[Author's Note:] So here it is the next chapter. Songs that you can listen to while reading that helped inspiring me: Moonshadow Cat Stevens; Dolphin Alexander Rybak; Magical Mr. Mistoffelees-Paul Nicholas; I See You (Theme from Avatar)

It was one of those days at home, where I knew I needed to do something productive. Productive, how I had come to hate that word it was so…so…useful. I'm a daydreamer by trade (yah, right I wish I could get paid for it). I had to get something done other than my norm; which was close to nothing. I was lack for a better word, lazy.

Anyways, I had just finished putting the dishes away in the dish washer when a loud thump drew my attention to the house's front door, through the kitchen window. What I saw surprised me, at the foot of our front door was a pure white barn owl; it began to flutter its wings as it tried to lift its body off the ground but it collapsed once again. I ran to the door and slowly opened it not wishing to frighten the animal, and make it injure itself anymore. I knew it couldn't survive just laying there with our feral cats running around the place, it would be eaten in a matter of moments if I didn't do something. I hurried and called my father, that was an expert at handling these sorts of situations, and as he talked me through how to pick up the bird without hurting it the bird turned its eyes up at me and for a moment I was struck about how human those eyes almost seemed. Later on, as I thought about what it was that made me think that; it was the emotion that I could have sworn I saw resonating in its mix-matched gaze. An almost heart-wrenching sadness.

Soon though my father got home and began to properly take care of the bird. He could tell that I was a bit uneasy. The uneasiness stemmed from my past history with living things, which wasn't pretty. I admired and marveled the way my father handled the injured animal. Whenever he took care of any sort of living creature, it was almost as if a sort of light magic fell upon the scene. Animals seemed to utterly trust him and plants thrived under his hand.

The verdict on the owl's condition came soon enough.

"His wing's completely crushed it looks as if it were injured even before he hit our front door." He had comfortably situated the snow white owl in a low box with plenty of cushioning so the animal wouldn't injure itself anymore than it already was. "What I don't get is how utterly careless it seems. It doesn't have any rings or marking on its feet or wings that would indicate it being a domestic owl and yet it doesn't seem to care that we are handling it." He went into the garage to get some of the materials that would be needed in order to set the wing.

The weeks that would follow we waited for the owl to make up its mind, one night it seemed like he had decided to die. My father had forced me to stay with him, despite my fear of dead and dying things, I had seen way to many animals and people on their last legs. But I stayed by that owl's side all that night, just waiting…there's a blurred memory of myself at one point bursting in tears and gently holding the bird to my breast, gently, wishing he would live, but I repeatedly told myself after that night, that I had done no such thing…but I would never be able to convince the owl of this point. The next morning he was alive and perched upon my side waiting for me to wake up; it was with this scene that my father got up to make breakfast.

Days after that night the owl would still not leave my side; and through those days he began to exude a certain personality that didn't get lost on the rest of us. And almost against my own wishes it was decided that he was ours, or rather mine more specifically, it was decided unspoken but it was still definite. He followed me everywhere, and when I say everywhere I mean everywhere; even into the bathroom-which I promptly made him turn around. He was an animal, but it was still awkward, no one wants anything staring at you while you are trying to get a certain business done. He was a little feathery gentleman, though, he never peeked not once; I know what you are thinking…he's an owl. I know, I know, but to me he almost became a person without me knowing it.

When my father saw that the owl was not going to leave any time soon, he built a small little habitat for our "little gentleman" to put in the corner of my room beside my bed. I would feed him every day and in turn he never made a mess, not once, not even an accident. It was almost as if he weren't a wild animal, or an animal period but really the pet name we had called him. Soon it came to my attention that my little companion was disappearing at least once a week, and each time my dreams would be full of white owls; but I merely thought it was coincidence, a weird one, but still a coincidence.

He became my little protector and friend without me even really noticing it.

When I went to college that fall, I noticed something odd. Well it was not too much so as before but still it seemed the situation seemed to get even worse, not that I personally really cared or anything. Anyways it was my dear friend and college buddy who pointed out the fact to me. We were sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch between classes, when she broke the silence.

