My large diamond eyes were suited for the air that came rushing towards me – they were, more or less, windscreens. My gleaming white hair rustled behind me as I got closer and closer to Vala. Finally I overtook her and dived down into the valley below as she then trailed after me. My body was streamlined. I kept my arms glued to my sides and my legs were straightened out with only a slight gap between them. I spent the rest of that day learning as much as I could about flying the way a Vernaescian alien does.
“Right, since you’re able enough to now levitate boulders, let’s see how you do to levitate yourself,” said mum.
“It isn’t really all that difficult,” mum began again, “your body is a vessel and you are the water carrying it, in its simplest terms.”
Jade spat out her chewing gum boldly. Her eyes started brightening to purple and her silver lip stud shone to red as it began sizzling, almost as if it were being heated.
She strapped her arms by her side and suspended her hands. She softly raised them and as her hands heightened, her body lifted itself off of the ground. Mum’s crystal eyes widened in surprise. She seemed staggered and overwhelmed at Jade’s progress. Jade clenched both of her fists and commenced gliding around the hall at her own gracious pace; spinning, turning, rotating and waving through the air like a piece of thread weaving itself delicately through the atmosphere. She finally landed with a soft tap of her feet on the wooden floor and a blasé look on her face
“How did –”
“–Tammy’s been giving me pointers,” Jade quickly interrupted.
“I’m impressed.” Jade didn’t need as much training; she was a fast learner. For certain things that she was interested in, she didn’t need to be told twice about them. Her training in telekinesis and telepathy was the perfect example.
We planned on waiting out the days, making sure we could figure out a solution to the Cavern of Worlds. But even if we did, how would Mychaela, Tarmo, Aemilia and Jordan know? Tammy could always contact them but what we planned would be way ahead of schedule. Would the princess of Vernaesce be okay with this? Even if she were to disagree, my life was on the line – not hers…
Jaden had healed from his Shifftocastan illness and his immune system was stronger than ever – always rolling around in the mud like the pig he was becoming. But he was lucky to have gone through that change. We found out that this metamorphosis of his was special. It made him cold-blooded. He could now regulate his temperature and live in any kind of weather. The days were only filled with our usual physical and psychological training and then came that longed-for Sunday night – the Beowulf movie which Robbie impatiently howled for. Well, ‘impatiently’ was an understatement, since all he would do is spell Beowulf with his bacon and make fortified stands of a warrior (blatantly Beowulf) from crisps and gum. Lunatic.
Porto-Pyro was soundless. It was one of those rare nights where it wouldn’t rain; we had an early night as we were all shattered from our pathetic lives. There were these strange moments where I honestly felt that my life had no meaning. All that I noticed we were doing, was practise, go to school, return home, practise some more, sleep and the dreadful cycle kept repeating. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do in future. I was this isolated block of uselessness looking at the world from outside the universe. The adults were already asleep and we too were lost in our dreams. It was eleven thirty in the night and the sky was still, with nothing more than the whispering wind weaving through the trees and brushing against the thick-paned windows.
Our doorknob creaked open. Anne popped her head in gently to check on us. Robbie turned and hurled his duvet tighter over him. The lava lamps, on each of our bedside tables provided a warming touch to the room, emitting a spectacular glow to it. Anne retracted her head from the bedroom and when she did, our pyjamas – which were peeking out of our duvets – were immediately reformed to our casual, outgoing clothes; Tammy had set up an illusion for whoever came into our room that night to make them believe that we were cosily asleep in our beds. We’re so bad, flouting the rules.
We were suddenly woken up by the grabbing phrase: “wake up!” It was a feminine voice. But the soft sound was too forceful and shook us awake at once. Robbie rubbed his eyes vigorously as did Liam.
“‘Gah’, my eyes!” exclaimed Liam.
“I’m so tired,” Robbie complained.
“I’m brushing my teeth,” Jaden spoke, totally zombiefied as he prompted us all to do the same afterwards. We were all dressed casually for the occasion. Moments later, the girls slowly crept inside. Tammy had on her charm and pearl bracelets that she received a few days ago and her Tartalum pendant around her neck, which she fiddled with in her hand.
