Mo recovered consciousness and found himself in a grassy field. He stood up and Meggie ran to her father.
"Dad, are you alright?" she asked worriedly.
"Yes, I'm fine. Is everyone okay?"
Farid is at a few meters away from them and gave them an okay sign and dustfinger- he was more than okay. He never looked so happy as ever. The grassy field with fluttering butterflies, the town just below, it all looked so familiar to him. Mo looked around and also recognized the place from the words he had read before, Inkheart.
"We're in inkheart" he mumbled.
Farid ran to silver tongue in a panic, "Agi and her friend are missing!"
"What?" mo and Meggie exclaimed.
Dustfinger also felt a hint of worry and approached them, "I'll look for them. But the three of you needs to stay somewhere safe"
Behind the grassy field is the wayless wood, where all kinds of creatures live. At the damp ground, Agi is lying, face on the ground, unconscious. But, she could hear a stream of water. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a blurred color of yellow, green, and blue. She pulled herself up and felt a pain on her right arm, it's broken.
"Where am I?" she asked herself.
Agi found herself in the woods and saw the beautiful lake in front of her, it was like her dream. Except that her mother isn't there. She approached the lake carefully and looked at her reflection. There she saw another figure.
"What are you doing here?" a guy's voice asked.
The voice startled her that when she turned around, she slipped and fell on the lake with a splash of water. She tried to rise from the water, but she simply can't. She doesn't how to swim and she already drank a lot of water. Luckily, someone got into the lake and took her out.
Agi coughed all the water out as soon as she got back to land and looked at the one who saved her. He is tall, tan, with black hair and brown eyes. Imagine prince Caspian in a soaked white poet's shirt, black tights and boots. He looked at the beautiful girl, who is looking at him too, while squeezing his shirt and grinned, "You don't have to admire me" he said arrogantly.
"You idiot!" Agi suddenly burst in anger as she stood up and went up to him.
On the other hand, the young man looked confused. What did he do to deserve to be called an idiot?
"What did I do? I just saved your miserable life!" he asked half annoyed as Agi is.
"You arrogant buffoon! I wouldn't have fallen in the first place if you didn't show up!" Agi shouted and poked him on the chest.
"And now it's my fault? Why were you even standing so near the lake when you don't know how to swim, dimwit! The least you could do is thank me"
Rather than doing that, Agi kicked him hard on the knee that made the young man hop in pain.
"Ouch! Do you know who you're dealing with?" he exclaimed.
"No and I don't care! If you'll excuse me" Agi walked away in a snobbish way, not taking a glance back.
The man was amused, not only with her beauty, but with her attitude. Not ever had he met someone interesting as her. It made the young man smile. Just then, a group of armored soldiers with the colors maroon and silver with horses came towards the wet man. They looked like soldiers for a kingdom. The head of the cohort soldiers is a small beefy man, with a blonde hair and blue eyes, came running towards him.
"Prince Adeon, you shouldn't run off like that and- goodness! Are you alright? You're soaking wet! Did the water nymphs do this to you?" the fat man asked, all in a rush.
"Nah, I saw a dimwitted chatter bug" the prince said and passed by him to get to his beautiful black horse, Fern. "Come on, Oberon. Let's get going"
Luckily, Agi found her way to town. Just one look, she already realized she's not in Italy anymore. People are wearing medieval clothes, gold than money, and fire than light bulb. It is a difficult way of life, but Agi seemed to like it more. Well, she's been trapped in a book almost her whole life. While walking around the lively town, everyone looked at her oddly. Who wouldn't? She's wet in her short night gown and bare feet. She started to shiver and snuffle without anywhere to go. At one corner, Agi passed by a group of men who looked at her menacingly.
"Wow, I've never seen any women here wearing wee nice wet clothes"
"Let her join us for a drink"
One of them, thin with red hair that looks like a psycho, walked towards her. Agi tried to put her brave look and looks for the right time to let her powers out. But dustfinger came to the rescue, clutching the man on the collars with his flaming hands, "Don't even lay a finger on her"
The men ran in a hurry and Agi felt so safe when he came. Dustfinger looked back at her and saw how wet she is. He took off his coat and gave it to her.
"What happened to you?" he asked.
"I fell in a lake" she explained.
"Are you with John?"
"No, I was- alone."
