Through worlds

For the third time this week Rukh woke up late, groaning she grabbed her phone that was just by her pillow and pressed the on button.

11 : 43 am

Not like she cared it was summer vacation anyway or also known as her doing nothing but stay at her bed and read fanfics.. That’s how most of her vacations were spent, either reading or sleeping. Though it would go too out of hand sometimes, one time it was the end of summer vacation and school was next day, everyone gawked at her pale appearance and she was sent to a doctor immediately where she was diagnosed with anemia. Or when she was too weak against the sunlight (weeks of staying indoors with the curtains down) and almost fainted.

But does she learn?

Oh nooooo, here she was just woke up from fifteen hours of sleep and once again surfing the net for fanfics. Opening facebook she let out a strangled shout as her favourite artist just posted a new artwork. Through years of reading fanfics our dear protagonists has always loved that one important aspect of the fanfiction world.

Ships (no not the boats mind you)

Specifically gay shipping

Now dear readers surely you’ve heard of shipping at least once in our life, or maybe you’ve read or heard the words:

Yaoi (Japanese term for BL)

boyxboy

malexmale

BL (Boy’s Love)

These are what our protagonists is very addicted to, but she’s straight mind you. It’s just that for her nothing is more satisfying than seeing two hot guys being together. So here she was now silently screaming and fanning her red face as she stared at the rather…….graphic portrayal of two men kissing, it’s safe to say that our protagonist has lost her sanity for a while.

After a few moments she calmed down and lazily scrolled down her feed (not before saving the said artwork), she saw pictures of her friends or family either travelling or just spending time together. She smiled bitterly at the picture of her crush smiling at the camera, seems like he was eating out with his family. Like any other teenage girl she has a crush of her own (other than her hundreds of husbandos) but she doesn’t go crazy over him, they were pretty close anyway. She viewed him as a friend first but as three years passed of being more than friends but less than lovers experience with him she ended up falling. Sadly like every cliché love stories out there he liked someone else and that someone else wasn’t her. But she was fine with that, his happiness was important and if being just a friend meant she get to stay by his side then she was fine with that.(Even if it had hurt too much)

Most people who had heard her story often called her naïve or stupid, that wasn’t the case really. The fanfiction world was vast and if you knew how to search you might end up learning about politics, economics, ideals, cultures etc. She had learned a lot by just reading fanfiictions and she had applied the things she had learned in the real world. So if someone called her naïve and stupid she would always find ways to prove them wrong.

(She is naïve and stupid on the matters of heart, but don’t tell her that.)

She sighed and closed the app, not wanting to think of such depressing thoughts when she had just woke up, she opened her reading app and proceeded to read a Chinese translated to English novel.

It was about an Empress who does all her best to eliminate someone who was a threat to her position. A concubine bearing birth to a boy? She would secretly poison her, either killing the concubine or the child. A new woman who the Emperor had taken a fancy on her? The Empress would find a way to frame her and disgrace her position.

Our dear protagonist loved reading about how the Emperor’s harem would carry out schemes to get rid of each other, she liked how clever and intelligent each woman were. Women were truly ruthless with each other.

Suddenly a knock on the door was heard throughout her room, startling her. The knock grew louder and she had no choice but to face whoever was disturbing her peace. With a slightly aching head and sore body she began her journey towards the entrance of her room.

Opening the door, the loud voice of her neighbour almost scared the crap out of her. Standing in front of her was Daren with a scowl on his handsome features.

“Are you even taking care of yourself?”

Daren was two years older than her with pitch black hair tied up in a ponytail, his moss coloured eyes were framed by black rimmed glasses and a beauty mark under his left eye. Daren was the mom in their dorms always making sure that everyone was in a fine condition. He claimed such responsibility because he was the oldest among them.

“Yes mother.” She answered rolling her eyes as Daren’s scowl got deeper.

There was a total of five people sharing the apartment but since it was summer vacation three of them had left and visited their families, she and Daren had stayed having no one to visit.

