Chapter 4
Arrival
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“Did we have to get up so early?” Tom yawns from the backseat as our car drives down the highway.
It’s very early, well, for us, anyway. It’s 5:14AM. Now, that might not sound early, especially since the flight doesn’t leave til 11:30, but today was a school day and for the others to be able to say goodbye before we left and still make it to school on time, an early start was needed.
Lyra certainly mirrors Tom’s feelings though. She’s curled up in my lap, fast asleep. She’d barely noticed when we’d gotten up. She’d opened her eyes for maybe half a minute before going back to sleep.
“Trust me, Tom,” Mum says as the car turns into another lane, “you’ll be happy you got to say goodbye as apposed to us letting you sleep longer and James and Lyra being gone without a goodbye.”
“No, I wouldn’,” he grumbles, settling deeper into the seat, closing his eyes. “I’d’ve been fine with not saying goodbye.”
Yeah. Tom and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms. Brothers fight, that’s common knowledge, but Tom, for whatever reason, just seems to hate me. Everything and anything I do just seems to piss him off and he always feels like he has to talk me down, despite my being the eldest and him being the youngest.
After a few more minutes of driving, the car pulls into the airport parking lot. We all get out and Mum and Dad help me get my luggage out, three bags, one roller, which containa my entire DVD collection and two large scrap bags, which hold all my clothing.
We all stand in the parking lot and the others say their goodbyes to Lyra, who is now awake and realizes where we are. I’d been telling her about the airport, so that, when we got here, she wouldn’t freak out.
There are hugs given to Lyra from everyone as well as tears, aside from Tom. He stood away from the scene, hands in his uniform pockets, looking bored.
Once the farewells have been finished, I unzipp the purple bag I’m using as carry-on luggage and gently lower Lyra into it, leaving a hole for her to breathe air through.
I carefully strap my bag back on my back, nod to everyone, take the roller bag and one of the bags containing my clothes and we head inside.
The airport is rather busy, considering the time, people are going hither and wither, some carrying luggage, some looking excited and clearly waiting for someone to arrive.
We go to the check-in line and Dad and I wait. After about ten minutes we go up to the front counter. I hand them my luggage and ticket, the former of which they label with my destinations, Melbourne and Japan, Melbourne being where we’d be catching a transfer flight, since we couldn’t go straight to Japan with the tickets we’d gotten.
Now comes the moment of truth as Dad and I get into line for the search. We empty everything we had in our pockets and put them into a tub that went through a scanner. It was used to see what you had in your bags, to make sure you weren’t carrying anything illegal.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering, how are we going to avoid them seeing Lyra in my bag as it goes through the machine? Well, it was thanks to Lyra’s playing a prank on our family members during the Family Christmas Bummer that we are going to get through this.
I mentioned that Lyra has somehow been teaching herself how to use her magic. Well, she’d taught herself a spell that works a little like a perception filter, like on Doctor Who. When the spell is active, for twenty minutes, if you weren’t careful about it, you would mistake Lyra for a plush toy version of herself.
So, how would she know when to use the spell, so we can take the most advantage of the time limit? I have a code word that, when Lyra hears it, will use the spell. The code word being: Plushies.
We reach the area where people get scanned before they are allowed further into the airport. Since Mum and the others aren’t going on a plan, they go through another gate that has people moving through it a lot faster while Dad and I have to wait for our line to slowly move.
“Sir, please put your bag on the belt so we can scan it,” one of the security men asks me when I reach the front of the line.
I gently take it off and place it down saying, “Okay. Nothing much in there, really. Hey, do you guys have any childhood plushies you still keep?”
The men look at each other, confused as my bag goes through the scanner. “Well, sorta, yeah,” the first one answers. “A hypo. Jaws. Got ’im when I was two.”
The other man nods as he watches the screen. “Tigger. I got him when I was five.”
“Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger?” I ask and he nods.
Our stuff passes through the machine with no sound saying anything odd haa been found. Dad and I separately walk through the human scanner, no beeps saying we have any metal on us, get our stuff and my bag and head through the airport to where our plan was.
We soon come to the spot where the others can’t go on and we all say our final goodbyes to Mum and the others. Once done with that, we go into the main area of the airport where only passengers could go.
Since we have so much time before our flight, we go to the food court to get some breakfast. We go to a Subway. Now, why would we do that when Lyra can’t eat meat? Well, as you know, Subway have several vegetarian options.
I tell Dad what I want and we agree on what Lyra would have and then I head over to a booth in the corner so as not to have too much attention paid to me.
I sit down and take Lyra out of my bag. She looks around excitedly, this new place with new smells that she’d never experienced before. I tell her to wait and no act out and she listens, though she doesn’t stop looking around, turning her head to see everything she could from our booth.
Dad comes back a little later, carrying a tray. On it are a Chicken Teriyaki and coffee for Dad, a Meatball Sub and coke for me and a Veggie Delite® and lemonade for Lyra.
We all dig in, enjoying our breakfast. Lyra really seeming to enjoy her sub, if the smile on her face and the “Mmmm” sounds she’s making are any indication.
