A World Apart: Original Souls Part 7

Corinth couldn't help it. He just didn't get what this guy's deal was. He and some green furred dog were just walking through the meadow with a book in hand. The dog looked dingy and scruffy enough that Corinth a.s.sumed it was a homeless man's pet. But this Walker guy didn't look to be very homeless. He just strolled there next to the dog. He held a book in one hand, and a green apple in the other. Every few seconds, he'd do one of two things. Either he'd flip a page in the thick book he was holding up to read, or he'd take a big bite out of his juicy fruit snack. He wore dark green pants that had some faint gray pattern going through them. He also had on a brown plaid s.h.i.+rt, tucked neatly into the pants. A collared s.h.i.+rt, but he had it unb.u.t.toned to the point that it was very noticeable that he had a plain white t-s.h.i.+rt on underneath. He had a friendly face, so Corinth decided he'd go talk to the fellow.

"What are you doing?" Cris noticed Corinth as he began veering away from their intended path.

"I want to go talk to this guy and see what he's about," Corinth informed his prying father. "If you're going to just leave me here I should at least know what I'm in store for, right dad?" Cris' face frowned up even more when he said that. Corinth was playing a little mind game. Using what he already knew, from entering his dad's thoughts, against him.

Cris took a second to close his eyes and take a deep breath. As his lungs began to decompress from exhaling that huge collection of air, he started to speak quietly. "Okay, okay, I get it. You're right, and it's probably best that I talk to Sena. Hendrix alone anyway."

He was peering into his son's eyes through the glare of the sunlight. He put his left hand up against his forehead to block some of the fading glory of the twilight. A few beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, behind his hand pressed up against it, and edged their way into his eyes. It stung pretty bad.

"Ah! Oh, c.r.a.p that burns!" Cris snapped around, away from Corinth, when the sweat infiltrated his eyes. He rubbed vigorously, trying to settle the sting. When he turned back to the direction of the sun, and his son, the celestial figure was still there in the distant sky, but the kid was gone. Corinth had once again taken it upon himself to disregard his father's-everything.

Corinth was walking through the distance of the green meadow toward The Well Read Walker, when something mysterious grabbed his right shoulder. "Ah!" Corinth jumped, screamed, and turned around in horror. His screech was so loud that even Walker pulled his head out of his book, and looked up to see the commotion. Luckily, for Corinth, the hand that firmly grasped his shoulder was only his dad's.

"You didn't exactly get permission to just walk away!" Criston had a rather annoyed looked about his face, as he hysterically gasped, trying to catch his breath. He sprinted after Corinth to intercept him before he reached Walker. He was still considerably tired and run down from all the events of the last week or so. He took his hand off Corinth's shoulder, and then unpleasantly doubled over. Still very winded, though he only ran a few yards.

"You okay, dad?" Corinth said without any sensation of concern in his voice.

"Are you? That's a much better question, kid. I can't take all this nonsense with the walking away while I'm talking to you, and the saying whatever you want to me, like you're suddenly an adult. I'm your dad, Cory," he was still breathing hard as he choked out the last sentence of his appeal to his son's more respectful side.

"Yeah, I know." Corinth started off explaining himself slowly. "But ..." he hesitated to say it, but he knew it was imperative that he articulate this message. He had to get this across to his father's wiser side. "But you don't seem to understand that I'm not exactly that little boy you knew two years ago." Criston heard that loud and clear. It put him back on track with his breathing. He stood upright, as he was very intrigued by his son's a.s.sertion that he lacked a certain understanding. "I may have been in a coma, but I wasn't dead. I grew physically, mentally, and yes even emotionally. I'm just trying to get settled in to my own skin again. And I know that I'm going to be doing that mostly on my own, here at this school." Corinth took a look around at the grounds of the large school as he spoke of it encouragingly. "Put yourself in my shoes, and think about it. I know I'm still only twelve, but I'm not a baby, like you and mom always treat me."

All Cris could make out was, "message well received." He was otherwise stunned silent by-his son's ability to transform into a much more mature version of himself on command. Cris just looked down at his feeble twelve-year-old son and said, "then go on, I see you've got this under control." Corinth smiled and started walking away again. "Wait! One more thing." Cris interrupted Cory's short-lived moment of superiority. "You must not, under any circ.u.mstances, mention that the dog there is a mangy mutt."

