Dream

"Amaltheia wake up!" Briaphela tries shaking her awake. Allura was still visualizing those shadow creatures that kept pursuing them hours ago, when suddenly she hears a familiar voice calling someone, "Amaltheia wake up!" the voice of someone calling. It took her moments to realize that it was the name Briaphela calls her, she was calling for her.

All her thoughts suddenly begin to turn around, slowly fading until they finally disappeared. As she slowly opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a face of a lady with a unique braid of golden hair. Her eyes starting to turn from black to blue, the skin on her cheek was gleaming, The brilliant brightness of something on her right hand that looks like a crystal slowly disappearing.

Flailing her arms, she notices that the bed was a mess, the pillows on the floor. She had no idea if she fell asleep. She wasn't sure if the things she saw were real or if they were only dreams. But why those castles, islands, portraits, all of them, still in her mind as clear as water? Are those really a dream? Everything felt so real, as if she were experiencing everything as if she were there. Allura was really confused as she wakes up.

"Princess Amaltheia," Briaphela says softly. She approaches the frightened Amaltheia as she offers her left hand for her as she slowly sits.

"I know that you're still confused but what you saw, what you dreamt, were all real. They're all real." Briaphela says in a persuading manner.

Morning light is peeking through the window, Allura wasn't sure what time of the day it was though she's sure it was already morning. She slowly rose from her bed while Briaphela was still on her side when a terrible pain shot through her head. Her hand immediately reached for her head and she had suddenly collapsed.

"Princess!!!" Briaphela shouts as she hurriedly go to her aid.

The elder overheard Briaphela's panic, he hurriedly entered the room raised his wooden staff and was prepared to chant a spell. "What happened Briaphela?" he asks her first, worriedly. Shkan was already inside the room just before the elder opened it. Maybe he was able to move quickly like ninjas in a movie, Or maybe be has the ability to pass through walls or he can teleport in a short distance. Shkan's eyes were already red as he entered, his body was producing smoke like an aura, he keeps his head moving from left to right making sure that no shadows nor assassins could pass his vision.

"What happened, Briaphela?," the elder says behind her, worry in his voice. He was outside the room earlier, letting Briaphela do what she needed to do. The moment he heard her shout, he immediately went inside the room.

"She lost consciousness, she must have been exposed to my image replica magic for too long that it must have had an effect on her. I will do what I can and chant a recovery healing spell to make her recover faster" Briaphela says as she moves her staff over Allura's body.

Briaphela starts to chant something while raising her magical staff over Allura's body. It starts to produce a light that slowly surrounds Allura's whole body. She starts to float for a moment and then slowly descends back to bed.

"Let's leave her for a while to rest and recover" Briaphela looks puzzled for a moment as she looks at the corner of the room. She wanted to ask, 'did I design this room to have two doors?' Suddenly, she realized that the other 'door' was much smaller than the door she had originally designed. She then looks at Shkan with a heated gaze. Shkan just swung his black sword back to its sheath with an innocent face then went back to the door he made himself to go outside as if nothing had happend.

Briaphela was so passionate when it comes to architecture, when she sees someone who doesn't show care about the things she built by heart, it makes her blood rise.

"That man has no passion" Briaphela sighs.

"If everything is fine meet me outside, at the table, we have something to talk over" The elder says with an authoritative voice

It took a day for Allura to regain her consciousness. The three of them took turns watching over her, they simply could not leave her alone after what had happened. It was not until noon the following day that Allura had regained consciousness.

"I see that you are awake," the elder says as he slowly enters the room to watch over her. He grabs the chair by the window and places it next to the bed.

"You must eat," he says. Allura nods and grabs the tray from the bedside table and starts to devour the meal like an animal. She remembers that she hasn't eaten anything since the night she left from her night shift work.

"What time is it?" she asks after drinking her milk, her plate's clear and her face a little less troubled. The elder looks outside and looks back at her.

"A little past noon," he replies.

"Oh- so- are- are we not going to talk about I don't know, everything?" she asks, extending her arms as if indicating the entire scenario she's in now.

"What do you want to know?" he asks.

