A soft groan uttered from Chihiro's lips as her bleary eyes propped themselves open. The sights of the world around her stood so fuzzy from the residual dizziness that always came with warping between worlds. She rubbed her eyes clear as her head started to straighten itself out, and the sights around sharpened and unveiled themselves at last! She found herself in a bedroom with lavender walls, cream-colored carpet floors, a closet to the side, and a bedstand and bed to her right. Yep, this was her room, alright!

"Good thing I landed right here, too!" Chihiro remarked as she fell backwards and flopped onto her bed with a content sigh. "Working all night has me exhausted!" Chihiro giggled as she turned on her side and clutched her blanket. "I can't wait to get some sleep."

Chihiro closed her eyes and went to get a few winks, but screamed as bright sunlight beamed into her room and burned against her tired eyes! Chihiro winced as she leaped off the bed, stumbled over to her curtains and shut them over the window in a groggy haze. It was so bright out, but it couldn't possibly still be morning, could it?

Chihiro moaned and slid her phone out of her pocket, fumbled it open and sighed. Nope, right there on her screen showed that it was still the morning of October 20th, 2012, and maybe only a few minutes passed since she had left.

"Geez, I always forget about the jet lag," Chihiro groaned as she closed her phone, and placed it back in her pocket. "I don't think I ever understood why they said time flies until I started going to—"

SLAM!

Chihiro yelped as the door to her bedroom burst open, immediately stuffed her pendant into her shirt and whipped back around. There in her doorway stood a pale-skinned boy maybe about a foot shorter than she was. He had sparkling blue eyes that had folds like hers, a nose much like her own, short blond hair with spiky bangs… Oh, phew, it was just Mamoru. He dressed in a burgundy tank top over a white shirt with a light red collar and stripes on the sleeves, and blue shorts; he seemed awfully enthusiastic about something, judging by how his eyes sparkled and the wide smile on his face.

However, Chihiro couldn't exactly bring herself to share in his enthusiasm. "Sheesh, Mamoru!" Chihiro snapped as she crossed her arms. "Didn't I tell you to knock before coming into my room?"

"I did, but you didn't answer!" Mamoru scoffed and puffed his cheeks, then shook his head. "Oh, forget that. There's something on TV that Mom and Dad want you to see!"

Something on TV? Chihiro quirked an eyebrow.

She followed Mamoru out her bedroom, down the halls and out to the living room. There, her father and mother sat on the couch dressed in their work clothes. But, that didn't strike her interest so much as what the news broadcast on TV showed!

There, a guy in archaeologist getup talked with a newscaster dressed in orange. All the while, the archaeologist held up what seemed like a figure of the Elder Elemental Tree Rex; the figure was stuck to a large base of leaves and covered in streaks of dust! Down below, the ticker on the news screen rambled something about finding Skylanders figures buried and calcified in an archaeological dig site from some thousand years or so ago.

"There you are, Chihiro!" her father remarked as he watched her with a twinkle in his eye. "Can you believe it? This archaeologist says he found figures from that game you like so much at their dig site!"

"Finding toys like that, buried in the Earth along with old pottery and scrolls," Chihiro's mother chuckled. "That's not something you'd see everyday!"

Chihiro just placed her hands in her pockets and stepped back with a brow raised. She wasn't sure why, but a strange feeling beat in her heart as the broadcast continued. Something about that figure felt a bit different, something unlike the ones advertised with the game. For that matter, she was sure she heard something like groaning amid the other voices!

"Hey, Mom, turn up the volume!" Chihiro said!

The volume on the TV raised, and the broadcast grew clearer!

"So, tell us about your strange discovery!" the reporter prompted as they pushed their microphone towards the archaeologist.

The archaeologist just frowned and shrugged as he waved the Tree Rex figure around.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure about it myself! I found these and a few other figures at the dig site we've been working at for the past week," the archaeologist explained. "Apparently they're called 'Skylanders Giants,' but whatever they are, they've had us completely baffled! They were buried deep in a site we were excavating from, so there's no possibility this could be a prank, but we have no clue how such modern…"

Urgh, ugh, groaned a third, gruffer voice unlike that of those on-screen, but too faint to be from anybody else around. Whe, where am I? This, this isn't Arkus…

Chihiro's head jittered; she shook it, and rapidly blinked as she fixed her eyes on the broadcast again. That voice, could it have been from that Tree Rex figure? Was that no ordinary figure, but the actual Tree Rex? But, that was impossible, right? There was no way the Elder Elementals could possibly be here on Earth, not when they perished thousands of years ago! Chihiro's head spun from all the questions, so she shook them aside and focused on the news broadcast once again.

