บท 8: Faulty Seatbelt
Arthur padded forward at an even pace, somewhat rushed with a silent wish that Colton would trip over a groove in the pavement and fall unconscious on the ground. Unfortunately, he knew this would never happen.
Colton might have been weaker than Arthur but he was in no way a klutz. Arthur spared the few buildings he passed a glance or two as he walked through this humble part of the human city.
He'd dressed normally so he had no fear of blending in the society of humans… not like there was any other way. Looking back, it had taken him some time to get used to walking freely in the human city without always looking back to make sure no one was following him.
From one of the humble well-furnished houses, a woman stepped out in her pyjamas and bent down to pick a newspaper. Before she could reach it, a small furry bundle of fluff darted from behind her and picked up the rolled paper before stubbornly darting back inside.
"Pooch! Gimme that!" the woman yelled at the dog rushing back into the house in pursuit of her pet.
The next building on this lane was empty but the gardens had been maintained and all the plants pruned to perfection. The housekeeper was doing a splendid job. The next few houses all had similar homey activities going on.
Finally reaching a crossroads, the two boys crossed and found themselves staring at a staircase that went underground. A signpost at the side of the entrance read:
'TERMINAL'
In bright neon green light.
"You're a lot quieter these days, you know. It would help if you could smile a little," Colton suddenly broke the silence as they descended the flight of stairs.
"Use your inner voice, Colton. It's a lot more pleasant," Arthur sighed, rolling his eyes at his obnoxious company.
"You're so much ruder these days, too. It couldn't kill you to say something like, 'I'm sorry, Colton. I'll make sure to drop dead soon and not keep you waiting for my death for at least another century.'"
Arthur gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, 'Why are these stairs so damn many?'
The stairs were indeed excessive for they had been descending for a solid five minutes before they finally hit the bottom of the staircase, "Just shut up and stay away from me, Colton."
"Oh, don't be like that. At least tell me what you hope to be chosen as after the Sorting is done," Colton cooed.
"That's a dumb question."
'Everyone knows phoenixes only dream of becoming hunters,' he wanted to yell… but didn't.
"No, not really… You're so weak that I'm sure they'll find you more suited in the position of a Healer… or a squire so you can clean all the armour till it's sparkling. Do they even have such positions for failures?
Better yet, you could become a Specialist. Now that makes me shiver with fear," Colton snickered, clearly enjoying this unresponsive version of Arthur more.
It wasn't like the prince to ignore him. Where were his witty comebacks?
"Are you actually anxious about the Sorting?" a short pause with no answer was all the answer the phoenix needed, "Oh my… The great Arthur Ember is afraid of the Sorting."
"Shut up or we'll miss the RuneTrain," the prince snapped, finally catching sight of the vehicle they were looking for at the Terminal.
The RuneTrain was a long streamlined vehicle covered in circles of runes that went around it in circles like the python's rib cage. The runes glowed amber when the vehicle was about to set off and a dull red when it was parked and then green when it was in motion.
Arthur didn't even want to guess how much mana was required to power such a vehicle.
"Hey, you two! Hurry up or you'll miss the Sorting. This is the last R-Train," a man dressed in a worker's navy blue uniform beckoned for the two boys to hurry.
Arthur hastened his pace and got in with his fellow phoenix. The inside of the RuneTrain was filled with numerous girls and boys that looked to be in the same age bracket as Arthur and Colton.
Some of them looked familiar to him from the human academy in Alcove. Most were new faces to him.
Arthur's assigned age was seventeen. He was a seventeen-year-old who, after going through the preliminary lessons for one year in the human school in Alcove, was now eligible to attend the prestigious school of supernaturals, Barthlorn.
This was Colton's backstory as well as every other person on this RuneTrain, except for the part where the phoenixes had faked their ages.
The humans in this train, unlike him, were using their real ages and weren't trying to hide some catastrophic secret about themselves.
At first glance, most of them were ordinary humans which were true for most of them. However, there were a few of them among the lot that was referred to as Specialists.
Humans who'd discovered and managed to excel at a certain skill so much that they were allowed to cultivate that skill and that alone.
Arthur walked through the RuneTrain and found a set of three seats with one empty.
'Look at me, a prince, taking the commoner's R-Train to the Sorting. Well, it could be worse. I could be seated in the back of Gray's Cadillac ignoring glares from the others,' Arthur tried to cheer himself up.
No matter how he tried to spin in, he had hoped he wouldn't have to get on one of these public transportation means again. Plenty of the time, he found the numbers overwhelming.
'So many humans,' he shuddered, walking up to the seat. As a habit, he took long to pay attention to the people around him, as though he still felt like he was among the phoenixes.
"Settle down and fasten your seatbelts. Make sure the Gravity Emulator is active before we set off," a voice blared through the speakers in the RuneTrain, startling the jumpy prince.
The white-haired boy took his seat, settling his nerves with a few deep breaths.
This wasn't Arthur's first time using a RuneTrain and so he reached over his shoulder and pulled the seatbelt down and into its harness. Embedded in the leather strap that held him firmly to his seat was a button with an intricate amber rune carved into it which he pressed.
This little device was the Gravity Emulator.
The rune did not light up as it should have. Arthur tried it a few more times and then stared at everyone else seated around them. Their buttons were glowing a decent hue… in perfect working condition.
While this wasn't his first time using a RuneTrain, it was his first time finding a faulty Gravity Emulator. Mistakes like these were unheard of… and for good reason too.
The prince pressed it again… and again… and again.
"Damn it," Arthur cursed.
Looking to his side, he noticed a silver-haired girl seated next to him reading a small 'book'. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary children's book with a few pages worth of information, but after seeing the runes set into its covers, the prince confirmed there was more to it than its size.
What's more, was that Arthur couldn't see a thing on the small book's page.
The book's holder was equally small and petite. Her features were flawless and she held herself with a slight air of dignity. The mysterious girl also wore glasses and couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.
The Gravity Emulator in her seatbelt was perfectly glowing as well and so were the others for everyone within the prince's line of sight.
"Hey, my…"
"Great! Now that everyone's strapped in, we'll get going. Feel free to enjoy the ride and take in the sights as we bring you to your destination. Next stop, the Sorting…"
"No, wait…" no one seemed to hear Arthur's pleas.
The RuneTrain rocked and swayed, floating freely in the air as its harness was removed. The doors closed and sealed tight and the air conditioning kicked in.
It was too late for Arthur now. Looking around, the prince found some solace in the fact that Colton wasn't seated in the same cabin as him.
'I wonder where he went off to.'
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