Chapter 2: Atmos
After a pure heaven of sleep, I woke up to find that Atmos was heatedly arguing with Malim. I wondered why...
"Why did you get here so late?" Malim said to Atmos, noticing that I was awake.
"What are you keeping from me?" I asked in response. No response. "Well?" I asked again, more emphatically then I should have. I woke up Palton, who rubbed his eyes and smiled, that sort of smile that you give when you just had the best sleep you've had. Or if you were trying very hard to suppress your anger.
Palton falls back down into the bowels of his sleeping bag.
Atmos looks at me indifferently. The guy sometimes creeps me out, even now! He wears a plain white robe, the only adornment being a fringe of silver along the robe. His features resembled that of a mannequin, that is to say, 'perfect in all ways possible.' He'd probably be married by now if he expressed emotion from time to time - not an understatement. That guy's like a Vulcan or something. His white-grey hair moved in the wind, one of the aspects that made you feel like something was going to happen that you wouldn't necessarily like. He stood and turned to face me.
"Sorry for my delayed arrival," Atmos said flatly.
"Psh. You're nev--Almost never sorry," Malim says, fumbling with his words. They were brothers, after all, and knew better than to use never to describe one another.
"A formality that I took to ensure the forgiveness of myself," Atmos said.
"Why, thank you very much," I said, rolling my eyes. Another thing about Atmos: He can't really detect sarcasm, unless it was obvious to the point of which the sarcasm's point was defeated.
Malim laughed and said, "So, I'm pretty sure you have no idea whatsoever--"
"I didn't know you had such a long word in your vocab, Malim," I say. This time, Atmos laughs, while Malim, who was caught up in the moment reciting his no doubt over-rehearsed tirade, looks at me with a mix of confusion and anger. He continued.
"Anyways, you're here because we have been chased and hunted down from day zero - That is to say, we need to be able to protect ourselves. Of course, we--meaning I--know how to protect myself. We will undergo a series of... tests, if you will, to evaluate our strength and such properties. I myself will be undergoing and conducting the tests. Once we are evaluated, we will be ranked in order of our 'points' and given a title respectively.
"For what? You may ask. Well, the main point of this is to find this elusive 'fear,' one that goes by the name of Ustalantus..."
At that point, there was a silence, ominous and vast, substantial enough to fill the quiet. I, myself, knew what Ustalantus was, but not many other people knew about it. I now serve him, in a way, as was Malim: A non-binding way. Malim and I were two of maybe the only people to know of him, asides from the fears themselves, and even they know relatively little about him.
"So... when do we start?" Palton says. All three of us jerk to look at Palton, sitting up. This might very well be the end of the world: Palton getting up... and staying up!
"Why did you get here so late?" Malim said to Atmos, noticing that I was awake.
"What are you keeping from me?" I asked in response. No response. "Well?" I asked again, more emphatically then I should have. I woke up Palton, who rubbed his eyes and smiled, that sort of smile that you give when you just had the best sleep you've had. Or if you were trying very hard to suppress your anger.
Palton falls back down into the bowels of his sleeping bag.
Atmos looks at me indifferently. The guy sometimes creeps me out, even now! He wears a plain white robe, the only adornment being a fringe of silver along the robe. His features resembled that of a mannequin, that is to say, 'perfect in all ways possible.' He'd probably be married by now if he expressed emotion from time to time - not an understatement. That guy's like a Vulcan or something. His white-grey hair moved in the wind, one of the aspects that made you feel like something was going to happen that you wouldn't necessarily like. He stood and turned to face me.
"Sorry for my delayed arrival," Atmos said flatly.
"Psh. You're nev--Almost never sorry," Malim says, fumbling with his words. They were brothers, after all, and knew better than to use never to describe one another.
"A formality that I took to ensure the forgiveness of myself," Atmos said.
"Why, thank you very much," I said, rolling my eyes. Another thing about Atmos: He can't really detect sarcasm, unless it was obvious to the point of which the sarcasm's point was defeated.
Malim laughed and said, "So, I'm pretty sure you have no idea whatsoever--"
"I didn't know you had such a long word in your vocab, Malim," I say. This time, Atmos laughs, while Malim, who was caught up in the moment reciting his no doubt over-rehearsed tirade, looks at me with a mix of confusion and anger. He continued.
"Anyways, you're here because we have been chased and hunted down from day zero - That is to say, we need to be able to protect ourselves. Of course, we--meaning I--know how to protect myself. We will undergo a series of... tests, if you will, to evaluate our strength and such properties. I myself will be undergoing and conducting the tests. Once we are evaluated, we will be ranked in order of our 'points' and given a title respectively.
"For what? You may ask. Well, the main point of this is to find this elusive 'fear,' one that goes by the name of Ustalantus..."
At that point, there was a silence, ominous and vast, substantial enough to fill the quiet. I, myself, knew what Ustalantus was, but not many other people knew about it. I now serve him, in a way, as was Malim: A non-binding way. Malim and I were two of maybe the only people to know of him, asides from the fears themselves, and even they know relatively little about him.
"So... when do we start?" Palton says. All three of us jerk to look at Palton, sitting up. This might very well be the end of the world: Palton getting up... and staying up!