Luminous ran not looking back at the Hall Monitor or Master Mouse. The spiral sandy path felt like it stretched for miles as her heart pounded in her chest.

It wasn’t until she saw a wooden door at the end of the pathway that she came to grip with the idea that she was running away. Was she ever going to see Master Mouse again? Did he die already? Maybe if she went back now..? She turned back on her heel facing away from the door to the way out.

“Woah woah! What are you doing?!” Yelled the Dawn of Fate. “Don’t slow down! Run! Run before the Hall Monitor catches up to us!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a sword of protection?” Asked Luminous. “Maybe if we go back now…”

“Forget it. He’s gone.” Said the Dawn of Fate.

“But how do you know…?”

“You kidding me, kid, you just faced that thing. You know there is no facing that monster alone and surviving. Plus, what are you going to do besides getting in the way again? You can’t even do Soul Connect with me.”

“But he..ever since I was little he was always just there... “ Luminous though back to Master Mouse in his library. “There is no way that he can’t be there....”

“You want to do something for Master Mouse? Then respect his wishes and find Vainglorious! Stop the Crow King from taking over the other five kingdoms!”

Luminous wiped away the tears in her eyes. She pushed the wooden door open and was met with bright white moonlight. Luminous shielded her eyes with her arm. Her socks found themselves stepping on a pile of brown, red, and yellow leaves on the ground. When she took her arm off her eyes, Luminous saw that she was in the middle of a bunch of trees with autumn leaves all over them.

“We’re in a forest!” Exclaimed Luminous.

Her smile spread wide on her face. This looked just like a seance from one of her stories. Out in the open air with nothing but the trees and the stars. A quest, an adventure.

“Let’s go camping!”

“Or we can go to Tavern Den that’s to your left…”

Luminous looked to her left to see a tavern that looked like a ship turned upside down. The sign on top of the archway, reading out, “Welcome to the Tavern Den.”

“Ohh, good idea!” Exscalmed Luminous. “I’m an adventurer now, and all the good adventures start in a tavern.”

“Or we can look for Barrett.”

Luminous raised her eyebrows. And if a sword had eyes, the Dawn of Fate would have rolled his.

“You know, Barrett, the guy who legally spends most of his time at the Tavern Den. The one Master Mouse said he could help us find Vainglorious.”

“Oh..” Luminous bit her plush lip. “...right…that Barrett...”

Luminous walked under the archway, the huge glass vermillion sword strapped to her back. The smell of alcohol and roasted mutton immediately hitting her scratched up nose as her socks touched the wooden floorboards.

All the tables and even the bar counter were filled with tall brown-haired hunters/travelers, and huge ten-foot-tall brown bears.

“Oh goody, it’s packed, and all we have to go off of is the guys’ name.” Snarked the Dawn of Fate.“So..where should we look first, short stack?”

Luminous cupped her small hands around her mouth and shouted.

“Barrett!”

“No, short stack don’t. You’ll draw too much attention to us.”

“Barrett!” Continued Luminous walking around the tavern. “Barrett!”

Everyone in the tavern began to take notice of the small scratch up girl hollering. However, everyone became dead silent when a tall stranger with a red hood pulled up on his head got up from his seat in the corner of the bar walking towards the hollering girl.

Luminous stood in front of one of the tables about to call out Barrett’s name again. When the tall hooded stranger came up from behind her, slamming his rough hand on the table and leaning up to her ear.

“Why are you calling out my name like I’m some kind of summon?” His gruff voice said in a whisper.

The stranger's hot breath hit Luminous’s ear. A chill ran down her spine before she turned around. Her face only came up to his lean yet muscular bare abdomen, she looked up into his hood, into his light tan face to see two rosewood orbs staring down at her.

“Uh, umm..”

The braided brown-haired teen quirked his eyebrows when he started down at Luminous’ face. The small girl had cuts all over her body. Even her pajamas had holes in them in various places. Then his eyes finally noticed her odd colored hair.

“Nice, uh hair…?”

“Oh, it’s always been yellow,” Luminous said automatically.

“I think he meant your hair cut.” Said the Dawn of Fate.

“My hair cut?!”

Luminous reached her hands up to her hair. But instead of the waist long locks she was used to, she found that one side was cut to her chin, and the other side was down to her shoulder.

“What?!”

Luminous reached behind herself, grabbing the sword out of its sheath. She looked into the glass blade at her reflection.

“Hey! Dagnabbit! I’m not a mirror!” Complained the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous saw that her bangs; were pretty much untouched. But the rest of her hair on the back of her head was cut short and crooked.

“No, no-no…” She breathed frantically, running her hands, through her hair.

“Ahem?” Coughed, the older teen. “Is there any particular reason you wanted to see me, or?”

Luminous looked up from inspecting her reflection in the mirror to looking at the muscular brunette standing over her.

“See you?”

“You were calling my name.” Said the brunette.

