Count Your Lucky Stars (long story)

CHAPTER 1

Fritz is not the type of dragon to go out in public. It's a bit odd to see him entering the deep woods where an online acquaintance of his lives.

The two gachagons stumbled through Northwoods from a subway to get to what Fritz's acquaintance called "The Destination". Only their silhouettes could be seen in the dark of the woods, despite it being barely noon. Fritz's papery fur, reminiscent of a piñata, rustled from a cool spring breeze. His chocolate sprinkle quills were erect; he felt as if he could see the entirely of Northwoods.

"Are you ready for The Destination?" Fritz's acquaintance smirked. She was a little taller than Fritz, with a short coat of fur covered in faintly-glowing spot markings. Some star-shaped chewlery dangled from her mouth.

"Y-yeah!" Fritz stammered. "I think I am?"

The fur on his tail puffed up a bit. His acquaintance paused for a moment.

"Hey Fritz," she took out the chewlery to talk. "You don't have to take part in The Destination if you don't want to. I know you aren't much a people-person."

"It's fine Luna," Fritz chuckled a bit. "Just my nerves acting up again."

"You sure?" Luna tilted her head a little.

"Yeah I'm sure." Fritz nodded. His fur settled down a bit, though it kept wildly rustling from the wind. The faint sound of cheering echoed throughout Northwoods.

"Aight," Luna gnawed on her chewlery again. "If you ever feel uncomfortable, let me know. I wanna make The Destination as fun for you as possible!"

The echoing cheers from before were more distinct now, taking on the form of chanting.

"Oh, we're getting close!" Luna cheered, a tinge of both surprise and glee in her voice. Her little wings fluttered eagerly as she and Fritz bounced down to The Destination.

CHAPTER 2

"Here we are!" Luna excitedly yelled, pointing at a dart tossing stand made from a hollowed-out tree trunk.

There were easily at least 50 Keep citizens of all kinds surrounding the stand, from rowdy gacha dragons to bitlings going absolutely feral. There appeared to be different creatures going up to the stand every time a new game played. At one point, a small gachagon covered in candle wax was on the stand, throwing darts caked in wax with surprisingly good aim.

And the noise. It was damn near deafening.

"Oh Christ," Luna laughed nervously. "S'lot of creatures here today..."

"I'll be okay, Luna!" Fritz assured the other gachagon.

A bitling covered in mushrooms launched a dart; the crowd went nuts in response. The cacaphony assailed Fritz's eardrums.

"I think." he said to himself.

Luna and Fritz walked up a bit closer to the stand to see the commotion up close. Suddenly, a voice popped out from within the crowd:

"LUNA!!!"

A rather alien-like dragon sprinted out the crowd to see Luna. It sprouted two sets of ears and star-topped antennae, as well as starry eyes. It appeared rather fidgety and was fiddling with a toy shaped like a ringed planet.

"BAGI!!!" Luna giddily shouted, and fistbumped Bagi.

"Oh hey, ya got a friend!" Bagi turned to Fritz, whose fur puffed up a bit; he nonetheless retained a smile. "Did ya know that the planet Saturn spins super duper fast on its axis--"

Bagi twirled its arms around in a circle for emphasis.

"--that days on there are like ten hours and fourteen minutes?"

"O-oh," Fritz remained a bit startled by the other dragon. "No, I didn't know that."

"Saturn is such a fun planet," Bagi cooed while hugging its toy. "I can't wait to go there someday with my silly lil toy-- oh wait, I never introduced myself! Apologies! Mayhaps my social skills are quite like this lil toy!" Both Bagi and Fritz chuckled at the toy remark.

"Well, I'm Fritz," Fritz said, stretching out his hand to appear more professional.

"And I'm Bagi!" the other gachagon shook Fritz's hand a bit too vigorously. "I love space so much! I love telling the folks about space too -- it's like I'm a funky lil space tourist!"

"It's been a while since we last spoke," Luna said to Bagi, while fiddling with her chewlery. "How've you been?"

She then turned to Fritz and added, "We like to talk about space a lot. I think you'll get a liking for Bagi!"

"Pretty usual," Bagi shrugged. "Just been in the treehouse, still tryna fix that space jetpack, a lil baking. Usual!"

"Ah, fun!" Luna gave it a thumbs up. "You excited for dart throw?"

"100 percent!" Bagi cheered and shook its toy around.

