Yes it's finally here. I'm shocked too. Well, if every chapter takes this long to put out, then I might be done with the story by 2015 if I keep to the schedule. But seriously, I'll try and get the next one out in a timely fashion (Weasel words like timely fashion are great. In terms of the universe, the chapter wait was almost instant. How's that for a timely fashion?)

The thing Lisha disliked most about field trips was that they happened during school. Since they happened during school, she was forced to be in a group with her "peers". While Lisha loved the locations the school sent her class, it was always spoiled by her classmates. They always seemed to be on the epic quest of being as loud and annoying as possible, which made it impossible for Lisha to fully enjoy the various places the school took them to every month.

Lisha had resolved not to let her classmates ruin her day. She had been planning a Neoquest campaign set in Meridell for weeks now, and she had been thrilled to learn a few days ago that the class would be going to a museum that specialized in exhibits about the ancient kingdom. She hoped to learn as much as she could about Meridell as possible, and then use the information for the game.

Morris and Lisha had been assigned to the same tour group, so they quickly gravitated together. Boris and Kayla were there too, but were currently in another wing of the museum. They were probably the only four kids in the entire museum that were actually looking at the paintings; the other students were too busy talking to actually stop and enjoy the art. Lisha and Morris were quickly separated from the main group which went much faster than they did.

Lisha happened to see Eric and his cronies walking by, all of them trying (and failing) to look menacing while being covered in bandages. The three bullies tried to avoid meeting Lisha's eyes without looking like they were doing it, much to her amusement. They were still sore after their last beating, and would probably leave her alone for a couple of weeks.

Well, maybe a little longer than that. After the beating they had received yesterday they looked horrible. Lisha smiled, the excuse that the three idiots had made up when asked about their injuries was hilarious. There was no way they would tell the truth; if they did admit that Lisha's "dork squad" had beaten the crap out of them they might lose their non-existent rep.

Eric accidentally caught her eye, and she smirked at him. "Nice outfits," he sneered. Lisha supposed that habit had forced him to make the snide remark, because he looked like he wanted to take back the words as soon as he said them. Not because of any empathy for others of course, he was just afraid of what Lisha would do to him for the comment. If only he thought like that all the time, they might never bother her again…

Morris didn't even look away from the painting they had been viewing; he knew Lisha would handle it. She could go pummel them again… but she would get in trouble since it was during school hours. And they were in a museum of all places, something might be broken if they fought here. Lisha settled for a vicious glare in their direction, and Eric winced and ran away with his cohorts.

Lisha supposed she had asked for the insult. Lisha looked at her clothes; over her school uniform she was wearing her role-playing armor and wand. Her friends had decided to finish the game after school (Lisha wanted to know what the hell had happened to the stupid "Only during mornings" rule). To not to lose any time they decided to just wear their gear to school.

Lisha knew that what she was wearing was the equivalent of a large target on her back when it came to going to high school, or even outside in general. But she was used to it. Unlike her friends, she never took off her gear. The old cardboard armor and cheap toy wand were her most important possessions; she would give away everything she owned before she gave them away. All of that other stuff was replaceable, but the gear was unique, and she treasured it.

"Hey Lisha, come look at this," said Morris quietly, beckoning her over. Lisha obliged, and looked at the painting that had his attention. It was a picture of someone who was obviously a military commander, looking down at his hundreds of troops. He only looked down on them due to elevation, the expression of pride on his face made it clear that he respected each and every one of his men. And although the individual troops were almost impossible to make out, it was easy to tell that they all shared that same pride and respect for their commander. It was a very moving piece.

Lisha sighed contently, daydreaming of being that commander, about to bravely lead troops into a glorious and just battle. "Hey Morris," she began. "Wouldn't it be nice to-"

"Don't say it Lisha."

She paused for a second. "You don't even know what I was going to say!"

Morris seemed tired, maybe even a little… annoyed. "You were going to talk about how it would have been nice to be in a situation like that general, right?"

Lisha nodded, blushing slightly. "Was it that obvious?"

Morris stared at her for a second. "You really want to get away from this life, don't you?"

"What?"

"I always hear you talking about how you wish your life was like this or like that, about how your life is so boring."

Lisha opened her mouth to protest, but Morris cut her off. "Don't deny it, you know it's true. Think about it."

Lisha opened her mouth to protest anyway, then closed it. Morris was right. Sometimes it seemed like all she wanted was to escape from the real world, into something right out of a fantasy novel. She nodded slowly.

"Is your life really that bad?"

"No, of course not!" protested Lisha.

"Then why are you so desperate to leave it behind?"

Lisha sighed. "I want be important," she said softly. "I want to be a hero, I want to make a difference in people's lives! In real life I don't matter at all."

