Sorry this took so long, but I had to change the tittle several times as I was writing it. Anyway, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is produced by Dreamworks Animation Television, and both She-Ra and He-Man are owned by Mattel. Enjoy.

Chapter 6: Babes in the Woods

(The Evergreen Forest: Midafternoon)

The sun was hanging high overhead and the humidity was unseasonably low.

The Popinjays were singing a merry tune up in the treetops, accompanied by the rustling of leaves and the gentle gurgling of nearby river; creating a veritable symphony of nature.

And there was a subtle hint of clover on the wind, which had a strange calming effect on all who smelled it.

All in all, it was a truly wonderful day to be outside.

Which I suppose is why, for the first time in almost a week, Adora felt completely at peace with herself; in spite of her situation.

Of course, her new friend, Prince Adam, may also have had something to do with it. It had only been a few hours since their first meeting and already the two of them were getting along like houses; or whatever the old expression was. At any rate, it was so strange. Never before had she felt such an instant connection with somebody. It had taken her the better part of a day to really warm up to Bow and Glimmer. The only other person she'd ever befriended this quickly was Catra, but somehow this felt different.

Perhaps even… better.

But I'm rambling again.

Let's get back on topic.

It was sometime in the early afternoon, and our two young heroes were walking along the riverbank; keeping their eagle eyes peeled for Battle Cat and the missing Sword of Power.

Most people probably would've done a doubletake if someone they just met told them they needed help finding their magical sword and a giant green tiger, but being accustomed to a certain level of strangeness, Adora didn't even flinch. Besides, she was more than happy to help out her new friend. After all, he had promised to help her get back home. And for some reason, she just felt like she was exactly where she needed to be.

Anyway, they'd been walking downstream for a little over two hours and so far they'd yet to see even a stray tuft of green hair. So to help alleviate the boredom they decided to pass the time by getting to know each other. Adora was just wrapping up a heavily abridged recounting of her life up until that point and after finally finishing her little autobiography, Adam gave her his unbiased and carefully worded critique.

"Wow… you are boring."

"Excuse me!" Adora replied indignantly; her left eye twitching slightly.

"Let me rephrase that. Your story was fantastic. Raised by an evil empire only to betray them to become the savior of your planet. That's good stuff. But the way you told it was just so… blah. It was like you were reading a textbook."

"Well, I wasn't putting on a show. I was just telling you what really happened."

"Granted, but it wouldn't kill you to put a little more oomph into it. You know, a little razzle dazzle. A little zazz. Showmanship is the hallmark of a true hero. Plus it throws your enemies off balance."

"You sound like my horse."

"Mock me if you must, but if I had a copper piece for every time some would-be conqueror wet himself after I shouted 'By the Power of Grayskull', I'd be twice as rich as I already am."

"Is that right?" Adora asked as something finally clicked inside her head. "Say, what was that word you just said?"

"Which word?"

"Grayskull. What does it mean?"

"Oh, it's just the name of an old castle I occasionally use as a base. Not much there besides crystals and trolls. Why?"

"Uh… no reason." The young heroine lied rather obviously.

Very interesting. A castle called 'Grayskull' on a planet called 'Eternia'. Two words she knew to be associated with the First Ones. And she had been sent here by accidentally activating a First Ones Tower. Could this really be their homeworld?

A possibility, but a few things didn't quite add up. Firstly, Adam didn't seem to recognize the name Etheria when she mentioned it earlier. And second, according to her new friend, Eternia didn't have the technology to travel to other planets, let alone colonize them.

Well… Adam did say that Eternia regularly received interstellar visitors. Perhaps the First Ones visited this world thousands of years ago before terraforming Etheria and just co-opted some of their words.

Also a possibility, but that still left a lot of unanswered questions.

"You still in there?" the young Prince asked, shaking Adora out of her internal ruminations. "Hello~ Eternia to Adora~"

"Huh? Wh-What?"

"You kinda spaced out there for a second. Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I was just thinking… about stuff… and also things." The young warrior replied awkwardly before hastily attempting to change the subject. "So… does your dad really rule this whole planet?"

"Eh… sort of. It's actually a little more complicated than that." The young Prince admitted. "You see, Eternia is divided into two halves; the Light Hemisphere and the Dark Hemisphere. The Light Hemisphere, that's where we are, is divided into twenty-one separate kingdoms, which are all part of an alliance called the Concilio Tyrannis. My dad's the leader of the alliance, so that basically makes him the boss of everyone else in the world."

