"Darling, wake up!" My mother screamed, shaking me awake.

I jolted, sitting up and scratching my head. "Enough, enough..."

My mother tilted her head, extending her hand to my face, touching my cheeks. "Wryn, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm more than alright!" I paused, smirking. "Today's going to be awesome."

Her eyes darted at my eyes, then cheeks. She continued to look up and down. "Are you sure?"

Yawning, I placed my hand over my face, feeling a moist sensation.

'Was I crying?' I closed my eyes, shaking my head. 'Oh, the dream...'

Showing my teeth and smiling, I hugged her. "Just a bad dream.”

After the meager dream incident, my father and mother got dressed, as did I. We all wore our somewhat fancy clothing.

I was wearing black pants with a white belt to accompany the slightly oversized pants. My shirt was plain white, but the jacket that complemented the shirt looked quite elegant. The jacket was black with some hues of white.

My father was wearing a similar setup as I was, except the colorings were imperceptibly different. Instead of the black and white combination that I had, he had a black and light gray jacket.

My mother wore a light blue dress with black heels. The clothing of the new world was quite similar to the antique clothes of my old one.

After getting dressed, my mother prepared breakfast.

"Wryn! Winton! Breakfast is ready," she exclaimed, holding her plate, leaving two others on the kitchen table.

We ate a hearty breakfast, some sort of oatmeal, in the living room.

My father finished his food, so I thought I'd ask a few questions about the Goodes before spending a day with them.

Creating eye contact with my father, I set my spoon down and questioned. "Father, can I ask you a question?"

He turned his head towards me, nodding his head. "Go ahead."

"How do you know the Goodes, and why did they randomly show up to our house yesterday?" I narrowed my eyes in his direction.

He closed his eyes, opening them, then smiling. "They are our old family friends, and yesterday they finally came back to this remote part of Darka. I heard of their arrival when I was working, so I invited the Goodes over."

"But how are they our friends?" I asked, but the question was ignored.

My father continued. "I also asked your mother to prepare some food and clean up. By the way, most of what we cleaned up was your mess."

Opening my mouth, I tried talking over him. "But-"

"Wryn, you soon will learn it all: why, where, when, and what. For now, just eat your breakfast! Do you want to be known as the short kid?!" He laughed, taking his last bite of food.

That response gave me no information, but as my father said, I soon would learn.

With a smirk on my face, I rolled my eyes. "Aye, Aye, Mr. Winton."

My father just gaped at me with an unfazed face while my mother was smirking with me and laughing.

I didn't even intend to make a clever joke, but I was pleasantly surprised that at least my mother found it funny.

After breakfast, my parents tidied their belongings, and we started walking outside.

The outside of my house was nothing surprising. I mean, I had been outside before...

There was a forest several miles away from my house, and in between, there was some sort of building. These buildings replicated each other, a dozen miles separated from one another. Also, occasionally, I would see a person who I assumed was a guard walk in and out of the building.

Other than the forest and guardhouses, nothing was compelling. That was until we reached a building with numerous carriages.

My eyes couldn't help but spell out, surprised, two brown bull-like creatures drove the carriage. They were bulls, but they had insane muscular legs and long horns that developed circularly.

My parents proceeded up to the entrance, identifying themselves to the man at the entry. The man pointed to the carriage with bulls, signaling the man on the carriage with his hand.

My parents made their way to me, offering the man next to the carriage several coins, refusing he shook his hand in the air. He closed his eyes, rubbing his beard. "You are our guests."

My father shrugged, putting the coins away, entering the carriage. My mother and I followed him into the wooden carriage.

The man proceeded, jumping onto one of the bulls and yelling. "GO."

The man driving us used a whip to navigate the bulls, each hit causing the bulls to go faster. The scenery was nothing special, just houses and the occasional individuals walking into and out of their establishments. That was until, ten minutes, we reached luxurious residences. The residences were far different from my own dwelling, and so were the surroundings. I assumed the area was different from mine because of Mr. Dray's speech about provinces.

Though I was curious about learning provinces, to be honest, it would just have been wasted knowledge. What would I do with such knowledge of random locations? Plus, I was never competent with maps.

We finally came to a stop after around twenty minutes, my family got off the carriage, so I followed suit. The rider for the carriage dipped his head, leaving us behind.

My family treaded near the house, on the cobblestone pavement, approaching the massive house. Once we got closer, we noticed the Goode family was already prepared, waving at us near the entrance of their home. My family waved back, walking ever so slowly towards the Goode family.

The Goode family descended down their stairs when suddenly Allura fell down. Allura tripped on her foot, reaching her hand towards the floor. She mumbled some words, floating in the air, pushing herself up somehow.

Gaping at the girl, I poked my mother. "How?" My gaze went back and forth to my mother and Allura. "How did she…?"

My mother avoided eye contact, whispering. "That's magic."

