Prologue A book was found in some old ruins.

All the scholars who decoded it puzzled over the mystery of the book. A world with two moons illuminating the sky The many daz zling adventures of a young boy But whether or not this is a true story Do you belie ve the story woven in the book? Maybe it was a fantasy that existed only the bo y s heart Let me tell you this story. This ancient book tells of, A magical And magnificent Fairy tale

A dark alluring chant echoed throughout the halls of the Dark Shrine . Bizarre look ing creatures with animal skulls wearing what looked to be ceremonial attire dan ced and chanted in front of a large urn with purple flames surrounding it. They had all obviously done this before many years ago. They all looked to be male ex cept one female creature dancing in front of them. Not to far from the humanoid creatures black boots clacked on the stone cold floor. His name was Flagg Gilgis ter. He wore a military looking uniform and had a broad brown handle bar moustac he. Next to him was his large assistant he seemed to be wearing a similar outfit to the creatures dancing. You ve gathered quite a few of them, Flagg said to his as sistant. Look at them, their dance of blood. Mixing the blood of witches with tha t of Humans is the key to breaking the seal. However I do have some problems, the assistant clasped his hands together with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Problems? Flagg said with even more annoyance in his voice. In order to procure good material, you must have adequate- Also not too far was a man wearing black attire with silver hair, he hid behind a column. He side stepp ed a little and glanced at the walking individuals. I see I ll pay you extra that should solve the problems. Yes sir, thank you. The man behind the column ran to the next one. Flagg and the assistant finally s topped walking and faced towards the dancers So when will it happen? Very soon sir, let us enjoy the ceremony, until it is time. They stood still waiti ng, as the dancers kept at their chants and steps. As the rhythm became faster a mist started appearing above the large urn. Flag, sir do you know the legend of the Dark Genie sealed in the urn? Of course, how much money do you think I put into acquiring this urn? Flagg looked on what a stupid question he thought. I ve been waiting for this for years! And no w the legendary power will be mine. Six hundred years ago, the Genie of darkness appeared in the East, and with its e vil power the world was burnt away. What do you intend to do with such freightin g power in your hands? You ll see He said with a grin. Finally the purple mist above the urn turned into a f lame, the floor rumbled as the power was being brought out. It s finally time Flagg stepped forward without hesitation. The power, the Dark Genie rose from the urn and landed on the floor feet first. Flagg s first impressions were what the hell? Th e Dark Genie was large in more ways than one; he had the look of a dimwit. His m outh opened and let out a roar What this is the Genie? The Dark Genie? Well it s quite different than I had imagined, They both looked up in awe and confus ion and even the man hiding from the crowds was perplexed and whispered to himse lf The ancient Dark Genie? This is it?! The man behind the column spoke out loud on a ccident. The Dark Genie looked down at the men who summoned him and astonishingly said so mething Hey! Who are you guys? They both looked at each other paused until Flagg st epped forward and looked up the Dark Genie. Welcome back. Genie of darkness I bro ke the seal and released you. Therefore I am your master. Oh is that right? Fine whatever Flagg was little surprised, the Genie sounded so no

nchalant about this whole thing. Something hit the Genie; he hadn t eaten in over six hundred years. He was eager to eat. The Genie growled and said That s right I h aven t eaten in six hundred years! Darn I need something to eat now! The Genie turn ed his heads to both sides and looked down again to focus on Flagg s assistant. He pointed to him and yelled Got you! The assistant was scared out of his mind; he s tepped back and widened his eyes Huh?! As he flailed to the ground the Dark Genie grabbed hold of him, Flagg just s tood their in shock. WHAA STOP HELP!!! The Dark Genie dropped his victim into his mouth and swallowed him whole. Flagg just put his hands back and looked up Delici ous was all he said.

Meanwhile in the western village of Norune a party of their own was going on, a much lighter and happier party built on annual cultural traditions rather than e vil conquest. It was night time yet children still ran about, one in particular was named Paige, she ran to her best friend s house, Toan, the two had grown up as child-hood friends. Toan sat at the dinner table, where his mother and he were enjoying their late dinner. In came Paige. Hi, how are you today? Before Toan or Renee could answer the question Paige blurte d out Toan it s already started! Come on lets go. Toan was a young boy no older than fifteen; he was soft spoken, quiet and brave. He wore an orange poncho, and rat her large gloves. This was the pride of Norune Village. I told you should ve hurried up. His mother, Renee scolded him. C mon we re late; I m a staff member this year so I have to go sorry She closed the door and ran off; Toan loving this annual tradition grabbed his bowl and downed it al l. He was as eager as the next boy in town to go out and play. Toan grabbed his favorite green turban and ran off with all the others. Out in the village of No rune, village cultured music played, and a dance of their own with all the villa ge s residents danced around a large fire, everyone. There was Macho and Komacho, they re brothers that obsess over fighting and exercising, one was short and somew hat chubby and the other was large and toned, ironically enough the shorter one was the big brother. Claude, the town s lazy fat guy, despite this he is a very ni ce man. The odd gaffer, was the town s merchant, he wore a large hat that covered his eyes. Pike was a fisher and Paige s father. The old Hag, she did fortunes for the villagers, genuine or not she was a nice old woman. Laura, mother to Gina, a little girl and a good friend to Toan. Alnet, was a great dancer, Carl is Alnet s little brother, a bright young boy, kind of a brat who was also good friends wit h Toan. Toan looked on to the ceremonial dance and smiled. Little did the villag e of Norune know, there was an evil force peering at them in the dark sky in fro nt of the two moons. It was the Dark Genie and Flagg in his hand. Flagg looked d own at Norune and jeered at the Western civilization he hated so much. Look at the insects squirm about. Start there. He chuckled and gave the Genie a han d motion. Just as quickly as he commanded The Dark Genie fired a bolt of energy from his finger, and even went so far as to shoot from all of his limbs. The Dar k Genie twirled in the sky and let out multiple bolts of purple energy to the vi llage of Norune. He roared to his power. Toan looked around him, before he knew it his entire village was burning in a lake of fire with screams echoing everywh ere. He turned his head to see Paige lying under a windmill that was about to co llapse on her. Toan! She screamed for his help. Toan ran as fast as his legs would let him. He ha d little time left so he dived to try and save her. Light appeared all around hi

m, what had happened? Where was he? Was Paige alright? Suddenly it all went blac k Toan was lying on an illuminated floor, he didn t know if he was alive or not. Hi there, Toan heard in the back of his mind. Can you hear me? Toan remained silent and still not knowing what the hell was talking to him. Wake up! the voice yelled, finally Toan pushed himself off the ground, he really didn t know what was going on, only the ground was visible all else was black. Then Toan realized that the voice was right in front of him, belonging to a small old man with a strange out fit. He also held a staff about the same height as him there was a blue orb at t he top of the staff. Ah-hem. I am the Fairy King The voice was small and but also had the voice of a jok ing old man. Toan would have laughed at such a title if it had been a happier ti me; he remembered that he had witnessed his town was being bombarded by somethin g hours ago? I am the entity that unites all the nature s spirits. Listen well young boy something terrible has happened. Toan looked down at the illuminating green f loor; he tried saving his tears for later so as not to show them to this weird o ld Fairy King . Men blinded by greed have revived the Dark Genie . This Dark Genie is t erribly powerful. Its power is so great that it could destroy the entire world. You saw it Your own village being destroyed right before your eyes. Not just your village in a flash, many villages and towns were destroyed In one night half the w orld was annihilated. Toan looked back up the Fairy King and gasped, now he could remember attempting to save Paige, he closed his eyes in grieve. It must be the men from the East, which performed the resurrection story. Toan really had no ide a what this man was blabbering about, all he could think about was his friends a nd family being wiped out in a wink of an eye. Probably thinking to use its black demon power for war, without realizing how frightening it is It is darkness Pure da rkness itself. Long ago this so-called Dark Genie almost destroyed the entire worl d. Its malevolence is that great. The bad thing is that it has the same type of magical power as us, spirits. A fairy spirit king? Black demon power? Now Toan wa s angry, didn t this man know what he had been through all he wanted was to be lef t alone. Toan didn t care about this Dark Genie, he sounded to powerful and great to even come close to beating. Toan just wanted to die. Unfortunately we aren t as powerful enough to destroy it Young man I see that you have a strong will that could withstand the evil power. Toan was now very angry, now t his fairy king was ordering him to basically save the world. And also a clear, ki nd heart. Toan was about the give the old man a run for his money but out of the kindness in his heart he stopped himself. You might be able to fight against the darkness it generates. I decided to stake our fate on you. Let me bless you with power, suddenly the Fairy kind waved his staff, a flow of energy came right at T oan but landed on his glove. Toan looked at his left hand it see a blue gem, jus t like the one on the staff had been placed on his own hand. There, surprised? Th at s called Atlamillia ; it s a stone with a magical power. Toan still kept his eye on t he blue gem now attached to his glove. Oh, don t look that way, boy. I ll explain now . It might get to bright for your eyes for a moment. The Fairy King gestured his hands up and they both teleported. Now in front of Toan was nothingness, well th ere was the bare grass and dirt floor to the area it was Norune Village, He had just seen his village burn to the ground yet everything had disappeared not even debris from the previous night. How peculiar Toan thought. How could all this b e possible, the whole idea of a Dark Genie was insane and who ever made up the tit le Fairy King should be fed to the wolves. While Toan was thinking about how crazy this all was The Fairy King himself spoke Do you know where this is? This is no simple empty lot. This was your village. But do not lose heart. As long as you h ave the stone, you can return it to its original form. What the hell?! What was t his guy talking about now? Toan looked back at his left hand in confusion. You se e, just before the village was destroyed by that Genie, I saved the buildings an d people by sealing them into spheres called Atla . It seems those Atla were scatte red all around by its tremendous magic power. They were probably blown to differ ent places around the world. Toan s eyes widened, there was hope yet for his people , but how was he supposed to save them? It probably thinks everything is destroye d. You must restore the world before it realizes what happened. Absorb that whic h I sealed in Atla, using that Atlamillia, and bring them back. Then you will be

able to restore the world to its original form. You may even be able to create the world even better than before. Toan looked back at the Atlamillia, could this little stone save the world? Hmm, you don t understand what I m saying Well I ll teach you later once you acquire the Atla. Toan rubbed his green turban; this was sure a hefty responsibility for a boy his age. So long. The Fairy King became a gleam of light and went to the sky. Toan looked to the ground, two butterflies They inspired him, Toan crouched and tried reaching for th em, but they flew to the air, illuminating, always illuminating. Toan looked to the sky; he was mystified and felt like the weight of the world was on his shoul ders Toan can you hear them? You should be able to hear them. Voices of the wind Voices of the trees, Voices of the animals And the voices of Earth. They are all calling for your help. Now Toan let your journey begin.

Toan was clearly not ready for these challenges, but his overwhelming need and d esire to see his people and his culture again encouraged him. He looked around t he village and finally realized that the village chief s house was still intact. H ow remarkable, he thought, the Dark Genie must have fired a dozen bolts at them. But then again maybe the Fairy King had something to do with the fact that the chief s house was still alright. Perhaps it started as that Atla? To get started o n his journey Toan ran up the wooden stairs to the chief s house, it was the same as ever, not a hint of decay was on his house, the house was modeled on the chie f s submarine ship; in fact the chief used his submarine to create the house. The house looked like it literally crashed into the land just like before Toan opened the iron door, the house looked as it did before last night, the chief sat on hi s chair looking at the ground, Toan approached him and the chief s eyes glittered, he yelled in joy Toan you are alive! The chief had a yellow snow cap and a full grey beard. And he constantly had a pipe in his mouth. Seems like we re the only ones in the village t hat survived. Toan was about to tell him about the Atla but he had no idea how to e xplain it. We never dreamt such a horrible thing could happen Can you believe this, Toan? What am I supposed to do now? Toan never knew that his village chief compl ained like this, he thought of him as strong and rational. Toan nodded his head to the ground in disappointment that his own chief could be so helpless. The vil lage chief s eyes glittered again Maybe we could get help from our village guardian , Dran! Now Toan knew he was out of luck with this guy, nobody not even children believed the village guardian existed. Dran had allegedly been seen a few hundre d years ago. If anything he was the village s mascot. But Toan was about to believ e in anything especially after that Fairy King encounter. Toan, I have a favor to a sk. Go to the Divine Beast Cave and see if you can find him! The Divine Beast Cav e? Nobody went in there, unless they had a death wish. Here this is the Cave key. Toan really had no idea, but if he could find Atla in the Divine Beast Cave, it was one more step to recovering Norune Village. Here, Toan I got some things you may need if you re going to survive in there, good luck. The conversation between them was brief, a little too brief. The chief wanted To an to find Dran, the village s guardian that has never shown his face to anyone to day. And besides, if Dran had been seen a hundred years ago, he d surely be dead. Toan left the Village chief s house and looked in his bag; the chief had given him a loaf of bread and some medicine. Although these items would help, there was n othing in the bag that could possibly defend him from whatever he may encounter in the Divine Beast Cave. Toan ventured through the empty lot that was his villa ge, it was very surreal to see nothing at all in his beloved town. Toan kicked t

he dirt in below him, he walked towards where his houses use to stand and looked at the grass, nothing there except a shiny object in the middle of where his hous e once stood. It was a small dagger! Toan remembered he concealed this weapon under his bed; l ong ago his father gave him this dagger. It was supposed to mean he was man of t he house, the dagger, the weapon, was a symbol of manhood, even though he was on ly 3 at the time his father gave him this Why was it here? Nothing else was But then again why was the Mayor s house still there? Toan touched the end of the blade; i t was sharper than he first anticipated. Toan ran to the entrance to the Divine Beast Cave. He had always wanted to enter this cave, but never had he ever belie ved would it happen. Everyone around him in town kept themselves a far distance from the cave, with the exception to the macho brothers that of course loved fig hting anything that appeared outside the cave. Toan pulled out the key, the cave door, opened, the sound of rocks sliding against each other filled his ears, an d it wasn t an attractive sound. Toan took a long deep breath and shut his eyes, w hat was he getting himself into? He thought as he took his first step towards th e entrance to the Divine Beast Cave . Although Toan was brave he often doubted his own abilities. Toan took a few more steps, eyes still closed; suddenly the door behind him slowly closed by them self. Toan s eyes darted open and turned around. Why me? Thought Toan. Toan looked at the walls, torches ablaze lit the way, Toan brain said NO, but his heart cried YES. Could Toan actually pull this off? Toan shook his head violently and on his impulses he ran down the stairs screaming, it gave him false courage, he was going to save Norune Village, no matter what h e thought. Toan descended down the stairs to the first floor of the cave, he was surprised to see none other then the Fairy King. This is for real this time Toan, first conquer this wretched cave and find Dran s L air that is your first goal. What the hell now the Fairy King was talking about D ran, Toan doubted the Fairy King s wisdom. The spheres Atla, where I protected and sealed the fragments of the world, if you see an Atla do not hesitate to touch i t. You can absorb the contents of an Atla into Atlamillia by touching it. Once y ou return to the surface, you will be able to reassemble the fragments of the wo rld. Toan show me your real abilities and conquer this cave. Finally he disappea red with the flash of light once again. Toan would have had a mental break down earlier but now this was getting too crazy even for that. In the distance Toan c ould hear the screech of a bat; he pulled out his dagger readied for anything he may have to battle. He was afraid, but he had to stay strong, for the entire wo rld was counting on him. There were torches everywhere illuminating the halls as if someone had been here before, more likely an entire brigade of people traveled here. He easily slashe d down the bat, but a couple more bats came after him, not being aware, Toan was bitten by the bat on his shoulder. Toan yelled and took out the other bat. Toan felt sick, he felt his health deteriorating rapidly. Toan pulled his medicine d rink from his bag, and applied it to the bite marls and drank a swig of the medi cine, it helped him instantly. Toan learned to keep his distance from the bats, they were venoms. Walking alone the halls he encountered his first Atla. Toan wa s eager to uncover it. Before he could think of how the Atla felt it opened abru ptly and light came from it and quickly entered his Atlamillia. A glance of what it was appeared in his mind. An image of a lamp Toan was furious and yelled in th e caves to himself. If this was the idea of a joke, it was in bad taste. He want ed to recover the world to the way it was and the Fairy King actually though sav ing the lamps was a big deal? Toan pressed further hoping he s never see a lamp ag ain in his life. Toan came across two more Atlas and opened them; he ignored wha t they were and decided he d see them once he left the cave. After another bat enc ounter Toan came across something he never thought possible a walking skeleton w ielding a shield and sword surely if something like this existed than the Fairy King must be right. The duel with the skeleton soldier was easier than Toan expe cted, just a few slashes of his dagger brought him down maybe because the skelet on forgot how to use his shield. After a few battles with the beasts of the cave

, an object fell from one of the skeletons, a crest of some sort, Toan picked it up, and it resembled a demon head, except the head had a green jewel in the mid dle of it. Toan came across a door that wasn t the one he had cam in, and in middl e of the door, it had an indignation where it looked like the crest Toan had jus t picked up. And sure enough when Toan fitted it in there the door arose. Toan w anted to see what exactly he could do with his found Atla. Toan went back to the entrance of the cave and once again looked over his empty village. Toan had no idea how this Atlamillia worked so out of gamble he touched it. Blackness surrounded him, in front of him were 8 spheres that illuminated i n the darkness, one of them was that dumb lamp, another resembled Macho. Toan st arted by grabbing Macho s house, or what he assumed was Macho s house. He was not ph ysically holding Macho s house; it felt like he was some sort of God. Below him wa s Norune Village. He placed Macho s house next to the cave, like it had been befor e. Next he gave the village trees. A river and all that he could place. He was h appy that his town could be saved, he was overjoyed. Toan touched his Atlamilli a again and reappeared on ground level. He ran up the Macho s house and barged in to see none other than Macho. Toan?! How? Where? Wha? When Macho got over the surprise that he was alive he star ted to speak rationally I missed you man, your smile brightens my day! Macho bear hugged Toan and squeezed him as hard as he could. His muscles pressed against To an s twig like body, it wasn t a good feeling at all. Toan just squirmed and sighed in relief that Macho was still the same Macho he had known before. Macho s rationa lity quickly turned into sobs and then he started bawling like a girl. Maybe Mac ho was a little less like himself but he was there, but there wasn t time to psych ologically assess Macho,there was time to get every body else back however. Toan ran to the second floor, or rather negative second floor, and scanned his s urroundings.The first thing that appeared in the cave was a domestic house cat. Toan was shocked to see such a cute creature in such scary depths. The cat stopp ed right in its tracks and gazed at Toan for just a moment, looking as surprised to see a human in the caves as Toan was surprised to see a cat in the caves. It continued to run off in another direction. This cave was getting weirder by the second, Toan made his way forward seeing bats and skeleton soldiers like normal , but this floor he saw something even weirder. A dark flat figure with what loo ked like bat wings. Toan s first instinct was as follows: AVOID BLACK THINGS. But before Toan could even start avoiding the figure it charged full speed at Toan w ith his fist spinning like a drill, Toan dodged it and gave him a face full of d agger. It was a physical organism, it could die But it appeared to look like somet hing out of this world, something beyond life, that s what Toan didn t understand. I t wasn t dead pre se but a living spirit, if that made sense. Toan was quenched du e to the heat emitting from the torches on the walls. He pulled out a small bott le of water, the one he received from the chief. Toan s dagger was wearing thinner and thinner as he killed more and more beasts. Luckily he came across a large c hest; it held a shamshir, much longer and stronger than what he was fighting wit h so he started using it so as to take out stronger enemies. As Toan reached the third floor he began to wonder how the Fairy King couldn t con trol where exactly the Atla landed. And why did all of the Atla have to appear i n the Divine Beast Cave it pissed him off. Sure enough he came face to face with the Fairy King once again on this floor. It s me again, surprised? Toan just rolled his eyes Don t give me that look now pay att ention. You see the weapon you re wielding? Toan nodded, it was his new shamshir. Yo u are not using it to its full potential; you see there are five attributes a we apon can use, fire, ice, thunder, wind and holy. Many monsters have a certain we akness. You can get your sword to use one of the attributes by giving it an attr ibute stone. Toan was officially lost, what the hell were attribute stones?! The Fairy King d isappeared and Toan went on his way to find the Atla. Toan came across two new b easts on this floor, a statue that resembled a dog and walking humanoid statue.

