Distant Lands
The Ranch

Brother? Why did Damon call Ivan his brother? I hear footsteps from the room getting closer to the door, and I quickly turn around to walk away, but the door opens. I stop and turn to look at Ivan, embarrassed, “Oh, Ivan, I was...” I start to say.

“No, no, It’s okay. I wanted to have a word with you, Elizabeth. Please come in,” he says. He steps out of the doorway, and I follow him into the room.

“Please have a seat,” he says, signaling with his hand towards the couch. I sit down on the couch, and he sits across from me.

“How are you doing, Elizabeth? Have your injuries healed?” he asks.

“Yes, thanks to your technology, they have healed. I’m just a little sore,” I say, rubbing my shoulder. “How does that work, by the way?” I ask, curious.

“It’s called a regenerative healing machine. It speeds up the healing process,” he says.

“That’s amazing. You have to let me take one of those home with me,” I say.

“Maybe I should since you like to run into walls,” he says, smiling. I laugh.

“Hey! I was trying to get home. You’re the one who said that that was the way to get through the door,” I say.

“Yes, I did say that,” he says. He gets up and sits next to me on the couch.

I heard Ivan speak to Nathan about the council when I was eavesdropping. I’m pretty sure they are like the leaders in their government.

“Will the council kill me if they replace out I’m here?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Most likely, they won’t let you go home. You will have to live your life here,” Ivan says. That possibility scares the hell out of me. I refuse to stay here. I already feel homesick.

“Will I be in danger staying here at the Ranch?” I ask.

“As long as you stay here, you’ll be safe. The people here trust and respect me. They know they can’t speak of you when they are out in the City. Stalwart City is a high-tech City, some Divus, but mostly Lamia live in the City. You can wander outdoors too, but don’t get near the boundary of the Academy. And please don’t ram your head on the wall again; it won’t work. The doorway needs to be activated for it to work,” he says.

“Oh, that information would have been useful, thanks,” I say. There’s a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Ivan says, and Isa enters the room.

“Ethan said you were calling for me?” she asks.

“Yes, Isa, can you please show Elizabeth to her dorm room?” Ivan asks, ‘Elizabeth, let me know if you need anything,” Ivan says. I nod at him, and Isa excitedly comes over to me and locks elbows with me, “Come on Elizabeth,” she says, leading me out of the room. Isa leads me down a hallway, and she opens a door.

“This is your room,” she says. This room is way different than the recovery room. This room has large windows, similar to Ivan’s office. The walls are light blue. The bed is bigger and more comfortable looking—a dresser against a wall and a small desk near the window.

“I hope the room is to your liking,” she says.

“Yes, It’s great, thank you,” I say.

“Well, I’ll let you settle in,” she says. Isa turns to leave. I call out to her, and she turns to look at me, “If you don’t mind, can you stay with me for a little while?” I ask. Isa gives a big smile.

“I thought you wanted to be alone? Yes, of course, I can stay,” Isa says, jumping and laying on the bed. I sit next to her. I want to get more information, and Isa seems like a girl that likes to talk.

“Isa, do you know who Damon is?” I ask.

Isa looks at me, confused, “How do you know Damon? You, especially, should stay away from him. Gods forbid he gets a whiff of your blood; He will literally eat you,” she says. I feel the heat go up to my face and quickly think of another question to ask. “Is Damon Ivan’s brother?” I ask.

“Not by blood, but they did grow up together. Damon’s father was very fond of Ivan. Some people even say that he wished Ivan was also his son,” she says.

“Why did they grow apart?” I ask.

“They are still friends, but when Damon’s father passed away, Damon had to live with his grandfather, who was strict with Damon’s education; he forced Damon to follow a strict schedule, leaving no time for Damon and Ivan to spend time together like they used to,” she says.

Isa turns to lay on her stomach on the bed. “Then Ivan excelled in his studies and became a Guardian. But even then, Ivan showed Damon that he was still there for him. Over time they did start to grow apart. Ivan was busy at the Ranch, and Damon was busy running his businesses in the City,” she says.

“What about Ivan’s parents? Where Are they?” I ask. She lays back on her back she points up to the ceiling. I look up.

“They’re in the space station. They’ve been there for years. They travel to other worlds, protecting them, discovering, keeping the peace,” Isa says.

“All of this seems so unreal to me,” I say.

“Oh, one day, Earth will be in the game too once humans advance their technology. But some civilizations want to eliminate humans. They think you are too dangerous if you manage to discover space travel. But I don’t think so. Like your world, we have laws here too, and I’m sure your leaders will abide by them,” she says. I look at her doubtfully.

“I guess we would follow your laws. To a degree, we do work together back on Earth, but we can be quite selfish,” I say. She laughs.

“So can we. We are not perfect, and we’re not so different Elizabeth,” she says. She gets up, walks towards the large glass door, and opens it.

“Come on; I want to show you around,” she says.

I get up and walk outside. It’s a beautiful day today. The sun is out, but it’s not too warm. We walk towards the back of the building, and a beautiful garden greets me.

“Oh wow, it’s beautiful,” I say. Isa smiles proudly.

There’s a narrow river; both sides have pink cherry blossom trees. Next to the rows of trees, there’s a walkway that follows the direction of the river. Along the way, there are benches.

At the end of the river, there’s a bridge connecting both sides. The river extends up ahead into a lake. The garden has a beautiful landscape design with rocks and different grasses.

“The style of the garden looks familiar,” I say.

“We draw inspiration from the different worlds that we visit. Japanese gardens on Earth inspired this garden,” she says.

She grabs my hand, “Come on,” she says, leading me to another part of the property. It’s a large barn area. Out of the stables, Adira comes out mounted on a horse.

“Oh, there’s Adira. Hi Adira!” Isa calls out.

Adira looks at us, and the horse starts trotting towards us. Then Adira makes the horse gallop faster and faster, swiftly galloping right by us. Isa grabs my arm and yanks me out of the horse’s path.

“Hey! Watch it!” Isa yells out to her. Adira turns her head around to look back at us and smiles.

“What is her problem?” I ask, rubbing my arm. Isa sighs.

“She’s troubled and resentful. Her parents went to Earth on an assignment and unfortunately died in an accident. But Adira doesn’t believe that. She asked the council to keep investigating, but they denied her. And ever since, she has been more cold and distant,” she says.

“That explains why she looks at me with hate,” I say sadly. Isa looks at me and places an arm around my shoulders.

“Don’t mind her; she will warm up to you,” she says, leading me into the barn.

Inside the barn, there are horse stalls, some of them have horses, and some don’t. We walk towards the back of the barn, and Isa slides open a large barn door; we step outside.

“This is where we keep the smaller animals,” she says. There are pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, and cows corralled separately.

“We let them out to graze during the day, but at night we bring them back so that they can be safe,” she says.

“Um?” I say, confused, “So, this world has the same type of farm animals as we do?” I ask. Isa laughs.

“Oh, now I feel awkward. No, we didn’t have these types of animals. We acquired them from Earth,” she says.

“So, you stole a whole farm from us?” I ask in a serious tone of voice. Isa looks like she was caught stealing and looks down towards the ground.

I laugh, “I’m only joking; it’s okay, I understand,” I say.

“Oh,” Isa laughs, relieved, “I guess we owe you for these lovely animals,” she says.