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Joel brought up a fire at his right hand for a light source and moved foreword towards the mouth of the cave. He looked inside and saw a wavy trail leading deep down into the cave with a line of lit torches along each side. Joel put out his fire and waved for Ryan to follow him in. Ryan began to follow, but he looked back at Lynn’s tent for a moment and thought.

"Nah. She’ll be fine." Ryan said, shrugged her off and continuing into the cave.

The two walked into the cave slowly, inspecting their surroundings closely. The torches behind them began fading away as the ones ahead of them came to life. Little fairy-like creatures with a bright glow around them began fluttering around Joel and Ryan as they passed through the cave. They suddenly found themselves standing in front of what appeared to be an old temple of rituals. The temple was made of stone with stained glass windows and gold and jeweled lining.

"Nice place for a dungeon crawl." Joel said, looking slightly at Ryan.

"I’d tell you what to expect, man, but I can’t think here." Ryan said, crossing his arms trying to use his mind powers.

The fairy creatures around them suddenly began to fly into the temple. More fairies flew towards the temple from all around Joel and Ryan. The temple began to light up and glow slightly, and the front door opened to them revealing a hall of glowing pale skinned women in white flowing robes.

"Welcome to the Temple of Wishes, Guardians." The door lady greeted them with a soft voice, "I am Havanna, and we are the dream sprites. Please come in."

Ryan grinned and walked foreword with his hands relaxed behind his head, and exclaimed, "Alright! Finally someone who knows how to treat us!"

Ryan passed Havanna and entered the temple. Joel took a few steps foreword and looked at Havanna thoroughly as she watched him with a welcoming smile. He then walked up to the temple and entered it, still looking at his surroundings with caution. Ryan was waiting for him inside further down the hall.

"Come with me, Sir Guardian." Havanna told Joel.

Joel nodded and began following Havanna down the long hall. He waved at Ryan to follow as well.

"Man, this whole place must be made of ivory or something on the inside." Ryan told Joel as he looked around the temple’s shining white architecture in awe.

Havanna put a finger over Ryan’s mouth and said, "Please, we must all speak softly, least we wake the dreaming spirits."

Ryan shrunk and scratched his head, and whispered, "Ah man, that isn’t my style, though..."

They were taken straight through a four-way intersection. As they moved along they saw the other sprites walking around the temple performing various job functions, or standing guard about various corners and entrances. The temple relied on the sprite’s glow as a light source, and the floor and walls reflected the glow into the whole building. Along the walls there were small inserts that looked like beds, and inside those inserts were gleaming blue cloud-like substances. Along the way Havanna stopped next to two empty slots along the walls.

"This is where your spirits slept." She told them, "We have the powers to search deep within each spirit and discover their deepest desires. One of you had a great desire, therefore you were awakened to this temple."

"Well I don’t have any desires. I’m the happiest Guardian in the world!" Ryan said, pointing a thumb to his chest. He turned to Joel, pointed at him, and asked, "Hey now, you aren’t thinking about Sarralyn, are you?"

Joel stumbled back with a startled look on his face and said, "I thought you said you couldn’t use your powers here!"

Ryan nodded and said, "I know you way too well, man."

"This is the not the plane of reality you are used to, Sir Guardian, therefore you are unable to use your powers over the mind. This reality is of the dreams." Havanna told Ryan.

"Well, the thing is..." Joel started, "The closer I get back to Traquo, the more I do wish I could do something to bring Sarralyn back so she could return to her family."

Havanna nodded and said, "And that is why you both are here now." She put her hand on Joel’s shoulder, "We have the power to do anything here. Come with me and we shall begin the process."

Joel nodded and began following Havanna back down the hall towards the intersection. Ryan ran over to Joel and poked him along the shoulder a few times until he got his attention.

"Hey, remember now. You’re dating Celia. You shouldn’t go resurrecting old girlfriends. It’ll cause some conflicts!" Ryan warned Joel.

"Yes, I know, Ryan." Joel said, nodded at him, "I’ll tell her all about Celia, too. I’m sure Sarralyn would understand if we just take her back to her home town and leave her there."

