"OW!"

"Nobody move! Nobody breathe!"

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!"

"You just jabbed your elbow in my eye!"

"I haven't moved!"

"That might've been me, sorry!"

"Whomevers' hand that is better not so much as micro-twitch or I'll snap it off."

"Ah-haoul! Oh! Ow! What the heck was that for!"

"You! You! I-I-can't even-you, you vile-!"

"Don't flatter yourself! That's my belt pouch!"

Shortly after the latest quest began, the group was forced to run for their lives. The only hope of escape was through a door they found. Lea ripped the door open and everyone trampled through, Lea taking up the rear. Only the door led to nowhere. The space behind it was only about the size of a closet. And all six of them were squished inside. Then door slammed shut once Lea was through. And there were no lights.

"Lea!" Sora said. "Can you turn around and get the door open?"

"And risk getting impaled again? Your girlfriend's got elbows like a harpoon. In fact, I think you owe me an apology. Nearly gave me an appendectomy."

"Sorry." Kairi said.

"So who's got eyes on the door? And are there any other exits?"

"Nobody's got eyes on any exit! All I can see is black!"

"Okay, so we can't see, can barely move and don't know how stuck we are."

"I'm feeling a shoulder, an elbow and a kneecap, all somebody else's' and all in places that make no sense and I can't move. I consider myself very stuck."

"Wait a second, Rachel," Bryan spoke to his sister.

"Yeah?" There was a second of silence before, "Oh! Right!"

Immediately after there was a big POOF and right away there was a lot more space.

"That was a great idea." Came Rachel's voice.

"I have them once in a while." Bryan's voice replied.

"What just happened?" Sora asked. "Where'd you guys go? Gyah!" Something touched him.

"We're owls!"

"Both of you?"

"Yeah."

"How did you-? It's dark! And Bryan didn't give a clue at all so how did you both come to the same conclusion!?"

"Siblings are like that."

"Stop twisting your brain in a knot about their freaky psychic connection. Can your owl-eyes see anything?"

"Yeah," Came Bryan's voice. "Sora, half-twist to your right. There's another knob right in front of you."

So Sora carefully felt around until he found the knob Bryan had told him about. The door opened. They were all eager to get out. The door came out in what looked like a tool shed. It was small but at least they could file out through to the outside. Beyond that was a huge expanse of land. It was a livestock farm but the size of a ranch. There were all sorts of buildings and barns. There were no other people but each barn was occupied with animals. Each barn faced a different direction with a large grazing field where some of the animals were grazing. One had horses, another had cows, and a third had a few sheep and goats and the smallest had chickens. A llama was among the sheep and goats and there were a few barn cats scattered around.

"Cool," Sora said. Rachel and Bryan were still perched on his shoulder. They were both tiny screech owls and were freaking out the others by twisting their heads around in sync.

"Archimedes was so proud when we learned to do this." Bryan said.

"So what are we supposed to be doing here?" Riku asked, looking around.

Rachel and Bryan changed back. The group continued down the slope from the shed. What could they be doing on a farm? Milk a dozen cows in six minutes? Would the sheep escape and they'd have to be herded with specific restrictions as to how? It was a really neat place. None of them were very farm savvy (except Rachel but she just loved animals in general (of course that didn't mean she knew how to milk a cow)) so they were all in agreement whatever they were supposed to be doing would be interesting to say the least.

"Hey guys!" Kairi said, "I think I found it."

Next to the farmhouse was a pretty silver bell on post. The pull-rope was wrapped around a painted mailbox. Inside the mailbox were two ladles for getting a quick drink from the well pump next to it. Tied to the bell post was a sparkling blue scroll. Around both the post and well pump was a wide circle of white rocks.

"Aha! Instructions!"

So, as a group, they made their way to the bell. Only there was a surprise in store. As soon as the last one crossed the ring of rocks they found out what it was.

The sound made when the magic occurred was hard to describe. It happened so suddenly, it took a second before anyone really registered that anything had happened at all.

"WHAT THE HECK!?"

