Once Upon a Time, in the magical land of Andalasia, ten years after their adventure which took place in what you readers know as New York City, there lived a young king and queen named Edward and Nancy. They ruled their kingdom fairly and with compassion, and they cared for all who lived there. The king and queen loved each other dearly, and they had been living happily ever after since their wedding day, but this is the beginning of a new story. And it all began one summer's night...

It was a peaceful night in the enchanted forest. All of the animals were sound asleep. A few fireflies danced dreamily upon the surface of a nearby stream, reflecting the glistening stars in the clear night sky. All was quiet in the wood, and not a single fish or firefly noticed that something beneath the water was giving a mysterious glow that caused ripples in the stream—as if it was an invisible skipping stone—or that a mysterious cloaked figure hidden among the shadows was watching the glow intently.

The cloaked figure approached the stream. It reached for the source of the glow, but was stopped when the glow shot out a lightning bolt, like a venomous snake, at the figure's extended hand! The figure drew its hand back sharply to avoid the strike. Eyes filled with rage, the figure disappeared back into the shadows.

..•~*~•..

The morning that followed started off as another normal day in Andalasia. Like always, Queen Nancy woke at sunrise to be serenaded by her husband King Edward and a pair of bluebirds that always flew together. Edward twirled her in a good morning dance as the bluebirds flew around them. They were eventually joined by their now seven year old daughter, Princess Lily Edwina of Andalasia. Lily had her mother's dark hair and heart-shaped mouth, and her father's sparkling blue eyes and button nose. After a joyful and laughter-filled breakfast, Edward kissed his wife and daughter goodbye until he returned at day's end. The king would ride off with his men to see if anyone in the kingdom needed help; and if there were no problems among the townspeople, they would patrol the forest. While Edward was on "kingdom watch" and Lily went to her tutoring, Nancy would go to her study to devise solutions to current problems and and concerns expressed by the citizens to Edward the day before. On some days Nancy would go with Edward to gain better insight into what was happening in the kingdom. This however, was not one of those days.

Sometimes, Nancy would leave her study to go to the castle gardens, where she would sit under her favorite willow tree with a book and take in the scent of the flowerbeds. The gardens were occasionally visited by friendly bees and butterflies traveling through the air like rainbow leaves and fuzzy rays of sunshine. Visiting the gardens always made Nancy feel less lonely when the rest of the royal family was busy.

Today however, when Nancy visited the gardens, the first thing she noticed was that there was something unusual about the water in the duck pond. Usually, the garden's duck pond was sky blue silk. When Nancy saw the pond this morning, however, it was more transparent, like the water from her native world. Andalasia is a two dimensional world, illustrated in Vector lines, painted in variations of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black colors - beautiful, but without the reflections, dimensions and refractions of her previous world. Nancy could distinguish the shimmering scales and gills of the fish swimming in the water below. She could see the details of all the individual pebbles and grains of sand that lay at the bottom. Usually in Andalasia, the pebbles don't seem to have any texture, and the sand is just a light, brown blanket. The fish never seem to have any texture, let alone shimmering scales and moving gills.

"That's weird," she said to herself.

"What's weird?" asked an orange fish who happened to overhear her as he was swimming by. Beneath the water line, he was a sparkling goldfish, catching the sunlight in his scales, as his fins undulated back and forth. But his head, which poked above the water line, was an Andalasian orange; a flat marigold, orange-filled line drawing.

By now, Queen Nancy had long gotten used to the concept of talking animals in Andalasia, and casually responded with, "Oh nothing, just noticing something different about the pond today."

"You're seeing it too?!" asked the fish, eyes blinking in surprise.

Nancy gave the fish a look. "What are you talking about?," she responded, "Of course I'm seeing this."

"Well..." the fish made nervous side glances as he spoke. "You're the first person who has noticed this change in the water, I think. No one else from the surface seems to have even acknowledged it. None of the other fish have any idea how this happened. Same with the frogs and ducks. Yesterday everything was normal, and this morning, we all woke up to this!"

The fish dove his head back into the water before coming back up.

"Sorry about that Your Majesty," the fish apologized with a sigh. "Had to take a breath after all of that talking. We fish can't keep our heads above water all day."

"That's alright," said Nancy. "You shouldn't have to be sorry for needing to breathe. And you don't have to call me Your Majesty. Just Nancy is fine."

"Alright, Just Nancy," said the fish.

