Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty - Visiting the Garden
Noah kept jogging around the lake, the feeling of the cold metal against his bare skin penetrated his chest. He knew he was tired from the earlier laps and the use of aura particles but every step he took the ring and chain got colder against his skin.
It felt like the warmth of his body was being sucked out through his chest against the cold gold. He continued to run around the lake anyways as best as he could. He was on lap 279 when his legs got so weak he collapsed just a quarter of the way before completing the circuit.
On his knees and breathing in deeply, his chest completely changed heats. Going from freezing to boiling out of nowhere. He tightly clasped the ring intending to pull it off and throw it to the ground.
Yet when his hands wrapped around the ring, he felt the feeling just like when he was running the particles in a whirlpool earlier; except there were hundreds of particles vibrating and they were rushing up his arm and covering him like a wave of water rushing over a rock.
Noah didn't think that he would be able to see the buzz of particles without months of practice but at the moment it started surrounding and covering him, he could see black and white balls of light vibrating.
Trying to stand up but the particles weighed him down and he could barely hold his hand to his chest. If it wasn't stuck around the ring he would have let it fall already.
The particles soon covered him, he wasn't able to breathe as they swarmed all over. He tried to call for help, barely being able to look at the house for a sign of his Master; but he wasn't able to see even a flicker of movement from within the shadows.
Once the aura had covered him completely it glowed bright white and quickly darkened disappearing and taking Noah with it. Where he stood there was nothing but the indent of his knees in the grass and the wind blowing over the grass, the water rippling.
...
Turning and looking out the window, Quin thought he felt a large ripple of aura out around the lake, but when he looked he didn't see anything. "...."
...
Noah's eyes were closed tightly, the world went back to freezing just like it had the first day he had stayed in Master Quin's house. The air around him felt like a blast from ice. He didn't want to open his eyes too scared at what was happening.
Feeling the particles around him had stopped vibrating, calming down and flowing back into the ring around his neck. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to look up. The sun blazed down giving off a desert heat on his skin and armour which burned after the cold blasts.
In front of him where he was kneeling were hundreds of bright blue poppies, forming a circle around him with only one gap where the small path led out to another area of flows. Looking past the flowers in front of him there were even more and more flowers, going right into the horizon, various different types; styles and colours.
They were all beautiful even under the blazing suns heat. Noah could see the path swirled and curved in and out of all the different flowers around him and presumed it would continue to do so. He looked into the distance trying to see when the flowers ended, where it did there was a green hedge with a small gap with a wooden gate at two opposite sides.
Along the hedge tall columns double the height of the hedge, white marble of some sort stood overbearing and proud. Noah wasn't sure where he was or how he got there; he took the chain off and looked at the ring. It shined in the sun but whenever he tried to let the chain or ring go and drop it he couldn't physically open his hand.
Giving in, he looked at both small exits in the distance and back at the ring he couldn't let go of, finally agreeing with the ring in his head that he would keep it for the time being. Putting it back around his neck and making a 50/50 choice to choose the path he went on, he readied himself for a long walk.
Looking up at the sky and trying to see if there was a difference of where the sun was compared to where it would be when he ran around the lake. Noah could tell it was a different direction but something still seemed off about it. Deciding to ignore it, he chose a path closer to him at the edge of the indigo flowers.
Energy slowly felt like it was flowing inside of him, starting from his bodies centre. Very similar to the particles but different, a lighter feeling. Much like the sun, he chose to ignore the feeling and keep on walking to the gate on the distance.
Following the path he thought would take him to the gate in the far off violet flowers. As he walked through the fields there were many different kinds of flowers but they were all the same colour as the flowers next to it until they changed from a deep blue to light indigo.
Stepping into the area that changes to dark purple flowers the scent of lavender in the air. He kept walking at a reasonable pace getting closer and closer to the exit.
Passing by various flowers, the path was wide at 2 metres wide. The path he followed broke into a fork, one on the left leading to a wide-open area circle and the other continuing to the exit.
He looked over at the patch before continuing walking down the path following it as it twisted and curved around the dark indigo flowers and into the light indigo, on the verge of turning violet.
Time didn't have a meaning as he walked through the fields of flowers, the sun would stay in the same place beating down on Noah. Wishing he had his bottle of water as he trailed through the paths trying to leave.
As he managed to close the distance between himself and the giant hedges and white pillars he noticed the exit was a large wooden arch, at its peak maybe 14 metres tall. The wood curled and twisted from the start to the end of itself. A light wood that Noah thought looked very similar to a birch tree.
In the arc, a white and black light, glistened, circling each other creating a thick veil. Captivating Noah, he tried to look through the veil and see the other side. The more he peered into it the harder it became to see through.
Walking to a metre away, keeping a little distance between himself and the veil his mouth slowly opened. Not knowing what it was or what happened Noah could only stare, trying to think of what to do next.
Making a decision that he should keep going he wanted to test something first, plucking a violet flower that looked somewhat like a rose he stood back where he was a second ago and gently thrust the flower into the veil, trying to see if anything could pass through it.
When he pulled the flower back out nothing was left, it had disappeared into nothingness, a dry gulp and a few steps back Noah knew he had to change his plans. Looking back to where the other arc was, he let a sigh out. His thirst becoming a little insatiable he knew he had no choice but to push on, turning back and going the other way.
Halfway through the rainbow coloured of fields of flowers and back into the blue flowers just passed before where he started, Noah noticed that the path had engraved little circles that slowly changed into writing a large circle surrounding where he started. At the middle of the circle would have been where he suddenly appeared, Noahs brained worked overtime on the mystery.
Passing by the circle he continued walking towards the arc at the edge of the red flowers. It wasn't a quick walk, the hours quickly passed but whenever he looked up the sun never changed places. The only reason he knew hours were passing was that his body slowly got hungrier, he could guess it was around late afternoon.
When he reached the arc this one was slightly different. Instead of it being the light styled wood he noticed that the wood was much darker, blending the bushes by its side into it. Making it look like the bushes started from the arc.
Not able to tell the type of wood it was but that didn't matter. What mattered, would be as if there was a veil in the arc. The closer the got the more he could see the arcs centre, it didn't seem to have anything blocking his view; it just continued the path by the looks of it.
...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone