(Eraklyon)

The teleportation portal did drop Julian off in Eraklyon, just not in the receiving station. Julian had suspected at the time that the magic that controlled it had gone wacko. Turns out that his guess wasn't exactly correct.

The magic that controlled the portal had gone wacko, but not by its own accord. For, you see, it turns out that Sky's mother had tweaked the spell a bit so that any unwanted enemies coming through would end up landing in some secluded bog thirty miles east of the original station.

"Euck!" Julian said, the echo making birds scatter from the tree tops.

For, since he had landed in a bog, he had had the pleasure of landing smack dab in a mud hole. This was no ordinary mud puddle though. The sticky brown mixture that it was made up of consisted of a steamy purple concoction that could only mean that a Canavarian Bog Worm had gone through the puddle earlier that day. Because only that kind of two ton worm could secrete the nasty, vile stuff that Julian now sat in.

It was then that the prince felt the nasty sensation of bile coming up from his stomach. Julian, not wanting to embarrass himself in any place, way, shape, or form, swallowed hastily to keep from projecting it out of his stomach.

"Aw, that was so nasty!" He yelled, the sound was yet again followed by a few more birds leaving their nests in the trees.

He then got up out of the puddle, the purple liquid stringing out behind him until it reached its breaking point and snapped like cheese on a pizza.

The prince then grumbled to himself as he pulled off his dirty clothes and slipped into one of the two extra pairs he had brought.

So much for the portal station's 'Most Accurate Landings' award! He thought to himself, and then trudged onward towards his destination, Eraklyon's castle.

(The Castle)

As Julian finally reached the boundary of the castle's grounds he stooped down low for a second as two guards passed by talking.

"So, I heard that the king has conquered..." One said but disappeared around a bin.

Julian, seeing a possible chance to find out where Bloom was, chased after them. Darting from tree to tree, so he wouldn't be seen. Though his boots still squelched every time they touched the ground, because, to Julian's dismay; no matter what he did the crud would just not come off of the soles of his boots. That and the fact that some of it had seeped through the boot's heavy leather and was now sloshing around his foot every time he so much as twitched. And so he finally gave up on the dream of keeping his shoes without being heard or seen, and took them off; and left them under the tree he was trying to look like he was part of.

His boots now removed, he ran to the next nearest tree, and so on and so forth until he was yet again in hearing range of the guards conversation….

"Yeah, it looks to me that the king is pleased with the Binary Galaxy..." Said the other as Julian caught up to them.

"Sounds like he's gonna stay there for a while too." Replied the first.

"Yep..." The other said then paused, looking for another topic. "Did you hear that the king has gotten himself a pet?" He said eventually.

Pet? This'll be interesting. Julian thought.

"Really? What is it?" Said, guard one as he paused for a second to pick a piece of the latest meal; out of his teeth.

"Heard it was a hawk." Said the second…

"Hawk? What does the king want with a hawk?" The tooth-picker replied incredulously.

"This hawk's rumored to have some sort of powers. They're saying that it's blood red, has sapphire blue eyes, and has fire coming off of its tail feathers..." The teller said and rounded a corner in which Julian could not follow.

Red hawk, Julian thought to himself. Where have I seen a red hawk before? Then it hit him. BLOOM! I finally know where to find her!

Then his task at present came back to him. Darn it! I've gotta destroy this place before I can go after her! Dang it already!

With that said he got back to his task... First he put explosives around every corner and in every nook that he could find in the outer wall of the palace. Then he went to every town he could find that was nearby and placed explosives there. After the placing was finished he then went round again to check that they were all secure and to also attach the ignition cords to the bombs themselves and unwind the cord up a hill and attach it to the ignition box with all of the others.

Once he was finished with that he stationed himself on top of the hill and draped a fire proof/demolition proof cape around himself before he pressed the button that would send the signal running down the hundreds of ignition cords, running up the hill, to blow up the bombs.

And so the time came to push that button. That was when he started having second thoughts.

Should I really sink down to his level? He thought this, but he already knew the answer. It's not his level when you're doing it to help another save billions of lives.

So that was what he did, he pushed the lever down with a swift punch and let the sound of a resounding bang fill his head.

Now I find Bloom... His mind told him; and with that he tracked off to the bog again and went through the, still, open portal and into the Binary Galaxy.

(Binary Galaxy)

When he got there everything was the same as the day Bloom had entered. Red sky, blood soaked ground, and bodies scattered everywhere that there was land for them to be scattered on.

This time the tweaked portal just happened to drop him off in the middle of the enemy's camp. Lucky for him, no one was around at the moment to notice an out-of-place-prince.

