It was almost sundown at Howlington. The tables, the stand, the food, almost everything was prepared. But in the midst of it all, a man drenched in blood came limping out of the forest. 
	“Terrible demons are in the forest!” he said, panting and trembling. Many people immediately surrounded him, and Bella Von Sagen cried out:
 “Vincent!”
	She barged through the group and wept at her husband’s side. Everyone was shocked and as the sun slowly dipped down, the joy of everyone depleted. 
	“The woods are not a safe place anymore,” Vincent hoarsely said, falling to the ground. “Everyone, please get away from here!”
	The whole town was panicking, wailing and running in circles, until Lucius silenced the night.
	“There is no need to panic!” Everyone stopped and turned towards him. “My son shall conquer this spirit back to where it belongs!” Everyone was shocked and looked at Sage to the right of him. “But father, why me?”
	Lucius put his hand on him. “It will be a test of his strength and courage! If he can vanquish the demon before dawn, and return alive, we shall have this feast! 
	“But you don’t understand, this is ancient evil we’re talking about!” Vincent called with the last of his energy. 
	“I will go,” Sage hesitantly called. The crowd gasped.
	“That’s absurd! You’ll just end up killing yourself!” Bella cried.
	“Yes, I know,” Sage replied. “But this is not some test, this is to save the town and the forest.” Then he called out louder:
	“And if it means death to me, you people will know that I died trying!”
	The town fixed his eyes on Sage as he walked towards the forest entrance. People begged him to not go, shouting and praying, but it was too late. He entered the forest.
	No one knew what to do then. All they could do now was pray for his safe return. “Lord, please protect Sage on his venture,” everyone was praying together.
	Sage was all out by himself, and the only light was the moon now. He went deep enough that no one could here him scream, and the sounds of the eerie forest surrounded him.
	There was only one path to follow, and he couldn’t see what lied up ahead.

Stay away…

	A voice echoed through the trees. “Who’s here?!” Sage called out with no fear. He turned all around, but saw no animate thing.

Leave this place…now

	It echoed again, and it became clear to Sage that he was in danger. He couldn’t see it, he couldn’t believe it, and what was he supposed to do? Running was the only reasonable thing to do, and so our hero dashed through the rich ferns and leaves. The heat of his head swelled up his hearing, but he could still here the voice:

Run, run!

	Sage was delving into a panicked state.
“Is this thing in my head?” he said to himself.
All around him he noticed odd, shapeless creatures running beside the path, lurking in the shadows of the trees. 
	“What are you!!?” Sage cried. Yellow, beady eyes were glared from the creatures, and running as fast as he could, he suddenly saw the sea in a flash right in front of him. Shrieking, he braked on his heels and tried to lose them by jerking to the right, going down alongside the land’s edge.
	But it seemed Sage’s efforts to lose the creatures were in vain. To the left on the rocky, moonlit cove, he could see even lines of glowing eyes running at his pace. He couldn’t believe this madness, but he continued to dash down the slope, being trailed by more creatures. 
	To Sage’s delight he found at the corner of his eye a little nook carved into the side of the cliff up ahead. This is my chance to lose those guys! He thought. With the dark blobs right on his heels, he thrusted his whole body into the cave. Thankfully they didn’t follow, but all of a sudden a trembling quake shook the cove. The sloping trail slowly disintegrated, forcing the creatures to fall down to the water far below. It seemed like a good break to Sage, but peering out, he found that they were diving into the image of the cliffs, slowly coming up towards him. “Oh, come on!”
	All Sage could do now was run, run for his dear life into the tunnel behind him. But to his surprise the walls mysteriously glowed with blue aura, channeling into them and making ornate and detailed carvings. Nonetheless he continued to run through the azure passage, blind with panic. 
	The entrance could not be seen anymore, and the deeper Sage ran through the cave, the stranger it became. The pictures traced by the aura were moving, rotating like clocks. The very ground that he was on gradually turned into a shimmering road of sapphire. But the biggest change to him was that the walls soon became transparent, with nothing but black and blue tracings behind them. Eventually Sage came to a halt to gaze at it all, and walked, thinking the creatures were far behind him. 
	But as if the place wasn’t wondrous enough, crystal-clear waterfalls jetting out of nowhere began to appear, and columns made of the very same sapphire as the road came with them. Sage could see the end now; a blue-traced, circular platform with a stone alter held at the center was up ahead. 
	“Hello?” Sage called out, being absorbed by the empty darkness that surrounded the place.
	Welcome, Sage.

	The same voice from the forest called out.
	“Who is this I’m talking to?”
	At the alter, a blue glowing light hovered above, and as the image became clearer and clearer, Sage could see the figure of a woman.
	This woman was dressed in a fabulous kimono, with long, silky hair going down to her waist. 
	I am Ionia, the sea magypsy. I have been your guardian since you were born.

	Sage was shocked, both of her beauty and statement.
	“Why did you order for me to leave the forest?”

	The mirrors were the ones I were talking to.

	“Mirrors?”

	The creatures that chased you here. But there is no time, I’ll answer your 
questions later. The sea is in danger and you must hurry.

	“But I need to know many things now! What is this place? What about the sea? Why are these, “Mirrors,” after me?” Sage exclaimed.

