The two siblings looked to the two strangers. Ember thinking quickly spoke a word out in a language they didn't know, closing the wound on Felix's chest
"I'll do you one better why was he bleeding and why did you two just get thrown out of a journal?" Tempest's hand rested on the lightning bolt pendant around his neck. The siblings didn't seem as surprised for multiverse traveling happened in their story quite often. They just assumed they had gotten pulled into another universe "First let's do this: put all weapons on the bed." He pulled his pendant off and threw a double edged sword that took it's place on the bed. Ember did the same with her bow, arrows, and knives she had hidden in her boots.
“Knife.” She said simply, watching the two of them warily, “And as for coming out of that journal as you claim, I have no clue.” Cossett shook her head when they tossed all of their weapons on the bed, looking to Felix, “I have none, all of mine are back on the ground where we just came from.” There was no dimension traveling in their story, and the two of them seemed much more shaken up about appearing in this room suddenly.
“What happened to tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum?” Felix asked, gaping in amazement at his newly healed chest and nodding in thanks. He pulled out his only dagger, hidden in a sheath in his boot and tossed it on the bed. “Where are we? And who are you two? You don’t look like you’re from the same place we are.”
"Ember Daniels co-founder of Haven, a safehouse for anyone that is in need of it." The teen female said, still cautions as her lamp-like eyes studied the two.
"Tempest Daniels the other co-founder." the young male seemed more relaxed and stuck a hand out in greeting "I have no clue where we are but it appears to me that we are in someone's home."
The home its self was as stated before small but cozy. There were comics sprawled across the bed and desk. Tv show, movie, and video game posters were pinned to the wall. The home was quite clean besides that and some pet hair that was visible on any of the dark furniture.
Cossett seemed just as cautious as Ember, though she introduced herself simply as well, "Cossett McGrath, competitor." She looked around at their surroundings, studying and trying to figure out where they actually were. "But who's home?" It was a nice house, though the posters confused her and she cautiously sat down on the edge of the bed. That was one thing she recognised.
"And I'm Felix Everett, also a competitor." He introduced himself, shaking Tempest's hand and all around seeming more relaxed than Cossett. His cloudy gray eyes scanned the area as well and he just shook his head, "Well, it doesn't seem safe to stay here. What if the owner of this place comes back? That's not safe at all."
"Yeah…where the heck are we gonna go though?" Tempest questioned "I hope this universe has a Haven to crash at until we can sort this out."
"I doubt that Temp this place isn't in the logs or our pendants would have lit up when we entered." Ember reasoned. The siblings weapons on the bed that used to the pedants around their neck didn't do the mentioned glow after they willed them back around their necks, turning them back into a compact pendant form. Tempest went to the front door, unlocked it and opened it, peeking out before exiting the home "Pretty normal out here…" he called back to them
"Your normal, or our normal, because our normal I guarantee is very different." Felix called, standing up and slipping his knife back into his boot. He glanced over at Cossett and stepped to her, pulling her to the side and whispering fiercely, "Should we trust these two? I mean, we don't even know where we are, let alone who they are."
Cossett just sighed and shrugged, pulling him with her as she went to see if Tempest was right, "I don't think we have a choice, we have to trust them. At least for now while we try to figure out where we are and also how to get back to our world as they said." She didn't want to go back to the competition at all, but their families were back there, and friends, and she didn't want to leave them.
"Like…boring normal" Tempest called back he hummed gently as the brisk winter air felt nice to him.
"Rather it be boring then our normal." Ember responded to her brother "Come on let's find out where are and try to get home." Ember called back to the two competitors as she walked out the door as well. "Weather here is nice at least. You two better act like we belong here cause I have no idea if there are any feral shadows here."
"What are feral shadows?" Felix asked, earning a disapproving look from Cossett most likely from the fact that he was treating them like people that weren't or wouldn't kill them at any time. He did seem very wary as he walked to the door though, checking every corner before stepping outside and wrapping his arms around himself for warmth. It wasn't the best position if someone was going to attack, but he was already cold.
"Our normal is being chased after, attacked, stabbed or generally trying not to be killed, is yours similar?" Cossett asked with honest curiosity, following Ember out the door and standing by her side, though keeping a space between them incase she needed to jump away from the girl.
"More or less." Ember shrugged "We run an organization that protects people from someone back at home that's been trying to wipe out anyone that stands in his way."
Tempest piped up as they walked down the driveway of the home they had exited "The guy's name is Zerack and he thinks all the world's problems would be solved if humans were wiped out. Obviously that's crazy so we've been trying to stop him for about three years now." He picked up a newspaper off the ground at the end of the driveway and unrolled it to at least see what time period they were in
Back in the home though black matter was running out of the sibling's notebook, like the ink was running out of it and onto the floor
"Is this Zerack guy a human too?" Cossett asked, peering over Tempest's shoulder to study the paper he was holding. It looked similar to the ones in their own world, but not quite the same so she was very interested. Wherever they were, it looked pretty similar to where they were from, but the houses were slightly different and off.
Felix waited for an answer, just shrugging when no one answered his question and asking it again, "So, what are feral shadows?" He wandered around as they looked at the paper, just watching for anything or anyone moving or near them.
