Airya decided to be the brave adventurer. Over time, she and Hethei traveled to other dimensions or worlds briefly, only to look at them for a short time if she was ever bored or craving to go somewhere else. She didn’t want to spend too much time anywhere because after she had met Obsviden and that boy, she didn’t want to converse or run into anyone else. She wanted to learn about her power first. She didn’t want to feel the need to take someone somewhere and accidently hurt them again. Every time after returning from an adventure, she would track her dad down and tell him of the awesome things that she had seen. He would always smile the entire time and ask her questions about the places.

She avoided mentioning the traveling around her mom. Whenever her mom saw her dad encouraging her, she always shot him a mean glare. Lessons with her mom now were more focused with no distractions, but Airya found that since she was seeing more of the world outside of theirs, her thirst for knowledge was growing, and she wanted to learn all she could. She especially wanted to read more in the temple room with the mirror and all the other languages in case she encountered a world that had symbols that she wanted or needed to read or understand. She knew reading those symbols held the key to opening more knowledge of the places she visited.

Airya was amazed at how fast she was getting at opening and closing portals, especially if she ended up somewhere dangerous. She was also amazed at how smart Hethei was getting with his powers too. One time they had ended up back at the place of water, and Hethei had another portal opened at the ready to soar into so he wouldn’t almost drown again. He did that any time he entered another place. Hethei was also loyal. Although he would puff out his feathers each time she opened a portal, he always followed through because he never seemed to want to leave her. He always acted like he either needed to protect her or like she needed to protect him.

Every time in order to open a portal, she had to feel a strong pull that blended between a physical and emotional attachment to the place she wanted to go or something there. If it was just a random place she wanted to go to, then she had to want to go somewhere new. And she always had to return back to Ausrine. She could never could go straight from one place to another.

Their favorite place to go and visit, which they did frequently to get away and relax, was the world that Hethei was from with the lake. They would go and sit on the edge of the lake like they were doing now and stare out at the never-ending water that reflected how the universe seemed to be never-ending too.

"Hethei. Do you want to try somewhere new today? I want to find my dad something!"

Hethei puffed out his feathers.

"Oh, come on! It’ll be fun!" She stood up and reached out to Ausrine opening a hole in front of her to step through onto softer, greener grass. Without missing a beat, she kept walking toward the temple.

She planned at first to talk to her dad to tell him what her plan was, but she stopped when she saw her mom sitting at one of the thrones with Stilk by her side. They were talking to each other. Her mom looked up and saw Airya and then shook her head before looking away back down at Stilk, who was watching Airya with hatred.

Forgetting about her dad, Airya started for her room instead, with anger rising inside her. Hethei puffed out his feathers, able to sense Airya's irritation. She missed the warmth her mother used to give her with her greetings, but now her mom looked entirely annoyed with her whenever she saw her. Airya knew it was because she was going against her wishes and traveling to other worlds. She didn't understand why that meant that her mom felt the need to completely shut her out, though.

She ignored her bed. She wanted to leave. Wanted to go someplace, anyplace, away from where she was now so she could be away from her mother. A hole opened right before one of her walls. She looked to Hethei, who looked to her and then puffed out his feathers to show his discouragement. But he stayed on her shoulder as she walked through the blue and black anyway.

In an instant, like walking through a doorway, she went from her bedroom’s stone floor to pebbly rocks that squeezed her skin tight on the bottoms of her bare feet. The rocks were wet. There was a heaviness in the air that smelled of deep earth, and it was slightly cold because of a breeze. She looked around. She was on the outside edge of a forest near a small brook that made such a beautiful melody that Airya wanted to sit down and enjoy it. She heard the sound of children laughing and running before she heard forced panting that couldn’t be from a human. She saw that the panting was coming from some type of tall beast with thin legs and a large body. A man was sitting on top of it. There was a village up ahead with homes made of tree trunks. Other people were moving around each other, looking to avoid everyone else.

She realized that if she wanted to get her dad something from another world and if she really wanted to learn more there was to know about other worlds, she may need to talk to the people that were there at some point. It scared her. Maybe if she didn’t linger long or try to make any friends, she would be ok. Today was the day. Although she was frightened, she had to remind herself how brave she was. She had traveled to many places, many worlds. For her to converse with people and creatures should be nothing to her now. The last time she had conversed with anyone from a new place, she had not known any better. Now she was better with her powers and more knowledgeable. Deep down, she knew she was braver than almost anyone else she knew.

