this was requested by ShannonMae05 and it will be a 2-3 part series to make up for the lack of ian imagines last week :-) it was originally going to be one long part but my arthritis is super bad in my hands currently and i am having a huge depressing day!

/ / /

Barley backed Guinevere the Second out of the driveway. "Okay," he said, "best way to the park is to take a little something called the Road of Ruin."

"Uh..." Ian sneered his nose. "It's too obvious."

"Wait, what?" Barley blinked.

"On a quest, the clear path is never the right one." Ian smiled at his older brother as he quoted him. He put a spell on the van to lift it right off of the road.

"Oh yeah!" Barley exclaimed. As he pressed his foot down on the gas, the van drove right in the air. "This is awesome, Ian! How did you figure out you could do this?"

"Uh, I just kinda assumed I could. Or, well, I believed I could. You taught me a lot Barley, but I mostly learned to just believe in myself."

"And to speak from your heart's fire," Barley added.

"That kinda goes hand-in-hand with the believing in myself, don't you think?"

"Eh." He nodded. "I suppose you're right. Hey, you're doing awesome, by the way. I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks, man. That --- that means a lot. It really does."

"So when we get to the park, I thought we'd do a little bit of everything. We can play catch, you know, if you want, and then we can practice some magic. I know you're getting really good at your spells so there's just a few more that I want to you to try out."

As Barley spoke, Ian looked out the window, his cheek resting against his hand. He watched the sun set against the light purple sky. The wind was cooler up here, so he rolled down his window and smiled at the feeling of the breeze against his face.

Then he saw something fluttering in the wind. He narrowed his eyes and leaned out of the window a little. Whatever it was, it was winged. If it was a bird or a dragon or some other type of flying creature, it sure looked strange. A trail of purple glitter followed the piece of fluttering wings as it followed a path through the breeze.

Without looking, he smacked his brother's arm to get his attention. "Hey, Barley? What is that?"

Barley glanced over. "Uh... that looks like it's a... I don't --- I don't really know what that is. It looks like a paper bird. Ooh! Is it sparkling?"

"I think it is." Ian stuck the wizard staff out of the window. "Aloft Alevar!"

He captured the fluttering wings and pulled it into the van. It fell on his lap with a light sound and the magic dissolved around it.

"It is a paper bird," Barley gasped softly. "It's an enchanted letter!"

"You can enchant letters?" Ian asked.

"You can enchant anything if you're an advanced enough wizard," he said.

Ian hesitantly touched it, just making sure that it wasn't alive. Barley parked the van in midair as he watched his little brother slowly unfold the wings. It was a piece of light purple parchment; nearly the same shade as the sky.

"It's a letter," Ian said, his eyes raking across the pen marks.

"Well, what does it say? Read it aloud!" Barley pressed. He turned in his seat.

"To whoever comes across this letter," Ian read aloud, "please know that it is crucial that you find a way to save my life. If you have found this letter and don't think you are up for the task, please give it to someone who might be willing to save me. There's only so much that I can say in a single letter, but I can only hope that this is enough. I have been placed under a curse and trapped in a tower that I cannot escape. Please know that I am in grave danger. Attached is a map that will lead you to my location. Please hurry."

He lowered the letter. Barley's eyebrows were pinched together as he thought about what he had just heard. "Is there... is there a signature? A name of any kind?"

"No," Ian said. "There's nothing except for what I read. Oh, and a date... this was written two days ago."

"Well, we'd better hope they're still alive," Barley said. "We've gotta do something to save them."

Ian shook his head. "Barley, we can't just one hundred percent trust that this is real."

"We can't one hundred percent ditch the idea that this isn't a person that needs us either." Barley and Ian both frowned, their looks mirroring each other.

"Fine, I'll tear the map off," Ian said, and he folded the paper so that he could rip along the crease. "And on the back of the enchanted paper, I will write a response asking them to identify themselves. If we get a response and it sounds real, then we can go help them."

Barley nodded. "That sounds like a plan. What will you say?"

Ian opened up the glove box and rummaged through the parking violations and speeding tickets for a while until his fingers closed around an ink pen. "I will say... uh... I don't know. I will speak from my heart's fire. How about that?"

Barley chuckled. "That isn't how it works. Let me write the letter."

