The Princess of Planet Xeronis

Dream-walker

Nancy drove the flying bike out of the misty countryside. They veered into new territory and came into a grove. They flew past some river and moments later, had come before an old derelict mansion.

The mansion stood an imposing three floors in the midst of tall trees.

'Now I'm going to meet some humans,' Ben thought.

"Who lives here?" he asked as they dismounted. He looked at the building in wonder.

"Friends," Nancy said as she moved past him to go push and open the big doors.

"This house must be pretty old."

"Its two hundred years old," Wonderbee moved past him too and walked inside.

"Stay here. I'll go check for them inside," then the three friends disappeared inside. He was starting to not really like it when they excluded him from their inner circle like that. Anyway, the mansion still fascinated him.

"Unbelievable," he said wondering at the similarity this mansion had with gothic Earth mansions.

Then there was a cracking sound in the thicket behind him. He turned and saw a large black dog growling and slowly advancing towards him. Three more followed at the sides of this Great Dane. There was a Greyhound, a Bloodhound and a Dalmatian.

"Oh – oh," Ben realized the trouble he was in. Then he started to slowly back away for the mansion. He looked at his sides and saw four more large dogs, German Shepherds, walking faster to block the door. They had thrust him into their circle. Their rising growls made him feel like prey.

Then they attacked!

Ben shrank from the biting he anticipated.

"Hold it!" a bark stopped the dogs before they could touch him. Ben turned to look to the door and he saw a larger black Great Dane walk out with Nancy, Spot and Wonderbee behind.

"He's a friend," the Great Dane said in a deep voice full of authority.

The dogs then slowly retreated back into the woods.

Nancy came to him as he sighed, "That was close," he said.

"I want you to meet their leader. His name is Matthias. Matthias meet Ben," Nancy introduced them. Matthias bowed his head slightly.

"He'll be your companion... at least for a time till I open the portal and send you back to your home."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Matthias," Ben said thinking it is not weird at all to meet more talking dogs. Did all the dogs in Xeronis speak?

"But the pleasure is all mine. Consider yourself a guest. I'll show you in," said Matthias turning and heading back inside.

"I'm afraid we won't be joining you. We need to be heading back," Nancy said then she looked at Wonderbee. "You are coming with me big girl. You are seriously hurt," then Wonderbee dropped her head.

"I never said thanks," Nancy said to Ben, "You were really a big help."

"No thanks necessary. It is me who is getting the bigger help," then he patted Wonderbee on the head.

"I am curious though. How did you know his name?" Nancy asked.

This is the question that was on his mind too. Could he tell her the truth without sounding like a nutcase?

"I had heard it in a dream," Ben said looking at his right hand and thinking about electro-kinesis. No, he was not an electro-kinetic.

"Oh," Nancy just said thoughtfully.

"I know, you are free to not believe me. I do not believe me either."

Nancy chuckled and then said, "I believe you. You are not the first dream-walker I have met."

"Dream-walker?"

Nancy came closer and she was smiling, "This is so interesting."

"Interesting? What is a dream-walker?"

"It's a type of innate magic."

"Magic?" Ben was thinking that every answer she gave birthed more questions.

"Look around you, Ben. Xeronis is a place of magic. You are here now, a part of Xeronis, so why should you be different?"

"Do you also have innate magic?"

Nancy laughed softly pointing out what a silly question he had asked. She turned around dismissively and said, "We will talk more another day. Matthias will show you to the garden at the back. There are a lot of fruits there. None is poisonous."

"I thought you wanted to get rid of me quickly," Ben chuckled.

"No, not yet," Nancy smiled, "I will bring a real meal tomorrow."

"That'll be great."

"Don't worry princess; he's in good hands," Matthias said coming to the door.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she chuckled then, "Ben..." she moved to him and hugged him, closing her eyes as if she had known him for a very long time.

