#astra02

That was a few hours ago, and now she was bored. Boredom was not something that sat well with Alice. She flipped through the guidebook at least a hundred times and couldn’t settle on a single thing. Eventually she gave up and sat in the middle of the hotel lobby, staring at one of the chandeliers. “What is one to do....” she mumbled, not really caring if anyone heard her.

To say that Bambi had been shocked when he got back to Astra, was an understatement. Silas was back, he’d flown all the way from his hometown and then had been the matter of frickin’ Barcelona. They were in Barcelona. He’d been there before, of course, with his father, but never as a tourist! The moment he’d got off the plane, he hadn’t cared about the jetlag and gulped down anything that contained a good amount of sugar: he was living on a sugar rush and it was great. It was amazing. Barcelona was very colourful this way ━ and something in particular stood out. Ariel and her red hair. Through his hype, Bambi remembered their little conversation at the fair, and that she knew sign language, so he skipped over to her ━ sunglasses almost falling off his face ━ and frantically signed. Hi Ariel! Your hair is so pretty in the sunlight. How are you doing? Do you want to come explore?

At least, that was what he’d wanted to sign. It came out all wrong and all he could do was giggle ━ she probably hadn’t understood a word he tried to convey.

Bambi was on cloud nine. Not because he was in love, but because he felt like he’d met his platonic soulmate. Rachel was a true delight to be around and they’d consumed a fair amount of sugar together. Their conversations had gone everywhere, and at one point, Bambi’d had to put on calming classical music a few times because his heart was beating way too fast with excitement, which wasn’t good for him. He couldn’t help it, though: Rachel’s excitement was contagious and, he had the feeling, so was his. When the plane landed, Bambi clapped, and he couldn’t wait to dig into his suitcase for the flower crown he’d made her. Once he got to their luggage, he dug into the case immediately. “Okay, hold on, I think it’s in here somewhere!”