The trio of dragons moved up even closer into the screaming crowd. They could now see the dart throwers up close. The current dart thrower was a rainbow-colored gachagon with white tiger stripes across the body. Her excessive necklaces, bracelets, and jewelry jinged with every throw. Suddenly, the crowd went into a frenzy, and the dart thrower threw her arms into the air in celebration.

"I haven't been this excited for stuff since Perseverance!" Bagi remarked. "Humanfolk are so fun with their love of space and their cool lil rovers."

"Yeah!" Luna cheered and Fritz stammered.

Now that the group was a bit closer to the stand, they could see a figure in the treetops observing the chaos. It locked eyes on the group, and bounced its way down towards them. Up close, the figure was even shorter than Fritz, with green lines striking out from his dark mane. His face, ears, hands, and lower body were covered in off-white splotches, and his eyes were pink and yellow colors. He appeared very professional, with his hands on his hips.

"H-hi!" Fritz sputtered out.

"Hello!" the shorter gachagon nodded. "The name's Taxes. Wonderful day for some dart toss, innit?"

"Yeah yeah!!!" Luna and Fritz shouted.

"Well, you're in the right place for that obviously!" Taxes nodded. "Figured I'd find a way to make some cash after the divorce, ya know? So I made this awesome dart toss game."

He gave Bagi a dart unprompted. It stared at it and said with a grin, "This looks like a rocket!"

"So, this game works just like normal dart toss," Taxes explained. "But I specifically chose this spot because no one can see the targets from where they're shooting. Tis all an empty void from here! And one of the targets -- which you obviously can't see -- is a golden target. And if you hit that target, you can walk away with some cool prizes!"

"Ooh," Bagi stared at the dart. "What prizes?"

"It'll be a surprise till you get it!" Taxes smirked mischievously.

Bagi looked a bit confused, its eyes still fixated on its dart. Then, it launched the dart into the abyss of the stand.

CHAPTER 3

Excitement from the crowd commenced from Bagi's shot.

"OOH OOH OOOOOHH!" Bagi bounced around, the serotonin from the crowd flooding its mind. "What do I get?"

Taxes ran behind the stand for a moment, and hauled in an green alien plushy. Bagi squealed at the sight of it.

Fritz simply looked confused. His fur was still puffed up from the noise.

"Sir, what happened?" Fritz asked the smaller gachagon. "Like, what is the meaning of this game if you can't see the target?"

"It's all luck-based, my guy!" Taxes proclaimed. "Tis exactly the point that you can't see the board! I thought it'd be a fun way to celebrate Four Leaf Clover Season to throw in a bit of luck, ya know?"

Bagi hugged its alien plushy, waggling the limbs and stroking the green peach fuzz fabric as if it were a gachapanion.

"THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!" Bagi babbled in joy to Taxes. "This is like blue sunsets on Mars cool!"

"Yeah cool," Taxes folded his arms. "Hope ya like the free shot. It'll cost ya guys 25 crayons for more throws."

"Oh," Luna's stomach dropped. "I didn't think there'd be a charge."

She looked despairingly at the other dragons.

"I'm sorry guys..." She then held her head to the ground, her chewlery dangling from her mouth.

"You're cool Luna," Bagi consolded the other gachagon. "I got this alien outta it too! We could always just--"

Another figure appeared out of what was pretty much nowhere and waved. They were quite a bit taller than the other dragons, with six large wings adorning their back. When Luna turned around to see the figure closer, she saw their large candy cane-shaped horns covered in bluebells; she looked closer and saw bluebells covering their neck and back legs also. But most startling about their appearance was their four eyes, which despite usually being unnerving were giving off comforting vibes on this dragon.

"Hi there," Luna waved back to the figure a bit anxiously. "What brings you over here?"

"I'd be more than willing to pay for a few games for you folks!" The figure responded. "By the way, the name's Fortuna. I came to see the family take a crack at the darts, and it's been really wonderful so far!"

"Oh my goodness," Luna gasped quietly. "I mean, you don't have to--"

"I don't mind at all," Fortuna gently butted in. "The last thing I'd want is for a group of folks to not shoot some darts."

Bagi squealed again, Fritz's fur wasn't all puffed up anymore, and Luna gave the taller dragon a bear hug.

"Thank you so much!" Luna was seconds away from waterworks. "You're the best!"

"Wait a sec," Fritz added. "How'd you even know about us?"

