"Come on. The path leads down here." Alexis says as the group is in a cave.
"This water could go on for miles. We need something to float on." Barley says as the group stops at some water.
"Would this work?" Alexis asks as she pulls a small air raft out of her satchel and inflates it on the water.
"You carry around a little raft in your satchel?" Barley asks.
"Hey I always come prepared wherever I am." Alexis says.
"I don't know about you but I like this girl." Barley says as the group gets in the raft.
"You're pretty handy." Ian says as Alexis smiles at him.
"Thanks. You're not bad with spells Ian. Haven't seen spell casting in a long time. My mom used to do it." Alexis says as Ian smiles at her.
"Used to do it?" Barley asks curiously.
"Never mind. Let's get going." Alexis says as the group gets going in the raft.
*Timeskip*
"Yeah! You're a natural!" Barley shouts as Ian is practicing spells.
"He really is good. Kinda cute when he acts excited like that." Alexis thinks as she smiles watch Ian.
"I can't believe I'm this close to actually talking to Dad." Ian says as he sits down.
"You know what I'm gonna ask him? If he ever gave himself a wizard name." Barley says.
"A wizard name?" Alexis asks curiously.
"Well 'cause he was into magic. Lots of wizards have cool names. Alora the Majestic. Birdar the Fanciful. Anyway it'll just be nice to have more than four memories of him." Barley says as he and Ian talk about their father.
"Guys. We're here." Alexis says as the group comes to a stop while passing by statues.
"The Phoenix Gem is just on the other side." Barley says as the group gets out and walks down a tunnel.
"Careful. There could be traps." Alexis says as she nervously looks around.
"This place is like 1,000 years old. There's no way there could be... Oh no." Barley says as he sets off a trap.
"Run!" Alexis shouts as the group runs only to escape the trap and get trapped in rising water instead and barely make it out of the trap alive.
"We made it!" Barley shouts happily.
"Okay that was not fun." Alexis says as she shifts to wolf form and shakes off the water before noticing the boys staring at her.
"Uh..." Ian says in surprise.
"What? Never seen a wolf shifter before? Got a problem with it?" Alexis asks as she shifts back to elf form.
"Uh no! No problem." Ian says.
"The Phoenix Gem awaits beyond this door. Shall we?" Barley asks as the group sees a door.
"We certainly shall! Dad we have followed the quest and it has led us to our victory!" Ian says as the group goes through the door and finds themselves in a town.
"Uh where are we? I don't recognize this place." Alexis says as she looks around confused.
"We're back home. No, that doesn't make sense. We took the Path of Peril. We followed the ravens, we went to the end of the water..." Ian says.
"Unless the X meant stay away from the water. Or it could be like a campfire? It's okay. We can figure this out." Barley says.
"Your brother is right. Maybe we just missed something." Alexis says.
"Figure out what? We're back where we started." Ian says.
"I mean it has to be here. There was a gauntlet. I mean unless that gauntlet was for coincidentally some different quest. No, no, no. This has to be where the Phoenix Gem is. I followed my gut." Barley says as Alexis looks at Ian.
"Ian? Did you figure something out?" Alexis asks.
"The gem is in the mountain. The mountain we could have been to hours ago if we just... If we just stayed on the expressway." Ian says.
"No the expressway is too obvious. You can never take the obvious-" Barley then gets cut off by Ian.
"If I hadn't listened to you! Okay? I can't believe this. You act like you know what you're doing but you don't have a clue and that's because you are a screw up. And now you've screwed up my chance to have the one thing I never had!" Ian says angrily as he starts leading his father away.
"Ian!" Alexis says in shock.
"Where are you going?" Barley asks.
"To spend what little time we have left with Dad." Ian says coldly as he walks away with his father.
"I'll go talk to him. Ian wait!" Alexis shouts as she chases after Ian.