/ / /

That night, Ian locked his bedroom door so that he could slip into his pajamas. He changed into his dad's old sweatshirt and grabbed his shorts out of his drawer. Before changed, he felt the map in his pocket. He pulled it out and unfolded it. As he looked at the map, he felt a breeze blow through his open window.

A brand new folded piece of sparkling paper blew in past the closed curtains. He gasped as he flew right against his chest. His hands slapped it against himself as he caught it. The wind stopped and he pulled the paper back to read it. In the same swooped handwriting, he read:

I apologize for not being thorough enough in my previous letter. You see, I have been more concerned for the state of my life than thoroughness in my writing. I am trapped inside of a tower inside of my own palace. My people have been killed. My family is gone. All that is near me is a very large, terrifying dragon. Every single day it comes closer to finding where I am. I don't think it will leave until it has killed me.

My name is ___ and I am a princess. The location circled on the map that I sent is where my kingdom is located. I am seventeen years old. Please help me. I am not the type of person to ask for help unless I completely needed it. And I need it. I need your help.

To respond, please write on the back of the page and wait for me to get back to you. I'm not a wizard, I am just a princess that has been gifted with a lot of enchanted objects and an abundance of paper. A princess that is awaiting a knight so bold as to rescue me, as all of the stories go. Please respond soon.

Ian swallowed hard and turned to his desk. He grabbed a pen from his pencil cup and uncapped it with his teeth. He responded quickly.

Hi. I just got this letter and I am willing to help. My name is Ian Lightfoot.

He sat back, sticking the cap on the back of the pen and looking down at the paper. It only took a moment for the ink to swoop in response below his line.

Oh, good. So I was thorough enough. Can you locate me? Does the map make sense to you? Please, I am desperate.

Ian glanced at the map again. I think we can, he wrote, My brother can anyway, he's really good at this kind of stuff. He is the one that wrote the letter earlier. We weren't sure if you were real or not or if this was a trick. We didn't even know there were princesses. There are really still princesses these days?

"Hey, Barley!" Ian called out.

There are a few closed kingdoms that still remain. Not many, and clearly mine is no longer. Are you two wizards? the handwriting wrote out. Did I really manage to find wizards to rescue me?

I am a wizard. A new one, though.

I thought I had hit the gold mine with you, Ian Lightfoot. Oh well, that's better than no wizard at all, or having my call for help falling on deaf ears. How new are you?

I just got this staff for my sixteenth birthday a few months ago. I'm not bad at magic though, and my brother and I are willing to come and rescue you.

"Barley!" Ian yelled.

"What?!" his brother screamed back.

"I need you in here!" He looked back down at the paper.

Well thank you. You and your brother are brave. I promise you that I will repay you in any way that I can.

"Barley---"

"What is it? I was in the middle of an intense game with--- oh hey, did you get another letter?"

"Yes. And her name is ___ and she is a princess being hunted by a dragon that has killed all of her people and destroyed her kingdom. I told her we'd help her because I figured... I figured there's a reason the enchanted letter found me, right? What if we're the closest wizards to her? We've got to rescue her."

"A rescue?" Barley asked. "The rescue of a real-life princess?"

"Yeah," Ian whispered. He handed his brother the piece of paper.

"Oh... my brother, this is perfect." He grinned.

"How is it perfect?" Ian asked. "She needs help."

"And help her we shall. All we must do is get there which basically means we just have to endure blistering winds and scorching deserts, slay the evil dragon, and climb to the highest room in the tallest tower! Pack a bag, dear brother. We leave tonight!"

Twenty minutes later, Ian got into the van. Barley was filling the gas tank before they started their journey. Ian pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket and grabbed a pen.

We are leaving right now. Barley thinks that we can get to you by tomorrow night if we keep going and don't stop. Will you be okay?

I hope so. I cannot make any promises. I'm in the highest tower of the palace and I think that the dragon is starting to realize where I am. Its begun flying closer and closer to me. I am being as silent as I can manage but it is easy to be afraid, and I am afraid.

Ian inhaled softly and pulled his feet up onto the seat. He had never been a hero before. He wasn't even sure what it was like to be a hero. He was always in the background, and only recently had he started to come out of his shell a little bit. He scratched a line into the paper absentmindedly as he thought, and then he wrote:

We'll be there. Trust me when I tell you that everything is going to be okay. We are coming to rescue you.

/ / /

p.s whoever catches the references in my story and in the title wins the game where you get no prize but i say good job