Tera was a full grown teenager, meaning that she, like many other teenagers, believed that relying on her parents for anything made her less of an individual; but in that moment she screamed for her mother like a five year old who had their candy taken from them.
"What's wrong?" Her mother came running into the room, frantically looking around. That is until her eyes landed on the other person in the room, a boy who happened to be dressed from head to toe in armor.
"I didn't mean to! I swear it just happened!" Tera tried to explain. "I was just trying to pull out his sword, to get a better look at it and... he came out attached to it..."
Her mother kept her eyes glued to the boy, who had taken on a rather defensive stance in this confusion, his hand hovering over his sword. She glanced away only to look at the image pulled up on the computer screen of two armor clad boys locked in battle, with one holding their sword aloft, ready to deliver the death blow. It was only as Tera's mother pulled her eyes away from the screen and made their way back to the boy, who had taken on a slightly more relaxed posture, did she finally say something.
"Hymenoptera Lydell, do you have any idea what you have just done?" Tera opened her mouth to answer, but the boy spoke first.
"I do. This fair lady hath freed me from my sworn duty of serving his majesty the King of Baidor in his war against my brother, my own flesh and blood. And..." The boy kneeled before Tera with a grace that one who is wearing a full set of armor shouldn't have, and took her by the hand. "I Sir William de Grace, will forever be in your debt." Tera smiled sheepishly before pulling her hand away as he made to kiss it.
"Mooooom?" she begged. Her eyes flitting to the sword.
"Oh no, I am not helping you out of this one. Besides, it's your father who knows how to deal with this stuff, not me. Put him back," her mother said, shaking her head and turning to leave. Before she did she turned to the boy and held out her hand. "First, your sword." He looked taken aback, but clearly Tera and her mother posed no real threat to him, even with a weapon, so he unsheathed it, making Tera flinch a little, and handed it to her mother. She nodded her head and exited the room, and Tera was hot on her heels.
"Mom, you know I can't! I don't know how!" Tera said, closing the door to the computer room behind her as William protested. "Mom! Don't leave me with him! He could hurt me!"
"I took his sword didn't I? Besides, he basically just pledged his allegiance to you. You'll be fine. Now, go put him back."
"But mom!" Tera scrambled to come up with some sort of excuse. "My book report's due tomorrow!"
"And I have a presentation. You were the one who pulled him out of the computer, you'll put him back," her mother countered, slamming the office door shut. Tera, in one of her finer moments, stuck her tongue out at the closed door before throwing her hands up in the air and retreating back downstairs.
Sitting back down in the desk chair she let out a huff. While keeping the boy in her peripheral she began browsing images online, until she came across one of a bouncy ball. She took her hand and reached into the screen. As her hand disappeared she felt the familiar numbing sensation replaced by pins and needles. She wrapped her fingers around the image and then pulled her hand back out of the screen, a three dimensional bouncy ball now grasped in her previously empty hand.
William had watched her the entire time wide eyed. Tera rolled her eyes and began to press the bouncy ball against the screen, being deliberately slow, in different places, over the image, in the corner, on another image of a bouncy ball, nothing.
"What are you trying to achieve my lady?"
"I'm trying to get this bouncy ball back into the computer." Tera began pressing the ball against the screen more firmly, causing the screen to tilt away from her and the screen around the ball to become slightly distorted.
"Why?"
"If I can get this ball back in then that means I can get you back in, like mom said."
"But I have no wish to return," he said. Tera spun around in her chair to face him.
"And why the hell not?! It's not like you have to deal with homework or parents breathing down your neck!"
"I don't know what homework is but I would gladly deal with those challenges than go back. Have you no idea what you have saved me from my lady?"
"Hell no!"
"That better not be you swearing Tera!" Her mother called from upstairs. Tera groaned.
"Of course not mom!" Tera lowered her voice though her tone was still harsh. "I didn't read the book! I just read a plot overview online."
"What do you mean you... did not read the book?"
"I mean the world you're from is fictional, a book!" Tera said, getting out of her chair and handing him the book she was supposed to read for the book report due tomorrow, the book about him. She then sat back down in the desk chair and began gently throwing the bouncy ball against the screen. William looked at the cover and scoffed.
