[Private - Requiem & Zhyriad] Crossing Paths

Having had no clue what to expect, Glyde was, by all definitions, unprepared for the experience of instantaneous travel. Malisa was half right in her statement, particularly in that there were no bars to hold onto. Even so, Glyde held on tight, gripping his new accomplice’s shoulder as best he could without applying too much pressure. He hardly shared her hearty disposition towards the matter, and was downright worried that he might not make it through the leap in one piece. As he felt her spell making its final jump to move them from point A to point B, he closed his eyes shut as tightly as he was gripping the shoulder.

Finally, he felt the spell take its full effect. He felt light… not feather light… more like “light” light. It was though there was no true limit to how fast he could move, and that he could move as such without opposition. But it also felt rather forced, as though he was just being pulled along as the tail end of the weight. It was hard for him to fully explain to himself. All he was really capable of piecing together was that it just felt plain strange to be moving instantly from one point to another (and actually a humanly unnatural at that). Towards what he suspected was the end of the move he began to feel a little bit unbalanced, and sickly.

It was anything but too soon for him when he finally felt his feet place firmly upon solid ground. Immediately assuming safety, he let go of Malisa’s shoulder. He shuddered slightly, and took a second to confirm that he was in fact on solid ground. As soon as he was convinced that it was safe to actually move, he opened his eyes, and took a long look around the area. It was as much as he could remember. A sandy path, lined by fresh green grass running smoothly down the length of a hill stood in front of him. Behind him, the sea could be seen not too far off.

Of course, there were those few differences from his memories. A One two things had changed since he had last visited all those years ago. They were just now putting in a new train line that went directly to from Sunset Terrace to the beach, and on the hill, a few new houses were going up. Construction work seemed to have been put on hold for the moment, the workers likely on a break. “Yeah,” he said. “Well, this is certainly the place. As long as nothing has come up in the passed four years or so, we need to go down the hill. The place we’re going isn’t too far from the base of the hill.” He was, at this point, taking the lead in the trip.​

 

As he trekked swiftly down the hill, Glyde’s attention wandered from Malisa to his surroundings. He would have called it paranoia, but he couldn’t go that far with it. Seeing as the threat of The Academy’s search for him (and probably the girl too) was something very real, he knew his fears to be justified. His ears seemed to shut off as they drew closer into the town again. Of course, he also wasn’t terribly interested in what Malisa had to say about “her time.” Maybe, he figured, it was a bit interesting, but in truth, it was just sort of… auxiliary information, and such that didn’t really apply much to the situation at that point.

Though, he thought, it is interesting that our two times could be… similar.

Towards the end of her reflection, Glyde had fully trailed off on his mental tangent, and didn’t fully catch the part regarding what she called “nobodies.” He nodded slightly, muttering that the worlds were full of nobodies, though her nobodies, and his were two completely different definitions of the word. He didn’t fully come back to his right mind until he drew to a stop in front of a condo-style house along the front most rows of houses. It wasn’t much, just a two-story deal with a small garden and lawns space in the front. But it had been home… his home at a time. “Well, here we are, he said to Malisa. The formerly known, Casa de Glyde.”

Shakily, he placed three full, solid knocks on the door. The ensuing wait wasn’t very long either. In a few short minutes, the door crept slowly open. From the face of an older, smaller looking woman with the same sort of straight falling black hair, the same eyes, and same sort of look of curiosity as Glyde had once had, peered out from the other side. For a few seconds the woman stood just beyond the threshold staring at Glyde in disbelief, as though she were looking at a ghost. Glyde looked back at her, carrying a similar expression, and an even more nervous feeling in his chest. He was about to speak, the first “m” sound of “mother” barely escaping his lips.

It was only then that the woman pulled him into the house, forcing him into a tight embrace, sobbing as she did. For nearly a full minute, Glyde remained in the “Motherly hug” position, his head held into her shoulder by a single hand and a gentle hand patting him gently on the back. He’d have struggled to fight against it, but the will of a loving mother was not something to battle.

