Chapter Thirteen: Neptune

Alina: After Jonathan so rudely left me alone with Kenneth to talk to Dad in the kitchen, we sat in silence for about two seconds. Then, we both started talking at the same time. "You first," I insisted.

"How's Javis?" Was the question he pushed at me. He sat back and folded his arms.

"She's fine." More silence. "Um, nice weather, huh?" I mentally slapped myself. This was definitely not the way to go about making small talk.

"Never seen a bluer sky," Kenneth replied. I flopped down in the chair, folded my legs and propped my chin on my hand. Finally, Kenneth took a deep breath. "Alina, I have to tell you some-"

"DINNER!" Mom yelled from the kitchen, and we both walked into the dining room, eager to leave the uncomfortable situation behind. I sat beside Jonathan as usual, Kenneth sitting on Jonathan's other side and Kendra sitting by me. Mom brought the dinner, which was her homemade ravioli, down to the table and we eagerly dug in after Dad said a short prayer.

"Father, we ask you to bless this food and to bless the young people that are Neptune's future. In Jesus' name we pray, amen."

"This is delicious, Mrs. Johannis," Kendra exclaimed after the first bite. "Absolutely delicious." Mom smiled, obviously flattered. Kendra turned to me. "Is your mom's cooking always this good?"

I nodded. Jonathan elbowed me in the side and I looked at him. "What?" He silently pointed to Dodger, the dog, who was laying on his back and had his tongue hanging out. It was hilarious. I laughed, inhaled a piece of ravioli and started coughing. "Excuse me," I said. "Sorry."

After dinner, Kenneth said that they had to go. I hugged Kendra, smiled at Kenneth and said bye to both of them. That night, before I could go to sleep, Dodger crawled into my bed. "How's my handsome?" Dodger just sighed and fell asleep. I rolled my eyes and turned over, closing my eyes. When I opened them again, it was morning. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I got dressed and ate breakfast, brushed my teeth and trooped outside to wait on the trampoline until Quillan and Kerina called us for assembly. The lesson for that day was, big surprise, how to fight with a shield as well as a sword.

Luckily, I turned out to be pretty good with the shield. It was big, but not heavy, because of the Allatin substance it was made of. "Light as well as puncture proof. I guarantee it." I grinned at him and, while he was distracted by it, lightly tapped his side with my laser sword. He groaned, but laughed. "Beaten by my own daughter!"

The next few days were passed in this manner. Finally, Quillan pronounced our skills adequate and said, We are returning to Neptune tomorrow morning. Bring nothing but your armor and other essentials. You will have no need of clothes, as a wardrobe has already been assembled in your proper size at your homes. Be warned, though, the portal sometimes makes you feel sick.

Dad smiled. "I'm so proud of you guys."

Javis nudged my shoulder with her nose. I'm proud of you, too, rider. I smiled at her. She touched my chest with one claw, right where my heart was. I am honored to be your dragon.

Whether she knew it or not, that was the best compliment she could have paid me. I hugged her, pressing my cheek against the hard, warm scales on her neck. "I am honored to be your rider," I told her in a whisper.

That evening, we invited the others to eat with us again. This time Haley was able to join us, along with Kenneth and Kendra. Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs, which were homemade, like most of the dishes my mother served. This meal in particular, though, was my personal favorite. I ate more than Jonathan, which was pretty difficult to do, and felt the effects when Mom brought out the brownies she'd baked earlier while we were training.

"Ugh," I said and leaned back. "I might have to pass on the brownies, Mom." I eyed them and felt my mouth water.

"Nonsense. Just wait a few minutes and come back. I promise I'll save some for you, don't worry." I nodded and walked out of the dining room, clearing my place in the process, and went to play with the dog. I snuck up behind him, grabbed his sides and when he jumped, I grabbed his bone. Dodger whirled and grabbed the bone again before I had time to straighten, and we were instantly thrown into a game of tug-of-war. Dodger growled and shook his head violently, playing, and I had to grab onto that bone with both hands so that he wouldn't rip it out of my grasp.

I leaned back on my heels, using my greater weight against him. But of course, his center of gravity was lower and that gave him the advantage. Luckily for me, though, I had more brains. After a few minutes of the game, I twisted the bone and it popped out of Dodger's mouth. I fell over backwards, landing sprawled on the floor, and held up the bone triumphantly.

"I win!" I told Dodger, and shook the bone in front of his face. He made no move to get it. I heard someone chuckling and tipped my head back on the carpet. I saw someone's shirt. My gaze traveled up until I saw their face. "Oh, hi, Kenneth! I won," I said, which made him burst into laughter.

