Two Worlds Collide - 2. Chapter 2

Two Worlds Collide Part 2

Ethan

I woke up a few hours after the elf-like creature had fallen asleep. As the elf, or what I would assume was an elf, lay in my arms, I think back to what happened just a few hours earlier. I had been woken to the body I had been holding move away from me suddenly. When I had opened my eyes, the sight that lay before me was breathtaking. There before my eyes was the elf, crouched in a defensive position, without a shirt over his lean, slightly muscular body, hair framing his face. His eyes were what really took my breath away. They had a deep emerald color to them in the shadow.

Without warning, the elf suddenly started to sway and fall. I leapt from the couch to catch him as he fell. Then, the elf started to writhe in pain. I started to hold him down, to prevent him from popping the stitches, but he easily broke free from my grasp. Damn, he is stronger than he looks. I then decided to just cradle him, to help soothe him. Soon, he started to calm down, and looked up at me, only his eyes were a deep blue with a gold band around his iris. So his eyes seem to change colors when in shadows. Hmmm I wonder what they would look like in…Shaking such thoughts from my head, I notice that the elf had started to cry. I started to rock him gently, trying to tell him that the pain will pass, hoping that he could understand me. As he falls asleep, I move him back to the couch and continue to hold him. Soon, I had fallen asleep, content for the first time in a while.

Having remembered that moment, I study the elf. One of his arms is wrapped around my torso, with his head cushioned on my chest. His hair is cascaded across his face, so I reach out a hand and brush back the hair behind his pointed ear. His ears fascinated me, the way the curved up into a tip. As I touched them, the elf started to snuggle closer to me in his sleep; I smiled. I looked at the clock and it read 10:06 a.m. I got up carefully, trying not to wake the elf, deciding that it was time for me to make breakfast. As I finished making two omelets, I brought them over to the coffee table, in front of the couch, and gently shook the elf, trying to wake him. I don’t think that was a smart thing to do, for when I shook him, his eyes few open, he thrust his hand in my direction, and said a strange word. Then next thing I know, I am on the floor, on the other side of the room, having been flung around like a rag doll. When I had looked back at the elf, he was completely covered from head to toe in the blankets. From the blankets, I heard “I’ll wake up when I am ready to.” I just gapped at the situation and started to laugh.

Ryndal

Even though I am an elf, and am always energetic, I am the hardest person to wake up. I am fine waking up on my own, but when someone tries to wake me up, oh, I get evil. I enjoy my sleep and if anyone tries to take that away from me, they see my dark side. So, when the human tried to wake me up, I reacted the way I always do when I am being woken up by someone: I lash out. As I stretched out my hand, a very little voice inside my head told me not to do it, that the human doesn’t know my sleeping habits; I drowned out the voice with a word from a simple spell, a telekinetic spell, mainly used to move objects out of reach. With it, I flung the human away from me, and wrapped the blankets tightly around myself, saying “I’ll wake up when I am ready to.” The ridiculous thing is that the human started to laugh.

Just as I was about to fall back to sleep again, I felt something grab the blankets. As soon as I figured what was about to happen, the human yanked the blankets, causing me to spin on the couch as he continued to unravel me from the blankets. I grabbed onto the last of the blankets and hugged them to my chest, not thinking about what that would do. I found out a few seconds later, as I was being dragged across the floor by the blankets. I finally let go of the blanket, flat on my back. I slowly sat up, and slowly turned my head to the offending human and glared. He just laughed even harder.

I just sighed and rolled my eyes, apparently having met my match when it comes to stubbornness.

“What did you wake me up for?” I said, letting the annoyance seep out of my voice.

“Well, you have been sleeping like you were among the dead, so I thought it would be a good idea for you to eat, considering you lost quite a bit of blood.” He said, continuing to let out a chuckle every once in a while.

After he said that, I remembered what had happened at the lake, and that I had almost become among the dead, if not for this stranger. I also remembered that I had a duty to fulfill. I jumped up, ran over to the mirror on one of the walls.

“Retrema kabande cortoga” I said, while tracing runes on the mirror. The mirror then turned foggy, then to pitch blackness. After a while, the image that presented itself was not me, but that of the back of a guard.

“Soldier!!!” I said in elven. The guard jumped and turned around with an astonished look. After the guard saw me, he straightened up and saluted me.

“Sir, to what do I owe this honor?” the soldier said.

“I must speak with the queen immediately; there is no time to waste.” I said, making the urgency apparent in my voice.

