I was hoping that Ben would have been more excited by the time we returned with the key to his freedom.

Maybe excited isn't the right word, because I sensed plenty of appropriate jubilation coming off of him, even if he wasn't keen on expressing it on his face. It was almost like he wasn't surprised, or had already concluded some time ago that we would come back to the estate alive and with the circuit breaker in hand. I had to be grateful that he seemed to find faith in our mission after so long of apparently lacking any amount of it before my involvement.

Ben moved over to an old chair in the living room to give Aaron room to work on breaking that horrid device around his neck and wrists. Being that it was Aaron who had planned and committed to the planning of the theft of that device the longest, it was only fitting that he had the honour of finally setting his guest free from his bonds.

"Okay, Ben, I'm gonna start jamming this doohickie behind your neck," Aaron forewarned, kneeling on one knee as he prepared to stick the tongs of the breaker into a crevice located on the back of Ben's shackles. "I uh… I'm not sure if this'll hurt or not. Be ready for anything, I guess."

"There is nothing you could accidentally do that would inflict any poignant harm on me," Ben reassured in that somewhat misleading tone of his, almost like he was disinterested in what was happening when I knew he wasn't. "With release moments away, I can afford to endure a touch of pain if that is what it will cost to receive it."

"Ah. Okay then," Aaron said, a little unsure of what to make of Ben's verbose statement. "You get all the points for being such a champ during all this―even during your earned grumpy moments."

"You are welcome."

I sat on an armrest on one of the sofas by the hearth, watching with anxious anticipation. I could see Aaron's face contorting as he tried to be as delicate as he could when poking around inside the restrictor's inner workings with an equally delicate-looking device. After what felt like an hour when it only took a minute in real-time, I could see Aaron's brow rise to the top of his face when he managed to slide the tongs deeper into the device. "Okay, Ben, I think I got it," he relayed with a cautioned optimism. "I think now all I have to do is stick it… Right… Around… In―"

A loud metal clank suddenly popped inside Ben's restrictor before the entire module split into two pieces and fell to the ground on either side of Ben's chair―both of which were heavy enough to pit the floorboards. While the sudden action startled me and Aaron quite a bit, Ben reacted quite differently. All four of his red eyes widened with rapture as he slowly extended his arms out to full length, which were at least four feet in length each.

We watched Ben in suspenseful silence as looked at his hands, curling his claw-like fingers and feeling his wrists, which were both raw and brown in colour after having been shackled for so long. Even the little curled arm in between his abdomen was extending and curling its little claws as well. Me and Aaron gave each other a silent glance as we both grinned with accomplishment.

"It worked…" Aaron finally spoke. "Holy cow it worked. It worked, Ben! You're free! How do you f―?"

Then, out of nowhere, Ben's hands clutched together as two bright orbs of green energy ignited from them like fire, which spooked me so much that I actually jumped up on the couch as the room flared with green light, and Aaron toppled backwards onto the floor. Ben released a guttural droning sound as he closed his eyes, appearing to be getting a kind of euphoric sensation from this phenomenon before the green energy soon subdued itself and the ambient light was restored.

"Churrrrr… Alung-gunnnnggggg…" Ben growled with a wet rumble that sounded uncanny to a giant viper I once encountered living on Fortuna. Ben then rose to his hoofed feet, still getting used to his arms' new freedom when he turned to me and Aaron. "No words are sufficient enough to express my eternal gratitude for all that you both have done to release me," he said, his low growling voice now low and tender. "With this being a case of verity, I insist that the two of you remain here while I journey outside to repay you in a more…comestible manner."

Ben then turned around and began making his way to the front door. Aaron was still on his back as we both looked at each other, our astonished complexions now turning to ones of concern as Aaron finally got up and lumbered over to our restless friend. "Hey, hey, hold on! Where are you going?"

Ben spun around and put his three-fingered hand in between him and Aaron, pushing it against the large man's massive chest. "Do not deprive me of this, Aaron Beuford," Ben insisted. "I will be back shortly; you and the Krystal must wait here. You both have done much more than should have been necessary for the sake of one fettered vortigaunt already."

Ben walked out the door soon after, and me and Aaron watched him out the window anxiously as he ran off the abandoned property and into the wilderness beyond the lot, unsure what he intended to do or when he would be back like he said. It was somewhat upsetting, but we both did what Ben asked and waited in the living room for his return, unsure of what to make of his abrupt departure. About twenty minutes later, I sensed him returning to the estate grounds, and we both held our breath as we heard him busting the front door open.

Since he would have to go through the kitchen to get to the living room, me and Aaron peered inside the kitchen to see Ben dragging the lifeless carcasses of two fully grown antlions across the grimy tiled floor. I wouldn't say Ben's face conveyed excitement―I had a hunch he rarely did that―but he was declarative as he held up the forelegs of the dead beasts like trophies. "Now we feast!"

