Shifted

The young man looked down the cliff, at the wooded slope below him. In the soft pink glow of the predawn, the cool fog rising off the pine woods seemed to make the place look like a scene of fire and magic, the green trees towering up, some easily a hundred feet tall. The light reflected off the thin coating of frost, creating dazzling reddish hues among the deep green of the woods. From within the trees, the early morning calls of a wolf could be heard, along with the predawn chorus of birds. In the distance the call of an elk sounded.
The young man sighed, knowing what was coming. He longed to stay, to live in and explore this vision, this place, but yet he couldn't. For unfortunately as far as he could tell, it wasn't real. The young man stared, absorbing the sight, admiring the beauty as it began to fade. In his head, he heard the sound of a silly tune, what he knew was his phone's alarm, along with the beeping of his alarm clock. He silently cursed those devices, cursed them for pulling him, forcing him back to reality. As the scenery faded, he muttered to himself, "Mother, if you are real, and if there are truly such worlds, why do you keep me from exploring them. Why do you keep me from my heart's desire?" The scenery faded, and Keon cursed.
But as it all went black, he thought he heard a soft whisper of a female voice. "Because the time is not right for your adventure to begin my child." Keon started to try to respond, but then it all went black...........

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The twenty year old college student opened his eyes, cursing his alarm clock. He quickly shut the alarm off, killed the alarm on his phone, and looked at the time. It was eight in the morning, on October nineteenth. That brought a smile to the scrawny young man's lips. At least that was a reason to wake up. It was the day after midterms for his drilling program, which meant he finally got to leave Lindsay. He wasn't the biggest fan of his temporary college hometown. It wasn't the college or the students, or even the people in the town he didn't like. It was just that he hated being so far from his family, his friends, and his fiancée. But this morning was a happy day.

He quickly logged onto his laptop. Before he got to excited, he decided it was necessary to check his grades. He logged onto the Fleming College Student Portal, and opened his WebCT. Scanning over his grades, his smile grew, and he gave a little fist pump. Despite an iffy start to the semester, every class was at a grade above sixty five percent, even his Pump Systems class, which surprised Keon. He had, after all, failed the first two assignments, each worth ten percent of his final grade. He had only managed to get eight and a half of that possible twenty percent, four of the ten on the first, and four and a half of the ten on the second. He looked closer at the grades, and saw how. His lab marks added up to another fifteen percent of his grade for the semester, and so far, he was getting a perfect seven and a half out of seven and a half. Then he also had somehow managed to get ninety percent on his midterm. He laughed aloud to himself, and quickly logged off the system, and shut the laptop down, putting it in his backpack, with its charge cord, and all his other personal items he needed to bring for his week and a half off.

He quickly grabbed the faded, worn, bentonite splattered jeans off his floor, along with his belt, a pair of socks, and his latest Iron Maiden concert t-shirt. He chuckled as he picked up the shirt, seeing the giant zombie mascot of the band, Eddie the Head, in a redcoat uniform, riding a giant red eyed moose over Canadian city landscape, Canadian flag in hand. That concert had been one of the best times of his summer, which he'd spent in school fast tracking to get into third semester Drilling.

"Never gets old," he whispered to himself, as he looked at the shirt. For only being about three months old, it was already pretty well done in, a few holes here and there, stains of grease, or drilling oil. That was part of the territory of being a Driller and Blaster though. It was why he didn't buy new clothes often and never bought nice looking expensive ones. It wasn't worth it, he was just going to ruin them anyway, and fast to. He quickly moved out of his bedroom, touching the large Iron Maiden The Trooper poster he had on the door, winking at Eddie. He moved out into the hallway, through his small kitchen and to the bathroom. He closed and locked the door, out of habit more than anything, since he didn't have a roommate. Nor had Keon had a roommate in almost five months. His landlord, Bruce, had been trying to find one, but so far, no luck as far as Keon knew. Not that Keon minded it that way, he didn't mind living alone. To him it was basically the same as living with some person he didn't know.

