AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sooooooooooooooooo sorry it took so long! Better late than never right? I've been so busy (I'm now a freshman in high school, yay!) but I won't make too many excuses. I'm a procrastinator, always have been, and every vacation I've had this year should have been dedicated to you guys and this story. Please forgive me!

PS: Last chapter was odd, it deleted some of the times I wrote Beasley Windor's name and put weird spaces…I apologize for that! It still won't let me call her Mrs (Windor), so I'm calling her "Beasley Windor" or just "Windor" now.

Disclaimer: You all know I'm not Rachel Roberts. Moving on…


Emily

"Beasley Windor!" Emily said, stepping out from behind the bushes, "You're not allowed to watch the performance until we've opened it to the public!"

"What in the world are you talking about?" Windor snapped. The boys gave Emily imploring looks from behind the woman, Marlin's lips turning up in a small smile when he saw Emily. The healer tried not to think about how cute he looked, her mind working desperately to form a convincing lie.

"The play! You know, the one Ravenswood is going to present to help spread our message about preserving the environment!" Emily thought that sounded like something Kara would put together.

"Hmmmm. Indeed. I suppose these three boys are… actors, then?"

Emily nodded, "Yup!" Beasley Windor spun around to look at the boys as two more figures burst into the clearing. Emily tried quickly to let Adriane and Kara in on her story, "Kara! The actors have arrived,"

"Actors?" Kara asked, questioning Emily with her eyes. Emily nodded slowly and the blazing star's eyes grew wide. She pretended to see the boys for the first time, "Would you look at that! They're early! Have you three gotten into character?"

"Indeed, Princess," Lorren said with a deep bow. His green eyes twinkled as he started to comprehend the plan. Unfortunately, Zach and Marlin weren't as quick to grasp the concept.

"Um…what?" Zach asked, obviously confused, "I thought we were here to see you three,"

"You are!" Adriane put in, "but the rehearsal will have to wait a while. Right now Kara and I have to escort Mrs. Beasley Windor to the front gate," The woman scowled at her, but stuck her nose in the air and stalked out of the portal field, Lyra and Dreamer at her heels. With a final glance at Zach, the warrior ran to 'escort' them.

Before following the others to the front gate, Kara called back to Emily, "Do you think you can get these three to the mansion?" When the healer nodded, Kara smiled, "Great! Meet you there!"


Marlin

Marlin watched Emily as she led the way to the Ravenswood mansion, his hazel eyes lingering on her auburn curls which swung as she walked. She turned, smiling at him, and his heart fluttered in his chest. He smiled back and ran to catch up with her.

"Hello," he said. His voice felt stuck in his throat.

"Hey," Emily replied. She paused before saying, "I'm sorry your first impression of Ravenswood was of Beasley Windor. She's a pain,"

"Nah, she just looked curious about…well, everything, really,"

"Yeah, her curiosity gets the best of her a lot. This time was different though, she's never broken into the preserve before," the healer frowned, causing Marlin to do the same.

"If she's broken the law, you should report her to the guards and have her punished. I could speak with your king and…" the merboy faltered when he saw the look on Emily's face, "What?"

Emily was smiling, "We don't have a king in Stonehill, Marlin,"

The prince's eyes shot open, "No king? Then who in the world watches over you?"

"We have a council who decides the laws, and Kara's father is the mayor, he's sort of like a king," Emily said, she was grinning now. Marlin lips turned down in a confused frown.

"This place is quite peculiar,"

"Not peculiar, but it's definitely different when you compare it to Aldenmor and the Fairy Realms," Marlin wanted to say more, but they had arrived at a large building, and Emily led them inside.


Adriane

After delivering Beasley Windor to the gate, the warrior and the blazing star headed back toward the Ravenswood mansion to meet up with Emily and the boys. Adriane had three very important things on her mind. One was the fact that Windor had broken into Ravenswood. What in the world had driven her to commit a crime (minor, but a crime nonetheless) which would have endangered her spot as a city council member?

The second thing on her mind was Zach. He was here, on Earth, along with Lorren and Marlin. First of all, where were they going to stay? Definitely not her house. None of the rooms in the mansion had been cleaned out. They still had old, dusty furniture and cobwebs everywhere. Next, how in the Web would the boys keep themselves entertained while the three mages were at school? The three had been invited, but they were two days early. The girls had been planning to prepare the preserve after school until vacation started and the boys arrived, but that hadn't yet happened. Finally, well, the warrior had really been looking forward to greeting Zach with a hug, but hadn't with there.

The third thing Adriane couldn't stop thinking about was the echo. Before that hag had shown up, Ozzie had been about to say something, and Adriane knew it had been something big. She needed to speak with the furball before anything else happened. What if she echoed again? What if Zach saw the echo and thought she were dead? What if someone in town saw the echo, and it got back to Windor? Thus, the warrior's thoughts flew from subject to subject, and it seemed like it would be a while before she got to rest.

At the entrance to the mansion, Adriane pushed the thoughts of her echo and Beasley Windor to the back of her mind, focusing on the handsome mage who had consumed her thoughts for days. When she and Kara entered the library, the warrior was swept up in a hug by her favorite boy on both Aldenmor and Earth. Guess he beat her to the special greeting. Adriane looked over and saw Lorren kissing Kara's hand, most likely complementing her on her 'eternal beauty' or something like that.

"Adriane! Adriane!" Ozzie shouted, scurrying up to her on his ferret legs, his face lit up in desperate excitement, "You need to tell me more about your dream, I might be able to shed some light on it, but I need details! TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"

"Alright, alright!" Adriane said, breaking away from Zach, "It started in the woods and I was with Strom, Dreamer, Zach, and Drake. We were running…" The warrior proceeded to tell her friends about her dreams, both of them. She first described the dream where all of her friends disappeared, then the one in the empty field.

"I saw something in the distance," she continued, "I thought it was a person, but when I got closer, I realized it was a group of objects. There were five of them -"

`"GAH!" Everyone turned to look at the ferret, whose eyes were bulging in his head.

"What's wrong, Ozzie?" Emily asked cautiously.

"These…objects. Were they in a circle?" Adriane nodded, confused. "You said there were five of them," Another nod. "Were they based around the five elements?"

Each mage's magic was based on one of the five elements: water, fire, earth, air, and time. Adriane hadn't made the connection before, but it seemed obvious now. The torch had represented fire, the birdbath was water, the clock was time, and so on. Each object had a designated element. In answer to Ozzie's question, the warrior nodded her head slowly.

Ozzie swallowed loudly, "I know exactly where you were in your dream,"


AUTHOR'S NOTE: You know what got me up and running? Your reviews! I want to thank avalonlover, Alexa S, and sabrina-luna-potter. They were the only three people who commented on chapter four… I don't mean to complain, but only fourteen people have reviewed my story (all chapters combined) and 643 people have viewed it, so…..yeah.

Anyway, on a happier note, I'm going to try my best to update once every weekend! (YAY!) I might miss a week because school's so busy, but if I start slacking be sure to yell at me in the reviews!