After breakfast’s finished, we go to look around the market area as we wait for our plan. When the time comes and we hear the announcement for all those boarding our flight, we go into the waiting area for those catching our plane. There is a small delay so our plane leaves closer to noon instead of at 11:30.
Once we got on the plane Dad and I took our seat, I had a window seat while Dad had the isle one right next to me. Lyra had to recast her spell several times, since it took so long for before our flight was even meant to leave, then adding the around extra half hour.
Once we’d sat down, Dad and I buckled in, I put my bag in front of me and pull Lyra out, sitting her on my lap. She looks around with the same excitement as before, taking in everything she can from my lap.
She catches sight of the window and looks out, putting her hooves to it and watches the outside.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking,” a male’s voice sys through intercom speakers all around the plane a few minutes later. “We’d like to welcome you to Cathaway Pacific, flight 22454 from Adelaide to Melbourne. Once we get airborne our flight will be just over an hour and thirty minutes.
Til we reached our flight altitude of 30 000 we must ask you to remain seated and to keep your seatbelt buckled. If, at any point during the flight, you require any assistance our flight attendants will be more than willing to help you. Thank you for choosing to fly with us and we hope you enjoy your flight. We should be cleared for takeoff in about ten minutes.”
We’re in Premium Economy, so there are TVs in the back of the seats so during the flight we get to watch some shows, movies, et cetera on our way to Melbourne, though I'm sure Lyra would be perfectly entertained just watching out the window.
The screens turn on and two safety demonstrations comes on, playing several seconds after each other, one part of the demonstration being explained in English, then the other in Asian. I was able to follow the English one no problem and the Asian one I kinda understood. It had been a blend of Japanese, Chinese and another Korean language I’d never heard of, so I’d gotten chunks of it.
Once it’s over, the screen shows the path we’d be flying to Melbourne and then the transfer flight to Japan, followed by the current times in each place. By the time we get to Melbourne it would be noon, so we’d get lunch there. After that it repeated again and again.
Dad glances at me, a small grin on his face. “Ready for this?”
I look to Lyra, who is still looking out the window, her eyes shining brightly. I nod. “As I’ll ever be.”
Fifteen minutes later the intercom bings and the captain’s voice speaks up again. “Ladies and gentlemen we have been cleared for takeoff. Flight attendances, please return to your seats.”
I pick Lyra up and hold her in my arms. A few seconds later I feel the plain move forward underneath me. Lyra turns her head back to look at me, confusion in her eyes.
I can’t help but chuckle. This is a new experience for her, but it is just as much the same for me. I’ve only ever been on a few flights, the last time being from Adelaide to Queensland for a week-long vacation. This is defiantly a bigger step than that.
Lyra watches the window from my arms as the runway moves passed, going faster and faster. Soon the plane tilts back, moving upwards.
Lyra and I both wince as my ears and no doubt hers, poping from the sudden rise in altitude. Man, I’d forgotten how much that hurts. I can only imagine how painful it is for Lyra, since her ears are more sensitive than a human’s.
Once we’ve reached the altitude of 30 000 feet, the seatbelt light goes off and the screens change to show the entertainment options, not that Lyra notices them at first. She’s paying too much attention to the clouds as we pass them.
I have to admit, I’d never seen them like I was now. They look more solid, almost like the clouds during A Whole New World in Disney’s Aladdin.
However, my new Dad instincts kick in and I suddenly imagine Lyra teleporting outside to try and touch those clouds, not knowing she’d drop 30 000 feet.
I quickly pull her away from the window. She looks up at me with a slight pout. I hold up a finger. “Lyra, while we’re on this plane you’re not allowed to teleport, okay?”
She frowns, then looked down.
I smile and ruffle her mane. “Do this for Daddy, huh?”
She looks back up, cocking her head in confusion, then smiles and nods.
I sigh with relief. “Good. Now, how about you watch something?” I take the headphones from my chair’s arm, put them on Lyra’s ears and click through the options until I find a few kid shows that are both appropriate and entertaining for her.
She spends the flight watching, completely engrossed in the shows playing, while Dad and I discussed about what he’d be doing while he was in Japan. Since I was going there to live, he was going to have a little fun, go on a few tours, see the sights, that kind of thing.
I feel jealous of him. Two days after we arrive I’d be starting my new job as a child care worker at Sapporo Elementary. I was lucky they’d given me the job, really, but I was still surprised how much I was getting paid. Guess they really respect their child care workers there.
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Not too much later the plane comes down in Melbourne. We get off and have a look around the area passengers are allowed to while waiting for their next flights.
I’d intended to stay on the plane, but Dad had told me when he and my sister Chloe had gone to China with one of our cousins and my grandmother on my dad’s side, they’d stayed on the plane while waiting for it to go and had regretted it when they arrived in China because they’d been really stiff.
With that in mind, he’d advised that we get off and stretch our legs, so we are. We decide we’re hungry, so we go to find somewhere to have lunch. As it happens, there’s a Hungry Jacks not too far in, so we stop there.
