Faith had no trouble climbing up to her rooftop hut in her new gear. She swung up onto the roof and walked over to the porch of her little hut with no problem at all. The floor creaked and the entire structure moved slightly. She sat down on her cot and looked at her bag of holding. How could it not even look full?

She reached over and picked up a dagger and a potion out of Twila's pile and put them in the two other compartments. The bag still looked empty. How odd. She picked up something that looked like chain mail, thinking it wouldn't fit. She started to stuff it into the bag... and it fit. And still looked empty! She wrapped the straps around her waist and tucked the bag under her shirt. She could still feel the weight of it but there was no bulk. Amazing.

She heard footsteps on the roof outside and quickly pulled Twila's stuff back out of her bag and dumped it into the pile on the floor. She didn't want Twila to think she was stealing. There was a thump on the porch and the whole structure shook as Twila flung the door open and bounced in.

"Hello, how was your afternoon?" Twila sang. She bounced on her cot then she jumped onto Faith's cot. Then she somersaulted onto the floor and hopped back to her feet. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"

"I guess you are pretty happy!" she smiled at Twila.

"Oh dear Host, you have no idea how HAPPY!" Twila nearly shouted. She swung from one of the rafters.

"This is all I ever wanted and I'm in. I'M IN! It's all starting!"

Twila curled into a somersault as she let go of the rickety beam. She landed hard on the floor and the entire structure creaked. Then with a loud crack, the front of the hut dropped a few inches. Faith, who had stood up to close the door, stumbled forward and fell off the porch with a small yelp. Twila cried, "Oh no!" and stepped out on the porch to check on her new friend.

"Are you alright?" Twila asked Faith, who was lying on the ground and seemed to be shaking. It took a second for Twila to realize Faith wasn't crying, she was laughing. Twila's concern turned to laughter too and she leaned on the doorframe of the now-tilted hut. Twila accidentally let out a snort and that started them both off again.

They were cut short by a loud creak from the rooftops. Then a groan. And a louder creak. Suddenly, the decaying wood around the bolts that secured the hut to its stilts on one side splintered and whole structure sagged and settled at an angle into the roof of the hut beside it. Twila hung on and slid with the hut til it smacked into the edge of the other building. She fell off the porch, landing on Faith who was just starting to stand up. The girls were unable to stop laughing even though it was starting to hurt their sides. Every time they looked up at the skewed hut, they shrieked with laughter again.

The noise has driven the deeply tanned half-orc they had run into earlier and a red-headed half-elf out of the hut that was now supporting theirs. Several more people came running to see what all the commotion was about. Faith and Twila tried to pull themselves together but kept giggling.

"What did you do?" the half-orc called Malut demanded. "Why did you make the house fall down?"

"What in the Flame happened here?" asked a harried-looking Sigmund Bauerson.

"Are you girls alright?" asked Ingrid Bauerson. "Faith, that's a nasty looking bump on your forehead."

"I'm OK," wheezed Faith with a laugh.

"Oh, my moons and stars!" gasped Twila through giggles. "It just fell! We barely made it out. We could have been hurt!"

They both laughed like fools again, drawing stares and disapproving looks from the gathering villagers.

"Put it back up, let's go again!" Twila said. Faith nearly choked on her laughter.

"I think she's gone hysterical," murmured Ingrid to her husband. "Maybe the sahuagin have gotten to her already."

"I don't know how we are going to fix this tonight," grumbled Sigmund who was trying to inspect the splintered floor beam and wall of the fallen hut.

"I've been telling Master Garant that we need a budget for maintenance but they haven't approved it. All this snow... these buildings weren't designed to withstand snow and ice. In any case, you and I need to finish the evening meal cooking, Ingrid.

Kaja, go get Askel and Gunnar and while you are at it, tell Master Garant what's happened."

A young girl with big brown eyes and long pale red hair who had been watching with the other villagers and students nodded ran off to do what she had been told.