Macho had warned him of both, and said tougher weapons were needed to bring them down quicker. He approached the Human statue and swung multiple times with his shamshir. Only to be pounded by the golem s rock axe. Toan went several feet backw ards, he was hurt badly, Toan went back to the statue and swiped at him once, an d stepped back, when the statue threw his axe to the ground, this gave Toan the opportunity to swipe at him once more taking him down and breaking him apart. He limped the rest of the way recovering the remaining Atla and escaping the dunge on. Toan lied in Macho s house with Macho and Komacho attending to him. Toan had a lar ge wound on his leg that needed help fast, and since there was no medicine man i n the village, Toan got help from the muscle brothers, not that they had many to ols to work with. Eh, I hope this works Macho was searching through the drawers finding a light cloth . Those golem things are tough, just goes to show ya you need to start lifting. Komac ho said to Toan, not only were the two muscle brothers obsessed with fighting th ey lifted weights every minute they could. Macho went to Toan who was lying on t heir bed and wrapped the cloth around the wound on his leg. The Atla was all Toa n could think about, he wanted to use the Atla he had acquired in the caves. But he also needed rest; it was a long day, way too long. Toan was welcomed to slee p at the Muscle brother s house for the night seeing as Toan s house was still not r ecovered, and the chief really freaked him out. Besides the muscle brother s small house was cozy much like his house... He thought about his house, his livestock and his mother, he prayed they were all in the Atla. Toan sighed Why me? He thoug ht to himself, was he truly the only good hearted person in the world? That was im possible. There were so many people in the world As much as Toan wanted to accept his responsibility he always found ways to be angry at the Fairy King, or whoeve r chose him to save the Earth. He almost wished that he had been stored in Atla, The muscle brothers would have had a much easier time getting around in that ca ve, they ve been down there multiple times, why not them? They were stronger than he was weren t they? Heck wasn t everybody in the village somewhat more fit to save th e Earth than him? Toan went to bed asking questions, it was the worst way to sle ep. He didn t want to go back

Despite not wanting to go back, he did go back, descending to floor six he saw t he same cat, with the bell on its neck and once again it ran off into no where, wh at a strange cat, hanging in the cave full of beasts. Toan fought and fought and uncovered and uncovered. Toan was finally finding those attribute stones in the se lower levels, but then the problem came, how the hell did you apply them? Toa n s first impression was to smash the stone on to the blade of the sword It kind of worked surprisingly! Instead of the sword just making a normal sound when it hit a beast it made an electrical noise, Toan had applied the thunder stone. This m ade his weapon stronger, every time he applied a stone to a weapon, but by this time, his shamshir s power was waning due to all the use, it was breaking down, he would have to repair it, but he didn t have the necessary Atla to do so. He neede d the odd gaffer, he would sell repair powder. Applying repair powder helped sto ne and metallic objects heal and regain their durability. As Toan was opening on e of the many treasure chests in a room, much to his surprise the chest grew fan gs, arms, and eyes. It freaked him out; the first thing he did was slash his swo rd at it. But the chest just closed himself to guard from the hits, hurting the Shamshir greatly, this chest put up somewhat more abuse than the average beast, Toan was afraid this would become a normality soon.

Toan went back to his village and brought up the Atla. He saw his house He immedia tely put it on the ground and entered his house. It was just like the night Except no mom to care for him. He walked to his room, there was his bed, his extra pon cho and turban everything was there, he had his livestock but still no mom. A lot of people were still missing from Norune Village; Toan had become more and more alarmed that he couldn t find certain people, like Paige and his mother, Renee. He lied on his bed and rested for tomorrow, he had to find them all, and he wouldn t forgive himself if he couldn t.

Toan made his way to the 8th floor, it was smaller than he expected, the atmosph ere was Toan then noticed a man; he had shoulder length silver hair, a small black outfit being held together with a red jewel in the middle. He turned around wit h a smirk on his face. This man gave the Divine Beast Cave a much more evil atmo sphere. The darkness radiating from the man was spreading throughout the cave li ke the plague. Well done on making it here. I had a good look at your ability. Or maybe it was t hat stone of your left hand? Toan gave the man a hostile look, how dare him, Toan thought. This blue stone was nothing more than a simple object it helped him in no way Or so he would like to believe. No doubt, that is the legendary Atlamillia a treasure from the Gods that only the worthy can possess. Hard to believe you re worthy of it. But that is not the issue Wan this guy trying to imply he wasn t wort hy? Would you be so kind to hand it over to me? Toan rose his arm and looked at the blue stone It was now holding his mother there was no way he could give it up now. Toan nodded his head sideways. The man laughed a little and said I see...So you i ntend to use that stone to restore the world. A noble goal The man s face dropped an d grew grim. But even if you restore the world. The destruction could repeat itse lf. Unless of course you defeat the Dark Genie. First a Fairy King was lecturing him now this stuck up pretty boy was telling him he couldn t do this task. Toan wa s getting fed up. But such a task is beyond your abilities. It being powerful eno ugh to destroy the planet in an instant And you nearly dying due to dehydration. Ho w did he know?! Thought Toan. I have come to this place or rather this time for t hat stone. I need that stone more than you do actually There is a great deal you d on t know about that stone yet. Toan was about to call him out on his selfishness b ut suddenly the man started grunting and clenching his chest Ugh! He crouched to t he floor, Toan was frightened by his grunts so he tried helping him up the man r ose up from the ground, purple mist filled the air into the man s mouth. At first the man in black looked tired but he rose his head to reveal his that his person ality had clearly changed. Heh, heh, heh Pardon me I do ramble sometimes, his eyes went blood red, he looked ma niacal. If you won t hand it over willingly, then I have no choice, he drew his swor d. Let s see what you can do as the one supposedly entitled to the stone! The man j umped in the air with his drawn sword Toan had barely enough time to draw his ow n sword. Toan dodged the attack. The mystery man swiped his sword several times until Toan preformed a somersault around him. The man kept his sword fixated on Toan, following every move. Toan lunged at the silver haired man with his sword, but he clashed swords with the man who defended himself from Toan s strike. With this opportunity the man kicked Toan s knee and Toan fell back, losing his weapon. Toan wearily got up now drawing his fists. Hmm you did quite well...How about this ?! He charged a purple bolt of energy in his hand. Toan looked at his side trying to find his weapon, all he saw was the cat The cat from before, and it was trembl ing from the power radiating from the man s hand. Toan looked back at the energy a nd with the shear hope that it would work he used his Atlamillia to defend himse lf from the energy. It shockingly workedToan once again flew on his back, he cou ldn t keep the Atlamillia up, the bolt seemed to over power even his Atlamillia. T oan looked back up to see him approaching him. The dirt on the floor rivaled wit h his black boots, just the sound of the boots clacking on the floor made Toan o n edge; this wasn t going to end well. Toan wiped away blood that had been drawn f

rom his mouth when the man put his sword on Toan s knee. You amuse me boy! You can t handle an attack as weak as that? Toan looked straight into the man s eyes and thou ght what the hell are you even talking about?! Why are you attacking me?! He had so many questions for this guy, but he knew he would never get answers. There w ere never any more answers. You cannot be worthy of the stone. Out of the corner o f his eye the man noticed the cat behind Toan, shivering. He paused and let out a stereotypical evil laugh, who actually does that? Its not that you couldn t dodge y ou simply didn t dodge deliberately. Fine then That s it for today. I think I now see wh y the fairies chose you. There are more of them?! It will be amusing to see how we ll you do. This was crazy, for a second it looked like he was going to kill him, but he didn t Toan was so confused. The man walked back where he started and told To an If you are even thinking of defeating the Dark Genie, you won t be able to do it now You need to get stronger. Why was this guy giving Toan advice? He didn t know To an stopped thinking logically two days ago. Oh I almost forgot, here s a little gif t for you, see you soon. He tossed Toan a bottle. He walked away and disappeared in a blinding purple mist Toan turned around to the cat nearby making sure it was okay, it looked up to Toan with its big yellow eyes and meowed as if it was plea sed and ran off, Toan was about to yell for it to come back, he held out his han d but the cat while running suddenly turned into a sphere of Atla. Toan just sta red in awe. What the hell were those fairies doing in their world?! Toan s last journey in the cave wore him out, he had acquired quite a bit of Atla, including that mysterious cat. He sat down in nothingness looking at the Atla, he thought to himself how crazy the world was getting, and he never knew such t hings existed until a few hours ago, was this all a dream? But that thought woul d contradict with the fact that he had been harmed, he felt everything. He sighe d and finished constructing Macho s house. So Toan decided why not pay them a visi t? Toan walked meekly into Macho s house and suddenly the boisterous sound of Koma cho s voice echoed in Toan s ears Wow! Toan you ve done it! Komacho raised his arms in glee and ran to Toan. Be cause of you our house is back to normal! Here have this. Macho handed Toan a sto ne breaker, this would help Toan s swords quite nicely against those golems. Befor e Toan could thank Komacho, the clacking of Macho s footsteps sounded on the bare wooden floor, he raised his voice and yelled Hey that s mine! Macho crouched into a fighting stance and his tone changed drastically Hey bro! What do ya think you re doin ?! Komacho shrugged and said Like I always tell you What s yours is mine and what s mine is mine. That s how t hings between little brothers and big brothers should be. Macho growled and said I can t take this anymore bro! We re going to settle this with a battle! Oh really? Komacho said with a smirk Ready when you are! Macho and Komacho w alked calmly to the other room. The door slammed shut and all you could hear wer e thesounds of punches. Toan just stood there unsure if he should leave or stay. So going with his gut he ran out so as not to anger anybody. Toan went straight back to the Atla, he saw what appeared to be Paige s house, but there was no Paig e Atla, only her father, Pike. He placed Paige s house near Macho s as well as Pike. Toan went back to ground level and greeted Pike. Pike, still getting use to his surroundings was surprised to see Toan. Toan?!Where the hell am I?! Toan couldn t really answer since Pike answered it himself. This is Norune Village? Looks a little different Where s Paige? Toan looke d down and sighed. Not here? But If I m still alive she must be too right? Toan look ed back up and nodded Find her for me Toan; I guess you re the only one who can. Toa n also placed Claude s house. But it was during the PM so he assumed Claude would be fast asleep, even in this time of crisis. Toan had other things to worry abou t, like his mother Toan eagerly placed his mother near his house and quickly met h er once again. Toan saw his mother from afar, she was delirious with happiness. Toan ran to her, she gasped. Toan couldn t help but acting like the child he was, he bear hugged her, she fell over and said Toan what do you think you re doing, you l l hurt your mother! Toan just kept on hugging never letting go. Finally there was the stray cat What to do with it? Toan placed the stray cat in his room, he would think what to do with it later, and he had to get bac

k to work on the Atla! Back on the 8th floor, he gave the place a look over as he originally tried to l ast time, there were just a bunch of stalagmites and a river running through the cave. Toan walked towards the exit, which was obstructed by a river. Toan obser ved the running water, gave a deep breath and pulled off the best running jump h e could, he yelled, thinking it would help his across, but his best wasn t good en ough, one foot hit the edge of the other side s ground. He jolted up and fell back wards, frozen with fear. He made a large splash in the river, it was colder than anticipated, and this petrified him further. Toan screamed for help even though no one was really in the cave. Light enveloped Toan, was this the end thought Toan? What a stupid decision Why did he even try? Sis! Sis! Help me out here! Carl called out, he had accidently fallen in the pond near his and his sister, Alnet s house. Toan followed the pleas to the pond Come on Toan come and help me! Toan rubbed the back of his head nervously, Toa didn t like the looks of this But he had to help some how. Toan jumped along in and suddenly darkness came over him, he had drifted in a sleep like state, what happened? Later Pike had finally come in and saved them both, Toan was commended for his b ravery; no one really knew the true story that he had just been scared to death. Instead Carl got all the back lash, Alnet would make sure Carl never forgot it, from that day on Toan had been afraid of falling. He d never gotten over it Toan was now outside the cave in Norune, what a stroke of luck, he thought. Than k the fairies! But before he could think about how lucky he was, Toan had an epi phany, the Atla, the bottle it all happened at one moment! The fairies were spea king to him; couldn t the Fairy King just technically speak to him? The bottle was conveniently labeled Changing Potion . Toan thought on his instincts and decided g ive it a shot. Toan popped into his house to find his mother with the cat on the table. Oh good you re came just in time! Look! Renee screamed in delight at the lit tle kitten that came to the house, of course Toan placed it there, and pretended to be surprised at the cat s appearance. A little kitty cat wandered here! the cat meowed as soon as it got a glimpse of Toan, it leapt into Toan s arms unexpectedly , Toan looked down at the cat and smiled, it really was cute, it snuggled in Toa n s arms as if it already knew him. Toan lets give this kitty a name, alright? Toan looked down in the cat s yellow eyes and musedover the matter, maybe Miss Kitty Pri ncess ? Yes that would be a great name thought Toan he raised his finger and as To an was about to give his idea for a name, Renee quickly said Xiao! That s a good na me! Toan s finger went down and his smile went bitter sweet. Xiao?Really Mom? But t hen again this was the same woman that named their son Toan . Renee looked down at the cat and spoke in a mocking baby voice Your name is Xiao, hi Xiao! the cat now na med Xiao responded as if it knew its own name already. The cat was already comfortable with its surroundings, and decided that Toan s bed was now its own. Toan thought for a moment, would it be safe, or moral to turn this cute little thing into a mutant with this so called Changing Potion Toa n just wanted something to happen, this cat could be of some help, if this chang ing potion worked the way he thought it did. Toan snapped the cap of the Changing Potion and walked up the stairs to his room t o find the cat relaxed on his bed. A stroke of guilt rode over him; would this h urt it in any way? Toan stopped thinking and just held out the bottle to the str ay cat, the cat stretched out andfervently batted its tongue into the bottle, To an stared at the cat disappointingly, as if it didn t work, but slowly light envel oped the cat, the light was familiar to the Fairy King, Toan motioned back to re ady for whatever was going to happen. The cat rose in the air and seconds later it formed into a humanoid, but it retained its cat features although it seemed t o conveniently grow clothes on it self, with a hole in her shorts for a tail, To an s mouth agape thought, Oh my God! It s a she?! Xiao examined herself closely in excitement; closely at her paws excuse me hands. She was just as surprised as Toan was Okay maybe less surprised. What What s this?! She examined every inch of her new body Wow I m like totally human!

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can talk?! Toan finally thought to himself. Xiao turned around to Toan and look ed devotedly up to Toan Wow how d you do it?! Master, are you a wizard? Toan s mouth w ide open couldn t believe his eyes, her voice was just so cute, and her figure rem ained as cute as it was a regular cat, maybe more so! Toan noticed Xiao s tail bat ting back and forth, this cat was definitely going to drive him insane if the ca ve wasn t going to. Toan shook his head finally answering Xiao s childish question Oh well, never mind. Well anyways, Xiao wants to help master with the adventure! To an just stared, she was 100% devoted, and she actually referred to him as master i t would certainly raise his ego/self esteem. But the word master kind of made his skin crawl, well actually her voice made his skin crawl, so annoying and cute at the same time. Please can I? Please, please, please? Say yes, say yes! Xiao had s omehow known of Toan s adventure from seeing him in the cave, and he certainly did n eed help against some of those creatures, she didn t even have to ask, Toan nodded enthusiastically. Xiao jumped in the air with excitement ready for the challeng es this adventure may hold. Xiao clung to Toan lovingly and rubbed her head against his legs, purring with h er claws dangerously close to his crotch. Toan rubbed his head in and tilted his head, how was he going to deal with this cat? Renee with no care in the world s aid Oh, is that a new friend of yours? I haven t seen her around. Toan stood in sile nce still rubbing his head; this journey was starting to look more andmore weird er. He was fifteen and this was not helping his urges, plus he had Paige to thin k about here, he didn t need a cute cat girl tagging along with him, but then agai n He did. Toan. Toan s eyes shot open and looked to the sky That was the voice of a strange old m an, the Fairy King. It was now pitch black around him, Xiao and Renee were gone, and only Toan and the Fairy King stood in an abyss of a total black area. Ha ha it s been awhile, eh Toan? Toan raised his eye brow questioningly, was this any time f or laughing? Ah, you now have an ally to help you through your adventure. I need to give you some tips about allies. Toan arched his back and sighed, the Fairy Ki ng was overcomplicating the simple idea of allies hell wasn t everybody in Norune an ally? When you run into situations you can t handle on your own. It s a good idea to get help from an ally! WELL DUH! They ll be happy to help you. But remember, you ar e the only one who can release the seal of Atla, So long The Fairy King raised his arms and disappeared; once again the Fairy King was stating the obvious and was no help at all. Toan went to the entrance to the Divine Beast Cave, once again, but this time, h e had Xiao by his side, she looked up to Toan and put on a war face. I m ready for anything master! Toan looked back at her and smiled with confidence, this was goi ng to be a cake walk with a loyal cat following you everywhere. Toan still looki ng at Xiao noticed that she had a wooden sling shot in her back pocket. Not thin king he tried grabbing Xiao s slingshot merely wondering why she had it. Xiao jump ed and quickly grabbed it herself Hey what are you doing master? Toan blushed, rea lizing what he was doing, he just thought a cat using a slingshot was an odd ide a; wouldn t a cat just use its claws as a weapon? Toan while going down into the 8th floor for a third time, Xiao vanished into To an s Atlamillia, Toan yelped and the Fairy King once again appeared before him. I forgot to mention, Toan that only one person can be in the cave at a time, you can call on allies, but you will be called into the Atlamillia instead. What kind of sense does that make?! The Fairy King went off on his way and Toan cursed to himself. Toan approached the river that he fell into last time and figured, let s see what Xiao can do Toan called upon Xiao through the Atlamillia, he was now alo ne, but he could see what Xiao was doing, almost as if he was inside her mind. X iao appeared out of no where in the cave and her eyes lit up Huh, Where? Who? What? Xiao looked around quickly realizing that she was b ack in the cave, the 8th floor to be exact, where she had been sucked up in to t he Atla. Xiao looked in front of her noticing the river, like all cats she hated the touch of water, but she also noticed that the distance to the other side wa s just enough for her to successfully jump across, which she did, Toan while in the Atlamillia discovered Xiao s perk, she could jump further distances than him.

