Mori woke up screaming from a bad dream in which she was given a book of fairy tales by a mysterious man who, rather ominously, repeated the phrase “All is tethered. Semicolon. Togethered.” (complete with the verbalized punctuation).
Mori’s headaches worsened with sounds that seemingly only she can hear. She and Bastian continued their search for the witch they hope can cast a spell to protect the village from bear attacks.
Back at the village, Brock wasn’t waiting around for “Shitty Mori” and her magic solution to bear problems, so he set about digging a lot of holes to catch bears. While digging he met a pillbug (coincidently named Lil’ Brock) who immediately became Brock’s biggest fan and hype-man… or hype-bug, as it were.
Alas, all the bear holes were for naught as the village had been attacked by honey badgers while Brock was digging. Even still he was able to convince everybody in the village that somehow Mori was to blame.
At the top of the Misty Mountains, Step-Mother Nature was more concerned about her own self care than the problems arising on the planet due to her neglect.
Over at the Royal Kingdom the king and queen were planning to increase the Royal Wine Supply (to keep up with the Royal Drinking Problem) and made a Royal Decree to deploy the Royal Army to find their missing Royal Daughter, Mori.
Meanwhile Bastian and Mori found the Hawt Witch – who can talk to plants! – and were invited for tea. Mori discovered the Hawt Witch not only can hear the same sounds she can (but is less affected by them), she has the phrase “All is tethered. Semicolon. Togethered.” engraved on her mantle.
Hawt Witch led Mori and Bastian to a delightful-magic-science-singing-jellyfish-tree-ring to help Mori get more in tune with the sounds throbbing in her head.