He quickly turned on the fan and lights in the bathroom, and then turned on his shower. It wasn't that large, it was simply a stand in shower, but it did the job. A college kid couldn't be picky when he needed a place to stay. Besides, a standing only shower was a small price to pay to be only about five minutes walk from his campus. As the water got up to the steamy, near boiling temperature that Keon found comfortable, he quickly took off his boxers, and tossed them on top of the rest of his clothes he intended to wear. Because of how sweaty and dusty he could get during the course of his average school day, he normally changed underwear before bed, not in the mornings. He quickly got into the shower, and got to work washing his shaggy mess of dark brown hair. His hair was almost down to the bottom of his shoulder blades on his back, and his bangs, when flat and not the wild mess they normally were, would cover his eyes. It would have looked a little odd, but he had thin hair, so it worked, to some degree, and was also awesome for head-banging at a metal show, since it wouldn't get thick with sweat nearly as fast as someone with thick hair.

He was out of the shower in ten minutes, and he quickly got dressed. He pulled his shirt over his head, and looked in the mirror, laughing to himself at his mad hair. It was everywhere, sticking up, out, tangled and a mess. He gave a quick shake, getting a bit more water out, and then combed it down. Once flat, since it looked absurd, in Keon's opinion, when it was flat and clean, he shook his head violently a little bit. He looked in the mirror again, and was pleased at what he saw staring back at him.

He was maybe just approaching five foot eleven, and was a stick. Some people thought he was anorexic or bulimic, until they saw him eat that was. In truth it was just a mad metabolism that for some odd reason, unlike most peoples, was constantly in overdrive mood essentially. Whereas most people's metabolisms slowed down at certain parts of the day, like whilst they slept, according to doctor's at the hospital in Lindsay, his remained at the same high pace as during the day. Also his was a little over double the speed of most people's. Because of this, and the fact that he had a high natural energy level, he somehow, even with an unhealthy diet that almost completely ignored fruit, and fully ignored vegetables, managed to consistently weigh in at maybe a hundred and twenty pounds on a good day. A hundred and fifteen was his normal weight.

It wasn't that Keon didn't like a few fruits and vegetables, it was simply that he liked other things more, and other things were cheaper. He normally ate an apple and a few grapes every morning, but other than that no fruits or vegetables really ever went into his day by day diet. He saw no reason to change this, since as far as he could tell he suffered no ill health effects for his dietary choice. Since that was the case, and his normal grocery bill without such items was less than his peers, why bother?

His dark brown hair was wild, but looked pretty good, according to Katie and his friends anyway. Keon couldn't give less of a fuck how it looked, he just liked it because it felt right to him. On the back it was down to just touching his back, between his shoulder blades, and as it came around the sides of his head, it covered his ears almost entirely when he let it. In fact, the hair was actually almost an inch below the bottom of his ears, and then as it came around his face, his bangs were easily to the bottom of his eyes. But the hair was disorganized, in such a way you could just tell he was a metal head or a rocker, and that was how he liked it. He had a light tan, and his eyes were a dark pale green today, they seemed to change between that and a slightly softer, but sharper blue color at random. His nose was large, and not straight. You could see in both the size and the non-uniform shape that he had obviously broken it once or twice.

His face was clean shaven, and a little ragged. He didn't look older then he was or anything, but you could see that his former lifestyle, one of hard drugs and the battle to escape them, and his current lifestyle of school, work, and very little sleep, had and were taking their toll. It also didn't help his current situation to be so far from everyone he cared for, but it was part of the price to be paid for proper education. His bottom lip was obviously slightly deformed, some spots of scabbing and a few scarring that were obvious, from a very annoying infection he had suffered in May. He was corded for his size, obviously very little to almost no fat on him. He was strong enough for his tastes, not the strongest, but he could hold his own. It was his endurance, speed, quick thinking, and tenacity that had saved him time and again in his battle to be free of the darkness of his past, and those tools remained, as strong as ever.

