In years to come, Heath would have no idea what made him approach the girl sitting on the fountain, trying to avoid his gaze. Something about her made his skin crawl, as if he knew there was something about her that was abnormal. He felt a strange connection between them, and he couldn't explain it. It was like a pulling towards her.
Nevertheless, he found himself walking towards her, and Raul stopped for a second before changing directions as well.
"Heath -- where are we going?" Raul asked him. "The edge of the city is that way."
But Heath remained silent, instead continued towards the girl and the boy she was sitting with, and... Was that a hedgehog in her lap?
"Heath, really, I wanted to make it out of the city to set up camp, I'm not paying for a hotel,
" Raul continued, following Heath regrettably.
"Hello," Heath said as he reached the girl and boy at the fountain.
Ben looked up, noticing him for the first time. "Hi," he said. "Can we help you?"
"You're guess is as good as mine," Raul said in an annoyed tone.
The hedgehog trembled slightly in Alex's lap. "Who are you?" she asked the two men, looking first from the older, more handsome to the younger scrawny one that reminded her of someone so much.
"I'm Heath," the younger one said. "And this is Raul. And you are..."
Alex looked at him suspiciously for a moment, before replying with her own name. "I'm Alex. And --"
"I'm Ben," he snapped forward, mistrust in every syllable.
"And who's this?" Raul asked, gesturing to the hedgehog.
"Um..." Alex said slowly. "He doesn't have a name. At least, not one that I know of."
"Anyway," Ben said loudly, "can we help you in any way, or did you come over just to chat?"
"Can two strangers not stop for a chat on a beautiful spring evening?" Heath replied in mocking tones, a large, fake smile displayed on his face. And then it clicked.
Alex realized who the boy reminded her of. Back at home, there was a picture in black and white, of a man Alex didn't remember. He had dirty blonde hair, and it was tousled, much like the boy in front of her now. And the fake smiles, they were exactly the same. Alex stood slowly, staring straight at Heath, not believing it was real.
"Who are you?" Alex asked, peering at him through squinted eyes.
"I already told you," he replied. "My name is Heath. Heath Branson, if for some reason you need to know --"
But Alex had stopped listening. Dizzy, she stumbled forward between Heath and Raul and into the wide open courtyard of the city center. It was nearly empty now, as the sun was steady sinking below the horizon line, and Alex could feel the cool wind of the night against her flushed skin.
He has the same smile as him, Alex though to herself. And we have the same last name. It can't be a coincidence. Who is he?
"Alex?" Ben called after her. "Are you okay?"
"What's her problem?" she heard Heath mumble to Ben, but he was ignored.
Blindly, Alex looked around her, taking in none of her surroundings. All her life she had wondered about the mysterious man who was her father, the one her mother hated to talk about, and now here she was in a whole different world from her own, and she suddenly meets this much younger version of the very man she had been trying so long now to remember? No, it was too much for her. It couldn't be true, none of it could. Then again, she couldn't possibly have just walked into another world, could she have?
Alex leaned against a stone wall and breathed heavily, looking down at the ground. He glasses slipped down the bridge of her nose and threatened to fall off, but she pushed them back
into place.
Suddenly, a loud roar disrupted her thoughts and forced her to look up. From beyond the tall buildings across from her, a large shape was rising higher and higher. It looked to be roughly the same size and shape of an ancient looking pirate ship. It even had old, tattered sails flapping violently in the rough wind it was creating. In the harsh glare of the setting sun, Alex could just barely make out dozens of propellers spinning rapidly beneath and behind it. On the front of the ship was a gigantic symbol. A large fist, raised dauntingly above a castle. It gave Alex the chills.
The huge ship began to move, slowly at first, but then quicker, forwards. It passed over Alex, the roar of it hurting her ears, and continued on in the direction that Alex thought the Endless Plains were in.
Once the roars became a distant buzz, Alex could hear the boys at the fountain speaking again.
"...the Kingdom's airship, taking todays load of new prisoners over to..."
But the rest of what he said was inaudible to her. Alex just leaned her head back further until it rested on the wall and closed her eyes. Somewhere off in the distance, she could hear children screaming and laughing. Then, just seconds later, a woman yelling indistinguishable phrases at them. Alex sighed. Who was Heath? She had to know. In thought, she reached her hand into her pocket and wrapped her fist around the small grubby package she had taken from the store earlier. No one knew she had it, and it made her feel safer to have at least one secret in this place she knew nothing about.
