Finally, an explanation
***He came to me again. I found myself in the same room, wearing the same nightgown, only this time I was wrapped up in an extrememly cozy blanket and a tray of assorted chocolates was placed right beside me. I felt him before I saw him, warm fingers gently placed on the tender spot between my neck and shoulders.
"Precious Wysteria, life isn't going accordingly. Shame, really. Is there anything at all I can do to help?"
His voice was tinged with something I couldn't quite place, whatever it was, it wasn't compassion. I craned my neck back and looked up at him.
He stared back down at me with heavy lidded green eyes, a smile forever playing at the corner of his lips. I noticed that he had very fine lines in his skin. A crease between his handsome brows, two small folds at the corners of his lips... however no crows feet.
"You're doing enough as it is, my Lord. My day was completely rotten! My boyfriend dumped me for some little blonde cheerleader, I made a complete mess out of things at work, my mom is about to drive me to the edge and I'm doing horribly in school."
Warm fingers molded their way up to my temples and before too long I was lost in a head massage. "My dearest Wysteria, the mundane world is so harsh and cruel. A queen such as yourself shouldn't have to serve others like a common tavern wench, you should be pampered and adored."
He wrapped his arms around me, temporarily dissolving my troubles and fear with a simple hug. "You can have it all. Succomb to your dreams."
His voice was so deep and comforting.
"I'll take care of you."
My body shuddered as his lips grazed my neck. It was so tempting. "But my Mom..."
"She is a grown woman, my dear. She set herself in the position she's in, why should you have to take on her responsibility?"
He had a good point.
"I don't know you're name."
He chuckled and slowly kissed my neck. Goosebumps instantly appeared on my arms.
"I am your adoring and most humble of all servants, Demetrius."
"Demetrius." I repeated.
"Say it, My queen. Tell me what you want and it is yours"
Tap tap tap.
"What is that?" I looked around, searching for the sorce of the tapping.
"Mind it not... just tell me my queen that you wish to be with me."
"I wish..." Tap tap tap."I heard it again!"
"Promise me, Wysteria!"
***My dreams started fading and I found myself awake in my bed. Tap tap tap. My bedroom window. Instantly, I knew it was Mom. This wasn't the first time she hit the muggle one too many times and found herself locked out of the house. The alarm clock said 1:30an... she was home a little early.
I flung open the shudders with all intentions of getting back to sleep as quickly as possible.
When I saw that it wasn't Mom, I nearly had a heart attack. There staring back at me, in the tree top reaching my window was perched the strangely dressed man with white hair.
I grabbed a pepperspray can out from my dresser and held it up threateningly.
"I bring no harm, Wysteria! Please, I beg just a moment of your time."
I could barely hear him through the glass.
"I'm calling the police." I replied.
I made my way over to my phone and held it up threateningly. "Po-lice" I mouthed. The mans face twisted into a rather confused look.
"Please, My queen! It is my duty to find you!"
My finger was frozen over the '9' on my phone. Though reluctant to admit, he had me intrigued. No one knew about the name Wysteria. I even overlooked that when telling Reia about my dreams.
I didn't want to be the stupid girl that lets a burgler into her house and gets nothing out of the deal other than a hole in the head... however, this stranger seemed almost comically harmless. He stared at me through the glass, making a rather impressive puppydog face.
"I'll meet you downstairs, outside."
I slid on my fuzzy purple slippers, threw on a robe, retreived Mom's handgun out from under the kitchen sink and hid it in the tie of my robe. I stuffed the pepperspray in there for safe measures.
It had long since stopped raining, but the grass was still wet. The man was still climbing down the tree when I got outside.
I reached into my robe and pulled out my gun. Now this may seem a little dramatic, but I had no idea what I was dealing with. I wanted answers.
"Who are you?"
The man's eyes looked at the gun wearily. "My name is Ai. I am a merchant of another land... them same land that your father was from. Although under current circumstances, I consider myself more of an ambassador"
"Who is queen Wysteria?"
"You are."
"What land are you from?"
At this, Ai seemed to hesitate. "It is our unnamed planet. Much like Earth, only different."
