A/N: I honestly never thought I would become so involved in this to fandom as to actually write fanfction for it, yet here am :) A special thanks to my super sensational sister Simba72598 for encouraging me to post this story, and also thanks to pizzansunshine, lovelyrugbee, queendom-of-avalor, and a bunch of other amazing people over on tumblr who unknowingly helped my love and enthusiasm for this fandom and it's characters to grow. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the first chapter! :)

"Is everything alright, princesa? You've been unusually quiet."

The question brought Elena out her silent stupor. Ever since the council meeting earlier that afternoon, Elena had developed a pounding headache thanks to Naomi and Esteban. They had gotten into a large disagreement over the requirements one needed to have to own a shipping license, and by the end of the meeting their dispute still hadn't been solved, so nothing was accomplished.

"Oh, I'm fine," she finally responded to Skylar, who had been kind enough to offer her a ride around town after claiming the fresh air would be good for her head. "I was just thinking about the council meeting and wishing it could've ran more…smoothly, I guess." Elena held back a sigh. "Don't worry about it though, I'm sure it'll all be resolved by tomorrow."

"If you say so, princesa. Just remember, if you ever need anything, us jaquins are more than willing to help you," Skylar's voice said from below.

Elena reached down to gently pat Skylar on the head. "Thank you, I'll keep that in –" Elena's voice died off when she suddenly heard a scream coming from behind her. Immediately she turned around and felt panic grip her heart as she saw the terrible sight set before her eyes.

"The palace! It's – it's on fire!" Skylar shouted with disbelief.

Elena could hardly believe it herself. How did that happen? When did that happen?

But as soon as she opened her mouth to tell Skylar to take her to the burning building, she noticed the whole town was suddenly on fire too. "What…?" Elena began to say, but then she realized Skylar had disappeared as well, and that she was on her feet again alone in the middle of Avalor, which was currently being burned to the ground.

Before Elena could barely process what was happening, the flames slowly began to close in on her, and she could find no way to escape. The heat and the smoke were starting to become unbearable, and her vision began to dim as the world seemed to tip sideways.

"No…somebody…help!" she tried to call, her voice barely above a whisper.

But then a cool hand gripped her shoulder, and Elena shivered despite the intense heat. She didn't even need to turn around to know who it was. It was the same person who had haunted her nightmares for months on end – the only person who Elena was truly frightened of.

"Look what's become of Avalor, dear princess," Shuriki purred in her ear. Elena tried her best to stay still and keep a deadpan expression, but the smoke was still burning her lungs and her eyes were stinging from the heat. "Look around, Elena. All of this has happened because of you. You weren't a good enough leader, and this is Avalor's fate because of it. Do you really wish to doom the whole city because of your lack of experience and judgment?" Shuriki circled around Elena like a vulture, a hungry gleam in her cold, green eyes.

Elena tried to speak, to shake her head, to do anything, but found herself frozen. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it would all go away, but Shuriki was still speaking.

"You're unfit to be a leader. You care too much, and are always striving to do things the right way. But to be a ruler you have to make hard decisions, even if they conflict your morals. Are you ready for that, princess?" Elena could hear the scorning in Shuriki's voice. "Or are you willing to put Avalor in harm's way, just to follow your heart?" She let out a mirthless laugh, and the sound kept growing, and growing, and growing, until it was echoing in Elena's head and it consumed her mind. Cold, sinister laughter was chilling her heart and taking over her entire being. There was no end – it was going on forever and ever and never stopping and –

"Elena!"

Elena gasped and bolted upright, a hand flying to her heart to try and calm its furious beating. It was only a dream! Elena felt she might cry from relief – if only Isabel wasn't intently peering at her from beside her bed.

"Elena, are you alright? I had to shout almost three times before you woke up," Isabel informed, an anxious expression on her face.

Elena quickly took a few calming breaths before giving her sister a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Isa. I was just having…an intense dream. What are you doing up so early though?" she asked, deflecting the attention away from her disturbing nightmare.

Isabel continued to frown. "It's not that early. And I came up to get you – we're supposed to go on an outing to the waterfall with Naomi, Mateo, and Gabe today, remember? We made the plans last night at your fiesta."

