Ñrutas
Toads gone. Killed. Cross heart. BJ, yellow-bow-boy kill. I help, too.
Yellow-bow-boy speak, "BJ, maybe we should acquaint ourselves." Ñrutas head hurt.
"Why?" BJ angry. He hates yellow-bow-boy. "And how do you know my name?"
"This Mr. Saturn, Inrootess, called you BJ."
"Not Inrootess. Ñrutas."
"As you probably know," BJ said, "my name's BJ. BJ Nichols. And yeah, BJ stands for something; I'd rather not say." Head again-hurt.
"I'm Picky Minch," yellow-bow spoke. "Picky's short, too. I won't tell, either. Friends, BJ?"
Picky brought hand out. BJ groaned. "Fine."
BJ came over to me.
"Ñrutas, we're going to be leaving now," whisBJpered, "but if you want, you can come with us."
I jumped up.
"I want I want!"
"OK then," BJ said, "'Roots is coming with us."
"Yay!" I cried.

Threed to we walked. Grape Valleyfruit pristine. Calm, too.
"Again-what BJ, Threed?" I asked.
"Threed is my hometown," BJ me again told.
"Oh yes," I realised. New town see good would be. Human-speak better would get.
"I just hope the bus hasn't left without me," Picky no one to muttered.
BJ smiled.
"Don't worry. It won't leave, I'm sure of it."

"Ness!" cried Picky. "Hold the bus!"
"Picky! Where have you been?"
"Picky. That Ness?"
Picky nodded.
"Zoom!"
"Is that a Mr. Saturn?" another boy asked.
"Yeah, Lomond," Ness said.
Lomond? Boing, what kind of name that?
"Dayton!" I cried.
"Dayton?" Lomond, Picky said.
"The Mr. Saturn have a habit of saying random things," BJ said.
"Head hurt. Cross heart."
"Don't worry, 'Roots."
"Let's board," Ness urged.
We boarded. Bus atmosphere really odd. Even me for.
"Remember, 'Roots," BJ reminded me, "act like a stuffed animal."
"I ream ember."
"Not ream ember." He smiled again. "Remember."
Remember. Re-member. Re-mem-ber. Re-memb-brr. Brr.
"Isn't that cute!" someone cried. BJ growled at him. Her? Told me not to listen to him.
He said that someone said a bad word. No understand why that bad word.
"Why is it bad?" I asked. My human-speak got gooder. Better?
"Ssssh!" Ness hissed. Is Ness snake? Maybe. Then he stared at that someone. "Ennis Cavan."
"Ness Lee," that someone -- Ennis? -- spat.
Why is it spat? Not really spitting. Spitting p'tooie. Not talking; p'tooie.
"Why are you hanging around with him?" Ennis pointed at BJ, said that bad word again.
BJ looked sad, like about to cry. Angry, too. How he be sadangry together?
"Ignore him." Picky.
"And fat-boy Pokey's brother, too," Ennis sneered. Again, why sneer? Sneer not talking; sneer face look.
"Simmer down!" older man boomed.
"Yes, coach." Ennis sat down. Defeated? I hope so.
The bus started. Was hard to keep acting 'stuffed'.
And what does 'stuffed' mean?

Tracy
I struggled through the dense undergrowth of Berloneot. It was heavier than anything could have prepared me for.
If an enemy would come across me, I don't know what I would do. Would I run away? Would I fight, even though both choices were suicide? Maybe it was better if I didn't think.
I tried to keep any-and-everything off my mind. I couldn't let anything distract me. Not even where Miss Ringo might have gone. It was too dangerous, and it was better served...
CRACK!
I whirled around!
"Oh. Just a squirrel." I breathed a sigh of relief, and continued on my way.
The squirrel's chittering remained in my head. It was as lifelike as it ever could have been. Too lifelike to be a memory.
I chanced a look behind me. Yes. The squirrel was following me.
But why? I didn't have any food. Did I?
I decided to leave the squirrel be. There was no reason for me to worry about it just yet. There would be time for it later; if it wasn't benevolent, it was a goner.
A weird shuddering in my backpack alerted me to something being amiss.
"What now?" I muttered. I pulled the Power Crystal from my backpack. It was shaking, glowing and changing colours all at once. So was ... the squirrel?
I held the crystal towards the squirrel.
"Squiyer!" it exclaimed. Then its skin became pure white, and it exploded. I shielded my eyes from the brightness.
The light receded.
"Oh, my goodness!"
The squirrel had been transformed. It had grown. Not only in size, but corporal accessories. It had wings, too. Not to mention the fact I think it had gained the ability to breathe fire.
FWOOSH! Forget think. Now I knew. It could breathe fire.
I dodged out of the way. Part of my ribbon was caught in the flames, and caught fire. I threw the entire ribbon away.
Boom! A tree caught fire, too! The dragon-squirrel wasn't in control of its actions. And I was to blame.
The squirrel turned to me. Bared its teeth. Bared fangs. In an evil smile.
Maybe it did know what it was doing.
I ran out of the now-burning forest. I'd probably have a better chance of minimising damage in the open.