I bit the inside of my jaw, the gun still aimed at him. "Do you know of the dreams I've been having lately?"
"What do these dreams consist of, my queen?"
My face grew red at the previous nights dreams. Seductive emerald eyes, his sexy coy smile, his hands hungrily running along my body...
"Demetrius."
Ai immediately frowned. "That, dear Wysteria may take some time to explain. Is there a more... cozy area we can get better aquainted?"
With the gun, I motioned for him to step inside my house. "Go into the kitchen. If you touch anything, I'll blow your brains out."
"Must we resort to such violence?"
I ignored his question and motioned for him to step into my kitchen. He threw his hands up in surrender then walked through my front door and sat at the kitchen table. I sat across from him, gun still aimed. He picked up an orange and held it to his nose. "Most intresting! It almost smells slightly tangy... " He then reached for a banana. "...what a peculiar fruit. How do you eat it exactly?" I shook my gun at him.
"PUT the fucking fruit back in the bowl."
He obediently did so.
"Okay, lets start with my father. My mother has always told me that he was a foriegner that she had a one night stand with. Persian, I think."
Ai shook his head. "He was not Persian, but from our land. He was our ruler for many years. He once visited Earth with me to find new clothes and foods to bring to our land."Ai thought back for a moment. "His most cherished Earth discovery was ramen noodles... next to your mother of course."
"You know what ramen is, but not oranges or bananas?"
Ai stared blankly at me. "Are oranges thought to be more common?"
"Yes."
"Facinating!"
I felt myself relax behind the gun. This conversation was wild, but I found myself lingering onto every word that he said.
"Show me proof that you're from another planet."
"Put your shooting device down."
"Not yet."
"Very well. I'll show you my vessel that I travel in."
"Is it a ufo?"
"...something like that." He smirked.
Ai had a certain smugness about him, it teetered on cockyness, but he seemed too humble to be deemed cocky. He he stood and walked towards the door, he moved as if he hadn't a care in the world, not as a proper ambassador with an important business matter to take care of. I followed him, my eyes checking for any sign of his own weapon. His clothes were silk-like and eccentric, sort of like Aladdin meets Captain Kidd. He wore what could only be described as a white tunic over baggy pants, tucked into thick animal skin boots. His sleeves were pushed up, exposing blue tattoos of weird swirls and designs.
"If you've been to Earth before then why do you dress like its Halloween?"
I followed him outside, he waited for me to catch up. He completely ignored my comment. Perhaps he didn't know what Halloween was.
"My ship is parked on the roof of Mighty Food."
I stopped dead in my tracks. "Mom will be home soon... wait, what?"
"Mighty Food. It was the only building with enough height and parameter to properly hide my ship. Perhaps she won't notice your dissapearance, this will only be a few minutes."
She probably wouldn't. The first thing she'd do when she came home would be to smoke the rest of her joint. She wouldn't think to check if I were in bed.
"Okay, we'll take the backway there. I can't afford to have my mom drive by and see me."
Ai motioned for me to lead the way. My mind was racing, rolling over the whole scenerio. This was completely unreal, yet something was urging me to go on. We walked for a moment in preoccupied silence before he finally spoke up.
"You have to resist Demetrius. He is evil, conniving and deadly. He only means to use you to gain power."
"He didn't strike me as evil or deadly. He striked me as caring and charming."
Ai's face darkened. "My queen, he will present to you only what he wants you to see."
I knew what Demetrius and I had felt. Passion, a throrough understanding of one another. He intended to guide me and give me the life I had always desired. I was suddenly weary of Ai again, my hand felt into my robes where the gun was safely kept.
"So," I said, once changing the subject, "What makes your home so different from mine?"
I had to struggle to keep up with Ai's brisk steps.
He seemed to chew on that question for a while.
"Well... when humans were brought onto Earth they were given a garden of Eden. In this garden they were gifted with all the world's resources. Every element, animal, plant... belonged entirely to the humans."
"I know the story. What's your point."
Ai looked at me with a look of irritance. "For a queen, you aren't very regal."
"For an ambassador, you aren't very professional."
