"Ivy… Ivy…" Ivy heard an echo as she blinked several times at the bright lights. She could smell the sweet scent of blue peas and irises. She knew it was her paracosm.

She gently opened her eyes as they squinted while she tried sitting up and found grandma next to her. She hugged her instantly like how she always does. It was the refuge she had longed for after a long week in college. The exams were exhausting but she was glad she made it through. Besides, it was not everyday she could dream of her grandma. There were days she woke up to serpents from the portals or a black hole from a beautiful lighted aurora sky which always kept her adrenaline pumping.

A familiar figure stood behind her grandma and she knew it was Phoenix from his glowing skin.

"Oh Ivy, thank goodness you're alright!" Grandma exclaimed, sending Ivy into confusion while she parted from her embrace.

"What happened?" Ivy questioned as she watched both her grandma and Phoenix were hesitating to tell. Ivy was furious as she climbed down from bed and summoned her sword but her grandma halted her.

"Ivy calm down! Haven't I told you, you're on a mission to help Phoenix? He saved your kingdom and yourself from the serpents. Isn't that enough to show you his pledged loyalty in trying to protect your kingdom?" Grandma explained as Ivy slowly withdrew her sword which she was pointing at Phoenix.

She examined herself and saw there were no wounds."My wounds?" Ivy questioned.

"I healed them but the poison has to be extracted fast to avoid the side effects of hallucinations." Phoenix echoed.

"Yes my dear. We have successfully extracted the poison but you blacked out instantly. Now that we are all safe, let me prepare some desserts shall we?" Grandma chirped happily as she walked away into her kitchen.

"Princess…" Phoenix echoed as Ivy tried to step out of the house. "Follow me…" Ivy said in a lower voice as they both left the cottage.

"I'm sorry about the trouble…" Phoenix's apology was cut off by Ivy who held her right hand up to stop him.

"You don't need to apologise. From now on, we will fight your serpents whenever they come. Meanwhile, keep yourself in a pleasant mood as much as you can. To do so, please replant the irises destroyed and mend the damage done from your fights." Ivy instructed as Phoenix nodded in agreement.

Ivy was mesmerised by his poise even when he was scolded. She wondered if anyone

would be looking for him.

"Let's start with the purple irises patch…" She instructed again as they walked out into the long stretch of irises plains. "Who do you think would be searching for you out there?" Ivy casually asked while she squatted to tend to a plot of irises.

Phoenix shrugged as he wondered the same. Perhaps his parents or his army of soldiers. A pounding head was felt as Phoenix recalled bits and pieces of army soldiers led by him out from an aurora lighted sky. The word soldiers rang various voices in Phoenix's head but he couldn't make out anything they said except “kill the princess”. He could see bits and pieces of swords and daggers as he held his pounding head and stumbled to the ground in agony. “No! No!”, cried Phoenix.

"Phoenix! Phoenix! Are you alright?" Ivy went over and tried to calm him but he was rolling on the ground in agony while the sky turned grey with portals appearing. Ivy quickly drew her sword and waited for the serpents to appear from the portals but instead she was greeted by an aurora lighted sky.

It was the same sky she used to dream seeing her parents and her younger self in. The vibrant auroras were splitting the gray sky as she stood mesmerised by the beauty.

"Ivy, wake up!" An urgent loud voice echoed and broke the silence surrounding her as she held her ears close to her palm and instantly awoke to find herself sleeping on her study table surrounded by her notes and exercise books for accounts.

She checked the time to be seven in the morning on a Saturday. She wanted to head back and sleep but her adrenaline was still pumping hard as she lay down in bed instead while staring at the oscillating fan. She wondered whose voice it was as her mind drifted to remind her that Andrew and Sandra were dropping by in a few hours to finish up their woodwork project together. She should not let them find out about her nightmare as she quickly went to get herself breakfast and started her woodwork first to distract herself.

It was nearly a week since Jason gave the career talk which was a success and wanted to treat Ivy for a meal although he had arranged a handsome amount paid for her previous help. He decided to find her in her house following the address which was on her student information form provided by the Dean during his first proposal.

Jason reached a rooftop unit which had a huge teddy bear head stuck on top of the main house’s roof which seemed to be blocking a hole in the roof from leaking during rainy days. The teddy’s head looked really scary from the black residues on the old roof. He wondered for a second if he was in the right house as it seemed like an old abandoned haunted house. He began to walk around and noticed a glass house in the middle of a mini garden by the left corner of the main house.

"Ivy!" Jason decided to call out as he could hear sounds from behind.

"Ivy someone's at the door!" Sandra called out to Ivy from the kitchen inside the house. Ivy was standing outside the house in front of the kitchen’s window.

