Beyond Our World

Chapter 4 - Part 1: What's Locked Away in our Birthstones.

"You can open your eyes now."

As soon as I did, Laenysia swiftly lowered her behind and I came sliding off onto the ground with a thud.

"Oww!" I said as I rubbed my bottom. Laenysia snickered as she returned to her normal size.

"Haha. Sorry. I'm not really. But I thought it was the right thing to say to make your impression of me a little better."

I deadpanned. "Well, you've just made it worse."

"But hey! Compared to Tallarine, I'm still the best!"

I let out a tortured sigh and closed my eyes as I shook my head.

"Well. For the record, I like Tallarine's way of travel more."

"That's cuz you aren't used to Shadow Jumping. Shadow Jumping's a special thing. You physically become shadows so mentally you gotta stay grounded otherwise you slip off into the dark void of nothingness. Yeah, I probably shoulda explained it to ya first. But this kinda thing is fun for those that like to tempt death, eh?" She bumped her shoulder against my legs.

I let out another exaggerated sigh through my nostrils and facepalmed.

"Hey. When you're done being Miss Sighs-Alot, you should take a look." She started trotting forward with little, staccato steps.

I looked around and saw that we had arrived at an enormous school campus. Beautiful scenery surrounded it and small groups of people walking from different directions were heading to what seemed to be a contemporary atrium equipped with rows of white, wooden garden chairs and a teak podium. The atrium was surrounded by off-white buildings with interestingly carved columns and creative architecture.

The seats were already filling up. I quickly chose an outermost chair on the right side of the aisle that divided the seating area into two sections. Laenysia decided to sit on my left and pounced onto the chair. She turned a full circle before settling on a folded-hind-legs position. I stared at her.

She was oblivious, and her tongue was lolling out of her mouth. She was panting contentedly, until she caught sight of my face.

"What?" She said, completely unaware of my condemnation of her position.

"Oh!" She finally realized. "This is a different world with different rules, alright. Animals are the first priority here. You should be sitting on the floor!" She lifted her snout into the air for a while, then glanced at me with a playful smile. "I'm kidding. But not about the animal privilege thing."

"Oh ok. But don't expect me to wait on you hand and foot."

"Yeah, yeah. Keep your voice down. It's starting!" She said in a rather loud whisper.

I shook my head and sighed again.

She looked at me and seemed to convey "Really? Again with the sighs?" with her face.

I shrugged in response.

The microphone on the podium crackled with distorted tones. "Ehem. Welcome. To this year's Orientation!" Bellowed a posh, female voice. A round of applause followed. "I am Ms. Constance Rèagle; Disciplinarian of the Heavenly Educational Learning Programmes. Firstly, we will be finding out our Houses. We are accepting only fifty new students into this H.E.L.P base and I will read their names from this list. When your name has been said, you will come up and choose a stone from the table in front of me. Then you will show me the gem you have chosen and I will then reveal your House. You should take it with you to your new seat. We shall go in alphabetical order."

Laenysia turned to me and whispered hurriedly "If something weird happens, don't look confused or anxious or anything like that. Just do what Ms Rèagle tells you to. Okay?"

I nodded with a frown.

"Miss Alissandre Aretta Alcatraz." Ms Rèagle called.

A girl stood up from her seat and walked to the table with gems inlaid on its surface. There were only 4 different types. There were purple-blue Tanzanites, Spessartite Garnets, Pearls and Black Opals.

Her long claw-like nails, painted in blood red, hovered over the biggest of the 4 types before swiftly picking out a Garnet. Her hand seemed to have been magnetically pulled towards the stone. She gazed at the stone in the middle of her palm for a while before lifting her hand up for Ms Rèagle to view.

"Dusol!" Shouted Ms Rèagle; who then gestured at a hidden army of seated people to the left of her back. They were all in a very relaxed position and sat in an elongated semi-circle behind Mistress Règle. They gave off a rather daunting aura, even when they cheered, hollered and clapped for their new member.

The girl then strut regally towards them in her black leather, knee-high, stiletto-heeled boots. She seemed to be quite taken with her gemstone of a gift. Her House opened up for her and a boy pulled out a chair from behind himself. The boy placed the chair in front of him, as he was already in the front-most row.

Ms. Regle continued calling out names from her list. I was only half-listening.

"They get to choose where they go? Just like that?" I asked Laenysia, a little shocked and confused as to the freedom of choice of this sorting system.

"Mmm," Laenysia paused and cocked her head to the side with uncertainty. "In a sense, they do. But usually, they don't. It's only if the chooser has a will stronger than the pull of their stone. And those people are distinguished with their special Re-Birth names."

"Huh." I said in acknowledgement of the knowledge I had just learned.

"And people usually don't want to avoid their birthstone's call because they can only get the most out of their respective birthstones. The size and shape can be determined by the chooser though. But you'll learn more about that stuff later." Laenysia further explained.

Ms Regle then called out two names in quick succession. A pair of twins stood up from their consecutive seats.

"Hey! Twins! Now, you don't see that happening everyday." Laenysia exclaimed with excitement.

"What were their names? Did you hear? I wasn't listening. Sorry." I sheepishly inquired.

"Their names are Allegra and Aldrich Capello." Stated Laenysia with a confident tone.

[The end of Part 1. Chapter 4 will be further continued in Part 2.]