It was a bit cliché but not like we could help it. There was a storm raging just outside I huddled closer to the blanket wrapped around me as a sob escaped my lips. How many hours had it been? I sighed, suddenly a lump next to me started to sob as well.

"Why did it have to be us Ra? I mean what did we do to deserve this?" the said 'lump' asked in a hoarse voice

"I don't know….but we did everything we could right?" I said and gently removed the blanket covering the said 'lump' to reveal my best friend Ethan, his eyes and nose were red from crying I caressed his cheek as he leaned into it, a few tears escaping his eyes.

Both of us just got dumped by our boyfriends and what made things worse was that our boyfriends were secretly in a relationship with each other. Ethan didn't take it well when he found out he was always known to have his emotions take control of him, he literally flipped out even going as far as threatening me and my ex which was how I found out about it. Unlike Ethan I have better control of my emotions, instead of being a green eyed monster I calmly confronted them about it to which they didn't even deny. My ex knew this side of mine but he definitely didn't expect me to suddenly hurl a pair of scissors at them when I told them to leave. I may be always calm but that doesn't mean I wasn't scary when angered.

I wiped off the tears from his face as he snuggled closely to me, his head landing on my lap. I smiled a bit at his actions ever since we were kids he always loved sleeping with his head on my lap, it was kind of a habit of him whenever he felt depressed or tired. My motherly instincts would always kick in as my hands would tread through his hair, he said it felt nice and comforting whenever I did it.

"Hey Ra, I know this is really silly of me but I would really like to be whisked away from this place, every time I go to town I can't look at it the same again, every time I looked at a random restaurant or the mall even the parks I would always remember him and how we spent our time there. It's driving me crazy."

"It's not silly, even I feel the same way." I answered comfortingly, it's true even I can't look at an ordinary park bench the same way as I would remember how we would always take our little snacks in it.

"It must be nice if we landed in a different world you know? A world filled with magic or maybe a world like something from Arabian Nights! I would trade a leg to get out of this place…"

I just chuckle at his antics, Ethan always loved fantasy whether it be a book or movie or even songs which was why he has a sword collection in his room and also how he knows basic swordsmanship.

"First of all whatever you're reading right now is getting to your head again, second you know that really is impossible unless some god heard your wish and made it come true." I lectured and he just pouted which really does not suit a 23 yr. old guy.

"But aren't you tired of this world Ra? You know ever since we were young this world was nothing but harsh to us. Through school we'd been bullied and you've passed around from foster home to foster home, all of them turned a blind eye on what you've been going through only caring for the money the government provides. My family can't accept the fact that I'm gay which is why I'm working for my tuition and necessities, since you're at age even you have to provide for yourself. When we thought we found Love all we got is heartbreak, say isn't it tiring?"

"So what, are you suggesting suicide?" I bluntly asked but all I got was laughter from him as he turned his head to face me.

"No of course not, it's just that what did we do to deserve this?" He asked and I fell silent, I asked that questions a lot to myself too.

'Why us?'

"Well they say that fate is cruel…" I murmured "But things are working out too, sure we may have to provide for ourselves but with you part timing as a stunt man and me selling my portraits we have enough to cover for our tuition and this apartment. About love…..well it was probably because we were meant for someone else who knows? Maybe we'll find someone new along the way." I said confidently but Ethan just sent me a tired smile.

"I don't know how you do it but you always stay optimistic whatever the situation is." He moved his face so that it was facing my stomach and with a sigh closed his eyes.

"But it would be really wonderful to find someone new….Maybe I could try one of those dating apps."