Elena's eyes widened as she remembered. "Oh! I can't believe I forgot!" Her nightmare was momentarily forgotten as she jumped out of bed in a sudden burst of energy. "I guess getting older really takes a toll on your memory."

A smile finally lit Isabel's face as she rolled her eyes. "You've been eighteen for one day, Elena, you're not losing your memory," she joked. "And you're not old."

"Well, technically I'm fifty-nine," Elena countered, "but thankfully I don't look it, or feel it, for that matter."

It was still strange for Elena to think that her, her grandparents, and sister were all forty-one years older than they looked, but last night at her cumpleaños fiesta, she finally felt older than she seemed. Maybe it was just the realization that she had only had two more years before she became queen, or just the fact that turning eighteen was the symbol of adulthood in many other kingdoms, but she knew she was much older than the naïve girl she had been when she'd been gifted the amulet on her fifteenth birthday. In those long forty-one years, and even the two years since she had been freed, Elena knew she had gained wisdom and learned lessons not many people her age would've had the opportunity to experience, and she was certain she was on the right track to becoming a great leader.

But will you ever be great enough? a small voice asked within her head, and Elena couldn't tell if the voice belonged to her, or Shuriki. The thought made her shudder, so she hurriedly shut the voice out altogether. It was bad enough that the evil sorceress plagued her dreams, she didn't need to have her possibly cropping up in her waking moments either.

Deciding not to dwell on her frequent nightmares anymore, Elena quickly changed out of her nightclothes and put on her usual pink dress, and then followed Isabel as they left the room and descended downstairs, first stopping by the kitchens to pick up a picnic basket prepared by the cooks for their outing. Once they'd gotten the food, the two sisters raced back to the main entrance, where they were greeted by Naomi, Gabe, and Mateo, waiting at the edge of the staircase.

"You must've partied a little too hard last night, huh your highness?" Naomi asked teasingly, giving a mock bow.

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry I'm late," Elena apologized indifferently. "But I brought food, so all should be forgiven, right?"

"You are totally forgiven," Gabe declared as he eyed the picnic basket with longing. "What type of food did you bring?"

"You will find out at lunch," Elena said, deflecting his question with a wink.

The five friends exited the main hall and began their journey to the waterfall. Isabel spoke up and asked, "So, which way do we want to go? Through town or – "

"Let's go through town," Elena quickly interrupted her. "It's, uh, been a while since I checked up on the villagers," she explained, although it wasn't at all close to the real reason she wanted to take that route. She mainly just wanted to reassure herself that the town was decidedly not on fire, but knew that to explain that desire would mean revealing her nightmares to her friends, and that was a topic she didn't want to discuss.

Thankfully the others seemed content with her answer and followed her as she hurried down the steps of the main entrance. She let out an inaudible sigh of relief as she saw that Avalor was its serene and pristine self, and then felt foolish for letting a bad dream affect her so much. It was just a nightmare – nothing more.

"Elena? Are you alright?" she heard Mateo ask quietly from beside her.

She gave him a soft smile. "I'm fine, but thanks for asking." Even though she'd denied him the truth, she couldn't help but feel grateful for his concern and touched that he even noticed she'd been distressed, plus the fact that he'd asked discreetly and not called the whole group's attention onto her.

He returned her smile and nodded, albeit hesitantly. Mateo somehow always seemed to know when something was wrong, and in truth she was grateful for his intuition. Maybe, if the nightmares didn't stop soon, she'd open up to him about it. She knew she could trust him with anything.

The five friends proceeded to wander throughout the town for the next half hour or so, talking to various people and admiring the beauty of Avaloran scenery. Elena always prided herself on knowing everyone in the town and what they did or where they worked, but found herself at a loss when she saw a small man nervously wandering down the street towards her and her friends, clutching the reins to an exhausted looking horse.

He was barely taller than Isabel, with close-cropped black hair and a handlebar mustache that nearly covered half of his face. She had never seen him before, and from the jittery way he was moving she assumed he must be either in a big hurry or utterly lost, or maybe both.

"Excuse me!" she called to the man. He looked up at her shout and gasped, recognition washing over his features.

