It Had just Hit Night-time. The Near restless Wood's of Sindain had finally grinded to a halt, The blood-thirsty Man-eaters and the Rampagin' Gyumo's had finally given up their Endless patrolling of the Grassland, for tonight, at least. Even the Angered Elementals and the...Strange, too say the least; "Vanguard" Machines Had switched off, Powered down, or whatever it is a Robot built to tear people apart does when it wants to sleep.

Elsewhere in the Butterfly wood's, In a much less Hostile Location (Due to all monsters being Slain, A Warp hole closed, All mimics caught, and beaten, and one breif Victory dance later: A make-shift camp site was constructed. ) Two Traveling Companions, On a quest to free the World, Everyone knew of these two Kids. But just incase you somehow dont, Meet:

Max, The Fair haired inventor from the middle 'O nowhere. Or: Palm Brinks. as some people perfer.

And Monica, A Princess turned Swordswoman, After witnessing her Father, The king's...Brutal Murder.

After Yet another day of beating the Daylights out of the worlds endless supply of monsters, Monica was flat out, Sprawled on the pile of "Soft" rags that vaguely resembled a sleeping Bag, Under a tent made of Mainly Leather scraps, And Fish scales.

But Max on the otherhand, Could not sleep.

It May have been the fact that just a week ago, he was Idlely repairing Dr. Dell's Signpost, After the chains had snapped, for the third time this year. That Doctor was quite the cheapskate, and refused buy some tougher chains, Yet would gladly have max Heave that heavy load, to the Workshop, and all the way back to his Clinic, when it was done.

And now, Hes out in the "Rainbow Woods" Fighting for his life everyday, Just him 'n her, Versus an army of Undead soilders, Twisted Spider-women, and Deranged Pixies.

Close. But it was'nt that.

It could have been the Fact that: Just three or four days ago, Max had been Awe-struck at the sight of a Large Multi-coloured Circus tent being errected right in the town's sqaure, At that point, Max had thought this was the Greatest and most Wonderful thing hes ever seen, even if the Circus Ringleader did turn out to be a Cruel and Manical peon of Griffon, Whom tryed to kill him, and everyone else on the Blackstone train

On the other hand: Now, Max was caught up in a Quest to restore the entire world from a horrible Fate of being errased, Max has met a Race of Magical dwarves, The Ferbits. He's met a strange girl whom claims to BE from said future. He's stepped into red and blue portals, moving through time, like one would merely step off a train. having just found out his Fathers Amulet is actually a rare and extremely powerful stone, The Atlaminia.

Max even met a talking tree. Not many can say that.

But you'd be Wrong, It's not that either.

---

" A Pumpkin, A Barrel, And...A Bomb..Mm..Maybe, Maybe.." Max muttered to himself, As not to Wake Monica.

Max lay with his back rested onto a smooth piece of stone, Covered by his leather jacket, Before him was the Campfire, and the Crude tent he had made, in quite short notice. Max, of course: Being far too polite for his own good, Had allowed Monica to sleep in "Comfort"" Whilst he would be kipping on the dirt, tonight.

"I'll Jot that one down.." Max quickly scribbled something down on his notebook, Before putting it down beside him, and returning to the stack of 60-odd Photos, wrapped in a piece of Cloth

Max began shifting through his collection once again, he must've looked over these photos five times in the last halfhour Alone, but he needed insperation, and this was his method. Max removed three of the pictures and held them inbetween his fingers, eyeing each one up.

"A Belt, A Fridge, Aaannnd...." Max blinked twice. suddenly an idea struck him. Max dropped the Third photo, which was a picture of A Chair, he knew that was useless,

" A belt, A frid-...Somthing to bind!...Somthing cool!...And..ehh..." Max began franticly flicking through his Album, eyeing each page for a mere second, finding nothing of use, and moving onto the next

Max searched the whole book and found nothing, He pressed his hands to his Temples, Forcing himself to think and stood up faster than ever before, repeating the same words, over and over, and over..

"Think, Think, Think..." Max scrunched his eyes tightly shut and gritted his teeth, pacing around, he was loseing it...Going, Going...

"ARUGH!" He shouted into the Night, His hands dropping to his sides, forming balled fists, soon he himself dropped back into his "seat", Grunting and snarling at nothing, furious with himself. He had the makings of something great..he could almost picture it. But alas, it was lost.

Max could'nt even remember the first two things. he had dropped all his photos, ruining some of them. He would have to re-organize most of them. maybe even re-take one or two.

Max breathed in and out hevily, almost on the verge of tears, he tryed to speak, but only gasped and half-heartly mumbled a slew of Inncoherant nothingness.

------

Monica, Who max had done a brilliant job in waking her from her well-diserved rest, could only stare with wonder at the strange-acting boy. Eyebrows raised, and refusing to blink.

Woken in a panic, she had assumed that they were under attack from one of Griffons fiends, only to find her partner looking like he had just gone Ten rounds with The Ridepod. And lost. of course.

When he finally relized she was awake, he stared back at her for a while, But did not make eye-contact. A sheepish look on his face, and his mouth half open. When he had finally calmed down, Monica asked him what exactly was the matter, and why did he feel the need to wake her at this time of the night, For seemingly no reason whatsoever.

" I..I had It...I was, so close...I got the...somthing, somthing, and the..other...thing, and..." Max coughed "...I just lost it." Max took off his hat and scratched the back his head, in an embarassed gesture.

The Princess was not impressed, With a breif scolding based around how Max could do with "Growing up" and afew angry glances. Monica got to her feet, Picked up her Water Jug, and went off into the forest, In search of a Water-spring, While max began picking up his Photos, stacking them into order, and generally kicking himself for acting like such a Child.

Monica had slightly envyed Max's quiet live in Palm brinks, having had no such Child-hood herself, Being a Princess in a war-torn world. However, there is one Aspect of Max's life she now knew she never wanted to get Involved with.

Engineering.

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Well, there you go.

Another strange fic from me, Although i'm not too happy with it.

My Favorite part is the title, oddly enough.

I wanted to write a Fic or two about Cedric, My favorite character from the game, But i was having some writers block, and i came up with sod all

so i aimed for the next best thing, Max, Who is also a Tinker. and well, thats where i pulled the title from :0

Right, so..Cedric Fic coming up one day! (Might not be soon) Maybe it'll explore the Ridepod, Or his connection with Borneo and the red head bombmaker(Forgot his name), Who knows?