Episode 2

--Alexandria POV--

"It seems that we've got company," John spoke from the tree branch that we were standing on, hidden in the shadows.

"Company?" I repeated, confused.

We've been here for around 5 years and in all those years, never have we had a visitor. John is the only human I know since I've lost all my memories so the people in that ship have got me curious.

Once the ship hit the sand, men started climbing off and I was left admiring the large structure. It was a white ship with golden designs decorating it and the size was enormous as it cast a shadow over the beach.

"Who are they?" I mumbled out, outstretching my hand to clutch onto John's loose shirt.

"I don't know," He replied. "I'm going to find out. Stay here Alexa, okay?" He bent down on the large branch until he was kneeling at my height, giving me the look that told me there was no room for discussion.

So I obediently nodded in reply.

He smiled, leaning closer to place a kiss on my forehead before picking one of the vines, tugging at it to make sure it was strong enough then swung out into the open.

I held my breath as I noticed the visitors start to notice him and gripped onto the hard bark of the tree, afraid to even blink. If any of these people tried anything then I was going to jump out.

The squawk of an eagle momentarily distracted me and looking up towards the sky, I smiled at the familiar winged animal as it dived towards me.

Pulling my hand out, he landed his talons on my arm where he rested.

I started stroking his brown hair and pulled my arm up as he moved to stand on my shoulder.

"Perfect timing, Ryder," I mumbled out to the bird who squawked in reply.

"We've got visitors today. John's gone to speak to them. I wonder if they're good people..." I told the animal who didn't reply this time and only glared towards the people like I had been doing a moment ago.

I stared at the ship as the front of it opened up, protruding outward until it landed on the sand, revealing some white stairs but at the top of the stairs stood a man who made everyone around him seem small.

I don't know if it was his height itself or the fact that he was covered in shining jewels unlike the rest of the people who were all wearing matching outfits. A red blazer with white buttons lined perfectly, tight white pants and long black boots with white gloves hiding their hands. Some of them wore black hats, others had swords or guns strapped to their waist.

The man at the top of the stairs was wearing a royal blue suit, shiny badges lined his chest and the sunlight danced off the rings that were on his fingers. He had dark hair with grey streaks which reminded me of the night sky that John and I always looked up at but I couldn't see the colour of his eyes.

Unlike John who had stubble on his face, the man was clean-shaven with no hair on his face other than his eyebrows. I've only seen him from a distance but I can practically see the intimidation seeping off of him in large waves.

Whoever this man was, he was powerful.

Unable to look away, I stared with a narrowed gaze as he calmly strolled down the many stairs until his shiny shoes met the golden sand. One of the men ran up to him before whispering something in his ear and the fancy man's eyes darted over to John.

I sucked in another breath of air as he started making his way over to John and at this point, I could feel myself shaking. Ryder squawked at me, probably annoyed that I was shaking so much and making him uncomfortable.

John and the man were talking, the fancy man had two guards standing on either side of him protectively and hands ready on their swords, ready to pull it out if John would try to attempt anything.

"Ryder. I think we should go to John," Said eagle squawked in disagreement as he flapped his wings on my face and I turned to glare at him quickly. I didn't miss the look of shock that appeared on the fancy man's face as John said something. The curiosity was driving me nuts.

"Ugh! Ryder lets go!" As John did before, I pulled one of the vines to check it's strength then pushed myself off the large branch. Ryder flapped his wings off my shoulder when I flew out into the open.

Letting go of the vine, I felt the wind hitting against my cheeks as I did a flip before landing on the softness of the sand, feeling every small particle on my bare feet.

Without so much as a second thought, I made a dash towards John and the three other men in front of him. The three strangers with surprised yet confused faces and John with a disapproving gaze.

"Alexa. I told you not to move," My best friend said.

"I couldn't just leave you alone," I replied stubbornly as he sighed in reply, massaging his temples.

Grabbing my wrist he pulled me behind him where I clutched onto his shirt again, peeking out behind his back to stare at the men.

"Are they bad people?" I asked.

"I don't know," He replied.

"What were you talking about all this time then?" I moved my eyes away from the men and to John who wasn't looking at me but straight ahead.

"I was answering a few of their questions first," He answered anyway.