With them now though, came a limiter. The last three years of his life, for the first time, he had finally found the meaning of caring about living, through his fiancée, Katie. Keon let her think he'd found his sense of self preservation after a talk they'd had a year and a couple months before, over something that was absurdly risky to his health that he had done. He couldn't for the life of him remember what it had been now, but it had led to a talk where she had honestly asked Keon if he even wanted to live, if he even had any sense of self-preservation. But in reality, he'd found no such thing, because you couldn't find what had never really existed. Since when Keon could remember, he'd had no self preservation instinct, no true fear of death.

He didn't want to die, obviously, although there had been a time in his life where death had seemed quite inviting, that time had passed almost three and a half years ago. It was just Keon couldn't bring himself to be even slightly afraid of the concept of dying. Whilst he held a healthy respect for the possible negative consequences to such an action, he was honestly to curious about what truly happens after death to be afraid of it. His only reservation he could find to use that would appease the issue at the time, and to this day, was that he didn't want to hurt Katie, and him dying would definitely do that. So that was his motivation, the way he kept himself out of stupid situations. It wasn't full proof, but it worked.

Keon quickly spun, turning off the lights. Towel in hand, he moved quickly back to his bedroom, checking the time. It was eight twenty now, meaning he had just under an hour, plenty of time. He quickly tossed the towel with the rest of his laundry that he intended to get his mom to do, then he grabbed his MP3 player, and put the earbuds in, turning it on and closing his eyes, selecting a random song to start his day from, since last night he had listened to the last song on the playlist. It was time to start the shuffle again, from a different tune. As with every song on his MP3 there was about a five to ten second delay, a little section of silence at the beginning. He quickly grabbed his knife, and moved out into the hallway, to the counter in his kitchen.

Keon got his last apple out of the glass bowl on his counter, and quickly turned around, as the music started. As the tune started, he smiled darkly, getting a sinister and an almost evil or insane look on his face, eyes wide. As the heavy guitar and drum intro started, Keon just started singing along, jumping around and letting a small fraction of his almost constant pent up metal head energy out in his small kitchen. Out of the earbuds came the song 'Voices' by Disturbed, one of Keon's favorite songs from that particular band. Whilst the song took over him a little bit, he flicked open his three and a half inch Gerber knife and set to work quickly.

He quickly got a plate out of the cupboard above his sink, and turned around, placing it on the counter beside the apple. He then sliced the apple in four, and then cored each piece. Some days he would have also peeled it, but this morning he decided not to. He found it tasted different without the peel, so it was always a question of what he was in the mood for that morning. He also went into his fridge, and quickly got the last thirty or so grapes from the bag they were in. He tossed the bag in the garbage, and quickly used his sink's faucet to wash off the grapes. He put them on the plate, and then put the four slices of apples, and quickly reached up and got a glass from his cupboard by his fridge. He moved off to his bedroom, plate in hand. As he did, the next song came on, and he smiled at the unexpected, but pleasing, change of pace. From Voices, the shuffle function of his MP3 had selected next a bit of a softer and slower tune, a song called 'A Rose for Epona', by Keon's second favorite band Eluveitie.

This song he didn't sing along with, for two reasons. One was out of respect for what it represented, the history it was trying to teach. The other more practical reason was out of awareness that he was a male, and Anna Murphy, the vocalist for this particular Eluveitie song and a select few others, and their hurdy-gurdy player for most other works, was female. So his voice was about an octave lower in pitch, at the minimum, which meant he sounded absolutely ridiculous trying to sing this song. He knew because he'd tried in the past. So Keon just decided to eat in peace, as he enjoyed the music.

