The Elven Village, one year later.

It was summer, and Mune had been unable to sleep the night before. She rose early with Narlafayn and Cesa, and accompanied them as they left the village to pick vegetables from the garden everyone from the Village pitched in to help plant. She hadn't felt much like training with her sword since leaving Schuttgart, and had been learning the finer arts of being a girl from Cesa. She found she quite enjoyed gardening much to Cesa's delight, and often went with her to the garden to make sure she picked the best that there was.

Calisan had left soon after they arrived in the Elven Village. Pommers, the pink-haired boy dwarf formerly thought to be a girl named Plenty of Midget was already in the Village waiting for him. It surprised Mune to find Calisan's business partner was the younger brother of his rival, but he seemed to trust the boy with valuable information that he shared with no one else. After finding out Koyori had returned to her home in Dion with Shana, Calisan disappeared, and no one had heard from him since.

"Cesa, pick that one." Mune ordered, pointing to a vine of tomatoes in the garden. Cesa made a disgusted face at it, and looked at Mune as if she'd told her to stick her hand in a barrel of caterpillars.

"Why that one, the vine is disgusting." Cesa grimaced, hugging her woven basket to her chest. Mune glared at her, and snatched the basket from her arms.

"Because its gross means it'll yield the best tomatoes. See?" she snapped, marching over to the plant and holding it up. Sure enough, the largest tomatoes Cesa had seen yet dangled from the yellowed, shriveled vine. "This plant put it's all into making the best fruit, which is why it looks so gross. Now pick the tomatoes." Mune commanded, thrusting the basket back at Cesa. She took it eagerly and dropped to her knees to begin filling it.

"When did you turn into the plant whisperer?" Narlafayn asked, amused, as she searched for good stalks of broccoli. "Just don't go talking to trees on us, ok?" she snickered. She ducked her head down as Mune glared at her, and tried to hide her amusement.

The women were in the garden for a half-hour before Mune stood to give her tired back a rest. She paused with her arm wiping the sweat from her forehead as she caught sight of a figure approaching them in the distance. Because of the earliness of the day it was still hazy, the humidity hanging in the air in the form of a thin mist. Both Cesa and Narlafayn stood as they too caught sight of the approaching figure, and came to stand even with Mune.

Calisan emerged from the mist as he drew closer, a large grin on his face. Walking next to him, clutching his hand on one side and a ragged, stuffed Crokian toy on the other, was an Elven girl of seven or so, with hair the color of the richest rose wine. Narlafayn dropped her basket of vegetables as they drew closer, and pressed both of her hands to her mouth.

"Tandy!" she exclaimed breathlessly, and lifted her skirt as she jumped over the garden plants to hurry towards them.

"It's ok Tandy." Calisan said gently as the girl tried to hide behind him in fear. Narlafayn collapsed to her knees in front of her, and clutched her tightly. Tandy struggled against Narlafayn and whimpered, frightened of this stranger that was suddenly squeezing her. Her resistance faltered as Narlafayn began to cry in earnest, and craned her neck to look at Narlafayn's head curiously.

"Oh my goodness Calisan, how on earth did you find her?" Cesa asked as Calisan backed away to give Narlafayn some semblance of privacy.

"It wasn't easy, let me tell you. The Dwarves that Koyori left her with suffered an unfortunate accident while passing through Goddard Territory only a few days before they were slated to meet with me, so I never found out who adopted her until recently." He sighed and folded his arms behind his head in a relaxed pose, and smiled as Narlafayn continued to cling to the girl. "I finally found her a year ago in Schuttgart; her adoptive parents were the innkeepers there. They were using her as a servant, barely feeding her or keeping her clothed. I got into a fight with the innkeeper the day he tried to rent her out to pedophiliac guests." He nodded at Mune, and winked at her. "That's the real reason that I got thrown in jail, but had I told you that back then, I know you would've gone marching into the inn with hellfire surrounding you. I needed to catch them off guard to get Tandy, and catch them I did a month ago."

"Oh Calisan, you are a genius sometimes." Cesa giggled, wrapping her arms around her brothers' waist to hug him.

"Only sometimes? Cesa, you wound me." He stated with a frown. His face lit up as he glanced back at Narlafayn and Tandy, and he looked over to Mune. "I didn't just bring a gift for Narlafayn either." He stated with a grin. He nodded towards the path, and Mune followed his eyes.

Coming up the road was a new figure, this one causing Mune's eyes to widen as far as they would go. She rushed towards it without waiting, and Evzen was shocked to find Mune coming through the mist at him, instead of him coming out to surprise her. She flung herself at him, and he barely caught her before she fell to the ground. She planted a kiss on him without even murmuring a greeting, and it took him a moment to recover from his surprise to hug and kiss her in return.

"What took you so long? I was about to leave and come hurt you!" Mune snapped after breaking the kiss. Evzen grinned and chuckled in his throat as she kissed him again when he took a breath to answer her.

"To sum up a long story, political intrigue. Esham's clan's siege failed, so I've been building a clan." He said as she pulled away. Mune glared at him briefly before pressing him close in another kiss. He relaxed into it, and held her tightly as he returned it with equal enthusiasm.

"All right you two, there's plenty of time for that later; Tandy wants breakfast!" Narlafayn said, finally coming out of her stupefied happiness to be herself again. They parted and Mune looked over her shoulder to glare as Evzen chuckled. Tandy seemed to have taken an instant liking to Narlafayn, and clung tightly to her hand.

"Won't Roan be jealous?" Mune asked with a slight frown, knowing how her cousin reacted to anyone who lavished attention on his parents. He wasn't so much spoiled as he wanted the attention for himself; rather, he wanted to be the only one showering his parents with attention, not other people.

"He'll get over it." Narlafayn said without thought. She smiled down at Tandy and led her towards the bridge to the village.

"Well now isn't this a happy ending?" Cesa giggled as Evzen and Mune ignored Narlafayn's order and returned to kissing each other on the path. "Don't you think so?" she asked, gazing up at her brother. He gave her a half-smile, and laughed lightly through his nose.

"Yeah…a real happy one." He said in forced happiness. In his pocket, unseen by all was a simple gold ring. It had been engraved with the words "Koyori, for eternity." The ring, looking entirely too identical down to the engraving to a ring Calisan had presented Koyori several months earlier, had been found on a merchant's blanket in Gludio.

Perhaps some happy endings needed more time to happen.