When she finally let go and finally noticed Malisa, she gave them both a nod, and said, “come in, and be quick about it.” ​

 

Ushered in a bit more forcefully than he’d have liked, Glyde strode down the main corridor, turning right about ten full paces along the way. There, he had come into the room he had remembered as the living room during his time living in the house. It was essentially the same as he had seen it those years ago. A soft, sea blue rug that spanned from wall to wall covered the floor. The paint scheme was a neutral, off white, such that it forced no real feel onto him as he entered the room, but rather, allowed him to maintain his demeanor; it had always been his mother’s belief that a home setup should never force emotions on its dwellers, but rather, the dwellers achieve that comfort (or discomfort) on their own. A singe window sat at the front of the room, looking out to the ocean beyond the terrace. Today, their curtains, matching the rug in color, were drawn to avoid prying eyes.

Upon entering the living room, Glyde moved to the center, standing before a small, cozy looking coffee table flanked by a set of plush chairs and a two person couch; these effects were set to match the walls in color. Tucked in the corner, a stack of extra chairs, made of a hard wood material was kept in reserve for extra guests. He couldn’t rightly remember a time that they had had too many guests in the house, but then, he figured that maybe his mother had taken to a more entertaining lifestyle when he had left. It had to have been lonely without me around, he thought. It was then that he took note of something else in the room. A bookshelf sat on the end in front of him, grabbing his interest immediately. Careful not to disturb anything, he made his way to the shelf, and began to skim through the books stacked in upon it.

“Make yourselves at home,” he heard his mother call from the kitchen. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

Glyde gave a silent nod, though said nothing in return to the comment. He just continued to skim through the books until he found something that caught his eye. One such book, or rather a folder, had done so after a short length of time. IT had no labels on its binding side, but given its battered, dusty look, it had once been used regularly, but had since been neglected, and hence left to the dust at the bottommost corner of the shelf, where one would have to kneel down to get it out. Assuming that his mother wouldn’t notice it missing, he pried the folder out of the shelf, and opened it, getting, at first a small wave of dust in his face. When the cloud of dust dispersed, he was able to get a fuller look at the contents.

What turned out to be inside was a series of filled up envelopes, each one labeled “From” followed by a name. He figured they each contained sets of letters from men that had since courted his mother, or otherwise, known her since their arrival on Twilight Town. Most of them were men’s name, which had him inclined more towards the former idea. He also began to figure that there was nothing really worth knowing in any of them, until he came across one that had a familiar name upon it. “From Demetri,” the envelope read. In a fleeting wave of excitement, he removed this envelope from the folder, and stashed it into the interior pocket of his overcoat, and jammed the folder back into the shelf. Then, he turned to Malisa, and threw her a rather hard expression, as though to caution her against saying anything about the folder.

As he got to his feet again, his mother had entered the room, carrying with her a tray carrying three tall glasses of what appeared to be iced tea.

“Just figured I’d offer the two of you some refreshments,” she said, hospitably. “A Twilight Town specialty, iced tea, with a small hint of sea salt. It shouldn’t be much a difference.” She placed the tray down on the table, and looked back up at Glyde, with a rather curious expression. “Sit down,” she said, waving her hand around the set of plush chairs and couch, as though presenting them to him as a reward.

Sitting down was exactly what he did, taking one of the wooden chairs from the corner, and placing it within the formation of the plushes and the couch. He didn’t intend to stay long, and he knew that if he sat in the bigger, more comfortable seats, he’d only want to stay a bit longer.

“So,” his mother said, now sounding a little more upset with him than she had before. “Four years. For four years… or was it five? I can’t remember. All I really know is that you’ve been away, and haven’t once written or visited.” Her gaze shifted to Malisa, and then back to her son. “And you even went and found yourself a girlfriend?”

“Mom… I…” Glyde couldn’t quite get the right words out to explain the situation. She didn’t understand that he couldn’t have come back to visit her, not without jumping through ridiculous hoops to satisfy the Masters that it was worth his time to go home. She would also never be able to understand who Malisa was. That much, he was convinced of. In the end, he sighed, and looked to Malisa to at least cover her part of the inquiry.​

((Sorry for the mild pp, what with placing Malisa in the room with Glyde. I figured common sense would indicate that she follow him to the living room. And let's just say that his mother answered her question "off screen."))

