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Author's Note:

Words with one asterisk on both sides are spoken in one of Earth languages.

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THE PRINCE'S IMAGINARY FRIEND, PART I

In the west palace, my mother always kept me near as if in fear someone would take me away.  It was fine, I never knew loneliness, there was always Mother and the maids, and the King would ever so often stop by. I was never lonely, until I met him.

--- 3 months old ---

There was a little kid laying besides me, and started talking to me.  He spoke in different sounds than the adults.

I knew we looked alike.  Because I remembered that I got angry that he stole my face, so much so that I punched him in the face.  

"Old habits never change." He said. "Come on! Don't you remember me?  We shared a womb for 10 months. We can be civilized and talk here. No need to get physical." His baby faced looked like it wanted to cry.  Which made me want to cry, too.

He made weird sounds, but I understood him.  He said, "I'm...your long lost brother, come to check up on ya and make sure ya're okay. But what do ya do?  Ya hit me," he grabs his face, "and now I'm hurt!" He actually started to cry.  His face puckered and scrunched up and he began to wail with tears streaking down in his eyes.

Shocked and dumbfounded, I started to tear up, too.  Then I notice him smirk, which showed he was not actually hurt.  Realizing my attention was on him, he started to make a hurt face again, so I punched him before he started to crying again. 

"Fine, if you don't want to play then I'll leave." He turned around and started to leave.

"No, no leave! No hurt. *Play*"  *Play*...that word sent a bit me a bit of happiness.  "*Play*." I repeated more to myself. 

"I don't know...ya hit me.  Maybe I'll stay, if you say sorry."

"Surrey. No leave."

"Sorry, isn't enough, you need to show you are sorry..."

"*Show*?"

"I know." He said, with what I sense in my 3 month old self as fakeness, "You can teach me the adult language.""

'Huh?  Isn't all speaks the same?'  I thought, but somehow he heard my words.

"Nope, adults speak a many different languages. And even use special words for different occasions or for different people.  And, I can hear you because we are in Dream Land."

"Dremlind?"

"It's dr-drEAm-la-land." He sounded the word and emphasized 'EAM'. "And yes, I can do many things in Dream Land, like understand my twin blood brother."  He said melodically.

"First before we, what's your name?

"Alan."

"Well, Alan. You can call me 'Anh Hai.'" My self-proclaimed brother said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Un-hi."

He came up and place both hands around my face, and looked me in the eyes."It's 'Anh Hai'! Anh Hai!"  

"Unhayei."

{Note from the writer: "Anh" means older brother, "Anh Hai" is eldest brother in South Vietnamese. }

{ Cut

"Don't worry, it means brother in different language." He said.  It was later on I found out it meant 'older brother.' And it wasn't one of his adult languages, he said he only knew a few Japanese words.  

}

--- Year 3 ---  Unhai of Dremlin

And every night, right after bedtime, I would go to Dremlin and meet Unhai.

There I talk and play with Unhai.  He said, he was good at some things and very bad at others.  Like language, he can't understand what the adults are saying, and that only I could teach him. So at age the early age of 3 months, I focused on what the adults were saying.  Unhai seemed really interested in the adults.  

"Let's play a new game, or rather it's an old one with new rules."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"New rules, Unhai?"

"Yep, this time. You have to ask the 5'Ws' and 1 'H.'"

"Five double yous and one aach? What is that?"

"It's the name for the six questions to get the complete story of most things.  We should call it the six questions instead, some stuff just doesn't translate." He shakes his head and continues, "For this game you have to ask an easy adults the question of who, what, when, where, why, and how. You know the first four, now ask them why and how, too."

That was mission during the waking hours, learn as much of the adult speak as I can.  Not only learn what I should say, to each adult, but why.  

"Because Nala is a maid," I said,  "That is how you speak to a maid, if it should be necessary to speak to them."  I repeated Mother's words back to *Onii-chan.*

--- Age 5 ---

It was really fun, until sometime around our 5th year.  There was an entire week, where I didn't go to Dremlin.  I didn't get to see Unhai.  It was the first time I was really scared.  Scared that he'd leave me.  

When he came back, he smiled in a sad way.  

I yelled at him. "Why?" I cried. "Why did he leave me?"

"I am sorry, something bad happen."

"Bad?"

"Yes. Some adult were..." He started to cry.  He said, "Alan, you have to becareful, the palace is a dangerous place.  You need to keep your eyes open, and see, who can you trust.  The queen right, she only has you as a son."  I nodded.

After that, he changed became very focused on knowing and learning, and not playing.  He would asks me the happenings of around me, scold me for not paying attention, and pluck thoughts right off my head before I got the chance to say them.

I would complain, but I was scared he'd leave me alone again.  

Then much later, I could feel it:  His exhaustion and hunger.  Sometimes, I was afraid he'd disappear because he was so hungry.  I never felt that kind of hunger before.  Unhai never said anything and he didn't know I could feel it.

"Unhai! Come to the place!"  I said.  "There's a lot of food here, you can eat here."  My words were insufficient, I didn't have the right words, or the right phrase to make him come.  

"Can't." Unhai said.

"Why?" 

"There are mean people in the palace."

"But why, why are you hungry?" Why are you starving, was what I wanted to say.

"It might be the same mean people."  Then he came close to whisper, as if someone outside could hear us in here, in Dremlin, "Listen, there are mean people everywhere, if you want to help me, if you never want to go starving, then stay close to Mom, and listen, watch, and if the time is right ask questions of the right people."

Unhai spoke of lot of other children, but for me in the west palace, there was only me and my sisters. That resources were limited, and to have power was to keep one and one's family safe from injury, famine, and starvation.  Because of that I because attentive to the ongoings in the palace.  And how useful information is to my and my family's safety.

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Author's Ramble: 

I am really good at writing prologues (or really bad at it).  Cause when I started this project I wrote 4 different intros.  After racking my brain on which intro to use, I just went with them all. Through some editing 1.5 of them are used in this chapter. 

On the upside, I still have some intros left to form the next chapter. I still wanted to add more to this chapter, but frankly I am tired of looking at it.  Maybe I'll come back later.  Hope you enjoyed it!

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