“Take a bath you stink, I’ve cooked lunch if you’re hungry”

Immediately she rushed outside, Daren’s homecooked meals were something one should not miss. Hell without Daren cooking she doubt she could survive summer vacation.
__________________________

After a satisfying lunch with Daren she trudged her way back into her room and plopped down her bed, once again with phone in hand not bothering to close the door. Daren seeing the repetitive actions of his dormmate made his brows furrowed in concern. 

“Why don’t go out? The weather seems fine.” He leaned at her doorframe as she turned around and frowned at him.

You see dear reader our main protagonist is an introvert, she hates the sun, the people. Interacting with them could be quite tiresome for her. But of course she expected this kind of thing from Daren. He was literally the opposite of her.

He could work well with anyone and had a whole lot of friends than her, always optimistic and confident his looks were just a bonus. While she was sarcastic and often depressed, hell she couldn’t even look at a cashier in the eye.

“Where would I go? You know I hate wasting money on pointless things.”

Was her excuse until like ever perfectly timed cliche her phone let out a small sound indicating that she had just received a message.

1 message received
1 : 32 pm
Are you free? Why don’t we hit the arcades?
-Jin

Well that was enough for her to be energized, standing up she tackled Daren with a pleading face

“Help me mother!!!”

Daren sighed at her antics, inviting himself in her room he led her to her dresser and forced her to sit down. He grabbed her cheap plastic comb (some of its teeth were missing) and had tried his best to tame her hair. Now Daren could not comprehend how can hair be so hard to tame, he had long hair as well but he had no trouble fixing it in the mornings. Rukh’s hair was the colour of chocolate, a bit wavy and reaching her mid-back.

“Do you want me to pick your outfit as well?” he asked in the middle of braiding

“Ehh No need, I don’t think Jin would care about my outfit anyway. The only reason I asked you to fix my hair was because I was feeling a bit girly today.”

Now Rukh was hardly girly and would often get out of the house with greasy hair and baggy clothes, but like every teenager she wanted to at least look descent in front of the person she liked. Even if Jin didn’t care she wanted to look good by his side.
______________________________________________

The demons were closing in as his imperial guards were dying one by one, fear gripped him but he wouldn’t dare show it. A screech was heard as he could see sharp canines closing in, his eyes widened and he found out he couldn’t move. But before the jaws could reach him a body threw itself in front of him, blood poured out and the body lay dead at his feet. He could feel bile slowly forcing his way up his throat.

“Pull yourself together my prince!” Len, the only remaining person that was part of his guard shook him roughly snapping him out of his trance. Tears pricked his eyes, it was useless to force them away as it rolled down his flawless cheeks.

“Len…..Imperial father and mother are-“

“Are already gone, no matter what happens you have to survive! You are the last of the royal family now and my task is to keep you alive even at the cost of my life!”

The demons had attacked in large numbers completely overpowering their army with their huge bodies and dark magic, he was not at the palace that day and had taken a stroll in the capital to escape his duties as a prince. When the demons had attacked the city he had tried to get back at the palace but Len had stopped him dragging him into the forests were some of the demons were chasing them down.

From the mountains they had watched as the palace went up in flames, shouts and screams of agony were heard. The demons with their hound like bodies, irregular shaped heads and long snouts showing off sharp teeth dripping with venom packed the capital covering some of the buildings making it almost unrecognizable.

Len had finished off the demons hot on their trail but they couldn’t afford to relax, Len had been bitten by one of the demons it was a miracle that the man could still manage to stand up straight, but Len had informed him that demon poison was slow to spread and it would take at least four hours for visible symptoms.

In all his life he had never felt so exhausted and hungry, he felt sick as well the bile on his throat was rising by the minute.

“Len…….where are you taking me.?” Even his voice was hoarse as Len passed him a water skin

“For now away from the capital, maybe in one of the distant provinces from there we’ll decide on what to do.”

