The Coffee House

"Aliana?!" Kyle cried shocked. "I don't wanna go with her!" he whined as they headed off to the docks.

"The feeling is mutual," Aliana grumbled, as she grasped tightly onto Kyle, to prevent her from escaping. She was cursing inside - but, Nestor had made it clear that this was her punishment for shrinking him two days ago, when he forced her to spend the entire day in her room reading.

Fortunately, the trio made it down to the docks without any real mishaps. They then found that the next ship to Light Kingdom was due to arrive in half an hour's time - but, until then, there was little to do, so they just stood in awkward silence for a couple of minutes, before Hefwyn spoke up.

"So, you children got any better ideas for something to do? Because I'm gettin' bored already."

"You know I don't need to be held, I'm not going anywhere. I mean I WANT to go to the Light Kingdom." Kyle said rolling his eyes.

"How can we trust what you say?" Aliana countered, rolling her eyes. "Not long ago, you were saying that you were Jake. But, I agree with Hefwyn: I'm getting bored just standing here. So, perhaps we could play a quick game of I Spy?"

Hefwyn sighed, but nodded reluctantly. "Well, okay, I guess it's better than nothing. So, I suppose I'll have to start. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with W."

Kyle rolled his eyes.”That was cause I wanted to get on the boat...” he grumbled before smirking. “Is it the giant whale of a mermaid next to me?”

"HEY!" Aliana growled angrily, as she shrunk Kyle to the size of a pea. "How giant am I now????"

Hefwyn sighed, and forced Aliana to return Kyle to his usual side. "Well, he was right....kind of. You weren't the whale I had in mind, but I did see a whale. See that fin in the distance?" 

After Hefwyn pointed at the splashing fin on the horizon, he turned to Kyle. "So, you can do the next one if you want."

Kyle stuck his tongue out at Aliana, before looking around. Shortly after he spoke again. “I spy something that dooks!”

Instead of answering the question directly, Aliana simply burst out laughing, as she recalled an amusing incident from her youth.

"A ferret!" she called out, as she finally calmed down. "I released one into Dad's room once, and he was so shocked that he tumbled over and knocked Mum's vase on the floor! It wasn't even a real ferret: it was just Andy in Dook-O-Vision. So, he took the blame for it, and had to buy new flowers for Mum, to replace the ones that Dad knocked over! It was so embarrassing for him ..."

Kyle shook his head. “So even then you were still mean...” he said with a frown.

"Only to Dad and Andy!" Aliana pouted, looking away and wagging her tail in disgust. "They don't count, because they're idiots ."

Aliana was so angry that she refused to speak to Kyle or Hefwyn until the ship arrived - so, they simply sat in total silence for the next half an hour, until, at last, a small galley with two masts pulled into the harbour, where they were sitting. The blue and white flag on the main mast indicated that it was travelling to Light Kingdom.