Come To My World (Original Fantasy Story) Chapter 7

“Aurora! Aurora, wake up!” My eyes shoot open as I feel a sharp pain in my back. “Come on, you said we’d wake up early and go on a boat ride!” Cassy says, and she continues to jump on me. I feel like being VERY unresponsive, and I can tell it’s really early. I close my eyes and burry my face in my pillow, wishing she would GET OFF ME.

“Eioiodjadf jljkldfcd dfsoia dmfea dsa eiwofjda osdif adofj fjfa afjeso…” I mumble incoherently.

“What?” she asks, leaning down towards my head. I lift my head a few inches off the pillow, eyes still shut tight.

“I said get off of me and get out of my room!” I shout at her.

“But you PROMISED!” she said, starting to bounce on my back again. I flop my head back onto the pillow, this time angling my face to the side so I can breathe. Note to self: don’t make stupid promises that’ll come back to bite you in the ass.

“Cassy, -ow- stop bouncing –ow- on me, -ow- and tell me what –ouch- time it is.” I tell her. She listens, and scrambles down from the top bunk to look at the digital clock on my wooden bedside table.

“5:30!”

Sweet. Merciful. Crap.

I mutter some naughty incoherent phrases, and burrow deeper into my blankets. Cassy gives a desperate sigh.

“Stancileo, maybe you can convince her to get up. She’ll never listen to me.” Ah, so it wasn’t a dream.

“I’m not so sure she’ll listen to me, either… she seems pretty tired…” THANK HEAVEN. GINGER HAS A HEART. “…But I’ll give it a try.” Never mind. I spoke to soon. The bed moves as I feel someone climbing up the ladder at the end of the top bunk.

“Aurora…” Leo calls slowly. I give a grunt, and make no attempt to move. “Auroraaaaaaa…” he says again, and I feel him creeping up beside me. He takes a hold of the pillow that I’m hiding my head under, and promptly whisks it over the side of the bunk. “Come on, Aurora,” Leo says, and grabs the blankets and throws them back. The cold morning air hits me, and I scrunch up into a small ball, shivering. I turn my head in Leo’s direction. I’m immediately met with a pair of bright cloudy eyes, and long ginger hair, only inches in front of me. “Rise and shine, bed-head!” he says with a cheerful smile. I give him the coldest, hardest, most menacing look I can muster.

“It’s good to see that YOU’RE feeling better,” I mutter sarcastically.

“Glad to hear you care about me! Now come on, get dressed so we can take your sister on a boat ride.”

“Make me,” I mutter, glaring at him. He looks down at Cassy, and her small shoulders lift in a shrug.

“If you insist…” my eyes widen as he scoops me up and shuffles to the ladder of the bunk bed. He swings his legs over the side of the bunk, and starts to go down the ladder.

“LEO, WAIT! OH GEEZ, DON’T DROP ME. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T DROP ME!” I say, clinging to him for dear life. I’m not afraid of heights, but what if he drops me? I don’t really want to find out.

“Don’t worry, I got you,” he says, and continues his careful descent.

“YEAH, BUT WHAT IF YOU SLIP?! I am NOT the lightest of girlies!”

“I’m stronger than I look. And you are actually pretty light,” he tells me, finally reaching the ground. I scramble down out of his arms, and take a few deep breaths.

“Now I’m awake…” I say, very much alert.

“Good. I’ll leave, you get dressed.” Ug. I might as well. I grumble over to my small walk-in closet, and Cassy leads Stancileo out of the room. I change into a pair of baggy cargo shorts and a black tank top. As I walk out, I catch sight of myself in my full-length mirror. My own ice blue eyes stare bloodshot back at me, and my extremely long black hair is impossibly tangled. Ah. No wonder he called me bed-head… I grab a brush as I walk out of my closet, and try to work out the masses of knotted black hair, all the while wandering around my room looking for my converse. By the time I find them in one of the piles of junk that litter my sky-blue carpet, I have all the knots out of my hair. After pulling on my converse, I head out the door. I find Stancileo and Cassy in her room, patiently waiting.

“Did you call Al?” Cassy asks as I walk in. Oh geez.

“No. I forgot about it after I found Vailclayne. Where is he, anyway?” I ask, peering around the room.

“Over there on my pillow,” She says, pointing to the head of her bead. Sure enough, the little fox is curled up sleeping contently on her fluffy pink pillow.

“So are you gonna call him?” my sister eagerly asks me. I give a snort.

“He isn’t going to like being called at 6 in the morning, I can tell you that. It’ll be amusing, though, so I’ll do it just for you,” I tell her. She beams at me as I leave to grab my piece-of-crap cellular devise. Phone in hand, I wander back into Cassy’s room, flop down on her bed, and hit speed-dial 2. I hold the phone to my face and look up at Cassy and Stancileo as the phone rings. Once… twice… three times now… and someone picks up in the middle of the fourth.

