Happy Birthday, Kallie! Here is the continuation of your birthday story, I hope you like it!
Have an epica birthday! I love you, sister!
*hands her 19 birthday cupcakes*
"Alice!" Aliandra shouted as she ran in the house. She heard distant sobbing. "Alice?"
She followed the sound to Alice's bedroom, where she found the girl sobbing on her bed.
She knocked on the partially open door as she walked in.
"Go away." Alice said between sobs.
"I'm sorry, Alice, but I can't." She replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I know this is shocking, and I didn't mean to spring it on you like this, Malark needs sensitivity training."
Alice laughed as she sat up. "How could you lie to me? I thought we were friends."
"We are friends, Al, but things have been set in motion that aren't supposed to happen for a few years."
Alice didn't respond.
"I was trying to protect you, that's all I've ever been trying to do."
"Were you ever my friend? Or were you just following orders?" Alice asked bitterly, turning to face her.
"Yes, and I really do think Jason McCormick is a hottie." Alice laughed. "My only order was to watch you. not let you become my best friend."
Alice smiled, finally losing the cold stare she had adopted.
"Now, ask any questions you have, I'll answer them all honestly."
"Promise?"
"I promise on all things sugery and sweet that I will answer truthfully." Aliandra replied, raising her hand and placing the other over her heart.
"Okay," Alice thought for a moment. "Am I really a princess?"
"Yes."
"I'm from another dimension?"
"Yep."
"Okay, I'm not sure how to respond to that."
"Didn't expect you to." Aliandra said with a smile.
"And you're from there too?" Aliandra nodded.
"Okay, so, why can't I know anything abou-" Alice began, but was interrupted by the sound of her 'mother' calling her name.
"We're up here." Alice said, her voice tight.
Mrs. Darwin entered the room soon after, smiling when she saw Aliandra.
"Hi Ophelia, what are you doing here? And why is there a strange boy moaning in pain on my porch?"
Aliandra smiled but didn't respond, only glancing at Alice, who got to her feet.
"Why did you lie to me?" She asked.
"About what?" Her mother asked, looking confused.
"About you being my mother." Alice replied.
"I never lied to you about anything!" Was the reponse.
"You're lying to me right now!" Alice said.
"What is going on with you?" Just before Alice could speak, Aliandra interrupted.
"She knows, Pria, you may as well drop the act."
Alice watched her mother as her shoulders dropped in defeat. "Alright."
"Why did you both lie to me about this? And what couldn't you tell me at the forest, Aliandra?" She said Aliandra's name with bitterness.
"Really? We're back to being ticked?" Aliandra responded before taking a deep breath. "There is a prophecy that, when the time is right, the Lost Heir will return to reunite the Feir Kingdoms. You're that Lost Heir, but you weren't supposed to know until you were 20."
"Why?"
"Because that's when the Prophecy said you were to return 'On the morning of the Lost Heirs twentieth year, the dawn of the new Feirs will rise.'"
"Seems really specific for a prophecy."
"Yeah well, our Oracle is really good."
"So what happens now?" Alice asked after a moment.
"I'm not sure." Aliandra admitted. "I wasn't expecting this to happen so soon."
"Guess your Oracle isn't so good after all, huh?"
"Watch it, Princess." Aliandra said, though there was a lightheartedness to her tone.
Suddenly, Malark burst into the room.
"Hey!" Alice shouted. "Get out!"
"We've got trouble." He said, ignoring Alice completely.
"What kind of trouble?"
"Grenra's cousin trouble."
Aliandra cursed in a language Alice had never heard before. "That's big trouble."
"What's a Grenra and why don't you like his relatives?" Alice asked.
"No time to explain right now, but in short, big monster that will eat you alive." Aliandra said quickly, grabbing Alice's hand and dragging her out of the room and towards the stairs when they heard a loud roar that literally shook the house.
Alice grabbed the railing for balance.
"That was the monster." Aliandra said unnecessarily.
"Well I didn't think it was a kitten!" Alice retorted as they ran out the back door, and stopped dead as they caught sight of a massive monster, easily standing 9 feet tall, with mis-matched skin of blue and black, it looked like a massive bruise.
