"Welcome to Azurea. Whether I like it or not, this is where I live. And where you will too." the guy said in a bored and lethargic tone.
'Shouldn't those that welcome their guests or visitors be more energetic and spunky rather than greeting a guest with the energy of a sloth? Is this guy doing an imitation of a wilted vegetable? Because he's totally acing it. Amazing imitation.' Lee commented in her mind.
'Wait—what?! Live here? As in permanent residence, non-refundable, "till death do us part" live here?! Lee's brain stalled like a century-old jeepney.
She replayed his voice in her head, the recording looping with haunting clarity with every word as she scrutinized every jagged inflection. Suddenly, it felt as though breathing became impossible—a heavy, suffocating sensation that made the world tilt on its axis.
Reincarnated...
Traveled...
Left behind...
The words ceased to be mere sounds; they became leaden weights, plummeting through her chest and settling in the hollow pit of her stomach. Her pulse thrummed a frantic rhythm against her eardrums while her mind stalled, grinding through the impossible implications like a rusted gear spinning violently out of sync. In the suffocating silence that followed, the fractured pieces of her logic finally snapped together into a single, startling realization.
"WHAT?!" she screamed. Fear and panic creeping in like a sick, dark vine of gloom and doom.
When the truth finally clicked, she felt completely lost. It was such a strange, messy feeling. Part of her wanted to be excited—she was living out the kind of story she'd only ever seen in shows or read in books. But the other part of her wanted to scream. The terrifying thought hit her: she might never see her parents' faces or hear her friends' laughter ever again.
'No way. This can't be real,' she thought, her heart starting to race. 'I joked about this before, sure, but I never thought it would actually happen! This was supposed to stay in cartoons and stories. Why me? How—?' Her mind turned into a whirlwind of "why" and "how," each question more panicked than the last.
The boy whipped around to face her, his expression twisting into an even deeper scowl. "You're actually happy? Tch," he scoffed.
Her eyebrows shot toward her hairline before she narrowed her eyes into a fierce glare. "HAAAA?!!" she exploded, leaning toward him. "What do you mean 'happy'?! Do I look like I'm celebrating?! Does this look like a happy face to you? Go on, tell me!"
She was practically huffing with rage, her breath coming in sharp bursts, and tears of frustration threatening to fall from the corners of her eyes. 'First, I get killed by my best friend, then I get flushed down rainbows, I fall out of the sky and probably broke my butt, and now he tells me I won't ever see my family and friends again, and he thinks I'm happy about it?!'
The boy was so caught off guard by her outburst that his eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up in pure surprise. He stared at her for a long moment before his face settled back into a flat, skeptical look. 'Is this girl for real?' he wondered.
The two stared at each other; more like Lee glared at him while he stared back at her.
'Seriously! Who does he think he is? Talking about me as if he knows me.' she grumbled in her mind. Then a realization struck her. 'Oh yeah, who is he anyway? Why am I talking so much to a stranger? And why does he know so much? And where on earth— I mean, what or where is this place that I landed on? Did he just mention a kingdom?' Lee thought as she softened her glare a bit, just a tiny bit. She still didn't know if she should trust this guy, and a hot but annoying guy. Still, no matter how hot a guy is, a stranger is still a stranger.
She slightly, but firmly nodded her head in resolute decision. She's going to take as much information as possible from this guy right here.
"Wh-Who are you anyway?"
Shocks! What a lame start!
"And what is this place you called Ashu... Asuu..." She felt so stupid she could whack her head with a club. Stupid stammering!
"A-zu-re-ya. You are now in the Kingdom of Azurea, in one of the villages out in the boonies to be more precise." he offered. Offering some enlightenment, he didn't seem like a bad guy.
"And your name?" Lee asked.
When he just looked at her without a word, she spoke again in a slightly more hopeful tone. "You still haven't told me your name."
He casted a look of distrust. That got her into thinking. 'Wait— what if he was a fugitive in hiding?! Have I gotten myself into trouble? What if he was actually a bad person? Ah! Lee, you're so bad at judging people!' a panicked feeling washed over her.
"Why should I tell you? You didn't even tell me your name. Why should I tell mine?"
"Tch- so picky. Are you a celebrity or something? Or are you a wanted fugitive wh— oh." she stopped short when she realized what her verbose tongue just did.
'Now I've gone and done it.' Her mind dreaded the horrible but possible things that could happen to her now that she had said it. 'Shit! Is he going to silence me? By killing me? Again?? Or is he going to kidnap me and then put me in an isolated place and torture the hell out of me? Argh! What have I done?!' How did I get this stupid???' she screamed internally.
The boy narrowed his eyes, studying her. His gaze was so intense that her knees felt shaky. It was a mix of fear and something else—his bright, dazzling eyes felt like they were looking straight into her soul.
"Whatever," he said, shrugging to break the tension. "I'm Kin." He looked at her with a cautious, almost hopeful expression.