Toan called upon himself and he appeared right where Xiao had been standing. Xia o was now in the Atlamillia once again. Hey what happened? She said in nothingness . But she soon realized this was all apart of what that Fairy King had said mome nts ago. Toan sighed in relief, his journey could continue. It was time to get t o the 9th floor! On the ninth floor Toan was able to witness Xiao s abilities first hand, t hese floors were getting increasingly difficult, and this wasn t good for Xiao, al though she was devoted and loyal to Toan, her ability to defend herself in the c aves against the golems and false treasure chests wasn t as great as Toan was anti cipating. Her slingshot could have shot bread crumbs and they would have made th e same amount of damage against the beasts. Toan feared for his new found cat, X iao and quickly switched out Xiao for himself in the caves. He sighed and marche d on by himself in the caves and picked up several some enhancement stones, whic h would probably help Xiao s slingshot. While finding Atla he finally got the Odd Gaffer, the town s merchant, he would surely be of help, Toan was desperately low on supplies. As Toan was about to head out he noticed one last Atla sphere in t he corner of cave, of course Toan picked it up impulsively, it was like a job to him now, but the Atla held Paige, Toan s heart skipped a beat at the sight of Pai ge s unconscious body, there was no time to waste, Toan ran with a smile on his fa ce to the exit of the ninth floor. Toan and Xiao ran up the stairs to the cave and entered Norune, which was about to receive a bunch of Atla. Before Toan could appear in his Atlamillia, Xiao pok ed his back, Toan turned to look at her, she looked a bit afraid, kind of how sh e looked when the strange man approached her in the eighth floor. Um, master? she said softly with her eyes to the ground. Toan shifted his eye brow curious at what she wanted to say. I was pretty useless back there wasn t I? Toan s face grimaced unsure how to respond, sure she wasn t really that much of a m atch for some of the beasts in the cave, but it took Toan some time before he wa s able to effectively kill some of the creatures too. You re probably better off wi thout me tagging along, master, I couldn t even scratch those bats Toan still confus ed tried petting Xiao s head; perhaps she needed some affection to get her chipper again. Xiao surprised jumped back, her eyes welled up, she was about to cry for her first time. She covered her eyes and ran off towards Toan s house. Toan still couldn t believe Xiao, she was trying her best after all, that s all that really ma ttered, and he had to cheer her up But how? Xiao could become a great asset some d ay, but for now Toan had to rebuild Norune with the Atla he had stored. Paige had to come first, as he held his hand out to Paige s sphere he froz e in place having a flash back of his own on their long friendship. Toan lived in Norune Village, a place where everybody knew everybody, th ere were no secrets in Norune, no problems, no worries. So it was natural for To an and Paige to meet as small children only at age 2, their real friendship had formed at age 9 though. It was nighttime and Toan was bending curfew by staying outside near the village s exit, Toan watched the night sky primarily at the two moons he pondered about o ften. Out of nowhere, Toan heard a faint cry from just outside the village, Toan wasn t one for stepping out of his boundaries but he wanted to find this cry s owne r. Toan looked behind him making sure no one was perhaps looking at him and ran out of the village. Toan ran the path to the outside world, beyond Norune, it wa s really just one big forest, as Toan tip toed in the forest trying to follow th e whimpers he accidentally snapped a branch with his large boots. Finally the so bbing stopped and it was replaced by Paige s startled voice. Huh! Who s there? she exclaimed, Toan peeked his head behind a tree and waved. Toan w hat are you doing here? Toan scratched his head figuring he could say the same th ing to her. I just got lost, I wandered outside of the village, I didn t know where to go. Paige was rambling; Toan walked toward her and crouched, sighing. Toan I m scared... Toan casually turned his head towards her listening with undivide d attention. Of the dark... she finished. Toan chuckled to himself, he was once af raid of the dark as well, Toan grabbed her hand and held it softly, and with his other hand he pointed to the two moons in the sky. Paige s eyes sparkled as she r

ealized what Toan was trying to explain. The two moons and in fact all the stars , illuminated the sky, it was never dark There was no such thing as darkness. Toan snapped out of his trance and smiled, their friendship was differen t from say him and Carl or Alnet. Toan was still a boy, he had a lot to learn ab out love, but Paige was certainly a girl he deeply cared for. Toan placed her ne ar her own house; Toan escaped his Atlamillia descended right in front of Paige s eyes as they opened for the first time since the night. Toan?! she yelped and jump ed back. She looked the same as ever with her large brown eyes and innocent face . You re alive! You saved me didn t you? That night Toan was just sorry he didn t really save her that night; Toan admitted to himself that she would have been dead had it not been for those fairies. But Toan didn t bring that up, he merely smiled and hugged her, she couldn t help but hug back, he held her tight Toan You re my hero. She whispered Toan blushed and closed his eyes; he was in bliss That is until Pike cam e in and screamed in joy that Paige was back. Pike shoved Toan away, forgetting all manners he had ever learned, he was just happy is all, Toan forgave that, Pi ke hugged Paige as well, he started blubbering through his voice. Thanks a lot, Toan you re real hero! Toan got up as he had been pushed on th e unforgiving dirt and rubbed his hat back into place. Toan gave Paige and smile and waved at her. Paige through her father s arms yelled. Toan you can save us all, I know you can! Toan s ego went through the roof but soon remembered, this wasn t some fairy tale st ory book, he may have saved the girl but his adventure wasn t over, he had a world to save, plus Xiao was still depressed. Toan sighed and went back to the Atlami llia. There was much to be done. Let s see Hag s place Laura s Alnet s the windmills, Dran s windmill Toan listed off ses he now possessed, and it was a matter of getting the rest of the villager s ba ck. Toan went back to ground level to view all the houses, he had all the struct ures he needed for the town, and he needed to get the villager s who were no doubt deeper in the cave. But he needed Xiao s help, or at least that s what Toan said t o himself. Toan went back home to see that Xiao was on his bed face planted on h is pillow. Toan sat on his bed and rubbed Xiao s back, the cat was asleep, as she unconsciously purred to Toan. Toan hadn t really noticed but all her fur was gone, he was just petting skin really. But Toan did notice quickly, he stopped pettin g her he realized she was now a human, and petting her like that just seemed wei rd now What was weird these days? Just what had the changing potion done? The tail was motionless; it curled somewhat around her leg. Toan didn t really pay the tai l any mind and more so her figure. Toan sweated bullets, he was just starting to discover why men liked women, and this woman just happened to be half-cat. Toan needed to wake Xiao up to cheer her up, and not by petting her, so Toan flicked Xiao s large ear. Her eyes went from small to large, and Toan gritted his teeth a nd looked the other way. What were you doing, master? Xiao asked looking up at her master with larg e round eyes. Toan smacked her back and gave a pouty look and pointed to his Atl amillia, desperately trying to change the mood that he unintentionally set by fl icking her ear. Xiao looked somewhat embarrassed, but from her previous outburst in which she ran away from him. Xiao didn t know it but Toan did need her, she tr ied saying something when Toan grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly, Toan pu t on a confident looking face as if he knew everything there was to know about s urviving in the Divine Beast Cave. Xiao s eyes glittered at Toan, she made her own confident looking face. Somehow, Toan s look of confidence gave her confidence. Let s do this together, master! Toan nodded smiling. He fell asleep with Xiao nestl ed in the blankets with him; they were going to conquer the Divine Best Cave fir st thing the next day. Morning out Toan grabbed his hat and silently got out of bed so as not t o wake Xiao, he looked towards the village noticed the Odd Gaffer looked like he was setting up shop, this was great timing! Toan thought. Toan looked up at the Odd Gaffer s buggy, it was quite the spectacle for the shop to finally open, the Odd Gaffer seemed to be signaling hand gestures at Pike who was on the top of the buggy fixing the sign, Toan could hear Pike cursing and y elling at the odd Gaffer.

You re a slave driver, Gaffer! Pike angrily yelled, his body was strained tr ying to fix the sign and keep himself from falling at the same time. The Odd Gaf fer put on a hidden sadistic smirk, although having Pike help him fix the buggy up was helpful, Gaffer had other motives in mind making Pike fix up the Buggy, h e loved seeing him angry and in pain. Gaffer turned to Toan attempting to meet h is eyes through his large hat. Thank you for waiting; thanks to you I can finally reopen my shop. It s not done stocking up yet but I can give you excellent service. All Toan needed was s tuff, lots and lots of stuff and if Odd Gaffer was willing to he d accept. Come vis it the shop any time. And with that Toan looked at the inventory, powders, bread and bombs, all in one shop, Norune was brilliant.

Light shined near the entrance to the 11th floor of the Divine Beast Cave and Xi ao appeared. Xiao s eye slanted and went small Huh What s going on? Master don t you think you should ? Toan was stuck in the Atl amillia confused as Xiao; luckily the Fairy King appeared in front of Toan once again. Hello there. The Fairy King stared blankly, and Toan curled his lips, miff ed at the Fairy King s appearance, what could he want now? I should have mentioned L imited Zones to you, you see this floor has a magic seal on it. Toan smacked his h ead and closed his eyes, and he thought he was the ignorant one This particular mag ic seal has a restriction against the holder of the Atlamillia, thus you cannot set foot on this floor, so your ally was called instead. Toan crossed his arms, h ow did that make any sense? Toan had a bunch of complaints and questions for the Fairy King, but the Fairy King left abruptly without so much as a good bye or catc h ya later . Xiao heard all what the Fairy King had said, she clasped her hands to gether and wished this wasn t happening, she barely made it out of the last floor alive and now she had to live an entire floor without Toan. Xiao took a deep breath and took her first steps in the very dangerous 11th floo r, she turned right and immediately found a large treasure chest, she meowed in excitement, perhaps she would have an easier time in this cave than she thought Xi ao skipped happily to the chest and opened the top Suddenly the chest grew fangs a nd an eye, arms sprouted from the opening in the chest , Xiao screamed in terror as it jumped up and down towards her, she ran as fast as she could down the opp osite trail. Toan in the Atlamillia was stunned, how could Xiao be expected to take on such a thing? As Xiao ran through the left trail she appeared in the fir st room, several regular treasure chests. Xiao sighed and opened one, thankfully it wasn t a false treasure chest, and just a bottle of water, the cave was so hot , so Xiao downed the bottle in less than five seconds. The other chests held bre ad and repair powder. A few dead bats later Xiao was afraid that she would have to take down one of the larger beasts to get Dran s Crest, which would be the only way to get a ny further in the cave. Fortunately she found some stamina potion which would he lp her against the damned King Mimic . Xiao avoided plenty of large dragons and sta tues, which took along time to do any damage against with her slingshot. Xiao wa s sure that she would find Dran s Crest in the lone King Mimic; it seemed right Xiao drank the Stamina potion and met up with the damn box again. She readied her sl ing shot and aimed for his large lone eye. Toan just dropped his mouth when the slingshot actually seemed to affect the Mimic, how could a little potion enhance her attack so much? The Mimic went down in a matter of three hits and sure enough Dran Crest dropped from the dead Mimic s mouth. Xiao jumped up and down and gave a V for victory gesture, Toan jus t smiled, but behind Xiao the giant Opar lifted it self off the ground. Toan screa med for Xiao, she heard and looked behind her screaming as well, the Opar droppe d and Xiao just barely got out of being crushed by the large mass of fat. Xiao p etrified found it hard to move, a cloud of dust had enveloped her slowing her mo vement down massively. Thankfully the exit was near her, she slowly made her way

to the exit, still holding her V gesture, she was so happy, she conquered a who le floor without Toan. Toan smiled to Xiao and patted her head lovingly; she deserved it after that inc redible Mimic battle, Xiao was still grinning dumbly at her success and purred a ffectionately at Toan s encouragement. There was no Atla on the 11th floor, strang ely enough, but according to maps Toan acquired in the caves he had suggested th ere were no more than four more floors to the Divine Beast Cave before it hit a dead end, what the last floor held was a mystery no man, not even the Macho brot hers ever went lower than the 6th floor, Toan was pretty much going off impulses after the second floor hoping he could fend things off, his sword the Shamshir was getting stronger and stronger with the attachments he added, plus with all t he fighting he was doing with it. Toan made a quick stop at Gaffer s Buggy; the ne xt few floors were going to be tough, if he was going to face dragons and Opars. He took a stop at his house as well were Renee cheerfully greeted him and Xiao. Hey you two I made some treat! On the plate for Toan was a fluffy doughnut , his favorite treat, he tore in the sweet bread, as for Xiao, she was given a p iece of hard candy which was sure enough shaped like a fish. After the brief mea l Toan and Xiao needed to get back to the cave, there were only a few more floor s and Toan was desperate to get it over with. The 12th and 13th floors were tedious with their larger and stronger beasts, not to mention the Atla was much more scattered about the cave, Xiao was much more welcome in the cave, she felt more comfortable taking on the monsters after she found a new slingshot in a large chest, it was the Bandit Slingshot, it was much stronger and had the special ability to steal items monster s were possibly conce aling. Toan did get the villager Atla he wanted though, good timing too, he was going through the last floors, and it would be bad if he forgot Atla on previous floors. Toan placed every villager; everyone he had known in the village (everybody) was now alive and well back in Norune Village. Toan finally was able to find the ti me to pay Claude a visit, after getting Claude s candy box back from the cave, Cla ude gave Toan his word that he would give him something worthwhile, it made Toan a little nervous, what could Claude possibly offer him, that was worthwhile ? Claude was Toan s next door neighbor since his childhood, but they never r eally were good friends just acquaintances that knew each other, he was a big lo oking guy, he had a care free child like quality to him that the town needed to stifle the hard work ethic that most people in Norune had. Toan walked into Clau de s house, nonchalantly, locks were seldom actually used in Norune. Hey! Toan! What s up? Claude raised his hands and grinned to the awkward boy standing in his doorway, Toan tried looking pleasant to Claude, but it was kind of hard to, with a mousetrap on the floor with a dead mouse Oh yeah that s right. I have to give you something for fixing my house. It s not like Toan demanded present s from the villagers but it was nice to have appreciation. Let s see what I have he re Claude turned his back for one second picking something out of his candy box That something was obviously candy Here, take this I insist! Toan picked up the candy; it was a lollipop with pink and white stripes. This was the worthwhile gift? Oka y, you re all set, see ya. The lovable oaf pushed Toan out as if giving Toan the ca ndy was a mistake or something. Toan could just easily take a bite of the candy and enjoy, but Toan felt an urge to safe it, perhaps it could be worthwhile Toan had all the necessary Atla to complete the village now, but there w as still one more floor to the cave, what could the 15th floor possibly have, To an swore everything was here, nothing he remembered was missing Now for Alnet and Carl, bickering brother and sister, they were both fri ends to Toan, Pike was their uncle, making Paige their cousin. Alnet and Carl s pa rents were long gone; no body really knew where they went, so Alnet was forced t o raise Carl as if she was her son, more than a brother. Alnet really didn t have

a childhood; she was forced into the life of being a parent before she even turn ed 15. But for some reason, Alnet welcomed it, she never really let anyone pity or help her, she always took charge, she could probably be a better Village chie f than the Village chief. Carl on the other hand, was kind of a whiner, Toan had to admit, even though they were friends, Carl was a brat, then again having you r sister control your life may do that Ah Toan, there you are! Alnet said to Toan, who sheepishly entered the hou se. Alnet looked as pretty as ever, only second to Paige. I ll keep my promise, ju st a moment. She turn away to search a basket. It was a fishing rod Here, a fishin g rod as promised. I got it from Uncle Pike, but I don t really use it Toan knew Pik e was an avid fisher; he was the typical man of Norune, hunter, fisher, worker, and father. Don t tell Uncle Pike okay? The door creaked open and came in Carl, who let out an exaggerated sigh. Aw, sis that s not fair! Toan shoulders went up, it just got awkward in here Did n t I tell you I ve always wanted that fishing rod? What are you talking about? You almost drowned using that thing once, rem ember? Paige raised her eye brow, reminding him of an embarrassing event in Norun e history that was talk of the town for a few weeks. It stoo dangerous, for you to fish. Toan didn t know if she was concerned for her brother s safety, or if she was j ust torturing him. What the ? That not fair Carl looked to the ground in disappointment, Toan fe lt so sorry he was about to give Carl the fishing rod, but then again this was r egular Carl behavior The old hag, Norune Village s very own fortune teller, Toan never really had the r espect to learn Hag s real name, she was kind of crazy, Renee often made Toan visi t the hag so she felt somewhat important, or that s what Toan concluded, who actua lly believed in fortune tellers anyway? Toan remembered the inside of her house being rather dilapidated and creepy looking, and sure enough upon entering the h ouse today, it was the same, skulls on the tables, crystal ball on anther table, lone bed, torn walls, lit candles even in sun light and the hag herself, she wa s a hunched over, she had large hoop earrings, a long nose, but she had the same look as every other villager in town with traditional garb. She leered intense ly at the crystal ball as Toan walked in the house. Hey, good to see you again. She uncharacteristically spoke chipper So everyth ing is back as it was She said oddly bitter, wasn t this a good thing? I not sure how to thank you Toan stared blankly at the old woman as she waked up to him well I de cided I ll help you on your quest. Toan was dreading having an old woman follow him through out caves, he already had a cat humanoid, and an old woman would just m ake matters worse. But she turned around to her closet I know, you can use my clo set for storage for items, you don t need. Toan breathed a sigh of relief. But then things got weird again I hear you think you have completed Norune Hear we go Dran needs your help, Toan. What the hell was she talking about? Did she actually believe t hat old fairy tale? He hasn t been acting the same I fear he is in trouble, Toan won t you help him? Toan looked at her for a moment, Toan thought to himself Suppose Dran did exist, what could he possibly do for him? Toan heard the legends as a child,an explorer was in the woods and found the Divine Beast Cave, where he was almost k illed by beasts, Dran descended into the cave and saved the explorer, and put hi m back in the woods, where Norune was built in Dran s honor. It was a stupid nonse nsical story meant to teach bravery. In order to access Dran s lair, you will need the key, I think it s in Dran s windmill. Toan just pretended to listen and nodded an d ran out of the hag s house, in front of her house was Dran s Windmill. If Toan was going to save the world, he couldn t start chasing fairy tales, Toan was about to grab Xiao and just run out the exit to the village, figuring that would be the best thing to do, considering this Dark Genie could have already found out about him. But before he could leave his beloved town he needed to complete Dran s wi ndmill, Toan still needed to place Dran s alleged bones to the windmill which were used as blades to the windmill, but Toan cited, if they had been Dran s bones the n Dran must be dead, thus the 15th floor held nothing. Toan placed the blades on

