It's been a long journey to Ur, but a memorable one. The (relatively) little airship of the Aelfin consists of a triangular frame that stretches between three hot air balloons, each with its own stove, and each stove being contained within a little chamber at each corner of the triangle – the stove doubling to provide some warmth against the chill of the high temperatures while traveling. A fourth balloon is suspended in the center of the framework, holding up a cabin occupied by the Aelfin captain and his wife, while a cargo net is suspended beneath the delicate vessel.

The upside of a hot air balloon vessel such as this, is that one needn't worry about the whole thing blowing up if a spark gets introduced to one of the envelopes. On the downside, the range of such a craft is fairly limited, so frequent stops are a necessity. Still, that can have its benefits as well – a chance to stretch the legs and get on solid ground for a bit, if nothing else.

At last, however, after hopping over the ocean by stopping at paquebots and passing ocean-cruisers, the Aelfin craft reached the continent of Ur … and there, over the mountains, lay the countryside of Aelfhem, with its distinctively strange pink-leafed trees, and other fantastic oddities.

Now, the craft makes its final approach into the valley, heading toward a village indicated only by little plumes of smoke rising up between the treetops. Jagged mountains guard the valley from every side, and every now and then, a crystal-clear stream can be seen dancing across the rocks as it makes its way down from the highlands, gaining tributaries, and slowly becoming a river once it passes through the valley.

Baddock stands on one of the walkways running between two of the cabins. The continent spreads out far and wide as his eyes can see. He gazes out at the land as it passes underneath the airship. From the moment he first saw Ur appear on the distant horizon, Baddock had been filled with anticipation… He was eagerly awaiting the moment that was fast approaching. The moment when he would step off of this craft, and into the land of Aelfhem. That was when the training would truly begin. Despite his excitement, Baddock tries his best to clear his mind and focus on the objective at hand: to retrieve Sugarfir Leaves from the Orchard of Aelfhem. He decided to change out of his street clothes and don his black gi. Although no longer a disciple of the Shinryuu temple, he still feels a strong spiritual attachment to it, and wears its outfit with pride.

The airship glides lower and lower, as Captain Mountainglade rushes about the corners of the ship, adjusting nozzles on the stoves, turning down the heat, and letting more of the air escape from the balloons … then going back and occasionally turning up the heat just a tad, then down again … all part of the complex job of making sure that the craft catches the right winds to keep heading toward the proper clearing, and then to drop softly to the ground. At last, his hard work pays off, as the triangular craft lowers into a wide clearing. Several Aelfin are gathered about, no doubt having seen the craft's approach from afar. They wave and call out words that Baddock can't understand, but which are friendly and welcoming in tone.

Baddock watches from his spot on the walkway as the craft lands. He goes to find the Captain.

The ship touches down, the central cargo netting brushing the ground first, and the packages settling as the "legs" of the triangle come to rest on solid ground. The Captain is sitting atop the central pod, which is settling into position in the center of the triangle as the ship stops moving. His wife bustles about, securing ropes and checking to make sure nothing gets crushed in the landing.

The Captain clambers across a rope ladder over to the outer edge of the triangle, then operates a crank, rolling out a boarding ramp. It's not as heavy and durable as most Rephidim airships would use … but the cargo is in the net below anyway, and the passengers on this ship usually aren't all that heavy. At least, the crew isn't! "Welcome to Aelfhem!" he calls out, beaming proudly as he gestures to the surrounding scene – a panorama of trees alight in verdant greens, earthy browns, bright magenta, and luminescent pink.

Upon hearing the Captain announce that the airship has finally reached his destination, Baddock quickly dashes back to his cabin. He was planning to ask where they had landed, anyway. Snatching up his few belongings, he makes his way back to the boarding ramp to again offer his thanks to the Captain and his wife.

The wife carries down a few things to be washed in the river, smiling and nodding at Baddock as she passes, while Captain Mountainglade directs some of the gathered Aelfin as they come to pick up assorted items from the cargo net. He pauses in his work to grin at Baddock. "I hope the journey was pleasurable for you?"

Baddock bows politely to the Captain. "Yes, sir!" He smiles happily. "If I can ever do anything to repay you, just let me know."

The Aelfin gathered in the clearing start to move out, each having a small load of goods. At the fringe of the clearing can be seen a few cottages, and at the far side of the clearing is another airship, this one of much different design, though almost as humble in size. It's a black ship, with a faded gray envelope. It shows signs of once having a symbol on the envelope, but the dyes have long since faded away – or perhaps they've been bleached away intentionally.

