A Run-In With Bluesteed and a Genie

Kairo silently followed Jan down a seemingly endless stretch of white corridor. Their footsteps were the only sound. It teased his thoughts, which circled his mind like water going down a drain.

I won't have to face that handsome and terrifying prince again? He didn't like that idea.

Finally, Jan stopped before a section of white wall.

Kairo wanted to ask why until Jan performed the same etched-door-opening spell, and they faced a view of the outside.

His eyes lifted with awe, seeing vivid white and yellow peach blossom trees clustered in quaint groups near the start of a valley and a snow-capped mountain range. Lush and colorful wildflower patches and pocket meadows rolled to the trees.

His heart raced with both nostalgia and surprise, for this scenery bore an uncanny resemblance to Earth landscapes, except the scenery lacked the color green.

"This is the Outer Courtyard Fields to the harem, stables and barracks." Jan stood poised as he faced the scenery.

"Harem?" Kairo's voice betrayed a quiver of keen interest.

Jan chuckled. "Of course our illustrious Demon Prince would have many lovers and admirers eager to stay close to him."

Kairo frowned as he thought back to his first meeting with that man. Indeed, the prince was the package.

His thoughts diverted to the idea of a harem. It was every man's dream to be adored unconditionally by beautiful women. He would be lying to himself if he didn't find the appeal exciting.

"Can anybody visit the harem?" he candidly asked.

Jan laughed heartily, which eased into a malicious smirk. "You could, but you would face the death of a thousand cuts by a Capon's saw blade before being chopped to tiny fodder for the shriekers."

Kairo gulped as he felt the terrifying warning sink in to make his hands and eyes go twitchy. "A trip to the harem equals a certain and painful death. Noted."

Jan's expression eased into laughter again. The boy was highly amusing.

Kairo heaved a weary sigh, feeling his life was heading for a wrong turn. If only he had seen that closet and lamp's suspect properties in the ad's images, he wouldn't be in this mess.

Still, while he wasn't in a cell, there was still a chance for situations to turn around, he hoped.

He continued to follow Jan down a moonstone paved path, which led to unremarkable stone buildings and stables.

"By the way, what are shriekers?" Kairo innocently asked with deadpan tones.

Jan nodded, acknowledging the question and happy to answer him.

"The Palace of Princes is built on top of a lake. Within the lake are man-fish creatures with limited intelligence and size of a child. They have three mouths full of sharp tiny teeth, which make up their face."

"Then how do they see or smell?"

Jan further explained that the shriekers had no eyes so relied on vibrations and the proximity of aura energy to hunt their prey. However, they had excellent olfactory senses at their ears and could sniff their food miles away. Because they had many mouths to manage, they usually ate their food in small portions, so their one stomach didn't fill too quickly and bloat beyond recovery.

"If a shrieker eats too much too fast they will implode, casting deadly poison in a one-meter radius."

Kairo nodded with better context of why these creatures were feared. He suspected they also doubled as an underground sentry.

They continued their walk in a comfortable silence this time, and eventually arrived before an enormous white stone barn-like building where rows of fancy silver carriages were lined up near its rear.

"Genie! You're going to get us in trouble!" A slender woman galloped at high speed for them with a fluster, like she was running for her life.

Kairo frowned, seeing the bottom half of the woman's two, slender, legs resembled a horse. Her rear-end was well-rounded and shapely within her flowing blue and white frilly lace gown billowing at her knees.

"Oh no!" The woman gasped when she saw Kairo too late and slammed into him to pin him to the ground.

Kairo's attention was fixated on her perky and cute horse ears, which twitched nervously. They were horse ears!

Did I just enter a Furry Kingdom? He wasn't sure what to think of this, as he didn't know too much about the novel genre Martin was interested in. Yet, never in his life did he imagine he would see an actual furry before him. Or in this case, pinning him down.

"Lady Bluesteed, you run too fast." A cheerful voice approached behind them.

"Lady Bluesteed?" Kairo gulped as he stared into her round and bright blue eyes among long curved lashes. Tufts of her tumbling and silky, long blond twin ponytails tumbled about her smooth and dainty cheeks that were flushed with a soft mauve.

"I, I'm so sorry," she whimpered with her apology with soft tones from full, lush lips that soothed his anxiety.

He was too focused on the beautiful blend of human-horse beast on top of him to respond.

"Hah! Way to go in landing yourself a mating-partner. Knock them down and keep them pinned before they have the thought to run away." The other stranger slapped his knee jovially and gave the girl a thumbs-up.

"Mating-partner?!" Kairo gasped.

Jan chuckled and helped the horse-woman stand. "Did you forfeit a challenge again?"

Lady Bluesteed toed the ground sheepishly before him with a hoof. "It's not that I want to avoid it, but those prunes make me scratchy."

"Prunes? As in the dried fruit? I guess if you're allergic it would be painful." Kairo blurted candidly.

Both gave him puzzled looks.

"Ah! You must be that alien my brother was talking about!"

Kairo faced the stranger and shrank back when he saw the Demon Prince standing before him.

Yet, the man looked different. His black hair was shoulder-length with streaks of green to match the color of his bright eyes; he was leaner, wearing far less jewelry, and a green mage coat over a white tunic and pants held together by many layers of belts, buckles and small pouches.

"I've been waiting for you." The man stomped the ground for emphasis: his ankle leather boot making a deep footprint. He was pouting with his hands on his hips.

Kairo began to sweat and stammer with excuses. The man's expression switched to one of jovial laughter again.

"You're right Jan. He is amusing." The man slapped Kairo's back with a suggestion to relax.

"I'm not the Demon Prince. That's my brother. My name is Genie."

Kairo let out a sigh of relief. At least this crazy man didn't show intentions of ripping out his gizzards and feeding them to the shriekers.

"Right. Kairo. Please take care of me." Kairo formally introduced himself with a weary bow.

It was proving to be a very exhausting day or night, he still wasn't certain what to call a calendar or time in this world.

For now, he'd view everything based on his own world conventions.

"Great stuff. Now that introductions are out of the way. Time for your wizard tests. Let the pain begin." Genie chuckled with a wicked grin.

Kairo heaved a long sigh. Of course, getting away from trouble was too good to be true.