I was pacing back and forth in my bedroom, glancing at my computer every now and then, to where Windy usually sat when giving me ideas. And ideas I had. . .plenty of them. Ideas about everyone just about, even some for Lost Galaxy. But without that muse of mine, I couldn't write a thing.

"Something wrong?" I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw a little fairy perched on top of my organizer. Then I recognized who it had to be. I'd never actually seen her before, but from the descriptions, this had to be. ..

"Miane, what are you doing here? Last I heard, you were supposedly helping Liz with her rewrites," I tapped my foot a little. "And do you know where Windflame is?"

The fairy muse, who was normally stationed in Ohio with my friend and partner Elizabeth Wegner, sat down, leaning against the wall. "The Bahamas. She took off from there for a vacation after bringing you all those visitors last time."

I practically flinched, the last thing I wanted to do was remember that horrible little episode in my life. Then it hit me. "She's in the Bahamas??"

"Yeah, that's why I came. She wanted me to tell you she's going to be there for another month, and to add some more sections to the Youth Center to keep busy."

That did it. That absolutely one hundred percent tore it. Thanking every star there was in this world that I was alone in the house right now, I threw my head back and howled like a banshee. "Windflame! If you don't get your dragon-butt back here right this second, I know where I can find a jelly-bean muse, and I will personally see to it that you never work as a muse again!"

Miane looked shocked to say the least, but nowhere near as shocked as Windflame looked as she popped in out of thin air just above me. "What in the world is your problem?"

"A muse that's looking at unemployment if she doesn't tell me why she took off for the Bahamas," I snapped. "And that's if I'm in a good mood over it."

Windflame visibly gulped, then settled down at her usual spot on my computer. "Sorry. I just wanted a break after all that dimension hopping last time!"

I relaxed almost at once. "Forgiven. But next time you go hopping off to the Bahamas. ..take me with you," I smiled briefly. "I could use some fun and sun myself."

The muse stretched, flexing out her claws and wings. "Deal. Miane, you'd better pop back to Ohio. Liz should be ready for some writing soon, and she's going to need you."

"You got it," the fairy flicked off something that looked like a salute to me and my muse, then vanished, heading back to her own writer. I settled myself into my chair and popped a fresh Dr. Pepper.

"Been too long," I murmured, picking up my list of fic ideas and showing it to Windy. "We've got a Lost Galaxy, two for PRiS, and a Zeo to start off with."

Windy flicked her eyes over the list, and nodded. "That one there," her paw pointed to the Lost Galaxy listing. "It's relatively fresh enough so it won't take long to do."

I stretched myself, feeling every muscle and bone shifting around. A very familiar warmth was stealing over all of them, one I recognized. I hadn't felt it in a while, but it was something I knew down to the core of my soul. I'd felt it for years, whenever I wrote. It was the cloak of inspiration, the fabric of dreams and imagination. ..

"That's enough, Windy," I typed up the last few lines of my latest muse-fic. "Save the exaggerations for the writing. Now come on. Time for a Trakeena fic. There's been enough muse-fics and pagework already. Time for the real writing to begin."

Windy chuckled. "Enough already, huh? Okay. Let's do it."

And so began. . .my return to active writing.