"What's your name, little girl?" The fancy man asked and I took this chance to look up at him. He had grey eyes, they reminded me of the stars. I've never seen grey eyes before- they were beautiful.

"Call me Alexia. What's your name?" I answered but replied with my own question.

"Alpheus," What a long name.

"How long do you plan on staying here?" John asked, trying to divert the attention away from me, he succeeded.

"On this island? Not sure. We came to explore," Alpheus grinned sheepishly.

"Explore? Looking like that?" I cut in, gesturing to all his sparkling jewels. I didn't know much but I'm sure that explorers didn't dress as fancy as he did.

"Well, explore wouldn't really be the correct word. You see, this is a deserted and unknown island. It's very small and isn't even on any of the maps. I was on my way home after visiting a neighbouring Kingdom and we decided to take a short cut..."

"And that's how you stumbled upon our island?" John said and Alpheus nodded.

"This island is within my Kingdom's premises so, therefore, it's my territory and I didn't know that until now. It hasn't even got a name... yet," I concentrated on every single word he was saying, interested by it all.

"If this is your territory, what do you plan on doing on this island?" I finally asked a question of my own. Alpheus only shrugged his reply before he thought about it for a bit longer.

"Maybe build a villa?"

"You can't do that. The animals and us live here, you'll break our houses," I glared up at the man with a pout and he blinked, seeming surprised at my outburst.

He didn't seem the least bit angry at my words though, in fact, he found it funny since he covered his mouth and his body shook with a few laughs.

"Okay, I won't do that then... but I'm not sure on what else to do,"

Well, that didn't help.

***---***---***

It was sunset and it seems like these visitors were planning on staying the night, judging from all the tents that were being put up and the small fires they started and huddled around.

I was peeking at everyone from my hiding space behind one of the trees. They made this quiet island so lively but none of the animals seemed to mind since they weren't trying to harm anyone.

I take that back.

Ryder came swooping in with his majestically large wings and golden beak as he started squawking angrily at a small group of men. I didn't even try to hold back my giggles at the panicked state the men were in.

But once I realised that Ryder didn't plan on stopping until he pecked someone's eye out, I decided to intervene.

Running out from behind the tree, I ran towards the men.

"Ryder! That's enough!" I came to a halt, holding back my smile and gave the eagle a look just as he sat on one of the men's heads. If I had come a second later, he would have begun clawing the man's hair out until he was bald.

I tried not to pay attention to all the looks I was receiving and only focused on my friends mischievous self.

"Come here, boy," I called out, outstretching my hand.

Then the whispers started.

Only for a moment though because Ryder's loud squeal shut them all right back up and he came flying towards me where he landed on my hand and as always, he then proceeded to walk up to my shoulder where he rested.

Rubbing his beak against my cheek, I rubbed his wing in assurance.

"Alexia? What are you doing here?"

I turned around to come face-to-face with Alpheus's large figure.

He was no longer dressed in a suit and was instead wearing a white shirt with black leather pants. He wasn't as sparkly as before either but he was certainly still intimidating.

"I came to get a friend," I replied nonchalantly, gesturing my head to Ryder who flapped his wings in my face in reply. He loved showing off and I was always getting beat up for it.

Alpheus chuckled as he came to stand directly in front of me, bending down until we were eye-to-eye. Then the whispers started again.

"How old are you, Alexia?" He asked. He may have looked intimidating but he certainly didn't act it. If anything, he was the complete opposite and he was, dare I say it, friendly.

"Last time I checked, 15," I mumbled out my answer.

"What about you?" I curiously tilted my head to the side in question.

"Last time I checked, 40," He laughed.

"So you're an old man then. John's only 25 you know," He narrowed his eyes at me but there was nothing angry about it, he seemed quite playful.

"Are you not cold?" He asked.

I shook my head. "You get used to it quite quickly but on the few days that I am cold, John's always there to warm me up," I smiled at the thought of my friend. He was busy making dinner for us and I took that opportunity to come here and explore these new people. If he finds out that I managed to sneak away then he'd have an angry fit.

"Ah, yes. John had told me that you were both stranded here for about 5 years, I was quite surprised. How did you end up here? I didn't get the chance to ask before,"

"John said it was a shipwreck," I answered.