"You can ask me anything you need to know" he adds patiently.

"Just who exactly are you?" she asks the question she's been asking since ever since everything begun.

"As Briaphela may have mentioned yesterday through her image replica magic, we are the people of Faistran. We are the royal family's most trusted guards to be exact." He starts.

"I am Solomon, the royal family's trusted adviser. That may be the reason they choose to call me 'elder'" he explains as he regards himself of his real name.

"Wait, Solomon?" Allura clarifies. She has heard the name thousands of times already but it was obviously from history books she read.

"If that's so, how did you guys end up here?" Allura spreads her arms.

"Briaphela is a powerful sorceress. She's the royal family's personal sorcerer. Her family has served the royal family for generations; she may be the most promising member out of their generation yet. She was able to teleport the three of us here," the elder regards Briaphela which such high regard that Allura could sense how proud he is if her.

Allura noticed something in the expression of the elder when he says Briaphela was able to teleport the three of them into their world, but she didn't bother making a big deal out of it. She kept quiet in order to not get in the way of the elder's story and continue to listen to him.

"How about Shkan?" Allura remembers the man who had saved her but how he treated her during the chase with an attitude. If he hadn't dragged her away, she would have been dead right now.

"Shkan leads the Royal Army's elite forces. Although he is not a tridan he's one of the best. We had to bring the best people here to get a hold of you, protect you and take you back to Faistran with us," the elder explains as if the news was nothing.

"Wait" Tridan? What is tridan? Allura suddenly ask.

"Tridan is one of the race that inhabits the kingdom of Faistran. There's an old urban myth that says 'at the time the Gods shaped the eight races, they favored the tridan's most that the Gods made sure they are shaped just like them." The elder answered. Just after explaining to her about the tridans, the elder's expression changed into something grim, as if he was afraid of something.

"We are short in time princess, we must return to Faistran without delay, this place, the human world, is not safe for you to hide in anymore" The elder says begging.

"Wait, I really can't understand anything right now?!" she exclaims. She has no idea who these people are, they may have saved her life but that doesn't mean she's ready to leave with them.

"Please-"the elder bows down as he put beside him his wooden staff.

"The king, your father has been murdered not long before we teleported here. There are assassins all over Faistran disguised as tridans. We do not know who to trust anymore." The elder informs.

"We are so dissatisfied of ourselves as the royal guardians, we're supposed to be the first to die before the king as the guard but a mere assassin was able to break through our line of defense that we thought was impenetrable" The elder says in detail.

The elder's vision is now becoming blurry as a watery like liquid starts to descent from his mysterious white eye. Allura was also an emotional girl that is why as she hears the story told by the elder, tears from her eyes starts to fall without her noticing. As she tries to get off to bed to provide the elder comfort she starts to hear voices outside the room. Believing it's coming from two people.

"We beg you princess" Briaphela enters the room along with Shkan bowing their heads to her, joining the elder in persuading her into coming along with them to Faistran.

One of the two who speak hurriedly moves forward to get near to where Allura is with one of its knee on the floor then bowed.

"Princess Amaltheai, I Shkan request for forgiveness as to how I treated you the other day, just say the word and I as the faithful guardian of Faistran will kill myself as an apology" Shkan says apologetically as he pick up his black sword from its back then pointing it to its open neck.

"No no no!!! Please stop it, there's no need for you to apologize, what happened the other day was so unexpected that both of our lives were on the line so the way you acted was reasonable. I forgive you and would also like to take this chance to thank you for saving my life yesterday" Allura responded hurriedly to Shkan fearful as she saw that he was being serious about taking his life just for her to forgive him.

"As I said, please, give me time to think about it," Allura moves to lie back down, pulling the blanket to cover her face.

"We understand" The elder grabs his staff and moves to leave the room.

"We'll be outside if you need us," The elder says before leaving the room together with. Briaphela and Shkan.

Allura hears the door shut close. She puts the sheets down for a moment to see if they really did leave the room. When the coast is clear, she pulls the sheets back up again and finally she lets her tears roll down again. She closes her eyes hoping to sleep a little more soundly and hoping that all of this was just a dream.