-Julian Le Beau's POV-

"Mother… knows best." I sing to myself, dancing around the blackbox theater my parents had installed in our house. A mannequin with a black wig and a sloppily done face stands in the middle of the room whilst I dance around it. My homeschool teacher would arrive soon, but I watched a really great movie the night before and one of the songs has been stuck in my head since then, and will continue to be stuck if I don't get it out.

"Mother knows best, one way or another, something will go wrong, I sweaaaaaar!" I push mannequin me onto the floor. "Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand, cannibals and snakes, the plague. YES"

Continuing to sing, I dance through the next part, so caught up in making it like the movie that I fail to notice the door to the theatre opening.

"Mother knows best, take it from your mumsy, on my own I won't survive…" I stop in front of one of the many mirrors in the room from the last play I did. "Sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy, please, they'll eat me up aliiiive" I give my reflection a sad smile, suddenly not really feeling the need to dance anymore. "Gullible, naïve, positively grubby! Ditzy and a bit, well, hmm, vague…" I pat my stomach. "Plus, I believe, gettin' kinda chubby." I should lay off the pastries...

"Julian?"

Letting out a scream, I quickly spin around to see my homeschool teacher, Mrs. Rayne, smiling at me with her hands up in a placating manner.

"M-Mrs. Rayne! How long were you sitting there!?" I squeak out, quickly running to the mannequin, kicking it to the backstage and turning off the music.

My homeschool teacher smiles at me. "Not long, it seems that you've watched the movie I recommended."

Giving her a nod and a timid smile, I turn off the lights before leaving with her towards the study for my class. "Yep! It's really good."

"I had a feeling you'd like it, was that your favorite song?"

"It is!" I open the door to the study, letting my teacher walk into the room first before walking in myself. The study is cluttered with books that I've been reading but haven't finished, random papers strewn about everywhere along with a desktop computer connected to a printer, in the middle of the room is a large table that probably came with the house, where I would do most of my schoolwork. "It really shows the antagonist's duplicitous nature with the joyful melody accompanied by dark and manipulative lyrics. Also it was… kind of relatable…" I finish, smiling a little, embarrassed.

Mrs. Rayne gives me a surprisingly pleased look. "Oh? You relate to Rapunzel?"

"What? No." I shake my head. "Even if Mother Gothel was a manipulative prison warden, she wasn't lying about the outside world." I give the nearby window a harsh glare. "Everyday a person spends outside is a day they risk meeting a premature end, Rapunzel should've just stayed in the tower forever, it's not that bad."

"Oh… Julian…" Mrs. Rayne gives me a sad smile before clearing her throat. "Let's start with the usual workload, and then if we have time we can discuss the movie more, how does that sound?" She pulls out the usual worksheets from her bag as I pull out my homework for her to grade.

Today was history and mathematics, which means it's extremely boring, but Mrs. Rayne is a great teacher, patiently explaining anything I don't know and praising me when I get things right, she even lets me play music during the session so I really can't complain.

"So Julian, is there anything else about the movie that you liked…?" She asks as we finish the last worksheet of the day.

I hum. "The floating lights scene, I cried really hard at that, happy tears mostly."

"Really? You know, we may not have a floating lights festival in Paris, but fireworks are beautiful too."

"Oh yes! I usually have a great view of them outside my window during celebrations."

"I'm sure you do, but you know it's much better when you're actually there."

"Really? Do you think you can take a recording of it the next time?" I ask excitedly.

Mrs. Rayne looks saddened by my request, and sighs when she notices my concerned look at her sudden change in mood. "Of course Julian, oh and before I forget." She reaches into her bag again and pulls out a nicely wrapped package, covered in festive blue wrapping paper. "I want to give you this, for your birthday."

Brightening up significantly, I quickly accept the present. "I completely forgot that it was my birthday! Thank you so much Mrs. Rayne! May I open it?"

"Of course you may." My teacher gives me a fond laugh as I tear into the present, revealing a storybook that I haven't seen in a long time.

"The Magic Faraway Tree! I haven't read this in forever! Thank you!" I all but scream out, I read it years ago but my parents thought it's too childish for me to read now, and had it and a few other books removed from my library.

"It's no problem at all Julian, even as adults we must make sure our childlike imagination stays alive, but let's be sure to keep this gift between us." My teacher requests, giving me an exaggerated wink, before reaching into her bag again. "Also, one of the housekeepers asked me to give you this, he said it's from your parents." She continues, holding up a small hexagonal box this time, wrapped in bright green wrapping paper.