"You matter now!" Morris insisted. "You have a family, you have friends! Haven't you ever thought about how they would feel if you left them? Haven't you ever thought how I would feel?"

"It isn't the same, and you know it!" cried Lisha

Morris looked like he was ready to continue, but then he visibly relaxed. "Lisha…"

"AHEM!"

Lisha turned rapidly at the sound of an adult pet clearing his throat; she had been paying so much attention to the argument with Morris that she had completely tuned out her surroundings. The cough had come from an old Nimmo, who looked at both Lisha and Morris with beaming eyes.

"You two seem to be fascinated with Neopian history," said the Nimmo. He looked at them with a large smile on his face; he must have totally missed the argument they had just shared.

Lisha tried to tell the Nimmo that neither of them were really history buffs, but he brushed her off. "You should come see the really good art!" he said, eyes beaming. "I know that both of you will really appreciate what we have in storage."

Lisha tried to decline, but something held her back. She was slightly interested, what kind of nerd wouldn't be. And it wouldn't hurt to take a peek…

"We'd like that very much, thank you sir," said Lisha.

The old Nimmo lead Lisha and Morris to a door with an "Employees Only" sign hung on it. He took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it wide open. He entered, and the children followed.

Lisha gasped in shock. The room was a treasure trove! There were paintings; sure, the room was mostly devoted to artwork as the Nimmo had said. But Lisha's attention had been stolen by something far more valuable.

There were books, hundreds of books on shelves filled to bursting. Lisha loved books; whenever she wasn't role-playing with her friends she could almost always be found reading something. Lisha longed to take a book and start reading; in fact the only reason she didn't was that the books looked so worn that she was afraid that she might damage one accidentally. She contented herself by looking at the titles she could read on the yellowed spines.

Meanwhile, the caretaker was showing Morris some of the paintings and giving details about them. Lisha tuned him out; she wanted to focus on the books.

"In this painting you can see the heroic Sir Borodere…"

Lisha paused in her examination of the books. She seemed to remember the name "Borodere", but she couldn't quite place where she knew it from. It was important to her though, she knew that for sure. She turned to get a better look at the painting that Morris and the Nimmo were currently viewing. What she saw almost made her faint.

The painting was of a blue Lupe wearing a full set of weapons and armor. It was obvious that he had just won a fight; he stood as the victor among three hideous enemies.

Morris smiled, glancing at her. "Cool painting, huh Lisha?"

She didn't reply, and Morris turned to look at her. He gasped, Lisha was shaking uncontrollably.

"NO!" cried Lisha, startling Morris and the Nimmo. "It can't be him!"

But the Lupe in the painting looked just like him. The Lupe had the same physical features, same stance, same cocky smirk. It was him, it had to be! Lisha couldn't take it anymore, she felt herself about to slip into unconsciousness.

"JERAN!!"

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Morris, Kayla, and Borris all waited anxiously in the waiting room of the hospital. After Lisha had fainted, the old Nimmo had called an ambulance straight away. The teachers at the museum had notified Lisha's mother and decided to let Morris and the others leave the field trip early to wait at the hospital.

The doctors had assured them that Lisha would be fine after a few hours rest, and had given her a room to let her recover. This didn't stop Lisha's mother from worrying though; she looked like she could burst into tears at any moment.

Boris nudged Morris, "So what happened?" he asked, being totally solemn for once.

"I'm not really sure," replied Morris. "She saw a painting of some blue Lupe named 'Sir Borodere' or something."

At the words "Sir Borodere," Lisha's mother looked up at Morris.

"Did you say a blue Lupe?" asked Lisha's mother anxiously.

"Yeah, it was definitely a blue Lupe," responded Morris, confused.

"Did Lisha say anything else?" she continued. "Anything at all?"

Morris thought for a moment, and then remembered. "Oh yeah! Right before she fainted, she had screamed something that sounded like a name. It was something like "Gran" or-"

"Jeran?"

"Yeah, that's it," confirmed Morris. "But how did you know?"

Lisha's mother hesitated for a few moments. Then she nodded, seemingly to herself. "Jeran… was the name Lisha's brother."

The others gasped. Lisha had never mentioned a sibling, or had even hinted at being anything other than an only child.

"Borodere was his nickname, it was what all of the kids in the neighborhood called him," she said, looking both miserable and nostalgic at once.

Kayla reached over and squeezed her hand. "What happened to him?" she asked gently.

The woman sighed. "He disappeared one day, when Lisha was only seven…"

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"So how do you play tag Jeran?" asked Lisha.

"You have to call me Sir Borodere!" protested Jeran, pouting. "It's a name I got for being a valiant knight!"

"Borodere is a stupid name!"

"No it isn't! I'm not gonna let you play unless you call me by the right name!"

