Chapter 4
The Forrest of the Miniroks

"Is he alive?"

"Of course he's alive."

"Are you sure? He looks dead to me."

"I'm sure. Look, he's breathing."

"Oh yeah."

"Poke him with the stick, see if he wakes up."

Something jabbed into my cheek. I opened my eyes.

I must've been hit pretty hard because I was seeing double. Well, more than double really, I was seeing in sevens. Seven Baylees leaned over me in a circle, staring down at me.

"Yep, he's alive," one of the seven Baylees said.

I rubbed my eyes, "Whoa," I gurgled. I reached up and touched my forehead. A giant gash was across it. I blinked, "That must've been a hard fall..."

"Well you did fall from the sky and stuff," said second Baylee.

I stared at him. "What?"

I sat up slowly, and found I was no longer in my basement, but in the middle of a woodsy clearing. "Where the hell am I?"

"Quarter." All seven Baylees held out their palms.

I glanced around at them.

"Baylee, how'd you do that? Where are we?"

"Why does he keep calling us Baylees?" whispered one Baylee to another Baylee. The other Baylee shrugged.

I glanced around me. "Seriously," I said, scoping out the trees and the rocks and vines and grass and small patch of sunlight overhead, "I was in my basement just a second ago... I fell down the stairs and... Then I woke up, here."

The Baylees all exchanged glances with one another.

"He's gone cuckoo," one hissed. The others all nodded.

I stared at them. "Okay, look, that's enough. Whichever one of you is the real Baylee, please, go get your mother and tell her daddy's hallucinating, okay?"

They all gawked at me.

I sighed. "How on earth does Leigh get you to do stuff..." I muttered.

"Leigh?" Spoke up one of the Baylees, "As in Leighanne?"

They all sighed. "Oh Leighanne!" chorused the six others.

"Um...yes," I answered, raising an eyebrw at them. Since when did Baylee call her anything but mommy?

"Nobody knows where Leighanne is," gasped one of the Baylees. "No one!"

"She's upstairs..." I grumbled.

The Baylees all looked at each other.

"Damn it," I muttered, struggling to my feet, "I'll get her myself." But I was still standing in the woods, even after I'd stood up and tried to clear my head. I whipped around. "Where am I? Seriously?" I asked.

"You're in the Forrest of the Miniroks," one of the Baylees replied, stepping forward, "Guarded by the Wood Fairy King and us... his dwaves of Minirok."

"Minirok?" I mumbled, "Wood fairy king?" I looked around, "Who the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is the wood --"

CRACK.

A tree branch - a very large tree branch - broke and fell down, almost beaming me. I jumped back only just in time as it dropped. "Whoa, what the --" I stopped mid sentence and blinked down in disbelief. "AJ?"

AJ rolled off the branch, and lay on his back in the grass. He was wearing a tutu. A purple tutu with a dark purple leotard underneath and bright orange sneakers. He had a wand with a sequined star on the top and some ribbons that fell down around his arm. He had a crown.

He jumped up, dusted himself off, and sang out, "Helloooooo, I am the Wood Fairy King!"

I stared at him. "Okay thats it, time to wake up." I grabbed my arm and pinched.