Criston had, maybe four inches of added height over Walker. And a bit more beefy frame too. But Walker was no coward. In fact, he's a bit hard-headed. Didn't shy away from a fight, even when he perhaps should. Walker was now as close to Criston as he could be without touching him. Sena. Hendrix and Corinth edged closer, trying to convince them both that it wasn't worth it. But they were concentrated only on one another.

"You think this is the best decision, bookworm," Criston snorted.

"Oh, what fresh terminology!" Walker mocked. "You may find it difficult to believe, but no one has ever called me that. It's strange, considering everyone who knows me has never seen me without a book in hand. Yet still, no one has muttered that tired phrase to me before." His facial expression was telling the opposite story. Spit flung from his plush lips as he spoke frantically. If even a drop hit Criston, he'd certainly attack. Walker's curly, dirty blond hair and sharp nose were moving and flaring emphatically with him. He was transfixed by rage. He never hated Criston, though they had a sordid past. Besides a few friend of friend relations, they weren't particularly close and never wanted to be during their school days together. But right now, they're too close for any sense of comfort.

"Dad, just apologize. You were wrong!" Corinth pleaded.

That phrase got Walker's attention. He turned back to Corinth and said. "Thank you, young Corinth. You are wiser than your father, here." Walker turned back to Cris with a look of absolute satisfaction. He felt as if he persuaded Criston's own son into taking his side. He felt for sure he was in the right.

"That's true, Walker," Corinth said, "but apparently I'm also a lot wiser than you too." The solidly p.r.o.nounced statement garnered everyone's attention. "You'd start a fight over a smart remark about Oliveto. A smart remark that happens to be true. If you're so concerned about what people think of the pup, then why don't you take better care of him?"

Walker's lip started to tremble as he immediately walked away from Corinth's dad. He was actually crying! Corinth felt horrible, so he rushed to his side. They both sat now, in the gra.s.s, just over some of the strange markings left behind by the lights. Corinth thought for sure that he'd sit on a shard of gla.s.s if he weren't careful. Not knowing that, unlike the leftover light, the shards all disappeared into the night wind.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Corinth offered his new friend words of consolation.

"No, it's not that! It's just that you're right," Walker said through a lot more tears than you'd expect a grown man to cry over the upkeep of his puppy. Sena. Hendrix and Criston looked on impatiently while all this took place. "I loved Oliveto's father. He was a yellow Stanch."

Corinth's expression was blank. "What's a Stanch?" he asked.

"It's a breed of very colorful, long, fluffy furred dogs that are profusely dedicated to their caretakers," Criston chimed in amply. "I had a red one when I was a boy."

"I remember that," Sena. Hendrix added to Cris' statement with a reluctant smile. "Her name was, Spark, right?" Cris nodded with a familiar shine in his eyes.

"Oh," was all Cory managed to get out, as the adults reminisced about pastpets. He had never had a pet before, so the connection didn't really register.

Walker continued, "yes, and these dogs are the most loving breed on the planet. I loved Oliveto's father and mother. When that pair pa.s.sed, all that was left was Oliveto. But as of recent, I haven't had as much time to tend to him. That's why he has looked even more treacherous than his parents used to. My responsibilities at the library have been more time consuming than ever. I wish I had a little more love to put into his upkeep." He looked up from his lap at the three people, and one dog, staring at him. Walker smiled as Oliveto put his head on his lap. "This is the first chance I've gotten to walk him, myself, in the past four days straight." Walker was slightly hysterical over his beloved pooch's walking predicament.

Meanwhile, Sena. Hendrix peered down at the whole scenario, coming up with a solution that could finally close this night out. "Corinth will take charge over Oliveto's care from here on out."

Simultaneously, they all looked over at her and said; "what!" Even Oliveto's head rose in question of what the Grand Ministrant had just proposed about who his new caretaker would be.

"The students can't have pets. That's against the rules," Criston said.

"Yes, it was, against the rules, seventeen years ago," she announced. "But we've made some updates since then. Thank you very much!"

Criston was surprised at what she told him. He had no idea how they could handle the p.o.o.p alone, better yet all the noises animals make. What if every student decided to bring a pet each semester? The s.p.a.ce issues it brought up! And what about natural predators, and weird spats between animals that had it out for one another.

