Once upon a time in a land far, far away there lived King Hardy with his beautiful wife and his two gorgeous sons, Prince Matthew his oldest and Prince Jeffrey his youngest.
Even though they were brothers Matthew and Jeffrey had little in common. Where Matthew was dark Jeffrey was light. But the two shared the same love for each other and for their family.
"Dad please is just a short trip. Why do we always have to take Sir Gangrel with us?", Matthew asked his father. The two young princes wanted to go on a trip on their horses, but had no intentions to take that old, boring knight with them.
"You are too young to leave the castle by yourself. Who will protect Jeffrey if something happens?" The old wise king looked down at his sons.
"Matty could protect me. He´s so strong and brave." Prince Jeffrey spoke softly, grinning at his older brother.
"Please Mom, Dad, this trip means so much to me and Matty." Jeffrey smiled hopefully at his parents.
"Gilbert dear, if it means so much to them I think we should let them go without Sir Gangrel." The queen smiled at her husband.
"Ok you two can go but promise me, that you don´t go into the forest where the witch Lita lives." King Hardy said with a smile.
"We promise, we promise!" Both princes screamed eagerly, then they were out of the door and running to their waiting horses.
Matthews long dark curls flew in the wind as he and his brother sped along the old country path. It wasn´t too long before they stopped at the border of the big, dark forest in which Lita lived.
"Let´s ride in there." Matthew said and looked back at his younger brother.
"No Matt we can´t, we promised." Jeffrey looked wide-eyed up to Matthew.
"It would be fun!"
"But I´m scared."
"Hey Jeffy baby I´ll protect you."
"Ok but promise that you´ll never leave my side." Jeffrey still looked fearful.
"I promise baby brother." Matthew smiled reassuringly.
Both took off into the forest then, but no sooner they entered it got darker and colder. The path was less wide now and they had to leave their horses behind and start to walk, side by side each drawing strength from the other.
"Look Jeffy there is a house." Matthew pointed to a small house in front of them.
"Don´t, Matt please don´t walk up there. Let´s go back home." Jeffrey was very afraid now.
"Oh come on Jeffrey look at this beautiful woman over there. She can´t be Lita look at her beauty."
Jeffrey looked up and saw a beautiful woman with dark red hair.
"WOW" Was all he could mumble.
They walked up to the house and the woman let them in.
"You´re a pretty lady what´s your name?"
"Well Prince Matthew, look into the mirror to see who is attractive here."
Matthew and Jeffrey looked into the mirror and soon felt their world slip away into darkness.
Lita grinned.
"Well, well that´s what you get from breaking a promise. Live happy in the year 2000."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Slowly Jeff opened his eyes, looking around nearly frantic to find his old, strong brother. All he remembered was looking into a mirror then nothing, just blackness and all he heard was the piercing evil laughter from that witch Lita.
What happened to his Matthew, where was his brother? Jeff had tears in his eyes he hated to be alone.
Then finally he found Matt, laying curled up a few foot away from him.
"Matty, Matty please wake up Matty I need you." Young Jeff screamed while running to his fallen brother.
He gently shook Matt a few times until his brother opened his eyes. Jeff just flung him self into Matt´s strong protectiv arms and nuzzeled his neck.
"Oh Matty you are ok."
He whispered.
"I am but what happened?" Matt asked running his hand through his baby brothers multicolored hair tenderly to reassure him that everything will be alright.
"I don´t know Matty. I have no idea." Jeff shock his head slowly.
"Let´s just find our horses and go back home, ok?" Matt stood, pulling Jeff up with him.
"Yeah." Jeff smiled a little.
Matt hugged his little brother tight.
"It will be alright Jeffy."
The young prince just looked at his brother trustingly and then they began the search for their horses and a way out of the forest.
The two walked for hours and still no sign of either the horses nor a way out of the dark. Matt tried nearly in vain to stop the terrifying thoughts in his head that he might never see his family again.
"Matty look there is a light." Jeff pointed to what seemed to be a clearing.
"Well let´s go there and see if it is a way back home." Matt said hopefully then taking his brothers hand and walking towards the clearing.
