Xander vol.1 Transmutation (3 page)

He stopped about a foot in
front of her, his heels clicking together as he adjusted his head
to look down at her, nearly a six inches taller. There was a slight
hesitation between them. Though it was more amusement for
Xander.

“
Don’t tell me you’ve
forgotten me, Saph,” Xander scoffed as he folded his
arms.

Saphora squinted at the
nickname, it burning through in the back of her handicapped memory.
It was like two magnets clicked together as her eyes widened, and
half a smile tugged on her lips. Xander nodded arrogantly, a grin
smearing his features.

“
That’s
right,” he said, stretching his words. “Let
it
all
flow
back.”

She looked at him with a
new set of eyes. Ones that were warmer and more
welcoming.

“
You grew,” Saphora
commented, her eyes darting from his feet to his
forehead.

He snorted, unfolding one
of his hands to press his index finger into her forehead, trying to
offset her balance, and almost succeeding.

“
So have you, short
stuff.”

Saphora stepped back to
regain her balance, running her hand against her hairline
self-consciously.

“
The plethora of nicknames
are coming back to me now.”

Xander chuckled, nodding
as he looked around the throne room once more. It seemed smaller
than he remembered. But at the same time, held more importance.
Coming so close to taking the throne himself, he wasn’t
surprised.

“
That was one hell of a
vacation you took, Saph,” he sighed jokingly, his eyes coming back
to hers, which rolled at the humor.

“
My ride home was a little
late.”

He smiled, the white of
his teeth contrasting with the rich mocha of his skin tone. He gave
an amused nod as his arms crossed once again, the chatter of their
mothers talking behind him.

“
Just a little,” he toyed.
“So, how was it? That planet.”

Saphora gave a shrug as
her brow arched, then furrowed.

“
Why is everyone so
interested in Earth?” she asked, having been asked the same
question, as well as related ones since she had arrived on
Athena.

On one hand, she couldn’t
blame them, as she had many questions about Athena. But at the same
time, knowing of Earth, and its far lesser wonders, she couldn’t
help but wonder what it was about it that drew everyone’s
interest.

“
Uh,
only
because it’s where the long
lost
princess
ended up and
thrived
,” he scoffed. “How could
anyone
not
be
interested in Earth?”

Saphora paused, not having
thought of it that way. She laughed at herself, and her
obliviousness to her own importance. Nonetheless, she shook her
head.

“
Very easily if they
tried.”

“
A bigger question would
be why you
don’t
want to talk about Earth.”

Saphora grimaced, but then
played it off by nudging his folded arm.

“
I mean, those weren’t
exactly my golden years.”

“
You don’t think so? I
would give just about anything to explore another
world.”

Saphora’s grimace became a
little more noticeable upon hearing how easily Xander was willing
to cast away his family just to get to a planet he knew nothing
about. She scoffed, shaking her head again.

“
Be my guest.”

“
Saphora,” came the
melodic call of Aredelle, Xander’s mother and queen of the Oisian
kingdom.

They both turned in her
direction as she came towards her, her husband, Edmon, following
closely behind.

“
You’ve gotten so big!”
she exclaimed, her arms fanning out as she came closer.

Xander stepped to the side
as her arms came wrapping around Saphora’s back. Saphora returned
the gesture of endearment, looking over at Edmon, who gave a small
bow of acknowledgement.

“
She’s still a squirt,”
Xander mumbled to himself with a bit of a huff.

Aredelle pulled away from
the embrace to look Saphora in the eyes, smiling with
joy.

“
We’re so glad to have you
back, darling.”

“
Would you like a
beverage, Edmon? Aredelle? Xander?” Vida offered, playing the role
of the host.

Edmon shook his head, as
did Xander. But Aredelle’s hands left Saphora’s shoulders to turn
around and accept.

“
That’d be wonderful. A
drink while we catch up,” she suggested, walking back towards Vida,
who called in someone to fetch their drinks.

The two queens gathered
over by Vida’s private library, shortly calling the king over to
leave the heirs to their own catching up. Xander nudged Saphora’s
arm to bring her attention back after looking after the
royalty.

“
So? Are you going to tell
me about Earth, or not?” he pressed. She gave an annoyed smile,
turning to him.

“
What’s there to tell?
It’s got its good and bad, just like Athena does.”

“
Do they have kingdoms?
Kings? Queens?”

“
Sort of. They’re called
presidents.”

“
Presidents?”

“
They rule over a certain
amount of land, and their families are pretty much considered
royalty.”

“
Were you a
president?”

Saphora
laughed.

“
No, they haven’t had any
female presidents.”

“
What?
” Xander scoffed. “How do they expect to gain more?” Xander
made a noise of appall. “Don’t tell me the
males
reproduce.”

Saphora laughed
again.

“
No. One man is president
for four years, sometimes eight. The people of that country vote
for a new man each time.”

“
A new man? With a new
family?” Saphora nodded. “What madness is
that
? And what happens to them when
their term is done?” Saphora paused.

“
You know, I’m not
entirely sure. They go in the book of presidents, I
guess.”

“
Madness. There must be
chaos everywhere.”

“
Pretty much. But it’s an
understood chaos.”

Xander scoffed.

“
No chaos is understood. I
can only imagine what the humans are like.”

“
Why don’t you find out
for yourself?”