I look at her in disbelief. "My… My parents remembered my birthday!?" I grab onto the box to examine it closer, ignoring the pitying look from my teacher, it's been years since they got me a present on my actual birthday, and on the correct timezone too! Which is a big deal since they're currently on set filming a movie in America.

Before I could open it, the clock in the room chimes, prompting me to check the time before looking at Mrs. Rayne with wide eyes. "It's getting late, you need to pick up your daughter, right?"

My teacher gives out a gasp. "You're right, I'll have to take my leave." She hastily stands up, but gestures for me to remain sitting. "No no, you stay and open your gift, I know my way out."

"O-okay, thank you again Mrs. Rayne, see you tomorrow!" I say to her retreating figure, waving before she leaves the study, closing the door behind her. Waiting an extra few minutes, the sound of the front door closing rises up to the room and I immediately tear open the present, revealing an intricately designed, light brown box, it looks like something you put jewelry in.

"My parents sent me jewelry…?" I mutter to no one in particular, opening the box, but there was no jewelry in the box, instead there is-

"A pen…?" I ask, confusion steadily growing, my parents got me a pen for my birthday?

To be fair, it looks amazing, the center is marble white with a few brown stripes on it, the ends of the pen are a brilliant green, made of what looks to be metal, and the cap has a bright bronze emblem of a deer's head on it. It looks ridiculously expensive, maybe that's why my parents got it, I can imagine them going into a random store and asking for the most expensive item there. But there's only one way to tell how good a pen was, and that's how it writes.

I pick up the pen.

Suddenly a bright burst of light blinds my senses, shielding away from it, the light slowly subsides and I peek through my fingers.

A weird, furry looking thing is hovering in front of me, short little horns on its head as it seems to be snoring. Creeping closer, I slowly poke it with the pen I'm holding.

Its eyes open suddenly, bright blue on one side and brown on the other.

"AHHHH!" He screams.

"AHHHH!" I scream back.

We both spent the next few seconds screaming.

"Where am I!? Who are you!?" The furball asks in English, flying close to my face.

"I-I should be asking you that! W-well I mean, except 'Where am I', I know where I am but, but who are you !?" I argue back in French, not bothering to switch to English due to being hysteric.

" I, was enjoyin' my time in this 'ere box, until ya rudely woke me up!" Furball retorts surprisingly in French now, glaring at me. "Didja want power? Is that it? Well then I hate to break it to ya kid butcha not gettin' it!"

"P-power? I don't understand… I was just opening a birthday present..." I trail off, the weird creature huffs before flying around the room, observing things and grumbling.

"Can't believe this is 'appening again, they just keep gettin' younger too, what's up with that? Why can't I catch a break like the others sometimes? Maybe I can convince 'im to just bury me somewhere…"

I gulp, this is definitely not what I signed up for, granted I only signed up for a pen that writes, but this feels completely out of left field, something that only happens in movies.

Suddenly a loud growl echoes through the room, startling me again, looking around, I notice that the creature is suspiciously quiet now, intentionally looking away from me.

I clear my throat. "Pardon me… Mr. Creature Sir… Are you perhaps… hungry…?"

"What? I'm not hungry! You're hungry! I can stay like this forever!" Was his response, which is basically admitting that he's hungry.

Despite the weird and possibly hostile situation, I can't help but smile a little at his petulant attitude. "A-alright then, since I'm the one that's hungry, I'll just eat alone… I had someone purchase a delicious array of pastries that I'm supposed to have for dessert… But I suppose I can eat it now."

The growling rings again, and I try my best to hold in my laughter.

"Y… Ya have pastries…?" He asks hesitantly, and I finally smirk, I have the higher ground now.

"Oh yeah, lots of them, and to answer your first question, we're in Paris, so you know that it's going to be either good, or great." I saunter towards the door. "I'll leave the lights on for you, since you're not hungry you might as well read something, the cookbooks are over there." I tease again, slowly opening the door in front of me.

"W-wait!"

Bingpot. "Yes?" I turn around, trying to look innocent.

The creature is facing me now, but still not looking me in the eyes. "Y-Ya hafta take the pen with ya for me to follow."

I look at him confused for a second before realizing that in all that chaos I had dropped the pen out of fear. "Is the pen yours?" I ask, maybe it's a haunting situation, although I've never read of cursed items that make you see cute animal chibis before.

"Kinda..." The chibi responds, which isn't really helping my theorizing.

Deciding not to push until he likes me a bit more, I went along with it, picking up the pen and clipping it to my shirt before leading him to the kitchen, the creature floating right behind me. True to my word, a large bag of croissants had been delivered by the housestaff, who I think already left for the day.