It took around thirty minutes for Ben to roast and prepare his catch of antlions before we all began eating, which was right when night fell over the outlands.

At first, I dreaded the idea of eating any ounce of flesh belonging to either of those monstrous insectoids, but I forced myself to be grateful up until I received my plate of roasted forelegs once we all sat at the table. To my pleasant surprise, I ended up liking antlion much more than I was originally willing to humour. The portions that I got at least were naturally salty, the legs' exoskeleton was delightfully crunchy, and the meat inside was much more gelatinous than I would have tolerated otherwise, but its succulence was unlike anything I ever knew before. This was a discovery that was not unique to me because Aaron had also realised his taste for it right alongside me.

"I gotta hand it to you, Ben, you actually made the ugliest critters I have ever seen into one of the best things I've eaten in years," Aaron complimented highly, tearing out a huge chunk of steamy flesh from one of the cooked beasts' bulbous hides with his teeth. "I had not realised that I was housing an exquisite vortigaunt chef this entire time."

"I am pleased you both enjoy my roasted game," Ben nodded, his humble demeanour contrasting profoundly with his messy table manners. Then again, I had somewhat suspended my own table manners as well given how hungry I was from the day I had. "I am relieved to see that my ability to prepare antlion has not wilted with time. It has been generations since my kind has had the opportunity to rekindle such a tradition."

"Tradition?" I asked, momentarily pausing from eating. Ben looked over in my direction and the shadow of a smirk crooked up the side of his face.

"Husbandry of the antlion was once our ancestral practice, for they possess a bounty of valuable compounds," Ben revealed. "They hail from our realm and have waywardly found their way here on this world when the borders between them were nothing more than a vaporous sheen. They are a disruption to the natural balance of this world and have sequestered their own colonies across these lands and beyond. It is within humanity's good fortune that the antlions do not stray far from their nests, but they are merciless when intruders dare set foot in them, as you had the misfortune of enduring firsthand."

My appetite wavered only a little when remembering that awful encounter during my first day on Earth, which was only made more ironic while I was eating antlion legs. "Oh yeah, even shtill," Aaron said with a full mouth before properly swallowing. "They're a real blight on the place, but at least I know they taste good when broiled. I should have suspected such given how well their smooshed babies replenish a man's health."

"Aaron, please, I beg you not call them that…" I requested, internally cringing at the remembrance of that graphic medical procedure. I was finding that my taste for antlion would dwindle rapidly should this kind of talk persist.

"Babies, larva―they're all getting smooshed by the Combine in one form or another," Aaron shrugged his massive shoulders, resuming his carnivorous mastication.

Stomach-unsettling commentary aside, the meal was not only rewarding and satisfactory, but yet another insight into Ben's culture and his people―all of which got destroyed and enslaved by the Combine much like what was currently happening to the inhabitants of this world. I only got to see a quarter of a fraction of the Combine's rule today, and it was already more than enough to convince me that this foe was unlike anything I had ever encountered. Perhaps this was a natural conclusion when facing this extradimensional force, yet I somehow felt that the Combine were a special kind of terror even in this uncharted field.

"Oh, lassie, have you shown Ben what you found today?" Aaron asked, which abruptly awoke me from my wandering thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"You know, that fancy power stick of yours," Aaron recalled, looking over to his vortigaunt friend, who was literally licking his plate clean. "It's a shame you weren't there, Ben, I've never seen anything like it. Made those soldiers look like a bunch of pansies!"

Ben stopped licking his plate as all four of his eyes glided to my belt and the clip that held my retracted staff. He raised his head and growled with intrigue. "Yes. That item. I smell a raw potency to it. The flames of the cooking fire cinder a fragrance identical to the smell coming from your holstered possession."

Setting one of my antlion forelegs down, I smirked a little as I wiped my hands on my jacket before unclipping my retracted staff. "Well, you did ask us to get the fire going after you ran off to get our supper," I recalled, now deploying my staff to its full length and planting its hilt end on the floor.

Ben growled again with rousing curiosity. "Exquisite," he observed, getting up from his chair to examine it more closely. "This is a tool of tremendous value. Fine-tuned with the elements that fuel life itself."

I permitted him to close his clawed hand around the spearhead, and a flicker of green energy sparked around both his hand and my staff for a couple of seconds. I would have been a little startled by this normally, but I sensed a resonation between Ben and my staff, almost like he could understand it in the way that I could. Ben then released his grip and turned to me with a soft and contented gaze.

"The ones that have conceived and reared you did not depart you without leaving ample insurance," he said, humbly backing up to sit down in his chair again.

Hearing him say that made me smile. "Yes. I like to believe they did," I said, shrinking my staff up again and setting it aside on the table. "This wasn't all I found at the depot either," I added. "I also found the homing device for my ship. It is only a matter of locating it and bringing it a compatible fuel source."