"Princess Elena?" he asked in disbelief, and then before she could answer he began rapidly speaking again. "I can't believe I actually found you! I thought I'd have to send a message through the Royal Guard or something, but I can't believe my luck! Oh, your majesty, we desperately need your help – you and your royal wizard's help. We can't think of any other way besides magic to fix it, and there haven't been any wizards in our town since the days of Shuriki, seeing as it was too dangerous to practice magic anywhere near Avalor, so I volunteered to find help here, and I've been traveling nonstop trying to find you, and –"

"Okay, slow down," Elena said, holding up her hands to get him to stop speaking. "How about you tell me your name, and then where you're from, alright?"

He gave a low bow and said, "Oh, yes, of course your most royal majesty, my apologies –"

"You can just call me Princess Elena, and there's no need for you to bow," she quickly interrupted again, and then motioned for him to stand up and proceed.

"Of course, I'm sorry your – uh, princess. My name is Miguel, and I'm from a small village called Aldea, just a few hours east of Avalor."

"Aldea? That's quite a ways away. I went there for part of my royal guard training," Gabe said, joining their conversation. Naomi, Mateo, and Isabel wandered over to listen too. "We practiced rock climbing over there because the village has so many cliffs and mountains."

"Yes, that is true!" said Miguel excitedly, pleased that Gabe knew where it was. Elena faintly remembered seeing the town on a map back in the palace, but she felt bad for never having actually visited the place itself.

"And why does Aldea need magic?" she prompted, making a mental note to study geography more.

"One of our buildings, the village Inn, collapsed in on itself – which was very unusual – but there are people trapped beneath the rubble and there's no way we can move the debris to get them out! Oh please, princess, is there any way you can help us?" Miguel pleaded desperately.

Elena was horrified. "People are still trapped in there? How did they survive?"

"There was only one family and the innkeeper inside at the time, and apparently they were all on the bottom floor and managed to avoid being crushed," Miguel began to explain. "We could hear them calling for help and knew they were still stuck inside, so I quickly left to find someone who could help, but we need magic help, so I came all the way here!"

"Well, you came to the right place! Of course we'll help, we'll come straight away," Elena assured him.

She quickly turned around to address Gabe. "Can you go back up to the palace and get the carriage ready?"

"Right away, princess," he said, and sprinted back up the path.

She turned back to find Miguel bowing to her and singing her thanks and praise, so she bit back a sigh and motioned to the palace, saying, "Let's go, we need to hurry if we want get there soon."

"Of course, thank you Princess. But what about my horse?" Miguel asked.

Elena took one look at the horse and could see it was in no shape for traveling such a long distance again. "We'll take him to the stables at the palace. Let him rest for a bit and then I'll have some guards bring him back to you in a few days."

Miguel went back to muttering thanks, but thankfully began to follow Elena and her friends as they took off after Gabe.

Once they arrived Elena was met by her grandparents, who were standing on the palace steps with identical looks of confusion of their faces.

"Elena, where are you going? I thought you and your friends were taking a picnic to the waterfall!" Luisa exclaimed, while Francisco pointed to Miguel and asked, "Who is this?"

"Abuela, Abuelo, this is Miguel, and he's from the village of Aldea, which is where I'm going because they need my help," she quickly explained. "Oh, and Mateo's coming too, because Aldea needs his help as well."

Her grandparents were silent before Francisco spoke up and said, "Aldea's nearly half a days journey away – it'll be nearly nightfall by the time you arrive. Are you sure you can't wait until tomorrow morning?"

Elena shook her head determinedly. "A village needs my help, abuelo. I can't delay simply because of traveling inconveniences."

She watched as her grandfather sighed but slowly smiled all the same. "I had a feeling you were going to say something like that. Just be careful – and take Gabe with you. I'll feel slightly better knowing you have a Royal Guard to protect you."

"Mateo and I can protect ourselves, abuelo," Elena told him, but relented with a shrug. "Though I guess it couldn't hurt to have some backup." She quickly gave her grandparents a quick hug and turned back to her friends and Miguel waiting by the carriage.

"Alright, Gabe will drive, the rest of us will sit in the back." Mateo, Miguel, and Gabe nodded at her instructions and did as she said. Elena then turned to Naomi and Isabel, who were both looking rather put out.

"Are you sure we can't come too?" Isabel asked imploringly.

"Yeah, we can help y'know," Naomi added.