"John said? Where were you coming from? and where were you headed?" He interrogated and I didn't like it.

This man was suspicious and weird.

He seemed friendly, his lips were always tilted up in a smile but his eyes said otherwise.

The colour of his eyes were beautiful but they had no depth. John's eyes always sparkled with life, he didn't need to say anything for me to know how he was feeling.

But this man, Alpheus, he's like a puppet.

His eyes give nothing away.

He's either really good at hiding his emotions or he doesn't have emotions at all, either way, I was still suspicious.

"I can't answer your questions, I don't remember anything," I vaguely answered.

"Didn't John tell you anything about where you came from? Or anything about you?"

"I didn't ask, I didn't want to know and I still don't want to know because it doesn't matter,"

"How can you say that if you don't know?"

"Because I'm happy now, with John, on this island. I can't be happier than I am right now," Ryder squawked, signalling his boredom and the end of this conversation.

Nodding my farewell to Alpheus, I turned to leave with Ryder still comfortably sat on my shoulder and urging me to walk faster but before I could, Alpheus called out to me.

"Alexia!" Damn it, I wasn't quick enough.

"I want to give you something," Alpheus changed the subject as he pulled out something from behind him and I oddly stared at the shiny thing in his hands.

"What is it?" I curiously asked, taking it from him.

"It's a hair ornament, Alexia," He answered with an amusing smile.

"A hair ornament? What does it do?"

"It's to decorate or keep your hair in place. I had originally bought it for my new daughter but then I met you and I think it'll suit your hair much more,"

"You have a daughter?" I asked, slightly surprised, simultaneously taking the ornament from his hand. It was a gold comb with an emerald butterfly at the top and shiny white pearls decorating its wings.

"Yes, she was just born and her name is Yvaine. I have twins too who are 8. Darius and Killian- they're quite troublesome if I do say so myself. Darius hates studying and every tutor that I've hired doesn't last longer than a week," He rolled his eyes at a certain memory.

I gave in to the laugh as I continued to admire the comb.

"You know, I have another child too. Not just Yvaine and the twins. I have my oldest son. His name is Valentino and he's a bit older than you," I hummed in response, eyes unmoving from the comb in my hand.

"How old is he?" I asked but not really feeling very interested.

"20," He answered and I hummed in answer.

"That means he's younger than John, John's 25," I replied nonchalantly as I began to try and place the ornament in my hair, failing a few times but finally managing.

"You like John a lot, don't you? You talk about him a lot," Alpheus chuckled. My eyes lit up at the mention of my best friend and I rapidly nodded my head.

"I love John," I gleamed.

"But don't you want to go to civilisation, Alexia?"

"Civilisation?" I tilted my head to the side curiously and Alpheus nodded.

"Yeah, where you can make friends, go to school, maybe even get married someday,"

"John is the only human friend I need, other than him, I have Ryder and my other animal friends too. I don't think they'll like civilisation much so I'll stay with them here," Alpheus didn't seem to like my answer.

"But don't you want to get married?"

Gosh, I'm only 15.

"I can marry John," I joked. He didn't seem to realise that it was a joke though and his eyeballs seemed to pop out of their sockets for a bit before popping back in.

The conversation didn't have the chance to progress any further.

"Alexandria! What do you think you're doing!?"

I jumped at the sudden familiar voice and turned my head to see John storming our way. Oh, my.

Ryder took this opportunity to fly away and leave me here alone. That coward.

"John, I just..." I drifted off, not being able to come up with a good excuse.

"And what is that?" He asked, eyes piercing into the ornament in my hair.

"It's a hair ornament. Isn't it pretty?" I smiled, jumping in excitement. It was nearly my sixteenth birthday so I'll consider this a present from Alpheus.

John breathed in a heavy sigh as he massaged his temples.

"Your Majesty! Your dinner is ready!" One of the guards shouted from behind me.

I was going to say something but stopped as I took in the man's words.

"Your... majesty...?" I drifted off awkwardly, turning around to stare at Alpheus who looked as though he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have.

"Who are you, Alpheus?" I asked intently.

"My name is Alpheus St. Andres Octavius. I'm the current King of Lysandra,"

Well, that would explain a lot.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***