“
Right
,” Xander scoffed. “Like mother would let me off this
planet.”

“
No, I meant … I brought
two of them back with me. A boy and a girl. You could talk to
them.”

“
Oh? Are you planning on
breeding them?”

Saphora’s mouth fell agape
as she grimaced and slapped Xander’s arm.

“
No! They’re my
friends
!”

“
Oh … Are they young?
Old?”

“
The boy, Maverick, he’s
around our age. And the girl, Lyla, she’s only nine.”

“
Both fairly young,
then.”

Saphora nodded. Xander
gave an audible sigh as he slapped his hands together, sanding them
against one another in excitement.

“
Right. Bring them in!” he
shouted to one of the guards at the entrance of the throne
room.

Perplexed, the guard
looked over, at a loss of the exact direction. Saphora rolled her
eyes, unable to help her snickering as she gestured to the
guard.

“
Maverick.
Please?”

His expression changing to
that of understanding, the guard nodded, bowing before running off
down the hall. Xander looked down at Saphora in slight
shock.

“
Did you just
beg
a guard?”

“
What?”

“
You said
please
. To that
guard.”

“
And?”

“
And
, you’re royalty. You’re to be queen. You do not
beg
your
servants.”

“
I wasn’t
begging
. I just asked
him to get Maverick.”

“
You never
need
to ask. What have
they done to you on that planet?”

“
Given her the manners
that you lack,” Aredelle called out with laughter, joined by the
king and queen. Xander scoffed.

“
The day will never come
that I
ask
anything of my subjects.”

“
And that is why you’ve
yet to take the throne,” Edmon commented. Xander grumbled, his
folded arms tightening.

“
Then what’s the point of
the throne? If you cannot command?”

Edmon shook his head
disappointedly as Aredelle frowned, her goblet rising to her
lips.

“
It’s that which you need
to understand. Tell him, Vida,” Edmon suggested, gesturing his hand
to her. “Tell him how an attitude like that cost Ares the
throne.”

Saphora’s eyes widened at
the mention of Ares, while Vida’s narrowed. Saphora stepped towards
the king and queens, hoping that Vida would comply and tell them
just what he meant. Instead, she played it off, raising her own
goblet.

“
The children don’t need
to hear such a story, Edmon.”

“
Children?” Xander
questioned, feeling his manhood under sudden attack.

“
Yes, Vida. They’ve grown
quite a bit. Aren’t they old enough to hear?” Aredelle
insisted.

Vida’s eyes lingered on
Aredelle’s, their grey orbs giving silent refusal. Aredelle’s face
twisted in confusion as to why her friend was ruining their good
fun, and then it dawned on her.

“
Vida, don’t tell me,” she
began, as if scolding a child. Vida stood before Aredelle could
finish, slowly stepping away from the library’s small table. “You
haven’t told her?” Vida was silent. “What are you waiting
for?”

“
It’s not a matter of
time, Aredelle, I assure you,” Vida argued as Saphora stepped
forward, just as Dakota walked in.

“
Please, Mom?” Saphora
pleaded. Vida scowled in disapproval as their eyes met, before
bouncing over to Dakota.

“
We’ve spoken about this,
Saphora. Besides. It’s time for your training. Dakota’s here and
waiting for you.”

Both Saphora and Xander’s
attention shifted to the awkwardly waiting Dakota, who swallowed
nervously. Xander turned back to face Vida, who was slowly making
her way back to the small table.

“
Now wait a minute,”
Xander protested. “We just got here and you’re going to send her
off –“

Vida spun on her heel, her
eyes piercing into Xander’s and cutting him off. She rose a
brow.

“
What good is the throne
if you can’t command?” she repeated.

Xander held his tongue as
his words were thrown back at him. And though he did not agree with
how she was handling the situation, he knew better than to speak
against a queen, regardless of the relationship between their
families.

“
Exhibit your Earthly
manners, Saphora. Don’t keep him waiting,” she insisted.

All were quiet as Saphora
looked from Vida to Dakota, who was silently regretting coming to
check the status of their outing. And as Saphora struggled with the
decision to go or not, the guard returned with Maverick,
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Xander watched as Saphora
looked towards who he assumed was Maverick, hesitating before
walking over to him and having a brief discussion. Before Maverick
could even fully respond, Saphora had started rushing off down the
hallway, with Dakota hurriedly heading after her.

He frowned, glancing to
Vida with disapproval as she continued sipping from her goblet.
Aredelle closed her distance with Vida to proceed in scolding her.
Xander made his way over to Maverick, who was still looking down
the hall at Saphora until she left his sight. His shoulders
slumped, before springing back up when Xander’s hand came clamping
down on his shoulder.

Maverick slowly turned,
his brown eyes meeting Xander’s purple ones and showing their
apparent fear. Xander gave a cheesing smile in return, gently
squeezing Maverick’s shoulder.

“
Hello, human.”

Chapter 4

“I never thought I’d see
this day,” Sven chuckled to himself as he took a seat beside a
wooden table that had been set up in the training arena with
refreshments.

Reaching over the table,
he plucked a flower from the bouquet that had been arranged as the
center piece. He held it up to his right shoulder, where a
hummingbird had perched. His in fact Guardian, Anavae. Seemingly
painted with brilliant hues of red, yellow, green, and blue, the
humming bird chirped, dipping down into the flower and taking the
nectar from within.