The last thing that Amaryllis remembered was being surrounded by water. Now, as she drifted back into consciousness, the first thing she heard was the resounding laughter. Carefully, she opened her eyes, which burned slightly. A familiar smell came to her nostrils, but it was different. It smelled like in the hospital, or at least very similarly. At the very least, it was the smell of chemicals.

Finally, the princess opened her eyes fully and looked around. Tiles. Everywhere around her, from the walls as well as the ground, was covered with small white tiles. Aside from the laughter, she heard not only the water but felt how it moved around her. A glance backwards made it clear once and for all where she was – in a pool. The pool, at its edge she lay, filled a large part of the room. The somewhat warm water washed back and forth and also under her, drenching her fur. She also spotted Lyra and Auralia. The professor lay to her left while the filly’s saddlebags had become undone and now floated on the water.

“When you talk in here, it echoes!” Auralia called suddenly, her eyes still closed, the sound of paddling now reaching the changeling’s ears. As Amaryllis found out now, these words were directed not to her but to the human who sat with soaked clothing and bottle in his hand at a corner of the room.

Thiemo treated himself to a drink and groaned in relief. "I know! I used to sing here so much." He cleared his throat and began to sing: “~Freude schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium. Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum. Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng geteilt, Alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt~.”

Amaryllis didn’t understand a word Thiemo had sung, but she had to agree with him that the acoustics here were quite good. “~Wem der große Wurf gelungen, eines Freundes Freund zu sein, wer ein holdes Weib errungen, mische seinen Jubel ein!~” He paused, cheered, and took another drink. “~Ja – wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle weinend sich aus diesem Bund!~”

Amaryllis joined in with Auralia. They did not know from where, or why, but it was as though a gentle force was pushing them together with him. “~Freude schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium. Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum. Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng geteilt, alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt~”

“What was that?” Auralia asked as soon as they had stopped singing.

"German, another language on this planet. I hardly speak it, but I learned the Ode to Joy in school," Thiemo answered and held out the bottle to Amaryllis. She sniffed it and took a gulp of the sweet wine. "And this cost more than ten thousand pounds," he commented dryly and threw the empty bottle in the pool, after which Amaryllis levitated it back.

"Where are we?" Amaryllis stood up and shook herself to get rid of the burning feeling in her eyes. "Is this a bathhouse?"

"Hold on!" Thiemo also rose and went over to the door that Amy had overlooked before. Instead of going past the door, however, he pressed something that was right next to it. A humming sound started up, the room started to vibrate, and one of the walls suddenly began to lift upwards. Sunshine fell into the room otherwise only illuminated by weak artificial light, and they all looked at a large meadow with hedges and bushes that were cut in all possible forms. Birds flew between separate trees and, in the distance, a barn was to be seen. Blue sky stretched from as far as she could see, and only here and there seemed to be some clouds that looked to hang unusually high.

"Welcome. Welcome to Earth. More exactly, the basement cellar of my property."

"Come on!" Danielle Morgan pressed on the horn of her restored Beetle and let her head fall against the steering wheel. She was at an intersection in the midst of the long fields around Aberdeen. Before her was an old pickup loaded with ladders and other tools. The young woman had had a tiring morning behind herself. She had been called in at four o'clock in the morning to the Willis’ Farm because there had been complications with the birth of a calf, and then after that, she had to go to the Smiths’ farm to give all their horses a routine examination. All she wanted to do right now was to go home, curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and aspirin, and soak in as much peace as the fickle universe would graciously grant her.

Finally, she let out a frustrated cry and made a small off-road excursion round the pickup. Revving past, she glared at the driver. It was an older man who was whistling along with the radio. She honked again, even if the old man did not seem to hear it, and sped down the road. What bothered her most was that she now had to drive through a car wash again. And as she thought about that, she could use a shower too.

That what she yearned for was also not too far away, as she saw the towering roof of the property on top the hill. Her grandfather had acquired the property and the surrounding estates long ago and had been allowed to build a villa on the ruins of an ancient knight’s castle. Something that certainly had to have cost several million pounds itself fifty years ago. The old cellar had been transformed into a modern pool, even with a window wall that one could open and close if they so wished. The stairs were immediately on the left near the door and the bathroom that had been furnished with a shower.

"Oh yes, just the right thing,” murmured the red-haired veterinarian and came to the standstill before the gate to the property. "Where did I…" She rummaged through the glove compartment before she felt the desired object between her fingers. "There!" She pressed the button on the remote and the old grid gate before her Beetle opened. This was a newer installation that had only been decided on last year.