the windmill, and upon completion the windmill sparkled to him. Out of sheer fa ith on Hag s word Toan had to check the windmill for the key. Toan felt like he wa s defying logic attempting to find a key that wasn t there. There were people in t he world that needed help and he was searching for Dran, a mythical non-existent dead flying dog/bear hybrid with horns. Toan climbed the long stairs to Dran s wi ndmill, eventually he got to the top and found a chest Toan s brain was going to nee d a massage after this because he found a key Dran s Key, it was somewhat heavy and had horns on each side. Toan walked out of the unnecessarily large windmill and rubbed his templ e in what felt like confusion and disbelief, but if seeing was believing than what the hell was going on? The atmosphere on the 15th floor was different, there were no torches leading th e way in the cave, only a long straight trail. Toan was shaking like crazy, coul d it actually be true? Toan followed the path, when finally there was a large do or, larger than the entrance to the cave itself. On the door was a picture carve d in the stone. It looked like a dog/bear with horns Oh dear God Toan thought to him self, this had to have been an elaborate hoax made by a crazy shaman explorer hu ndreds of years ago. Toan pulled out the horned key and inserted it into an inde nt in the rock door. The door slowly went up, Toan s hair was on end as he entered the new room to the 15th floor, crystals were spread about the walls of the cav e, and they gave the cave some light, so Toan could actually see. Toan looked high and low and finally noticed two torches lit near the ce iling, with an opening, there stood it, Dran, king of the Divine Beast Cave, eye s blood red it roared as it saw Toan. Toan stood back still in shock at what he was seeing, so the legends were true, but according to legends, Dran was suppose d to be friendly right? It flew high and circled Toan as if he was dead meat ready to be decomposed. Toan s mouth was slightly agape, he was finally encountering hi m, Dran and all he could do was stand there. Astoundingly Dran fired a fireball i n Toan s direction, what was going on? Toan jumped backwards landing on his behind , but at the same time as Toan was in pain he was ready to fight Dran, this batt le was going to end in his favor, he knew he could win, after all Dran was an im aginary creature, made up by the village chief to teach his crazy agenda. Toan l ooked up at the beast and glared, he readied his sword; suddenly the Fairy King appeared by him. Be careful Toan, Dran is being manipulated, there is no choice, you have to fight him. Use your power to break the spell! Toan had no time to be angry at the Fairy King; he just nodded to the Fairy King and figured he must be right It was time to fight! Toan screamed and sprinted to Dran who had chose t o land on the ground and charge him. Toan held out his sword hoping it would sta b him in the head, but Dran avoided him and swiped his claws at Toan. It sent hi m flying a few feet. Dran went back in the air It was time for Xiao s slingshot. Xiao looked up at the Divine Beast himself, unsure how to deal with it, she just started firing blindly at Dran hoping they would hurt. It roared as one of the shots got in his eyes. It was forced to go back down to the floor. Toan came back out of the Atlamillia and once again charged at Dran s side and stabbed the beast. It fired a blast near Toan causing the ground to break b elow him. Dran rose off the ground and Toan tripped off the cracks in the floor; he hurriedly got back on his feet and ran to safer ground. Dran reclined, almos t as if he didn t care about the fight, it groomed himself. Toan took advantage of the moment. He ran to Dran s back jumped in the air and plunged his sword into Dr an s back. An infuriated roar escaped Dran. It crumbled to the floor and his eyes went a lighter hue of pink. He s done! Toan thought, Toan lunged his fists in the air, he conquered the cave, he found Dran, he defeated Dran, he was a hero! To N orune at the very least Mmmmmmmmmm What has happened to me? Toan looked behind him Did Dran just talk like a human? Toan could buy Xiao talking, she was somewhat human, but this was Dran, hundred year old dog. Who are you? Toan wanted to ask Dran a couple of quest

ions, like how could he exist? And were the myths he heard about him true? But o nce again he was interrupted; Dran figured everything out himself in 3 seconds. What!? I was being manipulated?! I, Dran God of the beasts? How humiliating Dran se emed human to Toan, he felt humiliated, a human emotion What the hell was he? Dran just kept bobbing his head back and forth breathing heavily not to mention blee ding rivers of blood. Dran s breath smelled horrible, but that was predictable Hey kid, sorry about that... What was he saying sorry for? Toan felt he should apo logize for hurting him much more than Dran to him and what was he calling him a kid for?! Toan was 15! Not to mention he saved everyone s ass, no help to any of t he adults of Norune So, that s what s been happening on earth? Dran picked himself off the floor and stret ched out, Toan marveled at this beast still, what were the guys back home going to think of this? The Dark Genie, that s what the Fairy King called it? Dran was fig uring everything out, he had been awake for a few minutes and already he knew mo re than Toan. If that s the case, than we are in trouble, I ve heard that name before T oan was glued to Dran s talking; this was a lot better than getting a lecture from the Fairy King. Long ago in East Terra, a monster named the Black Demon , he caused massacre , after massacre of innocent people and almost brought the world to an end. Neithe r the most gallant of knights nor the most powerful sorcerers could stand before the horror of the creature, mush less harm it. His power seemed as vast as the limitless powers of genies, thus people started calling it the Dark Genie . It wipe d out nearly all the kingdoms of the world, only few survived. Then a tribe call ed the Moon People created an enormous urn that could seal tremendous magic power, and trapped the Dark Genie inside. The world was rebuilt and the peace was res tored. The world was saved by the Moon People and their mastery in the magical a rts. That s all I know, but if you re going to defeat the Dark Genie, you ll need th e Moon People on your side. Toan hunched over, this was all getting way too much for a boy his age, why was he chosen for such a task, chances are the Moon Peopl e s tribe was long dead, considering the last time the Dark Genie apparently attac ked was over 300 years ago I hear they live quietly deep in the woods, in a place located beyond Matataki Village. It s just south of Norune Village, you should go there first. But who was Toan to doubt the wisdom of a hundred year old flying do g? Toan agreed, if Matataki Village was just south of Norune, chances were that their village was stored in Atla as well, and maybe the Moon People were still a live? Toan couldn t say for sure, perhaps they were in the Atla as well? That s strange Toan looked at Dran once again, who apparently had more to say The Fairy King never liked humans That s good Toan thought, because he really hated fairies. He goes and gives the stone to a kid like you Toan let that outburst slide ; he didn t want to make Dran angry now He must have a plan of some sort. But hey, I can use some fresh air for a change, get on my back, I ll give you a lift outsid e. WHAT?! Toan screamed in his head, he was going to give him a ride? To Norune? And Toan never noticed Dran flying around Norune before? Toan figured it was tim e to stop being surprised he finally realized, this world, Earth was much more m agical than he ever thought.

Dran landed right near the entrance to the Divine Beast Cave, it seemed everyone in town were still in bed, how could they miss such a spectacle? To miss meetin g Dran? Toan jumped off Dran s back onto the grass of Norune. Hey I appreciate your hard work, kid. Now Toan was getting pretty pissed at Dran,

his voice when he used the word kid it made him really angry. I don t know how powerf ul this Dark Genie is, but it was powerful enough to control me Toan was about to make a wise crack, saying he must ve been more powerful than Dran, because he (a k id ) defeated him in battle. But now was not the time to anger this sarcastic beas t. First things first, go to Matataki Village and meet up with Great Treant. Follow the river and you ll find it. Great Treant? What kind of arrogant bastard would cal l themselves Great Treant ? He may look a bit weird, but he is sure to help you out on your quest. So long! Off went Dran, flapping his wings in the sky, going back towards his lair, so many questions to ask, and nobody was patient enough to an swer It was time to officially start this adventure, in a whole new place, but Toan c ouldn t just leave without saying his goodbyes to his mother, Renee had just gotte n out of bed ready to eat her breakfast when Toan opened the floor awkwardly. Ah, Toan, you re just in time for breakfast. Her motherly attitude was going to hind er Toan s goodbye, Toan looked straight at his mother and made a small frown, Rene e stood her ground; she knew what was going on Toan was going to leave the village on an adventure, to save the rest of the world. This wasn t much of a surprise to her, Toan s father, Aga had done the same thing, but she had to hand it to Toan, Aga didn t say goodbye. Going already? she said with a grimace, Toan merely nodded. She put a fake smile on Good luck, Toan, mommy s rooting for you! it helped Toan in a way, but for the first time since age 5 he really wanted to cry. He said the r est of his goodbyes, to the Macho brothers, the hag, Claude, the odd gaffer, Lau ra and Gina, Alnet, Carl, Pike, but Toan couldn t bear to say good bye to Paige, i t would hurt him more than saying good bye to his mother. Paige lied in her bed, it was the early morning and she was still fast asleep, u sually she would be up and ready to go mainly because of her father s work ethic m ade her do so, but also because she desperately wanted to catch Toan before he r an off to the Divine Beast Cave, oh how she envied that cave, Toan spent more ti me in that cave than he did with her anymore Ironically enough Paige was still a sleep for the same reason she wanted to be awake, she was dreaming about Toan Paige was ecstatically dancing in her own room, she really didn t know why she was dancing, but she also had the most beautiful Norune styled dress she had ever s een, it spiraled with her as she spun about her cramped room, for some reason sh e was really happy, she didn t know why she was happy suddenly Toan walked into he r room sheepishly as ever, Paige noticed Toan out of the corner of her eye as sh e was spinning around, she screamed in delight at Toan s arrival before Paige coul d say a comprehensible word Toan s face went as if he saw a ghost, and jumped righ t out the window. Paige was confused; she screamed Toan s name to get him to come back He never did. Paige awoke abruptly, not sure what to think at first, she never had such weird dreams, Paige often tried putting meaning in her dreams, and this one finally ma de perfect sense to her. That dream it couldn t mean... she talked out loud to herself, not caring if anyone heard her talking to herself. Out of pure gamble she ran out of her house urgent ly looking for Toan, It s all because of that blue stone on his hand. She murmured as she ran and held back tears. He couldn t have gone without letting me know? Right? Toan was at the far edge of town near the woods of Norune, he started to tear up , why me? He thought to himself curling in a ball and resting on a tree. Out of all the people in the world? Toan s mind was going back and forth, he couldn t stop thinking critically about the matter, this was truly everybody s fault but his, an d he was caught in the middle of the action and for what? To save the world from an invincible Dark Genie. Toan! a girl voice shouted near him, Toan manned up and rubbed his face with his p oncho to hide the tears, Toan looked to his left, and there appeared Paige. Toan? Toan couldn t respond, he was about to leave town without saying his goodbyes to P aige? It hurt him dearly to see her like this. Toan got up and dusted off his kn ees looking lovingly and hurt in Paige s large brown eyes. I heard, you were leaving. Toan bit his lip, this was the hardest thing he had eve

r had to do and he just fought endless hordes of beasts, not to mention having a close call fighting Dran, he didn t want this conversation with Paige. So why didn t you tell me, Toan? she asked innocently putting her arms around her ba ck, swaying her body back and forth. Its not that Toan didn t want her to know He just didn t want to hurt her. Well that doesn t really matter, but you ll come back for me right, Toan? Toan couldn t answer truthfully to that question, for all he knew, he could die first thing stepping into Matataki Village, what would happen then ? Why won t you talk to me?! Paige screamed at Toan flailing her arms in the air, Toan didn t want to see his friend upset anymore, he did the craziest most impulsive t hing he had ever done during this long adventure, he pressed his lips against he rs, Paige was caught off guard still flailing her arms in the air, she blushed m adly but didn t resist one bit. The kiss made everything disappear, no more fighti ng, no more genie, no more Atla, no more problems. Toan wanted to stay in this f antasy fairy tale land forever. But that wasn t an option. Toan released himself f rom Paige. Come back for me, Toan. She said firmly, almost as if it was a demand. Toan smiled and went to Paige s ear saying something the world would never hear. Paige was giddy with excitement, Toan never spoke, but when he did, it was littl e, but was profound in anyway. But at the same time Paige was sad that Toan had to leave her, Toan waved to her,ready to go to Matataki Village. Paige waved bac k, Toan wasn t going to see her for awhile, and the world had to be saved, with li ttle time to waste Toan sprinted away into the woods of Norune Village to Matata ki Village, he held back his tears for a long time he needed to find somewhere t o let it all out. Paige just stared at Toan running away, watching him leave for a new village wit h new dangers as well. All she could do was pray, pray that Toan would return to her someday Toan was able to let it out, it made him feel somewhat better, but Xiao popping out of the Atlamillia made him feel even better. As long as this cat followed hi m there was no way Toan could remain sad, that innocent smile perked him up righ t there. So we have to go to Matataki village to find the Moon people? Xiao asked as she lo oked at her paw. It sounded even dumber coming from this cat. Moon people? Who c ould come up with that? Toan just nodded. I don t wanna go though Xiao looked to the ground as her eyes went wide. All Toan could do was point to the Atlamillia and walk past her, reminding her, they had to save the world. Saving Norune Village was just icing on the cake compared to the rest of the world. Xiao lifted her he ad, this was for the greater good ultimately, and when it was finally done they would all return home and have a good laugh about it hopefully. It had been only an hour of walking in the woods and already Toan was hungry and scared that he wasn t going the right way. He stopped walking and hugged his body collapsing to the ground. What are you doing, master? Xiao chirped walking past Toan almost as if she knew w here to go. Toan just had a blank face on, clutching himself. Come on, master! We have to save the world don t we? Toan looked up at his pet cat humanoid partner. S he was right Toan stood up and nodded. I ll lead the way this time, master! Xiao start ed running and Toan sighed, this was no time to run, not after that grueling fig ht with Dran, Or after the emotional trauma of leaving home. But there was a sen se of urgency, Toan remembered when the Dark Genie attacked Norune Village, he h ad never experienced such terror, what s stopping him from doing it again? That s al l Toan needed to start running after Xiao towards Matataki Village, the village that had a forest where the Moon People lived, they would put a stop to this sur ely! After the most grueling week of traveling ever Toan and Xiao finally found a gat e, and conveniently there read a sign above the gate. Matataki Village The Hunter s Lair Toan slowed down his pace as he entered what was known as Matataki Village . The su

rroundings were much more different compared to that of Norune Village. Norune V illage had the look of an agriculture zone, but Matataki Village looked like a p lace that hadn t been inhabited by humans for a long time or at least by human s muc h friendlier to the environment. It had a forest feel to the land than to his na tive one. But like his village had been, it was completely empty, with the excep tion of some bodies of water. There was a bit of river at the edge of village, t hat s where the so called Great Treant lived Xiao followed behind Toan and exclaimed Wow! This place is huge! Do you think anyone survived? Toan thought for a minute, perhaps there was someone left Xiao quickly yelled at Toan again Master, look over there! Toan looked over to a giant crevice in the middle of the village, a man stood there, a rather large looking person, he looked odd, with what looked like a bear on his head, also he had a large hammer over his shoulder, his cape blew in the wind as he ran off realizing they were looking at him. Toan and Xiao ran towards the path that the man ran off towards. The path led to a small patch of property, trees surrounded an even larger tree. Toan looked straight forward and noticed a stump with an axe but failed to noti ce what Xiao did. Look master above! Xiao pointed at the top of the tree. It was a tree house! Toan had his mouth open at the surprising structure; he had never s een such a building in all of his young life. Do think anyone lives there, master ? Toan wanted to know the answer, maybe there was a survivor, and finally things were looking up! Toan thought to himself. Toan approached the odd looking house slowly when suddenly a shadow appeared to be over him. Toan, watch out! Toan looke d up calmly and screamed, he attempted to back away, he somehow succeeded, he fe ll on his back though There stood the same man that they had just saw, upon closer inspection, he didn t look too intimidating, even though he was pretty big. He fi nally spoke. Huh you the ? Aha! You Toan struggled not to laugh at his incredibly childish voice, but he could notice Xiao snickering to herself. The kid sounded like he knew hi m, perhaps news of his heroic feats in Norune got to other villages? Not too lik ely You must be with that monster that ruined the village! I know I m right! what was this guy saying?! Toan just held up his arms shaking his head unsure how to res pond. You can t lie to me. That face of yours, it s a villain s face! if Toan s face was a villain face than what the hell kind of face was this guy s? Is this how all the vi llager s of Matataki acted? If so Toan didn t want to save it, this guy was certainl y making Matataki look bad. Get ready, the hurt is comin ! Was that a threat?! Master, watch it! Xiao screamed as the strange man jumped in the air , Toan prepar ed his fists, he didn t have his sword handy Toan lunged foreword, barely escaping t he hammer, the man looked into Toan s eyes and screamed as he spun his hammer 360 degrees, Toan smirked and jumped in the air landing on the hammer s head itself, a s it was hurled in the air, Toan did a back flip in the air as the hammer went b ack up , the man was getting ready to do a home run on Toan, but Toan easily lan ded on his head and pushed him over on the ground. Where d you learn to jump like that, master? Xiao asked excitedly, Toan turned his h ead to Xiao and grinned, he never knew he could do a back flip, but the rustling by the mysterious Matataki villager got back up. He breathed heavily. Say, you re kinda strong but his attitude quickly changed from genuinely surprised to angry again. Hmph! with that the crazy man jumped up back to his tree house with cat like reflexes. Look, I m not out by a long shot! My stomach is killing me, just you wait till I m better! this kid was now making excuses for losing, if Carl and t his guy were in a whining contest, this guy would win. And hey, I m only gonna say this once so you better remember, my name is Goro! He ran inside his little house with his cape swinging back and forth. Toan put a disgusted look on his face w hen he saw him leave, Toan thought to himself, I hope I never have to say that g uy s name What a stupid name! Hey master sorry to disturb you again but look in the grass. Toan looked to the gras s where earring lye. It had a horn on it and Toan assumed it belonged to Goro Well he isn t getting this back! Whatever it was Toan and Xiao ditched Goro s place and decided it was time to find the Great Treant .

Dran said Great Treant was at the end of the river. There wasn t really much of a river though, there was a waterfall with an opening for a river, but it abruptl y stopped. On the other side of the village was another opening for the river. T his must ve been the way to Great Treant, a cave led the rest of the river, Toan a nd Xiao followed through the cave. Whoa, look at this place Neither Xiao nor Toan had ever seen so many trees in one p lace dead trees that it. Where was Great Treant? All Toan could see were dead tre oh T oan realized that the largest dead tree in front of him was Great Treant the Grea t Treant had was resembled a face and eyes . Xiao yelped trying to wake up the g iant tree. HEY GREAT TREANT WAKE UP! The tree didn t budge. Treant, in its current state is helpless without water. Toan knew that voice The Fai ry King Treant is a tree fairy. WHAT?! That controls the water element. DOUBLE WHAT? ! A tree controlled the water? Of all the lousy illogical happenings today, this was the worst. Without water, it seems like speaking is difficult for it. Toan y ou must connect the river that was cut off here at Matataki Village to revive Tr eant. Treant will surely aid you in your quest. Fairy King was stating the obviou s, he heard this all from Dran The Atla is probably scattered in the Wise Owl For est, you may enter it from the gate in Matataki Village. Listen Toan; make the r iver your first priority. Toan nodded diligently so the Fairy King could just go away, God did he hate that stupid fairy. Toan could notice little water below in the river, this would be pretty easy if he could just steal the river Atla from Norune But apparently that wasn t an option Xiao skipped out of the cave. Let get going, master, this river isn t going to fix itself! Toan looked at Xiao who was already running towards the gate to the Wise Owl Forest Toan ran with her, th is adventure was just getting started. Toan took his first steps into the hostile environment known as the Wise Owl Fore st an area said to harbor even stronger monsters than the Divine Beast Cave, Toan was cautious he looked side to side, up and down, making sure nothing could sur prise him as he got a bearing on the area. Why couldn t the Atla pick a more peace ful place to lie? Toan thought as he looked beyond the trees in front of him to see a piece of Atla. Toan while exploring the unexplored found these little trol ls, all had different ways of attacking, and different behavior, one used an axe , one threw poison apples, and another used a small dagger. They all shared the same creepy maniacal smile though. There was also a giant bouncing mushroom, and a giant plant, that had teeth in i ts petals. The only really trouble he had was with those damn trolls, but a cert ain kind of troll, it always avoided Toan and threw crap at him, it ran like a c oward it angered Toan the most. But Xiao could make quick work of those beasts, with her new found slingshot. Toan looking for the exit finally found one But it was blocked by this wise lookin g owl Oh that s why It was bigger than Toan himself and had a broad mustache, it was p erched on a branch near the exit covered with leaves and grass growing from two trees on each side, it didn t look to tough to get past Toan took a quick glance at the owl, and looked back to the exit, as Toan was about to cross over the owl ra ised its wing. And where do you think you re going hoot, hoot. Oh dear God! It can talk too? You nee d to give me something before you can cross. Toan instinctively grabbed a bottle of water and offered it to the crazy owl. HOOT! the owl hooted I need something good! Like red berries, or chestnuts, maybe shiny stones. Toan l ooked behind him thinking berries would grow naturally on the trees, but alas th ey did not. Toan figured he would have to look for these items in the forest or not make any progress at all. In the meantime Toan found some pieces to the rive r as well as a lone villager with his house, a few dead trolls and mushrooms lat er, Toan had managed to fine a red berry on them, time to bring it to the crazy old owl. The owl hooted in delight and opened the exit for Toan to walk past. Toan wanted to lay the river down already; perhaps he would have enough now? In Toan s Atlamillia, other than the river pieces, he had a blond man named Cacao.