All his life he, Ren Feng He the seventh prince of the Ren dynasty had never been outside the capital walls. He felt fearful, he was always ridiculed being a sheltered prince not knowing the affairs of the country. He couldn’t and wouldn’t deny it, not now that his people were suffering.

It was a wonder how Len had managed to stay by his side and not leave him defenceless at the forest, being the seventh prince no one really cared about him as he would always be at the shadow of his brothers. He didn’t mind it he hated attention anyway and he wasn’t like his brothers who fought over the throne. Because of this he didn’t think about learning martial arts or even learning how to hold a weapon.

They had decided to set camp and he appreciated how Len had taken of his fur cloak for his bedding, the moon was high above casting a subtle glow in their surroundings. Once again fear gripped him when Len let out a strangled scream clutching his leg. A violet like substance had oozed out from the wound and dried blood surrounded Len’s unnaturally pale skin. Not long after that his bodyguard passed out.

“ Len, no…….no…….Please don’t leave me!” he clutched the bodyguard’s shoulders gently shaking him, Len was his last grip to his own sanity. Everyone was gone, even if he wasn’t that close they were still his family, his flesh and blood. His silver hair which was once in a neat bun was now in a disarray falling down his shoulders, tears were flowing freely now.

Please whoever god or spirit is listening, please let this man live.

He was just protecting me, please take us away from this place! Anywhere but here!

It must’ve been mere minutes but to him it felt like hours as the cold slowly taking over and he had tried his best to conserve body heat between the two of them. He had no idea what to do with the wound so he just settled on cleaning it with a piece of his robe and tried bandaging it up.

CRACK!

The sound of thunder made him hug his bodyguard closer, Len had chosen a clearing to set camp and he doubted he could move his bodyguard.

CRACK!

A thunderbolt had struck the ground just in front of them, dark clouds had slowly covered the night sky and a strong breeze was circulating. Gritting his teeth he tried dragging Len away from the clearing into the trees, suddenly the pitter patter of rain was felt. The strikes of lightning were getting frequent around them, fearful he had clutched Len like there was no tomorrow as he was cornered. His eyes widened as a bright sphere was in front of them and before he knew it he was sucked inside losing consciousness everything turned black.

_________________________________________________
“MOTHER!!!”

The loud voice of Rukh woke him up startling him that he fell from the couch he was laying at.

“Look at what he bought me!!” she waved a key chain in front of his face, it was a little figurine of an anime character. The little figurine was male with blue hair and golden eyes, red arrows that served as tattoos were placed just under his eyes.

“This is like suuuuuper rare to find! He had to fight a horde of girls just to get it for me!” Daren rolled his eyes as he helped himself up and patted the couch

“Ok tell me all the details!”

So she happily chatted away, Daren listened intently adding comments here and there. Jin might be considered her best friend but Daren was her gay best friend, yup you read that right Daren was gay. Something she fully supported and would often hitch him with some male friends she knew. He was always there when Jin was not, if only he was straight then she could have fallen for him already.

CRASH!

She stopped talking as they heard the audible crash at the direction of her room, they both faced each other a silent agreement forming as Daren stood up soundlessly grabbing the baseball bat displayed at their coffee table.
It was meant to fool people letting them think it was just a harmless decoration but it was place there for a purpose. Burglars weren’t a surprise for them for it was frequent on the other dorms as well, reluctantly she followed Daren who was silently making his way to the door of her room.

He slowly turned the knob (insert some tension here) and opened the door immediately raising the bat, but Daren had stilled and was not moving. Since his built was tall she couldn’t see whatever that was at her room, she was confused at Daren’s actions as well knowing the guy he would head on face the criminals.

(Something similar had happened before which ended up his room being trashed)

Gently she pushed Daren aside to take a good look on what was happening exactly, the moment her eyes landed on silver hair and traditional clothing like the weird person she was she didn’t gasp out loud, hell she didn’t even looked shocked she just stood there indifferent about the blood present.
With a calm voice she stated:

“The anime gods had brought a gift.”
Well that enough for Daren to question her sanity