*Ding~*
*Ding!~*
*DING!*
"Why are they still ringing that fucking bell." I muttered as I sat up. "Relax, it's a part of history." My roommate's voice responded. I looked down from my top bunk to see her at the desk awake and already working on some sort of Class assignment. I looked her over and rolled my eyes. Before another round of bells began to ring. " Besides you should be grateful they ring it, otherwise you would sleep the day away." She said holding up my bag as I got down and changed into my t-shirt and sweats. I grabbed my bag and a hair tie off the doorknob and headed to the door looking myself over. "Aren't you gonna at least brush your teeth." She said, "Hm.. Shoul-" I was about to make a joke till I saw her scrunch her face in disgust. "Relax, I'm gonna brush my teeth." I then walked to the bathroom by the exiting door and brushed them in 30 good long seconds, spitting out the foamy bubbles and rinsing my mouth with a bit of water. I tossed my toothbrush back in its cup and waved to my roommate as I closed the door behind me leaving. I looked around the hall seeing students gathering and the freshman started to enter the halls moving in with their roommates. It was my second year so I didn't have to worry about that anymore. But I was worried about being late. I looked at my phone seeing it was 10 minutes before class. "Shit." I muttered and I shoved my way to a nearby stairwell and rushed downstairs.
I booked it out the fire escape doors and looked around seeing Diniz by the brick arch outside waving with his hair up tight in a black bun and a tank top. And running shoes. "Well well, Seems someone is running late." He called out as I approached tightening my bag. "Yea, sure." He then held out a bag of coffee zip tied shut. "Is that McRoss's Coffee?" I said holding the bag and taking a sip of the warm beverage. "Yup picked it up on my way here. I figured you would be in a rush. As to why I'm wearing my runners." He said waving to the shoes. "You know I am not sure whether to be happy you wore those or insulted because you think I'm late all the time." I said as I finished my drink and tossed it into a nearby trash can. "Well that's up to you. However, It is 9:01" He said checking his watch. I then bent down tying my shoes to be more secure and got up securing my backpack. " So which route?" I said. "Let's try running by the Walter's Amphitheater on 42nd street," he said. "And then?" I asked to make a mental note. "Hm we can cut through the cafeteria. Give Mrs. Pedtons a little morning jump in her morning route." He said as we started walking. "Alright then let's go." I said as I then smacked his arm with a quick wrist snap of mine and ran off like I had fire on my heels. "H-HEY That's cheating!" He said. "I did say today was a no mercy day, Remember last week Dinny!" I called back as I heard him run behind me. I kept running, making a sharp turn to the garden in the center of the campus, as I made my way to Social studies. "Come on! Jesira! I swear!" he said as he quickly caught up and threw his arm out before me. I ducked down and rolled as I slid and stood up onto my right heel and stabilized myself back into running with my left foot, as I saw the Amphitheater is my site. I booked it to the steps, and raced up them. Running across the lawn past the houses hunting for their fresh blood. Of new pledges. "JESIRA!" Diniz shouted as I ran by men and women holding fliers up for the freshmen to check out their house. I turned right as I ran down the less crowded concrete ramp to the Food court. And shoved my wave between some stranger and the door making it inside without getting snagged by my bag this time. I then jumped onto the table looking around. "JESIRA LEE THOMPSON!!" I heard a shrill voice call out. She was infuriated, staring at me with her pinkish glasses resting on her freckled nose while her frown slightly wrinkled her chin, as she pursed her raspberry colored lips. "Oh hello Mrs. Peds." I said smiling. "Please tell me you and Mister Diniz are not playing tag again." She said, Then the door burst open behind me as a very sweaty Diniz came through it smiling as he seemed a bit more pissed about almost getting me earlier. "I'll leave that for you to decide Mrs. Peds, now if you'll excuse me." I said as I ran across the lunch table and hopped out the next careful as to not slip or step on any trays. "JES!" he shouted as I looked back, seeing him practically on my heels reaching out to me. The hair on the back of my neck stood as I made a last call to jump as far left as possible to the next row and ran back to the entrance while some kids shouted at us. I then felt my right foot get pulled from under me mid run.
