In Enchancia, Roland was in the courtyard organizing items that had just arrived. James came out and saw the huge stack of bins going, "Woah! What's all this!?" His father explained that it's items for the Dunwiddie School and he has to go deliver them. "I can do it, Dad!" James volunteered. Roland pointed out how it was a lot of bins and didn't know if his son could deliver all of them. "Come on, Dad! Now that I'm no longer heir I need to do knight-like quests!"
Roland began to chuckle and replied, "Alright then. Help me put all of these bins in the carriage. Then you can take the carriage to Dunwiddie." James saluted to the king then grabbed a bin placing it in the carriage. When they were all done and James jumped in the coachman's seat, Roland reminded him, "Now remember, James... These are all items for the Dunwiddie School. Make sure it all gets there."
"Yeah yeah yeah... piece of cake! See ya, Dad!" James replied. He then flicked the reins and got the horse to dash across the bridge.
Reaching Dunwiddie, James started making his way over to the school. He ended up running into Sofia's friend Lucinda. "Hi James! What'cha got there?" the little witch asked while getting off of her broom. James explained he was preforming a knightly duty of transferring items to the village. Lucinda took a look in the carriage until she spotted a beaker of hurricane dust. "Hey! My mom just ran out of this and totally needs some," Lucinda cried.
"Oh, well... I'd love to give it to you, but I promised my dad I would get it all to the school," James replied. Lucinda pondered for a moment until she snapped her fingers and pulled out three small beans. She offered to trade them for the beaker of hurricane dust. "What's so great about three beans? That won't fill me up no matter how healthy it is!" James questioned.
"They're MAGIC beans!" Lucinda answered. James grew more intrigued. He asked if it meant that he would be magical by eating them. "NO!" Lucinda gasped. "Don't eat them! You're supposed to plant them," she told the prince.
James scratched his head for a bit and then shrugged his shoulders going, "Alright, deal!"
"Yes!" Lucinda cheered. She placed the beans in James' hand then grabbed the beaker of dust. "Thanks, James!" she said before flying off on her broom.
Later when he reached the school, he helped unload all of the items. "Why thank you, Prince James," Ms. Candoo told the boy as they carried in the last item. James saluted back and replied that he was happy to help, but failed to mention that he gave away the hurricane dust.
When James arrived back at the castle, Roland asked how it went and if he was able to get all of the items to the school. "Pretty much," James answered with confidence. "But I gave the hurricane dust to Sofia's friend, Lucinda," he added. Roland was shocked and questioned again what had happened. "It's ok, Dad! I was able to trade them for these beans. They're magical!" James confirmed as he showed his father the three magic beans.
Roland picked up the beans and told his son, "You traded an item that was meant to go to a school for three small little green beans!? These aren't magical, James! She tricked you!"
"But... but Dad-" James sighed as he watched his father throw the beans into the yard.
"Maybe you can learn from this, James," Roland said with much disappointment before walking back inside.
James sighed once again and began to follow the king back inside. Suddenly, he heard something behind him and turned to see a huge plant coming out of the ground where the beans had landed. James watched as it grew taller and taller then cried, "Woah... Brilliant!"
He walked over to the plant then looked up questioning, "How high up does this thing go!?" He studied the plant until he went, "It looks like a huge rising rosestalk! Except without the roses... and it was made from beans. Wait, THAT'S IT! It's a beanstalk!" He looked back at the castle to make sure no one else had noticed it yet. He remembered that Sofia was in Zumaria with Vivian on a play date and that Amber was in Corinthia having a tea party with Clio and Hildegard. His parents and all of the staff seemed to be somewhere inside. James finally formed a smirk knowing that the coast was clear. "I'm going to be the most adventurous knight EVER!" he exclaimed as he began climbing up the beanstalk.
James climbed higher and higher up the plant yet had not reached the top. He tried catching his breath and laid on one of the large leaves. James took a deep breath going, "I didn't realize the stalk would be THIS high. I STILL can't see the top. Man... I should've brought some water..." He took one last breath before continuing his climb.
Reaching the top, James realized that the beanstalk was coming to an end. However, he also noticed it stopped on some type of cloud. "Well that's a let down," he thought aloud. When he finally arrived at the cloud, he realized it was more than just some cloud. It had a whole forest and a large purple wooden fence. "Brilliant!"
James began to climb onto the cloud and wanted to see what was inside the fence. He opened the gate and walked inside, hoping there would be some sort of treasure. "Where am I? This place is HUGE! Almost like it was meant for-" Before he could finish his sentence, he looked behind him noticing a very tall and large man, making James finally finish his sentence and cry, "A GIANT!" then ducked under the large wooden table.