A nervous looking guy about 20 years old probably, Toan needed someone other th an that bastard, Goro in this town, maybe this guy was more respectful, along wi th Cacao s house, Toan placed what he had of the river. Not enough. Couldn t expect the river to be down with just one area of the forest It was time to meet Cacao. Cacao stood there near his house, hunched back with a stringed instrumen t. He looked out of place, he was a bit excitable. Toan poked his back and Cacao jumped like 5 feet in the air. Oh hello uh I m not sure how I got here I haven t seen you around, I m Cacao, the gl eman. You must be Toan, I ve heard of you What? How could a guy alive for 5 minutes heard of him? You re the one rebuilding the world aren t you? Toan simply nodded, how did this guy know all this? Well I thank you, for rebuilding my house, I could th ank you, please come on inside. Cacao s house was much like Goro s house; it was a tree house of some sort w ith stairs leading up to the door, and fire lighting anything near his house. Th is guy was definitely much better than Goro already. Toan followed Cacao inside his house. All that was inside was a bed, and a bucket How strange, could Cacao re ally live like this? Cacao sat on his bed with his stringed instrument. Toan, how would you like me to sing for you? It s all I really have to offer. It was nice of Cacao to at least try and thank him, this guy was a milli on times better than Goro; hell he was better than the Fairy King. Toan nodded e agerly to Cacao s offer. Okay, the song is titled Legendary Hunter Cacao readied his arms on his instr ument and started strumming a tune. Fudoh, mighty Fudoh will find his prey This legendary hunter we all admire N o fierce bear s claw nor White Tiger s fang will ever douse his raging fire. Never m isses his mark, in the deepest dark. Brave legend of the hunt will never tire. How did you like it? It s an original piece. Well if Toan was an honest person , than he would say the lyrics needed work The Legendary Hunter. It s a tribute to F udoh. Cool isn t it? It was okay? The tune was good, all the syllables ruined it th ough But Toan had more curiosity about the meaning of the song, what did it mean? Who could this Fudoh be? Toan had a genuine interest in the history of this este emed hunter. Toan snapped out of his trance and gave Cacao a thumb up. Thank you. This song shows Fudoh s charisma, or shall I say his power or pr ominence. This Fudoh certainly sounded great or according to Cacao at least I thin k it s expressed well in this song. Only Fudoh fans like myself could write it. Was that a hint of vanity in his voice? Cacao smiled and looked beyond his ceiling. It s been 5 years now since Fudoh left. He was awesome. Cacao struggled to find the r ight word while describing his own icon. He was the hero of our village Oh I must b e boring you Toan shook his head back and forth he really did want to hear some hi story on Matataki Village. The more knowledge he had the better he would look in a foreign village. No one could beat Fudoh He was invincible. Back then, the villagers were at tacked by a fearful monster called the White Tiger. Many hunters lost their live s fighting the White Tiger. But Fudoh he took down the White Tiger in a single b low. His power was tremendous. After that, Fudoh became a hero, the entire villa ge respected Fudoh and worshipped him as a guardian God. His tangent had ended finally he looked to Toan and simply said Fudoh was my idol, but I knew I could never be like him I was always so skinny and weak. Bu t Fudoh made even a person like myself believe I could be strong, like magic, I felt like I could do anything Toan s eyes were wide with curiosity; the history of t his place was truly interesting and captivating. But then 5 years ago, Fudoh disa ppeared. There were rumors that he had been killed by a monster called the Kille r Snake. These were really creative names, Toan scoffed. Cacao closed his eyes Tho ugh injured, he still fought the Killer Snake and died bravely Cacao s eyes shot op en and he fiercely shouted to himself as loud as he allowed himself to be But I d on t believe that. Fudoh is too strong! He has to be still alive somewhere! Toan was a little uncomfortable No half-wit Killer Snake could stand a chan ce against our hero! He calmed down and turned to Toan again I m right, right? Toan aw kwardly shrugged his shoulders. Cacao turned back to nothing and closed his eyes again. If you had seen him, you would understand, right away. Cacao quickly chang

ed the subject So I bet my performance made you want to try a musical instrument too. It really wasn t a question because he quickly said Sorry this is my treasure, I can t give you this. Cacao fondly hugged his instrument. But one moment Cacao grabbe d something on his bed, it appeared colorful Here s a flute I made myself, it has a g ood sound to it. That thing attracts snakes, so be careful Where was Toan going to crash tonight, he certainly didn t want to hang wi th that fanatic, Cacao, nor did he want to hang out with that literal bastard, G oro. Xiao suggested sleeping back in Norune, not after that tearful good bye, it would seem anti-climactic Besides he had little time to greet everybody in Norun e and save the world without the dreaded Dark Genie finding out what he was up t o. Going to Norune would be the worst possible idea, it was best to stay at one place at one time. Toan and Xiao ended up sleeping near the water fall, the sound of the wa terfall soothed them both. Xiao curled up near Toan, Toan drifted off in a short but peaceful sleep.

What could the second territory hold for the Atla? Only after the first territor y new beasts started to appear, more notably a beast made out of a barrel as a b ody a pumpkin as a head, and shovels as feet. It held a pitchfork, which you d obv iously think he d use as a weapon, but it didn t, it instead used pumpkins it pulled out its body and threw them at Toan. They exploded and hurt Xiao once, after that Toan fought them himself. Toan paid the lush green forest special attention, trying to find beauty in the horrible, dank, disgusting forest. Although it had its beauty it had mon sters, and the monsters stole from the atmosphere. If only humans had colonized the Wise Owl Forest, perhaps the forest would be able to retain its beauty. Toan was getting really angry at the stupid wise owl that kept on haggling Toan for shiny stones, when it previously took the red berry; it was now disgus ted by the berries. I think I ll take the shiny stone today. The owl said nonchalantly, Toan cal led out Xiao; she could probably talk some sense into the owl. Come on, last time you took the berry! What s the deal? I already said I m sick of red berries. Hoot, hoot! No dice Xiao shrugg ed and Toan took over again, fine I ll get the damn shiny stupid stone Toan thought. B esides there was still Atla to get according to his instincts. But if the rest of the villagers were like Cacao, he wasn t sure if he wanted them all back, a bad t hought, he knew, but saving them would make up for that though

These were crazy looking houses Toan thought as he picked up a house shaped like a mushroom, why was it shaped like a mushroom? That has to be the stupidest desig n for a house ever! Toan was no interior designer but he could point out bad tas te when he saw it, but this was a different culture perhaps there was some meani ng behind it Toan had an odd interest in the culture of Matataki, it was like human i nterest in monkey behavior, that s what it reminded him about, Toan went to the on ly person in Matataki Village at the moment, Cacao. The mushroom house, yeah it s pretty weird, the owners are even weirder tho ugh. That s all Cacao had to say about that, so no it wasn t about culture it was just there to piss Toan off. Back into the Atlamillia Toan picked up the two owners of the said mushr

oom house, Annie and Ro. They were short in stature and looked pretty old, they looked exactly the same yet they were husband and wife. That s the oddity of love Toan guessed... Annie and Ro were very nice people even though they were weird as Cacao put it, they barely had anywhere to sit in their house, and it just had a bunch of boxes in it. They were actually pretty smart they deducted that Toan had been from Norune Village from his clothing alone, strange what a person s clothes coul d tell you. Toan and Xiao slept in doors that night on the bottom floor to the m ushroom house. It was cramped but cozy, Annie and Ro had offered for them to sta y the night after fixing up the house, but apparently they still had stuff miss ing from the house, they proposed a reward if Toan could get it back, Toan didn t know if he could find it in the Atla, most likely it was destroyed, but if the F airy King saved all the damn lamps of Norune Village than he could save some ran dom stuff too so Toan agreed all the same. The river was coming along nicely, but there were still gaps, it was get ting increasingly difficult to maneuver in the Wise Owl Forest, it was a foreign environment and the creatures there were even crazier than the Divine Beast Cav e s beasts. While Toan was in the Atlamillia thinking of ways to construct the vil lage Xiao sat in the lush grass field. She sighed to herself wondering if she would ever get to go back home, as a cat she didn t like change, it was bad enough that she had to fight these horrible mon sters, but it was a totally different thing to be away from home, at least Toan was around Xiao just sat there waiting for her master to return, waiting for her n ext task, and really that s what Xiao was for, she at times felt like she was mere ly being used for her loyalty, such ideas rarely entered her head, but it was ti mes like these where she couldn t escape that question. Would Toan even dignify th e question with a response? Then again Toan would often play with her when they weren t saving the world, such as the first night in Matataki Village. Xiao would soon realize that the quest to save the world was much more important than frivo lous emotions; there was no real time for love or play, strictly for the Earth. Anytime made for selfish desires would be the worst blow to humanity, it could m ean the end of life it self. So Xiao closed the idea on that, she figured if she was going to help To an on the adventure, it would be best to stay quiet on such matters. Toan finally returned to Xiao who was lost in thought, he sat down besid e her signaling her that they should go towards the mushroom house. Xiao gave a blank stare, much like Toan s black stare he often wore, it kind of annoyed him, h e patted the cat on her head to wake it up, and she finally noticed Toan. Oh! Sorry master, I was just thinking Toan motioned his hand towards the mu shroom house again. Oh that s right we can sleep indoors tonight! Toan nodded smilin g; this was going to be a much better rest than last night, sleeping on the gras s with all the bugs. A small patch of assorted cloth lied on the wooden floor, o f the first floor to the house, Toan made himself comfortable and laid there alo ng with Xiao, maybe they could get a few hours of sleep, it wouldn t be too bad Goro sat lurched on his bed; he hadn t gotten over the devastating defeat from that strange green hat kid. He fought so well and Goro gave it all he could T he only explanation for the great strength and small stature could be that he wa s an evil demon! And the dark energy he leeched made him strong, how else could such a small boy defeat him? The great Goro? Some hunter he turned out to be But w hy had the so-called evil demon spare him? Why were buildings and trees returning to Matataki Village? It angered Goro that some unknown kid (probably dangerous) was saving HIS village, for once Goro wished he could be the hero of Matataki Like his father had been before him Always cast into the shadow of his great father it i nfuriated Goro further. But whatever was going on in that stupid village didn t matter to Goro, no t one bit. He hated all of them anyway, they always made sure Goro knew about hi s great father and how he wasn t a thing like him The village could burn the ground the next day for all he cared. To hell with em Goro muttered to himself as he collapsed on his bed. Nothin g really mattered to him anymore. He didn t give two cents about what was becoming

of the world. It was almost blissful about how he didn t care. He drifted off cur sing his fellow villagers, cursing them all to no end. As the two moons started to descend Toan awoke, it was most likely very early in the morning, Toan looked at the purring cat next to him, he put on a so ft smile, this cat really made the quest much easier. He decided to let Xiao sle ep a bit more, he would go out to the Wise Owl Forest alone, most of the time he was the only one fighting anyway, so Toan went on his way. As he was walking to wards the Wise Owl Forest entrance, he passed the gap that Goro s house was, Toan felt bad about taking the horned earrings, besides Toan had no idea what they ev en did But maybe there would be a time to use it? It wouldn t hurt the guy if he kep t them for a few more days. After crossing two more territories in the forest Toan had uncovered sev eral people s houses, one belonged to a guy named Pao, another Bunbuku, Gob, Cousc ous, these people s names were crazier than his own and Xiao s or anybody in Norune for that matter. Toan only managed to get two people on the trip though, Bunbuku , and Kululu, who both lived together as brother and sister. Toan decided to pay them a visit and welcome them back to the village. Toan placed the house in the middle part of the village near the crevice that led to Goro s house. Before Toan could approach the house Xiao came up to him Why d you leave me behind like that?! Toan grinned and chuckled to himself, there was no point in arguing with a cat, their brains were half the size as hum ans, or he assumed anyway. Toan and Xiao went up the stairs on the new house, To an went for the door knob but from the corner of his eye he saw what appeared to be a wolf peering from the corner of the house. Toan pulled out his dagger that he kept with him at all times and pointed towards the wolves head. It disappear ed behind the house. Toan ran for the wolf behind the house only to find a littl e girl with a wolf skin over her head. Whoops Toan thought to himself as he concealed his dagger as not to scare the little girl any further. Xiao broke the silence between Toan and the girl, w ho Toan assumed to be Kululu. Hey there! My name s Xiao, this is Toan, my master, sorry about that What s you r name? She stood there in silence, not moving an inch. Uh is this your house? Xiao q ueried. She just nodded, her silence reminded Toan a lot of himself, he never re ally said anything, and finally Kululu spoke herself. I m afraid of the dark she pointed to the sky, the sun was going down, and th e two moons rose. Toan smiled at the girl, now she reminded him of a younger Pai ge. Paige had always had a fear of the dark as well, that is until Toan gave her some insight that is. With that Kululu attempted to go around Toan and Xiao, bu t behind them they heard a shout Hey! Who goes there?! The shout was from a male, Toan turned around, it wa s Bunbuku dressed as if he were a raccoon What was with this place dressing like a nimals? Kululu ran up to Bunbuku instead and grabbed his leg. Bunbuku looked dow n for a moment and shot straight up again and shouted again. I asked a question! T oan and Xiao looked at one another somewhat confused at this guy s anger Uh I m Xiao and this is my masterAw, shaddup! Bunbuku retorted cutting off Xiao s sentence All I know is that you guys are outsiders! And outsiders are the ones that destroyed this village! a nd the ones that are restoring it Toan rolled his eyes. Bunbuku turned around back in his house with Kululu not far behind. They weren t very nice at all. Xiao simply said waiting for a response from her master, but Toan started to expect this attitude, for if an outsider had com e to Norune, they d probably be ostracized too, Toan briefly remembered when Macho and Komacho were new to Norune, some people like Alnet still resent their prese nce in Norune and that was okay, The Macho brothers did act way differently from regular Norune villagers so it was fair to resent them, had they adapted to Nor une culture and started acting like Norune villagers maybe it would be different . So Toan would have to adapt to Matataki culture if he was going to be accepted , at least learn a thing or two about Matataki Toan was surprised with all the hos pitality that Annie and Ro had given them the previous night. Perhaps they had b een outsiders at one point? They didn t ware animals on their heads, instead it wa

s mushrooms. Maybe they knew life as an outsider and purely wanted to give the h ospitality that they hadn t been given? Eh maybe But this was no time for that, there was still much to do. Toan while fighting off newly found creatures like giant hornets and flying plan ts he pondered the circumstances of the great Fudoh s death, If Toan was going to be accepted in Matataki Fudoh was the key, Cacao had said that Fudoh was killed by a Killer Snake but he went on to say that he believed he was still alive, maybe the very snake that allegedly killed Fudoh was hiding in the shadows of the tre es. The thought scared Toan a little, but maybe Cacao was right about Fudoh bein g alive, maybe Fudoh was lurking in the shadows on the Wise Owl Forest, but if t hat were true, why not go back to Matataki Village? Then there was the whole Moon people thing, Toan had to find the Moon pe ople if he wanted to stand a chance against the Dark Genie, but nothing in the f orest reminded him of the Moon People, no evidence suggesting they lived in the forest. Did Dran send Toan on a wild goose chase? Then there was Treant, and the river thing...Toan almost forgot why he n eeded to revive Treant, all he could remember were Dran and the Fairy King sayin g almost identical things about him helping him with his quest. By doing what? Toan was lost in thought when he was hit directly on the head by somethi ng that dropped from a tree above him, it ironically got him back on track, Toan flipped up and turned around cringing at whatever attacked him, it was a cocoon looking thing that was held by a vine which went up into the tree. Toan leapt o f the forest floor and attempted to stab the cocoon with his shamshir. It went d irectly back up in the tree. Instead the shamshir was planted in the ground, Toa n grunted as he tried pulling the sword out of the ground but sure enough the co coon dropped again Toan fell backwards and heard a loud shatter sound. He brough t his head up to see that the sword under the cocoon was in pieces on the ground . Toan pulled out a fire gem out of his pocket and tossed it at the cocoon, it w as super effective to say the least. Toan was angered that his strongest weapon had been destroyed, the broken sword on the ground was entirely his fault, and h e could have avoided this if he had been thinking straight. He let out an audibl e sigh and pulled out his dagger instead. It ll do for now Toan was in desperate need for a new weapon, the dagger was literally useless in the Wise Owl Forest and there was no end in sight for the enemies around him. T oan noticed that he acquired an owl looking fellow, an owl that greatly resemble d the Wise Owl in the forest, heck it was him! He ran a shop in Matataki Village ; perhaps he held a sword he could use? Toan eagerly placed the Wise Owl shop an ywhere he could reach in a small amount of steps. The Wise Owl Shop was shaped like a tree log, and it had a crude sign, l ike all the other houses in Matataki Village. Toan walked right in the shop, the re was the Wise Owl perched on a stick with a cash register, it was kind off cut e to see an owl like this. The shop looked more like a caf, or a bar than an act ual store Hoot, hoot! the owl chimed You re that new face that s been appearing in the fo rest aren t you? Toan nodded, no denying anything to this guy, this very owl was ha rassing him in the forest for berries and shiny stones. Well the shop is open now , ever since you rebuilt it of course. I appreciate all that you ve done sir. Here it comes the big reward. Alright Hoot, just for you sir, a special discount offer! Look at this. The owl directed his attention to the table to the right of him. It had a brand new sword on it, the hilt was modeled after the Wise Owl, and its b lade was especially sharp, Toan picked it up, finally a new sword to replace the broken shamshir! Toan held in the air with a wide smile. Just a minute, hoot! Toan s grin went to a look of disappointment, the owl g rabbed the sword away and held it himself Don t misunderstand, it s not for free! Sti ll have to charge you! Cheap sonava I ll give you a discount price, 5000 gilda! DAMMIT, Toan let out a childish sigh and looked down to the ground, hoping he could get some pity out of the stupid owl, he was trying to save the world and all this o

wl cared about was profit! Fine 2500 gilda, that s a very special price, it s below c ost, hoot! Not one gilda less. Toan really coveted that sword but surely a new st ore would help him, sword or no sword.

