Fresh lets out a pitiful yelp as her lower back painfully pops. Her fingers, touching her toes, twitch for a flash of a second as the jolt shoots through her. She hangs there for a moment, feeling the stretch run up through the back of her legs. She realizes that she can barely touch her own toes. She feels like she should be able to, ideally.

Slowly rising back upright, she lifts her hands into the air and rises up onto the tips of her toes, stretching upwards towards the ceiling.

“What the fuck are you doing?” asks Jubilee, who is sitting at the table upstairs, their elbow on the surface and their head resting lazily in their hand.

“I’m stretching, Jubilee,” explains Fresh, pursing her lips and closing her eyes as she puts some effort into the extension. She lowers herself back down a moment later, holding her right arm out ahead of herself. Locking her left hand under her right bicep, she twists her upper body towards the left, feeling the tension in her back.

“Yeah, I see that,” says Jubilee. “But why?” Fresh switches arms, repeating the movement into the other direction.

It’s later in the day, just before nightfall. The store has closed. Fresh and Jubilee are upstairs. Basil is down taking a bath and Shamrock has gone into the dungeon to gather some more materials for them to take with them when they leave. “Because I want to be ready,” explains Fresh.

“For what?”

“For when we have to go,” she says, sadly. “We’re gonna have to walk really, really far, right?”

“Well, we could try to get an anqa,” replies Jubilee. “But an anqa and a cart won’t help us much in the forest.”

“Oh no,” says Fresh, realizing. “Do we have to go through there again?”

“Sure do, if we want to go east.”

“Why east?” asks Fresh, as she places her left foot a step forward and her right one a step back. She holds onto her knee, stretching out her hip one side at a time. “Why don’t we go further west, where that dragon-farm is?” asks Fresh. “It sounds fun.”

“Because we’re running out of dungeons and the next closest one is in the east,” explains Jubilee. “Also, I’m not going to become a farmer.”

“But Jubileeee~” protests Fresh jokingly as she switches legs. “I think you’d look cute in a straw-hat and overalls.”

“Shut up.”

Fresh laughs. “I’d get some too and we could wear matching clothes!”

Jubilee sighs. “We’re not going to do that.”

“Aren’t you going to get hot in the east though?” asks Fresh, looking at her friend a bit worried.

Jubilee leans back, pulling their head up as they cross their arms and kick their feet up onto the table. “It’s the desert, we’re all going to get hot.”

Fresh lowers herself down to the ground, lying flat on her stomach. Placing her hands on either side of her chest, she pushes her upper body up while pressing her legs down, feeling a stretch run through the area just below her stomach. “Yeah, but you wear a lot of stuff, Jubilee. I don’t want you to get a heatstroke and die.”

“I’ll be fine, you baby.”

“You wanna stretch with me?” asks Fresh, wiggling her feet as she notices her toes starting to tingle from this position.

“Pass.”

Fresh thinks for a minute as she holds that pose. “Have you been to the east before, Jubilee?”

“I have.”

“You’ve sure traveled a lot!” states Fresh giddily. “Will you show us some nice places there?” she asks. “We never got to do a lot of ‘outside stuff’ here,” she explains, her expression becoming a little somber. She readjusts, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. Fresh places the soles of her bare feet against each other, slowly pressing her knees down to the ground.

“I’m an inside-person,” explains Jubilee.

“You sure traveled a lot for an ‘inside-person’,” quips Fresh, wincing as she presses her stretch a little too fast and too deep.

“Eventually, you get tired of going outside,” replies Jubilee. “When you’ve seen enough.”

Fresh nods, thinking that she knows what Jubilee means. The outside is where adventure is, where treasures such as excitement and wonder can be found. But it’s also where the bad-things are. Those bad-things seem to have a much harder time finding you if you just stay inside and socially cut-off forever. If you keep your feet under the blanket, the demons can’t get them.

“You know what I like about the idea of traveling, though, Jubilee?” asks Fresh. She lays down on her back, arching her knees upward. Splaying her arms out to the sides to hold her upper body steady, she lifts her right leg into the air and twists her lower body to the left. “When we go to new places, it lets us be new people. I’m not an outside-person either,” says Fresh, holding that position for a moment as her foot reaches the ground. A sharp tug runs up the right side of her back. “But in the east, nobody knows that. So maybe I can pretend to be one and they’ll believe it,” says Fresh, pulling back to the middle and then switching over to her other leg and direction.