Ryan shook his head and said, "If you say so. If you ask me, we should just ask them to get rid of Hades so we don’t have to wait for him to break free and kick him in the jimmy."

"Maybe so. But I shouldn’t have listened to her in the first place when she told me to let her die." Joel said, "I guess it sounds a bit selfish, though."

Ryan threw his hands back in the air and said, "No problem, man. I know you’ll beat Hades anyway. Let’s just have fun until then."

Havanna led Joel and Ryan further down the hall and turned right at the crossing. She guided them down a spiral of stairs into a deeper hall under the temple, and they entered a large room with cushioned chairs and a large table in the middle. To the side there was a gleaming fountain of water and a small table next to it with a pitcher and several drinking glasses.

"Please make yourselves comfortable in this room while we prepare for the ceremony, Guardians." Havanna told them, "Be forewarned, though. If you are to fall asleep within this plane of reality you will leave it and return to your own world, unable to return least we find you again."

"I understand." Joel said, nodding.

Ryan walked around the room and sat back in one of the chair, then said, "Oh really. So what happens when daytime comes? We’ll wake up, right?"

"No." Havanna told Ryan, shaking her head, "In this realm there is eternal night. It is where all sleepers go. If a spirit is awakened into this realm like yours have time will not pass with any waking moment you spend here."

"I see." Ryan said, nodding, "So this is all happening as we’re sleeping back in the real world in a split second."

"Yes. That is correct, Guardian." Havanna said, "Now I must leave so that we may gather the instructions for this task. Farewell."

She disappeared up the gleaming stairs, and her glow faded away. Joel looked around and sat in a chair next to the water founded and began getting a glass of water to drink.

"Maybe this is why we wake up in the mornings and need to go to the bathroom so bad." Joel said.

"Yeah, it’d be nice to come back and take a look through here again another night." Ryan said, "I think one of those guards were giving me the eye. You know, the look?"

Joel looked at Ryan oddly, and he leaned back in his chair. Joel took a sip of the water, then splashed it over his face. He rubbed his face a few times with his hands to keep himself up.

Ryan chuckled and said, "Well, at least it’s good to know this trip isn’t really taking any of our time."

Lynn had begun stirring about inside Ryan’s tent outside the cave. She gritted her teeth and cringed as she lay in her bed. She finally got up on her knees and crawled outside, and she stood up with her hands around her belly.

"Gotta go to the bathroom..." Lynn mumbled, looking around quickly.

Lynn ran towards the back of the camp site behind the tents, trying to find a good place to go behind a tree, but when she tried leaving the camp area she was bumped back by an invisible barrier. She fell back to the ground suddenly and began scratching her head in confusion.

"What the hell..." Lynn cried out loud.

She stood up with her hands around her belly once again and looked more closely around, noticing the mountain and the deep cave entrance. The cave was now emitting a glow from inside from the dream sprites’ bright glow.

"I don’t remember that being there." Lynn thought, "Maybe there’s a bathroom in there I could use..." She walked over to Joel’s tent and poked at it a few times, "Hey Joel! I’m trying to find a bathroom!" When she didn’t get an answer she poked at the tent’s flap a few more times, then ducked in and called out, "Boo!"

She was shocked to see that Joel was not in the tent, and she crawled back out and looked around again. She could not find Ryan either and began thinking about the situation at hand.

Lynn shrugged her hand and said, "Well I need to use the bathroom, and the guys aren’t here. They won’t mind anyway, they’re all powerful Guardians and all."

She waited for a moment, looking around quickly trying to determine if the two were listening in and if they would come running out for her. Lynn then walked over to their bags and took out a roll of paper. Several minutes later she was on her feet and ready to go with full power.

"That felt great!" she thought with a smile on her face, "But there’s always going to be the question of where you go to use the bathroom when you’re camped out in the middle of no where."