I'd been fighting this dragon-squirrel for twenty minutes. I was sweating profusely, my hair was dirty, and my dress was starting to rip.
Even my beloved Frypan was beginning to be dented.
The squirrel chittered in victory. But it had to be wrong. I couldn't lose. Not here, not now. I knew what I had to do.
I panted, nearly exhausted.
The wind blew. Was it foretelling something? I wish that's what it was for. Just as long as it won't be like Red Night.
I might not know this power, but it was my last chance.
I waited for the absolute last moment. The moment just before the next fireball would hit me.
There! "PSI Shield Beta!"
I drew on all the energy I could. Anything I could form to help my problems. And then, just before I might have been incinerated...
PING!
The fire was reflected by the shield, which soon shattered. Instead of engulfing me, it engulfed the dragon-squirrel.
"Sssssssssssssssquiyer......." it managed before it fainted.
The dragon-squirrel turned a deep shade of red.
I walked over to it, and was alerted to the Power Crystal's shudders once more.
"Maybe..." Would it work?
I extended the Power Crystal towards the fainted dragon-squirrel.
If my hunch was right, the squirrel would revert to its normal state. If I was wrong, it would kill the dragon-squirrel, revive the dragon-squirrel, or make it even more powerful. And the latter two would be suicide.
Nonetheless, I had to do this. It was my fault this had happened. I have to undo it.
The Power Crystal exploded!
"No!" I cried, distraught.
The pieces of the Crystal settled around the dragon-squirrel. There were eight in all.
One Crystal-shard began to glow a deep red. As deep as, no, identical to the red the dragon-squirrel was glowing.
"What do I do?" I muttered.
Slowly, but surely, the world melted away.

I floated in emptiness for some time. Then it came to me.
"What do you want from me, Apple?" I demanded angrily.
I had no proof, but I was sure the Apple of Enlightenment had done this.
<Tracy,> the Apple of Enlightenment replied, <I want nothing from you, nor I have wanted nothing from you before. So then why do you believe I want something from you now?
<All I have ever contacted you for before was to give you a hint. Absorbing your Your Sanctuaries will be different from whatever Ness did to absorb the powers of his Your Sanctuaries.>
"What?" I spat angrily. "You mean I was off, going off to Giant Step? And Picky, too?"
<Yes, Pick...y, too, was wrong. But there is no sense in berating me for your mistakes. Adventures might intersect, but never overlap. Sharing Your Sanctuaries would be foolhardy.
<And I have been using filibuster for some time. There's no sense in that, too. You must decide if this Your Sanctuary belongs to you, or to another.>
I thought about this. Is it mine? Or does this Your Sanctuary belong to Picky?
"Yes... yes, I believe this belongs to me."
<Fine, then. You must stand above the Crystal-shard that corresponds to the colour of the Energy Guardian. In this case, Luriss.>

Opposite from before, the world now melted back.
I stood once more on Berloneot. The Crystal-shards surrounding Luriss maintained the colour -- or lack thereof -- they had when the Apple called me to his strange pocket world.
I walked over to the Red Crystal-shard, and the words fell into my brain, pushed there by some external force.
"Powers of life, energy of fire," I chanted. "Surrender your strength, Guardian Luriss of Fire!"
Luriss exploded!
Pure fire energy seeped from the column of energy that was once Luriss, and sank into the Red Crystal-shard.
The energy column receded, and a squirrel lay where Luriss and the column once were. Or would it be was, as Luriss and the column are/were one and the same?
Then, the Eight Crystal-Shards merged back into the Power Crystal, which flew over to me.
I gripped it in my hands, and I could notice a slight reddish tinge in the blackness of the crystal.
"All right!" I cried. "I did it! I absorbed the power of Berloneot, fire!"
But then again... "How am I going to get home?"

Ñrutas
Bus trip had been learning for me. I can speak human-speak, wait, they call it Iiinglish.
Well, I can speak better now.
The bus had emptied. Weird, it is. How can something not living itself empty self?
Ness, Lomond, Picky, BJ and I walked to Onett from Twoson. Twoson where bus emptied, Onett where they live. Except BJ, me.
BJ live Threed, I live Saturn Valley.
"You're BJ Nichols?" Lomond astounded was. "You're the literal King of Eagleland Track and Field!"
"What's the problem?" BJ asked.
"I didn't know you were..."
"Japanese?" BJ asked. Lomond nodded. "I'm only half Japanese. My mom, who my father alleges is dead, was Japanese."
Everyone stopped walking. Except BJ and me. Again.
"Dead?" Picky sounded sad.
"She disappeared when I was a baby. And there's no baby pictures of me with her, so it wasn't long after I was born that she died."
"I'm sor, sorry," I managed. 'Sorry' is a hard word to say for me. I keep trying to say 'sore-rye'. It should be 'sore-rea'.
"What for, 'Roots?" BJ rubbed my head. He calls it a noogie. "It isn't your fault."
"Just sor, sorry. Won't bother you more about this, boing zoom."
We walked to Ness' house. Picky live by him, seems.
"Mom!" Ness called. "I'm home!"
Ness' mother appeared at the stairwell. Her eyes were bloodshot.
"Mom!" Ness cried. "What's wrong?"
She dabbed her eyes. "Tracy's missing."
"Missing?" Picky was sad. Really sad.
"She went off somewhere earlier today."
"And didn't come back?" Ness, Picky said together.
She nodded.
"We'll find her."
"And we'll help them!" Lomond, BJ, me exclaimed.
"Lomond, I know you. But who are you two?"
"BJ Nichols."
"Ñrutas Dosei. We'll find Tracy, cross heart."
"Bless your heart, Inrootess."
"That's Ñrutas, ma'am," BJ said. "But you can just call him 'Roots."
"Thank you, all of you." Ness helped his mom to a bed, where she soon fell asleep.
"Watch her, King." Doggie perked his ears up.
<What?>
"Watch my mom."
Doggie growled.
"King..."
<Oh, fine. I'll do it. But it'll cost you a dog biscuit.>
How could I hear him? Psychic?
"What'd he say?" BJ asked.
"You couldn't hear him?" Picky was astounded.
"You could?"
"Apparently you have no psychic abilities," Ness observed.
"We're in the same boat, Nichols," Lomond said.
What does "same boat" mean?