The journey into the deep Wise Owl Forest was getting much more difficult to say the least due to the loss of Toan s built up shamshir. Toan couldn t buy that incre dible Wise Owl Sword, despite that he was able to finally buy some bread as a me al for Xiao and himself. They had only been getting by with the hospitable Annie and Ro, which only fed them strange Matataki food, made from the obscure creatu res on the Wise Owl Forest. Water could only be acquired through the ponds in th e forest, Toan would refill bottles upon bottles of water in these forest spring s and thankfully the Wise Owl shop had nearly all the same prices as the Odd Gaf fer s shop, although it had a somewhat inflated prices. Xiao, herself was having troubles taking down enemies alone without Toan s sword. Those flying plants were especially tough to the slingshot. The thing us ed huge leaves on the top of its head which allowed it to fly by spinning. This would create problems for both Toan and Xiao, the leaves, or wings would make ho rrible cuts if they didn t back out of the way. Xiao made the mistake of slowing d own trying to get an accurate shot. Toan quickly called himself out to save Xiao from the blades. He dived below the plant flying in the air, thinking quickly T oan jumped atop the plant s head, plunging it into the ground, pink goo was all ov er Toan s beloved boots. But what else was he going to use as a weapon? The Mach o Brothers always vouched for Toan to use his fists in battle What would they thin k about using feet? This territory held the right amount of river Atla, with this he d finally be able to bring back Treant, not to mention bring back more villagers, as well as the Village Baron, who Toan was guessing was leader of the village, in a way it reminded him of his village, a single ruler to lead the village to prosperit y That is unless the leader was a bad one, the village chief back in Norune was mo derately fine, the village was healthy, no one was going hungry or dying anytime soon, Western villages were like independent nations. But together the Western villages all shared food, supplies you name it. Toan was never one for politics, but politics of other villages interested Toan, how did were they led? Time to find out

Toan completed the Baron s house, perhaps the Baron himself could give him some mu ch needed insight into Matataki, maybe he would know the location of the moon pe ople, or maybe more about Fudoh? What ever the case, the Baron would probably be helpful. The baron s house was formed around the tree, rather than on top of the tree, it had the same crude sign on top of the door, except on the baron s sign wa s a fierce looking lion. Toan just up and walked in, no one in the village seeme d to take offense to that Ah Its you, Toan right? the baron understood things all to well But this is ho w things were these days, knowing who Toan was, and expecting him to walk in at any moment. Come closer . Toan nodded and went up to the old baron, he was old looki ng and had a large lion s head over him, Toan didn t want to break this guys back by making him get up. A candle lit between Toan and the baron, and up close the b aron was looking less and less intimidating, especially with his arm shaking con stantly. Please take a seat. Toan searched for a chair but he soon realized the ba ron was referring to the stump that was near him. Toan shrugged and sat on the s tump.

You re the one who saved us, yes? Toan smiled warmly, he didn t want to brag, but he didn t want to lie to the old man. Modest are we? You maybe an outsider, but you Toan will be honored as a Matataki citizen. That was nice of him, but Toan w anted information, not honor. I could give you some information I ll tell you anythin g. Toan s mouth went agape, when Xiao popped out of no where exclaiming. Tell us about yourself Mr. Baron! Me? taken aback, he wasn t expecting any interest in himself really, but if they insisted. I was one helluva guy. Oh boy here we go; Toan rolled his eyes whil e Xiao was fixated on the ancient looking baron. For one thing, I won the post as village chief on my own. Probably not even Fudoh would ve been a match for me back then. There was that name again, Fudoh, if Cacao had heard the baron say that he would surly go mad. Tell us some village history! Xiao exclaimed again This is called Matataki Village. How it came to be called that lets see Can t re member how it got its name Matataki was doomed if it actually let this guy make de cisions. Tell us more about Fudoh. Xiao was starting to get more serious with her q uestions, for the sake of the quest. Fudoh the baron looked up at his ceiling for a moment, reminiscing He was th e strongest hunter. Invincible was the word for him. No one could beat him, unti l 5 years ago that is. Cacao had given him that story but something the baron wa s about to say would blow his mind He just disappeared, leaving his only son all a lone What?! Toan was now convinced, Fudoh was dead, if he was still alive, he woul d come back to see his son Who ever that was, but who? No one in the village came close to what Fudoh sounded like. Fudoh had a son? Xiao was just as surprised as Toan, but Toan couldn t find his words, his mouth was still wide open. He has a gentle nature. Hmm A bit chubby. No The instincts of a hunter. Nah c be Toan pondered in his head. He is Fudoh s on after all. He could become a great hunter. So the son was still around? Who was it? That s all he needed to know, perh aps he could help them in the forest? But there is no hope with him being the way he is now. The day Fudoh disappeared his heart became covered in thick ice. How can we melt the ice in his heart? The baron paused and grimaced to look at the g round for a moment I m quite eloquent aren t I? Toan was about to smack this guy upsid e the head. Toan and Xiao walked out with a parting gift, a bottle of water Speaking o f water, it was time to talk to Treant, the river was all done finally, Treant w ould have to help him with the quest some how. The baron wasn t as helpful as he h ad hoped he d be Toan walked into the cave and immediately noticed the tree with strange ye ll eyes and moved back and forth. It was alive, alright, no doubt. Toan s mouth d ropped once more when the thing tried speaking It was all gibberish! Master, what about the earrings! Toan remembered picking up earrings that Goro had dropped after their fight, but how would those help? Toan clipped them on to get an earful of actual language coming from the moving tree. So tell me now little one. Is it you who saved me? Toan stood there for a few moments unsure how to respond to a talking tree, he had talking to talking c ats, but trees were something else. Toan only nodded, there was no point in bein g surprised at this world s magical happenings anymore, it was all normal. Good he avens! So it was you! Thank you so much, thank you, thank you! The tree, Treant w as going nuts, its eyes went up and down in excitement, it kind of scared Toan. A hem, let me reward you with something little one. Toan waited for a second, when Treant started to ready it self for a sneeze It was going to sneeze! Ah ah...ah chooo! w ater, or what Toan hoped was water got over him, Toan turned around and saw the most beautiful looking sword he had ever seen. There you go, please accept it. The sword was red, with a fine blade; its hilt was green and had two blue jewels in the hilt. A fine weapon indeed! This is what all hunters long for. It s a rare legendary item, the Serpent Sword. Toan approached the weapon and pulled out of the grass, Toan held it up tr iumphantly, no more using that silly dagger anymore!

This sword never breaks. Awesome! Not until it completes its mission that i s. Rats! Take care of it, little one. Toan could forgive Treant for calling him lit tle one because he had a new sword! But there was still much to be asked for this tree So I take it you need some information from me? Well sure thing, I can read you like a book! Toan darted his eyes back and forth unsure how to talk after tha t statement, this was staring to freak him out. You need to know how to get to th e moon people right? How could he have known? Brownboo village that s what it s called , it s at the far end of the woods. So the moon people still existed even after all these years? How could Treant know? He can t even move! But you re definitely going to need help getting there Toan had to admit the forest as getting tough with him and Xiao alone. You re going to want that kid up i n the tree. No not him That s Goro. Dammit! No one likes him, got a rotten personality. Didn t need to be the Great Treant to see that. He s been like that ever since his d ad Fudoh passed away. WHAT?! NO WAY, NO WAAAY! He didn t use to be like that. He was a kind-hearted kid. Goro? Kind? Almost as unb elievable as Fudoh being his father, Goro did nothing worth what his father did. Maybe if he finds out the truth He ll become that good kid I use to know. The truth? E ven I am not sure what that truth may be, the villagers won t even tell you. It s a tightly kept secret. Huh? Toan just rubbed his head in confusion, what did it all mean? What was the truth? What was the sword s mission? Toan had to figure this o ut for himself No not just himself the bumbling kid in the tree as well. He deserved to know Xiao had suggested they go to Goro, to help them on their quest. Goro w ouldn t join them unless they did something worthwhile but it was worth a shot It c ould work. They had to find the killer snake maybe that had to do with the secre t? The snake was the last thing Fudoh saw before he disappeared so chances were t hat the killer snake held all the secrets. Maybe that s why the sword was called t he Serpent Sword maybe its mission was to kill the snake? Toan and Xiao went back to Goro s house; they hadn t visited since their arrival, he could be in a better mo od now. Conveniently enough Goro was sitting on his stump looking past the groun d, but he soon realized he was being watched. Hey wadda you want?! Goro shot them a glare We need you to help us kill the killer snake! Xiao blurted out Goro s eyes got somewhat large, he calmed down a little, how do they know? Goro thought to himself. Killer snake That thing really exists? If something like T reant, Dark genie or Dran existed then a killer snake was welcomed, in fact kill er snake was rather tame for what Toan had seen these past few days. Did it reall y get my pa? he whispered to himself looking back down to the ground. But in fear of being branded a cry baby he got back up and shrugged it off. Hmph never mind! Y ou wouldn t know anyway! Goro couldn t stand that these outsiders were secretly learn ing about him behind his back, it was bad enough the whole village hated him, la st thing he wanted were stalkers, Goro shooed them out and Toan and Xiao were fa ced with the problem of Where do you think the snake is, master? Xiao queried. It was a good quest ion, where would it be? If it was in the forest, Toan would bet it being very hi dden inside the forest, maybe in deeper territory. 5 years ago it fought Fudoh a nd apparently won, it was time to find out the power of this killer snake, it wa s time to put Fudoh to rest, his soul deserved it. Toan knew what he had to do; it was the snake he had to kill, with his new sword he had gotten from that old talking tree, perfect timing too, ever since that s hamshir incident The Serpent Sword was said to be indestructible At least until its objective was complete. This of course was killing the snake. Toan remembered th e legends of the killer Snake, it didn t really scare him, it encouraged him, alth ough he wasn t a native to Matataki Village, he wanted to restore honor in Fudoh s n ame, whether he was killed by the snake or not was the big question. Toan made h is way deeper and deeper in the territory when two wolves jumped out of the tree s, Toan easily fought them off with the serpent sword, they were small time, and he wanted the snake. To the left of the wolves corpses was a dark cave, it was out of the ordinary for the forest, so Toan deduced the snake must be in there.

Toan snapped back for a moment, the flute that Cacao gave to him...Toan pulled out the odd orange flute, it was claimed by Cacao that the flute attracte d snakes, so Toan being confident that he could beat the legendary killer snake. He played the flute, calling the killer snake. Toan stood there for a few momen ts waiting, Toan started walking into the cave when the Snake decided to just lu nge out at him, Toan was stunned, the snake was silver with a bluish tint, with scars on its eyes, could they have been scars that Fudoh made? The eyes were hyp notic almost, the snake just barely missed Toan, Toan jumped to get behind the s nake, and it quickly turned its head around eyes meeting Toan s. It hissed in ange r. Toan smiled it wasn t every day that he got an actual challenge. The snake followed Toan with its eyes waiting and hissing, it lunged for Toan, Toan expecting it jumped as high as he cloud to look at the top of the sn ake s head, he glared at the beast and landed on it head, Toan stabbed the Serpent Sword in the snake s scaly body, the snake hissed fiercely, Toan pulled a back fl ip pulling the sword out, once again their eyes met. The snake lunged again, but slower this time, obviously very affected by the Serpent Sword s stab. Toan easil y dodged, he readied his weapon for another blow. The snake cried an awful cry a nd lunged once more at Toan, Toan tilted his sword and with that the snake jumpe d right into the blade, cutting it in half. It made a final hiss and fell from t he air. The snake s body flashed away and sparkles appeared where the head had res ted, the famous Killer Snake that had bested Fudoh, was finally dead. Fudoh coul d finally be dead in peace, although Toan felt somewhat guilty; he wasn t even a v illager to Matataki and had the audacity to take down the feared killer snake? I t bothered him a little but before Toan could think any further on the matter he noticed the sparkle in the grass, it was a pendent, with what looked like a sma ll skull attached. Whatever it was, it was time to go back to Goro, to tell him the good news, or what he hoped would be good news to Goro. You don t give up do ya? Goro simply said when Toan and Xiao approached him for the umpteenth time. Master, the pendent, it must belong to Fudoh. Xiao whispered to Toan, of a ll the crazy ideas! But it was worth a shot. Toan pulled out the bone pendent an d held it in his hands to Goro, who had previously had a very sour face. Goro st ood in stunned silence and grabbed the pendent from Toan. How did Xiao know? Toa n briefly thought. Wait this is my Pa s! Where did you get it? before Toan could answer, the bo ne pendent formed in to a sphere of light and went to the sky Nothing out of the o rdinary here. WHAT?! Goro screamed to the sky with a dazed look. Toan stood there looking at Goro who was now looking straight at him with the same stunned look. Pure darkness everywhere, there stood Goro and Fudoh. P Pa! Goro cried, it was Fudoh alright with the same white tiger over his he ad fur arms over his real arms and the body of a hunter, he looked the same as e ver, the cold stare was especially note worthy about Fudoh s presence Goro, how have you been? Fudoh said as if he had been gone for a month. Dad where the hell have you been? Goro calmed slightly at his father s nonch alant attitude. I thought you were dead! I m sorry, Goro Fudoh remained cold not showing a hint of emotion in the sli ghtest way. Forgive me for having suddenly left you all alone. Although Fudoh didn t show it, he knew how Goro felt; he could feel the pain Goro felt over the years living practically as an outsider to his own village. Fudoh shut his eyes Goro, I am no longer of this world. I am a spirit now. It pained him to say it. No you re lying! Goro whined and clenched his fists almost angry at his fath er. It s the truth. Before I died, I put a message for you into a pendent. The father you see is that message. But how could that possibly work? Listen carefully, Goro. The evil force that attacked this village is now devouring the entire wor ld. Goro knew about this, he really couldn t care less, what did this village mean to him anyway? And if this message had been sealed before his father died how co uld he possibly know about the evil destroying the world? It all made no sense, it angered Goro. With your allies you must stop it. Allies? What allies? He couldn t

possibly mean that green hat kid and the cat girl could he? Why would he want t o save the world? With them of all people? Why should he? If you really are my so n, then show me! Honor me and all the hunters through your courage in battle! thi s was getting on Goro s nerves. No No way! Goro yelled at his father, now very angry Everybody in the village left you to die. I ain t gonna help those cowards. You misunderstand them. I was not betrayed by my fellow villagers. As you know I was said to be the best hunter in the village. I even killed the brutal White Tiger in one blow. Now he was just bragging! But my body was being gradually weakened by an illness. And I realized I had very little time for myself. Goro k new what his father was going to say at this point, this was the secret I was a pr ideful hunter. My pride would not allow me to die of an illness. No I wanted to die in battle as a hunter should. One day, I went into the woods where the fearful killer snake dwelt, taki ng with me several villagers. The powerful killer snake would be a perfect oppon ent to end my career as a hunter. But deep inside I wanted to die in this battle . That very hunt was my plan to end my life with pride. I challenged the killer snake to a reckless fight. I of course fought my best. But I was no match for th e snake with my body weakened by the illness. In the end the killer snake got me and started to squeeze me slowly. And soon I saw my fading flame of life start to flicker away. It was what I had wished for. I chose to die with bravery. The villagers that were with me left quietly. I still remember the sadness in their eyes. They probably all knew. They stayed to see it through to the end. They still, to this day speak of me as the strongest hunter that ever was . Goro grimaced, he still wasn t satisfied with his father s story, what about him? Yo u call them cowards, Goro. But they kept the truth hidden of respect for me. But, but Goro struggled to get his words out, he couldn t talk right But why?! Why did you do that?! Goro One day you ll understand. I am a hunter. I wanted to die a hunter not an invalid. And you, you re also a hunter, Goro. Go fight, Goro. Join the others and fight evil. Be a greater man than me. Fudoh approached his angered looking son an d attempted to hold his shoulder to comfort him; Goro turned around, and sneered . How could he just leave him and die like that? Not even telling him? Why? Goro couldn t respect his father, not after he left him, without even a goodbye. Goro, I am always with you with that Fudoh left into the darkness. Goro cou ldn t hold it in anymore, he started to tremble, flooded in emotion. I hate you he mumbled as his eyes welled up with tears, the tears were star ting to fall. He couldn t take it anymore. Goro turned right back around I hate you pa!! he screamed, expecting to find his father behind him. But there stood a boy Toan stared at Goro, who had just been talking to himself a few moments ago. What are you looking at? Goro bellowed confused about his whereabouts. Me s aving the world? Not likely I want to give it a shot anyway. What was he talking about? Toan often thought that these days. Not for the villagers or for dad But fo r me! I ll fight for me! How noble Toan scoffed. I ll become Goro Mighty Hunter of Legen d! Was that even a real title? And that s when Goro joined Toan and Xiao in their q uest to take down the Dark Genie. Three is a crowd; maybe it would be much easie r now! Goro was certainly an interesting person, Goro had made it very clear, he was fi ghting for himself Toan could understand why Xiao wanted to fight, it was her undy ing loyalty to him and Toan was initially motivated in saving his village, but G oro he just joined Toan to fight, for himself Toan couldn t imagine how Goro himself motivated him in fighting, it was an odd quirk about the strange guy. Unlike Xi ao, who had been originally afraid of fighting in the cave, Goro was up to anyth ing, even if he knew the odds were against him. It was a side that Toan truthful ly admired about the man that had tried killing him, more or less. Goro s strength proved valuable the first few steps he took in the Wise Owl Forest, although he was pretty slow compared to the likes of Xiao. The weight of Goro s hammer would