"That much is obvious, Alina." He shook his head at me. Taking full advantage of my distraction, Dodger shot forward, grabbed the bone and started tug-of-war again. I groaned.

"Thanks, Kenneth," I mock-glared, and sank down so that I was practically sitting on the floor. I pulled Dodger forward, but he shook his head and pulled me over forwards. "Hey!" I yelped and let go of the bone. Dodger pranced around the room, his prize in his mouth, and held his head very high. "Show off," I muttered and turned over, pushing myself up on my elbows. Kenneth offered his hand, which I took, and pulled me up.

"He's pretty strong," Kenneth remarked offhand. I nodded, still breathing to hard from the game to say anything in return. He grinned. "Stronger than you, it seems."

I play-glared at him. "Oh, yes, add insult to injury, why don't you?" He raised and eyebrow and I, unable to keep a straight face, laughed again. "I'm going to go get a brownie," I said and walked into the kitchen. "About the brownie you promised to save, Mom," I said, and saw a large one sitting on the counter. "Is this for me?" Mom nodded, her own mouth full, and I grabbed it. Taking a bite, I closed my eyes in ecstasy. "Delicious. Best ever, Mom!" Mom smiled and patted my shoulder.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, Kendra told us it was time for them to go home, and not two minutes later, Haley left as well. "Time for bed," Dad said. "We have a big day tomorrow and you need plenty of sleep." We all groaned, but gave him a hug and a kiss and obediently trooped off to our bedrooms. I collapsed into bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, mom woke us up early, before the sun was even up. "Come on, Alina," she said, shaking my knee. "Time to rise and shine!" I groaned, rolled over and put the pillow on top of my head. "Now, don't be like that, young lady!" She sighed when I made no reply. "I have ways of getting you up," she warned. Again, I didn't say anything. But I shot up in bed when something cold dropped down my back. Mom was holding my bag of rocks. "Told ya," she said with a grin.

I felt like flopping back in bed, but mom brandished the bag. "Mom, the sun isn't even up yet!" I complained, but I got out of bed nonetheless. Dressing quickly, I grabbed my favorite necklace and put it on, not about to leave it behind. "All right, I'm ready," I told her.

The entire group met out in our backyard. Are we all ready? Kerina asked. At our affirmative, she did the dragon equivalent of a smile. Excellent! Quillan, darling, open the portal, please.

Quillan looked at the deck, and a blue door suddenly appeared. Amanda looked surprised. "That's the portal?"

Of course that's the portal, Quillan replied in a huffy tone. What else would it be, a door that you just walk through and go nowhere?

Jacob jumped into the conversation. "It doesn't look like the portals that are in movies, though. I think that's probably what Amanda was getting at."

Kerina took a head count. Let's see, Alina, Jonathan, Amanda, Adair, Jacob, Justin, Amara, Haley, Kenneth and Kendra. They're all here. She smiled. We're ready to go! Mom and dad stepped forward and walked through the door, disappearing. Amara, in a fit of terror at her parents just winking out, ran through next screaming for them.

I followed at a distance, after Estelle had gone after her rider, and walked into the portal. I had my hand on Javis' knee, but suddenly she just wasn't there anymore. There was a sensation of moving very quickly, and I saw lots of colors swirling around. It looked kind of like a kaleidoscope. Finally, I saw the end and, feeling sick to my stomach, stumbled out the other side of the portal.

Javis followed almost immediately, then a torrent of people and dragons. Haley was the last person to come through the portal, Larita having preceded her. The door disappeared again. I looked around. Apart from a sky of a different shade of blue, Neptune looked no different than Earth at first glance. Then I saw the trees. They were still green, being plants and all that, but they didn't look like the trees in our yard. The people looked different, too, and I realized that it was because of their clothes.

The ladies wore what looked like a cross between Medieval and futuristic styles. Short dresses in the Medieval cut were put on over silver pants and boots. It looked odd but strangely attractive. I turned to Dad. "Are we going to dress like that?" I asked him.

"No, you'll wear clothes practical for dragon riding," he answered. He pointed to a girl pushing her way through the crowd towards us. No one besides her seemed to notice us. I looked the girl over. She was wearing tight fitting gold pants and a black tunic-like thing. Knee high black boots covered her legs.

"Hello," the girl said once she reached us. She bowed, putting her fist over her heart. "My name is Que." She smiled at me. "Welcome to Neptune!" Dad bowed back. Not sure of what to do, I stood uncertainly. "You must be Alina," Que said, looking me over just as I had her. "It's nice to meet you."