The guard looked nervous. “I apologize, but I am not at liberty to enter the Royal Court. I could go look for someone who is, but that may take a while.”

I was starting to lose patience, which for an elf, is astounding. “There may not be enough time for you to do that…just carry the mirror to the Royal Court, so that I may speak to the queen.”

The guard looked astounded by my request. “But sir, I am still unable to enter the Royal Cou-”

“JUST GET THIS MIRROR TO THE ROYAL COURT! JUST SHOW ME TO THE GUARDS, AND THAT WILL LET YOU GET IN! NOW DO AS I SAY!” I had lost my patience. Didn’t this guard see that this matter was important? That I wouldn’t be forced to talk through a mirror if it wasn’t?

The guard then hurriedly picked up the mirror and started running down the hall towards the Royal Court. After watching this for a minute, I started to get dizzy from the image constantly moving. I turned around, thinking that the human was being strangely quiet. When I turned around, my annoyance had disappeared, and it was my turn to laugh. The human had his eyes and jaw completely opened and was looking at me with disbelief; it was as if he had never seen magic before…That is when I stopped laughing. Could it be that I am on a different planet? That would explain all of the strange stuff in this place. My attention is drawn to the mirror by the soldier calling for me.

“Sir. Sir, we are here. Uhm, sir, the guards are waiting.” I looked back at the mirror to see the scared face of the soldier.

“Show me to them.” He turned the mirror around, to show me that there were two tall soldiers blocking the door. They may seem weak, but they are among the elite of the squads, chosen to protect the queen with everything that they had. When they saw my image, theirs eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion.

“How do we know that this is not a trick?” One of them asked. Despite the importance of speaking to the queen, I couldn’t resist; I put on an innocent face.

“What? You think that someone could copy this perfection with magic?” The other guard sighed.

“There is no doubt about who you are, that is for sure. You may pass.” And with that, both guards stepped out of the way of the double doors, and then opened them. As the soldier, who’s name I never did get, walked through the door, I am met my a sight that takes my breath away, no matter how many times that I see it. The Royal Court was a massive room, in the center of the palace. The walls of the massive, circular room were made of pure white, polished marble. Protruding from half of the room was a massive, crescent shaped balcony, supported to its impressive height by thick pillars of blue topaz, chased with thin vines of silver and gold. As the domed ceiling progressed, the color of the marble turned from white to pure black. However, within that blackness, there were thousands of gems of every kind, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and even moon stones.

However, the beauty of the room was outshone by the figure standing by a throne of fluted glass. Queen Izmallonda was the pride of the elven nation. She stood at about 6’, with hair that was a deep sapphire blue that came down to her waist, with two thick strands of pure silver hair framing her face. Her skin was pure white, which gave a mysterious glow to her, and her eyes were just as blue as her hair. She was dress in a gown of deep green, with a corset worked with silver. It is hard to believe that such a beauty is actually over two thousand years old. As the soldier who was carrying the mirror made his was to the queen, he stopped a respectable distance away and bowed. The queen, having seen my image in the mirror, slowly made her way to the soldier, who seemed shocked to the point that the mirror was shaking, and giving me a headache.

“Stop your shaking or you are going to make me sick.” I whispered to him, so that the queen would not hear; the image became stable.

“My queen.” I knelt down on one knee, with my head bowed; I stood back up. “I have urgent news that require your immediate acti-”

“It is good to see that you are doing fine, but I wish to know where you are and where are the other members of your squad.” The queen asked, looking past me to look at the human, who I guess is still looking like a fish out of water.

“That is the reason for why I have had to contact you in such a manner. I know not where I am, but I must inform you of this; you must make yourself ready for war.” With that said, the queen’s eyes widened.

“And why is this so?” She asked, not to doubt me, but so that she could defend the elven nation necessarily.

“My squad, and I assume the other squads, were killed by an army of bloodthirsty orcs. I was only able to get away because of the sacrifice made by one of my squad members.” Remembering this, my eyes start to mist.

The queen, seeing the impact that this was having on me, avoided talking about my squad and its demise. “From where were they coming from?” She asked.

“The last that I saw of them, they were coming from the south, about a day away from Glasmiera Lake.”

The queen looked contemplative. “We should be able to rally our forces to repel the invaders, but just to be safe, I will send envoys to our human allies, asking them for their assistance.”

