Story (Claire #6)

Kai Tyrathem and Icarus Johnson

Kai rather enjoyed the octopus. It was something that she had often back at home. In fact, she had tasted almost every seafood dish in her own world. Granted the octopus was prepared and cooked rather differently than was she was used to, it was adequate. She ate all that was on her plate but she ate slowly, much unlike Icarus, Allistar and Scarlette. Her master had told her that it was unhealthy to each too much food and one must learn discipline to learn the techniques of the blade.

Icarus raised his eyebrows at Kai’s rather small appetite. He decided not to push her to eat but he wondered what she was thinking about. Trying to push his mind away from that subject, he turned back to Allistar. What on earth did this person know about? Coming from different times was difficult. Allistar probably didn’t know who Spiderman was or why people wore school uniforms. He sighed. He was feeling a little homesick – missing his friends, his own cooked meals (mostly consisting of instant noodles) and the suburban streets he had taken for granted. Then again… this place had adventure and that was something he needed dearly.

As they continued eating, more dishes were brought out and it seemed as though there was a never ending cascade of food. There was so much food piling up (although Allistar seemed to clear it at the same rate as it was being brought out) that the four almost didn’t notice two others entering the room.

Maylene Salavian and Tobias Richards

 

Maylene cleared her throat, attempting to get the attention of the Heroes at the table. She knew that their journey had been tiring and long but being the First Princess of Syania, it was her duty to look after them. Her father had already sent Kato to attend to them but she still felt that obligation. Tobi who stood next to her, winked in encouragement. She blushed. He banged his K’rik onto the dining table and yelled, “Oi. Listen to her highness when she wants to talk, alright you runts?”

Tobi grinned at Maylene but she looked less than pleased. “Ahem. Well, you Heroes probably don’t know this but I am Syania’s First Princess and it is my job to handle affairs such as this. My father is away on business trying to sort this catastrophe out and well, I am the one who’s left. I can see you’ve already met my little sister – the Second Syanian Princess.” she said, motioning to her sister who sat at the end of the dining table.

Tobi sighed. She was as formal as always. Couldn’t she loosen up a bit? It was bad for a teenager like her to be so uptight. “To get to the main topic, I’m guessing the Elders were as elusive as always when they tried to explain the situation to you, yes?” she asked them.

They nodded and she continued. “It would be redundant to tell you all the details but I have an obligation to tell you what is going on. A long story short – you will be fighting in a war for the sake of all the worlds that exist and all they contain. A powerful book was stolen and if the powers of this book are used for the powers of evil, everything would destruct and turn to nothing. This is not only a problem in Syania, but a problem everywhere. You and another four were chosen to fight. That is enough for now. I bid you farewell and I’ll leave you in the hands of my trusted friend and butler Auvray, as well as my younger sister, Monika.”

With that, Maylene quickly left the room.

Toby honestly didn’t know what to do with her. She used to be that carefree little girl and now she had turned into… an old uptight grandma. He wanted to help her but he didn’t know what to do. All he could do for now was watch over her and make sure she overstress. “Wait up May!” he called before also exiting.

Story (Claire #5)

Kato Auvray

Kato fixed his gloves and withdrew a deep breath. The Council of Elders had relieved him from his duty of serving the princess. They had instead, assigned him to the new Heroes that had just arrived. There were only four Heroes so far, but he would be supervising all of them. To be honest, he was a little sad. He had known the princess all his life and they were close friends. But because of the theft of the third Tome, he knew he was at no place to complain.

Kato pushed open the glistening doors (which he had cleaned a little before the arrival of the Heroes) of one of the many reception rooms. The Heroes were quite young – two around his age and another two were much younger. The younger boy appeared to be smiling and he hoped they were getting along well. It would make his job much easier. The four seemed to be surprised by his sudden entrance and he gave them a warm smile.

“Good day Heroes. I am Auvray and I am your supervisor as well as your butler. It is a pleasure to be in your service.” Kato said, performing a little bow. He made sure to keep his emotions in check and to also have a kind smile on his face. To look hostile to the powerful Heroes would to be wishing for death. He noticed the youngest girl in the room seemed to be injured. What had happened while he was off bidding his farewells to his previous master? “Please allow me to help you madam.” he suggested, offering his arm. The girl turned away. He did not protest. Instead, he turned to the eldest of them all (a tall man who seemed to be a little older than him) and gave him a bell. “If you ever need me, please ring the bell. Please do not be worried that I won’t be able to hear you. Even if you’re in another world, I will come to you.” he said with a small smile. Exiting the room, he thought he did rather well.

