This is - 

Not where they were.

It's a lot cooler, for one. The air's more humid. A forest, at the foot of a mountain path, probably shortly after morning or shortly before dusk. Birds chatter at their presence, startled. She's never heard anything like their calls before. The forest is old, trees broad and tall, canopy thick, undergrowth barely existent. 

There's no immediate sign of their attacker.

- But there's Bellona, belatedly sliding into a ready stance, looking around warily.

"-Lion?"

"El? I'm okay - are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine, but-"

"Where are we?"

"I don't recognize it..."

A wolf howls in the distance.

"Must have been some kind of teleportation."

"She said something about breaking Dante's plans for us..."

"Yeah, I was kind of expecting to just be dead. When we get back to Amestris presumably Dante will just pick up again."

"Yeah, it's weird. Killing people should be a lot easier than teleporting them."

"Something's fucky..."

She nods. "Maybe it's something about here?"

"We should explore. See if we can find out where we are."

"Yeah! Uphill, I think. Get a view more like a map."

"Well, there's the mountain."

Teasingly: "I can carry you up if you get tired of climbing."

"We'll see."

Up they go.

It starts getting dimmer as they climb - it must be dusk, then. The air's colder and drier than they're used to. The mountain's forested, pretty heavily, but they're able to get to an outcropping after a bit of climbing, as the sun's setting in the west - on the same side of the mountains as them - and the stars are starting to come out. The constellations are strange, unlike those over Amestris or even in the star charts of the world's southern hemisphere.

The forest spills out around the foothills for a while, fading into plains eventually. It doesn't look like any map they've ever seen, and the signs of human habitation are few and far between.

"...Do you think we're still on Earth?"

"...The stars are weird."

"I - maybe not."

"Well. That would break Dante's plans."

"Until we get back." She sounds upset.

"Yeah. If an array sent us here, an array can take us back."

Tight nod. " - We should figure out somewhere to stay while we design that." Bellona doesn't actually need to eat or seek shelter, but El's going to need food, and clean water, and somewhere warm and dry to sleep...

"I don't think we can make it to a village tonight. Let's camp here and go back down tomorrow."

"Alright. I'll stay alert in case, like, wolves come up." The howling's mostly remained in the distance, but the amount of it's been picking up a bit.

Bump. "Thanks.

El starts gathering wood for a fire and leaves to turn into a pillow.

Bellona helps with the wood - she'll be feeding the fire, after all - and with lighting it.

"Night, El."

"Good night, Lion." She lays down to sleep in the rock tent she made.

And she settles in to keep watch.

...The wolf howls get closer. Bellona stands up once a closer yelp and a rustle in the bushes startles her, tense, and creates a little wall with alchemy as quietly as she can.

There's scuffling on the other side of it. Bellona stays alert.

...It's hopefully her imagination that the wolves are talking to each other. She doesn't recognize the language, but - she can almost hear words, harsh and dark, in their growls and yelps.

They move on, eventually, as it gets close to dawn.

Bellona leaves the wall up, and keeps the fire going.

El wakes up in the morning, eyeing the new wall warily.

"Did anything happen overnight?"

"A lot of wolves started investigating us. Figured it'd be best to avoid a fight, especially since they sounded like they were talking, almost."

"Talking wolves. Great. This just keeps getting better."

Snicker. "I'll avoid suggesting ways it could get worse."

"You never know who's listening."

"I doubt anyone important."

"Let's not find out."

"Let's also find something to eat."

"Sure. Plants, or catch something?"

"Catch something. Keep an eye on the plants to see if we recognize any, though."

"Sure." She takes down the wall; the ground outside is a bit churned up, immense wolf tracks left in the softer dirt.

"Big dog."

"Yup. Sounded like a bunch of them, too."

"Wonderful. Let's hope they don't come back."

Off into the woods.

She nods.

It's still dim out, the tall mountains casting a long shadow against the still rising sun, and a morning mist has settled over the land, muffling sounds and cutting their visibility down almost to nothing.

It's hard to say if the shapes in the mist are trees or wolves.

At the moment, she'll settle for a rabbit.

The rabbits, fortunately, seem about as unaware of the girls as the girls are unaware of wolves.

They stumble on a couple at the edge of a small clearing.

Two dead rabbits, coming up.

They're easy enough to catch for two young alchemists, and preparing and cooking them is easy enough with alchemy.