*Bang!*
My right side of my head smacked into the table as my vision got blurry for a moment. "JESIRA!" I heard Diniz's voice call out in panic as he hovered over my face, as I looked where my foot was pulled, seeing the one and only "Elvira! What the fuck is your problem!?" Diniz shouted at her as she faked a surprise look next to her friend Marta. They both giggled a bit. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't see her! I was grabbing my tray and she just happened to step on it. She shouldn't be running on tables anyway." she shrugged and then winked at me. My head pulsed a bit as I then got up rubbing my left ear so I could sooth the ringing sound. "Don't lie, you're just being a bitch like usual." Diniz said as he turned to me his blue eyes were filled with worry as he looked at my head. But I waved him off of me. "I'm fine, calm down Diniz. Let's just get to class." I sighed as I got up and hopped down from the table, gaining my balance and walked to the exit while Mrs. Peds went to deal with Elvira. " Let's go Ms. Fortunata. To my office." she said grimly. "Oh come on. Mrs. Pedton, are you really gonna write me up for that? She was running on the tables!" She said frustrated. "Now." Mrs. Peds said slowly as they walked off while me and Diniz pushed the doors open and headed to our first class.
We made it to my class and I waved to Diniz who was still worried if I needed to go to the nurses office first. "I'm good, I promise. If anything happens I'll text ya." I said as I walked into class right as the bell rang. "Ah right on time Miss Santorino, Mr. Reyez I'm glad you're here on time." Professor Smith said as he looked up from his new paper holding his coffee. "Glad you're glad." Diniz commented as we made our way up the carpeted steps and to our designated seats. I sat down holding my head as our lesson began.
The bell suddenly rang and I looked up from my notes, seeing that it was time for my next class soon. "I'll see you at lunch, Jes!" Diniz called out as I finished packing my notebooks up and headed down the steps to the other door as a shortcut to my next class. "Yea yea!" I said as I waved back head down the hall. {Jesira~} I heard someone say behind me. I turned around seeing nothing other than students rushing to their next class. "Huh?" I looked around to make sure but sure enough no one said anything to me. I then looked at my phone checking the time. "Shit!" I then ran off through the corridor and skidded to a halt in front of Mrs. Peds class and ran inside and slid across the tile to my seat intime to see my favorite teacher walk in and some other guy following her. She smiled at me knowingly before I smiled back and she then stopped in front of the class clearing her throat. "Everyone! Settle down, please. I got an announcement!" She said as we all went quiet watching her. Then the guy next to her pulled down his hood from his jacket and smiled. 'Holy shit, he is gorgeous!' I thought. And I am sure the rest of the class thought the same. "This is Aryan Bezelo. He is from Louisiana as a transfer to our beautiful state of North Carolina. Let's give him a warm greeting." Mrs. Peds said as we all said hello to him and drummed our desks loudly.
"Now Aryan You can sit wherever and since today isn't too busy I'll print you a catch up packet and if you have questions you can come to me alright?" She said, Then Aryan smiled as His scruffy chin wrinkled with his smile creating dimples. And his blonde hair was shaggy as it created waves down his neck at his shoulder blades. "Of Course. I'll be sure to do that." He said. When I say my heart was like melted gold from this man's voice. It hit a baritone that could make a woman squirt if he used that weapon on my lady bits. "Hm?" I looked over seeing he was making his way to my row and sat down next to me. "If you don't mind I'll just park it here ma'am." He said to me while scooting his chair a bit and pulled out a pen and paper. "Alright class lets begin. Today we are going to go over the essays I had you write last week so get those out and we will begin." She said, "You mind if I look at yours?" Aryan asked. "Not at all." I said as I slid my packet over to him and I held a highlighter.
