The group huddling around the man in green seemed so excited as he spoke about the adventures they were going to go on. So many eager young faces grinning up at him, beaming as the tree opened to the light inside. What wonders awaited them in the gardens? Magic? Fame and fortune? Another world to explore or even a new kingdom to rule over? Each, Ciara assumed, had their own dreams about what was waiting for them, and a hope that their greatest ambitions could be fulfilled by stepping through the wooden archway and into the secret garden.

Ciara held no such hope inside her. She had be to other worlds and back. She had followed her heart to the ends of Shaman and through portals, only to become lost and alone. What reason did she have for taking this journey now, when she’d only just come back to this world a short time ago? Now when her best friend needed her most? She shouldn’t, really.

And yet something deep within her was pulled toward the tree with the crowd, Nalani safely riding on her shoulder and away from the stampeding fairy feet. Hands shoved at her from behind to enter the portal, and it took every ounce of strength in her to stay her feet and keep from falling through before she was ready to take the leap. The battle in her heart was strong, but the soft laughter and voices beyond the gate were so familiar, her will to stay for Arthur was fading quickly.

They came from the tree, but she knew the words they spoke, and heard them not with her ears, but with her heart and her memory. She knew the voices down the path, but she couldn’t place names or faces to them.

“Come down from there! they called, and the resolve nearly broke.

Everyone else who had come to the gathering, glittering pendants in their hands or around their necks, had vanished into the tree, and not a sound could be heard of them from the opening. The voice calling to her was certainly not one of the people she’d been brought with to the Kingswood. Her hand wrapped around the edge of the entrance, and Ciara glanced up to her familiar who was preparing herself for the journey ahead. After all, Nalani had been with Ciara since the monkey was born. She’d had many forms, but always she’d been at her mother-fairy’s side.

“Not this time, Nalani,” Ciara said with a cracking voice. “I need you to stay here. Be here so no one will worry about me while I’m away.”

The monkey tilted her own head, in anguish and confusion, but Ciara pressed on.

“I need you here to be my beacon to find my way back if I get lost again. Please…please?” the words were overrun by the tears that had started to form in the blonde’s eyes, but Nalani understood. With all the grace and dexterity that a familiar could possess, she climbed from the shoulder and into the boughs of the ancient tree itself, and watched as her fairy took those shaking steps through the portal and out of sight.