Ben rumbled with curiosity, and Aaron was looking at me with a contemplative look as he stroked his beard. He seemed to have arrived at some kind of unvoiced conclusion, as the latter statement I made gave him an idea, though potentially a controversial one. "I think I might know someone who can help you with that, lassie," he said, resting one hand on top of his other.

My attention was instantly hooked at the mention of this. "Who?" I asked eagerly. Ben must have known who Aaron was talking about and sounded less than pleased at the suggestion by the way he sneered in Aaron's direction, revealing his fanged teeth.

"The Mofuni is unreliable to help in her case, Beuford," he grizzled. "He would be more inclined to dissect her eyes than he would return her to the right road."

"I know he's a bit erratic, Ben, but we don't have too many 'smart' guys out here," Aaron argued.

"Who is Mofuni?" I asked.

"Doctor Mofuni," Aaron elaborated. "He's one of the last living scientists from the continents out west. He resides in Red Bay: the largest refuge for escapees in this region, just past the mountains over there. He's an alleged expert in portal tech and phenomena; I think he'll be able to help you get back home."

Already, I was filled with an insatiable drive to meet this individual. I couldn't afford to skip out on any help that could potentially bring me back to Lylat, but Ben's non-subtle disposition kept my excitement under firm reins. "There are other humans with the knowledge that she requires. I advocate that we bring the Krystal to a far more well-kept candidate."

"If only there were any," Aaron disputed. "Most of the ones you're referring to are way out east in Breen Country. Mofuni is the best we can work with. And besides, I kinda owe the man my life. I know we can trust him."

Ben rumbled with begrudging discontent before turning to me, softening his expression some. "It is ultimately the Krystal's decision as to the best course of action to be."

I did give it some thought for a silent moment as they both awaited my answer. I took Ben's opinion on this seriously, but I believed that Aaron was right. I would imagine that humans with promising knowledge of dimensional gateways were few and far between in this world, so my mind was essentially already made up before confronted with the question.

"I'm willing to meet with this Doctor Mofuni," I concluded, looking at Aaron. "If he truly does have an idea on how to get me back to my universe, I must consult with him. When shall we leave for Red Bay?"

"First thing tomorrow morning if you'd like," Aaron suggested. "This estate here is the first rest stop in a series of stations that guide escapees to Red Bay. It's my job to keep this place stocked and tidy for those coming and going. Shouldn't take more than a day to get there if we keep a good pace."

As Aaron and I made our plans, Ben glanced away from the table. He was not upset with either of us―I could sense that much―but I was curious as to why the name of this scientist stirred such mistrust in Ben. I didn't get the feeling that he met this Mofuni before, yet I could sense that there was something personal here.

I was likely going to find out his reasons in the near future, which was what kept me from asking him about it at the table. Ben did not remain disgruntled for long, however, for he too acknowledged the few benefits that would accompany the meeting. "It is best that we venture to Red Bay, regardless of the lure yielded by the Mofuni's prowess," Ben admitted. "I have grown immeasurably tired of being bound to this house. It has provided me well as my haven, just as much as it has served as my prison."

"I feel you, buddy," Aaron sympathised, munching on some more antlion. "Am I correct in assuming that you also wish to leave for Red Bay tomorrow? I bet you are just dying to leave, yeah?"

"I would leave at this very moment if my will dictated us," Ben said honestly, before looking over at me once more. "But you and the Krystal have done the hardest work to help me. The very least I am able to do is to allow you this night to rest and rest well."

Indeed, I was longing for a good night's rest after a day like today. "Thank you, Ben…" I said graciously.

"Hmm," Ben grunted.

"Well, that settles it," Aaron spoke up, receiving our attention. "Unless there's a sudden call for amendment, we'll all be leaving for Red Bay first thing. It'll be a bit of a trip, so let's make sure we're all packed before we nestle in tonight."

He then scooted his chair back as he rose from the table, heightening his already looming figure with a cheeky look on his face. "But why not first add a little more to this celebratory feast with a little shot of my family's secret weapon…?" he suggested.

I didn't know what that implied, however, Ben seemed to be in on Aaron's message, and the surface between his mouth and eye wrinkled as his lips curled into a smile, one I had never seen him make until now. "Truly, I see no other way to conclude this momentous day," he concurred, growling with approval.

Aaron nodded with mutuality before looking at me. "You and Ben wait right here; I'll be in the kitchen making my great granny's brew. I reckon you'll love it," he instructed, before skipping away into the kitchen like a construction mech playing hopscotch.

"What are you both on about?" I asked Ben, watching him resting his head on his palm, wearing a pleased look on his cycloptic face.