Lynn looked at the cave entrance along the mountain’s side and began walking towards it as she stretched her arms and legs. She found herself walking down the long path through the cave, and the light became brighter and brighter. As the light became the brightest, a stone temple appeared with stained glass windows that had gold and jewels lined around them. Lynn’s eyes sparkled with glee, and she ran up towards the temple and attempted to snatch some of the jewelry from the stone architecture. The front door began opening, and Lynn stopped abruptly to see what was going on. Inside she saw a sanctuary of strong and gorgeous men in thick white robes, and Lynn jumped with excitement.

"Welcome to the Temple of Wishes, young woman." The doorman greeted Lynn with a soft voice, "I am Leonardo, and we are the dream sprites. Please come in."

Lynn stood there, stuck in a trance. Her eyes filled with hearts, and she drooled with excitement. In a split moment she suddenly zoomed passed Leonardo with her arms open, leaving only a trail of dust behind her.

She ran around from sprite to sprite trying to grab them for herself, saying, "Heey cutie! Heey, how about it? Heeey, what about a date? Heey, how about I show you a time tonight?"

Lynn began giggling uncontrollably.

Leonardo walked slowly up behind Lynn and grabbed her by the collar and said, "Please, you must keep it down, young one, least we wake the sleeping spirits."

Lynn gasped and said, "Oh! I’m sorry!"

Leonardo sighed and said, "Please, follow me, Miss."

The man took Lynn through the hall and passed the intersection to an empty slot in the wall between many gleaming clouds of souls that lay along the walls.

"You stand in the dream world, and this is where your soul rests when it sleeps." Leonardo told her, "But you have been awakened into this realm of reality by a great desire that has been brought up by someone in your group. Is there something that you would wish for?"

Lynn took a moment and looked down at herself, then looked back up and said, "Oh I’m pretty sure I can think of one or two things..."

Leonardo put his hand on Lynn’s shoulder and whispered into her ear, "In this plane of reality we can make anything happen, both here and in reality."

Lynn fell back and swooned in a deep sigh onto the ivory floor.

She jumped back on her feet and called out with a big smile, "Alright! Let’s do it then!"

Everyone around her whispered at her quietly, "Shhhh!"

Lynn shrunk back, and Leonardo slapped himself on the face, then said, "Please, follow me and we will begin the process of fulfilling your every wish."

Leonardo began guiding Lynn back towards the intersection and to the right, and Lynn followed him as she drooled with hearts in her eyes. She was guided down the flight of spiral stairs deep within the temple and through another long hall. Leonardo stopped Lynn in front of a door and turned around to face her, and Lynn jumped back and regained her self-control.

"Please make yourself comfortable in this room while we prepare for the ceremony, young one." Leonardo informed Lynn, "Be forewarned, though. If you are to fall asleep within this plane of reality you will leave it and return to your own world, unable to return least we find you again."

Lynn nodded continuously at Leonardo and said, "Okay, okay, I get it! Thanks!"

Leonardo walked away and disappeared down the long hall, and Lynn opened the door to the room and looked around. Inside the room there were cushioned chairs, a big table in the middle, and a gleaming fountain of water to the side with a pitcher and drinking glasses on a table to the side. She stepped in blindly and took a seat at the nearest chair she could find, and Lynn found the chair starting to move around her. She looked back slightly and noticed she was sitting on Ryan’s lap and jumped off with a startled look on her face.

"Not fully awake now, are you, Lynn?" Ryan asked with a grin on his face.

"What... but... how did you..." Lynn cried, "Is this where you disappeared to? I had to go to the bathroom real bad, and neither of you were around to help me figure out where to go!"

Joel looked away from the water fountain and stood up.

He walked up to Lynn and greeted her, "Hey Miss Lynn, so this is how people end up meeting each other in their dreams."

"Dreams?" Lynn asked, "You mean this is only a dream?" She began crying, "But I want to keep my wish in reality, too!"

Joel leaned over curiously and asked, "Really? What were you going to ask for?"

Lynn looked down over herself again for a moment, then said, "Well, I, umm..."

Ryan stood up and quickly grabbed Lynn from the back, covering her mouth, and said, "Woah there, we don’t want to wake any of the sleeping spirits here now, eheh."

Lynn pushed Ryan’s hand to the side and bit his arm, and Ryan let her go and started blowing on the bite mark several times.

