As the night wore on, Ali was in her bedchamber sleeping on her luxuriously-large bed when she was greeted with a strange dream... In the dream she's walking through a forest and finds her way to a meadow on a beautiful spring day. She hears the voices of a man and woman ahead... the man's voice is familiar to her. She walks toward the voices to find TRITHAL sitting with a reasonably-attractive slightly-darker skinned girl under a tree looking out into a vast valley. In front of them was a picnic basket and blanket stretched out on the ground. The girl had her head on TRITHAL's shoulder as they talked. Ali was approaching the couple from the left, and when she recognized TRITHAL she hid behind a tree. She could hear TRITHAL say, "One day, you and me will build our own house in this valley. We'll plant crops, maybe have some cows or something. We'll have that large family you've always wanted." The girl gave a loving response.
Just then, Ali accidentally broke a twig and made a noise. TRITHAL looked to his left, and when his piercing blue eyes met Ali's, she immediately woke up in a cold sweat with her heart pounding. She was further startled when she heard TRITHAL knock on her door and tell her to wake up because the party was getting ready to go.
In the courtyard by the stables, dawn had barely broke and our party was loading their supplies, etc. onto the horse-lizards. Evan was disappointed that he couldn't bring all his clothes. AXEM told him to get over it. The King and Queen were present to give the party a send-off. After Ali exchanged her goodbyes and love with her aunt and uncle, the party saddled up and headed out the castle gates toward the Dolmaiyan River.
The horse-lizards in the Land of Fantasy are capable of running at pretty fast speeds, so it doesn't take very long at all for the party to cover quite a bit of distance. After a few hours, the party stops to rest at the side of the river near a town which was once a trade hub, but has since turned into a half-assed tourist trap. The horse-lizards eat some of the vegetation and drink some water from the river.
Ali: "Despite it's scenic beauty, this river used to be prime real estate when Mount Sabretooth and Tanchi City used this river as a trade route. But over these past 15 years people have abandoned this area and moved to towns along the roads and railways. All that's left of this area is it's beauty, and the people who remain here in Nanoka have tried to capitalize on it. As you can probably tell, they haven't been all that successful."
TRITHAL: "Some great thinker said a long time ago that mankind is it's own natural enemy... It consumes all the resources in one area then moves on to the next... and continuing to do so until there's nothing left to sustain them."
The party tries to figure out what the hell TRITHAL meant by what he just said. After a minute, they decide to just throw things at him for confusing them.
After eating a small snack they brought with them, the party saddles up again and heads back up the river trail. Along the way they pass by a few more towns with people left in them. Within an hour or so before nightfall, the party finds themselves in the town of Hatsuka, which sits on the border between the prefectures of Mount Sabretooth and the Plains of Tanchi. Just across the border is a nearly-abandoned town called Tankia. In Hatsuka, there is a small detachment of King Midus' army who welcomes Ali and her friends and offers them quarter for the night.
The soldiers, who pretty much control the town which was once ruled by commerce, offered the party a hot meal. While they ate, they asked the commander of the detachment what was going on.
the Colonel: "Since the raid on the mountain castle 10 years ago, King Midus has had a detachment posted at each border crossing between Sabretooth and Tanchi to monitor the activities of the insurgents. The town of Tankia has been pretty-much quiet. There's only a handful of people living there consisting of the elderly and those who care for them. We regularly send a scout over to check everything out and make sure no one is trying anything. Given the build-up in Tanchi City, I'm surprised we haven't seen very much activity."
The party goes back and forth with the Colonel asking questions, and at the end they have a better understanding of what's happening in this corner of the world.
After dinner, the army allows the party to use one of the old barracks for the night. In the barracks are two shower rooms. The quartet uses one of the rooms, while Evan, who isn't comfortable when surrounded by naked guys who are more masculine than he is, pussies out and showers with the princess.
In the first shower room, THRAX asks TRITHAL: "Hey Trithal! What exactly did you do to Ali the other night in the dining room? It seems like you were just hypnotizing her, but she screamed 'GET OUT OF MY HEAD' as if you were doing some kind of mind control on her."
AXEM: "Yeah! Wasn't it the same thing you did when we rescued her from the labyrinth?"
TRITHAL: "Well, close enough. What I did used a measure of hypnosis, but it goes far deeper than that. You see, Ali doesn't know it but she's telepathic. That's another reason why I thought it would be a good idea if she came with us to Tanchi."
AXEM, THRAX and CHRIS: "ooooh...."
TRITHAL: "Since she isn't aware of the fact she's a telepath, she doesn't know how to use her abilities. There are many people in this world who are like her, and most go through life never knowing about it."
CHRIS: "Well then wouldn't it be the other way around? Would she be getting into your head instead of you getting into hers?"
TRITHAL: "That's another thing. If the person doesn't know how to utilize the portal, they aren't capable of establishing a connection either going to or coming from themselves. However, if you know how to do it correctly, you could use a form of hypnosis to commandeer a person's open portal and implant suggestions in their mind."
The three are now growing more and more confused over TRITHAL's explanation. CHRIS, however, asks "So then if you wanted to you could go in and re-program someone's mind and make them think the way you want them to?"
TRITHAL: "Only evil people do that, Chris. Since I'm not always evil, I only use it when the situation calls for it... like when a pig-headed princess lunges at me with a dueling sword while intoxicated on a half-baked idea of glorious revolution."
After everyone showers, they each find a bunk and try to get some sleep. The next morning they saddle up and, without looking back, they cross the border into the Plains of Tanchi.
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