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Chapter IX – Suddenly You Realize...

The sound of his black, polished leather boots clicking against the cobblestone and gravel echoed through the silence that had befallen the town. Palace guards—clad in red, black and white attire—flanked his sides as he made his way down the path—face contorted into a foreboding scowl.

"It's rare to see one of the princes out..." some onlookers whispered while others just stared.

"His young majesty seems to be in a bad mood..." one pointed out quietly.

Darius paid the steadily murmuring citizens no heed, barely sparing them a glare, as he stopped in front of the doors of the library. Tucking a strand of hair behind his ear, he proceeded in pushing the doors open with a low grunt, effectively startling the few occupants in the building. He looked around for a brief moment in search of Phillip until his eyes landed on the white-haired man behind the mahogany desk, who was gazing at him in surprise. Purposefully striding over with an almost arrogant swagger, Darius slammed his hands on the surface, causing the people present to jump. "Are you the individual that is in charge of this area?"

Yes, Darius was—indeed—in a very foul mood.

The white-haired man gave a slow nod, pushing his glasses to the bridge of his nose with an index finger. "Y...Yes, your young majesty, I am the librarian here—Franklin Rudikins," he answered, keeping his head bowed in respect. "Is there something you are in need of?"

"I am looking for my brother," said Darius as he lifted his hands and crossed his arms. "Is he here?"

This time, Franklin did dare to look up at the second born in clear surprise at his question. He sputtered, though the action made it seem as though it were horribly forced. "Prince Phillip? Here?"

Darius resisted the urge to roll his eyes; his brother must have told the librarian not to mention any of his trips through the town. "That is what I said, is it not?"

The white-haired man hesitated for a short moment before he nodded with a frown. "He was here not too long ago, yes," he stated the fact quietly to Darius so that he alone heard, "but he went back into town."

The prince cursed under his breath; why was it so hard for his brother to stay in one place? "Do you know where he could have gone then?"

"An antique shop, your young majesty—Prince Phillip came by here to ask if I knew of any that sold doll clothes for miniatures."

Figures he'd be out buying something for the human. The second born gave a nod of his head, reaching into the pocket of his cloak and culling out a small (palm-sized) blue bag from within, which he set in front of Franklin. He pushed the satchel towards him. "I thank you," Darius said simply before turning on his heels and exiting the library with his guards following. He had not left that many gold pieces for the librarian, but he figured that it was enough to pardon his disturbance.

Once more, Darius walked through the streets and walkways, looking at each store he passed to see whether it was the correct one he was looking for. As he did so, many of the townspeople respectfully stepped out of his way and avoided eye contact, which was quite easy for them since he was not paying attention to them anyhow. When he finally found the building he was looking for, he went inside...the chimes of the bells at the top of the door alerting his presence; he barely registered that the shopkeeper had offered a meek welcome before he strode over to the person cloaked in a dark robe, pulling the hood of it back to reveal a strawberry blonde head. "Here you are, Phillip."

Cover officially blown, the owner of the head whirled to face Darius with a heated glare, flinching slightly at the surprised gasps the occupants of the store released. "What is your issue, Darius?" Phillip quietly snapped. "Do you ever think things through before you carry them out? You uncouth little twit! Now because of this little stunt of yours I can no longer—"

"Michelle is ill."

The hands that had been poised to grab the collar of Darius' dress shirt paused as Phillip stared at him; the look on his face was surprised and concerned...not to mention incredibly disbelieving. "I beg your pardon?" he questioned, frowning.

Darius gave his older brother a sharp look and crossed his arms with a scowl, easily matching Phillip's irritation and increasing it tenfold. "Your human is ill," he emphasized with a lengthy pause as if Phillip could only understand if the words were spoken slowly to him, "and before you jump to irrational conclusions, I am not the cause of it."

"Where is she?" Phillip demanded as he adopted a more panicked—worried—expression. "Is she okay? What happened to her?"

If Darius could have, he would have rolled his eyes at his brother's franticness and fickle mood, however now was not the appropriate time for that. "I am sure she'll be fine. All I know is that she mentioned having head pains before fainting soon after. If we stopped wasting time here then perhaps you could go witness her wellbeing for yourself," he sarcastically pointed out before giving a curt nod towards a few of the people in the store. "We apologize for the disturbance."

