Chapter 6: Someone new

"Are you guys okay?" Rosa asked as she tried to help Andy stand up.

"What just happened?" asked Andy.

Apparently, all she could remember was the fear of getting caught, as she stood frightened at the back of the clock in the elders' room, with Derrick. Now, she was here, outside the building, with no knowledge of how she got out. The only she could remember hearing was "grab on" before seeing herself outside.

"I have no idea. I don't even know how I got here either" said Rosa, feeling as lost as she was. Derrick was also lost. They all didn't know how they got to the place where they stood. After staring at their environment for a while, they saw someone running towards them.

"We don't have much time, let's move," said a guy who looked like he was in his early 30s, dressed as an elder.

"Who are you?" Andy asked

"Like I said, we do not have much time. We need to move now" he said

"We're not going anywhere until you tell us who you are" Derrick spoke

"I am Nakamaru, the youngest elder, more like an apprentice. I am also an anomaly like you Andy..." he said as he placed his hands on her shoulder

"...I got my gift from birth, but against the nature of time," he said

"What does that mean?" asked a confused Derrick.

"He wasn't born at the same time as the other elders, the 80-year gap was defiled," Rosa said.

"My mum talked a lot bout you. You were born thirty years ago" she continued

"Well...more like thirty-two years ago, but, whatever," Nakamaru said

"So why are you here? And were you the one that got us out?" Rosa asked

"You were almost caught by Stefan, the most arrogant elder there is, so I kinda teleported you out of there..." he explained "...as for you Rosa, I knew you were a part of it and so I did the same"

Rosa was surprised as to how he knew her name, and so was Andy and Derrick. Nakamaru explained why he was there, and how he had been on the same quest for years now. According to Nakamaru's explanation, he had been watching them for a few weeks, after he saw them go through the hidden library door.

They told him about what they had seen in the elders' room, the word "Ruthala".

Just while they were talking, they heard someone say "They shouldn't have gone far"

"We need to move now," he said, as he pulled Andy and they all started running, making sure they didn't have to come in contact with the number of horses and horse riders they felt were in pursuit of them.

"You know you could teleport us right?" Derrick pointed out as they were running.

"Ohh...yes, but unfortunately I'm outta charge", Nakamaru said, hinting at Derrick on his reasons why he couldn't do that.

"You need charging?" Rosa asked as she tried hard to keep running.

"There's a whole lot you all don't know about, I'll tell you if we get someplace safe to hide", Nakamaru said

"If!?" yelled Andy.

They kept running for some minutes, following every direction, every twist and turn Nakamaru asked them to, until they got to a cave.

"Get in!" Nakamaru ordered as they stayed in the cave until every single horse and its rider had passed.

"Who were those people?" Rosa asked.

"They are from Castus" replied Nakamaru while he nodded, hoping they understood what he was talking about, but was disappointed when Derrick arched an eyebrow.

"Castus is a place for anyone viewed as an anomaly, or having forbidden gifts"

"There are forbidden gifts?" Andy asked out of curiosity

"Yes there are"

Nakamaru explained how everyone with dangerous gifts, had been sent to Castus after every coming-of-age ceremony. The elders were trying to avert passed mistakes from ancient history, so they created a different village for those with harmful abilities.

After they had stayed a while at the cave, they moved further. Nakamaru took them to a safe house and promised to send them back once the coast was clear. They stayed in the safe house for a while, before Derrick decided to take a walk around the house. He saw books on a little shelf and decided to read through them when he spotted something. He ran straight to where Andy was seated and opened the page of the book he wanted her to see

"Andy, look at this," he said as he ran towards her.

"Ruthala..." she said out loud after she stared at the page for a while and looked away from the book to find Derrick nodding, as an affirmation that she had seen what he wanted her to see.

"What's that?" Nakamaru asked as he came closer to look at the page she had just called out that name from.

"It says here that Ruthala means freedom," Andy said.

"Is that all the voice wanted us to see by looking at the clock? How's that supposed to help us?" said Derrick

"What's it supposed to mean?" asked Rosa

"Ruthala isn't just freedom..." Nakamaru said as he took the book from Andy's hand "... Ruthala was the name of the Queen's animas."

"So you also know about the queen?" Rosa asked Nakamaru

"Every elder knows about the last queen of Eldora" he replied.

"So why don't the villagers know about her?" Andy asked after she figured out lost she was.

"The queen was said to have gone rogue. A threat to all the villagers..." he paused to capture all their facial expressions.

"Was that true?" Andy asked.

"Uhmmm...no," he replied "According to all my research she wasn't. She was peculiar, and a great lover of peace"

"So then why is she said to have gone rogue" Derrick asked.

"According to the elders' hand-outs we were given on our first day as an elder, Queen Andrea caused a huge war between the humans and the animas, destroying every animas there was. So because of that she was stripped of her powers and executed,"

"So, apparently someone twisted the truth" Nakamaru finally said.

After they had talked for a while, they noticed how late it had gotten, and how worried their parents would have been about their disappearance.

Andy requested that Nakamaru transported them back using his gift of teleportation. They were brought back to the ceremonial ground and decided to head to Rosa's house first. Before Nakamaru left, he handed a whistle to Andy and asked her to blow on it whenever she felt like she needed his assistance, especially if it had something to do with the mission she was on.

"It has a frequency that only I can hear," he said

"Alright" Andy smiled and turned to leave when Nakamaru held her back

"You know you both have a lot in common," he said as she nodded "There's something I'd like you to see," Nakamaru said before teleporting both Andy to a tomb

"She was laid to rest here, but her body was never brought here," he spoke "It's been missing for centuries"

"Why was her body taken?"

"I have no idea, and it's not in the hand-outs either," Nakamaru said as he teleported her back to the ceremonial ground and left immediately.