Homework. So much freaking homework. By the Almighty, you can't even imagine how much I homework I have. It's almost all I have done this entire summer. Let me summarize what I've done the past month and a half: "Ow, my back!" - Homework - Homework - My birthday (featuring more homework) - Homework - Trip to Florida (With homework co-starring on the airplane to and from, in every car ride, and in the line for Space Mountain) - Tomodachi Life - Homework - Write an essay - Homework - Apply to college - Homework - Homework. I have consistently been up until one in the morning every night for two weeks now, and I haven't even been able to enjoy it!

*exhales*

Now that I got that off of my chest, now we can focus on what's actually important here. Hooray! A new chapter is finally up. It only took 48 solid days to make it happen. I don't even know what to say about this chapter. There are some tense moments, some hysterical moments, and some touching moments. It's been a long couple of weeks, I'm tired, and I don't really feel like making anymore jokes until the ending note, so let's just get the disclaimer and reviews over with so you can read the chapter already.

Dragon Quest IX is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.

What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael and Jessica and some of the crazy things that happens around them.

And here are the reviews:

Master of Red Windex: Interesting idea...

Yurei Hanatsuki: I don't think I ever noticed that grave, actually. Anyway, thanks for the well-wishing. I do feel better.

princessdaisy01: Thank you. Like your last one, this chapter also clearly shows why your latest suggestion also can't happen.

Luckenhaft: Because I'm magic. Also, I'll tell Michael you said that.

AdventurerOver9000: It is a great game, isn't it? Also, I'm working on them as fast as I can.

WolfyPup: Most of your curiosities should be answered in the next few chapters. Of course, I'm not going to spoil anything know, am I? ;-)


Act 1 - Part 6: The (Un)Happiest Place on Protectorate

(Michael's POV)

"Well, this looks fun."

We were standing at the edge of the Doomingale Forest, a few miles northwest of Zere, just like the map had said. However, it seemed that the name was only half correct. Apparently, the mortals consider a handful of living trees surrounded by hundreds of dead trees in large pools of poison infested with monsters a 'forest.' They got the first part on the nose, though.

"Sarcasm?" Jessica asked.

"Absolutely," I replied. "But, if the nursery rhyme was correct, Brigadoom has to be in here somewhere." I suddenly realized how weird it was that we were risking our lives at the word of a children's song. I shook my head, not believing how far I have fallen.

"I can barely see twenty feet into the trees," Jessica remarked. "It's so dark and gloomy in there. We're going to have to be extra careful in there."

I nodded. In all honesty, we had stood out here for an hour and a half. Neither of us had yet summoned the courage to step past the tree line. Not that you could blame us – The forest was giving off a powerful evil feeling. That feeling was intensified by the fact that, despite it being perfectly sunny and warm back in Zere, there were many dark thunderheads swirling directly above the forest.

Finally deciding that enough was enough, I took a deep breath and took a step forward, entering the cover of the forest. I really don't know what I was expecting to happen, but, thankfully, nothing did. After waiting a moment to make sure everything was relatively safe, I turned back towards Jessica. "Come on," I said to her. "We'll have to hurry if we want to get through before it gets dark." Jessica just stood there, looking at me like I was crazy. I sighed. "Everything's going to be fine, Jessica," I told her, extending my hand out at her. My other hand held my sword.

She just stared at my hand for a moment, gulped, and grabbed it. "I believe you," she said, stepping into the trees next to me. "Now let's get out of here as fast as possible." I agreed, squeezed her hand in encouragement, and began making my way through the forest, Jessica staying close to my side the entire time.

It was slow work getting through the woods. We had to tread carefully in the darkness to avoid stepping into any pools of poison hidden in the brush on the ground. We kept running into monsters along the way that were eager to take on the fresh meat wandering through their territory.

Most of these battles were uneventful, but there was one that was definitely worth noting. At one point, an arrow suddenly flew at us from the darkness. I barely managed to raise my shield fast enough to avoid getting impaled, and Jessica instinctively shot a fireball at where the arrow came from, revealing a Bodkin Fletcher bursting into flames and disappearing into a cloud of purple dust.