They at least look and taste appropriately rabbit-ish.

Bellona keeps an eye on the shapes in the fog while El eats. There's almost certainly something following them...

"Think we should deal with whatever this is now or keep going and try to lose them down the mountain?"

"It might know the mountain better. And I wouldn't mind a fight, anyways."

"Right." El finishes the last of the rabbit, then pulls the glove off her metal hand. With a bit of quick alchemy, she turns the fingers into blades.

Bellona makes knives out of her leg, holding them casually and stepping back the way they came a bit, scanning the area around them.

Ellie also stands to look around, finger-knives clicking.

And dark shapes - like a wolf, but larger, thinner, thin light glinting off of gold eyes and white teeth - start to emerge from the mist, surrounding them, snarling.

El lunges at the nearest and slashes.

The wolf fighting El jumps to the side, and its thick hide doesn't seem very bothered by the glancing blow from her claws.

Bellona's dagger flicks across the face of one that lunges at her - giving her enough of a distraction to throw it into a third -

El claps her hands together then touches the ground to drop her wolf into a pit-

Three more lunge out of the mists; Bellona makes spikes out of the ground, injuring some, delaying others - the two Bellona disabled at getting back up, and El's isn't going down easily -

She gets her disintegration array in mind, uses her metal hand to target it.

She gets the wolf currently leaping out of the pit, but there's another lunging for her back - a third circling around her -

Bellona drives a spike through one's neck, into the ribcage - another grabs her arm, while the last hangs back.

El ducks and kicks backward, hitting a spike to delay the other one while she brings another disintegration to bear.

Another two, out of the mists at her back - Bellona's fighting several, not getting injured, but definitely having trouble keeping them off El -

And one of the wolves running for Ellie collapses, a knife in its neck, and a humanoid figure, moving quickly, lands on a larger one's back, driving a sword into its spine - another dagger takes down one of the injured wolves - 

Which are distracted by the newcomer's arrival, allowing the girls to turn the tide of the battle.

With pleasure.

Quickly enough, they have all eight wolves dead - and a few more, who'd tried to flee.

The woman who'd helped them stops for a few deep breaths and then wiping her sword clean of blood and fur.

She's dressed a bit oddly - in tough leather armor over quilted cloth, chain over a few joints. Odder still is her skin - tough, mottled dark and light, drawing attention to her large, dark eyes, and two prominent tusk-like teeth jutting out of her mouth. She glances over at El and Bellona, evaluating them, before sliding her sword back into its sheath.

Not human. Chalk one up for the different world theory.

"Thanks for the help. Who are you?"

She sets about retrieving and cleaning her thrown daggers while she talks. "Name's Agon. What about you two?"

"I'm El. This is Bellona. Are you from around here?"

"Only somewhat - I travel, pretty widely. Lately I'd been following that pack." She nudges one dead wolf with a toe.

"To kill them, I assume."

"I'd have to be very incompetent if I was trying to befriend them."

"You don't seem incompetent."

"I wouldn't say I am, no."

"Why were you after them?"

"Their leader's allied with someone I hate. The usual, really."

"We're not exactly looking to get caught up in any local conflicts."

"Most people aren't. There's rumors of a war coming, though. Wars don't much care about people who'd rather be left alone."

"Great. What's the fastest way out of the conflict zone."

"Hm. You two aren't Elves, so you can't go to fancy elf place... North's got dragons... This whole subcontinent through to the western ocean is either abandoned and inhospitable or about to be a war zone... About a thousand miles east will get you to the frontiers that probably won't be involved, just will have armies passing through... South's... More than a thousand miles to get out of it."

"Seems we've landed in trouble," she says to Bellona.

"A lot. Can the war be stopped?"

"The continent spanning part of it's mostly being driven by one asshole. A couple might step in if he fell, but they'd have trouble pulling off the same scale. The one asshole is also incredibly obnoxiously hard to kill, though."

"So travel a thousand miles, fight a war, or kill someone who is resistant to death. I just wanted about six months of quiet."

"...Killing someone who's resistant to death at least sounds kinda fun?"

Agon snorts. "Wars take a while to ramp up, so you might have some time for quiet first."

"We need somewhere to stay, anyway."

"There's only a few human settlements around here. Major settlements would be northwest or southeast, with the larger kingdoms in the south. I can lead you along either road."