Elena sadly shook her head. "I know you guys are more than capable of helping in this type of situation, but the more people we have in the carriage the longer it will take for us to reach Aldea. Besides, I need you guys here to watch after the kingdom. Can you do that please?"

After a moment Naomi finally sighed. "Fine. But I expect full details on your guy's rescue expedition, okay?"

Elena gave her friend a quick hug. "Thanks for understanding," she said.

Elena looked down at Isabel, who still hadn't said anything. "Isa…?" Elena gently pressed.

"Can we go on our picnic once you guys get back?" Isabel asked. Elena quickly nodded, knowing how much her little sister had been looking forward to it. She felt guilty that it had been disrupted, but knew the trapped people of Aldea were more important at the moment. "I promise, Isa," Elena said, and then gave her sister a hug before waving goodbye to everyone and jumping into the carriage beside Miguel.

Gabe snapped the reins and off they went. The weather was perfect for a carriage ride, but none of the carriage's occupants were focused on the climate. All Elena could think about were those poor people trapped beneath the rubble, and silently urging the horses to run faster. She would've asked the jaquins to take them, but even though they were quicker than horses they also grew tired faster, and Elena felt a half a day's journey was too much for them.

The morning slowly grew into the afternoon, and Elena was extremely grateful that Mateo had thought to bring the picnic basket from this morning with them. The four of them ate the food and gave the extra to the horses, who were starting to tire after running all morning and most of the afternoon.

"We should be there in about an hour," Miguel informed later that afternoon, much to everyone's relief.

The sun was just beginning to set by the time Gabe steered the carriage into the small village. "Welcome to Aldea," he announced, albeit wearily.

The horses had barely come to a stop before Elena hopped out of the carriage and onto her feet. Miguel and Mateo hopped out a moment later.

Miguel quickly told Gabe of where a stable was so the horses could rest, and then he turned back to Elena and Mateo. "Follow me," he instructed, and led them down a few short roads until they were in the center of town. Aldea was definitely a small town, but also contained great beauty. The village was surrounded by several white, rocky cliffs and in the distance large purple mountains rose out of the horizon. It wasn't like anything they had in Avalor, and if she weren't in such a hurry Elena could've stared at the scenery for hours. Her attention was quickly diverted from the cliffs though as soon as they came upon the collapsed building. Several villagers were already surrounding the rubble, trying all they could to move the debris, and it was evident they had been there for several hours by their fatigued faces.

"Everyone! Help has arrived!" Miguel shouted, startling several of the villagers near them. Every eye turned to Elena and Mateo as they drew closer, and then a chorus of cheers broke out among the crowd.

"The Princess is here! I can't believe it…"

"Miguel actually did it!"

"A Royal Wizard can surely save them!"

Elena heard all of these comments and more as she and Mateo walked to the front of the collapsed Inn. Elena watched as Mateo circled the fallen building for a few minutes and scrutinized the debris lying around it.

"Miguel was right – this is strange…" he muttered, and continued to stare at the building until Elena gently nudged his shoulder.

"Uh, Mateo? We need to free the people…" she reminded.

"Oh, right! Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, and then cleared his throat. "Alright. Elena, you go to the other side of the Inn and use your new scepter power, and I'll stay here on this side and use my tamborita. Since the building's no longer connected to the foundation, we're going to lift the whole thing up so the people can escape – then we'll gently set it back down. Does that sound okay?"

Elena nodded, although she was a bit hesitant about using her scepter. It was barely a month ago that she'd discovered she could use it to make things float by saying 'hover,' but she still hadn't mastered the power as well as she would have liked.

Mateo's voice suddenly broke through her uncertain thoughts. "You can do it. I know you can," he encouraged quietly, and Elena was once again amazed at how he could read her like an open book.

Putting on a brave smile, Elena took his advice and winked, saying, "Let's free these people!"

She quickly went around to the back as Mateo said and awaited his cue. "On three!" she heard him shout. Elena took a deep breath and pointed her scepter at the building. "One…two…three!"

"Hover!" Elena shouted, gripping her scepter with all of her might. She could feel the power coursing through her and saw a blinding light erupt from the jewel of the scepter. She faintly heard Mateo yelling some spell from the other side of the building, and then suddenly the Inn begin to float off the ground. The people surrounding them began to gasp and cheer.

