Skye didn't know why, but she had been in a black void for several hours. There was no wind, and certainly no feeling. She didn't even know if there was a floor or anything. She kept on running; surely there was a way out somewhere.

She had appeared in this void after falling asleep last night, the first night in which she had had the Sword of Grass. It seemed rational to think it was a dream, but it couldn't have been. Because Skye had been in this dream for several hours.

"Hey! HELLO?! IS ANYBODY THERE?! ANYBODY!" Skye screamed.

She began to cry, thinking that no one was coming and she'd be there forever. But then, someone was there.

He was a purple tiger humanoid wearing mainly dark red, with short shorts and his belly exposed on the sides.

"Hey, you're the furry with the knives!" Skye gasped.

"I take a lot of offense to that, but sure, that's me. I'm Fletcher," he waved.

"I'm Skye," Skye smiled.

"I assume you're the one who found that Rift Star, then, as you're here."

"I didn't find it. I was given it."

"By who?"

"By me," said Hush, who had just appeared out of nowhere. "Skye, you see, this place is only accessible by people with Rift Stars and the gods."

"The gods?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Wait, but you don't have a Rift Star. Hush, are you a god?"

Hush turned back into the huge vine monster, Thirteen.

"Yes, but not the kind anyone would worship," Thirteen nodded.

"There you are! One of Colossus' henchmen, training a girl with a Rift Star. Very interesting," Fletcher smiled.

"Who's Colossus?" Skye whispered to Thirteen.

"One of the gods, I'll elaborate later," Thirteen hissed.

Thirteen turned back into Hush, then advanced on Fletcher.

"Where are you?" Hush snarled.

"In a distant world full of cool people who need saving," Fletcher explained.

"And how did you get there?"

"Wild Card helped me."

"That slimy little... I won't stop until I find you. You have valuable information. I need that information!"

Fletcher waved his hand and disappeared, causing Hush to lose her temper. She shouted and threw her hands around, pacing back and forth, knowing she could do nothing.

"Right, Skye? Your training starts now. As soon as we get out of this place, come straight to our meeting place near Frenzy Farm," Hush instructed.

"OK, what's my first lesson?" Skye asked.

"Your first lesson is that you need a Rift Star to get out of this place. But, as you haven't completely become one with the Rift Star yet, it's not here with you. But don't worry. There's a second way out."

"What's that?"

Then, Hush pulled a shotgun out of nowhere and shotgunned Skye in the face.

The first thing Skye did when she jolted up in bed the next morning was touch her face to see if it was still there. Thankfully, it was.

"You good?" Ollie asked from the floor next to Skye.

"Shh!" Skye shushed Ollie.

Skye looked at the bed next to hers consciously, with Ava and Olivia still sleeping peacefully. Skye began to get dressed silently while Ollie rolled under the bed so he wasn't watching.

"Where are you going?" Ollie whispered from under the bed.

"You're coming with me," Skye muttered.

"OK. Where are we going, then?"

"To meet Hush near Frenzy Farm."

"Now? It's Sunday, she said not to meet until Wednesday."

"Yes, well I just had a dream that wasn't a dream where there was a furry and Hush and they were talking about gods, and Hush was a god, and then she shot me."

Ollie paused, unsure of how to respond.

"I know. Real crazy stuff," Skye said for Ollie.

Ollie hopped onto Skye's head as she tied up her brown boots with their large shoelaces. She grabbed the Sword of Grass and her bag then made to leave.

Five seconds after she had left, Ava and Olivia opened their eyes.

"What the hell?" Ava mouthed, which Olivia responded to with a shrug.

Hush paced back and forth on the tiny hill near Frenzy Farm. She never had time to herself anymore, like she did right now. She thought about Fletcher and where he could possibly be, and the inevitable end of the multiverse. The usual.

Hush remembered before she had met Thirteen. It was hard to do so, but she could. She had never thought of those things before she had met him, but now that was all she could think about. She would be lying if she said she hated it, but sometimes the thoughts were intrusive, ridding her mind of casual thought.

Then, she saw Skye running up the hill towards her.

"Hai!" Skye smiled.

"Hey. I think I need to tell you some things," Hush sighed.

"Go ahead," Skye nodded, sitting on one of the benches.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm here," Ollie added.

"Why not?" Hush sighed.

Hush turned into Thirteen, who cleared his throat then sat on the floor.

"There was once a god called Colossus. He was a spider monkey - distinctively blue and orange, and he stood on two legs. We all did. He had lightning powers and all sorts. Nice guy, too. His brother was called Nemesis, and he was a spectacled bear. And their father was a cobra called Kaa."

"But that's not how genetics works!"

"I know. Still confusing. No mention of a mother either. Either way, Kaa manipulated Nemesis, and made him and Colossus go to war. Eventually, Colossus found out what Kaa was doing and stopped the whole thing. I have no idea what happened to him, it was before my time. Then, there were more gods. Animals, plants, other... things. One of them was me. And you know, we all worked together. We were all there for each other. We all went to other realities and helped all kinds of people in need. We were the light."

"I'm guessing that didn't go down well."

"Not really. Because, Skye, where there is light, there is always darkness. And there was darkness. Two of them actually. One of them was a guy literally called King Darkness, and the other was called Nightmare. He happened to be the original owner of the knives Fletcher now owns. But they harnessed all of the dark energy in the multiverse to make an army. So the light and dark fought. Things really went screwy during that time, it was crazy. But after a lot of battling, the light eventually won. King Darkness was exiled to a small planet, Nightmare was cast into the Zero Point presumably to die, and the darkness army was destroyed. And so, we went back to what we did best. Helped people."

Thirteen looked Skye right in her sky-blue eyes.

"And the next person you're helping is me?" Skye asked, although she knew the answer.

Thirteen nodded, then turned back into Hush. She sat next to Skye, not taking her eyes off of her for a moment.

"Hang on a second, because my mind is literally being blown," Ollie shouted.

"I think we're past that," Skye muttered.

"I know it's quite confusing, but you'll come to terms with it. Hopefully, you won't even need any of that knowledge anyway," Hush shrugged.

Skye suddenly realised how tired she was. What time even was it? She checked her watch; it was 7:02 in the morning!

"I'm tired. Can't we continue this on Wednesday?" Skye moaned.

"I understand. Sure, Skye, I'll see you then," Hush nodded.

Then she walked off. Ollie turned into his spherical shape again and Skye hopped into his back, so that they could float back to Catty Corner together.

The Picnic Spot was silent once more. Only the grass and the leaves on the trees rustled as the wind forced them to move. But, if you were there now, you would have spotted two people who had listened in to Hush and Skye's conversation.

One was a pink-haired girl with buns in her hair and a crop top with short denim shorts, and the other was a huge orange puffball, slightly bigger than the girl was.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Word Count: 1376 Words