Corinth looked at his dad with squinted eyes. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that he'll flip out on you if you call that dog anything but the most beautiful creature you've ever laid eyes on." Corinth glanced over at the pup walking on the gra.s.s and bending down to chew at will. He thought that it'd be hard to look at things that way. He felt like he was about to have another, Gavin, The Watcher, situation just outside the Watchtower walls. "You got it?" his dad pressed on.

Corinth didn't turn his line of sight from the ruff looking pooch when he answered. "Yeah, I think I can manage."

They parted ways for now. Criston knew that it was he who had the harder feat to pull off, but still he wanted Corinth to get settled just as badly as Corinth wanted to feel settled.

He had to catch up with a nonstop train headed for the Diamond Atrium. Sena. Hendrix's house felt very inviting to her after the day she had with an ever questioning Corinth. She knew he was confused, but she didn't know how much longer she could stand his constant need for an explanation to everything. She took the long way to get to the three dorm buildings and the main cla.s.s building that formed the diamond shape of the atrium that surrounded her home. Cris was right, she did take that path on purpose. She couldn't leave without first talking with her favorite pupil ever. That was out of the question, but she did always like to keep him on his toes. Cris caught up with her quickly, but it came at a price.

"Breathing harder than usual, Sen. Gambit?" she asked a rhetorical question that Cris decided to answer.

"I wouldn't be breathing so..." he had to stop and take a huge gulp of air into his lungs. Again, he doubled over fighting for oxygen. Sena. Hendrix hovered over him with a smug look that actually had a slight resemblance to sorrow. She wasn't very good at expressing those types of emotions. It came off a tad bit haughty. "...so out of breath if you'd just talk to me in the hospital room-up in the tower."

"Well, if I'd done that, Corinth wouldn't have gotten this opportunity to see the school grounds close up, and mingle with some of its more lively characters. Like, Gavin and The Well Read Walker fellow his chatting it up with right now," she was speaking in that know-it-all manner that Criston had grown accustom to over the years.

"You could have been showing him around during the two days I was out of commission."

Sena. Hendrix now looked on at Criston with a more disappointed look in her icy blue stare. It's as if she wanted him to see beyond himself, and more clearly into the realm of possibility. Cris wasn't a visionary. He was a problem solver, but never saw pa.s.s the issues themselves. Problem, solution, and done. That's why he never did well in Sena. Hendrix's premonitions course.

"Are you a willing idiot, or are you just naturally stupid?" she said with a resolute tone. She gazed across the grounds at a more simplified Corinth talking with that bibliophile, Walker, that she never trusted, but held high hopes that she could one day.

"Mom, there's only but so many of those hits I can take before it starts to get personal," he challenged her with sensitivity.

"Nonsense!" her tongue chirped in a mocking fas.h.i.+on."I have my reasons, as always."

Criston decided to stand up tall, and present himself as a respectable figure in Sena. Hendrix's eyes. He caught his breath, and pushed past the insults being hailed at him, into more personal territory. "I've been through a lot these past days and I-"

"Ha-Ha!" Sena. Hendrix was overcome with giddiness as she listened to her selfish former pupil try to appeal to her sensitive side. The problem there, she doesn't have one. A cold calculating woman indeed.

Cris looked on as she snickered and giggled at him. He was attempting to explain his position in all this. Just as his son had just done with him. But there was no reasonable response from Sena. Hendrix, not like he'd given to Corinth. No, she just looked right through him, as if he were some mischievous sewer rat in her eyes. Graveling, simply to get a sample bite of praise from this monstrous excuse for a woman. A woman that could not be pleased by simple applause alone. She wanted an encore presentation from Criston. But with a different act entirely.

"It's personal now, you've made that more than clear," he told the woman glaring at him in addition to the sinister grin twisted around her lips. He turned away in disgust. "Why does it always have to be this way with you?"

Sena. Hendrix looked on at the man she viewed as still a boy, and felt regret. Regret that she hadn't taught him any better in so many different ways. "You play the fool all too well!" Cris turned back to her, rubbing his left hand over his forehead. "Has it not occurred to you how scared your son is? He is the one who's been through so much, not you my dear boy. As sorry as I am to admit it, you've turned out to be a horrible father." She was cutting in deep, but Cris decided to take it on the chin for now. "That boy over there in the meadow, he refused to leave your side the entire time. He could not be coaxed out of that room up there in the tower. He wanted to be a part of your healing process." She grabbed her own head, like she was going to twist it off."Mind numbing question after question. When is my dad going to wake up? What are you putting in his arm? Are you sure that's facing the right direction? His display of affection for you was, and is, undying. Even as you constantly disregard his deeper feelings at every turn." With every word, she inched closer and closer to her son, who she's been disregarding since his first breath. "Perhaps, I'm partly to blame for some of your failings as a parent."