He went about the rest of his routine for mornings, polishing off two bowls of cereal, a slice of toast with peanut butter, a glass of apple juice, and five slices of bacon, which had been the last of his food. After eating, he quickly brushed his teeth, and added his toothbrush and toothpaste to the pocket of his backpack with the other personal items he had packed. He then swept his apartment one last time, to insure he had everything he needed packed. When he finished, and was satisfied he had indeed packed everything, he took it all out, through the door that led to the garage, and out the side door that was his entrance to the house. Then he came back in, and locked his bedroom, shut off the light in the kitchen, and moved into the garage, locking the door into the apartment. Finally Keon stepped out the side door, and locked it to.

He looked up at the sky, and around him. It was chilly outside, but not cold enough for a sweater, so Keon just had his grey windbreaker on. He took a deep breath, enjoying the cool crisp air. He would miss the heat and sun of summer, he knew, but there was a serenity, and a beauty in the coming of winter as well. Keon just had a physical preference for the heat, but he honestly loved either extreme. In fact, he found this in between weather the most annoying. The way he looked at it, he'd rather it be extremely hot or extremely cold. It was just how he was. His friends and family found it strange, but then again, Keon was overall a strange person. Besides that, in truth, that was one of his less strange qualities.

He shook himself out of his glazed state, and reached into his pocket for his phone. He pulled the old black Samsung brick out, and as he opened his phone he nodded, noting that it was nine on the dot. Satisfied with his speed so far, he dialed the taxi service in town. As Keon waited for his phone to connect he silently congratulated himself on excellent grocery management. He'd timed and kept his consumption of food in check very well, and managed to time it so he was leaving for ten days with no lost food, nothing that would go bad was left in the apartment. The phone connected, and rang once, and then a female voice answered pleasantly. "Hello, New Guy's Taxi, how can we help you today?"

Keon responded, his voice still a little growl-like from singing along with Voices and other metal that had come on his MP3. "I need a cab at forty-eight McGibbon Boulevard, going to the Lindsay Inn please."

The female voice responded pleasantly, "Alright, no problem, one of our drivers will be there in about fifteen minutes. Catching the Can-Ar, are we?"

Keon smiled, and responded, "Yeah, going down to Toronto, then after the weekend, going up to Orangeville."

The woman spoke again, "Ahhh, a college student I assume? Going on a bit of a vacation for reading week are we?"

Keon smiled all the wider, and decided to answer that with the honesty he preferred to use. "Nope, not a vacation. A vacation implies you are away from home. I won't be away from home. I'm going home." Keon quickly was bored and no longer interested in talking to some woman he didn't know, so he quickly added, "Anyway, thank-you, have a good day."

The woman stopped trying to ask what she was about to next and took the hint, "Yeah, you to, have fun on your week off." The phone line went dead, and as Keon heard a very familiar voice coming out of his headphones, doing a very familiar count in, he laughed, and smiled, excited.

He was going to have a lot of fun, the first real fun he'd had in a couple months. Sweet freedom, and the awesome feeling of being with friends and family. As Bruce Dickinson's voice started counting in, Keon started singing along, smiling and laughing. The song that had come on seemed so appropriate for his plans for those next ten days. "One, two, three, four. Can I play with madness!!!!" As the song started, Keon kept singing along happily, thinking about how awesome the next ten days were going to be.

As he thought about it though, at the back of his mind, a thought, a question, an idea was forming from his dreams as of late. All the same, and always that female voice at the end, only in his mind. There was something he wasn't seeing and his subconscious mind was tackling the problem head on, quickly whipping through facts, trying to sort things out, make sense of these dreams. But Keon's conscious mind wasn't bothered with such things, it was another strange talent of his, but only when he had music playing, or was with people he loved and cared about, could he manage to do it.

