A few days pass, it's now a Sunday. Bastian hasn't gone to school since that Monday he hasn't gone out to do anything but go on walks by himself, even dismissing Marley and Lucas when they saw him around. Even Fallon and Conner felt slightly sorry for him after seeing him not come to school for a week. This Sunday is where Bastians depression reached its peak; Laura's funeral.
Bastian was dresses in his suit but was struggling with the tie. "Dad?" He calls out to him. Michael walks to Bastians room and quickly catches on to his struggling. "I suppose you could do you some help with that." He says walking closer to him as he reaches for his tie. "Yeah pretty bad huh.." Bastian says. "I thought I told you how to tie a tie." Michael expresses. Bastian goes quiet. "That was over a year ago…before you and mom split up.." He says quietly and looks down. "That long huh?" Michael says continuing to help with his tie.
"Mom used to say there was only two good reasons to wear a tie…" Bastian says while looking down again. "Weddings and uh…" Michael trials off the sentence as Bastian looks back up again before going back to looking down. "I wish today was a wedding.." He says, his voice breaking. Michael sighs. "I know this seems impossible right now but…you and me, we're going to get through this. And we're going to get through this day together. And once I get settled in things will get better." He says firmly to assure his son.
"If mom hadn't died..would you have moved back inside the house?" Bastian asks as Laura did live in this house and Michael lived in a separate one, now living in this one with Bastian. "Your mother meant the world to me, I'm only sorry I never told her more often." Michael says sorrowfully before completely fixing the tie, letting Bastian look in the mirror while putting his coat on him.
Time skips to an hour later at the funeral. Michael is saying a prayer while people are gathered around the coffin. After Michael and the Minister say the Eulogy. The minster tells him he's strong by calling him a "brave little soldier," and that Laura would be proud of him. Conner and Fallon, whose parents actually did make them go, and although they did complain about coming they did feel the tiniest bit sorry for him. "Go talk to him." Fallon gestures. "No you talk to him!" Conner expresses. "I already did!" Fallon argues. Conner rolls his eyes. "Liar." Ignoring his complaint she pushes him towards Bastian anyway.
Lucas pat Bastians shoulder to comfort him and be by him, even though he's been dismissive lately. Marley walks over to them as well. "Hey how you doing?" Conner asks while reaching out to shake his hand. "Okay." Bastian responds. Conner looks around. "I've never been to a funeral before." Bastian nods. "Me t-." Conner interrupts. "But I thought it would be way worse, you know, looking at dead bodies and stuff." Caught off guard, this makes Bastian walk away from him, Conner from behind asking what he said and calling him a jerk.
Bastian sadly goes to the car and grabs his book from the backseat. Michael calls out to him to ask where he's going but Bastian ignores him and walks over in front of his mom's coffin. "I got the book mom, just like you asked me too." He says quietly with a smile on his face." Michael then walks over to him. "Bastian what are you doing?" He asks. "I want to be by myself." Bastian insists. "That's the thing, you and I are going to be alone a lot more from now on and all these people here…they came to be with us." "I don't even know most of them." Bastian replies. "Well their people who loved your mother, and are gonna miss her." Michael says. "I don't wanna see anybody right now.." Bastian states again.
Michael sighs and pats his back. "Alright..I'll wait for you in the car, just don't be long and…" He walks away for a second before turning back around to look at the coffin. "This is hard for me too Bastian." He says before finally waking away. Bastian then walks over to a nearby bench and starts reading the book where he left off from all those days ago. He reads; 'The childlike empress was the center of all life in Fantasia, and was now deathly ill. She was the life force that ruled the kingdom. But in her weakened state, she knew her only hope rested in the hands of this young boy, untested, untried, yet incorruptible.'
Atreyu is riding through the woods, finally reaching the presence of the one and only, ivory tower. "I think that's it Artax, it's the Ivory Tower." He says in awe as he rode closer to it. "As Atreyu arrived to the base of the Ivory Tower, he drew increasingly apprehensive at the task that lay ahead of him." Atreyu got off his horse, taking in the view of the tower's architecture. 'Glowing from within, the great towers beckoned Atreyu.' Atreyu start to walk in the entrance. "Hello?" He called through the echoey pathway as he continued walking.
Atreyu felt the walls and structure of the tower while waking as subjects of the empress are watching him secretly. Eventually after walking up a long set of spiraling stairs he reaches the main room of the tower. Atreyu pushes past some light blue and purple curtains with clouds on the ground and detailed decorative windows surrounding the shape of the room. Atreyu walks in nervously and walks toward the bed of the empress.
