I stood naked in a large bathroom; surprisingly, it had a shower.
The cold water poured all over me, and for the first time since I'd come to this world, I saw myself in a mirror beneath the shower.
I had pale white hair with black hair at the centre of my head.
My eyes were dark green, and my body looked exactly like a normal child's.
As I stared at myself, moving my fingers from my once burnt jaw to my once impaled stomach, now completely healed; Solomon appeared behind me, naked, his hands on my shoulders, looking down at me with a smile.
"Yo!" He said.
I looked up at him, dropping my arm. "Hey."
"Hmhmm," he giggled. "Let's get in the bath together." Stretching past me, turning the knob for the shower, stopping the water.
We left the showers that were separated by designed yellow curtains and golden walls and into the center of the bathroom were there was a large pool, big enough to fit all the people in the village, surrounded with small pillars with statues of golden birds with blue gem eyes bringing out water from their open beaks that flowed into the pool continuously.
Further down the pool was what appeared to be a miniature waterfall coming from the end of the room, flowing out from the open mouth of a golden lion's head.
At the other end of the room was a large mirror that spread across the whole wall in an oval shape revealing all there was to see in the room; the many golden chandeliers, the golden floor, the small golden pillar that emerged from the center of the pool with a pink crystal, shaped like a budded flower, filled with many white moving glimmers and the rest of the room being basically golden.
As Solomon backflipped into the pool falling on his back, the water splashed but froze and rested on the air. Even as Solomon raised his head out of the water, the water still stayed frozen in the air.
I came down the steps and walked into the pool. Beneath it, the water felt normal, but the waves that formed on the water's surface moved very slowly.
Standing in the pool, the water reached up to my neck. Attempting to swim, I noticed that even if you don't move at all in the water, you'd still be moving around as if you were floating .
"Linguise water," Solomon said with a smile on his face as the floating water around him slowly began to fade away.
"One of the rarest and most expensive water in the whole world: known for its rarity and naturality, it can only be found in the deepest darkest depths of a forbidden cave, dungeon or tomb."
"So what's a Linguise?"
"It's a name."
"Whats name?"
"A monster's."
I cupped my hand out of the water, the droplets that spilt out of my hand froze in the air, and the few that made it back into the water made slow ripples.
I put hand back into the pool, and the water that was once in my hand remained in the air, forming a line that flowed back into the pool.
"How does it work?"
"A story for another time." Solomon said, cracking his neck.
I floated on my back ,slowly moving with the water. When I reached the pillar in the pool, I noticed that the chandeliers formed a circle round a name engraved in gold on the ceiling.
"Lestion."
I quickly rose up and looked at Solomon."What's--"
"A name." Solomon said lightly with a smile. "You ask a lot of questions for someone who was on the verge of death."
"..."
"So? You aren't afraid?"
"Of what?"
"Hehe, never mind. Let's go on," he said as he got out of the pool.
I followed behind him to where there was a locker room - the only place that seemed to be made of wood - where a new set of clothes were laid out for both of us.
Solomon's clothes were a pink cardigan sweater and baggy jeans. Mine was an oversized blue hooded cardigan sweater with tree patterns lined horizontally across the chest along with cargo pants.
I picked up the book and cloak that I left in the locker and wore the stopwatch around my neck.
Solomon, who was putting on his trousers, turned to look at me. He froze, and then a huge smile grew on his face as his eyes narrowed.
"Well, would you look at that," he said, dropping his arms. He giggled as he walked to the door of the locker room.
I held the stopwatch and inspected it. Nothing changed.
"I don't get it."
Solomon opened the door, and 2 girls were standing there, smiling. They appeared to be twins.
They wore similar clothes, one wore a cropped red jacket, a white buttoned shirt and a red skirt; the other wore a red vest, a black tie, a white long sleeved shirt and red trousers.
They both had unique differences. The girl in the vest had longer hair, and the girl in the skirt had messier hair.
