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CHAPTER TWO: ESCAPE!!

        “Gestalt.... Gestalt....”
        A familiar, masculine voice was calling to him as he drifted in some dark, cold place.
        “I need your help Gestalt...that is why you are here...”
        The voice seemed sad and desperate, and was very faint. But Gestalt heard it nonetheless, and though he could not explain why, apart of him knew something very bad had happened. That is why the voice was talking to him.
        “Help is on the way...”

        Suddenly, the voices of two more men pierced through the stillness of the darkness     and sent a chill up Gestalt's spine.
        “Just toss 'em in wit dat there other dae'mon. Not like ha'd bloody escape through meth'rail bars.”
        “True dat.”
        Droplets of murky water splattered onto the face of Gestalt as he awoke to find himself in the dark dreariness of a dungeon, complete with long prison bars, wall-mounted shackles, and a cold stone floor; the latter of which he apparently was sprawled down upon. As Gestalt used his right hand to push himself back to his feet, the back side of his head began to throb. Reaching past his left ear, a painful wetness spread between his fingers. Looking at his hand, he came to realize the truth.
        “I'm.... bleeding?” gasped Gestalt in amazement. He then began to recollect the events which had brought him to this unfamiliar place.
        As best he could remember, first he had bought the medallion, then an angry mob suddenly attacked him, and now he was locked up in what appeared to be a mock, yet highly detailed, prison set.
        'Wait, did they even have a mock prison at the fair?' wondered Gestalt while pressing his face against the cold metal bars that kept him in his pen. Then, he began to hear the echo of footsteps approaching.
        “Hey! Is someone there?!” shouted Gestalt desperately. “Please let me out of here! There's been some kind of mistake!”
        “Aen't be no mistake, dae'mon!” replied the husky, wild looking man that approached his cell. An odd odor was about him, as if the man had been rolling around in road kill, and Gestalt deduced that the man hadn't had a bath in days.
        “Hey, come on dude, stop using that fake accent!” retorted Gestalt as he held his nostrils closed with his hands, for the awful smell was making him feel rather sick.
        “Nobody talks like that anymore, so quit playing games!”
        “Dar be only tu' languages in all dis' world and that be the dae'mons tongue and engrish.”
        “You mean 'English'!” corrected Gestalt while rolling his eyes and holding his nose at his captor.
        “No, ENGRISH!” retorted back the foul-smelling guard, menacingly shaking his raised right fist at the boy. “I say’s what I means, DAE'MON!”
        “It's no use, kid. He's probably from the swamps of the Amabala region— and they all have a weird accent there,” spoke an unfamiliar voice from behind Gestalt.
        Gestalt sharply turned around in his cell, looking for where the voice had came from.
        “What?! Is someone else in here??” he asked into the darkness of his cell, but to his surprise he found the figure of no one.
        Gestalt then noticed that, sitting in the corner of his cell against the stone wall, was a small teddy bear.
        Now, this wasn't just your typical teddy bear, mind you— this particular bear was stitched from different types of fabrics, at least velvet, flannel and satin — and at least three different colors, including blue, gray and orange. He was a 'patchwork bear' if Gestalt had ever seen one. In addition to his abnormal construction, someone had tied a tattered blue handkerchief around the top of his neck like a little cape. Gestalt noticed that resting on top of the plush bear's little head was a short and well-worn black top hat, with a band made of weathered white fabric.
        Also of peculiar interest, little white ribbons that had some odd sort of letters written upon them were bound around the bear’s little arms and legs. Gestalt thought they looked sort of like the 'Viking runes' he had seen once on a school field trip to the city museum, but as he was not an expert on such things, he couldn't say for sure if they were the same type of runes or not.
        As the smelly guard left the area to continue his routine patrol of the dungeon floor, Gestalt slowly walked over toward the bear to examine it. Though he knew not what he would find, he was sure the voice had come from this direction. He wondered if someone was playing some kind of trick on him— maybe there was some kind of speaker installed on the wall or something?
        “Howdy!” spoke the plush bear in a cheerful tone that nonetheless startled Gestalt so badly he jumped back several paces in a panic. There was no mistake this time— the bear had turned its head up to Gestalt and the bear’s black-button eyes had somehow even blinked.