He quickly opened the phone again, as it vibrated in his pocket, and played a little bell tune, signalling a received text message. He opened it and saw he had two, one from Aunt Christina and one from his cousin Melissa. He opened the one from his aunt, and smiled, the hard look going out of his eyes. "Hey Keon, all of us just wanted to say good morning, and wanted to let you know we got your message last night about when you were going to get here. Jayson is so excited, he keeps asking me like every two minutes, 'is Key here yet?' lol. So how'd your midterms go, do you know yet? Anyway, I'll see you at the Town Centre at noon, have a safe trip! Love from the whole family <3"

Keon quickly chuckled at the little guy's terrible pronunciation of his name. Jayson was literally almost three years old, and somehow Keon had managed to make an awesome impression at the end of August when he'd been up. Most small children found the long haired young man with strange monsters and almost vicious looking letters on his shirt scary. But Jayson hadn't really noticed, other than to ask Keon a few times 'who dis' whilst pointing at the Eddie on the shirt.

Keon just shook his head, and started typing a response. "Good morning to you to Aunt Christina. And, thanks for letting me know. Hehe, tell the little man I'll be there after lunch, with a surprise for him. And midterms went awesome, didn't even get less then seventy on any of them, and my lowest mark is Pump Systems, the class I thought I was going to be failing. Somehow I managed to pull a ninety on the midterm, so I'm at a sixty five for the semester so far. Anyway, love you guys, see you soon! <3" He clicked the send button, and then opened the one from Melissa.

Melissa was probably the person in his family he was closest to, oddly enough. They were simply cousins, but as kids, she'd been his best friend. Then when Keon had been about eleven, some stuff had happened with Melissa's dad, Mikita. Mikita was the biological relative to Keon out of Melissa's parents, he was Keon's father's brother. Mikita had gotten into some deep shit with drugs and other such things. These circumstances caused Mikita and Christina to split, and Christina and Keon's cousins Melissa and Kyle to get out, leaving a lot behind, including contact info for most people they knew from Mikita's side of the family.

For almost ten years, Keon didn't know where they were, and for a while, because of his own drug problem, he purposely forgot who they were. He had shoved aside all family he reasonably could, to try and avoid pulling them into the mess he'd created. But when he'd gotten clean, he had actually forgotten them all, except Melissa. He knew there was a best friend, a family member he had been closer to when he was a child then anyone, and he remembered her name. But Keon couldn't recall which side of his family she had been on, or who's daughter she was. Keon had thought about asking his mom and dad for help, but had been to scared, for if they had figured out he'd been an addict, he thought they might try and send him to rehab. So he let it stew, and left that gap in his heart and mind.

But then one day, out of the blue, he'd found her again. He couldn't remember exactly what had happened, but it was just after he'd proposed to Katie at the end of April just past. Somehow, their Facebook accounts had ended up being recommended friends to each other, and Keon saw it was a girl, named Melissa, with his last name. Her age was right, and suddenly the facts came back to him. He truly wasn't sure if he was that lucky, but had become her Facebook friend.

Amazingly, what do you know, it was his cousin, and childhood best friend, almost ten years later. He was ecstatic, but out of common sanity, he didn't just overwhelmingly throw everything at her, because that would have been awkward. They'd simply talked a little bit on Facebook casually, and through her Keon had also added his Aunt Christina's and cousin Kyle's account. The turning point in the whole thing had come near the end of August. They'd started texting each other, mainly cause neither of them were on Facebook that much, but they always had their phones. They had started to get to know each other again, throwing questions back and forth. Then one Thursday evening, after working a long day with his father, Keon got tired of texting, cause his phone was one of the older three letters per key phones. So he'd called her. And they had talked for close to two hours, as if no time had passed really.

That was probably tied for the second most awesome moment of Keon's summer with his amazing outing with Theodore Bricker, his adoptee older brother, when they'd gone to see Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden in Toronto in July. The best, was obviously when Katie said yes when he'd popped the question. But this phone conversation, and moreso the realization after it, had definitely been an awesome moment. He'd seen that part of his family once since, at the end of August, to conclude a perfect birthday week.

