Hi everyone! :D I'm posting early this week, because I'm going to be afk Thursday-Saturday. I wanted to be able to reply to any comments before I skip town. :) Also, how the heck did this book get to 5.1k views? O.o

I want to start posting a song with each chapter. I have a few chapters coming up with a specific song in mind. This week, the song is "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot. It loosely ties in. I love this band; I got to see them in concert a few years ago. (Never stand 3 feet in front the speakers. RIP ears. x_x) So much fun! The lead singer came out in the audience at one point (much to the panic of the security guards). XD Okay, enough rambling. On with the story!

*KillerTom's POV*

"Let me see if I've got this straight," Matt said hesitantly. He started summarizing what Donella had just told us, marking each point off with a finger on his hand. "Wag's being an idiot ignoring his problem, hoping it will go away, and now he's been wounded and missing almost a whole day. Jordan pulled a prank that may or may not have done something to Wag. Tom's stressed out because one of his friends is MIA and another is recovering from a serious injury. Rythian and Avrae made it out of this dimension to safety, but some of the others are still alive in Ruxomar, hiding from Mianite patrols. And the Board won't lift a finger to help us," Matt concluded with a blank expression on his face. I think he was still trying to process everything we'd just heard. It was a lot to take in.

There were a few things Donella had conveniently left out though. "So, how exactly did you get here? The connection hasn't been stable enough for a lone wizard to make it through in a long time." I raised an eyebrow at her and waited for an answer. Akatena shook her head at me in annoyance that I was missing the point, but I maintained my gaze.

Donella had a brief mental discussion with her familiar. You could tell when she was doing that by her facial expression softening for no apparent reason. Donella may be tough as manyullyn, but she loves her deer familiar to pieces. Finishing whatever conversation they were having, Donella answered, "I called in a few favors Dianite owed me. He talked to Ianite, who seemed appreciative of my part in ending the war. He and Ianite opened a portal for me."

Phil was starting to pick up on Donella leaving things out too and asked a question of his own, "Dianite was dead when we left. How did he have enough power to help make a portal?"

"Because I brought him back," Donella answered in a clipped tone that let us know question time was over. I'd suspected Dianite was back when I picked up on his magic around her. I was sure there was quite the story there, though she was in no mood to tell it right now. Donella rubbed her left wrist under her coat sleeve before changing the topic, "So Rythian told me his side of the story, but he obviously missed a few things if he thought you were all dead. What happened?"

"We still don't remember the precise details, but the spell did not interact with the Tower Heart properly," Matt started—he was more talkative with alcohol in his system.

I interrupted him to add, "If that's what the spell was even meant to do. We barely knew those Crimson Cultists, and Andor warned us not to trust them. You should have let us examine that scroll before using it. We're lucky it didn't do worse damage." This was why Matthew and I weren't getting along lately.

Matt was glaring daggers at me from under his mask, but Phil—ever the peace-keeper of our family—put us back on topic before things could get more heated. "After searching for our friends turned up nothing, we started to rebuild and searched for a way to get our powers back, and we found one. The Tower Heart had shielded itself underneath the tower to prevent any further damage being done to it. We had to conduct a couple rituals to bring it back to full power. We now have our powers back within our town, and we can keep them for a few hours at a time outside that range."

"We're still not the wizards we used to be..." Matt said with a sad sigh as he shook his head where it rested on his hand. He relied heavily on magic to even function, and he now felt chained to this area by our stationary magic source. Matt resented his perceived captivity and had developed a great dislike for the Tower Heart subsequently.

Trying to forget my grievances with my little brother for the present, I turned back to Donella and asked, "So what's our next move?"

Looking out one of the windows, she grinned. "Our young Dianitee should be waking up soon. We can start searching while we still have daylight."

"Oh no, tonight's going to be a blood moon!" Matt recalled with fear in his voice. "He's going to be in horrible trouble if we don't find him before sundown."

"What's a blood moon?" Donella asked. She didn't sound overly concerned; then again, it didn't take much to scare Matt. We'll have to catch her up more after we find Wag.

"Some ancient evil cursed this world with what the natives call a blood moon; it happens roughly once a month. When it happens, monsters are far more active, fierce, and numerous. Thankfully it only lasts one night," Phil explained quickly.

Donella's gaze darkened with... concern? No, surely not. We athar wizards have only ever been a thorn in her side. I'm sure she wouldn't miss us if we were gone. "Well, we'd better get started then. If you'd told me that earlier, I wouldn't have knocked Tom out."

Matt stood and stretched. "I know, I know. I'll go get him. Hopefully the champion's in a good mood when he wakes up." Donella's eyes narrowed at Matt's words. Matt's face froze in fear as he realized his mistake. "Oh, poop."

"Now, Donella, remember what you said about not wanting to make enemies. Yes, he's the one who killed our Dianite, but let's not be hasty in exacting revenge." I interjected quickly. Curse Matt and his drunken rambling!

