White Shirt and Silver Chains

Brooklyn took another step forward, making sure she was covering, the bearer of the Dragon Stone.

"Who's there?" she asked again and looked left, then right. Something else clattered next to where the tree was.

"Oh shit!" a muffled voice said from the distance. Brooklyn and the girl walked towards the tree. A book shelf stood tall next to it and she suspected someone was hiding behind it.

"Come out!" Brooklyn ordered but whoever it was behind the book shelf, they didn't listen. She walked over to the opposite side of the book shelf and there, through the spaces between the books and the racks....she saw the hints of two eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked quietly this time and glanced at the girl. She only shrugged.

"You don't need to know," the same voice said, he -- it definitely was a he-- tried to cover his face and head.

Brooklyn shook her head and pulled out the books in the shelf so that she could catch this mystery stranger. He looked up at Brooklyn and his eyes went wide and eyebrows raised up in surprise. He froze completely.

The girl saw his face too and her jaw dropped slightly.

"Oh my Mars..." she thought to herself, taking in his face. Strands of silver hair curled up on his head and fell down over his nose like snowflakes and...and his eyes, it wasn't blue but it wasn't grey either. And his startled face was so cute that the girl couldn't help but sigh. She thought of touching that fair porcelain skin and stroking it and...it was too much...she closed her eyes and fell.

Thud.

Brooklyn's head turned to the floor, "What in Zyka!"

The boy --quite tall-- stepped over in front of the shelf and stood next to them in alarm, "What happened to her?"

Brooklyn knelt down and checked her breath and she let out a breath too. She didn't die, thank God. That meant the Dragon was also safe...for now.

The boy stepped closer and bent down to feel her head but Brooklyn swapped his hand away. He gasped a little, rubbing his wrist.

"Don't touch her!" Brooklyn warned and the boy took a step, clearly getting her message.

Brooklyn had froze too, when she saw his face. Those eyes. That characteristic silver hair. Only one race of humans on Earth had that hair.

Wintra people.

Brooklyn caressed the girl's face and let it glow with her magic, not caring who was watching. Once Brooklyn felt like she'll be okay, she rested her head against a shelf and stood up and crossed her arms.

"What is a person like you doing here? How did you find this place? How many days have you been here? What's your motive, Wintral?" She said the last words with a touch of disgust in it. It was reasonable. The Zykarians and Wintrals didn't have the most glorious of histories.

He raised his arms, "That's too many questions for me to answer. But I come in peace."

Brooklyn laughed, "Peace?" She tossed her head to the side, "Yeah right. Like you Wintrals know what peace means," she pointed a long finger at him, "You've come here to spy on us haven't you? Just say it."

His expression went blank as he looked down at her. He crossed his arms too, "No. I'm not here for that."

"Then why are you here?"

He looked up and sighed, "I need to find a stone. It's the only way I can get her."

Brooklyn knew that by the way that he said 'her' that she was someone special to him. He might be Wintra blood, but even Wintrals had a heart. But this stone....was it the same one in the girl who was now by the shelf?

"How can a stone help you get a girl?"

He sat down on the chair. He was wearing a white shirt that had a slit at the shoulder and another thin slit down the right side. Thin silver chains dangled from different parts of the shirt. If Brooklyn wasn't in this world...but in another world where corona conquered 2020 and K-pop made people happy, she would have thought this boy looked like a K-pop idol.

He looked like he was about to say something but then stopped, "None of your business, I just want to find the stone and I'll be back on my merry way. Do you know where I may find it?" he asked looking her up and down, "Oh wise looking person?"

She stopped herself from glancing at the girl, "And if I knew? Why would I tell you?"

The trap door flew open and people rushed in. Only when Brooklyn registered what was happening did she realize that they weren't just any people...they were the Guard.

The boy sighed and tried to cover his hair but the Guard had already seen it. He stepped closer to Brooklyn and whispered to her, "Sheesh, how did you call them in so fast? Dad's going to kill me."

Brooklyn looked at him, her blue contact lenses directed at him, "I didn't call them. And I don't think anyone knows you are here."

"Then why-"

The leader of the Guard stepped forward, "Hand over the girl!"

Brooklyn slowly looked at the girl on the floor, she pointed at her in surprise, "Her?" She just came here the night before...what did she do wrong? "Why are you arresting her?" Brooklyn asked tentatively.

"Orders from the Crown. Hand her over now."

Brooklyn didn't know what to do, This girl had so many things left to do....find the Dragon, figure out what the scrolls mean, help her bring down the Raken. If she resisted now, she knew that the Guard won't hesitate to shoot. And she didn't want her to get hurt....

"Fine," Brooklyn said at last and tried to wake her up. Two of the guards came forward and pushed Brooklyn away. They held the girl by the legs and head and lifted her.

Brooklyn looked at the girl's serene face...she didn't even give her a name...

The two guards halted and the first one looked up at the hand on his wrist. It was the Wintral boy. He gripped the guard's wrist so tight that the guard couldn't feel the blood over there.

"You're not taking her anywhere," the boy threatened. His head jerked back as the leader swiped a gun from his holster and pressed it against the boy's head.

Brooklyn gasped. "Don't try to resist, spy. We won't hesitate to shoot," the leader warned. Just like Brooklyn had guessed.

"Don't do anything to her, please, she didn't do anything wrong," Brooklyn tried to convince them. She didn't want bloodshed and...why was the boy doing this? She looked up at him as if to ask what he was doing.

His silver hair hung below the eyelashes of his stormy eyes. They were clouded by the strands of hair so that only Brooklyn could actually make sense of what his eyes were doing.

And she saw him wink.