The trio of thieves tore through the forest, intent on getting away from the royal guard who had been chasing them ever since they'd stolen the crown. They jumped over tree roots, shrubs and the occasional rabbit before finally jumping down a small-ish rocky ledge and stopping for a moment in a small clearing to catch their breath. Everett and McQ stood in the middle of the clearing, whilst Ajax leaned up against a tree. Recovering a little, he looked up at the tree, only to gasp as he discovered three wanted posters on it. One each for him, Everett and McQ.

He pulled his own one off the tree and studied it for a few seconds, muttering "No, no, no, no, no, no no. This is bad... This is very bad, this is really really really bad!" The other two thieves looked over at him and he held the wanted poster up next to his face. "They just can't get my nose right!" He complained.

Both the other thieves rolled their eyes, "Who cares?" McQ asked.

"That's easy for you to say! Look at your wanted posters, you guys look amazing." Ajax shot back, gesturing at their posters on the tree before being cut off by a loud whinny. The three thieves looked up to see the Royal Guard sitting on their horses up the top of the ledge they'd just jumped down to get to the clearing. The Guards quickly disappeared into the trees in the direction of the sloped side route that led to the clearing to continue chasing them as the trio began sprinting again, Ajax shoving his wanted poster in his bag as he did so.

The group didn't get very far before stopping in front of a rocky wall that was blocking their path, which was way too high to jump over, it was about the height of two and a half people.

Ajax thought quickly, "Alright, give me a boost, and I'll pull you up." He told them.

Everett and McQ shared a look, then Everett shook his head. "Why don't you give us the satchel first." He countered.

"I- I can't believe that after all we've been through together, you don't trust me?" Ajax fake pouted, overdramatically. Only to receive deadpan stares in response. Oh yeah, neither of these two knew what humour was. "Ouch, that hurts, right here." Ajax muttered, pointing to his heart as he took the satchel off and placed it in Everett's outstretched hands.

They quickly formed a human ladder, Everett climbing on top of McQ's shoulders and then Ajax climbing up them both and then onto the top of the cliff, taking extra care to step on Everett's head in the process, a little petty payback for not trusting him.

"Now help us up, Ajax." The blond spat out the name like an insult.

The youngest of the three thieves gave him an extremely obviously fake smile. "Sorry, but my hands are full." He pulled the satchel out from behind his back, having stolen it back whilst climbing up the human ladder.

Ajax began sprinting away, as Everett checked to see he really didn't have the satchel, "AJAX!" He screamed, causing the young thief to laugh as he ran. That laughter quickly stopped when the five fully armed members of the Royal Guard, including the captain of the Royal Guard himself, began chasing after him again.

"Retrieve that satchel at any cost!" The Captain ordered. Receiving a chorus of yes sirs in response. His horse, a white stallion with brown spots, let out a loud whinny and received a chorus of neighs in response.

The thief slid under a fallen tree, as all five guards shot arrows at him. Ajax's eyes widened at the sight of the arrows embedded in the tree as he stood up and kept running, now getting shot at with every turn. Hastily he jumped through the branches of a tree, throwing four of the guards and their horses off his trail as the horses were unable to fit through the gaps between the branches.
Unfortunately the captain made it through on his horse. "We got him now, Lightning." He grinned, preparing to shoot another arrow at the boy.
Ajax thought quickly again and grabbed hold of a hanging vine, swinging around a tree and back behind the horse. Knocking the Captain out of the saddle as he landed on it in his place. For a moment the horse didn't notice, but the second Ajax tried to flick the reins the horse skidded to a stop.
"Oh, come on, come on. Go forward." He begged the horse. It began snapping at the satchel in his hand. "No. No! Stop it." The horse caught it in his mouth whilst Ajax still held onto the handle with his hand, "Give that to me!" He yelled. Trying to pull it out of the horse's jaw.