Sniffing at her ankle, Alex felt the hedgehog brush against her gently, trying to comfort her. Alex let out a distressed laugh at the animated bush's attempt at comfort. She looked down at him and smiled. "Thanks buddy, but I don't think --"
But just then, her mind erupted into flame and smoke. Trouble. Pain. Confusion. The fire quickly turned to bright red glow, but not from fire, from pain, from pure, unadulterated pain. Pain so deep Alex could feel it resonating deep within her. The unicorn, Nightshade was communicating with her again. The red pain glare was replaced with a large red fist, raised above a smaller red castle, and it was poised, poised to smash down at even the smallest hint of trouble, and then it did, it went crashing down, destroying the red castle, destroying everything...
"Alex!" Ben yelled, shaking her hard. "Alex, are you okay? Can you hear me?"
Alex looked around and saw Ben above her, a worried expression on his face. The hedgehog was poised on his shoulder, quivering violently. Behind them, Heath and Raul stood there, perplexed looks in their eyes.
Alex tried to stand, but Ben pushed her back down. "Maybe you shouldn't..." he began, but she moved his arms and forced herself up.
"Nightshade," Alex gasped.
"The unicorn?" Ben asked her, bewildered.
"A unicorn?" Raul asked, his confused look only getting deeper.
"Yeah, she was telling me... there's trouble." Alex looked around, trying to get her bearings. "A lot of trouble. I think... a fire? Or was that a metaphor? I don't know... I need to go to her." Still trying to figure out which way was the right way, Alex peered through the dusk and headed towards the nearest alley at a run. The hedgehog leapt off Ben's shoulder and followed her.
"Wait... Alex!" Ben called, heading after the bush through the dark, narrow alley.
Heath looked at Raul.
"No!" Raul said sharply. "We can't afford to waste any more time. I don't even know why we talked to them in the first place, but we should have had camp set up by now! I refuse to go after them."
"Look," Heath pleaded. "That girl, there's something about her. I don't know why, but I felt... a connection. Like I knew her from somewhere. I can't explain it. And I think she knows me from somewhere too. She acted really weird when she found out my last name, and I can't just ignore that!"
"May I remind you," Raul said slowly and deeply, "we are supposed to be retrieving your fathers journal in order to figure out what is going on in the world. We are not supposed to be chasing down girls, no matter how pretty they are."
"Look, I --" Heath stopped. "You think she's pretty?"
Raul rolled his eyes. "Even if I did --"
"Look," Heath said, "we have to go that way anyway! That's where the Endless Plains are, and it's the quickest way to the Rafredore Mountains! So let's just follow them, and then we can set up camp when we get outside the city, okay?"
Raul sighed, rolled his eyes, and began running at a slow pace down the alley, trying to follow the footsteps he could still hear coming from somewhere ahead of him.
***
Alex stepped out of the shadow of the tall buildings and into the glare of the large fire, consuming what was left of Marissa's beautiful cottage. Her eyes glistened with disbelief in the flames glow, and her mouth hung slightly open.
"Marissa!" she called loudly, not knowing if she wanted to hear a response or not. There was no sound of a human cry over the cracking and roaring of the flames, so Alex just shielded her eyes against the harsh glow and looked around for her friend from earlier. Off in the distance, speeding away over the Endless Plains and skirting past large, white mountains whose tops were hidden above the clouds, was the airship from earlier, the roar of its engines inaudible above the loud fire. Alex crossed her arms and bit her lower lip, not sure of what to do. From behind her, she could feel a hand grab her shoulder. She spun around, only to see Ben standing there, out of breath.
"What's going on?" he yelled over the fire. "Who's house is that?"
"Marissa's," Alex replied. "The unicorn lady. I don't know where she is."
They were soon joined by Heath and Raul, who looked to be as out of breath as Ben was, and just as confused. Alex ventured closer to the blaze and tried to peer through it, attempting to see any movement of life coming from inside. There was nothing.
