"Good, I have the right place," Hyacinth said with a sigh of relief before walking past Reggie into the apartment. Hyacinth's shoulder brushed Reggie's arm which pulled him out of his stupefied stare. "Hey, hold on. Where are you going?" Reggie asked after Hyacinth but she was already turning the corner into the living room. Closing the door, Reggie followed after the strange girl. He found her already sitting in a chair in the living room waiting for him. "Umm, who are you and why are you in my house?" Reggie sat down opposite Hyacinth as he waited for an answer. "I told you my name but I suppose the situation does require further explanation." Hyacinth made a face like she was trying to figure something out. Reggie continued to stare as she thought about where to start. "Ok, I am Hyacinth Scarletta, I am a first-class wizard from a place called Azoria. I was sent here to help you with your mission."

"What mission? I don't ha–Did you say wizard?" Reggie thought he might have misheard her or maybe a wizard meant something else where she came from. He had never heard of a place called Azoria, not that he was a big traveler. It was entirely possible there was a place with that name somewhere in the world. "First class wizard," Hyacinth replied beaming with pride. "I am one of the youngest wizards ever to reach first class and the first woman to do it. Do you not have wizards on your planet?" Reggie's eyes suddenly went wide at the word "planet." His mind went straight to science fiction and fantasy novels he had read. There are many stories out there of people going between worlds or planets. Sometimes not voluntarily, but this probably wasn't some sort of summons since he was still at home.

"No, we do not have wizards except in fantasy stories and legends. What do you mean by my planet? You seem human to me." Reggie wondered if maybe she could be an alien in disguise. Another product of reading too much science fiction. "I am human, just not one from this world. Azoria is a world of wizards in another reality. One of countless other realities. Do you have any snacks?" Hyacinth started looking around the room. Reggie had tuned out by the time Hyacinth asked for a snack as his brain was still trying to comprehend the new information. "Huh? Did you ask something?" Reggie was starting to catch up but didn't hear the question. "Oh, I asked if you have any snacks. I haven't eaten since breakfast and it took so long to get here I didn't have time to find food."

"Yeah, sure. I have some chips in the kitchen." Reggie got up and slowly walked to the kitchen, looking back at Hyacinth every few steps as if he had something to say but nothing came out. He grabbed the half eaten bag of chips he got from the convenience store yesterday then went back into the living room, handed the bag to Hyacinth, and sat back down in the same spot. He was having a hard time forming sentences but Hyacinth didn't seem to notice the confused look on his face as she opened the bag and started eating. After the first tentative bite, she suddenly got excited and began eating them faster. Soon the bag was empty and Hyacinth was licking off her fingers.

"So, you are a wizard from another dimension." Reggie broke the silence with a statement as though it was just an interesting fact he found on the internet. "Why were you in my dreams?" Reggie was anxious but had already accepted everything said but still had a lot of questions. He didn't remember much about the weird dreams but once Hyacinth showed up, he remembered seeing her in all of them. She never spoke, but she showed up in each dream at random. Reggie still couldn't remember much about the dreams other than the numbers and the girl in front of him.

"I am actually surprised you remember me. Most people we send dreams only recall important information like the numbers in your case. It's not unheard of but rather uncommon. As to why I was there, that's a byproduct of sending dreams to someone. The caster usually ends up in the dream in some way. Do you have more of those chips? They were really good." Hyacinth was smiling again. Reggie couldn't stop staring. She was already pretty but when she smiled it was as though a spell made her beauty shine through. He was sure it wasn't actually magic, probably, but since he didn't know magic existed until 5 minutes ago he was unsure. "Sorry, out of chips. That was all I had. So you sent those dreams to me? I mean, obviously it was to send the numbers, but why? Obviously, I am pretty happy about it. I was able to quit my job this morning which was pretty great." Reggie still didn't understand what any of this had to do with him.

"We needed you to win the lottery to help with your mission. I guess it's our mission, technically. I am here to help you." Hyacinth's reply didn't really help Reggie understand. It made sense, in a way, that there was a purpose for this and not just to allow him to quit his job. "This is the second time you mentioned a mission. What mission?"

"The mission to save your world." Hyacinth responded as though that would clear everything up. Reggie needed more information. He is not opposed to saving the world. He enjoys living here. Well, not here specifically in this tiny apartment. Reggie's mind drifted to thoughts of moving to a nicer place. Maybe a house with a yard. Nothing too extravagant, he didn't want a big mansion. A modest home with a few bedrooms, and maybe an office. "Hello? You still with me? You have been staring absentmindedly for like 5 minutes now," Hyacinth asked with a touch of concern. Reggie snapped out of his dream home ideas and shook his head. " Sorry, I was daydreaming on a tangent about a new place to live. Why me? I am nobody. An average human male at best." This was something Reggie knew without a doubt. He wasn't full of himself. He didn't even mean it as a negative. It was just a fact.

"That's exactly why you were chosen. We needed someone whose future wasn't grand or life-changing. We need to stop a disaster but also have as little effect on everything else at the same time. See, this disaster isn't something that was supposed to happen. At least, not originally. My world, Azoria, monitors other realities' timelines. And before you ask, no we can't really see the future. We are able to come up with predictions of likely outcomes, similar to a weather forecast in your world. Up until a week ago, there was no sign of anything bad happening in the near future. Then the prediction models suddenly changed drastically. It's like having a forecast for a sunny day but getting a hurricane instead." Reggie's mouth had slowly dropped as Hyacinth provided her explanation until it was as wide open as it would go. She sat silently in front of Reggie as he wrapped his head around it. She didn't have to wait long this time.

"Ok, I think I am getting it now. You needed a nobody whose future was so benign that changing something like winning the lottery wouldn't affect the natural flow of events." Reggie nodded with understanding. "Where do we start? Do we have any information to help guide us?" Just because they knew something would happen didn't mean they knew what caused it. "Do we have a timeframe or something? When is this disaster supposed to happen?" Reggie hoped it wasn't one of those things where you only have like a week to do something. Not that it would matter, though. It's not like knowing when would help them solve the problem or allow them to delay it in some way. Reggie was about to add to his questions when he noticed Hyacinth wasn't sitting in front of him anymore. Where did she go? Maybe I have hallucinated this whole thing. The sound of the refrigerator door opening in the kitchen destroyed that idea.