Normally, that would have been the end of the excitement, but one of the stray embers landed in a poison pool, causing it to ignite in a giant ball of fire. Thankfully, nothing else caught on fire, but the sudden flash of light and the large cloud of acrid smoke caused both of us to be temporarily blinded.

When we could see again, we quickly attempted to leave the area, but it seemed all the commotion had attracted a Skeleton, who was upset because of it. It immediately swung its sword at me, which I quickly dodged and countered. All I succeeded in doing, however, was making the Skeleton a bit shorter, as I had knocked out one segment of its spine. Enraged at its disgrace, the Skeleton raised its sword in the air, probably trying to repay the favor. I easily side-stepped out of the way and saw, through the Skeleton's body, Jessica raise her wand. I quickly lifted my shield as I felt the air twist in front of me before exploding within the Skeleton's ribcage, completely blowing it apart.

We just stood there in silence while the fire sputtered in the background. It really wasn't that much different from some of the things we had done less than a day ago, but because of our environment, we were both completely terrified at this point.

A distant rumble of thunder brought us back to our senses, and, without speaking a word, we continued on through the darkness. We didn't manage to get very far before we were forced to stop again. Right in front of us sat a giant pool of poison that extended beyond measure to the left and the right. Directly across the pool we saw a rough path that led to a distant square of light – the end of the forest.

The problem was, there wasn't a safe way for us to cross the poison, and neither of us really wanted to lose our feet to the acidic fluid. Upset at having been thwarted so close to our goal; I vented my anger on a nearby group of Brownies that were laughing at us.

Meanwhile, Jessica just stood there, appearing to be deep in thought. After a moment, her eyes lit up and she turned to me. "Michael!" she called to me.

Hearing her call, I stopped my venting and faced her, giving the few remaining Brownies a chance to escape into the shadows. "What is it?" I replied.

She smiled. "I have a way to get across the poison."

I hurried over to her. "Really? What is it?"

"There's this spell that I just remembered I have," she answered. "It's called Safe Passage, and it creates a sort of shield around us that protects us from natural hazards…hazards such as pools of poison." She sounded proud of herself for having found a solution to the problem.

"That's fantastic!" I exclaimed, smiling for the first time since we entered this Almighty-forsaken place. "Hurry up and do it! I want to get out of here."

She nodded in agreement. "Okay, hang on – I haven't done this in a while." I stepped back. She gripped her wand and closed her eyes in concentration. The wand quickly began glowing a warm yellow color before Jessica suddenly thrust it onto the ground, sending a shockwave of energy through the ground that enveloped both of us. Once she had finished, Jessica reopened her eyes. "Did it work?" she asked.

"Only one way to find out," I said. I stepped to the edge of the pool and, taking a deep breath, slowly lowered my foot into the purple liquid. "Aaugh! It burns!" I screamed, causing Jessica to jump out of her skin in shock.

"R-really!?" she cried out.

I stopped screaming and laughed. "Nah. I'm just joking." A sudden fist to the face sent me flying halfway across the pool. Jessica apparently didn't find it as funny as I did.

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" she screamed at me. I didn't answer back because I was dazed and in shock and slightly afraid of her at the moment. Also, I was too busy trying to ignore Stella's overly joyous taunts about how I was just hit by a girl.

Not receiving an answer, Jessica's anger subsided and was replaced with concern. She ran through the poison over to where I was lying on my back. "Michael!" she called. "Are you okay?"

I slowly sat up, rubbing my jaw. "Yeah… I probably deserved that."

Jessica nodded and extended her hand to help me up. "Just a little. I'm sorry I hit you, though."

"Don't be. I should apologize to you. What I did was pretty horrible."

"Well…yeah, it was. I didn't hit you too hard, though, did I?"

I looked back over her shoulder at the distant shore. "Nah. I only flew a good twenty, maybe thirty, feet with my bag and armor." Jessica nervously laughed a bit. "On a completely unrelated note, have you ever considered being a martial artist?"