Finally he succeeded. Only for the satchel to go flying. Off the edge of a cliff and onto the thinnest branch it could've possibly gotten caught on in the tree that was growing vertically from the grass on the edge of the cliff.

Both thief and horse watched it land there and then scrambled to race to get to it first, tripping each other up as they ran over there. As the horse set hoof on the tree trunk, Ajax leaped onto its head. Instantly getting shaken off, he gripped onto the bottom of the branch with his arms and legs. He could've sworn the horse glared at him as he quickly began shuffling along the underside of the tree trunk towards his satchel, the horse stomping heavily on top of the trunk in an attempt to knock him down.
Their combined weight began to make the tree tip downwards and the satchel slip off. But just as it fell, Ajax caught it with one hand, dangling from the branch with the other. He waved it in the horse's face and laughed.

Then there was a loud cracking sound as the tree snapped and both of them began to plummet down the sheer drop of the cliff. The two shared a look that broke the language barrier between human and horse as in both languages it clearly translated into words as "We're going to die now, aren't we?"

They looked down and both began to scream as they noticed they were on course to collide with an extremely sharp rock.

Their tree hit the branch and the tree they were holding onto snapped in half, launching each of them away from the broken tree and into the air.

The horse landed on the ground, his mouth filling up with grass as he skidded across the ground of the woods, he spat the grass out and without taking a moment to recover, jumped to his feet, put his nose to the ground and began sniffing around like a tracker dog for any sign of the location of the criminal. He walked past a huge rock and then continued sniffing to the right of it.

Ajax stepped out from behind the rock that the horse had just passed and backed into what he thought was a solid rock wall covered in ivy. Then he jumped as he almost fell through the ivy. The thief lifted some of it out the way and then hearing the horse let out a loud neigh and hooves running in his direction, dived through the ivy curtain without a second thought, into a passageway through the rock.
He could see the horse's silhouette through the ivy, looking around, then upon failing to spot him, it started sniffing again. As soon as the horse was gone from the entrance, he ran through to the other end of the tunnel, looking behind him the whole time in case the horse followed him somehow.

Finally he turned around and his eyes widened with shock as he saw a huge clearing with a waterfall, a lake and weirdest of all, a huge old tower made of cream coloured bricks with ivy growing up the sides, wooden beams supporting the wider area up the top that was covered by a purple spire style roof. For a moment he simply stared at the tower, it was the middle of the woods, why was there a tower? But then he heard the horse neigh again and made his mind up to stop wondering why there was a tower and to simply climb it and hide inside it until that horse went away.
Really, the thing had almost got them both killed and now it's neighing was giving him anxiety too.

He ran over to the tower, pulled two arrows out of his satchel, stuck them into the grooves between some of the bricks and began to pull himself up to the top where there was an open window.
Eventually, after what felt like hours but was probably only fifteen minutes of climbing, he reached the window, jumped through it and slammed the window shutters closed. Leaning against a wall and panting from how out of breath he was. He opened his satchel and looked inside it at the crown. "Ha, alone at last." Ajax sighed.
Then something hard made contact with the back of his head and he fell to the floor, having lost consciousness.

Dan yelped, holding a frying pan in his hands from where he'd just knocked out the random stranger who'd entered his tower. He ducked down behind a chair in the centre of the room but then peaked back out from behind it when he realised the stranger wasn't moving.
He pushed the chair over with him as he moved forwards, then stepped out from behind it altogether, holding his frying pan out in front of him he poked the boy in the back of the head with it.
Nothing.
He looked over at Buzzy for help, but the chameleon simply shrugged. So he moved the boy's face onto its side so he could see it clearer.

