"Whoaaaaaaaaa!!!!" Elena screams with so much enthusiasm. Perri looks at her with a smile on his face; he cannot believe how magnetic this girl is. Sure, she's a princess, but she wasn't raised as a royal.
Perri is shocked that this girl, who was raised in the human world, is having so much fun falling. He thought she would be screaming fearfully, but her screams have no evidence of fear in her, just pure joy and nothing less.
Well, she is a fairy at heart; it shouldn't come as a surprise to him.
"THIS IS AMAZING!" she screams while they fall.
Perri has noticed that he's been staring at her for too long and he remembers what happened the last time he fell for a princess. It's best not to test fate.
Their holding hands is making matters worse, but he has to stay strong. His job is to bring her back safely, not admire how beautiful she is.
Even though she is really beautiful.
"Wait a second, are we going to-"
Perri giggles. "Don't fret, sunshine, we're going to be landing on our feet."
"Oh, that's cool!"
This isn't like anything she's ever experienced before. And she has experienced a lot of fun things, but this, this takes the cake as the best thing ever.
Being surrounded by pink sparkly clouds, falling or floating around magic and landing on her feet has to be more fun than the parties she's ever attended, and that's saying something because she loves to party.
Perri was right, they do land on their feet. Elena almost falls to the ground, but Perri catches her on time. Holding her with a tight grip so she doesn't meet the floor.
Elena blushes, which is what she's been doing since she laid her eyes on him.
"Thank you," she says.
"No problem," he says.
And Elena looks at where she's just landed, and her jaw drops.
"Holy shit!" She walks forward, admiring the stunning train station. "Gnarly! This is even better than Grand Central Station."
She's never been to Grand Central Station, but she's seen pictures, and even though she's never set foot in that place, she has to admit this train station is way better than the one in New York.
"Welcome to Starburst Central," Perri says to her.
Starburst Central is the best name for this kind of place, Elena thinks. For one, it looks like they're inside a star.
The trains are golden in color and they're covered with neon stars that glow. The ceiling looks like the night sky with stars and lots of moons. There's a gigantic clock where the hands look like the pixie dust Elena saw. When it moves, it sparkles.
The railway is shiny in color and the people…Elena thinks the people are beautiful.
These people are fae, which is the opposite of humans.
She spots other black people with golden blond hair, but she sees people with pink hair and red hair as well. She also sees lots of people with silver hair and pointy ears, just like Perri, serving as guards of the train station.
She spots tiny things flying in the air. These are pixies.
They're so tiny, both their wings and bodies.
But their pixie dust is so mighty that they use their dust to make people's bags float into the trains.
Elena wonders, shouldn't fairies also have wings? Or is it just pixies?
"The trains can take you anywhere in Illuminastra, but in our case, we're going to Sun City, where the Illuminance Palace is and where your family live," Perri explains to her, and Elena nods her head in understanding.
A train stops in front of them. Elena blinks viciously because it looked like the train came out of nowhere.
Magic.
Something she's going to have to start getting used to.
The train opens up, revealing a short brown creature with long ears and a nose.
"Wow," Elena says under her breath.
"Wow." The creature says, looking at Elena in awe. Elena doesn't know why he should be looking at her in awe since he's seen people like her all his life. She has never seen someone like him at all.
"Princess Elena." The creature says in a squeaky voice, and he takes a bow. Elena thinks he looks so adorable in his suit.
"Hi. What's your name?"
"Wriggly," Perri says, annoyingly. "And Wriggly was supposed to be here when we arrived."
"Sorry, something came up."
"Something always comes up with you creatures."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He says, and their back and forth makes Elena smile because they look so cute, especially Wriggly. He reminds Elena of Mickey Mouse.
"Okay, okay, no more arguing, whatever, let's just get in."
"It'll be a pleasure to have the princess in Wriggly's train," he bows again.
"Aww, you're so cute."
Wriggly stands straight, and then he blushes.
"Oh, please, he's not cute." Wriggly scowls at Perri, but he's not going to get in it with him again so he just moves aside.
