One of the things that sucked about being sick in bed was that there’s nothing one could do in the bed, and as such, the sick person would be bored. This was the case with Major, Francis Monogram. Since he was sick, the head of OWCA had to stay home, absolutely bored out of his mind. Though, his boredom was soon to be cured.

“Good morning, sir!”

Francis frowned as a red-haired, bespectacled college-aged student walked into his room, with a rather large looking novel in his pale hands.

“Carl, what are you doing here?” Monogram asked suspiciously.
“Well, your wife asked me to keep you company since you enjoyed it so must last time.” Carl explained.
“So… is that…” Monogram asked, staring at the book.
“Nope,” Carl told him, taking a seat on the chair that was by Monogram’s bed. “This isn’t Excaliferb.”

“Aww, then what is it?”

“It’s Excaliferb II: The Quest for Merlin’s Crystals.” Carl said. “The sequel to Excaliferb.”

“Really?” Monogram asked, very interested in the contents of the story.

“Yep! Ready to listen?”

“Yes! I, uh, I mean, sure.”

“Peel your ears and let me tell you the tale…”

~~~

The great wizard Merlin stood alone, deep into the deep dark forest of lost souls. He glanced around with worry, wringing his hands as he waited. He glanced down at his side, at the small bag that hung from his belt. He patted the bag, feeling it to make sure that its contents were still in it.

Suddenly the tempature intensified as a red-robed figure entered the clearing Merlin was in. In the man’s arms was a baby dragonpuss, who was currently sleeping.

“Good evening, Erlin.” Merlin said to the man. “Glad to see you could make it.”

“Same to you, Merlin.” Erlin said with a nod of his head. “Take it I’m the only one who has arrived.”

“Yes, for once you’re not late.” Merlin told him with a smirk.
“There goes my record.”

The wind picked up, whipping at Merlin and Erlin’s robes, as a young woman walked into the clearing, her robes swirling around her, as if they were made of the winds themselves. Snuggly fitted into the crook of her arm was a bowl which contained a goldfish.

“Biffilda.” The two men greeted.

“Merlin, Erlin,” she said, bowing her head at them. “See Erlin came early for once.”
“Hey!” Erlin said. “In my defense that last few times I was late, I spent them with my children!”

“You do realize I have a son, don’t you?” Biffilda asked him. “And yet, I still happen to come to the meetings on time.”
“You sound just like Rajarth.” Erlin complained.

“Speaking of Rajarth.” Biffilda said with a smirk, looking past Erlin.

Erlin spun around to see Rajarth who had come into the clearing with a turtle.
“A turtle?” Erlin asked, letting out a snort. “Of all the things you could’ve brought, you brought a turtle?”

“Actually he’s an aspidochelone.” Rajarth told him. “He’s just a baby though; when he’s older he’ll be big enough to trick some of those idiotic human sailors into landing on him, only for him to eat them.”

“I… okay.” Erlin said.

“What are you doing here so early?” Rajarth asked him. “Usually you take forever to get here.”

“Ugh, why is everyone bringing that up?”

“Because we like to tease you.”

Everyone turned around to see Vivilia come, atop a baby wolf.
“Nice to see you Vivilia.” Rajarth greeted. “How is little Isabel?”
“She’s fine,” Vivilia told him. “A bit of a trouble maker, nearly flooded some poor farmer’s cornfield, but fine.”

“That is nice, how about you two?” Rajarth turned his attention towards. Biffilda and Erlin. “How are Candavere, Phineas and Bufavulous?”

“They’re good.” Erlin said.

“Bufavulous is fine too, though he doesn’t like to listen to his father drone on about the importance of our winds.” She shook her head in amusement. “Though he is only one, so you can’t blame him.”

“Indeed you can’t.” Eleanora, who had just come into their little meeting said. “In case you were wondering, Ferbalot is doing well. Nearly gave Lawrence a heart attack the other day when he spoke very eloquently.”

“Can’t expect less from the son of the great knight Eleanora.” Biffilda teased.

“Enough about him, though,” Eleanora said, before turning to Rajarth. “I heard Maliene gave birth recently, how does it feel to be a grandfather, oldie?”

“She did indeed,” Rajarth said with a smile. “And it feels wonderful, though I do not appreciate you calling me oldie.”

“Eh hem.”

They all turned to look at Merlin.

“Can we get back to point?”

“Of course.” They all said, falling silent.

“As you all know an evil wizard by the name of Malishmirtz has recently risen to power, and is attempting to take over the tri-kingdom area. While we have some people trying to stop him, I’ve been informed that a group of heroes in the future will be the ones to stop him, and that’s where you all come in,” Merlin took the bag from his side and opened it, he then let some of its precious contents fall into his hand. “I was told by the Lady of the Lake who these heroes were going to be, and given the task to make these.”

“What are they?” Vivilia asked.

“They’re crystals; I made them for each of the five heroes that will defeat Malishmirtz, and the allies he will gain. That’s where you come in. I have asked each of you to bring a trusted animal from your homeland to guard a very important treasure, these are that treasure. I want you to choose some place in your realm to hide them, and set the animal as their guardian. The guardian won’t always be with the crystal, but they will know when someone who isn’t the hero tries to get the crystal, so they can stop them from getting it, they will also know when the hero gets it. They will know what to do then.” Merlin handed each of the crystals to a specific person.

“Who are the heroes?” Eleanora asked.

Merlin smiled, “You were just talking about them.”

Fifteen years later

In the backyard of the humble antique dealer’s cottage were five teenagers, who six years prier had fought, and won a battle against the most evil wizard of the entire tri-kingdom area, with the help of ten-thousand monsters. These teens were none other than the great knight Ferbalot, his step-brother Phineas the Wizardling, Isabel the water sprite, the powerful wind-lord of the east, Bufavulous, and Baljeetalos of the Nerdling Realm.
“Huh,” Phineas said, looking up into the stormy sky. “There’s nothing unearthly about this rain,” he turned to his friends. “Well, anyone have any ideas of what to do?”

All of his friends shook their heads from their sprawled positions on the ground.

“Ugh, I wish we could go on a quest!” Phineas complained flopping onto the ground dramatically.

“Be calm, Phineas,” Isabel advised. “It’s not like the Lady of the Puddle is going to show up out of the blue.”

AT that moment the Lady of the Puddle came up from one of the newly formed puddles, completely out of the blue.

“Thanks Montelin!” She called up at the Lord of the Rain. She then turned her attention towards the five young mortals. They all quickly hopped to their feet, and bowed in respect.

“Greetings heroes, it is I, the Lady of the Puddle, and I have come with a quest!”

“Huh, guess I was wrong.” Isabel said.

“What kind of quest?” Phineas asked.

“A quest for the five crystals of Merlin.”

“Five crystals of Merlin?” Bufavulous asked.

“I’ve heard about those!” Baljeetalos said. “Merlin entrusted five crystals to each of his most trusted allies, the leaders, or chiefs, of the greatest clans of the tri-kingdom area.”

“That is correct.” The Lady of the Puddle said. “He also put a guardian in charge of each crystal, this guardian knows who the crystal belongs to and will let the hero take it, while it’ll stop whoever else attempts to take it for their own.”

“What are the clans put in charge of the crystals?” Isabel asked curiously.

“That is information I cannot give you.” The Lady of the Puddle told them. “I can’t even tell you who will have which crystal, you’ll know who it belongs to though, so don’t worry. In fact, I’ll be the first one who’ll give you your rhyming hint which will vaguely give you an idea of where the crystal is, who gets it, and how you’ll actually get it. Well, this one isn’t entirely vague, the others will be worse. Now, for the hint…”

To hold this crystal you must be pure
No darkness in your heart
If this is true you’ll be secure
If not, you’ll fail before you start
Located in a mountain with a hole
The heat will be intense
You must get there before it blows
Now let your quest commence

With the last word the Lady of the Puddle disappeared, splashing the teens with puddle water.

“Ferbalot,” Phineas said, turning towards his step-brother. “I know what we’re going to do today!”