She turned away, and began to pace intently from the nearest oak tree back to Criston, and then round about again. Criston began to think back to the days when his mother chose to work rather than dine with him, Evan, and his father.

"I wasn't there for you much once I achieved the GM position," Sena. Hendrix admitted genuinely. She quick stepped back to Cris like a lightning bolt, and got right in his face. "I never wanted to hurt you, your father, or even that little street orchid you call a brother, Evan. The three of you were my life, but the demands of this position were never to be taken lightly. So, I took on as much as I could manage. At the expense of family, of course."

"Well, it's nice to finally hear you say it. I suppose it's better than nothing." Cris felt sick to his stomach to rehash those faraway feelings.

The memories of his mother's distance never crept into mind. He always shut her out. In thought and reality. She hadn't even met Corinth, her only grandchild, until two days ago. She'd heard of him, but was never graced with a formal visit. Not even when he was an infant. Sena. Hendrix possessed similar ideas to Sebastian about mixed relations.h.i.+ps. Julia, being La Envidian, was a problem to Hendrix. She hid that truth to most, considering her job forced her to interact with people from every World and walk of life. No less, her opinions made it impossible for her and Julia to see eye-to-eye. Even when Julia attended Aurora Boreal, alongside Criston, she never carried much affection for her boyfriend's mother and teacher.

A while before Corinth was born, Criston cut Hendrix out of his life. He didn't agree with his mother's irrational thinking anymore than Julia did. The last they saw of one another was at the funeral of Criston's father. Sena. Hendrix and he had already divorced before his pa.s.sing. Criston and she barely spoke to one another during the ceremony.

All those memories flooded both their minds like tsunami waves. It was a crus.h.i.+ng realization that the two of them essentially hated one another. They stood between two oaks, and just stared past one another into their opposing views of the darkening sky.

"We have many other matters to attend to," Sena. Hendrix stated formally.

"Yeah, we do." Cris scratched his head, and looked down at the stone path he and his mother stood on. He felt like a kid again, who just got caught doing something very-very naughty. "Maybe we should go inside for a cup of tea or something, and talk it out." He was trying to be rational and considerate of her incorrigible demeanor. She appeared unfazed by all the sad mistakes they both made in the past. She seemed ready to move pa.s.sed it, but Cris wasn't as heartless as his mother had raised him to be. His father, as mad as he may have been toward the end, made sure of that when he and Evan were younger. Cris knew Conrad wasn't the best of teachers for that sort of thing. Still, he respected the fact that his father tried to teach him at the very least.

"No, I think the other matters are much more urgent." She was back in full throttle. No longer did sensitivity bleed through the tone and the phrasing of her statements. "All that must be done concerning our future, and your debt to this 'ominous figure,' as you put it back in the tower, can be dealt with right here and now."

It seemed Sena. Hendrix had no intention of forgiving her son for keeping her grandchild away from her just yet. Likewise, Criston would never truly want his mother to be a part of Corinth's life. Had it not been for this dire need that came about, he'd never want them to meet. She'd tear his fragile heart to little pieces with her contempt for mixed breeds. He knew how awkward his son felt about being and looking so different from most. His eyes were beautiful, but they made the, often times, timid little boy stand out more than he wanted to.

"So, what is it all about?" Cris asked as Sena. Hendrix peered across the way over to Corinth and The Well Read Walker once more.

Walker allowed Corinth to play fetch with, Oliveto, that green furred mangy mutt of his. Corinth seemed at ease. That's all Sena. Hendrix ever wanted, was to see the smiling face of the young darling. But she also realized how big a lesson she learned from this time away from the Gambit family. A family she used to have a place in, before she divorced, and changed back to her maiden name.

She led Cris over to a nearby bench, and they sat down to discuss the prospects of the coming days. What they meant, and what must be done about them.

"I must say," Sena. Hendrix began, "it's not often that I get a chance to sit out here and take in all the scenery." She looked around to absorb the final moments of the twilight. Dusk had settled in. Now the silver light stripes running up and down all the marble pillars, strategically placed throughout the Olympus Grounds, started to spring to life, illuminating every pathway. The walkways, trills, gazebos, everything was now lit by artificial light. The silver pixie dust sprinkled on all the gra.s.s and shrubbery began flickering with the echo of crickets and other small creatures under the night sky. "It all is ... quite beautiful."

