III-brain tumour

James had just been having one of the worst mornings of the year.

He'd gotten a question wrong in maths first period after somewhat-pompously saying it out loud- a harrowing experience on its own for an introvert. His maths teacher -Mr Higgs- responded with a quizzical look and moved on. And, frankly, no one in the class cared, but James had turned red from embarrassment nonetheless. The mundane incident was still enough to set a glum tone for the day. And indeed it so happened to be a harbinger for further embarrassment.

Then came second period. English. Being English by nationality he felt unwonted pressure with this subject. He'd always joked that one could go for a walk outside instead of going to class. His teacher didn't think this was funny and detained him for "attempted truancy". As if that were a thing.

His English teacher was an elderly, stiff woman called Ms Grenwal. She was as mean as they come. Handing out detention slips as though she were rewarded for doing so. In a way, perhaps she was. It was the common long-standing supposition that she'd had a rather unpleasant childhood and so vowed to spend her adult life creating as much pain as she had experienced. This seemed the most reasonable explanation for her nasty behaviour.

This morning she had given a spot test on the parts of speech.

Her classroom exemplified silence. It was as though the propagation of sound itself had to be permitted by her. The learners' fumbling for answers was punctuated only by the sharp clicks of Ms. Grenwal's heels against the linoleum as she prowled between the rows of desks not unlike a wild cat

James finished the test and waited. Ms Grenwal stopped dead at his desk, looking over his shoulder she said, "Oh look at this. He's finished early. Tell me, James, you think you're too good for my test is it ?"

"Not at all Ma'am."

"But of course you must. You surely don't respect it enough to take the allocated time to answer it."

Fuming, he put his head down and waited. Unreasonable and ridiculous as she was, engaging would only make matters worse.

"Tut, tut", she went on, "you'd better get everything correct then...otherwise it's detention." She finished with a cold smirk.

James simply sighed and waited for the buzzer to allow him to leave which he could not do any faster, but not before being informed that he'd scored 28 out of 30 and so would in fact be serving detention later that day. Just great.

The lessons that proceeded seemed to go on without him. He was unfocused and close to falling asleep in every one, which was not like him. This got some negative feedback from his educators whom he had spent most of his time trying to impress.

By the end of it he felt leeched and utterly lifeless. As if all his energy has simply evaporated through his pores.

Urgh, he thought. Ms Grenwal's detention. Her detentions were torture. She gave lines. Lots of lines. James imagined his fingers would simply fall off...he also fantasised about dismembering them himself about a half hour in, that seemed less painful.

On his way home (he walked), he thought he would never be able to write again.

As it turns out that was now going to be the least of his concerns.

He was just casually strolling along his usual path home when suddenly, THUD.

He had fallen face-down on the ground and something heavy was writhing on top of him. He had been flattened. Just great.

Too flummoxed to even fire any neurons his mind was completely blank as he sat up and stared at this girl, no less than fifteen years old, in a sleek dress, sitting on the grass with her arms crossed, wide-eyed a few feet from him.

It appeared she was just as surprised by the collision as he was. Rude.

Thoughts began flooding his head. Overwhelmingly so. Did this girl just fall out of the sky? Why are there girls falling out of the sky? How does one fall out of the sky? Why is she dressed like that? Did she know she was going to fall out of the sky? Is that what people wear when they plan on falling out of the sky? Is that the new thing? Is falling out of the sky trendy? Is she alone? Is falling out of the sky legal? Do her parents know that their child has taken a tendency for well-dressed fallings out of the sky? Is there a class for that? He decided on,

"Hullo?"

She merely whimpered, lips quivering slightly.

James narrowed his eyes. This could not have been happening. He surely must have been hallucinating. People don't simply fall out of the sky! He laid his head back on the grass staring at the marbled sky and sighed deeply.

"Hello there, can you help me?"

It seemed the girl regained her voice.

James shut his eyes and tried to block out the sound. Perhaps he had a brain tumour. He'd heard that can make people have visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations...surely that's what that must have been. No, nope too morbid. Reel it in, he thought. He'd heard he can sometimes think far too darkly and needed to try to keep things on a lighter note.

He felt his arm being shaken... this girl fell on top of him, then had the nerve to shake him out of his stupor? The audacity!

Nonetheless he sat up again, stared at the girl and prepared to ask another question but before he did she said, "My name is Iris. I'm sorry for falling on you. Now I know you must be confused but I really need your help right now and I promise to explain everything."

Iris knew she was disobeying Gideon's order about revealing herself but she owed it to the boy to explain why and how she'd fallen on him...as a common courtesy...she was assuming. She actually had no idea what the proper etiquette for a situation like this was but she did like making new friends so she felt this was the best way to go.

She was in the mortal world, this much she could tell. A land where magic was extinct. Replaced by technology. Her heart still had not settled since the attack. She hoped her parents were safe . They had to be. Gideon will take care of them, she thought. However nauseous and horrible she had felt that morning, it was nothing compared to how she felt in those moments. She was scared and felt very, very alone.

