Chapter 4: Fantasy Forest
In the depths of an unknown land, only two lost boys who had no one and nothing else to turn to found sense of hope and relief at their first meeting. Neither of them were aware of their own smiles for the moment that they first stared into each other's eyes, but they found safety at the friendliness of the other's expressions. They froze within the calm breeze wrapped around, temporarily forgetting all the troubling questions they had about their sudden whereabouts.
The raven-haired psychic was the first to break the short silence. "Are you okay?"
The blonde slowly nodded, taking a moment to glance up and down the other boy. He was not sure if he was seeing an imagination. The boy was conscious, and talking to him, he thought. Not a dream. "Who are you?" he asked.
The other boy shifted into a small grin. "I'm Ness."
"Ness?" The blonde repeated. The name sounded exotic to him. He remembered he found the boy knocked out at first, so he stared at him worringly.
"Is something wrong?" Ness asked. "You're not hurt, are you?"
Lucas gently shook his head. "No, I'm fine. How about you?"
"Me? I'm fine. Was something wrong with me?"
Lucas weakly pointed to the earth. "I found you lying on the ground here."
"Really? …Then can you maybe tell me where I am?"
The blonde shook his head again. "I don't know where we are."
Ness's eyes widened. "You don't know?" He put a hand to his head and tried to recollect anything that led him to this place, but nothing in his memory immediately answered. All he remembered was entering the dream world from his bed, and everything was gray before and after that up until he woke up on the grass.
"…Well, isn't this Magicant?" Ness asked.
"Magicant?" the blonde repeated. "I don't know what that is…"
Ness awkwardly glanced away, assuming that the other boy wouldn't know much. "Okay then, what's your name?"
"Lucas," the other said. "…That's all I know."
"That's all you know?" Ness asked, smiling playfully. "Did you get hit on the head or something?"
Lucas frowned, unsure of what to say. "I don't know. I just know that this place isn't my home."
"So where is your home?" Ness asked.
Lucas shrugged. "I don't know."
Ness gracelessly grinned. He turned his head around to examine his surroundings once more, in hopes that something would seem familiar on the second try. Unfortunately for the both of them, he confirmed that there was nothing out of the ordinary in his sights. It all looked like a normal forest surrounding a tender glade bathed in dimmed sunlight.
"Just what is this place?" Ness mumbled. He put a hand to his forehead, slightly pinching a part of it. Confirming the sensation of pain, he realized that he really was in an unknown realm. He accepted that he was not dreaming, and that this place could not have been his Magicant.
Ness tried to call out to his friends from the world he remembered living in through his telepathic ability, using as much mind energy as he could. However, he felt his energy being blocked, or rather, it was reflected back to him in an instant. Then, he tried sending very frail, albeit long distance message waves in hopes that it would be received by someone else however far they may be. However, after scanning the paths each of the waves took, he understood that the forest trees were responsible for obstructing his communication ability.
"What was that?" Lucas questioned. "Was that your voice?"
Ness turned around and saw the other boy holding both hands to his head. From that moment, Ness recognized how special Lucas was. If it had been a normal person, their natural energies would usually deflect weak telepathic waves. But a psychic who has grasped their own power before would naturally catch messages without even trying.
"You're a psychic?" Ness asked.
Lucas blinked. "A psychic?" For a brief moment, he focused on the obscure senses through his body. He felt a strange, but accustomed presence of shivering aura that coursed from his head and flowed through the rest of his body as he concentrated it towards the tip of his fingers. A thin coat of force visible only to both of the boys' eyes glimmered in Lucas's hands.
The blonde gasped as he looked down at his body. "I think I am."
"That's cool!" Ness exclaimed.
"Huh…" Lucas took a deep breath, and his psychic energy retreated. "So are you a psychic too?"
"Yeah," Ness said. "I never thought I'd meet another psychic."
Lucas blinked, repeating the boy's remark in his mind. "Are psychics rare?"
"Somewhat. Two of my friends are psychics too, but I can't sense them around here. I tried reaching out to them with telepathy, but it didn't work." Ness looked back to the view of the trees behind him. "I need to get back. I have something important to do with them."
"I can help you find them," Lucas told.
"You will?" Ness asked.
Lucas nodded. "I'm looking for something too. I can help you find your friends while I do that."
Ness grinned, "All right, then let's get out of here. The sooner, the better."