        “Now, I know I've been in here awhile buddy,” lectured the bear. “But I'm pretty sure when someone says 'Howdy' to you, you’re suppose to say 'Howdy' back!”
        Gestalt stumbled backwards in a panic, until his backside met the cold prison bars that held him in captivity. The fright of an animated stuffed animal distracted him slightly from his altered reality.
        “I’m a demon in a jail cell with a talking teddy bear?” spoke the wide-eyed boy.  “Now, this HAS to be a DREAM!”
        “I am NOT a teddy bear!” started the bear in a stern tone, but finished with a chuckle. “I'm just... sort of in an em-bearissing situation— Ha, Ha, Ho!”
        Perplexed by the thought of a talking teddy bear that told corny jokes, Gestalt's only reaction was to raise his eyebrows in disbelief and drop his jaw in startled silence. Noticing this, the bear's face frowned with disappointment and he turned away from Gestalt.
        “Oh, well, I thought it was funny.” remarked the bear in a sad tone of voice. “Just my luck I suppose. Naturally, I'd be locked up with a human boy that has no sense of humor.”
        Well, if this was a dream, then Gestalt figured he had nothing to worry about. Regardless of how cynical he could be, he'd never dreamt that a comical teddy bear could kill him. Using this logic for his judgement, Gestalt knelt down beside his fellow captive to speak to him.
        “So, you know I'm a human then?” said Gestalt.
        “Why, of course I do!” announced the bear, happy that he finally had someone to talk to besides himself and the spiders. “I'd know a human anywhere! Hell, they've had me captured here for...er...well, I'm not sure how long really, but its been a really long time, and that’s what really matters.”
        In a way, the bear was correct. However long he had been held captive, Gestalt believed it had to have been a long time, judging by the thick blanket of dust that was covering his furry little body. That alone would have been enough to convince Gestalt of his story, but the bear continued.
        “Anyway, before then, I had served a human master from when he was a youngin', so I surely know what a human boy looks like and what he doesn't. And you certainly look like a human boy, that I can be certain of.”
        To Gestalt, this was fantastic news.
        “Good!” he said cheerfully. “When the guard comes back, you can tell him I'm a human!”
        “And what good could that possibly do?” replied the bear nonchalantly. “As if he would believe anything I say. I'm an ‘elemental spirit’, you know. To that bloke, I'm a demon all the same.”
        “A demon?” Gestalt remembered that he had been accused of being one as well. “Hey, that’s what they called me too.”
        “Yes, but I am most certainly NOT a demon!” shouted the bear in a thunderous boom (Which is quite odd you know, for teddy bears do not normally possess the required vocal cords for shouting, let alone talking). “I am an 'ELEMENTAL'! A 'WIND ELEMENTAL' as a matter of FACT, you idiot Paladins!”
        This emotional outburst was a bit confusing to Gestalt, as he didn't really know that there was a difference between an 'elemental' and a 'demon'. As of this moment, actually, he wasn't even sure what they were, considering that he had been easily mistaken for a demon, too. What Gestalt did know was that it is quite frustrating to be accused of being something you’re not—and punished for it nonetheless. After all, he was currently in that same predicament.
        “I should not be compared to a demon.” the bear repeated yet again, in a calmer tone now that he had released some of his pent-up aggressions. “Not that there’s anything particularly wrong with being a demon mind you— it's just that we're not the same thing!”
        “If I might ask,” inquired Gestalt. “What is the difference between an elemental and a demon?”
        “I'll tell you...” said the bear, outstretching his bandaged paws to Gestalt with a grin. “...if you would be so kind as to free me from these troubling ribbons that bind me.”

        After Gestalt pulled loose the ribbons to free his fellow captive, the bear began rocking himself back and forth upon the ground, and this caused the dust bunnies to free themselves from his furry little person.
        “Well, we Elementals are apart of Nature and are immortal,” continued the bear as he shook more dust off of himself. “A Demon is immortal as well, but they are not apart of Nature; they come from the ‘Netherworld’. It would be like comparing raindrops to a toad. We are very different things, and exist for very different reasons! Get it?”
        “I think so...” Gestalt recalled that this comparison was similar to the distinct classes of mythological beings from his favorite video game. “…It’s kind of like how it is in 'Forever Fantastico'...”