What, what happened to me? That voice asked once more. Either I ended up someplace really big, or I got really small… And why can't I move? Where is everyone?

Right here! cried another, more mechanical-sounding voice, Tree Rex, can you see me?

So that was Tree Rex's voice! But, what about that other one?

Bouncer, is that you? Tree Rex called. Where are you? I can't see you anywhere!

Turns your eyes down here! cried another voice with a notable Transylvanian accent. We're all in this strange box!

Chihiro turned her attention down to the space that sat between the reporter and archaeologist, and her brows leaped up her forehead as her eyes went wide. There was a box sitting between the archaeologist and reporter, and figurines of the other Elder Elementals all sat still as statues and stuck to pedestals within it! With all those voices talking around, there was no doubt that those were the Elder Elementals, but just to make sure…

"Hey! Mom, Dad, Mamoru?" Chihiro asked as she turned back where the rest of her family sat on the couch. "Did you hear those weird voices too?"

"What weird voices?" Chihiro's mother asked.

Chihiro pulled her hands out of her pockets and gestured around. "You know, that weird and really gruff voice, and the robot-sounding one, and the one with the Transylvanian accent?" Chihiro waved towards the TV. "They were all asking a bunch of weird questions about being small and where they are and stuff?"

Chihiro's father and mother both frowned, looked at each other, and shook their heads.

"I didn't hear anything like that," Chihiro's father replied as he peered back at Chihiro.

"Neither did I," Chihiro's mother affirmed as she raised a brow at Chihiro. "Are you sure you weren't just hearing things?"

Chihiro turned her gaze to Mamoru, but he just hummed and scratched his head.

"I don't know. I thought I heard a weird voice saying weird stuff on there, too…" Mamoru said before he smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "But, I think I might've just imagined it."

Wait, could Mamoru had heard those voices too? But how? He wasn't a portal master as far as she knew! But, her parents didn't seem to hear anything… Yet, she knew for a fact that the voices had to belong to the Elder Elementals, so only a portal master could hear them, right? Ugh, this was all so confusing. If only there was some way she could figure this out for sure!

"Hi, yes, coming through!" said a man as he pushed between the reporter and archaeologist!

He dressed in fancy blue work clothes with an id tag that had some company's name written on it as part of a fancy black and white logo hung from his neck. Wait, hold on a second! Chihiro's gaze focused on the name tag, and she hummed and rubbed her chin. Wasn't that the name of the company that made the Skylanders game? Either way, the camera panned away as the man cleared his throat, straightened his tie, and gave a very forced-looking smile towards the camera as he waved.

"Well, whatever the thoughts and theories, we'll find out for certain soon enough!" the man proclaimed. "We will be holding a demonstration showcasing these figures in action with our brand-new game, Skylanders Giants, which is set to release tomorrow! This demonstration will be held at this location…"

Mamoru's eyes lit up as the location was given. "Hey, that's not that far from here!" he remarked.

Well, looks like Chihiro's wishes were granted! All she had to do was get to that presentation, see if she could get close enough to the Elder Elemental figures, and then she'd know for sure! Now, there was only the issue of getting there, seeing as how she couldn't just run off in broad daylight without her parents noticing.

So, Chihiro turned to her mom and clasped her hands together. "Can I go, Mom?" Chihiro asked as she bowed her head and shook her clasped hands. "Please, please, please?"

Chihiro's mother, however, just frowned and scratched her head.

"I don't know, Chihiro," her mother remarked with a frown. "I wasn't really planning on going anywhere today, and it seems like it's getting pretty crowded over there…"

Chihiro winced and took a glance back at the TV. A decently-sized crowd formed in the area, and it only got bigger by the moment! Her mom really hated crowds, to boot. Chihiro had to find some other way to convince her mom, but how?

"Actually, I wanna see it too!" Mamoru chimed in as he jumped forward and nudged her mother’s shoulder. "Can we go, Mom? Can we, can we?"

Chihiro's mother sighed and yanked herself off the couch.

"Well, I guess. Just let me get ready first."

"Okay!" Mamoru cried as he jumped off the couch and dashed downstairs!

Chihiro grinned and followed Mamoru down as he got his shoes on, all while she made a mental note to do him a solid later. He really saved her there; now she could finally figure out whether these figures were the real deal or not! As she slid on her boots, Chihiro frowned and pressed a hand against her shirt, enough to feel the pendant still tucked underneath it. Hopefully, she'd be able to get to them soon.