What they saw when they arrived made both brothers stop dead in their tracks and stare open mouthed.
There before them were huge dragons, which ate all the trees and by doing that came nearer to Matt and Jeff.
Jeff squeezed his big brothers hand and looked up at him, fear written all over his childlike innocent face.
"Let´s get out of here Matty!" He whispered, begging his brother to take him away from those dreadful dragons.
Matt just nodded then turned to walk away as fast as possible. He too had no intentions staying anywhere near those creatures from hell.
Suddenly a large tree came crashing down just mere inches away from them, making the brothers all but jump out of their skin.
They looked at each other terrified for a moment then took off into a run, they had to get away.
Only when they were sure that the dragons wouldn´t come after them and when all the air had nearly left their lungs did they stop and look around. The forest was not as dark anymore and they seemed to be alone.
"I think we lost them Jeffy." Matt panted out, standing with his hands on his knees, bend over, trying to catch his breath.
"I hope so." Jeff was still very afraid.
Matt hugged his baby brother tight, rocking him like their mother had done countless times before, trying to calm his erratic breathing and make it all better for him.
"It´s ok Jeffy, everything will be just fine."
"Oh Matty I´m so scared!"
"I know baby it will be ok I promise. Come on let´s get going we need to find some people." Matt smiled down to his brother, who just nodded, hoping his big strong Matt knew a way out of this mess. Once more they began to walk.
After about twenty minutes Matt and Jeff came to a stop, because before them was something that appeared to be a path. The brothers looked at that thing a while longer wondering why this path was made out of one large but flat stone, this was no path to Cameron because all the ways leading to Cameron were build out of many, many small stones.
"Which way should we go?" Asked Jeff and look questioningly up to his brother.
"That." Matt said confidently, pointing to the right.
"OK." Jeff was still not too sure about what he saw since he woke up, this was not their hometown Cameron that was the only obvious thing in this whole puzzle.
They walked in silence down the road, until the heard a strange sound that seemed to be coming closer to them every second, getting louder and louder as the time passed. Then the two saw that that sound came from an animal, that was on its way towards them, seemingly ready to attack. The creature came nearer and nearer then suddenly uttered a scream that had Matt and Jeff jumping behind a tree for cover. The brothers made sure the animal was gone before they came out again.
"What a strange thing." Matt shook his head, wondering where he was for the first time. He was sure that this was not just a big forest and he had gotten lost, for the first time he thought about the fact that he might not even be in his homeland anymore.
Jeff just nodded looking even more apprehensive now.
"It will be alright Jeffy!" Matt reassured his brother and the two began to walk again.
After a few minutes the forest disappeared and the brothers saw houses, but those houses were not like any the two princes saw before. They were bigger that common houses but not as big as a castle. The largest house of that village was right in front of the brothers and all people around them wore odd clothes, neither Matt nor Jeff had ever seen before.
Looking around Matt and Jeff realized that this was no village they knew. All over the place were those loud strange looking animals the brothers just saw minutes ago, some were yellow and persons would disappeared in them, then the animal would run off and soon come back again, but other persons would appear.
The two princes did not know what to do, this was not their lovely homeland of Cameron.
"Matty what do we do now?" The young prince asked his brother.
Matt looked at his younger sibling with a forced smile.
"I´ll think of something Jeffy." Matt did not want to inform his brother that he actually had no idea what to do. So he just took Jeff´s hand and the two began to walk down the path that seemed to be only for humans, because none of those strange animals were on that path.
"Well, well, well if that ain´t the crown Prince of Cameron and his little imp of a brother." An amused, high voice drawled behind the brothers. Matt gasped then turned around, his brother nearly hiding behind him.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Matt almost growled at the glowing being before him, nobody scared his little brother and get away with it.
"I´m CJ and I´m here to help you." Grinned the blond, blue eyed man and began approaching the brothers, but rather than walking he seemed to be flowing over to them. Matt stepped back and Jeff finally hid fully behind his brother, letting only his sparkling emerald eyes peep out from around Matt´s arm.
"What are you?" Matt asked wide-eyed, staring at the angelic man before him.
"Me? I´m a pixie." CJ´s eyes twinkled a brilliant blue.