"Well I would like to get a date some day, and maybe a husband, you know." Lynn said, "How do you expect me to get one looking like this?"

"Some people just need to overlook what’s on the outside and think about what qualities are on the inside, Miss Lynn." Joel told her.

Lynn sighed at her small figure and said, "Yeah that’s easier said than done." She looked up at Joel and asked, "So what were you wishing for?"

Joel nodded with a smile of excitement and said, "The return of a long lost and late friend of mine who helped me in my early days. Her name is Sarralyn from Traquo."

Lynn popped up in interest and said, "Oh yeah, that’s Mayor Howe’s daughter, right? I heard over the news that she was killed in an attack by..." she looked at Joel as he gave her a serious look, then said, "...Oh. I’m sorry."

Ryan stood up and tossed his hands in the air and said, "Needless to say, most of the story was actually true from that day, except for the part about Sarralyn, really. According to Joel she was poisoned by a gang of bratty egotistical kids, and later released from the recovery machines trying to heal her by her own request. That’s why Joel is convicted of that crime."

Lynn looked at Ryan, then at Joel, and he nodded and said, "That’s why we assume we’ve been brought here, under the desire of bringing her back. We’re going to Traquo again after we pass through the Shroud Forest after all. I want to bring her back to life and return her to her father."

Ryan turned to the door and said, "That’s if Havanna comes back with the instructions on how to get this all done. Luckily time doesn’t pass at all on this plane of reality in our own world."

"Who’s Havanna?" Lynn asked suddenly.

Ryan turned around and asked, "What? You weren’t greeted by her and all the different hot women?"

"No..." Lynn said, shaking her head slowly, "Weren’t you greeted by all the different manly men on the way in? Leonardo brought me here."

Ryan crossed his arms and began thinking for a moment, and said, "Very interesting, indeed. It appears that in this plane one will only see the people here as what they are..." he paused for a moment, then said, "...Interested in..."

"Or what gender appeals to them!" Joel pointed out.

Ryan and Lynn looked back and Joel and both gave him an odd look.

"...What?" Joel asked them.

They shook their heads at Joel for a moment, and they heard a brief knocking at their door. They turned their attention to the door as it opened up, revealing the being they saw as Havanna or Leonardo. They carried a list with them in their hand and looked at Joel and Ryan.

"We have constructed a list and gathered what we do so need to fulfil your wish, Guardians." Havanna told them. Joel nodded eagerly at the being, and she said, "We have all the is required with the exception of two things."

"Tell me what they are?" Joel asked, growing in excitement.

"Yes." She nodded, "First we will need something that is a part of Sarralyn. Something she has physically touched in her lifetime. We will be able to draw upon her very essence from that."

Ryan moved beside Joel and patted him on his back and said, "That’s our main man here, man."

Joel nodded, and Havanna looked back to her list again and said, "The second item of which is required for this task is a vassal of similar race and gender. This vassal will be used to exchange certain characteristics and bonds between each body that is required to physically exist."

Ryan and Joel both looked at Lynn, Joel’s eyes full of hope, and Lynn jumped back and became startled.

"Wait, not me!" Lynn said, "What if I die? What if I’m not me anymore? What about my wish?"

Ryan leaned over to Lynn and poked at her with a grin and exclaimed, "Who knows, man. Maybe you’ll help Joel out and get your wish at the same time! You know... a little Sarralyn quality, if you know what I mean."

Lynn stopped panicing for a moment and thought about it, then said, "You know what, you actually have a point. Hmm." She thought about it a little more and said, "Wait a minute, I don’t even know what this Sarralyn looks like!"

Lynn began imagining different forms of ugly women, but Joel popped her bubble of thoughts before she got too far.

"Don’t worry. If that does happen, she’s actually very nice and pretty." Joel told her.

Havanna stepped into the conversation again and said, "You need not worry about that. When the ceremony is over you will be your very same self and so will Sarralyn. The process only takes some life energy which may shorten your life span by a year or two."

