A search for purpose, perhaps.

Dimentio prowled low to the ground, searching for the arrows that terrorized them on their last visit to the forest. He was walking along the ground, hands low, eyes open for anything that reminded him of those arrows. It hadn't been long, but he could see no sign of them anywhere.

Maybe he wasn't in the right place. The thought suddenly occurred to him, and made him somewhat uneasy. Once you get far enough into the forest, it all starts looking the same. He thought he remembered that three… or was it the other tree? Perhaps it wasn't either of the trees, but a different one entirely that he was remembering.

A Stinger buzzed ahead.

"Pardon me, Stinger," Dimentio flagged him down. "Can you tell me if I might still be able to find the arrows here?"

The Stinger paid him no mind, to which Dimentio wasn't surprised. Stingers never spoke. Too simple for language, he figured arrogantly.

Dimentio lifted himself high into the canopy of the forest and looked around up there. Bingo- an arrow lodged in a tree at an odd slant. It looked as if it had been fired at a very steep angle… if only he was better at trigonometry he might be able to figure out where it came from.

He yanked it out of the tree and looked it over. It didn't feel like a cheap wooden arrow. Actually, it felt more like it was made out of iron. Maybe some other kind of synthesized metal, but definitely metal. It had to be factory made, too, since it was too smooth to be hand forged.

Strange.

Dimentio pocketed it absentmindedly and began to head in the direction the arrow seemed to have come from. He'd already accomplished his mission and would be all too happy to call it done. He always had resented taking orders from the Count when he had been the brain of the operation, manipulating everyone like a Puppox.

No more, though, he realized with a pang. Count Bleck was now in charge. Dimentio had no plans, no agenda of his own. He really and truly was working for the Count. And if he went back to Castle Bleck, he would have nothing of his own to do.

No purpose. All he had to do with his life was look for more clues on this one mission.

He banked left and ran into a tree.

"Foolish tree," he grumbled as he rubbed his head. "You've made a powerful enemy with that action." He held up his hands to conjure up a magic ball. But the energy didn't come. He flicked his hands to reenergize—but he didn't flick them. They didn't move.

He felt a pinprick on his side that had been there for a few moments but just now could be felt.

The arrow, he thought.

He could no longer keep himself in the air. Falling stiffly, he crashed to the earth, arms still at the ready.

At least someone knows where I am, he thought glumly.

Count Bleck knocked on Nawrocki's door.

"C'min," Nawrocki called from the other side.

Count Bleck opened the door to the new Potion Room. When Count Bleck had given it to Nawrocki, it was the size of an Olympic gymnasium. Now it was curtained off into a 10x10x10 room, cramped with potion supplies and dark as a Koopa's shades.

"I came to check on your potion," said Count Bleck.

"Ah, yes," Nawrocki nodded. "Here—" he handed a sheet to Count Bleck. "These area all the ingredients in it. Your assistant hand-signed off each one."

They had done this every day since Nawrocki moved in. Nastasia inspected each ingredient that went into the potion and wrote up a report on it by the end of the day. So far everything was on the up and up. Count Bleck could tell that Nawrocki was careful in his work. The potion was coming along nicely.

"It's got to sit for a few days now," Nawrocki said. "But I'm going to stay here and catch up on my back-orders, if that's all right with you."

"Count Bleck approves." He nodded once.

"Thank you."

"May I ask why you've curtained off so much of the room?"

"It's just my work," explained Nawrocki. "I keep so much equipment stored back there. The real show, so to speak, is up in this little square."

Count Bleck reached for the curtain. "Would you mind if I took a look?" he asked.

"Not at all," Nawrocki replied, measuring out a small amount of the potion and pouring it into a small flask. "That is, if you don't mind loosing your hand. There's some dangerous stuff back there."

Count Bleck quickly retracted his hand.

"That's another reason this place is curtained off."

Count Bleck frowned.

"I'm making you uncomfortable," Nawrocki said. "I understand. However, if you'd like to examine this sample, you'll see that my potion is right on track. That is your main concern, isn't it?"

Count Bleck took the sample and intended to have Nastasia check it. "Thank you, Count Bleck said hesitantly. He also apologizes for his behavior."