"North or south?" she asks Bellona.

"Hm... South, I think, especially if it's much colder up north."

"South then, please."

"Very well. The southern road is also the best route around this mountain chain, if you end up deciding you want to head east, regardless of whether you go through Moria - the dwarven kingdom - or farther south through Rohan - a human kingdom. The Moria route's closer, and Moria might not be a bad place to hunker down, anyways, if you can stand dwarves."

"We haven't met dwarves before."

"They're not exceptionally common, most places. Often a bit surly with outsiders." Her lips twitch a bit. "Rumored to be hard workers. Live underground. Treasure knowledge, generally - I've never seen it, but their library's supposed to rival those of Rivendell and Minas Tirith. They treasure craft more. They'd appreciate her armor, I think." She nods at Bellona. "They'll probably also be one of the last strongholds to fall, if the war goes sour - especially after allying with the dragons."

"Sounds like a good place."

"Depends on how much they like you."

"One way to find out."

"That is true. They might not much like me - though I would've also predicted they wouldn't much like dragons, a decade ago - but I can lead you two as far as the gates."

"Thanks."

"Why wouldn't they like you?"

"Oh, orcs and dwarves have been at war in living memory, is pretty much it. Most people don't sit around and wait for me to loudly declare I hate the orcs' current leaders."

"Maybe not quite as far as the gates, then."

She laughs. "As far as the road to the gates, then."

"Your understanding is appreciated."

"I try to be reasonable."

"Shall we set off, then?"

"If you two are uninjured, sure."

"We're fine."

El is, anyway. Which means they both are.

She glances at Bellona, but nods. "Road's a bit farther down the mountain. Come on." She sets off.

Down the mountain. More walking, yay.

El quietly turns her fingers back to normal and tugs the glove on again.

"I'm curious about those abilities you two displayed," she says, idly.

"Do you not have alchemy?"

"Nope. Haven't heard of it."

"The short version is that alchemy is the process by which one uses energy to effect changes on an object or material's gross properties or to catalyze a chemical reaction. The long version is considerably longer, and best accompanied by diagrams."

"Interesting. There's magic weapons, and wizards and the like can use magic of course, but none of it sounds - regular, like that. Certainly can't get a definition of magic out of an elf."

"We're not wizards or elves."

"You don't seem to be, no. Not dragons, either."

"Did the lack of scales give that one away?"

She laughs. "I've heard rumors that one can change shape, actually. But I haven't heard that about any of the others, and you're probably not her."

Shape-changing dragons, now. Add that to the orcs, elves, dwarves, and humans and this world's a veritable menagerie.

"I am, alas, as human as I appear."

"And I'm sadly a mere orc."

"That's comforting."

She laughs. "I doubt I'd be good at being anything else. Of course, I'm bad at being an orc, too."

"How so?"

"Don't do what I'm told, don't follow marching orders, defy whichever petty jerk people are bending knee to lately..."

"Huh. Glad I'm not an orc."

"Same."

She laughs. "I think most non-orcs are."

"So the whole culture is militaristic?"

"Fairly. It's more - very rigid hierarchies, and the easiest way to maintain rigid hierarchies is violence."

"Sounds familiar."

"Humans work much the same way, I've noticed, even if they like to pretend they don't."

"Violence is always easy, and easy is always preferable."

"The hard path is more entertaining or rewarding sometimes, I've found, but a baffling number of people disagree with me."

"It's the sometimes that gets you, in the expected return estimations."

"Most people don't put in the effort to learning to tell the difference between a worthwhile path and an easy path, though."

"Most people aren't very clever."

"Sadly the case."

More walking.

"Where are you two from, by the way?"

"Amestris."

"Haven't heard of it."

"It's- very far away."

"Huh. I like traveling; perhaps I'll see it, one day."

"Maybe." After they figure out how to get back.

She smiles, a bit. "Sadly, my own homeland's no place for tourists."

"We're not really here for sightseeing."

"What are you here for, then?"

"Mostly we're here by accident."

"Oh?"

"Apparently alchemy can also do teleportation. Which we were unaware of until yesterday."

"...Huh. Yeah, that'll get you lost."

"Now that we know it's possible, reconstructing it is just a matter of time." And probably a bit of luck, given they no longer have any reference material.

"I suspect I should be impressed, here."