        “Forever Fantastico?” asked the bear with great curiosity. “Is that the land where you come from or something?”
        Gestalt shook his head. “No, it's just a game I play where I come from. You go on quests to fight against dragons and monsters to save princesses and stuff.”
        Hopping himself onto his feet, the bear outstretched his arms up into the air while swinging his hips around. At first Gestalt thought he was dancing a little hula jig, but he was probably just trying to rid himself of more dust.
        “How wonderful!” said the bear. “Then you’re a warrior I presume?”
        “Well, not exactly” said Gestalt with a nervous grin. “I think you’re misunderstanding. It's just a game.”
        “A game, a quest, whatever you wish it!” remarked the bear with a pleasantly gleeful voice. “I am just glad that someone like you is here. You can help me escape from this wretched place!”
        “Escape? Can we actually do that?”
        The bear shrugged his soft little shoulders. “Well, you’re the expert, Mr. Dragon-slayer. You tell me.”
        Gestalt looked at the cell bars and then looked to the bear. Seeing as how the bars were spaced so that Gestalt could conceivably fit his legs and arms through, he thought it was likely that his small companion could squeeze his soft little body through the gaps between the bars.
        “Maybe you can sneak through the bars and find a key, or something?
        “Won't work.” replied the bear almost immediately, as if he had considered that same plan a very long time ago. “Those bars are made of 'mythril'. If I get close to them, they'll sap my magical powers and that’s a rather unpleasant sort of feeling— to say the least.”
        “Mythril?” Gestalt remembered that mythril was an often-used name for a special silver-like metal often found in RPG games. “You mean like dwarven mythril?”
        “Dwarven mythril? What the hell is that?!” exclaimed the confused little bear. “The mythril that covers our cells is a metal forged by human hands to harm magical creatures and demon beings. I don't think dwarves can even touch this stuff— considering that dwarves are earth elementals and all.”
        'Oh boy, this is NOT like Forever Fantastico at all...' Up until this point, Gestalt had been thinking he might just be having this strange dream because of his obsession with video games, but the rules governing this world are very different from any kind of role playing game he'd ever played.
        “Anyway, if we are to become cohorts, we should properly introduce ourselves,” remarked the bear, outstretching his little right paw up at Gestalt. “I am Jofur of Ashdown Forest. I am at your service, friend.”
        “My name is Gestalt Czarnobóg, of, uh, Earth.” said the boy as he took hold of Jofur's paw in friendship.
    “Gestalt…‘Char-NOH-book’ eh?” repeated the bear. “Am I pronouncing it right?”
    “Yep, you got it. I’m surprised—most people I’ve met can’t get it right the first time.”

        After properly introducing himself to the bear, Gestalt began to hear footsteps from down the hallway. This time, there seemed to be more than one person approaching the dungeon.
        “Quickly, lay down and be still!” whispered Jofur, as his body fell sharply to the ground. “Otherwise they will pay too much attention and notice I'm untied.”
        Gestalt spread himself neatly across the ground just as the three men came into view. Two of the men were holding the third (whose face looked gravely ill) between them to support his weight, as he seemed to be groggingly unaware of his surroundings, judging from the moaning sounds that he emitted. As his two companions guided him down the hallway to a nearby cell outside of view, Gestalt watched his breathing, as to not draw unnecessary attention to himself, and hid himself in the darkness of the cell.
        “Hey de're unicorn dae'mon!” spoke one of the guards away from Gestalt's view. “Dis here guy gotten hem'self poi'sand by drinkin’ too much lager! Boss says you’re ta purge the ills out of his dere body! Do it!”
        “As you wish.” replied a soft, feminine voice from a nearby cell. Shortly after, a radiant white light began to penetrate the darkness of the dank dungeon, and though his body was pressed firmly against the ground, even a few beams of that precious light managed to touch Gestalt's face.
        'It's so warm...' thought Gestalt while feeling the sensations of the light. 'It's so soothing, as if I was remembering something nice that I've forgotten from long, long ago...'
        “Wish granted.” said the unknown feminine voice once more as the light began to wither away to allow the blanket of darkness to cover the room again. Gestalt became a little depressed, and sighed with sorrow for no longer being comforted by the slivers of light.
