Who's This? (Chapter 3)

I was awakened by a loud cry for help. Bleary-eyed, I looked around until I found the source of the noise. A boy, probably around 18, had somehow gotten himself stuck upside down in a tree. He was hanging by the bottom of his pants, which had hooked onto the tree somehow. I seriously wondered how his pants hadn’t fallen off yet.
I rubbed my eyes and tried to clear them as I walked to the tree, looking up at the boy.
“Please! Help me!” he cried. I stared for a while and then began to speak.
“Can you reach up and grab the branch that your pants are hooked on?”
“I already tried that, but when I do that, my pants rip a little more at where it’s hooked.” I gave a sigh. I really didn’t want to waste any more energy than necessary for I knew I would need it later. But I couldn’t think of any other way to help the boy, so I raised my arms and slowly used them to help guide the lifting process.
He slowly floated into the air and as I moved him down to the ground, I turned his body so that he would land feet first and not head first, for I had landed head first once and believe me, that was not fun. His legs were a little unsteady, but once he had gotten his bearings, he smiled and walked over to where I was.
“Thanks for helping me. My name’s Xion. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You’re welcome. It’s nice to meet you too. Call me Faalan.”
We shook hands as I inspected Xion. He was shorter than me (a lot of people were since I was pretty tall), well built, with high cheek bones and fair skin that made him look slightly elven. His vibrant red hair was tied into a pony-tail at his neck and shaggy bangs nearly covered his mischevious emerald eyes.
“So, Faalan? What brings you here?” Xion asked curiously.
“I should be asking you the same.” I replied, smiling a bit.
“Well, if you answer, I’ll answer.”
“You answer first.”
“No, you.”
“You.”
“Fine.” He pouted and then grinned before he answered.
“According to my mother, my father is the time traveler who lives in the mountains. I wouldn’t normally care about such details, but I want to marry this girl and...” At this point, his eyes had gotten dreamy, probably thinking about his love. I resisted the urge to glare at him as I was harshly reminded of Fala.
“...her father wants my father’s consent to the marriage before he will give his own consent.” Xion finished.
“I guess it’s my turn to explain why I’m here.” I quickly skimmed through my memories before picking out a couple of details that wouldn’t give too much away.
“My sister used her gift to bring this girl from the future into our time. My sister died, and shortly after, I fell in love with the girl, but she had to return to her time. I wanted to follow her to her time but my sister came to send only Fala back. She wouldn’t let me go to her time. So now I’m trying to find a way to get there.”
“So Fala’s the name?” Xion inquired, a twinkle in his eyes. I hadn’t meant to say her name, but I guess it slipped.
“Yes.” I said finally, after trying to decide whether or not to deny it.
“So we’re both trying to find the time traveler in the mountains there, right?” I nodded, and he continued.
“Why don’t we travel together? That way we can watch each others’ backs. Besides, it’s a long, lonely journey.”
“Sure, I could always use a travelling companion.” I didn’t really want to travel with Xion, since I didn’t exactly trust him at the moment, but it was a bit safer. So I hoped anyways.
What I mostly worried about was if he found out that I had been involved with the whole di Zuce incident. People were still twitchy about the event and news spread like wildfire. If he found out, he might choose to kill me. Even though I wasn’t the di Zuce, I had been his friend for a long time.
Xion began to walk off towards the mountains, and grabbed his shoulder before he got too far.
“What?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Are we going through the forest or around?”
“Uh... Through? Duh?”
“It’s more dangerous that way.”
“But it’s shorter. C’mon. Don’t be chicken.” He began to walk off again towards the menacing-looking forest.
“Fine, but it’s your funeral.” I sighed, shaking my head, following him towards the forest.

AN: I'm kinda hating the fact that I created Xion, but I needed comic relief! Gaaaaaahhhhh...