‘Your wish just might come true.’ Victoria mumbled pathetically. Her face looked like a boiled potato right now. It was expressionless, swollen with sadness and heavy.
Team 55 hadn’t received the invitation for the enrollment process. Ace felt slightly ashamed now.
He exhaled with frustration staring out of the glass window. Ace wasn’t in a mood to talk at all. The view outside was changing fast. First, there was a small town, where he could see some children playing in the park, women sitting outside their houses and stitching baskets together. He could tell that they were the locals of Bridging. These locals were the happiest according to Ace. The indigenous inhabitants, who worshiped the Source. And, according to them, the descendants were seen as avatars of the Source. He kept wondering, watching them as the train kept moving, were these inhabitants really normal human beings? They were just like any other person Ace had seen on Earth, only bursting with positivity, happiness, and so much joy that it made humans on Earth look like evils.
As the view kept changing, the towns of Hellberk were gone. Now, the grasslands that were between the Capital Region of Hellberk and the Forests of Phrontistery approached, where he was hoping to spot some wild horses, but ended up seeing something he had never seen before. A giant dinosaur, a Euhelopus, lowered its huge head gazing at the train and its compartment as it whistled and passed by.
Ace glanced at Victoria and she looked at him. The two kept staring at one another in disbelief.
‘Was that something we weren’t supposed to see as well apart from the news thingy?’ she asked Ace.
Ace blinked and shook his head, trying to make sure he wasn’t dreaming and looked at it again. The Euhelopus was still there. But, how was this even possible? He had heard that there were some extinct beings here, who could be seen only by the enrolled descendants who had been declared as novices at the Phrontistery.
‘Look!’ Victoria pulled Brent by his collar and shoved his head towards the window. ‘Remember, we heard at the museum that the creatures gone extinct on Earth were given shelter here?’
‘Yeah!’ Brent became all weepy as he saw the Euhelopus. ‘That dinosaur looks just like me.’ he took a huge sip and gulped down the rest of the drink emptying the wine glass. ‘I went extinct on Earth too.’ and then he began to sob furiously. There were tears in his eyes. He was crying.
Brent raised his empty glass, motioning towards the dinosaur as the giant gazed at the train passing by. Its head kept moving slowly with the train. ‘To you, my friend! And to me! And to every other being who was kicked out of that shithole planet before the aliens took over.’
‘Brent! Aliens haven’t taken over Earth.’ Victoria kept looking at the people who were sitting nearby, hoping they haven’t heard his words.
‘You never know.’ he sobbed more and more. ‘What if the governments are being controlled by them?’
Ace chuckled looking at the drunk douche hopelessly. He knew how Brent felt. Being kicked out of his old life or for that matter, the only life he remembered so far, wasn’t something he approved of.
The train kept moving and the Euhelopus disappeared behind some trees. Ace could tell that the forest was very close now. The green began to cover the sunlight and the view outside was chilly. He looked around and spotted a wall clock on the other side of the compartment. It hung above the door that was closed right now. The clock was about to hit the tenth hour of the morning.
As the train began to slow down, he tried to have a proper look and spotted what he was expecting. A small stop that had a signboard reading ‘FOREST OF PHRONTISTERY‘ was visible now. Ace kept staring at the board as it passed away slowly. He had always wondered why there wasn’t any logo on that board. He had never seen any logo at any place that explained what the Phrontistery was all about. There was nothing around this tiny stop except for the cold green forest.
Brent hated traveling alone whenever he had to come here. He had told Ace before that he found this stop quite creepy. If you are accompanied by someone, you feel alright. But, if you’re alone, you will always feel like you are being followed by someone as if something is hiding in this dense, dark and cold forest that keeps watching you. Ace had never paid much attention to her words. He believed that she had always assumed all of it out of her fear of being alone.
Ace wasn’t afraid of anything though. He knew that even if there was anything in this forest, it was to keep the descendants safe. Bridging would never keep anything close to the Phrontistery that might even think of harming even one of the descendants.
