I want to thank Tehetehe, for +faving this story, and dinkycharlie and Guest for the nice reviews! Thanks, guys! :)

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The weekend started normal. Normally enough, at least, since the first thing Van did that Saturday morning was, after mutely accepting a cup of coffee (which he drank black and really hot), was ask Hitomi why Gandalf used no magic, if he was supposed to be a wizard.

'You didn't stay up trying to figure that out, right?' she asked in jest.

He quirked an eyebrow. 'Do I look like I would? I just think it's strange.'

'We all kind of do, I guess', she mused.

He accepted her answer, going back to drinking his coffee in his usual silence.

Hitomi chanced a glance at him: long, dark bangs shadowed his face, and his posture was relaxed but excellent, and probably the only thing about him that now and then reminded her that, where he came from, he was royalty. Royalty! Just the thought of it felt foreign, or distant, just as relatable as anything event in The Lord of the Rings. In that line of thought, she was sure that Van would probably be an Aragorn-ish kind of guy, when he was in the place where he came from. Yes, most probably.

When the shadow of thought passed, she realized with slight embarrassment that Van was staring back at her, slight amusement curling the ends of his lips. 'Gandalf got you troubled?'

A very stupid-sounding 'Uh?' escaped her lips before she could rewind her thoughts enough to remember what they had been talking about before her imagination had gotten creative. She masked herself with a small laugh, while she considered, honestly considered, if telling him what she was really thinking wouldn't be for the best. Maybe it would. After all, he'd been living in her apartment for a week, but what she really knew about the man was very limited.

She decided to give honesty a go.

'Actually, I was thinking that you kind of make me think of Aragorn.'

He mmmmm-d. 'Perhaps.'

'I mean. The way you act, I keep forgetting you're… what? A prince?'

He nodded like he didn't really care about his princedom, but then a small smile crept into his lips again: 'The way I act?'

'Oh, you know,' she said, 'Not too… prince-ish-ly, you're, uh, a pretty normal guy. Don't talk with big words, don't try to boss me around… don't really mind having rice three days in a row… stuff.'

He laughed openly.

'This is only the side of me you've seen. But, anyway, you may be right. I'm not much cut out to be royalty, I'm glad I can leave that to Folken.' Saying that name made him smile warmly. 'That's my brother. That's his name.'

'Glad to make his acquaintance. Do you think I'd have to bow, if I met him?'

Van shrugged. 'I don't think that'd be required from someone from the Mystic Moon, you guys don't know anything about our customs anyway.'

He was so uncomplicatedly down-to-Earth, that in any other circumstance Hitomi would have been awed at him. She was, however, hung on something he'd said… 'The Mystic Moon?' she asked, inadvertently frowning.

Van had slipped. Early in the week, he'd decided it'd be better if he kept as much as he could private, but he'd not counted on how easy it'd be to talk to Hitomi- easy enough that he'd neglected reminding himself he wasn't on Gaia anymore. Now, he could either lie or he could be honest, but Van never really lied.

He sighed.

'It's how we call the Earth where I'm from.'

'The… wait…' Hitomi's mind suddenly was going so fast, she didn't bother to keep her thoughts to herself. 'You mean you knew all this time where you are? Where this is? And you didn't tell me?'

'I didn't think you'd care this much,' he offered, suddenly feeling a very unfamiliar feeling, that was skirting, but not quite exactly, guilt. And he really couldn't make any sense out of it.

'Of course I… care, so to say! Magic isn't real here, dragons don't exist here!' she said, her voice a notch over her normal tone of voice, 'Van, you came out of a blinding haze of light! Who knows what was on the other end! Another planet? Another time? Another dimension? I just thought you were as clueless as I, is all,' she finished, ruefully, 'I honestly thought we were working blind, here. That you had absolutely no idea where you were, just as much as I didn't know where the heavens you'd come out of. Damn…' she passed a hand through her hair, a rare gesture she only did when she was badly confused.

'I apologize,' he offered, unusually meek, 'I didn't know you'd put so much thought into all this…'

'Well, I did,' she said, a bit sourly, 'So, if you'd be so kind, maybe you can tell me what we're dealing with?'

'Yes,' he breathed, 'Gaia is another world. On the night sky, just like you see the Moon, we see the Moon and the Mystic Moon.'

'Two moons?'

'Yes. The Mystic Moon is this place. I believe that, if Gaia could be seen from the Earth, you would see a mirror image of what we see, but that's not the case. I don't know why, though, I'm sorry.'

Hitomi thoughtfully considered this information. 'So it's like, another planet in another dimension.'

'In a way, I suppose. Now, this isn't common knowledge around Gaia. Only certain scholars know of the nature of the Mystic Moon and its inhabitants… I guess that just like I've wound up here, somehow, others have before me.'

Hitomi nodded- 'It makes sense'.

'Some left written accounts,' Van continued, 'Most of those scriptures are in the Royal Library of Fanelia, though I don't know the reason behind this, either. I always found the tales fascinating, and I read those I could find. This is why I can make something out of some elements of your writing. Why we can understand each other, however, is something I'd attribute to magic. I haven't come up with a better reason yet.'

'Magic sounds good…' Hitomi said, trailing off, processing, 'Can you understand anyone else? Other than me?'