Baddock takes a quick look around at his new surroundings. Regarding them with a smile, he looks back to the Captain. "Do you need anything from me, or I can get going?"

"Not a thing, young fellow! It's the least I can do, to give you a trip, and help you on your journey," answers Captain Mountainglade. "You don't owe me a thing." He winks as he points to his wife. "Besides, she wouldn't stand for it any other way."

"All right, then," Baddock replies, "I guess I'll be off." As he starts away from the landing site, he pauses and looks back to the Captain. "Oh, umm… one more thing. You wouldn't know where I can find … um… " He tries to recall Master Whiptail's words. "… The Orchard of Aelfhem? Any idea where it's at?"

The Captain turns around. "Oh. The Sacred Orchard?" He turns about, and points up toward one of the mountains that has a bit more pink on the slopes than the rest. "Right there, on the Sacred Mountain. The Guardian of the Seasons watches over the Sacred Orchard." He then returns to opening a small chest and pulling out several smaller bundled packets from it and sorting them out.

Baddock turns his gaze up towards the mountain pointed out by the Captain. Nodding to himself, he quickly ties the sheaths containing his bow staff and his short sword around his back. "Thanks! I'll see ya around, Captain!" With that, the boy quickly dashes off in the general direction of the Sacred Mountain.

This path takes Baddock past the Eeee ship, and out of the corner of his eye, the young boy can see a tawny-yellow bat standing on the deck, leaning on the railing, and chewing on a pipe absently. The bat shakes his head, looking quite amused at something.

The way doesn't look far, though, and the young boy quickly makes it to the edge of the clearing. Here the golden grass gives way to a forest, without obvious paths to go by, but it is not particularly dense, and the ground is only moderately uneven.

The training is now underway. Jogging along at a brisk pace, Baddock looks up through the trees from time to time as he makes his way through the forest.

It's much more quiet out here than it was in the city, or even on the airship. After all, on the airship, there was always the sound of the stoves filling the balloons with flame and hot air, and the sound of the air rushing past. In the city, there was all manner of commotion and chatter. But here, there is only the sound of Baddock's footfalls, the occasional crunching of his feet upon fallen, crackling leaves.

Cool breezes blow down from the mountain, and puffy clouds roll low overhead. The altitude must be high here, though Baddock has spent so much time traveling by air – and in Rephidim – that his lungs are well adjusted to the pressure.

Baddock quickly scans his surroundings every few seconds or so, keeping an alert eye on everything around him. His ears not detecting any unusual sounds, he continues towards the Sacred Mountain. After a bit more jogging, Baddock decides to slow his pace to a walk.

As Baddock slows down, he can hear the sounds of birds singing … or, well, not just birds, but strange chirruping creatures that sound a little too alien to easily place. In the distance, there is the sound of a burbling brook. Further up the mountain, there is a low sound that could be the wind blowing through some reeds … but considering how reeds aren't likely to be found up on a mountainside, perhaps it has a different explanation. An instrument, perhaps?

A few of the aspects of Aelfhem… or what Baddock has seen of it so far… are vaguely similar to the image his mind created, based on the description given by the old master. As he nears the mountain, he looks all around, noting especially the vegetation; much of it is unlike any he's ever seen. As he ponders it, Baddock hears the unfamiliar sound. He continues on, expecting to find its source soon enough, seeing as he seems to be heading in its general direction.

As Baddock continues, he comes up to a wall made of piled stones. It isn't a very tall wall at all … more of a marker of a boundary, than a serious attempt to keep anyone or anything in or out. At intervals, wooden poles jut out from the stones, pointing more or less upward. Some of them sport paper streamers with runic writing on them that flutter about in the breeze.

The reed sound echoes again, followed by an answer, and then the curious sounds quiet again.

Completely undaunted by the wall, Baddock doesn't even break his stride as he scales it in two quick leaps. He bounds off the top of it, landing on the other side and pausing a moment to look around.

The rock wall must span the circumference of the peak of this mountain, describing what might be a roughly circular area, if the rest could be seen. Within it, the trees are no longer irregular, as in the forest, but in carefully arranged rows. While there are other plants and grass on the ground, it has the mark of being regularly tended, not just part of the wild. The leaves of the Sugarfir trees are more vibrant magenta-pink than anywhere else in the forest that Baddock has been seen. They almost seem to glow in the sunlight.

I guess this is it, Baddock thinks to himself. He's a little surprised; so far, this seems like a fairly simple training session… even for him. Awestruck by the uncommon beauty of the Sugarfir trees, the young boy makes his ways toward them.

