Nathaniel:

"Once we get out of here, could I come with you to Malison?" Alvin asked me one day as we were brainstorming ideas for getting me unelected.

"Sure." I smiled. "Anything for you."

"I mostly just want to get my dang leg fixed." Alvin slapped his knee. "I hear your older brother is quite the surgeon."

"You could say that." I state. "Personally I think all that gets to his head. But I bet he would help you out."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it."

"It's the least I could do if you help me get off this prison."

Coming up with something to get me out of the leadership position was a lot harder then my friend made it sound. My brain was killing me from all this thinking, while he is just sat in a corner, eating something.

"What is something the people absolutely love?" I asked Alvin.

"I don't know." He licked his fingers. "But these are pretty good, you should try some."

"I can't. I'm busy finding a way to get me out of office."

"But they are so good!"

"I don't really care for your sweets."

"The whole town is obsessed, just try some."

I rolled my eyes, groaning. He was so self contained. Surely he couldn't help me out with my own problems if he is too busy obsessing over the town obsession.

"The whole town?" I asked. "Obsessed?"

"Yeah." Alvin nodded. "Try some, they are called tree balls."

"Cause that doesn't sound stupid at all."

"I didn't name it." Alvin argued, throwing me a ball, I caught it with grace. "Besides, Malison. Why was a planet named that?"

"I don't name the planets." I took a bite of the ball. "My father did that, Azun and I have a theory that he found a girl named Malison and named the planet after her."

"That's logical."

I chewed the ball. He wasn't wrong about this, it tasted fantastic. The creamy goodness melted in my mouth, the sugars dropped down my throat, some stayed behind on my teeth, so I could enjoy the taste over and over.

"Pretty good right?" Alvin commented, throwing another ball at me. "Have another."

"How many have you had?" I asked, plopping the ball onto my tongue.

"I don't know." Alvin ate another. "Probably low hundreds."

"Whew." I whistled. "And the town had eaten more?"

"Way."

"So how angry do you think they would be if their leader banned this delicious treat?"

"They would burn you." Alvin threw another into his mouth. "Alive."

"Perfect." I smiled, leaving the room.

I banged the gong with a stick. The town turned to me. Every eye at my attention.

"The Tree Balls." I held one up for all to see. "Are now banned." I threw one onto the ground. "No one eats one, or else they will suffer the consequences of Loki."

I turned before I could hear their displeased cries. Once I was back inside with Alvin, I could hear the rocks being thrown at the hut. I was so close to being done with being their stupid leader.

"Take that didn't go well to the pubic." Alvin snapped at me. "They are going to make a hole in my wall!"

"Let's go." I threw his cane at him, he caught it with ease.

"Go where?"

"I don't care, let's just get out of here."

"How about we go hunting?"

"Sure, I have been craving pasta lately. Maybe you an help me catch them."

"Sure, if there is pasta on Earth."

We laughed. I grabbed a bow with a quiver of arrows while Alvin grabbed a crossbow and sword. We snuck out the back door, so we didn't have to face the public people while they were still angry. Alvin lead me into the woods, the dark and dusty forest held little light because of all the trees covering the sunlight. The ground was soft, no weeds in sight.

"You know, in this one universe, even with nine planets in the solar system we magically found our way into, we arrived on the same planet in the same time period!" Alvin stated as we stalked a deer.

"Yeah." I told him.

"Of over two hundred countries, eight hundred islands, and of all these seven seas, we ended up in the same place." Alvin shot at the deer, missing it, the deer ran away. "What are the odds?"

"That you missed that deer?" I asked.

"That I would get to meet you." Alvin corrected me.

"Quite slim." I answered. "But still quite lucky."

"I hope we are still friends years from now." Alvin said, then went back to aiming at a rabbit.

"We will be." I promised.

"How would you know?" Alvin shot, hitting the rabbit in the leg. "No one can see the future. We don't know who is going to live and who is going to die or who will remember us."

"We will be friends." I promised, walking over to grab my friend's kill. "Forever and always."

"Forever and always." Alvin repeated, snatching the rabbit from my hands. "That is of course if we both don't get hanged for your ridiculous plans."

"My plans are not ridiculous." I laughed.

"Bonjour y'all!" I heard a women's voice echo through the woods.

"Who's there?" I called out, plucking an arrow onto the bow string.

"You were wise to ban the Tree Balls." The girl said again, no one was in sight.

"I see no one." Alvin told me, we went back to back, looking for this mystery woman.

I scanned my eyes through the trees. I saw squirrels, leaves, nuts, berries and an owl. But no woman.

"The tree the balls come from is quite poisonous." She said. "But nobody listened to my voice. They threw me out, called me a beast."

The owl flew down to our feet. It looked at us with its big yellow eyes, ruffled its feathers, then began to grow. I jump back, hitting Alvin's shoulder. I grabbed my arm, in equal surprise. The owl grew into a girl. A rather pretty girl, with brown hair in two braids.

"Surprised to see a shifter?" She cooed. "We all come from Jopra."

"Jopra!" I sighed in relief, knowing that was a shape shifter planet. "I thought you were a-"

"Demon?" The girl asked.

"No, a-"

"Monster." She interrupted again.

"No-"

"Then you must of thought I was some short of ghost."

"No." Alvin talked fast, so she wouldn't interrupt again. "We are just not used to animals turning into people here on Earth."

"You have never been to Jopra, the shifter planet?" She asked, tilting her head.

"No." Alvin stated.

"I only went once as a child." I confessed. "I barely remember."

"That's a shame." The girl said. "Jopra is rather nice, to others. Not to their citizens."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"If you can't change into a fearsome creature by your twelfth birthday you are banished to this realm."

"Earth?"

"Yep."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She sat on the ground.

I looked over her, her clothing was the style of that part of the galaxy. A red hood covering her silver armor. Her skin was dark brown, blending in with the dirt. Her hair was pulled into two loose braids.

"You realize that now, since we know the tree is poisoned the people will make you their leader longer." Alvin told me. "That's not how your plan was supposed to go."

"That has already crossed my mind Alvin." I gridded my teeth in frustration. "We got to come up with a better plan."

"You need to come up with something better."

"This is a team effort here." I turned to him. "Remember our deal? You get me out of this position, I bring you home."

"Yeah, I remember." Alvin leaned onto his cane. "It's just funny how bad these plans are going. Why don't we just brainstorm and after weeks of deep thinking and meditation we can certainly come up with the perfect plan."

"I'm going to kill the chief," I stated, the first thing that came to my mind.

"What a strange thing to state?" The girl said.

"Yeah, a weird thing to state." Alvin looked at me. "A weird thing to state that came out of nowhere."

"I am going to execute the chief in front of the whole tribe." I explained, grabbing the girl's hand, helping her off the ground. I may be a teenager but Azun taught me that I am a gentleman as well.

"Nathaniel." Alvin clicked his tongue.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Vector." She said, her tongue clicking in a sharp Jopra accent, which sounded much like a Spanish accent I soon discovered much later in my life.

"Pleasure to meet you." I told her, then turned to Alvin. "We should all go and tell the people I plan to kill their chief."

"You are insane." Alvin laughed. "A stupid genius."

"I know." I smiled.