Puff had sprawled himself across the cold floor, drooping his eyelids in a weak attempt to stay awake as he watched the black haired boy, or as everyone seemed to be calling him, Káel, fail spectacularly. The eerie man in red didn't seem to be entertained either, the excitement filling him burnt out with his sunken shoulders. 

          Káel's constant failures had slowly grinded down on his nerves, and now everyone was leaking a fatigued and disappointed gloom.

          "My, I've never met someone as bad as you at this," Phantom sighed. "I tell you to do one thing, and for whatever unfortunate reason you manage to mess it up."

          "Might have something to do with the fact that I've only known about this stuff for three days," Káel retorted, sitting on the floor in boredom.

          "Okay, try breaking that stick without touching it again," Phantom said, taking his own seat upon the floor.

          "It's not gonna work. Again," Káel sighed, muttering at the stick. 

          It didn't move, which was the expected outcome at this point. What was unexpected was when the stick smouldered, then promptly burst into a little bonfire.

          Puff widened his eyes in surprise, while Káel and Phantom unanimously looked at the smouldering wreckage emotionlessly.

          "There goes our stick," Phantom mumbled, resting his chin on his hands. "I hope you're cursed, cause otherwise... Wow."

          "Jeez I'm hungry," Káel dodged, throwing his arms out in a stiff stretch and yawning. 

          Puff warbled in agreement, wiggling his stubby limbs to grip the floor and roll onto his feet, only to slip and land on his broken wing with a yelp.

          Káel smiled pitifully at his guardian, and Puff finally got to his feet. The tight bandages had yellowed a bit with dirt, their knotted ends fraying with prickly teeth marks. It was probably time to change them.

          Káel smiled, until one of the words unwelcomingly lingered in his mind.

          Time. 

          "Wait... what time is it?" His stomach flipped with dread as he leapt to his feet, pulling his sleeve up to look at the sender. 

          The fourth period had just ended. 

          Phantom followed Káel as he ran out of the room swearing, the two of them halting at the top of the stairs while Káel caught his breath. "Can you check if anyone's out there?"

          Phantom shoved his head through the wall and sat there for a bit, leaning back out with a thumbs up. "Teetee's not there, or anybody else, there's just an irritated looking cat."

          "A cat?" Káel grabbed his Ceptrum, his eyes hoping to meet the frosty blue eyes of Jeremiah as he muttered the password. 

          When he shoved his face through to meet Ragdoll's peeved squint, neither one of them was satisfied by the encounter, with Ragdoll jumping in fright, and Káel frowning in utter disappointment.

          "What are you doing here?" Káel whispered, completely pulling himself out of the wall as the cat sniffed his leg. He could have sworn he caught the end of her rolling her eyes at his statement, but he couldn't keep an eye on the feline as she saw Puff hop through the wall, her fur bristling as she laddered up Káel's back and latched to his shoulders hissing.

          Káel sucked in a pained breath of air, awkwardly twisting his arms back to lift the cat up, only to rip at the chunks of skin she'd anchored herself to instead. After a couple bandaid-worthy nicks, he finally tore the cat off, cradling the mound of affectionless fluff in his arms as she leered at Puff. 

          He gave her a couple strokes to sooth her and looked around the room, Ray wasn't anywhere to be seen.

   —————  

          Káel weaved through the crowds of students, contently purring feline in tow, with an envious dragon lagging behind. He couldn't hold back a smile at the nostalgic sensation of a cat in his arms, it reminded him of Jay.

          His heart clenched. 

          His cat was traipsing through the alien wilds. 

          Or dead. 

          Regardless of the outcome, it was his fault. If he hadn't followed the air-headed blond into the junkyard he wouldn't have landed himself in this mess. At least that was the wishful regrets his mind had played in avoiding this unfortunate future.

          Ragdoll lifted her head with a soft chirp, her lemony gold eyes for once smiling at Káel. 

          I should probably return her to Ray, he thought, looking around for a blonde patch of curly hair towering over the students.

          He rubbed her head again. "You should go back to Ray and tell him I'm fine, or whatever he sent you to figure out." 

          Káel crouched to drop the cat, but Ragdoll had different plans. With an unsatisfied yowl, she widened her slitted eyes and grabbed pawfulls of Káel's uniform to spider off his chest. Káel stopped his attempts at putting the cat down when she caught some skin, staring at her with a playful smile. 

          "Don't you want to go back to Ray? I can't take you to my room."

          "That's what you get for petting it," Phantom chimed. "You have now become its faithful massage servant."

          Káel sighed, opening his mouth to speak when a tap on his shoulder whisped away his voice, sending it down his throat to choke on it when he looked to see who it was. 

          The teacher towered over him, arms folded with a bitter smile of success tying Káel to his spot.

