A Dream?

“-kay.” Lubic looked around and found himself once again in the park, sitting on the wooden bench he had stopped at to people watch.

“Wow, it really was all a dream!” he said aloud. A couple that was walking by gave him weird looks, then pointedly looked away. But Lubic didn’t care; he got up and stretched, then headed back to his house. He glanced at his watch, wondering how long he had slept, but found the hands were no longer moving. “Huh. I guess the battery died.”

“Are you ready to talk now, Lubic?” a familiar voice called out to him. He looked up from his watch to find a blonde woman blocking his path.

Oh no, it’s the quack! He thought about just ignoring her, but decided that he really should talk, if only to get rid of her more quickly. “I don’t have anything more to say to you.”

“So you are still denying what you are? Even after your fun adventure with time? And with an alien woman?” Mikala demanded.

“What are you talking about? How do you know about my dream?”

“Lubic, that is what we have been trying to tell you! This is no dream!”

“Have you even heard yourself talk? Adventures with time? Aliens? How can it be anything but a dream? Alien women don’t wander through parks in real life! And if aliens really did exist, they wouldn’t be that hot!”

She rolled her eyes. “What did I get that poor girl into?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you think you put the call out to her? Of course not! I was hoping that someone more alien looking could help convince you that this is real. Obviously I was wrong! You humans are all the same! Stubborn, disbelieving morons!”

“Wait a second. Are you trying to tell me that you’re not human?” Lubic began slowly inching past her.

“There can be only one human Starlord or Spacelord. That is the rule.”

“You really are a quack!” He turned and jogged away.

“Why do I even try?” Mikala muttered angrily to herself, glaring after his retreating back.

*

It was ten minutes later when Lubic finally made it back to his house. He slammed the door behind him, cursing under his breath on his way to the shower.

“Lubic?” his grandmother called from the living room. “Lubic, aren’t you going to say hello?”

“What? Oh sorry grandma,” he backtracked, poking his head around the corner. Mary was seated on the leather sofa with a young girl. “Hello?”

“Lubic, I want you to meet Elara,” Mary smiled at him.

Lubic turned to regard the other woman in shock. “Elara?”

She looked up at him, her green eyes peering shyly up at him from a tangle of dark hair. “Hello uncle.”

The Timekeeper

“-stop. Time shall revert to normal!”

Lubic glanced at Azalyn and Jaleesa, but found that they weren’t there. In fact, he seemed to be somewhere else entirely, in a room that was completely shrouded in shadows. Yet he could see his hands just fine. It was like being in a shadow mist: he could not see anything a few feet in front of him.

“And I almost believed that crazy broad when she told me this wasn’t a dream,” Lubic muttered to himself. “Hello? Is anybody there?”

There was a vague humming noise, like the whisper of insect wings beating the air. Suddenly, a female voice whispered from the darkness, “Yes, Spacelord. I am here.”

“How many times do I have to say it, I’m not a Spacelord!”

There was a vague murmuring from all around him, agitated. “It is you who is in the wrong, Spacelord. Only a Spacelord can stop time, as you did.” A clear male voice rang out. The murmuring sounded like it agreed with the speaker.

“Hush,” the female voice whispered. The murmuring halted, although the humming still sounded. “It matters not what you think, young Lubic. What matters here is what you are. And, more importantly, what you did.”

“What did I do?”

“You stopped time!” the male rang out once again. Again the murmuring broke out.

“Why don’t you show yourselves?”

“Hush, my children,” the female whispered once again. “Spacelord, you are not yet ready to meet me. One day, perhaps. But for now, trust me, it is better this way.”

Lubic glanced around uneasily. “Alright. Well then, why am I here?”

“I am the Timekeeper. It is my job to keep time travelling smoothly. And, as we already said, you stopped time.”

“Wait a minute! How exactly do you keep time travelling smoothly?”

A sigh sounded from directly in front of him. “It is my job to fix whenever a Spacelord alters time. Once time is halted, it is a complicated matter to restart it. And when a Spacelord alters time, it is a complicated matter to untangle everything. That is why I am here: a neutral third party to sort out the messes and untangle everything. And by the same token, I am also here to help sort out disputes between Spacelords and Starlords, so they do not end in bloodshed.”

“So if you do all that, why am I here?”

“Well, I needed to stop you from making all of those decrees! You were getting out of hand! The universe can only take so much.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sorry I guess.”

“I do not expect you to be sorry. You do not even understand what is happening.” She paused as the murmuring sounded again, then just as quickly quieted. “It is done. I will send you back to your world. Just try not to mess with time again.”

“O-”