I shot up, leaning straight forward as if nothing was hurting, which was surprisingly true. I felt no pain whatsoever, not even on my leg that had became almost completely decayed due to the acidic tentacle that had been previously latched onto it, the gauze is gone too! It's like I never got injured then all of a sudden, a blinding light came upon me and I found it was actually the sun. When I turned to look behind me, expecting to see the enormous castle, all 200 peculiar kids called "home"... What was there shocked me greatly, when compared to the home I was currently residing, it was much smaller but still was a very large "house". Looked to be about the size of a fairly wealthy and good shaped home, just big enough for minimum being practically 12 with room to spare. Colorful, lovely decor, the trees and forest surrounded it perfectly making it rather secluded but still left a good view of the large town below, all of which had a quaint and beautiful country like feel. The sun shining down but not particularly hot persay, more of a calming windless warm. I was wearing different clothes after noticing my unusually pleasant scent considering I had smelled more of dirt, rain water, dried blood, and the awful stench of hollowgast. Clearly I had recently taken a bath and scrubbed very much so. The clothing I had on had no tight non-breathable corset with tight long sleeves nor did it button up to the neck, I had no blue sweater with it's signature Star of David on it, indicating I was Jewish, my knotted weave of hair was tied back and wavy, damp too as it shined in the sunlight as it often does when wet or simply well taken care of, I had ankle high, white socks and black...buckled loosely shoes? This came as a real surprise having practically lived in my just-above-ankle-high dark brown boots. I felt like some little kid since they were buckles and not laces giving me the feel that I couldn't tie them. I had on an odd light pink sundress, it's embroidery was like that of a daisy. Not a spot of dirt on me but still, that house seemed truly familiar in some way…. I was sitting on a tree stump overlooking the town below me.
"LOOK OUT!" A voice cried out, for some reason I think I knew exactly what was coming at me and knew to simply throw up my arms straight above me. And apparently I caught something rubbery, I brought it down to my field of vision and it was a dodge ball, I turned around , getting off the tree stump to see a young boy in overalls and a brown button up collar long sleeve loose shirt, the very casual kind, with a paper-boy gray hat, he had odd dark circles under his eyes. Lack of sleep? No, it looks like something he was born with, his hair was flat and short, kind of a red-ish blonde. He just stared at me in shock while I was confused as to the look I received.
"Great catch! What's your name?"
"I-I'm maria, but I like to be called mary."
"Names enoch and this is bronwyn and olive." The other two girls he mentioned came out, but one of them came out of the trees and it looked like something was pulling up her legs while she hung from the branch, the one called bronwyn came out of one of the bushes nearby. Olive looked like an 8 year old, bronwyn appeared to be at least 11 while enoch looked 10.
"So, how old are you?" I looked down and to my left, my finger to my chin and my elbow resting on my other arm.
"I'm technically 16, but to be literal, I'm 67." The little girl in the tree giggled.
"Haha, you're younger than me!" Bronwyn grabbed a rope and lassoed her down and brought her over to me so I could get a closer look, I smirked, the little girl looked confused.
"At least I have all my teeth." Olive scoffed, a normal little girl would be bawling at the minor insult, her two front teeth were missing as predicted for someone with her body, no matter the age.
"What's your power?" I was pretty hesitant, of course but I still chose to give bronwyn the ball and focused, I had perfect control as it became a small kitchen knife, it didn't shoot out to form a giant axe or anything. I had total control and that made me ecstatic, I managed to keep my cool.
"I can shape shift my arms and legs into...commonly weapons, but most recent, I've been able to turn it into wheels for riding and suction cups that can even support my weight." They all clapped except bronwyn who was still holding the ball and the rope holding olive by her torso.
"Olive, why don't I take you back into the house to put on your weighted shoes, hmmm?" She asked politely, olive grumbled, knowing she'd miss out on some of the game, bronwyn pulled her back into the house anyways, leaving me and enoch alone.
"Where're your friends? I'd assume you'd have some in your last loop." There was a pause and I could tell enoch was getting nervous as to whether or not it was too deep, I looked up at the sky as a few clouds came overhead then smiled.
"To be honest, I'm pretty sure I'm still in my other loop, still in my bed while my other friends surround me, I'm actually sick in bed with a fever. My friends are sarah and ellie, both germans, both peculiar. Rafael, who can control aquatic animals, philip who can stop time, alexander who, when he touches a picture can see it's history before it was taken, alice, she heals and can talk to animals. Sarah can become invisible at will and ellie...doesn't really like to talk about her peculiarity."