In The World of New Weston: Book 1

Zodia and Arlone

"Mind if I walk with you?"

Cilas said nothing, turning around, Dallis ran after him and stopped once he was next to him.

"Bad day?" he asked. Cilas didn't react.

"You do know what happened in these woods right?" Dallis asked, Cilas didn't respond once again, he wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"Okay...I'm taking that as a no...Well, around thirty years ago there was some weird cult in these woods, they sacrificed people every week, now those people haunt these woods.

"I knew that '' Cilas said. Dallis's smile dropped, and he awkwardly looked away.

"You aren't very talkative, are you?" Dallis said, Cilas ignored him and kept on walking, Dallis being there didn't get rid of the feeling that they were being followed. The only difference was that now Dallis may be in danger too.

"Are you alright?" Dallis asked, Cilas nodded and walked faster.

"No, you're lying, I can tell, you're being quiet, avoiding contact with people, not to mention the way you're walking and standing" Dallis said. He paused for a minute before pointing at Cilas's face.

"And the fact you look like you're about to murder someone." Dallis said. Cilas glared at him, he looked away, pretending to be focused on the scenery.

"It's been a rough week," Cilas said, the feeling of them being followed was still there.

"Ok, I'll just go, my place is this way anyway" Dallis said, pointing his thumb to a bigger path that opened up to a suburban neighborhood, with a street that circled around the driveways of the houses and a circle of land with some trees and a square treehouse in the center, there were some people around his age running around barefoot in the small, wooded area, Dallis ran over to them.

Once they noticed Dallis was there some of them ran over Cilas starred for a bit, before he noticed some of them pointing in his direction and walked away hurriedly towards home.

When he opened the door no one was in the main room or the kitchen, he assumed they were either in their rooms or at another court trial.

He sighed and laid down on the couch, staring at the ceiling, maybe he could read the journal? He highly doubted he'd find anything new, he could, however, go outside in the garden and read, if worse came to worst and he couldn't find anything then he could just sit in the garden or take a walk.

Cilas got up, walking upstairs and into his room, the journal was still in the drawer, luckily no one had found it yet, though judging by how his family was acting he may have to find a new hiding spot soon.

He creeped downstairs, peeking into the living room before rushing out the back door, making sure not to slam it in case his family was home.

Cilas opened the journal as he sat down on the steps of the gazebo, the part where he left off talked about how to control the powers of Arlone, another creature, like Zodia, that needed a host to control, though Arlone was apparently younger than Zodia by a couple hundred years, therefore Zodia remained the most powerful known force.

Being able to tell if someone is a host to Arlone is more difficult though, hosts of Arlone will have less physical and mental changes, it is said that hosts of Arlone can form dreams and join many people into them, as long as those people are sleeping.

The host would be able to control what happens in the dream, like a lucid dream except with actual people.

The only drawbacks are that if someone wakes up or finds something they're not supposed to then the dream world can shatter, and everyone would wake up.

The physical changes were different to, the host of Arlone would lose color to their eyes, turning them a shade of gray or even black or white.

Cilas heard rustling in the woods past the fence, he quickly turned in that direction, he saw Dallis and some of the other kids, he could hear some parts of their conversation.

"So this is where that big dirt path with the tire marks leads, I always thought this place was abandoned" one of the kids said.

"I think it's passed down through family...Oh! Cilas! Hi" Dallis said, running up to the fence when he saw him, Cilas ignored him and kept reading the journal.

One of the other developments that hosts of Arlone have are multiple sets of eyes or mouths on their body, these are all permanent and cannot be removed naturally, whereas the host of Zodia with go through many physical changes though all of them are temporary except for one, though that one can be hidden.

The changes a host of Zodia will go through include, change in eye color, short blackout, and change of hair color, some others have said that they gained knowledge they had not had before, some people also report having flashbacks of memories out of nowhere.

The current theory for the flashbacks is that Zodia is looking through the memories of the host to be able to copy their personality, so that if the Zodia gains full control it is able to go on with the hosts daily life without their friends or family suspecting a thing.

The theory for the sudden knowledge, on the other hand, is that the host also gains memories and knowledge that is not theirs from Zodia, though they are not exactly prying through memories.

Cilas closed the journal, thinking, Zodia and Arlone were definitely different, though there were some similarities, both needed a host to survive, and both seemed to cause the host to go through changes both physically and mentally.

Change in Hair color and eye color...Flashbacks...blackouts...sudden knowledge that wasn't there before...all of those seemed too familiar, then it hit him.

The journal slipped out of his hands and hit the ground.

"Cilas? Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."