"Activate your system," he said, pacing.
"Why," I asked. "And what's this about an arena waiting for me? And why did you leave us back at Kathmandu?"
He stopped pacing, taking a look at me up and down for the first time since he appeared. Then he noticed the house arrest device on my ankle.
"Why'd they put you under house arrest?"
I exhaled, falling back to the sofa. "They think I was responsible for what happened to Lemon."
I picked up the console I had dropped earlier, resuming the game I was playing.
"Damn," he said, sitting on the sofa with me. "Put under house arrest by the same people you were trying to protect. That's messed up." He picked up the second console and instructed me to make it a two player game.
"Yeah I'm used to it," I replied, restarting the game. "I know I'm more feared than loved in the precinct, and you know how much people hate what they fear."
"History shows how vicious humans can be when they let their fear control them."
I kept silent, trying to dominate him in the game we played. He was very good at it, surprisingly. He crushed me countless times until I gave up and threw my console on the table out of frustration.
"Can't defeat the master boy!" He laughed, standing up. "Don't worry about that little princess of yours, she'll get back on her feet in no time, she's a Zoarite after all. Now activate your system, I'm going to show you how you access the training arena."
"If you didn't notice old man," I replied. "I can't get out of my house."
I raised my leg, showing him the device once more. He exhaled, bending down and holding my legs, then after instructing me to hold still, he vibrated my whole body to a speed frequency that was completely different from the frequency of the device which in turn made it fall off my ankle without going off.
"There, it's off," he said, "now let's go…system activate, come on."
"How the heck did you do that?" I asked, looking at the spot. "Pretty neat trick, you're going to teach me that."
He nodded. "Just your normal Flash tip 101. Now sys—"
"I know, I know," I replied. "System activate!"
The screen came up. He smiled, looking up at it, apparently he was still impressed by how big it was. He looked at the options and the power stone icon, it was empty, then he exhaled and said;
"You're going to start with the basics. Completing simple tasks in the arena like taking care of some tiny pests would help you grow gradually in power stones and fighting experience. The more tasks you finish, the more points you get and the more abilities you achieve."
"Cool," I replied, staring at the screen.
"Okay. Now all you gotta do is click on the Training Arena icon three times, and a holographic green door will appear before you."
"How do you open a holographic door?"
"You don't, it opens for you," he replied.
"What?"
"Just do the thing," he exhaled.
The thing, right. I clicked on the icon as instructed. The green door materialised after the third strike, hovering a few inches above my living room's floor, close to the slides leading to the balcony. On the front of the door was a shield and sword, and a writing at the top. There was no door handle.
"Behold," Ezekiel said. "The guardian's passage!"
"Hmm, the guardian's passage," I repeated. "Thought it'd be bigger. So how does it open for me?"
He looked at me with a smile, shaking his head. "That was a nice joke."
"Thanks, I work with what's given," I replied with a shrug.
"Right, you see that writing on the top of the door?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome, only the summoner of the door can read it and say the word," he replied.
"But it's in a strange language," I replied, squinting.
"I can't even…" he paused, looking at the door closely. "That's strange, I shouldn't be able to see this, yet I can make out the letters."
"Is that going to be a problem?" I asked, staring at him.
He kept silent for a while, staring at the word. Then finally he snapped out of it, stepping back.
"We'll figure that out later," he said. "All you've gotta do is pronounce that word and the door will open for you."
"But I cant—"
"Just try."
So I did. Linguistics wasn't a field I found difficulty in, after all I was raised by the Troopers and was taught multiple alien and human languages. But it took time to learn those languages, days, months, and years even. So when I attempted to pronounce the words on the door, I wasn't expecting to say it effortlessly and understand the meaning at the same time.
"Hßyœlπ," I said.
It was a word which when pronounced sounded like I was trying to say the fourth consonant sound at the beginning, clear my throat in the middle and spit at the end. The word when translated in English meant 'reveal'.
As soon as I said the word, the sword and the shield glowed brighter than before and the door creeked open. On the other side was a night sky and a couple of trees on first sight. It appeared that the door had opened a way to a forest.
"First phase completed," he said with a grin. "Well done son. Now let's get to work."
He instructed me to step through the door and invite him to come through also. Without my invitation, he would not be able to pass through the door, so I did as I was told. When we were finally on the other side, the door faded off.
He spread his arm and looked at me with a grin. "Welcome, to the Training Arena of Guardians and Knights!"
I looked around, scratching my neck. When he said Arena, I had the impression it was going to be an actual arena like the Roman colessum, a gladiator arena were people fought, not a strange forest full of green, white and blue trees with a night's sky.
"Honestly not what I was expecting," i replied, looking around. "And what's this about knights, is this like a Camelot thing or something?"
"What were you expecting, an actual Arena?" He asked. "That would have been totally lame and stupid."
"Well that's what I thought it wa—"
The ground began vibrating, making me cut my sentence short. I looked down, then up at his face. He had a smile on as he watched the vibrating ground.
"A stampede," he grinned.
"What, how's a stampede a good thing?"
"A herd of Shiloi, coming this direction from the north," he replied. "Quick, we need a vantage point!"
He began running south, screaming that I followed him. We ran with all our might but it seemed the stampede was getting closer and closer with ever leap we made. Finally we met a dead end at a clearing, close to a cliff.
The moment we burst out that forest into the clearing, it instantly dawned on me that we were not in Kansas anymore. I saw two moons in the starry sky and an array of auroras, below were scattered buildings looking like Mayan temples, giant round rocks that resembled planets resting on the ground and creatures, strange creatures completely different from the strange aliens I knew, roaming about. This was just the tip of the iceberg.
The herd of Shiloi finally burst out into the clearing and they were magnificent. They were the size of an adult elephant, resembled a wild boar with horns like a bull's on their head. Their colour was silver and, this may be the strangest part, they seemed to have what appeared to be numbers hovering above their heads. They were heading out way, fast!
"This is it kid," Ezekiel said, giving an attacking stance. "Brace yourself."
I looked back at the cliff, then down past the cliff, then back at the Shiloi.
"We're gonna die!" I said.