She gave me a look that made me fear that she was going to hit me again. I really hoped she didn't. "I get it. I hit you and it hurt. Don't try to make me feel worse than I already do, or I'll hit you again." I gulped and stepped back. She smiled. "Also, you might want to remember who just almost knocked you out." She walked past me towards the exit of the forest. "By a mage, even," she said to herself, just loud enough for me to hear. I was left in the middle of the pool, completely speechless and dumbfounded.

"What…just happened?" I asked myself.

"You just got wrecked by Jessica!" Stella happily exclaimed.

"Yes, yes I did," I agreed. "But…how? That shouldn't have been physically possible." Stella shrugged, signifying that she didn't really care. I thought about for a minute and remembered something I learned years ago in a Celestrian science class. "Freaking adrenaline is going to be the death of me, I swear." I shook my head. "What have I gotten myself into…?


Outside the forest, Jessica was patiently waiting for me. She had a look that was half smug, half apologetic. I decided not to press the issue. "Are you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yup," she answered. "Let's go."

Thankfully, it wasn't too long of a walk before we found something of interest. As we went around a bend in the path, we came across a vast field of rubble. Strangely, there was a large, gated arch standing over the path, but nothing else. I was confused. There was nothing but piles of stone between where we were standing and the distant ocean. Where was Brigadoom?

A sudden flash of lightning lit up the area enough to reveal a few structures that were standing. Most of them looked somewhat like buildings. If there are buildings here, then that would mean…

Realization hit me. "Oh…"

"…Shit," Jessica finished. She came to the same conclusion with me: This was, or at least used to be Brigadoom.

"No!" a voice cried out from behind us. We turned around to see the Right Knight riding out of the forest. I wondered how on the Protectorate we managed to beat him here, since he had had a huge head start, and was riding a horse while we walked. He was staring at the ruins, and was clearly as surprised as we were at its current state. "This can't be Brigadoom. I don't understand. How can I have been away for so long that it's fallen into such disrepair?" He paused for a moment. "And where is my beloved Mona? Princes Mona! Mona!"

We stepped to the side as he rode his horse past us and through the gate, entering the ruined kingdom. We lost sight of him as it finally began to rain from the mysterious storm clouds that hung over the area.

"What do you think happened to this place?" Jessica asked through the rain.

"I have no idea," I answered. I really didn't know. Whatever happened here, it must have happened long before my coming into existence, and that was a while ago in itself. "Whatever it was, though, must have been something terrible to cause such a level of destruction; to end so much life."


As happy as we were to finally be out of the Doomingale Forest, our solemn walk through Brigadoom wasn't much better. As we ventured farther into the lost city, we passed the remains of many houses, now filled with hordes of monsters, many of whom were watching us carefully. In some of the houses, I could see a couple still-standing bookcases, lined with ruined books whose knowledge was now lost forever.

After a while, in what looked like the foundations of a once-grand castle, we found a staircase leading underground. There were hoof prints around the entrance, so the Right Knight must have come this way as well. "Shall we go in?" I asked.

"You're the leader," is all Jessica said in response.

I nodded, and carefully descended the stairs. At the bottom, we found a long hallway that extended to the left and to the right. The right path, however, was filled with rubble, so we couldn't go that way. As we examined our surroundings, we heard a sound come from behind the wall on the other side of the hall. It sounded like a voice, but neither of us could figure out what it had said or who had said it. We quickly decided to investigate.

We were forced to follow the left hallway, which appeared to go around a large central room where we heard the noise come from earlier. Once we reached the side opposite from where we began, we found a large oak door heading into the central chamber. I pushed it open a bit, and we looked inside.

The Right Knight stood in the center of the room, facing away from us. His sword was in his hand, pointed at something in front of him. All I could see of the creature he faced was a pair of violet, bat-like wings. 'Great, a demon,' I thought. 'I really hate dealing with those things.'

A sharp voice came from the creature in front of the Right Knight. "Ka ha ha!" it laughed. It sounded like the voice of a woman, although I wasn't absolutely positive yet. We carefully edged into the room, trying to go unnoticed.