The intruder looked around the same age as Dan was, although he didn't have any experience guessing ages having never met anyone other than him and his Mom, so he could be way off.
He had short, dark, brown hair with three yellow stripes running through it on one side and was dressed in a tan shirt with some interesting yellow embroidery stitching on the sleeves and green shorts.
Dan wasn't sure what to do now so he looked over at Buzzy again, this time the reptile actually had a suggestion, he turned red and used his tiny claws to mime sharp teeth, remembering Mother Omnivia's warning in her song from earlier about men with pointy teeth.
The blond turned his frying pan around and used the handle to open the other's mouth. Then let out a soft "Huh.." Upon discovering the intruder's teeth were normal and not sharp and pointy like he'd expected. Maybe by sheer luck this stranger wasn't one of the people his Mother had warned him about?

He built up the courage to flick the stranger's hair out of his eyes with his frying pan handle and then let out a breath he'd barely registered he was holding. He didn't look dangerous at all, he looked... Kind of peaceful?
Dan leaned in to look closer at the other.

His eyes snapped open.

Dan knocked him back out by slamming the frying pan down on his head as hard as he could.

That was when he decided he should probably move the intruder before he woke up again. Looking around the room he decided the only viable place to put him would be the closet. He wrapped his hair around the stranger and dragged them over to the closet and then spent about ten minutes trying to get the other inside. Pushing him in didn't work, tying him in his hair and throwing him in didn't work either because his hair got stuck inside the closet too, attempting to push him in there worked for three seconds until the other's weight pushed the doors open and he fell out, Dan then used a broom to shove him in the closet and slammed the doors shut, trapping four of the stranger's fingers in the gap between them. He winced in sympathy because that had got to hurt but then just pushed the other's fingers through the gap in the doors and pushed a chair up against the closet doors, underneath the handles so it wouldn't open.

Finally he stepped back, holding his frying pan out in front of him. "Okay, okay.. I've got a person in my closet." He blinked, a grin spreading across his face. "I have a person in my closet!" He burst out laughing. Looking into the mirror, "Too weak to handle myself out there huh Mom?" He joked, spinning the pan in his hand, "Well, tell that to my frying pan- Ow." He broke off, as he accidentally hit himself in the side of the head with his own frying pan.

Yeah, maybe if the person in his closet turned out to be nice, he'd apologise for hitting them with the frying pan. He'd hit them with about thirty times the strength he'd hit himself with by accident but damn his head hurt.

He rubbed the side of his face but then out of the corner of his eye, spotted something. It was the bag the person in his closet (The Person In His Closet!) had been holding when he'd knocked him out with his frying pan. But the thing of interest to him was the item inside it, it was unlike anything Dan had seen, heard or read about. A glinting circlet of gold embedded with jewels... He picked it out of the bag and held it in his hands, inspecting it thoroughly, it was cold to the touch and the metal and crystals shone in the light. Dan hummed curiosity filling him, maybe it could be a piece of jewellery? He stretched out one arm and slid the object onto it, looking at his chameleon for his opinion.

Buzzy shook his head and Dan had to admit he could see why, the metal was too heavy and weighed down his arm too much, plus it was too big for him to move his arm without it falling off.

Next, he held it up to his eye, trying to see through one of the crystals, everything through the gem was discoloured red but he could still see Buzzy shake his head again.

An idea hit him, he turned around and looked in the mirror as he carefully placed the item on his head. Buzzy's mouth fell open as if in awe, but then it snapped shut and he shook his head for the third time. Dan giggled, "Yeah, I guess not, huh buddy?"

"Dan!"

The boy jumped as he heard his Mother's voice call him from outside. He quickly dropped both the metal thing and the bag into a nearby pot and rushed to the window.

"Let down your hair!"

He opened the window and looped his hair around the metal hook, "One moment Mom!"

His mother smiled up at him, "I have a big surprise!" She called up, as he threw his hair down for her to hold onto.

Dan laughed awkwardly looking over his shoulder at the closet, "I do too."

"Oh, I bet my surprise is bigger." His mom replied, halfway up the tower.

Dan looked over at the closet again. "I seriously doubt it." He whispered.

