Remedy gave me a very useful lead.  Prudence just moved with Wisdom to the edge of the Realm of Imagination.  From what he said, this location is very hard to get to.  But with his directions that he gave me, I should have no problem getting there.  Here goes nothing….

Wow.  I must be where he told me.  This is the very edge.  Everything feels so realistic here.  If I were any closer, I would be in reality.  I usually never end up in this part of the realm.  And this is the last place that I would look, to be honest.

And remote is right.  I only see one house around here, and it must belong to Prudence and Wisdom.  Let’s see if he’s home.

 

Prudence:  Who is it?

It’s me.

Prudence:  Me?  Me who?  I’m very careful about who I talk to.  Are you a Intangible?  Who are you?

Wisdom:  We’re very cautious when it comes to dealing with strangers, so identify yourself.

I am Kyle.  I am a Tangible that entered my head to get to this realm.  The Realm of Imagination.

Prudence:  Did you say Kyle?  That name does ring a bell.  Your Muse has told me all about you, but it’s been quite a while!  You can come in.  I’ll open the door.

Thanks for letting me in.  Now I have some questions about my Muse.

Prudence:  Y-your Muse?  You know, that’s the reason why we moved in the first place.

Wisdom:  Your Muse….she didn’t sound like herself anymore.  She was starting to act strange.  She was….hyper.  Like how she was when she was little.

You remember her from that long ago?

Wisdom:  Oh yes.  We can remember when she was first born in this realm.  Nurture was there to raise her, until she was old enough to be on her own.

Wait.  Nurture?  She babysat her not long ago….

Prudence:  But why would she need a babysitter?  She’s an adult!

Um….You don’t know the half of it.  She has gotten a lot worse since you guys left.  For some reason, she doesn’t want to be an adult anymore and she wants to be a little girl.  She has even become a giant and destroyed a Intangible neighborhood just so her gigantic house could sit there.

Wisdom:  Bless your heart!  How do you put up with her?

Fortunately, Remedy has been able make some cures for her.  These cures revert her memories back to the past.  It’s only a temporary fix to the problem, since she eventually wants to start acting like a child again.  Before Remedy and the cures, I just tried medication to sedate her, but it hasn’t been helping.  Right now, she’s doing good, but I feel like the cure could wear off any day….

Prudence:  Remy’s a good person.  If you know him, he can really help you out.  Now what else do you want to know about your Muse?  Isn’t that why you’re here?

I want to know why she’s acting the way she is.  She tells me that it’s something that she picked up and it’s a secret.  I think that some voice is telling her these things.  Now she claims that it’s a good voice and I can trust it, but I don’t believe her.

Wisdom:  A voice?  How are you sure?

Believe it or not, I was a Muse for a day.  I was in her body and she was in mine for a whole day, as part of my “punishment” for being mean to her.

Prudence:  That’s probably when we left.  I can remember her shouting about how she wanted to get her revenge on you.

Now while I was in her body, I heard a voice, talking about a “plan”.  When I spoke to it, the voice left.  I figured since I wasn’t her, the voice didn’t want to have anything to do with me.

Prudence:  But how did she get that voice?

I don’t know.  That’s what stumps me.  How did she get that voice inside her head?  I’ve asked her, but she keeps saying that it’s a “secret”.  She also says “tee hee” a lot.

Wisdom:  “Tee hee”….That’s something that she used to say when she was a little girl.

What could it mean?  I wish I knew!  I feel like I’m so close yet so far away from solving this!

Wisdom:  Could it be her diet?

What does that have to do with anything?

Wisdom:  Oh, you don’t understand, since you’re a Tangible.  Let me explain this very clearly.  Intangibles like us need to have healthy diets.  Your diets consist of food.  Our diets consist of ideas.  What ideas has she been eating?

Why does that matter?

Wisdom:  It matters very much!  The ideas that a Muse eats determines their health.  And remember:  Muses become what they eat.  And from what I remember with your Muse, she never was a picky eater….

Prudence:  That’s right.  She would eat any idea she saw.  It didn’t matter to her.

So you’re telling me that she might have eaten an unhealthy idea?

Wisdom:  Quite possibly.  And the stronger ideas tend to grow, even after they’ve been consumed.

Grow?

Wisdom:  Well, how else can a Muse be so creative?  Each Muse has a world inside of them!

Wait.  You just said that my Muse was not a picky eater.  That’s it.  She probably ate an idea that she wasn’t supposed to.

Wisdom:  And a very old one, too!  How else could she be behaving that young?

So what do I do? …..Wait.  Ideas can be removed.  She consumed me like an idea, but then I was vomited out.

Wisdom:  That’s true.  But stronger ideas will be harder to remove.  It will need to be shrank down….

And I can do that with Remedy’s cures.  It will revert back the memories of that idea.  Back to a tiny form that’s easy to remove.

Prudence:  But you can’t do that from the outside.  You need to go inside her.

How do I do that?

Wisdom:  You need to wait until she’s asleep.  That’s the only time you can enter her world.  To enter, you would need to fall asleep in this world….

So I need to have a dream within a dream?

Wisdom:  Pretty much.  Yes.

Thank you for helping me solve this!

Prudence:  Anytime.  I hope that you can restore your Muse back to normal!

Me….too?

Oh.  I’m awake.  But I got the answer at last.  The puzzle is solved.  A terrible idea is inside my Muse.  An idea from her childhood.  I need to get it out.  But to do that, I need to get inside her.  It’s only a matter of time now before I save her….

 

*shadow reverts back to normal*

Muse Clone:  He knows.  I overheard the whole conversation with Wisdom and Prudence.

Muse:  So what if he knows?  He’ll never get to me OR his Muse.  We’re going to play a fun little game,  But first, a nap.  I’m a little tired.  Be on the ready, my cute little Muse slave.  Tee hee!

(real) Muse:  I’m ready when you are!  Tee hee!  Am I doing a good job?

Muse:  Yes.  You’re being a good girl, and you play Follow the Leader so nicely.  Keep it up, and I’ll give you a treat!

(real) Muse:  Oooh!  A treat!  I’ll be good! I’ll be good! Tee hee….