Phillip turned and offered them all an apologetic, and extremely practiced, smile. "Oh, yes, do forgive this. We will be taking our leave now." Grabbing Darius by the shoulder—which caused him to shout in offense and protest—Phillip hurriedly steered the way out of the small building, noticing that the guards from the palace closely followed them as well; he spared them a glance. "The subtly of your trip into Pickot is not at all surprising to me, younger brother. Well done for accurately meeting my expectations," he stated derisively. "You do know you're going to get thoroughly scolded for this, correct?"

Darius indignantly snorted and glowered. "Just be silent and keep walking, you parasitic idiot..."

......

Once they had arrived inside of the palace, Darius immediately led Phillip to the quarters of their parents, Phillip narrowing an incredulous glare when they stopped in front of the door. "And I have been carefully trying to deviate things so that she would not fall under father's care," he mumbled, looking up at the ceiling with a sigh, while Darius secretively made the motion of slapping him. "So much for that."

"You ungrateful...who else was I supposed to leave her with?" he barked tersely. "Mother is there too! Oh, and lest we not forget that the human is unconscious and has no capable way of knowing who is taking care of her—so what the Hells does it matter!"

"Would you stop yelling?" the firstborn snapped—patience thin.

"I'll yell all I please! I do not take orders from you!"

As the two bickered back and forth for a short time, they failed to notice that the door had opened and out stepped their mother; she was keen on frowning at the noise that they were making, but settled instead for sighing and clearing her throat gently—effectively catching their attention and ceasing their argument. "I see that you have returned, Darius, dear. I welcome you both back," she said.

"Thank you, mother," replied Darius.

Phillip only gave a nod of acknowledgment while his face showed nothing short of worry. "How is she?" he inquired in concern and in a straightforward manner. "Is Michelle truly ill?"

Queen Maria sighed and thoughtfully put a hand to the side of her cheek. "I am afraid so, dear, but it is nothing life threatening—I am sure she will be fine. She simply feels a little warm to the forehead. Currently, though, she is sleeping." When both brothers recoiled in relief (Phillip sighing and Darius' tense posture slackening a bit), Maria smiled. "Darius, dear," the aforementioned prince perked at his name, "why not explain to your brother what has happened? Your father or I will call you if there are any changes in Michelle's condition."

"All right, mother, I will," he responded as he and Phillip watched her disappear once more into the room; pushing some of his hair back, Darius jerked his thumb behind himself with a frown...his mood better than it had been at first. "Why don't we retire to the drawing room for a bit?"

"We might as well."

******

A little while had passed before Michelle's thoughts became more coherent and conscious. Her period of 'rest' (if one even wanted to call it that) was quite fitful and sporadic given the dreams she was having, clearing the once black fog of her mind.

......

~She was walking alongside of her best friend as they chatted about a variety of different things; the boy was Nicholas—someone who Michelle had come to know ever since her fifth grade year in elementary school. She had mentioned them hanging out over the summer, as they walked through the streets of Indianapolis, when all of a sudden Nick stopped. Michelle looked at him curiously. "What's up? Why'd you stop?" she asked.

"Mitch," he faced her with a contemplative stare before turning away almost reluctantly, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "didn't I tell you I was going away for the summer?"

She shook her head, looking at him with a frown. "What are you talking about? You never told me that... Where are you going?"

"Elisteria," he had seemed hesitant to answer, but eventually relented to whatever was running through his mind. "I'm going back to Elisteria."

"Elestria? What's that?" she scrunched up her face in confusion at the foreign name.

"Elisteria...not 'Elestria'," he corrected then gave a slight laugh. "It's my home...well at least the little town called Jyaker that's in the country. I'm going back for a while to check in with my parents—I haven't seen them in forever and I know they're probably worried that I haven't visited."

"So you're leaving me?" she accused—hurt—before pouting childishly. "Can't I come with you? I don't want to be alone during the whole summer!"

"You wouldn't be alone! You'd be with my cousins at the house."