"Oh..." Lynn said, nodding slightly, "But I don’t know how long I have to live in the first place! Err..." She looked at Joel’s hopeful eyes for a moment, sighed, then said, "Alright, I suppose I’ll do it." Lynn looked back at Leonardo and asked, "What about my wish, though? That’s simple enough to do, right?"

Leonardo, in the form of a man, nodded and said, "It can indeed be done. Resurrection, however, is very complicated." He turned to the door and said, "We must now prepare the ceremony for you. Please wait here."

The three nodded, and their guide left them, disappearing into the halls. The three each let out a deep sigh and sat down in their own seats around the room. There was a deathly silence that came over the room, and only the water fountain could be heard. Ryan put his right hand up and pointed it at the flowing water from the fountain. He tried motioning his hand to the side trying to move some of the water with his mind powers into a drinking glass, but he was only successful enough to move it only slightly. He rolled his eyes after a while and crossed his arms, looking away.

"I hate not being able to use my powers." Ryan said, "This plane could get really boring if you think about it."

Lynn looked at Ryan curiously and asked, "Well why not?"

Ryan beamed a look at Lynn and asked her, "Why so interested in what I can do now?"

"I dunno." Lynn said, looking to the side a bit, "You guys aren’t so bad now that I’ve been able to travel around with you some, so why not want to know?"

Ryan leaned back in his chair and said, "Well then, this is an alternate plane, they say. Since it actually resides in the dream world, which I have no real powers over, I can’t do much here."

"That doesn’t make much sense to me either." Joel told them, "Ryan can inflict illusions and different weird things on people."

Ryan nodded and said, "You’re right, that’s what I’m able to do. I can make a person see something that isn’t actually there, but it’s completely up to them if they believe it. We’re all limited in our own ways."

"I guess I see." Joel said, nodding slightly.

Another silent moment went by over the three as they waited patiently for their guide to return. It had already been an hour and a half since Joel and Ryan had originally entered the temple.

"So why did you change your mind about helping me with the resurrection, Miss Lynn?" Joel asked Lynn.

"Oh, who knows. I’m just playing this with you as we go along." Lynn said, "Besides, it’s always a good idea to try fixing something you broke."

"That’s kind of risky. What about the part about your life force?" Joel asked.

Ryan butted in and said, "I say we don’t worry about that part, man. Lynn’s got us two around here to protect her. That’ll maximize her life span for sure!"

"That means we’ll have to make Miss Lynn a permanent addition to our party." Joel said, looking at Ryan a moment. He turned back to Lynn and said, "We were going to drop you off in Traquo when we got there, I thought."

Lynn smiled at them and said, "Thanks guys. I’ll stop at whatever town I think is best. Particularly one that I can find a decent man at."

"Wait!" Joel said again. He looked at Lynn sharply and asked, "There aren’t any strings attached to this, are there?"

Lynn grinned at Joel and said, "I can think of some, heheh!"

There was another knocking at their door again, and their guide walked in and greeted them.

"If you would, Guardians and human, come with me. We shall begin shortly." The guide said.

Ryan jumped up to his feet, full of energy. He clapped his hands together and said, "Alright! Feels like I’ve been waiting forever!"

Joel and Lynn stood up and the three followed their guide out into the hall and back up the spiral stairs and into the corridor.

"It does remind me of a waiting service." Lynn told her companions, "But free wishes for anything in the world are hard to come by." She looked at Ryan and said, "Right?"

Ryan grinned, shaking his head and waving his hands, saying, "Don’t ask me! In over three hundred years I’ve never had this happen to me before!"

They were guided straight across the intersection from the spiral stairs. The spirits along the walls to their left were still there in their deep sleep. This time they were guided up several flights of stairs going up, and after walking through another long ivory passage they were directed into a large room at the top of the temple. Inside the room there was a flight of stairs leading further up that split in three directions onto three circular platforms around the room. Each platform was covered in a bright and unearthly light. The atmosphere in the room made it seem as though they were standing outside under a starry sky, and there was a circle of six angel-like creatures floating up high around the top of the room. Here the dream sprites began gathering to draw upon each other’s magic in order to answer the wishes of Joel and Lynn.

Their guide put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder and said, "Please, wait here to the side while we take your friends to their proper placements."