They ducked as it swung at them, and Aliandra pushed her to the left as she leapt to the right, the monster turning to go after Alice as she crab-walked backwards.
A rock bounced off of its head and it paused, and reached its hand out to grab her, and another rock hit it on the arm with such force that Alice heard it snap; it hung limply at the monster side as it turned to face Aliandra, who was tossing a rock the size of a baseball in the air and catching it like she did at softball practice, and threw it, smacking the monster in the face with such force that it stumbled, but quickly regained its footing and cocked its head at her, studying her, and then a creepy thing happened, even creepier than a nine foot bruise: it spoke.
"Aliandra, you are interfering."
Aliandra looked as shocked as Alice felt.
"You can talk?" They said at the same time.
"This beast? Of course not, it is simply a tool." The monster said. "Too stupid to figure out how to use its vocal cords, but what it lacks in brains, it makes up for in being a brilliant assassin."
"Who are you?" Aliandra demanded.
"Now, now, Aliandra, don't go ruining my fun." It said, and the beast turned back to Alice. "Now back to business."
"Stay away from me!" Alice shouted as it reached for her. It didn't respond and she rolled out of the way, got to her feet and ran over to where Aliandra stood.
"Aliandra, you may want to snap out of it now." But she still stood there, staring at the monster. "Ophelia!"
Aliandra jumped and snapped back to reality, grabbing Alice's hand and running.
"How do we beat it?" Alice asked as they ran to the woods. She heard Malark behind them, shouting insults at the monster, and throwing what looked like fireballs. "Why can't you do that?"
"We can't beat it, it's a member of the Grenra family, they can only be contained, and we don't have the right equipment to do so," She answered. "And I'm a little busy trying to keep you alive."
"Can't you multi-task?" Alice asked. "Duck!"
They ducked just as the monster threw a small tree at them.
"Malark!" Aliandra shouted as they rolled away from the monster that was now stomping towards them. "Any time you want to help!"
"I'm working on it!" He shouted back. He had been weaving his hands in intricate patterns and muttering to himself.
They started running again, but Alice tripped over a stray tree root and hit the ground. She tried to get up, but was grabbed by the monster, who held her at arms length above the ground.
She tried swinging punches, but she was facing away from the monster, its claws digging into her back the more she struggled.
It suddenly dropped her, and she landed hard, her ankle twisting and she cried out.
Aliandra ran over to her and knelt beside her, checking the damage on her ankle.
"It's not broken." She said. "You just sprained it."
"What happened to the monster?" Alice asked between clenched teeth.
"Malark finished his chant." Aliandra said simply. "He took control of the creature and told it to stop."
"Didn't mean for it to drop you that hard though, sorry." Malark said as he approached, though he didn't sound all that sorry.
He turned to the monster and closed his eyes, standing perfectly still.
A light appeared behind it and it stepped into it and vanished as Malark opened his eyes and turned back to them.
"What did you do?" Alice asked.
"I told it to join the circus and it left to find a costume." He said.
"How do you know about the circus?" She asked. "You aren't even from here!"
"We're not forbidden from coming here, you know." He said, then dismissed her and spoke to Aliandra. "What do we do now?"
"I'm not sure." She said. "There isn't exactly a manual for this."
"Do we take her home?" He asked.
"I'm right here, you know." Alice said, waving a hand at them.
"Sorry, Alice." Aliandra said. "We can't take you back to our dimension yet."
"And why not?" Malark asked, crossing his arms. "At least there we'd have the home court advantage."
"Figures you'd be a basketball fan." Alice said.
"Where were you when we were being attacked by the giant monster?" Aliandra said. "It's certainly not from here, it was sent, from our dimension; and that means that there are enemies trying to kill her, and prevent her from getting there."
"Wait, if there are people trying to prevent me from getting to this oh so wonderful dimension full of all kinds of nightmares and killers, why not just go there if that's what they don't want?" Alice said.
"Because you have to have certain skills in order to cross over the dimensional borders, a skill you haven't developed yet." Aliandra replied. "We have to train you before you can move between worlds, and then we can really mess with them."
Alice grinned. "I get to learn magic?"
Aliandra nodded. "Yup."
"This day is turning out better than I thought it was." She said. "When do we start?"
