"Hi!"

NiGHTS stirred slightly from its fever tempered daydreams but consciously made sure not to show it. When the girl didn't move from her spot, it propped itself up on its elbows to peep above the high walls that made its bed of grass.

"Mr. Owl told me to talk you."

"He always was a bit assertive." It gave a weary smile to the girl, eyeing her quietly. Its gaze's mood was tainted by the shadows playing across its face.

"Ok, then, he asked me to." She beamed at NiGHTS, settling down beside it in the tall grass. She watched the grasses' tips wave tenderly towards the colored sky. They almost looked like skyscrapers moving with the wind. "Skyscraper" started to sound too harsh a term to her to describe the strands as she thought more about it. Guess they weren't skyscrapers in many ways. "Wish the sky was this pretty back home. There it's just this tacky gray. Mom says it's from the cars and the planes." She watched NiGHTS settled back into its bed of grass, eyeing the strange patches on its . . . clothes? "You in pain?" She noticed how they seemed to smoke some sort of sparkly black wisps.

"No," the jester curled into itself.

"You can tell someone who can make your bruises better. It's okay to ask for help. That's what my mom says."

"I'm not in pain. Just . . . need to think." It pouted. "It's harder than it seems."

"About what?"

Its blue cat eyes darted around suspiciously. "My . . . sibling is being a pain," the whole phrase sounded like it was intended to wound.

The child mouthed a sign of understanding. "I have problems with my older siblings, too. Is he or she older or younger?"

The jester paused and mumbled something she couldn't hear.

"Wha?"

"We were – ah, what's that visitors' word – born at the same time." NiGHTS rolled over a bit to look over to the girl. "It's 'born,' right?"

"So, you're twins!"

"I guess. If it is the right word."

"Um, 'born.' It means, a, when you come into the world."

"Yeah, that works."

"Well, my sister is always telling me what to do. 'Take out the trash,' she says, 'I'm too busy right now. Don't go in my room or I'll lock you in Grandma's trunk 'til dinner. Bla, bla, bla.'"

"Mine is worse."

"How so?"

The jester stilled. "Oh!" NiGHTS pitched itself onto its belly, burying its head into the tall grasses. It hands flew to its head, violently tousling its horns. "My sibling is being so annoying. Its trying to control me with taunts and stuff. It knows I'm not going to br- . . . to do what he wants but . . . oh! He won't face me directly." It started kicking its legs up and down. "How can I stop them if they don't attack directly!" It stilled, flattening itself into the grass, humming. It suddenly shot into the air several feet. "You!"

"Huh?"

"You're the one Owl said could fly!" It drifted into her face, a bright smile now screwed in place.

"Nope," her face fell ever so slightly, "I float."

"O!" It hovered as if to sit in a chair, waving its arms. "You know how rare it is for a visitor your size to start consciously flying this early after coming to Nightopia for the first time."

It changed the subject . . . "I'm just eleven."

"Yeah, but visitors start getting so . . . downtrodden at your size." It frowned. "If it wasn't so close – hey!" It spun in the air and extended a hand in a gesture of hope. "In a few nights I'll teach you the ropes, k? You'll find dualizing awesome! Just you wait! Will you remember to come?"

Her smile was broken by a confused look. "Wait, I just realized. Humans have to sleep every night and Owl said visitors visit this place in their sleep."

NiGHTS was taken back. "You sleep every night? Then why don't you visit more often?"

"Maybe Owl said something about it?"

NiGHTS hummed in agreement, absentmindedly inverting in its pose as it thought. "Yeah, Owl may know. He's always chirping about something important. Usually don't pay much attention."

"NiGHTS?"

It looked down at the seated girl. "Hm?"

"What's close?"

NiGHTS was taken back for a moment, settling back into a seated, upright position in the air. "Uh, I don't remember what visitors call it."

"Well, what is it?"

"It's . . . an event that happens once in a long while. Oh, for you that would be a very long time." NiGHTS remembered the magnitude of this substantial difference between their two worlds. "The last time it happened it was a really, really long, long time ago."

"What happens?"

"Some sort of buildup of energies."

Its face gained a pensive look. "Nightopia will probably be really fun because that aren't many limits and . . . but the Nightmarens are unusually strong as well."

"Owl told me how you got into a fight with a mean one. You can stay with me if you're scared." The tips of its hat seemed to droop.

"That's not my problem. Something is . . . different from when it happened last and I'm worried it will break."

"Being worried is the same as scared."

NiGHTS jerked around to stare at the girl, "I'm not scared!" The jester darted into the dense tree line with startling speed.

"Wait," the girl called for it, taking a few awkward steps in the direction it had disappeared. "What may break," she yelled.