"Oww..." Ivy woke up on the floor, both her head and heart pounding. She slowly looked up and winced as the blanket slid from her head. For a moment, she thought she was still in a nightmare, but her vision soon cleared.

Light was shining all around Sofia's room, so bright that it hurt Ivy's eyes. The small girl slowly sat up. She tried reaching for the bottle of potion, but it was out of reach.

"Ivy? My dear, what are you doing on the ground? Are you feeling alright?"

Ivy looked up and smiled slightly when she saw Baileywick standing in the doorway. The steward was holding a silver trey of tea.

"I fell out of bed," Ivy explained. "I don't know when or how long I slept there, but I don't remember it, so it must have been a while. What time is it?"

To her surprise, Baileywick sat down near her. "Three in the afternoon." He grabbed the bottle of potion. "Hm. It's much smaller than I expected."

"Yeah, Cedric says that kids my age only should take three drops a day. He sort of freaked out when he thought I had taken it all already."

"Well, its quite understandable. After all, it looks like just the amount you have here is enough for...at least another week. Can you take it in tea? I'd imagine it doesn't taste pleasant."

"Meh. Its sort of so-so. It tastes more like grass than anything else. Tea would probably mask the taste, though. What kind do you have?"

"Peppermint, as usual. I thought it might help calm you down if you had another nightmare."

Ivy felt her skin flush a neon pink before going back to normal (besides the usual embarrassed blush, of course). "Yeah, I did. You...you know about those?"

"Princess Sofia thought it would be best to tell her parents as well as me, so we could help as best as possible. Nobody else was told. Now, have some tea. You'll need to drink something."

Ivy watched as he carefully put three drops of the potion into the tea. When she was handed the cup, she very slowly drank it. After a minute, she asked, "Baileywick?"

"Yes?"

"Can I...talk to you about my nightmare?

"Well, I'll have to get back to work soon, but I can stay for a minute or two."

Ivy gave a relieved sigh. "Well...I...in my dream, I was on a boat in the desert. Everyone was there. My mom, my dad, the King and Queen, Sofia, her siblings, Cedric, even you. A huge storm started. There was so much rain and the boat started to sink like a ship taking in water...and...and then...they appeared. They tried to hurt everyone I care about. I couldn't move. I just had to stand there and watch as everyone else was tossed off and...the sand was like stone to you all. There was so much blood and...and screams...then I was tossed overboard and the sand was like water. I was drowning and everything went black and there was nothing but screams for what seemed like forever and ever and ever...and laughing...he laughed at me...as I fell into the depths of Lalotai..."

Baileywick's brow furrowed. "Who?" he asked.

"What?"

"Who was laughing?"

"He..." Ivy leaned against the bed. "Have you ever heard of...Maui?"

"I've heard the name from Sofia, but I know nothing else."

"Well...he's a kupua. He's a living legend, an immortal being from the ancient days. He created coconuts, lassoed the sun to lengthen the days, pulled islands out of the ocean, and twice failed to give immortality to mortals. The last time he stole the Heart of Te Fiti, the first time he did something that I'm not going to speak of. He's...he was a friend of my family. Then...he...he was there when...you know. He was on the side of the Akua. He...he tried to convince my parents to...well, I just never want to see his stupid face again. He's not evil, but in my dream, he...his laugh was..."

"Unsettling?"

"More than that. Terrifying. Malicious. More the laugh of a monster than a man. It was-"

A startling racket rang through the room, so sudden and loud that Ivy screamed. Large thuds and cracks and bangs followed it. Even after the noise had stopped, she kept her eyes closed.

"You'll be alright, my dear. Are you hurt?"

Ivy ran her hand against her face and arms. "No, I don't think so. What happened?"

"I'll go check. It sounded like it came from the...oh, my." Baileywick's eyes went wide as he stood up. The look in his eyes was one of confusion and horror. When Ivy climbed onto the bed and looked where he was looking, she saw why.

Sofia's window was shattered, only jagged pieces of it remaining connected to the windowsill. There were shards of glass everywhere. Rocks with notes attached to them also laid on the floor and window seat. The most horrifying part, though, and the thing that made Ivy's blood run cold, was the fact that the bodies of two slaughtered owls had been tossed through as well.

"Ivy, my dear, please don't come any closer. I don't want you getting injured."

Ignoring the steward's obviously distressed tone, the young girl hurriedly swept the glass away with her bare foot. Glass cut into her knees as she knelt down.

"My dear, please! You'll hurt yourself on the shards!"

"But I can't just leave them here," Ivy whimpered. "Someone...someone..."

As she knelt there, she could feel anger rising up inside her. Her blood became as hot as lava. Her hair changed into flames and her skin seemed to change to dark rock. She didn't feel exhausted, as she normally did when this happened, she felt livid.

"Someone killed them. Someone decided to kill them and throw them through Sofia's window along with rocks. Who would do this? Why?!"

"Please, you'll hurt yourself! Move away and let me deal with the mess. I'll take the matter to King Roland immediately and-"

"NO!" The flames on Ivy's head were soon accompanied by flames dancing around her. "I will take this to King Roland and whoever did this will pay for how horrible and...and...and..."

"My dear, are you alright?"

Ivy wrapped her arms around her torso. She was still filled with rage, but she had become so light-headed that it shocked her into being unable to move. She felt as if the floor was swaying under her.

"I...I...I want my mom and dad." She clawed at her arms. Tears started to fall again. She could feel herself changing back to how she normally looked. "I want them back. I don't ever want to see death. I want to see my mom and dad. I want to hug them again. I don't ever want to see death again, Baileywick. I can't..."

"Do you want me to get Cedric?"

"No...please, just...don't leave. I don't want to be alone. I want my family. I want them here with me."

"Stand up. Let's get you to the bed. Sitting will help calm you. I'll call a servant to get the Queen and King. And a first aid kit."

Despite how much she wanted to scream and cry, Ivy didn't protest as she was guided to the bed. She just followed with silent tears streaming down her face and sat down where Baileywick told her to.

While Miranda hurried to help the sobbing little girl sitting on the bed, Roland's eyes went wide as he looked around Sofia's room. "What happened here?!"

"Your Majesties, something extremely unsettling happened," Baileywick explained. "Rocks with notes attached were thrown through Sofia's window, along with...well..."

"Th-th-they killed owls and t-t-ossed th-them through the w-w-w-i-indow!" Ivy cried frantically.

"I'm afraid she's very distressed. She's been shaken up and it's overall been a horrifying experience. The notes are just as terrible as what happened to the owls, full of insults towards her. I didn't let her see them."

"I...I..." Roland could hardly find the worlds to say. He just looked from Ivy to the shattered window. Then he shook his head to clear his mind.

"We'll have Sofia and Ivy sleep with Amber until this is all sorted out. We'll have twice as many guards around the castle grounds. I'll have the best knights in the kingdom looking for whomever did this."

"And what are we going to do about the..."

Roland sighed. "We'll have to change our plans a bit. We've already been having some...other problems."

"Other problems? Like what?"

"Well..."