A second after the door was fully open, the 2 girls crouched while giving a cherry smile. A pair of white luminous transparent wings emerged from their backs like pairs of diamonds, 2 large ones emerging from the shoulder blades, and the 2 shorter ones coming from the midpoint of their backs.
They launched at Solomon.
"There you are!" They both said, repeating after each other in a childish voice. "Where were you?"
Flying circles around Solomon, they kept on smiling, laughing, and dancing happily around him. As Solomon turned his head about continuously smiling as he looked at them with a light smile on his face as the twins passed between his arms and legs.
I just went for a bath with Miya."
"Aww, without us?" The girl with longer hair said.
"It was just for a little while."
"Did you miss us?" The girl with shorter hair asked, floating upside down while holding unto Solomon face, staring at him with eager eyes.
"Of course."
"Hehehe, me too." The girl said cheerfully as she drew closer, closed her eyes, and kissed him.
"Ah! me too," the other girl said, with a sad look on her face as she moved closer to both of them.
The girl with shorter hair giggled as she let go of Solomon and moved aside. The girl with long hair held Solomon's face gently and kissed him.
Solomon placed his hands on both of their cheeks and smiled. It wasn't the same smile he usually wears but a different type of smile...
"Thanks, but why don't you introduce yourself to our guest." Solomon said as he turned to Miya.
"Ah, that's right!" The 2 sisters said.
They flew down to me happily, but before they reached me, they froze. They stared at my face with their mouths open.
Their smiles were gone, and they looked at me with astonishment.
"Wait, isn't he..." the girl with shorter hair said.
"Yeah...mother..."her sister replied.
"Hey." Solomon spoke from behind. The sisters turned back. "Why don't you start with your names.
The 2 glanced at each other, then courtesies before me..
"Welcome, sir."
"My name is Neal," the girl with shorter hair said.
"My name is Nael," the girl with longer hair said.
"P-please enjoy yourself," they squirmed as they flew back behind Solomon, peeking from his shoulders.
"Hehe, c'mon Miya, there's something I want to show you," Solomon said.
We walked down the hall. The place was brightly lit and filled with various strange looking antiques; some of the golden doors to the room had doodles on them, and others seemed beaten up.
They were many paintings of people having fun, most of the people were repeated in the paintings, especially of a boy with yellow hair and blue eyes. "
Hey, hey, Solomon; is it really him?"
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"You know, you don't need to whisper. He can still hear you."
" I know, but..." Both girls said, in synch.
"Miya." Solomon called. I turned to him.
"This is it." He placed his hand on the wall, and something started appearing out of thin air.
It started with a wooden frame, then a red curtain in the background. And then...
"This is an image of one the greatest sorcerers of all history," Solomon said. " I'm not really sure how it was made, but -"
"It's a photo," I said. I couldn't tell if Solomon still said anything else after that, but either way, I was drawn in by the picture.
Two people in a place, one and older than the other, standing before a red curtain, both of them with the same face.
The older one stood behind the chair where the younger one was seated, placing his hands on his gently on his shoulders.
Gently?
The younger one held his hands together on his lap as they smiled at the camera.
They both had puffy black hair, purple eyes, a cunning smile, a grey vest on top of a white long sleeved shirt, the elder wore grey trousers while the other wore grey shorts.
Seeing their faces felt strange, like something was missing; like I was forgetting -
"Ugh!"
There was a sharp sting in my brain. A flash of a bright white-yellow light. My head throbbed painfully.
Someone was watching. Someone was smiling.
"Argh!! AGHH!!!" I stumbled; Solomon caught me.
"Calm down." He said. My vision blurred.
I closed my eyes.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" The girls asked.
It took a while, but I managed to calm myself down, and immediately, as I opened my eyes, tears flowed out, but I didn't know why.
Solomon looked at me calmly. The twins looked at me worriedly.
"Who is that?" I asked, staring at my trembling fingers. My heart is pounding.
"Which one?" Solomon asked.
"The older one." I said, looking up at the photo. Trying to regain my balance. There was a small lingering pain.
Solomon looked up to the photo, following my gaze.
"That's Casualty No.5; 'Father Time'."