(Ophelia)
***
"What even is this place?" I groaned.
Wherever we were, the sun settled into dusk, a foggy purple and orange hue covering the structures around us. Each building was mountainous in its stature. (I always thought the castle was big, but being surrounded by comparable buildings made it feel a little less significant.) They all towered several hundred feet above our heads with cookie-cutter shapes and windows. Some seemed to be entirely constructed of glass. I wondered how the delicate structures didn't shatter with the slightest wind storm or blizzard. Maybe it was magic.
Though, I doubted magic could have explained my first encounter with a brightly colored machine that zipped by quicker than a bull. And then a mass number of said machines used by the general population like they were all in a hurry to get to a ceremony in five minutes. Only fairies should have been able to move that fast, but it appeared all the residents had magic at their fingertips when that couldn't have been the case.
***
Earlier, I thought to knock on the glass of one of these devices while it was stopped in a horde. The light in front of the crowd flickered in the same order each time: red, green, yellow. The person inside—who wore the equivalent of a peasant's rags—looked at me with annoyance before opening the window. She held her middle finger up at me, so I cursed at her harshly when she drove off at the flash of a green glow.
*Fuck you, too! And the rest of the cowboys here!*
I was thankful I stood on the concrete sidewalk instead of on the roads usually used for horses that were now inhabited by mechanical bulls. However, I wasn't too pleased with my decision when I smelled the noxious fumes emitted from the back end of the device that burned the insides of my nostrils.
***
"I have no idea," Koharu muttered in response, bringing me back into reality for what it was worth.
She still appeared hurt from earlier and apologetic. Her hand was hesitant to reach for mine in case she'd face my vitriol.
*You can try setting me off with a flick—if you'd like.*
"We need to find somewhere to stay quickly," I told her without snapping quite yet.
She nodded. "Are there any hotels nearby?"
"Probably."
Across the street was a building that rose sky-high with an insane number of balconies defying the laws of gravity. With large, bright signs and a plethora of fountains, it was labelled as having suites.
When Koharu took notice of it, she stated, "Great! There's one right there!"
She tried running across the road.
I grabbed her pajama shirt as my face blossomed into a slight pink. "Baby, you'll get killed by those things we saw earlier."
*And I still act so affectionately towards her! Even without my habitual desk slamming!*
She slumped over. "You're right, and…"—a thought struck her—"we have no money. Crap." She hit her leg with a fist.
I grimaced.
*How could I forget something so obvious? It feels like I should have to pay to even look at something with such nice architecture.*
"We'll have to find somewhere outside to stay."
"Like where?" Trying to negotiate, she looked up at me with pleading eyes.
I shook my head. "I'm not sure."
As we continued walking, I surveyed the spaces between the towers. They were grimy passageways with dim lighting from strange devices. Many had large metal boxes in them that reeked of droppings and rotten food. I scrunched my nose at those areas. They were unsanitary and dilapidated in every way, and Koharu seemed to agree with me.
"Those are dirtier than the ass of a cow on a defunct farm."
Scrunching my face, I responded, "I know, but that might be our only option."
*Where are clothespins when you need them?*
She almost flicked my arm but stopped. "Pessimist. As long as plants exist, there must be somewhere cleaner to stay."
We continued our journey forward as the sun faded from sight, leaving only the navy blue hues of the sky. I noticed there were fewer stars than I was used to seeing, and the light emitted by the buildings cast a white haze over the scenery.
At some point, the bleak grays and blacks of the structures made a vibrant area of greenery obvious in the center. A circle was cut out for trees and grass. Between them, there were intermittent sidewalks and the same sort of lights that covered the buildings except with a yellow tint.
"See? I was right." Koharu grinned.
"I guess that's not as awful."
With that, we made a beeline for the park. It was odd standing in the area; it felt like a clearing in an old-growth forest.
The lawn certainly didn't look appealing. If my experiences earlier that day were anything to go by, sleeping in the grass was a good way to stain pajamas and wake up with nearly a mouthful of dirt. But it was certainly preferable to sleeping among the sludge and slime of an alley.
Whatever enthusiasm I lacked about sleeping on the ground, Koharu lacked it tenfold. She insisted that we find a bench to lay across because she didn't want ant bites like she got earlier in the forest. I argued the insects would crawl up the bench anyway, but she refused to listen to me as bulbous heads filled on her ankles under a white cloth that was tinted green.
