Aida, Azari, Emily, Farran, Naida, and Sophie all stood around the boy now lying on their table, his wound cleaned and dressed. His shirt and jacket (or hoodie, as Sophie had called it) had been removed so that they could wrap the bandages around his torso. In removing his clothes, they also had to remove his hat, revealing that his ears were small, and he was, in fact, human.

"I still don't get it," Farran said. "How can there be another human in Elvendale? Unless of course, you guys are related…?" He turned to the Jones sisters, hoping for an answer.

Emily shook her head. "I've never seen him before. But his clothes are definitely from Earth. They're all brands I recognize."

"But if you don't know him, how did he get here?" Naida wondered. "If he came in the portal after you, we definitely would've noticed."

"Are none of us going to wonder how he got that cut?" Sophie yelled. "I thought the forest was safe again, and now this is happening!"

Aira piped up, "Sophie's right. After we defeated Cronan, the forest went back to the way it was. Unless he startled something, I don't see what could've done this." As Aira finished speaking, the boy's head turned to the side, and he let out an audible groan.

"Guys, look, he's waking up!" Azari said excitedly. The boy's eyes fluttered open, and he took in his surroundings, looking over each elf and human, soaking in all of their features.

Naturally, his first thought was of utter disbelief. "Well, I've been playing way too much DnD." He made an attempt to sit up quickly, but winced at the pain in his chest and laid back down, a hand over where he was cut. "Ow…"

Naida put out her hands. "Yeah, moving quickly might not be the best call. Just take it slow and relax. You don't want to open that wound back up."

"Right. Thanks," he said, clearly not really comprehending, well, anything. "Alright, weird dream people. Where am I?"

Sophie bent over to look him in the face. "We're not a dream, and you're in Elvendale, mister." She said "mister" like it were an insult, obviously taking offense to being called weird.

"Elvendale?" He asked. "So you guys are elves, and you live in a place called Elvendale. Yeah, that's not weird at all." He sat up again, but slowly this time, his dark hair falling over his face as he did so. He brushed it away and added, "And if you're all elves, then why do you two," he pointed at Emily and Sophie, "have regular ears? Or is this some Tolkien 'nowhere-in-the-legendarium-does-it-say-that-elves-have-pointy-ears' thing?"

Emily shook her head again. "This isn't The Lord of the Rings. Sophie and I are human, like you, but these guys are elves. These are Azari, Aira, Farran, and Naida." As she spoke she pointed to each of them in tandem. "They use the elements of一"

"Let me guess." The boy pointed at Azari. "Fire." He pointed at Naida. "Water." Farran. "Earth." Aira. "Air."

The elves were taken aback, and Farran asked, "How did you that?"

The boy said, "Simple. It's because the four elements lived in harmony, until the Fire Nation attacked." The elves were taken aback once again, and Emily had to suppress a smile at his reference.

"Alright fair enough. I'm Emily, by the way. Emily Jones." She stuck out a hand to the newcomer, who took it in his.

"Pleasure to meet you, Emily Jones." He donned a terrible english accent. "I'm Bond. James Bond." Emily raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, fine. My name is Keith Orman." He let go of her hand. "Okay, so I'm confused about something. Well, I mean, I'm confused about everything, but right now I'm most confused by one thing. If you and mini-you over there are humans, and are wearing modern-looking clothes, how did you end up here?"

"Magic," Sophie answered simply.

"Yeah, no kidding, kid. I meant specifically."

Emily held up her amulet for him to see. "My grandmother was an elf. She was sent to Earth to protect the portal connecting our two worlds. As time went on, she became mortal, and when she passed, she gave me this. We use it to open the portal back up, and protect both Earth and Elvendale from threats."

Keith looked it over. "Hmm, interesting. It almost looks like the gem in my dagger." He pulled the blade from his belt and held it up next to Emily's amulet. "Actually, it looks exactly like the gem in my dagger, only blue instead of black."

Sophie frowned. "That's super weird…"

"Yeah, it's also pretty weird how my grandma gave this to me when she passed." An air of realization fell over everyone.