"Back to the story, if you don't mind? On our planet, rather than everyone sharing all the resources, every person is given the right to guard one resource in particular.
"I'm not following."
"We each control our own element. For example, my element is air. Therefore, I have acute sense of direction, I can control breezes, tempeture and I can fly."
We made our way onto Main Street.
"Why didn't you use one of your powers to prove to me you're from another planet."
"I have to save my energy for the ride home. My element also gives me the power to portal travel, although it completely drains me."
"Okay... so the people from your world each have their own little talents. Kind of like X-men?"
Ai looked at me blankly. "Who are the x-men? The guards that travel in the vessel with the flashing blue lights."
"No, those are the police. Xmen are characters from a movie. They each have really cool powers. One can shape shift, one has these really sharp claws, one can lift things with his mind..."
"Then I suppose our race does the resemble the x men to some extent. However, our powers stem from our gifted element. No two people have the same element. Each time someone passes on, their power is passed through their offspring or their successor. My father was the element of wind, I didn't inherit his gift until I was seven years old."
"What sort of element did my father have?"
"His gift was exceptionally powerful. He could possess any element he wished. Any man with this power was known to be very wise and very strong. Therefore, a perfect ruler for our land."
"You speak about him in a past tense."
"Yes, my Queen. I regret to inforn you that he was killed a month ago."
I had always wondered if I had a father, what would he look like? What would he act like? Would I possess any traits of his? Would he treat me better than my mom? Did he know I existed? To hear that he had died was somewhat crushing. Any hopes of me meeting him were shattered.
"I am truely sorry, Wysteria."
"Why do you call me that?
"It was what your father always called you. He knew about you and watched over you more than you realize. He wanted to take care of you, but being the king of an entire planet... he couldn't exactly sign peace treaties during the day then pop over to Earth at night. It was most suitable to let your mother take care of you. She was more capable and knew what earth babies needed."
"My mom has done little more than keep a roof over my head and my stomach full of microwave dinners. He could have at least introduced himself to me.... let his 'ever so beloved daughter' know of his existence."
Ai turned and looked at me. His eyes were dark orbs of blue, and for a moment he looked sympathetic. "Wysteria... some men get so caught up in other peoples lives, that they fail to devote anytime to their own. Your father died as a lonely, unsatisfied old man. I had only seen him show feeling once in his life, and that was upon meeting your mother."
We approached the Mighty Food parkng lot.
"So how'd he die?"
"Murdered?"
"By who?"
"I'm not sure... but I have my suspisions." He left it at that.
We made ourway to the side of the building, where he gestured to a old steel ladder than ran up to the roof. He offered his hand helped me onto it.
The ladder was rusty and residue came off onto my hands. My foot almost slipped once, but a subtle gust of air pushed me in the right direction and helped me maintain my balance. Finally, I reached the top of the ladder and gasped.
There on top of Mighty Food was a beautiful, large, wooden ship. It's midnight colored sails rippled in the wind. They nearly camoflauged into the sky, it was even dotted with stars. Poised at the end of the ship, delicately reaching upward as if she were plucking a star from the sky was a wooden maiden. Long gold hair was carved into perfect swirls around her, her eyes painted sky blue, tiny lips painted ruby red. Along the side of the ship, written in overly fancy lettering read 'The NightWynd.'
"This is just like Peter Pan... right after Tinkerbell coats the ship in fairy dust and it lifts into the air..."
Ai cleared his throat behind me.
"Care for a closer examination, Queen Wysteria?"
I nodded and followed him towards the ship. As we drew closer I saw someone perched in the crows nest.
"Ey there, boss! Looks like you found what youd been lookin for?"
Ai threw hand up in acknowledgement, then walked up the wooden plank leading onto his ship. I followed, my brain still not quite accepting what was happening.
"She is a beaut." Ai bragged. "Designed her myself. Has a rudder that pierces through the wind with more speed than ever thought imaginable. The sails are entirely weather proof, also designed by yours truely, and what do you think of my figurehead?"
"Your what?"
"My lady. The only love in my life."
"Lovely."
"The crew is the best of the best. Hand picked myself."
