We found ourselves falling from the sky rapidly approaching the towering leafy treetops below us. Strangely, we avoided any contact with the branches and twigs in our fall and plummeted with our hands tightly clasped together, fearing the possibility of losing our hold on each other in this strange environment.
We landed on something very soft and squishy and were sucked into the bouncy surface before popping out on the other side of the strangely elastic material.
"Ouch!" I yelped as I found myself on my bottom atop a stone floor. My brother winced in response, his large blue eyes filling with unshed teardrops.
"Finally, you guys made it." A familiar voice called out from the side. We whipped our heads to see two other children standing to our right waiting for us to catch our bearings. It was the tall and lanky boy who was the first to be pushed in by the overseer who spoke.
"I heard that we are expected to stay in the place for at least a week until our spirits decide to contact us." He said.
"That's only for the talented." The other girl teased in response. Her name was Eva Fide. The orphan who was well-known for being taken in by her greedy uncle and cruel aunt, forced to live with spoiled cousins who constantly bullied her.
"Well that's not true because I heard that one of the strongest royals took a whole month just to find their spirit." The tall boy called out in defense.
"Well that one in a million genius. He's pretty much the only royal to have ever publicly participated in a Ceremony of Awakening." The girl retorted.
The tall boy looked defeated as he scrambled for more words but came up with nothing. He turned around and decided to ignore her, facing me and my brother.
*cough* *ahem*
"Anyways, it's nice to meet the rest of the group. You can call me Shin." He spoke to us with a charming smile as he ignored his victorious sister gloating behind him. That's right. Shin and Eva Fide were separated after their parents' death because their rich aunt and uncle couldn't bear the disturbance of taking in two children, regardless of the blood ties that they shared.
Being the older of the two, Shin decided that it was best for Eva to stay with the family in case anything went wrong with her Ceremony of Awakening so that she wouldn't have to be sent outside of the city.
I sent him an inquisitive look.
"Well, according to the rules of the Ceremony, we have to form groups of 4 before we can exit the clearing." Shin said as he pressed against the strange shield keeping them within the small clearing.
"And according to my calculations, you guys are the last participants to come in, and the others seemed to already know each other and left without us." He sheepishly pointed out.
"So, We should group up!" He exclaimed jubilantly.
'Should we trust them?' My brother asked me.
'We have no choice.' I pointed out.
'Well... okay then.' He responded reluctantly.
"We agree to temporarily grouping up with you in order to participate in the Awakening; however, we should respect each other's privacy and personal space in the duration of time we spend together." I hesitantly stated.
"Okay, that's fine with me!" Shin replied enthusiastically.
"So, you guys are Rhianna and Jase Salvator right? The twins who never interact with the other orphans much less with other kids." Eva interrupted with a provocative tone.
"And you guys are the Fide twins who suffered miserably under the evil hands of your uncle and aunt right?" I replied with a challenging gaze.
We gazed at each other for a solid 5 minutes until Shin broke the silence.
"Okay, okay." Shin said, breaking the challenge passing between us. "We should really get going now, or else we'll be farther behind everyone else than we already are." He said complaining while approaching the strange shield keeping us in.
"Call me Rhi." I said as I made eye contact with Eva and smirked at her.
Once he reached the invisible barrier and put his hand on it, he called out seeming to no one and said, "We've teamed up now."
Seconds passed in silence as nothing happened.
'Hey Jase, what do you think he's trying to do?'
'Beats me." He replied, clearly confused about what what happening.
All of a sudden, the barrier shone once in a familiar dazzling lavender color and faded out of existence.
"Yes! Finally! Let's go now!" Shin called out excitedly as he jumped up and down, eager to begin the search for his spirit.
I made eye contact with my brother and prompted him forward.
' You heard him. Let's go' I smiled widely as my heart filled with excitement with expectations for what was to come.