"Kaitlin, there is no guys in the room."

I shrugged, "It's a small school, and they could all be in class or something."

She shook her dark haired head, "Not that small." She continued to mumble a little bit, "How am I supposed to get a bf with you automatically repelling all the guys?" I gave her a look, but she only looked back at me incredulously; like I should have noticed something completely obvious by now. "You haven't noticed have you?"

"What?" I was getting a bit bummed now, I had been trying to finish up my homework, and she just wouldn't drop it.

"Even in class all the boys have taken to sitting on the far side of the room from of you; and then in English where we have assigned seating the boys sitting next to you look completely uncomfortable, like they are about to jump out of their seats and run away."

"Oh your exaggerating, Mel." I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, because I knew what I wouldn't admit. Although I hadn't caught onto what Mel did, I had noticed an odd change and feeling in the air; the air was almost heavy, thick with some unnamed magic; and I had that odd situation as if someone was watching me all the time. I shook my head, and whispered, "Impossible." But I knew it wasn't.

Later on in English I looked about me and saw that Melody's words were true, but even she couldn't say exactly the right words to describe how exactly uncomfortable all the guys seemed; some were actually squirming in their seats, almost as if they were ready for the class to end so they could get away.

Weeks went by and the "situation" didn't change, but the feeling in the air did, it almost seemed to have been satisfied, relieved; but the "watching" did not stop. It only came clear to me that the situation with the whole male population, other than those married or otherwise attached, had to do with me; when a brave soul decided to fight against whatever was making them stay away and not even speak a word other than what they had to. And it wasn't me, I didn't smell or anything, it was just weird; I wasn't guy crazy or anything, it was just that it was all so very odd.

The brave soul happened to be a French foreign exchange student that happened to come to our class a little later on than most, so he had a bit to catch up on. He came to my Intermediate Voice class as well, and he ended up sitting at my side in an empty seat. Voice class in general was a very sociable class, because that was how our teacher was; so when we got partnered up I ended up with him. Gerard was his name, he promptly introduced himself to me with almost a bow of his head and one of his smiles that soon afterwards became infamous. I loved his accent, he was the ultimate fun to have as a partner he had quite the dry humor that most people would not entirely enjoy but I loved it. He was very charismatic, he could have any girl he wanted just by having her gaze into his wonder lust blue eyes.

Why he decided to pay attention to me didn't come clear until later, I was a challenge. He kept to my side, always having an excuse like he needed help on some of the English homework or something of that nature; it was during this time that I noticed that he suffered from consistent headaches, which strangely seemed to present themselves only in my presence. When I asked if he needed anything for them, he told nothing seemed to work; and then he would give me a stunning grin and say the one of many phrases that I didn't quite understand why he exactly said them.

"You are not going to get rid of me that easy. Headaches, storms, magic spells; such things won't keep me away."

With this statement I would just shake my head confused, I wouldn't know until much later that the cause of all the uncomfortable silences and headaches resided with a little someone I had come to love very dearly. Oh, but if only I had known that the trouble had only just begun.

The trouble came in the form of another "foreign" exchange student, and he was certainly like no other. As soon as he entered our music room the gasps and wide-eyed gazes began.

Only our music teacher's voice could be heard through the sudden silence, "It sure seems as if we have quite a few foreign exchange students this semester." But even then her voice ended in a whisper, and her eyes became glued to the stranger.

I didn't pay much attention to all this until our teacher said the new students name, "Jareth? Did I pronounce your name right?"

My head shot up, I knew that name; familiar but not ordinary.

A deep and cultured voice answered politely, "Yes, you did wonderfully, ma'am." My eyes shifted over to him, my gaze went to his mouth first, straightened into a wry half smile and smirk. I shivered and suddenly I was utterly scared to look at the rest of him. I realized I was staring at his lips and that his smile had only gotten bigger showing white almost canine teeth. I could feel my cheeks turn hot, and I hoped fervently that no one else noticed; my hopes were dashed as I heard a dark chuckle as wry as his smile was. I could feel myself turn even warmer. And I decided I wouldn't finish looking at him after all; and so I quickly looked down. But luck was not on my side as I heard the teacher say my name.

