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“Htrae.” I whispered the name to no one in particular. The memory of my wonderful trainer hurt. I still missed her.
Hearing her name, the tibbar curled up by my side perked up. “Not you silly!” Seemingly deciding on something, she promptly went back to sleep.
‘Htrae was so important in my life. How could I have forgotten her?’ I thought. Even though I saw my tibbar everyday, her namesake had escaped me. I was happy to know that Htrae was going to come back into the story.

Dear Diary,
You’ll never guess where I am. I never thought that this quest would have ever brought me here. I’m on Jayla! This planet is so weird. It’s like…almost a myth to Storian people. This is where “the most important part of the prophecy” was “hiding.” It, or should I say, he, answered all of my questions. Sorry, now I’m getting ahead of myself. I should start from the beginning. Ok, this could take a while.

Istiria and Istaria were easy to get in touch with. But we decided to try to find our trainers before we saw each other. That was more difficult.
The most logical thing to me was to go back to the tree, the first place I met her.
I think I fell asleep. I must have, because time went by, although it didn’t seem like it.
I woke up to the sound of a familiar laugh.
“Well hey! Thought you’d never call.”
“Htrae! Wait, call? Wait what do you mean?”
“Um…nothing. Nevermind. We have work to do! Let’s go!”
“Go? Where are we going? Htrae! Tell me!!” But she had already run off.
I followed, upset. I had just woken up and now Htrae was rushing me. Again.
By the time I had thought I would catch up to her, she had disappeared. I looked all around, but there was no Htrae to be found.
“Over here silly,” a voice whispered from behind me.
I whipped around. There was no one there. But it was defiantly Htrae’s voice.
“Oh come on your smarter than this!! It’s the clock! You knew that!”
Htrae was talking in puzzles. But I did like she said and went to the most obvious thing, a huge clock called The Rose Petal. It was in the outskirts of the biggest town on Karlett.
I had gotten so used to seeing it I automatically recognized the difference. But who wouldn’t notice a big spinning bronze portal where a huge clock usually was?
Htrae spoke again. “Come on. It’s not that difficult.”
So I stepped into the portal.
It was different from the last portal I went through, the one to Vibbons. This one had a good feeling, almost like a small tickle. This was the first thing that I noticed. The second was that I could actually see. And what a sight.
Everything was red and orange and yellow clouds. Dizzying, spinning clouds. The weirdest part was that I was sitting on a cloud, with Htrae next to me, and we weren’t falling through. I thought I could see Istiria and Eci in the distance and, in another direction, Istaria and Erif, but that could have been my imagination.
Suddenly, it all stopped. I hit the ground so hard it felt like I had fallen out of the sky. And what was around me was even weirder than the portal.
You would have had to be there, it’s too hard to explain. But I’ll try.
Everything was stopping and starting, like…nothing I’ve ever seen before. I saw Istiria, and she seemed to be moving faster than ever possible. Istaria wasn’t moving at all. When I tried to go to one of them, I moved like I was going through molasses.
Istiria was gone before I knew it, as fast as she was going. Htrae was standing next to me, in the exact same state as I was.
I waited for what seemed like an eternity, waited for the ability to move. I never knew how much I took for granted something as simple as movement.
It felt almost like I was breaking through a wall. It was just, all of a sudden, I could move again.
Htrae was still next to me. “Come on! It’s finally time.” For some reason she put extra emphasis on this last word time. “You know, that sister of yours sure doesn’t consider the fact that we were stuck here! She could have at least TRIED to go a little faster!” Htrae said as she started walking.
I thought of how fast Istiria had been going, but decided not to say anything.
“Well come on! He’s waiting for us!”
“Htrae? Can you at least tell me where we’re going?” But she had already sped away. I hurried after her.
As I was running, I thought about the prophecy again. The clue we were on right now was about a clock, so had we already done it with the portal or was I still supposed to be looking for it? And the second part of that verse said that the most important part was underground. Was it hidden? Or was there going to be some kind of door? So many questions…
Finally, Htrae stopped running. Now, my questions would be answered.
We were standing in front of a huge clock (first question) probably 3 times as big as The Rose Petal, but similar in look.
In the clock was a door (next question). But there was no knob or any other means of opening it. I looked to Htrae for advice.
“We have to ask permission first.”
“From who?”
“Well, from the clock silly! You don’t think he’ll just let us go into his belly without asking, do you?”
Great, more puzzles.
Htrae spoke again, but this time not to me. “Oh Grandfather, (haha grandfather clock), please, the Time must see her.” She pointed to me. “Please, grant us entrance. It is urgent!”
The clock seemed to come alive then. Eyes opened in its face, and its hands became a moustache. It (or should I say HE) really looked like a little old man. A really BIG little old man.
“WHY? WHY SHOULD THE TIME HAVE TO TALK TO THIS GIRL? HE ALREADY HAS ONE TO DEAL WITH NOW. THE WHITE-HAIRED ONE INSISTED ON THE SAME THING!” Istiria and Eci, I thought. “THEY HAD TO DO SOMETHING FOR ME! WHY SHOULD YOU BE ANY DIFFERENT?"
“We do not wish special treatment, oh Grandfather. We only wish tot gain entrance. Tell us, what do you need? We will get it for you if only you let us in!
“VERY WELL. ALL I ASK IS A SIMPLE WATCHDOG. I NEED…A COMPANION.”
Htrae started to walk away.
“Where are we going to get a watchdog…and why doesn’t he just want a regular dog if all he wants is a companion?”
“Well ‘cuz he’s a clock, duh! And we just need to go to The Watch Factory.”
“Whatever.” I was confused, but I followed, all the way to a…pet store? Sure enough, on its sign it clearly said ‘The Watch Factory!’
Soon we were heading back to the Grandfather clock with a puppy, clock body and all. Yes, this was literally a watchdog, with a body in the shape of a clock that ticked and told time. Extremely ironic.
The huge talking clock eagerly welcomed this new edition, which licked his face and snuggled into his moustache, where it fell asleep.
“THANK YOU! YOU MAY GO IN! THE TIME IS WAITING.”
And with that, the door opened.

