Ashore

2: Shelter... Or Execution.

Tw: swearing, threatening of execution
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On the way to the- Castle?- I pull out my phone and try to enter instagram, maybe I can tell Galaxius where I am-
There's no internet.
This is all so surreal, I jump off a bridge and I find myself with three boys probably 1 year younger than me and one has different coloured eyes.
This must be a dream, but I'm not waking up.
"Okay, we're here..." Tommy waves to the guards but I get roughly stopped at the gates. Diamond swords rest less than an inch from my neck. One slight movement and I'll be bleeding.
"Geez, guys stop! Let her go! She's our friend, chill you fuckers!" Tommy pushes one of the guards, causing all of them to immediately fall back and mutter apologies to me. I give them a stiff nod.
"What are you?" I ask when we continue walking, confused, "They had so much power! Honestly, you could have been killed."
Tubbo laughs. "You wouldn't know. You haven't seen Tommy fight before, have you?"
"And you forgot to mention, he's the King's son. He's a prince, Aster."
I am barely taking all of this in. I'm friends with a prince.

I'm still convinced this is a dream.

After some walking, I find myself standing in front of a massive building, the palace, I'm assuming. My jaw drops, but the rest seem so used to this.
"Okay, you're my friend but there are still strict ground rules here. You've gotta bow to my father. I know it sounds freaking shitty, but you have to. And speak when you're spoken to, don't speak when you are not spoken to. Also, don't touch the stuff in the palace. Unless I allow you to. I'm sorry in advance, by the way. I don't get why i get all these special privileges, I'm literally still twelve." Tommy gets hold of my shoulders. So he's two years younger than me...and he sure swears alot.
Before I know it, I'm walking cautiously in between Tommy and Tubbo, Ranboo being the last in the line.
On the way to what seems like the throne at the far end of this whopping 20 metre room, I am greeted by suspicious stares from guards. Tommy flips them off and I frown at his behaviour but I remember the 'don't speak when you're not spoken to' dumb rule. Don't people here have freedom of speech?
My breath is shaky and my heart pounds rapidly. I'm standing in front of a king. A King.
Still, I manage to bow and try to breathe. My anxiety can't kick in, not now. I thought it would deactivate or something since I was in another country, with different people. A prince.
"Hi Tommy. Who's this?" the Kings accent sounds abit British. But we aren't in Britain.
"This is Aster. I'll get straight to the point. Father, we want her to stay. At least for awhile?" Tommy's eyes have such a pleading look. I could never resist that.
"Do you want to stay, Aster?" the King directs his vision to me. My heart skips a beat.
What are my options? I don't really know where this is, but my new- friends?- seem cool. I think about my past life (I lived when I was 18~). It wasn't great. If I went back there, I wouldn't even be happy.
I take a deep breath.
"I would like to stay, King."
"OK... First of all, don't call me King, you can call me sir I think. Secondly, Tommy, how do you know she's not a spy? From the dream SMP?"
"We know basically everyone in the Dream SMP! And she didn't appear mysteriously, she was washed ashore and barely breathing! Father, you don't have to be so suspicious of everyone all the time!" Tommy yells.
Tommy rolls his eyes, then mutters an apology a second later.
"Tommy, you know I act like this for L'manburg. We can't be certain. I'm sorry, but I don't get great Vibes from your friend here. I might have to execute her, Tommy. You know the rules- no one that enters L'manburg without invitation gets to live to see another day."