        As the soldiers walked past his cell again, Gestalt noticed that the man who was once barely able to stand was now walking by himself ahead of the two other soldiers, though he still seemed to be dragging his feet just a little bit. However, it was still a remarkable change in his health. Who knew light could be so healthy?

        When the footsteps of the soldiers drifted away into the distance of the hall, Gestalt turned to Jofur with questions.
        “What was that light? It felt so warm...” remarked the boy with a pleasant expression on his face.
        “Oh, that was a healing spell from the unicorn over there.” replied Jofur as he came to his feet, indicating that he felt the guards were too far away to hear or notice him. “She's also a captive— we elementals are sort of collectible you know!”
        Gestalt's first impression was to say, “A unicorn? This place is really like an RPG...” but this brought about the question of “Where exactly am I?”.
        After all, if this was a dream inspired by the video games he plays, then he must also be in some location that had existed in one of them. There was only one way to find out for sure.
        “Uh, where exactly am I anyway?” asked Gestalt to Jofur. “I don't really recognize this place at all.”
        “That’s not surprising,” replied Jofur. “Most people have never seen the dungeons of 'Baron Castle' before.”
        “Baron Castle?” remarked Gestalt. “That name is awfully familiar...”
        “Well it certainly ought to be familiar to you.” said the elemental bear as he crossed his little plush arms. “Baron Castle sits on the borderline between the Gluskab Empire and Pandemonia— 'course you must know all about the Country of Twilight— who doesn't these days? Anyway, the city of Narshe is a few miles east of here. I imagine you've heard of Narshe at least, considering that’s where the guards who dumped you off said you were caught.”
        'Narshe? Gluskab Empire? Baron Castle? Country of Twilight?' Gestalt couldn't recollect where exactly he had heard of these names before, but they were certainly familiar. It's possible that they could be from some video game he once played, but at the moment, he just couldn't pin down which one.
        “Hey!” Jofur stared at Gestalt’s chest and walked closer to him so that he could get a better look. “ That’s a fancy medallion you've got there!”
        Gestalt looked down his chest to see that the silver medallion he had purchased at the Renaissance Fair was still dangling from his neck. Until just now, he had forgotten all about it.
        “Oh this?” Gestalt grasped it with his right hand to examine it better. “Yeah I suppose it's kind of cool...”
        “You know,” began the little bear “…it looks just a wee bit familiar to me, though I can't quite place where I've seen it before…”
        “Well, I got this where I'm from, so it's not likely...” responded Gestalt. After all, even if this was a dream, he was still from the ‘real world’ and things in his dreams should not know of what happens outside of them.
        “Oh but it is likely!” loudly replied Jofur with his arms stretched wide. “Why, when my master was alive, we traveled the whole world together! When you do something like that, you’re bound to see just about everything there is to see.”
Gestalt raised his left eyebrow. “When your master was alive?”
        “Oh yes, my last master died awhile ago.” said the bear, his voice filled with sorrow. “He was a human, you know. All my masters were. Been difficult finding a new one though. The times have somewhat changed, and magical folk just aren't viewed very kindly in these lands anymore.”
        “I'm sorry.” apologized Gestalt. “I didn't mean to ask about something so painful.”
        Jofur cheered up. “Oh, it’s alright,” said the little bear, shrugging his shoulders. “When you live as long as I have, you get used to human masters coming and going”.
        “Doesn't it make you sad, though?” asked Gestalt. “I mean, to lose so many people in your life.”
        “Of course I am saddened by the loss of a good master,” responded the elemental bear. “But loss is a part of life. Just like new friends are— like you and me! Though, I can't say for sure how long you'll be around either, since after all, you’re kind of in a worse situation than I am.”
        “Worse situation?” Gestalt was getting anxious. “What do you mean?”
        “Well,” began Jofur. “They don't exactly feed us in here. It's not a problem for me, but since you’re a human, you might starve to death if you remain here.”
        'Starve to death?!' Gestalt’s mind panicked, and his thoughts were filled with worries. 'No way, this is a DREAM! A DREAM! I can't actually die in a dream...can I?'
        Jofur noticed that Gestalt's eyes were laden with terror. “You don't want to die, do you?”