put enemies to rest in a mere one hit. That s not say he didn t get hit; he did alri ght, a lot, mainly due to his slow speed. But with the brute strength of Goro, t he team was balanced; everyone had a role to play in the Wise Owl Forest. After talking to the Great Baron and reviving Treant, the village started to tak e a liking to Toan, A newly revived villager to the town, Gob invited Toan over for a hardy meal of tuna, Xiao couldn t be happier. Toan wasn t mush into seafood hi mself. Gob even gave Toan an incredibly large fish, Gob was Pike s counterpart in Matataki Village, except Gob had no daughter, and had a raging desire for anothe r villager named, Momo, who lived with her old crazy father. Momo was like Alnet , the beauty in town everyone desired. It was somewhat creepy that everyone in M atataki was like the people he knew in Norune. Momo after being revived offered Toan a few weapon enhancement stones; these would build up the Serpent sword nic ely. Goro merely watched as Toan was rewarded for his heroic deeds; Goro woul d be lying to himself if he didn t say he was somewhat jealous that his native vil lage was giving praise to an outsider, and not him. It bugged him, but Goro reas sured himself, he was fighting for himself, not others, so it was natural to not expect praise, even though he kind of wanted it. But why did he listen to his f ather? Why did he follow Toan? Goro didn t fully understand, maybe he wasn t followi ng his father but rather his survival skills. Did it even matter anymore? Goro h ad little understanding of what had been going on in the world, Toan didn t do or say anything to inform him neither did Fudoh, nobody was filling Goro in on thes e matters, but why did Goro care about what was going on? Goro was getting angry at himself for contradicting himself, was he going mad? He couldn t know for sure , and the only thing was going to keep him sane was fighting, ironically enough. But he was a hunter Toan would never be able to understand what it meant to be a hunter of Matataki, Goro hated it when outsiders ignorantly dismissed that being a hunter was merely someone that killed animals for fun. Being a hunter was much more than that At least in Matataki Village anyway. Toan looked over to Peanut Pond, a body of water in the middle of Matata ki Village, not apart of the river or waterfall. He was exhausted at all the wor k he had been doing. Xiao was resting at the mushroom house and Goro was at his ho use most likely. Toan recalled that he obtained a fishing pole from Alnet back i n Norune Village, he pulled the rod out of his bag, he looked over it rememberin g how bummed out Carl was that he couldn t have it. Toan had a weak smile on, just thinking of Alnet and Carl, his good friends, made him happy. Carl would defini tely be angry if he knew Toan never used it. Toan decided, he d better use it or h e would feel terrible withholding it from Carl who desperately wanted it. Toan put small bait on the end of the hook and casted off in Peanut Pond , he sat down on the grass floor waiting and relaxing. It seemed fishing was rel axing at anytime, had Toan knew this he would have started fishing back in Norun e. Toan s head went limp as the moon rose in the sky, his eyes were slowly shuttin g. His eyes were somewhat fixated on the string, just waiting for the damn thing to move. Without warning the bobber fell. Toan s lashes batted at first, then he realized, A FISH! Toan jumped up on his legs and exaggerated his movements by sw inging his arms around to the side of his head as if he were preparing to swing his sword at a beast in enemy territories. Unexpectedly the bobber went even low er at this shift. Toan cringed in bewilderment. Xiao noticed her master moving like a fool trying to kill a fly. Xiao co mpletely oblivious to this walked right behind her master and poked him on the b ack with her claws. Toan jumped to the air, excited by the chilling touch of the claw. He let go of the fishing rod and turned his back to Xiao. Heya, master! Xiao mewed to the surprised Toan. Toan sighed in relief that it was just Xiao and not some evil beast, not that it was too likely in the vil lage itself. Watcha doing? Toan rubbed the back of his head and adjusted his hat, raised a finger and looked back to the pond. The rod was slipping into the wate r. Toan screamed, Xiao s hair stood on end at the scream. Toan dived onto the rod covering the pole with his whole body so it couldn t possibly escape any further. Toan grabbed the very end of the fishing pole, the flimsy part and pulled it str

aight up. There was a fish! Success! That night Toan and Xiao ate fish, one of t heir greatest meals since they left Norune Village. A limited zone Toan forgot those existed. Never the less he really hated that he h ad no control of what was going on before him. Goro was out there fighting for h im in the Wise Owl Forest alone, even though he was powerful, Goro taking down a n entire territory of enemies was a stretch, or maybe Toan was getting ahead of himself, he wasn t immune to getting knocked out or overwhelmed, he was like Xiao and Goro, except he used a sword. As Toan watched Goro fight he found out that G oro wore red underwear Toan shuddered in the nothingness. Goro breathed heavily running through the thick forest was tough for som eone with his girth. He lifted his head observing the never ending forest ahead of him. Damn you Goro cursed to his father, wherever he was for no particular reaso n, Goro felt that everything was his father s fault these days. Or maybe it was hi s hammer s fault for being so heavy. But Goro had to live with that fact, the vill ager s of Matataki Village all picked their personal weapon, Goro just happened to pick a giant hammer. Goro was lost in his thoughts as a Werewolf lunged right a t him with its massive arms, mouth agape. Goro was brought to the floor, the wol f sweeping its large claws at his face. Goro could only stare at the wolves red e yes. He scrunched his face grimacing and kicked the wolf in its torso. Goro jump ed up, the wolf slammed to the ground. He brought his hammer to the sky. BEGONE EVIL BEAST! Goro yelled to the heavens as he forced the hammer to t he ground smashing the wolf s body. Not a pretty sight Goro figured he d stop thinking while in this hostile environment, thoughts would only slow him down, plus it w ould hurt him. Toan put his hand to his face as he witnessed Goro mess up during his ow n inner monologue. Had he been there he would be able to think and fight at the same time. But at least Goro could fight, Toan wasn t any but concerned for Goro, he could make it. Xiao was different, she could and would fight, but Toan always feared for that cute cat girl. Goro was far too tough, and irritable to care ab out in the Wise Owl Forest.

Hey I m in the middle of something. Could ya come up here for a sec? Bunbuku , the rudest villager in all of Matataki second only to Goro yelled from his hou se s top floor to Toan on ground level, who just got out of the Wise Owl Forest wi th Xiao and Goro. Screw that! Goro yelled and ran off towards his den Screw you, Goro! Bunbuku yelled back at Goro from his window shaking his f ist as if he were an old man. Toan and Xiao looked at one another as if they wer e embarrassed around the people around them. Bunbuku turned back to the two and yelled again. Hey, you kid I could use your help here Toan and Xiao recalled Bunbuku s treatment of them a few days ago. They bo th felt hostility towards Bunbuku, as he did insult and berate them just for gre eting him. Plus he wore a raccoon on his head, the smallest weakest animal on an yone s head; he probably tortured the damn thing. Even his little sister Kululu ha d a white wolf on her head, an animal much stronger than a raccoon. Quit standin there and help me! He screamed at the top of his lungs. Toan signaled for Xiao to run off, he d do this alone, why torture another when the tas k only called for one person. Toan entered Bunbuku s house and went up the stairs, like most houses in M atataki Village, this place was pretty cozy putting it nicely. Up the stairs there stood Bunbuku waving his arms in the air at Kululu who was standing high in the

air on what looked like a pipe for running water. Kululu, don t climb up there, it s dangerous. Come on down. Bunbuku actually s ounded rational, he almost seemed pleasant, but this was because either: A. he w as talking to his sister or B. he was trying to sound nice to subdue her. Kululu remained standing up on the pipe looking down at her foolish looking brother. I m sorry I didn t know it was something you were saving for later. I know I ate it, b ut there s nothing we can do about that now. Kululu stood motionless, probably enjoying the trouble she was causing f or Bunbuku. The man let out a heavy sigh and let down his arms This is bad Bunbuku finally looked over to Toan and spoke to him instead. I accidently ate something of hers It was strange looking, it was white and coiled like a shell. He then whisp ered to Toan You wouldn t happen to have something like this would ya? A light flickered in Toan s head, the candy that Claude gave him as a gift that must be what Bunbuku had stolen from Kululu! Toan pulled out the week or s o old candy from his bag and proudly handed it to the now smirking Bunbuku. Ah! This is it! Bunbuku turned his gaze back up to Kululu Look at this! I ll give it to you if you come down. After the offer Kululu promptly jumped down to t he floor and ran right past Bunbuku and swiftly took the candy out of his grasp. After which she sat down on her bed and started mauling the candy. Heh thanks a lot Toan. Sorry I was a jerk to ya Please take this as a token of my appreciation. Bunbuku turned around and grabbed something off his shelves and handed it to Toan. It was a leaf Bunbuku raised his finger in the air and tried speaking like an intellec tual. They say in the East, you can make a cure-all medicine from this kind of le af. It may come in handy. Toan rolled his eyes at the idea of Bunbuku s; of all the lousy excuses Toan just stuffed the leaf in his bag and took off. A cure-all leaf a bsolutely crazy. Besides what could Easterners know about medicines? As far as h e or anyone else knew, Easterners were power hungry evil imperialists that conce rned little for human life. Everyone in the West that traveled to the Eastern co ntinent had nothing but bad things to say about it. Toan never traveled to or ha s seen the East; he just assumed the others were telling the truth. While thinking about the East he remembered, the Dark Genie! Toan ran out of Bun buku s house, there was no time for lollygagging, for all he knew the Dark Genie w as probably well aware of his efforts, he could be on his way ready to destroy t he villages again, or worse he may have missed the destruction of his town. This lingering paranoia had to be dealt with somehow Toan decided he d clear his head, b y fighting and finding Atla, anything to keep him out of fear. Toan went back into the Wise Owl Forest, he didn t bother bringing in Xiao or Goro , figuring they d be asleep at this hour; he didn t want to disturb them. The Forest territories were looking worse and worse with every step taken, the atmosphere of the forest at turned to that of a swamp, wet, humid, and very dark. After def eating some annoying Trolls Toan rediscovered that every troll was somewhat uniq ue in a way, it was just interesting how nature worked. How could God, fairy or natural selection create such an abomination Toan didn t know where the fabled Brown boo village was, all he could remember was Dran saying it was within the forest, but if Toan didn t know any better he d think that he was going the wrong way. The forest looked dead, but it was alive, could an advanced civilization like the Mo on People live in such conditions? If Toan had to guess where Brownboo Village w as he would say one of the two moons, why call yourselves the Moon People if you d idn t live on the moon? Toan shook his head in disbelief at his thoughts. Living o n the moon That ll be the day He had uncovered a few bits of Atla, two of which were people, one an old man na med Kye, another a woman named Momo. This was all so exhausting for him, its tim es like these where Toan would think Why me? but Toan had thought that more than a dozen times by now. It was time to take responsibility for the entire world popul ation s safety. Toan needed a rest, it was very late. He hunched down and leaned o n a nearby rock. The wet floor didn t agree with his tight black pants, and the ro ck didn t help his back. What could you expect in a place like this though? Toan n eeded time to think and rest, he pulled out his bag and inside it he pulled out

a picture. A very crude drawing Gina drew up and gave to Toan before he left. Fr om what Toan could gather it was a picture of her and him playing together. Toan always use to play with that little girl, but now she was probably moping aroun d the house bored without him, it kind of made Toan smile. But at the same time sad, that he couldn t see her, or anyone else for that matter. Toan awoke a couple hours later, still on the cold and damp forest floor . Ironically the forest was quite peaceful right now. Toan guessed it was around 3 in the morning, judging by what little of the sky he could actually see. He s tretched himself like a cat and figured it was time to release Kye and Momo from the dank Atlamillia, and of course it was time to return to Xiao, probably rest less that Toan wasn t around. Toan appeared before Momo and Kye, now confirmed to be Granddaughter and Grandfa ther at their own house already completed. Both Kye and Momo had the look of ast onishment as they abruptly emerged in their village. Toan gave both the characte rs a look over, Kye was an old man, looked a little like the baron, he wore a mo ose over his head with its antlers still protruding out of the head and a heavy looking fur over his back. Momo looked somewhat like Alnet back in Norune Village; except she looked a few years older and she had a cheetah head draped over her right shoulder and its paw over her left one. AH! Where am I?! The old man, Kye, screamed thrashing his arms about in th e air. Toan held out his hand ready to explain the situation, but Momo to the le ft of Kye attempted to console him Calm down, grandpa. Momo put her hands over her grandfather but the man sm acked her arms away and ran into the house yelling. Eh was all Momo let out, she lu rched over, zombie like. Sorry about that Momo looked up to the boy and raised an e yebrow Do I know you from somewhere? Toan just shook his head, he never knew this girl, and perhaps she was referring to her brief stay in the Atlamillia? Well I m sor ry but could you fetch me some water for grandpa that usually clams him down. Toa n nodded and ran towards the watermills and Momo ran into the house to calm Kye down. Certainly a strange night Toan thought as he was holding a bucket of water standing still near the watermills, but before Toan could turn around towards M omo s house he noticed a snake looking thing popping its head behind the watermill . Toan pulled out his dagger and put down the bucket and slowly crossed the brid ge to find it was only Gob, the nice man who made him a meal. Hey, Toan. Was all Gob said as he kept his face fixated looking at Momo, w ho was just exiting the house with Kye. Toan rubbed his head in confusion at Gob s behavior as he turned back ready to pick the bucket back up Gob spoke again. Tho se legs are almost sin, don tcha think? Toan s back jolted, what did he just say? Toan brought back the bucket of water to Momo as promised only to find t hat Kye and Momo were not on ground level rather the roof of their house. Grandpa, what are you doing up there? Momo yelled across the other side of the roof as Kye stood of the very top looking towards no where. Come down! No, I won t! Kye shook violently Why not?! Kye then turned towards Momo Don t you see? The Evil cloud is about to veil the world! Stop talking nonsense and come down here! Toan looked to Kye, he sounded i nsane, but he couldn t help but think Maybe he was right (in theory) after all evil had descended upon the world and nearly killed everybody. Momo, pray with me for world peace Oh come on. Are you nuts? Kye let out an audible growl, could the Dark Gen ie be retuning? Was this old man telling some sort of prophecy? Calling your own grandpa nuts What a granddaughter! Could it be that you, M omo That your brain is infected by evil?! Oh boy Momo turned around looking down upon Toan below her and jumped to hi s level, these Matataki people sure knew how to jump He really has gone nuts. As mu ch as Toan wanted to believe that he couldn t say for sure, so Toan looked behind him for a brief second up at the sky seemed clear, whew Toan so you re the one who re stored the house, right? Thank you! Momo changed the subject and bowed. She then

held out something to Toan Here s something for ya. She put her hands on her hips an d proudly said It s a plant buster stone, it will serve you well on your journey. Fu nny that statement sounded like a demand Ha ha ha A laugh sounded above them, the two looked up at Kye, still on the ro of of the house. Hey what are you doing?! Kye had placed his body on a wooden pole and was swinging around Toan had nothing to fear by this old man s prophecy . Toan approached the mushroom house, where he assumed Xiao was staying; h e hadn t seen her in a few hours when he heard a voice above him in the mushroom h ouse not of Xiao s. Hey you! This way, come on! Toan looked up at the now large Mushroom house with a second floor to find out the voice belonged to Ro Come on up here! Ro wave d while smiling broadly. There was a ladder right next to the house leading to t he second floor, he climbed up it to find both Annie and Ro waiting. What do you think? The view up here is great isn t it? Toan looked over the balcony; the waterfa ll was especially beautiful up here. I m so happy the house is restored. Annie finally said We owe this all to you . Toan was sort of use to this by now, people being eternally grateful to him, th e two bowed their heads and Toan returned the bow. He was really looking for Xia o but before he could go and search Annie opened her mouth again. Now to return t he favor. Lets see Ro put his hand to his chin and thought for what felt like an eter nity. Ah! I have just the thing! Ro went into the door by the balcony and searched for another eternity and finally bursted through the door I found it! then he tri pped over. This was becoming very tedious Ro got up from the wooden floor and weak ly held out something green. I found it walking through the woods looking for gia nt mushrooms. It never grows wherever I plant it. That s great a seed that can t grow t hanks for the present Treant said it will be something very good someday. But it o nly grows in a special place in the woods. You may be able to find it, you being in the woods a lot and all. Toan finally got out of the mushroom house; he was finally able to think w here could Xiao be? Goro sat on his bed looking at his new ally, Xiao, a cat humanoid of som e sort that had been transformed with magic potion. Xiao was rummaging the whole tree house looking for something interesting while she was concerned with her m aster s whereabouts. What are you doing? Goro asked in a grumpy manner Where are all your toys? Xiao answered with a question. Goro stood up afte r this question and pointed angrily at Xiao. Enough! Stop messing with my stuff! You re so mean compared to master. She bluntly stated and sat down quietly. I don t care! Where is that guy anyway? That s what I wanted to know Xiao started scratching the floor with her sharp nails in boredom. Figures he got taken down . Goro calmed down at the relaxing thought and sat back down. How dare you say- Xiao was cut off by the sound of the creaking door, it w as Toan back from a long journey into the woods. Speak of the devil Goro said under his breath. Toan and Xiao chose to recline the day away fishing, Toan had been away for awhile, he needed some rest, of course nobody knew he already had rest in th e forest. Toan started to think about how deep could the forest possibly go, whe re were those damn Moon People? The Atla in the forest was growing more and more scarce, which led him to believe that maybe the forest was finally coming to an end? Hopefully, this forest was becoming a nightmare for everybody, besides the re was no telling what the Dark Genie or the East was up to right now. They coul d be coming back right now for all Toan knew. Those thoughts plagued Toan s mind, but with any luck Toan would be faster than the Dark Genie!

The Wise Owl Forest was starting to get more and more sparse of trees, was Toan finally finding the end of these wretched woods? Instead in front of Toan looked to be the workings of a house in progress. Just two frames of wood being built up, but the wood was old and had vines growing over it like wild fire. Toan mane uvered around the house in progress and found a dead end, the forest completely stopped; a large flat rock formation stood their blocking and taunting him from ever getting any further. Did I go the wrong way? Toa thought for a moment, but his curiosity piqued at the small patch of dirt below him with a small hole. The Moon Grass Seed! Of course! This must be the way to the Moon People s village! Toan pulled out the odd looking seed and planted it in the small hole. Sure eno ugh out of the hole grew a small leaf, now for some sun dew The sun dew perked the leaf right up and grew even larger creating stepping stones (or stepping leafs) in order to get up on top of the rock. Perfect! Toan was on his way to the Moon People and it was just up ahead! As Toan stepped on the top of the rock something rustled in the trees ab ove him. What the? Toan looked up to the trees which had plenty of fruit growing from them and suddenly something landed on the ground causing Toan to jump off the floor. Toan looked in amazement seeing the giant gorilla looking thing. It h ad an innocent looking face but his hands held a large rock, which said otherwis e. Toan was taken back in bewilderment, what the hell was this thing?!And why di d it have jewels on his wrists, they resembled the Atlamillia! It also had braid s on what looked like it s beard, the thing looked absolutely grotesque to look at . Out of nowhere the monkey threw the rock straight at Toan, he lunged to the left avoiding it, while getting hit by a few chips of the rock just thrown, small tears in his poncho were made. The monkey let out a cry while pounding its chest with his massive hands. The cry echoed through the forest, it scared Toan somewhat, he had never heard such an animal cry ever before. Toan rested for a moment in the cold soft dirt and looked up, it was the Fairy King! Toan, he s acting strangely. Probably under the spell of the Dark Genie. The fairy King stood there same blank stare as ever, what the hell was this guy thi nking? You ll have to fight him. So this animal was possessed by the Dark Genie too? Toan got up and faced the giant Neanderthal looking monkey sword in hand ready to kill. The monkey thing hopped up as if it were on a trampoline and grabbed one of the fruits. Was this anytime for eating? Toan laughed to himself but before he knew it seeds started pelting him like beanbags. It stung like a bee and made Toan yelp in pain, as Toan was trying to recuperate the ape ran at him and char ged its fist and punched Toan violently, the made contact at Toan s body, he fell back a few feet. Toan screamed at the crippling pain, and hugged himself trying to recover and get back up. No use Toan called upon Goro; maybe he could do a thi ng or two? Goro had been called upon to attack, Goro using his hunting skills ran b ehind the primate and got its attention, it turned around which it when Goro got the idea, and he swung his hammer onto the delicate looking feet of the ape. It cried in pain, and clutched onto its injured foot. Suddenly Toan was called upon still in pain, he trudged up on his legs a nd looked into the face of the enemy and swiftly slashed his Serpent sword at it s face. If the Dark Genie had a spell on this thing, pain would surely get it ou t, it worked on Dran! But before Toan could declare victory the monkey swung his fists again, Toan slammed against one of the trees. Toan was about ready to bla ck out when he called on Goro again. Evildoers beware! I shall destroy thee! Goro cried as he sprinted towards the forest guardian, known as Master Utan. The hammer slammed across its face, a nd Goro smashed his foot again. Utan could not withstand anymore he gave out and collapsed on the floor. Toan came back out again and examined the beast, it bre athed heavily, it was still alive thankfully, whatever it was Suddenly the beast w ent straight up and yelled Wh Whaaatt?! The beast had the accent of someone from Muska Lacka, like Macho