When we got far enough into the room to see around the Right Knight, my eyes widened in shock. It was definitely a demon, and definitely a female. In addition to her bat wings, she had blue-grey skin covered in a long, blood-red dress with a part down the middle. Her eyes had no pupils, and were the same shade as her dress. Atop her head was a circlet that held back her long, dark-purple hair. She was easily one of the most terrifying beings I had ever seen in my existence.

She was sitting in a throne at the far end of the room. "Welcome home, ma love," she said.

'Ma love'? I thought. Was this witch the Princess Mona the knight had spoken of? Was he bewitched by her demonic magic?

"I've been lookin' ev'rywhere for ye," the demon witch continued. "Ye wernae hidin' from me, were ye, ye naughty boy?" Her lisp was so annoying; I almost got sick just from listening to her talk.

"…Morag!" cried the Right Knight. "Now I understand. Now I remember everything. I left Brigadoom in search of you, so that I could destroy you."

One of the lines from Alanna's nursery rhyme came to mind suddenly. 'In search of evil he rides,' I believe it went.

Morag rose from the throne. "Ka ha ha!" she laughed. "But it was I who defeated ye, an' wrapped ye in mah sweet, sweet embrace…An' I had ye all tae maself there for a century or two, in oor own private wee world of darkness. Ye're all mine, an' dinnae forget it. Ye're mah Wight Knight in shinin' armor…"

I finally understood where he had gotten the name 'Wight Knight' from. Because of Morag's lisp, she was unable to pronounce the letter 'r' properly. Therefore, 'Right' became 'Wight'. What a way to get named.

The Right Knight tensed up. "Enough!" he shouted. "This is all your doing. What have you done with her? Where is my Mona?" And without a moment of hesitation, he leapt at Morag with his sword pointed at her heart. Almost immediately, however, Morag's red eyes flashed darkly for a moment and two beams of darkness shot from them through the Right Knight. The knight flew backwards several feet. As he struggled to get back on his feet, I noticed a cloud of dark energy crackling around him. "Graaaah!" he cried as he finally got to his feet.

"Ka ha ha!" Morag cackled again. "Ye silly nyaff! The earthquake broke the spell I placed on ye, but there's nothing can stand in the way of true love. I'll put another spell on ye, an' we'll be all alone together in the darkness again before ye know it. Just the two of us…"

"We have to go help him," I whispered to Jessica. She looked at me like I was crazy, which, in all honesty, I probably was. Without waiting for a response, I walked towards the middle of the room, stopping between the Right Knight and Morag, who watched me curiously. Jessica hesitated for a moment before quickly coming to my side.

"An' who might ye be, hm?" she asked. "Ye're not here to steal my beloved Wight Knight away from me, are ye? Ha! Well, ye're a fool if ye are. Can ye not feel the strength of the curse I've put on mah poor wee darling? It's pure dead powerful!" She laughed a bit, then continued. "Dinnae worry yer pretty wee heid if ye cannae, though. Ye'll feel it soon enough for yerself! Ka ha ha!"

It took me a split second to understand her meaning, and another one to notice that her eyes had flashed once again. However, her eyes weren't aimed at me, but next to me, where Jessica stood, still slightly frozen in fear. Without even thinking, I quickly pushed her out of the way onto the floor, putting myself in the path of Morag's twin beams instead.

I immediately fell to the floor, my eyes clenched shut in pain. Wave upon wave of dark energy tore through my being, giving the sensation of being both crushed by darkness and electrocuted by countless lightning bolts. Through my suffering, I was able to vaguely hear Jessica screaming my name and Morag cackling loudly.

With a sudden burst of energy, I stood back up and threw out by arms . The dark energy, as well as the immense pain, dissipated almost instantly. Jessica gasped in surprise, and Morag had a face of pure shock. I smiled smugly at her.

"Wh-what…? She asked. "I've the cruellest, most crippling curses known tae mortalkind…how could they not work…?" She gave me a strange look. "Just what exactly are ye? If ye were mortal, my curse couldnae have failed." Realization suddenly hit her, and she reared back in fear. My smile grew wider. "…Wait, ye're not…one of them, are ye?" I simply nodded, and discretely reached for my sword, expecting Morag to attack at any second.

