Chapter 1.01: Mystery Girl

Dragon's Valley... Its a lot like Calypso's Island.

Once there, its a Herculean task to leave it.

It had been a few weeks since Thomas graduated college, he waited a while before joining the Military. He didn't have much here at home, so what would it matter if he was gone for days? 

He was an orphan, or that was as far as he was told. He was told that his father was never around, and that his mother wasn't stable enough to take care of him.

All he could say about his childhood was the best part was leaving the orphanage. At least he had all the open fields of Dragon Valley to distract him from his past.

Today's visit was a lot different though...

When he got to the fields, he saw what seemed to be a cackle of electricity. He blinked a few times, just to register what he thought he was seeing. A girl appeared in the middle of all the sparks and the light that followed and disappeared just as quick.

The girl stumbled forwards a little, muttering something to herself. Thomas watched as this girl tried to regain her balance, wondering what the hell just happened.

She paused when she saw him, like a deer in headlights. She didn't smile or wave, she just stared, wide eyed. Thomas started to walk towards this mystery girl, wanting to know who she was, and why she was there.

"Hey!" He called, still walking towards her yet in a cautious manner. For all he knew, this girl could be seriously dangerous. She did have a twisted look to her, something different.

Her reply was only a series of mummers, mainly out of fear.

"What?" He asked, yet before he knew it, she was gone.The same light and cackle of electricity. He shook his head, thinking he was just delusional.

He walked to where the girl was, and she was totally and completely gone. Looking around just proved the exact same thing. 

Whoever that girl was, normal didn't describe her at all.

He just wanted to go to the bar to get rid of his troubles, like usual whenever he was angry, annoyed or confused.

It seemed as if this mystery girl was following him, or at least somehow knew where he was going to go, even before he knew himself. The girl made eye contact with him, and walked over to him.

"Well... Looks like I found myself a stalker." She said, grinning. There was something sly about this girl, mainly just from the way she smiled. She spoke differently to most the people here, and he wondered if she was out of town.

"Stalker? I am not stalking you." He glared at her. "I just... I..." He sighed, annoyed. He had hardly ever spoke to girls, and he wasn't too good at it either. But then again, high school is over. It doesn't matter as much. "The fields. I was there, and you just randomly appeared. What the hell was that?" He kept his voice low, even though there weren't many others in here.

"If you want me to explain, then we'll have to go somewhere else." The mystery girl muttered, looking at him then walking out the door.

Reluctantly, he followed her.

After what seemed like an endless taxi drive with a possibly insane woman, Thomas was glad to be at least a few feet away from her. 

"Where are we even going?" He asked. running after her. There was still the morning mist behind the two of them, over the mountain.

"The beach, not the busy one though." The mystery girl still ran, as he began to get a little paranoid. Where was he actually going?

The only thought he had was possibly to his early demise. But then again, this girl seemed far from the murderous type. So far at least.

"So... Are you actually going to tell me anything?" He asked, and the girl kept smiling.

"I love the beach, I hardly ever got to see it when I was a child. I used to live in a city. It was nice but..." She shrugged "I'd would have preferred living in the suburbs, like most kids did."

He nodded "Okay... Can we start from somewhere else? Like, maybe who you are?" Maybe if he spelled things out for this woman, would that be easier? She seemed really confusing, maybe even confused by her own thoughts.

"Erin." She answered simply, as if it was the answer to everything. Thomas looked at her, confused by her answer. She sighed, as if she had to explain what one plus one was "That's who I am, my name." She explained.

"Well, I'm Thomas." He said, letting a silence hang over them for a while. "Anything else?" He tried again, wanting to find more out about her, or Erin. If it was actually her real name. She was a very muddled woman. Maybe teenager would suit better, she looked no older than Jason was, maybe even younger.

"I wanna go swimming." She said, and got up.

Thomas watched as this girl ran, wondering who she actually was. He knew for sure that she wasn't from here. Her accent gave that away easy enough. 

"Aren't you coming too? Or are you a wuss?" She called, as she got changed into her swimwear. He could tell this girl had a certain love for the colour green.

He followed her into the ocean, getting changed into his own swimwear.

Thomas watched Erin, wondering what she was thinking about. She was a fairly strange woman to say the least. She sighed, relaxing back in the water "This is why I came here. I love the quietness of here, it also reminds me of home, well a little."

"And. where is your home?" He asked, wanting to know a more about her. 

"Ireland." She answered, "Dublin to be exact. I grew up there, and all my life has been city focused. Its nice to get away."

"Ireland? That's a long way from here. How did you get here?" He asked, as Erin stopped floating on her back.

"Ah... I know what you're trying to get at. And no, I didn't get a plane or ferry over here." She smirked a little.

Thomas tilted his head, "So, how did you get here?" He asked, hoping that would get him closer to however the hell she managed to appear. 