and Komacho, why it did was beyond Toan. How it could even speak wasn t even aske d. What s happening to me? Master Utan introduced himself as the Forest guardian and apologized for the bea ting as he started to recount what had been happening the past week with the Dar k Genie. You need to go to the Moon People right? Master Utan understood that the Mo on People were the only ones that could put a stop to this evil, how he knew? Wh o cares You need to head to Brownboo Village, pal, where the little people are. So that s where they lived huh? Come on I ll take you there. Master Utan surprisingly sai d in a tone more happy than it should have been. Master Utan simply pointed over a rock ahead of him and started again. The Moon people s village is just over this rock. Master Utan looked over at the giant rock standing in front of him. Oops Toan just stood in stunned silence at this unsightly beast s behavior. Master Utan pic ked up the boulder and chucked it across the forest making a loud crashing noise . How s that? Utan asked innocently. Toan looked at the small crevice leading to Brownboo Village and back at Master Utan, this journey was getting weird and Toan didn t like it one bit. The breath radiating from Master Utan was just God awful and it made him wish he nev er agreed to this in the first place, Toan started walking towards the gap in th e rocks as Master Utan spoke yet again. The village chief s not so fond of humans so Wh o needed to hate humans when you had Easterners to hate Just watch yourself. Finall y Master Utan shut up and Toan was free to journey to the Moon People s village, B rownboo Village!...But maybe Goro wanted to say goodbye to Matataki Village, Toa n thought, maybe he should pay them one last visit What the hell are we doing back here?! Goro yelled towards Toan for enteri ng Matataki Village again. Goro had been promised that they were going to Brownb oo Village, but here they were back in this horrid town. Toan smirked and grabbe d the back of his head as he pointed towards the villagers of the town who had a ll gathered in front of the entrance to the Wise owl forest. and why the hell are you all here?! Goro bellowed at every one of the villagers, he had all the reaso ns in the world to hate all of the people in front of them Pao, always stealing Peanut pond s fishes for himself. Bunbuku, that smug bastard Kululu, stupid and silent. Mustache, cheap ass owl. Cacao, artsy twig. Gob, cooking sucks Momo, Goro despised any girl he had no chance with. Kye, crazy old man. Annie and Ro, crazy old couple. And that Baron damn did Goro hate him. And worst of all, every single one of these villagers of Matataki villag e They withheld the information about his father s demise at the hands of the Killer Snake, and for that Goro could never forgive any of them. Goro kept a permanent frown on his face and Toan and Xiao stood there awkwardly at the Village gather ing. The Ancient Baron stepped forward in middle of the crowd. Welcome, Toan Toan simply nodded at the Baron and looked back at Goro, the entire reason why they all went back to Matataki Village was to fight the contem pt that the village shared with Goro. Goro The Baron spoke graciously Hmph Goro crossed his arms enflaming his nostrils. I need to let you know Goro that we as a village weren t trying to hurt you . I don t care! Goro screamed and approached the Baron; the Baron stood his gr ound straightening his back We did it to protect your father s honor. Goro stopped walking towards the B aron to listen briefly to what he had to say, he didn t want to but he did want to hear their pathetic excuse. What do you care about honor ?! The villagers looked to the Baron still standi ng straight as a tree.

Goro, you brat! The baron yelled uncharacteristically and went up to Goro, Goro twitched at the Baron s insult, of all the people to insult him. This village practically raised you and you have the nerve to The Baron stopped yelling and mo tioned Gob with his arm behind him. Goro paused still surprised at the Baron s ang er. The Baron now held on to a large battle axe in front of Goro. Take this Goro It was your father s after all. Goro flinched and fell back as he gazed at the fine beautiful weapon Goro stuttered to find his words as he realized just how much the village meant to hi m, he had been so wrong, he wasted his time in his beloved village by ostracizin g himself in his house. He then looked across at all the villagers who all looke d so barren now, unexpressive and or grimacing at him. I hate you Goro whispered to himself, he brought himself back up looking to wards the ground and forcibly took the battle axe out of the hands of the Baron. I hate you all! Goro screamed at every single one of the villagers, he couldn t sta rt regretting things now Regret was not possible at this time, if he did then he a ctually would have started to cry. There was no time for that Not now Finally Toan was able to travel with Xiao and Goro by his side, they offered lit tle conversation to Toan, but instead they talked amongst themselves, bickering. So do you feel sad that you re leaving your home village, Goro? Xiao questio ned Hell no! Goro yelled to the sky and wore a large exaggerated frown. Why? What if you never see them again? I hope I never see those bastards again. Goro stated bluntly Don t worry we ll go back soon! Goro just scoffed at Xiao s remark and the two quieted d own after that, Toan hoped for a short walk, and hopefully it would be, he didn t want to put up with these two for too long, nor did he want to tire himself out walking all day.

The three slowed down their pace as they looked in astonishment at what appeared to be Brownboo village. The buildings were out of this world and the vi ew from above was beautiful, both moons clearly visible illuminating the lake of Brownboo. Toan couldn t believe his eyes, what kind of people could create such b uildings? The village was surrounded by rock faces, Toan assumed he was in a dri ed up volcano by the looks of the place, a 300 year old dead volcano with people ling inside that took down a magical evil Genie. Amazing! Goro and Xiao were ju st as amazed at the craft if the Moon People, never had they dreamed of such a p lace. MAYDAY!! one of the Moon people yelled at the round table of other Moon Pe ople who all listened intensively, the Moon People were small in size, they all

wore cloaks and had blood red dot eyes that lit up the dark interior of their cl oaks, but still keeping their faces from being shown. Chief! This is weird! A hum an has come to the village! This had never happened, and the Moon People always a ssumed humans meant trouble especially since they had known of the Easterners an d their evil, but in turn they generalized all humans as if they were all Easter ners. The chief of Brownboo Village had two distinguishing feature; he had a m ustache, large and white. And he wore a cloak with the symbol of the Moon People . The chief jumped on top of the round table and rustled in his cloak as if he w ere afraid. Mmmm They never learn The chief spoke to himself recounting all the bad that humans have done over the years. Finally he spoke to the other Moon People We wil l have to go with the Be aware of Nights when Stars Fall Plan . The chief then motio ned his hands and saluted to the sky as he yelled some sort of battle cry Yeltse Kraken!! The Moon People did as the chief did and saluted as well as they yelled in unison Kraken! As Toan and the gang tried walking on a bridge leading to all the buildi ng complexes a small cloaked man came out of nowhere arms stretched out in bewil derment. What the?! it screamed, Goro and Xiao looked back at the cloaked little ma n but Toan kept pacing forward too surprised at how the village looked rather th an how the villagers themselves looked. Toan noticed while walking on the bridge , everything seemed miniature; it reminded him of the small miniature toys he us e to play with as a boy. Toan struggled to keep himself on the bridge while look ing straight so he looked down to make sure he was stepping in the right place. Where do you think we should go, master? Xiao asked. Toan looked around th e tiny city, and figured the best place to go would be the tallest building in t he village, which stood right in front of them, Toan, Xiao and Goro turned left to the ladder that led up to the tallest building. Toan looked up the massive bu ilding, but then a object flew down the ladder, Toan had no time to react to the object crashing on his head knocking him out cold. Xiao and Goro froze in place and were sucked into the Atlamillia. Whoa! Bingo! The first try and look at it. A Moon person cheered from abov e who had just knocked Toan out. Another Moon person stood beside him holding an other round object, ready to throw it. Like Its boring, kinda What do you do with this? The second Moon person seemed disappointed that he wasn t able to throw his sphere at the invader. The two looke d at each other and decided they better capture the human before it woke up. Toan lifted his head slightly, opening his eyes slowly, how long had it been? Wh ere was he? Once again so many questions so little answers. Toan was tied up to what seemed like a beanstalk. Toan looked down to see two more of those cloaked Moon people, but one of them had a large mustache. He was the first to speak So you ve come around. What does a human want in a place like this? The chie f demanded to know. Toan didn t say a word but the chief seemed to figure out on h is own somehow The Dark Genie? What is that? Toan s eyes widened at the question, wer en t these the Moon People shouldn t they know more than all people? More perplexing yet, Toan didn t even say anything. Its no use talking nonsense! The chief sounded angrier than ever. All Toan could do was shake his head in confusion I m sure stick ing your head under the water will help you reconsider playing the fool! the chie f threatened. Toan could barely understand what was going on but he sure underst ood they wanted to torture him, Toan lifted his head in defiance ready to spit o n the Moon chief s face but the sound of a door creaking stopped him from doing th is rash action. Nem!! A Moon person charged in bouncing around like the rest of the Moon P eople What? Both the chief and the Moon person turned to look at the entering pa rty who had the look of desperation even though he hid his face. This person seems to be telling the truth, Crystal has ! Please just come. T

he chief turned to Toan with hesitation, like they were looking into the devil s e yes and got him down carefully. Toan was about ready to beat every Moon person i n this village but out of the kindness in his heart he strained himself. All of the Moon people including Toan exited the small building and climbed up to the t all building, the one Toan had attempted to climb before. The Moon People along with Toan surrounded the round table that resemble d a flower with a crystal ball on top. The Moon People bumbled around looking at it, looking for answers as Toan just stood there confused as ever. Here we go. One of them said pointing to the crystal ball; the Moon People leaned in looking into the ball. Toan attempted to peer into the ball as well b ut alas nothing appeared, at all. But somehow all the Moon People could see what ever it was; they all had the same look, the look of fear and surprise, they all stood there in stunned silence Hmm I feel a tremendous power. This must be the Dark Genie that the guy was talking about. Is this the evil Genie of Darkness, that our ancestors sealed? The chief M oon person asked to the younger one. Probably The younger one said while looking at his small feet. Toan walked over the Moon person and tapped it on the shoulder, but before the Toan could sp eak his mind, the Moon person spoke yet again. I know what you re thinking You want u s to seal it again don t you? Toan shrugged, it happened before so why not do it ag ain? No way! Never! We could never seal that monster, not with the ability we hav e now Toan smacked his face, he had been sent on a wild goose chase! Dran, and the Fairy King said the Moon People would be able to help, but these people were in competent fools! The chief hopped on over next to Toan and reaffirmed they were fools. Theo is right. Magic is indeed the secret power the Moon People have poss essed on through the generations. But as we lived in this land for so long we ha ve seemed to lose that ability. What can t of sense did that make? We just don t have the power to seal the Genie anymore Just great! Toan couldn t believe his ears at ho w stupid these Moon People actually sounded! It doesn t mean it s impossible though The chief turned around and raised his arms Well what do we do then? Theo, the only Moon Person who Toan knew a name o f asked. There are no Moon People left here who can still use magic. But if you go to the moon, there should be those that can. Toan stared at them for a moment an d realized that the statement just said was idiotic beyond comprehension Moon Peop le on the moon? Well I guess it made more sense than Humans living on a place ca lled Earth. Exactly you re right! Theo started jumping up and down in excitement We need to go to the moon! Toan raised his arm, he wanted to ask: how?! Theo stopped jump ing up and down realizing wait how do we get to the moon? Theo asked the chief People in Brownboo have always prepared for this day to return. We have a ship to take us to the moon, hidden in a particular place. Talk about convenient . What? Can we really do such a thing?! It s okay. We won t use it for a while anyway. Why the hell not?! There are pe ople in dire need of help to escape the wrath of the Dark Genie and these Moon P eople are so damn calm?! The chief then turned to a green cloaked moon person Bri ng the Moon Orb here. Roger The green cloaked Moon person raised his arm, saluted and hopped awa y. The orb of the moon is a sphere to move the Moon Ship. These Moon people s ounded like a broken record With the orb, you can remotely control the moon ship f rom anywhere. The chief said proudly like it was his idea; the green cloaked Moon person scampered back over in a frantic state Oh no! The Moon orb is missing!! Dammit! Toan cursed under his breath in a nger What do you mean?! The chief screamed Does anyone know where the orb is? Nem, sir. The other day, Joska went to Queens to sell moon fruits.

Could it be that it was accidently mixed together with the moon fruits? th e chief, Nem trialed off and screamed again Joska! Out of nowhere a blue cloaked M oon person, Joska came out from behind the crystal ball. Yes? Do you know about the Moon Orb? Ah, now that you mention it I do remember a strange colored fruit among t he others Joska said quietly embarrassed at his mistake That must be it! How could you do that?! Joska got down on his knees and s tarted bowing to the chief rambling I m so sorry chief! The chief turned again to Toan motioning his hands like always Seems like we can t let you use the Moon Ship. Without the orb we cannot op erate the Moon Ship Say why not go to Queens to find the orb? Theo asked the chief That is a good idea. You can find the orb on your own, then we can operat e the Moon Ship. These kinds of things should be done by oneself I suppose. The c hief said delightfully looking at Toan, Toan scoffed at the chief s cowardly attit ude And you ll return it after you re done with it. Off to Queens I suppose Toan thought curiously, he remembered the name Que ens, it was supposed to be a merchant town, you could get almost anything at Que ens, the thought excited Toan, but there still was a mission to do anyway! Let s s o this! Toan thought as he ran towards the exit of Brownboo Village as the Moon people around him jeered at him to leave. It s amazing Xiao commented the aesthetics of the city called Queens, the bea utiful seaside merchant town. Goro smugly lifted his head in the air and said Shouldn t we be doing more important things right now, rather than looking at this place? Toan stood still mouth slightly agape shook his head escaping out of his stupor. He nodded at Goro s question; indeed he was right, they had to find the Moon Orb quickly so they could get the Moon Ship running. It was their only hope at stopping the Dark Genie But where to begin? Queens looked like no other town Toan had been in, the straight path tha t stood before him resembled a giant hall, except this hall had a river running through it, and had paths leading to other parts of the town. As Toan suspected the town was an empty lot, not one building, no person in sight, totally silent with the exception of the cool breeze. Toan could see off in the distance some t orches burning, maybe there was someone here? The burning torches led to an exit out of the town s main area, out to the sea where Toan could see several ships and a lone building. Plus A person! He sto od out observing the ocean waves standing as still as a tree. Toan ran up to the mystery man in a green vest when the man turned aroun d gasping in surprise. The man looked to be in his early 20s and wore a strange hat probably used to protect from the sunlight, who knew He gestured his hand to T oan and started to speak to him in a calm manner. So there are other humans left other than myself. I d thought I was the onl y one left on this whole wide world. This guy survived the Dark Genie? What the h ell was the Fairy King thinking? He could have had this Queens guy or the scrawn y Norune kid, great judgment fairies Toan sarcastically thought. Good to know there s someone, even though you are only a kid. Thanks a lot mystery man He extended his right arm and Toan did the same, and shook hands. I m Rando, I sell goods here in Queens, and you? Toan opened his mouth ready to say his name when Xiao out of nowhere screamed Master! to which Goro yelled Toan! Get the hell over here, how do you tame this thing?! Rando raised hi s eyebrow confused as ever You must be Toan. Rando put his arm to his side again and instead raised h is left hand to his chin. Say we don t have to stay out here talking, why don t you a nd your friends go over to my shop. Toan rubbed his head in embarrassment at his allies making a fool out of

him in front of him. The team and Rando scurried into the small shop, Rando seemed very hospitable le tting Toan, Xiao and Goro in his shop, even letting them all sit down and drink coffee, to which Goro was disgusted by. The team of allies started explaining wh at had happened to the world, the Dark Genie, the Atla and all, Rando just sat t aking it all in with no objections or questions. So they brought that fat beast back to life? Rando drank some of his coffee and sl ammed the mug on the table in anger Fools! They must be from the East. What a swee ping generalization Rando spoke in great contempt against the East They are up to s ome madness again, those damn Easterners! Blood-sucking scum of the earth! Toan, Xiao and Goro sat uncomfortably in the small room looking at Rando rage at the E ast. Even back then He said mystifyingly, then looked to the table and slammed both of f ists on the table again. Damn!! Toan sipped some of the coffee looking to Xiao and back to Goro seeing him they were as disturbed as he was. Rando lifted his head up and motioned his hand back up doing a complete 180 in emotions. So what s the M oon Orb like that you re looking for? Toan, Xiao and Goro scooted out of their chairs watching Rando s movements to the window; Rando stared intensely at the sea from the window attempting to recall a nything about this Moon Orb . I see Maybe it s lost in the undersea treasury. Rando said mysteriously almost as if h e actually knew it was there It s a Shipwreck at the bottom of the Queens Sea. Most merchants in Queens use it as a warehouse. Rando turned to the three allies and p ut on a sad face But its changed lately. Now there are monsters everywhere. That giant monster that attacked Queens must be the cause. This shipwreck sounded like the Divine Beast Cave, normally only bats and small creatures inhabited it, now stronger and bigger beasts did Today, it s so dangerous that we cannot even go to ge t our merchandise. Do you still want to go down there? Toan never wanted to put h imself in danger, but in this case, there really was no choice, either go down t here and die trying or stay up here and die like a coward Toan nodded smirking and brimming with confidence. Rando put on a smile and punched his palm as a sign o f confidence as well. All right! I ll help you. Come follow me! Rando led to team out to the docks where a submarine was visible above the ocean, the ship had a faded green color to it a nd looked shoddily put together. Toan and the gang marveled at its horridness as Rando started speaking cryptically Queens is a town of merchants and traders. Some items we handle are rare and expe nsive. Such items need special care and handling, the safest place to keep such items is of course under the sea Its kind of a huge safe at the bottom of the sea. But you re wondering why that ship sank there aren t you? Toan was still gazing at t he ship and in his confusion he just nodded. Rando tuned away from Toan looking towards the sea once again closing his eyes. It was about 100 years ago, the Queen reigning over Queens passed away And that is when the townspeople, who adored their queen, sunk her favorite ship along with her. What a funeral that must have been That s the wrecked ship at the bottom of the s ea near Queens. When Queens was revived as a merchant town the ship started to s erve as an undersea treasury. Rando crossed his arms and with slight annoyance i n his voice he started again Sounds a bit disrespectful. But merchants are practi cal. They make the best out of any situation. Sounds insane Toan thought, why not h ave the treasury on land? What s the deal? Here is the ship that ll take you to the ship, I call it the turtle. That did not so und good at all It s all yours, it s only made for one person so Goro and Xiao were then sucked into Toan s Atlamillia So you ll have to go alone Rando paused looking at the b lue stone in astonishment, Toan shrugged; finally someone other than him was sur prised at these mystical happenings. I ll be at my store; you and your friends are welcome to stay there Nice! But if you want stuff I ll have to charge you. Lame! Rand o then walked off to his shop with not a care in the world. Did he even care tha t the world was in chaos? Whatever, if the Shipwreck had the Moon Orb it was tim e to start looking!

Talk about shipwreck Toan thought sarcastically as the submarine dove under the se a, Toan had never been in the sea. Never had he actually wanted to descend under the ocean, especially not in a time of crisis like this. Toan looked through th e small opening in the submarine where he could see the vastness of the ocean, a nd in the vastness he could easily spot the large shipwreck now used as an under sea treasury . This small area was bad enough; the large area around him though wa s much, much more bloodcurdling. Toan sat back down in the small seat of the sub marine and sighed He was a long way from home, and frankly he was getting very sic k. The ship looked incredibly big, could one travel through all of the ship? Whe re could the Moon Orb possibly be in this under sea treasury ? Well someone had to find it, and that somebody was Toan.