It took King Henry and Lord Adam around one hour to rush to White Shore on their horses. The White Shore palace entrance was wide open, ready to welcome the king and lord.
'Your majesty, Lord Adam, the guest has awoken' the butler said, gesturing with his hands the way, and led them. They passed the entrance hallway into the main one that has rooms on each side facing one another. The butler led them into a room on the right. It was a small guest lounge. It was a very cozy room, anyone could just sit here and fall asleep within seconds. The couches in one corner, a fireplace by the side. A small counter with jugs and cups for water. And potted plants decorated every empty corner of the room. A young lady sits on one side of a three-seater couch. She looked different than most people anyone had ever seen in Southernere. In fact, she looked different than everyone. Her skin was a little bit darker. She wore an unrecognisable long blouse and the bottom part was like a cloth, all with unique pattern designs. And she also wore a headscarf, longer than those in Southernere that it was a bit loose. Basically her appearance was different than all, but her style was mostly the same, she covers her modesty like the other ladies. The lady flinched as she saw the three men entered.
'Greetings miss' King Henry began as he sat on the couch opposite her. She seemed to pull herself back, looking very uncomfortable.
'Do you need some water? Fetch her some water please' Henry said. The butler took the jug from the counter and proceeded out of the room.
'You don't have to be in fear of me or any of us, we're not gonna hurt you. The Inlanders are civilised people. I'm King Henry of Combination, my family and I help one another to maintain the peace'
The lady remained quiet, refusing eye contact.
'You are not from around here' Henry said. The lady still gave no response. So Henry got up and pretended to leave the room and that caught the lady's attention.
'Where am I?' she said. Her accent was very different as well. Clearly, she doesn't always speak English although she understands and knows what to say.
'You're in White Shore, a town located northeast of Southernere. The whole land we are on' Henry said.
'I never heard about that before' she said.
'Where are you from?'
The lady was conversing but her words were coming out slowly, as she was still uncomfortable and processing the words in her mind properly before saying.
'Indonesia' she replied simply just as the butler entered with the jug filled with plain water. Henry thought about what the lady just said. He turned to the butler as he was pouring the water into an empty glass.
'How did she end up here again?' Henry asked.
'We found her in a boat at the shore. She was unconscious at that time, your majesty' the butler said, excusing himself to deliver the glass of water to the lady. She accepted it gently.
'And what makes you think this is a big matter for the king?' Lord Adam said.
'Everything we found on her or on the boat were just rare items, in fact we had never seen them before. Unless some were similar to the artifacts that our famous explorers brought back from the outside world milord'
'That's what I thought as well' Henry said in agreement. 'I read in some of the books on voyages by our explorers. Indonesia is one of the nearest world to ours'
'Indonesia is not a world. It's a country' the lady interrupted. Henry was a little surprised by her attitude. He was not used to commoners correcting him without the proper address and etiquette. But probably because the lady was a stranger and does not know the ways of the people here.
'My mistake, yes, a country. That's the exact word used in the book' Henry said, giving a smile. 'May I know your name?'
'Dewi' she said. 'Dewi Binte Omar'
'You have a long name! Something we people of Southernere don't have. You know mine already. Just plain Henry, the titles in front are what made our names long' Henry said, laughing at the last part.
'Omar is my father's name. In my family culture, we have our names, some have more than one. Then our father's name follows after' Dewi said.
'That's interesting. So if I were part of your family, my name would be Henry Harry!' Henry laughed.
'Something like that'
There was a pause for a brief moment.
'Now, on a more serious note. Do you happen to know how you ended up here? Because I think you still don't realise that you are not in the same world you were from' Henry said.
Dewi thought about the sentence, her expression was obvious that she was confused.
'Have you ever heard of a land, or you call it country, that is called Southernere?'
Dewi shook her head.
'That's because you are not in your own world right now. Now with your arrival here, I believe all the explorers that returned from their journeys to your world and shared in their books that we learnt in school. I used to think those were just stories. Then I started believing them when an old famous explorer during my early twenties came back from your world with an item he brought back as proof of its existence. Now, with you here, whatever doubts I have left are no more. The only thing I'm still curious about is how those explorers got to and from your world. Because in our world, there is only the huge island of Southernere and two small islands in the south. The rest are ocean going on from the north and soon will end up back in the south, because our world is a globe. That is why I am excited to learn from you, how you came here. But it seems like you don't know it yourself. Given that you were unconscious when they found you. Can you recall, what exactly happened before you became unconscious?'
Dewi tried hard thinking back what she had been through. But her description was not really answering Henry's curiosity.
'I was on the boat...' Dewi said. '...a larger boat. In fact it was a ship. It was my dad's. We were venturing the seas. It was the third day we were on that ship. It was just me, my dad, and a few members of his crew. He's a businessman and he's very busy. That trip was supposed to be a vacation for us both. But on that day, the weather was bad. The storm was very wild. The waves were crashing onto the sides. I was sitting in my room below the main deck. That was when I saw the lightning zapped the ocean a few metres away. And then there was a deadly hurricane, we called it a cyclone. I was uneasy, so I left my room. The crew was very busy working hard to steer the ship out of the storm. I heard my dad called me from the captain's deck. I wanted to turn, but something hit me on the head, I remember the pain was intense for a short while and I don't remember anything next, except that I woke up in this room and I was worried, I searched for my father in the halls but then the butler came and told me no one was with me. I thought, maybe my dad and the rest of the crew didn't survive. But I also wondered how I did. The boat you found me in, that might be one of the small boats we had on the ship in case of emergencies for us to escape'
'I'm sorry to hear about your father, the crew and your ship' Henry said. 'Would you follow me and Lord Adam here back to Combination? We'll take you to the palace, my wife would be delighted to welcome you as our guest. And we could learn a few things from one another about our worlds'
Dewi nodded gracefully. Henry smiled, the lady was not royalty or maybe she is in her world, but she has polite manners. Though, she still has to learn to stop interrupting anyone, especially the king next time. So King Henry and Lord Adam proceeded back towards Combination. The butler prepared one of the royal horses of the palace stables for Dewi to ride as she followed the two royals wherever they went. Surprisingly, Dewi seems to be good with horses as well. Not that you need any skill in Southernere to ride a horse because the horses here are more intellectual. Because the animals and creatures here are very much alive. They could talk. So getting a horse to let you ride on him is much easier.