We reached the village. She hasn't spoken much since the conversation by the fire that night. I know she doesn't really trust the people in the village, I believe. I don't really trust her either. James heard in the back of his mind, "Be careful now, James." That voice sounded similar yet different, James thought as they walked through the town. Finding some old clothes to change into to fit in behind an old house. They both looked away from each other. James heard Apua was laughing as they did. They soon walked through the town, kids playing outside. The town reminded James of an old, farming-type German town, filled with live music and people enjoying themselves. James started dancing with the people; most of them were much taller than he was. Pia looked at him. "We need to get James moving," she said, smiling. "We need to be in, and out in a minute, remember?"
James looked at her, saying, "Why can't we just have a little fun?" He reached out his hand, smirking, and she grabbed it as he tossed her into a waltz with the rest of the townsfolk. They danced to the music and chatted with people who were speaking a whole different language as the cloudless sky blazed down on them. Pia smiled at James, slightly blushing, before James spun her in the air, tossed her up, and caught her in his arms. They looked at each other for a second, and James leaned in. Pia did too, before they both moved apart. James looked at her, putting her down, saying, "You were right, we should get moving." James walked away from her, looking back, his hazel eyes shining in the sun. Pia held him at last before thinking of him, "You can always have me, Pia." She shook her head away from him.
They reached a large building where an older gentleman walked out. Pia's hand filled with smoke. James walked closer to the old men, but before he could say anything, the men spoke first. "Pia, my dear, I'm no threat to you." Pia's face changed to one of confusion, and so did James's. He backed away from the men towards Pia. "James, Pia, so for scarring like that, but we need to get inside fast before other people start to stare." James looked at Pia as she looked at him for the first time. They both had the same thought. "Who is this old man?" James walked into the building first, and Pia thought to herself, "I'm going to die," as she walked behind him. The house was poorly lit as Pia closed the front door. The air was dusty and smelled like an old bookstore. The smell reminded James of his childhood, spent in a large, old-time bookstore where he used to go with his mom. Pia sighed heavily as they walked into a huge room with a large column of books. Both of them stopped as they weren't sure if they should go any farther. There was a large stone altar in the middle of the room, which the men looked at before saying, "My name is Nolen Moore the 4th, and I will tell you everything if you want to know." Pia and James looked at each other, James getting closer to her, saying, "I'm unsure about this, but if he knows a way out of here, we should take the deal." Pia looked at both of them. "He could be lying," James then responded, "Well, this could be our only way home." Pia remembers her sister saying, "Fine, but I am going to kill him if anything goes south." James wondered if she was lying, but moved on, saying, "We want to know everything. " Nolen smirked at them and said, "Well, here's the story. I will give both a history, telling both of you.
Long ago, the world was so different; the world was in constant war and filled with hate and distrust. The rich were in control of everything." He poured out the dust as it floated in the air, and his eyes were glowing the same dark blue as the dust. Showing an art book-style picture show for them. "It showed that during a war, bloodshed, and power-hungry kings used the dark arts to gain more power, killing anyone in the way. Families were torn apart thousands of innocent citizens were killed in the process. Even after all the deaths that happened from the war, the King won the war over the decades. Expanding his kingdom took over this whole continent and my family's home. Soon after that, there were people who tried to fight back in a revolt. My great-grandparents helped fight the King who ruled for over a hundred years after a long fight that lasted for decades. The revolt was known as the revolution of flames. Thousands more people were killed during the civil war. The rebellion crumbled, and most of the leaders and military generals were killed; the rest were kept alive as long as they pledged their loyalty to their king. They now own the continent under his hand. Now they are called the King, using their power to make sure everyone knows their place. It has been over a hundred years since that happened. Many people lost hope, but I feel like you can help us defend the king." Nolen looked at them as James and Pia looked at each other, shocked.
