Sakura Souls

Chapter 2

Aspen's POV - Ashimaru/Aita Realm

I chose to sit by that girl who Ray introduced me to. Shell. She seemed boring to me at first, but I quickly became interested in her. I assumed it was because Ray claimed she saved his life, which in itself was enough for me to raise an eyebrow. Also, she was a Soul. Souls (the half-human, half-animal hybrids), were always interesting to me. However it was rare to find one in a school surrounded by humans, because of their tendency to go savage.

When I was younger, and lived in the Aita realm, my parents had always been weary of the Souls. My dad was attacked by one when he was younger, which caused both him and my mom to be terrified of them. Because of that, I'd never been around a Soul during my life in the Aita Realm, so Shell was the first Soul for me to set eyes on.

I took my seat right behind her. The entire time, I was well aware of Ray watching my every move. I didn't have to look at him to know that he was glaring daggers at me. It was pretty obvious that Ray was also interested in Shell. Maybe not in the same way I was, but clearly interested. That made me want to rub it in Ray's face how close I was to her.

"Hello there, beautiful." I said while I sat down. A smirk plastered on my face like always.

Shell looked like she didn't know how to react at the nickname I gave her. However, I could see a faint tint of pink on her cheeks. "H-Hello... Aspen, right?" She asked. Her eyes looked at the floor in embarassment.

I glanced at Ray and saw him trying to politely push away the group of girls. A perfect opportunity to talk with the orange-haired Soul in peace. "Yep, it's Aspen." I replied to Shell. I leaned my elbow against the desk to make myself comfortable, sense I had no intentions of doing school work that day. "So tell me, how have you 'saved' the prince of Ashimira? You're only a Soul."

Shell raised her eyebrow. "What's a Soul? Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

"Ah ah ah." I teased while waving my finger in front of her face. "I'm the one asking the questions. How did you save Ray yesterday?"

Shell frowned, probably disappointed to not get an answer of her question. "I found Ray lying in the forest while I walked home." Shell claimed. "He said he had nowhere to go, so I let him to stay at my place for the night. But after a little incident, he started telling me about the other realm. A-Ashima... Ashi..."

"Ashimira." I corrected.

"Yeah, that. So afterwards I learned that he's a prince, and he ran away from his home. He didn't tell me why though."

So Ray decided to admit to Shell that he ran away, but when we met by the castle he kept trying to hide it from me. Weird, but I wasn't worried about that. I found it more interesting that the prince continued to keep why he ran away a secret. Nobody, not even the two people who "saved his life" were told about it. That meant whatever it was had to be really messed up. What could that whiney and childish prince have as a reason for leaving the safety of his own castle?

"Do you know why he ran away?" Shell asked suddenly.

"No. I only think the king, King Ryan, knows about it. Well him and Queen Velia (where ever she is). The queen hadn't been heard of for the past 24 hours. I can only assume she has something to do with it."

Shell took what I said into consideration, then turned around completely in her chair. "So, can you tell me about Ashimira? I'm curious. What's it like?" I looked into her wide eyes as she waited patiently for me to tell her about the other realm.

I scoffed a little. "I thought I was the one asking questions."

"You were, but now it's my turn. You can't be the only one getting information from others." Shell said sternly. I liked her attitude. I didn't expect to hear her be dominant after she looked so terrified at our first meeting. I could tell she was quickly warming up to me.