She saw them: A man and a young girl laid face down on the grass clearing.

The man groaned, moved and managed to push himself into sitting position before rushing to check on the little girl lying next to him.

The girl groaned, sat up with the help of the man. She looked at the man and started sobbing.

The man held her, and after a few second, he helped her to stand up.

"You guys ... who?" stuttered Airin as she tried to keep some sanity within her. Has she gone mad? What had she just witnessed? Who were these people?

The man startled by her voice, pulled the little girl closer to him, and walked slowly toward Airin. But the little girl sobbed harder, and he decided to carry her into his arms. His right hand rested on the back of the little girl's head as the girl buried her face in his neck, crying in short gasps of breath. It was obvious he was protecting the little girl in his embrace.

He walked closer, his gait was slow and shaky, possibly he was injured.

She could see them more clearly now.

The man was young, maybe just a couple years older than her, dressed like he just stepped out of some sort of Game of Thrones movie set. All-black high-collared clothes, black pants, and black cape.

He was tall, muscular build, with wavy dark hair to his shoulder, blue eyes that stood in complete contrast with his jet black hair, and stubby moustache and beard that formed shadowy areas around his jaws, chin and below his nose area.

A tattoo of a character that Airin could not decipher – some sort of a symbol in black – was in the middle of his forehead. Intense otherwordly air surrounded him with the tattoo that made him so foreign, unknown, and far away.

The little girl was maybe only about five or six years old, with platinum blond hair braided like a tail down her back, thin build, and pale skin that looked almost luminous.

Airin froze. Her mind was rushing with all kinds of possible scenarios, but her feet seemed like they had planted themselves on the ground. Her mind with all the scary scenarios told her to run, but her heart prevented her.

And this time, her heart won.

The man kept walking closer to Airin, and that freaked her out. "Stop! Don't move closer!" she shouted as she put her arms in front of her.

She shook her head, and the man stopped walking. "Shit ... this is beyond crazy ...who are you two? What is that thing? That well? You guys just shot out!" Airin tried to maintain some semblance of composure but her flailing arms as she talked in rapid fire sentence betrayed any effort to be calm.

She failed. She sounded rather hysterical actually.

The man seemed to tighten his embrace on the little girl, her thin body now looked like it sunk deeper, disappearing in his solid arms while her back still heaved up and down from sobbing.

He stared at Airin unblinked with those captivating blue eyes. He stood still, but the shake on his legs showed that he was trying to withstand some sort of pain.

"I am Xander of Halgard. This girl ... is Princess Lyanna of Halgard, my niece ..." he spoke with a deep voice that was both commanding and calming. "I do not come to harm you. I promise ... " he continued with a slight nod of his head.

"Is this some sort of a joke? A prank? Princess? Are you guys from the Game of Thrones movie set? Hidden camera thing? You know? To prank people?" Airin whispered, more to herself.

The man coughed and fresh blood trickled down the corner of his mouth.

"You are injured!" blurted Airin, and the blood was enough to convince Airin to step a bit closer.

At that moment, the little girl turned toward her, and Airin was taken aback. The girl, addressed as Princess Lyanna by Xander, was beautiful. Pale complexion, almond-shaped green eyes, and the platinum blond braided hair made her look somewhat like a fairy.

"Please trust us. We do not come to harm you," Xander spoke, his breath was heavier and his body shook.

Princess Lyanna came to stand by herself now and she looked at Airin wide eyed, with lips that shivered in fear and tear-stained cheek, and she opened her mouth to say, "Please. My uncle Xander has fought hard and is wounded from the battle. Please do not shun us."

Airin worked with young children for years, and she knew she could trust her gut about their honesty. Princess Lyanna was honest and she could not deny it.

She decided to trust Xander and Lyanna.

"Come, Lyanna," she stepped closer and extended her hand to the girl. Lyanna nodded and took her hand. Airin could feel the warm soft flesh of her palm. Lyanna is for sure a human, Airin thought for herself.

Suddenly a gentle quake shook Airin and she saw the glowing well disappeared like a wisp of fog in the sun.

"What the ..." she turned around and watched her surrounding now.

She was back in The Greens. They were next to the manmade-lake where dogs could dip and splash around. That lake was about 2km from the entrance of the park, and Airin was sure she had not run that far earlier before she found herself in a circular rows of trees leading to the white stone well. The well that now she was sure was some sort of an enchanted well.