"Fine… Sir Borodere," said Lisha, giving in. It was her seventh birthday, and Jeran had finally deemed her old enough to start playing "big kid" games with him. She wasn't going to blow her chance now over something as stupid as a name. Jeran had led her to the ruins of an old castle, which is where he normally played with his other friends. It was far, and Lisha wasn't sure how to get back, but she wasn't worried. Jeran was there after all, and he wouldn't let anything happen to her.

"It's easy," he said, smirking. "You put your head against the tree and count down from 100." Jeran waved his "sword" (it was an old broom he had salvaged from the garbage) around while he talked, as if conducting the conversation.

Lisha gripped her own weapon, a "Rod of Ultranova" (Jeran had told her to pretend it wasn't plastic). Jeran had given it to her along with a breastplate (that was certainly much stronger the cardboard it was made out of) for her birthday. Even though she knew that they weren't real, she still treasured them. The fact that he had given them to her meant that he thought she was grown up enough to play with them. Lisha loved him for making them for her, but of course she would never admit it.

Jeran finished explaining the game, and decreed that she was It first since she was the smallest. Jeran had used this reasoning before, several times actually. Lisha knew from experience that it would be simpler to just let him have his way instead of getting into an argument, just like with the name. She argued anyway, but eventually it was determined that Lisha was going to be It.

"Now remember to count to one hundred before you start looking for me," said Jeran, preparing to find a hiding spot. Lisha turned to the tree and closed her eyes. "You'll never find me in a thousand years!" said Jeran, and she heard him beginning to run away and hide.

Lisha counted fairly until she was sure that he was gone. Once she got to around sixty, she decided it was good enough, and she began to search for him. She quickly found him hiding behind a rock, she could see his ears sticking out over the top of it. Lisha jumped over the rock, intent on tagging Jeran. However, when she cleared the rock, she only found a bed of tall blue flowers.

Continuing the search, she eventually found a blue tail sticking out from a bush. Hoping to surprise him, she ran up and jumped on the tail as hard as she could.

"Hey! That hurt!" cried a deep and angry voice that was definitely not Jeran's. Lisha saw that she had actually stepped on the tail of a blue Kacheek, who looked rather angry. Lisha ran away before he could start yelling at her some more. She lost him, and continued to look for Jeran.

Lisha combed the entire area, but couldn't find him. He must have picked a really good hiding place, Lisha had to give up. "Okay Jeran," she cried as loud as she could, hoping he could hear. "I give up, you win! Come on out!"

There was no answer.

"Fine!" she pouted. "Sir Borodere! I surrender, you win!"

No response.

"I'm serious Jeran, come on out!"

Nothing.

Lisha screamed at him to stop trying to scare her. Her throat started to hurt, but she kept screaming. Jeran had to know what he was doing to her, She knew that she was okay though, Jeran wouldn't ever leave her alone, he was her big brother!

Eventually though, her screams turned into whimpers. And as the sun began to set with no sign of Jeran, the whimpers turned into sobs.

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"We searched for months, but no one ever found a trace of him." Tears welled up in her eyes. Unable to hold contain her sorrow any longer, she wept softly.

No one said anything for a while; they just sat and reflected on the tragic story. Eventually, Lisha's mother said, "Lisha must have looked at the picture of that blue Lupe and thought he was Jeran. It is an odd coincidence; Borodere isn't exactly a common name."

"Why didn't Lisha ever mention any of this to us?" asked Boris. "We're her best friends!"

Lisha's mother sniffed. "She probably doesn't want you to know, but that's only half of it. The real problem is that Lisha hasn't acknowledged that her brother even existed since he turned up missing. If someone told her about him, she would deny even having a brother. We were never sure whether she was just pretending or if she had actually blocked memories of Jeran from her mind."

"But you must have had something around the house of his, or a picture of him, or something!" protested Kayla.

"It didn't matter. Lisha would just ask us who the Lupe in the picture was, and she wouldn't believe us if we told her who it was. Eventually we just stopped trying and hid everything that related to Jeran in the attic. It's been years since she's had to think about him. Suddenly seeing that picture and hearing "Borodere" probably made her remember him, at least in part."

She paused, deep in thought. "Even though she seemed to have totally forgotten him; there was always one thing she still has that links her to Jeran."

"What is it?"

"That armor and wand she plays with. I'm sure you've noticed how she always has it on when she's with you?"

They nodded.

"Well, she does the same thing at home. She sleeps in it, she eats in it, the only thing that she takes it off for is when she bathes, and even then it's in the bathroom with her."

"Why are they so important to her?" asked Kayla.

Before she could answer, a nurse opened the door and walked in. "Lisha's woken up," she said, smiling. "You can go see her now."

Lisha's mother jumped up and ran into the room. Kayla and Borris got up to enter as well, but Morris held up a hand to stop them. "Give them a minute or two alone," said Morris.