"I'm a teleporter." She said simply, as if it was again, a simple thing. "I tried to find somewhere similar to home, found here and teleported here." She explained, then got out of the ocean, just as abruptly as she went in. She dried herself off, and got changed back into her normal clothes. Thomas followed her lead.

"See, my home in Ireland was filled with people like me, but I'm the last of my kind. I'm the last teleporter." She looked up at him for a split second, then carried on speaking. "My dad was also the last one, its kind of an inherited thingy I guess." She laughed a little, smiling.

"But, why here? Why Dragon Valley out of everywhere? You do know that hardly anyone actually leaves here, right? And secrets spread pretty damn fast."

Erin froze, seemingly going through a memory. She shook out of it, then said "Secrets are like, this big when everyone knows them. It simply doesn't matter." She shrugged, "I'm just staying here until I find somewhere else to go." She smiled.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "So, you're like a globetrotter?" He asked, "Not to sound rude, but when are you going to be gone again?"

She laughed "Already sick of me? Yeah, I'm bad at fitting in..." She kept grinning "And I won't be going anywhere anytime soon..." She mumbled, frowning. "At least not until I get some more money, for now I'm probably going to be staying on one of those loungers." Her eyes drifted to the side, and this was the first time Thomas noticed that she had purple eyes. Was that another teleporter thingy? He could probably question her eye colour later.

He felt a little sorry for her, he didn't want her staying on a lounger at the beach. Its not like there were any dangerous people here in Dragon Valley, but people shouldn't have to sleep in public places...

"I have a spare room." He said, shrugging. 

Erin tilted her head, not so sure where he was going with this "And I have a ponytail that swishes when I move my head." She shook her head, her ponytail swishing as she did "See?"

That really wasn't the way he expected that conversation to go... He was trying to offer her to stay at his place, but it turned into a conversation about her hair. Were most girls like this?

Probably. If not, certainly.

"Not what I meant." He mumbled, looking at her. "I was going to ask if you wanted to stay there tonight? I mean, you're alright/" He grinned a little.

She smiled back at him, fairly widely "You'd be that nice to? People here are a lot different than city people..." She muttered the last bit. "Where do you live?" She asked "Not that I can teleport there." Thomas realized that she had a habit of mumbling side notes about things she said.

"Its in a really woodsy area. Come on, its getting dark." He mumbled, as they both walked off.

"This is your place?" She grinned, looking at him. "Its so cute. I love it." She smiled, seemingly amused by anything that wasn't city related. 

"Yeah, I found it a few weeks ago and restored it. I think it looks good." Thomas smiled, proud of the work he did to his little house. It wasn't a lot but it was enough for him. 

"I'll only stay here for a few days, a week tops." She smiled at him. "Thank you so much." She grinned. 

"It's fine, you can go inside if you want." He said, and she nodded and went in.

After looking around and having something to eat, Erin practiced on her guitar. It was her main way of making money while traveling around, however she wasn't so sure how far she would get here. Most people here probably didn't care much for random women playing the guitar for tips.

But then again, someone in Dublin once told her she was ugly then spat on her. It still made her shiver sometimes, it didn't exactly help that she busked around the bad side of town. But if she managed to make money there, she could manage it anywhere, right?

After a while of playing, she turned to face Thomas, who was doing chin ups on the bar he had. "Hey, I'm going to go to sleep now. The guest room is the one with the green walls, right?" She asked, just to double check. She didn't want to accidentally fall asleep in his bed.

"Yeah." He said, his voice a little strained through his exercises. Erin could tell he was fairly new to this. "Mine's the one with the red walls, the guest bedroom is the one with the green."

"Okay, goodnight, and thanks again for letting me stay here. It means a lot." She smiled, then walked into the guest bedroom. 

"Night." He called back, turning to see Erin walk into the guest bedroom.

He knew that he should probably practice a lot more, he wasn't too strong or even too good at keeping himself up on the bars.

It didn't help when Erin distracted him either... After a few more hours practicing, he would go into his own bedroom, and go to sleep. He just hoped that he didn't wake Erin up with his fall.

Erin slept peacefully here. Without the noise of traffic or swearing just outside her bedroom. She knew her old friends and her old flame would be angry at her for leaving. But it was for the best. She couldn't stay in the city, it wasn't safe. To stay there would be an idiotic thing to do, just plain stupid. 

As long as she didn't stay too long with Thomas, and as long as she managed to make some money tomorrow, everything will be fine. 

At least, she hoped. There wasn't much more than hoping that she could do though...

Chapter 1.02 The Teleporting Busker

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AN: Hehe... I think I did well with this. I mean, its a fairly good start, right?

Like I've seen on others, I'll update the side bar when it gets around to it.

Primary Income will be updated. and thanks for reading.