Just when I feel I'm starting to like the guy a little bit, I'm reminded that we are just too different. Maybe I should just content with just dealing with him amicably and be happy with that. Heck, I don't need to be friends with everyone I meet! I think if we can get through a day without any fights or frustrations, I'll call our interactions a success.

Who am I kiddin' though?

Lucy just riles me up for no good reason and I can't help it when I rise to the occasion. Maybe it is just me and I need to relax more. I keep on telling him that he needs to adjust to the changes around him but now that I know that he's not from this realm, maybe it is more of a cultural difference that I gave him credit for and I'm the one in the wrong. 

Kicking off my heavy duvet and groaning at the biting cold air, I rush to the shower and warm up.

Okay, Amber, maybe we should start fresh and be the voice of reason and change that I ask of Lucy. If he says something that pisses you off, just let it roll right off you. 

Fresh start...Fresh start...Let's start with what I know and impart it on to him. He seems to appreciate the everyday living skills that I teach him to survive in this world. Maybe he'll loosen up and show me a bit about his own culture and world eventually.

Thinking about yesterday and how bizarre events turned yesterday, where did all that cultural know-how and etiquette come from? I swipe at the fogged up mirror and look at my distorted reflection. It's still me and yet not; just like my actions yesterday. I may be hanging around Lucy a lot but there is absolutely no way I watched him do half of the mannerisms that just flowed through me like the magic that opened up yesterday's Egress. Perhaps it's just the world itself. Ideas and power just flows through your veins without realizing it and it makes you act and do things you would not normally do.

I wrap a towel around myself and creep over to my room to get ready when I hear clanging down stairs. Lucy must be making something so I need to hurry before he burns down the place and I've already signed a one-year contract on this flat. When I enter the kitchen, I see that Lucy has been watching me lately and taking to heart how to run the water boiler as well as the toaster.

"Good Morning." He greets me as he sets down a cup of mint tea, my morning beverage of choice this week.

"Mornin'."

"I took the liberty of starting something to break our fast."

"Thanks. It's getting colder with each day, the tea is a great pick-me-up."

Lucy nods solemnly and I decide to just rip the band-aid right off.

"Lucy, can we...um, just forget...about some of the things we said yesterday?"

He looks surprised but just nods and continues to grab a plate for the toast and reaches for the jam in the cabinet behind him. 

"So,' I begin, "I was thinking we can get you a bank account open so you can have access to money, and I'll keep an eye out for jobs that I can apply to myself."

"Why would I need money?" Lucy asks, as it is the most absurd concept he's ever heard of.

"You're joking, right?" Not really sure how to respond.

"No, I'm quite serious. Why would you need money? Don't you have family funds so that you have access to when you are in need of something?"

I blink at him for a few seconds before I could formulate a response.

Oh, boy. I may have a lot more to teach him before I can set him lose into the world. No wonder he was so confused about the whole paying for food and services when we had Thai the other night.

"Well, unfortunately, I don't come from a family that just has wealth sitting in some vault waiting for me to tap into it somehow. I've got to earn it the old fashioned way and work for it. My aunt and uncle have been generous and given me a stipend every month - I guess its from my parents when they passed on but, it's not just me living here. I've got you here as well and I need a bit more than what I'm currently getting from my stipend."

Lucy had a bit of a puzzled expression on his face and I explain the process of going to the bank. Still not quite getting the concept, I resigned to keep all my explanations for later. I grab all my documents and freeze when a sudden realization hits me: Lucy has no identity here!

$#*%~!

"Are you okay?" Lucy rushes to me shortly after I swore to myself.

"We may have a problem with getting you set up with anything here."

"Such as...?" Not quite understanding what could be the problem now.

"You have no documents to prove who you are: No ID, no social security number, no passport, no birth certificate.  Heck you don't even have a diploma stating that you were educated."

"I assure you-" Lucy starts, but I cut him off before he goes on a tirade.

"I know, I know, you probably had the best education money could buy, BUT that does not help us here. In this country, we are just a number - not even a name in all the systems in place."

"Ugh, how barbaric."

"Save it. It's how things work here and without that number or any documents stating who you are exactly, you have less rights and access than that fuzzy mutt you were just a few short weeks ago."

"So I'm reduced to being a house hold pet?" Lucy sneers at the thought.

"At the moment, you would probably have better luck getting an ID as a dog than as a foreigner."

"Well, that's insulting."

"Now that I think about it, it really is. We do need to solve this problem somehow but I'll think of something..."

"So what should we do then, well, seeing as I can't seem to get you in any system here in this realm, I can show you places you do have access to and part a bit of our culture."

Lucy just shrugs and head to the door, opening it and waiting for me to walk through first. He locks up behind him and we walk to the corner of our block to hail the first taxi that comes our way. 

"Where to?" The taxi driver asks us.

"Ito Museum, please."

"On Haili?"

"Yup."

The drive wasn't long. As soon as we paid our entrance fee, I steer Lucy towards my favorite exhibit with old and current photos of the town and city center. Lucy patiently listened to all the stories I told him about each location and read the script for each photo. I learned everything I knew from aunt Cissy and uncle George, but I feel like a few of the stories may have been from my own parents. 