"Kaitlin, it seems this new student has the same classes as you; perhaps you could show him around?"

"There's not much to see, I'm sure he could…"

"I'd be delighted, if she could do so." There came another series of chuckles and I could feel his gaze on me.

"Well then it's settled."

No it wasn't I thought. I'd just have to run out of the classroom before he had a chance to leave and then I'd be fine. Class continued on, with him sitting on one side of me and Gerard on the other; I felt caged in and I couldn't wait to escape. I tried to focus on my vocal exercises and the group song we were singing, but it was almost as if the man's very presence burned me. Something was wrong about him; I just knew I wasn't making it all up; what it was I didn't know at the time. I finally just excused myself making an excuse that I felt sick.

"You do look a bit pale; will you be ok by yourself?" My teacher got a worried look on her face, and I just nodded in response, swallowing what I felt could have been bile. I picked up my stuff and hurried out as fast as I could, but not before I heard the short discussion behind me.

"Ma'am, may I be excused to check on her?" That blasted rich almost English/Celtic accented voice wafted from the music room; so I picked up my pace but not before I heard my teacher reply with the formative, with this I ran out as fast as I could of the building and into the next and into the bathroom; hoping that I wouldn't have to stick it out to long there in hiding.

English the following day didn't work out any better; he was assigned to sit directly behind me. But by this time I was composed enough to treat him like the other students, politely but with a bit of aloofness. He didn't bother me, and I thanked him silently for it, obviously he could take a hint. It was like that for a whole week, not even with that invisible watching feeling anymore, and I began to think it was all in my head.

At lunch one day my lil' gentleman came for a visit; he dropped in quite unexpected. It was a day that had gratefully been blessed with no sign of the man named Jareth; and I was having my lunch outside with my two friends Mel and Jen. I heard a soft little hoot somewhere above me, and I smiled. When my friends asked why I was smiling so ridiculously and whether I had a boy I was thinking of, I laughed and told them to watch.

I took from my bag my leather glove that I had gotten into the habit of bringing wherever I was, and put it on. I raised my left arm up and waited, I knew my friends were looking at me oddly but I just smiled and said, "Wait and see." Then I turned my head up towards the tree where I was pretty sure I had seen a flash of white, and I start cooing and making kissing noises. "Come my lil' ol' friend, I want you to meet my friends." He then swooped down from the tree, gracefully landing on my arm. I kissed his little beak and he cuddled into my neck cooing his own little tune. I turned and with my other hand made a sweeping gesture as if to bow.

"I'd like you two to meet my little gentleman." I grinned at their shocked faces.

"I didn't know you had an owl, Kaitlin." Mel sat aback, as Jen walked forward and held out her hand gently.

"Will he let me pet him?"

"Well, just hold your hand out and we'll see." I couldn't stop grinning. He looked at Jen skeptically, and then looked at me with his mix-matched gaze and I nodded. He leaned forward and nudged her hand gently, giving her permission. She touched his feathery down softly stroking it, and he let out one little coo; as if reserving all his others only for me. He turned back to be and nipped at my ear gently. "Wanna go already?" He cooed in response, so I lifted my arm so he could take off and so he did.

My friend still standing looked up where I was looking watching him fly off, "It's almost as if you understand each other."

I looked to her before sitting down, "I think we do."

My life was about to give me a big surprise, that I wasn't quite ready for. One day towards the end of the semester, I had a terrible morning. You know one of those mornings where you wake up shortly after going to sleep, because you were an insomniac the previous night. Then on top of that, that morning you skip breakfast, because you hard boiled eggs that for some reason weren't hardened all the way the through so they are just a slimy mess. On top of that you have a "fight" with either your parental units or roommate, so not only are you hungry, tired but you are also in a terrible mood. So once you get to your school you try to compensate with what's ever in the vending machines; which leads you to overdose on sugar because the only thing in the machines were orange juice and an assortment of sugary sweets. So you have a sugar high throughout your whole first class, but by your second you're already feeling the effects of all that sugar going to your brain so now you are all topsy-turvy and you are just trying to stay in an upright position. And you just know that if anything else happens that day, you might just pass out. Yep, it was one of those days.