The spell had transformed them into the child versions of themselves. Everyone was about six or seven. But it was only their bodies; their minds were still mature (although for some of the cast 'mature' was understandably up for debate). It was common knowledge there was quite an age gap between Lea and the rest of his friends (although the majority of the time you wouldn't think that considering how he acted as hinted above). Yet that wasn't present in this spell. Regardless of their actual ages, everyone was the same age here. Lea's hair was layered a lot like Bryan's. It hadn't gotten long enough to lay back yet and that's what made looking at him a little weird.

"What did that old man do!?" Lea demanded.

"And what about him!?" Sora cried.

Bryan was the only one who hadn't been changed into a child. He stood very still; frozen with shock. He then looked himself over, nope, the magic really hadn't affected him at all. Although his body language said he expected to start reverting or something any second. But he didn't. He really was the only one the spell hadn't touched.

"Why doesn't he have to be his pint-sized self?" Kairi asked.

"I have extreme protests about this." Riku said dully.

"Aww," Rachel said. Her hair was in a short braid and she was wearing a cream colored sundress with yellow and flowered trim. She was wringing the edge of her dress in her fingers and looking starry-eyed at Riku. "Riku-u-u, you're so cute!" She cooed.

Riku looked petrified. He dreaded the embarrassment of her ever finding photos of him as a kid. Now this was much worse. It made it a little easier to bear considering she was adorable as all get-out at six years old. He already knew what Sora and Kairi looked like at that age so he didn't give that much thought. Lea, on the other hand, was a bit more interesting.

But then she had do add,

"Dang," Rachel said after looking Riku over carefully. "Puberty obviously hit you like a bus."

Lea spurted out a snort-like laugh that sounded like he had just choked on his own tonsils. He was the only one not trying to act like he found that funny. Lea gasped and wheezed and took a minute before he could breathe again. Riku knew there was nothing he could do to redirect attentions from what had been said.

"Why are we like this!" Riku asked, frustrated and trying to change the subject.

Bryan untied the scroll from the post. It stopped glowing and he read,

"'The objective for the remainder of this quest will be to locate a golden music box hidden somewhere on the property. Once found, it must be brought back within the ring of white rocks to end the quest. Everyone must be within the circle as well. There is no time limit. However, additional challenges will arise after the first ninety minutes. Good luck.'"

Right as he opened the scroll a little "01" appeared in the corner of the page and started counting up; keeping track of their time.

"What does he mean by 'additional challenges'?" Kairi asked nervously.

"That's all it says."

"Any specifications about that music box?" Riku asked, trying not to look at Rachel too long at a time. He didn't want to be caught staring.

"Good point," Rachel agreed. "A music box can be small enough to fit in a pocket or be inside a jewelry box, to name a few."

"Really, that's all there is."

"And all we have to go on is that it's gold and somewhere on this farm?" Sora confirmed.

"So it could be in a haystack or buried in chicken feed?" Lea asked.

"I'm not holding anything back! That's all it says! And no, there's nothing else about why all of you are kids and I'm not!"

"Guys! Ninety minutes before things get mysteriously more challenging!" Kairi reminded.

"Maybe we should split up and investigate?" Lea suggested.

"What did it do?" Rachel asked.

"What did what do?"

"The gate."

"Gate? What gate?"

"You suggested we split up to arrest the gate. I just want to make sure I know the charges are fair before we take it in."

Child-Lea growled and rolled his eyes dangerously high. "In-vest-ih-gate! Not arrest-the-gate!"

"Tee hee."

They decided not to split up just yet but they had to work fast. The first bit of frustration while searching was now that most of the group were fun-sized they had a hard time reaching places. The first stage of the plan was to search every building, top to bottom with a fine-toothed comb. The farmhouse was first. Thankfully it wasn't one of those enormous two-stories plus attic and underground pantry kind of house. Every cupboard, corner, closet and chest was thoroughly searched. Walls were tapped for hollow spaces. Kairi even beat up a few pillows in case the box was inside one. Sora, Riku and Lea did their own kind of trinity ladder inside the chimney in case there was a ledge within it might be balancing on. While they were doing that, Bryan was tapping the fireplace bricks for loose stones.