"Huh?"
"I am a pixie!", CJ repeated slowly, "Just wait and see!" He pushed his long golden locks back from his face to show of his pointed ears, which were slightly bigger than ordinary human ears. Matt and Jeff watched in shock, noticing that no other seem to be able to see CJ. Who just ginned wider .
"Hold on a sec there´s more." CJ turned around and the princes watched fascinated as wings appeared just beneath his shoulder blades. They went down to his ankles, stopping just inches above the ground. Then CJ spread them out to their full glory. They were about 3 foot wide Matt judged, but what really surprised him was the color. Instead of the common white he would have expected they were bathed in every color of the rainbow, starting with light pastel yellows to bright sparkling blues and purples and the wings seemed to change the shades of the colors whenever the wind would provide even the lightest of movements or when an ever so faint shadow would descend upon them. CJ turned around once more and the wings disappeared.
Jeff carefully stepped out from his brothers shadow, looking skeptically up to the mysterious man.
"You don´t have to fear anything young Jeffrey. I mean no harm to you or your brother." The pixie smiled warmly at Jeff.
"I´m here to help you. As you might have noticed you ain´t in Cameron anymore."
"Yeah, but where are we?" Asked Jeff for the first time speaking directly to CJ.
"Well Lita had you two going through time. You are still in what was once the land of Cameron, but here we have the year 2000."
"Oh shit!" Matt gasped.
"Yup that about covered it.", CJ said sarcastic, "Let´s get going we need you out of here and back in Cameron and in your epoch."
The three began to walk again. After some silence the young prince asked the pixie.
"Why is it that we seem to be the only ones who are able to see you?"
"Well my little friend I´m a pixie and you two come out of a time in which the people believed in things like dragons, fairies and pixies, but here in this world people do not believe in such things anymore. They only believe in things they can explain with science and technology. Nobody has faith in fantasy anymore and the people are afraid to dream." CJ said, sounding sad all of a sudden. It was a strange thing to hear after the bright, joyful, happy voice from before.
"Oh I´m sorry." Jeff said.
"Don´t be it´s not your fault just promise me you will never lose faith in your fantasy." CJ said with a small, sad smile.
"I promise!" The young prince said enthusiastic.
"Me too!" Prince Matt smiled a warm smile at CJ, who just nodded and smiled back in return.
They walked in comfortable silence then, seeing strange people, who just ignored them and more of those alien animals, which CJ called cars. The brothers did not understand CJ´s explanation, that cars are like carriages without horses, but it didn´t bother them as long as those `cars´ would leave them alone.
"Where do you bring us?" asked Matt as they stood once more in front of a forest.
"You came through a mirror and you need to find the other one in order to get back to the Cameron you know." CJ said as he led the brothers into the woods.
After some silence Jeff asked the pixie.
"So CJ you said that humans don´t believe in fantasy anymore, in what do the believe?"
"Well young prince they believe in science, like I told you , they try to explain everything with logic."
"But where is the logic in using carriages without horses? What do they do with the horses if they don´t need them anymore?" Jeff asked.
"They still use the horses to ride on for fun in their free time, but cars are much cheaper, easier and safer than carriages." CJ answered.
"I don´t get it, the poor horses all useless." Prince Jeff sighed.
"Maybe you are just to young Jeff." CJ ruffled the young princes hair.
"I´m not!" Jeff sulked.
"CJ what it is with the funny houses around here? I mean they are far to big for common houses, but they are too small to be residences of Kings or Queens."
"They aren´t castles, they are just normal houses but here more than one family shared the house."
"So in every house live many families?" Matt asked not quite able to believe this.
"Not in all. In some houses people do their work in or the one where we first met was the train station of this town." CJ clarified.
"What´s a train?" Jeff asked suddenly.
"Well something similar to a car young prince."
"Oh. Ok don´t even try to explain for I´m sure I will not understand seeing that I´m just a stupid little prince." Jeff said angrily.
"You are not Jeffy and stop sulking!" Matt said gently but with a hint of command in his voice.
"So CJ do all the buildings look like those we just saw?"
