Jesse, Melinda and the donkey Josh followed the route given by Sharon, going due south. They walked two days through woods and moors, over stone walls and grassy fields. The moon came up, white and cold, and the stars shone like diamonds high above the sleepy hamlet. Then, the guys entered to the land ruled over by the Coachman. There the soil was cracked, the flowers were faded, the ferns shriveled, and twisted trees wept their few leaves onto the brown grass.
Melinda shivered and swallowed a lump in her throat. “I do not like this place,” she whispered. “It feels so full of sorrow.”
“Neither do I,” agreed Jesse. “The bleakness of this land feels as though it echoes the donkeys’ feelings.” Despite this, they were truly brave at heart, and went on. After a while, they came to a mysterious lake, the waters dark and still, and the shoreline clogged with dead reeds.
Melinda rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to ward off the chill that seemed to bore into her soul. “I like this even less.”
They stopped there to sleep. Melinda sighed, closing her eyes and leaning back against a tree. Jesse looked out onto the dark lake. As they rested, Josh trotted around the bend of lake. Jesse’s eyes slid over and saw him. The moon that hung like a brilliant lantern spread its light across the lake. When it touched the very edges where the Josh stood, someone astonishing happened, the donkey stood up on his hind legs, and the hair began to fall from his body. Jesse’s mouth dropped open and snapped closed, not being able to say a word. One by one, a naked adolescent boy stood where the donkey had. He was apparently elder than the last time Jesse saw him, with tousled hair, buck-teeth, tanned skin splattered with freckles, a snub nose, a brawny yet lanky build and snapping dark eyes. Like Melissa and Jesse, a donkey tail was moving back and forth behind him.
Jesse, amazed, ran to hug him. "How could it happen?", asked Jesse. "Its a clue. The lake. The cave entrance should be under the lake." He was right, Josh was dumb-struck with happiness when he saw and pointed it at the bottom of the lake. They had to dive and swim to get inside. The guys went to Melinda to wake her up and told her their discovery. Melinda was crying quietly of joy.
Fortunately Jesse, Melinda and Josh knew how to swim and, without much thought, they jumped into the lake and entered the cave. To their surprise, they didn't swim much because the cave had an air opening, like a sinkhole, and was lit. There they discovered that the cave was made up of a large underground lake and a long path along the shore of the lake to which they swam.
After a long walk throught the path, they stopped in front a big rock wall. In these rock was a crevasse-jail where a brown-haired woman dressed in black robes was trapped, she was Shanon twin sister.
"Who are you?", Melinda asked.
“My name is Nicolais, I'm a fairy that was trapped many years ago by a man named the Coachman. That bastard read in an old book that if you caught a forest fairy you could use her magic at your convenience. Fairies reward and punish human beings according to their actions. If the man is a good person, we give him riches, but if he is a bad person we punish them by turning him into the animals they really represent. So the boys and girls on Pleasure Island who act like donkeys ... they transform into real donkeys. Looking your tails, I see that you are also cursed. Just a few days ago, Sharon finally found me and I told her that the only way to finish the curse was by breaking the Coachman's crystal. That is only possible if a cursed person breaks it. I also told her that the curse was very powerful, and she had to find a person who least acted in his island like a jackass in order to turn him into a human momentarily. I see it is you, but her magic will not last long."
Jesse, Melinda and Joshe were surprised with horror at Nicolais’s story.
“Please tell us how this dreadful curse can be broken,” Jesse whispered, tenderly pressing her hand. “Tell us, Nicolais, and we will do it- no matter how hard, long, or difficult it is.”
The truly-meant words touched to the very core of Nicolais’s hurting and vulnerable heart. So she told them “Only if someone who has never loved before swears his faithfulness in both friendship and deeper feelings to me, only then can the crystal be broken.”
The light in her eyes dimmed slightly as he spoke of the catch. Jesse and Melinda's donkey tails twitched ever so slightly when they heard that.
“But should he prove unfaithful, all the boys and girls will be donkeys forever.”
A feeling that Josh had never felt before in his life made itself known as the kernel began to break apart in his soul and spread through his veins. He locked Nicolais’s blue eyes with his dark ones and raised the fairy’s clasped hand to his lips gently kissing it. Josh then spoke firmly and clearly. “I swear on my honor that I am yours, Nicolais, and you are mine now and forever; far longer than forever.”