Semblance

Chapter 3

             A few uneventful months went by fast and before I knew it, it was November. Excited yells spread throughout the hallways as I was walking to Mythology. A guy roughly brushed past me. I looked over my shoulder to give him a harsh look, but something stopped me cold. 'You must remember, Ro', his voice echoed around the confinements of my mind. It's him, I thought. I ran towards him, shoving through the people that were in my way.

"Wait! Hey, you!" My pleads were drowning in the yells that surrounded me. It didn't take me long to loose him in the crowds. I couldn't help but feel like the answers I am looking for were slipping though my fingers like sand. I slouched, defeated. I turned around and continued my way to class.

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As I sat down in my usual seat beside BraeLynn, she elbowed me in the ribs. The look on her face was questioning what had almost made me late, which would've tarnished my perfect attendence. I answered her by shaking my head. Our teacher, Mr. Mortar briskly walked into the classroom, then he did his routine of putting his coffee cup and satchel on his desk.

"Morning, class." He greeted without looking up from his lesson plans. There were mumbles of 'good morning, sir' from my fellow classmates. "Today, we will be switching gears a bit. Is there anybody who is familiar with the Legend of Apparencia?" A few students raised their hands, the rest shared confused glances. BraeLynn and I were amongst the confused.

Mr. Mortar hummed thoughtfully. "Yes...you may know them from bedtime stories some parents choose to tell their children. Andrew," a lanky kid, who sat on the opposite side of the class, looked up nervously, "tell me what you think you know about this myth." He spat out the word 'myth' as if it created a horrible taste in his mouth.

"Uhm, well, Apparencia is also known as the world of Time Portals. Uh, in the stories my grandma use to tell me, they fought over who got to live on Earth. We won, but t-that's all I really know..." Andrew trailed off as his ears turned a bright shade of red.

     Mr. Mortar nodded. "Good, good. You're right; it is know as the World of Time Portals. Apparencians and mankind did indeed go to war, fighting over who got to claim Earth as their home. Nasty war, it was." He took off his glasses, to rub the bridge of his nose between his thumb and his pointer finger. "This is what we will be learning for next few weeks, so pay attention for this is vital information." His eyes lingering on BraeLynn when he said this, making her avert her eyes to the side as she pretended to whistle innocently. I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing.

      "Like every strong country, there is a king. Theirs is called King Dorian. King Dorian is a noble ruler, and has his peoples' best interest in mind. While that is usually said for every leader we come across, you can say that about him and mean it with every inch of you. King Dorian has a wife, of course, Queen Sophia. The queen is said to be very outspoken and can outwit every grown man who challenged her. As myth goes, Apparencians lose the Earth to mankind, and instead make their home in an alternate dimension. King Dorian and Queen Sophia have ruled for 100 years. Time is different in Apparencia, though, it is slower. They have ruled about 100 years, but to us they have ruled for 10.

         As I continuing the story, you must know that Queen Sophia is a human. Dorian met her when he was sent to Earth for battle. They fell madly in love. King Dorian, well at this time he was Prince Dorian, used the family ring to allow her to travel to Apparencia. The ring requires the Apparencia's blood along with a drop of blood from which the human must give in order to cross. The blood courses through it, bonding them together.

      No one knows what happens if a halfling, which is an individual with both Apparencian and human blood, crosses through portals...I mean, it has never happened before!" He looked at me, as if expecting a reaction for a split second, then looked away. I looked back, confused.

       "That is where we stop the lesson today, class. I want a one-page essay of research that you will find on the internet. Turn it in the next time we meet." With that, the bell rang and everyone shuffled out of the classroom.

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        I was starring into space, when a tan hand waved in front of my face.

"Helloooo, Earth to Rowan!" Cayden said loudly in my ear. He knocked on my head as he said, "Anyone in there?"

I hurriedly smacked his head away from my face, where it almost hit my nose.

"Would you stop?" I asked.

"Finally, you acknowledge us. I was beginning to feel unloved," said BraeLynn teasingly. I rolled my eyes at her, with one side of my mouth pulled up in a ghost of a smirk.

"Sorry," I said, as I looked around. We were in the courtyard, there were groups of people scattered all around. I wrinkled my nose when I saw a couple basically having sex with their clothes on the wall that was a few feet away from us. Cayden followed my disgusted look.

"Now that is just plain nasty," a similar look of disgust crossed his features before throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at them, "get a room, you ravaged beasts!" He adopted a horrible impersonation of a posh accent, that BraeLynn and I shook with laughter at. BraeLynn said his name in disbelief through her giggles.

     "What? Everyone was thinking it, I just had the balls to say it," he shrugged as if he had just informed someone of the weather's status.

          As our laughter died down, I turned my head to left, and there sat the mysterious stranger from my dream. His blonde hair was wavy and slightly messed up, which gave him the 'I woke up like this' look, that everyone tried to copy, but only a lucky few were able to pull it off.

      Internally, I argued with myself. Should I go to him? Wait for him to come to me? Gosh, this is so much more harder than it is suppose to be! My impatient nature got the best of me though, because I found myself striding to where he sat. I slid into the seat in front of his. His hazel eyes looked up.

   A look of recognition crossed his tan face, but he quickly covered it up. "Yes?"

Immediately, I shot back, "I know you."

Yeah, I thought, that was good.

"Really?" I nodded. "Who am I then?"

I stumbled over my words, pretty sure I looked ridiculous with my mouth opening and closing like a fish.

I tried to maintain my dignity, by keeping my head up. "The name is Killian."

  There. One question answered, I finally had a name for the mysterious stranger. Killian.

He smirked knowingly at me. "And I believe you have some question for me, Ro."