How does the Prince see the Kids? And how does Hat Girl see the Prince, knowing what his fate is and all?
When he first saw the Snatcher asking for advice from these two little girls, he didn’t know what to think. He knew spirits and children often had a special connection. Children were so genuine and innocent it practically made them beacons for spirits to flock to. Unfortunately, it also made them easy targets. At first, he was nervous what a soul-stealing brute like Snatcher was doing with two tiny little girls. They couldn’t have been older than ten.
But then he heard one of them use a word like “indefatigable” with the correct context and everything (the bow girl seemed to be bouncing off the walls after meeting him). They seemed to be grasping complex topics. He even got into an in-depth conversation with Hat Kid (she had insisted he call her that) about the ancient history of the Subcon. Even when he covered the political side of things she seemed to cling to every word he spoke and grasp it all without issue. He felt like a school teacher, answering her questions about key figures and old traditions to the best of his knowledge. Which, thanks to his many hours spent in his father’s library, was a lot.
Bow Kid, another insisted upon nickname, also showed her own signs of brilliance; despite being the opposite of Hat Kid in almost every way. While Hat Kid was quiet and observant, Bow was a loud sort, curious and not afraid to be blunt. She did not show as much interest in history as Hat Kid had, but he did catch her doing math equations in one of the Snatcher’s open notebooks. He was no mathematician, but he was pretty sure she was working on physics. Bloody, physics. When asked about it, she blushed and brushed it off as if it were nothing and then rapidly changed the subject by asking him about what it was like to be a prince. Switching right back to her bubbly childish nature as if she wasn’t doing advanced college-level math right there in front of him.
These girls were smart. If they were back in his time, they would have been prodigies. He was impressed, but he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, he had seen their eyes.
Eyes were the window to the soul. At least, that was how the saying went. When looking into their eyes, he could tell they were very old souls indeed. Behind the light of innocence, he could see the deeper pools of responsibility and mature understanding. They were childish, but he could tell.
These two tiny little girls were harboring many secrets.
Hat Kid loved stories. Preferably the ones that had happy endings. This story, however, she was afraid to see the ending.
The Prince was so nice. It was hard to wrap her mind around the fact that both he and Snatcher were the same person sometimes. She hated not being able to tell him about his inevitable fate. Not that anything was preventing her. She was just… Scared. She didn’t want to get yelled at. She had already gotten plenty of that while stranded here. The Prince was the first nice adult on this planet who wasn’t out to kill her for any reason. So, she had kind of grown attached.
She hated that she had grown attached.
It was only going to make goodbye so much harder.
She wasn’t going to give up on him.
He was a Splinter, now. There was no way he could go back to his own time now. He had changed too much. He couldn’t just slot back into the timeline without major ripples being sent out. This was far beyond her own power to fix, but she had to try something. She wished an adult from her planet had been with her. They would have known what to do. Actually, no, scratch that. They probably would have just straight-up reported the walking talking temporal anomaly to the CEO and then he’d be SUPER dead.
She needed to find a loophole, and soon.
The sand in the hourglass was still falling. She still had time. It was secure back on her ship and as long as it wasn’t disturbed the Prince would be fine. His presence would be preserved until the sand ran out.
She’s worked during a time constraint before. She could do this, hopefully.
Hat Kid only wanted a happy ending.
