Sonja, Wag, and I walked through the my meadow to my tree. The flowers kept on rubbing against my pants and seeds and pollen would get stuck everywhere. The place was infested.

"I should just go and wipe out all these flowers", I said, trying to think up of the perfect evil plan.

"How do you plan on doing that", Sonja asked.

"I think the better question is why do you want to destroy everything you touch", Wagglington added. "And if your not staying here for long, why even put effort into it".

Wag did have good points, if we were leaving, but Tucker was never going to get a boat. The prince liked Hope a lot better then Tucker or Sonja. If anything they should have been using Hope to get the boat. It would honestly be so easy.

I shut my mouth for once, because sparkles would have my head if he knew I though Hope should seduce anybody. "Just hashing out ideas now".

"I'm excited to see this place anyway", Wag continued with a cheery voice, "those creatures that lived in your tree were nothing like I had seen before".

"His tree". Sonja snarled, "seriously?!"

I gasped. How dare she question that it wasn't mine. "Sonja, it is mine".

She rolled her eyes, "okay Tom. Whatever makes you happy".

Wag spoke up, "Hey Tom".

I pointed my attention back to the conversation, "yes".

"What is that purple stuff by your house". Wagglington pointed to where the meadow ended and went to a river that seemed to circle the mainland.

I darted my eyes around the river. Then I was shocked. To scared to move. My head went blank and honestly tired at this point. Goddammit, my poor baby was as good as dead!

I fell on my knees.

"Oh no". Sonja was already ready for my mourning.

"Fuuuuuuuuck!", I screamed out. I sat on the ground pouting, almost ready to sob.

No I am not over dramatic, this was my child!

"What's the problem". Wag sounded concerned.

"The motherfucking taint!", I screamed out. "Goddamn kinky bitch is going to steal my baby-", I continued on with random swearing and yelling.

"Jesus Christ", Sonja breathed out. "Tom's right", she let out with concern in her voice, "the taints becoming a problem".

"I thought it couldn't pass water", Wag said.

"That's what the town said", Sonja explained still sounding pretty scared. "I guess they were wrong". She paused, then slightly raised her voice as she figured a very important detail out, "it's got ten times worse since we were here".

I peered my head up from the grass to see Wag giving Sonja and me a exasperated look.

He sighed, "you guys can't go one place without ruining everything".

I sat at the docks, where Andor said he would meet me.

I was kinda shocked with his whole story. I mean who the hell just has a time period of there life get wiped out of existence.

I had gone through some alterers of what might be going on. Maybe a mental disease, but he seems pretty normal. A little chumpy, but normal.

My instinct kept on going to brainwashing, but who brainwashed him? Memories taken away like that aren't easy to get back. You would have to go through something as equally traumatic as the brainwashing, which would suck.

I was hoping that my instinct was wrong, and it was some sort of weird magic. I didn't know what the hell they had around here, maybe it is. With that a memory spell could fix that.

Only if wag still had his powers-.

"Hey", I quiet voice came from behind me.

It was Andor. He had a brown button up coat over his normal get up.

"Hey", I stood up, trying not to completely stare. He looked a lot paler, and his eyes looked pretty watery. "Get any sleep".

Andor looked dazed.

"Andor".

He still didn't answer.

Did the guy get any sleep?

I snapped my fingers, "hey?"

He shook his head, "sorry, what?"

I cleared my throat, trying to make my voice come out soft and calming, "did you remember anything?"

He groaned and squinted his eyes. "No", he let out with a morning voice. Almost like his filter came off. It was nice.

I sighed, suddenly feeling really guilty. "I'm sorry"

"I'm just thankful you brought it up", he let out wearily. "I didn't really care until then. Now I just want my memories back".

Andor looked legitimately sad, which was weird, because normally he's been a very positive person.

"What plans do you have to fix it", he asked.

I raised my eyebrows, forgetting my promise for a second. Then it came to me. "Oh right. I've thought of that. Just follow me. I have a friend who can help".