"Ahh!" Ben yelled, and Alex spun around quickly. Ben was hiding behind Raul, who had a long, very sharp looking sword drawn, as did Heath. Alex struggled to see what had the boys so terrified, but could see nothing in the night around her.
She heard it before she saw it. The sound of heavy footsteps being taken in the soft grass all around her. Then, from the darkness mere feet from Alex, the unicorn stepped into the fires glow.
"Put down your swords," Alex called to Heath and Raul. "She's friendly!"
Warily, the they did as Alex bade them to, and Ben stepped fearfully from behind them.
"Where's Marissa?" Alex asked the unicorn, not sure if she really wanted to know.
The airship. Its image floated through Alex's mind for a mere second.
"The... airship took her?" Alex struggled to understand.
Nightshade nodded slightly, her wise eyes never leaving Alex's.
"Why?" Alex asked desperately. "Did the airship do this too?" She motioned wildly to the rising flames consuming the house and everything in it.
This time, the unicorn did not send any images into Alex's mind. Instead, it looked to the sky, now hidden behind the thick ceiling of smoke.
"Why did they take her?" Alex called out again, once again to no reply. Frustrated, she stumbled back to Ben and the others and collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. Ben knelt on the ground next to her but never moved his eyes from Nightshade.
"We have to go after her," Alex said.
"Excuse me?" Ben replied incredulously. "After that big ship thing? I don't think so. Besides," he added. "I'm not going anywhere until we find Jason."
"Who's Jason?" Raul asked, kneeling as well.
"My boyfriend," Ben replied. "And Alex's best friend. We lost him earlier when we were running away from this guy, he --"
"He was a member of the Royal Guard," Alex finished for him, remembering suddenly. "He was chasing us." She lifted off the ground to eye level with Ben. "Ben, think about it. If that guard didn't chase after me, and he didn't chase after you, he had to have gone after Jason."
Ben was silent, allowing Alex's words to sink in.
"What if Jason didn't get away?" she asked. "What if they captured him." She spun around to face Heath. "You, earlier you said that ship was taking prisoners to the Kingdom, right?"
"Uh," Heath stammered, thrown off by being so vivaciously yelled at. "Yeah, but I mean --"
"Well then," Alex concluded, "the airship probably has Jason!"
She felt a surge of warmth and knew Nightshade was congratulating her. She knew she was right.
"You can't know that," Ben said. "We have no proof that Jason isn't still in the city somewhere."
"If he was," Alex said, "don't you think he would have met us at noon like we agreed?"
Ben was silent.
"You know," Heath said suddenly, a sly look on his face. "We're going to the Kingdom ourselves."
Alex stood up, looking at him. "Why? And what is the Kingdom anyway?"
"Where are you from?" Raul asked her cautiously, standing as well. Ben followed suit.
"Why do you want to know all of a sudden?" she asked, not wanting to reveal where she and Ben were from.
"No one in Earth could possibly not know what the Kingdom is. No one," was Raul's reply. "Where are you from?"
Ben looked at Alex warily. Alex looked around for Nightshade, for some sort of sign as to what she was supposed to do, but the pitch black unicorn was nowhere to be seen.
"Um..." Alex said softly, trying to bide time. She bit her lower lip. "You're going to think we're insane," Alex finally managed.
"Try us," Heath said, his arms crossed.
"Wait," Ben interrupted. "We shouldn't stay here. The fire is going to attract attention eventually. We're all going to the Kingdom, so we might as well go together, right?" There was no answer, so Ben assumed they were all in aggreance. "I mean, Alex and I have to go to rescue Jason, and her friend. And you two are going for... Well, for whatever reason. Either way, we may as well stick together for now. But do you two know which way we need to be going? Because Alex and I have no idea."
"We have a general idea," Heath said. "There are one of two paths we can take. I'm going to ask you two a question, and you need to answer quickly and honestly, got it?"
Alex and Ben both felt a little perturbed by being spoken down to by someone obviously younger than them, but they hid their shock.
"Would you rather take a safer course and get there in longer time, or a much more dangerous path that would get us there in just a few days?"
"How long are we talking about when you say longer?" Alex asked.
"Could be up to a month," Heath replied quickly.
"That's too long," Ben said. "Who knows what could happen in that time."
"But how much more dangerous is the short path?"