Story (Claire #4)

Kai Tyrathem and Icarus Johnson

Kai managed to drag her body back to Icarus before falling limply to the ground. Not only did his strings seem to control her, but they also seemed to drain her energy. What on earth was he? He smiled at her like an innocent teenage boy. He was definitely hiding an immense amount of power though. As he and the other male in the room started chatting, she realised that she hadn’t really had a chance to look at the others in the room. Icarus had light and tousled brown hair which seemed to stick out in every direction. His eyes were a bright crimson and his skin was quite pale. The man had dark hair and dark eyes. His hair stuck up in a weird way that reminded her of the chickens back at home. The girl also had dark hair, but her eyes were a blood red. They all looked different.

Icarus exchanged pleasantries and small talk with the other man in the room. It was true – he was quite good at sewing and knitting but he only did it because he wasn’t that rich. He lived on bare necessities but since his school required a uniform, he just copied it and made one himself. It wasn’t exactly a hobby for him or anything. “Anyway, I suppose we should introduce ourselves seeing as we’ll be together, I’m guessing, a lot often now.” he smiled.

“My name is Icarus Johnson. Pleased to meet you.”

Kai who had managed to crawl back over to him remained silent. He gave her a small nudge and an encouraging smile. He bent down. “C’mon Kai… listen… I’m sorry about doing that stuff to you before but it won’t benefit you if you fight.”

She turned her head away but muttered, “Kai.”

He sighed. It wasn’t much of an introduction but it was something. He guessed that she would be angry at him anyway.

Kai was angry at herself. She knew that she should be the one to apologise to Icarus since he was only trying to stop her for the sake of herself and yet she had gone on a killing rampage. If she wanted to get home, she would have to be polite and nice. At this point, those elderly men would hate her and would never let her get what she wanted. She gritted her teeth. She would try to be… friendly. “That is… I’m Kai Tyrathem, daughter of Lucian Tyrathem.”

Story (Claire #3)

Kai Tyrathem & Icarus Johnson

Kai and Icarus looked at each other before glancing back at the two other ‘Heroes’ that stood before them. They both seemed to understand the situation. These two people had no intention of befriending them. She knew she didn’t want to make friends with them either. “Well hurry up and give us the quest. My master will be wondering where I am. Isn’t it the same for you Icarus?” she asked, tugging at her sword impatiently.

Icarus shook his head and grinned. “There’s no one at home for me. This will be fun.” he said in a sing-songy way. She looked at him in disbelief. Was there really no one for him to go back to? She wondered where he had come from.

The old man that seemed like the less cranky one stood forward to talk. “Icarus was it? Well, Icarus clearly understands what is going on right now. Each of you has been brought from different worlds to this one. Well, with the exception of you two siblings that is.” he explained carefully. Kai’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe that she was so slow! That would have explained why they each were wearing different types of clothes. She was wearing her usual training robe with rips, Icarus was wearing some sort of black jacket and black pants with a striped red tie and the other two were wearing some sort of weird clothes she didn’t know how to explain.

“But I need to get home! I—“ Kai started before the old man interrupted her. “Enough. I shall explain the rest when the others arrive. Keep in mind this – we will not let you leave and clearly none of you can cross dimensions. You can try and run, but this place is now hostile to strangers now that… now that that event has occurred. I have some business to attend to. Come, Xyrus.” he said, motioning the other man. They turned to leave.

Kai couldn’t take it. They were not telling her that they took her out of her own world to do… to do this! What idiots! Fools! She hated them. She loathed them. She wanted to kill them. “You think that I would really just accept this? Don’t take me for an idiot!” she yelled, unsheathing the sword in her hands, the sword on her back and the dagger in her pocket. Placing the dagger in her mouth, she lunged towards the two. Slashing at them, she tried to hit them. Even though they were old, they were good at dodging. She managed to get a few scratches on them though.

“That’s enough!” Icarus shouted. He threw his strings at her arms and wrists. Kai felt as though she wasn’t in control of her arms or hands anymore. It was like they didn’t exist. But they were there! And they were moving on their own! “What are you doing Icarus?!” she demanded, “Let me hit them! At least let them suffer the pain of losing an eye or a leg!”

Icarus pushed the strings forward and she flew straight into the wall. Blood streamed from a wound on her forehead. She was tired and she was weak. Her arms dropped and her swords fell to the floor with a clatter. “Stop controlling my arms you bastard.” she said weakly, cutting the strings with the dagger in her mouth.

The nicer elder clapped happily. “Yes, you two will do just fine.” he smiled.

