by Katie Cherry
“Let me know if I can do anything for you two, alright?” He finally says. “If you need anything. Thaddeus and I both have watches now so we can contact you, and we expect you to contact us if you need anything. Okay?”
I nod as mom adds, “We have some as well. Please remember to keep in touch.”
“We will,” I reply, fiddling with the watch on my own wrist. It was just like the one that I got after winning the Games, and I was already fairly familiar with how it works. I was relieved that we were able to get more since not only did Nathan and I tend to get separated a lot, but we would definitely need to contact someone on Zilferia for additional help if we needed any- not to mention getting out of Quagon once we were finished there.
“We already have a couple of people there on Quagon whose only job is to assist you in whatever you need,” the King adds. “They should be there when you arrive.”
“Okay.”
“So where are we going first?” Nathan asks. “Crystal’s home, or mine?”
“Crystal’s,” Vlad replies. “She should be quicker since her parents are kind of already aware of Zilferia and such.”
“Plus I don’t really need to grab anything from their either,” I add. “I don’t have anything there that can help me with this.”
Vlad nods. “Have you both said all of your goodbyes?”
“Yes. We’re ready,” Nathan replies as I nod.
“Alright,” Vlad sighs, turning to me. “The closest I can put the portal is about an hour walk from your house.”
“That’s fine,” I say with a smile.
Everyone gives us one more hug before we turn and enter the portal side by side.
<<
I never realized that First Earth was truly so superior to Second Earth, Nathan thinks as he gazes around at the crowded streets. If I had to sum up Second Earth, I’d have to say… it’s primitive. Everything is so old! The cars, the houses… everything just seems like it’s a few decades behind.
“So, what do you think?” Crystal asks, smiling.
“Of Second Earth?”
“Yes.”
“Um… it’s nice, actually. The air isn’t as bad as it is in First Earth. And it’s nice to see other people walking and using bicycles that they have to put effort into to move.”
“Really? What’s First Earth like, then? Bikes just drive themselves?”
“Yeah, they’re pretty much all like these motorcycles… but these make a lot more noise. And smoke.”
“So why don’t people walk?” She asks.
“They don’t need to. There are devices that can fit in your pocket that can help you travel. There are also teleporters.”
“Really?” she gasps. “You can just teleport wherever you want?”
“Well, you have to program them to take you certain places. You can’t just think of a place you’ve never been before and push a button and be there.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
“The cars also fly, but they park on the ground still. …Basically, there’s not much on First Earth that people have to do themselves. Technology has taken care of pretty much everything.”
“Wow,” she murmurs thoughtfully. “Do you think we could spend a little more time there? I’d love to see all of that!”
Nathan laughs. “Sure, I don’t see why not. I mean, we can’t stay there all day, but we can do a little exploring.” Her happy grin in response pulls a smile to his lips as well. He loved making her smile, whatever the cause may be.
They continue walking through neighborhoods when someone suddenly comes running out of one of the houses they just passed. He was tall and blond and about their age. Nathan’s instantly set on edge and starts to push Crystal behind him.
“Crystal!” the boy cries, running up to them.
“Justin?” She gasps, stepping past Nathan. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” he laughs, stopping right in front of her. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I was just walking home,” she replies.
“With your friend here?” he asks, finally turning to face Nathan. He sticks out his hand. “Hi, my name is Justin!”
Nathan hesitates, but he’s too enthused to refuse. He chuckles and shakes his hand. “I’m Nathan.”
“Well, Nathan, do you and Crystal need a ride? You live like, forty-five minutes away, don’t you?” He continues, turning back to Crystal.
She nods. “A ride would actually be awesome. Thanks, Justin.”
“No problem!” he beams. “I’ll be right back,” he calls as he jogs back to his house.
The instant he disappears back into the house, Nathan spins back to face Crystal. “Who is he?”
“A friend I met at school,” she coolly replies. “But I’m more worried about you,” she suddenly adds. “If you’ve only been in cars that fly, how will you…”
“I’ll be fine,” he interrupts. “I’ve been in vehicles that are only on the road before.”