Tommy is fuming. I stay silent. Its always like this- is should say something, but then my throat just tightens up and my heart starts pounding, a bubble forms around me. Its a force beyond my control, and I hate it. I want to speak.
I just.. Can't.
"But we found her almost dying! And I was completely unguarded! We had no weapons, no armour! If she wanted to kill us she would have already." He gestures to himself, only dressed in a red and white t-shirt.
"Tommy, you're still a child! You don't understand, a spy wouldn't kill people. They're spies, not assassins. Get the difference!" The king raises his volume and I almost flinch. Stupid anxiety.
"Father, she's like- eleven years old. Aster wouldn't. I trust her." It's Tommy's turn to lower his tone and sounds scary, but his incorrect age guess forces a laugh up my windpipe. I force it back down.
"I'm fourteen-" I whisper to tommy and stifle a laugh.
The king surprisingly, bursts out in laughter.
"You didn't even get her age right! You wouldn't know anything about her, Tommy." He continues to laugh, Ranboo and Tubbo following soon after. Even I start to deflate in their contagious laughter.
Tommy punches Tubbo in the arm and glares at his father, but he smiles so I know he's joking.
"Okay, okay, I trust you abit more now, Aster. We sure needed some comedy there. Still, I need you to just do something to prove that you're not a spy or I'll actually have to execute you. Those are the rules."
"I do not know anything about this place. The last thing I remember was that I was trying to end my life, so jumped off a bridge and landed in water, but the impact was just enough to not kill me, but enough to knock me out. Then, I just... Woke up here. Also, I seriously don't know what the dream Smp is. I'm fourteen, and I don't have fighting skills at all. You can try fight me to check if I have fighting skills, I don't mind getting hurt as long as I don't end up paralysed." I explain. All that information was true.
"Okay, Tommy, fight Aster."
"What?!" Tommy looks rapidly between me and his father. I nod slowly at him.
"You have to." Ranboo tells him quietly.
"What if I kill her?! I can't fight her."
I feel offended that he thought I was easy to kill, but I have to admit, it's probably true.
Tubbo hands me a sword and a set of leather armour and I smile as a thank you. The leather kind of stinks.
I hopelessly grasp my weapon, and Tommy reluctantly stands before me without any armour or weapon.
"Start." Ranboo says hesitantly but firmly.
I jump into action and swing my sword at Tommy's face pretty fast.

He dodges under it and pushes me to the floor before I even notice it.

How did he do that?

I have no time to think. With all the strength I can muster, I forcefully push against Tommy and spot a soft look on his eyes before he gives way. It definitely wasn't my strength that pushed him off me. That child is too kind, he just doesn't want to show it.
For the second time, I delay my actions and wait for him to move. As I hoped, he runs towards me and I hop to the side, but I notice a flash in his eyes and he stretches his long arm out and grabs hold of the belt on my armour. During the time of my fall, I try to swing the sword and at least land it on his back, but just like magic, he forces his both legs to jump and land both feet on my stomach, causing me to stumble back. Without the armour, I would have coughed blood, honestly. What is he? He's twelve, and twelve times stronger than me.
No matter how hard I try to regain my balance, I don't and I fall backwards. Tommy makes use of every one of my weakness in this moment and plants his feet back onto the ground. Impact hits me on the back when I fall to the ground, and-
Tommy punches me right at the neck.
Tears stream from the side of my eyes, it hurts, so bad. I am completely able to move but my mind refuses.
"Aster! I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I only did this so that you could stay, I'm sorry I hit you. I'm sorry." Tommy rushes to me and hugs me so tight my ribs might break. He's so sweet.
"Dude, I'm fine, I'm fine. That hurt so bad, though." I tell him and eye with a shaky breath.
I feel my False Red Light coming on- that's what I call my Schizophrenia episodes- what happens, is that reality distorts, I guess. I think that people are trying to cause danger to me, when they're not. Its the worst. Its why everyone hates me.
But it's a force beyond my control.

I try to keep it down anyway.

"I know, it's supposed to be a spot that hurts alot but doesn't do damage to the body. I'm still sorry, Aster." He looks at me with regret all over him. His eyes are a beautiful blue, though.

The king nods at us.

At that moment, Tommy's mood changes completely.

"THAT MEANS YOU CAN STAY! YOU CAN STAY HERE FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT, ASTER! YOU CAN HAVE DINNER WITH US LATER!" Tommy screams in my ear and I wince.
"Sorry," he says in embarrassment.
"That's literally how you acted when Ranboo appeared here after accidentally teleporting from the ender!" Tubbo laughs and Ranboo nods rapidly in agreement.
"Well, I guess I'll stay here? Where though?" I ask them.
"You can stay at my house! I will leave you alone, don't worry." Ranboo offers and I smile with agreement.
"Well, we haven't given you a proper welcome so welcome to L'manburg, Aster! Your new shelter!" Ranboo laughs and exclaims.

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Word count: 1587 words
After editing: 1738 words