        “No, of course not!” replied Gestalt sharply, while wiping the sweat from his thick, unruly brow. “Who would ever want to die here?
        “Then let's escape.” said Jofur. “I have a plan. Forge a 'Pact' with me. Then you might be able to get us both out of here!”
        “A… 'Pact'?” asked Gestalt, repeating the strange word again to make sure that he had heard correctly.
        “Lucky for us those goons can't tell the difference between humans and demons.” grinned Jofur. “If you had actually been a demon, then I couldn't share my power with you. See, inside this cell, I can't use my magic directly because there's an ‘Anti-Elemental Seal’ on the ground.”
        Jofur stomped his furry little foot on the ground to direct Gestalt's attention. Now that Gestalt had examined it better, he saw that an unusual pattern of crosses, squares and ‘runes’ had been marked circularly onto the stone floor with white paint, almost like someone had tried to play a game of hop-scotch and tic-tac-toe on the same spot.
        “And to make it worse,” continued Jofur, “the mythril bars prevent me from squeezing myself through. So, I can't use my magic under these conditions. You, however, can stick your arm through the bars to the outside of the cell— thus outside of the seal! Then, you can free us by using my magical spells!”
        “Can I really do that?” Gestalt had his doubts about the plan, for it seemed very impossible. “Use magical spells, I mean?”
        “Of course you can!” exclaimed the bear. “I'll teach you how, so don't fret. Magic is actually rather simple.”
        “Um, ok.” replied Gestalt. If his dream was going to have magic, he might as well play along. “What do I have to do?”
        “Just outstretch your arm over here and I'll give you my mark.” said Jofur, motioning Gestalt to lay his hand in front of him. Once Gestalt had lowered his left arm to the ground, Jofur then pressed his right paw on Gestalt’s arm, near the his wrist. Almost instantly, an aura of blue light flashed from Gestalt’s arm.
        Jofur then pulled back his paw to expose what he had done, and Gestalt’s head fell back in amazement, for the design of small, glowing blue lightning bolt had been imprinted onto his forearm. He thought that was probably the coolest way of applying a tattoo he had ever seen.
        “All done!” exclaimed the bear. He was rather satisfied with his work.
        “Is that all there is to it?” inquired Gestalt in disbelief. After all, in most all fantasy tales, entering a pact with a spirit usually consists of shrouding yourself in a black cloak while chanting, praying and giving offerings to deities— or something elaborately grand and complex. Gestalt had thought it would be more complicated than just having his arm magically cattle-branded by a teddy bear.
        “I mean, I don't need to take a sacred oath or perform some special ritual?” asked Gestalt again, to expand on his first question.
        “Oh heavens no, those theatrics are all quite unnecessary.” remarked the bear with a grin. “Sure, some elementals like to spruce it up a’ bit — I won't say any names of course —but you'll find I'm a little more practical than that.”
        Jofur then pointed his right paw behind Gestalt, which encouraged the boy to turn around to see what the little bear was gesturing at.
        “See that lever over there on the wall? It controls the cell doors. If you use my levitation spell on it, you should be able to raise the lever and let us free.”
        Gestalt looked and, sure enough, saw a metal handle on the wall opposite of their cell. It seemed to be attached to some kind of pulley system utilizing chains.
        “Is that what you mean?” asked Gestalt while pointing to the device.
        “Yes! Yes! That’s the one!” replied Jofur gleefully. “Just stick your arm out of the cell, point at it and say the magical word for my levitation spell, which is ‘Vantage’. Make sure you focus all of your attention on that lever, otherwise you might levitate something else and cause a ruckus. Also, the magical word is a command, so speak loud and clear!”
        Following the instructions that the patchwork bear had given him, the boy thrust his arm through the mythril bars and pointed his index finger at the metal lever across from him. After staring at the lever for several seconds to make sure he was ‘focused’ on it, Gestalt then spoke the word that was suppose to translate into magic.
        “VANTAGE~!” shouted Gestalt with his eyes firmly directed on his target. When the last bit of the word left his lips, two rings of blue light materialized from his fingertips. The first ring was large, had strange blue writing on it, and encircled the other, smaller ring. The small ring did not move, but it held inside of it a much larger thunderbolt-like rune that greatly resembled the pact mark that Jofur had just left on his arm. If Gestalt hadn't known any better, he would have thought the two rings were some kind of electric neon sign, like the kind you see in the window of a bar or video arcade.