She wanted to linger in limbo, but her thoughts drifted back to reality. She remembered why she sat her son down beside her on the marble bench. She had to inform him of disaster's occurring abroad. And not abroad as in one of the other seven Worlds. Abroad meant ... the one place that the Puente del Cielo could not take a human. She was thinking of Eterna. She was thinking of the afterlife.

There are dark things happening in the afterlife. Eterna was overrun by five souls of the Great Eight. Their bodies are long gone from the planet, and from the Worlds they created while amongst the living, but their souls merely pa.s.sed on to Eterna. Ordinarily, a peaceful place, but these five have broken the Status Quo-somehow. Even I, the Nexus, can't piece it all together yet.

This is where Criston comes into the picture. Losing his hand, being no accident, she could use his sleuthing past at Squadron as a tool. Better yet, a weapon against these five souls and the immense power they're ama.s.sing across the gateway, the entrance to Eterna.

"Eterna," is all she had to mutter.

Cris' eyes went wide and his head started to spin. "Wait, that's real?"

"As real as you or I, buddy." Sena. Hendrix seemed to be relaxing as the night breeze gently caressed her tired, but studious brown face.

To Criston, an afterlife is just a mythical thought. No one truly knows if it exists until... well, until they're dead! Then they'll see for themselves the peace of mind that they've achieved. It's a bright place for most, but some s.h.i.+ne brighter in accordance with the choices they made during their life. Forgiving and understanding type people usually yield the sweetest results in Eterna. It's supposed to last for eternity, but somehow these five have altered the flow of nature.

"The Status Quo was supposed to be unbreakable, and yet here we are." She stared deeply into her son's eyes hoping to see some hint of pa.s.sion and willfulness. If he doesn't agree to help, things will not play out very well for the future of the Worlds. And just like that, she saw it. A light came on in his mind. For the first time Sena. Hendrix felt that her son had over exceeded her expectations.

"Julia's Novus Ordo Seclorum creation spell. The Erratum spell that got me here. And not to mention, this Nexus thing." Criston listed all the significant things to occur since Corinth was recovered at the factory. Things that just so happened to manifest through himself and his two closes family members. It somewhat shocked Sena. Hendrix that he even knew the term; Nexus. She hoped he also remembered his lessons from school, because he would soon embark on a journey that would test his knowledge of things thought to be mythology.

"Yes, these things aren't mistakes," she concurred.

"So... me, Julia and Corinth are at the center of this."

"In a manner of speaking..." she knew herself how broad the issues would grow in time, but she tried to refrain from elaborating on the mind clogging details,"that's precisely it."

"But things like the El Muerte Vivo curse, and Sebastian's oppressive laws in Draconia. There are so many pieces to this puzzle that there's no clear picture yet," he said, placing his good hand over his mouth and rubbing. He tried processing the layered complexity all at once. Not a good idea, as it was more than he could possibly handle in one sitting.

"Yes, that is true," Hendrix admitted, "but we CAN do this, and we WILL do this! We just need to collect more information on what's occurring beyond the gateway of Eterna. How they've broken the Status Quo? Where this power is coming from? And most of all, how they intend to use it on the Worlds?"

They were operating on the same level for a change. Cris' mind was working just as quickly as hers was. She was impressed that he already knew the myths well enough to keep up. They're taught to everyone, but very few ever listen. These were intricate details about the history of how the first World split into seven others. The Ancestry Wars, the Great Eight, the transformation of language, etc. It was all so much information to process. She had no idea that her son took an interest in his school work, seemingly, as much as he did in athletics.

"How will this play out?" he asked intently. "There's nothing I've ever read in books that can get me into Eterna. Nothing short of dying," his voice weakened as he looked down at his hands. Well, his one hand, and the remnant of the other. He realized he couldn't be some sleuth detective for the Worlds as a deformed man. "Actually, I don't know about this," he told the firm minded woman sitting next to him.

Sena. Hendrix noticed him staring at his hands, but she didn't seem too concerned. "My G.o.d, what has Draconia done to you." Cris looked up into Sena. Hendrix eyes with a questioning squint. "This is the Aurora Boreal school, or have you forgotten what that means? You sit where the greatest wielders of magik ever have too sat," her tone climbed with the winds and carried Criston to his feet. "Magik -has an answer for nearly every question ever posed. You just-make it up as -you go. For heaven's sake, your wife created an entire World all by herself. I think we can get you a new hand." She acted as if there was no disease or deformity that couldn't be healed. She was wrong, but powerful allies gave her the leverage to lend a hand, of sorts, to her son.

