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My name is Nora Valkyrie and WOW is it nice to actually REMEMBER that now! And I'm not alone anymore!

Gods, what a trip, right?

I mean, wow, like, holy crap that was a really shit couple of… decades, I guess?

Like, it all started with all of us getting punted off a cliff inside some kind of magical flower meadow in the middle of a pocket dimension in Atlas or whatever and that really sucked but like everyone else was halfway unconscious for all of it but I thought it was actually super pretty because it was like…. 

We fell through a bunch of fog at first and then it got really dark and then we passed through this really pretty place full of stars and stuff and it was super cool but also I think I saw like… a bunch of golden ribbons in the distance? Or something? I thought I heard explosions too but I'm not really sure, there sure were a lot of lil fireworks going on… oh, and the ribbons were coming out of little white doorways and going into a different doorway which was super cool- maybe those were just far away bridges or something? I wonder what that was about.

Anyway after the foggy layer and the dark layer and the starry layer we fell into the dark again which totally sucked but then we wound up in the Ever After! And I knew what it was from the start cuz duh I reread The Girl Who Fell Through the World like every few months cuz it's my favorite story and I never get tired of reading it and where else would we have been that had a weird tropical vibe with a ginormous tree in the middle? Duh. 

Anyway after that like…

Well.

We got separated.

And I totally didn't freak out at all and spend like six days hyperventilating and smashing up a bunch of stuff and wandering around looking for my beautiful blonde (peggable) boyfriend and my beautiful first (ultra peggable) boyfriend and my beautiful redheaded (pegs me) girlfriend. 

…

Okay so maybe I did do that but in my defense I had just gotten yeeted out of a time vortex and had no idea what to do other than break a bunch of stuff because that stupid tree full of clock fruit vanished at some point and gods do I hate this place so much now.

I mean yeah sure, it's COOL but also it stole like thirty years of my life!

I'm old now!

Still hot, but old now!

Eugh! I mean, it was fine when I was like, sorta thirty-ish and kinda rugged and butch but like… bleh! Bleh!

At least the others are still, visually, about the same age as me physically. So we don't have to worry about that .

We've all been around for way too long, though…

Also! I totally lost my memories at some point! I tripped into some kind of bullshit plant or whatever and got stuck in a coma for a while and then started rampaging because I had no idea who I was or where I was just that I had a hammer and lightning and I had to smash stuff and look for three people and uhhhhh yeah! I totally did that! For like thirty years! I can't believe I never found them, but apparently the world itself conspired to keep us apart? As in, literally.

Jaune got stuck in a village full of adorable little origami stars and when Alyx and Lewis and that cat came through he had to help the Paper Pleasers get to the other side of where they wanted to be… which, in this case, meant that they had this big emotional moment where Jaune broke down the dam surrounding the Paper Pleasers' village and had to watch them all drown and get washed away into paper scraps.

That was horrible, by the way, even just hearing about it. At least Jaune told us that the Genial Gems came like, a day after to build something that'd be beautiful and survive in the aftermath of their creation. They didn't have to do anything like that to find Pyrrha, cuz Pyrrha was just kinda stuck wandering the western side of the Ever After and couldn't really find her way out of a bunch of endless plains.

OH!

And Juniper! I forgot that the Tarnished Lady had a super cute Jackalope steed! Juniper is an adorable fuzzball and I love her so much! She's very quiet though, and I don't think the others are super good at understanding her when she talks, but that's okay! She's gotten really good at body language and Pyrrha's very attentive to her anyway!

Juniper talks to me though. It's kinda weird how none of the others noticed it.

We're besties! I hope we don't have to leave her behind though…

Ahem!

But yeah Pyrrha couldn't leave the western plains and she kept having to deal with Jabberwalkers and all those bad things and also had to help fish unlucky Afterans out of the rivers and all sorts of cool wandering hero stuff. Ren got stuck in the Lost Bamboo Forest or whatever it's called and uhhhhh…

Yeah.

Same deal really.

I actually don't remember if I got stuck or if my psychosis meant that I was just going in circles, smashing up stuff and trying to find my lovelies. 

I mean, apparently all the smashing I did made me the local equivalent of a "destructive hero" kinda gal, but y'know… not a great feeling. Can't believe I was on the entire opposite side of the Tree from Pyrrha though. I shoulda tried to find her, but I got stuck in a bunch of mountains and snowy areas so like, what the fuck man.

I mean, sure, yeah, they called me a Valkyrie and stuff but… gods I wish I got stuck in one of the tropical areas! That woulda been nice! But nooooooooo, I had to freeze my boobs off and stuff.

Bleh. Oh well. 

I'm where I wanna be now.

Alyx is kind of a snotty, shitty brat who seems to think that she's still in a dream, sadly. Lewis is cute though- he's got that kinda boyish, bookish charm that makes me wanna pat him on the head and say everything's gonna be alright.

Don't trust that cat though… really don't trust that cat.

Something about it does not feel right and I'm pretty sure it's trying to gaslight at least one of us into a mental breakdown. Can't prove it, though, but as much as Team JNPR (and Juniper!) are doing great together… Alyx has been getting worse. Not like, as a shittier person… but like…

Apparently she and Lewis wrecked a bunch of stuff in one of the main southern settlements before they found Jaune… and apparently Alyx has been starting to regret the trail of destruction that's been following them. I don't think it's entirely their fault that what happened happened , but… I mean. They did wreck a bunch of stuff and then run away.

Poor kid. She didn't even want to be here and she's stuck doing all this just to get home…

Hopefully everything goes well.

By my estimation, we're still gonna have to get through a punderstorm or two, pass through a bunch of weirdness, meet a ghost wolf, and also a White Huntress.

I wonder who that will be…

The book never specified much, just that she came right at the end of the story and that she climbed out of a tree like some kinda lumberjack or something…

Apparently she has a big golden ax and wears a cloak of pure white with a blood red interior.

…

Wait.

Isn't that what Ruby's mom is supposed to look like?

And the ghost wolf- the Ephemeral Wolf…

The way it was described in the book said that it was a wandering thing looking for itself in an endless dream.

They said it had red eyes, a skull-like face, and its body writhed like a ghostly, smoky nightmare.

And that it wore a mantle of red like blood around its neck.

Oh my gods.

Ruby's mom has been stuck in the Ever After for gods know how many years.

RUBY has been stuck in the Ever After for gods know how many years! And- and that's why she's in a crystal coma! Because time doesn't work right in the Ever After and she's doing some kind of dream journey thing! But why is her mom here!?

Oh gods I-

No. Wait.

I can't tell the others yet until I know for sure. It might be coincidence. It might, genuinely, just be a coincidence that those things sound so similar.

I hope it isn't. I hope it's actually Ruby so we can actually help her. Give her a push? I hope it is.

It better be.

And that stupid bastard cat better stop talking in riddles and circles because holy SHIT is it hard to figure out what's going on with that little thing.

Gods, why hasn't it left us alone yet?

… Wait shit is that a punderstorm up ahead?

Aw fuck.