          Káel looked the personification of death in the face, his voice taking shelter in his stomach as his mind jogged to think up if his class was one of the four he'd skipped by accident today. "Mr. Mudelin-"

          "Sick?" Mr. Mudelin said plainly, his arms slowly folding as the sarcastic smile failed to die. "Truvius almost had me worried."

          "Sic-" Káel coughed to mask his ignorance. "I mean yeah! It lasted half a day, super weird. I was just collecting all my homework."

          "A fairly common occurrence with students, although I believe Truvius already did that for you. I was also under the impression that your clock would have informed Tia of your illness, which it didn't do. But what do I know? I'm a teacher after all," Mr. Mudelin replied with a bitter stab, his cold gaze dropping to Ragdoll. "And have you snatched Mr. Petterson's Guardian for any particular reason?"

          Káel glanced at the purring cat with a touch of evil to his smile. "Payback?" 

          Suddenly, another furry mass rubbed against his side, and Káel locked eyes with Talli's Guardian, shooting Mr. Mudelin a panicked look as he cocked an eyebrow.

          "You got some kind of food on you or something?" Phantom chuckled, watching the sand maine competed with Ragdoll for Káel's free arm while Puff watched the spectacle in moping silence.

          "Káel!" Talli yelled as she booked it around a corner and barreled towards him. 

          Truvius was close behind her, but not nearly as energetic upon seeing him. He looked as if he'd been running around the whole school trying to find him, and spent ten years of his life in the process.

          "Next time... Tell... Your Guardian... To walk!" Truvius panted, stopping a couple meters away to breathlessly grab his knees.

          "G-Good job Mi'Karu!" Talli squeaked, kneeling in front of her Guardian and giving it a big hug, which it gladly welcomed, resting it's head on her shoulder and closing its eyes with satisfaction.

          When Truvius cooked up enough stamina to stand straight again, the question he was itching to ask hitched in his throat with a gag upon seeing Mr. Mudelin. In a panicked rush he ran to Káel with a dramatic gasp, shoving his hand over Káel's forehead while making sure the teacher could see his faked frown of worry.

          "Look at you! What are you doing out of bed?" Truvius gave Mr. Mudelin a wide eyed glance before snatching Káel's wrist. "You're so pale!" 

          He felt his forehead again, grimacing when he remembered he'd done it already and simply tugging Káel away from the weight of Mr. Mudelin's frown before the teacher tossed them a question.

          "We should go to the nursing quarters, you probably caught something running through the forest!" Truvius nearly hollered, finally dragging Káel around the closest corner with Talli close behind. When they were finally alone his face hardened into a less than intimidating scowl, made even funnier by the way his short roomate tightly folded his arms. "And where were you?" 

          Káel smiled. "Sick apparently. Where's Vera?"

          "Oh, sh-she went with Ray to find you, b-but we beat them!" Talli said, putting her hand up to Truvius for a victorious high five." Truvius exhaustively slapped her hand with a wince of pain, and Talli turned to Káel giving him a tight hug. "It's okay, you're just, just stressed out. I-I would be too if I didn't have any sch-school supplies."

          Káel groaned as something popped in Talli's constricting hug, and Ragdoll was giving her forehead a sour glare as she nestled deeper into Káel's arms. He gave the halls another skim, he needed to dump Ragdoll on Ray before he ended up keeping her.

          "Let's go find Ray."

   —————  

          After a chaotic hunt through the bustling corridors, Talli's guardian Mi'karu had bowled over a sizeable swath of students hounding down Vera's scent, and Káel had definitely lost a couple potential friends by clumsily running into them while dragging a hyperventilating Truvius behind him. 

          Now they were silently standing before the pair, sharing in their diverging form of discontent. Vera was holding him down in cold silence while Cinder sang to Puff, and Ray had a soured frown on his face that somehow tacked on a couple extra years to his features. 

          But the only thing that mattered to Káel was their focus.

          Him.

          He chuckled nervously in the tense silence thrummed with Truvius' incessant panting, holding out the fluffy and purring cat to Ray with a faltering smile.

          Ray immediately grabbed her, but she was quick to protest, latching onto Káel's sleeve with an audible groan of displeasure. 

          He stared at her with more irritation than confusion, giving the cat a light jiggle as he tugged on her. "Come on Ragdoll you can't go sticking to whoever pets you." 

          Ragdoll groaned again, her ears flattening as she rested her chin on Káel's hand.

          Ray sighed, tucking her under one arm and unhooking each individual claw with his free hand, until the cranky cat hissed, biting down on his tender knuckles with a hoarse bark of a meow.

          "Ragdoll," Ray growled, his gaze darkening to hostility as the cat cringed. Her grip relaxed as she went limp in contemptuous sorrow, allowing Ray to finally lift her off her latest victim.