I smacked him on the head which he returned with a very annoyed yelp

"Idiot you don't find love, it finds you." I said as a wise-like aura surrounded me, Ethan just rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes O wise guru" He said clapping his hands together mockingly to which I returned with a glare

"Now it's late, wanna sleep here? I feel really lazy and it would be a pain to move all this stuff back to our rooms." Gesturing to the many pillows, blankets and comforters surrounding our living room, he just nodded and got off my lap as I stood up and went to arrange the mess we made. With a slight tug the mattress was out of the couch and the both of us arranging the pillows as we settled in our respective sides. Now most people would think that it was weird and scandalous for two people of the opposite gender share a bed but the both of us didn't mind. After all we've been sleeping, bathing and even changing together ever since we were kids, plus Ethan loves to tease me about how flat I am. I mean come on! It's not my fault I wasn't blessed in that particular area.

The blankets shuffled as he turned to face me giving me a view if his sleeping face, I studied him and yes even I admit that he was attractive I guess you could call him a pretty boy since his face was a bit feminine. Heck his eyelashes are longer from mine, His messy black hair framed his face and I was a bit jealous on how his hair seem to shine and how it looked so soft, compared to me my hair is a tangled mess of brown. You could say that I'm a bit anxious of his looks, a handful of people turned gay because of him he may be attractive and has a great personality but he really has trouble when it comes to relationships. I remember when he went through a phase where his one night stands were getting frequent, this involves me not getting a good night's sleep for months and sharing breakfast with random dudes that seemed to magically appear from his room. A majority of them were surprised that he was living with someone else and most of them assumed (with a horrified face) that I was his girlfriend. I didn't correct them though, it was better that way than them coming back most were shady and made me wonder where the hell did Ethan find these dudes.

I poked his cheek, a habit I garnered through the years with him whenever I felt worried. His brows furrowed but other than that he still stayed asleep. With a sigh I closed my eyes as I snuggled close to him, after a few moments an arm was draped around me and I smiled at the action.

"Ra!...La…RA!...LAURA!"

I snapped my eyes open to find myself…..falling. Someone was shouting my name but I seemed to be in a trance like state, it took me a while to return to normal as someone was violently shaking my shoulders.

"Snap out of it! "

I looked at whoever it was to find Ethan panic written all over my face as I looked at him like a gaping fish my eyes and mouth open wide.

"How?" I managed to ask

Why?
When?

What?!

"I don't know! But judging from this height we might not survive the fall." He glanced down and my eyes followed.

It was beautiful as the sunlight glittered on the sea's surface, from the sun's position I could tell it was around 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon. It was not only the sea that I saw, it was the island just below us buildings were erected indicating that it was in fact habitable it had a port and a market and a very big building on the highest point of the island or it may be a castle. My eyes widened a bit, it was like a country and a small one at that.

The wind was harsh as the both of us tried to hold on to each other but it was futile as the wind made it difficult. Instead we focused on keeping ourselves close to each other as the island came closer and closer. A forest was just below us and I closed my eyes waiting for the pain to come. Well what a noble way to die….

All I heard was an unfamiliar yelp and Ethan swearing, I could feel like someone was holding me as I opened my eyes to meet pink, letting out a yelp surprised whoever caught me as he let me go, my butt hitting hard ground. Rude!

Looking up I found a muscular man with red hair and pink eyes looking down on me, he had a piercing on his lower lip and was wearing a gold chest plate with a white tunic underneath a knot in front kept it in place, he was barefoot save for the two gold cuffs on his ankles and on his biceps as well. He stared at me with a blank expression as my mind tried to process how could someone have natural red hair and pink eyes, and who the hell wears armour and tunics these days?

Suddenly remembering Ethan I looked around in panic spotting him just a few feet away from me, he seemed to be on top of something but all in all he was just fine as he rubbed is head. I was about to approach him but a voice caught my ears.

"Don't move" the voice belonged to the red haired guy as I looked back at him, the tone of his voice indicated that he was weary of me I couldn't blame him, after all the both of us just fell from the sky and could be trespassing on private property.

I raised my arms up and immediately he was on a stance as if to attack me

"We come in peace..?" I squeaked, I mean what the hell does he expect me to do? Pull out a sword? Even he was surprised as he hesitantly relaxed but still eyed me warily, he cocked his head to the side looking at Ethan who was watching from the sidelines even he had his arms raised up.

