I felt like a little kid - I was half his height and clinging beside him, as Fezege introduced the newcomer to a slightly confused Sage.

"This is Lasory, the other Messenger from Sakari."

He waved and we all took a seat as Fezege gave us each a tea. I was just relieved to see him okay. We're certainly a ways from home, now.

"I think I missed your introduction, young lady," the teacher called attention to me. Ick.

"I'm Lydia, and I used to be a messenger of Sakari," I nervously chuckled, beginning to shiver again. I wished I could scoop my words out of the air as soon as they left my mouth and put them back in my chest. If words could be taken back so easily, then maybe so too could the truth they hold.

Sage's face looked suddenly cold, as though she connected the dots.

Most of us looked at our feet or glanced around, waiting for someone to speak, but nobody knew how to start the conversation because nothing seemed right to say. Death tends to make the air kinda heavy.

I lightly sipped on my tea, ignoring the thick steam frothing forth from its surface.

Following a sharp zing on my tongue, I immediately started gagging and nearly wore the hot liquid trying to set it down, but everyone in the room started laughing.

"Careful, it's hot," Lasory teased.

"Thanks," I spat back.

I guess that brought the mood up enough. Fezege drew a breath and looked at me through a smile.

"Miss Lydia, Lasory, I'd like to extend my own apology for everything you've been through." She bowed at us both for a good second, then focused on me. "I want you to understand that my intention is to help you through whatever I can."

"Th-thank you," I stuttered.

Sage sat closer to me and put an arm around me again, like it was second nature to her. And now I kind of feel like a jerk for assuming she was the bratty type, granted I'm far more concerned with the lack of respect for personal space here.

Like, come on, am I a teddy bear??

Fezege returned to her seat. "I have made arrangements for a place for the both of you to stay. So rest assured that, for the time being, you will have somewhere comfortable to live."

Lasory quickly picked up on my worried face, as did I think Fezege, because she smirked and said, "Somewhere hospitable."

Sage's grip on me tightened, and her fingers began to dig in to my side as she stopped breathing.

Hello???? Earth to Sage!!

"You wouldn't possibly be letting them stay with..." she seemed to threaten.

"I'd want only the best for our esteemed guests," Fezege shot back overly sweetly.

"It's not FAIR!" my captor whined.

"Well why don't you stop complaining and escort these tired people somewhere they can get some decent rest, and we can talk about you perhaps having some dinner there?"

She nearly leapt out of her own clothes as she snapped to a stand in the blink of an eye, near about grabbing Lasory and I to drag along with her.

All this energy is the last thing I need right now.

~

Elsewhere, several weeks ago

My ears wouldn't stop ringing. Everything was so blurry.

I was on the floor, I think. I could barely keep my head above my center of gravity as I swayed and swirled around, trying to use my hands to feel myself and feel around me, but all my senses felt like they were all but disconnected from my brain.

The ringing faded a little, but nothing got quieter. Everything still seemed just as loud, in fact, as I could begin piecing together tiny bits of my vision and make out blobs of color zooming past me and around me in all ways and directions.

Memories were beginning to return. Consciousness.

Where am I?

Did I hit my head?

Last thing I remember... we were doing research...

Me and Robin, yeah. I remember. We just got back to class to grab our bags. Vincent wasn't here anymore for Keith to pick on, so he was chatting it up with that bitch. Everyone else was making idle small talk as they zipped up their bags, putting away laptops, wrapping up the pieces they had of their projects.

And that's... that's the last of what I remember, I think. People were shouting... or is that not in my memory?

My consciousness returned more to reality, where I rubbed my eyes and was able to make out hundreds of people, brushing past me left and right, all going different directions. So much was going on, so many arms waving, even a cart pulled by a horse nearly knocked me over.

What the hell??

I was in the middle of a street, one made of a rocky material nothing like asphalt. All around me were small, short buildings and tents, each crowded with people all shouting at each other, though few seemed angry.

At first I was just sitting there on my knees with my mouth hanging open as I surveyed my surroundings, but consciousness is a funny thing. The more I came to, the more foreign everything became.

And then I started to notice. Some of these people had longer, pointed ears. Some had horns, some ears and tails like those of an animal. Is this some sort of twisted, disfigured retcon cosplay event? Did I sleepily hand my parents the permission slip to a field trip like this without reading the form?

My hearing was still fuzzy and muffled, like in the movies when someone's standing outside a club and the bass beats are muffled through the wall.

There was so much chatter, hoots, hollers, touts, and shouts. I was starting to make things out, slowly.

"Water... awer... vend... eaten... door"

I was starting to make out words... but they were said through a thick accent. Everyone seemed to share this accent, but it was strange, not one I'd heard before, or at least I couldn't place it right away.

