Ouch. Emily had a pounding headache. She was in her bed in her room in Jupiter's palace, though she wasn't quite sure how she had got there. Someone was holding her hand. It was Joel, fast asleep. She squeezed his hand and instantly he woke up.

"Em!" he shouted in joy. "Are you OK?"

"Whaaat? Yeah" Emily replied wearily. "What happened?"

"Only a miracle. Emily do you not remember?" When she shook her head, Joel continued. "Em, you turned Tom into a sphinx. You've made Tom and Alexis so happy! The force was too much though, you've been asleep for a week!"

"What? How is that possible?"

"I don't know Em, but I do know your special and clever, and only someone as bright and as kind as you would think of something like this and exceed it!"

"But… So it wasn't a drean?"

"No, Em."

"Well it does explain the killer headache – and the tiredness."

Joel gently squeezed her hand. "Do you want me to go get your father?"

Emily nodded weakly. He squeezed her hand once more and walked out of the room to go find Steve. A minute later, Emily's dad rushed into the room.

"Emily! My little girl, are you alright?"

"Dad!" she moaned feebly.

She outstretched her arms and Steve raced to her. They held the embrace for a while. Just holding on to each other, warming their hearts, reassuring their brains.

"I've been worried sick!"

"I'm alright," she said, breaking away.

"Do you know what you did, Em? I'm so, so proud of you. You know that right?"

She nodded her head. He tells her every time she comes back from an adventure with her friends and saves the world. Or sometimes randomly when they're sat down somewhere and she's starting to get a bit freaked out at her dad staring at her constantly until he blurts out that same line.

"I have been really worried though. You slept for a week! I thought teenagers were only meant to sleep in till 1pm? But, then again, you're no average teenager!" He grinned and Emily laughed.

"But seriously though, are you sure you're OK?"

"Yes. I'm fine. Apart from the major kill-me-now headache and the sudden memory loss!" At that moment, she also noticed the stinging pain coming from her hands and the aches all over her body, but she decided not to mention it.

Steve laughed. "The headache will go away princess, and the memory loss? Well, I'm sure it will come back, it was just a bit too much for a young girl like you. Anyway, I'm sure Tom and Alexis would be very happy to explain how you helped them!"

Emily was still unsure about a lot of things, but one certain thing was stealing all her mind's attention.

"Are all my friends OK?" she asked, "I spoke to Joel, but only briefly. What about the others?"

"They are all perfectly fine, although all have been deeply concerned about you. It's nice to know you have such good friends that care about you greatly. They have all been constantly in and out of here, checking up on you. Pegasus would barely leave until he was persuaded to go give you some space to recover. Joel never left though. Not once. Nothing could persuade him to leave. Nothing."

Emily smiled. That gave her some reassurance after the nightmare she'd just had. "Can I see them?" she pleaded.

"Sure you can. Joel's gone to get them right now." Just as he said that, the door burst open and Paelen ran into the room, straight into Emily's arms. They held a quick, tight hug before Paelen stepped back to look at her.

"Emily! Are you…" he paused to think of the right word. "Satisfactory?!" he finished with one of his special cheeky grins.

Emily giggled at him. He often did this. Picked up new words and applied them to his everyday language. Most of the time he just did it to make her laugh and used more unusual words that you wouldn't normally use. He learned a new word every day. He swore he'd go through the whole dictionary and remember every single word inside. He is very strange, paelen. His dictionary is his prized possession. No one else gets to use it – unless they have strict permission by someone with "authority". He really does make Emily laugh. It made her wonder what she'd do if she didn't have paelen to brighten her days.

"Hello, Paelen!" she beamed. Then in a posh voice, "I am actually extremely adequate. How about you? Are you satisfactory?"

"Oh, I am quite satisfactory, thank you," he replied in an extra high voice. They both burst out laughing. Whinnying chuckles from behind made Emily turn and remember Pegasus.