"Well, I definitely trust Corinth to keep the big O safe. If he's willing to take on the burden," Walker relinquished.

Now all eyes were on Corinth. He would be the final decider for the evening's last event. He looked down at Oliveto and chirped at him. "Paw! Paw!" The dog just looked at him with his head c.o.c.ked to the side. But Corinth kept on with it. "Paw! Give me your paw?" He put his hand out to receive Oliveto's paw, and to Walker's surprise, the pup lifted his left paw and placed it in Corinth's hand. "See, I've already got him trained! This should work out fine!" Corinth appeared delighted at the thought.

They walked away from The Well Read Walker as he looked on encouragingly at Oliveto. The pooch was slightly reluctant to leave his owner. He wandered away from Corinth's side back to Walker, who still sat on the ground.

"Go on, boy," he whispered in the pup's fluffy green ear while rubbing his face between his hands. "Corinth's going to take good care of you. I can feel it."

With that, the pup galloped back to Corinth as he was heading up the hill alongside his dad and Sena. Hendrix. They were more than halfway to the Olympia building when Corinth turned back. He noticed something that made him think twice about his dad's mission. He peered down the slanted hillside to the remnants of Hendrix's spell. A large clock-like circle, with a balled up fist at the center was what remained. The fist had one finger that was pointed outward. It seemingly functioned as the hand of the clock-like figure. But this particular clock had no numbers, or anything specific to denote what time it actually was. Inside the oversized glowing purple clock, Corinth noticed the finger, which acted as the hand, moved slightly when his dad entered the Olympia building. From that alone, he could tell that it was time to start taking all of this a lot more seriously.

He turned back to the entryway of the building, and above the archway of the large open gate, he saw the school's motto. He squinted his eyes as he looked overhead at the silver letters sculpted onto a large black plaque. The night fog was beginning to thicken, so he squinted to maximum refraction. Finally, he could make out the finely detailed etching. He read the motto aloud, as if he realized some connection between the words, and the events of the night.

"Sic Erit In Fatis." Or ... So It Is Fated.

After Corinth allowed that moment to pa.s.s, he took a look back down the hill. He absorbed the image of all the gazebos, marbles benches, pillars, shrubs, trees and stone paths. His eyes were searching for any other clues about the land that referenced fate. He saw only what he'd seen before, but was satisfied that he knew enough. Sena. Hendrix and Criston had already disappeared into the Olympia building, as the fogs took over the hillside descending just beneath the archway.

Corinth and Oliveto stepped off the stone path, and into the vestibule of the building. They felt the warmth of the fires torches, lighting the interior pathway, calling out to them. And while they entered, the outer gate and the inner door automatically closed at their backs. He no longer saw it, but the mark of fate turned one more notch on its clock that lay on the gra.s.s fields below. Corinth, blinded by the door and gate, but Walker was well aware of the mark as he eerily moved through the unusually dense fog,toward his home on the West lake. The trap... firmly set.

Chapter 9:.

The Wonder Twins & Friend

April 1, 1002 ~ Daylight Corinth was wholly surprised when he woke up the next morning. He heard lots of noises coming from outside the window above his bed. Likewise, many sounds poured in from outside his dorm door. He heard people running around and screaming in cheery tones.

"Don't forget, okay," some girl encouraged, "okay!"

"Sure, sure," was the only response she received.

Corinth didn't know what to do or how to feel. Who were all these people chirping about the halls? What time was it? Where were his dad and Sena. Hendrix? He turned and reached upward for the windowsill. He found it after a few pats above his head. He then used it to pull the upper half of his body from beneath the bed comforter.

He peered outside, and quickly started to understand what was going on. He saw children his age, younger, and older running around the Olympus Grounds. His dorm being on the top floor made everyone sort of look like large ants, scurrying about in cliques that made Corinth uncomfortable. He didn't know anyone here, and no one here knew him.

