Alex had always been a pretty light sleeper. He always assumed it was due to his staying up till the wee hours of the morning, but it never ceased to amaze him how unwilling he was to get out of bed in the morning. This new house made it even worse. With a light snowfall heralding in the sun, Max was entirely ready to curl up in his blankets and sleep till noon. 

The panicked tone of his sister prompted otherwise. 

The first thing Max heard as he stirred awake was her voice, echoing up the stairs and into his room, panicked and confused. Before he knew it he was bolting down the hall. Several more noises rang throughout the house as Aron quickly made his way to the scene of the commotion. Several voices could be heard as well as the clanging of metal, and finally the ominous thump of a body hitting the ground.

 Max’s blood chilled as he neared the living room, terrified at what he might find after hearing the screams of his sister echoing from it, what he found was almost too much for him to handle. 

In the living room were Elsie and the two boys from the previous. The younger was on the floor clutching his arm, looking exhausted, his face red from exertion and pain. The older boy stood in the middle of the room with Elsie… a knife to her throat. 

“Oh, good morning cutie!” The older boy said, noticing Max in the doorway frozen in shock. “I guess this looks worse than it is, yeah? Here why don’t I explain, my name is Aron, very nice to mee-“

Aron didn’t have time to finish his sentence, as Max had tackled him to the floor, freeing Elsie. In a blind rage, Max landed punch after punch on the stranger, as Elsie scrambled to safety.

Henrick, propped himself up on his elbow, pain controlling his features as he watched the older boys tussle on the floor.

“Aron, please don’t hurt him, we're trying to be peaceful about this!” 

“I THINK WE'RE PAST THAT POINT!” Aron yelled as he dodged and blocked Max’s relentless attacks, soon overpowering the boy and pinning him to the ground. 

“Right then!” he sighed, both heavily breathing from the scuffle. “Now that’s over, why don't we try and be more civilized about this?” 

“Not likely nutcase!” Max yelled from his position on the ground, periodically struggling to free himself from under Arons strength. Aron just stared at him, confused by the boy's anger.

“What’s… What’s a nutcase?” Max didn't have the chance to answer the question before a strong force struck Aron hard on the head, sending him crashing to the floor in a motionless heap. Elsie stood behind the body, fire poker in hand and murderous intent in her eyes. 

“Did I kill him?” She asked as Max checked for a pulse. 

“ No, he's just unconscious,” he said, standing up and brushing off his messed clothes. 

"Damn" Elsie grumbled, to a point that Max couldn't discern whether she was joking or not. 

“So do you by chance what to explain to me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?!”

“It’s pretty easy to understand if you think about it” a voice groaned from behind them. Max turned to find the yonder boy, previously on the ground, now standing. He seemed mostly unharmed however, he held his arm in a vice-like grip, the pain in his features more etched than ever. “We wanted to talk to your sister, but after a rather unpleasant encounter last night, we decided to resort to a more direct approach.”

“Wait, so you two do know each other?” Max looked to his sister, noticing her eyes narrow and her grip on the fire poker tighten.

“Hardly. According to him, I’m some lost princess that needs to end war or something.”

“Actually it's just toppling a dictator.” Elsie pointed the poker at Henrick accusingly, silencing him.

“Look, Henry-”

“Henrick actually-”

“Whatever the fuck your name is, I don’t care who you are! You have no right to be speaking at this moment, so how about you shut up before you join your friend over there!” Henricks's face paled, as he glanced over at the still unconscious body of his protector. 

“Look, I get that you are both angry, but I don't want to hurt you, or anyone. I just want to help my world! Please, just hear me out!” Henrick pleaded, desperate for some sign of belief. 

Narrowed eyes once again fixed on Henrick, however, these eyes were less piercing, a more analytical sense dominating the forest green of the irises. 

Max continued to stare for a few more seconds, before finally succumbing to the pleading. “Alright,” he sighed, walking closer to Henrick. “I don’t know why, but for some reason I trust you.”

Else took a step forward, appalled by her brother's statement. “Max are you kidding me?! We can’t trust this kid!”

“Elsie let me finish,” Max said, raising a hand to console her. “As I was saying, I believe that you didn't intend to hurt us, what you said a few minutes ago during that whole scuffle was enough to convince me of that; however, this does not excuse the fact that you broke into our house.” 