Criston was stunned by his mother's enthusiasm. He stood there s.h.i.+nning in the thought that he'd have the use of his right hand again. Then he suddenly understood why Julia left him out of her plans. Cris lived in Draconia all his life, except when at school here in Hyperborean. The Draconian way didn't call for the use of magik, and things have been suppressed even more since Sebastian took office. He couldn't believe he was going to raise his son in the same repressive atmosphere he grew up in. Daily life is controlled to a T in Draconia. Corinth and Julia were two of the most unique people living there. They would have been miserable, he thought, to spend the rest of their lives with those sorts of close minded people. A decade too late these thoughts culminated in his mind, but still a better life awaits, away from Draconia.

He found it weird that these lessons were coming from his mother. She had changed quite a bit. She used to be one of those older Draconian women who'd support most of the ideas Sebastian Wilc.o.x based his campaign on. She had grown. Though she did always hate restrictions on magik-either way. So, once that went, so too did she. It all goes to show what a place without freedom can do to a person's hopes, dreams and confidence. A moment ago, he believed he could be of no help, because of his accident. But little does Cris know, that sometimes bad things happen, in order to open up the opportunity for something great to occur.

Sena. Hendrix stood up beside him. "Put out your lame hand," she requested with a dignified tone. Cris complied by lifting his right arm and pulling up the knotted sleeve he'd tied around it. Revealing the burn scars where his wrist began, some traveling up his forearm. They didn't bother him though, he just wanted to be able to grasp something again. Take hold of it. "Now, before I go on, you must promise one thing."

"Anything!" he said affirmatively.

"You must never lose sight of your self-worth." Criston looked perplexed by her words. They seemed so out of scope. "You don't need this hand nearly as much as you may want it. Without it, you are still the same boy that I raised with respect and absolute confidence. You've proven yourself often, and against great odds. Some will try to take that away in the coming days, but you mustn't allow it. Not even I can dismantle what you've built for yourself. I only say the things I've said, to challenge you. There are many who will challenge you, but to beat you down. I do it to build you up, and always have."

Cris wondered if she had called Julia a 'La Envidian heifer,' in order to build up their marriage. But he chose not to question her during her big speech.

She pulled out her wand. She was an old school girl who always chose to keep it cla.s.sic. A wand isn't nearly as power as a llave, but she personally possessed the power of a thousand wielders her age. The spinning of the llave is what generated more power for spells. They replaced wands quickly, but a select few still keep the wand shops in business. Most older people prefer them because they take less of a toll on you physically. It takes a lot less physical energy to use a wand. At the sacrifice of the extra power llaves can generate.

She whipped that thing around like no other. The sky changed colors just above them as she swayed the wind from side to side with the wooden hand-carved tool. A purplish-blue color took hold at the tip of her wand, and that's when Corinth and Walker started to take notice. They began walking over to the scene. Sena. Hendrix wiped her wand far back above her head and began to chant three times in a row...

"DONA REFORGE FATA! DONA REFORGE FATA! DONA REFORGE FATA!".

Then in a spectacular show of mastery, she slammed the wand down over Criston's lame hand. The purple and blue lights caught fire on the tip of his k.n.o.bbed hand, but he didn't flinch. It didn't burn one bit anyway, but it looked fantastic. Out of the spectacle of lights, a hand shaped figure started to take root.

Corinth and Walker watched on from a small distance. Walker placed his arm over Corinth's shoulders, and Cory looked up at him. They knew what was happening between Sena. Hendrix and his dad. Walker gave Corinth a big heads up before they came over. They smiled widely and turned back to watch the final stretch of the momentous event.

Colors in the sky flashed and raced about. They all coalesced into one solid looking orb of light. Then it slowly descended toward Criston's purplish-blue new hand. The orb stopped just short of merging with the other magnificent colors embossing Cris' hand.

"Now fate is in your hand, son." Sena. Hendrix smiled slightly, but never lost her consolidated mannerism.

"What does that mean?" Criston asked as he gazed down at all the lights. They s.h.i.+ned back on his brown face and lit up his baby blue eyes, like a sparkling diamond reflecting the sun's light.

"You are now, the Forger."

"What am I forging?" he asked reluctantly.

