68Thank you thank you thank you thank you HyperActiveTwilightHater, you were the first person ever to review any of my stories (discluding my sister). Because of this, i will be posting a second chapter of this story and my other story (Boys and Their Demon) in celebration of my first real review! Thank you so much, I hope you like it.
She woke in a huge bed with a soft down comforter. She didn't open her eyes right away, but instead curled up and thought about the weird dream she'd just had.
She shook her head at how odd her imagination was and rolled to the cooler side of the pillow. She tried to get back to sleep but couldn't, she had the odd feeling that someone was watching her. She sat up and blinked her eyes slowly a few times before her vision cleared. She froze when she saw the beautiful alien from her dream sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. Of course! She should have realized something was wrong when she woke up comfortable.
"Don't be scared," he said, standing up slowly, so as not to frighten her.
She looked at him with a blank expression while she searched the room for a way out, "What do you want from me?" she asked calmly.
"Oh, it is so good to hear you speak," He said, walking slowly towards her with quiet, natural grace, "I did wonder what you would sound like," she was silent, not really sure as to what to say in this kind of situation, she had learned since a young age that she should hold her tonge so as not to upset the people who could order her killed, and there was no doubt in her mind that she could ever stop this being from killing her, "Please," he said, coming up beside her and putting his hands on her shoulders, she hadn't realized that she had stood up. She flinched, thinking he was going to hurt her and he pulled his hands away, then slowly lifted one towards her shoulder to steer her toward a huge black leather chair on the wall, "let's sit and talk, I'm sure you have a lot of questions… I know I do." She sat down in one of the chairs and watched him glide over to the one across from it, "Go ahead, ask anything you want."
She sifted through all the questions that were buzzing through her head and started with the most obvious one, "What are you?"
He smiled, "I am an Entrioid, what are you?" he asked, his beautiful smile had no effect on her shielded, emotionless thoughts.
"I'm a human," she said, she'd thought he would already know what she was, and she also concluded he was just asking to make her feel at ease. She was very good at reading people, and what they expected of her, she had to be, otherwise she would have been dead long before now. She had gotten a flogging or two just because she didn't show the proper emotion at the proper time.
"My name is Dan, my full title is of no importance as of this moment, what is your name?" he asked, growing impatient in her silence.
"Phil." she said, deciding not to give him her entire name either, she's heard its bad to give full names to magic people, not that she believes in magic.
"Isn't that a man's name?" he asked.
"My full title is of no importance as of this moment," she mocked.
He smirked at her and said, "You're being sarcastic, aren't you?" she didn't say anything and he studied her for a few seconds, "Okay, next question."
"Where am I?"
"Planet Europia, Cabin solar system, Zinclo Galaxy." Dan said.
"I've never heard any of those names before."
"I don't imagine you have," he said, "We like to keep ourselves as much a secret as possible. Next question."
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"I'm not sure you classify time the same way I do." He said.
"How do you classify time?"
"In shadows, suns, and moons."
"So you don't have a watch or anything?"
"A what?" he asked, looking confused again.
"A watch, something that says the time, like one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock… and so on."
"I still don't know what you mean."
"When you guys stole us, you didn't happen to get our bags with us did you?" she asked, she had a watch that someone had left lying around in her bag; it's a bit broken, but it still works.
"Yes, we did…and you're welcome to go look for yours when we're done here, but you probably won't have much luck. There are millions of you, and every one of you had at least two bags. Maybe you'll be lucky and the group you came with might have been one of the ones that had their stuff separated into their own pile."
She thought about it for a second, but decided to go back to that later, "My next question was going to be how old are you, but I guess that would be pointless, seeing as we have different views of time."
"I believe I overheard one of the scholars saying he was working with one of your kind to convert your time into ours. If you happen to run into him I'm 225 moons…How old are you?"
"Eighteen years old," she told him, all the planets used the same time range as earth, even if their days were longer, or they didn't have a sun at all, like on every planet she had ever been on.
"How long is a year?"
"Twelve months."
He nodded, "How long is a month?"
"Around four weeks."
He nodded again, "And a week? How long is a week?"
"Seven days, a day is twenty four hours, an hour is sixty minutes, and a minute is sixty seconds."