Max walked back to Elsie and grabbed the fire poker from her hand, pointing it towards Henrick. “So here is what we're gonna do. I’ll let you say what you want to say ok?”

Henrick breathed a sigh of relief, finally, he could try and persuade the princess. “Thank you that's-”

“However!” Max stressed, the poker keeping Henrick at a respectable distance. “When you are done, you will leave, understand?”

Henrick gave a quick nod, before Max backed away, giving Henrick half of the room to plead his case. 

“Ok. So if you really want to know what I have to say, why don’t I start from the beginning. My name is Prince Henrick of Fretan. I am the youngest son born to the throne, and one of the two royal children born with magical powers that are prophesied to defeat a dictator named Mordal. About 15 years ago, a young girl was born around the same time I was, sealing the prophecy as she was the princess of another country, Morena. 

“So… you think that my sister is your lost princess?” Max said, piecing together the information that he had just been given. 

“That’s what I believe, yes,” Henrick said, pulling out a small orb from the bag at his side. Elsie and Max stiffened, unsure of what Henrick would do next. Sensing their unease, Henrick gently set the orb on the ground, snapping his figures to reveal an image of a dark night and a cloaked figure clutching a bundle of blankets in his arm. 

“Only a few years after Mordal seized power, he learned of the prophecy, and of the children that had been born to the royal families. Fearing that he may one day lose his power, Mordal sent men to capture the royal babies. They succeeded in capturing the princess, but not me; thanks to Mordal, we knew he attained a potion that sent her to another world.”

“Well, I must say that that was very convincing, Prince Henrick, however, there are a few flaws with your story,” Max said, unimpressed by the boy's story. “First, if you're from another world, how did you get here? Secondly, how do you really know that this princess is Elsie?”

“Two valid questions, with two simple answers,” Henrick said, reaching once again into the bag, pulling out a small rune etched onto yellowed parchment. Along with it came a small disk that Henrick tapped twice revealing the small object that had flown into Elsie, the shiny disk hovering next to Henrick, awaiting orders. 

“This is what we used to find Elsie. It’s a tracker that senses magical emissions. Since the prophecy specifies that the girl is supposed to be magical, it stood to reason that we could use this.” He whispered to the device which zoomed across the room, settling in front of Elsie, to the satisfaction of Henrick.

“Apparently it works. As for travel, we used these.” Henrick said, flourishing the yellowing paper. 

“And what is that supposed to be, you magical bus pass?” Elsie quipped. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what that is,” Henrick said dismissively, tucking the paper and other objects delicately back in his satchel. Elsie glowered at Henrick for a few more seconds before a lightbulb went off in her head. 

“What. You said that the princess was magic, yes?” Henrick looked up from his packing, curious as to where this was headed.

“Well, she’s supposed to have magic, yes.”

Elsie laughed. “Well, then there you have it! I can’t be your princess! Last time I checked, I can't do spells!” 

Henrick was confused. “Ummm… yeah you can.”

“No, I can’t princey boy.”

“Yes, you can. I saw you do it! Remember when you yelled stop in the airport? That was magic! I saw a piece of technology that only responds to MY VOICE obey your commands!”

Elsie considered the point. After everything that Henrick had said, she had to concede that there was something off, but she wasn't going down without a fight. “Prove it.”

“What?!” Max and Henrick cried out, shocked by the request. 

“You heard me,” Elsie said, standing her ground. “Prove that I’m magic. If you can do that, then we both know you're not lying. Prove that I'm magic and I’ll come with you.”

Max stood in stunned silence, unable to convey how bad an idea he thought this was. Henrick on the other hand smirked. 

“Fine. I can agree to those rules. But if I prove you wrong, I trust you’ll keep your end of the bargain.” 

“Oh trust me I will,” Elsie chuckled as Henrick called the small disk back to his side.

“Triggering magic is actually very easy,” Henrick explained as if this wager was merely a board game. “All one needs is a spike in emotion and the magic is triggered by it, just like how adrenaline is triggered by panic. So, to see if you have magic, all we have to do is make you emote.” 

The room fell silent. No one felt like there was much else to be said. Now was the moment of truth, and every person in the room (who was conscious) was eager for the results. 

Henrick glared down at Elsie, the small silver disk at his side.

“You know. I never thought it would be this hard to convince you” With a snap of his fingers, the small silver disk launched forward… 

Headed directly for Max’s head.