"Sounds kinda like the Princess Alliance back home." Adora commented. "But what about the other half?"

"The Dark Hemisphere is a chaotic, nightmarish hellscape full of killers, conquerors and short fused costumed nutjobs, all controlled financially by a shadowy organization called the Spider Guild; which is a little more complicated to explain."

"Yeah well, I don't really care about all the little details. I'm more of a… big picture kinda gal."

"Fair enough." Adam replied, before adopting a strange and more flustered expression. "So… Adora, you got anybody waiting for you back home?"

"Yeah, lots of people. Bow, Glimmer, Mermista…"

"No, no, I meant waiting for you in the romantic sense. You know, like a boyfriend, or a significant other, or a boyfriend."

"Oh, uh… I don't have anything like that." Adora admitted, soundly slightly embarrassed. "All my life I've been fighting for one cause or another, so I've never really had the time."

"Really? There's not anybody you're interested in back home?" Adam asked with all the subtlety of a safecracking walrus. "Not even a little?"

"Well, I… might… kinda… sorta… have… a little crush on somebody back home." The young heroine admitted as her face lit up like a furnace. "But that's way too personal to talk about!"

"Oh come on. You can trust me."

"I barely know you!"

"True, but we live in different dimensions. Once this adventure is over we'll probably never see each other again. So that makes me the perfect confidant." The young Prince reasoned, with just the slightest hint of slime in his voice. "And besides, I can tell you're just dying tell someone."

"Uuuuuuuuuuugh… Fine! I'll tell you!" Adora finally broke. "But you can't tell anyone!"

"Who would I tell that would care?"

"Sigh… Okay…" she said before taking a deep breath; her cheeks burning even brighter than before. "Her name is Spinnerella and she's part of the Princess Alliance!"

That confession had been a lot louder than she'd meant it to be, but Adora had to admit that she did feel better; as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Unfortunately, this feeling was short-lived; for she soon realized that her new friend was no longer walking beside her.

"Adam?" she said confusedly. "Adam, where'd you go?"

Luckily, she didn't have far to look. As it turns out, the future King of Eternia was standing only a few steps behind her; looking rather pale.

"Uh… Adam? You okay?"

"Wh-What? Huh?" the young Prince said as he was suddenly shaken out of his trance. "Oh, Eh, Er…. Sorry. I was just kinda surprised to hear that you were… well… one of those."

"One of what?"

"You know… one of those girls who… like girls… in the way that they would normally like boys."

"Is that a problem?"

"What? No! Problem? That's not a problem. What makes you think it's a problem? No~ I was just under the impression that you liked guys. In the romantic sense. But now you're telling me you don't. Which is fine! It's totally fine. Everything is… sigh… fine."

"Are you crying?"

"NO!" Adam said defensively as he discreetly wiped away the moisture from his eyes. "I just have… allergies. Achoo. Achoo. So um-er-uh… Tell me more about this Spinnerella girl. What's she like?"

Naturally, Adora didn't buy this act for a second, but since it was still just the two of them, she saw no harm in playing along.

"sigh. Well, it's sorta complicated. We don't really know each other that well, and she's already got a girlfriend. But man, ever since I first saw her in battle I can't stop thinking about her. With those powers of hers, she's like a Wind Goddess or something. And she's just so adorable and sweet."

"Oh~ I see how it is." Adam spoke up, his mood doing a sudden 180. "Got yourself a weakness for the plump ones, eh?"

"WHAT!" Adora replied incredulously. "How did-I mean, why would you even say that?"

"You said she was 'sweet' and 'adorable'." The young Prince explained as though he were talking to a child. "Whenever a guy says a girl is both adorable and sweet, nine times out of ten he's really saying, 'she's fat, but in a cute way'. It's standard Chubby Chaser Code."

"Why do you have to make it sound so perverted?"

"Love is always a little perverted. That's what makes it so much fun."

"I think I liked it better when you were crying."

"I WASN'T CRYING!"

Fortunately, before the situation could dissolve any further, their screaming match was preemptively quelled by the spontaneous appearance of a large puff of smoke.

POOOOOF!