"Oh!" she gasped. She knew she should introduce herself too, but just as she reached out a hand toward him, a sharp flash of pain shot up from her backside. She winced, her face twisting in hurt. Kin's eyes widened as he watched her reaction.
'Is she hurt?' he wondered, watching her struggle. 'Is that why she's been acting so strange and won't look at me this whole time?'
She had been twisting her neck just to look at him this whole time and it was torture! If it weren't for the fact that she felt as if she was talking to an angel she would have turned her back on him. Literally!
Kin walked from where he stood and slowly approached Lee who was still sitting, apparently against her will. She jerked in surprise when she felt him place his palm on her back. She was even more surprised at what happened next.
"O mga dakilang ispirito ng liwanag, dinggin nyo ang aking hiling! Alisin nyo ang sakit, pagtagpuin ang napunit. PA-MA-YAD."
A soft warmth flowed from his hand, spreading from his palm until it wrapped around her entire body like a cozy blanket. It was so relaxing that she couldn't help but close her eyes, letting the heat sink in.
After a minute, the feeling faded. 'What was that?' she wondered, slowly opening her eyes.
Moving carefully to protect her bruised tailbone, she started to turn toward Kin. But as she moved, she realized his face was right there—only an inch away!
"Gah!" she yelped, jumping up instinctively to face him, at a safe and reasonable distance. Then it hit her. The sharp pain was gone!
"Eh?! EH?! Wha—" She spun around in circles, trying to look at her own backside. She even patted herself down to check, but it was true—the pain had completely vanished!
"What did you do?" she turned back to him with a weird expression: a mix of amazement and disbelief.
"You looked like you were in pain, so I healed you. That's all," Kin said, looking at her with a confused face. Then he remembered—magic like this didn't exist where she came from.
"Oh, right. You don't have magic in your world. Well, not real magic, anyway."
He frowned, remembering a strange jolt of energy from when their skin touched. CWhat was that?Why did it feel like that?' he wondered. But he shook the thought away; things were already getting weird enough as they are.
"You did WHAT?!" Lee shouted. She began frantically checking herself, patting her arms and legs as if she expected to find a limb missing or out of place. She twisted and turned, poking at her own skin. She was a total mess. Her logic was completely shattered. 'Is that even possible?' she thought. 'To heal that fast without a single bandage?'
She snapped her head back at Kin. "You— what did you actually do to me? Did you curse me?" she blabbered like a lunatic.
"What? No! If you don't like it, then I'll just give you a new injury. Where would you want it?" he said, then a small burning ball of flame suddenly popped out of thin air.
Quickly retracting like a scared kitten, she whimpered, "No thanks."
Kin scoffed and the ball evaporated into the air. 'This girl sure is a piece of work.'
"So? Are you gonna tell me your name or not?" he said impatiently.
This got her back on track. She stood up and dusted her bottoms and then wiped the palms of her hands on her skirt nervously.
"Ah, sorry. My name is Lee. Lee Jasmine Hart." she smiled and extended her hand for a handshake but Kin just looked at it and rudely turned away.
Lee let out an irritated huff. 'Just who does he think he is?'
She then huffed another breath out to get herself to calm down. This was not the time for such antics, after all; even if the cause was magic which was not supposed to exist (at least from her perspective).
"Thanks for— uh, for healing me. Anyway, so... Um, how do I get back to my— my old world?" the thought of her world being refered to her 'old world' was foreign on her lips.
Kin raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "You want to go back? To that place?" He pointed his finger toward the sky. "Strange. I've heard that world is a disaster—full of that 'pollution' stuff and endless crime. Sure, we have our share of trouble here, but we don't poison the air we breathe. This world is far better than your old one. Why would you ever want to leave?"
Lee blinked, caught off guard. He must have spoken to other travelers before to know so much about Earth. "It's true that my world has a dark side," she admitted softly. "Every place does. But even with all that, it's still my home. My family and friends are there." She thought of the friends she had made during her time in the Philippines—the laughter and the memories that meant the world to her. As her best friend's face flashed in her mind, thoughts swam across her mind: 'how is she now? What is she doing? Is she back inside her home, or sitting in jail?Does anyone even know I'm gone?'
"They must be worried sick," she said, her voice turning firm. "I got here somehow, so there has to be a way back. How do I find it?"
"The world you've been brought to and the one you left behind... they aren't even in the same dimension," Kin explained. He watched her closely, searching her face for any sign that she understood the gravity of his words. When she just stared back blankly, he let out a sigh.
"I heard you the first time," she said, trying to force a nervous laugh. "Just... answer the question. Is there such a long list of ways for me to get home that you can't pick which one to tell me?" She clutched her stomach, trying to ignore the sinking feeling growing there. "How do I go back?"
Kin looked at her for a long, quiet moment. Then, he turned his back to her.
"You can't," he said, his voice flat and heavy.