"Yeah, but it's not the same...I wouldn't want to impose, and you know that when I feel that way that means I'd have to go back to my real home." Crossing her arms and walking so that she was in front of him, Michelle glared. "I'm not letting you leave without taking me."

"Michelle," Nick sighed, "don't be like that. If I could I would take you with me, but it's dangerous."

"I don't care! I'm serious!"

"But Michelle..." He met her determined gaze with a frustrated groan, running his hands through his hair. "All right, okay," he relented, which caused her expression to brighten. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Stepping past her and towards an alleyway, he walked up to a section of the wall. She followed him closely, watching in confusion. "Stand back," he instructed, and she did as told, "I need room to open a portal."

An appropriate giggle caught in her throat. "A portal...really, Nick? Have you been watching one too many Harry Potter movies?"

"No." He leveled her with a serious look—something so contrast to his usual jocular personality and that made Michelle a little curious...if not wary; after a bit, he sighed. "Whatever happens...happens. Okay? I don't know how this will affect a human, but we'll see when we get to the other side. If we get separated, I promise to find you..." Taking a deep breath, Nicholas placed his hand on the alleyway's wall as if groping an invisible doorknob, causing Michelle to stare at him; fearfully, she realized that one of his eyes was glowing rather brightly.

"O...Okay...now you're scaring me a bit. Nick?"

Then, with a flash of light purple and white, the shape of a door that led into a strange abyss cut out of the alleyway wall, causing Michelle to balk as she looked at it. Nick turned her way and offered her a smile, "Having second thoughts?" He held out his hand.

"O–Of course not." Stubbornly, she grabbed his hand and held it tightly as Nicholas led her into the 'portal'. She gasped as the door—or the wall—automatically closed in behind her. Surrounded all around the two were stars, constellations and galaxies...almost as if one were looking into an observation room at the planetarium. Her breath caught in her throat. "Wow Nick..." she smiled and glanced at him as she released his hand. "This is beautiful!"

He led her around, pointing out different clusters of light and explaining their meaning, or the name of the world they belonged to. She listened intently, nodding occasionally, as she took everything in, realizing that she was completely acceptant of what was happening. When they reached the galaxy (that he told her was called "Circulas Luzíeré"), which contained the planet Arcarin, they stopped in front of it.

Nicholas grinned and scratched the back of his head before looking apologetic. "I'm sorry for lying to you all of these years...I just..."

"Yeah, you'd think that the blue hair and purple eye would set me off," she laughed dismissively and shrugged, "but what can I say? I'm—"

Michelle's sentence died in her throat when some invisible force roughly jerked her forward, pulling her rather quickly towards the Circulas Luzíeré galaxy. He tried grabbing for her, but the force was too strong, pulling her within and away from his reach. "Nick!" she yelled loudly.

"Michelle! Ah, shit, I forgot that you can't be too close to the portals or you'll get sucked in..." He grabbed his hair with both hands, mumbling. "And I can't risk grabbing her now...who knows what will happen." Shaking his head, he called out to her, "Hold on, and don't be scared, okay? I promise you'll be fine!"

She heard Nick say those final words just before she vanished with the searing light of the portal and into the strangeness of a new world... Unconscious: she remained that way until she finally opened her eyes to the scenery around her. As she sat up with a groan, she noticed that peach walls towered above her on all sides, but with horror, she had realized that she could not remember a thing...~

......

Michelle's eyes snapped open as the memory faded, causing her to breathe wildly for air as she clutched at her chest. Oh my God...oh my God... she chanted relentlessly in her mind after she calmed down slightly, closing her eyes again in disbelief; she had never known how she got to Elisteria at first...never knew why it was that she lost her memories for a short time...but now, she very clearly remembered it all.

Oh yes, she remembered everything.

Jesus Christ—my best friend is an alien...what the hell... She gave a silent, incredulous laugh. My best friend is a giant from another planet—holy crap! A slight amount of anger crept into her heart as she thought, and he never told me about it!