We walked over to wags tower in complete silence. I didn't try to make any conversation because he seemed pretty tired anyway. I wasn't going to force him to talk to me. The girl who basically went ahead and tossed his whole world upside down, and not in a good way.

I was fine with listening to the breeze and the birds. Just taking in how soothing everything was here. A fake sort of soothing. It was starting to feel more like that. A fake paradise, false hopes. Something built out from a box, not made out of scratch.

Maybe it was just me. I think normal is Modsteps betting off there lungs and gods fighting with there lightning powers.

I had a great childhood, what are you talking about?

I knocked on wags wooden door.

"You know the creepy wizard?", Andor asked, his tired eyes trying to focus on everything.

I stifled a laugh at 'creepy wizard'.

"Do you know everybody that just showed up out of nowhere", he finally smiled at me.

I shrugged, still smiling bright. "They follow us like parasites".

I heard the flutter of chicken wings and the clamber of wag walking down he stairs to answer the door.

Wag opened the door, with his pet clucking and swaggering down the stairs.

"Yes", he said in a pure monotone voice.

"I need a memory potion", I answered frankly.

Wag put his hood down, glaring at me now clearly.

"Really?", he said, "you couldn't have pre ordered it".

"I didn't know I would need it", I whined.

Wag still glared at me. I had a good feeling he wasn't giving me that memory potion.

"Please", I begged and whined some more. "You owe me".

Wag chuckled, "on what?"

I did my sassy eyebrow raise, "I literally saved your life, okay if I didn't save Jordan, Tucker would have never got the sword to brake Dianites heart, so excuse you that I didn't have time to fucking preorder".

"Your sarcasm doesn't change my opinion Hope".

I raised my voice, "I will shoot you!"

Wag started to close his door. "No you won't"

"Wag don't do it", I ordered sternly.

Wag slammed his door shut.

I clenched my fist, trying to keep my anger from bubbling up. When I get mad it usually leads to a massacre.

"Wag!", I screamed.

He didn't answer.

I breathed in my composer and turned to Andor. I smiled, "one moment please".

Andor no longer looked tired, just kinda a mix of scared and interested.

I walked to the back of wags tower, where the open window was.

"You want to fight with an Ianite, wag", I grabbed two arrows out of my quiver and held them in each of my hands. "Fine".

I dug my arrow into the stone wall and jumped up, digging my arrow farther up the tower. I held myself up and got my other arrow and did the same. Thank god they were made out of metal. I could not do that with wood.

I finally reached the top of the tower and was at wags tower window. I jumped up on the windowsill.

Wag was going through a small chest on the floor that was filled with herbs and vials with some type of liquids in them.

I landed on the floor.

Wag finally heard me and whipped around. He glared at me under his hood, vials in hand.

"You won't take no for an answer, will you?", he hissed.

"Look Wagglington", I started walking over to him and the chest, "I need your help. Now why won't you make the stupid memory potion?"

Wag shrugged. "Hope I would-", he gave a sigh and continued to dig through the chest, "but I don't have the one ingredient".

"Okay", I answered calmly. "How do I get that said item".

Wag stopped talking for a moment to put more herbs and vials on a little wooden table he had set up. Wag sat up all the vials in some sort of order, than went back to the chest.

I heard glass clinking together as he searched for whatever he needed. He reached in, right to the bottom of the chest, and lifted out a old dusty book.

I did my sassy eyebrow raise, but kept quiet.

A book, with sewn together pages and gemstones all over the cover, landed on the table with a bang, toppling over all the vials. The book breathed out dust as Wag smoothed out the front cover. His eyes glistened as he seemed very proud of whatever it was.

"The twilight forest", he breathed out.

I didn't question anything, even though my mind wasn't shutting up.

Wag opened just the front cover, taking in every detail of the old book, and then very delicately flipped the next page.

Wag felt the page in his hand, "I made the place when I was around three centuries old". He now looked straight down at the book, so I couldn't see his face over his hood. "I hated living with the other wizards, as much as I care about them".

Wag slid the book around so I could get a good look at it.

"I made a different dimension".

Wow, holy shit.