And when the smoke cleared, much to Adora's surprise, she saw a small, vaguely elflike creature dressed all in red and gold floating in midair.

"Oh, Adam! Thank goodness it's you!" The little thing said excitedly in a high squeaky voice. "The last three people I ran into were very rude."

"Ah, Orko. Your timing is as impeccable as ever." Adam said to the creature, his mood taking a sudden turn for the better. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"I've been looking for you, silly." The strange creature, apparently named Orko, replied cheerily. "You've had us all worried sick. Teela and a bunch of the Royal Guards have been out looking for you since last night. I wanted to go with them, but… well, you know."

"Oh, I get it. Those jerks gave you a hard time again, so you decided to prove them wrong by finding me first." Adam reasoned, his voice laced with something resembling fraternal pride. "Heh-Heh. Nice work, little buddy. Point 'em out to me later and I'll have them all fired once I take the throne."

"No, no, you don't have to do anything like that. I'll just…"

"Ahem!" Adora cut in, largely to remind everyone that she was still there. "So… you gonna introduce me or what?"

"Oh yes, how rude of me." The young Prince replied, shifting gears yet again. "Orko, this charming but tragically unavailable vision of loveliness is Adora; the one who pulled me out of the river before I drowned. Adora, this funny looking but ever dependable little fellow is Orko; the guy I was telling you about earlier."

"Nice to meet you." She said politely.

"Howdy." The little imp replied.

"Good, now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business." Adam said confidently. "Orko, this fair damsel is in trouble, and you're just the man to help her out. Think you could whip us up an interdimensional portal?"

"Easy peasy! I've been opening up portals to other planes of existence since I was six." Orko replied jubilantly before turning towards the girl in question. "So, where do you wanna go?"

In light of this recent development, Adora decided to ignore the 'fair damsel' remark and focus on the task at hand.

"Well, Mr. Orko, I'm trying get back home to Etheria. It's in a dimension called Despondos. Have you heard of it?"

"Hmmm… Despondos… Despondos… Sounds familiar." The little imp mused thoughtfully for several minutes before suddenly snapping his fingers. "Now I remember! There's a whole chapter about it in the Tomb of Ortolan. It even had instructions on how to get there."

"Seriously? That's amazing!" the young heroine exclaimed. "Do you remember the spell?"

"Well, uh… no." Orko admitted embarrassedly. "I mean, it was over ten years ago. I'd have to read the book again."

"Okay, so where's the book?"

"Oh, it's in the restricted section of the library at the University of Magic… In Trolla… Uh-oh…"

"Uh-oh? What uh-oh?" Adora asked with both confusion and alarm. "What's Trolla?"

"It's…. It's my home…" Orko replied, his voice taking a sudden somber turn. "Or at least it used to be… before I was banished."

"Banished? Why?"

"It's… kind of a long story."

"And he doesn't have to tell it if he doesn't want to." Adam cut in, sounding, at least from Adora's perspective, uncharacteristically protective. "Orko, are you sure you can't remember any part of the spell? And do you really even need it? I've seen you open portals before without saying a word."

"That only works on places I've been to before." The little imp explained. "Without a clear picture in my head, I need dimensional coordinates."

"I see… Well, what about friends and family back on Trolla? Can't you just call one of them and ask them to get the spell for you?"

"That won't work either. Only members of the High Council are allowed in the restricted section. And after the whole… incident, the Wizard King forbade them from ever speaking to me again."

"Oh… well… that complicates things. Maybe we can…"

"Excuse me." Adora chimed in suddenly. "Look, I don't mean to be that girl, but can you guys help me get back home or not? Because it's kind of important."

"Keep your pants on, toots." Adam said, causing Adora's left eye to start twitching. "I said I'd get you home and I will. It's just gonna be a bit more of hassle, that's all. There's plenty more magic users we can ask for help, but before we do anything, we gotta find Battle Cat and my sword."

"Oh, you guys are looking for Battle Cat?" Orko inquired innocently.

"Yeah, have you seen him?" the young Prince asked hopefully.

"Eh… no, but I have a pretty good idea where he might be." The little imp replied, his demeanor suddenly growing nervous and twitchy. "But you're really not gonna like it."

End Notes:

This chapter was a lot of fun to write.

I hope you all liked it.

Either way, thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one.

Peace.