An elegant castle, although smaller than most, sat atop a large hill surrounded by a bunch of newly built houses, some still under construction. Although Sage didn't like being a ruler, he knew he had to, which led him to make this village very close to his house. Once he went to school again he would return to normal for most of the day, and then tend to his duties back at the village. Now he was up in his castle, writing a letter, he had gotten himself a teleportation crystal, not like the one Aqua used back in the tunnel, one that could pretty much only send mail. Suddenly every single hunter attack on any village had now become his problem, he didn't mean to be insensitive by thinking of it like a burden, it was just...hard sometimes, to always be trying to help anyone he could even when he really couldn't do anything about it. What was he to do? Run into a hunter base and demand surrender? Even he knew that wouldn't work. And so he sent off yet another letter in response to one he had received earlier, then he heard a knock at the door. He abandoned his letter to happily greet Aqua at the door, "Hi, I got your letter earlier, I meant to respond at some point but I got kinda busy..." Sage said. "No worries...how's your back?" Aqua asked, "Still burnt from that stupid fight. The medicine fairy you referred me to said the burn on my ankle was only first degree since I barely touched the fire, but the burns on my back are third degree...it would help so much if I could just see a human doctor but I don't know how to explain to my parents, or the doctor, how I even got this bad of a burn." Sage said. "Did the medicine fairy help you in any way?" Aqua asked, "Yeah, she did a couple things, she cleaned it off, gave me this cream thing and a lot of painkillers. Which is weird since my back doesn't hurt, apparently I burnt my nerve-endings or whatever." Sage said, and then remembered why Aqua was here to begin with, "Shall we go then?" He asked, Aqua nodded. They both stepped out of Sage's castle, closing the door behind them. "So what did you wanna show me?" Sage asked, "Well, as the prince, you should know about the Wishing Pond." Aqua said. The Wishing Pond? Sage had been learning loads about fairy culture, and he even learnt where every single village was in the Mushroom Domain, but he'd never heard of a Wishing Pond. They walked out of the village and down a path he knew led to the busy street, "So, is it fun ruling Orchid Village?" Sage asked, "Of course not, it's a huge responsibility." Aqua said, "Yeah, I know." They reached the busy street and walked across it. Sage had to help Aqua with the walk signal since they still weren't used to crossing streets after being in the water for so long. Across the street was a small square of grass, and houses beyond that, Aqua led him into the square of grass. "This is the Wishing Pond, you can't see it yet because of an enchantment the first ruler of the Mushroom Domain put on it." Aqua jumped onto a rock, there was a whole row of rocks Sage hadn't even seen before. "To get to the pond you look down at the rocks and walk across them..." After saying that, Aqua disappeared, simply faded away once they reached the last rock. Sage stood up on the first rock, looked down at his feet, and walked across them. Once he had reached the last rock, he looked up again and saw a lovely pond instead of the square of grass, and Aqua was there too. "What's so special about this wishing pond is that it works, in a way no other magic could." Aqua said, picking up a small rock that was laying on the ground, "All you need is a rock blessed by water fairy magic, luckily, you happen to know one." They laid the rock down, did the usual moving water with their magic to bless it, and splashed the rock with it. "Then you throw it in the pond, and make a wish." They handed the rock to Sage. At first he wasn't sure what to wish for, but he knew what he wanted most of all. "I wish to free as many fairies as I can from the hunters." He threw the rock in the pond, it made a small splash and the rock fell all the way to the bottom of the pond. "Did it work?" He asked,
"I guess you have to wait and see."