When they got to Brunya City, the afternoon was as bright and sunny as Tess’ mood. Eager to see her father, they went straight to the Fighters Guild. “Hey Sam,” she said cheerfully as she passed through the main room.

“Hey Tess,” he returned with a smile. “Have fun?”

“Loads,” she said, not stopping. “But I’ll talk later. Dad in the training room?”

“Course.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as they entered the room and Falcon saw them, he dismissed his student and set his sword down. They had been gone from Kelstone for over five months, but to them it was only five days. Still, Tess ran into his arms and hugged him as if it had been the other way around.

He kissed her forehead before letting her go and grinned down at her. “So? How was it?”

“Awesome. I watched Xena.”

“You like it?”

She shrugged. “It was okay. But the flips were ridiculous.”

He chuckled. “It’s not real.”

“Oh! But then I saw Jackie Chan. He’s amazing! Oh and I played video games, I really loved that, and I went on bouncy castle things, that was fun. And showers are great, I get why mom misses them so much.”

Falcon shook his head. “You know Ayden, your blushes really give me too much information.”

His face turned even redder. “Sorry.”

Falcon smiled. “I missed you both.”

Tess hugged him again. “I missed you, too. Earth was great, but I’m happy to be home.” Remembering something, she let him go and pulled the photo of her grandmother out of her pants pocket. “I got something for you,” she said happily and handed it to him. She smiled widely at the look on his face. He actually got a bit misty-eyed.

After a moment of staring at it, he pulled her into another hug. “Thank you.”

When he let go, she nodded. “Thought you’d like having it.”

“Yes,” he agreed, smiling and having that look in his eyes, her favorite look, the one that said she was his girl. “So… did you get the orb back?”

“Yeah, but Ayden got shot when we were trying to get away.”

“With a gun?” Falcon asked, shocked.

Ayden nodded. “Yeah, got the scar to prove it,” he said and lifted the bottom of his t-shirt to show him.

“What happened?”

“Had to steal the orb and an alarm went off and then the guards came,” she told him. She frowned. “Sorry for the law breaking thing, but we had to.”

“I understand,” Falcon said easily.

She smiled. “So anyway, it was such a close call, because Ayd couldn’t heal himself there, but then Gabe got us back just in time.”

“How is he?” Falcon asked.

“Ask him yourself,” Tess said, pulling Ayden out of the way. Gabe stepped out into the doorway so that Falcon could see him.

“Gabe.” He grinned. “It’s about damn time.”

“That’s Lord Gabriel to you peasant,” Gabe told him in his best regal voice

Falcon smirked. “Bite me your lordship.”

Gabe smiled widely, walked forward and hugged Falcon for a long moment. “Such a trip,” he said as he stepped back.

“Tell me about it.”

“I still can’t believe you’ve been here all this time,” Gabe said. “And you’ve got a grown up daughter. She’s amazing by the way.”

“Thanks, I know,” Falcon said proudly.

“So, your friend’s pretty cool,” Tess told her father approvingly. “Says no a lot though. Actually Ayd was saying no a lot too,” she noted.

Ayden just smiled.

“Well if you weren’t such a child,” Gabe shot back with a smirk.

Falcon chuckled. “Thank you both for taking care of her,” he said, looking between his friend and Ayden.

“She’s fun,” Gabe said sincerely.

Falcon nodded. “Well, come on, there’s tons to show you,” he said eagerly.

“Wait, I didn’t tell you the best part,” Tess told him.

“What’s that?”

She glanced at Ayden. “You can tell him,” she offered.

He grinned. “After we got back, we were camping in Brunya Forest and we got attacked by an Ogre.”

Falcon looked between the two of them. “An ogre?” he asked skeptically.

“A real live ogre,” Tess said grinning as well. “It was huge, but Ayd and I took it down, of course.”

“It’s true,” Gabe said. “The whole thing was incredible. Scary as hell, but also awesome.”

“Epic,” Tess said.

“Wow,” Falcon murmured, shaking his head.

Tess nodded. “Ayd and I are gonna get Matt and go back. There might be more, and trust me, we don’t want those getting close to town. It was brutal.”

“Tempted to go myself,” Falcon said thoughtfully.

“It’d be so cool if you came with us!” Tess said excitedly.

He smiled. “I’ll see what I can do. And I’ll deal with reporting it to the monstrological department tomorrow. It’ll be the first documented ogre.”

“Monstrological department?” Gabe repeated with a snicker. “Where the monstrologists study monstrology?”

It took Falcon a moment to realize why that would be funny to Gabe. Finally, he smiled and nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay,” Gabe said, bemused.

Falcon led the way to the main room. “Sam, William will be in soon. Tell him something came up and I’ll see him next week instead. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“Yes sir,” Sam replied pleasantly.

“Captain of the guard.” Gabe grinned. “Pretty cool.”

Falcon laughed at Sam’s expression, while Tess took her father’s hand and they walked outside. “Your mother’s going to be thrilled by the way,” he told her, giving her hand a little squeeze. She realized it was the hand with the ring on it.