 

A bit amused, and a bit regretful at the same time, Glyde watched as his mother’s hyped expression faded. From his view, she seemed more solemn all of a sudden, and in some sense let down by Malisa’s explanation. Maybe she had hoped I’d have someone, he mused to himself as his “colleague” fumbled around with broken bracelet. “Ummm….” He stuttered a bit as he tried to further explain things. “Yeah,” he finally said confidently. “We worked together through The Academy. Things are getting a bit rough though, which is why we really don’t have too much time to chat. In fact we should probably get go-“

Immediately, Glyde cocked his head towards the entrance to the living room, from where a soft “mhmmm” sound had come. There, standing in the frame of the living room entrance, stood a small girl, no older than four years, and having a roughly peach blond hair color. His gaze shifted then to hi mother, and then, back to the girl, who had begun to step forward. Her pace, he noted, was a slow, but confident one. It was also, silently made, and reeked of a familiar vibe that, for a second, he was incapable of putting his finger on. “Who… mother? Who IS that?” he asked, sharpening his gaze as the girl worked her way into his mother’s arms.

In reaction to his stares and inquiry, the girl gripped Mrs. Savian more tightly. When she was as snug as she could be, she turned her head towards Glyde, and threw him a hard, scathing expression of her own.

Instantly Glyde’s eyes widened in revelation. He didn’t really want to accept it, and in fact, he tried in that moment to deny it. The truth was that he knew quite well where he knew her glare from. It was the very same look that he had always given to a person he didn’t particularly know or care for. Somehow, this girl had a connection to him, and one that he didn’t need explained to him. Flustered by his own realization, he unseated himself, giving his mother and Malisa a brief “excuse me,’ as he made to leave the living room.
​

((I hope this wasn't too sudden, what with a sister being brought into the picture. I probably shouldn't have come onto it so fast. But hey, this is meant to be in sort of a hurry I guess)).

 

Forced to process what he now knew to be, Glyde’s thoughts raced faster than they had all day. Not even an hour ago he had been a younger brother to someone who was definitely dead, the last child of his mother, and his late father. And now, so suddenly, his older brother was probably alive somewhere, and he had a younger sister to top it. What was is duty? What was the right course of action? He could go off, find Demetri, and come home with him, stay and keep an eye on his mother and sister later. But on the other hand, Demetri might have died since his last letter, and the other two… well, they wouldn’t last very long if The Academy came after them. It was a pickle for him. For a second, he considered the latter situation, and staying in the house to keep what he knew to be his remaining family alive.

“Huh?” feeling Malisa’s grip upon him, he snapped out of his train of thought. He hadn’t paid much attention to where he had gone, or what he had been doing. Mind back to his place and fugitive situation, he found that he had wandered into the kitchen, and was leaning against the countertop, and staring, spaced out, at the floor tiles. He looked to Malisa, giving her a nod. “We probably should get going,” he said. “Sometimes, they don’t actually make their presence known until they know their target is in the ar…” He cut himself off at the sound of a throat being cleared. His mother had entered the kitchen, looking at him with a grimace.

“Katelyn says there are men standing outside the house,” she said softly. “Men wearing armor, and ‘holding giant keys.’ There’s something you’re not telling me.” She waited only a second, and cut her son off before he could even explain. “I can see it in your face,” she said. “A mother always knows there’s something wrong with their children. You need to leave. Now. Considering the men outside, it’s probably best if you do.” The girl, Katelyn, wandered into the room, looking to her mother for council, and then, to Glyde in the same contempt with which she had greeted him.

“Go to your room, honey,” the mother said. “Now Glyde… just go. We’ll be fine. I’ll go talk to them, and give you two a bit of time to prepare to leave.” With that, she left the room, walking down the hall, and out into the front yard, where her voice could be heard welcoming the Knights.

“Well. I guess we better get going like she said. Let’s say… maybe someplace a bit off the beaten path for now? Then figure out where we’re off to later on.” ​

 

Glyde knew more than well enough what was to come with Malisa’s statement, and in all truth, it wasn’t something he was too keen on. Portal travel and direct warping without ships… that wasn’t much his forte, and nor did he have the tolerance for it, as the earlier warp had revealed to him. Seeing as it was, however, a necessity dictated by circumstance, he swallowed his discontent with such methods. Dreading the jump from the kitchen to where ever it was his new ally had in mind, he grabbed hold of her shoulder, more tightly than he had before, and almost as though holding her down. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine such a place that would leave them off of the Academy radar.

There was no time to ponder on it though. Before even the slightest thought or image of a refuge could come to his mind, he was swept away the traveling spell. The sensation was different this time, rather, more intense, and disorienting. It felt as though he were being whirled around in a cyclone. This wind-riding experience lasted for a few seconds before the spell finally released. Glyde, apparently still in motion, felt himself lurch around one last time as he made contact with the ground again. The landing couldn’t have been much rougher; he landed rather forcefully onto the otherwise soft ground, lying, exasperated, upon his back.

