It was early in the morning when Lemonhope heard a knock on his door. He looked at the grass clock on the wall and struggled for a moment to read the time. It was the early hour of seven in the morning. Lemonhope let out a groan and shot the door a menacing look. He wasn't going to wake up this early in the morning. Just as his eyes started to feel heavy again there was another, more rapid, knock on the door. With a final groan which grew into a yawn he stood up and groggily made his way to the door giving an annoyed "Coming!" as he did so. He was still in his clothes from yesterday as he couldn't find a shower in the building.

When he reached the door and started to turn the nob there was another knock, or rather it sounded like the door was vibrating at this point. With a newfound fury Lemonhope opened the door with a blazing speed causing Frasier to stumble forward. "Why in Glob's name did you wake me up this early?" asked Lemonhope with venom seeping from every word.
"Early?" replied Frasier. "The whole town has been up and running for a few hours now. We can't possibly miss the morning dew."
Lemonhope wiped some gunk out of his eye looked outside of the window. Frasier wasn't lying, the whole town was already awake. He could see a market square set up not too far from the Inn and saw lots of grass people going around doing their business. He turned back to Frasier and with a slightly less sour tone said, "Well, I'm not made of grass, am I?"

"That's why I waited so long to wake you up, lemonhead," said Frasier in a mocking tone. "Anyways, let's hit the road as soon as we can, I want to catch some extra dew."
Lemonhope made his way downstairs and found many of the same people there as there were last night. Instead of being met with suspicious stares, he was met with a comforting indifference. He took a seat at the table where he performed last night. Frasier quickly took a seat beside him. He propped up his head on the table with both his arms looking at Lemonhope. "So, what are you gonna have for breakfast?" asked Fraiser.
"I dunno," replied Lemonhope. "What is there to eat?"
"Oh, well there's Dew on the Rocks, Mineral Delight, Clod Sandwich and a few others."

Lemonhope wasn't in the mood to eat dirt or drink some morning dew. He thought to what he had in his backpack for food and remembered that he already ate every little scrap he had on the way to the grass town. Just thinking of dirt in his mouth made him throw up a little. "I think I'll pass up on breakfast," said Lemonhope. He was met with protests from his stomach. Frasier looked disappointed at his new friend's lack of hunger. "Ah well," sighed Frasier. "I guess this means more time on the road then!"

Frasier jumped up and ran to the door. He ran on the spot and looked to Lemonhope. As soon as Lemonhope stood up from the table and made his way to the door, Frasier zipped out the door but could still be heard tip tapping his feet from running in one spot. Lemonhope was finally feeling a little more awake from all the excitement. Lemonhope found Frasier waiting for him outside, if you could even call it waiting, and looked to the horizon. The sun hung low and was being filtered by the low hanging leaves of trees. A grass person passed them and greeted Frasier, but he was too busy waiting for Lemonhope to respond to the grass person.

"So which way is this Casino City?" asked Lemonhope.
Frasier seemed to stand still for just a second as he tried to remember what his grandfather told him of the grand place. "It should be to the north of our town," said Frasier and went back to hopping up and down.
"Nice," was all Lemonhope said. He turned to look for the nearest northern path and saw one that led into a thick treeline. "Are you ready to go?" asked Lemonhope.
Frasier stood in salute. "Ready as I'll ever be," said Frasier.
Lemonhope wondered for a second why he even bothered asking. With the indication of his hand, the two began to make their way to their gambling paradise.

Lemonhope was on the lookout for anything that looked like food. All that the grass people seemed to have really was just dirt and water. When he turned his eyes back to the road, he saw that Frasier ran up ahead a bit. He was taking dew from the grass and rubbing it all over himself. Frasier noticed Lemonhope staring at him and his blades became a shade of red. "Oh, sorry," he said. "Does this bother you?"
"No, no," replied Lemonhope. "It's just that I've never seen grass people take a shower and it looks a little strange to me."
"It isn't like that," said Frasier now losing his blush. "I'm busy eating. It's totally different from washing myself."
"I don't know whether that's better or worse."

When they approached the forest, they noticed that the grass around the road grew as tall as they were. The trees of the forest made such a thick canopy that the forest seemed to be nearly black on the inside. The two could hear less birds than before and as they came closer to the forest, the sounds of the birds seemed to be fading away. "Have you ever been in the forest yourself, Frasier?" asked Lemonhope.
Frasier shook his head. "No, I was always warned that bandits live in the forest and that little grasslings like me make a very tasty meal for bandits," said Frasier.
"I'm not so sure about the last part, but I don't think we'll run into any bandits. We don't have anything valuable between us, I think."
Frasier nodded, but seemed to have a shiver run down his spine. "I know what can make this less scary," said Lemonhope.
He took out his harp and started playing a tune.

