Winters Breeze

Chapter 2: Talisman of Time

I flinched. When the hit didn't come I was surprised. I opened my eyes and looked forward to see that the strawberry blond boy was standing in front of me, and he had his arms out, like he was silencing everyone. In fact, looking around, everything was silent. Everyone was frozen. Including the train, which was inches away from us. We were that close from death. I still didn't understand how he did it, but it obviously tired him, and another boy, one with dark black hair, came running to us. He was the was the only one, besides us, that was unfrozen. I started yanking on my leg again, making the scratch from the metal tracks deeper and more painful. I cried out in pain. That's when the dark haired boy reached us and said to the strawberry blond boy, "Did we make it in time?"

The first boy relaxed and dropped his arms. He smiled and turned to the second one. "Yes, I made it in time, thanks to you Adrian."

Adrian. That was the dark haired boy's name. Looking between them, they both seemed oddly familiar. I felt like I had seen them before, but I couldn't place where.

They both turned to me and they slowly helped me guide my leg out of the tracks. I tried to stand, but fell in pain.

"Chane...." Adrian trailed off, and knelt down next to me, followed by Chane.

"Can we trust her not to tell?" My leg was throbbing, and it looked really bad. It probably needed stitches. Chane barely touched it and I had to bite back a whimper and closed my eyes.

"We don't have a choice, she already has seen how I froze time, and she needs this fixed." Chane put both hands on my leg. His hands were warm, and they started to glow a light green. My wound began to heal, not instantly, but after a couple of minutes it already looked like it had been healing for days, and was beginning to feel better. The pain lessened, and I looked up at him and met his eyes. His gorgeous, cobalt blue eyes, which could melt any girl on the spot. Paired with his beautiful eyes, he had a orange-blond head of hair and he wore a grey beanie over it, with some of his bangs hanging in his eyes. His skin was tan and he was muscular, and I could easily see how he could be swamped by girls quickly.

"Thank you." It felt well enough for me to stand, and when I tried I didn't fall back down. They stood up too, helping me off the tracks. We started out of the station, and as we passed the bench I grabbed my coat, suitcase, cookies and my book that had fallen to the ground.

"What's your name?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm Aura." I paused before continuing, "Can I ask you a question?" I looked at the two boys, and seeing that they both nodded in approval I went on, "What was that? How did you freeze time? And the thing with my leg?" I gestured down at my leg which now looked like it was almost fully healed.

Chane's eyes widened, "I forgot to unfreeze things, I'll be right back" He ran the other direction, back to the train station we had just left, leaving me with Adrian. Adrian was handsome too. He was the bad boy type, and had drop dead tan skin with bulging muscles. His dark black hair was styled in the same manor of Chane's had been. It hung in his eyes and he frustratingly blew it away. His eyes were a lighter blue than Chane's, but they had more emotions behind them, lingering just far back enough that I couldn't read what they were.

"Okay, I'll explain everything when we get to a safe place." He stopped in front of an abandoned looking apartment building, and held the door for me to go inside.

I walked through the door and followed Chane and Adrian upstairs to the second floor. We stopped in front of apartment 108.

It was decorated nicely but you couldn't really tell. It was very messy and there was a ton of crumpled paper balls everywhere. Books were placed in random places. I bumped the desk and four books fell to the floor. I recognized the books immediately. I gasped, realizing that's where I knew the boys from.

These boys were the same two that I had run into two years ago when I was volunteering at the library. I had been decorating for Christmas, and had bumped into them, knocking these same books that I held in my hands to the floor.

"You stole these books?" I grabbed their attention, and they turned to see what I was talking about.

"Oh, yea, I forgot about those." Chane said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You've had these for what, two years? Why didn't you ever return them?"

"We had to prepare for the battle, and when we find the chosen one we have to stop everything to find as many talismans before the rising." Adrian took the books from me and set them farther in on the desk, so they wouldn't fall again if it was bumped.

"What? What battle? What is the chosen one? What talismans and which rising?"

They showed me over to the couch and took a seat across from me, "I know you have lots of questions, and we will try to answer them, but they will most likely just generate more." Chane glanced at Adrian, who gave him a nod of approval, before going on, "Every 550 years there is a battle, which we call the final battle. The chosen one is not really a what, so much as a whom. The chosen one is the one who battles the subject in the battle, they use the talismans to fight the evil one. Each of the talismans controls a different power, as you have seen with us freezing time." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket watch, except it was completely made of stone.

It was beautiful, in place where there would normally be numbers for the time, there were different colors of gems. I reached out to touch it, but then drew back my hand in the last moment, not wanting to risk breaking something so pretty. Adrian took it and put it in a jeweled box, taking over explaining. The jeweled box was a dark brown, with five pictures painted on it. There was a flower, which looked like it was burning, ring, which looked like a bunch of vines and flowers that were tied together, and two charm-like ones, that seemed to look like they went on a necklace. The First of the two charms looked like one of those bottles with a cork in it, like the ones you see with the glitter in it. Except they were empty. The second charm was like a foggy like crystal. All four of those pictures were formed into a circle around the remaining drawing, which looked exactly like the stone pocket watch.

"There are 5 Talismans. Each one controls a different element, and they are used by The Chosen One in the battle against The Evil One. We have the Ore of Eternity, which is the stone watch, and it freezes time. The Vial of Hope controls water, The Flower of Desolation controls fire, The Crystal of Clouds controls air, and the Ringlet of Inflorescence controls earth."

I wasn't sure how much of this I wanted to believe. All my life I had grown up in a small town, overlooked by everybody, ignored. I had always had a yearning to have something more. Something that was like in the books I read, full of adventure and meaning. This was my chance. But, at the same time, I wanted to just go home and be safe, to curl up and leave the saving the world stuff to the people in my beloved books. Not to mention how crazy the whole situation sounded. Magic artifacts? Year old never ending battle? It seemed like nothing but fantasy, and this seemed like an elaborate prank.

But, if it wasn't than I would pass through life, never knowing the truth. I decided then and there what I was gonna do. I was going to help.

I interrupted him, "You said that once you find The Chosen One, that you had to stop everything and collect talismans for the battle. Who was the Chosen One? How do I fit into this?"

He ran his hand through his hair, "We never know how long after we find The Chosen One till the battle. After we find out who The Chosen One is, normally they get into a situation where they are threatened by death, and Adrian gets a vision. We then have to save The Chosen one, and we have about a month till the final battle."

Chane took over, "As for how you fit into this, remember when you handed back those books and we were shocked? Well, that was the moment we realized you were The Chosen One, and after the train incident, it looks like our timer till the battle has just started."