But we found each other in the dark
And when the smoke does finally pass,
We will rise above all the ash.
– Dallas Green, "We found each other in the dark."

If Adelina Fortnight had been told two years ago that she would one day have to stop mourning over her late husband and work with her ex-boyfriend in order to bring a bigfoot to Shangri-La before eventually going off on her own journey, she would've laughed a hysterical, snarky, bitter laugh. She would've thought the person telling her that was insane and dismissed it, yet now… now, she could definitely believe it, because it had only recently happened to her.

What had happened was still fresh in her mind… the visit from Lionel, where he'd tried to take the map from her, but she'd chewed him out on missing her husband's – his own friend, whom he claimed was like a brother to him – funeral, angrily kicking him out when he'd said he would pay her for the map; the one item they pulled out of his hands when they'd uncovered his body after the avalanche. When night came, he broke into her house and took it, and she had to leave her confinement just to confront him at the station… only to end up joining him and Susan on the journey to Shangri-La, all because of the little comment he made.

"You were always such a vibrant, intoxicating woman. It pained me to hear that you'd shut yourself in, like a bird trapped in a cage."

Taking his words into account, he was right. Ever since Aldous' grim demise and the funeral, she'd shut herself away from the world, her only friends consistent being her yellow parakeet, Paca, and her argentine butler, Ricardo. She didn't even try visiting her immediate family – her father, mother and seven brothers, all of whom attended the funeral – or writing to them, nor even her friends or brothers' wives.

She had spent days, months and two years locked within her home, mourning over her loss… only for a visit and a heated argument with her former lover to make her realize that she needed to stop shutting herself away. She needed to move on, break free and go back to the life of adventure, the life she almost gave up on.

And that was exactly what she did.

Adelina went with Lionel and Susan, using the map to guide them to Shangri-La. Along the way, they'd dodged a hired hitman's attempts at killing them and befriended a shaman and her granddaughter, and… well, there was quite a bit of tension between her and Lionel, too. On the boat, they'd fallen into each other's arms and on the elephant ride through the jungle of India, they nearly kissed.

Of course, the tension wasn't entirely just romantic. When the Elder Yeti had them all thrown into the ice pit, she saw how broken up Susan was over it, and Lionel… he only cared about himself, so she didn't hesitate in chewing him out over it, just as she'd chewed him out on many of his other glaring flaws.

It was classic Lionel, never caring about anyone but himself. It was his inability to be there for her when she needed him that led to their breakup to begin with, and yet he had the audacity to be surprised that he was always left alone. She had begun to believe that perhaps, there wasn't a great Sir Lionel Frost after all… the great Sir Lionel Frost had to be a myth for no matter how many times he spoke of proof, he showed no signs of being the great man he claimed to be.

…that was, until he went and proved her wrong.

He hadn't gone back to moping about himself after she'd called him out, instead he… he decided to help Susan, telling him, I believe it is time we settle our debt, Mr. Link. I said I'd take you to the place where you belong, and I am a man of my word. The Elder Yeti is right, you don't belong here, now get up. We're leaving.

He was going to take the sasquatch to the place where he really did belong, a place where he would be surrounded by folks who loved him… his real family, not by blood but by choice.

Seeing Lionel helping Susan get back onto his feet, hearing him say something so considerate… it was as if she was seeing someone else, instead of the very man whom she had known for so long.

The cryptids investigator further proved himself when he confronted Lord Piggot-Dunceby, finally standing up to that old buffoon once and for all. He proved that he no longer cared about trying to be a part of that silly club, that his mind had evolved, that he would cast aside everything for Susan because he was his friend and his friendship was more valuable than a fellowship with those prudes. He stood up for Susan when Dunceby dared to call him an abomination, saying the old man would have to go through him first to get to his furry friend.

Adelina believed that it was at that particular moment that she saw that Lionel had truly changed. No longer was he a self-centered man who cared more about himself than the people who surrounded him, now he was the great Sir Lionel Frost, an investigator of mythical creatures and a man who cared deeply about his friends and loved ones.

So when they were ready to part ways on the boat and he'd asked her what she saw, she simply said I saw proof to which he had then leaned in to kiss her… and she put her hand up, stopping his lips before they could meet hers.

Now Lionel was a great man and all, but Adelina felt like she couldn't accept his kiss just yet. Sure, she would be lying if she said she wasn't interested, but she couldn't risk the possibility of her heart getting broken at any cost. He might have proven he was great, but still, she deserved something greater.

(She deserved someone greater, too. He might have proved himself to be great, but… she wasn't sure if he was great enough for her just yet. She wasn't quite ready to let her guard down, to let him into her heart again, to risk that just for him.

Not yet.)

She wanted an adventure of her own, to explore places she hadn't touched upon yet and see new things, to discover new creatures and more. It had been two years since she had gone out into the world and she wanted to make up for those years.

There were so many places she had yet to see, so many things she had yet to do and not enough time in the world, so she decided that it was time to choose her own path – a road that only she could travel. She needed to embark on this journey not for anyone else, but herself. She owed herself for it, after those two long years she spent locked up in her casa.

So Adelina bid Lionel and Susan farewell and left the docks, but not before giving the investigator a wink – a small notion that maybe, somewhere along the way, something could happen between them.

(When that would happen, she wouldn't know. She wasn't even sure if it was possible, but… maybe. As most folks would say, you never know.)

After she parted ways with the gentlemen, she boarded a boat headed for Venezuela, where she had her very first adventure.

She explored the country, from Caracas to the villages located near the Andean mountains. She met new people and learned their dialects, ate their food, immersing herself within their culture for the amount of time she spent there. She had done everything there was to do, even going so far as to encountering Hairy Dwarves, which she had done a quick rough sketch of before the creatures had fled.

Once Adelina was finished with her adventure in Venezuela, she felt so accomplished, so free. For the first time in years, she had control of her life. She finally chose her own path, her own adventure – the direction her life would take. She was no longer a parakeet trapped inside a cage, but a sparrow who finally spread her wings and flew.

And during the trip back home, she realized that she partially had Lionel to thank for it. While she made her own decisions in the end, had it not been for that – albeit, very heated – conversation they'd had before the Shangri-La adventure, she would have never left her house. Had it not been for Lionel and his weird bird metaphors and tendencies to steal maps, she would have spent the rest of her days cooped inside that place, being miserable, lonely and depressed with only a butler and a pet bird to accompany her.

If it wasn't for him, their relationship wouldn't be on the good terms it was now, she would have never met the wonderful friend that was Susan, they wouldn't have had that insane yet ultimately fun adventure and she would have never gotten the chance to experience her own adventure. Sure, there were the downsides that came with his actions and he hadn't really been the most considerate man in the beginning, but he changed and… he had helped her get out of the house, something not even Ricardo could do back then.

It was because of this that she felt like she owed him now, that she had to find a way to pay him back for what he did. A small thank you, a gift – something that would let him know that she was thankful for him getting her back out into the real world.

And then, it hit her.

A long time ago, when they had been dating, Adelina wrote letters to Lionel, detailing how much she enjoyed the adventures they'd went on in the past and many other things, even including small stuff such as "I love you"s and all that. She had only stopped writing letters after they broke up, with her last letter being… well, not the nicest of the bunch. It had been a long time since she had last written to him, so maybe now was the time she finally did it again, especially considering the last letter she'd written ended off on such a rough note.

And so, she made up her mind right then: once she got home, she would start writing to him again.

Just like old times.

Adelina came to the steps of her casa and knocked on the door, waiting a few seconds before she was greeted by a familiar sight.

"Ah, señora," Ricardo said as he opened the door. "There you are. You've been gone for quite some time, that I was starting to get a little worried."

"Lo siento, Ricardo," Adelina apologized. "It's just that I saw so many wonderful things during my adventure, that I had to explore each and every inch."

"I see," Ricardo said with a small nod, then stepped aside. "Well, come in. Dios knows how delighted Paca will be to see you."

"Oh, I bet," Adelina tittered as she stepped inside.

She walked down the hall, until she stopped by her quarters and entered. There, she saw that everything was mostly tidy, including her pet bird's cage where the parakeet sat on a swing.

"Why hello there, Paca," she cooed as she went over to the cage. The yellow bird started chirping happily as she saw her mistress. "How've you been doing? Have you been a buena niña while I've been gone? Have you?" The bird tweeted and flew around her cage excitedly, answering her question. "Good."

Adelina reached into her jacket's pocket, pulling out a red berry. She opened Paca's cage and held it out to the bird, to which it gladly took the berry and ate it. She smiled, then closed the cage and went to her desk, searching for pieces of paper. Once she found some, she grabbed a pen and began to write down a letter.

Given that it had been some time since she had written to him, it was hard coming up with the words at first. She constantly kept crumbling up the paper she wrote on, throwing the balled up letter in the trash while she began a new one due to the difficulty of phrasing some things.

But eventually, after hours of writing, she managed to finish the letter and look it over, finally satisfied with what she had written. "Yes!" she exclaimed with satisfaction, throwing an arm up into the air. She then went to fold up the remaining paper into an envelope, placing the letter within it and sealing it.

Once that step was complete, Adelina then called out for her butler: "Ricardo?"

The butler poked his head in the room's entrance. "Yes, señora?"

She held the letter out to him. "Could you take this letter to the post office?"

"Of course, right away," he said, bowing his head as he took it.

But before he left, she added, "And be extra careful with it. It's for a friend, so I don't want anything bad to happen to it."

Ricardo nodded and went to deliver the letter, feeling a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. His señora hadn't had friends over or even sent letters since the avalanche, so to see that she was finally interacting with others outside of the house was quite the relief.

Meanwhile, Adelina's smile grew a little wider as she envisioned the kind of reaction Lionel would have to her letter. He would be eager and writing back quickly, no doubt, just like he used to back in those days.

Hopefully, this letter would be not only the start of exchanging letters once more, but also something new.

The beginning of a new era for them both.

Hope this chapter was as good of a start to Adelina's perspective as the first was to Lionel's. As for the letter, you'll find out what it says in the next one, so stay tuned... ;)