Story (Claire #2)

Icarus Johnson

Icarus observed the building he was on top of. He was on what he believed was called a battlement. It was probably a watch tower since there was a circular room in the centre of it. Checking the room, and all around the battlement he made another observation – the castle seemed to be completely empty. Or perhaps they were all just inside. He tried looking for the door or a drawbridge and it took awhile until he finally found it.

“I’ve always wanted to do this!” Icarus giggled in delight. He got a ball of what looked like yarn from his pocket. Wrapping a few layers of the string over his hand, he got ready to sling the rest of the ball to the other battlement. As soon as he was about to throw it, he heard a piercing scream coming from the opposite direction. He needed to help whoever that person was. He threw the ball over to the battlement in the opposite direction and started swinging like Spiderman.

Kai Tyrathem

Kai was screaming as loud as she could. Well, there wouldn’t be many people who wouldn’t be shrieking their lungs out if they were dangling over the edge of a sheer building. Not to mention, at the bottom was a base of water that seemed about two metres tall and she couldn’t swim. “Help me!” she screamed.

Only seconds later, it her knight in shining armour appeared. Except he was more like a cat swinging off a ball of yarn. Nevertheless, she hoped that he was there to save her.

Luckily for Kai, he was. However, the strangest thing happened. His left arm… broke off his body and picked her up. She screamed even more. “Let go of me! Let go of me you monster!” she shrieked, hitting him on the head with the back of her sword. “Ow. That hurt!” he said, dropping her. The sensation (however strange) felt familiar to her (from training) and she gained some of her strength again. Just as she was about to use her swords to perform a technique that manipulated wind, the boy that saved her before swooped down to save her again.

“Phew. That was close!” he grinned. Kai blushed. “Uh… sorry for hitting you on the head before.” she muttered. She realised it was quite rude of her to hit someone on the head for saving her. He landed on flat ground in front of a huge door. “Um. I’m Kai Tyrathem, daughter of Lucian Tyrathem.” she introduced herself, bowing. The boy looked a bit flustered. “I’m Icarus Johnson. It’s nice to meet you I guess?” he said, a little confused.

“Do you know where we are?” Kai asked Icarus. He shook his head. “But there might be some people in there who might know.”

She nodded and slashed the door into pieces with a quick flick of her arm. They walked past a long hallway and at the end was a wide room where there was an old man and two people. She changed to a defensive stance again. Icarus did the same, only with his strings up and ready. She wondered what those strings were anyway. “Who are you people?! Why are we here?!” she demanded.

Story (Claire #1)

Kai Tyrathem

The dummy fell to the floor, unharmed. Kai had managed to knock it over but failed to damage it in any way. She seriously doubted that there was such a person – or even any magical being – that would escape unscathed after that series of blows. Still, her master insisted that she should train like that so she relented. Even though she was strong, she was only an apprentice. As she went to pick up the dummy, she noticed a glint in the corner of her eye. A sword?!

Kai spun around immediately, changing to a defensive stance. There was nothing. Could it have been her imagination? She noticed it again, this time in another direction. She turned again. This time she could definitely see the light. She could see that it was incredibly bright. She could see that it was no ordinary glint, or even the glint of a sword. She could see that it had aimed straight at her.

“Oh foolish master, this is just like batting practice to me.” Kai murmured with a sly grin on her face. She poised her sword and when it came close enough, she slashed at it. The light flickered for a moment before disappearing. She sighed. “I wish you’d prepare more challenging things than this.”

However to her surprise, the light appeared again. It begun to flicker weakly but a moment later it was strong again. She yelped in surprise but it was too late. As soon as the ball of light reached her body, it seemed to suck her into thin air.

Across all the different worlds, galaxies, dimensions, the exact same thing was happening to seven others.

Icarus Johnson

Icarus fell bottom first onto the edge of a cliff. Well it wasn't really a cliff – more like a gigantic castle. He still had his house keys in hand and he was still wearing his school uniform. What the hell had happened? He scrambled to safety before he tried to remember what events had occurred before he had been dropped onto some castle.

Well Icarus had finished school and he walked home. He helped an elderly lady cross the road and then he proceeded to walk home. When he walked home, he was opening the door when he was dropped in Narnia. How on earth did that make any sense at all?! He remembered distinctively a bright light had been hovering over his arm. Then his body felt hot and cold at once and then he landed in this… weird castle place.

Icarus supposed this is what normal people would call ‘weird’ but he wasn’t sure. Perhaps he should have asked somebody? “Lots of strange things happen I guess. After all, I don’t think I know anyone else who can control people like puppets.” he said aloud before skipping off to find someone to confide his thoughts with.