Chapter 14: The Last Journey

After her conversation with the spirit in the snow and her realization of the power contained within the Crystal Heart Wonder knew what she had to do. It wasn’t that there was a sudden solution to the problem; she just realized what was right and what was necessary. So she set off immediately with Desmond by her side. They went wherever the Crystal Heart guided them, waking up any creatures they found along the way. Whenever an animal regained its senses Wonder always asked if they would like to join her. Most of them did, but some of them preferred to stay behind. Rocks and trees were affected by the Heart’s power as well, though they obviously couldn’t come along. In this way Wonder quickly gained a substantial following.

They travelled for days on end, not wanting to lose the momentum they had built. With the Heart guiding them they made excellent time across the land, amassing more followers and heading toward their ultimate goal. Everything seemed to be falling into place, but Wonder couldn’t ignore the sadness that was brought on whenever she thought about her friends she had left at the tower. She had accepted her fate, but she would have liked to have seen them once more to say goodbye. Unfortunately she only had the Crystal Heart to guide her, and she didn’t know where it was leading. That’s why she was so surprised when the group found themselves in Jethimadh.

They had travelled through a similar region once already, but as soon as they crossed the border into Jethimadh Wonder could see the tower in the distance and she knew where they were. She decided to make a detour to the tower to check on her friends regardless of where the Heart wanted her to go. Coincidentally the Heart was leading her right back to the tower anyway, and this gave her confidence.

With her animal followers at her back she arrived at the tower just in time, it seemed. Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets looked as if they were on trial and poor Koro was locked up in a tiny cage being swung about by Uncle Friendly. Listening to the end of Friendly’s rant about traitors and saving Ur she knew she had to speak up, but this time she wasn’t afraid of what might happen because she knew she was right.

“I’m sorry, but this world can’t be saved. Not in the way that you think. If you really want to be saved the Giants need to wake up, and I’m the one who has to do it.”

The crowd seemed to be holding its breath, not really sure what to make of this new development.

“What is this?!” Uncle Friendly didn’t try to disguise his anger this time. “The traitor has returned? This doesn’t change anything. Now you can stand trial with your friends and we can keep you all from doing any more harm.”

Wonder stared Uncle Friendly down and approached the steps by a path that had opened up in the crowd. Desmond followed immediately behind, but the rest of the animals stayed where they were at his request.

“No, you’re wrong,” Wonder answered back once she was face to face with Uncle Friendly. “We’re not traitors and we’re not trying to destroy your world, you just don’t want to see it.” Her words were firm, but not angry, and just loud enough for everyone gathered to hear.

“I heard it from your own lips; you want to wake the Giants and doom us all to non-existence!”

“True, the Giants need to be woken, and this land will cease to exist, but that doesn’t mean we will. The Glitchen have already moved on and this land will follow one way or another. Ur was always a temporary thing. A land created in a dream could never last forever.” Wonder turned to address the crowd. “You all had your time here to enjoy your lives. It was too short, but holding on to the decaying memory of what this place used to be is not the way to celebrate it.

“I can’t put the Giants back to sleep, and even if I could it wouldn’t do any good for anyone. In this state of half-waking Ur is slowly dying from the inside out. You’ve already seen the rocks, trees and animals losing pieces of their old selves. Eventually entire streets would start to fade until there was nothing left. It would be a long, slow, painful death. Ur deserves more than that and so do you. Help me, and let’s end this world the way it was always supposed to end: with music and cheering and friends by our side. I can’t save the world in the way that you had all hoped, but I can lead us into the next one the way the Giants intended.”

Wonder stared out at the Vendors and they stared back at her, too shocked to say anything. She turned to face Uncle Friendly who was staring down at her as if seeing her for the first time. His shoulders dropped and Wonder could almost swear she saw a tear forming in that giant orange eye of his. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again and instead handed the cage to Wonder and walked away. The Vendors took this as a sign and cheered for Wonder. It didn’t seem to matter that she planned to end the world, it somehow gave them hope.

Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets rushed over while Wonder let Koro out of the cage.

“You made it back!” Mr. Trinkets shouted.

“We were so worried about you!” Magic Rock added.

Wonder laughed in spite of herself. “It seems like you should have been more worried about yourselves. What happened here?”

“You were gone and we didn’t know what to do, so we sort of tried to start a revolution.” Mr. Trinkets said. “It didn’t really work.”

“I can see that.” Wonder lifted Koro up in her hand and looked her over. “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine now. I stuck around to help after Uncle Friendly sent you away, but I got caught. It’s a good thing you showed up or I don’t know what would have happened.”