        Now, at the same time the etheric rings materialized, the lever Gestalt had pointed at became surrounded by a blue aura of light as well, and the lever flipped upward to cause the chains to roll around the pulley. As the bars began to lift, Gestalt sharply withdrew his arm to prevent it from being caught in the gates that were now flying upward into the ceiling.
        “Excellent! Most impressive!” congratulated the little elemental bear with an overly excitable glee. “You got it on the first go! You must be a natural born wizard! A genius, really!”
        Gestalt could barely believe what had just happened, but because it had indeed happened, he was forced to acknowledge that he did in fact use a magical spell to free himself. Stepping out of the damp cell, Gestalt looked down the dark hallway to make sure no one had heard the cell open.
        As soon as Jofur walked out of the cell and away from the seal on the ground, the little bear swiftly rose up into the air, hovering like a helium balloon.
        “Oh that is so much better!” cheered Jofur while performing a series of floating cartwheels around Gestalt. “It's been so long since I stretched out my magical muscles!”
        Watching Jofur play, Gestalt thought that while it was a peculiar thing to meet a talking teddy bear that can make people into wizards, it was even stranger to see one who can do that AND float through the air. Never in his life had Gestalt ever thought such a thing was possible, yet now he was being confronted with such a reality. It began to dawn on Gestalt that, just maybe, he wasn't dreaming any of this at all. There was a chance that all of this was actually happening. After all, it is rather unusual to have a throbbing headache inside a dream.
        “Well, I suppose it's time for us to get going, then.” announced Jofur as he began to look around. “I believe the easiest route for escape is by climbing the stairwell up to the rooftop. From there, we should be able to easily escape with another levitation spell.”
        Gestalt, however, was not entirely paying attention to his new little friend. The curious boy had not forgotten about the mysterious warm light he had felt before, and had to see for himself if it was truly a unicorn that had made it appear. Gestalt peered into the next cell expecting to see a large white horse— but instead found what seemed to be a human girl about his age sitting neatly on a little wooden stool. When he looked at her elegant blue dress and laced bonnet, she looked right back at him with a cute button nose and two large hazel eyes— it was then that Gestalt noticed a straight, spiraled white horn was extending out from the blonde hairline of her forehead.
        “Um, are you really a unicorn?” asked Gestalt to the mysterious maiden with blond hair that dangled down to her waist. “I had always thought that unicorns were, you know, sort of like horses...”
        “My original form is different,” replied the girl in a soft, yet peculiarly stern voice. “But I am totally NOT a horse! I just prefer this form, that’s all!”
        Gestalt was a little embarrassed. “Uh, sorry.... I didn't mean to insult you or anything.”
        The unicorn maiden smiled, and her mood took a 180 degree turn. “Oh, it's ok. Say, are you planning to escape from here? It'd be really neat if you'd take me along!”
        When Gestalt heard the girl speak, he swore that her dialect resembled that of a valley girl — which was highly improbable even if he actually was awake right now. Why, how could a unicorn in another world talk the same way as a peppy California girl from his world? Gestalt was now sure that this whole experience had to be a very weird dream— there were too many subtle irregularities here for him to have actually entered a new world, right? This adventure had to be occurring all in his head, didn't it?
    “Um, are you just going to stare at me or what?” The maiden crossed her arms while she looked at Gestalt with great anticipation, as if she had already decided that he was going to free her. “I know I'm really cute and you probably can't help it— but I'm getting BORED!”
        “You...use 'Val speak'?” asked the perplexed boy. “Like a ‘valley girl’ in the movies??”
        The girl's pretty face now transformed into an outright sneer and in her own peculiar way, mocked the boy's ignorance of her world.
        “Well, like DUH!” she laughed. “I'm, like from the 'Valley of the Unicorns'— HELLO??”
        The girl then blinked her eyes twice, crinkled her nose, and asked curiously, “But, like, where are ‘The Moo-Vees’ ? I’ve never heard of that place before…”
        “Hey, we gotta go Gestalt!” interrupted Jofur. “The guards will be back soon and we don't want them to know we are out of our cell until AFTER we have escaped!”