I stood up, many people stopping for a moment to give me a strange look, some of which having eyes in colors I didn't know people could have.

The more I focused, the harder it seemed to be able to pick out the words they were saying. It was like jibberish. Like people were just saying all these random words that didn't make full sentences at all.

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But like a tidal slap in the face, all my senses and my full state of consciousness returned to me in an instant and left me standing there, shellshocked, and pale as a ghost.

They weren't even speaking English. Nor any language I'd ever heard before.

A man, a woman, and her child, all with bushy, light brown tails and ears upon the tops of their heads, were standing before a stand of fruit. A mother, father, and child. The child's ears perked up when the mother said something to her, and the father's tail drifted from side to side as he shook hands with the man on the other side of the stand.

WHAT the hell is going on?!

It began to set in.

My eyes were darting from place to place increasingly quickly as I looked, then desperately searched, for any semblance of a place or face I knew. Am I on some sort of reality TV show prank?

Nobody was speaking English. This place isn't even remotely close to home. Or it's a damn good prank.

I looked at a passerby. "Excuse me?"

I was met with confusion and a couple estranged glances before my heart rate really began to pick up. I was tapping people on the shoulder, begging someone to help, but people were more and more confused, even offended that I was asking for help, seeming to recoil at the sound of my voice.

I was stood there in the middle of this old-fashioned market, spinning around in circles as I realized that everything I looked at was foreign to me, every text, every person, even the rocks upon which my feet stood. The only thing that stood any semblance of what I knew ended at the soles of my shoes.

A tear slid down my cheek as I fell to my knees in despair, knees, and tails, brushing past my face.

~

Lydia

"Whoooaaahh..." I gasped and ogled at the kitchen I was standing in.

Everything was so neat and tidy, and so masterfully decorated. Clear glass cupboards with deeply-colored wooden trimming held impossibly elegant, gorgeous crockery. Plants and antique teacups sat atop the cupboards neatly, and the vines of a few healthy pottings dripped down along the corners, giving the kitchen such a natural, otherworldly feel.

This tickled so many bones in my body.

"Who do you know..." I began with a wide-open jaw. "...that keeps such a beautiful kitchen?"

Lasory laughed, and I relished in that sound, one that I was afraid I wouldn't get to hear again.

"Some old friends. They're lending this place to us. Use it as though it were your home."

As though it were my home. I'd rather use my home like it was my home. Not make a mockery of it.

He put a hand on my shoulder. The Doctor knew all too well what I had on my mind at just about any time. I was either an easy read or he was a perceptive man. "Why don't you make us dinner tonight? I know how you love to cook." He'd added that last part in a singsongy voice like he was a salesman trying to make a tantalizing offer.

And tantalizing it was.

I don't know if I could turn down cooking in a place such as this. But at the same time, I don't know the least bit about who I'm cooking for, this kitchen, its owners, or anything like that. Making food is such a personal affair and keeping a kitchen such as this takes nothing short of a perfectionairy's vision. I would be a fool to mess it up in any way. Or God forbid, break a dish.

Lasory just chuckled, practically reading my thoughts on my eyes, before turning around and grabbing a stool to set before me. "Perhaps these might be of some use to you?" He was holding a folded up pair of glasses.

"I guess those might be important..." I trailed off as I took them, thanked him, and slid them over my face. The Doctor gave me such a bright, beaming look of joy and love as soon as they were on my face and I looked at him in his eyes, which were no longer blurry.

"They always suit you so well."

I gave him a half smile before looking away, resigning to make dinner after all. The first order of business was knowing where everything was in this masterpiece of a kitchen, so I carefully began checking through cupboards.

I remember when Lasory gave these glasses to me in the first place. He had them made when I was placed in the royal mansion in Sakari, and gave them to me as a bargaining tool, no less.

It didn't matter, though. I'd already long-since made up my mind on the offer they were staked upon, before they ever entered the picture. I knew then I would never leave that girl's side, nor let go of that hand.

This room felt so eerily comfortable and nostalgic, almost the same way that Sage girl felt. It wasn't something I could place my finger on, though. Everything just seemed like it was in the right place.

But I have to admit... my heart was up in my throat just a little bit, kind of giddy with excitement. Coming from the mansion, there were so many talented hands making food all day that I was rarely able to get that opportunity myself, even though I used to make dinners all the time before then.

"What's on the menu?" I asked with my hands proudly on my hips, giving away my mood.

That was awarded an honest laugh, followed by, "I believe our lovely teacher friend got her hands on a wonderful catch of fish. I trust you'll be able to prepare something with that tonight?"

