"Okay, so are we ready to go?" Laura asked. She was getting impatient. Blinx had been fiddling with his Time Sweeper for the past hour and it was starting to get annoying. She really wanted to see some other worlds, even if it did involve extradimensional rifts.

"Almost, I just need to adjust one more thing in the space-time equilibrium formula." Blinx adjusted the minute had on his Time Sweeper. He then pressed a green button. There was a flash. A hole seemed to open in thin air. It showed a picture of an unfamiliar place. There was a picture of a castle with a grove of fruit trees.

"So, we just jump in?" Yaki inquired.

"Basically, yes." Blinx replied.

Laura walked up to the portal and touched it with her finger. The picture rippled a bit. Laura withdrew her finger and the wavering stopped. Laura took a few steps backward and ran and jumped into the picture.

"Wait!" Blinx cried, "The portal's still volatile and it's not-"

"Forget it," Yaki said, "She's already gone.

Blinx sighed, "I guess we'll go too then."

Yaki and Blinx stepped into the portal and were instantly sucked into the darkness.

Laura felt a sickening sensation. Suddenly she was pulled out of the rift and fell to the ground of the new world. She groaned, then she stood up and looked around at her new surroundings.

There was the castle and the fruit trees, but some of them twitched on their own volition. Off to the side was a graveyard, but the graves looked strange, as if something had risen out of them and then gone back in multiple times. She then gasped; some of the trees had pies on them! Some other trees had shoes, pants, hats and various other articles of clothing on their branches. Laura walked up to one to see why someone would put pies on a tree, but on close examination it was obvious that the pies were actually growing on the tree.

"This is strange…" she thought aloud.

Suddenly, she heard a "pop", and standing behind her were Yaki and Blinx, looking disoriented.

"Where are we?" Yaki asked, noting the pies and clothing.

"I don't know," Blinx said, "But according to my Time Sweeper, this place has a high level of magic and its connected directly to another world."

"Well," Laura said, "Wherever we are, it's sure to be a fun adventure."

"Why do you say that?" Yaki inquired.

"I don't know, it seemed like the right thing to say. There's something about this place that makes me feel…optimistic."

"Maybe we should try to find someone to help us out."

"That's a good idea," Blinx said, "But remember, we can't let on we're from different worlds."

Yaki had filled Blinx in earlier about the Moonlands and different worlds in the like; he was a quick learner.

"Right," Laura said, "Hey, I think I see a house over their near the castle."

Laura, Yaki, and Blinx walked over to the house. It was yellow-white in color. When they got close, they realized it smelled a little like cheese.

Laura shrugged, then she knocked on the door.

The door opened to reveal a very old man. He seemed friendly enough, though.

"Why, hello." He said warmly.

"Umm, hi," Laura responded, "We're kind of lost, could you please tell me where we are?"

The man frowned.

"You mean you don't know? This is Castle Roogna, the human capital of Xanth."

"Xanth? As in the yellow chemical?" Blinx inquired.

The man frowned again, "Normally, I'd guess you would be from Mundania, but I don't think they have humanoid talking cats there. Hmm…"

"So the name of this world is Xanth?" Laura asked, but then covered her mouth in realization.

"So you're from another world?" the man asked.

"Wait," Yaki said puzzled, "You know about different worlds?"

"Of course!" he replied, "Plenty of people from other worlds come to Xanth, although most of them are from Mundania or Ida's moons. Anyway, my name is Bink. Please, do come in!"

Bink moved out of the way, and Laura, Yaki, and Blinx stepped inside.

The inside of the house was pleasantly decorated, but it still smelled a bit like cheese.

"Umm…Bink?" Laura asked, "Why were there pies growing on some of those trees?"

"Why, those are pie trees!" he replied and laughed. Laura wasn't sure what was so funny.

"And the shoes?"

"Those are shoe trees!" Bink laughed again.

"If I ask about the smell of this house," Blinx piped up, "You're going to say something strange and laugh again, aren't you?"

"You bet. This is a cottage cheese!" Bink laughed again.

"Cottage cheese? Oh, it's a pun!" Laura was starting to get the hang of it, but it was still annoying.

"Yep. Xanth is built on puns. It makes things better."

"Who's there?" a female voice called from the other room.

"Oh yes," Bink said, "Chameleon, there are three people here from another world."

An elderly woman with a kind smile walked into the living room holding a plate of cookies.

"Oh, hello dears," she said warmly, "My name is Chameleon. Even though we were supposed to fade away a while a go, Bink and I were put in charge of diplomatic affairs with other worlds."

"Hello," Laura replied, "My name is Laura, and these two are Yaki and Blinx."

"Yes. Now, would you three like a cookie?"

Laura, Yaki, and Blinx all nodded and Chameleon handed each of them a pinwheel- shaped cookie. They were delicious.

"Thank you," Laura said, "It was delicious!"

"I'm glad you liked them. Now, to get to business."

Chameleon suddenly looked serious. So did Bink.

"How did you come here?" Bink asked.

"We traveled here through a rift in the space-time continuum," Blinx said, "We came from the Moonlands, well Yaki did anyway. Laura and I are from two different worlds. When our worlds were destroyed, we ended up in the Moonlands."