*If you're going to get eaten, ants aren't the way to go.*
The moment she found an oblong metal seat, she pounced on it and dragged me by the pointer finger to sit beside her. I yelped in pain as I slammed down on the seat awkwardly with one leg on top of Koharu's and one leg on the chair itself. I scooted over so that both my legs were on the metal object.
*This is a real-life game of Twister. Is that what that colorful mat Koharu showed me was called?*
"Now that we have somewhere to rest for a bit, let's discuss what we need to do," Koharu started, already appearing refreshed.
She stretched her arms over the back panel and raised her legs a foot above the ground. I understood her as the pain in my heels already began to subside.
"All right. What are your thoughts?"
Yawning a little, I placed my elbow on the chair's arm and rested the side of my head in my palm. I rubbed my feet against the concrete, using the rough texture to scrape away the dirt encrusting them.
"Based on what those men said earlier, we're in a place with a castle." She placed her pointer finger between her lips. "That means there's a king or queen with magic."
"Yeah?"
*Is that what you want to shoot for? Even the lower officials were apprehensive about it.*
She leaned her head off the back of the bench and closed her eyes with a bittersweet smile. "I think you're having the same idea as me by now—that we need to go find the nobles of this place and ask for help. They're the only ones who can understand what happened."
"How do you think they'll even let us in there? We look like peasants, the poor. We look like the kind of people your dad would make wait months in line for his time." I frowned, feeling that tumble in status hit me like a falling piano.
"They'll have to let us in if we explain we're nobles from another kingdom," Koharu tried reasoning. "That's why things like embassies exist."
"No, they don't. It's just like that man said earlier. They won't know if we're frauds. I often had trouble getting through the guards outside the Moon Castle despite seeing them every day. I can't imagine how badly the guards here would react."
She shrugged. "Don't know if we don't try. Can't you at least agree we need to aim to find the castle, though?"
*On the off chance we run into that Princess Roslynn or another royal child taking a break, sure! Let's hope for something we know won't happen! If our luck's as good as it was when we were brought here, maybe a dragon will carry us off to kill us for good measure!*
"I can,"—I sighed, resting on that one hinge of a dream—"but it won't be as easy as you think. We don't even know how far away it is."
"Let's find a map tomorrow!" She held up one finger as if she outlined our steps. "That will be a good start."
"And for once you speak reasonably," I joked grimly, and she opened one eye to elbow me. I rubbed my side.
*That's okay. I can just scrape one of your bug bites… Then, I'll regret it five seconds later and take extra care of you until it stops hurting. Maybe I just shouldn't do that.*
To keep herself from saying anything else dumb, she stated, "I think we both need to sleep."
I chuckled. "I think so, too. You can't think when you're tired."
My stomach then rumbled, and the timing was inexplicably irritating.
"Must not be able to think when you're hungry either," Koharu joked before her stomach chimed in. We both devolved into a chorus of giggles.
Neither of us had eaten all day, food turning into an afterthought despite its status as a necessity.
*Starvation? A thought about that's on the tip of my tongue… It doesn't have any flavor, though.*
She laid her head on my shoulder, and I laid mine atop hers. We both leaned back on the bench, the cold metal bars digging into our skin.
We were usually more affectionate with each other, but with our argument earlier and placement in a public area, our interactions felt a bit more closed off. I retracted the arm I was going to sling over her shoulder so that her back wouldn't hurt and instead placed it awkwardly between us, clinging to my knee.
*Should I forgive you yet? But I don't think you need to get off so easily for what you did. After all, it has only been a day, so I'll use it as a way to mask the things I don't want to think about.*
To compensate for that distance, she strung her arm around my torso without any verbal acknowledgement and nuzzled my neck, the soft fibers of her hair dancing along the side of my sensitive neck and climbing like a spider's legs up to my cheek.
I froze up. The slight contact from her evoked the anxiety I wanted to bury deep within me. I wanted it to be piled up so far that it would incinerate in the center of the earth beneath the dirt and rock.
Like I was a monument, my eyes were unable to trail the motions of small creatures in front of me. I would have moved away if I had the strength to, but I felt strangled between the sharp edges of her elbows, others' stares, and the piercing light of the night.
We fell asleep without so much as a goodnight kiss as the air chilled my skin, giving me the faintest hint of goosebumps.