"Giant?" the creature offendedly replied. "We're not giants. We're Rompkins!" he added. James came out from hiding and asked what a rompkin was. "US!" the rompkin answered with a laugh. "My name is Harumph," he told the young prince. He then went on to introduce Grump and Bash.
"So, you guys just live on this cloud forest thing?" James questioned.
Bash began to chuckle and respond, "Well it's the Isle of Rompkins! Where else would we live?" James was slightly confused, until Grump added in that he'd have to go to a whole 'nother isle to see Giants.
James grew curious as he questioned, "In other words... I'd have to grow another beanstalk in a different place and just hope I end up on that isle?" Harumph started to laugh stating how James didn't need to go all the way to the Isle of Beanstalks to get to another isle. "What do you mean?" James replied.
Harumph picked James up and sat James on top of the table going, "You're in The Mystic Isles! Actually, you are the first human we've seen since our queen-queen and the new protector trainee." He then paused and sadly added, "I really miss our queen-queen..."
James' face automatically lit up and he stood up on the table and cried, "I could be your new king! My sister just took over heir to the throne in our kingdom."
Harumph shed a small tear explaining, "No one could replace our queen-queen..." James began to ponder then asked how he gets to the other isles. "By the bridges... duh..." Harumph chuckled. He started pointing in different directions stating how to get to certain bridges and where they lead.
James quickly grew intrigued when he heard there was a dancing desert. He questioned what that meant and the rompkins explained how the sands show him what he asks for. "Sounds brilliant!" James exclaimed as he jumped off of the table. He automatically wondered if they could remind him which way the magical sands were.
Reaching The Isle of Dancing Deserts, James was disappointed. "This is just a huge sand pile. It's not dancing at all," he complained. "Bummer... I wish the sands actually were dancing," he mumbled to himself. Suddenly, the sands began to fly around as if they were actually dancing. "Woah... brilliant!" James cried. "Can you show ANYTHING!?" he asked the desert. He then began to list object after object. He asked for it to show Amber and they clustered together to show the princess gazing through a telescope.
"What about my other sister, Sof?" he continued. All of a sudden, the sands lifted him up and dragged him across the isle. He grew terrified and confused. They reached a bridge and James looked down at the sands going, "Hey! I asked you to show me Sofia, not another bridge!" The sands then rose up and pointed across the bridge. "Huh?" the prince muttered. He began to walk across the bridge, then turned and looked back to the sands which motioned him to keep going. "This is officially the weirdest place I've ever been," he stated.
James crossed the bridge which led to The Isle of Crystals. He then joked to himself how he thought the Jewel Room had the most amount of crystals. "Alright, princess! Try and lift up that one crystal with your enchantlet," James heard to his left.
"Like this?" a familiar voice replied.
James looked to his left to see Sofia and Chrysta together. She was in the middle of training. James automatically gasped, hid behind a row of crystals, and mumbled under his breath, "Sof...?" He peeked his eyes over one of the crystals enough to where he could see them but they couldn't see him.
Sofia started catching her breath as she pulled her enchantlet rope back in. "Wow. That was tricky," she told her trainer after being unable to move the crystal. Chrysta explained how that was exactly why they were going to learn the bond. "The bond?" Sofia questioned, quite intrigued.
"It's when two enchantlets work together and become stronger," Chrysta informed the princess. She told Sofia to wrap her rope around the crystal again, making Sofia nod and do exactly that. "Now watch this," Chrysta said. She flicked her wrist and wrapped her rope around the same crystal. "Next, we just imagine our ropes as a team. Try it!" she finished.
"Ok!" Sofia exclaimed. James witnessed as the two ropes began to collide. "They tied together!" Sofia realized. Chrysta told her how that meant it was twice as strong. She commanded for Sofia to try and lift the crystals again. Sofia nodded back and the two managed to lift the crystal from the ground. Sofia's face filled with joy as she went, "It... it worked! I did it!"
James was amazed as he would've never guessed his innocent little sister to be this strong. He leaned a bit over the crystal to get a better view but ended up tripping over it and tumbling towards Sofia. "James!?" Sofia cried.
"Oh, ummm... Hey, Sof!" her brother awkwardly replied. Sofia reached out her hand to help him stand up then questioned how he got to The Mystic Isles making James answer, "Me? I climbed the beanstalk! I don't know how you got here, though... Did you find and climb the beanstalk too?"
Sofia's expression automatically changed as she went, "Beanstalk? What? No! I-" Sofia paused and took a deep breath before adding, "Look, it doesn't matter... What does matter is you going back home. It's not safe here." This made James counter and state how that meant she shouldn't be there either.
Before Sofia could respond, Chrysta went, "Sofia, we don't have time for this. Orion wants us back at headquarters." Sofia sighed and turned to let her brother know that she had to go and that he had to go too, then made him promise that he wouldn't tell anyone about this.