I noticed his eyelashes were a yellowish blonde, which made him look almost unreal. But what really poked out of all his beautiful features was his dark green eyes. Those made him seem like he was always watching or he knew something already, and he was waiting for you to tell him. I noticed he would smile every once in a while and ignored it while I texted Diniz on my phone about it. "Hey can I borrow your highlighter?" I heard the new guy say. I looked up and nodded as I gave him the marker and went back to texting and looked up for a moment to my right seeing he was drawing something on his paper. While reading my essay. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Just drawing what I think this scenery would look like to me." He said pointing to the third paragraph of my paper. " Oh you mean the castle?" I said. He nodded as he began to focus on shading. "Cool." I said. And I went back to highlighting my notes real quick so I could text more after. Then the bell rang. "Finally Lunch." Someone called out as I packed up my stuff. I looked over to see Aryan slide the paper over to me showing a rough sketch of a castle surrounded by woods. "Not bad." I said. "Thanks." He smiled and then picked it up walking off to who knows where.
"Jes, you wanna eat in the court?" Diniz said as we carried our trays from the cafeteria. " Hm. How about the old Library? I hear they are finished with repainting it." I said. " Sure, wanna eat it upfront then go in?" He said. I nodded as we made our way to the south side of campus. After a minute of us chatting and eating a little we sat by the Lion statues near the steps and finished our food. "So are you okay from this morning?" Diniz asked. I rubbed my head and nodded. "Yup the noggin is fine." I chuckled while I shifted in my seat. I noticed there were a few other students here by the steps but I ignored it as Diniz began to talk about his health teacher. "Wow, sounds like mr. Mak has it out for you." I said. "You know I think so. For a nurse and teacher he is so angry. It honestly makes no sense." He said rubbing his leg a bit as he got more comfortable on the steps. "Well wanna just skip the next period?" I said. "Eh sure. I am already ahead in all my stuff." He stood and turned, giving me a hand up. "Where do you wanna go then?" He asked. "Why not inside?" I pointed to the wooden oak doors with tinted windows behind us.
It had a dark entrance with a deep slope to the roof as carved stained wood held up the walls of the building. "Alright sure." He said as he walked up the steps and I followed behind. Walking in we noticed nobody was at the front desk. "Are you sure they finished renovations?" Diniz asked as he looked around for a receptionist. " Yea pretty sure it was in the morning email." I said pulling out my phone to check. Sure enough the email stated the building was open for use again. " Well maybe we can just head in." Diniz said. I shrugged and we went through the low arch by the desk and entered a large towering room with books filling practically every corner. "Wow. This is stunning. They really worked hard on this place." Diniz said. "Yea it is a historic sight." I said running my fingers on the soft wooden shelf near me as the glossy texture gilded under my touch, as the carvings gave the feeling of smoothness too from the sanding and polishing the construction crew gave it . "Oh hey up there is some place we can chill." he pointed to the third floor spiraling above us. "Sounds good to me." I said as I then ran up excited. We both ran up the stairs and circled the second floor gaping at how the skylight poured beautiful rays of colors from its mosaic allure, The Piece had a Woman and man facing us from above with white and silver robes spiraling form their bodies and one had flower wreaths on their head, the other had beautiful stars as a crown floating behind there head. But the one thing i noticed is they both had White eyes empty of pupils and irises. The higher we got the more colors appeared. Like wine reds, or sapphire blues cascading the walls near us. When we reached the third floor we noticed it had some books on the podiums opened to random pages and at the end was a seating area. "I call dibs on the couch." I said. And Diniz tsked as he smiled.
{Jesira!~} "What Diniz?" I said looking over. "Huh? I didn't say anything." he said. " Oh?" I then peeked over the glass railing seeing if anyone was on the bottom floor but nothing. I then stuck my finger in my ear rubbing it to see if I had anything in it but nothing. "You good?" Diniz then leaned over checking my ear for me. "I swore I heard someone call my name." I said. "Well I didn't hear anything, and you seem to have clean ears." he said, letting go of my earlobe. I looked at him directly as I was about to say something.