The last meters to the driveway were quickly covered, and she climbed, hopefully for last time today, out of her car. As a vet in the countryside, there was no such a thing like fixed working hours, rather irregular appointments and emergency calls. Here or there, a cow had to be fertilized, a horse had hurt itself while jumping, or the pigs had eaten something weird again.

Danielle took her bag, which had everything she would need at a short notice, and rummaged through her keychain for the front door key. She began to walk up to the wooden double doors, with a glass installation in the form of cross, before she suddenly stopped. Had she just heard voices? A bit slower now, she went up to the front door and listened. She waited a moment, but she heard nothing. Shaking her head, she pushed the key in the lock and entered into the property. Her suitcase landed immediately behind the front door, and even as she was about to pull her boots off, she noticed something. The Indian carpet that belonged to her grandmother was wet. Not only in some places, but the entire thing. It was as though someone had used it to dry off from the pool instead of using a towel. The thing was that nobody else had the key for the house. Well, her grandparents to whom this house belonged to still had a key, but they came here perhaps twice a year and usually always announced themselves two weeks in advance.

She moved to the left and went with slow steps down the stairs to the pool. She looked slowly around the corner, but everything seemed quiet, so she continued. The fact that someone had moved the wall up was something that immediately caught her attention when she took the last step. Someone had definitely been here. Just as she wanted to turn around to go to her suitcase to get her cell phone to call the police, something rattled. The cause was quickly found. An empty wine bottle from the next room swam on the water and hit from time to time against the pool’s border. Danielle walked across, ignoring that her socks were now wet, and got the bottle from the pool. She briefly looked at the logo, noting it was one of the quite expensive brands, before she gripped the neck. With the improvised weapon, she already felt a bit better.

She had hardly started to climb up the stairs again before she heard a rumbling above her. If she had any doubts of whether the burglar was still in the house, it was now removed. Her grasp around the bottle hardened, and she climbed on with determined steps.

Thiemo could not yet believe he was here again. When he first walked through the property, he almost wanted to embrace every piece of furniture that he had come across. Now, the jackalope in the living room, a mixing nature from all possible creatures on God's green earth, had received one. Afterwards, he had slapped himself on the back of the head for not calling Eris that.

"Dragon… Dracon…" No, he simply could not pronounce it. He had shown Amaryllis the way to the upstairs and larger bathroom where she could wash the chlorine from her fur together with Auralia.

His trek had led him afterwards farther to the terrace where Lyra already stood, looking at the long meadows and breathing the air. "Another planet,” she drawled out, contentment evident in her voice. "Even the air tastes different in a way." Thiemo did not have the heart to tell to her that this likely was because of the over one hundred years of air pollution. “And it’s filled with humans!" The mare obviously had problems containing her renewed excitement. She hopped practically on the spot, and with a splash of water that hit the stone, a yellow puddle on the bottom of the terrace appeared. Thiemo blinked.

"Are you... Did you…?" Another jet of liquid followed the first from under Lyra’s tail. "I’m not cleaning that up,” he said and retreated. It was enough that he had to clean up after one. And just in case, he locked the glass slide door behind Lyra. He had to play it safe so that she wouldn’t leave any… messes in the living room.

It was one of the biggest rooms in the house. Everything was created from a dark wood, the shelves on the walls fitted from the same material. A large television hung on the wall before the luxurious brown leather suite that formed a semicircle. There was another small living room in both the first and on the second floor, but that was rarely used. The first one was for the guests, and therefore was furnished rather meagerly. His grandparents were pretty economical when it did not involve them. His living room had been on the second floor, though he didn’t know if it was still around after all this time.

Out of the living room, he walked briefly once through the hallway, past the main stairways leading above, and entered the kitchen with the adjoining dining room. Here it still just looked like during the day of his involuntary departure and in the dream that he had had some time ago. Only a new refrigerator, an American model judging by the size, had replaced the old one from hundreds of years ago. At least that was what he had always thought, mostly because it would start humming weirdly from time to time. For him, it was still the same. What he was looking for was lying on the kitchen counter, open and ready to be read. The newspaper. This was the moment of the truth. How much time had really passed?