“Wow, do I hate that,” he said as a rolled around to get up. It was only then that he realized that something was different about his body. He looked down at where his hands should have been. He was immediately taken aback to discover that what would have been his hands, were now two, larger sized, feline paws with a dark brown fur covering them. He looked to Malisa, who was then telling him not to freak out over her appearance being that of a leopard. “What? What happened? I’m a… a lion, or something.” He reared up onto his back paws, feeling around with his front paws. “Seriously?”​

 

“Well that’s the question now, isn’t it?” Glyde said; well, it was more a mutter than an actual spoken statement. Where was there to really go from this point though? If he knew The Academy, it wouldn’t be easy to throw them off for too long, unless they completely severed themselves from society. But then there came the matter of how he and a girl he was once meant to kill were going to manage sticking together through jungles, caves, and the other assortments of hideouts the backwaters of the worlds had to offer. The prospect of being a hermit wasn’t something totally inviting, though he had to admit, it did have it’s merits; namely, he could do pretty much whatever his mood pushed him to, and he could do it all with general impunity, save for the wrath of nature itself… that was, until he was finally found. Still though, it could prove to be beneficial.

Looking to Malisa, and finding her having gone into a catnap, Glyde too, figured he might as well take a breather. Falling back down onto all four of his new feline legs, he began to walk a distance away. His first few steps were extremely clumsy, as he had been so used to using two human legs. After a quick series of stumbles, falls in a period of shakiness, he decided it best not to go wandering too far off. He sat in the upright position of any cat, back facing Malisa, and looked off into the distance. Just in front of him, though pretty far away, there was a massive, mountainous looking formation of rock. With a touring peak, and what seemed to be large, naturally formed balcony of piled rocks extending out from its side it almost seemed like a castle. He almost suspected that maybe it was something that the natives of this world had constructed, somehow.

“No. They wouldn’t have done it. Not a bunch… animals.” Regardless of this denial, he couldn’t help but be impressed by it. Just as well, he couldn’t help but succumb to the thoughts and fantasies that brought to him. What if fate had truly desired for this to be his future? He could see it quite clearly; he’d spend his days basking in the cool shade of a jungle tree, napping the day away. He’d wake from his naps, maybe around midday, or late in the afternoon, and enjoy some time scrapping around for whatever food he could find. He’d be able to grow into a lion, which, if he had been taught right, were the most fearsome, and powerful creatures to inhabit the worlds they called home. He could, perhaps, learn to share that time with the leopard curled just feet behind him. And much more he could be well out of the radar of The Academy in all of it, who might never suspect him to have taken refuge in such a place and a form. He’d nothing to worry about.

“No,” he said a second time as he departed from his fantasizing. There could be no such life for him. He couldn’t simply be free of worry, for there was, as of minutes ago, much to worry about. His mother, and his sister for that matter, were facing The Academy alone, and weaponless. No one in town would dare budge to help them if they knew that their neighbor, or friend, was in that scope. Of course, he couldn’t go back to help them at this point, not with out revealing that he had been home. It would cause more a mess than there already was. He kept this thought clear in his mind has he turned clumsily around and returned to Malisa’s side. Clearing his throat out, he passed along his thoughts.

“The only way anything is going to get done about anything is if we move on,” he said, taking on a newfound tone of authority. “I’ve got a family in trouble, and I’m sure that you’ve got your own troubles to tend to. I say we go someplace where we can gather a bit of intelligence on what’s happening in the here and now. Like what The Academy is up to. That much is sure to help me. From there you’re free to leave me for your own reasons, if you wish to. I’m… I’m sure I’ll figure something out… or at least, that she can point me in the right direction.”​

(I think this is a new post time record, from when I started writing it to when a finished that is. In any case, I'm gonna try and move this along a bit faster on my end, seeing as I've got an idear or two.

 

“Well…” Glyde fumbled around in his head for his next statement, which was no meager task. For a fleeting moment, he was about to tell her, assure her, that the situation wasn’t entirely her fault, and that it would be no issue with him if she ditched when the opportunity first arrived. It would certainly make her chances better to be out of his little corner of existence. Plus, it would leave him a freer, more flexible individual if he didn’t have to tag along with someone else, or otherwise, have someone else tagging along with him; it was only too clear to him that traveling with Malisa would see the leader role being flopped back and forth. In the long and short of it, he never did say it.

