CHAPTER ONE FIVE YEARS LATER

Summer Forest had been buzzing with chatter and discussion all day. Creatures littered the entire realm, talking in low voices and exchanging excited and concerned voices. It had been like this all day; the portals had been incredibly active with the ins and outings of magic folk, in search of what the hype was all about.

'Hunter, what's the meaning of all of this?'

'Don't look at me! Just because I always loose my running shoes doesn't mean this is my fault!'

'I'm not saying it's your fault, I'm just wondering what all of this is?'

Hunter and Bianca were walking through Summer Forest's inside garden. Inhabitants from The Dragon Kingdom, Avalar and The Forgotten Realms were littered all over the place. The fauns from Fracture Hills, the Water Wizards from Mystic Marsh, Mayor Sanders and his family from Sunny Villa were all standing around, looking and waiting for something to happen.

'Excuse me,' Bianca said pushing through the crowd blocking the bridge. The major hype seemed to be coming from the main garden, by Glimmer's portal.

'I remember when Ripto broke this bridge down,' Hunter laughed.

'Come on,' Bianca sighed, grabbing his hand and pulling him through.

'Hey!' he retorted. But the outside garden was even worse. The green grass was completely covered in hooves, paws and claws. The different coloured hair, feathers and scales stretched all across the ground, all the way to the forest's barrier.

'What the heck's going on,' Bianca muttered to herself. She tried to push herself through the crowd to the front, but Hunter pulled on her hand and stood on tippie-toes.

'Bianca its Elora!' Hunter began to pull Bianca to the right, fighting through the crowd to the side of the stone stage in front of the portal.

'There's nothing happening, just go back home now everyone, please,' Elora pleaded with a few Tiki's from Molten Crater.

'Elora, what's going on?' Hunter said.

'I don't know!' she groaned, looking around at all of the civilians, trying to yell their questions at her. When it came to the people and the welfare of Avalar, the first person to see was Elora. She knew what to do with everyone and everything, but it didn't seem like she did today, she was just as confused as Hunter and Bianca.

'Get up on the platform and talk to them,' Hunter told her.

'They won't listen, I've tried!'

'I'll help,' Bianca said. She made a quick gesture with her hands, and a faint flicker of light flashed throughout the garden, silencing everyone. They all looked confused, but had their eyes and attention towards Elora. 'Hop up on the platform,' she whispered to her. Elora climbed up.

Every single eye in the garden was on her, expecting her to explain exactly what was going on, despite the fact that she herself didn't have a clue.

A little spark flew through the archway and into the garden, which formed into Zoe the fairy. She looked around, and quickly spotted Elora.

'Elora, every realm is mostly empty, it seems that everyone's come to Summer Forest.'

'But why?' Elora whispered back to her.

'I looked around for some sort of clue and all I could find was a bunch a flyers all over the realms, telling people that they needed to be here?'

'What? Who put them up?'

'It didn't say, but the flyers looked pretty fancy, if I've got once guess it's-'

'Moneybags,' Elora and Hunter said together.

'Yes? You called?' A quirky, posh and uptight voice spoke from behind them. Together they turned around to see Moneybags emerging from the Glimmer portal. 'Sorry to keep you waiting, my friends; had to do a final gem-count in Glimmer,' he smiled, 'best to keep on top of things, you know.'

'If you want to know what's best to keep on top of things, I'll stand on you until you tell me what's going on here!' Elora said firmly, brandishing a pointy finger in his direction.

'Elora! Elora, my dear! No need to fret, you're more than welcome to be a part of this little ceremony too.'

'What ceremony?' she growled. Moneybags smiled greedily and shook his sack of gems, which never left his side. He glided across the platform, stubby nose in the air, adjusting his monocle and smiling at the confused faces below him.

'My fellow Avalarians, I'm sure you're wondering what you're all doing here on this beautiful day in Summer Forest,' he began.

'It's always nice in Summer Forest,' Hunter said, frowning at Moneybags. The hundreds of creatures below looked to be overflowing with questions and retorts, but none of them seemed to be able to speak.

