I found myself in the strangest place. Things were littered about and scattered all over the floor, things like papers and what appeared to be board games. There were shelves in all four corners of the rooms, full of a random collection of items that I didn't feel to identify all of. And the walls and floor were white! There wasn't any black or blue or purple anywhere in this room!

I remember Kris and I were in the Dark World, he was about to leave and then… When he reached out for the light he grabbed my hand and dragged me with! That must mean this is the Light World! But Kris wasn't in the room with me, and I had no idea where he was. I was all alone again, but now in a world that was totally foreign to me.

But then one of the two doors to this room opened up, and a figure stepped in-Kris. I was so relieved to see him, I was not ready to be here yet and certainly not left here on my own. It was odd to see him without his armor on though, he wore a simple green shirt with a yellow stripe across and brown pants. I still had everything I was already wearing, so that was nice. Half of what I had on was a gift from Kris, the white ribbon and the rune bracelet were special to me. He said I looked cute in them too.

"Hey Ralsei," he said plainly.

I didn't really know what to say, but I turned to face him so he knew I was listening.

"This is the backroom in my school, welcome to the Light World!" he smiled.

"So I really am in the Light World?"

"You always wanted to come here didn't you? Well, now you're here!"

"Kris, you didn't have to do this…"

Kris actually took me to the Light World. What he said was true, I have always wanted to see what the Light World looked like with my own eyes. There were a number of books which described it but there's nothing that'll ever compare to actually seeing it for yourself.

"Well of course I did! I wanted you to be happy."

I ran up to Kris and hugged him. Tears were forming in my eyes, but they were happy tears. Kris really did this for me-he actually liked me. Kris was laughing the entire time, if he wanted to see me happy, I gave him the chance to see me overjoyed.

"This isn't anything compared to what we can see, come on!" he waved for me to follow, and I ran after him out of the room.

The school wasn't very large, only about the same size as one of the floors of one of the castles in the Dark World. He said there wasn't much anything to see here, so we quickly exited through the front door. He stopped, but I took another few steps forward-what I saw was absolutely breathtaking.

The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, and with it hung what I assumed was the sun from my understanding of the books. White puffs of clouds dotted the sky in random fashion. All around us were trees, but not like the ones in the Dark World, these ones were green and yellow and red and orange. Kris said it was because Autumn was on its way, and that the Light World starts to get cold during these months. But it still felt pleasantly warm to me, likely due to the lack of a sun in the Dark World.

"So how do you like the Light World so far?"

"I love it!" I exclaimed.

Kris only smiled at that. I almost wanted to take off my hat then and there and bask in the sun for a bit, but Kris grabbed my hand and dragged me somewhere different. All along the way I noticed tons of different buildings and a variety of people standing outside attending whatever it was they were. Everything in the Light World was so colorful though, some buildings were red and others were blue and some were white or had some kind of pattern to them, and none were exactly the same size or shape as the other.

When we stopped moving, Kris just pointed outward. I looked beyond his finger and saw another marvelous sight. Water stretched in front of me, glittering in the light and clear as a crystal. Leaves dotted the water a bit, but that only added to its beauty.

"I always like to come here," he said, "it's prettier at night though."

"Prettier at night? You mean it gets even better?"

Kris laughed, took my hand again, and off we were. This time the trip wasn't nearly as long, we simply crossed the road and were at a house tucked away in the corner of the town. It was very plain on the outside, having white walls and a few yellow windows here and there, but that didn't make it bad. Sometimes I wish I had a house like this one, a large castle like what I have is much too big for what I have.

"Wait here, okay?" Kris instructed, I nodded in return.

He ran up to the front steps and knocked on the door a few times before heading inside. I waited patiently, wondering what he possibly could've been doing, but then he came back outside and motioned for me to come over.

"My home isn't anything like yours, but here we are!" he exclaimed.

"Oh? Is this the friend you've been telling me so much about, Kris?" someone asked.

I looked at who had said it. She appeared to be a goat-monster similar to myself, except she was a Lightner obviously. She was nearly twice my height, didn't wear glasses, and had smaller horns. But she wore a dress almost like my own, except it was a mix of blue and purple and a bit less ragged.

"This is him! Ralsei, this is my mom; mom this is Ralsei."

"Your mom?" I asked.

"Oh, not entirely. I only adopted Kris when I found him at a young age."

That made more sense.

"Well, it's nice to meet you! Kris, why don't you go make sure your room is ready for the guest."

Kris looked at his mother questionably, but obliged and ran upstairs. When his mother was sure he was out of ear's range, she came over to me and kneeled to look me right in the eye.

"...Ralsei," she said, "Kris is rather… fond of you. I have no problem with anything like that, but do promise me one thing."

"That is?"

"Take care of him, please. He's growing up, and I cannot always be there. I will place my trust in you to do that," she smiled softly, and gave a tender, motherly look.