She grinned. “I know. And you’re happy too, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” he said, then asked Ayden, “How in the world did you get her to agree?”

Ayden smiled. “She asked me.” Before Falcon could look too shocked he added, “Of course I had to almost die first.”

Tess shoved him. “Shut up, that’s not why.”

He smiled and raised a challenging brow.

“That just made me realize why,” she said much quieter.

“Oh,” Falcon said, suddenly remembering something and letting his daughter go to put a hand on Ayden’s shoulder. “Your father became very ill last week. Sera heard about it and came up to take care of him personally. She has him at home, but he’s on bed rest.”

“Thanks,” Ayden said, looking worried. “I’m gonna go.”

“Should I…?” Tess started.

“No, it’s fine.” He kissed her quickly before he took off across the town square to the forge.

“So, are you going to actually wear a dress?” Falcon asked her. “I don’t think you’ve worn one since you were about three.”

She turned so he could see her rolling her eyes. “I hate dresses.” She sighed. “But Ayd wants it… I said maybe.”

He chuckled. “Once you tell your mom I think you’ll have to.”

“What’s her problem now?” Sera teased as she walked up.

“Doesn’t want to wear a dress for her own wedding,” Falcon told her.

“I said maybe,” Tess repeated.

“Married?” Sera asked, beaming at her cousin.

Tess nodded and held up her hand so Sera could look at the ring.

“I’ve seen it.”

“What?” Tess said incredulously. “I didn’t until just before we left. When did you see it?”

She thought about it for a moment. “We were about eleven I think.” She giggled at Tess’ face. “Stop. You know you didn’t want to hear about him wanting to marry you at that time.”

“Yeah, well…” She just frowned since she had no actual argument.

Sera grinned and hugged her, then gasped softly.

“What’s wrong?” Tess asked.

Sera pulled back and smiled. “Aside from your crushing hug, nothing.” Tess frowned while Sera turned to study the newcomer for a moment. “You must be Gabe.”

Falcon chuckled at his expression. “This is Sera. She’s a healing cleric, she has the divine gift of empathy so she can feel people’s emotions.”

“And it’s not hard to put the feelings with the stories,” Sera added.

“Stories, huh?” Gabe said.

Falcon nodded and kept a straight face. “Yeah, made sure to tell them all the horrible things about you.”

“Uh huh.” Gabe smirked. “So horrible that you missed me?”

Falcon looked at his daughter. “What’d you tell him that for? His head’s big enough as it is,” he said, smirking as well.

Sera laughed softly at them. “Well Gabe, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

He was about to speak but Tess suddenly gasped. Everyone turned to see Matt walking toward them with a slight limp and looking battered. “I’m fine,” he told his worried wife.

When he reached her, she held his face in her hands. Everything healed though the dried blood remained. “What happened? You said you were just going after an easy troll.”

“I did,” he told her. “But then I got ambushed by a group of assholes on the way here.”

“Who?”

“Malluk’s men.”

Sera looked outraged. “It’s been more than a year! Can’t they just leave you alone already?”

“I destroyed Kieran, Angel. I couldn’t have done worse than that. They practically worshiped her. And one thing they’re good at is holding a grudge.”

“All this trouble just to save one silly girl,” Tess said.

Finally noticing her, Matt grinned and pulled her into a hug. “She’s worth it,” he told her and she beamed at him when he let her go. “So, how was that other world?”

“Great,” she said. “I saw this fighter that was awesome and I gotta show you some moves.”

Sera stepped closer and took Matt’s hand. “That can wait. Let him rest for a while after what happened.”

Tess and Matt both spoke at the same time:

“I’m fine.” 

“He’s fine.” 

They smiled at each other.

Sera shook her head at them. “Well, have you been to the orphanage yet?”

“No,” Tess answered. “Mom’s probably going nuts, huh? I should go see her now. I’ll have to kick your ass in a little while,” she told Matt. “Oh, and I have to tell you about the ogre.”

“A real one?” he asked, looking hopeful.

“Very real and now very dead. But don’t worry, we’re gonna go see if we can find more and you have to come.”

“Damn right I’m coming,” he said with a grin.

She gave her father one last hug before running northwest. She jumped up onto a fence, then onto a roof and then flipped down onto something lower and disappeared from sight.

“She’s a bit of a show off,” Falcon told Gabe.

Gabe laughed. “I’ve noticed. She’s also a daddy’s girl and spoiled rotten.”

Matt laughed. “That’s an understatement.” he said, smiling fondly after her.

Sera smiled at her uncle. “She has good cause to be a daddy’s girl, her father’s amazing.”

While Matt rolled his eyes, Falcon winked at her, and Gabe chuckled.

“Oh, Matt,” Sera said, “this is Falcon’s friend, Gabe, from Earth.”

Matt gave him a nod. “Hey.”

Gabe returned the gesture.

“So, what happened to the men?” Falcon wanted to know.

Matt gave a nonchalant shrug. “Four dead, two got away.”