“I was?”

“Fu..uh..I’m Barrett!” Snapped the hooded teen. “Now what do you want?! I don’t have time for bull, so spill it!”

“Oh, um, I’m looking for the wizard.” Said Luminous.

Barret blinked at the odd girl, raising an eyebrow.

“Does this wizard have a name or?”

“His name…?”

“How about you give him that cloth Master Mouse gave you.” Interrupted the sword.

“Cloth?” Luminous’ brows knitted before a light bulb went off in her brain. “Oh, cloth!”

Luminous was in the middle of pulling out the cloth when Barret spoke again.

“If you want me to track someone, my services aren’t for free, you know.”Barrett put his hands in his pants pockets. “I’m no charity. I’m assuming you can pay the 75 boon for my service?”

Luminous clutched the blue cloth in her hand. She didn't have any boon on her, and there was no way she could go back to her kingdom, not anymore when the corrupt took it over.

“Ya, no problem at all.” Said Luminous. “I can pay that.”

Barrett scanned Luminous up and down. He’s had shabby-looking people pay him decently enough before. Besides, 75 boon was the generous price.

“Great.” Said Barrett. “It’s a deal then.”He snatched the cloth from Luminous. “But just know I track people down for a living. If you stiff me I will find you no matter where you go, and I will kill you.”

Luminous gulped not moving from where she stood. Barrett held the small blue cloth up to his nose, he only took one wif from it before he stopped. His rosewood eyes wide from the sent.

“Not him…” Barrett seethed, handing the cloth back to Luminous. “Keep your boon, deals off.”

“What!? We had a deal dagnabit!” Yelled the Dawn of Fate. “You said you could track our wizard! Or are you just too much of a big palooka to do it?”

“I can track any wizard! Queen! Or witch! I won’t track Vainglorious.” Gritted Barrett. “You can forget it if that creatine is involved, I want nothing to do with him or whatever he is involved with this time.”

“Well, I’ll be, I didn’t take a big muscular hunter like you to be such a big milksop.” Said the sword.

“What!? I’m not a...look, you people, or whatever you are.” Barrett said to the Dawn of Fate. “Clearly don’t know Vainglorious. I’m warning you for your own good. Stay away from him, he only looks out for himself and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process.”

“But I…” Luminous thought about the last message Master Mouse said to her before he...She shook her head. “I have to, I have to find Vainglorious. It was Master Mouse's final wish.”

“I don’t know who that is, and I’m sorry for your loss.” Said Barrett. “But it sounds like he didn't know Vainglorious either. Otherwise, he wouldn't have...”

“I’ll pay you double the price to find him!” Said Luminous.

“Short stuff, what are you..?”

“I’m still not doing it.” Said Barrett interrupting the sword.

“I’ll triple it! No, I’ll pay you five times that much if you can find Vainglorious!”

Barrett knitted his eyebrows, racking his brain. Five times 75, he could make 375 boon off of this tracking quest alone, that’s only 25 boon less than he made off of his quest he did for that one nobble who had him track down Miss Muffet the half spider witch. Poor fools didn’t know when to quit when they were clearly overpowered.

He looked down at the small girl who looked like she had been out in the forest for weeks wrestling a bear.

“Make it 400 boon even, and we have a deal.” Said Barrett.

“Deal.” Said Luminous.

“Okay, that’s it! You agreed to that way too easily! Just where are you getting this kind of boon? You a master thief or something?”

“Well, maybe, I am.” Luminous pouted.

“Oh, ya, sure.” Scoffed Barrett. “Shouting some stranger’s name in a bar is very cunning and sneaky, I’m sure.”

“Well, it worked.” Frowned Luminous putting her hands on her hips.

“This kind of boon sounds too good to be true.I have trouble believing you.” Said Barrett. “How about you give me 200 upfront and 200 after the job is done? Just to prove it.”

“I do too have boon, all 400 of it!” Luminous yelled so loud that everyone in the tavern turned towards her. “And if you won’t track down Vainglorious, I’ll give it to someone else who will!”

Barrett’s eyes went wide at the sudden outburst. A muscular white-haired guy walked up to the conversation casually.

“So, you need someone to track Vainglorious for you?” He asked.

“Screw off, Mahzim! She’s my client!” Growled Barrett turning towards the foreigner from kingdom white. “She wants the best tracker she could get, and I already agreed!” He yelled, showing his sharp teeth.

The white-haired man held his hands up and backed away. Barrett turned to Luminous, his rosewood eyes tinted red.

“And don’t you think you can just get away with stifling me if that’s what you’re up to! Met me at that back table in ten minutes.” Barrett pointed at a table at the back of the tavern, hot breath hitting Luminous ear as he spoke. “And remember if you try to run, I can track you by scent.”

With a swish of his red hood, Barrett stomped up the stairs disappearing, leaving Luminous to stand in the middle of the tavern with the Dawn of Fate.