"Zerack…I don't think he's human…fully cause I know he's part Shadow." Tempest started to explain
"A sub-species of demon where we're from." Ember piped in
"And ferals are the creatures that he can make from real shadows. Like he could steal one of our shadows and make a couple of them. It's weird not having a shadow for an hour I'll tell you what." Tempest muttered "So I don't know about guys but 2020 is my sister and I's correct year but it seems that there isn't much magic here…at least not on the surface."
(I have an idea that what The Author writes can enter the world since his 18th birthday passed, anyone is able to do that too if they have one of his pens he's just touched not long ago. Basically a little like InkHeart what do you think?)
(Oooo yesss that would be fun.)
Cossett shook her head looking around and then back at Felix, "We're from the future then, which is very weird to say. Around year 2930 in our normal home, though I'm sure we're not from the future of this world, it's too nice right now, and I doubt this place would get as bad as our world does." The Zerack guy didn't sound pleasant and she was frankly glad that he didn't appear out here with them, fighting someone who was part shadow was something she could confidently say she had never done.
"Stealing shadows and magic? What is the place you're from like?" Felix asked, both confused and very curious as he walked over to join into the conversation, "It sounds much different than our home, much weirder too."
"Well the first thing that's different is that it sounds like you guys don't have any magic, which where we're from is pretty common." Tempest stated as he rolled the newspaper back and replaced it on the ground.
"But non-humans don't have equal rights to humans…so we're part of an organization that's trying to get that for everyone. It's what they deserve. What we all deserve." Ember added
"No, we don't have magic. That's something that's only talked about in children's stories." Cossett replied, thinking back to their world while she started to look around and walk further from the home, feeling weirdly out of place and vulnerable without her weapons.
Felix listened as they talked, wondering what the non humans were like from their world, as the ones in their own world were just robots or animals. Man, their world sounded so much more exciting to him than his own was, shadow stealers included.
There was a crash in the house they had exited. Ember held out a two blades to Cossett and Felix after they saw a ink black substance started leaking from under the front door "No not here. How the hell are they here?" Tempest muttered
"Is this that feral shadow thing you were talking about?" Felix asked, backing towards the group and taking the blade without hesitation, "Or is that Zerack guy?" He seemed ready to fight though whatever it was, looking to Tempest and Ember while Cossett took the other blade and moved to stand at Felix's side. They both were ready to fight, both very accustomed to things like this.
The substance started to form something as it ran down the porch steps of the home, it looked to be an animal of some sort, defiantly a predator animal looking like the kind of thing that had been described not long ago.
"Feral. Don't let that thing touch you." Ember warned as she slung her bow from over her shoulder, notching a silver tipped arrow
"I don't plan on it." Felix promised, taking a half step back and watching as it came closer and closer. He wasn't going to attack if he didn't have to, but he did tighten his grip on the blade. There was no way for him to know how hard this thing would be to kill, or whatever happened to these creatures, he just knew that if they told him to watch out for this thing, he was going to watch out.
Cossett didn't comment, standing by their sides and watching with a cold look in her eyes. It was like a switched had been flipped when she felt they were going to be fighting this thing, one that turned her attitude cold and tough.
It shifted into the simple shape of a wild dog. It started to make a mad dash to the group. Ember released her arrow and nailed the thing right in it's forehead, causing the thing to stumble for a moment. Tempest had pulled his sword out and aimed the tip at the wounded creature, a pure blue bolt of electricity shot from the sword and turned the thing into a sticky tar like puddle.
Both of the others jumped back at the electricity from the sword, though it didn't do anything other than that and even seemed to put them on edge any more. "Is it taken care of? Or should we still be ready?" Cossett asked, flipping her blade over in her hand and trying subtly to see if she could get it to do the same thing.
"That should be it for spike there." Tempest joked a bit but his head shot back to the door as they heard more noises in the home, inhuman growls and the sound of nails scratching on the hardwood floors inside
"Oh my gods that's too many, at least a dozen by the sound of it and we have zero anti-virals. Run!" Ember for once sounded on edge
Felix traded a glance with Cossett, then nodded, backing up quickly but not taking his eyes off the door. Cossett did the same, though her movements were quicker and she was listening to Ember's advice to run. Who knew what these things would do to her, and she didn't particularly want to find out.
The door burst open and more of those creatures started down the steps, followed by some more human shapes.
"Yeah fuck it we can't handle that right now." Tempest said and started to back up as well "Come on let's go!"
"There you are you troublesome siblings…make sure they don't leave here in one piece." one of the more human shaped ones spoke out in a voice like knives rubbing across steel
"Now…that's gotta be the other guy." Felix muttered, nodding and spinning around as he took off away from the shadowy things. He tapped Cossett's shoulder as he caught up to her, silently saying that she should keep up or at least listen to what Tempest had said.
Cossett spared one glance back at the multitude of creatures and nodded, understanding that there was no way the four of them could take on that many, especially since only two of them knew how to deal with them.
"No no no boss won't be happy GET THEM!" the man shouted sending the animal like things after them. Ember sent out a jet of white-hot flame at the creatures them grabbed one the competitor's hands and started to run in the opposite direction Tempest doing the same to the other as they switched direction and headed into a wooded area