But it’s not over yet. Inside was a long, dark tunnel that sloped down. Underground. The most important part was right down there!
But running just seemed…inappropriate. Htrae and I walked silently down.
Suddenly, we burst into a clearing. It was nothing like what I expected.
I guess I expected, oh I don’t know, some dark mythical chamber with another talking clock sitting there waiting to give us more puzzles, or something like that. After all, they have been calling him the Time.
But no. I saw a friendly place, an open field. You could still tell we were underground, but there was a lot of light. I looked around, and I saw a reflection of myself in the back wall. I turned, and in the right wall was a younger version of me. In the left wall, I saw an older version.
In the middle of the floor was Istiria, talking with a young girl. They were laughing. Eci was on the floor also, talking with who I presumed was the girl’s trainer. She had long blonde hair and a dress of clouds. Htrae joined them.
I took this all in in a moment. The last thing that I saw was the boy. He looked the same age as the girl on the floor, but there was something about him, something that seemed older, wiser, something in his eyes. He was apart from the others. Standing next to him was the other trainer. He had the same kind of look as the boy.
I was guessing that one of these people was the Time.
Finding out that the boy was this amazing Time person, wasn’t that surprising, since I found out who else he was.
Htrae was talking with Eci and who I guessed was Ria, so I was on my own. I did the most logical thing, what I must have been brought here to do. I went talk to the Time.
“Um…hi?” I said. Stupid.
“Hey.” That’s not what I was expecting. Even though he wasn’t a talking clock, I still expected him to give me another puzzle. “So…um…I guess you’re my other sister, huh? There sure are a lot of you girls.”
“Wha…? You're…you’re…Julian?”
“Well, yeah. Who were you expecting?”
I laughed. The Time was just a 100-year-old boy! “A talking clock?” I was feeling much better now.
Soon Istaria and Erif came in. The Grandfather clock had made them do some stupid task, so they had taken a little longer, just like Istiria and me.
She talked to Julian, my little brother, the Time, and then came sit with Istiria, Julia, and me.

So that’s where I am now, writing this.
One more thing you must be wondering about. Although you may have already guessed this. I’ll write it here anyway. Julian is called the Time because that’s his element. And also, don’t tell anyone this, but I think our trainers called him that just to confuse us…maybe. So I just thought I would put that here.
Wow I wrote a lot! I’ll stop now before I use up more of your paper!

Istoria