Suddenly, a bright glint of sunlight sparkling on the surface of the pond's water caught Nancy's eye and she had to hold up her hand to shield her sight from blindness. Curious about what was reflecting the light, she told the fish to wait while she went over to investigate. Nancy walked over to the other side of the pond, where the water met the garden's wall, and beneath the surface was a tunnel that allowed fish and other water-dwelling animals to travel in and out of the pond and into the stream that flows through the forest. Just a few inches away from the entrance of the underwater tunnel, Nancy saw a small crystal half-buried in the sand.

Nancy reached her hand into the water, and gasped when she saw her hand change beneath the surface. It still looked like her hand, but at the same time seemed different. She was so surprised that she fell into the pond! Luckily, Nancy was a good swimmer and the water wasn't very deep. She scooped up the crystal with one hand and lifted herself back up until she was standing in the water, which was only waist deep, spitting out a mouthful of water. Nancy was just about to take a closer look at the jewel when—

"Just Nancy!"

Nancy turned to see the orange fish she had been talking to before frantically swimming toward her.

"Just Nancy, are you okay? You were over here and I heard a splash! I was scared you were drowning!" the fish kept diving his head in and out of the water between sentences.

Nancy laughed and said, "It's okay, I'm not drowning."

The fish sighed with relief, and then noticed the crystal. "What did you find?"

"I think it's a jewel," said Nancy, her focus back to examining the crystal. It was teardrop-shaped and big enough to fit inside the palm of her hand; it was a pale blue with hints of white that matched the color of the clear Andalasian sky. "Do you know where it might have come from?"

The fish shook his head. "Are you sure it's not from the castle?"

"Although I used to accidentally misplace jewels all over the gardens and my daughter often hides her own everywhere," answered Nancy. "I don't recognize this one."

"Maybe it got washed in by the river," the fish suggested. "Don't know who might have dropped it, though."

"I doubt it was a troll's," said Nancy, mentally going over what she knew about the creatures of Andalasia from all the years she had spent living there. "Might have been from a dwarf since they mine gems in the caves...fairies usually only need gems for creating pixie dust...elves, I need to get back to that...goblins are hoarders, but they don't like water...ogres, I need to get back to that...dragons also tend to be hoarders...maybe it belongs to a local merchant?..."

"Your thoughts are making me dizzy," said the fish, whose head was now surrounded by a halo of tiny floating ducklings and starfish. Nancy decided to stay quiet until the fish recovered.

"Maybe we'll figure this out on another day," Nancy suggested. "In the meantime, maybe you should ask around to see if any of the other animals in the forest know who this crystal might have belonged to. I'll hold onto it until we find the owner."

"Good idea," said the fish, splashing the water with excitement. "I can start right now if you want!"

"Wait, before you go, what's your name?" Nancy asked as the fish was about swim through the tunnel.

"I'm Flip!"

"Well, it was nice meeting you Flip!"

"Do you need any help getting out of the pond?"

Nancy had almost forgotten that she was still in the water. "No need, I can easily climb out onto dry land from here. I've got this."

Upon saying this, she waded over to the edge of the pond and Flip watched as she scooted herself back out until she was no longer in the water. Flip still looked concerned.

"What's wrong, Flip?"

"Is your dress gonna be alright?" asked Flip. "It looks like it got ruined in the pond."

"Nothing to worry about," reassured Nancy, with a smile. "It just needs to dry off. Worst case, the seamstresses won't be very happy with me for getting it wet."

"Okay," said Flip, feeling better. "Well, bye Just Nancy! Good luck with the stone and seamstresses!"

"Good luck to you too, Flip," Nancy waved as Flip disappeared under the garden wall.

As soon as she went inside, she had snuck into her and Edwards' bedchamber, changed into a dry dress, and placed the crystal in the empty top drawer of her night table for safekeeping. She couldn't focus on writing solutions to community problems, which she usually had an easy time with, for the rest of the day. All Nancy could think about was the crystal she and Flip had found in the garden.

..•~*~•..

That evening, while the royal family had dinner together, Nancy's mind was still on the jewel. She found herself getting distracted during dinner, and almost forgot to tell Lily her nightly bedtime story. When Edward reported the progress he had gotten from today's kingdom patrol, she had to ask him to repeat everything twice.

Nancy didn't know whether or not to tell Edward about the crystal. Although she trusted him with all her heart, she knew that he could sometimes be pretty reckless and she didn't want him to make a big deal about it. But she also didn't want to risk the chance of endangering the kingdom if the jewel was important to whoever lost it.

Finally, as Nancy lay awake that night, she made up her mind that she would tell her husband about her discovery tomorrow. What she did not notice was that, while she and Edward were asleep, the crystal was projecting beams of white light through the invisible cracks of the drawer where it was hidden.