Chapter 2: "Sidra’s Arrival"


"Oof!" Sidra exclaimed as she landed softly. Seconds later, another thud sounded as her backpack landed a few feet from her. "Uhh..." Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was greeted by the sight of storm clouds. However, they quickly gave way to a blue, cloudless sky. As if a storm had never happened.

‘Where am I? Where’s the meteor? Am I dead?’ She sat up and looked around. She was lying on a dirt trail in a clearing. The clearing itself was surrounded on all sides by a dense forest. It was a warm, summer day. The noon sun hung high in the sky and shone brightly over the clearing, causing the trees to leave no shadows on the ground. A gentle breeze blew. Offering relief from the sun’s rays. Birds chirped softly in the distance, accompanied by the sound of a flute.

"This is weird..." She whispered, picking herself off of the ground and dusting herself off. "One minute, I’m sneaking out of my house running away to Florida. Next minute I’m here..." She sighed, "That meteor couldn’t have been real. It just... came out of nowhere!" She thought for a moment, "Maybe... it was an optical illusion... Yeah, that’s it! It was just a trick!" Sidra let out a nervous laugh. But then stopped with a sigh.

"...But that still wouldn’t answer the question about how I got here..." Sidra placed her left hand on her hip. It rested on the bulge caused by the cellular phone in her pocket. "Hmm..." She reached in and pulled it out. A small hole on top of the tiny silver device gave off a white light. "Better turn that off..." Sidra mummered, pressing a button on the keypad to turn it off. Then, she pressed 2 and the call button and held it up to her ear.

"Pick up..." Nothing could be heard. No busy signal, no automated message, nothing. Sidra growled under her breath and tried the button combination again. Still nothing. She tried a third time. Nothing again. "Well, this is just great..."

After placing the phone back in her pocket, Sidra finally noticed the flute music, out of place among the ambiance sounds of leaves rustling and birds singing. "...Where’s that music coming from?" She looked around and noticed part of a house sticking out from behind the trees to her left. "It must be coming from over there." Sidra picked up her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and ran down the path toward the house.

~~~

Marcel played a lively tune on his flute while tapping his foot to the beat. Next to him, on the edge of the fountain, his pet blue bird Chupi sat, pecking at some bird seed he had laid out for him.

‘It’s such a beautiful day.’ He thought. Of course, it was almost ruined by that freak rain storm. But that didn’t matter now. The sky was clear, it was warm, the sun was shining. One could almost say the day was perfect. ‘Maybe I should go for a walk later. I could pick some flowers for Rosalia-sama and Angel-’ The thought made him stop playing. Now that Angelique had become Queen, Marcel and the others weren’t able to see her as often. This saddened him, since he had become attached to her. He was sure the other Guardians had to. But they just didn’t show it.

The Guardian of bounty-bringing Green sighed and placed his flute on his lap. "Chupi," He said, turning to the tiny bird. "I wish Angelique-sama could come and visit. But Julious-sama says that if she stops focusing her Sacrea for even a minute, the cosmos would ‘plunge into chaos.’" He sighed.

There was a sudden rustle behind him. "Huh? What was that?" He turned and looked at the entrance to the dirt trail. The trail went through the entire Sanctuary and connected all of the Guardians’ mansions. Something moved among the trees. "Who’s there?!" He asked.

~~~

"Hmm?" Sidra stepped off of the trail. It had lead her to the house, which turned out to be a large mansion. The mansion was surrounded by an equally large garden. Numerous flower bushes, scrubs and the like covered the area. Several bird houses were almost strategically placed around the garden as well. In the middle of it all was a large fountain, by which a boy sat. He had long, honey blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail and large... purple? Yeah, purple eyes. He wore a green and white outfit. It’s design was unlike anything Sidra had ever seen before. He looked to be a couple years younger then her.

