Paper stars

                            Chapter 2

                          Paper stars

“Stop with the speeches and come down here, she’s waking up!” Rio shouted from the bottom of the crater.

Al looked down. “Oh yes, right, space witch.” Al snapped back to reality, seeing the witch at the bottom of the crater. “I’m coming.” Al tried finding a spot to slide down from, but they all looked too steep for him. Eventually, he went for one randomly. He continued picking up speed before tripping on a rock and landing headfirst into the hot dirt under him.

“Are you alright?” Rio asks the witch.

“Yes, couldn’t be better,” Al says, dusting himself off.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Rio replies.

The witch slowly tries to stand up to get away from Al and Rio, but her legs fail, making her fall back down. “Should we try and stop her from running?” Rio asked, noticing the witch’s attempts at climbing up the crater.

“No, she doesn’t seem hurt, so it should be fine. Plus, this is fun, I wanna watch.” Al smiles. “Ms. Alien space elf witch, can we talk? We come in peace,” Al calls out.

The witch looks back at both of them. “A.. Are you talking to me? Stay back, or I’ll uhh.. I’ll set your eyes on fire,” the witch says nervously as she takes off her witch hat and grips it tightly.

Al and Rio try and hold back laughing as much as they could, biting down on their lips. “Oh no, I’m completely powerless in this situation. If only we could work this out peacefully,” Al responds to the witch’s bluff.

“HAH! T..tremble before my power, M..mortals! I.. might be willing to let you go. I..if we negotiate a deal,” the witch triumphantly declares, not sensing Al and Rio’s sarcasm, and starts heading towards them.

Al decides to play along with the witch. “Please, oh great mistress, might you rest upon this boulder for our negotiations?” He’s still trying his hardest to hold back laughing.

“G...Good eye, mortal, it appears you can s..see my power. I’ll humor your pleas for now,” the witch says before sitting on the boulder. “W…What can you offer to a great witch l...like me in exchange for your freedom?” she declares.

Rio suddenly gets an idea. He reaches for his pocket and takes out a few pieces of caramel candies wrapped in a neon wrapper. “My lady, I here have some of Earth’s finest foods. I offer you this in exchange for freedom,” Rio says, following along with Al’s plan.

The witch takes the candies and smells them. She then proceeds to eat them without removing the wrapper. Her face goes sour for a moment. “A...Are you trying to p… poison me? Am I a...about to d...die?” The witch screams, taking a step back. The witch then begins to cry, seeing Rio and Al burst out laughing.

Rio looks at Al. “Will you tell her, or should I?” He says.

“Tell me what?!” The witch says, still crying wildly.

Al changes his tone, becoming more serious. “The fact is… you have twenty-four hours left to live… get your affairs in order.” The witch panics even more now; she’s desperately looking for an escape or a path that doesn’t require much climbing.

“I kind of feel bad, should we actually tell her what’s happening?” Rio says.

“That’s probably enough, I’ll go explain things,” Al replies, heading towards the witch.

“W...Why is this happening?” the witch panics, feeling cornered in a little burrow on the side of the crater.

“Sorry for earlier. We’re uhh, just as lost as you are, probably, and that candy you ate isn’t poisonous, you just ate the wrapper,” Al mentioned. The witch’s crying slowed down a little. “Aren’t you too old for crying? Never mind, I’m Al, and my friend over there is Rio,” Al added, handing her an unwrapped candy.

“I…I’m Rika, I...I’m a witch. I was at home th...then I was f...falling, and you two p...poisoned me,” Rika reached out for the candies, hesitantly tasting them. “Mhmmm… Th…They’re good. C… can I have more?” she asks embarrassingly.

Al laughs a little. “I’m guessing you want to get out of this hole. I mean, since you’re an almighty powerful witch or something, didn’t you have some kind of flight spell?” Al asked.

“O...Of course, I do. It’s just that casting those protection spells d...drained me a little,” she replied.

“Anyways, sorry to interrupt, but we need to get somewhere safer before the patrols start. I also have some questions,” Rio interrupted.

“So, what, we go back to the facility?” Al asked.

“No, but there’s a town nearby we can go there,” Rio explained. “If I remember correctly, there was a tavern there,” he added.

“Town? Am I still missing bits of my memory… no, I’m sure there wasn’t a single town nearby,” Al mumbled.

“It’s not the kind of town you’re used to, but I think this Rika, was it, would feel more at home there,” Rio added, beginning to climb out of the crater. Al and Rika climb up right behind him with some assistance. They were back on the charred grass field and began heading towards the town. Sometime after they started walking, they came across an old car. “Q…Quick question. W...What kind of m...metal beast is that?” She says, pointing to the car again, gripping her hat.

“That? You mean the car? It’s a machine; we use it for transportation. It’s not really a beast, but a vehicle,” Al answered. As they continued walking, Al kept noticing patches of different worlds stuck together, and they weren’t in any pattern he could think of: random purple patches of grass, random crystal stalagmites shooting out of the ground, random trees whispering songs, random patches of ground replaced with metal. It was all random. By the time Al was done analyzing the patches, they had all turned into one singular stone road. “Now stones, what’s next? Neon concrete?” Al thought, but then he heard the music. He’d almost not noticed it despite how loud it was. Surprised, he looked up at the source. “Bards?! In this day and age.” Al was surprised it wasn’t just the bard either; it seemed the whole town was from the same time period.

“Welcome to Riverdale. See what I was talking about,” Rio looked towards Al.

“Is that one of those merging phenomena? This is huge,” Al was amazed at the size of the patch. Meanwhile, the witch hid behind them.

Just then, Al felt a chill run down his spine. “Is it just me, or are they all staring at me?” Al didn’t know if he was paranoid or if something was off.

“Rio,” a large man called from inside a tavern. “You brought one of them? Well, good luck keeping the people off him for long,” he scoffed, gesturing for Rio to get inside the tavern. “Oi, li’l Roi, what kind of idiot brings a scientist here? We’ll eat ‘em, you know,” a drunk man said, slamming his mug on the table.

“It’s Rio… and the scientist is a friend. I think it’s in your best interest to be friendly,” Rio said as he sat at a table with Rika and Al. Rika was still gripping her hat, and Al was still as confused as ever. “So now for my questions, first, Rika, you seem about as old as us, is that true? Second, has your hair always been white? Third, are you part cat, or are these eyes normal where you come from? Fourth, what do all these magic circles do? Fifth, where are you even from?” Rio bombards Rika with questions, making her jump back a little, but before she could answer, the tavern’s door swung open, and a woman barged in. “Listen here, you scumbag, I just got this arm repaired here a week ago, and it’s already broken!” she takes off her right arm prosthetic and slams it on the counter. “This is the third time this month! Third time!” she shouts.

“Well, getting your arm repaired, ma’am, would cost you, and I can’t get good materials without more money,” said the man behind the counter. Meanwhile, Al took a good look at the arm.

“Fine, how much do you need?” The woman took out a bag of bullets.

“Wait, don’t! He wasn't fixing it” Al shouted.

The shop went silent.