The dark haired woman finally arrived at the window, sitting down on the window sill. "I brought back parsnips, I'm going to make hazelnut soup for dinner, your favourite." She announced, smiling generously as she hopped through the window into the tower.

"Well Mom, there's something I wanted to tell you.." Dan tried to tell her about the person in the closet but made the mistake of pausing for a second and his Mom began talking instead.

"Dan, you know I hate leaving you after a fight. Especially after I've done nothing wrong."

The boy nodded, even though his mom was looking in the opposite direction and couldn't see, "Ok, well, I've been thinking about what you said earlier, like a lot-"

"I hope you're not still talking about the stars." His mother cut him off, a sharp tone to her voice.

Dan winced, this was not going to be as easy as he'd hoped. But once he showed his Mom the person he'd knocked out, all by himself! And well, with his frying pan of course, there was no way she'd say no! "Floating lights and I'm getting to that-!"

"Good. Because I'd really thought we'd dropped the issue."

"No Mom, I'm just saying! You think I'm not strong enough to handle myself out there,"

His mother laughed, "Oh Dan, I know you're not strong enough to handle yourself out there." She looked at him, amused.

"But if you just-"

"Dan, we're done talking about this."

"Trust me!"

"Dan."

"I know what I'm-"

"Dan."

"Oh come on!"

"Enough of the lights Dan! You are not leaving this tower, ever!" Omnivia screamed, finally having enough of Dan's begging. The boy slowly took his hand off where he'd rested it on the chair that propped against the closet doors, no longer thinking of showing his Mother the person he'd locked away in there. His Mother sighed, sitting down in her chair. "Great. Now I'm the bad guy."

The blond around him, first down at his feet in shame then up at the painting of the floating lights and then at the closet as an idea hatched in his head. It was risky, but possible. All he needed to do was find a reason for his Mother to leave and then... "All I was gonna say, Mother, was that I know what I want for my birthday now." He spoke nervously.

His Mother didn't even look up at him, "And what is that?" She asked, clearly annoyed and expecting him to request to go outside to see something else instead of the lights.

"New paint.." He answered hesitantly, knowing his Mother was angry with him and not wanting to push her too hard "The paint made from the white shells you brought me once."

Omnivia looked at him, "Well that is a very long trip Dan, it's almost three days' time." She reminded the boy.

Dan nodded, "I just thought it would be a better idea than the..." He paused, knowing what he had to say to make his Mom think he really had changed his mind about this. "Stars." He finished.

For a moment his Mother just stared at him, then she sighed, standing up. "Are you sure you'll be alright on your own?" She asked him, and Dan had to stop himself from screaming with excitement that his plan had succeeded.

He hugged his Mom, burying his face in her shoulder so she wouldn't be able to see his slightly triumphant smile, "I know I'm safe as long as I stay here in the tower." His Mother kissed the top of his hair.

Approximately ten minutes later, Dan had finished packing a basket of food for his Mom, as she put on her cloak and got herself ready to go outside.

"I'll be back in three days' time." She told him, "I love you very much, dear."

"I love you more." Dan replied.

His Mother smiled, "I love you most." As she climbed down his hair and down the tower.

Dan stood there at the window watching as his Mom left and waving her goodbye one last time as she left through the passageway in the rocks that surrounded the hidden area of the forest the tower was in.

Then the very second she was out of his sight he ran back inside, grabbing hold of his frying pan again and holding it out in front of him like a weapon as he pulled the chair away from the closet. The doors didn't open by themselves so he took hold of some of his hair, threw it at the door handles so it would loop around them and tugged them so they opened.

For a moment nothing happened, then the unconscious person fell out of the closet and onto the ground, clearly having not woken up yet. Dan took a few cautious steps closer and the other still didn't wake up, "Huh.." He whispered.