"Ach, no! We cannae be havin' this!" Morag cried out. She pulled out her knife, and Jessica and I pulled out our weapons in response. "Why couldn't ye just have left us in peace, eh?" she asked. "Now I'm goin' to have tae make yer pretty face a whole lot less lovely!"

And with that, she pounced. Of course, since we were already expecting her to attack, we both easily jumped out of the way. I quickly slashed at her before she could fully recover from her attack, and I managed to tear part of her wings. She screamed in rage and quickly counter-slashed with her knife, which I quickly jumped back to avoid.

Meanwhile, Jessica began attacking with her magic. She started with a Frizz, which hit Morag right in the middle of her back, singeing her hair and leaving large burn marks across her dress and wings. She swung around towards Jessica, even angrier than before, and started charging at her. Jessica quickly cast Crack to stop her, which it partly succeeded in doing.

After getting hit in the head with the large ice crystal, Morag stopped running suddenly and gave a knowing smile, before raising her knife into the air and casting a rather similar looking spell. As I had expected, another ice crystal formed in the air, except this time, it was over Jessica and not Morag.

Jessica quickly jumped out of the way of the spell, but the force of its impact with the ground knocked her off her feet. Morag quickly took advantage of Jessica's vulnerable state and swiftly resumed her advance on her, or at least, she would have, if I hadn't snuck up behind her and slashed her all the way across her back, almost completely removing one of her wings.

She roared in both pain and anger, and spun back towards me faster than I could react, her eyes flashing with unspeakable evil. I suddenly found that I couldn't move, and I realized that she must have paralyzed me with her glare. Now taking advantage of my vulnerable state, she covered her knife with a pulsing energy, and stabbed me through the right shoulder. My eyes widened in a silent scream of pain as I watched a few tendrils of energy leave my wound and wrap around Morag, who had a smug smile on her face. I could only stare as some of her wounds healed and even her one wing became fully attached again. She had stolen some of my energy to heal herself!

Confident that I was no longer a problem, she turned around to be met with both a fireball and an explosion to the face, courtesy of Jessica's Frizz and Bang spells. The resulting explosion sent Morag flying through the air back a few feet over my stiffened body, dazing her for a few minutes. Jessica quickly ran over to where I was standing, rummaging through her bag for something to help me. She found a Medicinal Herb, which she placed on my shoulder to help seal the wound, and a Moonwort Bulb, which she forced into my mouth. The latter tasted absolutely revolting, but almost immediately after it entered my body, I felt my limbs loosening as the paralysis wore off.

I quickly thanked her for her help, and we both turned to face Morag, who had just gotten back up and was shaking her head. Having pulled herself back together, she looked up at the two of us, waiting for her, and she put on a mischievous smile. What she did next, I cannot explain in words, but needless to say, it left me thoroughly confused and Jessica thoroughly pissed off.

Having considered her...strategy a success, Morag flew at the two of us with her knife held at the ready. Jessica wasn't going to let her get away with it, however. She quickly cast a Woosh spell to intercept the flying witch, but in her rage, she lost control of the spell, causing it to go haywire, effectively releasing a full-blown twister into the chamber.

Like last time, I quickly thrust my sword into the ground and held onto it for dear life. However, my right arm still wasn't feeling very dear to life, and it quickly slipped off the hilt. This left only my left arm to hold my entire body to the ground, which is difficult under normal circumstances and nearly impossible with the monstrous breeze currently tearing in the room. As a result, I wasn't too surprised, but rather dismayed nonetheless, when my left hand started slipping.

As the suction finally overpowered me and my hands finally slipped, I closed my eyes, waiting for the terrible pain that was about to come. Before it could, however, I felt another hand grip my own, and I opened my eyes to see Jessica had grabbed my arm to stop me from becoming one with the wind and sky. I quickly told her to not let it go. The rest of her body was wrapped around my sword because, while she is unaffected by her own spells, the force the twister had on me was enough to pull her in as well.