The station was nothing more than a stop. There were no platforms, no ticket counters, no cafeterias or not even a guard for that matter. He spotted some teenagers walking away from the stop that remained deserted most of the time. They were headed into the forest which led towards the ancient gates of the Phrontistery. Only the staff working at the Phrontistery and the descendants were allowed to get down at this station.
Ace got up, grabbed his jacket and stalked out of the compartment, leaving Victoria behind. She kept staring angrily at Brent who was totally out of control now. He was making dinosaur faces now. Sitting face to face with Victoria, he kept staring at her like a crazy man.
‘Euhalopus is here!’ he mimicked a roar. ‘Nobody has to fear.’
‘Nobody has to rhyme.’ Victoria wore her jacket as she stood up, helping Brent wearing his jacket. ‘It’s cold outside.’
‘Just like you? blabbered Brent.
Victoria’s face was worth watching. She would have just left him there if it wasn’t for the team.
Without even waiting for the two, Ace got down from the train and looked around. As he stood there for a minute, hoping to see some new descendants who might be here for the enrollment process, the screeching sound behind him made it clear that he hadn’t waited for the train to stop. The few teenagers he had spotted from the compartment window were gone now.
The FOREST OF PHRONTISTERY station was really small. There were only two railway tracks here. As the stop was in the middle of the forest, there was nothing around except for uncountable trees.
‘ROOOAAARRR!!’ Ace heard Brent’s mimicking voice from behind as Victoria pushed him off the door and onto the graveled ground. He fell down headfirst and a few seconds later realized that his head was hurting. Brent touched one side of his forehead and felt the bleeding.
‘AAAAHHHHHH!!!’ he yelled looking at the tiny red drops on his palm. ‘I’m about to go extinct in this world as well.’
Victoria had gotten off the train and was now standing next to Ace. The cold forest made her untie the jacket around her waist and wear it. She made sure Brent wasn’t looking at them.
‘You might wanna carry him.’ she whispered. ‘He’s almost dead.’
Ace gritted his teeth and wanted to punch him, but he also understood how stressed Brent was because of the news about the enrollment process.
‘If he pisses me off more, he will be dead for sure.’ Ace gave Victoria a look that made her step back.
‘Euhalopus.’ Brent mumbled for one last time and then he was snoring.
‘Seriously?’ Ace glared at the drunk douchebag. ‘It’s morning, he is drunk, and we are supposed to be getting enrolled right now, which I am not sure is going to happen at all.’
And you have to meet William as well.’ added Victoria, reminding him about it as a secretary would. She undid the ponytail and let her hair down, covering her neck from the cold.
‘No! Not while this drunk fool pretends to be a dinosaur!’ he picked up Brent, slumped him on one of his shoulders and began to walk towards the raw path that led into the forest.
Victoria jogged to keep up with him as he walked faster with anger. The two kept walking for about five minutes. She knew that Ace was angry and chose not to speak to fill the chilly silence. All that could be heard was, their footsteps and a bird chirping somewhere far away.
‘Do you think that bird has gone extinct as well on Earth?’ she gulped, run
ning ahead of him. Then she stopped a few steps ahead and waited for him to catch up as he carried the drunk douchebag. Ace knew she was scared. She was alright with walking ahead of him, just to make sure that she wasn’t attacked by anything from behind.
‘Do not piss me more!’ he grunted, warning her to walk in silence.
CREAK!!
Ace stopped. He heard something from behind. A sound of someone or something walking over a fallen branch? His eyes were fixed at Victoria, who was now just standing there in front of him, facing towards the gates of the campus that seemed like a tiny dot from there. All he could see was her blonde hair, but Ace knew that she was about to panic.
‘Don’t move.’ he breathed.
