Addie's POV

"I missed you too girl!" I was in my home playing with Ivy by rubbing her stomach as her foot kicked in the air while she was on her back on the floor when I heard a knock on my door

"I'll be right back." I assured Ivy as I got up to answer the door. On the other side of the door was Aspen accompanied by two girls I had hadn't seen around Beacontown before.

One girl had light skin, purple hair, blue eyes, and wore a long jacket over a shirt and a skirt with boots.

The other girl had brown eyes and hair, was wearing a pink shirt with a blue skirt, light blue sneakers, a pink bow in her hair that had a pink highlight and a bracelet with a butterfly charm on it.

"Hey Aspen, who're these two?" I greeted the girls with a small handwave.

"This is Lily and that is Lily Rose." Aspen introduced the two girls

"So there are now two Lily's and two Rose's in Beacontown? Cool." I thought out loud.

"We're your new neighbors!" Lily Rose told me perkily and gave me a bone-crushing hug out of nowhere.

"Well, technically, we've been living here for almost two weeks already, but you weren't here." Lily added factually as Lily Rose released me from her hug.

"Yeah, I live on your right and Lily here lives on your left."

"Well, it's nice to finally introduce myself to you two, I'm Addie." I was about to give them a handshake when Ivy started barking behind me and wriggled through my legs to stand in front of me in a protective stance.

"Aww! You have a dog and her flower crown is so cute!" Lily Rose kneeled and held out her hand for Ivy to sniff. After she got used to her, Ivy barked happily and ran around her in circles as Lily and Lily Rose started to pet her gently.

"Phew... Sorry about that, Ivy can be a little protective of me even before I left for so long." I told the girls as Ivy settled down by my feet, whining for me to pet her so I did.

"Well, I'm glad you guys got to meet each other, but I got to go, I need to walk the colts out to the meadow to graze for a little while." Aspen told us and she started climbing the stairs that led down to the street.

"It was nice to finally meet you Addie, maybe we could hang out sometime?" Lily asked me and I responded with a smile and a thumbs up.

"Bye Addie bye little Ivy!" Lily Rose waved vigorously to me and Ivy as they started down the stairs as well.

"That was fun," I smiled to myself as I closed the door to my house and made my way over to my desk that was exactly how I left it almost a year ago and my smile started to fade, "I guess a lot really did change while I was gone for only a year..." I sat down and put my hands on the sides of my face, taking the hand that had the bracelet on it away so I could look at it.

"Is this really how eternity is going to feel? Watching everything and everyone around me change while I just... stay the same..." I saw my highlight turn blue with my emotions.

Believe me, these past 1000 years were not enjoyable for me either...

I heard Melaferrum's voice in my head, remembering how she spent almost 1000 years "asleep" inside my bracelet.

"Now's not a good time Mel..." I thought internally and I felt her presence leave as quickly as it had come.

I put my hands on my face, feeling bad about pushing Mel away, and moaned sadly when I felt a cold wet nose on my elbow. I put my hands down as Ivy looked at me with her big black eyes and whimpered a bit. Sighing, I pet her on the head and I got up saying,

"Come on, let's go on a walk, I need to clear my head." I told Ivy as we left my house and walked through Beacontown with Ivy by my side. I got so lost in my thoughts that I almost didn't notice someone trying to call me until they were right next to me,

"Overworld to Addie!" (Reference ^^)

"Aah!" My highlight turned white with fear as I jumped high into the air, unintentionally accessing my ability to fly without having to shift forms. When I came back down, I saw that it was Stone who was calling to me.

"Oh hey Stone, you really scared me there." I told him as I tried to slow my quickly beating heart and my highlight turned back to its normal red color.

"Woah, was not expecting the sudden hair change, but I'm sorry 'bout that. Dreamer's been trying to find you cause he needs a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"I don't know, he said it's official 'Mine Guard business'."

"Ok then? Where is he?"

"He's in the Mine Guard headquarters."

"There's a Mine Guard headquarters?! Man... I really did miss a lot while I was gone..."

"Come on, I'll show you the way." Stone held his hand out to me, but Ivy growled defensively at him and he took his hand back.

"Easy Ivy, he's a friend." I told her as I put my hand on her head to make her ease up a bit, but she remained tense as we started walking towards Bad Luck Alley.

"The Mine Guard headquarters is in Bad Luck Alley?" I looked to Stone confused.

"No, we're just taking a shortcut to get there faster." Stone assured me as we started to walk through the dimly lit street.

As we continued to walk through, there was a tense silence until Stone broke it with,

"Is all that true?"

"Huh?" I looked to him confused.

"That you spent almost 300 years on an island in the middle of the ocean guarded by killer kelp because you're cursed?"

"Yep, that's all true." I confirmed for him and he put his hands to his temples and mimicked an explosion.

"That's insane, how did you survive for all those years and still look... young?"

