"Oh shut up," I gritted my teeth. The noise had stopped and I peered into the trees. I saw a shadow rush to the right. I ran towards it, Zane following, he probably saw it too. Maybe they can fill us in on this world.
The person was fast but we were starting to gain. I was good at moving through obstacle courses so this was a breeze. Zane on the other hand, I don't know. I was ahead so I couldn't see him.
I caught another look. The person was wearing a cloak but I could see his metallic boots from under it. "Zane," I gasped quickly. I heard a grunt.
"What?" He replied, surprisingly not that much out of breath.
Midevil," I looked again at the person. I saw a ridge under the cloak that was probably a sword, "The guy's in armor."
I took a quick look behind me, "Holy shit!" Zane wasn't there. He was three meters behind, scrambling up a tree. Since when is he so athletic!? I was shocked. I just stopped. He started running along the thick branches like those ninjas from Naruto.
"Okay Sasuke, just come down, we're not gonna catch him."
He stopped above me. "But!"
I pointed at him, then pointed down. He rolled his 'eye'. Is he rolling the other one? Would it be rude to say 'eyes'? He jumped down and for a split second his hair flew up and I caught a glimpse of his other eye. It was milky white with a hint of blue. Pretty.
I didn't even stop myself from thinking that. I mean, I was saying the eye was pretty, not the person. I mean, this is the rude, anti social, emo lord we're talkin' about! So stop looking at me like that!
"Come on, let's find a path," Zane put his sword away and grabbed my wrist. He started dragging me off. My mind drifted to home. Would we get back? See our loved ones? The thoughts swirled in and out of my mind. Waves of doubt and fear crashed against my sanity. I found I was crying. Reality just hit me. How are we going to get back? I mean, this is Lucinda's potion. It could've been made with anything!
Panic grasped my mind. This wasn't good. I hadn't had a break down like this since college! My breath hitched and the tears I had been holding back rolled down my cheek.
All of a sudden, we stopped. Zane let go of my hand and turned around very slowly, "Laurance?" I turned my face away.
"Mind your own business One-Eye."
"A-are you crying?" he asked cautiously. I kept my head turned away from him. Zane touched my shoulder in a familiar like way. He was acting like Garroth. Oh Irene, Garroth! I missed him above all others. His sweet smile, his comforting laugh. Would I see him ever again!?
Zane looked uncomfortable, seeing me cry. He took a deep breath, "Okay, I'm not good at this but I'll try." He moved his hair out of his right eye. They both held the same, certain look of… how to describe it… a strong leader. He gripped my shoulder tighter and slightly shook it. "Listen, we're going to get out of here." My head snapped towards him, eyes wide. How could he just say that so confidently? Were we going to make it? My eyes searched his for any sign of doubt, but there was none.
"We're getting out of here, and then it'll all be back to normal, just you see. It'll be alright." I could almost hear Garroth in that last sentence - 'It'll be alright, Laurence!' I smiled up at Zane. Zane pulled down his mask a little and gave me a smile. His face was dotted with freckles. His smile was pearly white. Now I could see how Garroth and Zane were related.
"Thanks, Zane." No other words had to be spoken. It was obvious what the both of us were feeling at that moment. Zane nodded towards me, pulled up his mask, turned back around to continue walking, with me right by his side.
I thought about the past minute. Zane had noticed I was crying, decided to pay attention, and attempted to make me feel better. Was this even happening? I mean, Zane has never been kind to me. Never. Now here we are in a place where he could easily get rid of me, and he decided to keep me and comfort me. I smiled. Maybe things would get better.
We walked for a couple of hours, three at tops when Zane let out a long breath.
"Alright, I think it's about time we tried to think instead of walk aimlessly." He stopped and sat down, his back resting on the trunk of a redwood. I followed his example, sitting in the middle of a patch of wild daisies.
"Alright, so how about we put together what we do know," I replied. Zane nodded so I continued, "So what I know is that a messed up teleportation spell cast by Lucinda hit us and we were transported here. This world is set in the medieval times and is obviously populated. They seem to be semi-advanced as well by the look of the person from earlier's attire. They can shape metal at the least." Zane nodded again.
"Yes. I know that there are a few ways to get back but that would require getting this world's versions of a certain artifact. Or if we ran into this world's Divine. They could probably send us back as well," I smiled. So we did know some ways to get back. We could start with that.
"I also know that this is a parallel dimension. That means there are parallel versions of ourselves and if people know them, they may mistake us for them. We don't know what kinds of people we are in this world so we need to be careful." At that my heart stopped. That could be bad. With our pasts and personalities…
"Zane we need to assume some things, if we are to be careful at least," He nodded, asking me to go on, "We assuming there are no gangs here, the Shadow Knights may be something more sinister giving me at the very least a possibility of not being the best person at some point in time. And you wishing to be one may affect you."
Zane looked impressed, "You're right so we need to look out for ourselves. We may have blades but we certainly aren't as experienced as the people here. That means…" Zane took his mask clean off. He brushed his hair out of his eye and tried for a small smile. His entire face changed. He looked like your average young adult who you'd like to make friends with.
"So complete make over?" I smirked and slid an inch of my sword out of the sheath. "Then let's take care of that hair. His eyes widened and he stood up, trying to back away, forgetting about the tree against his back.
"Nuh uh!" He then smirked, "If we're doing that then how about you take out those colored contacts?" My eyes widened. He knew about that? I had always disliked my green eyes so I had gotten blue contacts in middle school.
"Ummm how about no."
"Come on Little Laurance, I know you keep your contacts case in your pocket. You don't need them soooo." He gestured towards my eyes.
"I'm not cutting my hair until you take those contacts off, that's the deal." He smirked.
"Okay, yeesh. I was only joking, besides, i don't even think they have contacts here so the other me should have green eyes, right?" I replied, thankful I was able to keep my contacts on.
"Not necessarily. There are circumstances magically where one can achieve different colored eyes. I've studied these anomalies and discovered that no life choice can be counted out in the fate of another world. This version of you may still have blue eyes. We don't know until we meet him."
I sighed, "Fine but here," I dug in my pocket and grabbed a black ribbon. Don't ask why I had it, I just did, okay? "Tie your hair back with this." He took it and got to work with his semi long hair. I put a finger in my right eye and slid the contact out of place. It popped out and I quickly took out my case.
In about a minute both contacts were out and I no longer had a blue tinge in the very edge of my vision. Zane had pulled back his hair and I noticed a little scar on his surprisingly high forehead.
"Okay, we have changed our looks I guess. We've cut down on what we know, and now it's gonna get late soon. Lets get running." I grinned and got up. In a burst of speed, we sped toward to slowly, setting sun.