And it was on such a day that that Jareth person just had to start following me again, and yes we have the same classes but our classes were done and I was heading for the cafeteria, hoping against hopes that the café would be open today. But once I arrived it was closed, reminding me that it was closed every Friday; I was just about to hit something when a voice behind me stopped me.

"Can I help you, miss?"

I turned to find my stalker behind me, and just when I was about to say something incredibly rude, he interrupted me.

"I could tell you weren't feeling well, and I thought perhaps I could help you to the infirmary."

I opened my mouth and closed it shut, even when utterly frustrated, sick and totally out of it, I don't like being mean to someone that looks genuinely concerned, and that's how he looked as I looked up at him.

It was the first time I really got a good look at him, and I realized he was a head and a few inches taller than me, which was unusual because at times I felt like a giant amongst everyone at that school; and his eyes were mix-matched. One eye was a stunning gold color, not amber but gold; and the other eye was like a tumultuous sea with its colors, an amazing mixture of deep blue, baby blue and green, with an almost opal quality to them. His face had strong aristocratic features, with high cheekbones and arched eyebrows, that seemed knit in worry at that moment; and his skin was like the palest ivory. His hair was a light blonde, almost white but not quite; it almost looked like he had even lighter blonde highlights that in certain light seemed to reflect off an almost silver to the strands. He was beautiful, even with my odd way looking at beauty (I'll explain later) I could tell; and an almost other world majesty to him, that didn't seem to belong in our world. I could understand now the rumors around the school, about him being from a royal family or that belonged in a sci-fi fantasy realm. It was frightening just how extraordinary he was, one could not help but continue looking into his eyes. I could see it and I could suddenly understand the stares he received, and found myself blushing as I realized that I was staring, as well.

His eyes lit up and his infamous smirk appeared as he looked down at me, "Are you finished with your inspection yet?"

I blushed a deeper shade of crimson, and wished fervently that I was invisible. I closed my eyes, and then opened them again. "I think I'll be ok, I'm just going to be going home now." With this odd response, I turned to leave; but he caught my arm before I could completely leave.

"You don't look like you're going to be ok, you are pale and your hands are shaking and clammy; I'm afraid you will drop at any moment."

I looked down at where he held my hands, I tried to tug them away but he kept them tightly in his grasp. I looked up to tell him off, but once again he beat me to it.

"Come I'm going to take you to the nurse's office; you are really going to hurt yourself if you continue pushing yourself this way."

Thus, he started tugging me toward the building that had the infirmary, I tried once more to get away but he was much too strong for me; so I resigned myself to pouting. Once arriving to the office the nurse fussed over me like a little mother hen, she even gave me a little bit of her sandwich meat to "get some protein in me".

I can't remember much after that, it was all very fuzzy. I remember vaguely the nurse saying something about me going home and someone saying they'd take me, and me mumbling something about my car and them ignoring me; then I got lifted into two strong arms and that was it until I woke up later on that day in my bed.

My mom had gotten home by this time and she stood worriedly by the door and to my right sitting in a chair leaning against my bedroom wall was my "savior". I thanked the heavens shortly for remembering to clean my room the other day. I thought of saying thank you but first I wanted him to answer a question for me.

"How did you know where I live?"

My mom got indignant, "Kaitlin! The least you could say is thank you first."

At this Jareth sat up, "No ma'am it's a perfectly normal question for her to ask." He turned back towards me, "I got it from your cell phone."

"Oh, ok…"At first I fell for it but then I narrowed my eyes at him, "I don't have my address on my phone."

"Oh, Kaitlin that shouldn't matter, for goodness sakes; he was kind enough to bring you here, wasn't he?" I still held his gaze looking at him suspiciously, but his stoic gaze would not give anything away. "I was already worried about the note about the bird and now you are sick…" She trailed off but my hearing had zoomed into what she said first.

"What note about him?" For a moment I forgot about the man beside me and his obvious lie. My mom turned away.

"Oh it's nothing really, probably just some sort of hoax."