"Well!?", came an extremely annoyed voice next to her. "You really should start talking now." Ah yes she had promised an explanation to the boy on whom she had fallen. They had already started walking in what Iris assumed to be the direction of his home.

"You aren't very patient are you?" she inquired of the boy, eyebrow raised.

"Patient!? Would you be patient if someone fell on you out of nowhere while you're just trying to get home...and then you promise to help that person by taking them to your house? For all I know you could be a child cannibal psychopath serial-killer." At this he stopped in the path and turned to face her.

"You're very morbid you know that? But fair enough, okay tell me a little about yourself first. You could be too much in shock after my explanation – because it will be far from normal – and I need to know that you're not a child cannibal psychopath serial-killer."

"I live and breathe 'far from normal' so bring it on. Uhm, my name is James. I'm 15. I'm in the tenth grade at school. I like manatees and pasta...Oh! I don't eat manatees! The manatees and pasta are in two different categories! Just by the way. Also I live with my dad and I'm a total nerd. Yep that covers most of it." He was looking rather awkward by the end of it.

"Scintillating." She gave a short laugh at which James seemed to redden, and continued, "So as I've said, my name is Iris –

"Like the Greek goddess or the ring of muscles around the pupil?" he interjected.

"I couldn't be certain" she laughed again " I will be sure to ask my parents when I see them again" the laughter had vanished at the thought of her parents. Oh how she hoped they were okay.

She continued with her explanation. Telling James, first, of Eurythia's existence in another world.

"So you're saying there is actually a whole other dimension somewhere out there? Also how come you speak English?" he seemed to be taking it well, he was more fascinated than freaked out. Maybe he really did live and breathe far from normal.

"we speak English because both our peoples were involved in its origins and it ended up gestating similarly on both sides. During the middle ages as you call them magic was freely used here as well because there was a great deal of interaction between both sides. And not exactly out there... more everywhere. It is an alternate realm that exists simultaneously and interdependently with this one. They sort of overlap and so there are some naturally-occurring windows to the other side. Most of them were sealed off after the riff between our peoples and everything was divided. All of them in Eurythia have been mapped out. But portals can also be made to travel through them. That's how I got here."

"Portals? Like quantum mechanics type, trans-dimensional tech? Ah of course the other side is more scientifically advanced!"

"Oh that's right, I didn't mention the magic yet." She began to elaborate. This, James took significantly longer to accept. But he did so eventually. Hmm this is either one very open-minded or very gullible mortal, Iris supposed. She went on to tell him about her royal status and the events of that morning.

"H-how are you planning on getting back? Surely you can't stay here."

"No, I can't. But according to Gideon there is something that I need from here. He said he will contact me soon enough."

They had reached his house. "The key's in my school bag. Give me a minute."

"Oh, is no one home then?"

"My dad's a surgeon so he isn't home some nights. If he gets in early today I'll tell him you're a friend from school I'm helping with algebra, a lot of people are bad at algebra." He said as he pushed the door open and walked in.

Iris followed suit. "I see. A physician's son. In Eurythia you would be considered nobility...and just so you know, my arithmetic needs no assistance"

James scoffed. He plopped himself on the couch and offered Iris to do the same. He noted the way she sat, it seemed slouching did not exist in Eurythia. But then again she did say she was a princess, and that wasn't too difficult to believe, in the way she spoke, stood, walked and moved. Wherever this girl was from, she was royalty.

"What is the name of your kingdom, James?"

"Uhmm, the United one ?"

"What?"

"Well, we're in the United Kingdom. That's where I live. Its an Island nation"

"That is ridiculous James. 'United' is an adjective not a proper noun. How can this place possibly be called be the Kingdom of United. It makes no sense."

Through stifled laughter, James responded, "Well it isn't actually called the Kingdom of United, it's more saying that it is a Kingdom that's United, made up of three Isles, England, Scotland and Wales, which were once three separate kingdoms that became, well, United. Its also called Great Britain."

"I see. Yours is a confusing land James. And I suppose the 'great' implies vastness rather than vanity...in any case I must have an audience with your Queen. I am sure the ruler of this supposedly-united Kingdom would have knowledge of Eurythia and may offer me help. When is the next hour that the palace is open for the public"

"Okay slow down Iris. It's a little bit more complicated than that. The Queen, like all our Monarchs nowadays, is actual a figurehead. We have a Prime Minister who is elected every so often and they deal with all the political affairs of the nation. So I don't think that would be an option."

"Well now isn't that pointless." She frowned.

James merely shrugged. They spent the next few hours exchanging information about their worlds. There was a great deal of laughter as well.

"There's some leftover pasta we could have., James told Iris.

"Sure, alright. It is your favourite I recall."

Their meal was eaten in silence. No doubt being used to process and accept all the new information and reality-changes they both needed to confront.

By the time they had finished it was dark out...and rather late.

At last, James broke the silence, "You can spend the night in the guest room, I'll show you where it is." I'll call my dad and let him know."

Iris agreed, and with that, they went to bed.