"How long is a second?"
"About as long as it takes me to say one one-thousand."
"We don't have anything that short," he said, "The shortest we have is a shadow."
"How long is one of your moons?" I asked him, curious.
"About thirty suns."
"How long is a sun?"
"The time it takes from one sun up to the next."
"One of your suns sounds like an earth day. Which means a moon in like a month," she said, more to herself than to him, "What about shadows? What are those?"
"Well…" he said, he peeked behind the curtain, "It's full west shadow right now."
She thought back to what she's read about the shadows that the sun casted on earth, "A full shadow to the west means that the sun just came up right?" she asked, he nodded, "What do you do when the sun goes down?"
"Moons position, if its north moon, then there is one moon to the north and the sun just went down, if it's two moons north, meaning the small moon is in the north and the big moon is in the south, then it a quarter of the way into the night, it is midmoon, meaning they are both in the middle then it halfway through the night, and if its two moons south, meaning the small moon is in the south and the big moon is in the north then there is only a quarter of night left, if it's south moon, a moon to the south, then the sun is about to come up."
"You have two moons?"
"We actually have three, but we never see the other one from here."
"Oh," she said, trying to imagine a sky with two moons, and started to wonder if it looks anything like when she used to climb to her secret spot on a mountain back on Verion, where she could see the virtual moons of two cities at the same time, "Where are the rest of the humans?"
"The first…group is being sold in market today."
She nodded, people being sold into slavery was nothing new to her, she's been a slave since birth, she just hoped they treated their slaves better here, "Why aren't I with them?"
"Because I marked you before anyone could get to you." He said.
"What do you mean you marked me?"
"It's kind of a long story." He said, looking over at the curtains like he could see through them.
"I'm listening." she said, crossing her arms in front of her.
He thought for a second, probably trying to think where to start then said, "The first time I saw you, something about you… bothered me… so I put a bracelet on you that said you should be separated from the…others," he said, "Then I was about to leave you in the Keep when you moved," he said, "I couldn't let you be taken with the rest of them, you were supposed to be under an immobility spell, but you moved! You were also supposed to be under a sleeping spell, but we both know you weren't asleep." He was watching her for a reaction, but she kept on the emotionless mask she always wore and he kept going, "I put my mark on you, so you wouldn't be sold off and I'd never get to see you again, and…well… you didn't react very well with my magic. You've been out for half a moon." He seemed very concerned for her, but she didn't believe it.
"I've gotten you a place in the palace," He went on, "as one of my personal slaves, but, in all actuality, you are free, though, if you are anywhere near intelligent, you will take the deal I'm going to offer you, otherwise the traders will get you and sell you off to someone, and they may not be as nice as me." He stopped there.
"Well…" she said, "What's the offer?"
"I will let you stay here under the cover of my personal slave, and, when in the company of others, you must act like a slave and do as I say, but when we are alone you can feel free to completely ignore everything I say, unless I'm giving you advice, then I suggest you at least listen, since you don't know anything about this world.
"I will give you money to pay for clothes, along with other things you feel you may need. Food will be provided by the palace, as it is for every slave, and this will be your room, it is one of the best slave rooms there is," he said, she stared at him and he went on, "If you want to learn about our world you can see one of the scholars in the library, I'm sure they would tell you anything about our world in exchange for information about yours. Of course there is a downside to all of this," she knew this offer was sounding way to good to be true, "If you're ever wondering the palace alone, one of your superiors might make you do chores for them, so if you forget to look busy when you're walking down the hall you might end up scrubbing floors or something like that."
She stared at him, she looked bored but inside she really couldn't believe what he was saying this was way, way too good to be true, "What's in it for you?"
He raised his blue and purple eyebrows and said, "I'll be able to keep an eye on you if you stay here, I told you…there's something weird about you."
"As much as I love hearing that," she said sarcastically, "I get the feeling that you want more than just to keep an eye on me. Will I owe you some kind of favor or something, if you get shot at, do I have to take the bullet?"
"What's a bullet?"
"Never mind, I was being sarcastic," she said, "but what on earth do you think is so different about me that you think you need to keep me close?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm hoping to find that out soon," it was silent while she thought this all through, though it was a total no brainer, she just enjoyed seeing him squirm.