"Keith," Azari started. "How did you get here, exactly?"

"I was taking a walk through the woods, and when I walked past this tree, some kind of portal opened up, and I ended up at the business end of what looked like a dragon, which is how this happened." Keith made a gesture towards the bandages.

"Hey, Em, you sure you guys aren't related?" Azari asked.

Keith and Emily looked at each other for a moment. "Well, if there's anyone who would know, it would be Skyra."

"Sky-who?"

"Skyra," Aira corrected. "She's one of the five sisters of legend. They each controlled an element, with Skyra controlling wind, our friend Cronan's mother Quartzine controlling earth, and the other two controlling fire and water. Emily's grandmother didn't have any powers per se, but she did have a lot of love in her heart, and that gave her strength."

"Okay…" Keith took in this new information. "Well, let's go see this Skyra person. Or, uh, elf." He had stood up to leave when he remembered that he didn't have a shirt. "Um, if I could get my clothes back, that would be cool."

"Oh, right!" Naida ran off to fetch his cleaned clothes, and came back with them folded in her arms. "We mended the tear in your shirt as best we could, but it's still pretty obvious." She handed the clothes over to him, and he looked them over.

After he pulled the shirt on, he looked it over and frowned at the seam that had been created where the dragon had cut him. "Aw, man, this was my favorite shirt." He pulled on the hoodie and beanie, and the elves (and Sophie and Emily) led him out to Aira's airship. They climbed aboard and set out on their way, Azari summoning the fire needed to lift off. Once they were in the air, however, she took a seat and tried not to panic.

Keith, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear.

"Okay, this is too awesome for me to be dreaming!" Emily walked over to him, her hair blowing around her face.

"I felt the same way the first time I was here. We'll be at Skyra's soon, so try not to have your mind blown beyond repair before we arrive, okay?"

"Yup, sure! Definitely!" The ride, despite being fast, was actually incredibly smooth, and they managed to arrive at Skyra's in no time at all. They touched down in front of the massive building, Azari breathing a sigh of relief at being back on solid ground. Keith was still grinning like a madman, not caring about the strain the quick trip had had on his wound. He hopped down from the airship, only just then noticing the pain he was in. He wheezed out a breath and slumped against the side of the ship. "You know what? You guys go on ahead, I'll wait out here for a while."

Emily laughed and helped him to his feet. "Mind blown?"

"Nope. Chest. And stomach. And just like, this whole area of me." He waved his hands in circles around his abdomen.

"Right. You got hurt. Forgot about一" She was cut off by the sound of heavy doors opening, and they both turned to see a tall woman with hair that was incredibly light purple, held up by a headpiece that looked like golden wings going back across her head.

"So that's your great aunt?" Keith asked.

"Yeah. Come one, let's go talk to her."

The elves and humans approached the woman who greeted them with a curious smile. "Hello everyone." Her eyes fell to Keith. "You have brought another newcomer?"

"Yes, Skyra. This is Keith. He's a human, like me and Sophie. We were hoping you could tell us about him, and how he got here."

"Hmm." Skyra stared at Keith for a long while before asking, "You came through a portal, I presume?"

"Uh, yeah." Keith looked dumbfounded. His loss of words was almost comical. "Yeah, a portal opened up in a tree when I was walking past."

"Any idea how this portal opened?"

"I don't know. I figure it has something to do with my dagger, though." He drew the blade and presented it to Skyra, who took in a sharp breath of recognition. "I assume you've seen it before?"

Skyra looked visibly shaken. "Where...where did you get that?"

"My grandmother gave it to me. Her name was Triss…? That ring any bells?" He sheathed the dagger, slowly inserting it back into his belt.

Skyra closed her eyes. "Your grandmother. Was her hair black? Her skin pale?"

"Well I mean, her hair had gone gray, but yeah, it was black when she was younger. And she was super pale. Almost never got sunlight."

"What of her eyes?"

"They were pretty freaky. Her irises were so dark that you could barely see the pupil. Why?"

"Your grandmother's name was not Triss, Keith. Everyone, follow me. I have a story to share."