No one could imagine what they hadn't tried so they moved on to the next building, picking through every bush and around every sizeable rock as they went. Bryan had the scroll folded in his pocket so the timer was easy to get to. After the first hour came and went, the search became a lot more frantic, but they still had to search between every blade of grass in case they missed it in their haste.

The silo was empty. That was a huge relief. It would have been a lose-lose if it had any grain in it. It would have taken forever to check it out for the music box. And if it wasn't there then that would have been a lot of wasted time.

"How much time do we have?" Sora asked Bryan.

"Just a few minutes."

"Great." Lea said dryly.

Rachel suddenly gasped sharply.

"What?" Riku asked.

"I just had a terrible thought! What if the 'additional challenge' was the music box changes location?! What if it's sitting on a chicken nest like an egg then after ninety minutes moves to the bedroom shelf in the farmhouse?"

"Well thanks for that. That's exactly what we didn't need to hear."

"Guys," Bryan said. The timer only had seconds left before an hour and thirty minutes.

They all held their breath as the timer hit the ninety minute mark. But nothing seemed to happen? No obvious pulses of new magic, no stampeding cows, no nothing. Maybe it was a subtle change? Maybe there was nothing at all and this was just a psychological trick. There was still an objective to complete so they had to keep going. Of course the vigilance of the group was at its highest.

The next step was to spread out across the sheep and field while Bryan searched the barn. He had to shoo the sheep and goats out first. Only he didn't know the sheep and goats were under the protection of two guard llamas. And llamas didn't like new things in their space. So while Bryan cleared the barn, the others couldn't complete their sweep because the llamas wanted to know what they were and why they were there. And the sheep picked up on the territorial atmosphere and started butting people.

"I'm sick of this!" Lea shouted, evading his third goat. "I hate goats! I'm outta here!"

"Okay, okay," Bryan said. "Just go look for the box somewhere else."

"This is lame, I'm leaving." And he did.

"Hey, keep an eye out for the box!"

"Make me!"

Bryan couldn't have looked so surprised if a stranger had come out of the blue and slapped him across the face with a rubber chicken. "What did you say?"

But Lea had already hopped the fence and was going back to the barns. Bryan couldn't believe it. Walk out frustrated in the middle of a quest? That was so unlike Lea. Not only that, what was up with that childlike response?

Bryan's stomach plummeted. A childlike response. That was exactly the kind of challenging, cocky answer a kid would say when they didn't want to do something. That had to be what the 'additional challenge' was. His mentality was syncing up with that of his seven-year-old body. Oooooh boy. But that meant…

Bryan whipped around to see what was happening to the others. Rachel was petting a sheep. No surprise there. Riku was trying to keep a step ahead of one of the llamas. Sora was chasing off a goat that had been bothering Kairi. Overall, there was a distinct lack of focus among them. This was bad, this was very bad. Searching an entire farm for an item of unknown dimensions with a bunch of children? Oh yeah, they were going to be a big help.

"Kay, guys!" Bryan announced. "We're going to look somewhere else now." He was met with almost no objections. Kairi wanted to get away from the goat. Sora was tired of chasing it away. Riku had been trying to make himself look less interesting to the llama. Rachel was the only one who wanted to keep petting the sheep. "Okay, let's go." Bryan scooped her up under one arm. That was the only way he knew to get her going around a cute animal.

"Put me down!"

"Nope, we still got to find the box."

Oh boy was he right. Seven-year-olds aren't exactly world-renown for their attention spans. They could still be helpful, but Bryan found himself having to remind them to keep searching since there was a lot on a farm for a kid to get distracted by. Would he be able to go faster if they were somewhere keeping occupied? Did they all have to be looking for the box in order to complete the quest? He hoped not. He had no idea where Lea ended up or what he was doing.

The veggie garden was an easy search. Bryan had to tell the kids they were on a treasure hunt to keep them motivated. But that carrot was only juicy for a while. After looking hard for quite a while and finding nothing, they were beginning to lose interest. They didn't want to look anymore. They wanted to do something fun. Bryan did all he could think of to have them stay focused and stick together; all the while keeping himself level-headed. He usually wasn't the type to panic or get overly worried about anything but this was beginning to stress him out. Especially with what happened next.