I gulped. As much as I'd love to be responsible for that... please do not make me responsible for that. This time of year, the last of the good fish were settling in their lakes and were less eager to bite. Getting them transported to a castle like this one where lakes and rivers were a considerable distance was an incredible feat.

So, in other words... maybe don't trust me with that?

The stovetop had burners with crystals at their bases, which I had to have Lasory light with magic. He had to think about how to do it, and gave me a questioning look after I placed a pot over the magenta flame.

I started getting things ready, and fell into my old sort of autopilot state I'd get into when I made food. Though I more typically cooked over a hearth or a fire oven of various sorts, it was easy to get into the same mindset.

It let me chew through things. Like going on a nice walk or taking a long bath. Just a thing you do every day that you can tune out and let your mind sort itself out.

Of course, the excitement for dinner tonight was there. I didn't know who these twins were, which was an unwelcome uncertainty, though their reputation was certainly building with all I'd seen and heard.

Beyond that... what was next?

I didn't have much to say for that.

Just a whole lot of blank, empty unknown, like I'm drifting through space without a line to pull me back to the atmosphere.

That same unknown used to be something I embraced when I was with Myu and Ayami. We were our own little family, and either her or Lasory was always cooking up some sort of wild thing to do. Even the lazy days we used to have were so... comfortable. Warm.

Now the uncertain was cold. It didn't wrap me up in its arms, it pushed me away and gave me a blank face.

"Miss Lydia," Lasory cut through my train of thoughts as I was now chopping vegetables rather hurriedly. "Never forget that I am a Doctor. Helping people through their problems is what I do best."

Don't let him fool you. He's not a MEDICAL doctor.

"Oh come now, let's not think harsh things," he said through gritted teeth under a forced smile. "Talk to me."

I sighed and paused my slicing. "I guess..."

"...I guess I just don't know what's next."

"When have we ever? That's always been the beauty of our lives as Messengers. That's what you signed up for, was it not?"

"It's not like that. We're not Messengers anymore."

Again I wished I could scoop up my words, as my best friend's palpable hesitation made me regret them.

My heart came back to my throat, but this wasn't in the excitable way. This was more the kind that made my vision get blurry and made it hard to speak.

"Lasory... I have no idea where to go from here," my voice cracked a lot as I tried to keep it together. I was already working up a headache after all that sobbing earlier.

"Forward, Princess. Forward."

My lips puckered, and one of my tears betrayed my composure. "Forward to where?"

He thought about that for a long moment. I can't blame him.

"To the end of the day. How about that?" His words were crystal clear, said with a concision that cut through my uncertainties. "Just make it to the end of the day. Take everything one day at a time. Don't worry about tomorrow until tomorrow comes."

I nodded slowly, and he reached forward with a dough-covered finger to wipe the tear from my cheek.

"Think you can do that?"

Just make it to the end of the day, huh?

Even a task so simple seemed to loom over me and taunt me. Even as dinner approached, getting to bed and making it through the night seemed so far away. I haven't slept in days, and yet the thought of doing so hasn't crossed my mind once.

"I know things are tough, kid."

A voice echoed so distantly in my mind. I knew it.

"Life's always gonna be nippin' at your shins. I wish these cuts on your knee were gonna be the worst of it."

I was sobbing uncontrollably, cradling a scraped-up knee as he wiped the dirt out of it and scolded me every time I screamed from the sting.

"I never wanna get back on that bike again!" I shouted at him.

He frowned. "Why wouldn't you? Your mom and I worked hard to get you that bike. 'I want it so bad, Dad, I'll do whatever you want if you get me a bike' - or at least that's what you told me before."

I grunted and pouted, choosing not to listen to his reasoning.

"I thought we were all gonna go on family rides together. What, are you scared of a little fall?"

He challenged me like that all the time. I found myself striving to prove that I could do it. And maybe that's why I tried to get on the bike for the first time, or why I tried to take off the training wheels.

"I thought my kid was stronger than that."

"But I don't wanna get hurt again," I cried.

"Valor and perseverance."

Those words rang through most of all. Those were his favorite two to tell me. He'd say them all the time, even though I didn't really know what they meant. Maybe I don't even now.

"Why won't you just tell me how to ride the bike?" I shouted again as the tears flowed out with no sign of stopping.

"I can't learn to ride for you, kid. You've gotta do it, and only you can."

My head was starting to hurt a lot as my emotions were running wild. I was cooking frantically now with Lasory watching patiently, resigning to let me air my frustrations over the cutting board and the stovetop.

My father... both of my parents are dead. I was raised by my grandmother.

And what the hell is a bike, anyway?