Victoria stood there like a statue, listening to Ace. Very calmly, he turned around to see what had happened, still carrying the drunk douchebag. Nothing moved at all. The trees were fine, no branches had fallen, no animals were around. These trees were so old and big. The forest floor was full of old, half-decomposed branches and trunks, that were being absorbed by the moist soil on the ground.
If everything was so quiet then what made the crushing sound?
‘ROOOAAARRRR!!’
Victoria screamed and sprinted ahead towards the gates which were still far away. Brent had decided to mimic the dinosaur again in his sleep.
‘Vic!’ Ace called her from behind as she kept running and disappeared from view.
‘Brent?’ he put him down on the forest floor. ‘Buddy, you gotta wake up now.’ Ace kept looking around, hoping there wasn’t anything that might attack them. He had definitely heard the sound that made him and Victoria go still. Then he glanced at Brent and noticed the blood. The blood made him feel like it was the reason he had heard the sound. He could sense that something was nearby. Something, that yearned for blood.
Ace felt numb. It all began to echo in his head.
‘The creatures who went extinct were given shelter in Bridging.’ he recalled what Victoria had said while they were on the train.
‘I felt like something was following me---’ he could hear Brent sobbing in his head. ‘It was like something kept watching me.’ his voice echoed even louder in the chilly silence.
‘Only the descendants, only when they are accepted by Bridging as novices, they become a part of Bridging.’ he heard William. ‘Only they can see and hear the hidden beings who have been given shelter in this hidden world.’
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr….
He heard the creature and felt its presence behind him. Ace remained absolutely still. His heart was racing out of fear. His eyes were still fixed at Brent’s bleeding forehead. But, his mind was at work.
He had seen the Euhalopus in the grass fields, right? But, he wasn’t an enrolled novice yet. Then how could he see that dinosaur? What if he had been enrolled already? What if Team 55 had been enrolled before the rest of the teams? Is this the reason he was able to see or hear these extinct beings?
He could feel that something was approaching him and Brent. But, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He had to do something. He had to make sure that the drunk douchebag didn’t die this way. They had a long journey ahead of them.
Ace felt his body shivering with fear now. He was about to be devoured by something that he had never seen before on Earth. Was he about to become a delicious meal for an extinct being? He couldn’t even dare to raise his head so that he could at least see the creature. He felt guilty and scared. He got a feeling that humans have ruined Earth so much that these beings had chosen to leave the planet and took shelter here, where they had their natural habitat.
Suddenly, he felt the creature’s hot breath around his head. It was warm and moist, accompanied by some low grunts. Shivers went down his spine. The creature seemed to be sniffing Ace. He felt a tingling sensation around the back of his neck as if it was about to be ripped off by the beast. Then, out of nowhere, the paws appeared. Ace saw the two big paws. He kept looking down at them and noticed that the nails were not visible. He lowered his head instinctively as if trying to show respect to this unseen creature.
Then, out of nowhere, the beast bent its head lower to sniff Brent. That was when Ace saw two elongated blade-like canine teeth, that were almost touching Brent’s face.
This extinct animal was a saber-toothed cat. Ace tilted his head and looked into the eyes of this wild-looking beast. He wasn’t ready to believe what he was seeing and his eyes were becoming teary. This majestic being had to leave Earth?
The saber’s eyes were curious as they looked at Brent. Ace noticed that the saber wasn’t happy. Really? How was he able to sense this animal’s emotions? Do animals even have emotions? The saber carefully nudged Brent’s shoulder with one of his blade-like canines, but the drunk douche bag was snoring.
The saber raised its head up, exposing his broad structure and scanned the forest with his golden vicious and scary eyes. Ace could now see the protector in him. Then, the beast slowly stepped away from the two and kept gazing at them.
Was he trying to protect them? Ace felt his body getting back to normal. He wasn’t shivering anymore. His heartbeat was getting back to normal.
‘Can you speak?’ Ace gave it a try as he knew that Bridging had uncountable secrets. What if one of them was that the animals here could speak?