"Hover!" Elena yelled again, and the Inn lifted a few more feet off the ground. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Gabe and a few other brave souls crouched under the building, holding out their hands to help the people inside.

"Hover!" she repeated, but her arms were beginning to shake and her breathing was getting heavier. The Inn was now nearly seven feet off the ground – surely that was enough room for them to escape.

And apparently it was, for she heard Mateo calling to her, "Slowly set it down!" She lowered her scepter and felt the power slowly decrease until the building was set on the ground again. Elena finally dropped her arms and gave a large sigh of relief. She did it! Everyone was suddenly pressing in around her and hugging her and cheering, and although she felt drained Elena couldn't help but smile and celebrate with the villagers. Amongst the horde of people Elena managed to find Mateo, who also looked exhausted, but was smiling nonetheless. Elena wordlessly gave him a quick hug, and then turned around to find the people they had just helped save.

There were five of them, and all were covered in a thick layer of concrete dust and wore identical expressions of relief on their faces.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, your highness," the oldest woman said with deep gratitude. "You saved my family. Both of you did." Elena saw a man behind her along with two children who appeared to be twins, all nodding in agreement with the woman.

The weariness from using the scepter seemed to fade away as content filled Elena's heart. "We were more than happy to help," she answered with a smile.

The other man who had been trapped came up to her next, with tears of happiness in his eyes. "You saved us! I will forever be eternally grateful to the both of you!" he exclaimed. Elena quickly deduced this man must've been the Innkeeper.

"Like I said, we we're happy to help. I'm just glad the building didn't collapse on all of you."

The Innkeeper nodded, a frown marring his cheerful countenance. "It was very fortunate, but I still don't understand how it could've even collapsed in the first place. This Inn has been here years – before I was even born – and it's never showed sign of deterioration before..."

"It doesn't matter how it happened," an older man in the crowd said, stepping forward into sight. "You're alive, and that's all that matters. How about we have a party to celebrate – both for the successful rescue of our friends, and for the Princess and her friend's arrival!"

The man's proposal was met with more cheers from the crowd. Everyone besides the Innkeeper, the family, and Miguel immediately began bustling around, preparing for the impromptu party. They all seemed to know what to bring and where it was, giving Elena the notion that they must have several spontaneous parties quite often. The older man who had come up with the idea in the first place made his way over to Elena and the others.

The man was fairly tall and lean with dark skin and salt colored hair, and had several smile-lines under his eyes. Elena could already tell he was a kind man and liked him immediately.

He spoke to Miguel first, quietly thanking him for successfully bringing back help, and then turned to the Innkeeper and his family and informed them that arrangements had been made for them to stay at another woman's house. They all thanked the man and then left, presumably heading towards their new home for the time being.

"You can go home to, Miguel. I've got it from here," the man said, to which Miguel nodded and waved goodbye to Elena before leaving as well.

Finally the man turned to address Elena, Mateo, and Gabe. "I never got the chance to officially welcome you, but welcome to Aldea, and thank you again for all that you did." He smiled kindly at the three of them. "My name's Christian, and I'm the...leader of this town, I guess you could say, although it's not entirely official." He chuckled. "It's not often we have Avaloran visitors. The last time was nearly four years ago when a group of soldiers came and climbed the cliffs for a week. That caused quite the excitement here in town."

"That was my group!" Gabe exclaimed enthusiastically. "The experience was actually pretty fun, now that I think about it, but in the time being it was torture. You have to be really determined to scale those cliffs."

Christian patted Gabe on the shoulder. "Good to know, in case I ever desire a climb." He laughed again before motioning for them to follow him as he began walking through the town. "By the time the party's over it'll be too late for you three to travel back to Avalor, so you are all welcome to stay in my home. Normally all of our guests stay in the Inn but…" he trailed off and gestured behind him at the rubble. "You two boys will have to share a room, but hopefully you won't object too much," he said to Gabe and Mateo, who immediately assured him it would be fine. He continued on by saying, "The party will most likely start in an hour or so. We always celebrate things in the town square, so we'll head down there when it's time. Until then, I'm sure you would all like to rest and get refreshed. Ah, here we are," announced Christian, and gestured for them all to follow him inside the house they had stopped in front of.

The inside was similar to the outside: nice, neat, and cozy looking. "It's not a grand castle, but to me its home," Christian said, looking around proudly.