"It does not matter now, for I am here. You hath brought me to your world, freeing me from my former duties. If you were to send me back, you would be condemning me to my fate, as dictated by his majesty the king, who I was sworn to serve." Tera stopped and took her first really good look at William, who upon closer inspection couldn't be much older than she was, eighteen at the most. Yet he was expected to kill his brother.
"Surely there was another way?"
"I would be dubbed a traitor, and hunted for the rest of my days."
"Then why would you serve a king who demands you kill your own brother?"
"You think I chose this for myself? It was predetermined for me, my fate... or that is what my parent's told me."
Tera could see him on a battlefield, striking down enemy after enemy with the sword that was now with her mother. Even now William stood with a posture that she could only wish to have with the amount of time she spent hunched over the computer. But he looked like a tin soldier, without the key to wind him up, standing immobile and unsure what to do with his newfound freedom. He was lost here, but he was miserable in the story.
Tera turned back to the computer and half-heartedly attempted to return the ball to it's image. This time the tip of her middle finger slipped into computer screen first, and the rest of her hand, and the ball followed. She released her grip on it and pulled out her empty hand.
"I did it..." she whispered. "Mom I—!"
She was cut off by a dagger at her throat. Tera slowly stood up, while William kept the small dagger level.
"I'm sorry my lady, but I will not be returning." He raised the dagger to touch her chin. The blade was cold and smelled of rotten meat. How could she have been silly enough to believe that a trained soldier would only carry a single weapon. Tera went cross eyed trying to make out if the dark spots on the dagger were rust or blood. William's hand stood steady.
"Tera? What is it?" Her mother asked, rounding the corner. She stopped as she saw the scene that was unfolding.
"You!" William growled. Tera's hands rested on the keyboard of the laptop. She trailed her fingers silently across the keys until their indentation could no longer be felt, and continued tracing the location of it pas the warm air of the fan up to the smooth plastic of the screen and back down again. The knight had turned to face Tera's mother, his armor shrieked with every movement, sending shivers up Tera's spine.
Tera kept her eyes locked on her mother's terrified face and the dagger now pointed towards her. William's hand as steady as ever. Tera slipped her right hand underneath the laptop, holding her breath and waiting for him to notice.
"You are the one at fault! She would not be required to put me back without your order! You are just like his majesty!" William raised his hand in an attack towards Tera's mother, who shied away and raised her hands in a feeble attempt to block the attack, a scream forming around her lips.
Without a second thought Tera turned and grabbed the laptop with her left hand, swinging it up over her head and, taking a step to close the gap between them, placed a hand on the top of his skull and brought the screen down on top of it. It was eerily silent as the laptop engulfed his body, sending the dagger clattering to the floor.
The death blow.
Finally the laptop hit the carpeted floor with a muffled crack. Tera stood frozen as her mother rushed towards her and embraced her in a hug. Tera felt herself crying before her ears registered the noise she was making.
"I didn't- he didn't..." She tried to form words between her sobs. "... deserve..." Her mother simply held her close and whispered over and over:
"Shhh. I know sweetheart, I know." Rocking her gently back and forth as they sat huddled on the floor. Through her tears she could see the book laying on the floor where William had dropped it, and she began anew. She didn't know how the story ended but she found comfort in her mother's embrace.
When they finally pulled away Tera picked up the book and flipped through the pages a few times.
"I'll call your father and let him know what happened. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happened to him. He'll probably be more... empathetic to what happened." Tera's mother paused at the door. "When you're ready the sword's in my office... take your time."
"Thanks mom." Tera whispered. Her mother smiled.
"You did good. I'm sure when you're father hears about what happened he'll be proud. I know I am. Though next time, let's try out new skills in a slightly less life threatening way?"
Tera laughed and nodded her head. Her mother left her, and Tera heard her retreating back upstairs. She sat back down in the chair and flipped the book over in her hands before opening to the first page, and resigned herself to reading the fate she had condemned William to and hoped that it had a happy ending.
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