Caleb's heart pounded, the organ racing against his feet which heavily hit the ground: there was no need to be quiet on a chase. Beads of sweat dribbled down his forehead, rolling down his nose and blurring his sight in his lashes. One larveck, two lurdens. He grinned against nature as he thought of how much more frightening it would be for him to spend this time with Will. Then he reached the end of the woods and there it was. Caleb skidded to a halt just ahead of the bridge and began decent slowly. Far better to have a close call than to break the bridge and have no chance. Lurdens appeared on the end to the bridge's path. He was surrounded and the bridge was creaking under the strain of too many bodies. Then he felt it. A familiar sensation was the ripple of energy that announced the presence of a portal; looking around he caught sight of blue under the bridge. "Too bad.." The Lurdens got closer and Caleb took care in winding the rope of the bridge around his arm. "This used to be a nice bridge."
The larveck was close, but if he was quick.. Caleb took the three necessary steps toward the larveck, avoiding the sticky web it shot at him and slicing the rope frame of the bridge. The larveck hissed, but he didn't hear a splash as he swung directly through the portal. Luck was surely on his side. If only Will would join the luck.
...
Prince Phobos forced a smile to his lips as he looked down at the swirling image of his sister. His sister. Cedric stood a little further from the sands, apparently not yet cocky enough to look at him though. Just aswell - Phobos would not bypass the excuse to kill him. "I have successfully made contact with the girl. Her name is Elyon Brown."
"Elyon..?" Phobos sneered and he knew Cedric was in on the joke. She'd been named after a God. No wonder the Gods wanted her dead; she didn't deserve such a name. However, Phobos knew, humans often translated the word wrongly to a meaning of 'whole burnt offering'. An offering. He liked that. "Yes.. She'll make a wonderful Princess."
...
"So what do I do? Cut the ropes and I swing, téleia; magnificently, right into the open portal!"
"Then you skid magnificently right across fifty feet of paved road." Cornelia dabbed at his face with a wet towel, Caleb trying as often as possible to ignore the sting, along with Will who frowned from the corner of the room. Of course he'd had to get her to close the portal, interupting her from talking to a group of boys he hadn't recognised.
Caleb winced as she pressed the hot cloth onto a cut; she certainly wasn't gentle. Aldarn did a better job at this, though Caleb would usually fix himself up or leave cuts since Julian. They healed either way. "Ow!"
"Sorry, Mr 'Brave Hero'!" Caleb felt his face go red as Cornelia mocked, the other girls were stood around giggling at her blatant flirting.
Will had just stared, he watched from the corner of his eye as she rolled her eyes, turning away from him. "Anywaay.."
"Ooh! Ooh!" Hay Lin raised her hand, he knew it was probably crude gossip, but it was good they sought Will's referee for decisions. It was not good that Will didn't look particularly happy with the chore as she nodded and Hay Lin spiltout her newest news, "Elyon got a guy!"
"She didn't tell me!" Caleb was glad when she put the cloth down, now focussed on the relationship of her friend.
Caleb found it impossible not to smile at Will, who apparently found humour in Hay Lin's shrug and Cornelia's apalled reaction to the Chinese girls reply, "Well, it just sorta happened. His name's Brian.. He's a dog walker. They met when a Pomeranian stopped to sniff her ankle! Is that cute or what?"
"Nobody sniffs my ankle!" Caleb coughed to muffle a laugh and for a millisecond he swore Will gave him a grin, but she'd soon returned to listen to the reactions of the group.
"Good for Elyon! She's been so unhappy since she dumped Mark!" Wait. This was not right. He didn't have to court to know that much..
"She dumped a guy, so she's unhappy?" His disbelief returned him with several bored looks, and Will leaned back into a wooden pillar with a smirk that said he'd just asked a stupid question.. Or maybe that she'd just enjoy watching him get lectured by four semi-rabid girls, hyped by soda-pop.
"Well duh," Cornelia rolled her eyes, but he could tell she was pre-planning every move she made - everything looked so deliberate when it was Cornelia. There was never anything spontanious about her.. "She doesn't have a boyfriend!"
"Well duh yourself," She exhaled snootily and he raised a brow, Cornelia was a nice girl, but sometimes he thought she had too high an opinion of herself. "She already had a boyfriend until she dumped him."
"Uh-oh.." He didn't know who'd uttered it, but he was pressed to continue as Will gave him the first continual eye-contact since.. Well, she looked interested to say the least, and there certainly were enough people between them that he wasn't risking a deja vu of the scenario. He closed his eyes smuggly as he continued..
"In Meridian I guess it's a little backwards; we only ask out the people we actually like." His eyes flew open. They. He'd meant to say they and now Cornelia was giving her prettiest smile and all he could do was try not to look scared and hope she didn't take that the wrong way.
