I see Natrina's palace in the distance. In front of me on the river is a blazing flame and a lithe, smooth shape. Is that... Torch?

He jumps off the raft and shakes himself off. Flames sizzle and in the dim light I can see Riana. She's smiling and Torch puffs out his chest, looking way more impressive than he usually is.

"Torch!" I say, happy to see him even though we were supposed to split up. "What are you doing?"

"I was going to ask Natrina about my destiny. You?"

"How else was I supposed to get home without her? I hope she won't mind me asking for help again." I shrug.

"She'll probably be fine with it. I just wanted to see you guys off. I'll take care of the tree while you're gone if you want."

"That would be nice." mumbles Torch.

"Then it's settled. You can count on me." Riana puts her paw up to her face and salutes. "Well, guess this is the end of the line for me." She pads off the way we came, slowly at first.

She turns back, and says, "Good luck!"

"I'm going to miss her." I reflect.

"Me too." Torch says.

"I thought you hated her!" I tease.

He blushes violently. "What? No, I don't hate her! We're friends."

I snort. "Yeah right, then why are you blushing? Oooh, you like her, don't you? Come on, no sappy love triangles here. I really hate love triangles."

"Shut up, I don't like her! For crying out loud, be more mature!" Torch snaps, walking off towards the palace in a huff.

Even if it's mean, teasing Torch numbs the pain of my own love problems. I still miss her way too much. Snow Hare, dying and alone, will never know how much I love her. I never even got to say good-bye.

I knock on the enormous doors of Natrina's palace, and Torch and I walk in. Vines are draped over the halls, and little birds sing in the rafters. It truly is a kingdom of nature- a large orange cat-like animal with black stripes walks by me in the halls, and I stand still for a minute, waiting for it to pass. It's the size of me, and probably just as fierce, even without my epic water powers.

It walks up to me, teeth bared, and I blast it with water. It snarls, recoiling and then turns to me again. "I suggest you do not pick a fight with me. I am capable of more than you wish to know." It says angrily.

"Sorry, I'm not a big fan of large animals, unless they're Canira. They scare the heck out of me." I say nervously. I notice Torch's reaction is similar to mine, he's behind me with his tail flame burning bright.

"Why are you here, intruders?" purrs the tiger, looking down on us even though I'm his height.

I sound as dignified as possible, lashing my tail and staring into the eyes of the tiger. "We would like to speak to Natrina."

The tiger looks me up and down. "Spritz?"

"What?! How do you know my name?!" I spit, completely perplexed.

"You were Natrina's helper for three months. Do you seriously not remember any of her helpers? Because that is pathetic."

"No way, I totally do. You're Bob, right?"

He does a facepaw and leads Torch and I to Natrina. Natrina is even more radiant than last time I saw her. She wields a beautiful scepter in one hand and a bird perches in her other. A lily sits under her ear, crowning her glorious green fur.

She looks down at Torch and I and smiles. "Hello, guys! What brings you to my humble little abode?" The bird flies off her paw and out into the hallway.

"We're leaving." Torch says firmly, standing tall but I know on the inside he's crying.

"Hmm. Where to?" Natrina asks.

Torch bites his lip and says finally, "The city!"

Natrina nods. "Spritz?"

"I'm going back home." I say.

"Good! You can both go if you beat me. Two on one combat."

"What? Why?" I say, confused.

"You're the Imperial Three, correct? So if you're going to be strong enough to fight Obsidians, you've got to be able to fight little old me."

"Oh, you're on!" Torch growls.

I know perfectly well this type of thing always has a catch, but I walk up besides Torch and say, "Okay! We're in."

Natrina puts her scepter down and rounds off against the two of us. With a fluid motion, her vine whips slash out at us. I jump back, but Torch is hit square in the face. I run over to him, and Natrina binds my feet with vines and I fall over. Torch burns the vines and I'm back in the game. He launches a fireball at her and Natrina dodges gracefully.

I spearhead her with the trident, pinning her to the wall, and she goes limp. Fearing the worst, I let her down, and she binds my feet again. This time, I use my trident to break the vines, and Natrina wraps them around my trident and slams me into Torch. Torch catches himself on fire and burns me, but also manages to spray some embers at Natrina.

The burn marks sizzle, but I take the opportunity to layer a blast of water on top of the fire. Natrina falls to the floor.

Fearing the same trick, I ask Natrina, "Surrender?"

Her eyes glow for a second, and I see the giant shape of a birdlike dragon overhead, glowing green. I fall to my knees, vast physical pain wracking my body in waves. It intensifies, but Torch is resisting.

"No... I..." He screams. "No... got to..."

"Give up?" says Natrina.

"No." says Torch. "No... way..." He's losing consciousness fast.

"Yes." I speak up over Torch's moans. "We give up! Call off the... whatever that is."

Natrina returns to normal, the giant shape disappearing like a shadow at night. She grins like nothing happened, and announces, "Okay, you can go!"

Torch struggles to his feet. "Wait, what?"

"Psssh. I was testing you. You're the Imperial Three. I wanted to see if I could trust you to get us out of this mess with the Obsidians."

"We failed." I whimper. "We'll never face the Obsidians like that."

"You didn't have Avery or the Fourth so I don't think you were-"

I cut her off. "There's a fourth?!"

"Nooo... of course not. Just you guys. Slip of the tongue." She smiles guiltily.

There's a Fourth.

"Just go on already. About your skills? You've had them all along. This isn't about magically gaining them, it's about proving they exist. Even if you might not have had it the way you think you did, you've all shown your characteristic somewhere in your life."

I look up at her. She's been watching us somehow, I can tell. If she owns the forest, what's to stop her? Heck, we might've eaten her spies once or twice. She could be using rabbits, birds, Canira... who knows?

Torch seems to be thinking the same thing, but he asks, "Do you know where Dark Rainbow went?"

"Torch, there's a lot you don't know about Dark Rainbow. Her journey will be much different from yours. She's got to figure out what destiny she should choose. She has three to pick from, after all."

"Three?"

"Yes. The Obsidians, the wol- Damn it, Torch! I'm not going to tell you! Then Verhamera would come in with the mindwashes so we can all 'live out the way we were meant to' and I'll get grounded again for messing with time-space... oh well, point being I can't tell you anything. I've got Dragonfly Canira harnessed outside to take you where you want to go. Just get out there before I end up ruining your life."

Torch stares at her, obviously confused. "Thanks."

Natrina hands me a plane ticket. "Listen," I say, "I don't want to break the space-time whatever, but can you tell me if I'll see her again?"

Natrina watches me with interest. She looks thoughtful and reflective for a second, and finally says, "No, that would be breaking the rules. Bye!"

I get on the back of a Dragonfly Canira waiting outside, a huge green Canira taller than me with huge wingspan almost the size of a tree. It has aviator glasses on and it's hovering up and down outside.

"Airport." I say, and he nods, taking me away into the clouds.