"Well, it's definitely life threateningly dangerous... Not a lot of people have ever taken this course and lived to the other side. But as long as we don't get lost, we'll make it to the Kingdom in three, four days at the most."
Alex and Ben looked at each other, each one contemplating the same thing. Simultaneously, they replied, "We'll take the shorter course."
"The Endless Plains it is," Heath said, shifting his backpacks weight, hiding his sheathed sword beneath his tunic.
"Come on," Raul chirped and headed behind him. "We're not going to get any camping time in tonight, so we may as well walk all tonight and tomorrow, and sleep well tomorrow night."
Ben and Alex traded glances, and Alex bent down to pick up the hedgehog into her arms. Here they were, setting off on adventure with two people neither of them had ever met, and they didn't have a choice. Together, the four of them set off into the vast nothingness that was the Endless Plains, the tall mountains off on the horizon to their right.
From behind them, Nightshade watched for a few moments, then she dashed off into another direction entirely. There was work that needed to be done.
***
"So," Raul said softly, startling Alex out of her reverie. "What's your story?"
"Huh?" Alex asked suddenly. She looked around. They were in what looked to be the middle of nowhere. The four of them must have been walking for about three hours now, and the sky above was littered brilliantly with brightly shining stars, and swirling purple nebulas. It was a beautiful sight to see. A few yards in front of her, Heath was leading the group. Seeing as he had the most traveling experience out of the four of them, no one argued when he naturally took the lead. Off to the left Ben walked steadily in his own little world, probably in a state of half sleep much like Alex was just a few minutes ago.
"You said you would tell us about where you came from," Raul persisted, and Alex felt her stomach squirm.
"Oh yeah..." she recalled, feeling the dread inside her at having to relay the story of how she came to be here.
"So, are you gonna start, or what?" Heath called over his shoulder, and Alex was shocked to discover he was completely alert. She didn't see how he could be, but then again, he seemed to be used to this nonstop walking, and he did seem to be very alert and aware of his surroundings.
"Well..." Alex struggled to find a place to start. "I'm not from... here. Ben and I... we come from another... dimension. Or another world, or something like that."
Though the four of them kept walking, Alex could almost feel the gaze of Raul burning into her.
"I know it sounds crazy," she continued, "but it's true."
"I believe you," Raul said, and Alex chanced a glance at his face, lit dimly by the moon and stars above. He looked serious, and his eyes held no secrets. For a moment, Alex just gazed into his moonlit eyes and dreamed, but then she was snapped out of it when he turned his head.
"So," Alex said, "we were just walking along, you know, in my world, and we somehow ended up here... I don't know how, and I can't explain it. We were going to look for a way back, but we got separated. We can't leave without Jason."
Raul walked in silence for some time afterward, and Alex's head swam with thoughts. Why wasn't he responding? He said he believed her...
Finally, Raul took a breath. Alex looked at him hopefully.
"I think our paths may have been destined to cross," he said slowly. "You say you come from another world? Well, Heath and I are on a little adventure of our own. We have reason to believe that Heath's father may have had some sort of knowledge of the other worlds, and was murdered for it. He kept a journal, however, and it might hold... some sort of a key to figuring out this whole other world business."
"Why do you want to know about the other world... my world... so badly? Is there some sort of personal involvement?" Alex's voice rose with interest.
"In your world," Raul began softly, "were you experiencing any natural disasters? Any strange climate patterns?"
"Well, yeah," Alex said suddenly. "There's global warming, and it's throwing everyone's weather out of whack. Why? Is that happening here too?"
"Sort of," Raul replied. "But we don't call it... global warming you said? We don't really have a name for it. But it is messing up our climate patterns, causing earthquakes and volcanoes, fierce winds... It's a disaster. We think that it may be because of your world and our world are effecting each other somehow."
"But... how?" Alex asked.
"That's what we intend to find out," Raul said with a smile. "But you must be wondering about our world, I couldn't imagine the questions you and Ben probably have. But it'll be sunlight in about an hour, and that's when the real trouble will begin. So, tomorrow night, when we make camp, I'll try to answer any questions you have."
Alex yawned, and smiled. "Thanks," she said. And the four of them headed forward, the rising sun casting an eerie glow on the plains.
