Fortune is a modern girl with brown hair and beautiful scarlet color eyes. It was really rare to see someone with scarlet color eyes and so she was deemed special. She lost her parents when she was two years old and her grandpa took her in. She loved reading and had a pet cat, Sage. Sage followed her everywhere and she loved it.

Fortune wasn't the type that payed attention to cute and cool guys but her beauty got them lining up. Girls saw her as a competition but she didn't care. She had a great sense of humor and could joke with anything and get away with it. Her smile was her charm and she looked so innocent but she always has a ace up her sleeves. She'd never listen to gossip and isolate herself just to get away from trouble even if she was a trouble maker.

Fortune hoped to get all the books she could read and unlock each meaning. She always referred to books as cages that held secrets captive and it was her job set them free of their secrets and that was what motivated her to always read. The mysteries, she would say, needs to be unlocked in a quiet and balanced place of both ideology and comfort and so she chose a spot in the garden where all this was found and names it her special spot. Life went on that way for her and she lived up to each passing day to always solve a mystery in a book.

Fortune was cleaning up her grandfathers study room when she came across a big weird book. It had some ancient writings on the front cover that she couldn't understand. She looked at it as a kind of mystery that needed to be solved and the only place to do that was her special spot in the garden.

"Grandpa, I'll be heading out with Sage" She announced as she stuffed the book inside her bag pack.

"Take your phone with you." Her grandpa reminded and she did just that. She put in her usual stuff. Her camera, a pair of binoculars, a recorder and of course a few snacks. It all went in the bag smoothly and she flung it over her back.

"Bye grandpa." She said and made for the door.

"Fortune be careful. Where you're going is a very strange land, you better watch your back"he advised

"What are you talking about grandpa? Am only going to the garden, its not far from here" Fortune said feeling that her grandpa was mistaking her movement to the garden to somewhere else. Her grandpa smiled in response to what she said and nodded.

Fortune got to the garden and parked her bicycle by a tree. She found her way to her special spot and dropped her bagpack on the floor. Sage found its way out of the bag and rubbed its fur allover Fortune's leg.

"You came out early " Fortune said and Sage purred earning a chuckle from her. She sat on the grass and took out the book. "Now let's see what mysteries lie within this book" she said and opened the it. All of a sudden, the letters in the book sprang up in the air in golden colors and formed a magic circle around them.

"What the... " the magic circle surrounded them and they found themselves falling from the sky. "Ahhhhhh!" Fortune screamed as they fell and Sage clung on to her back as she braised herself to crash on the roof bellow. They crashed through the roof and fortunately, landed on something soft but couldn't see a thing, it was all dark.

"What just happened? And... Where are we? "

"Where are we Sage? Its so dark!" Fortune asked and Sage meowed in response. All of a sudden she started hearing footsteps approaching. "Someone's coming, quick hide!" she warned and hid under the blanket hoping whoever it was, wouldn't notice her.

It was a man. He put on the candles and made to take off his clothes when he noticed someone hiding under his blanket. He quickly drew out his sword for self-defense.

"Was that a blade?" Fortune asked Sage in a hushed tone and Sage shaked its head

"Who's there? I give you a chance to come out and face your death quickly!"The guy bargained but his words only inserted a bit of fear in the mind of his unknown opponent making them refuse to his request of 'surrender'

"As long as we don't make a sound, he won't go on and leave us alone right?" Fortune asked and Sage shrugged its furry shoulders under the blanket.

Seeing no one was coming out, the man advanced to his own measures and said

"Don't say I didn't warn you" with that he shoved his sword into the blanket but with the help of Fortunes quick reaction, they were able to avoid it. The blanket flew into the air.

"Hey what's the big idea?!?" Fortune yelled, holding Sage tightly to herself. "That thing could have killed someone" she snapped and the man watched her confused. Seeing he wasn't listening got her annoyed. "Hello? Can you hear me?" she barked furiously.