None of the older people noticed her approaching until she saw a little boy with a freckly pale face run to one of the adults nearby and tug on their long coat. The woman looked annoyed and tried to shoo him away until the woman saw where he was pointing. She observed Airya. Her displeased eyes turned to panic. The woman stammered, backed away, ran into a man, and pointed to Airya.

Hethei puffed out his feathers on Airya’s shoulder. The air grew thin and dangerous as more people stopped and stared at her. She looked down at her rat-skinned tunic and then at the other people’s clothes and wondered if they were shocked that she was different with her attire. She walked forward again, this time with caution and a smile.

She waved. They all flinched. Now about twenty or more people were staring at her.

She kept continuing forward until the beast lifted his two legs and gave a little dance while letting out a whine. That made Airya freeze. Hethei's claws dug into her shoulder.

"She has to be a demon or a witch!" The man on the beast yelled out. Airya didn't know what those two words meant, "Just look at her eyes!"

She had forgotten about her eyes. She scanned the crowd and saw no eyes that were bright yellow. They were all dull. She was unable to see their colors from as far as she stood. She didn’t understand why they were making such a big deal out of her eyes. That boy she had met before hadn’t.

"I'm not either of those things,” she yelled in a voice too little to be brave, "I’m just a Yellow Eye. I came here to look for a gift for my dad!"

They all began to murmur to each other in hushed frightened whispers. Her shoulders relaxed, thinking that she had explained herself well enough. She started forward to them again.

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"Halt!" The man on the beast shouted. The beast’s back had some seat on it for the man to sit. "Come no further, whatever you are! Go back to where you came from!"

"But why?" Airya was confused, "I just want to get a gift for my dad."

She received a look just like the ones that the Solocs always gave her, and she began to erupt in silent tears. It was hatred. Hatred was painted on these people's faces who didn't even know her.

"She’s only a little demon or a kid witch! We don't have to be scared of her!" One of the other men on the ground shouted.

Airya looked up and wiped away her tears with a small hope springing in her chest.

"We can take her down ourselves and be heroes to the neighboring villages!" the same man yelled out.

Airya's heart stopped when she saw all the people nodding in agreement. Time stood still as she turned to run, but then heavy footfalls took over the sound of her pounding heart. The beast ran in front of her blocking her way. She looked up to the man, about to plead to him to let her go, but he looked down at her with complete disgust. She turned to run the other way, but more people were approaching her. Some with ropes tangled in their hands and a predatory want in their eyes. Hethei flew up into the sky, leaving her.

"Hethei!" Betrayal gutted her.

"I'll block her from escaping into the forest! Once we grab her, we’ll drown her down by the river with the rocks!" the man on his beast said.

After hearing his words, she tried to run up to the village instead of running into the forest, scared to be anywhere near that man and his beast. But her legs were no match for the people closing in on her. She thought she might be free to escape, but then one of them grabbed her with his rough hands, squeezing her arm.

Hethei dove down, pecking and clawing at the old man's face forcing him to let go. It allowed Airya to continue her run to the town with a better chance of getting there to hide. She thought of using her gift to return home but didn’t want the horrible people to follow her into Ausrine. It would prove her mother right that she shouldn’t be traveling. She had to get home safely and without any of them. She had to hide and then open a portal to leave so no one would jump inside.

A screech sounded behind her. Hethei flew right over her shoulder past her.

"Our children! Don't let her take our children!" One of the women yelled as Airya’s feet hit the carved dirt path that led to their different homes.

She started down it going deeper into the village, breathing heavily.

"Stop her! Witch!" multiple people yelled as they chased her.

The people in the village jumped out of her way at first, confused, until they realized they were supposed to stop her. She looked over her shoulder and saw a larger crowd forming a mob. She slipped into wet mud on the dirt road and fell into a small opened cart with random gadgets and knickknacks all over. While struggling to pick herself up, Hethei flew up to her, screeching as if urging her to get to safety. She crawled out and stumbled back onto the path, legs covered in dried and wet mud.

The crowd was so much closer now.

She took a sharp turn right and then left and right again to try to lose them, but now some were in front of her, having taken a different path. Something similar to Hethei's squawk jarred her, and she turned to find fat white creatures covered in feathers pecking at the dirt in an enclosed fence. She opened it in a panic, and Hethei swooped down in a blur scaring the odd birds, and causing them to run all over. Some darted into different paths in the village.

Picking the path the creatures didn't choose, Airya ran, knocking over anything and everything she could find into the dirt to give obstacles to anyone who followed behind her. Breathing and focused, she saw the edge of the small town and willed her legs to stretch to get there faster. Reaching the edge, she took a sharp left and threw herself against one of the wooden houses while reaching out for Ausrine. Before seeing the hole, she ran to where she knew it would be. It opened and swallowed her up, vanishing her from the townspeople's existence.

