Chapter 4 It's Tricky (to rock a rhyme To rock a rhyme that's right on time)
"UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH," Jeramiah groaned as he trundled out of bed to get ready for high school. He slouched as he ambled into the bathroom. Quickly brushing his teeth and getting ready for the day, with a little more energy, he began to get dressed in his familiar outfit. Jeans to stay warm and have the familiar feeling of its material, an extremely soft t-shirt for comfort and a heavy sweatshirt for warmth, as well as the feeling of comfort a hood provided by hiding his face from others.
He leaped downstairs, quickly scrounging up some leftovers and smacked a plate of bacon in the microwave. Saying goodbye to his mother, he quickly grabbed his backpack: already packed with his laptop and books, and slung it over his shoulder, and stepped outside. A Buick LaCrosse was parked in the driveway, with a rental company license plate in bright neon green.
"Keys, Damnit" he grunted, turning toward the door where his Mom had the keys in her hand and was grinning at him. The three-year-old Buick was well maintained, and he quickly dashed the radio over to Warm 106.9 and started lip-syncing to 'The Final Countdown' as he made his way down South Orchard Ln towards Jeremy High School. He pulled up to his parking spot with the 'slightly' mangled parking pass attached to the rearview mirror. Quickly gliding out of the Buick, he trudged into the school that he completely loathed.
His first-period class was utterly stupid. He spent the entire time daydreaming and drawing ovals… 'Ovals! Are you kidding me? Why should I care about some stupid rock?' He scribbled out a few of them. Looking down after a few minutes, he noticed that he had even begun to draw the veins… 'no those are just striations of some form of... quartz... yeah, quartz!' he snuck off into the next period, mentally berating himself for obsessing over the 'dumb stone'.
'School is simply dull, there are much better things I could be doing with my time but instead, I have to sit here among these nothings and try to 'learn' the 'crucial' information or propaganda these morons are shoving down our throats. None of this is important. None of this is useful If only Father would just give up the family business and this 'Dirt World' and just spend our time in Chulnia.' Daphne growled angrily at her predicament. 'I do not belong in either world, neither earth nor Extrarius Mundi. I can't believe after two thousand years we are still not allowed to call our home by its true name. Just because we originally were descended from Earth doesn't make us a part of Chulnia.' After the third period, she stood up and began walking to lunch when she felt something, almost like a sixth sense, urging her to look at something but she had no idea what… She missed it and suddenly the feeling subsided, but she shoved it into the back of her mind to ponder later.
Walking down the hallway towards the lunchroom, she felt the tug again, but she didn't know why… Looking around she noticed a pale face with a sharp jaw and light blue eyes, bordering on brown, hidden in a deep blue cowl. A few wispy deep brown hairs were trailing down his forehead, as if sneaking from the domain of his hood. 'Wow, he is not bad looking, but the contrast between his light blue jeans, dark blue sweatshirt, and sea blue backpack is obnoxious… What is so different about him?'
Jeramiah was having a typical day; classes were boring, and people were ignoring him as usual. As he walked down the hall, he noticed the school Belle' was looking at him oddly… He peered back at her tanned and frankly striking features and dashed his eyes away 'Don't want to get beat for staring too long. Jacob and his friends whip every guy who goes near her… not that they do anything everyone knows she treats everyone the same. Like dirt beneath her feet, that begs the question, why is she leering at me?'
He continued almost to the lunchroom before turning off in a corner where he usually waits in order to find a better-hidden place to eat alone. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed Daphne 'the goddess' E quod-Ferrum (meaning Daphne of the blade) standing stock-still glaring at his back 'uh oh this cannot be good.'
"Extrarius Mundi" she gasped loudly…
'Uhhh what? Is that a word? What does it mean? Is it important why is she placing so much emphasis on it…'?
"Chulnia…" she whispered loudly, in almost palpable anticipation. Her eyes peering into him, the fogginess that seemed to overwhelm her eyes completely gone leaving only a piercing brightness that seemed to bore into his brain.
"Uh… Right. Well, are you okay? I have no idea if you're crazy or have gotten me mixed up with someone else… So, I'm just gonna go Ok? Ok!" he finished sharply and walked off down the hallway leaving a stiff-legged Daphne behind lost in a daze.
'How, how, how, how, I could've sworn he had the feeling, that sense that they are a part of my world… Could I be wrong… Dad swore up and down you would know when someone was connected to Extrarius Mundi by 'the pull' what does this mean? Could he not be aware he has been in contact with our world? Well, I hope I will find out eventually.' Daphne turned her back in the direction he had snuck off in and went to lunch at the 'popular table' where she still deemed no one was fit to talk to her… She still pondered 'so why did I talk to him?'
'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, she looks like an angel, but she sounds like one too… how is that possible? It's truly a pity she's a little crazy. Are those even words? Ah her voice is like a trickling brook cascading through a breeze stirred meadow.' His jaw dropped, "when did I become such a poet?" he whispered in shock.
He decided it was time to make friends. This week he will make friends, starting with this next class.
Five p.m.
"Well shit, that was fun I'm never trying to get friends again!" he grumbled, as he jumped on his bed and wrapped himself tightly in a ball around his pillow… Little did he know, it was a little harder than he expected, but with it being firmer, it felt more substantial and, in turn, more comfortable. He wept desperately as the loneliness enraptured him in a way that locked him out of the world. As he left his bed to do homework at his desk, he missed the gentle rock of a certain pillow that if you weren't paying attention, you would miss.