"The Aaron Beuford has presented and fed me a myriad of culinary concoctions while under his care," he said. "His results had always been valiant efforts, but have underperformed in some manner. I tolerated his persistence in perfecting the art. However, in this specific culinary case, the Aaron Beuford is the unrivalled master…"

I was left to ponder and anticipate for around twenty minutes waiting for Aaron to finish his 'concoction'. Neither I nor Ben said much to either at that time. It wasn't because we found each other incompatible company, I believe it was because neither of us were incessant talkers. Then again, I was admittedly feeling depleted, and the warm food in my stomach wasn't much help in keeping me sprightly. I didn't read Ben's mind to know for sure, but I got the impression that he may have been giving me space, which I was thankful for.

Before I even knew it was happening, the air began to smell wonderous. A rich and spicy smell tickled my nostrils, which seemed to trigger a warming sensation throughout my body. The smell was coming from the kitchen, and Ben seemed to be catching a whiff of it too as the elongated lobes on the sides of his head flared before he rumbled with content. "The time for preparedness draws ever closer…" he said, gazing dreamily at the kitchen entrance.

Moments later, Aaron reemerged holding a tray that bared a kettle and a fine cup set. He gingerly set the tray down as a gentle trail of steam rose from the kettle's spout. The lovely smell was now stronger than ever as its source sat inches away from me.

"What is this you made here, Aaron? It smells divine…" I said, almost bewitched by the marvellous aroma.

"Ah, this here be an old Beuford family recipe, Krystal," Aaron said, already beginning to pour a glass, revealing it to be dark creamy liquid. "The ingredients to make this sacred beverage are tragically hard to come by during these trying times. I've managed to hold on to a precious amount that I save for particularly special occasions like tonight. I made some for Ben during his second night here after figuring out that I was unable to free him. You know, just to cheer him up a little."

"I am convinced that the mere taste of it is what made me tolerate my condition for as long as I committed to it," Ben said, eagerly taking the cup offered to him by Aaron, who chuckled at the vortigaunt's conclusion.

"Even more so than gin?"

"Your feeble human intoxications hold no ground against what you have procured here," Ben affirmed with unquestioning confidence.

"Boys, I can't handle the suspense," I interjected, getting a little twitchy as I waited for my cup to be poured. "Are your thoughts truthful when believing this is as great as claimed?"

"That's not for me to say, lassie," Aaron shrugged as he handed me my cup. "This is something you gotta make up your own mind about."

The old china cup was sufficiently warm in my hand as I held it. I studied the dense steamy beverage for a second; the smell was amongst the most wonderous things I ever smelled, making it hard for me to resist the urge to taste it already. I might have been taking a bit too long when analysing my gift because both Aaron and Ben were looking at me with wide and suspenseful eyes, almost like they were waiting for the spectacle of my head exploding after I tasted this drink. Just to be safe, I read through both of their thoughts much more thoroughly than I deliberately would otherwise, and I sensed that they were not, in truth, anticipating my head to explode.

I gave them both a bit of a nettled look before I finally took a cautioned sip, minding the hot contents. I nearly dropped my cup the moment when the first droplets graced my tongue. The taste was unbelievable: sweet yet savoury, creamy yet bitter, nutty yet fruity, and a list of many other conflicting tastes that had no place amongst each other, yet somehow coexisted in perfect harmony.

It was like drinking the pure essence of a hug. The sensation was so internally warm and embracing that it made all of the fur around my body stand up along with my ears. My tail plumed like an unkempt bush, and I am confident that the bands around my tail would have popped right off had they not been the metal ones I was wearing.

"By the stars…" I soon uttered in complete bewitchment, unable to comprehend the impossible enigma that I had discovered in this cup.

"I take it that you like my little refreshment?" Aaron asked, holding back some laughter as he gawked at my frilly bodily reaction, which must have been a spectacle all on its own.

"Like…?" I replied, looking to the concoctor, feeling as if that word did a great dishonour to his creation. "Aaron, I think this literally changed my life. There is no going back from this. I must know what this is and how to make it," I demanded, hardly holding back my desire to know in full detail what it took to create this ethereal beverage, which made me categorise my entire life leading up to this point as the "pre-beverage era" on the spot.

Aaron only smiled as he leaned back in his creaky chair, putting his hands behind his head. "I'm sorry, lassie, but we Beufords have our trade secrets to keep, and we make sure to keep them well," he lamented, though it sounded hollow. "I'm afraid this recipe is going to my grave."

"We have matter-replicating machines on Corneria," I counterargued, pointing my finger at him as my tail swished uncontrollably. "I will preserve a portion of this and reproduce the ingredients. That is a promise."

Aaron shook his head with amused doubt. "Well gee, I sure hope that you're able to maintain the will because you're going to end up drinking all of it."

"And that is indisputable…" Ben added, happily finishing his own cup.