*AAAAHHH!*
We both ducked down as screams were heard outside the Library. "What the fuck was that?" I said. Diniz and I looked around and heard crashing down stairs. We peeked down seeing A large group of students enter the first floor. I noticed some of them were covered in something. "Are they?" I looked over at Diniz arching a brow. "Maybe it's a senior prank?" he said as he stared down at them. "Well wanna scare them a bit?" Diniz said, pulling out something from his bag. "Did you really bring your stick plant with you?" I said. Looking at the bug in the plastic box. "Well better then nothing." He said. "Well I don't think Mrs. Lacey here is gonna be too keen on getting her ears blown out from the screams. Wait, did you bring her on the run with us?! She could've died from that!" I said. "Oh true." He said as he put her back in the bag. "So why are you carrying her around?" I said. "She has been in a bad mood lately so I am just letting her enjoy some outside time." He said. "Wow Such a lucky girl." I said. He chuckled a bit. I then got up and walked to the lounge spot only to trip over a random chair leg. I caught myself on one of the podiums nearby as my right hand landed in the middle of a random book. "Jeez you just can't walk for shit huh?" he said sitting in the very chair that tripped me. "Well I guess fucking not." I said as I stood up, chuckling. "Jesira.." Diniz said as more screams were heard from downstairs along with shouting. "Yea?" I said. "Look at your hand slowly." He said with a confused look to his face. I looked at the hand that caught me from falling to see a wrinkly hand with flesh that appeared to be torn hanging from the bones. "What the fuck!!!!" I shouted. I tried to pull my arm away and Diniz ran over to help me but then the book on the right pedal stool next to us flung open as another hand grabbed Diniz, but this one had leaves and odd spindled fingers like a bug. "AHH!" he shouted trying to pull away but the hands kept us in place. Then all the books around us began to fly open, getting flung over the edge as more screams were heard and bright lights or smoke would puff from below. Then I watched as the hand holding my right arm began to practically fuse to my skin being absorbed by my body. And surely enough Diniz saw in horror as it happened to him as well. We looked at each other trying to look away from this to figure out a plan. But then the building shook creaking groans as if it were alive. Once the hand was in my body, a mark of a Black cross was printed to my skin like a tattoo. With thorns and skeletal hands wrapped around it like it was grasping the cross in the frame of repentance. I looked over to Diniz, staring at his arm and saw a mark of a beetle with its wings spread and subtly glowing with a soft green with shades of reds and oranges and leaves of small print were laid behind the large beetle.
I then grabbed Diniz and we started to run down the stairs to see other students staring at their arms shouting and talking about the books and the hands that grabbed them. "We need to get out!" I shouted. A guy looked over at me and pointed to the door. "We can't. We had to come in because of that big ass storm!" He said. I looked at the entrance of the library and walked over looking across the foyai and sure enough a fog of black smoke and debris was looming outside. Blocking sight to anything beyond the steps of the building. " Is it a hurricane?" a girl said, shivering as she held her arm to her chest. I shook my head and checked my phone. I stared confused. It said no signal. "I can't tell, I don't have a signal," I then looked over to see everyone checking their phones. And Diniz went to the front desk to check the phones there. "I got nothing! Lines are dead." he said, holding it up for me to hear the dead buzz from the lack of connection. "Well let's get back inside just in case. Did everyone have contact with those hands?!" I said. Everyone nodded. I sighed. "Lets get everyone in order then. We can see if there are any injuries." Me and Diniz started checking everyone including three other students. After everyone was accessed we managed to wrap up a few wounds from the people scampering to get in when it first happened, Only two had it pretty bad with bruising and what looked like a broken wrist, and ankle.