Perri gestures for Elena to go in first, and when she does, her eyes widen at how beautiful the inside is.
The inside looks like a restaurant, but for rich people and, in her case, royals.
The interior is drenched in deep, rich red - plush velvet couches line the entire side, tufted and dramatic, with patterned red-and-gold cushions scattered along them. The woodwork is dark and intricately curved, almost baroque, with ornate detailing wrapping around the windows and ceiling.
Crystal chandeliers hang from curved ceilings, glowing warmly and reflecting in the polished wood and glass. Small round marble tables sit in front of the seats, each topped with soft candle lanterns, giving it an intimate, almost old-world European cafe.
"This is beautiful," Elena says, and Perri is tempted to say she's beautiful, but he keeps it to himself.
"Wriggly loves that your highness loves it."
"Please call me Elena," Elena says, and Wriggly looks at her, confused, but then relaxes his face.
"Okay, your highness," he says.
"Just-" Elena stops. She's definitely going to get used to magic, but she's not getting used to people calling her a princess or saying "your highness to her."
"I'm going to the kitchen to get the princess something to eat. Please be comfortable princess." he says, then hops away.
Elena scoffs and shakes her head while she watches him jump away.
"He's so cute' she says, sitting down on a red and gold couch. "What creature is he?" She asks Perri, who sits next to her.
"A brownie. They're notorious for being late, they're unreliable, and they always refer to themselves in the third person."
"Aww, I think he's cute."
"Don't worry, sunshine, you won't call them cute when you stay here longer."
"Why do you always call me sunshine? Is this your way of flirting?"
Perri stares at her, and then he chuckles, silently looking at the ground.
"I call you sunshine because you have the power of the shining sun, and you act so full of energy," he says, and Elena nods, a little disappointed.
"Wow, makes sense though." Now she's the one looking at the ground.
"But yeah, I was mostly flirting," he says, looking away from the ground, and now he has his eyes on her. Elena does the same.
They're both staring at each other as if they look away from each other, they might just go blind.
Perri could just go blind because looking at her is like looking at the sun. Bright, golden, precious.
Elena wants to kiss those full lips of his; he's just too attractive. She knows for sure he's a good kisser.
The door swings open, interrupting their intense stares. They jerk back, and they look to see trolleys of drinks and snacks headed their way.
Elena's stomach growls. Yes, she hasn't eaten anything for a long time, and now her stomach wants to react to her hunger.
She looks at Perri, and he just smiles to himself.
Fuck, he heard that.
She doesn't focus on that for too long; she focuses on the food standing in front of her.
Her eyes glow golden before going back to normal.
"Gnarly!"
She has never seen such food before. Maybe it's because they're from another planet.
"I don't even know what to try first," she says.
"Uh, try the butter crackers."
"Butter…" she sees where Perri's finger points at. And they're these golden like bicuits that look and smell heavenly.
She picks one up and puts it in her mouth, and as soon as she does, she freezes.
"Holy gnarly!" she says, and then she stuffs more biscuits in her mouth.
Perri laughs. "You should try it with the moonfruit juice."
"Moon fruit juice," she sees like three juices, but the silver colored one is what drags her attention. She picks it up and instead of pouring it into a cup or glass, she drinks from the jug, which catches Perri off guard.
"Gnarly! This is amazing."
"Told you."
"Mhmm. Why aren't you eating?" She says with her mouth full. Perri wants to burst out laughing, but he keeps it to himself.
"Eat! Eat with me."
"Okay, okay." Perri is about to help himself, but a loud explosion makes him stop, and it forces Elena to swallow everything in her mouth.
Perri rises from the couch with a quickness, and he becomes vigilant immediately. Elena stands up as well when she sees that he's up.
Something's wrong, and Elena's a bit scared.
They watch as three people walk out of the dark smoke.
"We heard that a princess was on this train," the girl up front says with a smirk on her face.
These people look like trouble. They don't look nice at all.
They look like…
"Witches."