At the same time this is going on, Morag, who couldn't stop herself in the air in time, flew right into the turbulent winds of the super-Woosh. She was tossed around in the cyclone for more than a minute, colliding with collected rubble at dangerous speeds and having most of her wings, hair, and dress torn off in the process, before the spell finally ran out of energy and subsided. As Jessica and I collected ourselves, Morag fell to the floor with a solid thud, soon followed by all of her fellow wind-blown pieces of debris.

Certain the battle was over, we carefully approached what remained of the powerful witch, Morag. She was struggling to move as we approached. "No…" she groaned. "Ma Wight Knight… Oor eternal world together…no more… But, ma love…ye must ken that ye cannae turn back the centuries. Yer beloved Mona is no more…Ka…ha ha…" She struggled to raise herself high enough to see the Right Knight. "Now ye're doomed to walk alone in eternal despair… Ka ha ha ha ha…!" After saying that, Morag fell limp and silent, and her ruined body dissolved into the darkness.

Relieved that Morag was finally gone, we turned to check on the Wight Knight. It seems Morag's crippling magic had ended with her demise, so the energy was no longer surrounded him. Regardless, he remained on his knees. "Princess Mona! It can't be true!" he cried. He looked up at us. "With your help, I finally returned to Brigadoom. And yet…the passing of time has destroyed my homeland. And my beloved Mona is no longer here to welcome me."

He paused for a long time. "I came home at last…but alas, I was too late…"

There was another long period of silence where we remained still, thinking of events both recent and long since passed. Suddenly, a familiar voice came from the doorway. "You are not too late," it said. We all quickly turned to see that the voice had belonged to Princess Simona.

At least, I think it was Princess Simona. Her voice was slightly different, bearing more resemblance to the Right Knight's accent. Additionally, around her neck, the princess had a golden necklace embedded with a large ruby pendant, which contrasted amazingly well with her beautiful, pure white dress.

"That necklace!" the Right Knight cried out. The princess slowly and elegantly walked into the room and around the Right Knight, forcing him to turn his head nearly all the way around. "Princess Mona!" he exclaimed, his voice overflowing with relief and love. "I don't… aren't you…?"

The princess shook her head, interrupting him. "I made you a promise," she explained. "I swore I would wait for you, no matter how long it took." She offered her right hand to the knight. "My beloved Right Knight…take my hand and dance with me! The first dance we would have had as man and wife…"

The Right Knight slowly rose until he was fully standing up. "Princess Mona…" he said. "You forgive me?" The princess merely smiled, and the Right Knight took her hand, pulling them close to one another.

As they did so, beautiful music came out of nowhere and filled the room with its entrancing melody. Princess and knight began to dance as one, both staring into each other's eyes. The music seemed to transform the room, turning it from a ruined throne room into the grandest of ballrooms. Over in the side of the room, I was slowly swaying to the mysterious music, smiling at the touching scene before me. I took a quick peak at Jessica, and I noticed that she was crying a little.

This continued on for at least fifteen minutes without a single pause in their movements. They finally stopped dancing, although the music continued on, once the Right Knight began to glow softly in a fashion familiar to me. They looked at each other. "Thank you, Princess," the Right Knight said. "I know now that you are not my Mona. But…without you, I would have been forced to wander forever in eternal despair."

Simona – I had finally determined it was her – gently smiled. "I knew you were the Right Knight from the old stories," she explained, her voice now back to normal. "I just knew it. I knew there was a connection between us the moment you appeared."

"It is not unbelievable that you, who inherited the memories of my beloved Mona, would have felt so…" the knight said.

Simona's eyes widened. "So I am Princess Mona's…!"

The Right Knight turned to us. "Thank you, Michael and Jessica," he said. "Without you two, I would never have uncovered the truth. Now I have no regrets. Only gratitude…"

He looked up into the sky, finally at peace. He slowly rose up, his glow growing to unbearable levels, before finally disappearing in a bright flash. I looked over at Jessica, worried about how she would react to this, but she seemed to accept it for what it was, whatever it was.