My eyes widened as a pale arm suddenly yanked Ethan downwards and suddenly the 'something' that Ethan was on top off was now straddling him. Red wires wrapped around me and Ethan as the 'something' turned out to be a person, he had white hair matching his skin tone looking closely he had a splash of freckles on his face, his eyes were grey flashing dangerously. His robes were in disarray due to the fall but that didn't stop him from looking scary. I struggled in my bonds but the man just yanked it harder causing me to let out a yelp. Even Ethan was having hard time. Again I wondered how the hell does someone have white hair naturally? This guy seemed to be our age! What the hell should I expect next? Purple? Blue? Teal? Pink?

Ok I'm tied up and I'm still thinking of hair color, great.

"Who are you?" the albino guy demanded as he glared at the both of us but I think it was mostly Ethan he was glaring at. I admit it was pretty amazing how he managed to not get knocked out after being squashed by Ethan.

After a few moments he looked at the red haired man as if expecting an answer but he just shook his head. That seems to be the right answer as I was released with just a flick of his wrists but Ethan was still tied up.

"Again who are you?" His question was mostly directed at Ethan as his bonds got tighter and now a dagger attached to the wires was directed at his throat, Ethan wasn't affected that much, years of being bullied that's why since he always got beaten up in our teen years he can endure pain for a long amount of time. This annoyed the man obviously expecting him to cry out in pain or something like that.

"I would tell you but really it's better if you release me first." Ethan boldly stated and I resisted the urge to slap him right there and then. What the hell is he thinking? These men were obviously dangerous and not to mention really weird, it's as if they were from a different time period unless they love cosplaying too much but then again who goes too extra for cosplay?! The chest plate and cuffs really looks like gold and the daggers were the real deal even from where I was I could tell that it was sharp.

"Umm.." I started as everyone's attention was on me "We aren't dangerous we assure you, even we don't know how we ended up here" I muttered and hoped that whoever god was listening to help me out

"She's right, they passed through the barrier then that means they aren't a threat." The redhead stated and I looked at him in confusion. Barrier? I don't remember seeing one around the island, this seemed to convince the albino as he released Ethan as well but he still remained straddling him. Ethan immediately tried to get to me but the man didn't budge.

"Threat or not you both still look suspicious" he started eyeing Ethan up and down "Your clothes are unfamiliar…I haven't seen such clothing in my travels." My brows furrowed, his manner of speaking is weirder than his clothes even Ethan stared at him probably thinking the same. Then again Ethan was just wearing a thin and almost see-through shirt and black shorts, I was wearing the same shirt but instead of shorts I was wearing sweatpants.

An awkward silent followed as the pale haired man still continued to stare at Ethan and me just there sitting on the ground almost forgotten. Ethan stared back at the man clearly annoyed that someone was straddling him.

"Oi, oi! Would you stop staring at me and get off?! We'll gladly stay away from here if that stops you people from attacking us and like the big guy said we're not a threat! Hell we just woke up to found ourselves falling do you hear that? FALLING then suddenly we find ourselves being attacked out of nowhere, without any idea why so please for the love of god get off!" He finished off with a pant as the man looked at him wide eyed and hesitantly got off him.

"Thank you!" he said sarcastically as he propped himself from the ground and looked at me with worry, I smiled reassuring him but I was worried as well. Stress was evident in his features, the mini flip-out speech earlier was proof of that. Standing up he made his way over to me and helped me up he turned to the two strangers who were now side by side.

"What is this place?" he asked the two as the albino looked at him incredulously for a moment but he calmed down in a second.

"You're in Sindria." He replied and I couldn't help but raise me brow at the unfamiliar word, sure I may suck at world geography but even I know that there was no country or place in the world called 'Sindria'. Glancing at Ethan I could tell he was thinking about something, he was always the logical thinker between us two.