The trees tower above the young boy, silent and solemn in their colorful beauty. It would take a bit of scrambling to get to the lowest of the branches – a few feet, that is – but hardly anything of monumental, heroic proportions.

Baddock steps up to a tree at the end of one of the rows. He looks up at the leaves. All right, then… Although it would be a simple task to leap up and snag a few leaves, he decides on a different method. Taking a step back from the tree, he drops into an offensive fighting stance, his knees bent and facing the tree sideways. He pauses a moment and clears his mind, focusing his energy. He forms an open palm with one hand and brings it back, "Haaaaa… " A second later, he steps forward and attacks the tree with an open-hand strike, hoping he has enough power to shake some leaves lose. "Kyaa!!"

With a resounding crack, the black bark of the tree caves in, indenting where the boy's hand struck. A pinkish syrupy sap begins to weep through the broken bark, and several pink leaves drift to the ground. The reedish sounds blow again … and then a louder, keening blare.

"Yah hah!" Baddock triumphantly exclaims as he sees the leaves shake loose from the tree. "Not bad at all!" He hears the sounds, but at the moment is too preoccupied with his feat, as he reaches up to catch some of the falling leaves.

It's a fairly simple matter, and Baddock has several of the leaves. He finds he has a pinkish stain on his hand from the sap, where he struck the tree.

The pattering of feet can be heard, as several Aelfin in robes come charging down the slope, waving rods around, and yelling something in a language Baddock can't decipher. It doesn't sound quite like the tone of voice of all those welcomes and greetings at the clearing earlier, though. Rather, it sounds awfully unfriendly.

Baddock looks up at the new arrivals on the scene, as he tucks the leaves into his small bag. The Aelfin speech patterns sound like pure gibberish to Baddock's ears, but he thinks maybe they're all just talking too fast. "What?! Slow down!"

There are five Aelfin … monks? … rushing down the hill, waving rods around. And by the look in their eyes, it looks like they intend to introduce the rods violently to one end of Baddock or the other.

"Aw, guys!" Baddock calls to them in an annoyed, pleading tone. He leaps back and draws his bo staff as he drops into a defensive fighting stance. The kid's willing to bet these guys will put up more of a fight than their trees do. Again, he shouts at them, quite cheesed off by now. "Hey! Easy now… easy!!" he calls out in a more threatening tone of voice.

The Aelfin don't seem to be responding to reason or threatening tones of voice, as they converge upon Baddock and begin to circle him.

It suddenly occurs to Baddock that this must, in fact, be part of Master Whiptail's training. Of course! He knew it was just too easy, and the old master wouldn't send him on such a menial assignment, knowing well the young boy's abilities. Laughing at himself for being so foolish as not to realize this earlier, he nods to himself and twirls his bo staff as he steps into a different fighting stance. Baddock holds the staff in one hand as he leaps into the air, about to bounce lightly off one of the Aelfin' heads and land outside of their formation.

It's a really great move … except that Aelfin aren't quite the same as, say, Kavis or Jupani. The four ears of the "lucky" Aelfin go up in surprise as a human boy's foot lands on his head … and then the diminutive monk collapses under the weight, falling to the ground. Baddock goes down as well.

Baddock manages to roll off of the fallen Aelfin, slapping his bo stick back into its sheath as he does so. He stands up and pulls back into a fighting stance as he prepares to strike at the collapsed creature with a series of fast punches to its mid-section.

And well he would have, except for the other four monks who have taken advantage of Baddock's slight imbalance by jabbing in with their own staves. One of them misses, but the other three whack him soundly on the head, back and hind end.

Baddock steps back and away from the Aelfin, putting as much distance as he can between them and him for the moment. Things are starting to look real bad for him. His mind races to formulate a plan. And wouldn't you know it, he comes up with one. He has no idea just how well it will work, but it can't be any worse than standing here and getting the snot beaten out of him. He turns his back to his opponents, patting his rear end tauntingly and turning his head to give them a bad look, then races off toward the rows of Sugarfir trees.

The five Aelfin monks charge after Baddock, the fifth one having to take a moment to get back up off the ground. Their little feet, however, don't carry them nearly so swiftly as Baddock's do.

Baddock dashes into the grove, coming to a stop when he's deep within the trees. He leaps up into a tree and quickly scurries up the branches until he's about nine or ten feet off the ground. Clutching a branch tightly, he remains as motionless as possible and listens for the monks' approach.

Time passes. The monks don't appear.

More time passes. The birds and those other singing creatures start chirruping and Creening again.

Not willing to believe they'd give up so easily with an intruder in their grove, Baddock climbs higher up the tree, hoping to get a look around.