"Its...a girl!"The man said in realization. Surprised realization.

"Of course I'm a girl, what did you expect; some kind of assassin?" she asked obviously

"Perhaps you are!" he pointed the sword towards her and Sage flew from her grasp and hid behind her.

"Whoa, hold on to the reigns! Am a completely normal girl" Fortune said.

"Why should I believe a word you say?" he asked fully alert.

"Tch! Suit yourself! Am out of here, come on Sage let's go" she got down from bed but he wouldn't let her leave so easily.

"Wait, if you're not an assassin then how did you get into my chambers without being spotted by the guards outside?" he asked and she pointed at the ceiling. His gaze followed the direction she pointed at and saw the broken escape route.

"Somehow, I don't know how, we fell off from the sky and landed here. I can't figure out what happened so I think I'll go home and think. I can't let my grandpa over worry." Fortune picked up her bag and the book and sighed "And I didn't get to read this book yet!" she put it inside her bag and reached out for Sage. "Come on Sage!" Sage hopped on her and she caught her"Good girl!"

The rather confused man just stared at her as she walked towards the door. He had planned to just let her go but on seeing a full scale of her appearance and what she wore, he definitely did not approve.

"Stop right there!"he ordered and Fortune turned confused

"Why?"she asked and without hearing a reason she further asked "Are you some sort of commander?"

"I am not! I am rather the emperor and I have every right to command you" At that moment Fortune and Sage looked at the man completely perplexed and then exchanged glances. They started laughing hysterically.

"I demand to know what is so funny?" he snapped.

"You, the emperor?" she continued laughing

"Am I not worth the status in your eyes?" he asked confused.

"Dude, if you're the emperor then I'm queen Elizabeth the fifth, of England" She said and continued laughing making the situation more confusing for him to understand. Seeing this Fortune sobered up and decided to speak. "This is the 21st century, only a toddler would fall for that. That is if they have not grown wiser"

"You seem to have hit your head when you fell from the sky!" he said and Fortune frowned "We are barely in the 5th dynasty of the Song empire"

"Song empire? That sounds pretty old and from all the book I've read it seems to be the times from ancient China or was it Japan?" she contemplated and hit a conclusion. "Sage, we actually travelled back in time?"she asked but Safe only shrugged her shoulders. She glanced at the man and then around the room. "Oh! It all makes sense now but, how did we get this far?"

"Can I know what you are saying or are you cursing me behind my back, little girl?" he asked but at the mention of the word 'little' Fortune flared up.

"Who're you calling little?"she asked

"You! You are little!" he answered nonchalantly

"Am 17 years old, you are just 20, only 3 years older" she argued

"Am 25!" he said

"Exactly! You're just 9 years older than me!" She was too determined to be the Victor to notice that the difference was actually bigger than what she had imagined.

"You're 17 years old so soon?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked with a fit of rage burning slowly in her eyes.

"You need to learn some manners little girl. If you are from around this region, which I can clearly see that you are not, I would have punished you for your leaking tongue!" he threatened

"Ooh, am so scared! You seem to be forgetting that if I was from around here, I wouldn't behave this way either!" she pointed out and smiled "So its settled, is it not?" she asked revealing her carefree attitude

"So since you're already here then I'll have to keep a close eye on you." he said with a concerned tone and Fortune caught it.

"Are you...concerned?" she asked with a suspicious look.

"Of course not! I just don't want any disruption over a strange girl with a cat in my kingdom, so as my guest its my responsibility, little girl"

"Stop calling me that!" she demanded

"Then what should I call you?" he asked politely

"I have a name, you know"she said

"Then what is your name?" he asked

"That's more like it. My name is Fortune, average high school girl owner of many books and ruler of my grandpa's farm and garden!" she winked and extended her hand for a hand shake. "You probably don't know what it means but from where I come from, when you meet a person for the first time you introduce yourselves and shake hands. Now you introduce yourself and shake my hand" she said politely

"I am Lixing Ji, Emperor of Song empire" he introduced himself and shaked her hand. Once they shaked, Lixing Ji got a glimpse of her sparkling scarlet eyes in the dark. "Burning scarlet!" he said subconsciously.