"NO Matt there are much bigger cities in which the buildings are so high that they nearly reach the sky. You also can find houses which are build almost completely out of glass."
Matt nodded and he and CJ continued to talk about things, that humans have done to made life seemingly easier, like new techniques in agriculture or traveling by airplane.
Even though Matt understood not everything CJ explained he was highly interested in all the new things he had heart nothing of before.
"So what´s about the deal making plants resistant?" Jeff asked. Still angry about CJ´s earlier command about his age but not wanting to dwell on it anymore and curious to learn new things Jeff tried to take part it the conversation as well.
"How can I explain? Hmmm OK let´s try.", CJ said thoughtfully, "Everything has certain genes in them and if you take one gene out of a plant and copy it into another you might achieve that this plant can grow even if there is only minimal sunlight or it can grow in cold regions." CJ hoped Jeff would be satisfied with that because CJ didn´t think there was an other way to explain the whole genetic engineering deal to someone who thought God created all the living things and to whom plants where just things God decided to let grow or not.
"So genes are like Matty." The young prince smiled at his older brother then at CJ.
"Why´s that?" CJ asked, he could not for the sake of all he believed in, and that was a lot, understand why the crown prince of Cameron resembled a gene.
"Because," Jeff said wisely, he takes care of me and protects me. Whenever I´m cold at night he is there with an extra blanket and if I´m scared of something when my room is all darkness and no sun is shining Matty comes, takes me in his arms and makes it all better for me. So that´s why genes are like my big brother." Jeff looked at CJ with his big innocent green eyes waiting for a reply.
The pixie smiled, he liked the young princes way of thinking and the fact that the brothers took such good care of each other.
"You could say that, I think."
"So do they do it only with plants or is there more to it?" Matt asked CJ, still proud of what his younger sibling had said about him.
"They also do it with animals and even humans, but it would take to long to explain that, seeing that we are at our destination. Let´s just say it´s not all gold that shines." CJ said and stopped walking.
In front of them the brothers saw another big mirror similar to the one Lita had in her house.
Before the mirror stood two young men with the same golden blond curls as CJ, but instead of the wings or the pointed ears the brothers saw long sharp fangs.
"What are they?" asked Matt and stepped protectiv in front of his little brother.
"They are watchers." CJ said while walking towards the men.
"Yeah but what are they?" Matt asked again, watching every move the men made.
"Oh," CJ smiled apologetic, "they are vampires. They protect the mirror from anyone who ain´t supposed to see it."
"And what exactly do they do? Do they kill the people?" Jeff asked not sure if he wanted to know the answer.
"My God no. They don´t kill, they get their food from other sources." CJ said.
"But what do they do to protect the mirror?"
"Well we can perform some pretty funny mind games, so everybody who is not supposed to see this mirror forgets about it and the way to it.", answered one of the blondes, "I´m Edge and that is my brother Christian."
"Hello." Matt and Jeff said in unison.
"So this means goodbye then.", CJ said to the princes, "It was nice to meet you two."
"Same to you." Matt shook CJ´s hand.
Jeff nodded then shook CJ hand as well.
"Let me tell you one thing before you go. Don´t envy those humans, because even though they have accomplished a lot, they will never be able to live in peace and harmony if they don´t start to dream again and if they don´t try to live with, rather than destroy nature." CJ said as he led the brothers to the mirror.
"OK bye." Matt and Jeff said before looking up and into the mirror.
Anew everything went black for the two princes.
************
Matthew woke up as something cold and wet brushed against his face, opening his eyes he stared right into the nose of his horse. Standing up and shaking the dust and dirt out of his clothes, Matthew searched for his younger brother.
"Hey Matty." Jeffrey said from behind his brother.
"Oh Jeffy are you alright?" The brothers hugged each other.
"Yeah I´m fine.", Jeffrey smiled, "let´s get back home!"
"Yeah let´s do that!"
Both brothers got on their horses and rode back towards their castle. On the way they agreed not to tell their parents what had happened, but to never forget CJ and how he helped them in a world, where without him they would be lost.
And with small houses, big castles and carriages with horses they lived happily ever after.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~* THE END *~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Feedback here!!! Back to Mattmel´s Storys Back Home