Making his way back to the beanstalk, James grew distracted looking at the other isles. Each time he saw one of interest, he'd stop there and explore. While on The Isle Dragons, he looked a bit to his left seeing The Isle of Flying Carpets. "Woah! Zandar would love that place," he cried as he started heading towards the isle.
James was full of laughter and joy as carpets flew all around and against him. One blue and green carpet came and stood right in front of the prince, making him chuckle, "Well hey there! What's your name? Oh right, carpets can't talk!" and continued to laugh to himself. James began to ponder until he smiled and told the carpet, "How about I call you Carpie?" The carpet quickly flung up to show its approval, making James laugh once again.
Walking around the isle, James was filled with enthusiasm. He looked to his left and noticed Sofia on a unicorn as well as Chrysta talking to a woman on a black unicorn and Wormwood. "Looks like they need help!" James realized as he saw Sofia struggling to keep the black unicorn from moving. "Come on, Carpie! We need to save Sof, like a true knight. Ummm... and a true carpet!" he exclaimed while he jumped on top of the carpet. He then commanded the carpet to head for Sofia, making the carpet dash off.
"Give up, Princess! This sun drop flower is mine and you can't do anything about it," Prisma told Sofia.
"Well done, Prisma," her locket told her. "Keep in mind that you should not risk getting hurt. Despite the flower once having the ability to heal any wound, the power was converted to Princess Rapunzel and no longer exists within the flower," Vor warned.
"Got it. Don't get hurt but hurt Sofia and Chrysta!" Prisma replied.
James gasped overhearing this. "Hurt Sofia!? Not on my watch!"
Suddenly, Twitch transformed into a dragon. This made Sofia's grip on him come undone. Her rope quickly flung back into her enchantlet, making her lose balance and slide off of Skye. "Sofia!" Chrysta panicked.
Prisma began to laugh as the princess started to fall. However, Sofia noticed herself safely come to a land. "What the-?" she questioned, not expecting to land so soon and with such a soft cushioning. She looked down noticing herself on a magic carpet. Sofia turned around to see her brother controlling the carpet. "James!? You... you saved me! I thought you left!"
James looked back at her with a smirk as he clarified, "Well, I was starting to but grew distracted... and got distracted a few more times..." Sofia formed a smirk as well, wondering to herself how she didn't see this coming. "While on The Isle of Flying Carpets, I saw you were in trouble. I had to come help!" he finished.
Sofia was slightly frustrated at first and was about to lash out at her brother that he shouldn't be here and how dangerous it was. However, she took a deep sigh and instead went, "Thank you, James! I'm glad you were able to save me." Sofia then commanded for the carpet to take her back to Skye.
Noticing this, Prisma began to grin. "Who's this you got with you today, Princess?" she mischievously asked. However, James was the one to answer, explaining how he was a future knight of Enchancia and there to protect the princess and his sister. "Awww, the little princess needs her big brother to come and rescue her? Some protector..." Prisma mocked. Sofia's eyes determinedly squinted as she heard this. Just because she had someone there to help didn't make her any less brave. In fact, in her eyes it meant she had a bigger group of friends than Prisma and made her even more capable. The more friends she had, the stronger she was!
Interrupting Sofia's train of thought, James suddenly went, "So is this where you've been disappearing to everyday? You come here and fight this old lady?"
As Chrysta started to chuckle, Prisma cried, "OLD LADY!? Alright, that's it! You're now on my list, little boy!"
James automatically tried to form a strategy as he observed Prisma. "What's that locket? It seems important," he whispered to Sofia. His little sister began to explain that it was there giving Prisma information to find The Wicked Nine. "What's The Wicked Nine?" James questioned.
"I'll explain more later, let's just take cover," Sofia suggested as they landed on a nearby isle.
Prisma began to laugh and hold up the Sundrop Flower as she went, "Ha! That's right, Princess! Run and hide! I'VE still got-" All of a sudden, the flower dropped out of her hands as she finished, "the flower..."
Wormwood gave and annoyed sigh before saying, "Well, isn't that just swell...?"
Landing on the Isle of Enchanted Plants, Sofia and James quickly took cover under a tree so they were no longer spotted. "Hey Sof, I think she dropped that flower thing," James whispered.
"That 'flower thing' is called The Sundrop Flower, and it's part of The Wicked Nine that I was telling you about. We have to find it," his little sister replied. However, she looked around and sighed realizing, "But we're on The Isle of Enchanted Plants… Magic flowers are all over this island! This will definitely be a challenge."
