Ian was standing on the top of an enormously tall building. It stretched into the sky, nearly touching the clouds. He walked to the edge of it and looked down, expecting to see a busy city below, and for the most part, he did. But what was different was the people. There were no sprites, ogres, merpeople, cyclops, or elves. There were swarms of creatures he had never seen before. He was unable to see them close up, being so high in the sky, so he looked for a way down. After locating a staircase, he quickly made his way down. The enormous building looked as if it was deserted. After running down many flights of stairs, he finally burst out the door, and found himself in a sea of the creatures he had seen as tiny dots on the roof. He could see them clearly now. They looked very similar to elves, but with multiple differences. Each person's skin was a different shade, from a light, pale, peachy pink to a deep, rich chocolatey brown that was nearly black. Their noses were much smaller. Their ears didn't extend like Ian's did, but rather ended rounded. Their hair was many different colors. Most were some shade of brown, but there was also black, light yellow, red, and some pinks, greens, blues, and purples thrown into the mix. Some of them had multiple colors of hair . Ian tried to catch the attention of one of them, but they didn't respond to him. It was as if he didn't even exist. He began to run, not sure what was happening. It looked exactly like a city that might exist in his world, but there were no species he recognized. No dragons or unicorns scavenging in dumpster bins. Instead there were small furry creatures that reminded him of Corey in a much smaller form, and without the curly hair, stinging tail, and wings. He stopped running and ventured closer to get a better look. One small fur ball turned around and hissed at him. Shocked, Ian lost his balance and began to cartwheel backwards. He hit the ground and everything went black.

"Agh!" Ian gasped as he woke from his dream. Someone knocked on his door. "Yeah?" he called. Barley entered the room.

"Iandore! It's nearly 10:00 AM! Are you feeling alright?"

Ian ran a hand through his bedhead, trying, and failing, to tame it. "Yeah. I'm fine. Weird dream."

"Ooh! Describe it! Some wizards have dreams that predict the future, or reveal things previously hidden to the world! Like Rayan the Invincible, who predicted the Battle of the Channels, and also predicted she would die there. Both came true." Barley sat down on Ian's bed, and began fiddling with his wizard's staff.

"Hey! Give that back!" Ian snatched it out of Barley's hands, and placed it next to his bed. Then he got out of bed.

"Wait!" Barley called. "Tell me what it was about!"

"I'll tell you after I take a shower. You can wait twenty minutes." Ian picked a t-shirt out of his closet, and grabbed a pair of jeans from his dresser drawer.

"Ugh, fine." Barley groaned. "But be warned! I will not let you forget." Then he walked out of the room. Ian heard him say "Mom! I'm eating Ian's muffin!" Ian rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure you won't. Although I wish you would." He mumbled, before walking out of his room, and locking himself in the bathroom.

…

Ian walked out of the bathroom exactly twenty minutes later. He brought his hairbrush with him, to fix his hair in his room. He opened the door, and closed it behind him. He turned around and-

"Gah!" Barley was sitting on Ian's bed, with a blueberry muffin in each hand. The one in his left hand was half gone, and crumbs were scattered across Ian's blankets. "Dude! Not cool! There's a stain on my blanket now!" Ian pointed to a purple stain on his bedding. Barley shrugged.

"Whoops. Sorry. This one's for you, by the way." He handed Ian the other muffin. "Now tell me your dream!"

"Get off my bed first."

"What? No. I don't wanna sit on the floor!" Ian simply pointed to the ground, and, keeping eye contact, took a bite of his muffin. Barley grumbled.

"Fine." He sat on the floor and stuffed the rest of the muffin in his mouth. Ian brushed the rest of the crumbs off his bed and sat where Barley previously was. He took another bite and chewed slowly, just to tease his brother. Barley rolled his eyes and sighed. Finally, Ian was ready to tell Barley.

In detail, he told Barley about everything he could remember, finishing with, "... and then I woke up." Barley was looking through the Quests of Yore book he had.

"The closest creature I can find in here is elf. I wonder if the things are also able to be wizards, since they're so similar to elves." Barley picked up a collection of biographies of very famous wizards. "I'm going to look for ears; rounded in the index, and see if any other wizards have seen anything similar to this."

"We don't even know if it's a vision. It could just be a really weird dream." Ian was wondering if it was. But it has seemed so vivid, in a way that made all his other dreams seem washed-out and worthless.

"Aha! Bingo! Ezpar the Forgetful recorded meeting a creature like you dreamed of in a dream!" Barley read a passage from Ezpar's journal. "' They had long hair the color of a chestnut, and a beard. They carried a wizard's staff, wore wizard robes, and had olive-colored skin. The most obvious trait that separated them from elves was their ears, which were rounded instead of pointy. They spoke to me about the death of magic in their realm, and begged for my help. I asked how I could find them. They scratched a spell in the dirt we stood on. It was two words, intinerantus interregna. They once again pleaded for my help, and then waved their staff. I woke up after. I shall attempt this spell as soon as I find my staff, which I seem to have misplaced.' Ezpar the Forgetful disappeared the day after this journal entry was written." Barley looked up with a face of wonder.

"It wasn't just a dream…" Ian whispered. Barley jumped from the floor and looked at Ian.

"Ian! Guess what this means? We have a new spell! It's time for another quest!"

"I-I'm not sure. Ezpar disappeared! This is another world with NO magic, it looks like. Barley, we have no idea what we're getting into!"

"Come on, Ian, this is the best time to try it! It's summer break! We can be gone for days, and no one will care!"

"No, Barley. Remember what happened last time? Mom cared, and ended up risking her life to bring back Dad! We were totally unprepared, and we don't even know what this spell will do. We are not jumping in headfirst again. IF we do this, we will be getting permission from Mom and/or Colt first. We will ask for their help. I am going to make sure we aren't risking our lives this time."

"But-but-"

"No."

"Fine." Barley slumped over. Then he barely lifted his head, and peered at Ian through his bangs. "You gonna ask her or me?"

"I think we should do it together." Barley sighed and flopped over on his side in an exaggerated manner.

"You'll be the death of me, boring little brother." Ian pretended to be offended.

"Excuse me? Do you WANT me to shock you with lightning?" Barley laughed. Then he sighed again.

"I suppose we should get this over with."

"Yeah," Ian said as he rose from the bed. "I guess we should." Ian grabbed his wizard's staff in one hand and offered Barley the other to help him up. Then the brothers left the room, Barley flipping off the light switch before he shut the door.