"Well, long story short I was trying to find who had killed my adoptive parents when I came across the temple of my infinity great grandfather, Torvo, that had this bracelet in it," I paused to hold the bracelet up before continuing, "I took it and it cursed me to the 'Isle of Banishment' the same place that Torvo was exiled to until someone set me free."

"Which was Jesse and Lukas?"

"Correct, and, in doing so, it forced Torvo's spirit to leave this world."

"So... essentially he's gone forever?"

"Yep."

"Put some mystical, talking animals in that story and you've got a best selling fantasy novel on your hands."

I looked to Stone confused until he waved his hand dismissively and told me,

"Nevermind."

"We could get there faster if I fly, but I don't know if I'll be able to carry you and Ivy at the same time," I stopped in my tracks when an idea came to mind, "Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Ok, I'm going to try something, just stay right there and, Ivy, go stand next to him." I told Stone and signaled Ivy to sit next to him as she growled at Stone, making him flinch.

"Hopefully this doesn't end in disaster..." I muttered to myself.

"Sorry, what?" Stone questioned with disbelief before I shifted forms and hovered right above Stone and Ivy before encasing them in a purple forcefield that began to fly above the ground.

"Woah!" Stone lost his balance inside a few times as Ivy just sat there watching him struggle with an amused doggish smirk on her face.

"Hang on!" I warned them as I began to fly at a steady pace above Beacontown.

"Which building is it?" I asked Stone as he continued to wobble around inside the forcefield.

"The gray and blue building right there!" I saw the building made of blue and gray concrete blocks with some spruce wood detailing on the edges. I landed the forcefield on the roof and Stone ended up on his back with Ivy landing harshly on his stomach forcing the air out of him.

"Sorry about that! Landings aren't really my forte." I landed on the ground, still in my flight form and picked Ivy up. Stone got up and waved his hand as he wheezed to get air back into his lungs.

"All good." He gave me an assuring fist shake as he regained his breath.

"Addie, Stone." I looked over to a trapdoor that was on the roof and saw that Jack was standing next to it, "Come on in."

I changed back into my regular form, still holding onto Ivy under one arm as we walked over to the trapdoor and climbed down the ladder inside the building. As we climbed down, Stone asked,

"Are you just able to change forms whenever you feel like it?"

"Yeah, but it tires me out if I shift too much in a short time." I answered right before we landed in a small room and I put Ivy down.

"Glad you got our message, Addie." Sadie walked into the room we had landed in from the ladder, "Welcome to the Mine Guard Headquarters." She gestured with open arms to the room as I saw some maps of the world and various towns close to Beacontown, some anvils and enchant tables with chests around them, a library of books, racks of various weapons, including wooden swords for practice fights, and a few crafting and cartography tables.

"Wow, this is quite the place you got set up." I looked around in wonder, fingering the books on the shelves.

"Yeah, we managed to put this together after we decided to become an official team instead of a little side gig." Jack told me as he straightened out an iron sword that was on a rack.

"So, what's the favor you called for me to do?"

"We wanted to ask if you'd be able to design the official Mine Guard banner for us." Sadie answered as she held a blank white banner up.

"Sure thing," I took the banner in my hand and pocketed it to work on later, "Is there a specific design you wanted me to do?"

"We just want something that feels like... us and what we represent, if that makes sense." Jack tried to explain.

"Gotcha."

"And if you could have it done by the lunar eclipse celebration in three days, that would be awesome." Sadie added gratefully.

"Wait what?"

"Yeah, there's going to be a lunar eclipse celebration since it's been 1000 years since the last one." Stone explained to me as he pointed out the window at something.

When I went to look outside, I saw a bunch of pale, full, red moon outlines against a black background with small white blotches scattered on the background.

"Oh man..." I thought of when Mel warned me of the "eclipsed night" that was coming, but I didn't think it would be coming so soon.

"Oh man, what?"

"'Oh man', I can't wait for that lunar eclipse." I faced the others with a wide smile and cheering fists making Ivy look at me weirdly, "I better get started on that banner design before my creativity leaves me, see ya!" I picked Ivy up and climbed out onto the roof where I shifted forms quickly and flew off to my house. Landing hastily, I put Ivy down, changed back to my regular form, and ran across the thin bridge to my library, where I had stashed the codebook, pulled it down from the shelf, and opened it.

"Mel, we've got work to do." I announced out loud and my bracelet glowed in unison with the cover of the codebook.

2121 Words

AN- Another extra-long chapter for y'all! I'm happy to have added in two new OC's: Lily Rose from EclipseDragonet and Lily Rose from SweetHeart-Rose.

Thanks for all the support and feedback on me submitting Rebooted into the Watty Awards for this year. I don't care if I don't or do win, I'm just glad that I got to create something to share with you all who support one fandom or another and that I can keep learning new skills in writing like elaborating emotions in certain situations and how to write a good fight scene, which I'm still working on. Until the next chapter, Bye!