"Wake up! Fast!" Owen almost rolled out of the tree as he awoke to the jarring words. It took him a moment to remember that he was in a tree and that he had talked to Cassidy, the woman in the tree, the night before. After his mind was clearer, he thought back to her urgent message. "Why? Why did I have to wake up?" he asked quickly.

"You can't sleep in the daytime here," Cassidy answered. "You're fine at night, but once morning comes and you're still sleeping, she can get you."

"Who can get me?" Owen asked, alarmed. The sunlight was only just appearing through the forest canopy. What would have happened if he had slept just a minute longer?

"You don't know?" Cassidy sounded surprised. "You came here on a quest without being warned about her?"

"Maybe I was, but I won't know until you tell me who 'her' is."

"Lumbia!" she said in a scared whisper. "The evil queen of Etherea."

"Oh, yes. I was warned about her." He hadn't paid much thought to evil Lumbia before, but now that he had heard her name from another person, the danger suddenly felt more real. "What would she have done?"

Cassidy's shudder sent the whole tree trembling slightly. "Dreams are her domain. If she catches you in them, she can keep you as her prisoner, tortured by nightmares, forever."

"That doesn't sound good," Owen said quietly.

"It's not."

For a moment there was silence, and Owen listened to the wind whistling through the leaves of the trees. Then he remembered he had a question that had gone unanswered. "Cassidy, you were going to tell me how you know all this--about your curse, Etherea...everything. Someone must have told you."

"Right, yes. I was told by a fairy who lives here in Etherea. She's not like Lumbia. She's a little ditsy, but good-natured."

"What's her name? Could I talk to her?" Owen asked. He was excited at the prospect of actually figuring out what he was supposed to do.

"She calls herself Honeyflower, but I'm pretty certain that name was made up by her. I think her real name is something like...Ara, or Era. Hmm. Or maybe it was..."

"Ira?" Owen interrupted, slightly horrified.

"That's it! Her real name is Ira. She's very nice. I'm sure you could talk to her. She lives in these woods."

Owen blinked in confusion. "Nice?" He shook his head. "She's the one that cursed Claire. Claire's the girl I'm on this quest for," he added for Cassidy's knowledge.

"It is funny how things work between the real world and Etherea. Things and people exist in both of them at once, but they are cursed forms, shadows, or opposites. Ira is probably awful in the real world, but she's good here."

"I still don't know if I want to talk to her anymore," Owen muttered.

Cassidy sighed, sending the whole tree swaying. "She's fine," she argued.

"She gave a deadly curse to a baby!"

"That's what real-world her did. The Etherean Ira is a daffy, happy fairy who calls herself Honeyflower and has nothing to do with who her alter ego curses!"

Owen was on the verge of responding, but he stopped and listened when he heard a small groan.

"Who's there?" a slightly whiny voice asked. "Why are you being so loud?"

Owen looked down from his branch to look for the source of the complaints below him. He saw a fuzzy, pink snout peek out of a hole in the trunk of the tree. It was a pig, and when it opened its mouth, more words came out.

"Did you forget to wake me up again?" the pig asked Cassidy. "Are you trying to let the shadows snatch me away?"

Owen heard no response from Cassidy.

"Who were you talking to?" the pig asked, moving back to his earlier question.

"We have a visitor," she explained. "He's up in the branches. He's a prince."

The pig's head leaned further out of the hole and turned to peer up at Owen with the greatest look of disgust its animal face could have. "A prince? From what kingdom?"

The pig was talking to him now. "Olivinia," he answered.

The pig snorted. "How droll. My kingdom is ten times bigger than that!"

"Your kingdom?" Owen asked, confused at the notion of a nation-ruling pig.

"Owen, this is Bernard," Cassidy said with a hint of exasperation.

"Prince Bernard," the pig corrected.

"He was the prince that Fauna turned into a pig."

"Only at night," Bernard expounded. "Of course, this stupid world works in opposites, so I'm a pig in the daytime here."

Owen stared at the pig in disbelief. He hadn't done it for long before Bernard snapped, "What do think you're looking at? Yes, I'm a pig. But at least I'm a classy pig, not a prince of a dilapidated kingdom!"

"Bernard, be nice," Cassidy chided.

Bernard snorted, muttered something inaudible, and ducked back into his hole in the tree.

Owen decided he had been sitting up in the branches for long enough, so he climbed down. Once he was on the ground, he circled the tree to the side that Cassidy was on. "Good morning," he said.

She gave a tired smile. "Same to you. Sorry about Bernard."

Owen glanced up at the pig's knothole. "Do you let him sleep in your tree?"

"Yes. He has nowhere else to go. He may be an enchanted creature, but he'd still get eaten alive out there."

"But isn't he a bit..." Owen lowered his voice to a whisper. "Arrogant?"

"He doesn't know any better," Cassidy said sympathetically. "I forgive him, really."

"Well that's very kind of you," Owen said, letting his eyes wander back to Bernard's roost.

"Don't get him to hate you too much," Cassidy said. "I need him to go with you to find Honeyflower."

Go with the rude pig? "Why?" Owen asked.

"Because you want her help, and Bernard's the only one besides me who can take you to her."

"Then why don't you just do it?"

Cassidy rolled her eyes. "Do I look like I can move anywhere?"

Owen mentally slapped himself. Of course she couldn't move. She was a tree for heaven's sake! "Right." He said. "I am so sorry. I will go...with the pig."

As if on cue, Bernard stuck his head out of his hole again. "Go with me where? I'd really rather stay up here. Don't force me to come down, Cassidy, or I'll...I don't know. I'll do something."

Owen looked to Cassidy to see what she would do.

She sighed heavily. "Get down here now, or I'll never let you up there again," she said in a low tone, like she was on her last nerve dealing with an unruly child.

"No," Bernard said stubbornly, letting his lower lip hang out.

"I won't wake you up in the morning. I'll let you sleep all day and be snatched away."

"You wouldn't!" Bernard squealed. But apparently he believed she would, since he leaped down from the knothole like he was running from fire.

Cassidy's lips bent into a satisfied smile. "Thank you, Bernard. Now please go with our friend here and help him find Honeyflower."

"Do I have to?"

She gave him a hard look.

Bernard stuck his tongue out at Owen before picking a direction and beginning to walk. "This way, Prince Shabby," he mumbled.

Owen waved goodbye to Cassidy before turning to follow the pig.

It was strange. He didn't know what he liked less--almost getting killed by a wolf, or having to follow this porcine pain in the neck.