Los Angeles - Elaine

In terms of teaching combat in this world, it was even more disappointing than their way of basic education.

Mortals in this world seem to be less efficient than anything else. It’s the reason I laugh at the standard of their schooling because they spend six hours doing practically nothing but memorization. Although I might be a mortal now (for who knows how long), I certainly think people in my world are infinitely smarter… but perhaps infinitely less dumb would be the better term.

After entering the “Murphy Fencing and Defense Center”, my opinions on humanity did not change. For a place dedicated to combat and fighting, there were a couple too many jokes on the walls for me to understand. Many pictures of a badly drawn frog holding a sword, others of a big man planting down fences for a land, and text everywhere saying that “Coach loves his memes”.

“What is a ‘coach’?” I whispered to myself. I assumed I’d find out during the class. For now, however, I need to learn about my new roommate in this body: Elizabeth Brown.

Without wanting to admit it, I do feel rather bad about whoever this “Liz” is. I took her body, her life, and her choice in it all away from her after I went through that portal. I didn’t choose to be Elizabeth - the ancient of fate willed it so, for me to meet with Milo in this world. Not any random mortal far away, but Elizabeth Brown. I appreciate the chance to observe her life and to use it for Milo, but first I need to know who she is.

I dropped my backpack that was prepared for school that day and unzipped everything to see what Liz packed. Digging around, I found a large coloring book titled “Disney Princesses”. What’s Disney? I thought, shuffling through only to see pretty girls in extremely decorated dresses.

Is this what you all think of when a princess is mentioned? I was assigned by the king of Aereth to be the retainer of our chosen one, so the castle became my home. I became good friends with the king, queen, and most interestingly the princess. She was a gorgeous woman, with her back straight as a ruler in all occasions, but after leaving parties she would lose her mind! She would run into her room with the door locked and cry for the rest of the night... thinking of the responsibilities ahead of her. With all the stress she experienced, she still had to keep a level head in public. That is what I think of when I see a princess: overwhelming despair and the weight of the world.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I kept searching and found a small book about dragons that was mainly filled with just pictures of their massive wings and fiery breath. I could picture Liz hiding under the blanket I found myself in that morning, flipping the pages and wondering where the dragons might live.

I myself started shuffling through the book, laughing at what the artist imagined dragons to look like: majestic, observable creatures. Trust me, they were not that. In my world, dragons were terrifying and slimy reptiles that were ferociously protective of their young. I won’t get too into it, but dragons are not nearly as friendly as people may think.

As I continued to jump around the dragon book, it took me a while to notice that Milo’s dad’s car had pulled up to the fencing school. They both got out, and his dad was the first to run up to me.

“You must be Liz!” he said, kneeling down to get to eye level. “I’m Milo’s dad. You can call me that, you can call me Mr. Walker, you can call me Trevor, just don’t call my son for a date.” He winked at me as I shook his hand with a laugh, and stood up to say goodbye to Milo.

“Dad!” Milo protested with a blush to his cheeks. Of course, Mr. Walker only laughed at his whining and patted his shoulder as he walked back to his convertible. Milo sighed and walked forward to keep up with me.

“Don’t listen to him. I just want a friend,” He said as he struggled to carry a large black bag - I assumed it contained fencing equipment. He also changed clothes from what I saw him wearing earlier: now, he wore a tucked in tee shirt that was solid white and khaki pants that ended above his ankles.

“It’s ok, I think he’s a funny guy,” I said honestly.

“He is, but he’s mean too,” he pouted. “I just want to be friends with you, and he keeps poking at me for it.”

It sounded so strange… To be talking to Milo like old times, yet to hear it out of a child’s voice. Not the child I knew, the thirteen-year-old boy that was farming before he was fighting. No, this Milo is innocent - he’s actually a child. Instead of knowing what great threats he will have to face and most likely lose to one day, he thinks about his social life at his elementary school.

If I give him the bracelet that he’s obviously noticed - I’d seen him dart his eyes sneakily in wonder, and he asked about it once - he’ll gain all of his memory back. Not one lifetime of time against Trem, but all of them. The millions of times that I’d reset the timeline, and the millions of subtle differences I’d made in order to keep him from dying. He’d know it all. More dreadful though, he’d mature from this innocent and carefree Milo I enjoy so much. That would disappear in replacement of the dark, grim warrior and king that he became in Aereth.

Do I really want that? Would the Milo I know want me to do that?

“So you joined the class?” Milo asked once we walked down a hallway, dropping his bag on the floor with a huff.

“Yeah, I figured we could both use a friend,” I admitted, keeping my eyes to the ground. I tried to convince myself that the shyness and anxiety I felt was an act I’d created to sound like Elizabeth Brown, but Milo was still Milo. He was the chosen one, destined to save the world from an unbelievable evil. Who wouldn’t get a little tongue-tied?

“Thanks for that.” He smiled at me, unzipping the giant black bag. Watching him dig through, he eventually pulled out a giant sword - probably as tall as Milo was.

“Let’s ask Coach to get you a suit,” he said, “I’ll teach you the basics.”