Once again, the room fell silent, until Simona finally broke the silence. "I know I was supposed to leave it all up to you, but I couldn't help myself and I just had to come along." She paused. "It's all very odd. When I was dancing with him, I heard a voice…a woman's voice… She was saying 'thank you'…

"Anyway, I must hurry back to the castle and tell everyone the news. I'll be sure to have your reward ready for you, so do stop by the castle as soon as you can." She turned around and left the room. As she left, I saw the green uniform of the castle guards through the doorway.

We waited until everything was silent again before we began talking again. "I really underestimated the people of Stornway," I admitted.

"How so?" Jessica asked.

"Think about it. Princess Simona and her guards are about to go through the Doomingale Forest for the second time today." Realization suddenly dawned on me. "Shit! We have to go through it again, too. Ugh!"

Upon remembering this fact, Jessica's shoulders slumped, but they quickly shot back up again when, not for the first time that day, she remembered something important. "Maybe not, Michael. Maybe not."

"What do you mean? We can't go around it in any direction. The only path is straight through it."

"Not necessarily. We can go over it"

"What? Over it? How on the Protectorate are we going to do that?"

Jessica reached into her bag, before finally pulling something out. "With these." In her palm sat two pairs of small brown feathers. Barely enough to carry someone even a foot, let alone over a forest. "These are called Chimera Feathers. I always keep a few on me in case I ever have to get somewhere quickly. If we use these, they can fly us to any town we've been to before."

I stared at them a little skeptically. "And how does one use these?" I asked. "They seem a bit on the small side."

"Let's go outside, and I'll show you," she answered.

I shrugged, and helped her look for a way outside. Thankfully, there was a door directly across the hallway from the room we were in that led to a small ledge overlooking the ruins. Outside, it appeared that most of the storm clouds had dissipated, and the starry night could be seen.

"This is perfect," Jessica said. "Watch what I do." She took one pair of Chimera wings and held them in her palm. "Just give them the smallest amount of magic, and they'll activate." She held her arm out and her hand glowed ever so slightly. Suddenly, the wings disappeared from her palm and reappeared on her back, many times larger. She jumped off the ledge, and her new wings propelled her into the air, several feet above me. "There," she said, "no problem. Now you try."

I looked at the tiny wings in my hand, still slightly unsure about this, but I decided to get over it. I quickly sent some magic down my arm, and I too soon had a pair of wings on my back. Granted, they weren't as great as my old pair, but they'd do for now.

I quickly joined Jessica in the air, who was smiling at me. "Let's hurry back to Stornway," she said. "I'm exhausted, and I'm hoping that Erinn has an open room for us." I agreed, and the wings quickly flew us back to the entrance of Stornway, where they dissolved upon landing. Without wasting a second, we hurried over to the inn, where we quickly got a room and both collapsed on our own beds, completely exhausted.


Well...I definitely hope it was worth the wait. That's all I'm going to say about it.

Now, let's talk about the current status of the ongoing contest. As of now, I have decided where and how the third party member is going to join in, so you can stop making suggestions for that one and focus on the other now. I...kind of combined a couple different suggestions to come up with the plan that I'm implementing, so bear with me on this one. Also, I'm not going to say which people I chose until after the fact so that nothing can possibly be spoiled by accident. Anyway, here are the rules for the contest again:

1. I have already decided most of the defining traits of the other party member. Your job is only to describe how they meet Michael.

2. In your suggestion, please include the place where it takes place and how exactly the meet. The gender and vocation don't necessarily have to match, but it would definitely make things a lot easier on my part.

3. Your suggestion CANNOT take place in the next chapter, because, at that point, it's too late to change that part of the plot.

Any rule found in the last chapter not found here is no longer valid because a) it no longer matters, or b) it was a stupid rule.

And, as with every other chapter, please point out any typos, errors, or inconsistencies that you notice in this chapter. I'm not perfect, but that doesn't mean I can't try to be.

If you like what you have read, please follow, favorite, and review. It means a lot to me to hear from you guys.

Until next time, this has been D~F.