“As always, you make the wisest decisions. Now, I must take my leave, for keeping this spell up is very taxing for me. I am glad that I was able to make it in time to inform you of the impending invasion. May the gods watch over you, so that you may continue to shelter our people.” With that, I bowed once again, getting ready to drop my spell.

“Hold on, Ryndal.” The queen said. “You still haven’t told me where you are.”

I smiled at the queen and shrugged. “I am about to find out.” And with that, I released the spell.

Ethan

After dragging the elf off of the couch, he then rushed over to my mirror. Looks like he is a little vain, I thought, laughing on the inside. Then, I ended up choking on my laughter as the mirror darkened, and revealed a person in metal armor. The elf started speaking in a language that I could only assume was elven. As this continued, my mind continued to reel from what I am seeing; a different world. When the person in the mirror started to carry the image around, the elf turned around and looked at me. My expression must have been funny, because he started to laugh. After a while, he stopped suddenly, then turned back to the mirror.

After an argument with some more people, the mirror then showed a room that I could only describe as perfect. I could not believe that such beauty could exist. Then again, such a thing was standing in my living room. I looked at the elf for a while. Afterwards, I turned my attention back to the mirror and gasped out loud. In the mirror was, by far, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It seems to me that the different colored strand of hair ran among the elven race. The elf started talking to the stunningly beautiful woman. After a while, her gaze then turned upon me, and I felt as if the world had been set upon my shoulders. I gasped once again, as I heard her voice inside my head. Please take care of him. He has been through a lot. I gulped and slowly nodded my head, wondering who this woman was.

After what seemed like forever, the elf then bowed to the woman in the mirror, but she drew his attention once more, saying something. The elf then shrugged, and said something in return. Before the image of the woman faded, she looked at me once more, with a pleading look on her face; I flashed her a small smile in response.

The elf turned from the mirror and looked at me. By that time, I had recovered from my shock. Time seemed to stand still for a while; none of us moved or spoke for what seemed like hours. I decided to break the silence.

“What was that all about?” I asked casually, as if I was just asking what the weather was like. The elf seemed to find this amusing.

“Oh nothing, I was just warning my people of an upcoming invasion.” He said just as casually. That had my mouth open in shock once again. My mouth hasn’t been open this much since…Note to self: STOP THINKING!! I closed my mouth and cleared my throat.

“Anyway, I am Ethan, by the way, Ethan Scholtz. And you are?” I raised one of my eye brows. The elf laughed.

“To believe that after all that we have been through already, we had not known each others names. My name is Ryndal Swiftwind.”

“Now that we know each others names, I must be frank. What the hell was all of that about?”

“Well, I do not like being woken up, so when you tried to wake me up, I got irritated and pushed you away.” He said with an amused look on his face.

“That is not what I meant. I am talking about what you did to my mirror.”

“I just cast a clairvoyance spell on the mirror, so that I could speak with the queen of my people.”

“That woman was your queen? But she is so young.” Ryndal just started to burst into laughs, with tears running down his face.

“As you can obviously see, I am not human, and neither is she. We are both elves, and she is older than she look; she is over two thousand years old.” He said when he was able to catch his breath. I just gapped at him.

“And how old are you?” I asked, dreading what his answer would be.

He rolled his eyes and answered “I am only nineteen years old. We get to chose when we can become ageless, however, it is permanent, and I have yet to become so. In other words, I will continue to age until I decide to stay the way I am.” He said calmly. Here he was, talking about being immortal as if it were a thing that was natural. Then again, to him, it is normal. “Now it’s my turn for the questions. First, where am I?”

“Well, you are in New York City, New York.” He just gave me a blank stare. “You are on the planet Earth.” I said, dead pan.

He just sighed. “I knew I wasn’t on my planet, but it is still a shock none the less.” He paused for a moment. “Second, why did you help me?” He said, staring straight at me, his eyes sapphire blue.

“Well, it would be a little bit difficult to explain to the authorities why there was a dead elf in my bed.” I said with a slight grin. He just rolled his eyes and smiled.

“I suppose that would be a little bit difficult to explain. Now onto the third question; are there any elves on this planet?”

“As far as I know, the only sentient beings on this planet are humans.”

His face showed mock horror. “Oh great, I just happen to have ended up on a planet with only humans. How have you managed to survive all this time?” He asked in a theatric voice.

I laughed. “Well, there have been quite a few catastrophes and wars that have killed many humans, but we are a race that is too stubborn to die off.”