Both of them looked beyond the arch created by two of the large trees, opposite to where Lucas had originally entered the grove from. Ness agreed with the direction to take, and they both headed away from the meadow together. As soon as they stepped into the depths of the forest, the winds whispered a farewell, and shook the leaves of everything behind them.
From as far as both could see, the path looked infinite. Abundant trees and trunks filled their eyes to no end, and by the time they looked back from where they first walked from, the sight of the grove disappeared. Neither was fazed by the confusion of the shadowy forest, as they both kept close to each other, knowing that if they lost each other, things would go very wrong.
It had been a quiet walk for both of them after they agreed on to just keep walking through the forest. They placed temporary full trust in each other, but both were still cautious of their surroundings. To ease the awkward strain between them, Ness tried to speak a word with each glance he made at the other boy. It took a few tries to actually open his mouth and let sound escape.
"So what is it that you're looking for?" Ness asked.
"It's…" Lucas paused, trying to find the right word. "…a ghost."
"A ghost…?" Ness repeated.
"Something like that," Lucas tried to explain. "When I first came here, I saw it enter the forest. I felt like I needed to follow it, as if it was trying to lead me to somewhere. I was hoping I could find it again."
"Maybe if we find it, it can lead us out of this place," Ness told. "It feels like we could walk forever and never get out."
"It does feel like that…" Lucas sighed.
Ness placed a hand to his head, trying to relax the small headache he had. "And I've been trying to keep calling out to my friends too, but it's not working at all."
"Is that the tingling I feel in my head?" Lucas asked.
"Oh, it's still reaching you?" Ness questioned. "Sorry, I don't have much control over telepathy yet. Anyone with psychic powers can receive messages from me pretty easily."
"It's all right. I was actually trying to reply back to you, but I don't know how."
"You just got to focus on trying to connect to my mind," Ness advised. "Basically, say things at the person you only want to talk to in your head. Easy to do, but telepathy is a little hard to do at the moment as long as we're in this forest."
"Why's that?"
Ness looked around the area, making sure nothing was hiding behind a tree as well as seeing if anything was actually out there. "I think the forest is interfering with our psychic signals."
"How can the forest do that?"
"I don't know. It sounds weird, but I really think it's stopping me from trying to reach my friends," Ness said. "That's why we have to get out of here. That's easy to say, but…I still don't see an exit."
Lucas suddenly stopped his pace, and Ness failed to notice until he was some steps away. "Lucas?" He backtracked effortlessly without bothering to turn around, but almost jumped when he heard Lucas yell.
"There!" Lucas pointed. "It's him!"
"What?"
In Lucas's sight, a human silhouette reappeared in the midst of many trees. He could only see the side view of the ghost, with its face hidden in the other direction. He recognized a striped t-shirt and amber shorts, which set off a peculiar alarm in Lucas's mind, much to the boy's curiosity. As soon as Lucas tried to step closer to it, the silhouette turned away further and began to walk off.
"Wait!" Lucas called out. He hurried his footsteps in an attempt to catch up to the ghost.
"Hey, hold on!" Ness called out. He kept his eye locked onto the other boy and matched his speed to a running pace. "Lucas!" he yelled to the boy running ahead of him, but he did not stop.
Lucas was too focused on trying to capture the ghost that was in his sights. He could sense a playful grin from the other side of the silhouette's face, which evoked another strange feeling in the boy's memory. He was reminded a blurry picture of him witnessing another boy who mimicked the silhouette's exact movements. Eventually, he heard the faint, but growing sound of light giggling. Bit by bit, color entered the picture, but the scene was not complete as soon as Lucas could infer what the memory turned out to be. His running speed gradually slowed as he watched the shadowed figure continue to run ahead while it laughed. At him.
At the moment Lucas's eyes widened, he missed a step and stubbed his shoe into a root, causing him to trip and hit the ground.
"Lucas?!" Ness gasped another last breath to give him the short burst and jump to the other boy's side. He kneeled down and helped pushed the other to stand up. "You okay?"
"No—" Lucas gasped. "I remember now. I'm looking for my brother…" he looked up at Ness's face. "We got separated, and—"
Right behind the raven haired boy stood a blackened figure with a million smiles. One of its intangible arms almost went unnoticed as it crept towards the two. A moment of fear struck Lucas's core until he saw that it almost reached Ness's back, who had no awareness of the presence.