He swallowed and bent over the sheet to be able to read it. Today was the twenty-first of March, twenty-thirteen. Four years. He had spent four years of his life on another planet. That meant he was twenty three. It had been the fifth of November, two thousand and nine, and a few hours before midnight that he had disappeared of the face of the earth. He had been dressed in gym shoes, old jeans that he still wore after all this time, and a T-shirt. Now here he was four years later, back where the journey had begun. He was happy, but a wave of melancholy still rolled over him. It was this aim that allowed him to continue, to keep pushing even in situations where he could have broken down, and now that he had reached it, he felt as though part of him had gone missing, as though he had been robbed of part of his life.

Back and forth, the emotions and mind clashed and raged against each other until his stomach had enough and rang out. Automatically, his look lingered again to the refrigerator and a decision was made. The paper was left alone and, with a click, the heavy door of the modern wonder opened. The holy light of the Food God lit up the inside and displayed the current gifts: nearly yawning empty spaces. A pack of rye bread, some cheese, and some old vegetables was all that were on offer. Before he could check the other compartments, however, his gaze landed on what was in the door.

"Iced tea!" He reached so hastily for it that the package almost landed on the ground. In a single movement of his hand, the lid sailed into the air and he began to pour the wonderful lemon beverage into his waiting gullet. The wine was forgotten completely, and only when more than half of the plastic bottle had emptied did he come up for air. "Ah, water, sugar, citric acid, lemon juice from about 0.1% lemon juice concentrate, acidic emulsifier sodium citrate, antioxidants, and ascorbic acid. Delicious."

Thiemo put the half-empty bottle on the kitchen sink and turned again to the inner section of the refrigerator. Then further below, he discovered something that widened his eyes with desire. Half a chicken was wrapped in aluminium foil. Carefully, he rescued the priceless treasure from the cold tundra that was the lowest compartment of the refrigerator and examined his prey. A crisp-looking dark skin, bright meat dripping with fat, and separated grey bones, there was a good possibility that the formerly winged animal was to be further divided into smaller portions.

With the care that he usually only reserved for loaded crystals, he rose from his squatted position and closed the refrigerator’s door with a foot, only to cry out at the next moment with pain. A part of his tail had gotten stuck in the door, and purely from reflex, Thiemo took a jump forward to escape from the pain. This resulted in not only the refrigerator tilting forward, but also several of the stuck hair saying goodbye for good. With a bang that seemed to resound through the entire house, the refrigerator crashed on the tiled floor. Thiemo winced and almost expected that somebody would come running, but the pattering of hooves stayed away. Shrugging, he first freed his lunch from the foil as much as he could before he placed it in the microwave. Pressing the button to heat it up, he then turned to the fridge.

The tiles under the fridge had cracked, which wasn’t surprising. He was trying to raise it from its fallen position when something cracked him on his head.

Danielle quietly crept through the hall and followed the sound to the source: the kitchen. Surprise held her as she peeked inside carefully. The new refrigerator did not stand anymore its place, but had fallen to the ground. Before it, somebody squatted, someone who could obviously only be a vagrant. An old, frequently-mended, and ugly coat covered most of his body, from which the back of his head peeked out. Because the fringed and somewhat greasy hair on his head was brown, she had no idea where the white ones came at the bottom of the coat, but that was something she didn’t really want to figure out right at that moment. The vagrant also had an old car antenna in his pants. At least she hoped that this was the case. Further proof to her hypothesis was the fact that the burglar had apparently found the remainder of her old lunch, which now rotated in the microwave. The aluminium foil lay besides him and not in the bin. Perhaps he wanted to save some for later to build a hat. She wouldn’t give him the chance.

As the strange figure pushed his hands under the fridge, she cracked the bottle with as much force on the back of his head. This shattered in a thousand pieces and caused the vagabond to jump up in surprise. He expelled a deep, painful groan and whirled around. Frightened at the sudden reaction of her adversary, Danielle closed her eyes and whirled the remainder of the bottle at him. She felt as she met resistance a few times before another thud sounded. Cracking an eye open, she saw the burglar had tripped over the refrigerator and onto his back when he had tried to evade the bottle. She could let him lie there, grab her suitcase and drive away until she reached a safe distance to call the police. However, he took that decision out of her hands by jumping after her. With a grunt, she landed on the breast of the uninvited guest and held up the bottle under his chin, breathing heavily.

"Uncle, uncle! I give up!"