"Okay, I'll take the deal," she said, they both stood up and she bowed to him, as she had been taught to since she was old enough to stand.
"I had a tailor come in and measure you while you were sleeping," he said, complete comfortable with her bowing, "I was guessing you would agree, there are already some uniforms in there for you. We will be holding a ball here soon, so I also ordered you a formal uniform, though you don't have to use it seeing as you don't really work for the palace, but, just in case you need it…" he trailed off, "Your clothes are in here," he said, opening the armoire, "I ordered this one special because I think it will draw attention away from your oddly colored hair."
She picked up a few strands of her white blond hair and looked down at it, "What do you mean oddly colored?" she asked, her hair was the only thing about her that people liked back on Verion.
"I've never seen anyone with that color hair before."
She looked at the powder blue and black dress he had lain out on the bed, then looked back at him, "What about a shower?" she asked him, thinking she must smell dreadful after half a moon. That's like two weeks, without washing.
"What?"
"A bath?"
"Oh, yes, right," he said, he started walking to the other side of the room, "Your bathroom is through this door," she tried to watch as he opened the door, but she couldn't see what he did with his hands because the rest of his body got in the way.
She followed him into the bathroom, it was huge, "If this is a slave bathroom, then the king's bathroom must be as big as a house," she said, louder than she had meant to.
Dan smiled uncertainly, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Good, I guess," she said with a thoughtless flip of her hand.
He nodded, "One of your people came in and wrote on everything in your language so you would know what everything is," he said, then he walked over to the bath tub, "this is hot water, this is cold," he said, pointing at the handles for the faucet.
They stared at each other for a second, "Okay then," she said, motioning slightly that it was okay for him to leave.
"Oh, yes," he said, flustered, "I guess I'll leave you to it."
"Wait," she said, he turned around at the door, "I don't know how to open the door when I'm done."
"Of course, of course," he said, he started patting his chest and she notice what he was wearing. He had on a silky looking royal blue surcoat with a funny looking violet symbol on it and a puffy black shirt underneath, there were long, shiny black cuffs on his wrist, making the shirt that was tucked into them look puffier. Under the surcoat, which went to about mid thigh, he had on black cloth breeches tucked into black leather boots. To top it all off he had a sword with a silver handle on his belt which was tightened around his waist. If it weren't for his pale blue skin he would fit in perfectly with a group of off duty medieval knights.
He reached under his surcoat and pulled out a card, "Here, this is your key card," he said, handing it over to her, "To open this door all you have to do is push the silver button, to lock it press the black one," he said pointing to a panel next to the door, "To open the main door there is another set of these buttons. This is to open the main door from the outside," he said, handing her the card, "Slide it through the card swipper and the door will open."
"Thank you," she said.
"I will set your room up so that people must have permission to enter now that you are awake," he told her, "I should be back before it reaches no shadow, I believe that should give you enough time," he said, giving a quick nod.
When the door shut behind him she turned to the bath and turned on the faucet. She made sure there was soap, shampoo, conditioner, a washcloth, and a towel nearby before she got in. The soap was a weird brownish purple color, but didn't have a smell…until she started to use it to wash with, then she was engulfed in a strange aroma, and when she squeezed out the shampoo and conditioner they were around the same color, and same no-smell as the soap, until she used them on her hair, then, again, she was surrounded by the oddly wonderful fragrance; floral, fruity, and frozen, would be the only way to describe it.
She didn't spend as much time in the bath as she would have liked, but she didn't want to chance Dan coming back before she was ready for him. When she got out she rapped a towel around herself and went over to the counter. She opened a few of the drawers and found a brush, then she looked down in the cabinets for something to dry her hair with. There were note cards with labels written in English in front of everything, and she finally found the hairdryer.
It didn't look like a normal hairdryer; it had curves in odd places and holes in even odder ones, making it look more like some kind of abstract work of art than a hair dryer. It didn't have a chord, and there weren't any outlets to plug it into anyway, but she found a button hidden in one of the holes and when she pressed it warm air started coming out of the biggest hole.