“Oh… okay, good.” She doesn’t say anything after that, and Nathan realizes he’d been a bit harsh. He sighs and is about to apologize when Justin pulls up in a red sports car. He parks and walks around the front, opening the passenger door and bowing a little to Crystal.
“After you,” he says with a charming grin. Nathan’s gut tightens. Why hadn’t she mentioned him before? Was she trying to keep this guy a secret for some reason?
Crystal happily jumps in, and Nathan awkwardly climbs into the back as Justin walks back to the driver’s side. As Crystal and Justin chat up front, he sighs and slouches into the new leather seats. This was going to be a long day.
<<
The conversation stops when Justin pulls up outside of my house. I was hoping I would only have to say goodbye to my parents, and I wasn’t prepared to say goodbye to Justin. This was terribly awkward.
“Will I see you at school tomorrow?” Justin nervously asks me.
I take a deep breath. “Actually, I won’t be going to school again for a while,” I begin.
“Really? Why’s that?”
I hesitate. “We… I… am going on vacation for a while. With some family friends.”
“Oh, that’s fun. Where are you going?”
“I… uh… the beach,” I lamely reply, trying to come up with something close to the truth. “And I’m not sure when I’ll be back. I might… ah, have to stay for a while to help take care of my grandpa, who’s not in good health.”
“Oh, I see,” he murmurs, fidgeting and looking down at his hands. “So this… this is goodbye, then?”
“I’m afraid so.” Man, this is just getting awkward. I open the door to the car and get out, Nathan following suit. Justin leaves the car running, but gets out as well. He walks around the car and swiftly pulls me into a strong hug, burying his face into my neck. It tickles and I fight the urge to giggle.
“I’ll miss you,” he murmurs. I don’t reply, not knowing what I could possibly say to him at this point. After all, I barely know him, honestly.
When he lets me go, he turns and climbs back into his car, sadly looking back multiple times. I give him a sad smile and wave as he drives away. When he’s finally gone, I laugh and turn to Nathan. I stop when I see his stormy face. “Nathan? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he gruffly answers. “Let’s just go.” He turns and leads the way up to my house, knocking on the door. I join him, awkwardly standing behind him.
Kiki answers the door, and she peers up at Nathan inquisitively. “Who are you?”
“My name is Nathan,” he says. “I’m your sister’s friend.”
She narrows her eyes at him. “How good of a friend?”
I clear my throat and step past him. “Hey, Kiki! How are you?” I ask, pulling her into a hug.
“Crystal! I missed you!” she cries. “Why were you gone for so long?”
I shoot a confused look at Nathan, which he mirrors. “Kiki, how long was I gone?”
“Two weeks! Mom and Dad were super worried. They had the cops looking for you.”
I decide I’ll process this information later. “Kiki, are mom and Dad home?”
“No, but they will be soon,” she replies, letting us into the house. When we sit down on one of the couches, Kiki stands in front of us and crosses her arms, glaring at me. “Why were you gone for so long? You aren’t allowed to disappear for that long ever again! What were you even doing? Were you with him the whole time?” She demands, pointing at Nathan.
“No, not the whole time…” I begin, sighing. “But I can’t explain what I was doing, Kiki.”
“Why?” comes the simple demand.
“W-well… you wouldn’t… understand,” I stammer.
She now puts her hands on her hips. “Try me.”
“Kiki, I can’t tell you. It will put you in danger.” That was probably true. If she was walking around saying her sister was the Princess of Zilferia, that would only draw the attention of the Dragon Hunters, and that would be disastrous- for everyone.
Her eyes widen. “Are you a spy?”
I squirm under her sharp gaze. How am I supposed to tell her while avoiding actually telling her? “Sort of. Some bad guys are after me. I don’t want them to find you, so you can’t tell anyone where I went, okay?”
“Well, where are you going?”
“Um… I need to go and find somebody.”
“Why?”
“He’s… a lost prince and the King and Queen want to find him,” I finally explain. “So, Nathan and I are going to go and look for him.”