Her solemn response. "Our fates." Criston looked to his mother in stunned silence. He knew that she didn't exactly tell him the whole story. But this was much more than he expected. "Grasp it!" she willed him.

"How?" he tone sounded reluctant and even fearful.

"Take the light before you, into your hands, now!" she insisted, as if the light would runaway.

Criston looked down at the orb floating above his newly restored hand, then over to his son. He smiled at him and Corinth smiled back. He was glad to see Cory had made a friend in Walker.

"You look settled in," he gently shouted to his son from the shadow of the immensely bright light before him. Corinth just smiled widely. He noticed that Sena. Hendrix wanted this to be over with, now. He didn't want to be on her bad side before school even began.

Cris turned back to the light and brutally crushed it in between his palm and fingers. The light sporadically exploded outward! Cris and Corinth ducked for cover, while Sena. Hendrix and Walker just stood there in the brilliance of it all. The shards of gla.s.s that burst out from Criston's hand didn't cut anyone or even interact with anything in their path. They pa.s.sed through everything without leaving a mark to remember. But what did stay there afterwards... was certainly a sight to behold.

As Cris looked around and noticed that Walker and Sena. Hendrix had never ducked, he felt a little silly. He was just as nerve wrecked as Corinth. He put both his hands down on the soft gra.s.s and used them to push back up, getting onto his feet. But he noticed a peculiar sight underneath his new right hand as he removed it from the ground, standing upright. There was a handprint there from pressing into the soil. It was a light of purple and blue shading. It glowed on and off like the beacon Julia had left for him on the sky bridge. It dissipated slowly, so he walked away, but couldn't stop thinking about it. He brought his new hand up to wipe some of his hair from the sides of his ears. Just then, he noticed that his new hand was glowing too. It flashed on and off in front of his eyes. He paid it so much attention that he jumped in surprise, as Walker suddenly called out to him.

"Don't be alarmed, Criston. The s.h.i.+ne means it's working." With a big smile on his face he mocked Criston's nervousness and fear of the unknown.

Criston thought, it means what's working? What does this new power really entail?

"What is this?" Corinth unexpectedly asked all the adults. He noticed what they hadn't. He thought this new sight was even more peculiar than his -father's glowing hand.

"What's what?" his dad questioned further.

"These lights that stained the gra.s.s and pathways. It's like all the way up the hill. You can see the lights still on the ground." Corinth pointed up the hill in the direction of this brilliant sight. The lights that burst off Criston's hand formed a rather curious marking on the ground around them. Not a huge area of the hill was covered, but substantial enough to be noticed at a distance.

"It just the mark of fate," Walker informed the group, as Sena. Hendrix nodded in confirmation. "It's no big deal, you can read all about in the Fate Forgery. An old, old book. Long too! Only one copy ever produced. The original copy it is indeed. Hand written. Lovely penmans.h.i.+p. Couple of torn and spotty pages, but nonetheless a good read. It's up in the school's library. Catalog numbers 1-05-8-"

"Wait! What's the mark of fate? What is all this?" Cris cut him off abruptly. Walker would have droned on all night if he hadn't. But Walker didn't particularly enjoy being cast aside. He turned away silently for a moment of methodic thought to himself.

Sena. Hendrix decided to take this one. "It doesn't mean much, it just marks the spot where this ceremony occurred really." She threw her hands up as if it was nothing major and even forced an uncomfortable smile.

"What do you mean?" Cris snapped. "Speak in English. My hand is glowing purple for crying out loud!"

"You're fine, Cris. It's not as weird as it all seems," Walker reinserted himself, announcing with a cheery smile.

"Well, of course that's easy for you to say! All you've got to do is walk around reading books all day. Playing with that mangy mutt dog of yours. Just as carefree as you please, huh!"

Corinth's face sunk. He liked Oliveto, and didn't understand why his dad was attacking Walker and the little pup. But more so, he was shocked that his dad had broken his own cardinal rule about dealing with this guy. He said to never call that dog anything but perfect. Cory looked up to Walker, and he didn't look pleased. Not one bit.

"Walker...!" Sena. Hendrix cautiously called out.

He dropped his book on the ground. Something he'd never normally do. He treats books with more respect than people, most say. But Oliveto was his friend, and he didn't take well to anyone who had bad words for his friends.

"Walker, mind yourself!" she said as the well read man approached ever so close to Criston.

"Dad, apologize!" Corinth shouted out, but Walker nor Criston were listening. Their eyes were fixed on one another.