We had arrived on board his ship, his had a strong wooden smell about it and it was very clean. Though something was peculiar.
"Where is your crew? Other than that guy up there, I haven't seen anyone."
He ignored me. "Now that I've proved my point, lets get down to business."
All former pretenses of his carelessness or aloofness dissapeared. He looked very serious.
"When you're father was killed, his powers did not go to his murderer. Apparently his murderer was someone who was unaware of your existence... at the time. For your own safety and in honor of our Unnamed Land, you have to go back with me."
I immediately shook my head. "No way. This is getting to be too much. Flying ships is where I draw my line."
"You must. I fear that Demetrius is trying to manipulate you. His element is dream. He can visit anyone through sleep and influence them."
"You think he killed my father, don't you?"
Ai remained impassive. "I don't know what to think, but I can't take any risks. You have to come with us, Wysteria. Our land needs you. You have inherited the kings powers and only you are worthy of ruling our land. Until your arrival, we remain in the upmost chaos."
I didn't like that he was trying to boss me around. I had responsibilities at home that I couldn't just leave behind.
"If I had wanted to become your ruler, I would have done it last night... in my dreams."
Ai frowned. "I had hoped you would be more understanding, but alas... it seems that we must take on a differnt approach."
I suddenly felt the presence of others. Ai's crew had come out of their hiding place, each one staring at me. I felt surrounded and reached into my robes for the gun and pepperspray.
One of the crew members, an older rugged man dressed in dark silver lifted his hand. My gun and can of spray flew out of my grasp. It flew across deck and landed safely in his hands.
"Wysteria, meet my crew. This is Sterling, as you can see, his element is metal. He has the power to draw things made of his element to him, he can reshape things, magnify their use... or destroy them."
I watched in horror as my Moms gun seemed to melt in his palm, the pepperspray reduced itself to dust.
"This is too much! I'm having a panic attack! I can't breathe!"
My breathing became harsh and ragged, my body began to sweat.
My day had started off horribly and ended up like a episode from Twighlight zone. It was all catching up with me. Everything started spinning. "I'm about to faint." I started seeing black spots and found myself falling backwards. The last thing I remember was a pair of strong arms catching me and Ai's voice shouting commands.
"Precious Wysteria, life isn't going accordingly. Shame, really. Is there anything at all I can do to help?"
His voice was tinged with something I couldn't quite place, whatever it was, it wasn't compassion. I craned my neck back and looked up at him.
He stared back down at me with heavy lidded green eyes, a smile forever playing at the corner of his lips. I noticed that he had very fine lines in his skin. A crease between his handsome brows, two small folds at the corners of his lips... however no crows feet.
"You're doing enough as it is, my Lord. My day was completely rotten! My boyfriend dumped me for some little blonde cheerleader, I made a complete mess out of things at work, my mom is about to drive me to the edge and I'm doing horribly in school."
Warm fingers molded their way up to my temples and before too long I was lost in a head massage. "My dearest Wysteria, the mundane world is so harsh and cruel. A queen such as yourself shouldn't have to serve others like a common tavern wench, you should be pampered and adored."
He wrapped his arms around me, temporarily dissolving my troubles and fear with a simple hug. "You can have it all. Succomb to your dreams."
His voice was so deep and comforting.
"I'll take care of you."
My body shuddered as his lips grazed my neck. It was so tempting. "But my Mom..."
"She is a grown woman, my dear. She set herself in the position she's in, why should you have to take on her responsibility?"
He had a good point.
"I don't know you're name."
He chuckled and slowly kissed my neck. Goosebumps instantly appeared on my arms.
"I am your adoring and most humble of all servants, Demetrius."
"Demetrius." I repeated.
"Say it, My queen. Tell me what you want and it is yours"
Tap tap tap.
"What is that?" I looked around, searching for the sorce of the tapping.
"Mind it not... just tell me my queen that you wish to be with me."
"I wish..." Tap tap tap."I heard it again!"
"Promise me, Wysteria!"
***My dreams started fading and I found myself awake in my bed. Tap tap tap. My bedroom window. Instantly, I knew it was Mom. This wasn't the first time she hit the muggle one too many times and found herself locked out of the house. The alarm clock said 1:30an... she was home a little early.