"Eh?"

Fortune was sort of confused with what he said and asked

"Did you say something?"

Just then Lixing Ji came back to his senses and shoved his thoughts aside.

"Its nothing!" He said and she nodded.

Sage found her way to Fortune's arms and yawned feeling really sleepy.

"Sage is feeling sleepy, I really need to get a place to stay!" Fortune said

"Just take a blanket from the chest and spread it over there." Lixing Ji directed to a corner but Fortune stood motionless, staring at him. "Why are you still standing here, get to it! Do you want your cat to sleep on your uncomfortable arms?" He folded his hands with an indifferent expression.

Fortune scoffed.

"How do you know my arms aren't comfortable? In fact, due to the soft texture of my skin its probably softer than a cushion and so its the best place to lay on." She proclaimed with a proud smile. She moved a few steps towards him and poked her head closer to him with a running smug. "You wanna try?"

"What are you talking about? Don't you have any self respect? How can you ask me such a question?" Lixing Ji asked with an irritated face

"Well, I can't really say I don't but I don't care. Now let me ask you this," she poked her head closer making the situation a bit awkward "...do you always let a strange girl stay at your place at such an hour?" She grinned. The closeness between them made Lixing Ji uncomfortable to the extent of making him blush and Fortune noticed it. "Ahh, you're actually blushing. That gives me my actual answer, you don't!" She concluded

"Uh? What do you mean?" He asked feeling confused.

"Its easy, you don't have girls around at such a time because you're not the type that's fond of em and judging from what I've observed, you're the type that wants to be left alone to your martial arts, am I right?" She winked and giggled at seeing his shocked face, it was kind of funny but she didn't want to make fun of him any more.

Lixing Ji looked at her in between confusion and surprise. Though, she looked just like a silly adorable little girl, she was quite smart and in a way charming. His face turned red and he quickly looked away.

Although he quickly looked away, she still saw his face and smiled. She looked down at Sage and discovered her to be sound asleep. She got the blanket from the chest and spread it on the floor. Once that was done, she put Sage to lay down calmly.

"I guess I'll have to find a place to sleep as well." Fortune said stretching her arms and walking about like a hopeless chicken.

Lixing Ji watched her for a while. He didn't know what to do about her and couldn't let her leave to the shakkels of the night. After much thought, he finally decided to let her sleep on his bed.

"Why not stay here and sleep on my bed?" He suggested with good intentions but she saw it the wrong way.

"What?! No!"she answered without a second thought.

"So you'd prefer to go out without any destination?" He asked

"Yeah! I'd rather sleep out on the street than sleep on the same bed with some infamous emperor." She answered seriously. Lixing Ji sighed and shaked his head.

"When I said you could sleep on my bed, I never said with me" he pointed out. There was a moment of silence as Fortune tried to process the information.

"Oh!" She exclaimed "Wait, if you don't sleep on the bed, where would you sleep?" She asked poking his shoulder.

"Are you worried about me?" He asked with a smug on his face.

"Pfft, please." She rolled her eyeballs "I'm just worried that you're not one to go for words and that you'd come up to me while I'm asleep and take advantage of me, after all, I am a girl and you're a boy" She said and he frowned

"Am not a scum! I won't sleep here tonight so you have nothing to be scared of." he said walking towards the door. He stopped and looked back with a smirk "Besides you're not my type." with that he left just like that.

Fortune looked at the bed. There were a little pieces of wood left on it from the broken roof. She shaked her head and cleared it since it was her mess. After all of it was cleared, she dropped lazilly. She kept thinking of all the possibilities to show that all this was a mirage and that once she closed her eyes and opened it, everything will turn out to be a dream and that arrogant brute would actually be fake. She smiled warmly and closed her eyes.