'This particularly beautiful day stands a historical mark in the history of the magical worlds of Avalar and the Dragon Kingdoms, and the Forgotten Realms, and so on and so forth…'

'Get on with it 'bags,' Elora snapped.

'Very well then,' he smiled. He stepped forward and held a strange looking orb in his hand. It wasn't green in the centre with a golden casing around it like the normal orbs were; it had shiny black casing, and the jewel in the centre illuminated different colours. 'Avalarian Political Institution of Official Governmental Representation throughout Social Realm Welfare and Evaluation and Distribution of gems,' he said cheerily. There was nothing but silence in the garden, as they all looked at Moneybags with nothing but confusion. 'But you're all welcome to call it A.P.I.O for short.'

'I beg your pardon?' Elora breathed at him, loud enough for Moneybags and her friends behind her to hear.

'Well, you see… I've been chosen to be the proud face and representative of a powerful authority to help balance and even out the problems and bumps throughout the magical worlds of Avalar and beyond.'

'But there aren't any problems or bumps,' Bianca said, 'you're crazy if you think it's going to work.'

'You understood what he said?' Hunter said. Most of the civilians looked at him and nodded, agreeing that they have no idea what Moneybags meant.

'He thinks that bringing in a government is going to benefit Avalar.' Hunter was silent, but a few gasps were heard in the crowd.

'Not me, my dear sorceress,' Moneybags smiled, Bianca frowned at him angrily. 'But the authorities behind me. I'm just the face and representative.'

'Who are they,' Elora snapped.

'I would be breaking my contract as a part of this new Government if I were to reveal that- woah!'

'Tell us who you're working for!' Hunter yelled dramatically, tackling Moneybags to the floor, knocking the strange orb out of his hand and onto the ground. It rolled for a bit but suddenly stopped and lit up. There were 'ooh's' and 'aah's' as lights and colours slowly crept up thin air from the orb. Drawings started etching themselves in mid air, changing colours like the jewel in the orb.

'What does it say?' Hunter said, watching it grow. Elora looked closely at it and watched as the drawings continued to grow. It stopped, and majority of the garden was covered in colour-changing marks in mid-air.

'What is this kind of magic?' Bianca said to herself looking around at the drawings.

From the orb, names of worlds and realms were written, values of gems, names of people and the worlds history was listed in alphabetical order.

'Every single realm is written!' Elora said loudly, reading the information written about each world.

'Ahem,' Moneybags stood up and had everyone's attention again. 'My dear friends, as you can see is every world ever to have been explored by us magic folk. All this means is that every world that is listed has now got access to help from the Avalar Government; we're here to help you! To make Avalar a better place!'

'There was nothing wrong with it before!' Hunter yelled.

'Yeah, we like it the way it is!' A Gemcutter said loudly. Bianca's spell must've worn off because angry retorts and exclaims were erupting from the entire crowd. Soon enough, Moneybags' voice was drowned out amongst the now angry crowd, shaking fists and pointing fingers in his direction.

'You'd better tell me what's going on Moneybags,' Elora said firmly, Bianca, Hunter and Zoe behind her, arms crossed and angry expressions.

'I'd love to but I must be going now,' he said quickly and uncomfortably, he remembered the last time he annoyed someone, at Midnight Mountain. He picked up the orb, and the drawings faded away. He snapped his fingers three times, and instantly, a murky, sparkly black cloud billowed around Moneybags, consuming him until he wasn't visible. As the cloud cleared, he was nowhere to be seen.

The angry voices slowly died down, and soon it was silent again.

'Uh,' Elora began, as the crowd all looked at her, 'just go back to your homes and keep your eyes out for anything suspicious. If anyone sees anything, please let me know,' she said shakily. The folk slowly left the garden, and headed back to their portals and worlds.

'What're you going to do?' Zoe asked.

'I don't know,' Elora began, 'But something definitely not right here.'