“And then?”

“And then maybe I’ll believe it too, after a while,” says Fresh, wincing as her big toe touches the ground.

“And then?” asks Basil, coming up the stairs, rubbing her hair dry with a towel.

Fresh tilts her head backwards, looking up at the priestess. “And then I’ll convince you guys to try it and we can all live long, happy lives together,” says Fresh.

Basil thinks for a second, but then nods as she walks over Fresh, heading to the kitchenette. “Sounds good to me.”

“Don’t encourage her!” snaps Jubilee. “Otherwise we’re going to end up running some kind of tavern or something annoying like that!”

Fresh gasps, sitting straight upright.

“No!” barks Jubilee, pointing at her before she can say anything. “Dungeon. Item. SHOP,” says Jubilee, tapping against the table with their finger. “We’re not making a tavern.”

Fresh sighs, a little disappointed.

Basil grabs a bottle of herbal-tea. “We could at least have a little celebration before we leave,” she suggests. “Maybe a nice dinner and some drinks, just to say goodbye to our home.”

“Don’t you start too,” says Jubilee, leaning back on their chair and looking at Basil. She just shrugs.

“It seems appropriate. It’s been a good home for us.” She looks around. “When are you going to tell Veli?”

“I’ll get to it,” replies Jubilee.

“But what if we have to leave tonight?” asks the priestess. Jubilee doesn’t respond, simply sliding back into their chair and crossing their arms. “You really need to tell him soon.”

“Fine, I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

Fresh rubs her arm. “You think he’s going to be sad?”

Basil shakes her hair out, going through it with her fingers. “The young struggle with abandonment the most. It scars them the deepest.”

“We’re giving him a whole house, he should shut up and be happy about it,” says Jubilee.

“That didn’t help you, did it?” asks Basil, showing surprising bravery as she walks past Jubilee to sit down at the table as well, next to them. Fresh still remembers how terrified Basil was of Jubilee back when they first met. Even if they’re at each other’s throats now and then, she realizes that the two of them are friends with each other, as much as they are with herself.

“Look, it’s not like we can ask him to tag along,” says Jubilee, apparently letting her remark slide. “Besides, we hardly know him. We can’t take in every sap with a sob story, like we did with you.”

Basil lifts her nose, taking a measured sip of her tea. “I just think he’s cute, is all. I like his determination. Considering what his queen is like, I think he’s a real charm.”

“That’s just his survival instinct. Not everyone has one, apparently,” replies Jubilee threateningly.

“Yes, yes,” sighs Basil. Fresh, sitting there cross legged on the floor, can’t help but laugh at the two of them, bickering like a married couple. It’s true that Veli can’t leave the mountain, being bound to it. But even if he could, they needed someone strong-willed to stay here and to run the new ‘Dungeon Fairy Shop’ as Fresh has nicknamed the project. Someone needs to look after the rest of the fairies.

The sound of the door downstairs, together with the heavy steps of metal boots a moment later give credence to Shamrock’s return. The giant makes his way upstairs.

“Hi, Shamrock,” says Fresh, tilting her head backwards again and looking at the upside down man. He stands there, several boss-cores in his hands. “You’ve been busy! Are you okay? Do you want something to eat?” she asks.

Shamrock shakes his head, setting the cores down on her lap. “Tribute.”

“Thanks, Shamrock!” beams Fresh, realizing that she’s completely neglected to use boss-cores again. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day for it. “You’re the best!”

“Do you ever get a little jealous too?” asks Basil to Jubilee.

“Yeah, nobody ever brings me tribute,” notes Jubilee, placing their head back into their hand.

“You got a flower just this morning from the fairies,” argues Basil.

“That doesn’t count,” sighs Jubilee. “Where did they even get that idea?” Fresh blinks, quickly averting her gaze to the outside of the balcony, as if she had no idea about who could have whispered such an idea to the fairies.

Razmatazz

These are my favorite kinds of chapters. Just fun SoL, with just a pinch of existential dread

Thank you kindly for reading!

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