"It's very lovely," Elena said in all sincerity. She had sometimes fantasized about what life would be like for her if she weren't royal, and she decided that if the palace wasn't her home, she'd want a place like this.

Christian gave them a quick tour and showed them their rooms, to which Mateo and Gabe retreated to after the tour was finished. Elena, however, was too full of energy and excitement to relax.

"Is there anything I can help you with to prepare for the party?" Elena asked eagerly.

"Not necessarily. You can help if you wish though. Whenever we have parties I normally bake a dessert of some sort – do you have any preferences as to what I should make?"

Elena followed him into the kitchen as she thought. "Do you know how to make pan dulce?" she asked. It was her favorite food, and she was always in the mood to eat some.

Christian let out a loud bark of laughter. "But of course! It's a favorite among Aldea, and of mine too."

Elena smiled as she watched him gather up different ingredients from the various cupboards and shelves. His kitchen was surprisingly large, and from all the cookbooks and decorations adorning the walls she could tell he spent lots of time in there. One decoration was different from the others though, and it caught Elena's eye.

Hanging from a small hook on the wall was a long, bronze chain, or at least it appeared to be at first glance. When Elena drew closer she could see that there was something attached at the bottom of the chain, making it more of a necklace instead. The sphere attached to the bottom wasn't simply a sphere though; there were markings all along the edges, and the front had a small clasp that unhinged to reveal something underneath.

"What's under the clasp?" Elena asked, marveling at the beauty of the trinket.

Christian looked up from his work. "Oh, that? It's a clock, or at least I think it is. It doesn't look like any of the clocks I've seen – it has four hands – but it doesn't even seem to work."

Elena gently opened the sphere for herself so she could see what he was describing. There were only ten numerals surrounding the face, or at least she thought they were numerals (the marking were something she had never seen before), and it did have four hands as Christian said – all the same size, but none were moving.

"How odd…" Elena muttered, but found herself strangely drawn to the foreign object.

"The watch belonged to the people who owned this house before me. They had no clue what it did, but they said they thought it was magic or something. Maybe you could figure out how it works, Princess." Christian had come up behind her and gently took the watch from the hook, handing it to her.

"Here. You can have it," he said, pressing the cold metal into her hand.

Elena was stunned. "Oh, I didn't mean for you to give it to me, I was just looking at – "

"Princess Elena," Christian interrupted her. "Please, take it. Consider it as thanks for helping out our village. Besides, I'm sure you can get more use out of it than I can, even if you just use it as a necklace or something." He smiled at her and then returned to his cooking.

Elena fingered the chain and admired the alluring beauty of the object before finally smiling and slipping the chain over her head. "Thank you," she said gratefully.

Christian nodded at her thanks. "Now, weren't you supposed to help me make some pan dulce?"

The rest of the evening went by quickly as Elena and Christian prepared the treat for the party. Mateo and Gabe had come to help towards the end, and by the time the sweet bread was completely baked and frosted, all four of them were ready to leave.

Once they got down to the town square, Elena gasped with delight as she saw all of the brightly colored decorations ornamenting nearby houses and trees, with copious amounts of food and drinks.

"Welcome to an Aldean Celebration," Christian said, taking pleasure in their awed faces.

"Two fiestas two nights in a row," Gabe said as he snatched some food from a nearby table. "I could get used to this."

"Too bad the others couldn't be here though," Mateo remarked, and Elena had to agree with him. Maybe someday all of her family and friends could come back and they could enjoy the beautiful scenery and lovely people together.

"Oh, Princess Elena! What do you think?" a voice brought her out of her thoughts, and Elena turned to find Miguel beaming at her.

"I was just thinking that I need to come back another time when I can stay longer," Elena responded with a smile.

"I'm glad to hear it! C'mon, I want everyone to meet you."

For the next half an hour Elena found herself being introduced to nearly everyone in the whole town. She tried her best to remember all of their names, but knew she was bound to forget at least some of them. Finally after she had been dragged all over the party by a very enthusiastic Miguel, Elena retreated to the refreshment table to pour herself a glass of water. She spotted Mateo and Gabe standing off to the side conversing with a woman she had met only minutes before (was her name Mariana or Malinda?) but by the time she made her way over to them, the woman had wandered off to talk to someone else, saving Elena from the embarrassment of having to ask for her name again.

