The Phoenix and the Dragon

Seriously, what's happening?

                                                           Chapter Three
   
             The man, whose name really was Kane, veered to the right and headed to a structure quite similar to a dock. With bustling activity and several fisherman, it seemed overcrowded with people. With animated gestures, the man pulls into the docks and stepped out to negotiate with a trader. Meanwhile, in the vehicle the two siblings gently slept the day away without a care in the world. That is until an older gentleman walked over to see if he could move the vehicle out of his way as he was trying to go home. With confusion though, all he found was two sleeping children. He knocked gently on the window. When he received no response, he knocked even harder. With a jolt, the brother woke up with wide eyes. The old man sighed as he thought that he could finally go to go home. If only he knew just what he was getting into.
               With an abrupt start, Alex stared at the man now leaning on the car looking at him. How in the world did he end end up in this place was the only thought going through his head. Then, with growing alarm, he noticed that his sister was out cold. Alex rushed over to her and gently shook her awake. After several seconds, that really felt like hours to the old man impatiently waiting by the vehicle, Aileen woke up to the worried eyes of her brother in front of her face. With a shuddering gasp, Aileen bolted upwards only to knock her and her brother’s heads together.
             “Owww! What was that for!” Alex yelled at the sudden pain.
             “I don't know! You tell me. What's going on?” Aileen shouted back in confusion.
             “Why would I know that? All I know is that we are in some weird place that is nothing like where I was when I went to sleep!” Alex replied in frustration. Aileen sighed and started to just figure it out herself. While looking around in astonishment, Aileen noticed the old man who at this point just wanted to give up at ever getting home.
             “Hello, who are you?” Aileen asked much more politely than her brother.
             “I'm Jax and I would really like for you to move out of the path,” Jax shouted into their ears. Alex and Aileen both flinched and step back from surprise.
             “Oh, um sorry about that! We’ll just move out of your way now!” Aileen said really apologetic while Alex kind of just grunted in the background in annoyance. Aileen smiled nervously at Jax as she slowly looked around the weird vehicle she was in. With unsure movements, Aileen pulled the seemingly appropriate lever and with a shuddering hiss, the hatch to the car opened. As Aileen was stepping out of the car, she leaned back in to shout at her brother to get a move on. At this point Aileen just wanted to leave and find out what is going on so she doesn't say anything. When both of the siblings were out of the car, Jax stared at them expectantly. When they make no actions whatsoever, he sighed in irritation and then walked up to the vehicle and pressed a small blue button on the side. Immediately, it shrank to the size of an matchbox. Jax picked it up, muttering about how they could have just done that themselves. He turned around to face them, probably to badger them about their horrible behaviour, just in time to see them run around the corner.
             “Aileen, do you even know where we’re going?” Alex asked breathlessly as they run with all of their strength away to, hopefully, a more familiar place.
             “Um… not exactly, but I have a pretty good idea,” Aileen defensively replied. With as they round the next corner they skid to a stop. There, right in front of them, was a medium sized old sign the looked like it was a put ready fall over. Aileen and Alex hesitantly stroll over to it, only to frown at what it said.

Welcome to Wiltera!!
(We hope your stay is really short!)
We only welcome our own people,
so if you’re not part of us go away!
Enjoy your stay.

            “Aileen, in case you’re wondering, I don't know where this is and I don't particularly want to find out.” Alex nervously said..
            “For once I agree,” Aileen replied. Aileen motioned with her hand for Alex to follow her. As they try to sneakily move back towards the docks, both siblings also try to deal with their new situation. While on the outside they were mostly calm and collected, on the inside they were both screaming to go home. They could both definitely have gone and panicked, but both can hardly believe that what they are experiencing is not a dream. They were in shock. As they saw the docks back into their sight, as they really don't know what they were thinking when they ran away from the docks, Aileen took a deep breath of air. With a startling clarity Aileen found that the air was clean. Like really clean. Cleaner than she had ever felt before and she has no idea why.
            “Alex!” Aileen reprimanded as she turned around to see him about to just jump onto one of the boats. Couldn't he be stealthy for one minute!
           “What! This is the quickest way to get away from this nightmare,” he fired back in retaliation. Aileen goes on alert once she heard those words. Sure she also thought that this might be a dream, but if this was not a dream then they could be in serious danger.
            “Alex you can't just go by the assumption that this is a dream or a nightmare! You could be putting yourself in danger by running up to those boats. What if someone catches you?” She berated him. “Do you really think that you would have this vivid of a dream. That just doesn't happen!” After that rant Aileen watched as Alex’s face slowly started to pale. Good, maybe now he will actually think before acting. it was not likely that we are both having this realistic of a dream.
            “Uh…right, we can agree that this is probably not a nightmare, so let's get away from here as quickly as possible. I say we wait for that boat,” Alex pointed at a small blue boat with golden trim at the side of the dock. “When those two men guarding their fish over there are changing shifted, we can easily slide over there since it is so out of the way,”
             “Sounds good to me. Should we go around there?” Aileen questioned as she pointed at a huge building that ends right near the boat, but has a longer time to get to it from where they were. “Or should we go there?” This time Aileen pointed to a building that is a lot smaller than the other, but was closer to where they were. It was closer to a lot of smaller building where they would have to run through the gaps. Alex contemplated this before speaking his thoughts.
             “You can decide that, right?” he sheepishly asked. Aileen glared at him before glancing at both of the buildings.
              “I think we should go with bigger building so we can have more coverage when running,” As they were about to discuss their options more, the two guards they were watching started to change their shift. So, while very unprepared for what they were about to do, they bolted to the other building in hopes of getting away. As their feet pounded into the ground they looked panicked at the direction they were going to. With gasping breaths and clear relief they finally manage to get to the huge building just as the old guards were heading in the opposite direction. With barely a break in between the two siblings sprint to the boat.  it was about five feet away. Then three. Then crack. The boat shatters into millions of pieces, all aimed straight at them.