"Oh, it was just being in the right place at the right time," Fortuna chuckled. "You ever have your brain tune into a conversation and all you hear is some wacky or morbid sentence without context? That's pretty much what happened."

The dragons returned in a line formation to where Taxes was, with Fortuna in front.

"For the folks behind me." Fortuna tapped on Taxes's shoulder and handed him 225 crayons.

"I though it was only 25 a person?" Fritz asked Fortuna.

"Did the guy never tell you about Roulette Mode?" Fortuna turned her head to focus on Fritz. "Pretty much you pay a fixed price to shoot till you hit the golden target, instead of wasting your crayons paying per shot. If you're interested in that, of course!"

"Yeah," Fritz thought for a moment and then said. "That's fine with me! You guys wanna do Roulette Mode?" He turned his head to the other dragons, who eagerly nodded. He then gave Fortuna the thumbs up for Roulette Mode.

"Roulette Mode it is!" Taxes added proudly.

CHAPTER 4

The crowd remained frenzied as Taxes led Luna, Fritz, and Bagi to the stand. Each dragon was given a dart, which lay on a wooden deck. Fortuna was off to the side with their family, grinning and nodding every so often to the group.

"Isn't this something!" Taxes declared. "Four-gacha Roulette!"

"Four?" Fritz asked to himself, appearing rather exasperated. Then, he looked to his left.

A chipper green figure leaped onto the chair next to Fritz with great furor. They looked like the offspring of a leprechaun and a dragon, with a large tail with an even larger clover-shaped end. Clover markings covered their body in addition to their right cheek light and a metal clover on the right side of their pouch lining, but the left light and pouch lining were purple horseshoes. Their tail swished around, and Fritz could see cereal marshmallows lining the top of it. The rainbow glitter surrounding them was nearly overwhelming.

"'Ello!" the green dragon said with a subtle accent. "I'm the fourth one here! Name's O'Hare. Nice to meet ya!"

Fritz just waved nervously.

"Aight," Taxes yelled out, this time holding a giant megaphone. "Since there's four gachas up here who payed for Roulette Mode, here's how we're gonna do things. We'll have everyone go one at a time, throwing darts, until someone hits the golden target! And whoever hits the golden target will get a really special prize! A surprise prize though, of course! Or perhaps: a sur-prize!"

Taxes's quip got a laugh out of the crowd. The little dragon then turned to the dart throwers again.

"We'll throw from left to right!" Taxes shouted, turning to Luna. "We'll start with this lass over here!"

All eyes turned to Luna.

She focused towards the middle of the dark space ahead of her. Then, she threw the dart. A dull thud echoed through the void. The crowd groaned disappointedly.

"Oh, a miss!" Taxes proclaimed. "Not even close!"

Luna shrugged and turned to Bagi, who was on her right. It examined the dart a bit more, and toyed with it.

"Blastoff!" Bagi yelled at it launched the dart into the empty space ahead. Another dull this. But this time, the crowd reacted more excitedly. A blue light eminated from where Bagi threw its dart.

"You hit a target!" Taxes said joyfully. "But not the golden target!"

"Damn!" Bagi lightly banged on the table, though it was still in good spirits. "I was hoping to hit Alpha Centauri!"

Taxes just stared blankly.

"It likes talking about space a lot." Luna gave Taxes a little context about the other dragon's spacey vernacular.

"Oh," Taxes simply said. "Anyway, O'Hare! You ready!"

"Of course, chap!" O'Hare said proudly. "I just know I'm gonna hit!"

O'Hare took no time to analyze the far-away targets unlike Luna and Bagi. Instead, they threw the dart like a pole vault. A slightly stronger thud and a red glow appeared. The crowd was going nuts now.

"We're getting closer!" Taxes was grinning from ear to ear, his cheek lights blinking like strobes. "A ruby target! But it's still not the golden target!"

O'Hare sat back in their stool, their arms folded and their tail still swishing.

Fritz just stared at the void, not touching his dart at all. The entirety of the crowd was fixated on him now. His fur was particularly puffed up, as if he were a piñata pufferfish.

"Are you ready to go Fritz?" Taxes scurried over to his stool.

Fritz weakly clamped the end of the dart with his trembling hands. He looked back at the crowd and dropped the dart.

"I can't do this!" Fritz cried out, and leaped off the stool. In what felt like seconds, he was far away from the stand. Fortuna, looking concerned, followed him. The crowd was almost entirely silent, save for a few gasps of surprise. Fritz hugged Fortuna tight, bawling his eyes out and panicking.