After we were settled I then checked again at the glass door and noticed the fog becoming darker and the plumes of mist becoming thicker like that of a destruction site. After handling more of the insight to this. We all agreed to just wait it out. Something this bad, our school would've notified us or made an announcement of rescue pretty soon. I looked around the building more and noticed there was only access to the basement of the building and the ground floor had bathrooms with showers for some clubs. In the back there was a large brick patio and down on the ground level, Was a large yard. With tables and grass surrounded with the white stones like the stairs up front, trees providing shade all around and a long pond with an old well set more towards the flower garden near the borders of the courtyard. I then found the staff room and saw a small kitchen area was cozy with a fireplace. Though with the lack of electricity the room was dark with the fog blocking any sunlight beyond the windows. After a lot of walking I noticed a separate staircase to another wing of the building. I headed up it and noticed it was a corridor of rooms and tall windows that appeared to belong on a skylight overpass. I walked down it and saw more fog outside of the windows and I noticed something odd above it. Being so high up it appeared the buildings of our school were no longer where they were supposed to be. "What the hell." I said as I looked closer I saw trees peaking over beyond the fog line almost like they were curious to see beyond the gray clouds.
"This doesn't look good." I then pulled my phone out, opened the camera and zoomed in, seeing for sure it was nothing but trees that resembled the amazon or somewheres overtaken by foliage. I watched closely as I saw people sitting on the branches pointing at our building wearing robes or long capes with swords or some floating with glowing mist coming from their hands, Some even had tunics or a simple cloth on their waist. After taking a few photos I then headed back to the library quickly. Rushing down the stairs I saw Diniz waiting by the glass door and I rushed over to him keeping my voice low. "Diniz, come here." I said to him as he looked away for a moment and nodded and we went into a small room. "Everything okay?" he asked, staring down at me. I lifted my phone showing him the pictures explaining everything. "Jesus. So it's not a storm?" he said. I shook my head. "I think I'm crazy but we are definitely not on school grounds." I said quietly. "That's not good." he said and then creaked open the door checking the entryway of any bystanding students. "If they find out who knows how they will react." I said. "How long you think we can keep it a secret." Diniz said huffing. " Best we tell them now. And if they fuck up or react poorly we can just hide upstairs. At least until we know it's safe to see them again." I noted. He nodded and then the door swung open. Diniz and I looked up to see a figure walk in. "Well what are you two doing?" I heard a familiar voice and looked up seeing Aryan. "Nothing, just talking." I said. Diniz nodded as he leaned on the door frame slightly blocking Aryans view of me. "Well do tell. Because I don't wanna be kept out of the loop." he said to me over Diniz's shoulder. Diniz sighed for a moment and let him into the room and I of course went through the conversation again. "As you can see. It's safe to assume we are either in the apocalypse or we are no longer on school grounds." I said.
Aryan nodded a bit. And then leaned against the wall closest to the door and held up his wrist showing his mark. "So that explains that shit." He said. I stepped over to see his mark was a torch with a bouquet of roses and daffodils surrounding the metal base of it. Hints of coppers and reds and yellows painted the marking and skin. "I just feel like I'm going crazy." Diniz said as he paced the room a bit. I hummed in agreement as I then leaned on the desk. "Maybe we can get through the smoke. Since we know a general direction." I said. "Yes but what if the fog is dangerous? Obviously something is wrong if it's only surrounding us from whatever is outside. And what if those people are dangerous? We can't be too sure." Diniz said. "Well what if only one or two of us goes? That way we can be sure. And if the smoke is safe to inhale. We can send a pair out to see if it's safe to meet with the people. But we would need someone able to run in case it's bad and they can get back to us." Aryan said. After about 20 minutes of discussing We came up with the plan and headed out of the room to the library of chatter. "Where have you three been?" one girl said, snapping her eyes at us. "Hey calm down. We all need to have a talk. But we may need to go upstairs so you can understand better." Diniz said, taking charge of the conversation. I however kept back so as to make sure not to be in his way. After a minute everyone headed to the sky light after hearing the situation. Some were angry, some cried. Some even cursed at us. But once we made it to the hall and their eyes met with the window it was silent. " So you said you had a plan?" The girl from before said with her eyes swelling a bit and her tear stained cheeks flushed with color. I nodded as Aryan walked over explaining to everyone. Sure enough Diniz and I were chosen as the ones to head out. Since everyone in this building knew me and him can run the farthest and fastest. After Diniz explained what would happen everyone lined up by the doors watching us head to the foya. We managed to get some snacks from the vending machine downstairs and filled water bottles and emptied our backpacks so as to not weigh us down while Diniz tied his shoes up next to me. We then looked at Aryan and the Girl, Iris. They both nodded knowing what to do. They will wait three days. The longest before replanning anything else. Since we can spare our water and rations long enough to go and come back in case we get lost or get into trouble.
