Hello,
This story is the translation of my story Across the Reef.
English is not my first language so please be indulgent.
I'm using a mixture of my own skills and DeepL to translate and I'm taking care to ensure that the terms "native" to both franchises are translated correctly.
It's taken me two years to write the second chapter of this story and, although I've got lots of ideas, don't expect Chapter 3 any time soon.
I hope you enjoy it!
Feel free to review
#### CHAP_START() ####
"Something's wrong..." says the Boy to himself.
His eyes are still closed but he knows something is wrong.
There's no stale or dusty smell, the floor is hard under his butt and light filters through his closed eyelids.
It's not normal, because he's fallen asleep like he does every night, in his room under the stairs, locked by Uncle Vernon. He's a bit scared, after all "what's not normal is bad!" Aunt Petunia always explained, that's why he's usually punished, because he's done something freaky.
Perhaps if he goes back to sleep everything will return to normal and he won't be punished?
So he keeps his eyes closed and waits quietly, as he has learnt to do.
After 20 minutes waiting, or maybe 2 minutes - after all, it's hard to know when you're alone with yourself - he decides to open his eyes.
It's big.
And white...
It's an airport, or so he thinks. He's never been to an airport, but he's seen one on television once when Aunt Petunia wasn't looking after him.
Why isn't anyone here?
He gets to his feet and starts wandering around the big empty space. It's too white. It shouldn't be this white. Even the plants are all white. He looked around curiously before spotting the large bay window. Maybe he'll be able to see a plane... he'd love to see a real one.
The outside is just as white, so he wonders if the world has lost its colors. A quick check of his hands showed him otherwise. He took a closer look at the landing strips. The planes are strange, he thinks, not like in films or books. They're big, a bit like someone took a boy and inflated him with a bicycle pump to make him look like Dudley.
Maybe that's why they don't move... Maybe if they try to fly they'll fail and hurt themselves, a bit like when Dudley tries to jump high to show he's the strongest in school.
Yes, they are airplanes, Dudley. He chuckles at the thought. Laughing at his cousin in his dream is funny, there's no one to punish him.
Because that's what it must be... a dream... otherwise why would everything be white and why would there be Dudley airplanes?
"Anybody there?!"
The Boy freezes in fright as he hears the distant voice. There's someone in his dream! He thinks with panic.
"Please, is anyone there?"
The voice is plaintive and sounds sad. It's not a grown-up voice, so there's no risk of punishment he tells himself as he moves forward to reassure himself. It's a girl's voice, the girls are nice, the boys who are nice to him always join the Dudley camp, the girls just avoid him most of the time, which is for the best.
He approaches, the voice is sitting on a bench behind a post.
He sees a mass of blond hair. It's longer than his, but looks just as untamable. She must have heard him, because she straightens up and turns around in surprise. She looks at him with a little fear. She must be his age, a slim face with big, wide blue eyes. Her nose is a pretty little button in the middle of her face, while the bridge is thin. Her lips are thin, pink and glossy. She looks like a pretty doll in a purple dress.
"Hello?" That's all he can say, in a small voice so as not to scare her, not because she's cute.
"Hello..." She looks at him thoughtfully, her eyes passing over him as if to determine if he's dangerous.
"Who are you?" She finally asks.
He doesn't answer, not right away. He doesn't really know what he should say back. After all, he has many names given to him by Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and the other adults. He makes up his mind and :
"Boy."
She blinks, then gives him a skeptical look.
"'Boy?" He nods, uncertain. "You're a boy and your name is Boy?" He can hear the disbelief in her question. He nods again.
There's an awkward silence before she shrugs.
"M'kay I'm Mara!" She says enthusiastically.
He nods, it's a bit of a strange name, but it's pretty. Prettier than Monster.
"Where are we?" He asks abruptly.
She frowns again. She then looks around them.
"Mmmm... This looks like the Freehold [1] spaceport... I often go there to see the ships Mom's working on."
"Spaceport? Not airport?"
She turns to him and looks at him strangely.
"Who says airport anymore in this day and age? Even my granny doesn't use that word."
He blushes and squirms under her gaze. He's never heard the word there, maybe they don't use it where she lives anymore.
"Sorry...first time out of Surrey."
"Right... and where's Surrey?"
"Not far from London."
She looked at him before moving a little too close to him, stars in her eyes.
"Wahh! You live in London! How cool! Lots of people say London's nice! I was born in New Haven, in Connecticut in the United States! But we moved to Freehold when I was little because there wasn't much work for an aeronautical engineer, as Mum says. And what do your parents do?"
He feels a little twinge of sadness at the question. He doesn't like this question; the other kids are embarrassed or laugh when he answers.
"They're dead..."
"Oh." Any initial excitement on her part gone, she grimaces. "Sorry..."
He gave her a reassuring little smile.
"It's okay... I don't remember them, they died when I was a baby."
She returns his smile kindly.
"My daddy died when I was little too..."
There's a new silence. He looks at his feet and then at her, awkward. She shakes her head from side to side, causing her hair to fly in front of her face.
"You've got to play with me! So I can apologize for asking sad questions."
She grabs his hand and pulls him towards the sofas in a rest area. He wonders by what logic he should do something with her to excuse her. He tells himself that for once Dudley must be right, girls are weird.
So he finds himself playing with her. It's nice, nobody ever plays with him usually. They play tag and hide-and-seek. They also talk, lying on the couches. She tells him about her mother, Osana, and her twin brother, Uldwyn. She tells him they're nice and that she loves them, even if her brother is boring. She says she likes hot chocolate, especially the kind her mother makes for her in winter. He in turn tells her about Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley. Strangely, she frowns again when he tells her about his life with them. He figures she shouldn't frown so much, she'll end up with a mark between her eyes, a bit like Uncle Vernon when he gets angry and stays red for a long time afterwards. As they jump from chair to chair, imagining the floor is lava, she describes to him the beauty of Freehold, a verdant city of towering skyscrapers surrounded by cornfields as far as the eye can see in the middle of a desert of dunes. For his part, he tells her about the suburbs where he lives, all the small, almost identical houses for miles around. She calls it boring. He kind of agrees, Surrey is boring compared to the city she lives in...
As they lay next to each other, tired from all the exercise, she looked at him curiously.
"You must have a real name? Not just Boy, a name of your own."
He nods.
"Miss Mona calls me Mr. Potter at school..."
She looks up at the ceiling for a few moments before turning back to him. Her sky-blue gaze piercing his.
"Yes, but that's a last name, don't you have a first name?"
He nods again. Seeing this, a big smile breaks out on her face, so bright he thinks he's dazzled. She then holds out her hand to him.
"Mara Sov."
He shyly takes the outstretched limb. She squeezes it and he responds with a smile.
"Harry Potter."
Then they start laughing out loud and lie back down. He closes his eyes, breathing peacefully beside his first friend.
#### CHAP_END() ####
At the end of each chapter, I'll put a set of notes concerning lore elements. Some points won't be touched on, as I think this would "spoiler" the rest of the story for the curious few who might not know Destiny.
[1] Freehold : has been translated by Eleutheria into French. I like the English name but the translation means "Liberty" in Greek and I find it poetic. It's not very important, but I like the way Bungie and the translators have worked out the meaning of words.