"Oh," Taxes said quietly. "Well, that happened. Do you guys think he'll be back?" He turned to the other dart throwers.

"Maybe if that taller gacha convinces him to," Luna responded. "They seemed really cool. I hope Fritz comes back!"

"I hope so as well!" Taxes added, then turned to Bagi and O'Hare. "You guys feel okay to keep going?"

O'Hare nodded immediately. Bagi took a moment, fiddling with its alien plushy, then weakly nodded.

"You sure?" Taxes looked specifically at Bagi now.

"He'll come back," Bagi said. "I know so."

"Alright!" Taxes shrugged. "I suppose we'll keep going with a temporary three-gacha Roulette!"

He turned back to Luna.

"You're free to go whenever you're ready."

CHAPTER 5

The atmosphere was a lot more tense with Fritz's panicked exit. Even Luna and Bagi, who would normally fidget with toys and the likes, were statues.

Luna once again observed the board. All of the glows from the previous round were gone now. She threw a dart far from where she did last time, and this time the audience cheered. A blue glow appeared.

"Hey, we hit something this time!" Taxes said.

"Yeah..." Luna smiled, but rather weakly. She turned to Bagi.

"How d'ya know that Fritz will come back?" Luna asked earnestly. "All those gachas and bits and stuff staring, all the noise, all the tension -- I really don't know if he's coming back."

Bagi stared for a second, collecting its thoughts.

"Apollo 13 was a disaster and it still got back to Earth!" Bagi finally said. "I don't usually pay attention to rockets and stuff -- stars and planets are more my fancy -- but there's just something about the humanfolk having all those crazy issues and malfunctions with the ship and not dying from it all. It just took a lil bit of guidance from the humanfolk on Earth and a ton of teamwork to get 'em back down."

"I'm not sure what Apollo 13 has to do with a panic attack." Luna said bluntly.

"Ok, hold on a sec," Bagi said, then took another minute to think. "Hadda collect my thoughts; speech is hard. So, think of Fritz as Apollo 13, and the crowd as the malfunctions, and Fortuna as the humanfolk on Earth. I think Fortuna is gonna help out Fritz and calm him down a bit like the Earth humanfolk and the Apollo humanfolk. Then he'll come back here feeling a little better and ready to keep going!"

Bagi grinned and threw its dart without even looking. The crowd went bonkers as a red glow developed on the board.

"Very lucky shot!" Taxes yelled out. "It didn't even look up!"

"I guess we'll have to play it by ear." Luna waited for the noise to subside. "I just hope he's okay."

The two dragons turned to O'Hare, who once again launched their dart without hesitation. Another red light. Another wave of excitement.

"Another ruby target!" Taxes said. "But not a gold one!"

A few more rounds played out with Luna, Bagi, and O'Hare going for the golden target. Constant blue and red glows appeared from the abyss. But no yellow.

The game had transformed into dart throw purgatory. It was neverending failure and chaos for everyone.

CHAPTER 6

Fritz was watching the chaos unfold from the back of the crowd. He was still close to Fortuna, though not necessarily panicking like he was before.

"You feeling okay?" Fortuna looked down to the smaller dragon.

"I mean," Fritz hesitated. "Not really. But I'm better than before."

The two dragons maintained silence for a bit as the far-away dart throw board glowed red and blue. Fritz leaned towards the board more as time passed, but he would always stumble back towards Fortuna, his fur puffed up.

"What's got you so freaked out?" Fortuna asked. Fritz looked up, but didn't respond for a while.

"I-I'm just scared," Fritz finally stammered out. "I'm scared that I'll get laughed out of the forest if I miss. And it's so loud and crazy over there."

"You mind if I give you a bit of advice?" Fortuna gestured for Fritz to follow them, and Fritz nodded. The taller gachagon led him towards a tree far from the crowd.

"So," Fortuna started. "You know how you're scared that you'll get laughed out of the game if you miss a target? I have that issue sometimes, where I assume everyone dislikes me. Maybe you could try to assure yourself that everyone likes you, instead of everyone disliking you."

"I-I don't know how to do that." Fritz said feebly.

"Let's try a breathing exercise," Fortuna suggested. "If you're okay with that, obviously."

"Yeah sure." Fritz nodded weakly.

"Alrighty," Fortuna said. "What we're gonna do is that we're gonna breathe in for a few seconds, hold it in, and then say something self-affirming when we breathe out. Let's start. Breathe in."