Donella slowly unclenched the fist she had made with her right hand and lost the dangerous glint that had shone in her eyes. She chuckled and shook her head slightly. This confused and worried me. "Frankly, I'm not sure whether I should slay him or thank him," She said with a wry grin. "After all, Dianite did learn from his mistakes and will be better off because of it." She frowned before continuing, "However had he not, I could have avoided having to conduct the revival ritual."

She remained lost in thought for a few moments as Matt carefully slipped out of the VIP lounge to fetch our favorite zombie. I mentally started reviewing what we might need for a search and rescue, when it occurred to me that Donella had no way of communicating with the rest of us if we split up, which seemed the most logical course of action. The rest of us had made or been given communicators ages ago. This problem was simple enough to fix. I held my hand under the table and focused some of my magic on making a new communicator. When I brought my hand back up to the tabletop, it held a white wrist communicator and ear piece.

"Here you go, Donella," I said as I held out my hand. "We can't have you getting lost along with everyone else. Now you have your very own communicator. Feel free to change the color. I wasn't sure what you'd want."

Donella took the proffered items and eyed them with suspicion. Phil pointed to his own wrist comm and ear piece when she looked up. "Oh, thank you." She replied now that she knew what they were. She carefully used her magic to shift their color to a deep maroon that reminded me of nether brick. Donella grinned at whatever memory the color brought to mind and strapped on the watch-like device and slid the ear piece over her ear. Phil gave her a crash course on the useful functions of the communicator until Matt and a much more energetic Tom returned up the stairs.

"Hello again, wizards!" Tom greeted loudly as he vaulted over the railing around the VIP section to land next to his chair with a wide grin. "Sorry I fell asleep on you earlier. Didn't realize how knackered I was," He seated himself while scratching the back of his head. He must have been pretty worn out if he thought he'd fallen asleep on his own. "So, Donella filled you in on what's happened?"

"Yes, and we probably shouldn't waste any more daylight now that you're awake," Phil said as he stood up and quickly slid his goggles back down to hide his eyes. He was a bit self-conscious about them and didn't like mortals to stare—which they always did. They were always surprised to find the most "normal" one of us wasn't so normal after all. "The blood moon rises tonight. Where have you already searched?"

Tom's eyes shot wide. I suppose mortals must not be able to sense the blood moon. Ever since this morning the feeling of building tension and unease had hung over our heads like a mighty thunderstorm about to break. "Sh*t! That's tonight?!" He quickly tapped a message on his communicator, to warn the others I assumed. Returning his attention to us, he answered Phil's question. "We already searched the jungle he went missing in. Mot is checking the plains and forest between the jungle and my tree. Donella and I checked the direct route between my tree and here on our way over. Tucker and Sonja are checking over by Dagrun in case he managed to get back home or respawned." Tom shook his head in worry as he stood back up. "If we don't find him soon, I'll be tempted to even ask Mianite for help."

"We're not to that point yet," Donella cautioned, rising as well.

"What about that Martha person? Is she helping?" Matt asked. We'd heard rumors that Wag had become someone's follower. Wag had wanted nothing to do with the gods before we came to this world; so I was a bit skeptical.

"We can't get ahold of her. She's been off meditating or some bollocks ever since she became a full blown goddess a couple days ago," Tom said in exasperation. "Dianite went to go find her. You'd think she'd know her own champion's in trouble."

Donella and the rest of us were all surprised to say the least. We were more out of the loop than I thought. I wonder what else we missed. "Wag is Martha's champion?! Mr. 'to hell with the gods'?" Matt asked with a snort of disbelief.

"Yes," Syndicate whined. "Look, we can sit around and gossip like old ladies later. We have a wizard to find, and the clock is ticking." He twitched one of his red and black wings, itching to be in the air again. "Let's move!"

We followed Syndicate out of the tavern and took to the skies. As we reached the edge of our town, we quickly split off to search the wide swath of land between Wiztopia and Tom's tree. We occasionally checked in on our communicators, but hours passed with nothing new to report. As I searched my stretch of forest, I mulled over everything that had happened today. A thought occurred to me as I flew that made my heart rise in hope for the first time in weeks. If some of the apprentices are alive, Winter might be too. I thought about what I should do when I see her again, remembering all the opportunities I'd let go to waste. If there was one thing that no wizard or god could get back once it was lost, it was time.

~Flashback~

I gazed in pride on the two snowmen before me which were the last part of Winter's birthday present. There was no tundra close to our new home, and I could tell that she had been getting homesick after the months we'd spent here. If I couldn't take her to the tundra, I just had to bring the tundra to her. My brothers were supposed to help me, but Matt kept melting things without realizing it; so I'd asked Phil to distract him instead. The apprentices and Rythian were in on the whole thing too. Their job was to keep Winter out of the tower for the day while I renovated one of the countless floors into a frozen wonderland.