"What do you mean?" I was getting worried, I scrambled out of my bed and moved towards her, almost falling over with a sudden dizzy spell but I just shook my head. "Mom please let me see the note."

She looked at me worriedly, "As long as you promise me not to do anything drastic or stupid."

"What would make me do anything like that?" I asked as I took the note from her, and began to read it out loud, "We have your owl, come to the park at 5:30 pm to retrieve him, if you ever wish to see him again with his neck attached to his body." I looked at her, "A kidnap letter? It has to be a hoax; some of the idiots around here must have done it, right?"

"I don't know. He was here this morning after you left for school, then he left shortly afterwards. He could have been captured around that time. I don't know, but we should wait and see what your father says when he gets home."

My little brother came out of his room, "I'm sure he's ok, sissy. He's smart."

"You're right, pumpkin; it must be just a joke. I mean who would kidnap an owl anyways." I chuckled but it came out mirthless. "You don't think he could have belonged to someone important before he came to us, do you?"

I was getting worried; I mean it could very well be just a hoax. But what if it wasn't? An owl couldn't do much against a group of boys with beer bottles and pen knives as weapons. But that just sounded silly, it all was silly, it had to be a fake note; slipped under our door by some kids seeking to play a mean joke. I went into the kitchen to check the time, it was already five; I headed toward the door.

"Where do you think you are going? I told you not to do anything stupid."

I turned towards her and replied grasping the only figurative straw that I could, "I'm taking Jareth here on a tour of our little old town, as a thank you for saving me from my terrible plight." I overdramatized things for my mom's benefit.

"You shouldn't go out so soon after passing out."

"The fresh air will do me some good." I opened a draw to pick up the closest thing I could to a defense weapon, a screwdriver, which I promptly put into my sweatshirt's front pocket where I hoped it would stay put. And then before my mom could say anything more I dragged Jareth out of my home, and ran down our dirt road with him in tow. He had been quiet this whole time until we stopped on the edge of the park.

"I'm sure it's just a hoax." He looked down at me and I looked up at me and once again I saw worry floating in his bright orbs.

"Yes, but I can't take that chance." I continued walking to the walkway that entered the park; he grabbed my arm pulling me back.

"Has it occurred to you that if they are serious, they could very well be dangerous; threatening to take off limbs of a living thing, isn't just what you call sick humor?"

"Yes." I whispered, "That's why I brought you along."

At this he almost snorted, "It didn't look like you had any intention to take me along to start."

I turned back towards him, "Look here, you can follow me or you can go back to my house or you can do whatever you like, because frankly I don't give an owl's hoot what you do." Then, I ran off. I don't think my brain cells were actually activated to their full capacity, but I was merely acting off what I thought I needed to do in that moment. I didn't even look behind me to see if he was following me. Thus, it's no wonder that I ran straight into trouble.

The park was totally deserted, which was kind of odd, because usually there was at least a group of drunks by the play set on the benches, but not even them were there. It was quiet, too quiet. I should have seen some sense then and ran home or something but I didn't. I looked around for the suspects, if they were there. I walked past the play set, past the outdoor pool and into the group of trees beyond it, looking for any sign of the tricksters. When I found them, well it was more like they found me. I can't quite explain it correctly, but it almost seemed as if they melted in from the shadows that the big trees around me cast. Of course at that moment I would not have believed such a thing was possible.

The first man looked at me incredulously, "She's quite stupid isn't she? I thought you said she'd be powerful?"

Then the other appeared behind me suddenly, "Oh, let's not look at her first impression."

"She'll be useless."

I looked back and forth between the two of them; the fear had started to creep up my spine by then. "Um excuse me where's my owl?" I was ignored.

"Regardless of that she's coming with us."

"So be it."

"Wait what are you talking about?" I made the mistake of turning towards the one behind me, instead of keeping an eye on both of them.

The taller of the two was directly behind me as soon as I turned, right before he grabbed the back of my neck I heard him huskily whisper to himself, "Much too easy." Before I could even scream, he covered my mouth with a cloth with a sickly sweet smell on it, I tried not to breath but in the end I had to.

And as my eyes rolled back in my head the last thing I saw was a white owl flying high above me.