"We are very good at alchemy."

"The best!" Bellona says, cheerfully.

Agon laughs. "Then I'm in august company."

"That would matter more if anyone else knew what alchemy was."

"Perhaps you could found a school. Earn fame worldwide."

"We have- obligations, back home."

"Seems a common problem with homes."

"If there's nothing to tie you back, it's not really home."

She laughs. "Perhaps then this whole world is my home."

"Bit of a broad statement."

Snicker. "I can't say I'm attached to any one part or people, but... I don't necessarily want to hare off, even to avoid a war."

"It's always been more about people than places for me."

"Same. I don't care where my loved ones are."

Agon hums. "It's a mix, for me. I like people, including in groups. But also I don't want anyone trying to destroy this world, even if we evacuated all the people."

"We'll try not to do that, then."

"I'd appreciate that."

"You and many others, I bet."

"Destroying planets is all around pretty rude. Wasteful, too."

"There's only so many of them, after all."

"And they're awfully hard to make."

"You'd need lots of raw material."

"I've heard the Powers of the West sang the world into being from nothing."

"The key principle of alchemy is equivalent exchange. You can't get something for nothing."

"Not something I've heard of here."

"What a wonderful world to live in."

"I don't know much of magic here, unfortunately. A Song or two for battle."

"Songs?"

"The world was sang into being. Song can change it, or so goes the theory."

"That sounds... too easy."

"Most music doesn't, and the line between normal and magical music is weird. Most effects are pretty small, too - people I've known haven't considered it worth their time."

"And there's the catch."

She laughs. "There's one for everything. One of the dragons is rumored to be good at it, though."

"I'll keep that in mind if I ever meet a dragon."

"I'd suggest avoiding any fights."

"Of course."

"Maybe a few," Bellona says, cheerfully. "No fights might get boring."

Agon laughs.

"Against something smaller than a dragon, maybe. To start with."

"I know how to work my way up!"

"Just making sure you remember that you do."

Snicker. "Applied theory is so hard, though."

El reaches up to pat her shoulder.

"That's what I'm here for."

"Makes us an excellent team."

"That it does."

Teasingly: "Not that you have any flaws I need to cover."

"Flaws? Me? Never."

"Absolutely impossible. A perfect El."

"Exactly the correct proportions of everything. Including pride."

"Alchemically perfect in every way."

Bump.

Bump!

"How much farther, by the way?" she asks Agon.

"Probably midday tomorrow..."

"Including a break for sleeping?"

"Yes, but not a long one."

"Okay."

For a day and a half, that's sustainable.

"I know some areas that aren't bad for camping, on the way."

"Are any of them at a convenient stopping point for us?"

"One, yes."

"Well, one's all we need."

"As long as no one else is using it."

"Is that likely?"

"Not very. Most travelers take the main roads."

"Good."

"We still have a bit of hiking before we get there, but it shouldn't be long..."

More walking, then.

Which Agon mostly spends talking to Bellona about cultures and recent history of both worlds.

El mostly listens. Lion's more interested in culture stuff than she is.

There's truly a menagerie here - there's Men (scattered in the Lone Lands where they are, except some really annoying rangers, with Rohan's horse lords to the southeast of the mountains and Gondor farther east than that), and elves (mostly the wood elves of Mirkwood, though Agon's heard of elves existing in the Lone Lands and near Moria's eastern gate), and halflings (small, quiet folk, of which exactly one has apparently ever been inclined to travel outside their homeland), and orcs and goblins and trolls (who live in the northern Lone Lands and Mordor mostly; they used to be more present in the mountains, but the dragons drove them out), and wargs (mostly the forests of the Lone Lands, often allied with orcs), dragons, dwarves... Elves, proper orcs, and dragons don't die of old age, but all the other races do.

Immortality. There's that something for nothing again.

Unfortunately immortality is rather hard to get for the unlucky everyone else...

Obviously.

More research is required.

Research is fun!

Hopefully the dwarf library is good enough.

Starting from scratch sounds less fun, yeah...

They'll find out.

Fortunately, their proposed campsite is clear when they reach it.

"Do you two need a fire?" Agon asks.

"That's preferable."

"How useful are your abilities for setting up camp?"

"Fairly so. We can easily create tents and start a fire."

"Convenient. I'd suggest some form of barrier, too, or else a warning system - do you need wood, to maintain your fire?"