The creature dives right into the bag, chewing through its contents like a lawnmower. "Dis is amazin'! Ya getto eat wike dis all de time?" He asks with his mouth filled to the brim, taking me actual seconds to decipher what he actually meant.

"Pretty much." I shrug, no use hiding the fact that I can eat pretty much anything thanks to my parents' income, as long as they have delivery or takeout that is. The two of us sit in silence for a while after that, the chibi creature too busy filling up its stomach.

"Y-you know." I clear my throat. "You talk kind of funny… Even in English, what's your first language?"

"Ehhhh, who can say, I was 'ere before most existed, but I prolly picked up a couple speech habits from my previous Holders."

"Holders?"

"Prophets, Masters, Wielders, Conductors, all that jazz, what year is it?"

"Uhh… It was brand new." I mumble to myself before snapping out of it, now is not the time for jokes. "It's 2015…"

The creature swallows. "Aite." He says before diving back into his meal.

"...That's all you have to say? 'Aite'?"

"Look kid, when ya as old as I am, years become just numbers, no use ponderin' 'bout it, ya waste precious time that way…" The creature replies, and it's the first time that I actually detect a little bit of sadness in his tone, something… melancholic. If the creature really is that old, how many people did he know that's probably...

Deciding to take a chance. "I'm sorry… For your loss…" I say.

The creature looks at me with wide eyes. "How didcha…" He trails off before chuckling. "Course ya would, maybe this is Fate after all."

"What do you mean?"

Chibi creature flies back up to my face. "If you could 'ave anythin' ya could ever want, what wouldcha wish for?"

"This conversation is not making any sense." I stare at him cross eyed.

He lightly headbutts my forehead. "Just answer me."

"Umm… Well…" I think to myself for a moment, something that I want… "I guess… I don't know…" The creature gives me a confused look, but all I could do is shrug. "I just… I've never wanted something that badly before, my life's been perfectly fine, living in this house."

"Ya mean, ya never left ya house?" Chibi Plush asks incredulously.

"W-Well, sometimes I do, but yeah, most of the time I stay here, t-the outside is just too dangerous! Do you know how many car accidents happen in a year? O-Or how many children get kidnapped from their own frontyard? I'm much too weak to fight off kidnappers!" I point at the creature, ignoring the incredulous look on his face. "E-Even you! You're some weird creature thing that appeared out of nowhere! A-and I probably should've called the police or military or something for help by now! But I didn't! I could've gotten my face hugged or- Oh gods is it midnight? Did you drink any water!?"

My panicked ramblings get interrupted by the creature's roar of laughter, I give him a small glare, waiting for him to calm down, which takes a while.

"Geeeez, a cautious one ain't cha?" He finally coughs out, panting from laughing too hard.

I huff, blushing a little. "I-I guess you can say that. But it's true though! Life's too fragile for constant exposure to the outside."

"Would you leave if you're strong?"

I freeze at the question, it sounded so serious, the creature is looking right at me, I feel his gaze looking deep into my eyes, reminding me of that old "The eyes are windows to the soul" saying.

I gulp. "W-What do you mean?"

The creature continues to stare. "If you can live your life outside to the fullest, with the strength to fight back, without the dangers of being hurt, would you risk your life for that power?"

"K-Kind of an oxymoron don't you think?" I joke, trying to alleviate the tension, but the creature's stare continues to weigh me down.

"I… I think..." I think back to the movie I watched yesterday. The protagonist saw an opportunity to escape and she did, and she encountered so many dangerous things outside, but she lived. She was weak, but she lived, not only that, she also found friends, found her one true love...

Found the strength to go on her own journey.

I'm weak, weaker than her even, but if I got strong, could I find those too…?

"I… I want to be strong." I find myself saying without even realizing.

"Are you sure?"

Gulping again, I nod. "Yes… I'm sure, I like my life now, but…" I think about my parents, their passive aggressive methods to turn me into a functioning member of society. "But I know it's not going to last… One day I'll be forced to leave, whether I want to or not, so…" I take a deep breath, looking deep into the creature's eyes again. "I want to be strong enough to leave on my own terms, that's my wish."

The both of us stare at each other for a tense moment, barely blinking, before the creature chuckles. "Well whaddya know… Fate may have brought me to ya, but it was you that made me wanna stay."

"Huh?" I give him a confused look, the creature backs off, holding one of his little arms out.

"I'm Ossi, the Kwami of Imagination, nice to meet ya kid."

Surprised at the sudden change of topic again, all I can do is shake his hand with one of my fingers. "J-Julian, Julian Le Beau, it's a pleasure to meet you Ossi."