I couldn't disagree to a request like that. I swore to it, I always wanted to be there for Kris, regardless of what she had just said. And if I understood her properly, maybe Kris really did love me and didn't just say something in a drunken state of sleep.

"And one more thing, dear. Please take off the hat while you're inside, I will make sure it does not get lost."

It was understandable. I don't typically wear the hat everywhere I go, but I do wear it when in the presence of strangers. I have to hide myself, maybe then I won't be hated as much. But I took off my hat, and she looked shocked for a moment, but it quickly turned to a smile.

"You look quite like my boy," she said as she took my hat, "and now that I think of it your name is similar as well…"

I looked at her odd.

"But don't mind any of that! I'm sorry, it just brought back a memory."

Kris was still upstairs. With nothing better to do for the moment, I started looking around the house. We were in the main room now, which led directly into the kitchen and then to a door and the stairs up to the second floor. It was certainly small, but it was homey. There were two chairs in the main room, Kris' mother had taken a seat at one of them, a lamp behind each chair, a red, patterned rug spread across the floor, and opposite to the chairs was a TV on top of a small table. The kitchen only had the microwave and oven, along with a table and a few white cabinets.

Then Kris came back downstairs and jumped over to his mom.

"Everything's all cleaned for tonight, mom! Does that mean he can stay over? Please!" he begged.

"Is it okay with your parents, Ralsei?"

"Um… I live," I was half-stuttering it out, "...on my own."

"On your own? And at such a young age!" Kris' mom exclaimed.

I couldn't say anything. I didn't like thinking about how my parents disappeared so long ago. I often wished I had a good relationship with a parental figure, but I've gotten along well enough on my own for so long now that maybe it would be a hindrance. Or maybe not, I'm not entirely sure.

"I apologize, Ralsei. I had no idea," Kris' mom said.

"It's okay-I can't hold you against something you didn't know."

"Well then! If you ever need anything, I'm certain Kris and I would be more than happy to help, right my child?"

Kris nodded enthusiastically. This is why I like Lightners, they lived up to everything my books always said about them. They cared about others.

"And Kris… I suppose that means Ralsei may stay over whenever he wants. But in return do be on your best behavior! Now run along children, and if you head out try not to come back too late."

I found it funny that Kris' mom made a comment about Kris being on his best behavior. I didn't see any problems with him, at least not yet. But again I was dragged out of my own thoughts, being taken by Kris again. It felt like I was leaving everywhere right as I got there, but I was with Kris the entire time, so it wasn't too big of an issue.

"I'm going to take you to the library! There's tons of books and stories there!" he yelled as we were running.

I do remember seeing a library on our way here. I was actually going to ask him if we could go, but he apparently already planned for it. It made me happy that Kris knows I love reading so much. The library greeted me with an uncountable number of books, all stacked up on shelves a few times taller than myself. I silently pledged to myself that I'd get all of them read someday.

"Well, we have a few hours," Kris whispered over.

"Do you recommend anything?"

"There's a lot of nice tales and myths upstairs, but they usually aren't more than a few hundred pages in length. There's a lot to read, go nuts!"

I immediately went upstairs. Stories like the one about Mt. Ebott were my favorites, and I instantly found a few copies of them when I started looking for something to read. Kris was right about there being multiple versions of the story, from what I saw there were three versions of the story with the major differences being toward the end. But I wasn't interested in reading that one again, and from what Kris said, I probably wouldn't like the other ones as much.

To my surprise though, I found a book that seemed to talk about a world on the opposite of the Light World. It was only seventy-five pages, so I made quick work of it. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be talking about the Dark World exactly, or if it was it was mostly full of lies. It depicted the characters as heartless brutes that fought all the time with each other.

I looked over at Kris after I was done, who was sitting across from me at the table. He had a slightly disinterested look on his face.

"Kris? Do you maybe want to go somewhere else?"

"No, it's fine. There's not a lot to do in this town, this probably is one of the better things to do," he said, "and I'm happy if you are."

Hearing that made my heart jump a bit. But I still worried about Kris, I wanted him to have fun as well.

"Do you want to choose out a book?" I silently asked.

"There's one I probably should read, but I don't know if you'd like it."

"It's okay."

It was not okay, not at all. Next thing I knew I was downstairs reading a book detailing all the long and gruesome wars humans waged against each other. Learning about all the unnecessary violence and bloodshed and death made me uncomfortable. Kris needed to read it for his school apparently. But he didn't seem to like it very much either. All the humans in this book couldn't hold a candle up to how good of a person Kris was.

The book was very long, which made it even worse. But it took the rest of the time we had for Kris to take in all the details of the book, so we headed out after Kris put it back.

"Sorry that the trip wasn't exactly the best…" he said as we were walking to his house.

"If I want to read every book there, I'll have to get through the good, the bad, and the terrible. I think it's good that I got through two of the terrible today, that means next time will have to be better!"