"I see…" he paused clearly picking his words carefully "The whole island is Sindria?" it was returned with a nod from the same man and I didn't miss the gleam on his eyes, I looked at him but he muttered a very soft "later".

"Then we'll be on our way then, it was really nice meeting you two especially you freckles" Ethan drawled on earning a glare from the pale man, tugging on my arm he gestured for me to follow. I obliged but not before giving the two men a slight nod and ran after Ethan.

We walked around the forest for an hour looking for any signs of civilisation while walking we tried grasping the situation we landed at.

"So you're saying you just woke up and found us falling? " I asked for the third time "And you didn't even know how?"

"I'm serious! Unless someone decided to kidnap us, fly us to a plane and chuck us out but you know that's impossible!" He let out an exasperated whine "But something weird is definitely happening here."

I nodded, it's true just from the two that we met earlier something isn't adding up.

"When I glanced at the island, there were no signs of modernity no cars, skyscrapers and when we met the two their clothing is…..strange even their features are strange. Like who the hell has literal red hair? And I mean red as in RED, blood red! Also that albino was weird, even if we were trespassing no one in the twenty-first century suddenly threatens you with rope darts!"

We both sighed, the heat was already getting to us resulting to me sweating a lot making my shirt more see-through.

"Laura" Ethan whispered calling my attention as he was looking at something in front of us, looking at the same direction I found out a market but it was unlike any market I've seen. Stalls were lined up and people were shouting, advertising their wares to people passing by. It was the kind of market you could see in fantasy books or games

Ethan tugged on my arm as he strode forward I nudged him on the ribs but he ignored me, most of the attention were on us, Ethan stopped at a random stall who was selling some fruits I didn't recognize, but I could see some apples and bananas.

The stall owner was a rather pudgy man, when he saw us stop in front of his stall his eyes brightened

"Fresh fruits! Delivered from Riem and Kou, some are even from Balbbad!" He gestured over to the fruits all lined up in neat rows. I peeked at Ethan whose face was dead serious, he didn't spare any attention to the man and instead just walked away tugging me as I sent the man an apologetic smile.

"What the hell was that?" I asked to him kind of annoyed but that vanished quickly as I felt stares on me, mostly from men I shivered a bit as Ethan looked back at me for a second but quickly turned away.

'Really feeling your concern Ethan, really feeling it'

I observed my surroundings and it made me remember about middle-eastern countries, it looked like the island had layers at the very top was a big building which I assumed was the castle.

The sun was already setting and I was a bit worried, we still didn't know where were and now that the day was going to end we don't even have a place to stay. The stares were still at me and I realized that my shirt, now soaked with sweat was completely see through and my upper body was now exposed especially my bra. I quickly grabbed my hand back as I covered my chest area and Ethan turned to glare at me but stopped when realizing my situation and the stares at me. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at me blankly.

"Why did you have to be a woman?"

I couldn't head but smack him in the head for the nonsense question.

"Why did you think I would choose my gender before I was born? Just help me out please!" He just sighed and glared at the ones who stared, a few backed off but some were looking at Ethan as if expecting a challenge. The tension was rising between Ethan and at least four men, I eyed the swords strapped on their waists and backs and looking at their calloused hands, it was obvious that they were experienced. Though I couldn't help but question why everyone here seem to carry a weapon and have weird clothes not even a hint of modernity. Before Ethan could flip out my eyes caught sight of a familiar green collared and cream colored robe as it settled on me covering my body.

In front of us were the two men who confronted us in the forest I couldn't help but stare at the pale man, underneath his robes was a white collared shirt and white shorts he had stitch marks on each leg and triangular daggers attached to red ropes on each limb and it was evident on his face that he was pissed off, his eyes that were once black were now grey as he glared the men who seemed to scurry away at the look not only that, when they saw the red head their faces went slack. Did these people hold some status in this place or are they just plain scary?

