When our morning classes were finally over, me, Junie and Arlo sneaked off to our usual spot; an Oak tree that sat alone on top of a small hill. Junie was leading our charge whilst me and Arlo were following not so far behind.

“Oh!” Junie exclaimed as she looked at the ground. “Why is there a pile of daisies here?”

As Arlo and I came up to her side, we saw that, true to what she said, there was a pile of picked daisies. Arlo crouched down and picked one up, as he did so, we noticed that quite a few of them were attached to each other.

“Looks like someone was making a daisy chain…”

I thought it was cute that someone our age was still doing stuff like that.

“Well, I’m starving…” Junie stated as she pulled out a picnic blanket from her bag and placed it on the ground under the Oak tree, smoothing out any creases. 

“The way you insist on a picnic each and every time never ceases to amaze me.” Arlo commented, as he sat down on the blanket.

“What? Mum always makes more food than I can handle, so it just works!” Junie started to pull boxes out of her bag and examined them. “Oh, sweet! Little sausages.” 

I joined my friends, and Junie handed me a small box. “Mum made these for you.”

As I took the box from her, I opened the lid. Inside the box were little triangle sandwiches, with tuna and cucumber in. Which JUST so happens to be my favourite sandwich filling.

“Your mum is the best!” I grinned at Junie, who just grinned back at me, with the expression that said “Don’t I know it” on her face.

“I have to admit that I always love your mums home cooked sausage rolls.” Arlo mentioned, as he held the pot with them in.

“That’s what you get for being a super mum!” Junie flexed a little when we commented about her mothers cooking. “So Luce, Arlo tells me that you found a weirdo.”

“You have to be more specific with that.”

“Something about brown hair, weird, and quite cute.”

“That last part is NOT what I said!” Arlo grumbled.

“Brown hair and cute? You wouldn’t be talking about a little old me, would you?”

The sudden voice alerted all of us and, as we looked up to see where the source of it was coming from, we saw that there, laying on his front, with limbs dangling from the branch that he was laying on, was that same brown haired weirdo. Giving us a cheeky grin, he slid off the branch and landed pretty close to where Arlo was, and stared right into his face. “Hey again!”

“Personal space, you creep!” Arlo pushed the weirdo’s face away from his own.

“Aww… Is that how you treat an old friend?”

“What is it with this town and weirdos?” 

“AH!” Junie had finally found her voice, as she put two and two together. “You are the one that my friends met this morning, right?”

It then occurred to me that Junie was now able to see him. Previously, she couldn’t see him, only Arlo could. It seemed like he noticed that too and turned to her.

“I guess that maybe since I was talked about, that's why I can be seen. But hello, you may call me Ikky.” He gave Junie a rather dramatic bow, and I felt her nudge me.

“You’ve gotta admit, he's kinda cute.”

I ignored her comment, I mean she wasn't even shocked that he was even here, just that he was cute. So, considering the fact that Arlo seemed to be staring daggers at him and Junie was fawning over him, it was my turn to be an adult, so to speak, in this situation.

“Why are you here?” I asked him.

As he scratched at his chin, Ikky thought for a moment before speaking again. “I want to know about you and this place.” 

“You're rather forward for a stranger.” Arlo harshly added in.

“Well…” Ikky shrugged at him. “Isn’t every friend a stranger until you get to know them?”

I had to admit, he was right with that statement, and I think Arlo knew that too, since he didn’t retort back with anything.

“Wait….” Junie seemed to have come back to the land of the living. “Do you perhaps want to know about Luce?” She pointed at me and, in return, Ikky nodded. Junie had to hold her mouth, so that she did not squeal.

“Wherever your mind is going? Don’t go there!”

“I’m not that bad, y’know….. Well, maybe I am, a little…”

At that moment, a tolling bell sounded.

“Oh my god! I was supposed to…!” Junie exclaimed. “And you too!” She quickly moved forward and grabbed Arlo’s arm and started to pull him away. “We have to do the thing, or there will be big trouble.”

I was confused by the suddenness of Junie’s movements, and even Arlo was taken aback by her, but he just let her drag him away. When they both left my line of sight, I just stood there wondering what on Earth I just witnessed. Letting out a huge sigh, I realised that it meant that I had to clean up the picnic stuff. Even though it was all Junie’s stuff. As I started to gather up all the stuff, it made me painfully aware that the odd boy was, in fact, still here, and that he was staring right at me.