“Now onto the final and most important question that I have right now; why the hell did you wake me up?” He said with a fake frown on his face.

I just started to laugh hard, thinking that this elf has a messed up sense of importance. “Oh, I was just waking you up so you could eat something. I assume that you have not had much to eat for a while.” He just gave me a blank look.

“Oh” was all he said.

As he bent down to pick up the plate sitting on the coffee table, I heard a few faint pops and it took me a second to realize what had happened, as Ryndal fell over on the floor, hunched up in pain; a few of his stitches must have broken, opening a few of the wounds up again. As I raced over to him, he got up on his knees, with rivulets of blood coming down his back.

“Dammit. I am getting really tired of these cuts.” I heard him say. Then he sat on the floor and assumed a meditating pose, while breathing in deep from his nose and breathing out through his mouth. As I looked, the stitches started to pop one by one as the wounds started to close up. Wow, that would be a nice trick to learn. When he was finished, his back was completely healed, with not even a mark on it, with the strings of the stitches lying behind him. The only evidence that showed that he had been cut was the blood on his back. I just gapped.

Ryndal then turned around to me. “Is there a place where I can wash up? I haven’t been able to bathe for a while.” Could have fooled me, considering how great he smelled.

I looked up at him and cleared my throat. “Yeah, in that room, there is a tub where you can clean up.” With that, he got up and walked to the bathroom. I heard the water running, and my mind started to think of what he looked like naked. God, I need to stop drooling over him. He probably already has someone, with how he looks. I decided that the omelet that I had made was old enough, so I made another one. I then went over to the bathroom door and knocked.

“Yes?” I heard from the other side of the door.

“I have breakfast ready.”

“Alright, you can come in.” I slowly opened the door to a sight that had me standing at full attention in seconds. Ryndal was relaxing in the tub with bubbly water up to the center of his stomach, with his head leaning back, eyes closed, and his arms resting on the sides. I cleared my throat for what seemed to be the one hundredth time today.

“I am surprised that you knew how to work the plumbing.” He opened his eyes and looked at me.

“We have similar plumbing, but we have to heat the water ourselves with magic, and our tubs are stone, so they do not feel as good.” Damn, I wish I was that tub right now.

“Uhm, here is your food. I hope you like it.” Holding out the plate, I tried to avert my eyes away from Ryndal. I must be as red as a fire hydrant right now. Ryndal took the plate and started to eat the food. “I’ll go try to find something for you to wear.” With that, I rushed out of the bathroom as fast as I could.

Ryndal

Relaxing in the tub was something I had not been able to do for a while. Trying to keep my mind clear of distractions was something I had not been able to do since I arrived here on this planet. Being with a human who is quite handsome can be very distracting. As I lay my head back against the tub, I think about the human. A little bit taller than me, with a muscular build that belied his gentle touch. Every time I look into his dark brown eyes, I lose myself for a second. Every time he touches me, I feel as if I have been struck my lightning. I hear a knock on the door and tell the human that he can come in. After a brief exchange of words, the human rushed out of the bathroom to get me something to wear, with his face as red as a ruby. This is going to be an interesting stay. As I finish up my bath, I dry off and wrap the towel around my waist, and walk out of the bathroom. I found Ethan sitting on the couch, with his eyes closed. I looked over at the table and saw some clothes. I decided that I should change in the bathroom, so as not to make Ethan uncomfortable, and headed back to the bathroom with the clothes.

Ethan

Why is it that this is happening to me? I thought cynically, lying on the couch with my eyes closed. Why does a beautiful man just happen to, quite literally, fall from the sky and into my clutches right when I get out of a bad relationship? I had been thinking this for quite a while. My previous relationship had ended…bad. Yeah, I think that would be an understatement. Seeing your boyfriend plowing into a twink, in our bed, was more than bad. I ended up throwing a lot of things at him and his little twinker bell; started off with his keys (after I took off the apartment key), his cell, a vase, and even a chair. All the while, he kept saying “It’s not what you think” or “He means nothing to me” and even “Baby, I love you”; when I started making my way to the knife rack, he got it in his head that he should leave. He was closing the door right when I threw one of the knives at him. This all just happened the previous week. Well, no use moping over this.

I got up, intent on checking on Ryndal, when there was a knock on the door. Who the hell could that be? I walked to the door and opened it; that wasn’t the only thing that opened. My jaw dropped open, for there in the doorway was my ex. Fuck…

To be continued…