“Wow! Cool!” She exclaims, rushing up to me and putting her hands on my knees. “Can I come too?”
“No, Kiki. It’s too dangerous. Remember when we got kidnapped that one time?”
She nods somberly. “That was scary.”
“I don’t want that to happen to you again, okay? So you can’t tell anybody where I went. Tell them I went with some family friends to stay at the beach so I can help take care of grandpa.”
“What happened to grandpa?”
“Nothing. It’s a story so they don’t follow me and they don’t hurt you, okay? Can you keep that secret for me?” She nods, her eyes wide.
“Okay.”
“Good,” I smile, rubbing her head affectionately. “Now, then, do you want to give Nathan a tour of the house?”
“Yes yes yes!” she beams, turning to Nathan and grabbing his hand, pulling him to his feet. “Come with me!”
<<
Nathan laughs as Crystal’s little sister pulls him speedily through the house. “This is the kitchen, this is the door that goes to the backyard- we got a dog and his name is Benji- and all that land is ours, Crystal always helps Dad with it. This is the stairs that go upstairs…”
Nathan leans over to Crystal. “Does she always have this much energy?” He quietly chuckles.
She laughs and shakes her head. “She’s actually been a lot better lately.”
“You mean she used to be worse?” he gasps. She giggles and nods.
“This is Crystal’s room!” Kiki finally finishes with a flourish.
Curious, Nathan looks around. It’s a pretty small room. Her walls had been painted to look like a forest. Looking closer, he noticed it looked familiar. It was the view from Crystal’s balcony back on Zilferia. “Did you do this?” He asks her, gesturing to the wall.
She shrugs modestly. “It took longer than you may think,” she chuckles. “Art isn’t something I’ve spent a lot of time learning.”
“It’s amazing!”
She blushes a little. “Thanks.” She’s about to say something else when the sound of a car pulling up reaches their ears. “Oh, that’ll be my parents,” she murmurs, suddenly looking anxious. Nathan feels a sudden urge to take her into his arms, but he resists. This didn’t necessarily call for a hug.
“It’ll be fine,” he murmurs comfortingly instead. “You’ve already done it twice, after all.”
“Yeah, but not telling them the whole truth,” she mutters back as they walk back into the hall.
“They already know more than the other two times, though,” Nathan shoots back. “They’ll understand.”
“Thanks,” she replies with a small smile. “Um… can I ask a favor?”
“Anything.”
She laughs. “Don’t speak too soon… Would you entertain Kiki while I talk to them? I really do intend to keep her from as much of this as I can.”
“Of course,” he replies as they stop in the kitchen. The door that leads to the garage slowly opens and a woman who must be Janet, the woman who was Crystal’s mother for sixteen years, steps through. Her eyes instantly fixate on Crystal.
“…Crystal?” she gasps in disbelief.
“Hey, mom,” she cautiously says with a small smile, opening her arms for a hug. Janet barrels into her, holding her tightly. Nathan stands back a respectable distance and watches as a worn looking man then steps through the doorway.
“Honey? Did you say…” He stops when he sees Nathan standing there beside Kiki. His eyes flash back and forth between him and Crystal, who was still holding a sobbing Janet. “You must be Nathan,” he finally says, stepping towards him.
“Yes, sir,” he replies, holding out his hand.
The Dad just steps past it and pulls him into a hug as well. “Thank you,” he whispers. “We heard about what you did for Crystal in Zilferia.” He pulls back and slaps his hands down on Nathan’s shoulders. “Know that you are always welcome in this house, son.”
Nathan’s surprised to see tears in the older man’s eyes. “…Thank you, sir.”
He smiles. “You can call me Dave, son.”
“Okay… thank you, Dave.”
He nods, then turns his attention to his daughter as the mom finally pulls back and turns to Nathan, seeming to notice him for the first time. “You must be Nathan,” she determines, pulling him into a hug as well. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You have?”
“Yes, Crystal talks about you more than anything,” she chuckles. “I want to let you know that you are always welcome here. I know you don’t normally live here, in this world, but if you ever find yourself in need, you know where to go.” She pulls back and looks into his eyes. “For anything.”
