Weirder things had happened, so we agreed. As we walked out, she walked out into the light of the moon and her complexion changed, it was brighter, her skin seemed to glow, and the silver streaks seemed just as bright as the moon. We continued to walk until we reached a public parking space, we walked until we reached the end, but it was off limits.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Cove asked, looking extremely weary and nervous. I mean, I couldn’t blame her, but if anything happened, it was our own fault for following this lady.

“Yup.” She replied as she grabbed a spray paint can and sprayed some weird symbols in a circle around us.

“Stay still.” She instructed as she walked into the circle and snapped her fingers and one word came out of my mouth.

“Sh-” And we were teleported before I could finish. I expected to hit the ground with a thud, but we didn’t. Instead, we landed in the same position as before, but Ashter fell backwards in surprise.

“Are you ok?” A teen boy, a bit younger than the girl, with bright blonde hair and a sports jacket, with dark tan skin, leaned forward and helped him up. Ashter looked a bit flustered as he told the boy he was ok, and Birch looked a bit… jealous? I was definitely teasing him about this later.

“Are you guys related?” Mercedes asked bluntly, staring at the boy and the women.

The women just chuckled and nodded. “I’m Luna Orion. That’s my younger brother, Alistar Orion.”

Just then a young boy, who couldn’t be older than 8 ran up and clung to Luna's leg. He had bright, amber brown eyes and dirty blonde hair. His skin was similar to Alistars, just a bit darker and there were a lot more freckles. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the solar system on it, and I found it a bit funny that so far, the people we’ve met in this universe have all been “space themed”.

“And this is Celestial Orion.” Luna added with a smile before looking down at the little boy, Celestial. ‘Where’s Nova’

“Who’s Nova?” I asked and Luna looked over at me with a questioning expression.

“You understand sign language?” She questioned.

“Yeah, my brother uses hearing aids.” I replied and Birch nodded in confirmation.

“Hearing aids that need to be charged.” He said with a chuckle. Celestial tugged at his sister's skirt.

“I’ll take care of it.” Alistar volunteered and followed Celestial as he ran off towards a door, then Luna turned to me and Birch.

“So, you both are siblings?” She asked.

“Well, I’m adopted.” I replied with a slight shrug.

“Makes sense, seeing as you’re an elf and he’s a human.” Luna commented. I nodded then looked over just in time to see Cove yell at Mercedes.

“Mercedes, don’t!” She exclaimed and rushed after Mercedes as she went to touch some weird looking science experiments. I didn’t know what had happened, but Mercedes disappeared in a poof, and landed on top of Ashter.

“Sorry! I’m still getting the hang of that.” Luna apologized, though something told me she’d done that spell a million times before.

“You mean, you did that?” Birch asked as he helped Mercedes off of Ashter, then helped Ashter up and Luna nodded and walked towards the door that Celestial and Alistar had gone through.

“Follow me, you can introduce yourselves to the others when we get inside.” She said with a smile.

“Others?” Cove questioned.

—

As we walked through the doors, I realized that we were in a mansion. Luna must’ve noticed I was staring at everything because she asked where I was from.

“The country, well, the woods, but I was raised in the country.” I explained. It was a bit complicated. My dad was an elf and my mom was a human, but she died giving birth to me, so I was raised in the woods until I was nine, then the country and human foster system until the Young family adopted me. Luna nodded and began to explain that her father was an anesthesiologist and was at work.

“I’ve always taken care of my brothers and sister. They’re all younger than me.” Luna said with a smile, and just then, a little girl, probably 6, ran up to Luna and hugged her. The little girl had light skin like Lunas, but it had dark splotches. Vitiligo. Like Sunny, but the opposite at the same time. The little girl also had platinum blonde hair and bright, orchid eyes.

“Luna! I missed you!” She exclaimed with a large smile.

“Hey, Nova!” Luna said with a smile that matched the little girls, apparently named Novas, then picked her up and held her.

“This is Nova Orion, my little sister.” Luna explained.

“I’m a secret spy!” Nova exclaimed and Luna's smile grew as she said, “Yes, of course, my bad. This is secret agent Kat!”

Nova smiled happily and when Luna set her down, she ran off. As we continued walking, I saw a bunch of different doors, each with its own label. I saw one labeled cleaning, another labeled, swords, one labeled shields. The list goes on and on.