Atreyu then hears a voice; "There's nothing to fear Atreyu." Atreyu continues to walk toward the bed. "How do you know my name?" The empress then leans over, revealing herself sitting down. "Because I gave it to you." She says, smiling weakly as she attempts stands up. "Atreyu, son of all-" she starts as she stumbles as Atreyu catches her and sets her back on the bed. "Are you alright? Should I come back later..?" He asks. "No..every moment is precious now Atreyu," says the empress.
"But what can I do? I don't know why I'm here, I'm not a magician or a warrior-" I saw you fight that shapeshifter, " the empress informs. "How did you know that?" Atreyu asks, surprised. "As long as you wear the Auryn, I see everything." The empress explains. "Then you must know that I'm no big hero or healer, and everybody says without you, Fantasia can't survive." The empress cuts in, "As I can't survive without Fantasia." She says, finishing the statement. "And the only way to save Fantasia, is to stop the Dark Princess from unleashing "The Nothing." She continues. "The nothing?" Atreyu questions.
"Fear, anger, and jealousy have transformed my sister Xayide into an evil force, bent on total destruction and devastation." The young boy looks even more confused. "The Dark Princess..is your sister?" He asks. "Yes, and if she can't get what she wants…she'll reduce Fantasia to a barren Wasteland." Atreyu looks panicked. "But how can someone like me stop something like that?" The empress just smiles assuringly. "Atreyu, listen to your heart, that's why I chose you." She expresses.
"I…I don't understand." He says. "You will Atreyu." The empress reassures. "In due time, all will be revealed." Atreyu looks down and then back at the empress. "I'll do my best, that's all I can promise." He says, trying to sound at least a little hopeful. "One more thing. Xayides determination to destroy our kingdom has made me very weak. Let me look at you." She gestures as Atreyu reluctantly walks towards her. The empress gently touches his chin and looks into her eyes as she shakes her head slightly.
"Even an empress cannot know if she is seeing someone for the last time." She says almost sadly. "Atreyu now understood that whatever happened, he would have to face an u certain future alone." Bastian reads. Atreyu bows before leaving the tower, as a tear runs down Bastians cheek as he thinks more about his mother. The tear then mixes into the smoky allusion on the page, revealing the Ivory Towers image to him. A group of Woodlanders then gather round to see an image of Atreyu at the Ivory Tower in three sky, as they all look in awe.
Meanwhile, a few days pass and Bastian is walking to school. Marley is sitting at her desk talking to Lucas and the two bullies. "He's coming back today, so you better get out of his desk." Conners scoffs and laughs as Marley says this. "Yeah don't be such a moron like you were at the funeral." Lucas retorts. "Oh yeah? well what are you supposed to say to a guy whose mom just died?" Conner jeered. "Maybe 'I'm sorry?'" Lucas suggests. "Why don't you just not talk about it?" Fallon retorts to Conner. "That's stupid, it's always better to talk about stuff." Marley disputes. "Why? We don't even like him, we didn't even know his mom, so everything we say is just going to be a big phony pile." Fallon argued.
"Shut up!" Marley whispers as Bastian starts to walk in and towards his desk, which Conner is sitting in. "Aw I bet you miss this desk a lot. If you want it, you can have it." Conner taunts. Not up for Conners games, Bastian starts towards one of the desks in the back. "Take it, it's yours now." Conner, who is now mad that he can't make fun of him, turns around. "I said I'm giving you your dumb desk back so why don't you just sit down" Conner snaps. "Lay off, he said he didn't want the desk so leave him alone!" Lucas opposes from his desk. "Ok forget it, I didn't even want to sit here." Conner argues as he sits in his normal desk next to Fallon.
"See he's just trying to be nice." Fallon expresses. "No, he's being a total dork." Marley objects. Fallon rolls her eyes as she leans back in her desk. Suddenly, a new teacher whom no one recognized walks in and starts writing chalk on the board. Everyone rushes to their original seats, not knowing what to expect. The teacher starts to writing his name widely on the top of the chalkboard in unusual handwriting. The kids start to look confused, and even a little amused to what this all was, maybe thinking it was a joke.
The writing read 'Mr. Blank.' As the teacher turns around, none of the students know who he is accept for one person. A shocked Bastian recognizes him as the man who sat on the bench with him that one day. The man introduces himself to the class. Not seeming intimidated by him, Lucas casually raises his hand. "What happened to Mrs. Finnegen?" "She get knocked up?" Conner adds jokingly as the rest of the students laughed.
Not seeming amused, the strange teacher shoots Conner a look as he speaks. "Mrs. Finnegen has taken a temporary leave of absence due to illness. I will be replacing her as your homeroom teacher." Bastian sees a weird image through his eye. "Today we will start off the lesson by learning the difference between less and fewer..Any questions?" Bastian continued watch the man closely, almost as if he was looking through him, having a better idea about who he really was...