Ethan seemed a bit annoyed that someone saved his ass, but before he could open his mouth to probably say an insult to the pale man I spoke up first.

"Ah.. Thank you for that" I said to the two, the red head just grunted but the pale man looked at me his eyes saying what-the-fuck-were-you-thinking?

"What did you think prancing around with that outfit of yours? If me and Masrur didn't come earlier then those men could've got you already."

Masrur? What the heck kind of name is that?

"Did you think I can't protect her?" Ethan scowled at the pale man but he just folded his arms and looked back at Ethan

"You were no match to me then I doubt you could handle those brutes." Ethan sputtered and glared

"That's because I was caught off guard and I didn't have a weapon to counter you with." I looked at them silently cringing, are they seriously going to bicker on the middle of the street? A small crowd was already forming around us.

"You don't need a weapon, Masrur here just uses strength to fight" A pale finger was pointed at the red head Masrur.

"Well do I look like a body builder? I assure you I could hold on, on my own."

"Is that a challenge?" the pale man countered as the both of them sported some auras before I could stop the both of them, Masrur stepped in and flicked the shorter man in the forehead and the tension was lost.

"Ja'far what's happening with you? You never got worked up from something as trivial as this." The red head said with brow furrowed. Ja'far? Isn't that the evil guy in that movie Aladdin? The vizier that took over Agrabah and imprisoned the king and tried to marry princess Jasmine? Ok there was no way this was going to be a Disney movie besides the Ja'far I know is very different from this Ja'far. Besides this Ja'far was cute, ok Laura shut up.

Ja'far seemed to realize whatever Masrur meant as he shook his head lightly and mumbled something only Masrur could hear. He turned to me ignoring Ethan who was frowning.

"Like I said earlier, I know you to aren't from here and if you are refugees you'd need the necessary papers and seeing that you have none but the clothes on you backs then you should come to the castle with us." He explained and Ethan immediately chimed in

"Why do we have to do that?" He asked

"Since you don't have papers or even the permission of someone with high rank for you to be here then you're considered as illegal refugees, you certainly aren't merchants and if you try to get out of this country I doubt you'd have the money to do that" Ja'far said rather pointedly

"Take us to the castle you said, are you some sort of official or familiar with the king to take care of matters like these?" Ethan asked the freckled man

"Sort of. Now come on it's a long walk to the castle." He said rather annoyed while he muttered something along the lines of "make sure he finishes his paperwork."

He went on the lead and the both of us reluctantly followed while the red head Masrur was behind us. Keeping the robe on me securely we walked along the markets while the sun faded slowly behind us.

Walking to the castle almost made me faint, I was completely dehydrated when we arrived at the gates Ethan was the same but he did a pretty good job at in hiding it. The two who accompanied us weren't even winded as if it was just a ten minute walk around the neighbourhood. Ja'far was completely amused at my state as I kneeled over at the stone steps completely ignoring the stares of some people passing by Ethan was suddenly alarmed, rushing on to me as he rubbed circles on my back.

"Hey Laura is it an attack?" The moment he said that my chest constricted and I was gasping for air.

"Laura! Slow breaths, take slow breaths." His face though a bit blurry was calm but his voice held panic, I tried following his instructions but the need for air made me panic and gasp for oxygen desperately.

A lot of shouting and my eyesight went blurry before I knew it a blob of red held me in its arms, suddenly a rush of air hit me indicating that whoever was holding me is running to who knows where. I was bit surprised when my asthma attacked, it's been a long time since it did but then again I was overwhelmed by the change of environment which probably triggered it, not to mention the hike to the castle.

I felt something soft underneath me what I assumed was a bed, smelling something aromatic it was exotic that I never smelled before. A blob of blue? No it was teal hovering above me as I heard an unfamiliar voice though I can't make out the words. A mixed color of blobs were now hovering over me and I just furrowed my brow at them, a hand was on top of my forehead and before I could process whatever was happening the world turned black.