The boy stood up and stared at her. "Umm... Hi!" Sidra yelled, waving. "Can you tell me where I am?!" He didn’t answer. "Didn’t you hear me?!" Still no answer. Starting to become irritated, she started to walk toward him. ‘Even here people ignore me.’ She thought.

Sidra stopped a few feet from the boy. He was about the same height as her. His hair was also the same length as hers. He stared at her for a few seconds, then asked her something in a foreign language.

Sidra blinked, "What?" She asked. The boy spoke again.

~~~

"Who are you?" Marcel asked. The girl didn’t respond this time. She looked tired and her clothes were wrinkled. This was odd. It was very rare to see new people in the Sanctuary. And usually they were a new Guardian or a Queen Candidate. Well, that was what Julious-sama and Luva-sama always said. Marcel believed them, since they had been Guardians longer then him.

‘...Wait, that’s it!’ He thought, ‘Maybe Luva-sama has some books on different languages and can translate what she’s saying!’ He smiled. The girl gave him a weird look and raised one of her eyebro- well, the left side of her eyebrow. "C’mon, I’ll take you to Luva-sama." Marcel told her, reaching for her hand.

~~~

"Hey, hey, hey!" Sidra yelled, recoiling her hand as the strangely clad boy tried to grab it. She must have been dead. Never once had a boy ever acted this way in front of her before. Usually when a boy smiled, it meant that she had walked right into a practical joke or he had just insulted her. But this boy seemed nice. Even though he did try to grab her hand for no apparent reason. (Well, one that wasn’t apparent to her anyway.) He looked at her questioningly for a moment, said something in his own language, then pointed to himself.

"Marcel" He said, smiling.

Sidra blinked, then got the picture. "...Oh! That’s your name." She mummered. ‘Duh...’ She shook her head, disgusted with her slight stupidity. "Marcel." She repeated, pointing to the boy. Marcel nodded, his smile growing wider. She pointed to herself. "Sidra".

"Sidra" Marcel echoed, pointing to her. Sidra nodded. Marcel spoke feverishly, pointing to the side of the mansion behind him. She shook her head.

"I don’t understand." Marcel thought for a moment, then started walking in the direction he had been pointing. A small blue bird that was perched on the fountain flew after him. Sidra watched it with curiosity, then shook her head. ‘Must be his pet.’

"Sidra!" Marcel yelled, waving for her to follow him. Seeing no other option, she adjusted the strap of her backpack, and ran after him.

~~~

Marcel huffed and panted as he ran along the dirt trail. It had turned out that Luva wasn’t in his mansion. But with Julious discussing cultivation matters. This meant that he had to drag Sidra twice as farther then he had expected. Fortunately, they had just reached Julious’ mansion. He stopped and waited for Sidra as she walked up to him, almost dragging her backpack along the ground.

Sidra bent over, her hands on her knees, and exhaled deeply. She mummered something in her own language and looked at him.

Marcel let out a nervous laugh. "Sorry..." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "It shouldn’t be much further now. Julious-sama is probably in his office." After a couple more seconds of rest, he picked himself up and ran into the mansion. The tiny bird in tow.

~~~

"For the love of god..." Sidra mummered before picking up her backpack and running into the mansion after Marcel. ‘Where the hell is this kid taking- wow...!’ The interior of the mansion was brightly lit and furnished in mostly white and gold. Marcel raced up the grand staircase in front of them and ran into the left wing of the 2nd floor hall.

Sidra stopped and looked around. She and Marcel appeared to be the only two people in the place. Though she figured whoever owned it must’ve had a lot of servants. "Amazing... hey, wait!" She yelled, continuing her chase after the violet eyed boy.

Eventually, the two came to a set of double doors. Both were adorned with a gold knocker. Marcel knocked on one and entered without waiting for an answer.

Sidra stopped dead in her tracks. Within the room was three of the most handsome men she had ever seen.