“So, you’re not a figment of my imagination?” I let out a little mumble.

“Ah…” In the corner of my eye, I saw him sit down and stare up at the sky. “Nah, I’m the real deal.”

“Heh… I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you’re real, and not human.”

“Well, those birds up there aren’t human, and they're very much real.”

“That's… Nevermind...” 

As I turned to face him, I saw that his side profile was rather pretty as he looked up at the sky. Weird, but pretty is the best way I could describe him.

“Well, I’m going to drop these off at my friend's locker. Would you care to join me?” I don’t know why I asked him, but I did so anyway. I noticed that he didn’t answer me right away, and only answered when I stood up and swung the bag over my shoulder.

“Lead the way.” He immediately stood up and looked like he was a dog waiting for their master to throw the ball.

What an odd man, indeed.

As we walked to the lockers, there was nothing but silence between us. It also felt like he was staring right at me as they walked. Once we reached the lockers, I input Junie’s passcode in and shoved the bag inside. I then turned to face this Ichthys, who was still looking right at me, but his expression was one where he was looking at something fragile.

“Is something up?”

His eyes widened, as he realised that I was talking to him, and scratched the back of his head. “Ah, no… It’s just…” His expression turned sad. “You remind me of someone…”

“I do?”

“Yeah…. The hair, the eyes, it’s just that the resemblance is quite strong. It surprises me when I notice…” He nervously laughed. “But it’s just someone that I once knew.”

“Oh... Were they important to you?”

“Important?” He tilted his head for a moment. “Ah, Hmm… Kinda? She was the same age as me and my brother, so we sort of ‘hung’ out, but…” He trailed off, as his smile turned sad. “But… She died a long time ago…”

I instantly knew that there was pain behind that sad smile, I couldn’t help but rock on the balls of my feet. I didn’t expect asking that question would cause him some pain, so I thought that it was best to change subjects and that was when I realised that he said ‘brother’ during that.

“You have a brother?”

Hopefully that changes his expression and, luckily, as I asked that question, I saw that he did smile. He was looking quite proud of himself, apparently.

“That I do.” A proud statement came from him. “However, I’m the better looking one.”

I laughed a little at that. The way that he said it wasn’t to do with ego, it was more of a jokey way instead.

“Hah! I’ll take your word for it. Older or younger?”

“Older, but not by much. He just happens to be my twin. So he ‘came’ first, I guess.”

“A twin? Huh… That’s pretty cool.”

“I guess so.” He shrugged. For some reason, he didn’t seem to be that excited about being a twin.

As I was watching him, I noticed that it felt normal to even speak to him. Anything that he said started to seem normal to me. Like it’s just a regular occurrence. Odd. I don’t really have feelings like this about people who I’ve met only a few times.

“Hey, do you trust me?”

His question brought me back down to Earth.

“What?”

“Do you trust me?” He asked again, as he held out a hand.

I felt no ill will from that question, and I felt myself moving and placing my hand in his. I felt myself nodding at him and saying yes and, before I knew it, we were somewhere else.

All around me were unfamiliar senses, and I noticed that we were no longer surrounded by lockers. Instead, we were surrounded by trees. I barely had time to ask him what just happened before he led me, by the hand, through those trees.

“So, I found this place last night…” Ikky spoke to me as we walked through this tree infested place. “I just had the impulse to show you… Wait…” Something dawned on him. As he turned around to face me, he let go of my hand. “I think something like this will be better.” He gave me a little smile, as he walked behind me and covered my eyes with his hands.

“But I can no longer see…” I told him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll guide you.”

That sentence sent odd shivers down my spine, since he spoke those words in my ear. Anything around that area was rather sensitive, but I sure hope that he did not notice my shiver. Everything is clear just as he said, and he continued to lead me to wherever we seemed to be heading towards. I wasn't even sure how long we had continued walking for, but he spoke from behind me again.

“We should be there just about… Now.”

With that last word, he removed his hands from my eyes and, as I was adjusting my eyes to the new sight, my jaw dropped. Since the sight that was in front of me was a beautiful, calm meadow. It was lit up by the moonlight, with fireflies gliding along the air, like tiny fairies. With my senses coming back online, I could now make out the sound of crickets singing their nightly tune and, not so far away from us, there was a lake surrounded by rose bushes.

“It’s beautiful…”

“I know, right?” He exclaimed as he moved up beside me. “It’s just a little pocketful of natural beauty.”

