Chapter Eight[VIII]: What's the Plan? (VI)

Xenos Waters looks at his left hand, shredded bandages on the ground in front of him. It's completely healed, covered in scales to the middle of his fingers, but healed nevertheless. He's quite sure that with the next pulse his entire hand will be covered, along with his left eye. His left ear and nose are probably going to be covered soon enough as well. What's going to happen to his hair? Is it going to fall out and be replaced by scales?

He grimaces at the thought. "Man, I don't want to go bald because of this."

Felix, who's sitting next to him on the couch, laughs loudly. "That's what you're concerned about?"

Xenos rolls his eyes, turning to face Felix. "Not my main one, but yes, I am concerned about it. Wouldn't you be too?"

"Fair point," Felix says with a shrug, glancing at the clock in the kitchen. "Mr. Balanius should be here soon." There's a knock at the back door. "Speak of the devil and he shall come, I guess."

They both stand up and walk over, opening the door to see Mr. Balanius standing there with clothes and what appears to be armour in his arms. "Can I come in?"

Felix nods. "Of course." The two of them back up to let Mr. Balanius in, Mr. Balanius handing Xenos and Felix the clothes, with Xenos being the only one to receive the armour. The clothes and armour all have a pale silver sheen to them, making it look like they're enchanted. Which they probably are, Xenos muses, as he didn't feel the clothes rip from the dhabeho scales.

"We have around thirty minutes," Mr. Balanius says, closing the door. "So hurry and change if you have anything else to do before we leave." Felix heads into the bathroom while Xenos goes into Felix's room, tossing the clothes onto his bed. He unties the string holding the sweatpants up and easily steps out of them, quickly changing into the clothes Mr. Balanius provided for them.

He slips on the black boxers before putting on black pants similar to Mr. Balanius' and a snug long-sleeve black shirt that only has a sleeve on the right side, along with some black socks, feeling happy that the clothes didn't rip in the process and surprised at how well they fit. He looks at the armour next, which seems to be just for his left arm along with a mask.

It takes him a little bit to figure the armour out, but he manages to do it. Putting on the leather pauldron, rerebrace, couter, vambrace, and gauntlet, Xenos moves his arm around and is pleasantly surprised at the lightness of the armour along with its maneuverability -- it's almost like it isn't there at all. The armour completely covers his left arm, leaving not even a single scale visible.

Xenos looks at the bed, seeing the last piece of armour he's yet to put on: the mask. It, unlike the armour for his arm, is made of metal, that odd silver sheen making it appear to be glowing. He picks it up and examines the designs under the eyes, intricate swirls that seem endlessly complex. On top of the mask are two small little triangles that resemble horns, and on the sides are blunt hooks that he assumes go around his ears.

He places the mask on, somehow still shocked by how light it is along with how it doesn't hinder his breathing in the slightest. Xenos, deciding he's taken enough time, exits Felix's room and heads down the stairs, seeing Felix and Mr. Balanius talking with each other casually. Mr. Balanius is the first one to notice Xenos's presence, quickly waving him over and stopping his conversation with Felix.

"So, do you need to do anything?" Mr. Balanius asks.

Xenos nods, snatching the note off the kitchen counter before standing beside Felix. "Yes, I need to deliver this note and get my necklace."

"And where do you live?"

"Do you know where Novus, the orphanage, is?"

Mr. Balanius looks pleased. "Of course, our destination is the forest behind Novus. This is great, I'll create a portal right away. What room is yours?"

"The rightmost one from the back in the attic," Xenos answers.

"Okay, then let's get going." Mr. Balanius raises both hands, golden smoke escaping from his index and middle fingers as he slowly makes a circle with each hand. Xenos watches in awe as the golden smoke slithers forward and creates an oval, the smoke solidifying and the inside of the oval suddenly opening up into Xenos' room. Mr. Balanius drops his hands, the golden smoke still swirling around them. "Go on in, Xenos, we'll be waiting behind Novus."

Xenos nods, thankful for the privacy as he steps inside the portal, whole body tingling and his ears ringing until he steps foot onto the old, wooden floor of his room. He takes another step inside, a quiet pop coming from behind him. Xenos turns around, catching the portal dissipating as it turns back into golden smoke.