“Hello,” Jojo whispered.
“Ready to go?” asked Tammy.
“Yeah, are the adults asleep?” Robbie replied.
“They should be. Their rooms are just down the hall though so we’ve got to be really quiet,” Jade whispered through the comic silence. We went outside of our room and closed the door gently, taking hurried silent steps. Well, we tried to at least. We weren’t exactly quiet; we kept treading on each other’s feet and different people shhhh’d the crowd, thereby making even more noise in addition to our ‘ow’s, ‘quit it’s, ‘watch where you’re going’s and ‘oh my goodness, this is so exciting!’(that could only be one lunatic and we know who it is, so let’s skip my insulting him.) I found this so childishly hilarious, though. We crept down the stairs and finally made it to the bottom floor. We leaned over to the front door, on the verge of placing Jade’s bangle into the dent when a voice suddenly paralysed us all.
“And you are going; where –?” The voice came from the dining room. We peeked through the archway entrance. The held-up newspaper covered the face of the deep-voiced man. It couldn’t have been Liam – he was with us. So that only left –
“Dad,” Jojo began as Tantrus lowered the newspaper. “Um we were just – well you see…” as soon as Jojo began looking at us, Tantrus knew she had lost her quavering confidence, which had shattered into pieces as soon as she even began stammering.
“Here,” Tantrus reached into his pocket and we grew puzzled.
“What’s this?” Jojo asked, her face becoming less pale from anxiety and fear. We advanced towards Tantrus in the dining room.
“Well, if you’re going to see Beowulf, you might as well enjoy yourself. While you can of course.” We watched, befuddled, as Tantrus pulled out a whole wad of money.
“I don’t understand; how did you know?” Jojo asked her father. He scrunched up his face as he pondered before his wise answer: “well, with the racket Robbie was making the day it appeared on television, it was bound to happen. The whole household was full of his screaming. So I, you know, teleported outside your door and listened in.” Tantrus grew a large smile to his daughter which made her flush to pink and grin in return. Although it was completely harmless, I had been so traumatised by the Demon Grinners that Tantrus’ smile reminded me exactly of one. My heart skipped a beat and I rigidly took a sharp step back.
“Sorry,” I mumbled to Jade. She stared back, severely scrutinising me and clearly wondering if I had gone insane. I would never apologise for something as small as treading on her foot by accident. Never. To her, it was almost an act of crime that violated the brother-sister relationship.
“Are you okay?” she subsequently asked me. I nodded in timidity and bowed my head.
Tantrus passed the wad of money to Liam, “he’s the eldest.” He tried to justify his decision of allowing us to sneak out at this time.
“Thank you! We’ll be back as soon as the movie’s finished!” Jojo thanked.
“Mm-hmm, keep telling yourself that, darling,” Tantrus mumbled, lifting the newspaper back up to his face and taking a sip of his golden whisky. We walked outside and stepped underneath the canopy, zombiefied.
“Hey, you guys, would you mind if I tried something?” Robbie asked timidly.
“Well, it depends on – ow!�
�� I was interrupted by a sudden pinch Jade had inflicted on me.
“Of course you can,” she answered politely.
“Well, I was reading a bit on something Mr Tarchall had given me to go through after Tammy’s tuition and I came across a certain spread. It talked about a certain type of teleportation that could be possible, but not using a factor of time like the Time-Morphers do, but rather inflicting a portal on yourself to have technically already gone through it, ergo, directly transporting you to your desired destination in the form of teleportation. And since I can open wormholes…” he spoke regally with his matured stance and well-spoken voice, gesticulating heavily with his hands. We were all left stumped and simply gaping at him like fools whilst Tammy patted him on the back with a slight snigger.
“Huh?” I mumbled.
“Right, just…get in a circle,” he ordered as we shuffled about and treaded on each other’s feet. “And hold hands.” I scoffed.
“There’s no way I’m touching his hand; the rat is diseased,” I childishly spoke towards Jaden.
“A.J., if you really want me to go and get a rat, I can catch one and I swear I’ll shove it so far down your –”
“Enough!” Jade interfered, ceasing Jaden’s ramble and my petty squawking.
