Going home.

John got off the tram in a part of town he never went to. He walked into a supermarket to buy some stuff, he came out of it pushing a cart full of drinks, food, clothes and a few items he didn't find at the hardware store, like kitchen utensils. He pushed the cart in an alley, just outside of the parking lot and blinked in and out of his kingdom, leaving the supplies laden cart there.

Things were not the same as before. Sylvia literally lived from water and sunlight, but he had two permanent residents who needed to eat now. He wanted to go home, the sooner he would get there, the sooner he would be able to go check on the girls in his kingdom.

He walked in the house and quickly spotted his mom, in the living room. She had got the ironing board out and was watching television, wearing only lingerie and an apron, while getting through a big pile of clean laundry.

"John! Look at this smile! I would bet it went well." she said as he entered the room, she heard him close the door.

John walked towards her and hugged her, pressing her large chest against him. He kissed her on the cheeks and continued to smile.

"Thank you, thank you so much. For all you taught me, for giving me hope. One week ago I would have never had the guts to talk to her and now... It changes so many things. She is so cute, so beautiful, so sexy, so smart, so funny and she is a very talented cook, it becomes an art at this point... " he told her. He didn't go in detail about what happened, but the way he talked was enough for her to know.

"Do you want to eat something? You must be hungry." she asked.

"We ate an early dinner, stuff she had made for lunch but didn't pick for our meal. I'm going to my room. Good night, mom." he told her. She nodded, understanding.

John ran up to his room and after setting up his alarm system returned to his kingdom. He picked some food in his inventory, dumping all of the rest into his storage chest.

The ride to the glade was short, now that he had learned the easiest path to take and was used to riding his bike.

There were some blackened scorch marks on the grass of the glade and both elves were in the fountain. The strangest part was that Ferulia was totally underwater, except for her face.

Cali jumped out of the pool when she saw John arrive and kneeled on the floor.

"My King! You have returned." she said. John spotted shredded wrappings of the food he had left her, piled on the ground, near some pits of fruits they ate.

"No need to kneel, Cali. What happened here? Are you both alright?" he asked. He had spotted various marks on her caramel naked body, some looking handshaped.

"It's nothing, she... It's not her fault... She didn't mean any harm... She couldn't control it!" she said, almost crying, cowering in fear. "Please don't kill her!"

"She started burning and couldn't stop it? I won't do her any harm. I'm here to help you, but she can't stay here in the glade. It is too dangerous, we will find another place she can stay where she won't risk setting things on fire." he explained. The naked elf raised to her feet and jumped around his neck.

"Thank you, thank you! You really are a great man. You have your own world, great powers, divine food and dreadful allies." she said, shedding tears of joy. From the lack of melted plastic John realized that Cali had been the only one opening the food packages, had her sister even eaten.

It was almost 9pm in the real world, but it was the middle of the day here. It only left him a bit over 5 hours to reach one of the altars. He had no offerings for the one in the sky and underwater, no way to reach them either. Would it be safe to go in the Maze alone? After what happened last time and the thing lurking there that didn't want him to get out...

John convinced a sobbing Ferulia, mortified of having hurt her sister, to follow him back to the castle. She hadn't felt thirst or hunger since her change and was afraid of burning everything she touched. Cali was following them, anxious to see where her sister would live.

John picked an empty room in the basement of his castle and tried to think of how to make it more comfortable for Ferulia until he thought of a better place for her to stay. In the end adding a layer of earth to the stone floor was enough for her. John showed Cali that her sister wasn't prisoner, the door didn't even have a lock.

In the next room, John did something else. He unpacked every cooking item he had and the remaining stone and wood he had in stock (except for the enchanted one). Checking in the list of his castle improvement menu, he dumped 2000$ to turn the room into a kitchen. It was far from modern, with a large cauldron, a stone oven and firepit, but it would help him make this place more liveable. The elves looked at the place with suspicion and John remembered that without using fire they had little in the way of cooking knowledge.

John wanted to go back to the glade, hoping to be able to contact Sylvia and see if she was alright, but he also was drawn by the idea of a last try to find the underworld Altar...