Once her hair was dry she grabbed the key card off of the counter and went into the next room. The dress was still sitting on the bed and she went over to inspect it. She had no idea how she was supposed to get in it, and, after studying it for a minute or two she decided to go in through the bottom. She stuck her arms up the bottom and put them through the arm holes, making sure she was putting it on right, so that I didn't end up with the back in the front and the front in the back, then she stuck her head through the hole and let the dress drop.
She walked over to the full length mirror and inspected the outfit. I looked like I belonged in an earth-history book; in the medieval and renaissance era. The dress was mostly made of a wonderfully soft black silk. The shoulders were puffy, but the sleeves were skinny. There was a large triangle cut out of the front, starting at the neckline and coming to a point at her midsection, that was filled in with powder blue velvet; the shoulder poufs had slits in them that showed the same powder blue velvet that was in the triangle. There was silver colored lace that covered the seam that held together the triangle and the black part of the dress. Thick silver strings crisscrossed in front of the triangle, and the whole dress was held together with silver thread.
The neckline wasn't exactly modest, but she had seen worse, and she had to admit, as much as she always made fun of the women in all the Earth-history books for wanting to wear dresses, she liked wearing this one a lot.
She admired the dress for a few seconds more, then went and kneeled down in front of the open armoire. There were three pairs of shoes peeking out from under the dresses, cloaks, and coats hanging over them. There was a pair of slippers, a pair of flats, and a pair of strappy heals that she knew she would never be able to figure out how to put on, let alone actually walk in. She pushed some of the things that were hanging to the side to hunt for what she really wanted: Boots. She found four pairs of those: two pairs like the ones Dan had had on, one black the other brown; then there were two pairs of more feminine ankle boots, one black the other brown.
She grabbed the black ankle boots, a pair of stockings, and a pair of socks, then went over and sat in a chair while she put them on. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw, now that she had on the boots, which had an inch thick sole, that the dress just barely skimmed the ground. She paced around the room for a bit, getting used to walking in a dress, then, once she had stopped tripping every few steps, she worked on making her walk a little more graceful.
Once she was done fooling around with the essential task of walking she got bored; she didn't know how long it took for it to go from full west shadow to no shadow, or even what no shadow looked like, but she figured she'd look outside anyway, just to see if it might be obvious. She walked over and grabbed the curtain, noticing that it seemed to be made of the same silky material as the sheets on the bed and the dress. She pulled open the curtains and basked in the glow of the golden sunlight.
The shock of the realization that it was actual, natural sunlight, not the manufactured, vitamin enriched crap that they had on the outer planets, only lasted a second, before the warmth of the sun's light rays absorbed into her skin and hit her with a full frontal attack of freedom and power. Her body tingled and stung from the heat, but her mind was saying "hold on, just a bit more." Something in her head seemed to melt and a chill went down her back, then a bright light exploded behind her closed eyes; she gasped and sank down to her knees. Her head was pounding and the place where Dan had left his mark was throbbing again. She got up and walked over to the mirror, She didn't look any different from before, though she felt she should; it felt like all her blood had evaporated and had been replace by liquid sunshine, but, other than the fact that she was glowing slightly, there wasn't anything different about her, at least not that she could see.
She got a bit closer to the mirror and lifted up her bangs to look at her slightly throbbing forehead. She groaned when she saw the light blue thumb print in the middle of my forehead. She rubbed at it until her forehead was raw but it didn't come off. She went into the bathroom and tried to scrub it off with soap and water, but, that didn't work either.
As a last ditch try at certain failure, and out of desperation, she closed her eyes and willed the mark to go away. She glanced at the mirror and didn't see it, then, when she leaned closer, she still didn't see it. She rubbed her eyes, it still wasn't there. She rubbed at her head, it still wasn't there. She shut her eyes and willed it to come back, when she opened her eyes it was there again.
She made it go away again, this time not having to close her eyes, or try as hard, and went back to the bedroom. She sat down in one of the overstuffed leather chairs and contemplated what just happened.
Had Dan accidently transferred some of his magic when he had marked her? Is this part of her reaction to the sun? Is it both? Would this have happened with any other sun, or just this one?
She shook her head trying to get away from the questions, then decided that if she sat here any longer she would drive herself mad, so she got up, grabbed her card, and headed for the door. The door slid open silently and she stepped out into the hall, turning to watch the door slide shut behind her.