“Just cooperate and do it. We haven’t got much time until the film starts!” exclaimed Jojo in a hushed tone.
“Fine,” I succumbed. I took Jaden’s hand and stood still. We stood in a perfect circle with our hands linked. Robbie seemed assertive as to what he was doing.
“On second thoughts stretch your arms inwards,” he said. We sighed exasperatedly. We broke out of the circle and stretched our right hands in the middle. Robbie’s first, overlapped with Jojo, then Liam, Tammy, Jaden, Jade and finally, me. Robbie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Robbie was at the top of the circle and Jade was his opposite. Jojo was Liam’s and Tammy was Jaden’s. So I was alone.
“Now whatever you do, do not break out of the circle!” he exclaimed. But suddenly, upon the termination of his statement, his face began to tremble as his eyes lit to shimmering gold – at which point he and Jade burst into thin, light grey smoke and disappeared. We gasped but before taking another breath to respire, the opposites next to Robbie (which were Liam and Jojo) burst into smoke and disappeared as well. Then, Tammy and Jaden vanished, until I was left alone with grey smoke billowing around me, slowly settling into the humid air.
I was on the verge of attempting to look back when I too disappeared. I felt as if I were falling over a thousand feet. Miraculously, the sensation of landing on firm ground after falling from such a height was all I felt. I landed steadily on my feet but with my hands suspended in mid-air, balancing my unsteady and dazed body. I was too dizzy to notice where I was. I could only make out the luminosity of the extended rows of streetlights on my left and right hand sides. Suddenly, my vision settled and I could make out Jade in front of me, snapping her fingers in my face.
“Come on, snap out of it!”
“Where are we?” I asked, my head rolling around my long neck. My impaired vision instantly fixed itself and everything came into focus. I was in a marvellous city that was lively enough to fool anyone that it was daytime – despite the nocturnal sky blanketing our world. The roads were paved with smooth, grey bricks in an organised fashion. The place was very wide and alive; shops on both sides of the street which were all contributing to the dazzle of the city, plenty of squabble surrounding us, massive and enormous alien buildings that shot up way into the sky – all of them high-tech and all too futuristic than I imagined. I had been living in the countryside of Vernaesce where nothing could be seen. I was mistaking this planet for a medieval one but it was much more advanced than I had cared to admit. There were lanes up above in the silver-clouded sky that had trains zooming on them at ferocious speed whilst emitting green sparks in their trails. Strange sorts of automobile-seeming hovercrafts glided in the sky – obviously for those who could neither teleport nor fly.
“Where are we?” I asked again.
“This is the Suscatio Roundabout. One of the capitals of Porto-Pyro,” said Liam. We began heading through the large crowds that rushed towards us.
“I love Suscatio. You know that nearly every night is as lively as this in this area, just like a carnival,” Robbie said, a broad smile slapped on his face. We walked deeper into the depths of the Suscatio Roundabout and we eventually found ourselves in the actual roundabout of this area. We looked ahead and saw a very large fountain with a marble base. The water flowing out of it was crystal clear and seemed to reflect everything passing by it as if it were a liquid mirror. Different sizes of silver pennies had been dropped in and people were casually sat on the fountain’s rim whilst others walked around it.
Behind the fountain was a very large marble building that ran down the entire street opposite us in both directions. It was nowhere near as tall as the other alien structures though. It had long marble columns that looked close to limestone and the entire construction was so arcane and majestic that it seemed like it could collapse at any moment. Yet something about it told you it was fortified in manners we wouldn’t understand. It wasn’t abandoned, because men and women in suits and very smart attires seemed to be walking on the balconies and into the rooms there. Maybe it was a large building where business people could hold conferences?
Suddenly, I tore my wandering eyes away from the building and I looked closer at the fountain, noticing its actual structure. It was a man holding up a corpse – well, a woman (but effortlessly beautiful) that was dead nonetheless. The water was overflowing from the utmost top of the body held in the main figure’s hands; I’d say probably around the section of her stomach. The water flowed like blood. It had a strange illusion around it: a thick, dark crimson substance flowed from the marble statue’s body but turning into a liquid, mirroring, crystal flow of water a metre or so before it landed into the circular pool around the man’s feet.