We agree on what we’d order and I go over to a booth in the far corner, just like I had at the Subway back home, taking Lyra out of my back and sit her down next to me.
Like back at the Subway, she looks around excitedly, smells that were new making her wrinkle her nose in confusion, then giggle.
After a few minutes, Dad comes over, carrying a tray. On the tray are two Whoopers with cheese, mine without salad or mayo, two large fries and one small, three drinks, coke, diet coke and lemonade. There is also what looks like another burger, but I know better. It’s a bun with just cheese, lettuce tomato and onions.
We all tuck in, Lyra particularly enjoying her fries. Maybe due to a subconscious memory of eating hay fries back in Equestria? Or, more likely, it just tasted really good. I know I was enjoying this meal greatly. I have a feeling I might not find too many burger joints in Japan, not like Hungry Jacks, anyway, so I’m enjoying this while I can.
When lunch is over with, we wander around for a while until we hear our flight call over the airport intercom and head back to the plane, Lyra back inside the bag. She won’t be able to walk around normally without anyone paying too much attention til we’re in Japan.
The second flight takes a lot longer, two and half hours. Luckily, the jetlag seems to be getting to Lyra. She’d amused herself with a few movies and looking out the window, but after about half the flight, she fell asleep in my lap.
I take this time to watch some movies and shows myself. I watch MIB3, Brave and a few episodes of a show I wasn’t even sure was still around these days, American Dragon: Jake Long. It was nice, being able to watch something and not have to worry about keeping Lyra occupied. Anyone who’s traveled with kids before knows there’s only so long they’ll be able to entertain themselves before they get bored. And by bored, I mean want to run around and be crazy bored.
As Brave comes to the end credits, the screens all change to show the plane’s route, revealing that we’re landing soon.
After a while, I feel the plane touchdown, the motion waking Lyra, who sits up, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
The captain’s voice suddenly speaks over the intercom. “On behalf of Cathway Pacific Airways, I would like to welcome you all to New Chitose Airport, Japan. Please remain seated until we come to a complete stop.”
Lyra looks out the window and then back at me and I wink. “We’re here, Lyra.”
She smiles. “Finally.” She shakes her head. “Why did it take so wong?”
I chuckle. “Lyra, Japan’s really far away. This was the fastest way to get here.”
She yawns and stretches. “Otay. Oh, I shouwd cast da spell again, right?”
I nod. Her horn glows with her golden aura. It flows over her body and then fades away.
The plane slows down and stops, followed by the intercom buzzing. “Thank you for flying with us. The local time here in Sapporo is 3:23PM. Please walk in an orderly file out and follow the directions to customs and baggage claim. Please remember to take all your possessions with you and we hope you had a nice flight.”
We get our luggage, Lyra hiding in my bag again. She’ll have to do this until we’re passed customs. After that, she’d be free to walk around on her own.
It takes a few minutes, but we get through customs without a problem. As we exit customs, following the signs that are in both English and Japanese, we walk through the airport until I see a girl holding a paper sign with my last name, Walker, then first in black pen-marker.
We walk over to her and she smiles. “<You’re James and his dad, right?>” she asks. Her accent wasn’t completely Asian, not that I was surprised. During our Skype calls I’d heard her and she’d told me the reason for her accent was because she’d lived in America with her parents before their passing, so she didn’t quite have her Asian accent, having lived around Americans most of her life.
She leads us to baggage claim and we get mine and Dad’s stuff. Dad doesn’t have much. A single bag, since he didn’t plan on staying for too long, though it was still pretty big. Saiyaka, or Sai, as she said I could call her, helps me take my luggage and we get on a small tram that takes us to a train station.
There, both Dad and I get train passes, Dad’s will last for a few months, regardless of whether he’s going to be here that long or not and I get one that will last for five years. I’d have to reinstated it after those five years, but I could live with that.
Sai notices me get another pass, this one with the name Lyra Heartstrings Walker and frowns in confusion. “<Um, there’s only two of you. Plus, isn’t Lyra Hearstrings—?>”
Before she can finish, I take off my bag, lower it down, open it and Lyra hops out, looking around in awe.
Sai just stares, her mouth hanging wide open as she watches Lyra look around in interest.
“<I told you I was looking after a mint-green unicorn filly,>” I chuckle.
She closes her mouth and looks up at me, her eyes wide. “<B-b-b-but— How-how-how-how—?>”
I hold up a hand. “<Long story. Let’s just get to the house, Lyra and I will settle in and then I’ll tell you everything I can.” I then lean in and whisper, “But, please, don’t say anything about My Little Pony Friendship is Magic around her. She doesn’t know about that yet. She’s not ready to.>”
She nods slowly, looking dazed.
Once all the passes are finished with, Dad parts with us, so that he can book into the hotel he’d decided to stay at. He has the address where we’d be living, so if he wants to visit before heading back to Australia, he knows where to go.
We board the train and it heads down the subway tunnel, towards our new home.