“Going to go after them?”

“No, I think I got the message across. And it’s nice to leave survivors sometimes. They always exaggerate the story. It should keep them off my back for a little while.”

Falcon nodded. “Where was it?”

“Couple miles north of town, up past Whitmore Farm.”

“Okay,” Falcon said. “Tell Sam. Have him send some men and write a report.”

“Sure,” Matt said easily.

“He works for the Fighters Guild,” Falcon told Gabe when he looked confused.

“Oh yeah, mercenary, right?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah,” Matt told him.

“Shouldn’t people who work for you call you sir or something?” Gabe said, still finding it amusing that his friend was the captain.

“Technically he works for Captain Jord in Chendal,” Falcon answered. “But regardless, Matt has an issue with titles.”

“It’s more an issue with authority,” Matt said with a shrug.

“And yet your work for the guard,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, but I’m just getting paid for doing what I’d be doing anyway.”

Falcon smiled. “As long as he gets to kill something, he’s happy.”

“Not true,” Matt disagreed, then smirked. “I’m quite content with just pummeling.”

Falcon chuckled. “Well, we’ll see you two later,” he told them, then clapped a hand on Gabe’s shoulder. “We’ve got some catching up to do.”

“You’re going to have to tell me how it went from him trying to kill your daughter to everyone being friends,” Gabe told Falcon as they walked away.

“Long story,” Falcon said.

“So Tess said. But I’ve got plenty of time,” Gabe pointed out. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good,” Falcon told him, smiling.

“Ayden should just write it down,” Matt commented. “Then people could read the story and save the telling.”

“It’s not exactly something Ayden likes remembering,” Sera reminded him.

Matt just shrugged.

“Well, I have to go check on Ayden’s father,” Sera told him. “So I’ll see you at the house in a little while.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, no fighting with Tess right now, please,” she said seriously.

“Why not?”

“We’ll talk later, just don’t, okay?”

“Sure,” he agreed and kissed her before heading into the Fighters Guild.

Ayden wasn’t ever allowed in his father’s bedroom, so he stood in the doorway, watching Jarden sleep. It was a strange sight to see such a tough burly man lying in bed, looking weak and pale.

“He’s back and he’s getting married,” Sera said happily as she came up behind him. He turned and she hugged him tightly.

When she let go, he looked back at his father. “What’s wrong with him?”

“It was a problem with his heart,” she said. “Unfortunately he didn’t get treated for several days. He needs some rest and care, but he’ll be okay.”

“You can’t just heal him?” Ayden asked.

“It’s not so easy when the damage is internal, especially when its natural causes,” she told him, “And generally speaking, damage inside the chest or head is always more difficult to fix or help. But unusually it just takes a bit of time. And rest is important; the body does a lot of healing on its own.” She watched his face as he looked at Jarden. “He’ll be okay,” she repeated.

“What can I do?” he asked quietly.

“Just basic care until he recovers,” she answered. “And I’ll be in town until then. I come a couple times a day to check on him, and do what I can to help him along.” She looked at the older man and sighed. “He’s a bit ornery though and I’ve had to knock him out a few times. He needs to relax but he doesn’t like that idea.”

“You’re okay though, right?” he asked worriedly.

She smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. The fact that I look so delicate helps me,” she told him. “People, even people like him, rarely try to be mean to me.”

He nodded. “Thanks for coming up to take care of him.”

She gave his hand a squeeze. “You’re welcome,” she said, then walked past him, into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Ayden stayed where he was and watched as she touched Jarden’s cheek. She chanted something softly under her breath and he woke up. “Hello.” She smiled gently at him. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like I wanna damn drink,” he grouched weakly.

“No alcohol, remember?” she said. “Not until you’re well again. But there’s some water here if you’re thirsty.” She motioned to the glass on the bedside table.

He gave her a disgusted look and then noticed his son in the doorway. “What’s he doing here?”

“He just got back and heard you were ill, so he came to see you,” she said in her usual soft, pleasant tone.

Jarden just made a humph sound.

“Can I get anything for you?” Ayden asked.

“Yeah, cook something. I could eat a damn horse,” his father answered gruffly.

Ayden nodded and left.

Sera patted Jarden’s hand. “Ayden’s going to take care of you now. But I’ll come to check on you again tomorrow. And don’t be difficult for him either; you need to stay in bed and rest,” she ordered firmly.

He grumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

She just smiled as she got up and left the room, closing the door behind her. She found Ayden in the small kitchen, sighing at the mess. “You shouldn’t feel guilty,” she told him softly. “He’s okay on his own. Really, he is. And you being here wouldn’t have stopped this from happening. It’s not your fault.”

He kept his gaze on his task as he started cleaning up. “Are you gonna see Tess?”

“Yes.”

“Will you let her know I’ll be back late please?”

“Of course.” She put a hand on his arm, getting him to stop for a moment so she could give him a light kiss. “You’re such a good person, Ayden,” she told him, touching his cheek. “He’s lucky to have you.”

He just nodded.