James pondered for a moment before suggesting, "Well, didn't that flower glow when a special song was sung? Maybe we could sing the song and discover where it is." Sofia shook her head and reminded James how the flower lost that power when it was given to the queen. "Oh yeah… That only happened to Rapunzel from then on. My bad…" James responded.
Suddenly, James looked down at a bush next to them seeing a bunch of berries with x's on them. "X? Ooo! I wonder if these will give me X-Ray vision so I can spot the flower!" James exclaimed as picked one of the berries.
Sofia gave a quick gasp before going, "James! Don't! Those will-" but before she could finish, James had already swallowed the berry. "Those will give you hallucinations…" she concluded with a deep breath. She went on to state how they had an 'x' for a danger symbol.
"They should label it better, then. X also could mean 'X marks the spot'!" James chuckled. Sofia rolled her eyes stating how she'll bring it up at the next meeting. "Wait! Sofia… I see a cannon! Look!" James cheered as he pointed off in the distance to an empty space.
All of a sudden, James was launching imaginary cannonballs across the isle. "James! You're already starting to hallucinate! Oh no… James! Snap out of it, we have to find that flower," Sofia sobbed. James told her not to worry because he saw tons of them. He leaned over to pick one of the 'flowers' he saw making Sofia cry, "No! James, that's not the flower! That's poison ivy! Oh no… we'll NEVER find the flower like this!"
Continuing to scout the isle, Sofia would be on the lookout for the flower while also trying to hide from Prisma and keep James out of trouble. Next thing she knew, James came running next to her and bouncing around like crazy. "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Check this out, Sof! I'm riding a dragon! Giddy-up, Dracul! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" he cried, then continued to hop off.
"And I thought he had an active imagination before! James, wait!"
The two had to get through many varieties of Enchanted Plants. James kept accidentally seeing the wrong flower and Sofia had to guide and protect him. All the way from dodging pollen of laughing lilies to avoiding being hit by bouncing bluebells while also trying to avoid being caught by Prisma and her sidekicks. Next thing they knew, they were on the edge of the isle. "Hold on, James! I see the flower, look!" Sofia said as she pointed to a bush with a gold flower sticking out of it.
"I'm on it. Fetch, Dracul! Whoosh! Whoosh!" James cheered as he made his way towards the flower. Sofia stated how they have to return it to the protectors. "I'm on it. You can take the carpet, I'll race you there on Dracul! Whoosh! Whoo-"
"WAIT! Ummm… Why don't you ride the carpet with me and, well, 'Dracul' can fly beside us," Sofia suggested before James would cause any damage to himself due to his hallucination.
Reaching The Isle of Protectors, they were able to return The Sundrop Flower back to where it belongs. However, James still had not turned back to normal. The protectors noticed James scratching himself and also telling thin air not to roast all of the people. "He accidentally ate a halluberry… and he also touched poison ivy," Sofia clarified. Orion and Vega handed Sofia an herb for James to use which will cure him back to normal.
Overhearing this, James cried, "Oh no you don't! You're not gonna take away MY dragon! Fly, Dracul, fly!" He then began hopping out of the room. Sofia sighed and knew that it was about time for her AND James to head back to Enchancia.
Beginning to make their decent down the beanstalk, Sofia was able to have James partake of the herb. When she had noticed he was returning back to normal (well, as normal as James gets), she looked up and her brother who was climbing down from above her and went, "James, promise me you won't tell anyone about what you saw today. I'm trying hard to become a protector and it'd all be a waste if Mom knew I was disappearing to another realm every single day."
"Yeah, of course. You've got it, Sof!" James promised. Sofia gave a sigh of relief as she thanked him. "One problem with that, though…" James pointed out. "What are we going to do about this beanstalk? I think that'll give it away," he finished. Sofia formed a smirk as she answered that a sorcerer can help out with anything.
Ironically, Cedric was already at the base of the stalk once they had climbed down. "Children? Oh, I should've known this would be YOUR doing…" he said.
Sofia questioned if the sorcerer could remove it for them. When Cedric asked what made them grow it in the first place, James answered, "We read in a book about a boy who climbed a beanstalk and wanted to try it for ourselves and find treasure."
"But sadly there was nothing but clouds…" Sofia added. Cedric gave an eyeroll just before taking out his wand and making the gigantic plant disappear. When the sorcerer headed back inside, Sofia turned to her brother going, "Thanks for not ratting me out, James."
"Eh, no problem. Dad was mad at me for the beans anyway, so I didn't want them to know I went up the stalk either!" James responded with a chuckle. Sofia giggled in return, not surprised of her brother. She now had two siblings who were willing to cover for her when it came to her protector business.
A/N: Noticed in Forever Royal that James wasn't that shocked with Sofia not being in the ballroom and even helped Amber cover for Sofia. So I thought this would be a fun idea.