"School is now in session, boy!" he said to Oliveto as the dog barked, and then let his tongue hang out of his mouth. He too gazed down at all their potential playmates in absolute awe. Corinth was nervous, to say the least. He pulled the gold and burgundy pattern covers from over the lower end of his body, and got a move on. He jumped out of bed and his feet hit the cold stone floor. It was made out of different types of stones. Some reds and grays cut in various shapes. Corinth thought it was a beautiful room as a whole, but he hated floors without carpet. It's just one of many differences he knew he'd have to get used to here in Hyperborean.

Corinth hadn't actually experienced any of the town outside of the school grounds yet. The school seemed very cut off from the town surrounding it on all sides but north, and he wanted to be anywhere but at Aurora Boreal school right now. He'd much rather go into town with his dad and pretend to shop for school supplies. Though the certain truth was that he didn't want to interact with the returning h.o.a.rds of students.

He took a look around the single person dorm and felt very alone. The walls were burgundy and white. There was a boarder going through the middle of the wall that separated the top burgundy side from the white bottom. There were several paintings on the wall. All with gold frames and pictures of boats on a lake. Corinth figured the color scheme was intentional, but hated the gloomy feel it created. The window above his twin bed was the only one in the room, letting in an inadequate amount of sunlight.

He hopped back up on the bed and stared out the window again. Most of the noise began dying down, and the kids roaming the grounds had dispersed. He looked around and noticed the South Lake. He realized that this lake in the distance was the same one featured in all the pictures hanging on the walls. Minus the boats though. While he was aimlessly staring out at all the distinctive features of the large school, he heard a knock on the door. He figured it must be his dad, so he yelled out to the visitor with a familiar tone.

"Come in! Do whatever!" Corinth sounded off in his most brattiest voice. "Just don't tell me that I need to get dressed, and start meeting people that I don't even want to know anyway."

While he was halfway through his miniature speech, the doork.n.o.b began turning, and a surprisingly large figure walked in.

"Um-m!" the perpetrator said, with an odd accent that steamed Corinth's ears, "Sena. Hendrix said that you'd be ready for your tour, but I can see that-"

"Ahhh!"Corinth screamed when he turned from the window to see some chiseled young man... now refocusing his eyes on the floor instead of Corinth. "What are you doing?!" Corinth screamed. "I'm not even dressed or anything. This is my room, not the common."

"But you told me to come in!" the stranger said in a distressed voice while keeping his eyes trained on the ground.

"Get out!" Corinth shouted, pointing nervously toward the door the guy had just eased through.

"I'm sorry .... it's just- I was told to give you a tour. I wasn't being weird or anything." With that, he turned quickly, kept his head down, and walked out.

But as he was closing the door, Corinth thought that this was just the opportunity he was looking for. He could pick someone's brain about the way the school worked before he ever left his dorm. "Wait!" Corinth yelled out just before the young guy closed the door tight behind him.

A moment went by as Corinth sat alone, upset that he'd missed his chance. Then the doork.n.o.b began turning slowly again, and the guy poked his head in. "Are you decent now?" he asked in earnest.

"Oh, um..." Corinth wasn't yet clad with any reasonable amount of clothing. He was just sitting on the bed in his green undies. Just as comfortable as can be. He didn't really have anything to put on except the clothes he'd worn last night. All the clothes Sena. Hendrix had given him were still held up in the Watchtower. He finally decided, while the boy waited, to simply recover the lower half of his body with the bedspread. "Uh..." he patted down the comforter around him to make sure everything was in place, "yeah I'm good now, come in." He tried to sound cheery, in order to erase the rude comments he just threw at the guy a minute ago.

A swarthy young man emerged from around the corner of the door, and smiled brightly at Cory. Corinth smiled back through his teeth. He wasn't used to meeting new people his own age, so almost everything he'd do would come out awkward. The guy walked over to the bed, and happily extended his hand.

"h.e.l.lo, I'm Anvard," he said in that peculiar accent that Corinth had never heard before today, and instantly despised.

"Hey..." Corinth paused as he took a good look at the guy hovering over him with his arm stretched out for a friendly hand shake. He was large, but had a superbly youthful looking face. Glowing pink irises and tight, such taut caramel colored brown skin. The contrast between his body type and face threw Corinth off a bit as he gazed. "I'm Corinth."

"Nice to meet you. I'm glad there's someone here who's new like me," Anvard said to Corinth as he took it upon himself to sit down on the bed. Corinth had never actually shaken his hand, so he tried to play it off like he never wanted the shake in the first place.