After a minute, or maybe two, he spoke again, completing his first thought. “It’ll be a bit risky,” he started off; though in mind and heart, he knew that was an understatement. “We’d have to jump back into the mainstream of society of course; in fact, we’d have to go directly to the heart of it all. If you wouldn’t mind taking a big risk, the only place I can think of going is to The Academy. Assuming I’ve still got my facts straight, the Keybearer under which I was apprenticed lives somewhere on the outskirts of Academy grounds… there’s sort of a community of Masters living just off of the grounds, for when they come through to pick out their next crop of students to bring under their wings. Would you be able to get us there? Actually, I think the better question would be if you’re willing to get us there.”​

 

Not that it was particularly necessary (and he was certain that it wasn’t a requirement), Glyde closed his eyes, this time to visualize their next destination. The home of his former teacher wasn’t a place he had frequented. He could only remember two visits to her home on The Academy grounds, where she spent her time between students. Even so, he felt confident that he remembered, at the very least, the external features of the house. It had been condo style, connected with homes on either side of it, and was a part of a horseshoe like arrangements of houses. The opening of the horseshoe, he remembered, faced The Academy’s main campus on the east side.

“Alright. I think I’ve got the place in mind.” Even as he spoke, he felt the amassing of her energy forming into a spell. There was no time this go around to grab hold of his ride. Forced to just take the jump solo, he braced himself for the whirling motion that he knew would come. And came it did; he was thrown around again, around and around… it felt more intense than it did before. Maybe not holding onto something while in transport, it was plain harder to keep steady. That would make sense. As quickly as it had started, the sensation of being flipping over zero gravity had ended, leaving him, this time, facedown on a surface of soft grass.

He raised his head off from the grass, spitting out the blades he had nearly swallowed upon landing. In front of him, about twenty or thirty yards, stood a line of pearly white condo style houses. He looked up and down the row of houses, finding that the end to his right was blocked off by connected set of condos. They were inside the horseshoe formation made by the masters’ on site housing. Off to the west, The Academy, the last place in all the worlds that he could never step foot in again without issue, stood proudly in the crimson light of a brilliant sunset. “This is the place,” he said as he got to his feet. “And I think it’s that house, right there in front of us.”​

 

Glyde said nothing. And stranger (or not) still, he did nothing; bar of course stand, rooted to his spot, apparently submerged into a deep thought. Then, in a quick, sharp-peaking jolt, Glyde was stricken by optimism. His heart thumped in a light and cheery beat. He gave his surroundings a single reassuring look, just to be certain that they were truly alone. It was true, beyond any doubt, that he was not only back a The Academy, but that he had slide around some of its finest in order to get there. Perhaps that was the elation of returning to the scene of a crime, just to rub things in a bit, all the more intensified by the one other person linked to it. He knew it made little sense thinking that way, but it didn't stop him doing so, and feeling some sense of triumph about it.

When he took his first steps towards the front door, he did so with a light-footedness to it. Each stride forward felt like its own mini-triumph, each more satisfying than the one prior to it. In no time at all he had come upon the small porch step outside of a door labeled with a brass "7" placed at eye level. Uncautiously, he laid his hand firmly against the wooden door, pulling back, and repeating the tapping motion three times before withdrawing, and stepping back a foot or two. All there was left to do was wait, and hope that no new owner had taken the house in his absence.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I've got me a pair of wanteds ta show
fer mah work 'round here." The spitting sound of a backwater voice carved into the otherwise silent air.

It was that of, as Glyde had guessed, a keybearer under The Academy's employ; but it wasn't one that he could say he recognized. He was an unsavory one at best, having hair that was greasy and blotted around with little care or concern. It would have been longer, had the man not left it to such disrepair. The man's face had scared and chewed look to it, jaw slightly cockeyed, and the mouth missing a few teeth. The man himself probably gone through a rough time somewhere along the way; he looked old enough that it might have been true.

"So, you caught us," Glyde said. "Must make you're day to have something to do. But considering you're not Master, and just barely a Knight, I doubt you'll do much on either of us. Especially not if you take us both on." He took a moment's pause, reaching somewhere around his back, and pulling out a small, pistol like keyblade, which he aimed at the guard's forehead. "What do you say?" he asked Malisa. "We've left one man down in our wake. What harm will one more do?"​