Then he'd come back to Lindsay, and reality had smacked him around like a bitch. Keon had spent the first three weeks of the semester scrambling, working and then doing homework until two or three in the morning, getting up at six, school from eight until two or three, and back to work by five or six in the evening. All to try and equalize the credit card he'd maxed to help his father. Then, his MP3 player had been stolen at his workplace, so he'd blown a hundred on getting a new one. Which had also led to at least a hundred and fifty hours getting the thousand or so tracks, including some two hour live performances, back from the internet. Keon used a recording program for most of his music, simply because he couldn't afford to pay for it. He intended to, out of respect for the bands, at some point buy it directly from their websites. But at this time in his life, he just couldn't afford to.

His dad had managed to throw some money his way, but was still short almost six hundred dollars from what he'd owed his son. Keon had managed to equalize it though. His grades had suffered a little bit, but he'd survived and was now in good shape financially and academically. He'd managed to come to a balance of zero on his credit card, and had almost two hundred dollars in his bank account.

Keon quickly looked at the text from his cousin, and saw that it was simply telling him she was gone to work, and would see him at about four in the afternoon, and that she was excited to see him again. Keon smiled, and messaged her back, knowing she wouldn't see it until about noon on her lunch break, "Me too, I'm so excited, missed all you guys. It's going to be a fun weekend, and a great week. You still good to come up to Shelburne with me, I would assume?" he typed, asking her about the plans they'd made to let her escape the city for a while. This would also let her see Keon's parents, her aunt and uncle, again, so she'd been very excited about the plan. So he of course wanted to insure it was still on. He quickly added a heart, and told her to have a good day, and clicked send. Then he closed his phone and pocketed it.

As he stood there, waiting for the cab, he let the dreams and the strangeness of them enter his consciousness for a bit, rolling around what he knew. They were almost always the same, a young man, although he didn't feel totally human, admiring scenery. Occasionally he felt like he was the same person, but physically was in the form of a mountain lion. Sometimes he could sense the presence of that person's family just outside his line of sight. He knew that the person he was seeing all this as was effectively himself, but at the same time, it wasn't. Keon did truly believe in other realities, other worlds, but he didn't think they could be perceived. He was a Druid, he just simply believed in many realities. The whole idea was when you died, after a set amount of time, you'd get to be 'born' as someone and in some cases, a different race or species of humanoid as well, in a different world. Fantasy fiction novels, whilst absurd in some ways, didn't seem completely unrealistic, setting wise, when you thought about such an idea. If it was real, after all, who says the limitations of such things?

Keon thought the dreams, on some level, were real. The reason for this was as he was waking up, so therefore regaining conscious thought, he would hear a female voice in his mind. Every time, it was the same voice, with roughly the same message, "It is not the time for your adventure to begin, my child." Keon would have wrote it off as the effect of the dreams, but sometimes he wouldn't hear that in his head until he was back in this reality, shutting off his alarm clock, and phone alarm. So he found himself thinking that there had to be more to it than just dreams.

Suddenly he was pulled out of his contemplation by a car horn, and he realized that his cab was here. He snapped back to reality, shoving the dreams back into his subconscious. He quickly loaded his stuff in the cab, and smiled as the driver started driving. Again his MP3 seemed to just randomly select perfect music for his mood, as a song called 'Wildest Dreams' by Iron Maiden started playing. It was going to be a great ten days, filled with family, friends and fun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The cab pulled away, as Keon thanked the driver again. He'd paid the man fifteen dollars for the eight dollar and fifty seven cent fare, telling the man not to worry about the change. Keon checked the time on his phone, chuckling as his MP3 player started playing something a little silly. The song was called 'Three Kings' it was by a trio of gamers, who made songs based on champions from a game Keon and many of his friends played called League of Legends. This particular song was about three champions, each considered royalty according to the game's lore. Wukong the monkey king, Tryndamere the barbarian king, and Jarvan IV the crowned prince of Demacia, a nation from the game's lore. Keon found the song funny, and also liked it because he played two of the champs in it, Wukong and Jarvan, semi regularly.