"What is your name, Miss? Like I said earlier, I am Xander of Halgard ... " Xander struggled to finish his sentence and his body shivered.

Airin took a deep breath, calmed herself a bit,"I am Airin ... of ... Wonderville Heights ..." sounded stupid but too bad, she had already said it out loud.

"Airin of Wonderville Heights, thank you for trusting us. We do not mean you any harm," Xander stared at her, and Airin realized the man's blue eyes was so clear she could feel the soul behind it. What beautiful color of the eyes! Is it electric blue? she could not stop herself from staring.

"I am hungry, Uncle Xander," Lyanna tugged at Xander's black cape.

"Xander, I can see you are wounded, and Lyanna is hungry. Look, the two of you ... just ... come to my place. It's not far from here. And Xander, you have a lot to tell me about ... about what's all this. But let's go ..." Airin took a deep breath and a leap of faith.

Xander caught his breath, and nodded as he grabbed Lyanna's hand. "Thank you," a whisper that was loud enough for Airin to hear.

Airin froze for a couple seconds as she tried to piece together what had just happened and failed.

Lightning flashed, and followed by thunder that growled from some distance away. Autumn thunderstorm was on its way.

"Let's ... let's go ..." she bit her lips and started walking. How about if this is some sort of a sick serial killer, or kidnapping, or robbery, or all of the above, scheme? Suddenly the thought came to her and she stopped. Xander and Lyanna stopped a few meters behind her with a slight confusion at her sudden pause.

"I have done really stupid thing before, on a whim, I hope this one won't take the prize as the stupidest thing I have ever done," Airin turned around and stared at Xander straight. Sean came hurtling back into her mind. Her mind was not in its right place, she knew that. But to help these two beings in need surely wouldn't count as stupid?

Xander nodded his understanding. "I understand, Miss Airin. I thank you for your trust of us. For this, I will lay down my life for you in return ..."

"Wow! It's cool ... it's fine, Xander. You sounded like you'd die for me. Let's go. By the way, just Airin is fine," Airin wanted to smile at how serious Xander looked and sounded, but realized Xander did not mean it as a joke.

The walk from the Greens back home was surreal to say the least.

Lyanna screamed and cried when she saw cars, and Xander had to carry her from that point on.

But Xander was as calm as ever, as if he had expected to see what he was seeing now in this world.

He walked, carrying Lyanna, a few steps behind Airin. His tall solid body with all dark clothes did attract some attention. They came across some half-drunk women wearing tiara, one of them wore a long bridal veil. They had just stepped out of a nightclub from an obviously rambunctious bachelorette party, and they stared at Xander, giggled among themselves as they walked closer to him.

"Hey, cutie! What's your name?!" one of them screamed as she struggled to stand straight on her stiletto. Xander did not answer and kept walking, staring straight ahead. The women laughed and went staggering away.

Airin decided to take a little detour to avoid busy roads seeing how uncomfortable Lyanna was with cars. They walked across a small park, into a tunnel in the park, the locals called it "The Artsies."

The well-lit tunnel was busy with people passing, stopping, and watching because on the left and right side of the tunnel were rows of artists performing their arts. Some played musical instruments, some painted, some danced, some created street drawing from colourful chalk. The tunnel was humming with activities.

Rousing claps were heard once in a while from the bystanders for different artists who had just performed successful feats or finished their piece well.

Xander stopped. He lowered Lyanna, and just stood still. His eyes widened, his breath was fast, and sweats broke on his forehead. It was almost as if he was surprised to see all the artists and their works.

"Are you alright?" Airin had to ask. "You have never seen artists before? In your ... homeland?" Airin was not sure what to say.

Xander did not answer. His eyes now darted to the different art performance, then he looked up several times as if he was looking for something above him.

Airin found that strange. The intense reaction of Xander in the tunnel and the clear mesmerization in his eyes to the whole happening in the arts tunnel. But she kept it to herself.

They continued walking. Xander was clearly still taken by the whole arts scenes, he would slow down and watch the paintings on the ground, or just staring at the musicians happily playing their music. While Lyanna grabbed his hand tight and walked without any word.

The rest of the walk home was uneventful. Lyanna finally felt safe enough to walk by herself, thought she was still startled by the passing cars. While Airin tried to convince herself that she was not going nuts, even though she just rescued two people who shot out of a shining well.

She hoped, truly hoped, that she had not made another one of her stupid mistakes.