I flung open the shudders with all intentions of getting back to sleep as quickly as possible.
When I saw that it wasn't Mom, I nearly had a heart attack. There staring back at me, in the tree top reaching my window was perched the strangely dressed man with white hair.
I grabbed a pepperspray can out from my dresser and held it up threateningly.
"I bring no harm, Wysteria! Please, I beg just a moment of your time."
I could barely hear him through the glass.
"I'm calling the police." I replied.
I made my way over to my phone and held it up threateningly. "Po-lice" I mouthed. The mans face twisted into a rather confused look.
"Please, My queen! It is my duty to find you!"
My finger was frozen over the '9' on my phone. Though reluctant to admit, he had me intrigued. No one knew about the name Wysteria. I even overlooked that when telling Reia about my dreams.
I didn't want to be the stupid girl that lets a burgler into her house and gets nothing out of the deal other than a hole in the head... however, this stranger seemed almost comically harmless. He stared at me through the glass, making a rather impressive puppydog face.
"I'll meet you downstairs, outside."
I slid on my fuzzy purple slippers, threw on a robe, retreived Mom's handgun out from under the kitchen sink and hid it in the tie of my robe. I stuffed the pepperspray in there for safe measures.
It had long since stopped raining, but the grass was still wet. The man was still climbing down the tree when I got outside.
I reached into my robe and pulled out my gun. Now this may seem a little dramatic, but I had no idea what I was dealing with. I wanted answers.
"Who are you?"
The man's eyes looked at the gun wearily. "My name is Ai. I am a merchant of another land... them same land that your father was from. Although under current circumstances, I consider myself more of an ambassador"
"Who is queen Wysteria?"
"You are."
"What land are you from?"
At this, Ai seemed to hesitate. "It is our unnamed planet. Much like Earth, only different."
I bit the inside of my jaw, the gun still aimed at him. "Do you know of the dreams I've been having lately?"
"What do these dreams consist of, my queen?"
My face grew red at the previous nights dreams. Seductive emerald eyes, his sexy coy smile, his hands hungrily running along my body...
"Demetrius."
Ai immediately frowned. "That, dear Wysteria may take some time to explain. Is there a more... cozy area we can get better aquainted?"
With the gun, I motioned for him to step inside my house. "Go into the kitchen. If you touch anything, I'll blow your brains out."
"Must we resort to such violence?"
I ignored his question and motioned for him to step into my kitchen. He threw his hands up in surrender then walked through my front door and sat at the kitchen table. I sat across from him, gun still aimed. He picked up an orange and held it to his nose. "Most intresting! It almost smells slightly tangy... " He then reached for a banana. "...what a peculiar fruit. How do you eat it exactly?" I shook my gun at him.
"PUT the fucking fruit back in the bowl."
He obediently did so.
"Okay, lets start with my father. My mother has always told me that he was a foriegner that she had a one night stand with. Persian, I think."
Ai shook his head. "He was not Persian, but from our land. He was our ruler for many years. He once visited Earth with me to find new clothes and foods to bring to our land."Ai thought back for a moment. "His most cherished Earth discovery was ramen noodles... next to your mother of course."
"You know what ramen is, but not oranges or bananas?"
Ai stared blankly at me. "Are oranges thought to be more common?"
"Yes."
"Facinating!"
I felt myself relax behind the gun. This conversation was wild, but I found myself lingering onto every word that he said.
"Show me proof that you're from another planet."
"Put your shooting device down."
"Not yet."
"Very well. I'll show you my vessel that I travel in."
"Is it a ufo?"
"...something like that." He smirked.
Ai had a certain smugness about him, it teetered on cockyness, but he seemed too humble to be deemed cocky. He he stood and walked towards the door, he moved as if he hadn't a care in the world, not as a proper ambassador with an important business matter to take care of. I followed him, my eyes checking for any sign of his own weapon. His clothes were silk-like and eccentric, sort of like Aladdin meets Captain Kidd. He wore what could only be described as a white tunic over baggy pants, tucked into thick animal skin boots. His sleeves were pushed up, exposing blue tattoos of weird swirls and designs.
