~~~ "Hey Daddy." Aelita called as she ran into the living room of the old mountain house. In her grip was Mr. Pück. "Hey Mother!" Antea sat down her book and saw her daughtor runing into the room. Aelita jumped into her lap and hugged her. "Do you want to hear a story?" Franz asked as Aelita got off of her mother and went to the sofa and sat down next to him. "Yes, please!" Aelita said, leaning aginst him. "It's one about an elf, you like elves, don't you?" Franz asked, looking down at his daughtor. "Of course I do." Aelita said, looking down at Mr. Pück in her arms. "Ok, One day, a little elf was walking alone in the woods." Franz started out. "He was all alone." "The poor elf." Aelita said. "Didn't he have any friends." "Of course he had friends, but they were all busy for the moment." Franz explained. "Ok." Aelita said, understanding. "Now, where was I? Oh, right. The elf was walking alone in the woods, in till he came to an old cave. It was old. It was cold. It was dark. "He started to talk to himself, to help his mind to stay at peace. He said, 'Caves that are old, caves that are cold, sometimes have gold.' "Suddenly, as he walked in, he heard a noise behind him. He turned around, and without realizing it, his staff knocked the stalactites on the roof of the cave, startling him straight out of his shoes. 'Something's running after me!' he cried as he ran out of the cave. 'What can it be?' he wondered, but he was much too scarred to look back.
"He ran down the hill and through the woods as fast as he could. He was running so fast he didn't even see the snake that had just crawled into his path. He ran right past the snake, almost stepping on its back. Behind him, he heard bells coming, so he ran as fast as he could to a tree with a hole in it, and he jumped right into it. 'It's out there! I don't know what it is, but it's out there." he said as he turned around in the tree's hole. 'I can't stay in here forever, but it can't stay out there forever. Maybe I can stay in here longer than it can stay out there.' he thought. 'Or maybe not.' "The bells were getting closer as he talked to himself to calm himself down. 'I could take a peak out side and see, I could streach my neck out. I'm going to peak out.' he said determand. 'I have to peak out!' So he looked out and screamed at what he saw." "What was it Daddy?" Aelita asked, her hands on his leg, holding herself up. "He saw...his shoes!" Franz said with a smile. "The elf was so happy when he saw his shoes that had followed him back from the cave. He put his shoes back on and danced back out of the woods and to his home. And guess what he saw when he got back to his house?" "What Daddy?" Aelita asked, still in suspence. "You!" Franz said as he reached around Aelita and picked up Mr. Pück from where she had sat him. "He came home and saw his beautiful human." "Ahhw, that never really happened, did it Daddy?" Aelita asked, taking Mr. Pück from her father. "Are you sure?" Franz asked. "Yes, shoes can't follow you without someone inside them." Aelita said, trying to make herself sound grown-up. "Are you quite sure?" Franz asked again. "Quite sure." Aelita said, crossing her arms over her chest and making a pouty face, causing her parents to laugh at how cute she looked.
~~~ Jeremie knocked on the door to Aelita's room, waiting for a responce. "Aelita, you awake yet?" Jeremie asked, knocking once more. "Breakfast is about to start." With no replie, he tryed to door knob and found that she had forgotten to lock the door again. Jeremie shook his head as he walked in to find Aelita sprawled out on the bed, with Mr. Pück in her arms. "shoes can't follow without someone inside them." Aelita muttered.
"Aelita, wake up." Jeremie said as he walked over to her. "Huh?" Aelita asked as she looked around her as she sat up. "What time is it?"
"It's almost seven." Jeremie said. He looked over at her alarm clock and found that it wasn't even plugged in. He walked over to it and plugged it in for her and begain to reset it.
Aelita yawned as she wiped the sleep away from her eyes. "What were you dreaming about?" Jeremie asked as he checked his watch and went back to changing the alarm clock's time. "It was a memory about Mr. Pück." Aelita said as she got up from her bed and started to make it. "Ok, the shoe thing makes a little more since." Jeremie said. "The shoe thing?" "Ya, when I came in, you said something about shoes can't follow without someone inside them." Jeremie said, finishing with the clock. "Oh, that was the ending of a story Franz Hopper told me when I was little and my mother was alive." Aelita said, her mind driffting back to the dream. "Jeremie, do you think they're still alive?" "Who?" Jeremie asked as he was about to head out the door so she could change clothes. It hit him and he said, "I don't know. I know your father's somewhere on Lyoko, but time is different on Lyoko. As for your mother, well..." he thought for a second before continuing. "you have, really, no memory of your mother. You said that she disappeared while you lived in the mountain house. Do you remember how she disappeared?" "No." Aelita said, shaking her head. "It looked like the darkness was taking her away, which now I might say it was the FBI, but that was before my father started working on Lyoko with the goverment." "If the goverment took her, she should have some type of record on the web. I could look for her, if you'd like?" Jeremie offered. "Thank you Jeremie." Aelita said, smiling at him. "You might want to hury up and change, though." Jeremie said, glancing at the clock that had just changed to say 07:00. "Odd will have radded the whole cafeteria by the time we get there."
Aelita smiled a brighter smile as he walked out of her room, shutting the door behind him.