As Michelle lay on her back trying to cope and put her reeling mind to rest, she felt something wet being taken off of her forehead. With a subtle jump, Michelle opened her eyes and looked up at a woman's face high above her in the sky; for a moment, Michelle did not recognize the woman at all until she remembered where exactly she was in Elisteria—the palace. Though she had to wonder why she was in the queen's care, she refrained from questioning it as her motor functions tried to catch up with her thought process. But I thought I was with Darius...?

Upon seeing her awake, the queen smiled pleasantly and addressed the other occupant of the room, who—when she turned to look in that direction—Michelle realized was the king. "Darling, the little one is awake," informed the queen before her gaze returned to Michelle's form. "How do you feel?"

Vibrations traveled through Michelle's body when footsteps approached the surface on which she was placed upon. Her eyes meandered their way upwards as a second shadow fell upon her, revealing the face of none other than the king; he was frowning very slightly and that caused Michelle to shut her eyes in the simple fear that his stare would devour her. "I will go inform them that the little one is better," the queen told her husband—who nodded and gave a low hum—just before she turned and stepped out of the room, leaving the door open behind her.

When Michelle finally collected herself and dared to peek at the giant hovering above her, she had made the motion to sit up. However, she was easily, and surprisingly gently, pushed once again onto her back by a large index finger. Her breath caught in her throat silently and her heartbeat sped up as she looked to the king in wary confusion. He began speaking aloud, though his words were not exactly simple enough for her to translate mentally. Rather blankly, she stared up at him until she caught the few Elisterian words she knew.

"You are unwell and in need of rest," he had stated with a barely inaudible grunt, "Lie down."

I'm sick? Michelle curiously felt her forehead with the back of her hand and noticed that she did feel a little warmer than usual—well, that wasn't good. Looking up at the king, she found herself asking, with a nervous fumble of the foreign words, "I–I was...sleeping...for long?"

The king regarded her with a look that was thoughtful nor thoughtless—neither annoyed nor intrigued: it was simply neutral with a hint of recognition at the fact she had spoken; well, that's a start I guess. "No more than a mere few hours," he answered after a moment, which Michelle gave a nod to.

"And, um, Phillip and Darius?"

"They are presently outside of this room waiting to hear news of your state."

That's a lot of big words...think you could put that into simpler terms for me to actually understand? The thought came to her in a mildly sarcastic manner, yet she only gave another small nod to his response, still wrapping her mind around the fact that she was conversing with him. "Thank you," she mumbled quietly, though she was unsure if he had heard her.

He reached over her body for something that was behind her, culling out a small rectangle of a rag and placing the cool wet piece on her forehead. Since it had been fitted to—at least somewhat—match her size, she wondered if they had cut a section of the rag just for her. "Are you uncomfortable?" he questioned.

It seemed similar to the question the queen had asked her before, however this time Michelle was not sure if she was capable of answering. "Uh..." She did not know what the word 'mal comaloda' meant (well, she knew 'mal' translated to something usually negative in English), but if it was something pertaining to the way she felt, she shook her head. "No...I'm, ah, well?" I think.

"Good."

Another period of awkward silence settled upon them; Michelle bit the bottom of her lip softly. "U–Um..."

She did not get around to finishing her sentence when all of a sudden a gentle knock echoed throughout the room. The king, abandoning his position of peering at her, went over and opened the door. Without him hovering over her, she was able to sit up and watch him, seeing Phillip, Darius, Elizabeth and their mother come into the room. "Do not make so much of a líos this time," the king was saying to them, retrospectively giving Darius and Phillip a pointed look.

Phillip was the first to approach the table after their father and mother had moved to stand towards the doorway. Then Elizabeth followed suit as Darius brought up the rear; the teenager noticed that they all seemed relieved—Phillip and Elizabeth more openly so than Darius...though that unsurprising. "Michelle," Phillip began in English, bending and becoming level with her, "Are you better?"

"I'm okay. I...I honestly don't know what happened," she replied in honesty, drawing her knees to her chest and placing her cheek on them with a groan.

Darius snorted. "Obvide désanouie–vous comé un flamma que se apagór," he commented nonchalantly—almost sarcastically—for the fact that he did not know how to say the phrase in her language, and Michelle stared at him in utter confusion before looking to Phillip. "What?"

