[SpringsSong]

"If someone who goes by the alias of Alek is listening... he's the new person that this song is dedicated to. He came into my life at just the right time, and I cannot thank him enough for inspiring me to continue on my career--as most everyone who knows me has heard, I have tendinitis--and it is a painful, painful thing to have..." he heard her say.  He smiled slightly; she obviously knew, somehow, that he was listening to her, and that he would know who she meant by "Alek".

No one else would.

"And the winner of our trip to Roraldi is..."

Basilick blinked as he thought about what the contest was.  One of his friends had mentioned it; the trip would start the same day as the skating team's, and it was at the same place.  If Felina were to win it, then...

...there was a chance that he could meet her.

Basilick, come to your senses, he reprimanded himself sharply.  She won't likely be there... she might not win that contest there that they're talking about... he thought as he zipped up his suitcase, listening to the drumroll in the background of the studio.

"Well, look at that.  It's Felina!"

"She won," he whispered in a shocked voice, imagining how Natasha would have reacted to that.  "She won... that means that I... I might have a chance to meet Felina... and Natasha... in person." Basilick said as he took his suitcase downstairs, wiping the stunned look from his face.

[2.6]

[SpringsSong]

"Well, look at that.  It's Felina!"

"What?!" Felina shrieked, running into the main studio where she was met by her Professor and the DJ.  "Di-di-d-did you say... MY name?" she asked, and the two nodded, showing her the little ticked with her name on it.  She stared in shock as she set her clarinet down on the table, swooning dangerously as she tried to get her mind around what it was that had just happened.

She was going to Lambastia.

She was going to Lamastia!

"Part of me isn't sure if you're legit about this," she said, looking at the ticket that the DJ had handed her.  It was for a direct flight to Roraldi for one, and she had gotten it.  "It's been a dream of mine to go to Lambastia for several years now, but... with the Ree'ne Sea a good three-day drive from where I live, going there was always an impossibility until now, with this contest... truly, thank you." Felina said, and here, she ran out of the radio station with her clarinet, her eyes glistening brightly.

"Mom!" she said as soon as she had gotten through the door, "I won the contest that the Musician's Collective was holding!  I'm going to Lambastia!" she said excitedly.  "And... the plane leaves tomorrow morning!  Maybe this will be my chance to tour the college there..."

[2.8]

[SpringsSong]

If Basilick seemed excited that Felina had won the trip to Lambastia, he was keeping it pretty well under wraps.  Since she had re-dedicated the song--to him (well, Alek, but he was Alek), nonetheless--he knew that she had to have a heart of gold.  Nonetheless, he continued packing up as he frowned slightly, wishing that he could get in touch with Felina--Natasha--whatever her name was--and congradulate her for winning, but that would seem a bit... stalker-ish.

After a few minutes, he frowned and looked for his laptop, and, upon finding it, he booted it up and brought up the site for the Musician's Collective.  It was actually a database of all the known performers in Evelon--at least, those that had been featured thus far by the Musician's Collective radio show.  There were filters for name, species, and instrument, so, he entered in the required information and hit the "enter" button, and it returned only one result:

Felina is currently the youngest musician featured in the Musician's Collective, and is best known for her composition known as Oracion de Corazón, which she started writing when she was only six.  She is a phenomenal clarinetist that lives in the Slums, but don't let that fool you about her--she might have grown up in a tough neighborhood, but she is a gentle spirit.

Felina hopes to attend the University of Aldrect when she graduates this year...

Basilick read no further than that.  She wanted to attend the college that he was on a deferred enrollment to, and she would--more than likely--be accepted into that college, if he knew anything about her skill just from listening to her on the Musician's Collective.

"Basilick!" he heard his mother yell.  "Why is there a shawl and a lady's hair clip in your room?"

...oh crap. he thought to himself.  He hadn't put Natasha's things in his bag!

[2.8]

[SpringsSong]

Once Felina was in her room, she had a similar task set before her in finding out more about the mysterious Battleheart in her dream.  She knew all of the shortcuts to get to the website for the Circuits; her cousin was always getting to go to games where Summer Circuit teams were, so she'd given her all the little shortcuts to get to the website.  It took her a little bit to get to the Winter Circuit page, but once she had, she knew what she needed to do.