I smiled back, still unsure of the proper etiquette. "Nice to meet you, too," I answered.

Dad put a arm around my shoulders. "Don't worry if it's all a little to much to take in all at once. You have the rest of your lives to get used to it." He patted my back and moved off to talk with Mom.

Que frowned suddenly. "What are you wearing?" I looked down and made a questioning noise. "It's...weird." Que looked like she didn't know what to think.

I saw that she was staring at my blue jeans and t-shirt. "This is what everyone wears back on Earth," I explained. "Jeans and a t-shirt."

"I hope you're not going to wear that forever," Que said, sounding uncertain for the first time. "You'll have other clothes, right?"

I nodded. "Yes, I will. And I'll wear them, too. I like your clothes." Que looked down at her outfit and smiled. Suddenly, she looked over my shoulder and cocked her head.

"Who's that?"

I turned to see Jonathan walking towards us. "Oh. That's Jonathan, my twin brother. Why do you want to know?"

Que blushed and didn't say anything. Jonathan reached us and half-bowed, his way of greeting people. "Hi, Alina. Who's this?" I quickly introduced Que, who looked unable to speak. "Que? That's a nice name."

Que smiled shyly. "Thank you, Jonathan." I raised an eyebrow. What was wrong with her? Jonathan, however, beat me to asking her. "You mean you don't know? We're matched." Jonathan looked surprised, but took it in stride and smiled, offering to take a walk with her so she could explain everything.

I watched them go with mixed feelings. I certainly hoped that they would be happy, but I didn't want to lose my twin. Kenneth appeared by my side. "Hi," he said, looking around. "It's pretty here, but it's a little much to take in all at once." I nodded, not able to speak. To my horror, my vision became blurred by tears. I quickly blinked them back. "You okay?" Kenneth sounded worried. I nodded.

"I'm fine, really. It's just that Jonathan and Que are matched, so now they'll be spending a lot of time together, I suppose. I'm not used to sharing my brother. Usually it's just us two." I gave a half smile. "I'm just going to have to get used to it."

Kenneth took a deep breath. "Alina, I have to tell you something. I wanted to tell you earlier, but there was never an opportunity." I waited patiently while he stopped, trying to find the right words. "I...I mean...That is to say that..." He stopped again, thinking. "Alina, to be blunt, we're matched. I wanted to be the one to tell you." I raised my eyes to his face. His gaze was slightly unsure, a little scared and a lot curious.

"Really?" Kenneth nodded. "Huh. Fancy that. Well, at least I don't have to wonder who I'm going to get married to anymore." I smiled at him, and was happy to see the nervousness leave his eyes.

"You know, you don't have to marry me." I let the smile on my face grow. "What?"

My shoulders started shaking. "Nothing, it's just that you sounded so hesitant when you said that." My mom beckoned for me to follow her. "I have to go. See you...whenever I see you again, I guess." I ran after my mother, finally catching up a second later. "Are we going to our new home, now?"

Mom nodded. "Yeah, only it's not new, exactly." She wouldn't answer when I asked her what she meant, only told me to "Wait and see." When we reached our house, though, I understood. It was our house. I mean, the house we'd been living in for the past five or six months. I ran inside and saw that everything was the same. Even the mess. I grimaced at it, then went to my room to change into clothes that fit into the culture.

I saw that my closet was filled with clothes similar to the kind Que was wearing, and chose a tunic that was the same blue as Javis' scales, figured out how to put it on, and found boots in the same blue color. I opened my dresser drawers and saw lots of folded tunic-like-things and put one on that was a burnt orange. Javis stuck her nose in the window.

You like beautiful, Alina, She told me, blowing out. Her breath smelled like woodsmoke. Fit for dragon riding.

Trahern was next to her, and he shoved his nose in next to Javis'. You do like nice, He admitted. You look like Javis.

I patted their noses. "Thanks, guys." Dad called me from downstairs, telling me that it was time to meet the current ruler of our continent. "Bye. See you tomorrow." I dropped a kiss on Javis' nose spike, decided against such a 'mushy' goodbye for Trahern and just patted his nose again. Then I carefully looked myself over in the mirror, decided that I was presentable, and walked down the stairs to meet the Emperor of Cimarrion.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Okay. A pronunciation guide for the names in this chapter: Que is said like "Kay," and Cimarrion is "Si-mare-ee-un." Thanks to Snowfur for the name idea!