Jeff woke up, unzipping the tent and stretching about to rezip it as he looked at Mason smiling to himself before rezippering the tent. And putting on his shoes, they were now dirty; his clothes themselves were now filthy. Jeff wondered to himself whether time was the same in this world as in his own. His stomach groaned as he walked to a nearby creek, and he heard the tent unzip, hearing Mason yawning, saying, "You hungry too?" Jeff smiled, saying, "Very hungry." Mason got up, moving past Jeff, putting on his shoes. "Well, I am back with some food, can you start the fire for me while I am gone?" Jeff lied and said, "Of course," Mason replied, hinting at doubts in his voice about Jeff's bluff about starting a fire. "I will be back here in 30 minutes." Mason walked off into the forest as soon as he left, the same voice came back, "Hello Jeffy, do you know how to make a fire?" Jeff was annoyed with every word he spoke: "Why are you here?" The voice simply said, "I love to see how you react to me and I have a name you know?" Jeff didn't really care but responded anyway, "What is your name then?" It felt like the voice was pacing in his head before saying, "My name is Atlas." Jeff questioned where the name was even really theirs, but still pushed past it. "Well Atlas, can you keep me starting the fire?" Atlas took over a long time, making Jeff wait for about 10 minutes, then saying, "Hold your hand out." He held his hand out as his gem glowed, and a small fire appeared. Jeff looked at the fire in awe, "Can you make it bigger," Atlas replied with "No." He places the sticks down slowly, putting the small flame into the sticks, it smokes and sparks. Then Jeff crunched down trying to blow on it to keep it alive before it grew before shirking again. He whispered to himself, "Please stay alive little flame." He groaned at the fire dies he was about to yell back at Atlas.
Just then, Mason came back with fish, sticks, and berries. Seeing Jeff, he looked at him with a face of anger, exhaustion, and a need for help. Mason smudged before walking towards him. Jeff backed away from the fire. He looked at Mason but didn't as he walked away. Mason looked at the fire, making Jeff turn away. Mason's eyes glow black, hitting the fire, causing a large fiery explosion. Jeff pulled behind Mason, clutching him in his arms from the fire. Soon, letting go but not wanting to, he looked upon his hair. It was now a mess; the long dreads were now more loose. It has been a couple of weeks since they've been here. He let go slowly as they met each other's eyes. Mason said Jeff smiled, "You scared me." Mason hugged Jeff back. "Did you jump in front of the fire for me?" Jeffy said, "You would do the same thing for me."
The fire shrank down before kicking back up. "See, you just need it to grow on its own," Mason said with an even gasp with every breath. Jeff looked concerned and impressed with a thousand questions of wonder, "How do you know so much about fire?" Mason responded, "I had little luck with my nature camp before. I took it before." Mason thought about his camping experience, "It was my ninth and tenth grade year." He took his time thinking through the experience. Jeff picked up a couple of fish. "Do you know you gutted the fish; so you can teach me?" Mason got up, pulling out a knife, and he thought where did Mason find that kitchen knife. At this point, Jeff didn't question it. After over an hour of gutting and skinning the fish under the cloudy sky. The gutting and skinning progress was fine; it was clear that it was done by a non-professional. The fish resembled a lake salmon species native to this world, a variation of the salmon. It was larger than the avenger fish from back home. They started to cook the fish over the fire. Now, before sitting down together. Throughout the day, they spend their time looking for food, but then Mason falls on a small hill, spraining his ankle in the process. Jeff picked up Mason, heading to the tent, as he laid Mason down on a thicker sleeping bag stuffed with feathers and leaves to make it more like a mattress. "Are you sure you are fine?" Mason said Jeff responded, "Yes I am fine, you should take some rest," Jeff got up as he zipped up the tent before Mason could say anything. That gave Jeff time to catch his breath. "That was way more difficult than I expected." He walked away, making a blanket popping back in to give it to Mason. Soon, he felt dizzy in the head, but shook it off to get more food and supplies.