Species: Battleheart
Home region: Lambasita
Gender: Male
Sport: Skating*

As she submitted this query, she waited patiently, tapping her fingers against her desk nervously.  Finally, the page finished computing and returned all of one result.  When she looked it over, she nodded and knew that it had to be him; the picture of the human form was incredibly similar, and it mentioned guitar in his profile.

Basilick is relatively new to the world of sports, but he is already leaving his mark on the world of speed skating.  He has been skating since a very young age, and recently made his world debut on the Circuit in the recent Games...

There were Games recently?  And no one bothered to tell me about them?! Felina thought to herself as she glared at her bedroom door.  Of course; her parents knew that her getting into college would depend on how well her auditions went, so they just didn't mention them to her and did not have the TV or the radio running when she was around.

Before he was accepted into the Games, Basilick was admitted to the University of Aldrect, and will start going there in the fall of this next school year, as he needed to focus on the Games.  One of the professors there recommended that he wait a year, for the Games are, at best, a five-times-in-a-lifetime experience, but the average for skaters of this variety is three Games...

...my college of choice... if I were to get in and get enough scholarships... I'd be in the same school as him... not just the same school; the same... class... now wouldn't that be a trip? Felina asked herself, dancing easily around her room as she gathered her things.  When she moved to pack her dress, however, her heart sank.

The shawl and hair clip were gone!

[3.0]

[SpringsSong]

"Mother, if I tried to explain it to you, you wouldn't believe or understand me, I promise you..." Basilick said as he took the shawl and clip from her mother, stashing them gently in his bag.  "I met her in a dream, and she left her things behind... I figured that I would take them and return them to her tonight..."

"You're right, I don't believe you," his mother said.  "Who was it, hm?  Ilsha?  Rainei?"

"Her name's Natasha," Basilick said angrily, looking away from his mother.  "She doesn't live in this area--in order to get here, she'd have to fly for three days on her own wings to get here." His mother moved to argue, but Basilick was far from interested in arguments, so, he took his things and left the house, heading for a hotel, where the team would be staying that night.  He sat down on the edge of his bed, frowning as he looked around the room.

Just one more day, and I'll probably get to meet her, even if it's just a chance passing when I'm heading for the hot springs in Roraldi... he thought to himself, giving a casual nod to one of his teammates as he walked in, setting his own stuff down as he looked around and mentioned being excited about the trip.

"No, I know, man.  We really need this trip," he said, yawning as he stretched out on the bed, closing his eyes and envisioning the Roraldi Forests again.

[3.0]

[SpringsSong]

She didn't even remember when she'd dropped off, but suddenly, Natasha awoke and found herself back in Roraldi, in the same place where she'd fallen asleep and left the dreamscape the night before.  Regardless, she knew that she had to ask Alek if he was Basilick, and she had to tell him about how she'd won the trip to Lambastia.

However, that was far from the only matter that she was concerned about.  She needed that shawl.

I sure hope he gets here soon... she thought to herself as she looked around, her eyes taking in every little detail of the area around her.  The forest was in the state it had been in before he had transformed it into the area where his Prom had been, and she smiled as she danced around liltingly, closing her eyes as she spun around.

I'm going to be here tomorrow... she told herself.  I'm going to be here tomorrow... and I'm going to get to tour Aldrect U...

[3.2]

[SpringsSong]

As soon as he had dozed off, Alek made a bee-line for the forests, shawl and hair clip in hand.  He'd had the slightest suspicion that Natasha would have doubtless been missing these articles by now, and he was intent on returning them to her one way or another.  He quickly made his way through all of the trees until he got to the area of the forest where Natasha was sitting, patiently waiting for him.

"Natasha!" he said, walking up to her and holding out her shawl and hair clip.  "You... you left these here last night," he said, lowering his head slightly.  It would take him a good few minutes before he would speak again, and when he did, his voice had a slightly different overtone to it.