'What the hell!' I thought, staring at the Goode family as they neared us.

When my mother referred to magic, was she referring to those bullshit magicians of my old world? I shook my head, eyes wide open. 'How am I just learning about magic after so many years?'

The Goodes greeted us as ignoring what Allura did as if she did something normal.

My father purposely looked away from my direction. He was blatantly trying to ignore me by talking to Mr. Dray. On the other hand, my mother and Mrs. Rayna conversed.

Unable to move, I struggled to even breathe, fixing my gaze onto the magic girl.

Thankfully, Mr. Dray distracted me, letting out a cough and directing everyone's attention to him. "Unfortunately, we will not be able to make it to Fech today." He let out a sigh, with an aggrieved look on his face, but then he tugged up a smile. "Don't worry, we will go to a pretty famous shopping area, and it's only two provinces away."

My father replied, smiling and moving his hands in the air. "Anywhere should be fine; we understand how busy you can get."

Mr. Dray shook his head, glancing at his wife and then looking back at us. "Unfortunately, I cannot accept that." He tugged his lips down. "Allura received a sudden appointment from the Academy of Fech. An advisor from the academy is arriving tomorrow to check Allura as a prospect, which determines if she can attend the renowned academy. We even asked the academy if the advisor could take the examinations at Fech, but they declined that notion."

"You mustn't explain yourself," my mother said, adding. "We understand."

Mrs. Rayna squinted her eyes, looking at my mother. "Those ignorant mages love to complicate everything! They have no dignity, making our family pause our vacation for an examination. If they wanted to take the test, they could have done it at our home in Fech. That at least would have allowed us a tranquil vacation."

Mr. Dray approached his wife, grinning. "We'll enjoy today and worry about all the dilemmas tomorrow."

He moved near us, staring at my father and mother. Mr. Dray glanced over to me, asking. "Wryn, I hope you aren't offended."

"It's fine," I mustered with the remaining sensibility left in me. "We just need to enjoy what we can."

Mr. Dray smiled, walking away from all of us, placing his fingers in his mouth. He loudly whistled for ten seconds, nodding his head when he looked back at us. "He's coming."

"What's coming?" I whispered, but my question was answered in seconds when a lion hybrid eagle soared down with a rope tied between its waist. The cord was connected to a carriage with materials on the bottom, keeping it stable. I would later learn that these materials were magical artifacts.

'Damn it, my parents really needed to get their heads out of their asses and tell me stuff,' my jaw dropped as I followed the animal with my eyes.

The soil that the animal and carriage landed on was rearranged, caused by their sheer mass. Suddenly, Mr. Dray stomped his foot on the floor, transforming the environment to look like before, maybe even better.

He puffed out his chest, pointing at the carriage's entrance. "Come on in! My griffin will take us there!"

We went into the carriage, using the stairs appended to the carriage, and once we were all seated in the six-person carriage, the stairs retracted. The carriage had three seats on one side, and the remaining seats were on the other side.

I expected each family to be in their own row, but that wasn't the case since Mrs. Rayna and my mother sat next to each other, and my father sat near my mother. I was next to Allura and her father, which was fine since I sat near the window.

We began soaring towards the famous shopping center, but I noticed my father was vividly displeased, but still, he was conversing with Mr. Dray. My mother and Mrs. Rayna were also exchanging conversations. On the other hand, Allura slept, placing her head on her father's lap.

It didn't seem like I could get much conversation done, so I poked my head out of the carriage window, letting the air hit my face. Turning my head, I witnessed the griffin flapping its wings, soaring through the wind.

Allura and Mr. Dray could use magic that was impossible for me to even fathom. These feats made me realize... I was severely underprepared for a new world. Fear started to grow inside me as I ached to go back home, but I closed my eyes, letting the air lift my hair.

My eyes opened, hit against the air, but it was bearable to observe the magnificent scenery. I noticed the trees in the forest were boundless as the lush green trees endlessly continued, causing my mouth to be wide open. I had never experienced such a display in both my lifetimes; the Boundless Forest is what Mr. Dray referred to the forest as, and rightfully so, It made sense why the forest was referred to as boundless.

I felt a poke on my shoulder, causing me to draw my head back into the carriage. Allura rubbed her eyes, shrugging. "What are you going to get?"

Blinking at her, I shifted my gaze down. "I'm not sure." I paused, looking at her. "Is there something I should look out for?"

Allura glanced at me and then pointed forward. "Perhaps we should try checking out the shops." She added jokingly. "There appear to be some options."

Promptly examining where Allura was pointing, I saw what seemed like a scene out of a movie: a packed gathering of people entering and exiting hundreds of stores.

Mr. Dray likewise looked outside and proceeded by whistling, causing the beast to descend near a dock with multiple guards. Mr. Dray closed his eyes, boastfully stating. "We have arrived at The Shopping Center of Dreams!"