After the waterfall climb, they’d spent a significant amount of time interviewing River about what experiencing that climb had been like. Deciding to use her in the film hadn’t been River’s first choice, but they were limited with how many interviews they had. When it came to the experience of being on Mount Veil so far, River would have to do.

They’d made camp, this time setting up the dining tent so they would have a place to prep their food and eat it away from the snow. The scent of their campfire mingled in her nostrils with the heavy aroma of pine. She could have joined the three card players in the dining tent, but River was enjoying sitting beside the fire, relaxing and taking it all in.

“You realize what it says about you that you always choose to play the unicorn, right?” Jessie told Bree. “The unicorns are inevitably evil, no matter what you draw for abilities.”

With a snort, Bree laid down a card. “I’m increasing my light-footedness. And your insistence on only playing the magpies clearly delineates your need to prove your heroic qualities in a fake world, to counterbalance your less than heroic qualities in the real one.”

“I wasn’t skipping out on washing dishes,” Jessie burst out. “I wanted noodle cups for dinner. People eat noodle cups.”

“People who don’t want to take their turns cooking and cleaning up eat noodle cups.”

Easton interrupted them with a growl. “Hey, can you two cram it for a minute? I still don’t understand where my fluffy bunny comes in.”

The pair stopped arguing long enough to eyeball Easton. His cards were wedged in the fingers of one hand while he skimmed the worn sheet of rules held in the other. “Fluffy bunny is the warrior class, right?”

“You’re killing me here, man.” Jessie sighed with quickly lowering patience as Bree flipped the rule sheet over.

“You’re an assassin class,” Bree explained. “It’s totally different. Warrior classes don’t exist in this game.”

“Why not?”

“Because not every game should require the hero and heroine to smash the bad guys to bits.” Jessie sniffed. “UniMagP is all about finesse.”

“I’m a bunny.”

“You’re an assassin bunny,” he countered. “Which is the ultimate unknown. You can never trust a bunny.”

“Nope,” Bree agreed. “Try to draw a gravity card. Increased gravity increases weight, and you can squash what you hop on—”

River shared an amused look with Ben, who had taken a seat across the fire from her. “Do you think Easton’s going to get it?” she asked.

“I think he’s trying much harder than he normally would.” At her curious expression, Ben chuckled. “I’ve been with him on climbs where he didn’t say two words the whole trip, other than ‘clip on’ or ‘we’re stopping.’ He’s trying to get along with them.”

“Why’s that?”