He swallows thickly as he looks around his room, feeling horribly guilty that all he can leave behind is a stupid note that'll probably make everyone even more worried. Sighing softly, Xenos walks over to his bed and lifts the mattress, blindly reaching underneath until he touches something cold and smooth.

Taking the necklace out from under the mattress, Xenos stuffs it into his pants' pocket and gently places the mattress down, placing the note he wrote neatly on the top. He pushes down the guilt and regret, burying it until he can think clearly again. He takes a wobbly breath, straightening himself out as he prepares to signal Mr. Balanius that he's finished.

That is, until the pain flares up again. The vision in his left eye goes white and Xenos collapses to the ground with a loud thud, biting his tongue to keep himself from screaming. The area behind his eye is scorching hot, as though his optic nerves are being burned by acid, the pain in his fingers is nothing compared to this.

The pain stops abruptly and Xenos is left shaking with his eyes squeezed shut, the minor burning sensation slowly disappearing. He sucks in a shaky breath as he opens his eyes, stunned to see that, well, he can see. Everything is in various shades of red and grey, making everything look quite eerie and bloody, but that doesn't change the fact that he can see everything perfectly.

There's a gentle knock on the door that makes Xenos choke on his breath, heart beating erratically as his entire body tenses, the scales on his body rising ever so slightly. "Xenos?" Romand Bernhard, everyone's older brother, asks quietly, and Xenos curses softly as he stands up, guilt and regrets bubbling up like a disease making him feel ill.

Just as he's about to respond, a golden portal opens up next to him. He hears the door handle turn and lunges inside, turning on his heel in time to see Romand's sleepy face peak into Xenos' room just as the portal disappears with a pop. Xenos clutches the fabric above his thumping heart, letting out a breath-like laugh as he sits down in the snow. He puts his face into his trembling hands and curses, suddenly feeling like having a nervous breakdown again.

In all honesty, it's probably overdue at this point. He feels a hand on his back and looks up at Mr. Balanius, who gently says, "Come on, we need to leave."

Xenos nods weakly, standing up and brushing the snow off the back of his legs, the coldness grounding him to the present and keeping him from crying hysterically. They make their way into the forest behind Novus, Xenos helping Felix maneuver in the snow and avoid stray branches thanks to his new eyesight.

"What happened in there?" Felix asks quietly.

"I--" he swallows, "I got the necklace and placed down the note. When I was planning on signalling you guys that I was good to go, the scales flared up again and I fell. I think that's what woke up Romand."

"Do you think he saw us?"

"I don't know," Xenos mumbles, "I really don't know."

"Well, let's hope he didn't."

|<>|

Romand Bernhard startles awake from a sudden thud, groggily getting out of bed to make sure none of the children are awake or worse, hurt themselves. He ignores the coldness of the attic and opens his door, quietly walking towards the stairs before pausing as his mind finally catches up to his body.

That thud had sounded real close, almost like it came from Xenos' room. But, that doesn't make much sense, with Ms. Allan had told him that Xenos is staying at a friend's house. Romand looks at the door across the hall from his and begins to walk over. Call it a gut feeling, but he has the urge to look into Xenos' room, just to make sure that no one is in there.

After hesitating for a moment, Romand softly knocks on the door and calls out, "Xenos?" There's no response, so he twists the door handle and goes inside. He immediately stops, staring at the orange portal that disappears not even a second later. Romand keeps looking at that spot for a long while, not able to keep the image of Xenos ( because that masked-person was Xenos, he would recognize those blue eyes-- eye anywhere ) out of his mind.

He turns on the light and walks inside, closing the door behind him. "What happened to you, Xenos?" Romand softly asks himself aloud. He looks out the window just in time to see three figures, the same three figures he saw in the portal, disappear into the forest. Letting out a breath, he glances at the mattress in the corner, eyes landing on the white piece of paper in the centre.

Romand walks over, picking up the note as though it's his lifeline. He reads it once, twice, thrice, enough times that each word is burned into his memory. Instead of panicking, Romand decides to place the note back, turn off the light, and close the door behind him as he exits the room. He heads back to his own room and sinks into his mattress, staring up at the moon from his window.

"Oh, Xenos," Romand mutters, "I hope you have a plan."