She would have known that voice anywhere, even if was mixed with those of thousands of people. For the first time, she registered the face that she hadn’t gotten a good look before. Those bright blue eyes, a somewhat bent nose with a slight hump, wide cheeks, and a three-day beard, the narrow, bleeding lips. One of her swings had divided the lower lip practically in two.

"Timo?!" She hadn’t recognized him, her own brother! Nothing had been left of the pudge that he had accumulated about the years before the computer. His hair was longer, untidy, and hung loosely almost in front of his eyes. The usual suit and tie-wearing nerd now had what could only be described as rags adorning his body. Almost nothing remained of the person who had disappeared that one day years ago. He did even not wear his glasses any more. But here he was, under her body, a smashed bottle at the neck while he carefully felt his lip with a hand.

“Hey…sis," he said, a bit embarrassed, and jerked back his finger as he touched the wound. "That could have gone in my eye, you know?"

The bottle fell to the ground. Danielle just stared at him, numbly trying to process he who laid in front of her. This was her brother, her brother who disappeared four years ago. The brother who had been searched for on half the world. For whom several different people had demanded ransom from them, who her family had paid in the hope that he was still out there. The person to whom she had already almost said goodbye to inside herself. Her arms reacted instinctively and wrapped around the Timo’s neck in the vague hope that this was no dream or hallucination. They made contact. She felt the coat that he wore, his hair, his breath on her neck when she pulled him closer into her arms. Tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She had her brother back again. She had Timo back again. She could not believe it. Here he was, appearing as he had disappeared: from a moment to the other. This day that had begun so crappy, had become, Danielle could safely say, the best day of her life.

It took him a few moments to understand what had just happened, but then Thiemo also held sister in an embrace. Until now, it had escaped him, but if the pool was heated, the power ran, and there was fresh food in the house, never mind a current newspaper, somebody had to live in the house. It could have been his mother or his grandparents, but it was the person whom he wanted to see most of all: his sister, his best friend. Many might never believe that a brother and sister could get along so well, but who grew up away from the city like they had might have understood how small the pool was for friendships. As toddlers, they shared a sandbox; as children, they played hide and seek, and as young adults, one of them was always player number two on the current console. Interests were shared, and even with the disparity in age of two years, they hadn’t begun to see each other as boring.

If Thiemo had to call someone his real family and friend, then it would be his sister. She had not changed a lot in the years they had been separated. Unlike him, she took more from their mother than their father, though she inherited the red hair and freckles. Her long tresses had given way to a shoulder cut with a small plait that hung about her shoulder. She looked fitter and stronger, as he had felt first-hand, and her clothing style had changed from jeans and tank tops to a t-shirt and blue dungarees with mud, but, otherwise, it was the same Danielle whom he had in his memories. Up to now, the memories that he had mostly suppressed in case his journey should fail. The only one who knew that he actually had a sister was Amaryllis.

However, everything had an end, and so ended, after what felt like an eternity, their embrace. "Oh my God! Your lip! Hold on!" Danielle jumped up and seemed to want to hurry from the kitchen, but stopped at the last minute and threw a look back, almost as though she would not be certain that he would be there when she came back. And who could take offence? She decided to get the roll of scrap cloth and passed them to Thiemo to press against the wound.

“Thanks,” Thiemo started, but an odour made him stop. “Do you smell that?”

Surprised, Danielle sniffed. "It smells like… horses. Were you around a stable? Or…" She paused. "The chicken!" She turned around in a flash and hammered with the fist at the big button on the microwave. The door jumped open and expelled billows of smoke in the room. Thiemo could only whimper in disappointment that his lunch had turned into cabbage. This couldn’t have gotten worse.

"I smell smoke. What are you cooking?” came a voice, and the owner soon came into view. Lyra stood in shock in the entrance as she saw Danielle, then grinned immediately from ear to ear. “A female!” she exclaimed joyfully.

It was though Thiemo was seeing it in slow motion, how his sister turned slowly to the door and her mouth opened wider and wider by the second, until her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

“That could have gone better….”

"Quickly, we have to use this chance. I need to get my equipment. This is the first female human from another planet and I need to check everything. Get her out of her clothes!" Thiemo looked up to Lyra and threw the bloody roll of scrap cloth at her head.

Author's Notes:

Finally, the fourth and last member of squad Thiemo is revealed. The next few chapters you will learn a lot about Thiemos past and how he grew up. I think it will explain a lot of his behavior and so on. Also, I really know the "Ode to Joy" by heart.

Special thanks to JBL for translating.

And maybe give this story a try too:
A New Sun