Zeke seems to find the idea of her visiting the forest sanctuary very appealing. The twins are okay with chores, even if it's easier for them to tire out now.

After chores and dinner, one of the pirates has them do a game of obstacle courses in the cargo hold, with swinging ropes and platforms and stuff. The twins go through it effortlessly, much to Niko's consternation. Gren finds it a little more difficult, and practices.

"You can do it!"

"I know I can! It just takes practice!" 

To encourage her, Niko promises Gren a treasure if she can do it within one hour.

Gren tries very hard. When the time limit approaches, she rests for a while and then gives her best shot - and succeeds.

The twins clap.

Niko hopes Gren forgot about the whole treasure thing... Ehehe, it turns out he'll probably get in trouble for giving anything out. Let him off the hook? Please?

"A promise is a promise. It can be a little treasure, though."

Niko gives up a magic bag. "It'll hold way more stuff than it ought to... But only if it counts as loot. Never did figure out how it decides that."

"Does that mean stolen stuff?"

"Not necessarily... More like, valuable stuff? Special stuff? And not like gold jewelry and vases and nice clothes and things. Like I said, it's a bit weird about what counts as loot."

How far are they from the Fortress?

They'll be in sight of it tomorrow around noon, and wait until nightfall to approach so they don't get spotted.

They almost feel like proper vampires again.

Gren gets sentimental about her mom and all her friends on the island and the certain danger she's walking into and hides in a corner of the cargo hold glumly for a while. 

And then it's bedtime. Hammocks.

And then a whole day passes in pretty much the same routine: Practice fighting, obstacles courses, chores, other games, Gren steeling herself for what's ahead.

Tabby tries to cheer her up.

Well, results depend on how exactly she tries.

She mainly tells her about where she's from and her family. Leaving out the obligate cannibalism.

Her stories are weird and sound fake, but are successfully distracting.

"-And then they turned into wolves and our auntie adopted them."

"What's a wolf?"

"Um, do you know what a doggie is?"

"Maybe I've heard of that... Kind of like horses, but smaller and nicer?"

"Yeah. Well, regular dogs hate us and are stupid, but wolves are prettier and cool."

"If you say so. Maybe you should draw a picture of one."

Tabitha proceeds to draw a surprisingly good picture of two wolf cubs, each standing next to a boy and girl about the twins' age. They look like they could be siblings, or maybe cousins. 

"Angie and Joey." 

"You were right, wolves're cute!"

"Especially werewolves."