The higher the boy climbs, the harder it is to see the forest floor, as interposing branches fill the way … but the view is progressively nicer of the surrounding groves, and the valley spreading out below.

Baddock looks around for any of the monks… or anyone else for that matter.

A shadow passes overhead, causing the pinkish leaves to seem to ripple in its wake.

As something above suddenly blocks out the sun for a moment, Baddock looks up.

The something overhead looks like a really, really big lizard with six bat-like wings, and three heads. It is circling overhead. One of the heads – the red one – glances downward at Baddock's tree. It roars, sending out a jet of flame. The other two heads peer down as well. The blue head shoots out a spray of frost that rains down, sprinkling particles of ice that bounce off of the leaves.

"Awww, @#!$!" Baddock cries. "That guy is gonna kick my butt!!!" He immediately begins to make his way back down the tree, watching his step as he steps on each branch, and preparing to jump down the rest of the way once he can see the ground clearly.

Once Baddock can see the ground clearly, he can also see five little monks patiently waiting, circling the base of the tree, but standing clear of any of its branches. One of them looks up at the boy, and his eyes crinkle as he smiles faintly, then holds up one finger and wags it from side to side as he makes a "tut tut tut" sound with his tongue.

Baddock grits his teeth in grim determination. "You haven't got me yet, punks!" Remaining well out of reach of the monks, he grabs his sword from its sheath and begins to hack at a few of the branches while firmly gripping the trunk with his left arm, his legs wrapped around it as well. He laughs maniacally as he slashes at random branches. "You like that, jerks? I'm choppin' your stupid tree up!"

Three roars come from above … the five monks look up … then scatter, running in five different directions, soon disappearing from sight. Pink sap weeps from the wounds inflicted by the young boy, and the bark discolors as it bruises and stains.

Not wasting a second, Baddock returns his sword to its sheath and leaps down to the ground.

The young boy's leap skillfully takes him to the ground, landing on his feet. The branches of the tree shake, and the sounds of mighty wing-beats can be heard just overhead … as well as the three roaring voices of that … that … thing.

Baddock blasts off in a fast run through the trees. He pulls out his bo staff, prepared to jam it into the ribcage of anything that tries to get in his way. His ears listen intently for the sound of any feet other than his own, and his eyes watch the trees as he readies himself to leap at any moment, if need be.

There's a flash out of the corner of Baddock's eye – and, just in time, his uncanny reflexes allow him to roll under a swinging staff, and then leap over another that came in at a low sweep. Two monks are now behind him, having made their attacks from their hiding places, yet not connecting with the body of the running boy.

Clearing the sudden obstacle, Baddock continues to run. He holds his bo staff at the ready, listening for footsteps behind him as he blows past the trees.

Angry cries can be heard in Baddock's wake, but he's well outpacing the Aelfin. The roars overhead, however, are probably of more concern, as the three-headed dragon circles over the trees, peering through gaps in the trees to try to find its prey.

Suddenly, and completely unexpectedly, the Aelfin chasing Baddock see the boy appear to have tripped and stumbled. He falls to the ground, trying his best to make what's really a controlled roll look like a nasty spill. As he stops rolling, he lies on the ground, motionless except for his chest, which heaves as he pants heavily. Watching the approaching monks with his best effort at a look of sheer horror, he grips one leg and clutches it tightly, trying to look injured. He hopes it works.

Time passes. The dragon circles somewhere overhead. The patter of Aelfin feet gets closer and closer.

Baddock can see the monks approaching. There might be … no, there definitely are more than just five now.

The shadow of the three-headed dragon stops circling, and flies on ahead, toward the edge of the Sacred Grove.

Baddock realizes that he's either got to commit to his little psyche-out tactic, or he's got to stand up and run like heck. He also realizes that he's got maybe three seconds to make that decision. Reminding himself that it was meant to be used against two of them and not the whole freakin' sect, he snatches up his bo staff and rolls to his feet. Baddock decides it's time to leave the grove, whether the monks like it or not. He leaps up at the trunk of one of the trees, preparing to rebound off of it for the start of something he's never attempted before – a horizontal triangle-jump. Good thing the monks were kind enough to grow them in such nice, even rows.

The boy tries to do the impossible: somehow bounding horizontally, tree to tree, sideways, defying gravity, pushing human endurance, and outpacing a bunch of Aelfin faster than simply running would take him. Who knows? Maybe it's possible. He gets a couple of bounds in … then misses a trunk … smashes through several branches, and …

Well, that's when the lights go out.