"Hey, there you are," Mateo said as soon as he saw her. "We've barely seen you all evening!"

"The life of a celebrity is pretty demanding," Gabe explained with a smirk.

"As if you would know," Elena responded, but before Gabe could come up with another retort Mateo interrupted them by pointing at the watch necklace she was wearing.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked, apparently noticing it only now.

"Christian gave it to me as a gift," she told them, holding it up so they could see. "It's supposed to be a clock, we think, but it's really unusual. He told me it might even be magical."

Mateo's eyes lit up. "Really?" he said at the same time Gabe asked, "Are you sure you should be wearing it then?"

Elena addressed Gabe first. "Why shouldn't I? It's not like magic's scary or anything."

"I don't know, Mateo can be pretty scary," Gabe said teasingly.

"Don't mock the Royal Wizard," Mateo threatened in an even tone, but was still marveling at the watch. "It's…it's just so –"

"Beautiful? Mysterious? Captivating?" Elena suggested.

"All of the above," Mateo agreed.

Gabe glanced between the two of them and shook his head. "You two are strange. It's just a bunch of gears and metal – nothing special."

"Don't let Isa hear you say that," Elena warned.

Gabe simply sighed. "I'm going to get something to drink. You guys have fun…staring, I guess." He walked away leaving Mateo and Elena to themselves.

After a few seconds, Mateo finally pried his eyes away from the watch. "Elena, there's something I've been meaning to mention," he said slowly. "I noticed something earlier about the collapsed Inn that's a bit…alarming."

Elena frowned at him. "How so?"

"Well, you know how everyone's been saying that the collapse was so sudden and unusual?" He waited for Elena to nod before continuing. "I realized earlier that they were right. When I was looking at the building when we first arrived, I noticed that there was no possible way it could've collapsed on its own. The foundation looked sturdy, the material of the building was in perfect condition – the collapse shouldn't have happened at all. It was almost as if someone lifted the building off of its base – like we did – but then dropped it, causing the rest of the building to crack and crumble and trap the people inside."

The frown on Elena's face deepened the more he spoke. "So are you saying this wasn't an accident? That someone…sabotaged the building?" she asked in disbelief.

Mateo nodded grimly. "And the only way that could've happened is by the same way we saved everyone: with magic," he added.

A silence fell between them as Elena tried to process what he had just said. Finally she managed to sputter, "But…who? And why?"

Mateo opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off when multiple gasps were heard followed by the unmistakable shout of, "Elena!"

Elena whipped around. "That sounded like…" she trailed off. She was going to say Skylar, but it couldn't be him, could it?

Suddenly one of the townspeople shouted, "It's a jaquin! Three of them!" and then Skylar, Migs, and Luna all came into view, confirming her suspicion.

"What are they doing here?" she heard Mateo ask, but she was too busy making her way towards the jaquins to respond.

"Elena? Where are you?" Skylar called again, and Elena finally pushed through the crowd so she was standing right before him.

"Skylar, Luna, Migs, what're you doing here? Did you fly here?" Elena asked in concern. Half a day of flying was a lot for a jaquin to handle.

"We had to," Migs spoke up, and Elena finally noticed how frazzled and terrified they looked. None of them were smiling, and Elena felt small shiver of dread run down her spine.

"What's wrong, what happened?" she asked, trying to keep her voice level. Mateo and Gabe were standing beside her now, and all of Aldea was listening in.

"Princesa, I…I don't know how to tell you, but –" Skylar began, and then shook his head in defeat.

Luna spoke up instead. "Princess…only hours after you left, Avalor was invaded."

All the townspeople gasped in unison, and Elena felt like she had just been punched in the stomach.

"What…? How –" she tried to say, but her throat was closing up and she couldn't speak.

"We don't know how exactly," Migs answered slowly. "But…we do know who led the invasion." The way he was looking at Elena made her feel as though she should already know who it was too.

She suddenly gasped. No, she thought. That's not possible. It can't be her, she's supposed to be dead –

"Who?" Gabe asked fiercely, his hand on his sword as though the attacker was going to jump out at them at any moment.

Migs was the one who delivered the news.

"Shuriki."

And just like that, Elena's nightmare became her reality.