Before Keeper: KotLC Through Other Eyes

Chapter 5: Linh

Linh looked around. She and Tam seemed to be in a lush forest, with green everywhere.

"Tam, do you know where we are?" Linh asked softly.

"I think we might be at Wildwoahhhhh!!!" Tam's sentence transformed into a shout as he and Linh were grabbed at the ankle by what Linh really hoped was a rope and not some kind of mutant snake.

"Welcome to your dividing!" a voice called out from below. "You must free yourself from the rope! You may sever it or untie it, no abilities! Choose wisely for whatever way you choose will determine what Hemisphere you are in!" 

"I'm going to be with Linh!" Tam shouted, being the overprotective brother that he was.

"That's not up to you!" a different voice called up. Even with the mask and cowl of the Exillium uniform, Linh could still see her twin's death stare.

"Fine." Tam gave in, his voice dripping with venom. Linh curled up so that the bood wasn't rushing to her head anymore. The knot seemed really complicated, so untying was out. There was nothing to use to sever it either. Linh fiddled with the knot this way and that, trying to see if she could loosen it a little so she could drop down. It didn't work and only created the of gaps between her ankle and the rope, too small to wiggle her foot free from.

Then, suddenly, a light bulb went off in her head. Linh yanked off her ability pin and undid the clasp, leaving the small button like back and the actual pin with the design separate. Linh pocketed the button back. She struggled to get the other part under the knot but it eventually worked, widening the the gap.

"Any day now Song twins!" one of the voices shouted, startling Linh so much she almost dropped her work.

"Working on it!" Linh and Tam yelled back in unison. Linh continued to work, sliding her finger through the gap until she felt the cool metal of the pin. She pushed up at it widening the gap more and more. When the gap was big enough to wiggle her foot through, Linh did just that and hung onto the knot for a split second longer than needed to grab her ability pin. 

Then she let herself drop.

Midway to the ground she realized it would probably be smart to levitate. Linh made herself hyper-aware of the force of gravity and pushed against it. Moments later she hovered two feet above the ground and levitated down.

"Tam!" she cried up to her brother.

"NO USE OF NAMES!" all of the three voices that they had heard shouted in unison. 

"Just a sec, don't worry I'm almost done!" Tam called down

Linh turned around and discovered three figures. They each introduced themselves as the Red Coach, the Blue Coach, and the Purple Coach.

"Once your brother comes down, we'll tell you your hemispheres." the Purple Coach told Linh. Right on cue, Tam dropped down from the rope and started levitating halfway, ending by landing right in front of the Coaches and bowing, as if expecting applause.

The Red Coach sighed. "Follow me!" While Linh was walking next to Tam, she noticed for the first time that there were other Waywards that had been obscured by the trees. She hadn't realized she had slowed her pace until Tam tugged her arm, pulling her along.

When they got to a clearing, the Blue Coach announced, "You will now be marked according to your Hemisphere!" Linh suddenly had a very disturbing mental image of being branded. This was disapproved when a bucket of purple paint was placed in front of the twins.

The Purple Coach walked over to the twins and told them, "As you wished Mr. Song, both you and your sister will be in my hemisphere, the Ambi hemisphere." She dipped her hands in the purple paint and marked them each with a purple handprint on both of each twin's shoulder.

"Please note that this was not intentional and your every request will most definitely NOT be fulfilled." the Blue Coach added.

"All right, now, to your tents!" the Purple Coach yelled to the Waywards.

Linh stared at the tent where all the other Waywards with purple marked sleeves were going.

Tam's shadow crawled over to her's. "Coming?" he shadow-whispered. Linh gave him a small nod. Then, she took a deep breath and stepped towards the tent to do what she would do for the next four years.