Fritz breathed in and held it.

"You are loved." Fortuna breathed out. Fritz repeated, saying "I a-am loved."

"Again. Breathe in."

All of Fritz's concentration was on his breathing.

"I am loved."

The two dragons repeated again.

"I can do this."

And once more.

"I am enough."

Fritz smiled as he continued.

"I can do this."

"I am enough."

"I can do this."

He then turned to Fortuna.

"I can do this!" Fritz grinned. "I can do this!"

"You can do this!" Fortuna opened their arms up as if to hug Fritz. He reciprocated.

After finishing the hug with Fortuna, Fritz said once again, "I'm gonna do this!"

Fortuna watched in bliss as the smaller dragon sprinted through the crowd back to the game.

CHAPTER 7

The dart throwing game was still purgatory. Not a golden target to be seen. In fact, not even a ruby target. Bagi looked back to see the crowd. The dragons were still chanting and cheering despite the lack of lucky throws. Bitlings were still eagerly barking and behaving like they were pumped up with caffeine and serotonin. A blurry figure was beelining through the crowd towards it and the other dart throwers.

"FRITZ!!!" Bagi threw its arms into the air in celebration, its tail wagging happily.

"Fritz!?" Luna jerked her head to the crowd. Fritz indeed sprinted through the crowd and waved to them both. "Oh my God!? I didn't think you'd come back!"

"I'm here!" Fritz said eagerly.

"'Ello again!" O'Hare applauded. "Nice to have ya back! I hope ya're alright too!"

Fritz just nodded and sat back in his old seat on the end. Taxes, who was running laps across the station, almost fell over from the shock of seeing Fritz back.

"Come back?" Taxes tilted his head. Once again, Fritz nodded.

"I-I can do this!" Fritz then added.

• • •

In the back of the crowd, Fortuna looked onward at Fritz coming back to the game. Now, they were holding onto a black cat gachapanion, who was purring and swishing its tail. They stroked its head, the three pairs of eyes between the two of them fixated on the board.

"I oughta count my lucky stars that I saw those guys earlier." they said to the cat.

• • •

Luna and Bagi shot their darts to no avail. Luna only got a blue target, and Bagi missed altogether. The two of them fidgeted worriedly, with Luna gnawing on her chewlery again and Bagi tightly hugging its alien plushy. A soft but chilly breeze kicked up.

O'Hare actually analyzed the board a bit more, a bit contrary to the rash strategy he utilized before. His shot glowed red, and the crowd went nuts once more.

"Another ruby target!" Taxes shouted. "Haven't seen those in a bit!"

Then, all eyes were on Fritz again. His fur puffed up a bit and he quievered.

"I can do this," he whispered to himself. "I can do this."

Fortuna waved from the back of the crowd, though Fritz couldn't see it very well from where he was.

"I can do this."

He raised his dart.

"I can do this."

Then he threw it with a surprising amount of force.

"I can do this."

Silence.

Then, the board glowed gold.

CHAPTER 8

It got loud really fast. So fast that Fritz shot out some of the sprinkles in his body from the shock. It was like a concert with how loud everyone was. Fritz just stared awestruck at the void, and the gold splotch illuminating it. Clapping, cheering, whistling, screaming. Not a soul in the crowd was still.

"WOW!" Taxes cheered. "What a comeback! First shot you take after you return, and BOOM! Gold!"

Fritz blushed and smiled while the others around him cheered him on.

"GOOD JOB!!" Bagi clapped ecstatically. Luna hopped down from her stool to run up to Fritz, and the two of them fistbumped. The crowd got even louder in response.

"Ah damn," O'Hare sighed, though not in distress. "Good job lad, you deserve it!"

"T-thanks," Fritz responded. "You did really good too!"

He turned to the dragons on his left.

"Y'all did awesome too!" Fritz added. The crowd continued to get ecstatic. Taxes scurried to the back of the board to grab something, and Fritz stayed in his seat nervously. Luna was on the ground, and she and Bagi stared fixatedly on the glowing gold light. The golden target.

Taxes returned to the crowd lugging with him an enormous box at least double his height.

"The prize for Fritz is in here!" Taxes declared, patting the side of the box.

The entire crowd focused on the box, Fritz included. Fritz stood up from the stools and got a bit closer, analyzing the box's cardboard skin covered in colorful tissue paper. A giant red ribbon binded the box together. Fritz just stared at the box for a bit.