"I see," Bink said thoughtfully, "And why are you here?"

"We're trying to find our friends," Laura said. She then pulled out her Keyblade and added, "And defeat the darkness."

The old couple stared at her for a moment.

"Yes, the Keyblade." Chameleon said.

"Please," Bink added, "Follow us."

Bink and Chameleon stood up and exited the house of cheese. Laura, Yaki, and Blinx followed.

Soon they came to the Castle Roogna. As they walked over the bridge, a giant serpent rose out of the water.

"It's okay, Soufflé," Chameleon said soothingly, "It's just us and some world travelers."

Soufflé nodded and sunk back into the moat. Laura realized that this castle must have a lot of hidden defenses like that.

As they entered the castle, three little girls wearing crowns ran up to them.

"Hey!" the first one said. She was wearing a green dress and had blonde hair with a tint of green.

"New people!" the second one said. She had a red dress and had brown hair.

"Are they from a different world?" the third one asked. She was wearing a little brown dress and was holding a toy drum.

"Ah yes," Chameleon said, "These are the princesses Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm. They're quite precocious, being five years old."

The three princesses blushed.

"Come on!" Melody said.

"You must be here for the keyhole!" Harmony said.

"We saw it all on the tapestry." Rhythm added.

Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm started to run up a flight of stairs.

"We'll wait here," Bink said, "You three go along now. They might be young, but they know what they're doing."

Laura nodded and the trio then followed the little princesses up the stairs. They came to a stop outside a door with a plaque that read "Princess Ida".

"Auntie Ida is in here." Melody said.

"She can help." Harmony commented.

"She has powers." Rhythm finished. Laura started to wonder what they would do when they got older and split apart. They would have to actually create a whole idea without help.

Melody knocked on the door.

"Enter…" a voice inside said sadly.

Harmony opened the door to reveal a woman who looked very sad.

"What's wrong, Aunt Ida?" Rhythm asked.

"It's Ptero," Ida began sadly, "It just disappeared!"

Ida started to cry. The three princesses gasped.

"What's going on here?" Another woman asked as she walked into the room.

Ida gazed at the woman unhappily. Laura still had no idea what was going on.

"My moon has disappeared." She started crying again.

"Oh my," the woman said, "What happened?"

"Well, I was just sitting here, thinking, when all of a sudden it just disappeared!"

"Umm," Laura began, but that was as far as she got, for suddenly, a shadow appeared in the room.

"Eeeeeekk!" the three princesses cried in unison, getting an extra "k" into it in the process. Laura swiped at it with her Keyblade, and it vanished leaving behind a green orb and some Munny.

"What was that," the woman asked, "And who are you three?"

"These are Laura," Melody began.

"Yaki," Harmony added.

"And Blinx." Rhythm finished.

"Hello." Laura said.

"Why hello, Laura, Yaki, and Blinx," the woman replied. Laura noticed her hair was twinged with green, "My name is princess Ivy. Pleased to meet you."

Laura was confounded with the amount of princesses about; it was just rather odd.

"They're from different worlds," Melody said.

"Three different ones," Harmony continued.

"Two of them were destroyed." Rhythm concluded.

"How did you-" Laura began.

"We know lots about you," Melody said.

"It's part of our magic," Harmony said.

"We can do anything." Rhythm finished.

The three little princesses then giggled. They didn't seem the least bit perturbed about the Heartless.

Laura turned to Yaki and Blinx; they just shrugged.

Laura turned to Ida. "What was Ptero?" she asked.

"Ptero," Ida began, "Was my moon. On it existed all the people that do exist, did exist, and might exist. There's a version me there with another moon named Pyramid. On Pyramid is another me with a moon called Cone, then it gets confusing with Taurus, Dumbbell, Pincushion, Spaghetti, Fractal, Motes, Tesseract, Zombie, and all the others. As far as anyone can tell, there are an infinite number of Idas, each with her own moon."

"Hmm…" Laura said thoughtfully, "So each of your moons are like worlds?"

"You could say that."

"If each moon is a world, then each one has a keyhole, and then-"

Laura snapped her fingers.

"The Heartless!" she, Yaki, and Blinx said at the same time.

Ida looked confused for a moment. "Are you trying to say that the Heartless found the keyhole to Ptero?"

"It's a possibility," Laura replied, "If there is another you with another world, and so on and so forth, then if the Heartless destroy Ptero, they just succeeded in destroying hundreds-maybe thousands-of different worlds in the process."

Ida was shocked. "I never thought of it before," she said, "How can we get them back?"

Laura turned to Yaki and Blinx, who once again simply shrugged.

"Maybe you should come with me." Ivy said, and left the room. The group-which now included the three princesses and Ida-followed. Soon they came to a large throne room where a regal-looking man and woman sat. The man had long white hair, dark eyes, was dressed in robes, and had a crown on his head. The woman had long dark hair that seemed green, green eyes, a green robe, and a crown as well. Laura also noticed a cat underneath the woman's throne.

"May I help you Ivy?" the woman inquired politely.