"You were, ah, 'out like a light'—as you humans would say," Phillip explained with a brief chuckle, which earned him a peculiar look from his younger brother. "That is as easy as I can change that to..." Focusing on more important things, Phillip regarded Michelle with a worried expression when he observed her shakily pushing herself to her feet. "Can you stand?" Helpfully, he placed a hand behind her to prop her upwards.

"Yeah," she said after a pause, testing her legs as she took a step. "I feel really lightheaded though...a little woozy too, but that's probably normal."

"Have you never fainted before?" Phillip asked curiously.

"Nope, this is a first for me, though there are many other things that are a first for me too..." Michelle laughed a bit, and at his curious look, she scratched the back of her head with a heavy exhale. "Phillip, we need to talk...alone," she added a little quietly.

An understanding frown came over him as he nodded and turned towards the other members occupying the room; she watched him for a second before she began braiding her hair in an effort to separate her thoughts accordingly and put them in some sort of chronological, intelligent order. She needed to fully collect herself if she was going to tell Phillip everything she knew of.

******

Phillip had been forthright in explaining to his family—King Henderson II and Queen Maria mostly—that he and Michelle required a moment alone. Once the few 'get well's had been said by his siblings (his parents saying that they would return shortly), the firstborn had seated himself in the chair in front of his father's desk—the same desk Michelle was placed upon. He figured that he was going to be listening for a while so he got into a more comfortable position by crossing his arms on the desk and resting his chin on them. It was highly improper, of course, but—to the both of them—propriety mattered very little at that moment.

"I can guess that this is about where you come from and how you got in Elisteria?" Phillip queried.

"Yeah..." Michelle fell onto her rear again as she gave a breath of laughter, shaking her head and running her fingers through the hair covering the top of her forehead. "God, I don't even know where to begin," she voiced. "I'm still trying to sort things out myself since I just remembered everything."

"Start from the very first," he suggested.

"Yeah, that would make more sense to do that. Stop me if you don't understand a word of what I'm saying, okay?"

Her concern and honesty caused a smile to surface on his face; when he nodded, she took that as her initiative to begin; as she took in a deep breath, he simply listened intently as she let the explanation pour out of her.

"I have this best friend, right? His name is Nicholas. I've been staying at his and his cousins' house for less than a month—like at the start of summer on Earth… Nick and I were walking through our, um, town when he told me that he was planning on leaving for a while—back to Elisteria or Jyaker, or something like that. I told him to take me with him—and he did after a bit of talking—then he opened up this...hole-like thing in the wall. It was kind of like something out of a sci-fi movie, but that's not important.

"Anyway, we walked through it and he showed me all of the stars and stuff, but when we got closer to your galaxy—I think Nick called it Circulas Luzíeré—I ended up getting pulled into it because he never told me that the thing was freaking motion-sensor activated." Michelle had growled the last bit more so to herself, and at Phillip's slightly startled look—for he had not expected her to emit such a noise—she cleared her throat. "So, um, yeah...that's how I ended up in the palace; it was just perchance and random."

He took in every single word she had said with careful deliberation, humming thoughtfully. "It sounds like your friend 'Nick' is a calvaduér," he concluded. "Interesting..."

Michelle tilted her head. "Calvaduér? What does that word mean?"

"It is a name for the people who," he lifted his head marginally and motioned with his hands, "world jump: un calvaduér. They normally have a light eye and different hair."

"Well, that explains why Nick's hair was blue and his eye was purple-ish... He always told me that it was hair dye and that he wore a one colored contact because his vision was off in just that eye!"

"What I do not know, though, is why you didn't remember at first."

"Yeah, that's weird to me too, but hey, Nick said that he wouldn't know what would happen to a human that 'jumps' with him." Laughing, Michelle fell onto her back and shut her eyes. "I realize that everything I ever knew is a lie. My best friend is an alien."

Phillip, however, was not as shocked as Michelle appeared to be; he had expected that she had traveled to his world with a jumper: it was the only logical explanation, after all. Though there were still a few things that needed to be further analyzed. "Might I ask a question?"