"Well, he's missing"
"What? How about Meggie, Mo, and-"
"They're alright. Come on now before you get a cold"
Dustfinger showed the way to his house and Agi quietly followed. They still felt awkward about what had happened between them.
They went inside a small square-ish house and Meggie suddenly ran to Agi to give her a tight hug. Agi is kind of surprised though, but Meggie treats her like an older sister she never had. Dustfinger closed the door and looked at his guests. There are four of them, but her house is so small that they look like canned sardines.
"You changed your clothes" Agi pointed out to her companions.
Farid nodded, "Yes, so that no one will know we're not from here"
A beautiful woman, wearing a red dress came from upstairs smiled at Agi and held her hands.
"Come dear, let's change your clothes" she suggested.
"Huh?"
Dustfinger stood beside the woman and smiled at Agi, "Don't worry, Roxanne won't harm you"
Finally, Agi had the thought that this Roxanne might be dustfinger's wife, "O-oh, nice to meet you"
Roxanne smiled and took her upstairs. There are three doors and Roxanne opened the first one. It didn't have a lot; just a bed, dressing table, and a closet.
Roxanne took a gray drape bodice on the bed for Agi to wear.
"You can change now" Roxanne said.
Agi was looking around when she said that. There's not even a bathroom inside the room for her to change.
"With you here?" Agi asked, horrified.
Roxanne doesn't see anything wrong about it and sat on the bed, nodding, "We're both girls, aren't we?"
She has a point, but still. It's completely understandable if she's nine years old, but she's nineteen! How could she take her clothes off in front of a stranger?
Roxanne felt she is feeling uneasy and decided to close her eyes, "I won't look, I promise"
Agi sighed, "Don't peek"
Just to be sure, Agi faced her back to her and started to take her clothes of and puts on the dress. "Done"
Meggie is in the small living room, playing with dustfinger's adorable children. Dustfinger is in the kitchen, when he saw them having fun. He turned around to see mo sitting around the dinner table, troubled. He knows well that mo is thinking of a way to get home and what chaos Capricorn might be doing at the very moment.
"So this is how you felt longing to go home" mo said as soon as dustfinger joined him.
"Don't worry" dustfinger assured his friend, "I'll try my best to help you go back"
"Thanks, I just wish Capricorn haven't done anything else"
Farid is looking out the window, seeing the world of dustfinger, when he heard someone coming down. His jaw dropped when he saw Agi and the others saw her too. Like the first they saw her, she was like a fair maiden from a book.
"You look so pretty, Agi" Meggie said nicely.
Agi blushed then faced Roxanne behind her, "Thanks for lending me this pretty clothes"
"It's nothing dear"
The villagers stopped whatever they were doing when the prince arrived with his men. Everyone bowed at him and adeon just smiled like some big celebrity.
"By the way, sire, the known juggler dustfinger is back" Oberon shared.
Adeon looked happy about the news. Dustfinger is one of his favorite performers and makes him perform in their castle almost every day.
"Why don't we pay him a visit?" adeon suggested.
"That's a splendid idea, sire!" Oberon praised his young master.
Adeon made the other soldiers go back to the castle while he turns around with fern and trusty second hand, Oberon.
Dustfinger loves it so much that he's back home that he couldn't keep away from his children. He placed them on his lap and tickled them. Meggie watch him play with his two beautiful kids and slightly smiles. She never thought that this somehow deceitful man is a loving father. It made her change her view of him, but she noticed another thing. At her left, Agi is sitting on a chair, full of worries in her eyes.
"Are you worried about john?"
Agi got surprised with Meggie's question. She never looked at it that way, but she nodded. Dustfinger couldn't help but to listen secretly.
"Er, sort of. John's father is quite strict, he might worry" Agi shared.
"Do you, by any chance, like john?"
"What, of course not" Agi laughed at it, like some kind of big joke.
But Meggie asked more "Are you sure? I think he likes you though"
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, he looks at you differently"
"Well, too bad. I have no interest with men"
"You don't?"
Agi nodded, "I've always seen myself growing up as an old single woman"
"So, you've never kissed someone before?"
The question caught both Agi and dustfinger. They looked at each other and looked away awkwardly.
"No" she lied.
Disturbing their conversation, a knock arouse from the front door. Dustfiinger hurriedly got to his feet to answer it.