Atlas's smooth voice came back, but this time Jeff saw them. They were tall, with smoky spruce-like skin color, dark purple eyes, long curly black hair, a smooth face, perfect teeth, and a body. Jeff thought he knew Atlas could read his mind. They looked maybe mid-30s. Atlas smiled. "Are you surprised to see my face?" Jeff chuckled with disbelief. "Why did you want to talk to me again?" Atlas made a fishing rod from thin air, saying, "You and your boyfriend are getting awfully close now," Jeff barked back, "He's not my boyfriend." Atlas laughed, throwing the fishing rod, "You are blushing at everything you see him, you are a walking bi-disaster every time you see him. Heck, you are blushing right now seeing me." Jeff froze as his face went red before he pushed the thoughts away. "I'm going fishing-" he stopped saying, "awfully close to what?" Atlas teleported in front of him. "You know in your head you can't get rid of me." Jeff groaned, ignoring what was expected of them, "Yet I could always ignore you." Atlas looked at Jeff, " You are going to realize I was right." Atlas smiled before disappearing and whispered to himself, "What do they know. " He looked down, seeing his gem was cracked, thinking to himself, "Was it like that before?" He didn't dwell on it too much. He sighted getting up and going to use the bathroom. He got back, stretching his body, walking back to the tent. way more difficult than I expected." He walked away to get more food and get supplies.
That night, Jeff dreamed about the night on repeat. He ran from his home nearly 6 years ago at the age of 11, deep into a cool forest away from the problems of his life. He heard his mom's voice crying out to him, "Genet, wait!" but he didn't care. His dad groaned, saying, "Let him go; he might get straight out of this." Jeff stopped, trying to regain his breath. He sat down after an hour, and he heard something stomach growing. He ran deeper into the forest as snow started to fall. The temperature dropped unexpectedly, and the frosty cold Great Lakes winds picked up. He looked around the trees and heard a howl of a wolf, then heard running. He ran fast, not even caring where, until the ground gave way and he fell, not even seeing the bottom, and looked up to see the dark blue sky disappear. He screamed for help, but no one was near him for miles. Slowly closing his eyes, saying goodbye to his mom, sister, and brother. He felt him hit the ground as the world went dark. He opened his eyes and the world felt fuzzy as he looked around the large cave ravine, and snow piled on him. He tried to get up, but everything hurt as blood poured from cuts on his face and legs he heard a snap in his left leg. He crawled then, getting exhausted, looked up, seeing the snowstorm picking up, groaning, then a voice ran into his ear. "I can help you, just follow my voice." Jeff started to crawl as the voice got louder and louder, tempering, "You are so close to Genet." He hated the voice calling him, but not questioning it no longer had control over his body. I saw a large, red, glowing gem in the cave, getting deeper. His eyes glowed as he was starting to heal. He got up and hobbled over, reaching his hand out. The voice laughed as everything went white. Jeff woke up, looking around. He looked at Mason, feeling his chest, feeling a gem, looking at one of the shards, feeling anger crushing it in his hand. Mason woke up, looking at him, saying, "Are you okay?" Jeff confessed, saying, " Just a nightmare." Mason replied, "Do you want to talk about it?" Jeff smiled, lying next to him, and they started to talk. Jeff was going to touch Mason's hand and heard his father's disapproving voice echo, "You need to act more like a man." Then felt a warm hand on his Mason and gave a tender smile. Jeff held back tears, grabbing his hand. Jeff started talking, "I just had a nightmare about.. A 'friend,´ and my parents were…"
Atlas watched on, smiling to themself looking over, seeing Life and Death, they both smiled at Atlas. Atlas looked around, saying, "Where is Time?" Death responded, "Most of them are busy with the boy holding time abilities." Life nudged him, saying, "The boy has a name." Atlas broke up the bickering. "We are getting off track- That sounds odd coming out of my mouth." Death rolled his eyes, and with this conversation, Atlas pushed forward, "What do we want to do about the King and his allies?" Life responded, "We could train them better than their po-ablies." Atlas said, "There's not much I could do. These boys are stubborn." He looked back to Death, crossing his arms behind him, "What did time say to you?" Death knew this was a question that Atlas had already answered. He gave them the answer, "Just keep them on this path and the gods' plans will be fulfilled." Atlas smiled, saying, "We don't do much then." They all looked at each other one by one, disappearing into the non-physical realm.
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