She was listening to her music player as her mind wandered into her paracosm and pondered about Phoenix. Her hands were busy scrubbing on the rough wood edges with sandpaper. Andrew stood opposite her doing the same to his wood project. Ivy didn't notice Sandra was calling out till Andrew knocked on her wood to catch her attention.

"Yes, yes?!" Ivy quickly unplugged her ear pieces and made a dramatic action of being startled.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Someone's at the door!" Andrew and Ivy said in unison while they giggled at her reaction.

"Oh. Oops!" She dropped her sandpaper on the table and comically skipped to the side of the house to peep.

"Oh... What's he doing here?" Ivy asked herself softly but was loud enough for both Andrew and Sandra to hear her. She walked closer to the front of the glass house where Jason was standing.

"Who?" Sandra asked from the side window of the living room. "Someone I need to talk to. Hold on. Stay here, all of you." Ivy instructed as she walked towards Jason who was waving.

"Hello! What brings you here?" Ivy greeted as she unlocked the glass house to let him in.

"Seemed busy in your yard? Someone's home?" Jason asked as he stepped into the glass house.

"Ahh, some woodwork project for living skills lessons. Andrew and Sandra are there. Well, anything I can do for you?" Ivy switched on the fan.

"Hmmm… do you live here?" He looked around and recalled the Teddy bear while she nodded.

"The Teddy…" He said as he pointed to the roof's direction.

"Oh, it was a gift which I didn't need so I used it to block the leakage of the main house…" Ivy explained as Jason raised an eyebrow. Ivy instantly recalled it was from her boy who had a crush on her back then in her early years of high school whom she really wasn’t keen on.

"It's an empty hall where sometimes I will play board games with Andrew and Sandra…" She further explained as he nodded while observing the glass house.

"This was my grandma's…" She explained trying to kill his curiosity.

"I see… Parents not home?" Jason asked as he was prepared to make an explanation to them about his visit.

"Nope… How did you get my address anyway?" She asked as she remembered she didn’t give him before and it was a surprise.

"The student information form from the Dean. Right, I just wanted to come and treat you for a meal as the previous talk was a success and we wouldn't make it without your help on the questionnaires. Perhaps you would want to take a look at the second questionnaire outcome as well?" Jason smiled.

"Oh, don't worry about that since I have received a hefty payment...It is fine." Ivy finally took a seat on the small chair while he sat opposite of her with a table in between them.

“About my part time job offer… have you considered it?” Jason asked nonchalantly.

“Erm… Yes and no.” Ivy replied skeptically as she finally knew the real motive of his visit was. He raised a questioning eyebrow.

“If you’re worried about your wage, just don’t. We can pay you an intern’s salary.” Jason explained which led Ivy’s thoughts wandered back to her internship opportunities worries. She decided not to give an answer first at least till her results for her recent exams were out.

“Let me think about it…” She smiled as he nodded to acknowledge her answer.

“Woodwork? Would it be alright for me to take a look?” Jason asked cheerfully, trying to break the awkwardness.

Jason noticed the aging marks of the house she stayed in and finally understood the bad financial situation she was in. He was more determined to help her out.

“Oh, sure… Come let’s go behind…” Ivy skipped all the way to the back of the side house while he trailed behind smiling at his first time seeing a carefree Ivy.

"Andrew!" Ivy called out. "Andrew?" Ivy looked around but couldn't find Andrew outside.

"I guess he went into the house to rest with Sandra. Come here." Ivy continued scrubbing the rough edge of the wood.

"What are you building?" Jason asked as he moved closer to her wood work.

She took her draft of drawings and showed him.

"Wow! I'm impressed! That’s huge though. What are you storing in it?" Jason asked, admiring her enthusiasm.

"My collection of compact discs. Wanna head in or stay here? I guess those two are a little shy." Ivy said while scrubbing the last bit of rough edges.

"Hmmm... What if I help out that boy a little? He is almost done you see." Jason said as he examined Andrew's work.

"Suit yourself. Careful though not to injure yourself or destroy his stuff." Ivy gave a friendly reminder before plugging her ear piece on one side of her ear while she continued to listen to her curated songs playlist.

"No worries, just scrubbing off rough edges. Simple stuff." Jason said while he took the sandpaper to scrub.

Meanwhile in the house, Andrew was taking a break with a can of soft drink while Sandra was spying on Ivy and Jason from the closed transparent kitchen door.

"What's so interesting?" Andrew asked as he peeked through the view. "Oh wow! Who is he? He's so nice to help me." Andrew exclaimed at the view they both saw.

