The Immortal's Creed: Guardian

Chapter 1: Homecoming

     Amidst the cold flurry of snow, a yellow, two-story bus quietly cruised through the cold winter’s night. Its bright and shining headlights illuminated the path so dark anything can pop out anywhere; its tires plowed through the two-inch tall bed of snow; its windshield caught the tiny snowflakes on its way.

     Inside the speeding fifty tons of steel were students either sleeping or idly staring at something. A few chose to play the night through with their handheld gaming consoles, a bigger number of them listened to music and the rest were just ogling at the side-scrolling scenery behind their windows. Although everything was peacefully quiet, no one can hide the boredom that led them to what they’re all doing now. Twelve whole hours of sitting in a bus can break anyone’s patience.

     The night sky turns into a dim scarlet side as one of the seventy thinks thoughts as deep as the darkest trenches in the world. His eyes were darker than his thoughts; his face spells loneliness covered by his hair as black as his eyes and his hoodie as colorless as his hair finished the fashion statement stating “go away.” He, once again, met the sun he bid farewell in the bus with a tired gaze and sleepy cheeks.

     The light of the sun slowly devoured the night. It’s already dawn.

     The luminescent rays pierced through the windows and lit the whole bus with its warmth. The side-scrolling scenery glowed bright white and brown as the big yellow sun claimed the forests in its wake. The pitch black horizon that the driver braved through became a driveway with a beautiful glow not all drivers get to savor in their tiring work. The snow was as white as the stories tell and the cold world was as majestic as it was chilling.

     Not too soon after the children woke up to a morning they’ve never seen before, the bus took a right turn where the road branched off just before the towering twenty-five-feet gates were at eye’s reach.

     The sight of the broad white road closed to a dark forest as they entered the crooked, lean forest path that ended into a gate just right for the bus. It was a wide parking lot barely occupied by seven busses; the eighth was what just arrived. After half a day without anything to do, the students grabbed their things and left the bus one by one without a single word.

     The only things that kept them from absolute silence were their footsteps, the chilling breeze and the little rev of the bus that died a minute after they started stepping out.

     The last to come out was the boy with pure black eyes. At his last step on his way down, the driver knocked on what seemed to be wood to call his attention.

     “She should be here by tomorrow so go and waste all the time ye can until then,” he said through his thick beard, “I’m pretty sure she’d throw a fit on ye again if she catches ye waitin’ for her so knock yerself out flirtin’ with them chicks ye just got to know or make yerself useful and pick her some apples.”

     The boy looked a little bit down for a moment then nodded his head once after raising his chin. “See ya’, Ben,” he bid with a calm, soft voice straightly looking at the path in front of him.

     “Now don’t ya’ get yerself in too much trouble, Levi. Now GIT!” he sent him away somehow smiling after that last ugly expression.

     The boy who seemed to be named Levi took his last step off the bus and dragged his luggage through the barely paved pathway, eyes forward and poised firmly. Something seemed off about him like his footsteps said he’ll obliterate anything in his path and like his hands were so cold it looked like it was calling someone else’s. His loneliness filled the air as he treaded the snowy lot alone and away from his fellow students. Every step he took echoed through the emptiness; it reminded him what he was missing and what he yearns for the most.