Closer

Chapter 3

          Basal knew it was going to be a bad day when the person he had been attempting to forge friendly connections with, punched him in the face. 

        After a nauseating trip through the portal connecting the Under Realm and the Middle Realm, Basal ended up in a place filled with green, which his father had told him was called a 'park' by the natives. Immediately fascinated by the amazing colors surrounding him, Basal looked around, investigating the beautiful, lively pigment. After a thorough investigation, he grew bored and consulted his tiny script(called a 'map') to lead him out of the infinite greenery. 

         Soon, he came upon a concrete pavement, which, to his surprise, was not burning as the ones back home were. After almost getting run over by some type of screaming machines(which he would later learn are called 'cars'), Basal managed to find his way to the sidewalk. He also quickly found that spacing out while walking down the streets of a Middle Realm city resulted in being nearly trampled by humans walking on the same path. Although many human yelled words at him, he hadn't ever heard them, so he just smiled and waved at them as they passed by. Basal made a mental note to look up some of the terms later. 

           After a few hours of sightseeing, he realized that he probably needed some substance. He found a place that served some form of meat called a burger. When he first went into the place and looked at the list of food, astonishment overtook his features.  With wide eyes, he tapped a nearby person on the shoulder. The person turned around. "Can I help you, sir?" 

          "Yes, um, I was just wondering..... is it true that I can order any of the items on this list?" He asked. The person looked confused.

         "Um........ yeah, as long as you have the money to pay for it." Basal started bouncing up and down excitedly. 

          "Wow!" He exclaimed, with stars twinkling in his overexcited eyes. "This place is truly marvelous, and full of wonders beyond my wildest imagination!" 

          After he ordered, and ate, the person he had previously been talking to came to give him a check. "Oh, that's right." He muttered. "I gotta pay for my food.........." He summoned the person and pulled a random bill out of his wallet. "Will this be enough to cover it?" He asked. 

       The person's eyes went wide. "Yes....... More than enough......... Thank you sir and have a great day!"They exclaimed, before grabbing the bill and the check and rushing off. 

       Basal grinned. "You're welcome!" His father had taught him some basic human terminology before he left, and he was very proud of himself for remembering. he headed out to explore more of the lively city.

          He walked around for quite a while before the light disappeared from the sky. With the light, so went the people. The streets were bare save for a few groups of humans every few blocks. Because Basal had never experienced the setting of the sun before, he found his way back to the park he first appeared in, and sat on a hill to watch it. afterwards, when the stars appeared, he was stargazing for hours before becoming exhausted and falling asleep. "I'll meet some humans tomorrow........." Was his last thought before his consciousness went with the sun.

~

        Basal awoke at the first crack of daylight, and sat up to watch the sun rise again. "Maybe there is magic in this world after all............." He mused to himself, lost in the beautiful mixture of colors in the sky. 

       He brought back to reality by his stomach grumbling. "Oh!" He said, jumping a little bit. "Guess I need some more food." He chuckled before getting up, and starting towards the main part of the city. 

       Basal went back to the same diner he ate at the previous night, hoping to find the same person he'd talked to the time before. The diner was locked. It didn't much faze Basal though. He just went to a different place for breakfast(another one of the terms his dad taught him). After finding a small cafe that was open at the time, he slipped inside and went up the counter. 

         "What can I get for you?" The lady at the counter said. 

          "Hmm........." Basal studied the menu on the wall. "This is my first time here, what would you suggest?" 

           "Well, our specialty is the bacon-egg breakfast burrito, but I personally prefer the Croque Madame." She explained, smiling pleasantly. 

           "Then I'll have the Croque Madame, I suppose." He grinned back at her. 

          "Excellent, anything to drink?" She asked.

          "Ummmm.... just water." He said, unsure of what else to order. 

          " Alright, if you'll just have a seat, your food will be out shortly." 

        " Cool. By the way, don't you need......." He held out a bill. 

       "Oh! Yes, thank you." She took the bill and punched some numbers into a machine on the counter. She then held out some bills and metal pieces. Basal looked at her confusedly. "Your change." She said, smiling enduringly. 

        "Oh yeah, ok thank you." He smiled back rather awkwardly before taking the change and going to sit at one of the many empty booths next to the window. The only other person in the cafe aside from the girl at the counter was a man sitting in the corner bent over his laptop. The man was interesting, with pure white hair and a muscular build. When the man looked up, Basal was struck with bright, ice blue eyes. His eyes seemed to glow with a sort of power behind them. Basal blushed at the eye contact, realized he must've been staring, and quickly looked away. 

       A few minutes later, his food was brought out to him. A beautiful combination of bread and eggs with some potatoes and garnish. Basal grinned widely and thanked the waiter, before digging in with vigor. It was just as delicious and flavorful as he'd expected. The Under Realm wasn't exactly known for its cuisine, so this was a very welcome change of pace. 

      After Basal practically gulped down his breakfast, he headed out, intent on making some human allies, and maybe finding a place to sleep that wasn't a hill in the middle of a park. He was just walking down the street when he heard someone call to him. He turned to find a group of people wearing mostly black, but they all had a cool design on their jackets. One of them said " Hey, nice shirt, you gay hippie." Before bursting out laughing. The rest of his group joined in. 

         Basal grinned. This nice man liked his shirt! Maybe they would want to be his friends! He walked over to the man who spoke to him. "Hello! Thank you! I'm Basal, do you wanna be friends?" He held out his hand. The man looked at his hand, then back up at his face, before laughing again. 

        "You guys hear this? The rainbow fairy wants to be", He snorted. "Friends!" The people behind him all doubled over with uproarious laughter. Basal smiled awkwardly, unsure of how to react to this situation. 

      "I'm............glad I made you laugh?" He said confusedly. The man looked at him. 

      "Now listen kid", He said, recovering from his laugh attack. "I don't know where you came from, or who sent you, but no one, and I mean no one, in this city, is that friendly. Now scat before we make you."

    Basal was confused by the man's words, and a little sad. Then he remembered something his father had taught him. "Now", His father had said. "Lots of human aren't going to be very nice at first, but just stand your ground and they'll come around eventually." So, he straightened his spine and look the man straight in the eye. 

     "No." 

     The man looked up. "What did you say to me?"

     Basal felt his resolve weakening, but he remained firm. "I said no. I'm not leaving until you're my friend." 

      The man grinned dangerously. "Alright then, looks like we get to do this the fun way." The next thing Basal felt was a stinging in his nose area, and then nothing. His vision went dark, and the last thing he heard before blacking out completely was cackling and yelling.