As the setting sun shone orange through the tower windows, I looked over my finished project. Icicles hung from the ceiling, and snow lay in drifts on the ground. Ice coated the pillars supporting the roof. Tiny magic lights were scattered across the ceiling to make their own field of stars. The icicles caught and scattered their light even better than I'd hoped. I'd also brought some small spruce trees and holly bushes indoors to complete the effect. Phil's idea to put a frozen pond in the middle of the floor had been genius. I'd placed a wooden bench next to the pond along with two sets of ice skates waiting to be broken in.

Everything was perfect, and it was a good thing too. Winter had finally figured out that something was up and had stormed back to the tower, thinking someone must have turned her bedroom upside down again. (No one claimed responsibility for the prank, but Annika and Ilanna had been grinning like the cat that ate the canary while I tried to help Winter get her furniture down from the ceiling.) She came storming up the stairs on her way to her quarters, only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight before her.

Echo and Charlie poked their heads around the corner sheepishly, giving me an expression that said they'd tried to keep her away longer, before disappearing back downstairs. The anger that had been etched on Winter's face slowly melted into wonder. My heart soared as I silently watched her step off the landing onto the fresh snow that softly crunched beneath her boots. She explored the lightly wooded space, tentatively touching the branch of a spruce sapling or a snowman's scarf as if to make sure this was all real. She lifted her face to the imitation stars above her; she always did love her stargazing. Finally, she turned back to face me. Her white hair was glowing rose, and her right eye sparkled in the fading sunlight that had shifted from orange to red; she looked happier now than she had any other time in the decade I'd spent working with her.

"Happy Birthday, Winter," I said quietly as I walked up to where she stood in front of the frozen pond. "Do you like it?" I asked when I saw tears starting to well in her good eye, a little nervous I'd done something wrong. I knew her past was a touchy subject. Maybe I'd inadvertently brought back bad memories.

Winter lifted her eye patch to allow her to wipe the tears from both of her eyes: one the dark blue that graces the sky an hour after sunset and the other the clouded white of a snow storm. "Like it? I love it!" She exclaimed as she wrapped me in a hug which I returned gladly. "I couldn't have asked for a better present." We stood that way for a few happy moments in silence, until Winter suddenly released me. It may have been the lighting, but it looked like she was blushing. She cleared her throat and looked away as she started to lower her eye patch back over her clouded left eye—she was a bit uncomfortable with others seeing it.

I briefly contemplated the way she was biting her lower lip. It was one of her quirks that I'd started noticing as of late. And it made me smile every time. I could have said so many things in that perfect moment. I could have brought her back into a hug and held on this time. I could have lifted her chin and brought those shy lips into a kiss. Instead, I broke the tension stretching in the silence by snatching her eye patch off her head and bolting around the edge of the pond.

"Hey!" She yelled after me. She seemed frozen in place by the strange turn of events.

"There's no one here you need to worry about. I've already seen your eye," I called back as I stopped by the bench. "Though if you want to ever leave this floor of the tower, you'll have to catch me," I teased while picking up a pair of ice skates. I used my magic to swap the other pair out for my boots. I tossed the unused skates to Winter before sliding out onto the ice, dangling Winter's eye patch where she could clearly see it.

Winter grinned in a mischievous fashion before changing out her footwear and chasing me onto the ice, saying something about cheeky wizards under her breath.

~End Flashback~

I smiled at the memory; it was one of my favorites since coming to Ruxomar. Looking back on one of the last times I got to see Winter before the scroll incident made me think about just how quickly things could drastically change. I shouldn't have chickened out. I should have just said it. I hope I get another chance. I continued lamenting what could have been and wondering what could be until the shadows of the trees below me began lengthening and running together. I could practically hear the negative energy of the impending blood moon crackling in the air. We were almost out of time.

I was about to call the others to head back for the night when Matt's voice broke the still evening, "Guys! I found him!"

"What?!"

"Are you sure?"

"Thank Ianite."

"Where are you? Is he okay?"

The heroes badgered Matt until he spoke again. "He seems a bit banged up, but um... He's not acting like himself. He's really freaking me out."

Even more questions flew across the communicator lines until Donella deafened everyone with the voice of command she had not used since leading an army in the war. "Enough! Everyone regroup at the wizards' town. We'll decide what to do there." She still had her touch. Everyone agreed, and quiet ruled the air waves once more.

I turned for home and flew as quickly as my invisible wings could carry me. Oh Wag, what have you gotten yourself into this time? 

A blood moon is coming... K-Tom mentioned it in passing last chapter.  I almost forgot about it too. XD Now, I wonder what could be wrong with Wag? <.< He's safe and sound at Sonja's place with Thaumsworth, right? We'll just have to find out next chapter. :)