She sat up and raised an eyebrow. "You may."

"Thank you. You said you were staying at another home...what is different about your own home?"

"Oh...that." The expression that had developed on her face did not look at all pleased, and Phillip began to wonder if it was rude to ask such a personal question. "You see, my father and I had gotten into a bit of a fight about my future life because lately I've been feeling that high school is really too much for me... Not just that, but I don't even know what to do with my life when I graduate.

"I told my dad I was thinking about dropping out of high school and he got mad, which I had expected, but it really didn't help that I started yelling back at him. Then he said that if I wanted to drop out, I wasn't allowed to live with him anymore and I'd have to do things on my own. Now that I think about it, it was probably supposed to be an empty threat, yet I took it seriously and left—honestly, I was a little afraid of going back. So that's why I've been staying at Nick's house..." Michelle sighed and rubbed her hands over her face—exasperated. "It's not like my father cares anyway—he didn't even contact me after I left."

I do not think that your father doesn't care, Michelle. Phillip slowly nodded his head after her tirade, but he was still confused at certain things. "What is a 'high school' and what does it mean to 'drop out'?"

"High school is just a school for people around my age until they're eighteen years old...it all deals with learning," she explained, "and 'dropping out' just means to  officially stop going since going to school is mandatory."

"You...You wanted to stop learning?" he stuttered in surprise, which also caught Michelle off guard. "Why?"

"I..." She suddenly looked embarrassed as she turned away, staring down at her lap. "I didn't think I was smart enough—I still really don't. The work made me feel stupid because I didn't understand everything they wanted me to."

"But isn't that normal...to not understand?"

"Yeah, but this was on a daily basis, Phillip. I was failing more than one class, and the pressure that comes with being a junior is too much...I'd never make it to college with those suck-ass grades," she mumbled quietly.

Phillip refused to comprehend what she was saying...he just could not; why would Michelle—someone who had shown her intelligence regularly since he had found her—ever think that she was unintelligent? There must be something else that shrouds her perception of herself. "Do others tell you this?"

"My friends do, but they're only joking around, and even though I know they are, sometimes it still hurts..."

"I have never once thought that you were..." he could not even bring himself to let the word 'stupid' escape his mouth; it felt so horribly wrong, "not smart."

Looking up at him, she gave a small smile. "Thank you, Phillip."

"I mean it," he reiterated gently. "You are not. Michelle, you are how old?"

She seemed surprised by his off-subject question. "I'm sixteen...why?"

Phillip smiled. "You are young and have a...future...life ahead of you, do not worry. I don't think that you should stop learning at that age." He noticed that she had begun to look a bit uncomfortable and unsure, so he, once again, changed the subject for her sake. "Ah, so you said your friend Nick is in Jyaker?"

"That's what I remember, but he also told me that he would find me if we got separated. I honestly don't know where that guy is," she laughed. "He could be anywhere..."

Sitting up straighter, he gazed down at her contemplatively before he hesitantly asked, "Do you...want to go back?"

"Where? Home?" she clarified questioningly. When he nodded, Michelle shrugged her shoulders while crossing her arms. "I'm not sure...I mean, I want to, but..." The silent, lingering question of 'what about you' hung off of her sentence and Phillip understood that she was worried how her decision may affect him.

"I will not stop you," he cut in, noticing that he nearly forced the words out; if it was what she truly wanted, he would not keep her to himself...no matter how tempting it may have been. Michelle was a still person—a young lady and his friend, at that—who deserved to be treated with respect, and holding her against her will would be selfish of him. "If you want to I will help you."

"Thanks Phillip...but I really need time to think about it." She sighed heavily and shook her head, and when she had done that, Phillip felt as if she were trying to quell an inward battle raging in her mind. With another shake of her head, she repeated softly, "I just don't know what to do..."

And in all honestly, Phillip did not know what he wished to do either.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Author's notes: A few more Elisterian words/phrases in the order they appear... :3

mal comaloda(o) - uncomfortable

líos - ruckus

"Obvide désanouie–vous comé un flamma que se apagór" - "Obviously, you passed out like a flame that was extinguished" (basically the same as saying "out like a light")