"Wait, I thought you said that Sena. Hendrix sent you to give me a tour?" Corinth inquired. "How can you show me around if you don't know where anything is?"

"I should suppose that the task is for us to find out where things are ... together!" He ended most of his sentences with a cheery upward inflection. It was disturbing to Corinth to hear someone be so genuinely happy with every breath he took.

"Well, that blows my plan!" Corinth blurted out as he threw his arms up in the air, got up, and started pacing the room. He had quickly forgotten that he had no decent clothes on.

"Uh, you might want to throw a robe on or something, friend," Anvard pointed at Corinth's waistline while trying not to simply stare, making the small kid all the more embarra.s.sed.

Corinth looked down at himself, because he had no idea what this happy fool was referring to. He soon realized that his green undies were slightly hanging off his hipbone, because the drawstring had become untied in his restless dream-state sleep. He pulled them up completely abashed, then scurried over to the bed, and virtually dove back under the covers.

"Yeah, I forgot about that," he said while brushing his dark hair away from his brightly lit turquoise eyes.

Anvard hadn't noticed the color of his eyes until he did that. "Whoa!" he said with genuine shock.

"What is it?" Corinth asked as he looked up at him.

The clouds hovering outside the window above the bed had broken only moments ago, and the sun pierced the room, as much it could. The light made Corinth's eyes stand out even more to Anvard as he tilted his head and stared at Corinth. He gingerly reached forward to touch Corinth's face, just above his cheek, but Corinth was freaked out by his gaze. He pulled back quickly.

"What's going on!" Cory said with a shaky voice. "You're going all zombie on me," he tried to ease the tension in his intonation.

"I'm sorry," Anvard said, while finally retracted his hand. "It's just your eyes. They're... they aren't normal, you know?"

"Yeah," Corinth said, feeling uneasy. He hadn't even fully considered that fact. His eyes were going to make him stand out in the crowd more than a fully dressed circus performer at an 8ights Council meeting. The only difference between him and a circus clown; is that people understood a clown's performance. But usually, no one got why Corinth didn't just have blue or green eyes. They would all stare, wonder and make up stories to how he came to be the odd boy out. At least that's what happened at his school in Draconia. There weren't nearly that many mixed kids in all the Worlds, yet alone at any one school, even though Boreal school is the most diverse inst.i.tution of them all. This is the reasoning for why he wasn't usedto, or comfortable with meeting new people. "Uh ... yeah my par-" Before he could finish the sentence, Anvard happily cut him off.

"You don't need to explain yourself to me!" The buzz cut, dark haired guy exclaimed in a friendly manner. "We've all got our corks and screws, in a manner of speaking. Most of the kids at inst.i.tutions like this pick on one another just to deflect attention from their own insecurities. But not many are really out to hurt anyone. You seem nice and normal. I'm sure after the general shock wears off, people will forget all about your beautiful eyes."

Anvard's encouragements made Corinth feel better. Cory was flattered that he'd bother to mention that he liked the color of his eyes. He now looked at Anvard and saw a different guy then he thought he'd be dealing with. When he first came through the door, he appeared as though he was a lug head jock. His stocky frame, chiseled jaw, bulky arms, and height set him up as a total athlete jerk. But he appeared to have some useful insights underneath his dummy attire.

"Did you go to another school before you came here?" Corinth asked politely.

"Well, of course," Anvard said while laughing and holding his side. "It's sort of illegal not to, right? Not to go to school! If you're underage, that is."

"Yeah, I know," Corinth said with a fresh giggle, "but I'm talking about a school like this one, where you live on campus and everything."

"Oh, yeah I did." Anvard stopped laughing, because he believed he had offended Corinth. He actually thought Corinth didn't know it was against the law for anyone under seventeen years old to drop out of school. The mood changed a bit as an always oversensitive Anvard cautiously moved forward in the conversation. "Yes, my last school was like this one. Not as big or anything, but similar. In Lirio, we all go to live in schools. But I went out of state, for Levanta.r.s.e."

