Fun fact: I name these chapters at 2 or 3 in the morning without any other prior thought.

I wonder if you can tell.

Whatever. We're just getting started :)

Remember this guy? I sure don't...

Edit: UHH side note from the author here. Some of the comments on paragraphs have some spoilers for the end of the chapter!! It's not that big I don't think but if you don't want to see it, I'd advise you to not take a look at the comments until the end <3

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Hat Kid stared in stunned silence, and Subcon's lost prince stared back.

Or at least she thought he was staring back. It was hard to tell where he was truly looking with his vivid yellow pupilless eyes.

A moment later, he turned away. "This way," was all he said before he started walking.

She gaped at him, but he made no signs of stopping or turning back. Was he kidding? What was with his sudden abruptness? "H-hey!" she yelled, but he didn't respond. With a huff, Hattie headed down the path, jogging to catch up.

As she moved, she looked around her. The room was definitely different now. They were now in an open space with a clear sky view- no longer vibrant and swollen with color but gray and cloudy. Everywhere she looked around, she could see destroyed buildings. Remnants of a village stood still as the surrounding foliage and forest crept and ate the ruins. The grasses were long and sickly, and the houses were shot through with thorns and mud.

However, the path she was walking on was perfectly intact, and flowers surrounded the walkway. She trailed her eyes to the prince and realized that the road before him was decrepit. As he moved, pavers resettled themselves, colors became just a bit brighter, and flowers surfaced from the ground and bloomed in his wake.

Huh. Hattie made a face. It looked like something out of a cheesy fairytale.

Finally, she was walking in tandem with the prince. He paid her no glance or attention. "Where are we going?" she asked him.

"You need to collect Rift Pons to get out of the rift," he said, not looking down at her. "Their locations are hidden. I will help you find them."

His words were clipped, and his voice was hesitant. Hat Kid shied away a little, disturbed. There was something odd about him, but it was hard to put her finger on exactly why. It was almost like he was...incomplete. Like he was missing something.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked, trying to take her mind off that. "You didn't want to be saved."

The prince replied in that awkward tone of his. "You chose me to be your guide. I must help a person in need, even if it goes against my honor to be free." After a moment's pause, he added, "I can always chain myself back up."

Hattie furrowed her brow. "Why would you do that?" she asked, bewildered.

"I deserve it."

Hat Kid wasn't sure whether to argue or stay silent. Whatever the heck was going on with him wasn't any of her business. Then again, this was a time rift, and she just spoke to a time anomaly. Maybe it was her business. She'd entered this creepy place voluntarily. The least she deserved was to interact with everything and find out more.

Before she could say anything, the prince suddenly changed direction and walked off the path. Hattie halted and stared after him, but he kept going. Quietly, she groaned and tailed after him.

He stopped in front of a mostly intact building, preserved by the vines and ivy creeping down the walls. "There's one in here," he said, not looking back at Hat Kid.

"...cool." As she moved past him, she glanced up at his face. He remained expressionless. Hattie shivered and shoved the door open.

It opened easily, despite the plants entangling it. Hat Kid crept into the room and immediately spotted the glowing gold rift pon in the middle of the floor. Her shoulders relaxed just slightly. Well, that wasn't too difficult. Hopefully, the rest of the rift would be like this.

As she collected it, another glimmer caught her eye. Following the light, she noticed a shimmering notebook page hidden in the corner of the building. Hat Kid grinned and snatched that.

She exited the building with treasures in her pocket. When the prince saw she was finished, he turned sharply and wordlessly headed back to the path. Hat Kid rolled her eyes. As she caught up, she spared the building one last glance.

The overgrowth had disappeared. Now the only plants nearby were arrays of flowers set out neatly in pots and bouquets. It looked like the storefront for a lovely flower shop.

Hattie stayed at the prince's side again and looked up at him. He was silent. She didn't like the eerie feeling of his golden gaze pinpointed on something in the distance that she couldn't see. "What's your name?" she asked.

He started to answer but hesitated. A slight expression of concern crossed his face; it was the most emotion he'd shown so far. "I don't remember."

Hattie frowned, disappointed. "Really?" she asked.

"Nobodies don't need names," was all he responded with.

"You're not a nobody," Hat Kid grumbled, looking at the ground. "You're a prince. That's not nobody."