"Yes."

"I'll gather that, then."

Then El and Bellona can make somewhere to sleep.

Bellona doesn't see the point in pretending she needs to sleep - and, honestly, she's pretty sure Agon's noticed something's up with her.

She'll keep watch again.

If that's how she wants to play it.

Yeah. Is.

Agon doesn't openly question Bellona's assertion that she can keep watch all night, at least.

Hopefully it's quiet again.

Nothing disturbs them in the night, this time.

More rabbit for breakfast, then.

Sadly, yes. Agon, at least, is a skilled hunter, and knows what plants can safely supplement their meal.

"The dwarves should have more varied food," Agon comments.

"Another reason not to delay."

She laughs. "It's a pity I can't join you."

"Ending a centuries-long feud in an afternoon is beyond the scope of alchemy."

"Sadly so."

Onward?

Onward!

They've made it to an actual road - broad, clearly meant for wagons - and nearly to the gates when a shadow blots out the sun, rapidly passing over.

And then a second, just as big.

"Dragons?"

Agon stills, staring up in moderate alarm. "Seems so."

"-I'm blaming you for this, Lion."

"Why me?"

Dragon number one: banks and circles a bit.

"Because you were the one who wanted to fight a dragon. And you're tall enough to hide behind which is a positive in this one situation."

Dragon number two lands on the road in front of the walking party.

Bellona huffs. And, cheerfully, to the dragon: "Hello!"

Dragon number one lands on the road behind the walking party.

"A human, an orc, and a suit of metal, all walking to Moria. A curious thing."

"Sounds like the start of a bad joke."

"Quite. Are you going to Moria?"

"Me and El are," Bellona says, gesturing to her and the human. "Agon was just showing us the path. We got... Kinda lost."

"Lost indeed, and somewhat desperate, to take direction from an orc."

Shrug. "This is the road to Moria, right?"

"Yes. For what purpose do you visit?"

"We're considering moving in. Heard the dwarves have a pretty good library and an appreciation for crafters."

"You consider yourselves crafters? The orc, as well?"

"El and I are."

"I can make a few things, but I'm really more of a traveler."

"Your kind rarely creates," she says to Agon.

"Don't know about that. There's lots of poetry, and songs, and stories, and ephemeral art. It is hard to build grand monuments with a constantly shifting array of petty warlords, though."

Ellisaria snorts.

"And occupying yourselves with destroying the works of others."

"We're not much worse than humans, there, or even elves. Humans have ransacked plenty of works when society gets a bit unstable, and for elves, well - the First Age did, unfortunately, happen - and even the dwarves have sacked cities. Everyone takes turns being the local asshole."

"I have had to burn out more orcish infestations than any other race."

"I won't argue that the current leaders are presently the local assholes; that much is obviously true. I'd argue about that being inherent to an orcish nature, or about all of our cultural values being bad."

"Then when you get new leaders perhaps I shall reevaluate my opinions."

"Sadly my assassination program requires an awful lot of walking in between regime toppling."

"Do you actually have an assassination program?"

"'Program' is a bit of an exaggeration, but, yes."

"How many of the leaders are on your list?"

She starts counting on her fingers. "Hmmmmm, depends on how you define 'leaders,' I'm also waiting for a good time to take out one band's entire chain of command so someone I like can step in... I'm also not bothering with ones who're gonna imminently get stabbed by other people... Or anyone spinelessly taking orders from on high, unless their death'd cause more problems than leaving them in place... I've also been taking out a lot of middle management, now that Sauron is trying to centralize the orcs, who aren't really leaders but are definitely weak points. I've got... Pretty much all of the Mordor generals I think are any amount of competent, is my next goal."

"Sauron?"

"Big spooky guy? Likes to represent himself with a flaming eyeball? Big bad of the Second Age?"

" - The cockroach!" Brisingr chirps. "So that's his name. Soreun."

"Hmm. Mordor."

"The land enclosed by that big mountain range just East of Gondor. His old stronghold."

"Ha. Good."

"You have plans for it?"

"One might say that."

She seems a bit amused by the idea. "Sauron himself is probably hard to kill - I've heard he has some magic that lets him reform even if his body's destroyed."

"If the task were easy, it would already have been done."

"He has enough enemies, yes."

"How much do you know about Mordor's geography and disposition of forces?"