"If you've been to Earth before then why do you dress like its Halloween?"
I followed him outside, he waited for me to catch up. He completely ignored my comment. Perhaps he didn't know what Halloween was.
"My ship is parked on the roof of Mighty Food."
I stopped dead in my tracks. "Mom will be home soon... wait, what?"
"Mighty Food. It was the only building with enough height and parameter to properly hide my ship. Perhaps she won't notice your dissapearance, this will only be a few minutes."
She probably wouldn't. The first thing she'd do when she came home would be to smoke the rest of her joint. She wouldn't think to check if I were in bed.
"Okay, we'll take the backway there. I can't afford to have my mom drive by and see me."
Ai motioned for me to lead the way. My mind was racing, rolling over the whole scenerio. This was completely unreal, yet something was urging me to go on. We walked for a moment in preoccupied silence before he finally spoke up.
"You have to resist Demetrius. He is evil, conniving and deadly. He only means to use you to gain power."
"He didn't strike me as evil or deadly. He striked me as caring and charming."
Ai's face darkened. "My queen, he will present to you only what he wants you to see."
I knew what Demetrius and I had felt. Passion, a throrough understanding of one another. He intended to guide me and give me the life I had always desired. I was suddenly weary of Ai again, my hand felt into my robes where the gun was safely kept.
"So," I said, once changing the subject, "What makes your home so different from mine?"
I had to struggle to keep up with Ai's brisk steps.
He seemed to chew on that question for a while.
"Well... when humans were brought onto Earth they were given a garden of Eden. In this garden they were gifted with all the world's resources. Every element, animal, plant... belonged entirely to the humans."
"I know the story. What's your point."
Ai looked at me with a look of irritance. "For a queen, you aren't very regal."
"For an ambassador, you aren't very professional."
"Back to the story, if you don't mind? On our planet, rather than everyone sharing all the resources, every person is given the right to guard one resource in particular.
"I'm not following."
"We each control our own element. For example, my element is air. Therefore, I have acute sense of direction, I can control breezes, tempeture and I can fly."
We made our way onto Main Street.
"Why didn't you use one of your powers to prove to me you're from another planet."
"I have to save my energy for the ride home. My element also gives me the power to portal travel, although it completely drains me."
"Okay... so the people from your world each have their own little talents. Kind of like X-men?"
Ai looked at me blankly. "Who are the x-men? The guards that travel in the vessel with the flashing blue lights."
"No, those are the police. Xmen are characters from a movie. They each have really cool powers. One can shape shift, one has these really sharp claws, one can lift things with his mind..."
"Then I suppose our race does the resemble the x men to some extent. However, our powers stem from our gifted element. No two people have the same element. Each time someone passes on, their power is passed through their offspring or their successor. My father was the element of wind, I didn't inherit his gift until I was seven years old."
"What sort of element did my father have?"
"His gift was exceptionally powerful. He could possess any element he wished. Any man with this power was known to be very wise and very strong. Therefore, a perfect ruler for our land."
"You speak about him in a past tense."
"Yes, my Queen. I regret to inforn you that he was killed a month ago."
I had always wondered if I had a father, what would he look like? What would he act like? Would I possess any traits of his? Would he treat me better than my mom? Did he know I existed? To hear that he had died was somewhat crushing. Any hopes of me meeting him were shattered.
"I am truely sorry, Wysteria."
"Why do you call me that?
"It was what your father always called you. He knew about you and watched over you more than you realize. He wanted to take care of you, but being the king of an entire planet... he couldn't exactly sign peace treaties during the day then pop over to Earth at night. It was most suitable to let your mother take care of you. She was more capable and knew what earth babies needed."
"My mom has done little more than keep a roof over my head and my stomach full of microwave dinners. He could have at least introduced himself to me.... let his 'ever so beloved daughter' know of his existence."
Ai turned and looked at me. His eyes were dark orbs of blue, and for a moment he looked sympathetic. "Wysteria... some men get so caught up in other peoples lives, that they fail to devote anytime to their own. Your father died as a lonely, unsatisfied old man. I had only seen him show feeling once in his life, and that was upon meeting your mother."