          Ray was about to drop the cat on the ground, until Talli reached out pleadingly to hold her, and, to Ragdoll's misfortune, he complied with her gesture. Talli squeezed the cat firmly in her arms, a look of frozen terror plastered on Ragdoll's face.

           "She hates being held for long periods of time, and likes to settle disputes with her claws, so watch out," Ray warned.

          She nodded and tried rocking the disgruntled feline in her arms, which only added to the terror in its eyes.

          "Well anyways, problem solved." Ray cheerily smacking Káel in the square of his back. "We can all relax now!" His hollowed cheer shattered for a split second as he glared at Káel. "Except, you're gonna come with me for a second."

          Káel watched as Talli and Truvius waved him goodbye, and Vera turn silently to follow them, then he remembered the circumstances that had lead him to accidentally skip school.

          Vera knew something about Ray, and the only way he was getting that was by buttering up the hothead.

          He planted his feet. "Wait." 

          The three stopped to look at Káel, who was waiting to catch Vera's attention, a respectful nod following as he met her gaze. 

          "Sorry about this morning."

          Her cold look changed to a suppressed expression of surprise at how easily the apology had come, and she nodded, the venom in her voice hardly matching her smile. "I'm sorry too."

   —————  

          Ray had walked Káel outside, and they were currently standing in the middle of the schools lush green field. He hadn't talked the whole way, which Káel found to be a little odd for someone of his personality, but when they stopped out of earshot of any visible person he decided to talk.

          "Why did you go to the room?"

          Káel diverted his gaze to the trees and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I wanted to get a better look at it."

          "A better look at it? You do realize the only reason the Breakers didn't go bananas over a lost student is because you made some smart friends." Ray said, his irritation growing. "What happened to avoiding attention?"

          Káel shrugged. "I'll be more careful next time."

          "Next time just warn me, and don't skip class!" Ray burst, his creased face and commanding tone almost causing Káel to wonder if this was what it was like to have a parent. "This isn't like Earth where you can fake an illness and get away with it! Hopefully Tia wasn't watching you while you played hooky."

          He snapped his attention back to the conversation. "She wasn't."

          Ray looked confused after hearing Káel's oddly sure response. "How would you know?"

          Káel's shoulders rose with a cringe as he scoured the setting for inspiration, he really needed to start using his brain before blurting excuses. His eyes rested on Puff, who was happily pushing himself through the wavy grass, his broken wing stretched out and preventing him from rolling.

          "Puff can sense her." The dragon perked his ears up and tilted his head to the side in confusion. "He has reeaaaallly good senses." Káel winked at his Guardian. "Right?"

          Puff took Káel's flattery as an acceptable trade, and nodded in agreement.

          Ray sighed, rubbing the back of his head with a frown. "Fine, but seriously, try thinking of less attention grabbing things to do, alright?"

          "There's nothing to do, maybe if you'd let me help you with the teleporty thing I wouldn't be doing as much 'attention grabbing stuff'."

          Ray's stern face went timid at the mention of the Telly. "It's okay, I've got it..."

          Káel narrowed his eyes skeptically. "There has to be something I can do."

          Ray gave him a fake cheesy smile, which seemed to be his default expression when he was lacking a good response to give, which racked up to be a common occurrence. He was contemplating to solve, or at least negate, this crucial situation. Káel was getting suspicious, and the last thing he wanted was for him to see through the bluff. All the same, if he started making up to do lists, Káel would figure it out eventually, and have the fury of being treated like a maid added to his rage of being lied to for three months.

          Unfortunately, Ray was the type to push off his problems, and whistle a tune while he dug his own grave. 

          "Well, there is something..." he finally said, hoping his plan would get Káel of his back for a little while. "I need a..." he waved his hands to churn up an idea, biting at the first thing that came to him. "Zodraic Battery."

          Ray's smile faltered as his words bounced back into his brain with a tidal wave of curses, his lips curving once again with a hint of fear.

          "For what asinine purpose does your friend require an object of THAT caliber?" Phantom immediately cut in.

          "What's that?" Káel said.

          "Well... since the Telly requires massive amounts of energy to function without collapsing and eating itself, I need something on par with its... diet." Ray twisted his face away from Káel to relax his smile into a look of pure dread, trying with all his might to sound convincing.

          "Okay, where do I get one?"

          "Well, they're very, very rare, aaaand not to mention.... pretty illegal," Ray said, evading any useful information he could give Káel. The faster he gave up on this one, the better. "As for any known ones, good luck buying or finding a properly functioning one, that's one of the main reasons this is gonna take awhile, and it's the only thing you could really do. However, since you're less than likely to get one, it's alright if you don't accept and leave it to me, okay? Just don't tell anyone about this... or you won't get home."