It took a few minutes but after a short struggle Dan had used his hair to tie the stranger up in the chair he'd used to lock them in the closet with, then he pulled the chair into the bright part of the tower and retreated up to one of the wooden beams in the ceiling. Telling Buzzy to wake the intruder up. The chameleon climbed on the intruder's shoulder, reached out a small green hand and slapped him in the face, then out of fear turned the same shade of white on the boy's sleeve so he wouldn't get spotted when the stranger woke up.

A moment passed but the stranger did not wake up.

This time Buzzy slapped him twice with his tail.

Nothing.

He prodded him twice with his tail.

Nothing again.

The chameleon would have almost wondered if Dan had killed this stranger if he couldn't feel the movement from them breathing.

Buzzy narrowed his eyes and turned to face the intruder again. Then shot his tongue out into the stranger's ear and then quickly pulled it back out and jumped off the stranger as he finally woke up with a yell.

Ajax looked around panickedly taking in his surroundings, the last thing he remembered, he'd just entered that strange tower whilst trying to get away from the Royal Guard's horse that had nearly gotten them both killed. Now he was tied up in a wooden chair, some weird rope tying his arms, legs and torso to it, tight enough that he could barely struggle or fidget. He noticed the rope went from under his chair, trailing across the floor then up to higher levels of the room...
Then he realised something even weirder, "Is this... Hair?" He asked, still following the trail of rope or hair with his eyes up to a wooden beam in the ceiling completely shrouded in darkness. He squinted and could just about see the outline of a person up there.

"Struggling... Struggling is pointless!" He heard a voice call out.

And oh great, there was a person up there. They could see him clear enough to know he was trying to struggle out of his bindings and yet he could barely see them at all. Wasn't that every thief's favourite situation? When a thief was captured by someone, they usually ended up in a jail cell the next day, so this was fun. Ajax was basically doomed.

The figure jumped down from the roof beam and landed in the shadows on the ground floor. "I know why you're here and I'm not afraid of you." The voice spoke again, clearly trying to sound more confident than they actually did.

"What?" Ajax asked, genuinely confused. First he was knocked out, now he was tied up with what seemed to be hair of all things and now there was a mysterious shadow person addressing him who apparently knew why he was here.

Finally the figure stepped forwards into the light and Ajax saw exactly who it was who'd managed to knock him out and tie him up. A boy who looked around his age with bright blue eyes, long blond hair that seemed to be the same hair that was tying him to the chair, although there was a short stripe of bright red hair at the front of his head that really stood out against the blond. He was wearing a red shirt and blue patched up trousers and no shoes. "Who are you," He asked, "And how did you find me?"

Ajax simply nodded, "Uh huh." Completely dumbstruck by what he was seeing and by the situation he was presumably in. Two thought tracks ran through his head, one being that the boy in front of him was, weirdly enough, extremely pretty and two being: Literally who has hair that long? Why the hell is his hair that long? Wouldn't having hair that long be a pain? One of his thieving comrades has what would normally be qualified as long hair, about waist length when it's untied from her usual ponytail, and she was always complaining what a pain it was to look after, yet here this boy was with, what? One hundred feet of hair growing from his head? Oh god, was it still growing? One hundred feet of hair sounded like a huge pain already but one hundred and one feet-

"Who are you and how did you find me?" The boy repeated firmer, holding up his frying pan menacingly? Why did this guy have a frying pan? Was that what had knocked Ajax out? Seriously, a frying pan and the longest hair imaginable, who was this guy?

Oh wait. The boy was glaring at him and he really didn't want to get hit with that frying pan again. Always unable to resist a joke, Ajax cleared his throat and smiled, "I know not who you are nor how I came to find you." He announced overdramatically, "But hi, how are you doing? I'm Ajax, and oh my god, how and why is your hair so long?"

The blond just looked confused and then annoyed. Wow, Ajax's humour really seemed to have that effect on people, huh? "Who else knows my location, Ajax." He glared, pushing the frying pan in his face.

