The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

Where Are We?

For a moment, it's pitch black around her. She thought that the black vortex was over because she no longer felt nauseous. Maybe this weirdness would soon be over. 

Gradually, the darkness started to be replaced by bluish light again. This was when Troya could clearly see that the light looked so beautiful, the twinkling around it, like hundreds of dancing fireflies. Being in this light felt so good. But slowly, the light began to dissipate and was finally replaced by a real scene that now spread out before her. 

Troya kept silent for a few moments, her eyes did not blink at all. And what happened next was that her stomach began to feel nauseous again. Like a pressing blow from deep down to her throat, she quickly looked for something to place the vomit out. But it's too late.

All the cheese cakes she had eaten have come out again. Ah, s**t, not luck! 

Even though she felt better, she also felt so weak. For a moment her mind wandered and went blank. Until finally the reality began to regain control of her consciousness. 

Troya saw a very strange scene before her. As she remembered earlier, she was in Liam's room, surrounded by three large and one small monitors. But instead, why in front of her was a dense cluster of trees, thickets and grass? The sky also looked so bright even though she's being surrounded by giant trees. But from every crevice of the leaves, rays shot through and illuminated the land. 

Then she saw her two best friends who were still lying unconscious. Using all her remaining strength, she rose from her current position and walked over to Liam and Mayang.

Troya checked of their heartbeats, and they sounded very good. She patted Liam's cheek, first slowly, but because this young man didn't even open his eyes, Troya started slapping him. 

"Aww!" The boy shouted immediately got up, holding his red cheek, "Why did you slap me?" He shouted. 

Troya grinned, "You're welcome." 

"What?" said Liam feeling confused. 

"Forget it, now it's our turn to wake Mayang," said Troya, shifting her body one meter to wake the girl. 

Liam still felt super-duper astonished. He meant to ask again until finally his eyes captured a strange thing. What did he see right now, or rather where were they? 

“Tro-Troya, where are we? We were in my house right?" Liam asked. He looked around looking for anything suspicious. 

He thought since this's a very foreign place, he had to be very careful. Moreover, at this time he's not alone, there were two girls with him. At least right now he had to act like a knight who would protect the three of them from the beast-whatever- attack.

Troya didn't answer, she didn't even hear it. She remained focused on waking Mayang. This time she couldn't slap just like what she did to Liam. She could only shake Mayang's shoulders. 

"She won't wake up?" Liam was already standing beside Troya. 

Troya shook her head, "Mayang is having trouble sleeping and hard to wake up." 

"So, what's next? We'll just wait like that?" asked Liam. 

"Yeah, let's just wait!" replied Troya briefly. This time she sat down casually. 

At least she could rest for a while, because unlike her two friends who could fall asleep trough out the black hole, she didn't fall asleep at all, remained conscious and remembered clearly what happened at that time. Instead she felt so weak. 

"There's no way we can lay in the middle of the forest like this. We can move into that house." Liam pointed out to the little house covered with thickets. 

Troya followed Liam's finger. The house was about seven meters away from their current position. It wasn't too far, but she didn't sure if she's strong enough to walk toward that house while carrying her friend who's still sleeping at the moment.

Troya shook her head, “I'm tired, Li, you should check the house condition first. If it's safe, then we'll go there. Besides, I can't possibly be strong if I have to carry Mayang's body right now." 

Liam stared at Troya's face for a moment, then he nodded, "OK, you two wait here," he said. 

Then the boy went to the house. The trip there was actually not that difficult, it's just that because this boy felt a little afraid seeing the situation he's facing. He stepped very carefully and it took more time than it should be. Finally Liam arrived at the front of the house, right on the side of the wall that looked like the door, and indeed that's the door even though the paint had faded and almost the same colour as the walls. But it's a door, because of it's square shape and made of wood. 

Liam hesitated to open the door. His mind immediately imagined of strange things. What if there was a beast inside, and it looked angry and would destroy my body? Or even worse, the beast would tear my flesh for dinner? And if that happened, Troya and Mayang would be in danger. Retreat! Retreat! 

The boy tried to find the window and peeked into it first. He didn't want to risk of not knowing what's behind the door. At least if he looked in through the window and felt safe, that would be better. 

Not far from the door was a small glass window. Small indeed, but enough for him to peek and see what was inside the house. Liam pressed his eyes to the window pane. At first it's blurry, nothing could be seen, he tried to wipe the glass with his hand so he could see clearly. After his sight was clear enough, he saw something inside the house.

Liam gasped, he immediately hid back behind the wall. What he saw in there did not seem real, but it's still creepy. And he didn't want to take the slightest risk in this foreign world. 

Finally Liam decided to turn around and met his two friends again. He would just say that the house was not suitable for staying. They definitely won't protest. When he got closer, he saw that his two friends were still fast asleep. Liam sat next to them and took a deep breath. 

He did not understand what actually was going on at the moment. Because as he remembered the three of them were in his house. And as he remembered, he was very angry with Troya for carelessly breaking in through the window of his house. 

Liam covered his head with his two hands, which's suddenly dizzy. Oh, my goodness, what might happen to the house? Because he's too panicked he forgot to close the door. Moreover, the windows were broken, wild animals such as cats or worse, rats, could freely enter the room. Then they would mess up his work room. His hard work over the past year would just been destroyed without the chance to show off to his two friends, or might be to the world.

Where are we now, anyway? Why are there only trees, shrubs, grass and soil all around now? All of this made absolutely no sense. Oh, maybe it's just a dream. 

Liam pinched his own arm, but then he called it off when he remembered that his cheeks were still sore from Troya's slap. Instantly, Liam's body went limp. This was not a dream! 

Then, he heard the murmurs coming out from Mayang. And before long, the girl started to open her eyes. Mayang stretched her body very comfortably. And when she saw Liam's face, the girl smiled. 

"Hi," said Liam with a forced smile on Mayang. 

"Hi," replied Mayang then she woke up and sat beside this young man. "I slept very well." She continued, still not aware of the current condition. 

“Good. Troya is still asleep!" said Liam pointing with his nose where Troya laid her body which was right beside Mayang. 

Mayang turned and smiled at Troya. Then she woke the girl up, "Troya, wake up!" She said. 

Liam looked at Mayang with a little astonishment. He knew that Mayang is not very smart, but he did not know that the girl is this slow. Ah, but looking back, it also took him a while to start realising their strange condition. 

"So Liam, you take us to whose backyard? The house looks neglected, the yard's so messy, the trees are really scary!" said Mayang when she finally saw Troya eyes begin to open.

"May, your brain seems to have shorted during that trip here," said Troya while rubbing her eyes and yawning very widely. After falling asleep for a few minutes, it seemed like she's starting to feel better. 

Mayang did not reply to Troya's words. But suddenly she got silent for a long time. After that her head turned around. After finally realising where she was, she screamed out loud.

"KYAAAAAAA!"[]