For some reason, I wasn’t even questioning HOW we even got here. As I was watching the scenery, I saw a little fox peer out from behind a bush. It looked at me for a moment and then at the man beside me and, in an instant, it just darted out from the bush, and ran straight towards us. Was it going to attack us? Before I could react, the man beside me crouched down and opened up his arms wide, and welcomed the fox as it bolted right into his arms. I was shocked for a moment or two as I saw him cradling this little fox.

“How? How are you doing that?” I curiously asked him.

Standing back up, he turned to face me, cradling the fox like a baby.

“Who knows? I met him last night and, for some reason, he loves me. How about giving him a stroke?”

“I…”

“He likes it behind his ears.”

I was a bit wary of this wild animal, but my hesitation made Ikky take hold of my hand and place it just behind the foxes ears. Oh, wow. Sooooo soft! I think I could stroke this little fox all day. But, as I was stroking him, he started to wiggle in Ikky’s arms and, in a quick movement, he leapt from his arms and landed right on me.

“Ahh, wait!”

I struggled as I tried to right myself but, sure enough, I was able to cradle this fox just like Ikky was doing earlier. The fox looked right at me with his soft brown eyes and started to lick my face.

“Wait, that tickles!” 

A small yip was heard a little way away and, as I turned my attention to that, I noticed a much bigger fox. In return, Ikky lightly tapped the foxes nose in my arms.

“Time to go home, Mister.”

The baby fox whined a little as he leapt out of my arms and ran in the direction of where the parent fox was still standing. Just before he got to his parent, he turned around, bounced on the spot and ran off towards the parent again. I must’ve been smiling from ear to ear, since Ikky gave me a huge grin in return.

“Good thing you trusted me, huh?”

“I suppose it is.” 

But with that all out of the way, it now made me realise that I saw this place being lit up by the moonlight. As I looked up at the sky, I saw that it was dark and the only light source was, in fact, the moon. 

“Wait a minute. Is it night?”

“No, it’s a meadow.”

“No… I mean, why is it night time? It was early afternoon. What happened?”

“Oh…” Ikky raised a finger, like a lightbulb went off in his head. “So that’s what you meant… Ah, well, I guess it’s because it’s night for them here? I think something like this is called time zones?”

I blinked right at him. Did that mean that he just somehow teleported us somewhere else? Probably halfway across the world considering the time of day that it is right now. All the unnatural weirdness finally caught up to me, and I slid to the floor.

“This is unreal…”

“Are you ok?” Ikky seemed worried as he crouched down next to me.

“Oh, no… It’s not your fault. I guess I’m not used to the whole, well, other worldly stuff.”

“Hmm… I guess, for a human, it would be weird. But can I be honest with you? You are the first human I have ever met.”

I let out a small chuckle. “I guess we are the same then. You are the first non-human I have ever met.”

“Hah! I didn’t think of that.” 

I watched him as he moved from crouching down to sitting.

“Where am I from? There was a place similar to this. My grandmother made it… Well, I guess the right wording is that she made it more homely. So I guess this is maybe why I was drawn here.”

“It sounds like a lovely place.”

“Yes. Yes it is.” He leaned back, and continued to stare straight ahead. “She always found beauty in everything. I got told stories that my home was once a barren place once. Ravaged by some old ancient war. But she came along and everything more or less changed. The once barren wasteland, became so colourful.”

“She sounds amazing.”

“Ah, yeah…” From his side profile, I can see that he looked awfully sad. “Yeah, she was…”

“Oh…” 

I knew what he meant when he said ‘was’. I didn’t want to pry even further, but he continued to speak anyway.

“But she’s moved on…” He lowered his head and plucked a long piece of grass that was next to him. “I guess nothing lasts forever…” I watched him as he let go of the grass strand and the breeze took it away. “As fleeting as that…”

I had the strongest urge to hug him, and I literally only knew him for not even a day. But he poured out his heart about something personal, which he didn’t really have to do and, on top of that, he had shown me something amazing. There was no more second guessing myself and I moved to hug him.

“I’m sorry…”

I could feel his arms go a bit limp, and he relaxed as I hugged him. We stayed like that for a few moments before I moved away from him. He wasn’t saying anything, he just stared at me with a soft expression. In a gentle movement, he moved his hand and brushed a stray hair behind my ear.

“You really do smell like home, why is that?”