“Why do you have a sword room?” I asked, my gaze still drifting to the different doors, and there were a ton.

“Training.” Luna replied with no further explanation and continued walking as if that answered the question.

“What kind of training requires swords?” Birch questioned.

“We’re here.” Luna said and stopped in front of a large doorway covered in gold trimmings and silver handles. She also avoided the question, or she just didn’t hear it.

“What’s in there?” Mercedes asked in an intrigued tone as she walked up to the door about to touch it, but before she could, it exploded. I ran up to the door to see the cause of the explosion. It was a teen girl who seemed the same age as Alistar. She had auburn brown to purple hair that was up in a messy bun. She had deep blue eyes and wore black denim overalls with a trans pride pin on one of the straps and a white t-shirt splattered with several paint colors, and now ash from the explosion. Well, that’s one person that doesn’t have a space aesthetic.

“Sorry, Luna.” The girl said with an embarrassed chuckle as she rubbed the back of her neck.

“It’s ok, Alev, but please be more careful.” Luna replied with a slight chuckle.

Alev nodded, then snapped her fingers and the door fixed itself.

“Oooh.” Mercedes mumbled and walked back up to the door to touch it, but she disappeared into a puff of smoke and fell onto Ashter, again.

“Sorry.” Luna giggled and something said she did that on purpose. Ashter pushed Mercedes off of him and she ran back to the door and Birch helped him up.

“You ok?” Birch asked and Ashter blushed a bit then muttered something before walking off and Cove elbowed him.

“Somebody has a cru-”

“Shut up.” Ashter grumbled, giving Cove a half-hearted glare.

“Whatever.” Cove giggled as she walked towards me.

“Cove, be nice to him.” I playfully scolded. Cove and Ashter always acted like siblings. They were almost as bad as me and Birch.

“But it’s so fun to tease him!” Cove mock complained. I rolled my eyes but bumped into Alistar.

“Sorry!” I apologized, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment.

“No no, it’s fine.” He assured and smiled then walked towards Luna and they began talking. Just then, Celestial and Nova ran over and Celestial hid behind me.

“Whoa! What’s going on?” I asked with a chuckle.

“He’s stolen the super important power gem!” Nova exclaimed as she chased Celestial around me.

“Guys! Quit it!” The girl from earlier, Alev, scolded as she came over and scooped up Nova in her arms.

“Put me down, Alev!” Nova exclaimed as she wiggled around in Alev’s grip.

Alev shook her head and walked back towards the door and opened it.

“C’mon. Luna and Alistar will be talking forever. I’ll continue your tour.”

“Good, I wanna get the hell out of here.” Devin grumbled and I looked over at Devin and realized that him and Sunny had been silent the entire time.

“That seems a bit harsh..” Cove muttered and Devin rolled his eyes before he walked towards Alev.

“Uhm, let’s get going?” Alev asked and she sounded confused but walked through the door, setting Luna down, and we followed.

—

We finished the tour in a set of dormitory looking halls. We stopped in the A section for Ashter, then D for Sunny and Devin, and then G for Mercedes, next N for Cove, and finally Y for me and Birch. I had to share a room with Birch, so it wasn’t much different from back at home. When we walked into the room, a wave of calm fell over me, like I hadn’t just been through being teleported, like I wasn’t being hunted, and hadn’t just been attacked, it felt like when we were falling through the black, but the opposite.

“What sort of magic is this?” Birch asked in a mumbled tone, circling the room, clearly shocked. The room looked similar to our old room, but instead of bunk beds, we had our own beds. Each half of the room is identical except in color and a few other things. They both had desks, beanbags, a hang out space, and a bathroom.

“It knows what each person likes. My bedroom has a bunch of mechanics, computers, tech, and a fireplace.” Alev explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Isn’t having a fireplace a fire hazard?” Birch questioned, sounding a bit worried. Oh, the big worrywart…

“It’s a fire hazard to have me here but they keep me around.” Alev said before she walked out before Birch could ask another question, leaving us both confused.

“What do you think she meant when she said she was a fire hazard?”

I shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? We just met her.”