"You can open it up whenever you're ready!" Taxes said quietly to him.

CHAPTER 9

Fritz was still staring at the box even a few minutes later. The crowd was screaming and shouting, almost as anxious as he normally is, to see him open it up. Then, he lay a hand on it. The crowd got even more excited from this alone. The excitement ramped up further as he lifted the top of the box.

It was a giant toy.

The toy was worm-shaped and incredibly furry, with fur the same colors as the wrapping of the box. Glitter caked the fur as well.

The crowd grew silent with anticipation.

"Is this," Fritz hesitated for a second. "A worm on a string?"

Absolute chaos in the crowd. Laughing and applause simultaneously filled the air. Fritz wrapped his arms around the head of the worm and lugged it out of the box. It was easily double his height long, and surprisingly heavy for a worm on a string. Lifting it up as if he had slain the Nemean Lion, he wore a nervous but nonetheless genuine grin. He walked towards Luna and Bagi.

"Wow!" Luna gawked. "That thing is frickin' huge!"

"It's like an asteroid!" Bagi said eagerly. "Like, it's as big as one! I hope I don't get into any conflicts with those asteroids when I go up to space!"

Fritz let the other dragons stroke the toy's luscious fluff for a little bit. Then, he turned to Bagi.

"You wanna know what?" Fritz said to it. "Take this thing to space with ya!"

He handed the worm toy over to Bagi. The crowd was in a frenzy.

"Really?" Bagi was almost tearful from joy, hugging both the worm and its other alien plushy.

"Of course!" Fritz nodded. "It wouldn't fit in my apartment anyway!"

"You're the best!" Bagi gripped the two toys even tighter. "All those alienfolk up in space will be so amused by these things! When I go up there and they ask stuff like, 'the hell are those furry objects,' I'ma be like, 'I got them from a wonderful wonderful gacha dragon!'"

Fritz blushed while Bagi fiddled with the toys a while longer.

"You wanna head out now?" Luna asked Fritz, who remained silent for a second.

"I-I'm gonna do something else real quick," Fritz finally answered. "But if you guys wanna hang out again sometime I'm totally open to it!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Luna responded back, and alongside Bagi went northward, away from the Four Leaf Clover celebrations. Fritz went the opposite direction.

But not before waving to the two dragons, his smile seeming permanent.

Luna waved back at him.

CHAPTER 10

Fortuna was still in the back of the crowd by the time Fritz came to see them. Their black cat gachapanion was sitting in the grass, positioned just like a melanistic loaf of bread.

"Oh, thank the stars you're here!" Fritz sighed in relief. He'd made a run for it to where Fortuna was, and he was panting as well.

"Is everything alright?" Fortuna asked, a bit worried.

"Nothing could be more alright!" Fritz jumped around enthusiastically. "I hit the golden target!"

"I saw!" Fortuna turned serene again after panicking for a second. "But where'd your prize go?"

"Gave it to a friend!" Fritz chuckled. "It wouldn't'a fit in my place anyways! It was so loud down there! But it was so fun!"

"I'm happy to hear!" Fortuna grinned. "Still waiting for the fam to finish up their games. I heard they're having a great time, and I'm glad that you're having fun too!"

Fritz nodded.

"I suppose I should get going now," Fritz then added, and turned back to the crowd. Everyone was still going bananas even though the dart throwing had finished at least ten minutes ago. A bitling approached Fritz excitedly, nuzzling his fur.

"Oh, and before I go," Fritz turned his head back to Fortuna. "I just wanted to thank you for the breathing exercises and motivation. I'm so lucky that the folks in the Keep are so wonderful. Hope you and the family have a wonderful rest of your time!"

"Likewise!" Fortuna was once again petting their gachapanion. "And be safe out there!"

"I'll make sure to do that!" Fritz said with a chuckle. Then, he walked away from Fortuna and the crowd into the depths of Northwoods. He wandered into the woods's treehouse cities and subway stations. It was quite a bit away from his hometown of Urbanopolis, and it became very obvious that he'd have to go back by subway -- exactly how he and Luna first got here anyway. However, despite the time it would take to get a subway back down south, it was plenty of time to think about how joyous the Keepfolk are. How tightly-knit the place is, from the depths of the woods to the highest mountain peaks far in the northeast. How lucky he is to be part of the joyous Gachagon Keep.