"What is our exit strategy?" Binge finally mastered the courage to speak again following what happened with Prisscil. "If, hypothetically, the bearmen awaken, and the hoard of furries storm and attack us for this burglary situation we are engaging in, what is going to be our exit strategy?"

"Our what?" I asked, pushing large purple helldornaian leaves out of the way.

"Oh, my gods! We are all going to die up here..." 

"That is not going to happen, the odds of the goldwings to have an early migration is close to zero," reassured Vision, as he kept swinging his palm in front of him to shoo away small fireflies that gathered around.

"So, we have no plan, brilliant. In moments like this I could literally strangle the Dark King. Whatever happened to safe working environments?"

"I did tell you to stay behind at the Tavern," Vision reminded his youngest brother. "But you said you aren't backing out since we are talking about such a large amount of payment."

"Whatever..." he muttered under his breath and sighed.

As we moved through the multitudes of foreign plants cohabiting in a never seen before way, the rocky paths begun to elevate above the surface. Vegetation from the scorching lands of Helldorn intertwined with the vibrant specimens of the hallowmorian domains. Even samples from the White Queen's lands could be spotted, plants banned in the rest of the empire.

"Don't touch that!" shouted Vision, as Binge ripped away some saffron blooms that budded between some cerulean grass. "Those are Veracity weeds."

"Veraci-what?!" he exclaimed, turning around with the bunch of the plants in his grasp.

"Aren't they harmless?" I told them, turning around to make sure of what he was referring to. "They just give you a mild rash if they come in contact with your skin, do they not?

"Mild rash!" Binge's voice echoed throughout the air, his face full of horror while his ears twitched, dropping the flowers to the ground, making their pollen raise to the air, and ultimately sticking to us.

"A rash is the least of your concerns..."

"Oh, I don't want to think of shedding again, last time was dreadful, I tell you!" cried he.

"What do you mean?" I asked, as I felt my skin tingle.

"Veracity weeds are plants of truth, they will make you hallucinate what you most desire," explained Vision. "For once, I am glad to be sightless."

"Oh no..." mumbled Binge. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"I don't think there will be any symptoms just yet, so we must hurry."

"I am already hungry! How am I going to cope with all the best things showing up in from of me, ready for me to savor, EXCEPT I CAN'T?"

"I don't think you'll start hallucinating food..." I said.

"There must be some type of cure! I am already feeling it! I can feel my scales itching!"

"It's not that bad, stop complaining, and next time don't go around picking random stuff."

"It got stuck in my shoe, ok? What was I even gonna do with a bunch of ugly ass weeds."

"I don't feel anything," I told them. "Maybe it hasn't reached my senses."

"You are lucky," said Vision. "I remember last time I came across one of these pests, took me three days to feel sane again."

We hurried up the floating gardens that bathed in golden sunrays, between the grand pillars that raised from beneath the earth's chambers and soared through the skies. Stained glass crystals shimmied through the ceiling, piercing beneath the clouds.

"Up there!" shouted Vision, breathing out as he climbed onto the grand stone carved stairs. "The tigerflies are following the path up there, the Slumbershade should be across that field of nevermore shards."

"Let's get on with it then!" urged Binge. He crawled upwards the vines that tangled upwards in his path, and raised to the nevermore shards on the third floor of the gardens.

"Don't fall behind son of Nix! If I start seeing food anytime soon, I'll need you to slap some sense into me!"

As wagged my tail in the air to keep away the pests that buzzed around, I begun to feel my skin burning. It was as if an ant colony had crawled up the surface of my skin, and slipped under it, eating away bits of my flesh.

Binge rapidly climbed up, tailing his older brother close behind. And as I got to the second floor, I felt a warm touch against my back.

"Where are you going?"

I turned around, almost instinctively, and I dug my claws into the grass beneath at the sight in front of me.

It was her.

"I asked you something," said Maia, and she grabbed my hand in hers. "Aren't you going to answer me?"

"You..." I paused, shaking my head as I pulled away from her grip. "You are not real."

"Oh, silly, how am I not real?" she laughed. "Don't you see me right here, next to you?"

"It's my fault," I told her. "I shouldn't have let them do those things to you." My lungs felt like they were being crushed, and I struggled to breathe. "I should have been the one to die, not you."

"I'm alright," she told me.

"None of this is alright." I said. "I didn't want to hurt you. I-"

"Come, give me your hand," she urged, and grabbed a hold of me.

My blood boiled under her touch and I felt like my heart stopped in place.

"This is not real," I mumbled to myself, as I felt my feet sink into the ground.

"Look at me," she said, and she placed my hand on her chest. "I am here."

"No, you died, you... you came back, but..."

"I am here for you, Rex," her voice, sweet like honey, echoed in my ears. "Tell me you want me, Rex."

"I..." My head pained me horribly, and I struggled to keep my eyes open. "I want-"

"What the bloody moon are you doing there on the floor?" Binge's voice ringed in my ears, and I felt his shadow arching over me. "Are you hugging the floor?"

"We got it!" said his brother with relief, "It was surprisingly easy to find, nonetheless annoying cause of all the damn weird plants around. But, thanks to those tigerflies, we got it! 'A bunch of them up there in the third floor by the three-branched river."

"Yeah, yeah. Huzzah!" monotoned Binge, "But what is wrong with you, wolf boy?"

"I killed her..." I told myself, unsure of what was real and what was not. My insides pained me, and I bent over vomiting.

"What is wrong with him, brother?"

My sight suddenly turned blank, and I felt my body go numb. The last thing I could recall was Vision's voice mumbling.

"It's the poison."