Rem

"How did you get here?" He asked, trying hard to hide his curiosity. She looked at him in disbelief.

"What?" She wasn't sure she heard right. Did he just ask her how she came here?

"How did you get here?" he asked again, eyes not leaving her. He talked very peacefully and calmly like he had no problems in this life. This made her calm down.

"I was kidnapped" She replied, still unconvinced that he had nothing to do with the kidnap.

"Where were you kidnapped? What happened? Tell me everything" he inquired, still calm.

She studied him, he looked sincere, like he wasn't among the kidnappers, so she told him, everything, starting from the point where they captured her.

He listened as if he understood everything she was saying, but he didn't. Cars? what was that? There was no such thing around here.

And when she got to the part where she fell into a hole, he became alert.

"A hole?"

"Yes, it was so deep, bottomless, I thought I was going to die" she explained. She didn't know why she was telling him everything, but she had to if she wants him to let her go.

He stood up slowly and walked towards a small box, then he opened it and brought out a book, he turned through the pages hastily as if looking for something. Then he froze when he got to a page.

"Shit!!" he blurted, an annoyed expression on his face.

She watched him. What was he doing? She didn't want to know, she just wanted a way out of there.

"Would you help me find a way out of here? I want to go home"

He looked up at her, if only she knew that there was no way out, not yet, but at the moment she was stuck in another world, far away from hers.

"What is your name?" he suddenly asked, surprising her, that wasn't the answer to her question.

"Lila" She never told strangers her name, but it didn't matter, immediately she finds her way out of there, she'll have nothing to do with him. They might not even meet ever again.

"Lila, it's late now, and dark outside, I don't think you would like to go now, there are many wild animals outside" He stood up, heading for the door. She didn't say anything because he had a point, but she was definitely leaving this place tomorrow.

He returned minutes later with some leaves, he approached her while rubbing the leaves with both palms.

"Turn your back and raise your clothes a little" he requested, bending down to reach her level.

"What!? I'm not doing that" she replied in a disgusted tone.

"Do you enjoy the pain you feel?" he asked. She didn't respond, how did he know she felt pain in the back?

"Don't worry, I'll manage" she rejected his offer. It was better to endure the pain than pull her clothes before him, she really needed to get the hell out of this place.

"Then eat this" he gave her the leaves. She looked at him without collecting it.

"It would help reduce the pain," he assured her. Reluctantly, she collected it.

"And don't spit it out" he stated.

She hesitated before she put it in her mouth, and couldn't help but want to go against his last sentence. This was too bitter to be edible. She ended up spitting it out.

"What is this?" she asked with a disgusted voice, face squeezed due to her bitter mouth.

"Kulka leaves" was his only response. He headed back to where he dropped the book he was reading, picked it up, and continued from where he stopped.

He didn't blame her, the Kulka leaves were very bitter and were almost impossible to eat, but it was the best herb to cure aches and pain. If eaten, it takes seconds for the pain to go away, but people still preferred to rub it on the aching area than eating even though it takes an hour or so to make the pain go away if rubbed. To them, it was better to endure for a while and be free than to be free in seconds and have a bitter tongue for the rest of the day.

Though she spat it out, the little in her mouth would do.

But that wasn't his main problem right now, a black hole had brought her here. What was Winslow up to? Why did he trigger the black hole? Surely he was up to something, and if anything, this wasn't a good sign.

Lila suddenly stopped feeling the pain, it was all gone, like it disappeared, and she knew at once that it was the magic of the leaves she ate, Kulka or whatever he had called it. She hasn't heard of the plant before, but now she has, and it worked on her, she needed to thank him, but he wasn't even looking at her, he was engrossed in the book he was reading. Stupid how she didn't ask his name, it was obvious he doesn't talk much, so now she wanted to thank him, she didn't know how to start up a conversation with him.

"Thanks," she finally spoke up. He looked at her.

"For the herb, it worked, the pain has gone away" she added when she thought he didn't understand the reason for her appreciation. He nodded and faced his book.

She watched him read and wondered what he was doing inside this place. He looked very young to live here. Was he an orphan like herself and had nowhere to go? But he doesn't look like he was from her country, he looked foreign, and she tried to think of a country he might be from.

Indian?

His hair made him look like one, long, embarrassingly longer than hers, and silky. He packed it up in a ponytail, but it was still long, falling behind his back, but he doesn't look Indian.

He also doesn't look British, American or any other country she knows of. He was just different. This made her curious to know about him. And he was damn cute, but it will be very stupid of her to start thinking in that direction. They had nothing in common.

"Mind telling me your name?" she asked, really wanting to break the awkward silence between them.

He still read on, like he didn't hear her.