On the road again
we make our way to into our future

On the road again
we will make memories together

we'll go and make some money
All our troubles will seem funny
by finding a good story
that could be a little gory

But in the end we will have an adventure
But in the end it will be a cool venture
But in the end we will be together
But in the end it will be our endeavour

On the road again

The dark forest didn't seem so menacing anymore to the two and they were sure they could see a ray of light shining through the trees. They made their merry way through the forest without a care in the world until they noticed that the light was following them. They stopped dead in their tracks and listened closely for any sounds in the forest. Just as they thought they were imagining things they heard a rustle come from where they saw the light. Lemonhope reached for the flute but found that he didn't have it. He forgot that he gave the flute back to Fin when they last met and was now left defenceless.

Two bandits jumped from the grass unto the road behind Frasier and Lemonhope. Lemonhope began to panic but Frasier was completely calm. The bandits were wearing torn and tattered clothes and had socks with holes cut in them on their heads. They both had daggers and bags in their hands. "Give us all the money you got," said the taller of the two bandits.
"Yea, and give us that little harp too," said the shorter one.
Lemonhope's knees were shaking but Frasier was calm and standing completely still. "Y-you can have it," stuttered Lemonhope.
"If you can pry it from our cold dead hands!" cried Frasier.

Frasier lifted his arms into the air and the grass all around the road seemed to rise with it. The grass seemed to be pulsating and whipping out blades towards the bandits. The bandits faltered in their imposing stance and looked wildly at all the tall grass around them. Frasier then thrust his arms forward and the grass bent to his will, shooting towards the bandits at lightning speed. The bandits tried to run away, but the grass caught up to them and wrapped around their ankles like snakes slithering up a tree. They tried to rip the grass off themselves but found that every blade of grass that they removed was replaced by two more. After a short moment the bandits were dragged closer and the grass climbed up further the bandit's legs. The speed at which the grass consumed the bandits was getting faster and faster no matter how much they struggled. A few seconds of struggling later and the bandits were fully wrapped in a thick layer of grass which wove itself together into a rock-hard surface across them. All that could be seen of the bandits were their noses and all that could be heard were faint whimpers coming from inside their cocoons.

Once the grass was finished Frasier lowered his arms and stoop up straight puffing out his chest. Lemonhope looked at the bandits and them back to Frasier with his mouth agape. "Not bad, eh?" asked Frasier the shocked Lemonhope. Lemonhope never thought that this little grass person could be so powerfull. "I might have misjudged you," said Lemonhope giving Frasier a pat on the back. "Let's get out of here before more goons show up."
With that they walked swiftly through the forest.

By the time that the two made it through to the other side of the forest they found that night had already fallen. They climbed up a hill to the side of the road and set up camp for themselves. Lemonhope at last lured something edible to him which he roasted over a fire and Frasier went about picking up clumps of dirt. They each feasted in silence enjoying the meals that they made for themselves while being a little disgusted at the others choice of food. Soon the fire died down and the two began to get ready for bed and gazed up to the stars above.

"Do you think that we are really free?" asked Frasier.
"What do you mean?" replied Lemonhope.
"I dunno really. I just have this feeling that there is a chance that we don't really have a choice as to what we do."
Lemonhope turned his vision from the stars to Frasier in an attempt to better understand him. "Maybe we're all just puppets to the grand cosmos," continued Frasier. "Destiny dictates what we do, and Destiny already planned out what we will do. Every time we make a decision Destiny decides for us. So, can we really be free in our quest for freedom when the quest was already down on paper? When the book has already been written is the end still uncertain? If this is true, we can blame someone, or some concept, for what's happening to us. If someone wanted you to hurt, then you can blame them, but if the world wants you to hurt do you blame the world? Do you blame a god? Do you blame yourself? We say that our decisions make us, so if fate decides our decisions for us, can you even blame it, therefore blaming yourself again?"

"I think that, even if everything has been decided for us, we can still relish in the illusion of choice and the feelings that it gives us"

Lemonhope turned back to the stars. His friend's thoughts pained him. It went against everything he believed and wanted to believe. A comet streaked across the sky and he saw an opportunity. "That comet is amazing," he said.

"Sure is," replied his friend.

"What if we could go to space?"

"What would there even be to explore?"

"The stars, I think. I heard from the princess that they are giant balls of burning gas and that big spheres of rock and gas rotate around it. Spheres called planets and that can be like our own."

"That sounds a bit outlandish doesn't it?"

"As outlandish as the idea that the stars are merely holes poked into a veil of darkness that falls over Ooo when night comes."

"But that's how it is!" Frasier said and sat up to properly look at his friend.

"Is it?"

The rest of the night was spent in silence, each of them contemplating their own thoughts and their friend's. They both drifted off into uneasy sleeps being plagued by rogue thoughts giving them unpleasant dreams.