"Just a pocket in the space time continuum, nothing to freak out about". Wag continued on, "I have ingredients that are very rare there. Things that couldn't live on a shelve".

I sat down at the other side of the table and stared at the page. The page was parchment, very old parchment. On it were directions, drawn on with chalk. Spiraled pattern with different colors and shapes coming into one purple circle.

I glanced up at Wag from the page, "what type of ingredients?"

"Live animals, plants", he paused. "Monsters".

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh", I tried not to sound too sarcastic, "fun".

Wag stood up. "You'll enjoy it. I just get tired of the place". He started to write on a scratch piece of parchment, "and it's your potion, you get the ingredient", he handed the paper to me, "I'll make it when you get back".

"How do I get there?", I asked.

Wag pointed to the first page. "Follow these markings. I have chalk out back". Wag cleared hi throat, "I trust your artistic enough to make the portal".

"Yeah", I grabbed the book. I was still staring at the same page, with curving lines and drawn on flowers. "It looks simple enough".

He patted my shoulder, "if I can make it you can".

So I headed down the wooden stairs with the book and used the door this time.

Andor rubbed his tired eyes.

"We have to get an ingredient", I said from behind.

Andor flinched. He held the edge of his coat, "how did you-?"

"We have to make a portal to a place called the", I paused trying not to butcher the name, "twilight forest".

"Twilight", Andor answered, "so is it like permanently evening there".

I shrugged, kneeling on the ground and grabbing some chalk from behind me, "I don't know. I've never heard of twilight".

"It's like the time right after dusk, but before nightfall", Andor tried to explain. He kneeled down by me. "What are you doing?"

I turned to the front page of the book. "I have to draw this here", I pointed to the cobble ground, "then put the book in the middle for the portal".

"A portal?"

"Wag invented the forest. It's like a little pocket in the world for all of the rare ingredients he could just bring along".

Andor didn't ask anymore questions as I started to draw the first outlining. I was trying to make everything as perfect as possible. Even though Wag said it didn't matter, I still didn't want to take chances. Wag did have a small portion of magic ability, and Andor and I definitely didn't.

"Do you want help with that?", he asked.

I placed my vision up at him as he turned his head back to the ground. "I think I got it, thanks".

After at least fifteen minutes I had finished all of the shading and markings.

Every swirling line, eventually merged with each other into the purple center that I ended up shading with darker night type of blue.

I was pretty proud of myself for working so quickly.

Andor was staring at the middle of the portal as I placed the book carefully in the middle.

"Your very talented", Andor said very quietly, like normal. He then cleared his throat, "I mean with art", he added quickly.

I smiled, "really".

I stood up, my eyes glued to the book. As soon as I closed the page, my drawing would become a portal, which was crazy to me.

I slowly paced around the drawing, "I guess I never noticed", I lied. I always noticed, but it didn't really matter in Mianite, "it not as big as a deal in Mianite".

"Pretty rugged there", he commented.

Rugged was kind of the term of Mianite. The port town was very dainty, clean white, while Mianite was......well imagine brown as a place.

I finally peeked out of my imagination, "yep", was all I could muster up.

I moved over to the portal. It was just a picture now, and the portal wouldn't start up until I stepped off. Atleast that's what the book said.

I closed the page, and it was almost like some type of just pure energy ran through me. I felt exhausted now.

I stepped backwards, off my art. The right edge of the spiraling lines turned into vines with all sorts of flowers popping between them. The drawing slowly inched to the middle, becoming real. It wasn't like a instant transformation, like I had expected. It was like ripping out a page.

The only difference was that everything was silent, even the birds that would shut up earlier. Almost like the world stopped to watch.

Water poured out of the purple into a hole that magically appeared in the ground. The last drop of chalk trickled into the purple puddle that was now surrounded by greenery.

Andor sighed, not really said or exasperated, just a sigh. "I have never seen anything like that".

I smiled. The guy seemed at awe and I didn't want to ruin that.

"SPARKLES"

I glared at Tom from the counter I was working at.

"Tom", I looked up over my glasses.