Ryan nodded and stepped to the side next to a group of dream sprites preparing for the ceremony.

"Aren’t you scared?" Joel whispered to Lynn as they approached the stairs to the platform.

"Wouldn’t you be if you weren’t invincible like me?" Lynn whispered back.

Joel nodded at her and whispered, "I wouldn’t want to die anyway. I heard the consequences could be bad, let alone wait for over five hundred years to be released again."

The two climbed the final flight of stairs and were guided to the left and right platforms at the top. They stepped into the light and looked down over the crowd of dream sprites below them, and Ryan waved quietly at them from within the crowd at the bottom.

"Heh, good luck you two." Ryan thought to himself.

Joel and Lynn smiled and nodded at Ryan as if they knew what he was thinking. The room suddenly began rumbling as a loud godly voice entered the room.

"Let the resurrection of the human known as Sarralyn of Earth from the physical realm begin." The voice called out.

The crowd of dream sprites snapped to attention and faced the center of the room. They all raised their hands up to the sky and their light glow turned yellow like fire as they began emitting their energies. The room began to grow dark, and the lights surrounding Joel and Lynn began to turn red and dim out and in. Joel felt a strange force tugging at his soul as if it were trying to take away every part of him that knew of Sarralyn. From every pore in his body came a sparkling stream of light that flowed in the direction of the center platform in the middle of the room.

Joel cringed and moaned for a moment, hanging on to his footing and what he had left. He looked up at the center platform and saw a slight outline and coloring of Sarralyn’s body.

"It’s... her..." Joel thought as he cringed.

A boom of thunder sounded off and a flash of lightning flew through the room. Ryan looked around suspiciously and on alert of his surroundings.

"Something’s not right here." He thought with a serious look on his face. Ryan felt his neck where his core resided and thought, "That’s strange. I’m regaining some of my powers here..."

The lights in the room began flashing blue, and Lynn suddenly began feeling a tugging at her soul. She felt her blood beginning to rush as if it was being drained from her, and she began to scream in agony. Another bright light began to flow from every pore in Lynn’s body and began moving towards the figure of Sarralyn in the center of the room. Lynn dropped to her knees, holding her chest tightly and breathing deeply. The light began to circle around the image of Sarralyn, and the angels above the room started moving their hands around in a ritualistic fashion. A beam of light shot around the circle of angels, forming a thick circle above the room, and the angels shot this light into the center above the center platform.

More thunder sounded off and lightning flew wild around the room in every direction, hitting the walls rapidly. The temple began to crack and large pieces flew off.

"Impossible." The booming voice sounded off, "If we continue anymore we will destroy this plane of reality."

The angels were already too far into the ceremony to stop what they were doing. The beams of light connected and shot down onto the center platform in a near-blinding light throughout the room. A wave of energy flew through the room, pushing everyone back, and Joel held on to his ground with his hand over his eyes to shade from the light. The room began to break and crumble some more, and the floors started opening up. Many of the dream sprites fell into the darkness of the never-ending pit of death.

"Screw this, man." Ryan said, jumping up into the air and flying towards Joel and Lynn, "I don’t care how important this is to you. We’re not getting stuck in this plane forever."

He picked up Joel and made a sharp turn to Lynn and flew back towards the exit. Joel looked back over Ryan’s shoulder and saw two gleaming blue eyes and long flowing blonde hair before the platforms broke apart and fell.

"There cannot be two of the same..." the voice boomed, "She was... already..."

The sound vanished as Ryan sped outside of the temple. Lynn had fallen unconscious as Ryan carried them out, and she vanished from Ryan’s grasp in the plane. Ryan shook his head at Lynn’s disappearance and kept going.

"She must have been knocked back to her physical body." Ryan said. He shook his head again and snickered, "I guess she didn’t get her wish after all. Too bad, man."

They flew down the corridor and towards the intersection. Ryan stopped for a moment and looked to the right and noticed the clouds of dreaming souls were all gone. The sleeping world had all awakened at the very same moment as the Temple of Wishes broke their dreams. Ryan continued to the left and broke through the ivory stone door, and he flew out of the cave and reached the campsite. The sky was swirling different colors outside, and the mountains around them broke up and faded away with the temple.

