Ello folks! I finally have the ideas to write the story again! And so, I just want to say that everyone is so nice to me so far. Part of me does wonder why I haven't gotten a single "bad" review yet, seeing as the Gumdrops Series is rather popular. But I don't mind.

So, why haven't I been posting? Well, first of all, lack of ideas. That and the fact that Deltashift, my newest story, is a thing. Other reasons are stress, school, sickness, and overall a sense that I'm shying away from the story. Still, I am doing my best.

Do you wish to see your OC possibly make an appearance? Go check out my profile, and follow the instructions there. Make sure to PM me the OC, don't put it in a review.

And now, onto the story!

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Chapter 12- 21 Souls

After I was untied, and promptly asked a bunch of questions by my fellow Angels and by Lucas, I was ready to explain to my family, plus Kyle, the Angels, and Lucas what I had learned.

The first thing I said, in blunt honesty, was, "I have a total of twenty-one souls apparently." This got mixed reactions, especially from my parents. For one, Mom seemed to rather interested, while Dad's pupils had disappeared. Having multiple souls in most universes, especially if they were right-side-up like a human's, was rather… taboo usually. Only certain people would really be given the OK to absorb a human soul. But to have a total of twenty-one, including my "main" soul that held my body together, was rather intimidating.

However, when asked to explain, I was interrupted by my Save Point pendant that hung from my necklace, as it started glowing. Everyone stared at me, thinking I had somehow Saved or something, until a little, cherry red fireball emerged from the star. Everyone stared at it, and it stared back.

And then a total of nineteen more of them, each one being one of my other twenty souls, popped out from the star, quickly filling the air with their chirps, which was a mess of words for me. The only one who was quite was the black fireball, whom I presumed was Jackson.

"what in the name of the angel above," Dad said slowly, eying the twenty souls that were flying about the group.

"I had no clue they could do this," I said quickly. "I mean, I only just discovered nineteen of them! And each of them have their own name and personality, heck even appearances if they weren't fireballs. The only one I knew of before today was Jackson, the black one…" To this, Jackson did a little bow, his "eyes" (basically white ovals) going down before popping back up. "Oh, and apparently, my magic focuses around Hope."

Mom looked around the room. "Well, I guess I didn't collect soul power in my wings during the Fun Festival then. Maybe it was Hope," she said.

The rest of that afternoon was taken up with me trying to figure out how the heck my other souls worked, and how the heck they were picking up objects. Angie, the amber soul, was a bit more curious than the others as she kept exploring and flying away from the group of souls, all of which I was supposed to keep an eye on. Lucas did help, and so did Lucia, Lily, and Maya. Although, Jackson eventually got all of the other souls to go back to me and go back through my Save Point pendant to return to their home in my soul.

After that, the five of us went around town, trying to figure out how in the world I took in Hope. After a few tries, I was notified by them that my pupils had turn into rainbows, which surprised me, until I realized I was feeling more energized.

Still, we did see some… disturbances though the town. Some of the folk were either in a really bad mood or were under some kind of magic, getting a bit rude to others. The folk they were rude to seemed rather surprised, maybe because this was not a normal thing.

We eventually had to dodge some chairs, as a fight had broken out at an outdoor diner, and flee to the forest.

And then we got lost. Like, seriously lost. We had been running away from the fight (one of the two monsters who were being rude had decided to chase us) and had gotten into a dense part of the forest, in which light barely reached us. At first, we went back the way we came, but found that we had forgotten said way and had to decided on how we would alert our families that we were lost. After a lot of discussion, we decided to send Jackson back to my house, and I was happy to find that even at a distance, he could relay messages to me.

Still, he too found himself lost, and had to "teleport" back to me, and return to my pendant. For a little while, us five were worried that we wouldn't ever escape.

And then, we heard bells.

"What the?" Lucia asked, looking in the distance of the noise.

"Is it a bad monster?" Maya asked, pulling out her wings for some odd reason.

"I don't smell anything out of the ordinary," Lily sighed.

However, Lucas was a bit odd when we turned to him. For one, his eyes had turned cat-like, startling us. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"You're eyes are cat-like," Lucia said. "They're never cat-like."

Lucas seemed surprised, then looked down at his hands, which were normal still. "Huh, maybe it has sometime to do with the bells then," he said after a moment.

The bells chimed again, this time closer. A strange light was seen through the trees.

"Anyone else thinking that we have a spirit on our hands?" Lily asked, her eyes locked on to the light.

We all shrugged.

And then the light revealed itself to be a lantern, attached to a staff that was held by a human woman. She had dark-ish skin; long, blond hair; and swirling orange eyes. Her outfit consisted of a long, purple robe and dark boots. Her staff seemed to be from the Aztec's, which was a little surprising.

Behind her was a small, blue, winged kitten. It merowed at us, and then jumped onto the woman's shoulder.

"Hello," the woman said with a smile. Her voice betrayed great wisdom, and a sense of royalty to her. "Are you five lost?"

"Do you live here?" Lucas asked.

"Nay, I live elsewhere," the woman laughed. "I was just sent here to find a group of lost children. Just be glad it's me and not Krystalise. She wouldn't be able to contain her happiness in meeting you five. Oh dear me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Shanna Daisywalker, one of the many Guardians this Multiverse has."

"'Guardians?'" Lucia asked. "The Multiverse has Guardians?"

"Why yes, it does," Shanna laughed. "We're tasked with doing what our Creator cannot do around the Multiverse, and that is mingling with its citizens and keeping the Corruption out of it."

"Corruption?" I asked, unsure of what this woman was saying was true.

"A dark force that is very dangerous to mess with," Shanna said, her voice suddenly dark. "Although, this Multiverse doesn't get it often, as we stay on our toes trying to keep it out. Us Guardians try to keep our Creator notified of all things involving the Corruption. She does give us tasks every now and then, like me having to lead you five out of this forest."

We all looked at each other, and shrugged. "Lead us out then," I said.