        “But, we can't just leave her here.” said Gestalt as he looked at the energetic girl. She seemed liked she'd be sort of annoying to travel with, but he didn't think it'd be right to leave her alone in such a dark and foreboding place. “Can't we help her somehow?”
        “Fine, fine— then free her.” said Jofur while crossing his little arms. “But be quick about it. The lever is right there.”
        Gestalt turned to the lever that controlled the unicorn's cell and pushed it up, releasing the gate's lock so that it now opened. As he turned back around, Gestalt noticed that unlike the cell he had been in, there were no white markings on the ground that Jofur had said were ‘Anti-Elemental Seals’.
        'That must have been why she could use magic from inside her cell,' he thought. 'Though it's strange that she didn't use magic to free herself...maybe she can only heal?'
        “Thanks a bunch!” said the girl while smiling warmly at him, still seated neatly on her stool. She seemed much more pleasant now that she knew she was freed. “I am Rena Jaspar. Now, what is your wish?”
        “Wish?” asked the confused boy. Gestalt didn't know what wishes had to do with anything right now.
        “Gestalt, if a human saves the life of a unicorn, you get a wish.” Jofur explained.
A wish? Gestalt had a lot of things he always wished he had (mostly video games) but at this moment, he couldn't think of what to wish. This could have been due to the fact he was in the middle of a prison escape and naturally under a lot of pressure to not be caught. At this very second, the only thing Gestalt really wanted was just to get far, far away from this dungeon, so he hadn't time for being granted wishes right now.
        “Um, just come with me ok?” Gestalt extended his hand out to the girl to help stand her up— it seemed the proper thing to do. However, Rena would not take it.
        “I WON'T do it! Not until you make your wish! It's the RULES!” harped the girl.
        “Oh fine then!” shouted a stressful Gestalt, who was becoming nervous the longer they remained in the dungeon. “I wish for you to just take my hand and walk with me out of here!”
        Rena's demeanor changed from stubbornness to shock. She looked at Gestalt's outstretched hand and with her lips trembling she spoke, “...t-take your hand?! A-and to walk with you?! THAT is your wish??”
        “Yeah, sure.” said Gestalt roughly, still holding out his hand to her. He really wanted to get out of this place before the guards caught them. “That's my wish.”
        As the young maiden looked up to him with her soft, big brown eyes twinkling, she slowly took hold of his hand and stood up from her stool— her long blond hair flowing like angel wings around her. Then, a white light suddenly emanated from Rena's spiraled horn. As the room became filled with her soft light, Gestalt felt that something deep inside him was...changing, just a little bit, and that the touch of the unicorn maiden's hand was pouring a comforting warmth into his very soul. His headache was gone.
        “Wish granted.” smiled the unicorn brightly as she looked into Gestalt's eyes very pleasantly. “I will be your bride!”
        “WH-WHAT?!” cried Gestalt, confused, for he knew not exactly what had just happened to him.
        Jofur sank his head down to his stomach and let loose an aggravated sigh.
        “Oh boy, this is JUST what we needed right now...” he sarcastically remarked.
        Jofur then explained to Gestalt that by wishing for a unicorn to “take his hand”, he had just made a proposal of marriage to her. And when a human who has saved her life makes a wish like that, a unicorn cannot refuse it. Jofur also added that — not that it mattered anymore— Gestalt could pretty much have asked for anything he wanted: wealth, power, fame, or perhaps to teleport them outside of the castle and into safety.
        “But instead, you asked to marry her.” he finished with a heavy sigh. “Well, congratulations, I suppose. If we live long enough, I'll bake you a cake.”
        “Oooo I'm so happy~!” exclaimed Rena while she rushed to a bewildered Gestalt and gave him a crushing hug. “I have wanted to get married for, like, EVER!”

        With a brightly smiling Rena holding a distressed Gestalt tightly in her arms, the young boy's eyes grew to twice their normal size and his face turned completely red. Had any guards been within earshot of the dungeon, they would have heard Gestalt's voice echoing through the halls “BUT I'M TOO YOUNG TO GET MARRIED!”.
        Luckily for him, the guards were distracted with other more pressing matters than the escape of a confused human boy, a peppy unicorn maiden and a flying teddy bear with a top hat.