The Stranger

"I'm gonna get you Seto!" A young Alex said as she chased Seto and his little brother, Mokie.

"No your not!" Seto yelled back to her.

"You two can't run forever!"

"Yes we can!" Seto picked up Mokie, set him on his back piggy-back style and ran even faster than before. He wasn't about to lose another game of tag to Alex. They ran to the front of the orphanage. Seto jumped over a tree root that was in his way.

Alex ran even faster trying to catch up to them. She was so focused on chasing Seto and Mokie, that she didn't see the root. She tripped over it and fell to the ground. Seto was unaware of what had happened and continued running.

Alex got back to her feet, but something was wrong. Her golden head band was missing from her forehead. She frantically looked for it.

The band was rolling across the yard to the front gate. It continued to role until it bumped into a man's foot. He picked it up and recognized it as a Millennium Item. He wondered if this could possibly help him in the wanted return of his love.

Alex ran to the gate, where she found the man holding her band. He was a relatively young man. He had silver hair and a brown eye. She couldn't see his other eye because half his face was covered by his hair. He spoke.

"Is this your's?" He offered the item to her.

"Yes, it is." She grabbed it out of his hand.

Seto ,still running, was on the other half of the building by now. Still unaware Alex was no longer chasing them. Mokie turned his head to see Alex wasn't there.

"Seto stop."

"Why?"

"Alex isn't there anymore!"

Seto stopped and turned to find no one there. "She must have tripped over that root we passed earlier." He let Mokie down and they headed back.

"We're did you get this!?" The man said anxiously.

Alex shrugged, "I've always had it, but I was told that it once belonged to an ancient Egyptian princess. Cool, huh." She took the item proudly placed it on her head.

"Very. Tell me, uh..."

"Alex"

"Of course, tell me Alex have you noticed anything odd about it?"

"Well, I usually don't tell people this but, sometimes when I'm scared or mad or something like that these awesome monsters show up and scare the bad things away."

"What do these so called monsters look like?"

"It's hard to say, they all look different. But if you want to see what some of them look like I drew them so I wouldn't forget what they looked like."

"Show them to me!"

She jumped backed a bit, surprised. "Okay! Follow me." Alex was nervous about this stranger. Why was he so interested in everything? How did he know all the right questions to ask? What did he want from her?

Alex took the man to her bed and took a folder out of her pillowcase, she opened it. There were various types of monsters; a green wolf, a red haired woman with blue wings, a brown fuzz ball with big eyes, and a warrior wearing a purple tunic and holding a green staff.

"This one's mine and Seto's favorite." Alex pulled out a picture of a large white dragon with blue eyes. "Him and Mokie are the only others who know about this."

The man had a shocked look on his face."I've seen these creatures before!" He looked back at Alex and noticed the band beginning to glow. "So I was right, you poses a Millennium Item! The fabled Millennium Crown, which lets you link the shadow realm to our own world!" The man turned to leave. "I shall return."

Alex was utterly confused. What's a Millennium Item? What's the shadow realm? Where has he seen these monsters before? How did he know all these things?

"Hey Alex, we finally found you." Seto and Mokie came through the door, with the man almost running into them. "Who was that guy?"

"I don't know, but he was weird." Alex was still a little disturbed by what just happened, but she decided to leave it behind her. Still staring out the door, she spoke "Hey Seto."

"What?"

She stretched out her arm and poked Seto. "Tag."

"What, no way, I called time-out!" Seto couldn't believe he lost again. It seemed she was the only one to beet him at anything.

Mokie butted in. "No you didn't."

"Quiet Mokie. She doesn't have to know that!"

"But isn't that cheating?"

"I said be quiet." Seto couldn't believe his own brother was betraying him like this.

"Hey it's okay; so Seto called time-out, not like it matters."

Seto just lost her."What do you mean it doesn't matter?"

"Time in" Alex yelled. And before he knew it they were both an the ground, rolling around the ground laughing. Mokie soon joined in the fun. They never wanted times like this to end. But all good things must come to an end.