Ryan tossed Joel down on the ground as he landed. Joel shook his head briefly and looked around with Ryan. They found themselves left on a dark island floating around in the middle of space where their campsite resided.

"So this is what bad dreams are made of." Ryan said, "A bunch of crazy kooks like us blowing up the whole dream plane."

Joel starred at the swirling space around them and said, "I guess all that’s left is to go back to sleep and wake up back in our bodies." He sat down and thought, "But does this mean no one will ever dream again?"

Ryan shook his head and said, "I doubt it, man. If you recall, Havanna said our entire trip here, however long we would stay, only lasts less than a split second. It actually passes as if no time passed at all in the real world. So if you want my opinion they’ll probably have this whole plane and temple rebuilt the moment our spirits reach our true physical bodies again." He kicked open his tent flap and looked around, then exclaimed, "If you ask me, the best thing about this whole trip was the fact that I got my tent space back!"

Ryan snickered and crawled into his tent and fell into a deep sleep, disappearing from the plane. Joel shook his head for a moment and crawled into his tent. He lay back on his bed sheets and closed his eyes, quickly falling back to sleep and leaving the world.

Morning soon came for the trio. The sun’s light flashed over the tents and Lynn opened her eyes as she woke up. She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms and legs briefly, then sat back and rubbed her eyes. She felt something strange next to her in the tent and felt around, and Lynn looked to the side to find Ryan inside sleeping next to her.

"Oh my god!" Lynn said, jumping for joy, "My dreams did come true after all!"

She leaned over to Ryan’s face and licked him across his cheek, and Ryan slowly woke up and moaned. His eyes focused in, and he realized he was looking at Lynn’s face close up. His eyes grew big, and he jumped through the side of the tent, breaking it open as he ran screaming away from Lynn.

Joel woke up and yawned. He looked outside to look for what the commotion was about and saw Ryan hiding behind his tent.

"I could have sworn I was sleeping outside!" Ryan said, shaking violently, "How’d I end up in there!"

Lynn popped her head out from the tent through the hole with a smile and called out, "Hey cutie! Why run? I never did anything!"

Ryan ducked under Joel’s tent and mumbled, "Man, did we say we’d protect her at any cost?"

The three got together again after a long morning and breakfast and began travelling towards the Shroud Forest.

"You seem bothered, Joel." Ryan told Joel, "What’s wrong, man?"

"Something about the dream. We were all there physically, weren’t we?" Joel asked. He lowered his head and sighed, "I can’t remember anything about Sarralyn. That was a hard consequence for a failed wish."

Lynn looked up at Joel and said, "She misses you. She wishes you well with your new girlfriend, you know."

Joel and Ryan looked at Lynn in confusion, and Joel asked, "Where are you getting that at, Miss Lynn?"

Lynn shook her head, holding it with her hand, and said, "That ceremony. As they were draining me it was like they were replacing it with Sarralyn’s thoughts. It’s almost like she’s a small part of me now."

Ryan placed his hand on Lynn’s and began reading her mind, then said, "It’s true. I can get some thoughts off her that aren’t quite her own." He looked at Joel and grinned, saying, "Well, Sarra and Lynn, what a coincidence." Ryan put his finger up in the air and said, "But don’t you forget! Sarralyn or just Lynn, you’re dating Celia now! So don’t go and try anything, man!"

Lynn chuckled and nudges Joel’s side and said, "Just don’t go moaning off in your sleep anything about Sarralyn’s name, or else I might start getting ideas!"

Joel looked between the two of his friends and blushed.

"Alright kids, get ready!" Ryan exclaimed, "We’re heading into the Shroud Forest, so we’ll need to be aware with our weapons ready just in case!"

They cheered as they moved for the forest. Another long night had passed over Joel and his friends. They were a step away from arriving back at Traquo to pass through on the way to meet his younger brother. They each looked up as the forest came over the horizon at the thick mist that covered most of the forest, thus calling it the Shroud Forest.

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