In the middle of the room was a large white and gold desk. At it sat a regal looking man with long, golden hair and beautiful blue eyes. His clothing indicated that he was definitely a man with a great deal of social power. To his left was a gentle looking man dressed in the blue and green robes of a scholar. His hair, that which could be seen below the turban on his head, was also a curious shade of blue. His eyes were a soft gray. The man to his right was dressed in the garb of a soldier. He wore silver plates of armor with stylized flames drawn on them in red, a black undershirt and pants and brown leather gauntlets. Topping it all off was a royal blue cape. His hair was slightly spiky and a deep red. His eyes were an icy blue, lighter then the golden man’s eyes.

‘Oh my god... I am dead. And I ended up in the section of heaven for hot guys!’ Sidra thought. She started to feel nauseous. "M-M-Marcel?" She stammered.

Marcel turned and looked at her. So did the other three men in the room. "Oh..." He walked over and took her hands. Sidra’s hands suddenly felt cool and fresh and charged with a strange energy. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She dismissed it as a result of her nerves.

Marcel spoke to the three men, his statement ending with her name. He then turned to her and pointed to the golden haired man at the desk. "Julious-sama". Julious studied her thoughtfully. He pointed to the blue haired man. "Luva-sama" Luva smiled at her. Finally, he pointed to the soldier. "Oscar-sama" Oscar raised an eyebrow and studied her as well. But he did it in a curious fashion (curious to her anyway). He also had a slight smirk on his face.

~~~

"Marcel, where did you find this girl?" Julious asked with a slightly annoyed tone.

"She was on the walking trail behind my house." Marcel replied, looking at Sidra. Sidra gave him a nervous smile. "She doesn’t speak our language. And she doesn’t seem to know where she is. Maybe she can stay-"

"There is no way she could’ve entered the Sanctuary without one of us, Rosalia, or Queen Angelique knowing." Julious started. "And people can’t just enter whenever they want. She-"

"I think Marcel has a good idea, Julious." Luva interrupted, "Judging from her clothes, she’s not from any of the nearby planets. Maybe she can stay for a few days. Until we establish some kind of communicatio-"

"Do you expect to just learn her language in a few days?" Julious snapped, clearly becoming irritated. "We have more important things to do then trying to learn another language."

"I have to agree with Julious-sama." Oscar added, his smirk fading. "As much as I want to help the missy here..." He gestured toward Sidra a glanced at her... eyebrow, "... It would take too much time. And you know the flow of time in the Sanctuary is different from the outside. Hey..." He noticed Sidra glaring at him coldly. Luva ignored them and turned to Sidra, smiling.

~~~

Sidra flinched. Another guy smiled at her today. It immediately made up for Oscar staring at her like she was a freak. She blushed and looked down at the carpeted floor. Luva spoke to her in a soft voice, then bowed. Sidra just looked at him, unsure of what to do. Seeing this, Luva thought for a moment. Then extended his right hand. He explained something to everyone present, then waited. ‘... Don’t want to seem rude.’ She thought, grasping her right hand in his. ‘I wish I knew what these guys were saying.’ Suddenly, an odd tingling sensation traveled through her hand and up her arm. It felt as if she was sucking energy out of Luva’s body. Both her and Luva gasped and let go of each other’s hands. Sidra fell to the floor as the sensation continued up her arm and into her head. "Uhh..." "Sidra, are you alright?!" She heard Marcel cry. She shook her head and opened her eyes. Everyone just stood staring at her. Except for Marcel, who tried to help her up. "Are you okay?!"

"...Yes..." Sidra replied. Marcel gasped and let go of her. She looked around the room. "Umm...heheh..." She laughed nervously.

~~~

Author’s note: Okay, I thought it would make more sense that everyone in the Sanctuary would speak a different language then Sidra. Hey, they are in another galaxy! By the way, there are cell phones that have flashlights built in them. I know, I have one. :p Ridiculous, yeah. But if you think about it, it is kind of practical.