"Look out!" Lucas quickly threw his arms around Ness's torso and held tight as he used all of his force to spring to the side. Unconsciously, Lucas added a touch of psychic burst to his feet, causing them to jump farther than expected. To their benefit, they escaped the clutch of the unknown foe, landing their heads next to a widening root of a tree.
As Ness recovered from the sudden tackle, Lucas looked back at the foe and caught a good grasp of the figure. Its human body looked so strikingly unique, and looked both unsettling yet familiar enough to rouse tension in him. Even though the shadow's form looked definite, he knew there was hostility in the air.
"Oh crap!" Ness exclaimed, now noticing the obscure beast. Both of them lied still for a moment, watching the black figure closely. It retracted its arm, and then took a soft step towards their direction.
Ness quickly reacted and held out his palms, concentrating a quick burst of mind energy towards his hands. He did his best not to stare into the shadow's eyes for the first few seconds, but at the very last moment, he sharply glanced straight into it. "PK Rockin!"
From Ness's hand came a blast of myriad colors that continuously flashed in the immediate area. Lucas covered some of his vision with his arm, seeing only enough to witness the diminishing of the blacked shape. It quickly disintegrated into pure nothing and was wept into the air.
"Whew," Ness gasped. He put on a pleased smirk at the blonde, but was returned by a confused look.
"What was that?" Lucas asked.
"An attack of mine," Ness answered. "Good thing I'm here, huh—"
Their moment of relief quickly ended as Ness felt an immediate shift in the atmosphere. He knew Lucas felt the same, feeling a small jump from the other boy's body that rung through his hand. Both of them looked around to see a gathering of more intangible black souls, all seeming eager at the sight of the two boys.
"There's more?!" Lucas exclaimed. "What's happening?! Why are they coming after us?!"
"I don't know, but run!" Ness firmly gripped the other's hand and they both scampered into an open gap between the shadows. They blindly rushed through the endless forest with their fastest feet in hopes of achieving certain escape from the enemies that surrounded them. However, as they ran on through, the path ahead only grew darker and grim. Lucas's pace began to slow out of anxiety, but Ness refined the grip on his hand.
"Keep going!" Ness reassured.
The light from above faded very slowly as they continued to hurry through the trees, and soon they found their selves always surrounded by darkness no matter how fast they were. Ness never bothered to look back, but Lucas's panic returned as he was intimidated by the silent voices around him.
"Ness, they're getting closer!" Lucas exclaimed.
Ness grunted through his teeth as he tried to figure out how to resolve the growing issue. He held out his other open hand and waved it in front of him, ready to blast ahead. "Close your eyes, but keep running!"
"Okay!" Lucas responded. He shielded his head with his arm and shut his eyes tight, and let himself be guided by his companion's hand.
"PK Flash!"
A concentrated sphere of light appeared from Ness's palm, which quickly increased in size and then burst forth into a grand flare that illuminated the area. In the quick moment that the flash persisted, Lucas could see something bright behind his eyelids, and assumed it was Ness's psychic power. He confirmed it once he felt a subtle spark that fizzled between the miniscule gap in their hands. The psychic energy that he sensed coursing through Ness's body felt very recognizable.
As Lucas kept his eyes closed, he was not aware that they were still running for their safety. Ness's attack only temporarily ripped all of the shadows within the vicinity, but the spread out attack was too weak for everything at once. The dark aura of their surroundings quickly reformed the shadows and continued to chase after them.
"Darn, I thought that would work!" Ness exclaimed.
"Wait, Ness—!" Lucas gasped. He tugged back his arm and caused the other boy to decelerate his speed. As they reached a small clearing barricaded by trees around them, Lucas stumbled to the ground and gasped out multiple breaths, still trying to hold onto his companion.
"Are you okay?" Ness questioned, kneeling down to Lucas's level. "I'm sorry—I didn't mean to tire you out."
"I'm okay, " Lucas replied. He took another few breaths, "I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"We'll use PK Flash together."
Ness blinked, "You know how to use PK Flash?"
Lucas nodded. "I remembered how. While you were holding my hand, I sensed the energy through your body. It helped me remember how to channel it."
"That's great! Then if we use it together, we can get rid of all those things chasing us."