~~~

In the Inn of the Prancing Platypus, the heroes sat around, feasting upon the greatest taco salads in all of the tri-kingdom area.

“Okay,” Phineas said. “We have to figure out what the Lady of the Puddle meant by ‘mountain with a hole,’ ‘Jeet?”

“She was probably talking about a volcano.” Baljeetalos said, dragging a broken piece of the salad’s shell across the meat of his salad. “They are mountains that have holes, plus the insides can be 1100 degrees, Celsius.”

“Cool,” Isabel said. “Are there any volcanoes in the tri-kingdom area?”

“Mnt. Vulcan, home of the Vulcan wizardlings.” Baljeetalos said.

“Aren’t those really nasty wizardlings?” Bufavulous asked.

“Yep, though it’s the only volcano located in the tri-kingdom area, so I guess that’s where we’re going to have to go.” Baljeetalos said, frowning down at his salad.

“Perfect!” Phineas said happily. “Wait, how bad are these wizardlings?”

“Pretty bad.” Baljeetalos told him. “They have been known to make the volcano erupt when bored, and sometimes they trick humans into going up there, only to push them into the volcano, and into the lava within.”

“Not very friendly, are they?” Phineas asked, and then he turned to Ferbalot. “Well, we can do it! Surely they’ll be nice when we tell them what we’re there for! C’mon!”

With that said they all left the Inn and headed off towards the general direction of Mnt. Vulcan.

~~~

“Carl, why’d you stop?” Monogram asked.

“I feel like now would be a good time for a bathroom break, sir,” Carl explained, marking his spot. “Be right back!”