First, he noticed his little pack was beginning to thin. Every time he turned around, one more of them had wandered off. He wasn't too worried about their safety; he doubted they would be in any danger unless any of them thought playing with a pitchfork would be a good idea. But that left him with fewer sets of eyes to look for the box, even if they were easily distracted. Maybe one of them would find it by accident and come back with it thinking they'd get something special for finding the treasure. He was really crossing his fingers for that to be the case. It was actually a little easier than that.

Suddenly Bryan was hit with a wave of hope. He was hearing music. A light tinkling chime. It was a music box! But where was it coming from? Well, duh! If anyone could pinpoint the source of music it was him. Bryan sprinted across the barnyard and skidded to a stop outside the open door to the biggest barn. Kairi was sitting on an overturned milk crate with several kittens in her lap. On a milk can beside her was an open music box!

"Kairi! Where'd you find that?"

"SHHH!" She scolded him. "The babies are s'eeping!"

Of course finding the music box would be an accident. Kairi wanted something to put the kittens to sleep. Okay, Bryan could go searching for the others now. He knew Kairi wouldn't leave the kittens and now he knew where the box was.

"Have you seen the others?" Bryan asked her.

Kairi pointed to the back of the barn. "They're being loud and the kitties couldn't sleep. I played the lullaby so the babies could take a nap." She didn't seem to really notice that the kittens weren't sleepy.

In the back of the barn was a side door that led to another big room. It was empty except for a big stack of hay against one wall. Sora, Riku and Lea were all crowded on a tire swing that had been tied to a support beam on the ceiling. With their combined momentum they sailed back and forth across the room. Then, one by one they'd jump and soared through the air before landing in the soft haystack. And Kairi was right. They were being quite noisy about their fun. Not that Bryan could blame them; it did look like a lot of fun. Okay, this was also easy. It would take a while to get bored of a game like that so Bryan was confident if he left they'd still be there. So that only left one unaccounted for. And of course it just had to be his sister.

The Master jogged all around the farm. Where the heck could she be!

"WAAAII'!" A little voice shrieked.

Bryan skidded to a stop. Rachel had found him. Only she looked more like a three-year-old now. She ran toward him as fast as her little legs could, arms reaching up when she got close. Bryan scooped her up. She looked very distressed.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

She didn't answer, only buried her face in her shoulder and made a few whimper-like sounds. Turns out, she'd gone back to the sheep to pet the lambs. Only none wanted to get close to the fence. She didn't try to climb the fence after a failed attempt to do so yielded a scrapped up knee. So Rachel mulled around a bit until she found the duck pond and entertained herself by trying to catch the ducklings. About this time the regression spell hit its next wave. After body and mind equalized in maturity, they continued to get younger. Rachel got tired from chasing ducks and at that time made a startling revelation. She was all alone. She panicked and ran around the farm trying to find company other than cows.

Bryan carried her back to the barn with the others. Interesting. Now he was like the big brother. By the time he got to the barn, Rachel had gone limp, fast asleep.

"C'mon guys," Bryan stepped into the room with the swing. The boys looked a lot younger now too. "Time to go."

He was greeted with a collective groan of protest.

"Just one more?" Sora begged.

"No. Kairi won the treasure hunt so we're leaving now."

"Oh come on!" Riku protested.

"I will haul you out myself if I have to so get going."

More grumbling and pouty scowls but Sora, Riku and Lea followed. Getting Kairi away from the kittens was just as interesting but he managed to pull her away from the fluff balls. But Kairi got to hold the shiny treasure so that helped.

Just like the note promised, as soon as they were all inside the ring of rocks with the music box, they were suddenly transported outside the door that led to all the Mini Quests. And they were back to normal.

Sora looked himself over. "Did that really just happen?"

Riku did a strange body shiver. "I hope we never have to do that again."

"I can't remember all of it." Kairi said.

"Me neither," Rachel said.

"What exactly was the point of all that?"

"Will the old man be in his study?" Lea looked very ruffled.

"Probably, why?"

"Because there needs to be a stern exchange of words." He grunted.