Ajax tried to push back away from the pan, but to no avail, "Alright blondie-"

"Dan."

"Oh so that's your name, ok Dan. Here's what happened, I was in a situation. Running through the forest, I needed a place to hide, I came across your tower and- Oh no." He began looking around desperately, then turned back to his captor with a pleading but panicked look, "Where's my satchel?"

Dan grinned, "I've hidden it somewhere you'll never find it." He crossed his arms, clearly proud of himself.

Despite the situation, Ajax decided to be annoying on purpose this time, he looked around and his eyes fell on a pot. "I bet it's in that pot over there." He nodded towards it with a slight smirk.

The boy's face flushed red and before Ajax knew it, he'd been knocked out again.

It took Dan about two minutes to move the satchel under the loose board on the bottom step leading upstairs and then to ask Buzzy to wake Ajax up again.

This time Buzzy was a little too slow removing his tongue from Ajax's ear, the boy snapped awake and yelped, shaking his head quickly to knock the reptile away from his face and shoulder that it'd been sitting on. "Would you stop that?" He asked, referring to the whole being knocked out thing.

"Now it's hidden where you'll never find it." Dan told him, and then started walking circles around the boy. "So what do you want with my hair, to cut it?"

"What?"

"To sell it?"

"No!" Ajax yelled, even more confused than he previously had been now, "The only thing I want with your hair is to get out of it. Literally."

Dan looked shocked, pausing beside him, "Wait, you don't want my hair?"

"Why on earth would I want your hair?" The thief shot back. "Look, I was being chased. I saw a tower, I climbed it. End of story." He tried to explain again, purposefully leaving out how he was being chased by a horse of all things.

"You're telling the truth?"

"Yes!"

The chameleon appeared on the blond's shoulder then climbed down his arm and onto the frying pan, getting right up in the thief's face, looking him up and down and then signalling with his tail for Dan to pull back the frying pan, narrowing his eyes at Ajax as he was pulled away.
If Ajax didn't know any better and to be fair, he didn't. He'd say that the chameleon was just as suspicious of him as the boy who assumed people wanted his hair for no given reason was suspicious of him.
Dan moved away and began whispering to the chameleon. Ajax took this as an opportunity to start trying to struggle out of the hair tying him to the chair again, listening in to what the boy with ridiculously long hair was saying as he did so.

"I know, I need someone to take me." The chameleon chittered, "I think he's telling the truth?" The chameleon made another noise, this one sounded faintly like buzzing weirdly enough. "He doesn't have fangs! Besides, what choice do I have?" The chameleon chirped once more then went quiet, the boy placed it on one shoulder.
"Okay, Ajax." He spoke again, directing his voice towards the thief still tied to the chair, "I'm going to offer you a deal."

Ajax blinked, "A deal?" He echoed.

Dan moved towards one of the walls and using his hair, attempted to pull the chair to face the wall, it didn't go so well and before Ajax knew it he was face down on the floor. Actually if that was on purpose he wouldn't be too surprised. "Do you know what these are?" Dan asked, pulling back a curtain and gesturing at a painting on the wall.

The thief raised an eyebrow from where he was lying on the floor now, "You know, it'd be a lot easier for me to tell you what those are if I could look at them upright.." He grumbled, "But it looks like that lantern thing they do for the lost prince." He replied, quite muffled from where his face was squished against the ground.

"Lanterns! I knew they weren't stars!" Dan's face lit up with excitement, "Well tomorrow evening they'll light the night sky with these lanterns. You will act as my guide, take me to see these lanterns and then return me home safely. Then and only then, will I return your satchel to you, that's my deal."

The yellow streaked boy sighed, somehow managing to flip the chair so he was lying sideways now. "Sounds great except the kingdom absolutely hates me at the moment, can't you just give my satchel back and find someone else to guide you? Because I can not and will not take you anywhere."