          Ray turned to walk away, eyes wide with fear as he tried to speed walk without losing his composure.

          "Alright, I'll try and get you your Zodraic Battery."

          Ray froze, and turned back to Káel with the best look of gratitude he could muster. "Oh? Alright. Just don't get in trouble, okay?"

          Káel nodded. "Also, do you know the date? Lumi terms."

          "Fifteen twenty four, uhh sixth day of the third cycle of Carcinos... I think..." After beholding Káel's blank expression, it suddenly dawned on him. "You didn't catch a lick of what I just told you, huh?"

          "I didn't either. I guess I was in that rock long enough for them to change their timekeeping methods," Phantom sighed.

          Káel  shook his head. "Never mind, do you happen to know when this place stopped being a kingdom?"

          "What? Do I look like an encyclopedia to you? I'm surprised you even knew this was a castle once upon a time."

           "I found out from the room, do you have an estimate?"

          Ray looked at a patch of grass in hard concentration, but it shockingly didn't provide him with a good answer. "A couple thousand years at least, my memory's a bit fuzzy. Why do you want to know?"

          "Just curious."

          "Then check the library or something," Ray replied, his attention suddenly drawn to the sky as every mysterious speck of worry dotting his eyes faded to relaxation. "Wow, it's pretty clear out."

          Káel took in his tranquil surroundings, he hadn't even noticed the peace around him through he chaotic mess called his life. 

          The red star had already dipped into the horizon, leaving the lighting up to the smaller blueish white one that cast the landscape into a bright yet tinged with blue scene. Puff looked like he was glowing with his new blue tinges, and the whole place now looked undoubtedly alien, taking on a nightly chill.

          Káel pulled his phone out and faced it towards the school to snap a picture, trying to silently shoo Phantom out of the frame. It took him a bit to catch on to Káel's terrible attempt at sign language, and by the time he ducked, Káel had already snapped multiple pictures.

          Taking all these pictures was Káel's only hope in convincing his teachers he'd been kidnapped by aliens. Reminiscing on his peaceful past, he remembered Sora, she would have reported his disappearance by now, so the police were hunting a teenager they didn't have a single chance in finding.

          What's my uncle gonna think when he comes home and I'm not there? Káel thought with a shudder. All the years he hadn't dared to cross his uncle, he was a nice guy, but he seemed scary with whatever he did, and Káel didn't feel like testing the extent of his wrath and obediently followed his rules. 

          This would push a couple buttons. 

          He allowed himself to be kidnapped by a complete stranger, but at least Ray would likely receive the sharp end of his punishments.

          If he'd ever see him again.

          The heavy blanket of hopelessness fell on his shoulders again.  

          Despite Káel's best efforts, the life force of his phone was clearly whittling down to its demise. It hadn't seen a charger in days, and each time he saw the power bar he got a little more stressed at the impending loss of his most trusted companion.

           He didn't have long to procure a sufficient amount of evidence towards his troublesome situation, and so, stopping his plan on taking pictures, he took this opportunity to take a quick video; and he was going catch everything.

          "Hey Puff, do something stupid," he ordered, pointing his phone at the confused and grass covered dragon.

          Puff surprisingly complied, prancing through the grass with his tongue out and finishing his act by shooting a small string of fire into the air.

          Káel did a whole one-eighty to face Ray, who, rather than hiding, greeted the camera with a little wave. Next he turned it to the sky and it's surroundings, which would have taken a hilarious amount of CGI to fake, and lastly the grandeur school he was being forced to stay at.

          "Ooh, let me into your magic box too!" Phantom called, leaning into the frame as he ended the video.

          "Woah wait," Ray cut in, grabbing the phone from Káel and moving the camera around.

          Káel shot him a dirty look as he cupped the precious object. "What? It's a phone, don't break it."

          "Yeah I know it's a phone, I thought I saw something."

          "Saw something?" Káel looked at the screen with the same intensity as Ray. Phantom joined in on the investigation, peering intently over Káel's shoulder. "What'd it look like?

          After doing multiple three-sixties Ray gave up, biting his lip in irritated defeat. "I guess I was just seeing things, but I could've sworn I saw something red for a second. Maybe if I go back to the video..."

          Káel's heart jumped at the mention of red. "Yeah, I guess you were seeing things!" He snatched his phone and clicked the power button before Ray had a chance to start the video, shoving it into his tight pocket with a smile.

          "Your phone's low on power, I might be able to charge it." Ray moved his hand to grab the device again.

          Káel retreated, and narrowed his eyes cautiously. "You know a lot of things for a supposed alien."

          "I told you, I get around."

          He gave the smiling blonde a less than friendly squint to reward his hospitality. "I'll pass for now. Focus on my ride home."

Sorry for the late update!

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6/9/2018