We approached the Mighty Food parkng lot.
"So how'd he die?"
"Murdered?"
"By who?"
"I'm not sure... but I have my suspisions." He left it at that.
We made ourway to the side of the building, where he gestured to a old steel ladder than ran up to the roof. He offered his hand helped me onto it.
The ladder was rusty and residue came off onto my hands. My foot almost slipped once, but a subtle gust of air pushed me in the right direction and helped me maintain my balance. Finally, I reached the top of the ladder and gasped.
There on top of Mighty Food was a beautiful, large, wooden ship. It's midnight colored sails rippled in the wind. They nearly camoflauged into the sky, it was even dotted with stars. Poised at the end of the ship, delicately reaching upward as if she were plucking a star from the sky was a wooden maiden. Long gold hair was carved into perfect swirls around her, her eyes painted sky blue, tiny lips painted ruby red. Along the side of the ship, written in overly fancy lettering read 'The NightWynd.'
"This is just like Peter Pan... right after Tinkerbell coats the ship in fairy dust and it lifts into the air..."
Ai cleared his throat behind me.
"Care for a closer examination, Queen Wysteria?"
I nodded and followed him towards the ship. As we drew closer I saw someone perched in the crows nest.
"Ey there, boss! Looks like you found what youd been lookin for?"
Ai threw hand up in acknowledgement, then walked up the wooden plank leading onto his ship. I followed, my brain still not quite accepting what was happening.
"She is a beaut." Ai bragged. "Designed her myself. Has a rudder that pierces through the wind with more speed than ever thought imaginable. The sails are entirely weather proof, also designed by yours truely, and what do you think of my figurehead?"
"Your what?"
"My lady. The only love in my life."
"Lovely."
"The crew is the best of the best. Hand picked myself."
We had arrived on board his ship, his had a strong wooden smell about it and it was very clean. Though something was peculiar.
"Where is your crew? Other than that guy up there, I haven't seen anyone."
He ignored me. "Now that I've proved my point, lets get down to business."
All former pretenses of his carelessness or aloofness dissapeared. He looked very serious.
"When you're father was killed, his powers did not go to his murderer. Apparently his murderer was someone who was unaware of your existence... at the time. For your own safety and in honor of our Unnamed Land, you have to go back with me."
I immediately shook my head. "No way. This is getting to be too much. Flying ships is where I draw my line."
"You must. I fear that Demetrius is trying to manipulate you. His element is dream. He can visit anyone through sleep and influence them."
"You think he killed my father, don't you?"
Ai remained impassive. "I don't know what to think, but I can't take any risks. You have to come with us, Wysteria. Our land needs you. You have inherited the kings powers and only you are worthy of ruling our land. Until your arrival, we remain in the upmost chaos."
I didn't like that he was trying to boss me around. I had responsibilities at home that I couldn't just leave behind.
"If I had wanted to become your ruler, I would have done it last night... in my dreams."
Ai frowned. "I had hoped you would be more understanding, but alas... it seems that we must take on a differnt approach."
I suddenly felt the presence of others. Ai's crew had come out of their hiding place, each one staring at me. I felt surrounded and reached into my robes for the gun and pepperspray.
One of the crew members, an older rugged man dressed in dark silver lifted his hand. My gun and can of spray flew out of my grasp. It flew across deck and landed safely in his hands.
"Wysteria, meet my crew. This is Sterling, as you can see, his element is metal. He has the power to draw things made of his element to him, he can reshape things, magnify their use... or destroy them."
I watched in horror as my Moms gun seemed to melt in his palm, the pepperspray reduced itself to dust.
"This is too much! I'm having a panic attack! I can't breathe!"
My breathing became harsh and ragged, my body began to sweat.
My day had started off horribly and ended up like a episode from Twighlight zone. It was all catching up with me. Everything started spinning. "I'm about to faint." I started seeing black spots and found myself falling backwards. The last thing I remember was a pair of strong arms catching me and Ai's voice shouting commands.