Buzzy made a hand movement of smacking one fist into an open palm, Dan noted this and jumped down from the platform, deciding to take the chameleon's advice. "Something brought you here Ajax," He spoke, glaring at the other boy as he pulled the chair upright with his hair, "Call it what you will. Fate, destiny..-"

"A horse, actually" Ajax quipped.

Dan nodded seriously, "So I've decided to trust you."

"You shouldn't have! Really. You shouldn't have."

"But trust me when I tell you this." He yanked the chair forward with his hair, his hand holding the chair up was the only thing keeping Ajax from tipping over onto the floor again. It was oddly threatening coming from someone who'd just had a whole conversation with their pet chameleon. "You can tear this tower apart brick by brick but unless you help me, you will never see your precious satchel again." He glared, voice simmering with danger.

"So let me check I've gotten this correct. I take you to see the lanterns, bring you back here and then you'll give me back my satchel?"

Dan nodded again, "I promise." Ajax just looked at him unconvinced, way too used to people trying to lie and deceive their way through things to believe a promise from someone who quite literally had knocked him out two or three times, had tied him up to a chair and was now essentially threatening him to take him somewhere. "And when I promise something, I never, ever break that promise." Ajax still looked unconvinced, now raising an eyebrow. "Ever."

"Are we certain there's no other way around this.. Like-..." Ajax sighed, knowing it was pointless. This Dan guy was as determined as his hair was long. "Fine, I'll take you to see the lanterns."

The blond screamed "Oh my god, really?!" Letting go of the chair and causing Ajax to fall onto the floor again. "Oops. Are you alright?"

"Three concussions and now probably a broken nose... I'm fine." He replied.

As soon as Ajax was untied, the two boys shook on their deal and then Ajax retrieved the arrows he'd dropped on the floor when he'd entered the tower that Dan had for some reason hidden behind a box of paint. He chose not to question that and to instead focus on making his descent down the side of the tower.

"Are you actually coming?" He called up to the blond who was still standing at the window at the top of the tower.

Dan had his hair looped around the hook as he leaned out over the window sill, frying pan under one arm. He looked down past his feet at the grass at the bottom of the tower. Finally the right words to finish his song from earlier came to his mind and he began to sing to give himself some more confidence.

"Look at the world, so close and I'm halfway to it. Look at it all, so big, do I even dare?" He wondered, looking back into the tower at the painting of him watching the lights, no, the lanterns. "Look at me, there at last, I just have to do it."

"Should I? No. Here I go."

He watched as Buzzy tied a piece of his hair around his waist like a harness, then gave a thumbs up.

Determined not to waste another second, he threw his hair down the side of the tower and holding onto it, laughing, he slid down it to the bottom. Ignoring the look he got from his guide as he did so.

Then he stopped himself right above the ground.

It was his first time seeing grass so close up... Every individual blade of it, it looked so soft, so green...

Slowly he placed one foot down onto it and then the other. He wriggled his toes in it, taking in the odd but nice sensation of the damp grass against his feet, of something other than floor or carpet beneath his feet.

He'd never thought he'd actually get to experience this.

"Just smell the grass, the dirt, just like I'd dreamed they'd be." He sang, touching the grass with his hands too now, then lying down and rolling onto his stomach to look close up at a flower, a dandelion clock, he'd never seen one still growing before. A gust of wind blew the flower's white fluffy seeds off it, "Just feel that summer breeze, the way it's calling me.." He jumped up and began to chase after the dandelion seeds until he stopped in surprise feeling his feet make contact with something familiar.

Water.

The water from the small lake that had formed from the waterfall.

"For like the first time ever, I'm completely free." He splashed some of the water into the air, then a bird flew past and that caught his attention. He began to chase after it "I could go running and racing and dancing and chasing," Then he spotted the passageway through the rock and ran for there instead.

"And leaping and bounding, hair flying, heart pounding
And splashing and reeling and finally feeling
That's when my life begins!"