“Speaking of which, how did you find your way back?” Magic Rock asked. “And what’s with all the animals?”

The animals that had followed Wonder were now mixing in with the Vendors and they seemed to be explaining things as best they could. Animals in Ur always had a knack for sensationalizing events or remembering them somewhat differently, but the main parts of the story seemed to be getting across.

“When I was in the tower I met Gwendolyn, a spirit from a lost age. She told me everything about Ur fading away and waking the Giants. She gave me this,” Wonder held up the Crystal Heart, “And told me it would guide me to the end of my quest. When I got sent away it led me back here and along the way I used it to wake up any animals I found, to help them remember who they used to be. Which reminds me, guys, this is Desmond,” Wonder motioned to the piggy at her side. “Desmond, this is Magic Rock, Mr. Trinkets and Koro.” They all nodded and greeted Desmond.

“I’ve heard a lot about you fellas. Nice to finally put a face with the names,“ he replied.

“So, what’s our next move?” Magic Rock asked.

Wonder thought for a moment. “Gwendolyn said this would guide me to the end of my quest, and it brought me here, but I feel like this isn’t it.” She held the Heart in her hand and closed her eyes, turning one way and then another, taking a few steps and then walking back. Finally she opened her eyes and smiled. “It’s that way,” she said pointing off in the distance.

“What is?” Koro asked.

“I’m not sure, but we’ll find out soon enough.”

Once the situation had been adequately explained to everyone they were all given the choice to go wherever they wanted. Most of the Vendors chose to follow Wonder, but a few stayed behind, including Uncle Friendly who seemed quite ashamed of everything that had happened. Wonder tried to comfort him and say that she understood his heart was in the right place, but she couldn’t convince Uncle Friendly to come along. Instead he stayed at the tower with Helga and a few others, determined to meet the end where they had made their new home.

All-in-all for a party that was heading toward certain destruction the group that left the tower base that day was in pretty high spirits. Animals and Vendors were talking and laughing, remembering better times and enjoying the company.

Wonder led the group with Magic Rock, Mr. Trinkets and Desmond at her side. Koro flew happily above them occasionally coming in to land on Wonder’s shoulder and talk about unimportant things. They tried to enjoy what they expected to be their last journey together, but it was hard to ignore the fact that none of them would be coming back from it. Still they kept things light and happy as they traveled through Chakra Phool and into a dark, craggy region. The terrain proved to be a bit of a challenge, but they were greatly aided (and entertained) by the fungus-like growths that shot them up into the air allowing them to easily reach new heights.

They kept traveling and eventually the sky lightened and the weather turned cold. Snow covered the ground and ice covered the rocks. Wonder and Desmond told the others about their first meeting and the beauty of the snowy forest at night. They each secretly wished they could see it one more time, but kept that to themselves. It wasn’t long until they reached a street that looked like many other streets they had traveled through, but to Wonder it felt different.

“It’s here, something’s different about this place,” she said, looking around.

High above them she noticed a door.

“There,” she said pointing it out to the others before springing upward from a bouncing growth. The others followed suit and shortly Wonder, Koro, Magic Rock, Mr. Trinkets and Desmond were all standing on the ledge to the door. The rest of the group waited down below, talking among themselves, not aware that this might be the end of the line.

Wonder looked at each of her friends. “I think this is it, guys. Through here is the end; where Gwendolyn says the dream world and the waking world are closest. Are you ready?”

They nodded in agreement and Wonder opened the door and stepped through. Everything was dark and she turned to see her friends still standing on the ledge. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

Koro shook her head. “We can’t come in,” she said. “It won’t let us pass.”

“I’m afraid she’s right,” said Magic Rock. “It looks like this is a place for Glitchen only.”

The words hit her hard. After everything she had done in the past few days and all the confidence and courage she had gained Wonder still couldn’t help herself and broke down crying right there inside the doorway.

“But I don’t want to go alone!” she sobbed. “I need you with me.”

“You’re wrong,” Mr. Trinkets said. “You don’t need us there with you. You’re strong enough to do anything on your own.”

“He’s right you know,” Magic Rock added. “You’ve done more in your short time than most Glitchen could do in a hundred lifetimes.”

“Besides, you won’t be alone. We’ll all be right here, thinking about you and waiting to meet back up on the other side.” Desmond offered.