The man holding up the corpse seemed to be wearing medieval clothes and had a mass of frizzy hair like I once had. The sculpture’s height was staggering. There were two roads on each side of the fountain and the circumference of the pool around the statue’s feet was incredibly wide. Around me, there were people on stilts and jugglers flipping balls of fire. Stands were put up by people promoting delicacies such as pastries and bizarre gizmos. There were also numerous sounds of klaxons that were constantly being honked; you couldn’t avoid hearing them.
“Who is he? He must have a history,” Jade asked, pointing at the fountain’s statue figure. She suddenly then pulled out a thin sliver digital camera from her back pocket and began taking pictures. Jaden and I scoffed and rolled our eyes. “Tourist,” we muttered.
“It’s the Trim Ridge fountain,” replied Tammy, “and he,” Jojo started “is Markmardowal of Vernaesce.”
“Can’t I just call him Mark?” Jade jested, snapping another picture.
“Most people do,” Robbie replied, smiling naïvely at Jade’s suggestion.
We turned inside the long road on the right of the fountain which had more lights and branches to different streets. Surprisingly, the shops were still open at this late hour and people still roamed as though it were day time.
Suddenly, a tree trunk as thick as a corner shop shot out of the ground and escalated into the air. As soon as it came up, the extra part of it at the top slanted downwards and quickly grew to the ground, winding like a snake and landing with a loud, ground-quaking thud. A teenager, approximately nineteen, was walking down it hotfoot with his hands stuck out beside him for balance as he waddled unsteadily. He landed firmly and continued walking when a flash of green sparks appeared behind him. What I assumed to be a police officer dressed in the same attire as the medieval-modern sentries at the Samhain ball stopped the young teen. The officer looped his right index and middle fingers around the boy’s hands from a distance. With a flash of green pixel-looking fragments, a pair of cuffs appeared around the t
eenager’s wrists.
“Property damage; you cannot use spontaneous travel to damage public property –” I heard the policeman say whilst whisking the boy away in a swirl of green embers. I walked on with the others who were laughing at the event underneath their breaths. It seemed like a casual thing, nobody seemed to really bother about the arrest. As we were about to walk down the street to the right of the Trim Ridge fountain, I looked at the face of Markmardowal and the strangest thing happened, but it must’ve been my imagination. His head turned and looked at me as I walked. It became clearer that he was but nobody noticed, not even the passers-by. Whether it was because his head was too high up, I didn’t know…but I could so visibly see his droopy, sorrow-filled eyes tailing me.
“Wait!” Robbie quickly halted us all.
“What is it?” Liam then asked, growing exasperated.
“We’re going there.” Robbie pointed to a long field – partly tiled and partly grassed – filled with rollercoasters, other shops, more fire-breathers and ordinary fair games involving Vernaescian abilities. I could make out a pyro shooting game where one had to shoot fireballs at constantly moving water-balls to win a prize. But that wasn’t all.
Our eyes fell on the large, three-storey shops filled with expensive items, mechanical equipment and books. After a couple of seconds of direct enchanted staring, we marched, enthralled, towards the fairground. Most people occupied there were families. We walked ahead around the Trim Ridge Fountain and into the opening of the vast terrain. It wasn’t so different from Earth, really. But I looked up and my mouth dropped as I gaped away.
“Whoa. What is that?” I asked mechanically, impressed at the structure that stood before me. It was a colossal, towering glass building. We watched, bemused, as it shot into the sky and took up most of the perimeter before us.
“Oh, that’s just St Balowin’s,” Tammy said nonchalantly.
“What is it?” asked Jaden.
“Shopping centre,” replied Robbie all-too-casually. He looked at us and pulled a comic face causing us to laugh hysterically. We walked on and as we continued further down, St Balowin’s appeared more godly and overawing than it was from a distance. We finally reached its entrance and I realized that it was surrounded by a moat and had a bridge set out. The chains connecting the bridge to the walls were made of strong, sturdy rings of Tartalum. We walked on the Tartalum Bridge among a crowd of common people indifferent to the grand infrastructure they were marching into. As we entered, we were given many glances by numerous people on our sides.
Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) Page 29