"A lot about the geography. My knowledge of its forces is about a year out of date, but had been thorough."

"I have a proposition, then. As you will not be welcome in Moria, instead come with us and help plan our attack on Sauron."

"An interesting idea."

"Of course it is, if only for the rarity. A dragon does not offer cooperation often."

"And orcs don't oppose the Dark Lord often."

"I'll accept; it seems a more efficient use of my time, anyways."

"Good."

"I do still have a duty to see my new friends here safely to Moria, though."

"It is not much further."

"Then it won't take me long."

"Very well. Off with you, then." She walks over to the side, off the road.

She snorts and glances at El and Bellona.

Guess they should go?

She leads them on.

"Well," El says quietly, once they've gotten some distance. "That was... fun."

"Sorry about that."

"I don't think it was your fault."

"Just luck, yeah. Still, I was telling the truth when I said Moria's not far. Unless you two want to throw your lot in with the dragons."

"What do you think, Bell?"

"The dragons do seem interesting... And Agon said they know some magic, right? But it might drag us into the war, and give us less time to work on our alchemy."

"I think our alchemy has to be the priority."

"Yeah, I'm thinking that too."

"So we'll skip the dragons. For now."

"Alright." She starts continuing to Moria. "I might see if I can get special permission to enter Moria. Come check on the two of you sometime."

"That might be nice."

"See a friendly face, cause a bit of chaos... Sounds fun."

She laughs.

"Please remember we'll be in an enclosed space."

"I'll only cause social chaos. Promise."

"Lion?" El prompts, poking her in the side.

"Fiiiiine. No explosions."

"What's left of my frail fleshy body thanks you."

"You should really work on that frailty problem."

"We've been a little busy."

"Well, we'll have some free time, now."

"Not very free."

"Yeah, we do need to get home, but I dunno it's so urgent we can't have multiple projects?"

"I guess."

"Though getting reference works will be a lot easier back home."

"Yeah. Even medical references."

"Dwarves might have medical references but they're probably not for humans..."

"Probably."

"Depends on how complete their library actually is, i guess."

"We'll find out."

"Yeah!" She bounces a bit. "New libraries are fun."

"This one will probably be entirely new."

"Yeah! It's exciting."

"Wonder what they'll have. Books about mining? Engineering?"

"Geology, maybe."

"Do you think we're stereotyping them?"

Snicker. "Maybe a little! For all we know they have massive tomes on the composition of poetry."

"Let's try not to let on we formed any judgements before we actually met a dwarf."

"It's awfully rude, after all."

"Right."

She laughs and nods.

To Agon: "How far are we actually?"

Agon hums. "The point where I'll want to split off is soon, a few minutes - though I'll be keeping an eye on you two, to make sure you get in the gates."

"At least we sort of have a backup plan if we can't, now."

"That is one advantage."

"Slender as it is."

"Eh, I like to take what I can get, and then reach for more."

"Some people would call that greedy."

"Some people have no ambition."

"Fair."

She laughs, and - "I should probably split off here. Any last goodbyes?"

"Thanks for taking us this far."

"Yeah. Meeting you was fun."

"Same, and welcome." She gives a jaunty salute. "Gate's straight down the road. I won't wander off until you're both in."

Off they go, then.

The path goes down a small ridge, along a lake - and up to the Western Gate of Moria. The doors are stone, with silver filigree trees and scrolling designs and letters in a language the two girls can't read. They're propped open, and two short, burly guards stand outside them.

"Hello."

"Hail traveler. What is your business in Khazad-dûm?"

"We got- lost in the wilderness. We're looking for a place to stay."

"How long do you plan to stay?"

"We don't have any definite plans yet."

"There are inns sized for humans in the middle level. The main legal code is in the grand pillar in the first plaza. We have no tolerance for law breakers nor servants of the Dark."

"Knowing that - welcome to Khazad-dûm. You both may enter."

"Thank you."

In they go.

There's an entry auditorium, faced by guard stations, and a long corridor just wide enough for a wagon behind it. Beyond - an open plaza, beginning to fill with a few people. An enormous pillar, its faces inscribed with the promised legal code, sits in the center, fountains around its base.

"Think we should read the rule first?" she asks Bellona.

"Helps to get a to-do list!" she says, teasingly.

"Enclosed spaces, remember."