Birch sighed and fell backwards onto his bed. It felt weird. Usually at this time, we would be arguing about who took a shower first, who was going to get a better grade on their homework, and talking about who the worst teacher was. Now, we didn’t have anything normal to talk about. So I decided to wash up. It beat the awkward silence, and I hadn’t taken a shower in who knows how long. When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was the mirror and my reflection. I looked awful. I had scars covering my arms and some on my cheeks, the light and red colors a stark contrast to my sandy skin (and I meant face cheeks. Quit thinking like that). My messy white hair was full of leaves and twigs. (Oh, did I forget to mention I have white hair? Oh well..). My clothes were torn, and I wished I had extra clothes, then I remembered the knapsack that I had and ran into the room to see it on my bed.

“I thought you were going to take a shower.” Birch said as he turned a page in the book he was reading. I ignored him and began digging through the bag and found clothes that looked exactly like mine, but not ripped, and then ran back to the bathroom, leaving Birch in the room, reading his novel. When I stepped into the bathroom, it looked like it had grown in size, the wall looked farther back, like it had made more room. I was confused but brushed it off.

—

When I got out of the shower I looked in the mirror and there were no twigs in my hair and it seemed to glow in the light. My arms were no longer covered in dust, and the clothes from the bag fit like a glove. When I walked out, I saw Birch had also taken a shower, he had on clothes that weren’t ripped, his hair was brushed, but his auburn brown hair was still the messy bird's nest it always was.

“Have a nice shower?” He asked, not lifting his eyes from his novel.

“Uhm, yeah..” I replied and sat down on one of the bean bag chairs in the center of the room. “Are you ok?”

He rolled his eyes and continued reading his novel.

“Ok then.” I said as I started to stand up and walked over to my bed picking up a pillow.

“Forrest, don’t do it.” Birch muttered, looking up from his novel, slowly reaching for the bookmark on his nightstand. I slowly walked over with the pillow in hand.

“Don't.” He repeated and put the bookmark in his book and set it down reaching for a pillow when, wham! I smacked him in the face with my pillow and feathers went everywhere.

“Tell me what’s wrong or I keep smacking you with a pillow!” I yelled as he picked up a pillow to use as a shield.

“No!” He exclaimed and ducked as he rolled off the bed with a thud and I hit him with the pillow again.

“Tell me!”

“Never!” He exclaimed as he ran to my side of the room and hid behind a bean bag

 “I can see you, ya know that, right?” I asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, but you couldn’t see THIS!” He exclaimed and jumped out from behind the bean bag before he smacked me in the face with a giant fluffy pillow that exploded into more feathers. As I spit out the feathers that had gotten into my mouth, Birch tried to hit me with another pillow and I ducked.

“If I win, you have to tell me!” I said as Birch glared at me then charged and I stepped to the side, sending him tumbling into a bean bag.

“You little-”

“I’m actually taller than you.” I teased as he stood up, about to run over and smack me with a pillow when I heard a knock on the door and Cove walked in.

“Hey guys, Luna-” She stopped short when she saw the feathers, displaced bean bags, and destroyed pillows in our hands.

“They started it.” Birch said and scrambled to an upright standing position and pointed at me. Cove sighed.

“Luna called us down for dinner and when you didn’t come, I came to get you guys.”

“Oh...” Birch muttered and put his finger down and threw the pillow onto the only bean bag that was untouched by the pillow fight. I brushed the feathers off of my shirt and began to follow Cove out the door, Birch following close behind me.

“Hi, guys. I was walking after Cove because I figured she would get distracted.” Ashter said as he walked up to us.

“Hi, Ash.” That was Ashters nickname and he really only let relatives and close friends call him that.

“Hi, Birch, also, you have feathers in your hair.”

“Oh, uhm, I-I can get them.” Birch mumbled and ruffled his hair, getting some feathers out, but not a lot.

“Here, let me help.” Ashter said and pulled out the remaining feathers as Birch turned into a tomato. I was so teasing him about this later.

“Th-Thanks.” Birch mumbled and scurried off towards the direction of the dining room.

“Is he ok?” Ashter questioned, looking a bit confused.

“He’s fine.” I snickered and Ashter looked even more confused. As we walked towards the dining room, I noticed that each door had a last name, then first name. When we walked by M, I saw Alev’s door and it said, McKenna, Alev, on it.

“Did you guys know Alev’s last name was McKenna?” I asked and Cove shook her head and Ashter said no, then the walk continued in silence.