"Isn’t he the emcee at our induction night event and he was the one who came with the Dean to see her that day. They sure are close." Sandra said while wondering if she should head out.

"Maybe her boyfriend?" Andrew joked.

"Not that I am aware of though." Sandra rolled her eyes as they both continued spying eagerly.

Jason remembered about the purpose of his visit and thought he should let Ivy choose where to dine this time.

"So, where's dinner later?" Jason asked nonchalantly while scrubbing the wood.

"What? Liner?" Ivy couldn't hear him well as the volume of her ear piece was too loud.

"Dinner!" Jason yelled and accidentally got a splinter into his finger. "Ouch!" He yelled.

Ivy instantly knew it was a splinter as she quickly unplugged her ear piece and ran to look at his wounds.

"Is it deep?!" She saw his fingers were fine. He directed her finger to touch his splinter which was a fine looking piece of wood stick inside his index finger skin.

"Oh, wait a minute!" She went to grab some tissue from the other table near the kitchen window and a pair of tweezers from a first aid box as she returned to Jason who was in pain. She tried to coax the splinter out gently.

"Ouch, ouch! Don't press too deep as the splinter is poking inside." Jason said.

"Alright, alright stay still. I'm pulling it out. You're lucky it's a long one but it's deep." She said as she tried pinching it out to make it longer for her to use the tweezers to pull out the splinter.

After a few attempts of navigation, she finally pulled it out while Jason squirmed in pain each time she pushed it out.

"There, done. Go wash your hand there by the sink. There is antiseptic cream in the first aid box. Help yourself while I head in and ask if those two wanna join us for dinner." Ivy instructed as she went inside while he went to wash his finger.

While washing his wound, Jason began to believe his first impression of Ivy. He knew the girl was a hidden gem who has lots of potential but was waiting to be given the right opportunities. She had proven herself for being a quick learner and was a very independent individual.

"Hey you two!" Ivy greeted both of them who were watching television in the living room.

"Wanna grab dinner with me and my guest?" She asked as she stood behind Sandra at the sofa.

"Who is he?" Andrew asked and before she could answer, Sandra decided to leave.

"Nay, my mum cooked dinner. Besides, my woodwork is completed. I need someone to carry it down to my house." Sandra said as she shifted on the sofa to face her.

"Alright, I will help you!" Ivy agreed to Sandra while she tried to persuade Andrew to join dinner instead.

"Come Andrew join us. Come." Ivy was pulling his shirt.

"Who is he?" Andrew pestered. "A friend." Ivy replied primly as she smiled sweetly.

"Boyfriend you mean?" Andrew teased.

"Yes, a male friend. So are you coming for dinner with us or not?" Ivy swiftly dodged his tease.

"Nay next time. It's a bit late to tell my mum I'm skipping dinner too. My woodwork isn't done either." Andrew said while pulling a sad face.

"You could leave it here if you want and come back to complete it later in the week?" Ivy offered.

"Alright! Then we shall pack and get home first." Andrew hopped off the sofa as Ivy went to check on Jason.

"Are you alright?" Ivy asked, appearing from the kitchen window while Jason was applying the antiseptic cream. "Yes… Just a little cut… No worries." Jason reassured her.

"Alright… They are packing and I will send this woodwork home with Sandra first. We will head out for dinner after that?" Ivy informed as she carried Sandra’s completed woodwork with her which was at the side table close to the kitchen's window.

"I will drive them home instead with you?" Jason offered.

"Ah, it’s fine! They stay a stone throw from here. I will be away for a while only. Meanwhile, help yourself just like at home. I live alone. See ya!" Ivy said as she walked off to the front of the house where Andrew and Sandra were waiting for her.

Jason smiled to himself and was surprised to finally learn she lived alone. He went inside the house and helped himself to a can of soft drink in the kitchen while waiting for her to return. There were various pictures of herself with her grandma hanging along the alleyway from the kitchen to the living room from when she was a baby to toddler and in high school but one of the pictures caught his eyes.

A picture of her and her parents under an aurora lighted sky.

He instantly recognised the picture which was identical as the one his potential investor showed him recently via email. He slowly digested the entire circumstances. His potential investor was looking for his long lost daughter and the major shareholder of his company. If Ivy had the same picture as his potential investor, it only meant the girl whom his potential investor was looking for was Ivy.

He quickly snapped a photo of the picture with his mobile. While waiting for Ivy to return, he couldn't help but to think of plans to get Ivy on board as his intern to help escalate his potential investor's decision but he warned himself to spend some time getting to know her first. He had too many questions of the drastic depth of differences between the truth he knew and Ivy’s dire circumstances in life. Only time will tell as he laid out his plans in mind.