	You are chosen to be a hero, but stubbornness has blocked your vision. This place you are in is the link between Earth and the Realm of the Magypsies. Tthe other six Magypsies and I are entrapped in that world. The person you are talking to right now is just a hologram of myself I made. 

	“But what about my other ques-

	I’ve already said too much. Now go!
	
	The hologram pushed Sage with powerful energy out of the cave. Blue blurs were smeared on the corner of his eyes, and the ground changed quickly back into solid rock. He didn’t know how to react. It was all so sudden and quick that he was about to faint. But it eventually came to a slow stop, exactly at the tip of the entrance.
	A spiritual hum bounced off the rocks, and the image of a shimmering sapphire path filled in the gap. This must’ve been the work of Ionia, Sage thought. But it wasn’t safe just yet. The mirrors began to sprout from the cliff and glare at Sage, and as he started to run across the cerulean path, they too followed and once again conducted a cat-and-mouse chase. 
	The twisting staircases and slippery surface made it hard to navigate on the path, but there was some sort of a subtle control to it. And once the road touched the sea, it was a long straight path into the cliff. The mirrors, skidding across the water, suddenly dived down under the surface, a mysterious tactic something they could only do. Sage kept on going with a healthy dose of caution, seeing no signs of them anywhere, and was finally inside.
	The cave wasn’t as mystical and magical as the one above, rather it was a dome-shaped roof with another exit on the other side and no eye-catching features. 

	Use your sword.

	Ionia called into Sage’s voice once again. He had totally forgotten about the sword Tray had given him at Fareburry Quay! But as he drew it from the holder on his back, a little quake took him by surprise, and outside the sound of tidal waves began to crash into his ear. He turned and saw Mirrors thrusting upwards and making a live barrier on the exit, even the one on the opposite end! This didn’t look very good, and just as it couldn’t get any worse, it did.
	A crumbling noise sounded and at the center of the cave a huge crack began to grow. Sage hopped back in panic and prepared himself for battle. The ground popped in a flash and out came…a mirror?
	It wasn’t anything like the mirrors he knew. Its hands were like blades and it levitated in mid-air! It was two times the size of a bush, with bent antennas that slithered like snakes in the air. But Sage knew this wasn’t their only intention. He looked at the hole and saw that water began to quickly smother the room, and since they blocked off the exits, it would fill up and effectively kill Sage! It was already up to his ankles, so he knew he had to work fast with this creature. 
	Our hero made the first attack and slashed at the main body. It gushed out black blood, but that didn’t stop it from attacking. Its antennas began to make electric shocks and as it lowered it stingers onto the water, which now engulfed Sage’s whole boot, tried to electrocute the liquid ground. He was aware of what it was trying to do and leaped onto one of its blades. The other arm countered with a swing, though taking a chunk of flesh off of his knee, he jumped onto its head. 
	Sage cut the creature’s antennas, splashing onto the water, and plunged his sword into its head. It shrieked in a mysterious tone, but he wasn’t done with his attack. He pushed harder so it poked out on the other side of its head, but then the creature shook, desperately trying to get Sage off. He put all his weight into his sword and tried hard to stay in position. The water level barely touched the creature’s hands and after seizing shaking, Sage ran his sword across his whole head in a clock-wise motion with all his might. The creature could do nothing but shriek as it had no control over its numb head. And once he finally got it around back to where he started, black boiling blood seethed out of the cut. 
	This looked like the end of the creature. Its eyes grew pale and started to fall back. Sage quickly took his sword out and jumped back into the water, now at the base of his nose. The body slowly dissolved into nothing and its blood colored the water black. Sage’s cut from earlier was pulsing like mad, and the Mirrors still barred the cave! Any minute now he was going to die from this water, and then all of a sudden Ionia called out:

	Let me help you there.

	An invisible explosion destroyed the Mirrors blocking the path, causing all the water to flow out of the exits in the first ten second.  
	“Thank you, Ionia,” Sage thought in his head. He didn’t notice, but during the explosion his cut closed up, along with all the other small bruises he probably has gotten from the creature. 

	Don’t think you’re finished yet, now go! Go to the Seaforest Temple that lies ahead at the end of this cave!

	Ionia said hastily, sounding like that creature was a mere pawn. Sage didn’t waste time and used his refreshed energy to run to the other end, going around the hole that was created by the beast. 
	To Sage, it was good to see the outside again, but as usual, something spectacular was there. It was the Seaforest Temple Ionia hinted at! 
	A polished, brick path led from the cave to the building, which itself was a masterpiece of architecture. It was a white, rectangle building with rounded corners and an interesting blue stain-glassed, cone-shaped tower that poked out from the top. Marble columns were erected from the sea and aligned on each side of the path, housing small, bushy trees on their tops and tight, twisted ivy  tumbling out. This place seemed familiar to Sage though…
	That’s right! It was the mysterious building he had found years back! He thought he would never see it again. 
	“But I don’t remember taking a path like this to here,” Sage called to Ionia.

	I charmed this forest so that there is always a different path every time you come in, just to protect this place. You were just lucky to stumble upon it.

	And with curiosity and courage on his side, our hero goes on to the mysterious temple. But what lies ahead for him and Ionia?