The saber kept gazing down deeply into Ace’s eyes as if he wanted to talk but didn’t know how to. He looked humongous standing on all his fours, right in front of the two descendants. Then, Ace heard something.
WALK
It was a thought. It happened as if the saber had just conveyed a message to him. The boy shook his head trying to snap out of this fantasy. But something took over him as he stood up, picked up Brent, slumped him on one side of his shoulders and began to walk on the raw path which led towards the Campus of Phrontistery. The tiny dot in front of his eyes was slowly turning into a gate as he got closer and closer to it. He kept walking, being followed by the saber who was maintaining a reasonable distance from the two. As soon as Ace reached the ancient gates of the campus, the saber stopped walking. He stood there, among the trees making sure that the two boys had entered the gates safely.
As soon as Ace walked past the open gates, a bluish screen flashed, through which he passed, still carrying Brent. There was a beeping sound and then the screen turned green and vanished.
The guard sitting inside the shed next to the gate ran towards Ace and helped him put down Brent. Victoria, who had been sitting in the security guard’s shed, came running towards the two. ‘He’s still almost dead, huh?’ she gritted her teeth. The angry blonde went back to the shed and stepped out with a bucket full of water.
Ace turned around to look outside the gate and spot the saber, but nothing was there. He took a few steps towards the gate, but the guard was closing it.
‘New descendants must report to cottage-2, sector-0. The enrollment procedure is about to begin,’ said the guard.
Ace knew this already, but he wasn’t here to attend the official enrollment process. He was here to see William. Right now only the Prime Descendant was the one who could tell him what was going on.
Victoria poured a bucket of water over Brent and he woke up with a start.
Nobody said anything at all for over a minute. The guard sealed the door properly with some sort of coding system and then went back to his shed, picked up his side bag and came out to accompany them to the venue where they were supposed to be.
‘You both were the last ones to enter.’ the guard nodded at Ace. ‘The rest of the new descendants are already at the venue.’
‘Where’s the train?’ Brent stood up looking around. He wiped his face and took off his jacket.
Victoria punched the drunk douche bag in the stomach and stomped off. Brent clutched his belly and before he could fall, the guard caught him and helped him walk towards the residential area’s sector-0.
Ace kept staring at the path on which he had walked a few minutes ago. It did happen, right? There was
a saber that didn’t eat him? A saber, who intended to drop him safely at the ancient gates of the Phrontistery?
What was going on? His head was full of so many questions. The last descendant had finally shown up, but not at the guest house, where the rest of them woke up. Every team received an invitation for the enrollment process, except for Ace’s team. William called him formally for a meeting which he has never done before. And, most importantly, Ace was seeing living beings that had gone extinct. This was definitely a sign that expressed Bridging’s acceptance towards team 55. But, why wasn’t this team being invited formally by the Phrontistery?
He stood there, alone, lost and looking puzzled. For a moment he thought that the saber might show up again, now that nobody else was here, but nothing happened. The green forest was silent and cold. Now, he had to make sure that his team members made it as accepted novices this year. He had waited enough for almost four months.
Ace sighed gazing at the path outside the ancient gates of Phrontistery, then he turned around and walked towards the direction where Victoria and Brent had gone. The ancient gates of Phrontistery remained sealed as the saber appeared from behind the trees and watched Ace, walking away.
KEEP WALKING
The Saber turned and sprinted into the deep, cold green.
Chapter 3
Don’t do it, Dawn
Fear of failure is your biggest enemy. Believe it or not, but this is true. Look at it this way - That there are three major categories of failure. First, is the failure of your body, giving up itself for death, only to generate more fear that you might die any moment, which keeps you from living your life fully. Second, is the failure of your mind, giving up itself for negative thoughts and feelings that you receive from your surroundings, only to make you think and feel the worst about yourself. And, third is the failure of your spirit, giving up itself for reincarnation, only to be born and to be reborn again and again.
The Formation of Team 55 Page 5