She should have known, such a jerk. Why did he ignore her like that? But then he spoke.

"Remidopili" he muttered, eyes still on his book.

"Just call me Rem". Then silence followed

"You need to eat and get some rest" he suddenly spoke, startling her.

His eyes were still on the book he was reading. Looking at him, he doesn't feel anywhere near sleepy, but she was already feeling drowsy. She needed that rest. She hasn't eaten for a long time and had ended up using the remaining energy she had to shed tears. Though she had slept for about four hours, it wasn't enough. And she was hungry. She stared at the plate that contained the food he had initially wanted to serve her, but she couldn't voice out to him that she would want to eat now. She looked at him, he was once more engrossed in what he was reading. What the hell was he reading? She looked at the food again, this time more helplessly.

Then she noticed that she was being stared at, she looked up only to see the wolves staring at her, she shrugged, fear enveloping her. She would just sleep, there was nothing she could do about it.

As she turned to the bed, a wolf moved, pushing the plate towards her with its mouth. She jerked away. He had said it won't hurt her, but she was yet to believe that. She couldn't even trust him, how would she then trust a wolf?

Rem turned and looked at her, the movement must have distracted him, but as if noticing nothing awkward, he turned back to his book.

The wolf got close and left the plate there, then it turned and retired to its initial position. She realized that it just wanted to bring her food. What kind of animal is this? This was a wolf, right? Why was it behaving like a trained dog she once saw in a movie?

But that wasn't her problem, seeing that the wolf had retreated, she hurried over and carried the food. This was meat, all meat. She wanted to cry. When was the last time she had eaten meat? She didn't have money to purchase any, and here this guy was, serving her meat.

But why weren't they serving her with a spoon? But she wasn't ready to ask that. When she tasted the meat, it tasted very different. Though she wondered which animal, in particular, it belonged to, she didn't wait to think about it. She hurried up the food.

She looked around when she was through, and gathered the courage to voice it out.

"Water" she requested, she was really thirsty. He turned and looked at her. Standing up, he went to a corner and grabbed a cup. It looked so ancient like it was carved out of a rock, which it was, but she accepted the cup willingly and downed its content.

Rem watched her, amused. She looked pretty hungry that he couldn't help but ask.

"More?" And got an instant nod from her. "Where humans this amusing?" He thought as he cut her another portion of meat. She ate it hastily, and the next minute, she crawled into his bed and slept off.

His wolves were asleep too, two were, but Zim, his favorite wasn't, it was looking at him.

"Sleep," He told it in its mind. But the animal shrugged. Stubborn, but Rem didn't smile at its reaction, he hardly ever smiled. He couldn't remember the last time he did so.

"Sleep, I'll go to bed later," he told it and returned to reading and studying the book he had been on, not even glancing at Zim once, and the one time he did so, it was already asleep.

That was great, at least he could concentrate freely on what he was doing without disturbance.

Someone had summoned the hole, and he knew it was Winslow. Winslow had finally found a way to cause the donpull, this could only mean one thing, he was looking for a way to open up the portal. But he wouldn't let that happen, not when he could do something about it. It must have been a mistake that she landed here, but he was sure that they would be more careful on the next attempt. He would have to stop them before they did so.

He looked over at the sleeping girl, then at the book he was reading. The donpull hole takes about six months to summon, they must have been walking on this for a very long time. This was obviously why Winslow became king, but he wouldn't let him succeed, not when he now vividly knew what his intentions were.

He read on, he needed to know much more about the donpull and how it worked. He had heard about it, but didn't think much about it, who would have thought, that Winslow would make a step and try to summon it? When he knew fully well that it could alter the balance of creation, the balance between the realms.

So it could only mean that earth wasn't safe. If Winslow succeeds in his plans, the whole human race would be wiped out. And that didn't sound right. They might be weak, but that didn't mean they were to be trampled upon. And the earth was his solace, and now he wants to ruin it!! He wouldn't let that happen. He would have to think of a way to stop him. Supreme King Winslow, that name didn't even sound right, it was supposed to be Supreme King Pallaton, but Winslow had ensured that it wasn't that name that was heard in the whole realm.

He looked at the girl lying down on the bed, sleeping peacefully, and wondered what her reaction would be when he tells her that her world was in danger. She might not even understand what he would say, She would look at him like he was talking nonsense. But he wouldn't blame her. She was just a human after all. He yawned, it was time to sleep, one needed strength to conquer the challenges that would come up the next day.

He closed the book and looked at its cover with mixed emotions. Rubbing his hand over it, and observing the ancient book, he sighed, though not out loud. He kept it back in the box where he had brought it from, then he retired to bed, memories rushing into his mind like an endless wind and he couldn't help of think of himself....and his past.