Snippet #1779366

Aelita listened as the men exchanged words, in her language. Or at least she was able to understand them. Yuko said that the Mokona creature would let them understand each other, but she couldn't believe that a small, cute animal like that could have that sort of attention. She started to reach out to it but immediately turned back to the men. One, the quiet but seemingly nice man who helped her up before, said he wished to be called "D." She was curious about his real name, but respected his decision to not share it. Another one with black hair didn't say his name, instead demanded in a rude tone to know everything. He could at least have the decency to introduce himself. A third guy, with curly hair, introduced himself as a prince. Aelita was disgusted by his cocky attitude, resembling that of the elves in the City in her old home, but was fascinated by this steam technology that he mentioned.

Home...it seemed so distant now. A stray tear escaped her eye no matter how hard she fought to keep it back. She had to stay strong around all these people, just as she had at school when she was younger and they teased and bullied her. She missed school too. She missed everything.

Her reminiscing was suddenly interrupted by some raised words. The long-haired, rude guy who refused to say his name was offended by the Prince's, William's, remark about commoners. Of course, Aelita was used to it, so it didn't bother her much. But this guy was flaming mad. Literally. Red flames burned around his hands, dancing with each other and threatening William's life with their heat and intensity. William brought out a sword and took up a drunken fighting stance. D made a comment to them, but Aelita knew an off-handed comment wouldn't work in this type of situation. She had seen it enough with her father and at school. The comment needed action to back it up.

"No!" she said firmly, standing in-between them, one arm extended towards each man. "Don't fight, please. This kind woman has given us the power of communication, and you have the audacity to abuse it like this? You should be disgusted with yourselves, both of you. You need to apologize."

She turned to Yuko, bowing apologetically. "I'm sorry for them." Then she turned back to the rest of the group and introduced herself, "I'm Aelita, as I tried to say earlier. It's nice to meet you all!" Then to D, "Thank you for trying to speak sense into them." She smiled.