"Hopefully," Lucas said, gasping once more. "Let me just breathe a bit—"
An invisible wave of malice coursed through the area, sending a shiver through the boys' bodies. Lucas turned around to see the eyes of darkness already caught up to them, hiding behind the depths of the woods. Ness looked left and right and discovered more of the unknown beings gathering around, all patiently waiting in the shadows as if waiting for more to join them before attacking.
"Crap," Lucas huffed. He pushed himself upwards. "All right, Ness."
The other boy nodded, "Okay."
Lucas extended his hands out and placed them together, the palms facing the sky. Ness copied the gesture and placed them close to the other boy's hands. As the tips of their fingers touched, both of them concentrated their mind energies and focused it to their hands. They both closed their eyes, deeply accumulating a peace of mind despite the eerie shadows continuing to surround them, soon creeping inward. In just another moment, their psychic energies collided and assimilated, resulting in a single sphere of light intensifying from the center of their combined hands.
The few hundred shreds of darkness that crawled toward the two unfazed boys suddenly paused in their tracks. Stunned by the light, they immediately froze and could do nothing to escape. They persisted in reaching for the vulnerable psychics, but the light that illuminated from the center of the area only increased in strength.
The two boys breathed slowly, concentrating their minds while matching each other's pace. They focused on nothing more than cycling each other's energies and continuously melding it with their own. They expanded the potency of their psychic power by combining them, resulting in a powerful illumination so bright that they would go blind instantly if they were just normal boys.
However, protected by their own psychosomatic energies, they intently glanced once at each other's eyes and signaled the final step.
"PK Flash!"
Unaware of how many shadows froze in place around them, they focused the rest of their all into the light and wished to eliminate anything that it could reach. The sphere of concentrated light finally exploded into uncountable waves of light, all having a devastating impact for those that opposed it.
Upon instant touch, the shadows bathed in the burst of light were immediately erased from existence, with every photon eating up every trace of darkness. As the fireworks of energy died out, everything slowly fell to silence, save for the doubtful breaths of the two psychic boys who stood still with caution.
"Did we get them?" echoed a voice inside the blonde's head. The raven-haired boy quickly looked left, right, and behind him.
Instinctively, Lucas replied back after confirming the lack of fearful air. "I think so," was a message that Ness successfully received.
"That's great! We did it!" He smiled back at the other who grinned at him, and then halted to surprise. "Oh, you're using telepathy?"
"I am?" The blonde covered his mouth, trying to remember if he actually moved it within the past few seconds. "You can hear me?" he thought.
"Yeah, I can hear you. Guess you got telepathy down." Ness smirked.
"I didn't even try and concentrate to use telepathy. I guess using up all that energy helped me familiarize myself with it."
"Well, don't get used to using it so much," Ness spoke with sound. "Using too much psychic energy at once will really tire you out."
"I'll stop then," Lucas uttered.
"Anyways, it looks like we're safe now." Ness looked around them, unable to find a curious path within the shield of trees. "I still think we're lost, though."
Lucas took his turn in scanning the area as well. He hoped to find something that Ness couldn't. He focused into spotting any little detail that would be hiding within the depths of the endless background of trees. His eyes widened when he found something, seemingly walking away from him.
Yet again, it was the faint silhouette. Lucas took a few steps closer.
"It's him," Lucas said. "It's my brother."
"Where?"
Lucas pointed to one of the many open paths, in which Ness walked forward in. The raven-haired boy did his best to look as deep into the greens as he could, but nothing seemed peculiar to him.
"I don't see him?"
"He's right over there," Lucas assured. "He's down this way."
Ness still could not see the figure of another person in the direction Lucas pointed at. Could Lucas be hallucinating? No, he sensed nothing too odd from his friend. It was truthful words.
"I gotta catch up to him." Lucas attempted to walk away from the glade, but his arm was gently grabbed and held back.
"Wait, Lucas," Ness called. "What if it's a trap?"
"A trap? How can it be a trap?"
Ness tried to bring up as many cautious reasons as he could. "If you say you can see him, but I can't, something is weird about that. Plus, the first time we followed something you saw, we were surrounded by those…things."
"Well, what else are we supposed to do, just wander around this place forever?" Lucas questioned. "If my brother is trying to lead me somewhere, it's better than getting nowhere."
"I…guess that's true," Ness acquiesced.