He turned and gave me a confused look. My bitter tone didn't hint him off. "What?"

"Nick name", I said slowly.

"Who gives a shit about your name?", he yelled. "We have a situation!"

I sat down my notebook, realizing this was going to be a longer conversation. "What's the situation?"

"The taint", he pointed to the door, like I was able to see the taint from here.

I squinted my eyes, merely confused. "What?"

"It spreading!", he screamed exasperatingly.

Then my thoughts clicked. The taint. The purple thing. The killing thing. It spread over water.

"It's heading to the town", I said out loud.

"Yes!", Tom screamed.

I held my head in my hands. "We're not leaving, are we?"

"Nope", Tom smacked his lips, "seems not".

"Do we have a way to save it?-"

"Tucker and Sonja wanted you", Tom interrupted.

I slid my journal into my bag. "Just me?"

Tom nodded his head yes.

"Why?".

"I don't know", Tom shrugged. "But me and other Dec are going with that timber guy to find some special tree".

"Sooo", I lengthened my word, giving me time to think, "I just need to go to where?"

"The front by the bridge", Tom opened the door and did that thing where he stands with it open and mets the cold air in. "There with that town herald man that shot you".

I held my arm that was still in bandage, "yeah".

Tom started squeaking the door shut. "Good thing the prince is a suck up and saved your ass".

Tom shut the door, leaving me with my thoughts.

By "suck up" he means that the prince likes Hope and is trying to get me to approve. Then yes he's right. I'm not stupid.

The kingdom was getting more shady by the minute, but Tucker seemed fine with it, which kept me at ease.

Even if a place was a little screwed up we always got through it. We always protected each other.

Tucker stood up straight for sitting on the bridge. "Where's Tom?", he asked a nearby Jordan.

Jordan had his nose stuck in his journal. I had never seen him so captivated by something.

"Huh", he looked up at Tucker. He tried half reading at the same time. "He went out with this places priest or our priest", Jordan shook his head.

He was the one who would be most confused. Jordan was extremely smart, understanding paradoxes and all that stuff. I could tell he was trying to make sense of it, and it wasn't working.

Tucker groaned, "Dammit!"

"Was he supposed to be here", Jordan asked, "because I was totally tricked if he was".

"No", Tucker looked even more tired now.

I have to get him to sleep more.

"I was just a fucking idiot and didn't tell him he should be here".

"Call him on the watch", Jordan suggested, "that's why I made them".

I grabbed my watch and went to Toms contact. I wasn't surprised when it said 'do not disturb'.

"God dammit!", Tucker yelled, stomping his foot.

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. Atleast I could count on Tom to never change.

I glanced down to my other contacts. Jordan and Hope who I felt like was mandatory to put there names right beside eachother. What also surprised me that there was a 'do not disturb' under Hope's name.

I'll keep that to myself.

"I would get rid of that feature", Jordan pointed out, "but really, you all get annoying sometimes".

I didn't know if I wanted Jordan to notice the other do not disturb or not.

The town herald walked onto the bridge with clacking shoes.

Not to fond of him.

"Well half of the sky people are here". The herald crossed his arms, "where are the rowdy ones".

"Where's the prince?"

I jumped hearing wags voice say that sentence. He literally appeared out of thin air.

No one else seemed to notice.

"Not doing his duties!", the Town Herald snapped.

I could hear Tom in the distance, laughing about the word duty. How nice it would be to be so simple minded.

Jordan backed up a little with wide eyes, "okay then".

Tucker sighed, taken back. "What do you need", Tucker said with a lot of respect. I immediately noticed.

The Town Herald cleared his throat. "Well as Ms. Firefoxx reported the taint is spreading rapidly", he said my name with bitterness. "The prince thought it would be best if we take some precautions and the royal guard and I had a thought that we could build a wall".

Jordan broke out into laughter. "What are you going to do", he mocked still trying not to laugh, "build a wall to keep out all the Mexicans".

The town herald glared at Jordan, who continued to laugh uncontrollably.

"Jordan", wag let out softly, "if it's a joke about the modern world, we don't get it".