Then Aryan headed to the door and pushed it open gently as me and Diniz slipped through only to hear a loud clang in from the doors being shut again. We looked back seeing the others stare from the glass with worried or regretful looks. But Aryan started with a blank face from behind the crowd as he turned away. Diniz and I went ahead and put on the makeshift face mask and began to make our way down the stairs before halting in front of the lingering wall of fog. Then Diniz grabbed my hand tightly as we headed in. We stood there for a moment. All I could see was Diniz 'arm and hand holding mine and a small part of his silhouette, But I knew it was him. The hand I held had his signature tattoo from our freshman years. Then once I felt I was okay. I then led Diniz through marching forward through the thick smoke.
We kept walking for a while noticing the sun getting dimmer. But we stayed focused. Our legs burned as our feet kept going. But then. "Ah!" I tripped over a small ledge as Diniz grabbed my arm and he helped me back up. "I guess we made it." he said as he moved his head behind me and I looked at the oddest thing. Trees. But not just that large nest like houses loomed and swung softly by vines in the branches as People in the distance either flew or ran around on the foliage below and others would run around throwing what seemed like magic orbs or fire. "Well let's go then." I said as I stepped back from Diniz and headed over to see if we could find some help. We began taking small steps over to the individuals and made sure to keep quiet. As they watched us we watched them. Like two big cats in a cage. After a minute we managed to get to what looked like a makeshift courtyard with wooden placed boards. Embedded into the dirt slightly. As we walked on it Diniz held my hand a bit tighter as we now were in the open to the unknown of these people. We then looked around more but noticed an older individual with long matlocks. Embedded beads clinked and clinked together as they walked closer to us.
"Speak." A sudden gravel voice came to my ears. This man upon closer looks had some wrinkles around his eyes and a furrow to his forehead. But otherwise, Quite a looker. His hair was a light brown tousled in the neatest matlock's I've ever seen. His face painted with strips of orange and black dots patterned the artistically placed strips. It was like his face was mimicking tiger lilies from our home. He even had the yellow centerpiece lightly painted on his brow and nose. "Well?" he said again arching his brow. Diniz stepped forward, "We are simply-" Suddenly he got knocked back with a sudden force of wind causing me to also stumble with my hand clasping his wrist. I planted my feet down and turned, seeing The wind had stopped. "The hell?" I said turning. Then the Man from before pointed to me. "Only the female can speak." He said. As he then waited for my response. "Only the female?" Diniz said quietly and then stood up dusting himself off as he then stood between me and the man towering us both. "Dinny, Don't. If he hasn't attacked me yet, it might be customary." I said. He hesitated for a moment and then nodded and stepped to the side a small bit to let me look at the man in front of me. I slightly leaned to my left to get a better view and Smiled. "Sorry. But I think we may have gotten off on a bad foot. My name is Jesira. This is Diniz." I said motioning to us both. "And you might be?" I asked. Suddenly with a small chuckle he puffed out his chest as a Lehenga-like cloth wrapped his right shoulder and surrounded his waist with luxury-like threads. Small dimes of metal reflected from the width of his waist as he moved, making it glare to my eyes and probably anyone who looked upon him. Best way I could describe it. Peacocking.
