This time, Raleigh stepped first. He walked into the portal, feeling the cold, always north-bound breeze past his face.

Katie went in next, glancing around and confirming it was where they had started.

Amity and Himiko, holding hands, went in together. The tree in the distance and the hill behind them were just as they were.

Kaiya finally fell in, seeing the same deep sky she’d slept under for so many months.

“So, do y’all wanna do the quick route?”

Amity gathered everyone’s attention, making sure they know what was to happen.

“I figured out, if we do an ice bridge to the east of the island, we can make it to the portal that takes us… truly home… immediately.”

She gazed past the horizon.

“Over there, we can finally get home.”

Everyone looked somberly towards Amity’s sight, and prepared to walk, before Himiko realized something.

“You guys know we need to stay under the radar. If anyone knows we made it back, they’ll definitely try to find us.” She sighed. “I have to destroy this portal.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it’s open, Cornet will find us.”

Amity chucked the yellow rock towards her, and she near immediately zapped the frame. Rocks flew a little ways backwards, and it left dust in the air. The rock got chucked back to the other girl, who pocketed it again.

“Now that you’ve done that… we have to go.”

Everyone was determined to reach home, and so they didn’t make much small talk while on the sand. A few familiar enemies showed up, but now that they had a lot more firepower, as well as more magic in general, the only ones that tried to fight them were easily dealt with.

Besides yet again, the water mimic.

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A light blue being of fluid lurched over. It was seemingly attempting to lure a squirrel before it spotted what seemed to definitely be better prey.

Back from its pseudo-furry form, it grew into what it presumed humans were attracted to. A woman, with accented ‘features.’ Luckily, that didn’t immediately grab anyone’s attention, instead giving Amity enough time to zap the heart. Unluckily, however, the time next to it gave it the ammunition it needed.

Once again, like every other time, the striking image of Himiko was formed, except this time, it didn’t affect Amity. She closed her eyes, and struck the heart again, feeling water splash around her, although most of it didn’t actually hit her. The heart flung past everyone, sent well past the distance, and what water remained in the form managed to follow it.

“That one was… needlessly violent.”

“I just wanna get out of here man, that was the quickest way.”

***

The water was cool. The northern side of the island definitely had cooler air than the southern island, and so they presumed that it was just colder up here in general. No matter why, though, because it meant that making the ice bridge was a lot easier.

Easier didn’t directly mean faster, though, and they had to walk significantly slower on the ice as opposed to the sand. Once they realized this, their minds lightened up a bit. No point wasting energy on trying to go as fast as possible when the movements is already inherently limited.

“So, where exactly are we even heading?” Himiko spoke up.

“The entire time, we’ve been trying to make it to this island with a portal, but we were taking the long route. Now, we’re at the source, and we can go right to it.”

“Is that… really just, it?”

“As far as we know, yeah.”

***

“Hey, Amity?” Himiko tapped on Amity’s shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“One of my mediums, the lightning one, it’s getting worse.”

“What do you mean?” She glanced backwards at the yellow rock that Himiko was holding, and noticed that it seemed to be fading into gray, with a little under a quarter of it actually retaining the original yellow color. “Ah.”“Is it going to like, work enough to get us home?”

“I hope so.” She sighed.

***

The group, consisting of Amity in the front line, flanked by Himiko and Kaiya, and followed by Raleigh and Katie, chatted about their goals, and their plans for when they reached the island, right up until they reached the shore. Only half an hour after they left one, they arrived at the next, and stepped back onto the sand.

It was coarse, and cold, but they pressed on.

Their goal was tangible now. On the final major island, they could finally reasonably make it home. Checking the newly-charged phone of Raleigh’s, they saw the portal frame was to the north. There were a few more smaller islands, but it was a cakewalk compared to anything else they’d done.

Stepping with a renewed vigor, Amity led the group along the shore and with the wind, making it almost entirely to the northern shore before something far worse than they could’ve expected popped up in their vision.

On one of the closest of the tiny islands they would need to use to reach the portal, was a small building. It seemed to sport the same familiar logo that they’d seen so many times, but it wasn’t nearly as large or crowded as the other ones seemed to be. The most that they assumed could reasonably fit in it was a small team, or…

This was the perfect size for one, very important, crucial man.