Primordial Palace

Chapter 2

     Massive creaking rides towered here and there as the smell of delicious carnival food drifted all around. It had been a beautiful day, warm with just enough cloud cover and a breeze that blew by calmly. It was the third day of this particular carnival and the grass where people had been walking on over and over again was brown and matted. All over there were different rides for adults and kids as well as shopping and food stalls scattered around. Being the third day things seemed calmer than they had been the first two days. Along the back end of the grounds was lined with those over price prize-winning games that always seemed just so tempting. The lights on stacked bottled games went off as the host rang a bell, smiling but clearly not too happy to be giving away one of his extra-large stuff prizes. He tugged down a large tiger stuffed animal and handed it to Alice, a red-haired girl, whose smile went from ear to ear.

"Great aim sweetheart," said Oscar, the nicely trimmed dirty blonde haired man standing next to her as he leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Wyatt will get a kick out of this guy," he said, giving the tiger a small pet while Alice squeezed it tightly.

"I would not have known where the weak spot was to aim for if not for you," She said beaming up at him her smile so big it made her green eyes squint a bit. She put her fist out to him and said, "Teamwork for the win." Oscar laughed and went in for a fist bump but then grabbed her fist and used it to pull her in wrapping one of his arms around her waist and giving her a quick kiss on the lips. Her cheeks turned almost as red as her hair and she hid behind her new plush. He laughed lightly as they started moving away from the game and toward the front of the grounds toward the exit.

"How about some dinner before we head back?" Oscar asked, taking Alices hand, it swung gently between them as they moved between people.

"Do you think we will have time?" She looked down at her watch, it was far from a normal watch, it seemed to have a few other smaller clock faces behind the main one that seemed to change quickly and sporadically. She looked at it, her eyes moving between each one, understanding it perfectly.

"They can handle things without us for a little while," he said with a shrug and they headed off down the street. About 20 minutes later they came to a cute little eatery. "Ladies ....," Oscar started as he opened the door with his free hand but he realized quickly that something was not right by the way the wind came through the door and the way Alice slowly let go of his hand shyly. When he looked in he was not looking into a neatly set up restaurant with the smell of food wafting out. Instead, he was looking into a small entryway that led into a larger one with marble flooring. Standing in the middle of the bigger room was a man with shaggy dark brown hair who looked a little surprised and like he was not sure exactly how to feel. Alice quickly stepped in first, her tiger behind her back. Oscar came in and the door closed quickly on its own and the sounds from the street were absolutely gone.

It was quite beside the steps coming from the hallway straight across the way from the front door where two more people appeared both smiling and chatting. The girl, Knox, had long wavy purplish-blue hair. The boy, Alton was slightly shorter than her with shoulder-length black hair. The boy had something behind his back and had been looking up at the girl as he talked when suddenly she put her arm out and stopped him just as they entered the big hall. Their smiles faded as they took in the feeling of the room.

"Sebastian... I ..I should have told you, I'm sorry" Alice started her voice a little shaky. Oscar put his arm around her shoulder knowing there was no hiding it at this point and wanting to comfort her. It was quiet again for a beat as Sebastian took in what he was looking at. He took a quick sharp breath like he had been holding it and had suddenly come out of a daze.

"No, I mean there is no need to be sorry I just wish I had known before.....well," He said, gesturing off. "Sorry to have ...interrupted you," he added, not really looking at them anymore and talking a little slower as if he was struggling to find words. "I just wanted to make sure we knew we needed to have a meeting soon, something is wrong if you haven't noticed, I have, so...yeah. Tomorrow then, noon, in the meeting room," He said quickly trying to act fine and back in charge but clearly not. Alice was still looking at him sadly, she hated knowing she was hurting someone she cared about. His light green eyes looked back at her for only a split second before he looked away again.

"Sebastian, please, let's.." She started moving out of Oscars arm, handing him her tiger, giving him a quick look that he understood quickly and nodded. She took a few steps toward Sebastian reaching out feeling like she needed to comfort him now as well and make sure he is ok. He stepped away from her as if her hand were cold or she was deadly sick.

"I should go..." He said moving toward one of the two sets of stairs that led to the second-floor hall. Alice wrapped her arms around herself dropping her eyes to the floor. Oscar came up behind her, putting his arms on her shoulders, and rubbed them gently as he said gently in her ear. "Let's go to the kitchen, we can talk if you would like or we can just get some food. We still need to get some food before bed," he gently started moving her toward the left of the big room into a dining room. The only ones left in the room were the two who stood in the back, they had gone unnoticed it seemed by the others. Knox put her hand on Altons shoulder her yellow eyes were sad and knowing. He had his dark brown eyes still looking out into the room as if people were still standing there talking and he simply could not look away.

"Alton...are you ok?" Knox already knew the answer. Without a word, the flowers he had behind his back went up in flames making Knox take a step back from the heat. Her eyes hurt from the bright fire of the flowers that now lay burning on the floor. By the time she could see again all she saw was the door on the opposite side of the room from the dining room close. She looked at the flowers with a sigh. "What is happening around here?" she asked herself watching the flowers as the fire died down.

The time before the meeting was awkward, to say the least. People went about their nights and mornings while doing their best to avoid certain people. Alton made it to the meeting room about 30 minutes early as he usually did. He had been a mess of emotions since the night before. Sad and angry, mostly at himself but also at Oscar. He knew it was silly but he felt he had taken his Alice away even though she had never been his. To his surprise, he was not the first one there. At the large round table in the middle of a mostly empty room sat a blonde curly-haired man leaned back in his chair with his feet on the table and his eyes closed. Around his shoulders hung a Sloth but not a normal one. It was grey and transparent. It had what looked like clouds swirling about its body as well.

"Let me guess Clint, you were sleeping last night when we were meant to meet and discuss our meeting plans?" Alton said annoyed. He had let himself boil over last night in the training room, a lot of fire. How stupid could he be? They had been the Protectors for a while now and he had let his feelings for Alice grow so intense with how friendly she was it was easy. Things had been busy with training and protecting the earth from the dark forms that came through the portal at the back of the palace he just never felt the time was right to say anything. Now, it was too late. He should have known, how could he compared to Oscar or even Sebastian.

"It was kind of late, Julian filled me in when I woke up," Clint said, giving the air sloth a little pet. He opened his light grey eyes and looked over at Alton. "Though I heard more than just about the meeting. Based on how you are this morning I assume there is more to what happened than what I heard," He said with a bit of a lazy smile.

"Of course they were watching," Alton said glaring at Julian. Julian turned slowly and whispered something in Clints ear, even if he spoke normally only Clint would have been able to hear him. He nodded and Julian vanished with a slight breeze. "Did I scare the poor Celestial Guardian away," He said making his way over to the curved wall of the meeting room covered in large windows. Outside the window was a tiny bit of grass before it fell off into nothing but space. Far below he could just see the earth in a strange almost glitching-like state as it changed to different points in earth history.

"No, actually he said that he and the others would be gone for a little while. Something seems to be wrong," Clint said not actually sounding all that worried. His laid back personality always kind of pissed Alton off. He started pacing along the windowed wall. "Want to talk about it?" he asked, actually sounding genuine. Alton sighed heavily.

"Not really, we clearly have more to worry about once the others get here," he said, as much as Clints relaxed demeanor pissed him off being around him always seemed to help him calm down a little. "Thank you anyway," He said, still pacing. Clint gave a small nod and started rocking a little as the room went quiet for the time being while they waited for the others to show up.