So he searched through every tent, but found nothing. No sight what-so-ever of the red bird that was apparently, or hopefully, his Bloom. Little did he know that she was flying directly over him. Thinking that he was yet another imbecile, come to get himself killed; and she thought this even though she knew it was him.

Crap! What is he doing here? Bloom thought to herself. By now she had heard of the destruction of Eraklyon, that was where all the soldiers, including the King had gone.

She pondered a second over the predicament she was in… She could (A) Ignore him (B) Kill him from where she was with a blink of an eye. Or she could (C) go down and yell his head off. She liked the latter of the three, the idea of yelling at someone right now; when she hadn't been able to talk since she changed, appealed to her greatly. So Bloom flew steadily down to him, in no hurry to make her presence known… But as she neared him she gave off one ear piercing squawk.

"What in the world?" Julian said to himself and looked up, then saw that a red hawk was doing a dive bomb right at his head.

"Bloom?" He questioned just as she was a foot from his head. The prince was cut off from asking any other question for the Bloom-bird gave him a hard peck on the head as if to say: CRAZY BOY! ARE YOU SOME KIND OR LUNATIC? (!)

She then landed a foot in front of him, the prince was still rubbing the top of his head, his eyes firmly closed from the pain.

A few minutes later his eyes fluttered open and he caught the last bit of her transforming into the woman he knew. (Just as her neck stretched out to its human length and her shoes reappeared on her feet.)

"Bloom!" He shouted and threw his arms around her.

"You're crazy!" She screeched.

"I don't care if I am!" He said back.

"Well I do care! You could have gotten yourself killed!" She glared at him, here eyes looking as though they wanted to pop out of her head.

"Did you happen to hear who destroyed Eraklyon?" He said as if nothing had happened and they were talking about this over a cup of tea in a Victorian styled movie.

"No," she said suspiciously.

"Me."

Her mouth dropped open, she looked as if she wanted to say something for a moment, but she changed her mind and shut her mouth. Just as quickly as it had shut, it sagged open again… Julian stood there just smiling at the fact that he had the power to surprise her. But his momentary glee over that soon abated as she finally said: "Thank you, but you're still an idiot."

He couldn't help from letting out a small laugh at this and say, "yeah, but I'm your idiot," and continue smiling.

"Uh huh." She whispered and started walking away from him.

"Bloom." He said after a moment of realizing she had started moving, he walked after her and touched her shoulder to get her attention.

"What?" She questioned, still peeved that he had done such a stupid thing and could have gotten himself killed. Wait, why do I care? She asked herself and shook her head to clear it. Then she noticed something that really freaked her out… Julian was dropping down to his knees and holding a ring out to her.

"Will you marry me?" He asked and looked up at her.

Crap, she thought to herself and then, och, now I have to come up with a nice/ interesting way of rejecting him "Huh?" Was all she could come up with; or really say before he started talking.

And so he cut her off then and said. "I don't want to lose you Bloom, and I was gonna ask you anyway. I want you to know you're loved."

"Ah." She said.

"Don't say no Bloom." Julian pleaded and looked at her with hope.

"Ah." She repeated; 'ah' being the only thing her brain could think of say or do at the moment...

"Please?" He said, breaking out the puppy dog eyes, hoping that puppy dog eyes did work on queens.

"It's all I ever wanted..." She finally said, giving in, her poor, flabbergasted brain, saying the first thing that came to mind.

With that he pushed the ring onto her finger. It had a single sapphire in the middle and was surrounded by rubies, a diamond peeking out of a crevices in-between a jewel, now and again.

"Is that a yes?" He teased, his eyes glowing.

She then nodded her head looked down at the ring for a moment, looking for something to distract herself…

"Come back with me." He beseeched, "I want to know you're safe at home with me, and so we can get marry"

Bloom caught herself before she nodded her head and said yes. "Julian, I have to stay here and save these people."

"Then I stay with..."

"No!" She said instantly. "I couldn't stand your getting hurt over my problems. I just couldn't let that happen to another person, especially not after Musa!"

"I'm staying." He replied stubbornly.

"You must go, I promise I'll come back when it's all over." She shook her head in disbelief at the things she had done today.

"I can't leave you." He still insisted.

"It's too late now, I swore you would not be hurt and I meant it." She said quietly and opened a portal behind him, transforming into a bird as he looked back at it.

His neck made his head snap back round to look at her as she spoke. And so she did, her beak forming the words like human lips.

"I'll come back." She promised herself, more then him…

Julian was about to protest but his mouth decided it did not want to move and snapped shut so that the only thing he could do was nod as he, still stunned, stepped through the portal...

To Be Continued

Thanks for all of the reviews this time! And keep it up! It's nice to see you here winxlover05! And I've finally returned from vacation to continue the story!

-Crystal Hauntress