"Tell 'im I said 'sa right,'" replied Nawrocki. "You have to go 'way now. I'm gonna do stuff."

Nastasia and O'Chunks were sitting on a small table for two on the roof of Castle Bleck. It was, of course, their first date. A humble affair, to be sure, but it was suited to them just fine. There was candlelight and a nicely prepared dinner, and of course the two of them. There was no romantic moonlight, just the vast emptiness of the dimension, but a stain was forever burned in the sky where the void had originated. That's sort of like the moon.

"This is nice," said Nastasia. "I'm glad we finally did this."

"I gotta be honest," replied O'Chunks nervously, "I 'ad no idea yeh felt this way about me… I'da brought it up sooner if I knew."

Nastasia nodded. She had suggested the idea on her own, without mentioning that she knew how he felt about her after being in his mind briefly back in Episode 8. It seemed like an invasion of privacy, even if it was unintentional. Also, she didn't want to risk her sharing it and having him share what he found in her mind. There were plenty of things she would rather believe was still private.

"An' 'sides," O'Chunks continued, talking so he didn't have to think, "Yeh'r always goin' on 'bout that schedule o' yers, I dinn't know when'd be a good time fer ya, so I never knew when teh tell yeh I'd pick ya up…"

"O'Chunks," said Nastasia in her ordinary, businesslike no-nonsense voice, "You don't need to make excuses for yourself. I don't mind in the least. In fact, I understand perfectly." She looked down at her plate of sensible dinner and back up to him, and said, "Besides, I understand a great warrior of your caliber has more experience on the battlefield than with women."

"Yeah, an' look how that ended up," O'Chunks grumbled to himself.

"You mean the Battle of A Thousand Strong?" Nastasia asked. "I heard about that in your file- you never talk about it."

"Ah, me biggest failure, I don't ezzactly go spoutin' off to the heavens, now do I?" O'Chunks was suddenly defensive.

"Sorry," Nastasia said quickly. "Of course you don't speak of it. You've put it behind you."

"Aye," he said, but he said it a bit wistfully.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. At one point O'Chunks opened his mouth, but thought the better of it at the last minute. Nastasia coughed daintily into her elbow. Somewhere, off in the distance, a cricket chirped.

"What d'yeh talk about on one o' these dates, anyhow?" O'Chunks thought out loud.

"Maybe I should go," Nastasia said, standing up. "Thank you for a lovely time, O'Chunks. I'd better leave before the evening goes downhill." She raised her hand. "Waiter, I'll have this to go."

A small blue penguin with a bow tie tottered up to the table and took Nastasia's plate. "Okey-dokey," it said in Mimi's voice. "Oh- I mean, will that be all, madam?" She said it in such a serious and formal tone that a second later she burst out giggling.

"Never mind," said Nastasia. "I don't know why I agreed to let you do this."

Nastasia nodded once towards O'Chunks and disappeared.

"Ah, there she goes," O'Chunks said with a heavy sigh. "The love o' me life, an' I blew me only chance at 'er. That was a worse disaster than the time I lost me whole army from the betrayal of me advisor."

Mimi jumped up onto the table, as her old green self again. "Now, that's no way to talk, O'Chunks!" she said importantly. "You really like her, but you don't know what you're supposed to do. You need expert advice from me, the Demigoddess of Love Herself. More passion in this heart that in any of the Ancients, even."

"Ah, and what makes you so qualified teh talk like that?"

"I had more boyfriends than anyone else in my junior high class put together. So, whaddaya say?"

"Not a chance." O'Chunks stood up. "I remember how ya helped Nastasia way back in Episode 1. It din't work then and it in't gonna work now."

"What?"

"I said, I'm gonna find a way to win 'er affections me own way."

"Did you just say affections?"

"Aye. I read."

"Really?"

Suddenly a trapdoor opened on the roof several feet away from the table, and Count Bleck poked his head out.

"I was wondering where those voices were coming from, said Count Bleck with realization. May I ask what in the world you're doing on the roof?"

"Ah… I'd prefer that ya didn't," said O'Chunks truthfully.

"Very well." And he closed the trapdoor without a word.