"Plus, I can use my psychic powers now," Lucas told. "I'll help keep us safe if anything happens."
Ness nodded. "All right, then let's follow your brother."
"Okay, this way."
Lucas took the lead for their duo party and kept his eyes glued onto the blurry spirit that he found so unusual in his sight. The two of them trekked in a single direction between an infinite aisle of trunks and roots, with Ness being the only one keeping aware of any sudden attacks. As Lucas continued forward, he started to feel doubtful. Not once has Lucas even seen the face of the ghost yet, nor does he clearly remember his own brother's face. The unanswered questions piqued his curiosity, and urged him to try and hurry. Even as he walked faster at times much to Ness' curiosity, there was not any indication of closing the distance between them. It was as if the silhouette did its best to keep the distance strong.
"Hey, I see something?" Ness pointed ahead.
The darkened depths ahead of them faded into a glowing light. For one last time, both of them hurried their steps to rush to what looked like a relieving end to their journey. Lucas had hoped to finally catch up to the silhouette this time, but before he could reach it, the light blinded him. All that he last saw was the ghost entering the light.
Exiting the weary forest, the two boys were met with a breeze of revitalizing air that brushed everything on the open meadow ahead of them. Far ahead was yet another wall of trees, but that image seemed less important as they gasped at the calm scenery right in front of them.
"Finally, we're out of the forest again," Ness told.
"Maybe you can try contacting your friends again?"
"Good idea." Ness put two fingers to the side of his head and closed his eyes. Lucas silently watched the other boy concentrate, hoping that he would be able to reach out to them. Suddenly, Ness shut his eyes tight and opened them quickly.
"Still no good," Ness told. "I don't know why."
"Maybe we just need to get farther away from the forest," Lucas suggested.
"Yeah, let's try that."
The two boys continued onwards on their initial path, walking away from the trees behind them. The soft wavy fields of grass felt like clouds on their feet, almost dream-like. They walked in peace with the thought in mind until Ness spoke up.
"Do you see your brother, by the way?" he asked.
"No…" Lucas answered. "It's weird. I'm pretty sure I saw him come out this way."
"Maybe he's out farther. Let's keep going."
Ahead of the two was the center of the meadow, with nothing particular to take notice of. Lucas looked left and right up to the boundary of the area, thinking that he needed to search for the specter again. Perhaps it needed to lead them in a different direction, he thought. So far, he only instinctively walked forward, keeping his mind occupied by the thought of his unseen brother.
"Watch out—!"
Ness tackled the other boy in surprise, and right as Lucas hit the ground, he saw a menacing static of a black claw reach out where he was walking toward. Had Ness not moved him out of the way, the darkness emanating from the unknown figure would have demolished him, as it did to the patch of grassland before him.
"When did that get there?!" Lucas exclaimed.
"Just move out of the way!" Ness shouted, urging the other away with a push. The blonde quickly scurried to a distance until he turned back and watch the capped boy dodge another attack from what looked like a four-legged beast.
"PK Rockin!" Ness hurled out a blast of energy from his palms, directly impacting the target. However, the waves bounced off the black static, causing no visible effect to the beast.
"What?!" Ness grunted. Astonished by his weakness, he was caught off guard and failed to see another incoming attack. Another of the shadow's claws swung down onto the ground, almost reaching the boy. However, the impact to the ground caused Ness to fly back and crash.
"Gah—ugh!"
"Ness!" Lucas hurried to his companion's side. "Come on, let's get out of here!"
Ness took one hard breath before forcing himself up, "All right!"
The two of them quickly fled from the center of the area, heading towards the other side of the meadow. They were about to meet another forest which they bought thought would hold safety for them. However, before they reached the area, the shadow instantly reappeared in front of them, with a claw ready to swing down.
Ness quickly grab held of Lucas's hand and pulled him away to the side, managing to avoid a direct hit from the shadow.
"It's not gonna let us run away," Ness told.
"Then we'll fight it," Lucas said. He held out his palms together and aimed it at the beast. "PK Flash!"
A burst of light flew from Lucas's hands and straight into the shadow's body, scattering into an instant flash upon contact. Similar to Ness's initial attack, the darkened monster did not flinch, but only paused temporarily.
"Wha—?!" Lucas gasped.
"Lucas, let's try it together!" Ness exclaimed.
"Ah, right!"