She collapsed in her room, breathing so heavy she started to wheeze. Another hole opened up, and Hethei flew out of it and landed on her bed. Relief flooded her, and her wheezing turned to sobs. She didn't understand why those people were after her with such a vengeance and hatred when she didn't do anything wrong. She didn't understand why they were so fixated on her eyes and kept calling her things that they held such a deep hatred for.

She looked down at her hands and saw that they were empty. Her hope was to make her dad happy, and she had gone there only for empty hands, dirty legs, and a broken heart.

"Hethei, I am so sorry." She sobbed harder as Hethei flew beside her, "I'm sorry I put us in danger. I’m sorry you had to go through all that for no reason. I’m so sorry that you almost got hurt, and we could have both been lost there forever."

Hethei dropped something in front of her with a small plop. She looked to the noise and saw a small wooden object that was decorated in different colors. It was a long smooth handle that widened, forming a big dip like a cup.

"Hethei, you took something!"

Hethei puffed his chest out and spun around once with two little hoots.

Her fear vanished, replaced by relief and excitement. Airya rubbed Hethei's feathered stomach with her finger, "Hethei! You’re amazing! Thank goodness something came out of all that! Dad will be so happy!”

Airya picked up the light small object with a small little nick in it from Hethie's beak, got to her feet at once, and ran out of her bedroom to find her dad.

Luckily, Airya didn't have to go far. Her dad was in the temple by the river with a slab full of berries he was picking and eating one by one.

"Dad!" Airya yelled, running to him and lunging at him as he caught her in a shocked, tense embrace. After a moment, he came to relax and let his muscles melt, letting her squeeze him tight. Airya let go, and her dad helped her balance as she sat on the ground next to him, crossing her legs, "Where’s mom?"

"She’s down in the village. What was that hug all about, Airya? Are you ok?"

She to her lap, even though she was hiding the gift in her hand behind her back. She had tried not to let emotions get the best of her, but she still felt the slightest wisp of fear in her chest, "Yes, dad. Just... Hethei and I... " She refused to cry and show her tears, so she shook her head and made herself smile, bringing the gift out from behind her back to present to her dad, "We got you something!"

His eyes widened, and he gave her his giant smile with all of his teeth, "Ah! Aha! A spoon! How extremely pleasant!" He took it out of her hands and held it before his eyes, "And so beautifully carved from wood! Also, it’s painted in such brilliant colors! Airya, this is so perfect! Thank you! You have to tell me all about how you came across it!" His eyes twinkled with excitement and hope for a courageous fun story.

Airya's face fell, and she looked at her muddy legs, "Dad. I'm so sorry. I was scared."

Her dad's smile dropped to concern. He set the spoon carefully on the ground by his side, "Airya, there’s nothing to be sorry about." He glanced at her legs, just noticing them, "What happened?"

She told him all.

His eyes showed guilt with a hint of tears, but they quickly disappeared, and he pulled her close to his chest as he ran his hand down her hair, "Oh, Airya. That does sound scary. I’m so happy you’re OK. I’m so sorry I didn't explain things to you before. I should have thought to, but I was just too excited for you to go to far-off places and see amazing things more than the little there is here to see."

She pulled her head away and looked at him confused, "Explain what?”

“That people aren't used to seeing things that are different from what they usually see. Going to these places dressed as you are might scare some people, so you have to be careful. It makes you stand out. Those people have most likely never seen someone dressed like you," he pointed down her to tunic, "So it scared them. Also, as you said, your yellow eyes. It sounds like that may not be common in some places either."

She nodded, trying to understand, "But why attack the things that scare you?"

Her dad glanced at the spoon, "It’s for defense, little one. They think they need to protect themselves, and to them, that is the easiest way to do that. It may not be the best way, as you have noticed, because if they had just talked to you, they would have seen you were just an innocent girl, and the world would have opened up for them even more so. You should also keep in mind that portals could be something new and could be feared also. You didn't even know it was a thing until now. I didn't either!" he chuckled, "But it could scare people like it does your mother and cause them to act out. You should try, if you can, when you go someplace, to not show a portal around anyone when you come and go." He rubbed the top of her head, "But I'm so happy this little one helped you out there.”

"I love you, dad," Airya whispered and sat back to look into his brilliant yellow eyes. Then she sat up higher to kiss her favorite freckle on his cheek.