'No', he said, shaking his head.

A thought crossed her mind, and she grabbed at it before it could dissolve into forgetfulness.

'Don't you feel lonely, then, being here?'

He gave her a strange look. The look of someone who was giving an unknown feeling entity of the first time, and wasn't liking what he was finding.

'I'd not thought of it like that before.'

It was Hitomi who felt oddly guilty, now, and she realized she had to say something.

'I'm sorry,' she hastened, 'That was a rude question. I didn't want to make you think sad things. Listen, I…' Be honest with him, her mind supplied, It's gotten you somewhere. Don't be just civil, get involved: you want to help him. 'I'd told myself, if you'd not found the way back before the week was over, then, well, you'll probably be around a while longer. So, uh, I thought we could go find you some Earth-ean clothes. Then I can show you around town. We've got lots of time today, and it's a nice day out…'

Van felt his now-acknowledged loneliness rapidly shifting into a good kind of resignation.

'I'd like that.' He peered over her shoulder, out of the window. 'It might rain later, though.'

'Really? How can you know?'

A shrug. A slight smile. 'I just know'.

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He looked really as though he'd been wearing jeans his whole life. As their post-shopping wanderings brought them close to the seaside, Hitomi noticed how Van kept looking at the blue horizon with an easy smile on his lips.

'What's on your mind?' she asked, as they, apparently of the same mind, walked towards the first steps of the long promenade.

'The ocean. I've only been to it once before, but it smells the same.'

She hmmm-ed. 'Do you like it?'

'A lot,' he replied, 'Though it's a bit… overwhelming' –he shrugged- 'I'm happy to look at it from afar.'

After a while of walking in companionable silence, Hitomi thought of asking something she'd been wondering about for some days now. She found she had to raise her voice over the cawing of the gulls overhead, and the crushing of the waves below:

'Hey, Van? What have you been doing these days?'

He turned to her with a smile where sadness met resignation in equal parts: 'I meditated, at first, but I had too many questions and too little answers. Then, as I had nowhere to begin searching, I decided to see how the people of the Mystic Moon live. I thought, if I was sent here for a reason, I'd better explore every reason that came to mind.'

'Sounds logical,' Hitomi said, thoughtfully.

'Yeah. Well, I learnt a lot about your people, so that was good, but seeing how I'm still here… maybe not that useful,' he finished, under his breath.

'Have you tried going back to the park?'

'I did, once, but found nothing.'

'I think we should return,' she said, 'I have the feeling we should. Maybe if we're together…'

'Maybe you're right', he sighed.

'We can pick the next part of the movie on the way, too. I-if you're up to it, that is,' she added, sheepishly.

He smiled, thinking in passing how he'd been pretty lucky despite being stranded in this strange world, in meeting this girl that could so easily put his heart at ease.

'I might,' he said, 'Depending on what happens next. Tell me something about it.'

'I, eh…' Hitomi thought for a while, trying to remember… 'I think it's the one with the talking trees…'

'Talking trees?' his eyebrows shot up high- 'All right, I think I want to see that.'

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Inexplicably, the park feels darker than it looks.

Thicker grass, thicker scents, thicker shadows.

While Van disappears into the grouplet of trees where the dragon emerged, Hitomi tries to recall what The Feeling felt like.

But she can't. She's forgotten.

Time stretches, turning into half an hour, an hour. They minutely check every corner or situation within the park they can think of, going as far as running towards each other just like they did the day Van appeared. They check together, then they separate. They focus on feelings first, then sensations, then, lastly, visual details. Nothing yields anything.

Hitomi worries that she should have thought of returning here sooner. When any trace of anything that might have remained would have still been fresh. Van reassures her that's the first thing he did, the day after his arrival. Still then there had been nothing to be found.

Heavy hearts followed them home, but Hitomi still insisted on renting the movie.

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He blinks an eyelid that opens upwards.

Sharply becoming aware of his surroundings, he inhales. The scent of it all becomes dissected into hundreds of different scents: information. He knows just how many rats and cats there are in the alleyway, which makes him hungry, and can identify every fluid, dried or otherwise, staining the soot-darkened walls. He smells the sea as though he were standing right next to it, but he knows it's a couple hundred meters away. He can tell, by the tinge of the air, what time of the night it is, exactly.

The sounds bring another host of information, but of a very superficial kind, that gives him only spatial grounding.

Van has never known it is possible to be this aware: everything has acquired new depths, ordinary things gain dimensions he could have never fathomed before. Everything feels cold to the touch, yet, within, his blood feels like it's burning.

Becoming aware of being aware slowly sobers him. He begins looking at the place around him with a sight that feels much more like his own: now, he takes in practical things, like how no door opens into this particular alleyway, or how there are no indicators of anyone living in the surrounding buildings.

Now, he takes notice of the way his claws grind slightly against the unforgiving concrete. He tastes the (comforting?) taste of poison in his mouth. Perceives the direction of the air currents on the scales of his back.

When he becomes awake –suddenly, for no real reason- his eyes open to a dark ceiling. It's still deep into the night, and the still silence brings to him the soft sound of Hitomi's breathing from across the room. A long while goes by until Van can bring himself to be himself again, and not, just as he had been until then, a terrifying dragon nested in the dark end of a dockside alleyway.