capsule left,” she said.

“You do?”

Luka nodded, and withdrew it—it was the Earth capsule from the first boss they fought, still unused.

She held it out and crushed it. An earthy, brown aura surrounded her hand. Luka lifted it into the air, and the ground began to shake. Chloe watched with wonder as the bottom of the culvert, so far down, lifted up, up, toward them, until the steep, well-hidden cliff was a cliff no more, and only a foot-deep indent before them.

The spell wore off, and Luka said, “Now, no more little puppyboys or girls will get hurt here anymore.”

…

Soon, they’d found themselves back in the village, walking down a short hill toward the graveyard. The gate was always open to visitors who wished to pay their respects. Many graves lie scattered about the grass, some bone-shaped, or smooth slabs, others simply boulders, but all with names and epitaphs.

It was when the sun was at the horizon that Chloe and Luka found Billy’s grave. It was surrounded by yellow flowers, and at the base lie a faded red ball, cracked from years of exposure to the sun.

BILLY REDFERN

Year 509 - 519

A boy who loved sweets and longed for adventure.

Rest well, our son.

Luka reached up into her hair and plucked the dandelion, then put it at the foot of his gravestone. Chloe’s vision blurred at the edges, and she realized tears were streaming down her face.

“I’m sorry it was me—” Luka began

“Don’t ever say that,” said Chloe, cutting her off. Had taking Luka to see him been a bad idea? That hadn’t been Chloe’s intention at all. She just wanted her to see him, to understand how much Chloe had loved him, and had hoped she understood that Chloe did not regret what she’d done. For though the pain was not something to conquer, nor would it ever fully wane, she knew she’d made the right choice.

“Out there in the world, there’s certainly another way,” said Luka, grasping, but Chloe shook her head.

“No. I think we should let him rest.”

Luka nodded.

…

The two of them lie together on a bedroll, looking up at the stars.

The adventure had been long, and not always fun. There had been tribulations they’d never expected to face, and much of the Dungeon’s dangers lingered in the dark corners of their minds. Their level three keys had gone unused, now sitting on the bookshelf of Chloe’s room, forever a keepsake of their trials. Her thoughts crossed then to Nym, resting forever in an unmarked grave, and she felt a deep sadness for what was supposed to have been a time of adventure, not loss.

But looking up at the stars, the night a serene black canvas of twinkling lights, Chloe was glad to have done it. Though perhaps it was time to think about what it meant to make decisions others, and what it meant to make decisions for oneself.

“Luka,” she said softly. “Do you think—”

She turned. The girl was sound asleep, a bubble of snot stuck to her nostril, growing and shrinking with each breath. Exactly like the day she’d met her.

Chloe covered her face, trying not to laugh too loudly.

Ah, but the others have my handkerchief.

She let Luka be.

She sat up. Down in the valley, the lights of the village had long been snuffed, and everyone slept peacefully.

But Chloe couldn’t sleep. She had too much on her mind.

Even so, she looked out at the sky beyond, and counted her numerous blessings. The sword she’d pulled from the stone, and Luka’s new ghostly robes, would serve them dutifully on journeys ahead.

But for now, all had been completed and laid to rest.

And so, Chloe lie down and closed her eyes, surrounded by flowers, surrounded by stars, and fell asleep beside her best friend, looking forward to new adventures in the morning, come what may.

THE END