Chapter 100: Book 2 Epilogue

Author's note: A huge thank you to everyone who's been with us for the DWBS journey. It's far from over, but we're overheating after non-stop updates for the past 60 days and then some.

We'll be taking our first break since starting the book. We'll be back either late this week or early next week with DWBS B3. In the meantime, Royalroad releases will continue and when we come back, we'll do our best to replenish the lost backlog for you guys.

Thank you once again. We've really enjoyed writing for you guys. And as always, keep calm and drink boba.

-- 

“And that’s it for tea? I’ll take anything you have. Literally anything,” Arthur said.

“No he won’t,” Lily said. “He’s out of room on the wagon. Rare things only. Seeds especially.”

“We don’t usually sell the seeds,” the tea peddler said. “Protects the business, you know.”

“He’s going to the frontier. A new annexed settlement. He’s no competition.” Lily tried to lean over the counter confidently, found she wasn’t tall enough, and switched tactics by putting her chin on the countertop and offering the shopkeeper her big, cute eyes. “And I love tea. Please?”

“Ugh. Fine, I’ll get you some seeds.” The shopkeeper walked back towards his storehouse. “She’s a dangerous little kid, isn’t she?”

“Deadly,” Arthur said. “That’s why I’m taking her with me. For protection.”

“I think that’s all the shops in town, Arthur.” Lily looked at her notepad. “Yup, that’s it. If you want more seeds, you’re going to have to raid farms.”

“This should be plenty. We don’t even know what will grow there yet,” Arthur said.

“That’s why you need plenty. Once we’re out there, you need to find and test local plants to make up for what won’t grow there. I have a schedule all worked out in my head,” Lily claimed.

“And you still don’t have an assistant skill yet? This is all freehand?”

“So far, yes.”

“You’re going to be an unstoppable force.”

“Thanks.”

The shopkeeper came back with Arthur’s seeds, accepted his payment, and wished Arthur and Lily well on their new adventure.

Their next stop was the preserver. It turned out they were too late.

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Arthur’s preserver said. “I’m mostly out of goods because the government bought it to send to you already. You’ll have your share of stuff. An assortment of goods from every preserver in a dozen cities.”

“Maybe. But you are the best,” Arthur said.

“Ha! Hardly, Arthur. But I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“You’re staying here? In the city? We could use you out there.”

She sighed, looking forlornly at her empty shelves.

“Maybe soon. For now, the government has requested we all stay for a while, to restock the cities. It takes a lot out of all the cities, equipping a whole generation to go out and build new civilization. And what about you? Where are you headed to?”

Lily took the fifth available opportunity that day to bring out the map, enthusiastically describing the many wonders of a place she herself had not yet seen. Arthur was pretty sure they had poached at least a few talented individuals that way that afternoon. A cute owl child was, he had learned, a powerful weapon. Lily was tremendously useful for a very diverse set of situations.

Anywhere they could, they bought last-minute goods for travel and had them sent down to the gates until Lily finally called an end to the stalling and declared their wagon full. With that task accomplished, it was finally time for the sad part.

“It’s fine, Arthur. Just unlock the door,” Lily said.

Arthur took a deep breath and turned the key. The store was already picked clean for the most part. The furniture would stay, a gift for the next person to claim the building. Most of the equipment was gone, besides the mundane items where it was easier just to have Rhodia build for him again on the other end of the trip. Most of his machinery was too big or too heavy to move with him, but that was what Milo was for.

“There’s nothing left, Arthur. You have it all. Why are we back here?”

“I don’t know. It’s just… I barely got started here, you know? I thought I’d be in this store for the rest of my life. And instead it was months.”

“You’re sad?” Lily sidled up to him, pulling his legs into a warm owl-hug from the side.

“A little. Mostly just thankful,” Arthur said. “You know what I did for a living back on Earth?”

“No idea.”

“Me either. I have a lot of happy memories from Earth. Those are what I kept the most of, you know. Happy moments. Things that a person would want to remember. All I remember of my actual work on Earth are a handful of fun moments on people’s birthdays, or jokes people told in the break room. That’s it. The rest of it just went woosh with the rest of the bad.”

“And then you came here.”

“And then I came here. To this city, where everyone treats everyone really well, and suddenly, I had work, and a shop. And I think if I went to another world under the same conditions, I’d remember every moment of it. Every single moment.”

Lily hugged him tighter. “You deserve it.”

“I’m not sure. But that’s why I’m so thankful. I didn’t save any lives. I didn’t invent any new medicine. I just… got to come here. And that’s okay. That took me a long time to realize. It’s okay when good things happen, even if you didn’t earn them. Do you know what I mean?”

“Of course I know. You are that, for me.”

Arthur’s eyes got wet. He moved back towards the door.

“Anyway, I really came back here for this.” He reached above the door frame outside the shop, gently and reverently pulling down the most valuable treasure left in the place.

It was a large piece of dark hardwood with a poorly carved cup of boba on it. The cup was right up to the rim of the wood plank and it was hard to recognize the carving if Arthur didn’t know what it should have been. The boba pearls, however, they looked fantastic.

“Arthur. That’s garbage,” Lily said. “I made that in like five minutes. It’s terrible. Even you could do better.”