After finishing the day's agonizing assignments designed to drive a student insane, he went downstairs to eat dinner with his family. His parents, sensing his mood, did everything they could to calm him down. Their love was palpable in a way only parents can express, but he was still distant. Only when they started the most hilarious episode of the office did he finally calm down. The Andersons looked at each other and frowned, thinking 'how are we going to help him when all school does is tear him down?" Jeramiah trudged upstairs at 10:30, saddened by the fact that his school life was so awful.
Daphne sat in bed pondering what had happened that day. She recalled talking with her 'underlings' about the usual crap that meant absolutely nothing to her and 'everything' to them. She had asked them "what is wrong with Jeramiah?" They simply stared at her open-mouthed till quickly Cindy burst out, "Well, his best friend Josh said he was suicidal and dangerous to those around him and that it best to stay away," then cocked her head sideways and demanded "why do you care? Is he somehow hot enough for you?"
She chuckled coldly, "Of course not, I'm just surprised I did not know this piece of gossip. I like to think I am kept informed of such information." she finished with a glare. Her 'handmaidens' apologized, although they were uncertain what for and the conversation went back into nothingness.
'Jeramiah what is so different about you? Why do you give me such a powerful feeling? Something about you tells me you are not a psychopath so why did Josh betray you?'
Back in bed, Jeramiah noticed something was wrong with his pillow… It was clearly shaking, violently!
!SQUEAK! A noise echoed from inside its shell 'damn egg! No… it's an egg. How could it be an egg? How did I find an egg?' He stumbled, as he quickly unwrapped the pillowcase from around the newly dubbed egg and stared transfixed at its beautiful orange exterior. It started to rock more madly and repeatedly !SQUEAKed! He rushed to place a ring of pillows at the foot of his bed then grabbed a spare sheet and covered the pillows with it. Grabbing the egg, he placed it inside the ring to keep it from falling on the ground. Staring at the beautiful cobweb of veins, he gently touched the pulsing membrane. He felt rustling and shifting within the egg as well as a very firm beat of a heart.
"Oh my gosh this thing is alive!" he nearly shouted, as he leaped into the air. Catching himself from making too loud of a noise, he climbed off of the floor and began to stare at the beautiful shape of the egg. He noticed the squeaking had stopped, and he looked to see that the egg had completely stopped rocking. Suddenly a loud !CRACK! echoed throughout the room. Watching the egg, he noticed there were a series of cracks spreading along the shell, and they were much more uniform than the veins, as they all pointed towards one more noticeably cracked end. The weakest point of the egg, the top, was beginning to wobble as continuous little cracks echoed out into the night.
'Damn I hope you don't wake my parents, how on earth am I gonna explain, you, whatever you are.' Jeramiah waited in rapt anticipation as the top shattered and was knocked to the side by a bright-colored head. He continued to stare in shock, as the rest of an awkward body pulled itself out of what remained of the egg. It had four gangly legs with a large snout, and on its back, were two protrusions that were folded around its torso.
"Oh, crap this is gonna be tricky, how do you take care of a fricken dragon"...he stepped up and went over to his bookcase, pulling out his copy of Eragon of the Inheritance cycle. Peeling through the first few chapters, he looked upon the shape and description of the dragon. Glancing up, he noticed the dragon had begun to clean the sticky membrane off its body starting with its wings. The description of the dragon was almost identical to Paolini's except for the color. The head was angular. The claws and teeth are pure white and dreadfully sharp. Spikes were running down the entire length of its back, although they appeared slightly darker than the pure carrot orange of the majority of its scales, with a slight gap in the middle for where it would grow older and hold a rider on its back.
'Wait. A Rider on its back? Wait a second. I need to touch it to see if I'm meant to be its Rider and get the Oval symbol that marks me as a Rider… What am I saying? The crazy guy Christopher can't be right. Alagaesia doesn't exist… Right?' He sat down on the bed next to the ring of pillows that the little drake was exploring, still clutching Eragon tightly in his right hand. It started sniffing and tugging at his pajama shirt, and as it went to rub its head against his hand, he forced himself forward and at the contact…
"Ahhhhhh" he barely stifled back the roar into a hoarse whisper as the icy current shot up his arm, 'Damn Paolini' his entire body was wracked with agony to the point where he couldn't move his pinky toe (he tried). His body wasn't functioning very well, but the book was still grasped tightly in his hand. Slowly warmth filtered back into his body, and he read through the next section and already began to feel the same thing: a tingle in his otherwise paralyzed left hand, reading of the weird tendril entering Eragon's mind 'well when that happens, we need to let that in!' Slowly the shimmering on his hand became apparent, as the Riders' symbol in the shape of an Oval appeared.
Feeling a tug in his brain, the walls that surrounded and protected his consciousness suddenly dropped and a feeling of curiosity enveloped him. 'The book doesn't say how to deal with this' so he whispered out loud "my name is Jeramiah." Stroking its flank, he felt a strange tingle roll up his arm as the connection between him and the dragon became more deeply entwined. Reading through the chapter, he realized that very soon his little dragon friend would be hungry.
and quickly bolted downstairs. He grabbed from the freezer a Costco size package of bison meat 'is three pounds enough?' he thought, grabbing the largest popcorn bowl, and quickly cutting open the packages he turned and started cleaning the knife. After hurriedly pouring out the meat into the bowl, he hoped frozen meat would be enough to sate its hunger.