"That's a good way to think about it," he laughed.

As we entered his house I immediately picked up the smell of food. His mother was in the kitchen, making what looked to be a mix of vegetables along with rice. A simple but healthy meal, very much like one I'd make if I didn't felt like really doing a whole lot.

"Oh! Good timing children, I'm almost finished. I didn't know what to make for Ralsei so I hope this will be sufficient," his mother said when she noticed us.

"I'm not very picky. It smells wonderful," I said.

"Kris, why don't you go upstairs with Ralsei for a moment? I'll call for you both when I finish."

Kris nodded, and I followed after him as he went upstairs. He led me into his room, which to me was very peculiar. One side was full of posters and awards along with a TV and a few books. The other side had only a toy cart and an empty bird cage on it. Both sides had a bed and a wardrobe of their own.

"...I'm not at home often, so why should I put a lot of things there?" he said.

"I understand that."

"The other side used to belong to my brother before he went off to university. We just haven't moved his stuff yet, I don't know that my mom really wants to."

"Oh."

"Well, we can share this room. He won't be back for a while so I guess you can use his bed in the meantime," he said flatly.

I noticed my hat was resting on his bed. I was tempted to grab it and put it on, but I remembered that Kris' mom asked me not to have it on inside the house. For a while I forgot that I had it off, so I'm sure now a ton of others know what I really look like; putting the hat on probably wouldn't be too necessary.

Kris went over to the window and opened the blinds. He shook his head as he looked out, visibly murmuring something to himself.

"Is something the matter, Kris?"

"Just one more surprise for you, it's not ready yet though," he sighed.

"You've spoiled me today, do not fret not being able to give me anything else."

"But I think this one is the best one! Better than the library by far."

"Children! Dinner is ready!" Kris' mom called from downstairs.

We both went down and ate at the table, Kris must've been hungry because he scarfed his food down. Being the first done, he excused himself from the table and went back up to his room. It was just Kris' mother and myself sitting across the table from one another. A conversation had started in-between bites.

"...so you say Kris really likes me?" I asked.

"Oh yes. A few days ago, he was late coming home from school. But he told me the reason was because he met the most wonderous friend! You must be really special, Kris usually keeps to himself."

I'm sure a faint blush had appeared on my face from that.

"Good that we see eye-to-eye," I lied, "he also is a really great friend."

"You know, ever since my son moved out, he has been incredibly lonely. I don't think I've ever seen such a big smile on his face as when he came home that day."

By now the both of us had finished. She got up from the table and took my plate, I thanked her and went to go upstairs to meet Kris. But right when I reached his door, he burst out from the room and just nodded to me, before running downstairs. I chased after him, having no idea what was happening. By time I got downstairs all I saw was Kris' mom laughing and she nodded to Kris, who turned excitedly to face me.

"Okay, I'm going to cover your eyes and take you to the last surprise!" he exclaimed.

"W-what? Why cover my eyes?"

"Because it'll ruin the surprise if you can see it, silly!" he said, walking behind me and placing his hands just over my glasses.

"Kris, I don't like this…"

"You trust me, don't you? Just follow my directions, it'll be fine."

"...okay," I eventually said.

"Okay turn left just a bit, then we're going to go forward until we reach the door. I'll tell you when to stop."

I did as instructed.

"Stop!" he yelled.

He opened the door, then swiftly covered my eyes back up so I couldn't see out.

"Okay, forward, be ready for a few steps down. Just keep going forward and I'll help you turn."

I was taking nervous steps at first, especially due to the idea of going down steps blindly, but eventually I was actually starting to get the hang of it. Luckily for me Kris yelled stop again after only a short distance, and then he uncovered my eyes.

We were back at the lake from earlier, but it was a much different scene. Rather than the sky being blue like it was earlier, it was now black like in the Dark World. But unlike the Dark World, this black sky was dotted with countless shining dots and still had a faint amount of blue strewn across it. The lake water was incredibly still, stretching out to the forest behind it. Dancing across the water were a thousand tiny lights, like little embers of fire.

"Surprise!" Kris yelled.

I could only look on in awe. The Light World was incredibly beautiful, such a radical change from the Dark World. Kris was right, seeing this view was so much better than going to the library.

"When it's warm outside, all these little fireflies will come out and light up the forest. And at night, the sun goes away to reveal all the pretty stars in the sky! I'm glad I got to share this with you."

Kris sat down and put his feet out just before the water. I did the same, but I leaned into him.

"Oh! What's that, Kris?"

I was pointing up at the sky, there was one of the stars but it looked to be moving across the sky.

"That's a shooting star, Ralsei! They're incredibly rare-this is the first one I've seen myself even!"

"It's really pretty…"

"Many people make a wish when they see a shooting star, and it's said to come true, but you can't tell anyone! Want to see if it's true?"

I closed my eyes and made my wish. For Kris and I to stay together forever.