“Shush. I love this sign, Lily. I’m keeping it forever. It’s great.” He wrapped the sign in some paper from behind the counter, careful to cover every inch of it. “Whenever we get a new shop, this is the first thing I do is putting this up.”

“Fine. Be dumb.” Lily didn’t blush. He wasn’t sure if she even could. But he knew her well enough that he could see the embarrassment in her feathers as she ran off. “Come on, Arthur. It’s time to go. We’ll miss the gate opening if we don’t.”

Arthur watched her run off, then turned back towards the shop. He looked through the door at the mural, taking in the sight of a giant pink golem meant to represent him, towering over various demons walking and living in the center of the place he loved. He loved this city more than anything he had ever known. He was grateful for the city. It had taught him that it was okay to be loved and that life wasn’t always going to throw curveballs at him. And in return, he had tried his best to live up to the people around him.

It’s okay. Arthur closed the door, locked it, and left the keys on the windowsill for the mayor to pick up. The next place, we’ll do our best to capture the magic I found here.

—

“Littal!” Arthur was getting assaulted by a very excited, very large goat monster who seemed intent on licking his face off. “Talca, are you really our driver? How did that happen?”

“Your daughter threatened me,” Talca said. Nobody corrected the daughter bit. “She said you liked me. Imagine that.”

“I do like you, for the record. You are a very good transporter and as far as I know, you bathe at least once a week.”

“It depends on the temperature of the rivers actually. But I’m glad to see you too. Lily commandeered a slower wagon to bring the bulk of your gear along. This is the express wagon to the farthest corners of the world, reserved for just you, her, and your three friends.”

“Three?”

“Milo, Rhodia, and Mizu. I wanted to get Spiky, too, but the breakfast champion said he needed to stay with his books. Something about preserving the bindings.”

“Sounds like him.”

Arthur checked the gear as Talca filled him in on the travel plans. From what he had learned from Minos, Talca thought he could bring them within about a day’s walk of their new home.

“The last part of the journey is unpaved. There’ll be roads cut soon enough, and your goods have been making that trip with backpacker classes for the last few weeks. So there’s a trail to use. Most of what you need is already there, and I’ll bring anything else once there’s a road I can use.”

“Really? You work that far out?”

“These days I do. I got a tap on my shoulder, Arthur. You’re looking at the government-selected official transporter for a group of six towns. And yours is right in the center.”

Within the next half hour, everything was set. All of Arthur and Lily’s luggage was checked and rechecked by a very worried Ella, who finally got her last goodbye hugs in before Minos dragged her away from the wagon. She’d be leaving herself, soon, to a town close enough to visit them with cookies from time to time, but far enough away to make sure the new town’s toes remained safely unstepped on.

And then, with all goodbyes said and the sun rising high in the sky, the gates opened. The city cheered as the wagons, carts, and coaches lurched into motion towards the edge of civilization.

—

Littal made incredible time. Pulling his new juiced up wagon, he was impossible. Things flew by outside the wagon like Arthur was watching a motion picture. It was a few days before they passed the last frontier town, and a few more before they finally hit terrain Littal couldn’t handle with a wagon strapped to his back. The rest of the way in would be on foot, with heavy packs.

Talca hadn’t been lying. He got them as close as he could. It took the better part of a day, a night’s camping, and an early pre-dawn morning before they got there, but it was amazing that he had even got them that far.

Dawn broke just as they hit the top of the last hill between them and their new home. It was the peninsula that Minos had found, the one that slowed him down so much. The spot they chose was a wide, green valley bounded on two sides by high cliffs, with a ribbon of blue running through the center.

“I didn’t believe him, but look. A monster wave would have to be aimed directly at this town to hit it. It’s walled in naturally. How can that even happen? If it were all rock, I could understand.” Milo gawked at it. “We can just wall in the front, and we’ll be safe. It doesn’t even seem possible.”

“It’s the river. It cut the rock. Who knows how long it took, but it cut the rock and brought in the soil. It built this place,” Arthur said.

“It can do that?”

“It’s water,” Arthur said, standing tall next to the others. “It can do almost anything.”

“Yes,” Mizu said. “I like that.”

“We can be down there in about an hour,” Arthur estimated. “Rhodia, you start looking for clay while Milo and I scavenge for food and find where they’ve been dropping our supplies. Mizu, I’m assuming you can handle making sure the water is safe?”

“Of course.”

“Good. And Lily, just help out where you can. Work on getting that skill. But be careful, okay?”

“Okay,” Lily said. “How long do you think we have until the others arrive?”

“Nobody is faster than Talca and Littal. A day at least for the first group behind us. Maybe more,” Arthur said. “I want to have hot food waiting for them by then. Shelter, if we can get some up.”

“Look at Mister Leader, over here,” Rhodia said. “I’m actually inspired.”

“Yeah,” Milo said. “It’s a good look on you, Arthur. I’m not even joking.”

“We’ll see how long I can keep it going. I have to stop to make tea eventually.” Arthur shrugged his pack up a bit higher on his shoulders and started down the hill to the river-cut valley. “Come on, everyone. Let’s go home.”