Again, lost knowledge I don't realize I have stored in me until the time calls for it to resurface. 

"What's this place?" Lucy points to a certain photo.

"Oh, that's the old hospital right by the waterfall we saw the other week."

"I thought it looked vaguely familiar, but I don't remember this building at all."

"Yeah, it burnt down a few years ago, close to that clearing we saw as we hiked. That hospital used to be for the mentally insane and unstable. It was a very special facility that needed highly trained security guards but even that didn't stop the fire that brought down the whole building and a few of the inmates and workers with it."

"Strange..." was all Lucy said before he moved down the line of the same photo collection. I followed him down the hall, each depicting the outside of the asylum and the surrounding forest. 

Further and further down the hallway we go, light starts to fade and the hairs on the back of my neck start to stand. It's like static electricity is in the air and something has me on edge. The end of the hallway opens to a dark entrance that leads to a staircases downwards and Lucy has taken it upon himself to start descending down. Just as I was about to make a comment about how creepy this place is, he stops.

"Do you sense that?" He asks cryptically. 

I look around the white painted brick path as cold air brushed against the back of my neck, causing me to shudder. Reaching a hand out and placing it against the wall, a jolt goes through me and suddenly the spot my hand is touching seems to be electrified and bolts of blue electricity spiderweb from my touch. It crawls down the wall, under my foot and up the other wall overhead reconnecting with my hand. 

When I pull my hand back, the electrified arch pulses with energy as it creates a door, an Egress. The archway solidifies and opens with a blinding light. I look at Lucy and grab his hand as we have a common consensus that we should walk through it. Hands shielding our eyes from the wind and the bright light, we walk in feeling the pull of Gaea pulling at us.

***

It's just as windy here as it was walking through the blue electric Egress in the narrow staircase in the museum. We're on a cliff high in the mountains, not that dissimilar to the one overlooking the grotto on our previous day's adventure.

The landscape is very dynamic and diverse between each mountainous divide from our vantage point, separating lush forests, marshes, deserts, plains, tundra and oceans. Looking down the ledge and along the chaparral of Central and into the temperate woodlands of the valley, I feel like we are on a completely different mountain from the one we stood on the day before. 

I look over ledge, relying on the natural stone railing to support and bar myself from getting to close when I feel Lucy grab a hold of my shoulders. I must be in a very precarious that is making him uncomfortable if he's urging me back to safety. 

“This place is beautiful.”

“The valley below is known as Num Beria and borders the outskirts of the country’s Preeminence or as you would say, the capital, I'yeriav."

I turn to Lucy and offer him a large smile at the information that is suddenly coming back to him with such ease.

“Wooow. Look at you, Lucy! You seem to know a bit of what you’re talking about. What mountain range are we on?

“Central.” He answers blandly.

“Oh." I deflate a bit at the obvious answer. "Well, I guess that makes senses”.

“The mountain range is also aptly named Crossroads or the Crossroad range.” Lucy continues to explain how the natural landform serves as a boundary and actually looks a bit shocked as well as some of the history of this area is flowing out of him at the moment.

“Yup, I’m starting to think you are definitely a native here." I pat him on his shoulder and look down at the land below us. "It would explain why you know so much about this place, have that odd accent I can’t place, look so different from anyone I know back at home and yet you don’t seem so out of place here in Gaea.”

“That is a very valid deduction. Well, let’s make our way down Num Beria and see what we can do about getting to I'yeriav.”

“Sure, how?” I look at him as though he's crazy. It's a long way down to the base of these mountains and he just states we're going to this town or city as though it were just next door. He looks around for something and walks to the ledge and points downwards at something.

“By those stairs, of course.”

“What?!" I shout. There are literally stairs that go straight down this tall mountain and it's a steep descent with not railing or anything else that could protect us from a strong gust of wind. “Are you out of your mind?”

“I do not see what the problem is.” Lucy says nonplussed.

“How can you not? We are going to be scaling a mountain by means of stairs! Like about 60,000 of them!”

“Oh, nothing a spry young thing like you should worry your pretty little head about.”

“Fine! But after this, I expect to relax for the rest of the day. There’s just been way too many shocks for one day. Plus, I don’t want your frail old body to give out before we explore this area. 

“Fine. I will agree to these terms but you need to follow my lead from now on without question. You had a stroke of luck with the last interaction we had but I do not want to make the wrong move in a different culture and risk offending someone or worse.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get going then. We wouldn’t want to get stuck after dark lest your decrepit old eyes fail you and we both get lost.”

"Tell, me how can we get lost if the only direction to follow is up or down."

Valid point. 

I only shrug at him, which seems to deflate his victory, but I can hear him mumbling, 'sometimes, I wonder if I am not secretly being punished for something in my past..." 

Also a valid point on both our counts, I guess. Someone may have thrown us together for entertainment and they must be having a grand ol' time seeing us navigate through this hell now.