Wonder looked at them each and smiled through her tears. It wasn’t until that moment that she remembered the last words Gwendolyn ever spoke to her, “You have friends. Trust them. Lean on them to get you to your goal, but in the end you must walk the final road alone.” And Wonder knew she was right.

She stepped back out and gave them each a hug because she couldn’t say goodbye. Last of all she sat on the ground in front of Koro.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but you were my first friend and you stood by me when I wouldn’t return the favor.”

Koro looked up into Wonder’s face. “You were my first friend too, and friends don’t just abandon each other. You never let me down. You always came back for me.”

Wonder offered her hand and Koro hopped onto it. She lifted Koro up to her face and kissed the top of her head. “Goodbye, Koro. I hope we see each other again.”

“Goodbye, Wonder. I’m sure we will.”

She placed Koro back on the ledge, stood up, gave her friends one more sad smile and then walked through the door without looking back. It was the scariest moment of her short life.

Once the door closed Wonder found herself walking on a narrow strip of grass in the sunset next to a wide body of water. It seemed so peaceful she couldn’t help but stop and stare out over the water for a moment. In the distance she could see another narrow strip of land with a hill on it. She was completely alone.

After another moment of quiet reflection she listened to the Crystal Heart. This place felt like the end of life, but not the end of a world. She still wasn’t where she needed to be so she moved on through another door opposite the one she had come in. When she walked through she expected to be in a new place, but instead she was standing on the hill she had seen in the distance. The rules of time and space seemed to be breaking down here near the edge of reality, but that didn’t bother her much. What did bother her was the lack of a door or another way out of any kind. She knew that she was close to her goal, but she wasn’t sure where to go next.

Wonder sat in the grass on the hill and stared out over the water once again. The colors of the perpetual sunset made her sad and she wished her friends could have seen it with her. She let her eyes follow the gradation of the sunlight from bright yellow to orange to pink to violet to blue and up to where the stars began to twinkle in the dark. She lay back, feeling the grass under her hands; trying to soak it all in before everything went away. She closed her eyes and breathed in the air here at the end of her life. It was sweet and pure.

She opened her eyes again to try to count the stars and see their patterns, but something else caught her attention. Up in the sky she saw what looked like letters among the clouds. She sat up and tried to make them out, but wisps of cloud kept drifting by obscuring the shapes. She continued to stare until her eyes hurt from the strain when finally the sky cleared revealing the simple message.

“Bye.”

She whispered the word to herself while she stared up into the sky. No sooner had the sound left her mouth than she began floating up toward the word. She looked back down to see the ground retreating as she kicked her feet and flailed her arms, but it was no use. She was being pulled up by some mysterious force and there was nothing she could do about it. Then in an instant she was calm as if a wave had washed over her. She felt the Crystal Heart and realized that she was finally going where she had been meant to go since she had woken up alone in the forest all those weeks ago.

Wonder floated up into the sky until the letters dissolved into nothing and she could see Ur laid out below in patches of blue, brown and green. From up there she could see where the outer edges were already starting to fade just like Gwendolyn told her they would. She wondered how long this world would have lasted left to its own devices, but there was no way of knowing.

Below her was Ur, above her were stars and empty blackness, and all around were chunks of rock floating independently. She guessed that these may have been bits of Ur pulled away from the surface when the Giants awoke, but it was just speculation. She found she could jump between them quite easily, and with a little effort she could even float around without touching the ground at all if she wanted. She wasn’t as graceful as Koro, but Wonder could understand what she meant about flying being preferable to walking.

She floated from rock to rock, exploring. There weren’t any trees or minerals here, but on every rock, covering every inch, she found notes left behind by Glitchen. She had stopped reading the notes scattered around Ur a long time ago because they made her sad, but she decided to take the time to read some now. These were some of the last thoughts of the Glitchen and she thought someone should remember them.

Wonder sat and read the notes for a long time. Some of them were short and sweet; simple goodbyes. Others were longer, more dramatic, but equally as heartfelt. She read poems and songs and confessions and each one she read she placed back exactly where she had found it.

Once she was done she dried her eyes and took out the music block Gwendolyn had given her. She held it in one hand with the Crystal Heart in the other. They both seemed so insignificant. It didn’t make sense that the objects that would bring about the end of the world should fit so neatly in her grip. The thought made her laugh and think about herself and how insignificant she had felt her entire life.

She sat down at the edge of one of the floating rocks and let her feet hang over the side. She held the Crystal Heart in her lap and sat the music block next to her on the ground. She pushed the play button and as the first notes rang out she looked down between her feet at the world she had helped bring to a close.

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