Ben had not expected that. They had just gone through a traumatic experience so he supposed that was normal, or Nancy had no sense of boundaries at all. Did not she realize that she was a girl and that she was so beautiful?

She had golden locks of hair that glistened in the sunlight and the color in her hair was also gold here and silver there. She opened her eyes to look up at him and he saw the color in her eyes as a shade of the emerald amulet that she wore around her neck. Her voice when she spoke was soothing and Ben felt he could listen to her all day. The fragrance rising from her body was giving him a feeling of euphoria.

"Um... tomorrow it is," he said as she slowly released him though he wanted to keep her in his embrace and he tried to hide his embarrassment.

"Yeah," then she realized he was embarrassed and she hid her smile. She moved to her bike and Spot came running into her lap.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?" she asked the puppy.

"But I hate goodbyes," he complained.

Nancy just shook her head and then she got the bike in the air and Wonderbee ascended too. After looking at him briefly they then shot away.

Ben wanted them to stay. Xeronis was a new place and it felt alien to him. They had become familiar in the unfamiliar. After they had disappeared from view he turned to get inside.

"You'll have to keep out of sight of bounty hunters," Matthias said as they ascended the stairs. Ben's first reaction when he encountered a talking dog, when he had encountered Spot, he had reacted in fear and in suspicion. He didn't immediately think that it was a dog but something else sinister. But since Spot was a bag full of jokes Ben quickly became acclimatized and abandoned his feelings of suspicion. Plus a talking dragon was more fearsome than a talking dog so this was a new normal for him.

"I haven't encountered them yet," Ben told Matthias.

"Never did and never shall."

It appeared that Nancy had already told Matthias of Ben's situation and that he was going to be using this hideout to stay out of sight.

They came to the second floor and he was led to a room. Ben opened the door into a dusty room that hadn't been swept for an age. He stepped inside to look around.

"Say hello to your room. Needs to be cleaned though... seeing you are a human and all."

Ben pulled a sheet off the bed and shook the dust off it which rose like a cloud to fill the room.

"No kidding," he said with a smile and a cough, "But the room is great. I'll take it."

Nancy got inside the palace with Spot on her heels, as was the norm. In haste, she had forgotten to stop in the city to tidy up and now people were glaring. She ascended the great stairs and was ignoring the nobles who were looking at her with shocked faces.

'Do they have to be so obvious?' Nancy thought.

She was hurrying to her room when she bumped into her aunt. Now she could forget about putting a lid on things because Aunt Josephine was a Sherlock Holmes when it came to uncovering details and she could tell you what you had for breakfast with just one look.

"What in God's name happened to you?" her aunt looked at her from head to toe, "A princess has never looked more like the street folk," then she touched Nancy's chin and studied the sides of her face.

She took one whiff and said, "Do I smell smoke from dragon fire?"

"Fire is fire. Who knows what kind?" Nancy was not giving up details easily either. Her aunt gave her a scolding look and Nancy looked down to mean she understood she was in trouble and was not going to worm herself out with quirky remarks.

"It's almost dinner time and I can't have you looking like a warrior before guests. I'll help you clean up and get dressed as a princess should. Come," then she led Nancy by the hand and Nancy did not dare protest.

Ben was now in the garden in the backyard of the mansion. People who used to live here must have been rich nobles. He plucked a red pear and he had to go wash it under an artificial fountain before taking a bite. The sweet juice flooding his mouth made him smile; he was starving. He then took in the sweet fragrance of the fruit before looking at the setting sun. Xeronis was not very different from Earth, except for the talking dogs, and the dragons, and magic.

Indeed there was magic on Xeronis. Anyone could notice, right? When Ben saw the technology that Nancy was using he had pushed magic far to the back of his mind because science and magic do not mix like water and oil. But indeed there was advanced technology here, and there was magic too. The two existed side by side without clashing.

When the dark descended and covered the valleys like a blanket, Ben went to sleep and it was a peaceful night for dream walking.