Nathan can’t do more than just stare at her, feeling completely overwhelmed by the Shay family’s kindness. “T… thank you, ma’am.”
She smiles at him. “Janet. There’s no need to be so formal with us. Consider us family.”
“I… um… thank you, Janet. I’m… overwhelmed by your generosity.”
She smiles. “It’s the least we could do after all you’ve done for our daughter.” To Nathan’s relief, she finally turns her attention back to Crystal. “Crystal, we were terrified after you disappeared! When you didn’t come home from school… we feared the worst. We had no idea what happened… but from what you told us about the Dragon Hunters… we… we were worried we weren’t going to find you anywhere.” She puts one hand on her face, blinking past tears. “But now you’re here.”
Crystal nods solemnly. “And I’m here to tell you everything.”
Janet glances down at Kiki. “What about-”
“Nathan said he would entertain Kiki.”
Dave smiles at him. “Good man!”
Nathan nods, then turns to Kiki. “What games do you like to play, Kiki?”
She grins, takes him by the hand, and leads him out of the house. Once they get outside, she drops his hand and turns to him, seriousness in her eyes. “Okay. Since you are a boy, you’re going to be a prince.”
He smiles. “Okay. Where’s my sword?”
“Um… here you go,” she says, presenting him with a stick about the length of his arm. “So you’re a prince and a warrior, and I am a princess. I’ve just been kidnapped and you need to save me from the dragon guarding the castle.”
Nathan instantly loses his smile. That was one thing that struck too c
lose to home. “Are you sure? Do you want to play another game? How about we’re BOTH heroes, and we’re in training? And you’re the first girl who learns to fight and you’re better than all the boys?”
She pauses thoughtfully. “Hmm, okay. That sounds fun… but I don’t know how to fight.”
“Do you want me to teach you?”
“Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes!” She quickly scrambles to find a ‘sword’ of her own. “Okay, what do I do first?”
“Well first, spread your feet apart,” Nathan instructs, doing the same. He squats a little, and Kiki imitates it. “Very good! Now hold your sword diagonally so it protects your body,” he instructs. “Now you can block my attacks, see?” he says as he gently hits her stick with his.
The two continue to spar, Kiki loving it more and more. Nathan occasionally sneaks a peek into the house, keeping an eye on Crystal. She’s smiling and blushing. He wonders what she could be talking about but then decides he probably doesn’t want to know. She was probably talking about Chet or Justin or something else entirely.
Besides, why should he care? He had Angela- even if she wasn’t with him right then. She was certainly allowed to like other people.
<<
“Nathan seems like quite the catch,” Dad points out, watching as he spars with Kiki. “Well done.”
I blush. “No, it’s not… it’s not like that… we’re just friends.”
“Just friends?” Mom raises an eyebrow.
“Yes, just friends… he has a girlfriend, mom. Anyways, looking for Rex isn’t even close to having a date. We’re not dating. We’re in the middle of a war and just trying to survive.”
“I still don’t really see why you have to participate in all this,” Mom sighs. “Why can’t you just leave? This shouldn’t involve you. You’re a teenage girl, for goodness sakes! You’re not even eighteen yet, and they want you to lead a war and a search party in a bunch of different realms?”
I sigh. “I couldn’t leave, even if I wanted to. The Dragon Hunters have eyes and ears everywhere. And not only would I always be in danger, but also those around me- like you and Kiki. The only way to eventual peace is to get rid of the Dragon Hunters. And finding Rex could push the war in our favor. They need everyone they can to be on Zilferia fighting the war. The King and Queen didn’t want to risk me being in that much danger, so they’re setting me to work doing what I can. Mom, I’ll be safe in Quagon. I’ll have Nathan and the two people that the King and Queen sent to help out. I should be able to kind of work in the background this way and hopefully Patrick- or Hunter, I guess- won’t be able to find me there. And Nathan has a theory for how to help me get my Gifts back, too. This is the best way to keep all of us safe- now and in the future.”