The two stepped back as much as they could before the beast noticed them enlarging the gap between them. Immediately, the two boys brought their palms together and quickly gathered up an appropriate amount of mind energy, forming another sphere of light in their hands. As soon as the sphere reached an anticipated size, they looked towards the shadow and sent it flying.
"PK Flash!"
The larger sphere crashed into the center of the shadow's body and burst into an amazing explosion. There was an inaudible shriek that the two boys faintly heard within the aftermath of the blast, notifying them that there had been an effect. However, the cloud of dirt revealed the shadow still standing, although with part of it conspicuously missing. As it stood still in its spot, they both noticed that it was recovering its lost limbs.
"It's still standing," Ness stated. "One more time, Lucas!"
Ness had his hand ready to join with Lucas's attack again, but the blonde failed to oblige quickly. Ness looked over and noticed that he had kneeled down, holding his head in pain. "Headache," Lucas groaned.
"You used too much already," Ness told. "It's okay, I got it." He ran forward to the stilled beast and extended his arm out, ready to fire another blast of psychic energy.
"PK Rockin!"
The close range attack shot Ness back as his energy waves exploded onto the shadow's broken body. There was still a lack of effect on the beast, and it only continued to gradually recover.
"Still nothing?!" Ness questioned.
"We have to combine our powers to take it down," Lucas said.
"But you can't—any more and you'll be really pushing it," Ness told.
"I have an idea, come here quick." Ness backed up to Lucas's side once more as the latter stood up clumsily. "Give me your hand."
Ness offered out his left hand to the blonde, and it was gently snatched by Lucas's two hands. The blonde quietly concentrated his energy to flow from his fingers and break the boundaries of his body, coming into contact with Ness's latent energies. No explanation was needed; the raven-haired psychic recognized the sensation that he was receiving from the other boy, and he slowly felt empowered as the new energy naturally melded with his own.
Lucas kept a firm grasp on Ness's hand, continuing to clasp it tight and sending out his power to his ally's body. "Do it, Ness!"
"Right!" Ness tightened his hold onto Lucas's hand and extended out his other arm at the shadow, which had finished recovering its lost darkness. The beast slowly approached with the intent to strike at them again, readying one of its claws.
Lucas poured every ounce of psychic energy as fast as he could, grimly looking at the beast that was about to assault them. Right as the shadow raised its claw, Lucas shut his eyes and turned his head away.
"PK Rockin!"
From the boy's petite hand shot out a grandiose wave of colorful energy that ripped through the shadow's body, shattering it into bits of thin darkness. Ness kept pouring out energy waves and sprayed it onto every visible bit of black space in front of him, ensuring that nothing was left behind. A silent scream was all that was heard as Ness finished off the rest of the beast.
Ness stumbled to the ground as he held his head still to hold back the aftershock of overusing his psychic abilities. He managed to shake it off, but still felt very tired. He gasped for a breath and smiled at the sky.
"All right, it's done. We did it, Luc—"
The hands that had held him had lightened their grip, and easily slid off of him. He quickly grabbed one of the hands to prevent it from hitting the ground and looked over to see that the blonde had collapsed.
"Lucas?" Ness called out. "Hey, are you okay…?"
As Ness was about to reach out to shake the boy's shoulder, his head felt uncontrollably dizzy. He knew he pushed his own self by continuing to use his psychic powers beyond his bravado, and thought nothing would happen to him if he insisted on braving through the situation. The aftereffects of his overuse eventually became too strong, and his vision began to spin. Ness quickly fell forward next to Lucas, shutting his eyes and unable to open them with a peaceful mind.
"Crap…I really overdid it too…" Ness thought. He did his best to open just one eye and peek at Lucas's still face. He then crunched his eyes and his clasp on Lucas's hand once more before the shock in his mentality forced him to fall unconscious on the spot.
A/N *Reviews So Far*
Ninten64 - Yep, this is the redux of what was Illusio Island. Basically I restarted the story with a new concept in mind. I think this one will be more entertaining at the very least.
Everyone else as of 9-25-16: Thank you for your interest! And sorry for the long wait, I didn't really expect for the next chapter to be finished after needing so much time. Then again, I'm in 5 classes this semester, with homework every week at least, so the only time I get to write leisurely is on the weekends. So yeah, it took about 4 Sundays for this chapter. But I hope you look forward on what's to come, because I know I am!