He finally looked at her. Started and turned his head to glance at her as if startled by what she said. The prince didn't answer, just gazed at her with wide eyes. For a moment, he almost looked human.

Then his head snapped up, he changed direction, and made his way off the path again. In a single moment, any hopes of making a connection with this odd soul were broken, and he went back to being clipped, strange, and incomplete.

He led her to a well, letting her know a second rift pon was in there. Hattie shuddered and glared at the all-too-familiar well, but luckily, she found it to be ice-free and innocently shallow. As she collected the pon, the distant ringing of the rift's hatch opening echoed through her ears. Finally, she could leave.

Another storybook page was hiding just behind the well. She collected that too.

She returned to the prince, and he turned around and set off down the path. In the direction they'd come from.

"Hey!" Hat Kid called, stomping her feet and staying rooted to the spot. "Why are we going backward?"

She couldn't hear whether or not he responded because his back was to her, and he was moving away.

Rude, she thought with indignance. Why should she ever trust a terrible guide like that? She rolled her eyes and continued down the road, growing the distance between her and the prince more and more.

Honestly, what was with this stupid place? Hat Kid kicked at the ground as she walked, taking out her annoyances on the time rift. It was too linear and too confusing at the same time. Why did she need a guide to get through here? It was perfectly straightforward- she could get through here herself!

Whatever the prince thought, going back the way they just came was not the answer. Maybe he wasn't thinking at all. Hat Kid's mind wandered back to his stiff voice and his fragmentary replies to her questions. There wasn't something right about him.

It just proved her point. This rift was dumb and weird, and she needed to get out of here as soon as poss-

Her foot, instead of hitting the ground, fell further down into oblivion. Her eyes shot open as her body tilted forward, and she came face to face with a vast, endless chasm. Everything rushed out of her as she fell-

Only to rudely jerk back into place as she suddenly stopped, something catching the back of her cape. For a single, rushing second, Hat Kid hung over hundreds of thousands of feet of doom, completely helpless.

She was pulled back and set down gently on solid ground. She took a deep breath, just to remember if she could, and struggled to keep her balance.

A hand around her shoulders steadied her. Hat Kid glanced up at whoever had saved her.

It was the prince. Despite her near-death experience, his expression remained as blank as ever. "I said because that way lies imminent death," he murmured.

Hat Kid glared at him. She straightened herself up, fighting her shaking legs. "Well, I didn't hear you," she huffed. "Because you had your back to me." When her guide remained remorseless, her scowl worsened. "Didn't you say you had to help me? You're a pretty crappy guide."

What a thing to say to someone who just saved your life. Hat Kid flinched slightly, regretting her words a moment after they were said.

The prince remained infuriatingly unbothered. "Oh. I will do better." All of this was said without the slightest sign of emotion. Again he turned and headed down the path.

She followed him this time. "Why are we going back this way?" she asked.

"This place is labyrinthine," he answered. "It's meant to break anyone who doesn't know their way around."

Stupid rift, she thought bitterly. She didn't say anything out loud.

With no other detours down the path, they returned to the beginning quickly. The hatch was hidden behind the starting area, isolated by floating islands with thin stepping stones leading to it. The lid swung open as Hattie approached. She dove in eagerly, hand in hand with the prince.

The next room led the two to an open field, overshadowed by an all-too-familiar manor. Hat Kid stared at it and swallowed hard.

A yawning chasm separated them from the majestic, eerie building. Hattie wasn't sure whether to be glad or upset. The break in the ground was too far to jump across, even with a running start or a double jump. There was no possible way to get across it.

Unless...

Hat Kid glanced back at the person who actually knew their way around the rift. "How do we..." she trailed off, noticing his head in his hands. That couldn't be good. Was the manor bringing back bad memories or something? "Um. Princey?"

"Hm?" His head snapped up. His eyes were different- almost normal, setting the tone for the rest of his fearful face. The yellow had faded to just his irises. Hat Kid stared. What the-?

"How do we get across this?" she asked, gesturing at the split.

His eyes tracked to the ravine. "Elliot," he answered.

"What." Hat Kid blinked. Man, he really is weird. Did he hit his head on the way through the hatch? She wondered.

"You asked what my name was earlier," he explained. He lowered his hands, calm returning to his expression again. "I remembered a moment ago. It's Elliot."