"I heard you," he said finally, "...on the Musician's Collective.  I heard you... and I wanted to thank you for re-dedicating that song to me," he said, smiling.  "I, too, have gone through some... trying times with my sport, and it has often demanded that I take a few steps back and think things over, but my choice in the end is always the same: I love my sport too much to abandon it..."

Here, he looked directly at her, as though he was boring into her soul as he spoke this next word:

"...Felina."

[3.2]

[SpringsSong]

That voice was oddly familiar, all right--it was that of Alek.  Natasha smiled when she saw him, and then, when he handed her the items that had been missing from her dress ensemble that morning, she stared at him in shock, and then, when he said her true name... she felt a couple of different things; the first was a twinge of fear, and the other... the other was a feeling she could not quite place her talons on.  It felt like a curious mix of emotions; happiness and sorrow, excitement and dread.  She gingerly took the items from him, lowering her eyes slightly.

"So... you did hear the Musician's Collective... Basilick," she said, looking up into his eyes.  "Did you hear my song?  And did you hear the results of the contest that they were holding, the one that would take me to this very forest--and anywhere on the continent I wanted to go?" she asked, her eyes glistening.  She'd read that he lived in Lambastia, and she was hopeful that she would get to meet him at some point during this little trip.

"I... I plan to tour the Aldrect University while I'm on the continent," she said, smiling.  "I might even do an audition for the college while I'm there, and see if they can't give me news on my eligibility for scholarships while I'm there.  It would be... a dream come true if I were to be able to go to the Aldrect University... otherwise, I'll have to work for a year and try again, because I've been rejected from every college in Barakka."

She still couldn't believe the letter she'd been given from just about every college in Barakka.  It just plain didn't make sense to her why they would say something such as they had; we're sorry, but you have not been accepted because your skills are too great for us.  If we were to admit you, then the rest of our musicians would seem undedicated...

[3.4]

[SpringsSong]

"I did indeed hear the Musician's Collective, Natasha," Alek said, smiling as she spoke his true name.  "And I take it that your search through the Circuits was obviously successful, as you did not try to call me by my best friend's name--in all respect, I could never do figure skating.  He excels at it, however..."

He smiled as she took the items from him, and then, he nodded as she mentioned the fact that she was going to be coming to Lambastia, and then, talking about how she would be touring the college in Aldrect.  However, the next thing that she said confused him.  How in Zu'hai's name had she been rejected from the Barakkan colleges with talent like that?

"Obviously the Barakkan colleges have no sense of talent and the weight that should be placed on it in an arts college, or any college with a school of music.  Did your letters ever mention why you had been rejected?  Were they... specific in why you were rejected?" he asked, frowning as he sat down next to her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Also... the team has an event in Aldrect while you're here on your trip that you won," he said, smiling slightly.  "Maybe... since I'm on a deferred enrollment to the Aldrect U, I could... give you a tour of the place?  I mean, you'd have to get another student to show you their school of music, but I can show you the Academia side of things." Alek did not know why he was offering this, but he felt like it was something that he should do.

[3.4]

[SpringsSong]

"Their reasoning is complete bogus," Natasha said, her eyes turning from purple to ice-blue as she glared past Alek and into the distance.  "The first letter read, 'We thank you for your interest in our school.  While your audition was phenomenal, and your academic record superb, we cannot admit you into our program because you would throw all of the curves to such an extreme that our school would be shut down.  We apologize for this and wish you the best in all of your future endeavors.'  I would throw every curve to such an extreme that... I just find that both ridiculous and hard to believe," she said, sighing angrily.

However, when he mentioned that he was on a deferred enrollment to the University of Aldrect, her eyes lit up brightly as she sat up, her back perfectly straight as her entire face lit up.  After a few minutes, though, she sat back against the tree and nodded slowly, a tiny smile still on her face.

"I would... love that, Alek," she said, smiling softly.  "I would love to have a tour around the school, even if it's just the Academia side of it.  I've been through every college in Barakka without guides, and I've always managed to find my way to the school of music, one way or another.  Some of those campuses are huge..."

She'd seen bird's-eye views of the Aldrect college, but seeing it on a map and seeing it in person were two completely different things.  The Aldrect campus was easily twice as big as the largest campus in Barakka...

[3.6]