They waited, and listened to Lisha's mother cry tears of joy as she smothered her daughter with affection. Morris could barely make out Lisha's protesting cries, catching an occasional "Mom!" or "Quit it!"

Eventually Lisha called for them to come in, and they entered the room. Lisha's mother had finally calmed down, but was still beaming with joy. As Boris began a joke that was surely very inappropriate for the situation, Morris took the chance to get the first good look at Lisha he had gotten since the museum.

Lisha didn't look happy or sad, she didn't look worried that she had randomly collapsed a few hours before hand. She looked… anxious. Morris had seen her like this before; there was something that Lisha really wanted to do. The only reason she hadn't left the hospital already was probably because her there was no way her mother would allow it.

Lisha caught his eye, and he stiffened. Morris tried to seem like he hadn't been staring at her for the past few seconds, but he knew she wouldn't buy it.

"Morris," began Lisha. He cringed slightly, expecting the worst. "Could you grab my bag real fast?"

'Well, that was anticlimactic,' thought Morris. He grabbed Lisha's pack from the chair that it had been left in and gently handed it to her. Lisha took a water bottle from it and took a long swig, emptying the contents.

"Thanks," Lisha said simply. She held out the empty bottle to Morris, "Could you throw this away for me?" Any other day and a reply of "Why can't you do it?" would already have been uttered. Of course, he wasn't about to do it now that she was alright. The sight of her in a hospital had just slowed the reflex.

Morris was about to refuse her request when she gave him a look. Lisha was pretty good at giving meaningful glances, and he was sure that Lisha was trying to tell him that throwing away that water bottle was very important. Morris nodded, and grabbed the bottle.

Before he could throw it away; he noticed that Lisha had somehow slipped a note into his hand. Curious about what Lisha couldn't tell him in front of her mother, Morris muttered a quick, "One sec, bathroom," to the group and walked out of the room. He unfolded the note and began to read.

"You're sure that's what she said Morris?" asked Kayla, relaxing against a tree.

"No Kayla, I'm not sure," replied Morris sarcastically. "I was just lying those seven times you asked me before. I really have no idea what Lisha said!"

For the record, Morris was absolutely sure that the note Lisha had given him said to gather the gang at the old elm tree at six PM.

Kayla scowled, and started to pace back and forth. "It's almost six thirty!" she suddenly cried. Where is she!?"

Morris sighed. "I'm sure she has a good reason for being late, she can tell us when she gets here."

"If she gets here…"

Morris looked over at Boris who was lying down on the grass and watching the sunset. At least he wasn't complaining. He scanned the horizon, and spotted a familiar shape with a large pair of ears running towards them.

"There she is," said Morris pointing.

Kayla looked up and snorted. "Finally," she mumbled.

As she got closer, Morris realized that she wasn't carrying anything. "Hey guys, she doesn't have Neoquest on her."

Boris shrugged without getting up. "She probably thinks one of us brought our sets. That's what we get for lack of planning."

Kayla groaned. "I can run back to my house and grab mine, but it'll take a few minutes."

"Well, wait for Lisha first," said Morris. "She might have someone bringing her copy or something."

Lisha finally reached the trio and came to an ungraceful stop. She leaned against the tree for support, panting heavily. Looking at her, Morris realized that there was something different about her that he couldn't place. It was her eyes; they had a new glint that hadn't been there before. After a moment's thought he had it: determination. Lisha had always been incredibly forceful when she wanted to be, but now it seemed like she had directed it towards an important goal.

'God help us all,' thought Morris dryly.

"Sorry I'm late," she said in between breaths. "I had to get away from my mom."

"That's fine Lisha," said Boris. Kayla opened her mouth, presumably to add her opinion on whether or not it was fine, but Morris cut her off. "Did you forget your copy of Neoquest?"

Lisha shook her head. "We aren't gonna play today."

"Then what are we doing here?"

Lisha had finally caught her breath, and stood up straight. She smiled at them and said, "We're going to go exploring!"

It's currently 1 AM when I type this. I would normally save this chapter for tomorrow to give it a once over after a good night's sleep, but I don't want to spend another few days (few weeks, few months...) tweaking little things like I always end up doing. So it's going up now, and I'm certain that there is at least one gremlin in there somewhere. If I wake up tomorrow and discover that I'm uploaded error-ridden drivel, I can edit from there.

For the next chapter, I have almost none of it written. That doesn't really have an affect on when the chapter comes out though, I normally have 75-80 percent of a chapter done in the first week or two. The long wait stems from the remaining unfinished bit that gives me an unending amount of grief. The extra wait isn't all bad though, it gives me time to think of new ideas for the story. Anyway, I'm not even going to take a stab at when I'll have the next chapter is out though.

And now I'm going to sleep. Hope you liked that chapter,

Windfox