“WHAT,” a very TIRED sounding Al answers, contempt dripping from his voice. Wow. I’ve never heard someone say a single word with such maliciousness. “You better have a pretty damn good reason for calling me this early, Aurora.” I put on my sweetest, most cheerful voice ever and answer him.

“I promised my sis that the three of us would go on a boat ride! Unfortunately, this early hour of the day was somehow thrown into the agreement.” There’s a long pause, then Albrecht gives a big sigh, his exhale coming out in a low growl. “Oh, suck it up, girl scout,” I continue, knowing that he’s bound to hang up on me any minute, “It’ll be fun. Besides, I have a most INTERESTING specimen to introduce you to,” I say, looking up at Stancileo. He angles his head to the side as Al answers,

“Okay, now I’m curious.” I smirk.

“How long will it take you to get ready?”

“Seven minutes. Tops.”

“Good. Meet me on the dock in five.” And with that, I close the phone. Cassy runs to her mirror, squealing.

“Your welcome, Cassy,” I say, grabbing Stancileo by the arm and pulling him out of the room. “Bring Vailclayne when you come, Cass,” I call.

I snatch the keys to the boat, write a quick note to my sleeping folks, then Leo and I creep out of the house and down to the dock. The sun is still below the horizon, and the sky is a pale grey-blue color. A heavy layer of fog hangs over the river, concealing the forested bank on the opposite side.

I hop inside Black Thunder, my pretty boat, and Stancileo follows. Dew covers every inch of the craft, and I toss Leo a small towel.

“You can wipe the back seat down with this,” I tell him, and he does it. I pull out another towel and wipe down the driver seat, passenger seat, and front windows. When Leo’s done, I stow both towels back in the compartment they came from, and fall into the driver’s seat. Leo sits in the passenger seat as I stick the key in the ignition. And we wait.

Cassy comes down after a bit, with a tired looking Vailclayne in her arms. She climbs in the boat and sits on the back seat with the fox on her lap. I toss her one of the towels.

“I hope you don’t mind, Vail, I kinda want your presence to be a surprise,” I tell the fox.

“It’s the least I can do,” he tells me, and Cassy covers him up with the damp towel. We wait a while, then I hear footsteps coming down the metal river steps. A moody Albrecht comes across the dock, and I look up lazily at him from my seat.

“You’re late,” I say.

“YOU’RE lucky I’m here,” he retorts, hopping in the boat and taking a seat next to a very happy Cassy. I snicker, and hop out of the boat to untie it from the dock. I hop back in and turn the key to three-o-clock on the dial. The engine hums, and I release the key as it roars to life.

“Life jackets, everyone. Make sure they are ‘easily accessible’. I don’t want my license revoked,” I say, and Cassy carefully reaches under the seat and pulls out life preservers. Once everyone has one, I switch on the boat lights and back the boat up. In no time, we’re zooming up the river, more than likely waking up everyone within a 100-foot radius. I take a glance back, and Cassy is staring at Al, who is suspiciously eying Stancileo, who is excitedly looking around like a kid at Christmas. I turn my attention back to driving the boat, and we make our way up river.

We make it a good long ways up, and I shut off the engine and let us float for a while. I unlock my seat and swivel it around to face Al.

“Leo, this is my good friend, Albrecht,” I introduce, “And Al, this is my good friend Stancileo.” Leo stands from his seat and shakes Al’s hand.

“He’s from the world of Zephyria, home to warriors, knights, and magical talking creatures. I fished him out of the river,” I say calmly. Al gives me a death glare, moodily flicking out his switchblade and twirling it around.

“You got me up at 6 in the morning to play a dumb little make believe game?” he says. I look at him coolly, and answer casually.

“He came with Vailclayne, a talking fox.” Al gives an angry sigh. “I didn’t believe him myself, until I met Vailclayne. Cassy, if you would,” I say. She removes the towel, and the small fox looks up at a surprised Al.

“Vail, this is Al. And this is Vailclayne, oh ye of little faith,” I say.

“Pleased to meet you, young Earth human,” the fox says, and Al’s eyes grow wide.

“You weren’t kidding,” Al whispers, absent-mindedly stowing his switchblade back in his pocket.

“Good to see you’re catching on,” I say with a smirk. Al looks back up at me.

“So why are you showing me them?” he asks. I shrug.

“I thought you’d appreciate being in on something like this. These things don’t happen every day, you know.” Al gives a smirk.

“Guess not. Thanks.” I nod slowly, then turn my seat back around and lock it into place.

“Can’t tell anyone, though. But I’m pretty sure I can trust you with this.”

“My lips are sealed,” he replies, and I turn the key. The engine roars back to life.

“Good,” I say, and kick the acceleration forward. I turn her about, and we’re soon on our merry way back.