The only thing that seemed to make that day any different from the others was the headaches. The feeling of falling when standing completely still, the feeling of everything around you going faster than it should be, like everything is going faster than it should be.
Time. It flew by without a second thought; Repeated over and over in a never-ending black hole of nothing but space.
Time. T-i-m-e. Time.
It changed occasionally, [time] speeding up or slowing down. But it never stopped. It never just stopped and took a break. Never rested, never stopped, never broke, never ended.
Time. Time. Time.
Who knew why it was so important? Why, it pressed at the forefront of a young man's mind as he stared at the clock on the wall. Time. It was so important; more important than the scratching of pencils on paper, bags shifting, movement, and breathing.
T-i-m-e
And time passed, but never left, until the pencils stopped scratching at paper and bags stopped shifting. There was nothing. No movement, no breathing, no ticks from the clock. All was silent; all was nothing. Nothing but-
Time. Time… Time
And suddenly it was all back, but it was different. There were no sounds of pencils and bags and a school bell chiming as it did at exactly the same time every single day. Now it was different. Waves could be heard, crashing against a sandy shore. Rocks rolled with the waves and water, and birds could be heard above him; sea birds.
Bright blue eyes snapped open to see an equally blue sky, with soft white clouds slowly skimming along the sea of cerulean. They looked around the surrounding dock in surprise, eyes meeting dark, heavy wood, which contrasted with the beautiful greenish-blue of the water.
But moments before he had been in class, waiting for the clock to tick down its final seconds before there was a flurry of action and rush for the door; until students filed into a swarm of other bodies as the made their way to the next class or to lunch.
There was movement, however, of people rushing about between what appeared to be market stalls, their boots clicking on the heavy wood of the dock audibly. There seemed to be quite a few of the people looking at him, strangely, as if he didn't belong there.
He looked down at himself, realizing he was still wearing the hoodie and jeans he had been wearing all day. Well, there was nothing strange about that was there? It was what he always wore… or some variation of the apparel.
It was then that he realized why it seemed so strange to these people. They were dressed in a much different style. Men wore pants that seemed far too fitted to be comfortable, as well as waistcoats and long jackets. Everyone was much more formally dressed than he was used to.
He quickly jumped off the wooden crate he had been sitting on, jogging off through the people. He had to know where he was; or an even better question: When?
He heard whispers and gossip about him as he pushed through the crowd, before he spotted a rather noticeable man and cautiously approached him.
"Ah, you look lost, lad," the man said as he noticed the teen's approach, and stepped forward to clap a calloused hand onto his shoulder, "perhaps I could help you in some way?" he offered, giving a surprisingly evil looking grin.
He instantly felt uneasy, and slowly backed away from the man, only just noticing the pistols that hung from holsters at the man's belt, as well as a pair of swords. Was he… was this man… a pirate of some sort?
"Come now, young one. Don't look so frightened. I won't bite… too hard," he grinned, starting to walk towards the teen. He quickly turned and scrambled away, pushing his way through the crowd of people to find some source of safety from the lecherous man.
It wasn't long before he found himself cowering in an alleyway, ducked behind a stack of crates with his back pressed to the wall behind him.
His heart raced, and each pound of his heartbeat seemed to reverberate through his entire body. It seemed louder than it should have been, and it only got worse when he heard heavy footsteps approaching his hiding place.
The footsteps seemed to grow louder as they came toward him, pounding through his head along with the ever increasing beat of his heart.
The sounds were overwhelming. The clack of heavy leather boots hitting the dark wood of the dock, the screech of birds above, as if they had signaled to the man where he had decided to hide.
He squeezed his eyes shut, covering his ears with his hands to block out the noise. And then, it was gone. The man and his terrifying footsteps, the birds and the waves. They were all gone. Everything was quiet.
And suddenly he opened his eyes, and found himself sitting against the wall outside the school building, staring at the ground between his feet. The teen jumped up, rushing away from the building in a panicked haze.
He ran until his legs could no longer carry him, and they now ached with the effort of trying. It wasn't until he realized where he was that he stopped, his breath coming out in short pants. He was standing in the middle of a forest, and one tree nearby had a piece of blue string tied around it's trunk.
He knew exactly where he was, and following the trail he knew so well from his childhood, he found himself looking up into a large tree at the rather childishly-built structure that called the branches its home.
He climbed up into the trees branches, almost surprised they could hold his weight after all this time, and made his way into the tree house he had built with another at a young age, and went to sit in the far corner, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his forehead on them.
Before he realized it, several hours had passed and the sky outside faded to an orangeish-red as the sun set beyond the edge of the far trees, yet he stayed, curled in on himself in the corner of an old tree house, trembling and shaking from his unwanted 'adventure'.
Alright guys! So There's the first chapter. Hope you enjoyed it! I plan to write more soon. And, as it so happens, if you have any questions for the characters in this story/AU, I do have an ask blog for them at Askthetimetravelingduo . tumblr . com
So If you have any questions for my Alfred, Arthur, or any other characters, go ahead and drop by and ask ^^
There also may be updates there on where I am in the updating process, or If I have any announcements regarding this story.
Please leave a review, they're what keep me going. :)