Corinth questioned himself to what a"Levanta.r.s.e" was. I decided to give him a heads up. If not to help remind him that I'm still held up here in his head, just waiting for him to open up to me. I whispered in his mind, "It's a sport. He's from Lirio ... where they don't play it much."

Instead of helping the boy understand what his new companion was referring to, it seems I've only stunted him. He blankly stared out into the room after I finished telling him of Anvard's athletic pastime.

Anvard snapped his fingers twice in front of Corinth's face to wake him from his daydream. "You okay?" he asked with a patient tone.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm good." Corinth jerked when Anvard touched his shoulder. His eyes darted around a bit. He was stunned that I could hear him think so easily. And even talk to him whenever I willed. He didn't seem too comfortable with that knowledge. "So, how do things work in Lirio, your home World?" He tried to sound unfazed. Totally ignoring the sports reference. He remembered it in Draconia after a second. Anvard's accent made everything sound a bit off, so he didn't recognize the word at first. His dad loved the game. Cory and his mom hated it. "I don't know much about that place," he added, spurring Anvard into conversation.

"Oh, good then!" Anvard said with that annoying accent and inflection that was starting to get to Corinth. "I can tell you all about it while we explore the school together!"

Corinth didn't want to leave the comforts of his dorm, but he figured it be better to do it with Anvard rather than alone. He couldn't help but wonder where his dad had gone overnight. Had he left without saying goodbye? Leaving Corinth to settle into this huge school all by himself would earn Criston a kick to the shin when Cory saw him again.

No matter the thought, he simply threw on the clothes he had on yesterday from behind a changing shade off to the left of the dorm. When he reemerged, Anvard looked at him strangely.

"What is it?" Corinth questioned. He didn't like the knowing look on Anvard's boyish looking face. His buzz cut hair made him seem stern, but he was anything but.

Slowly, the youthful faced young man pulled something mysterious from behind his broad back. He kept it neatly sheltered by his large frame, so that Corinth couldn't possibly make out what it was until the final reveal. From behind him, Anvard pulled an outfit attached to a hanger, covered by plastic.

"Were you seriously going to wear yesterdays clothing-today! Who would do such a thing?" Anvard laughed as he handed Corinth a casual outfit sent up for him by Sena. Hendrix. "The Grand Ministrant sent it up with me. It hung from the hook outside the dormitory door before I knocked for you. When I noticed you were changing, I figured to go and get it," Anvard formally explained.

Corinth looked up to the widely smiling guy and rolled his eyes playfully. Anvard thought his joking with the clothes may have been in poor taste, but he quickly caught onto Corinth's playful nature.

Corinth turned and said, "you must mean the Grand Man-she's-strict, right? Corinth didn't think it was any funnier than Anvard, still Anvard laughed with the hysterics of a cat being thrown into water.

"You're really, really funny," Anvard said after he calmed himself.

"I'm really not, but I appreciate you acting like I am," Corinth's honest side shined a bit too bright. Anvard didn't know what else to do, except smile widely again. Corinth went behind the room divider and changed, again. While he was back there, two long-brown-haired girls wandered into his dorm.

"Man, this room sucks!" the first girl said in a high-pitch tone.

"Yeah, you're right," the other offered. "Nothing in here really pops, ya know! The color scheme is just..." The second girl couldn't find the perfect word to top off her a.s.sault on the decor of Corinth's dorm. So, her identical friend finished it for her.

"Brutal!" she lamented. "Just plain brutal, honey." Girl number one finished her offering.

"You said it, sweetie. This color scheme is brutal. I feel like I'm in the middle of a street fight between good fashion sense and textbook psychological sadness." Number two was stretching her reach for puns, but somehow got her point across effectively.

"What are you two doing in here?" Anvard chided.

"We're looking for you, of course!" Girl number two chirped sarcastically.

"Why?" Anvard asked with a perplexed glare radiating from his pink irises.

"Because, we're bored and all the kids here seem weird," number one informed, as girl two was walking around Corinth's room like she owned the joint. She wandered over to the room divider, where Corinth was taking his sweet time changing, and trying to block out the chattering. He hoped they'd leave before he finished getting into his new outfit.

"Hey!" Anvard yelled at her, "don't go over there!" Unfortunately, she wasn't paying him any attention. Mostly because she didn't care.