"I am the Chief of the Arambiat Clan, Second in command of this Clan here Na'uahi, Tamuant. And for now. Your enemy if you think to harm us as an outsider." He hissed out carefully. And with that sentence above us were men of all kinds planted on vines, appearing from the air in an instance. Seeming to wait for a signal to drop on us and end this all in a second. "A-Ah no We are not here to harm at all. Actually we need help." I said quickly. "Help?" He blinked for a moment. "Help with what?" He asked. "Well as you can see we came from the mist." I pointed. "But beyond there we have some people who were hurt. We don't know why or how we got here either. And we just need to get to a safe place or find a doctor willing to travel, if anyone allows it." I said slowly. He stood there for a moment thinking. "Let me speak to the chief about this for now. I'm sure you are both exhausted. So please follow these men here to the fire." he then motioned his hand and two men floated to the ground before us. Dinny walked over first and I followed as we were escorted to a large bonfire. We sat on some carved logs and were given food and treatment for our lungs with some magic. After what felt like an hour I noticed the sun hasn't hit evening yet. And the air is still fresh like morning. But I was so focused that I felt like I needed to get ready to run. Diniz was doing better than me. Everytime my leg shook he would place a firm grasp on my knee to bring me back to avoid any panic attacks.
Finally, The man emerged from the tent and walked over smiling. "Well, Let us get ready then." He said. "Are you gonna help us?" I said. "Yes, it seems There are a few scouts that witnessed the storm you mentioned. And before that place was there. Nothing existed beyond that mist. And if there are people hurt it would be best for us to be so close to you to know you have our help. In turn we ask for no violence on our people." I thought about it. 'So basically an agreement to be neighbors.' I then stood and nodded. "Of Course. You have my word we will keep our people in line. We just need the help. And understanding. Many of our people are young so this is quite scary for us." I said. He smiled and then waved to a group of people arriving. "Move the mist!" he barked out. I looked at him confused but next I knew the group of people approached the wall of fog and raised their hands as gray mist appeared from their hands. Creating a large arch cutting through a direct path to our home. I sighed thankfully to see we didn't have to stumble back. Diniz got up as we walked to the archway with the new fellow and a man in a cloak, carrying a staff. "This is our healer. He will be able to access any injuries your people may have. Jesira." he smiled. "Thank you Tamuant." I said. "Oh please. Call me Tamu. Since we are now friends I'm sure this will be easier, yes?" I nodded and pointed to Diniz. "Especially for him. After all this he is also shaken up by everything." I said. He then looked at Dinny and for a split second he rolled his eyes as he then let me go first to head back. We kept going chatting about what happened to us. And Tamu listened diligently, as if he was trying to find answers for himself as well. When we finally arrived I knocked on the door to see Aryan run over and unlock the door letting us in.
"Who is this?" He said, looking at Tamu. "He is a friend, he is here to help us. And he is a healer he has lent to us to help the two that got seriously hurt." I said. I then looked to the healer. "Please follow me." I said as I led him to the library where sure enough everyone resided as I let him get to work on the two. Eventually I told everyone what me and Dinny found out and everyone breathed for a moment. "Hey Guys listen up!" Diniz said as he entered the library with Aryan and Tamu behind them. "It seems there is more to the situation. Since we have been touched by those hands I assume everyone has a mark on the wrist that they touched. Tamu here says these are markings of gifts. And it's normal in their world here and it's not going to hurt us." He said. Everyone sighed a relieved breath as I then looked at my wrist. Feeling uncomfortable with the skeletal hands. "But we will have to learn to use these marks. These marks have an attribute or power with it. He mentioned this world has lots of people who disagree and are known to raid. With this information as much as we may not want to do so with our confusion it's best to move along till we are at a safe location and adapt then we can at least regroup. So don't argue saying tattoos don't have gifts or what not wait til later. So for now we are gonna recover and in the morning we will head to their village and set up to practice with those who understand this better than we will ever try to." Diniz noted to them. Then we all went upstairs to rest while Tamu and the healer rested in the library.