The time was nine thirty, and he quickly pocketed the phone. As was his custom, he quickly scanned his surroundings, taking note of the structure and people near him. The inn itself wasn't very big, it was three buildings, in a U-shape, each only one floor, except for about half of the building in front of Keon. That half had two floors, to accommodate the lobby and other such common use functions. It was designed more like a large multi building motel, then an actually inn. It also wasn't the busiest place in the world, in fact if Keon had to guess, they probably saw as many people every day just coming to take the Can-Ar, as they did people who were staying or coming to stay at the inn. He scanned the few people around him. There were a couple business looking types smoking, obviously waiting for the bus. Further back, but also waiting for the bus, was a young college couple cuddling. To the right of them an older woman was sitting in a car, looking at papers with a briefcase open beside her. Nothing out of the ordinary, as Keon finished the scan.

But suddenly something registered in his mind, and he did a really fast double take to a large tree that was on the island in the parking lot. In front of it was a strange looking woman. She was beautiful no matter who's standard you went by, thick, silky, wavy black hair down a fair bit past her shoulders, a full shape, full amazing looking lips, a light tan. Her eyes were of piercing beauty, but also strange as well. The right one was a bright, almost emerald green. The left was just as vibrant, a deep sapphire blue. She was probably an inch or two shorter then Keon himself. But although she was undeniably attractive, that wasn't what had caught Keon's eye.

No what had caught his eye was sheer curiousity, because he didn't understand why more people weren't staring at her. She was wearing a dusty brown travelling cloak, like something out of one of Keon's favorite fantasy stories, with beautiful green and silver vines and leaves in intricate patterns winding all around it. He was entranced not by her beauty, although he had to admit, other than his fiancée, and perhaps his cousin, this was probably the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. No what had him completely left in bewilderment was that none of the other six or so people weren't staring at her, or pointing at her funny, because despite how beautiful she was, she just didn't fit in. She honestly looked like she belonged in a fantasy about elves and forests of magic somewhere, instead of real life. He moved towards her, but after only two steps, she smiled at him, and he heard a voice in his head, a beautiful female voice. It sounded almost like a perfect melody of the wind. "Not quite yet my child, go about your business."

At that same moment, she tipped her head a bit to the right, smiled, and waved. Then she was gone. No noise, no lights, no trace. She was just gone. Keon quickly shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and quickly prioritized his needs. He moved into the lobby, and looked at the receptionist. She was a middle aged blonde woman, with glasses and a friendly smile. That smile faded a tiny bit as she saw what was looking at her. A scrawny, long haired, twenty year old metal head, with an absurd band t-shirt. But she was pleasant enough, so Keon behaved himself.

"How are you doing today, young man? Is there something I can help you with this morning?" she asked, still smiling.

Keon nodded, "I'm doing great thanks, excited for my week off from college. And yes, indeed there is, could I get a ticket for the Can-Ar, from here to Scarborough town centre please?" As he asked, he pulled out his Fleming College Student ID card, and laid it in front of the woman, adding, "As a student, obviously. So how are you this morning?"

She nodded politely, and started filling out the ticket, whilst talking. "I'm doing good thank-you." she said. As she finished with the ticket, she looked up at Keon, "That'll be thirty-three dollars and fifty cents please."

Keon nodded, and took out his debit card. "Debit please." he said.

The woman nodded, and handed him the unit. "Insert your card and follow the instructions on the screen." Keon nodded, and quickly paid and retrieved his cards and ticket. He thanked the lady and turned to walk out. He looked out the window, and at the clock above the reception desk. It was still only nine forty, so he had a few minutes. He went to the bathroom, and as the door closed behind him, he dropped his bags on the counter of the sink, and moved to a urinal. As he did, he heard a strange whistling of air, and the slight sound of bells. He felt something lightly brush across the back of his jeans, and heard a female voice laughing softly.

He quickly finished, and turned around, looking around for someone. "Hello!" he called, moving to the doors of the two stalls in the bathroom. "Anyone here?" he asked, as he quietly drew and opened his knife. He opened the first stall quickly, but no one was inside. He moved to the other one, and quickly opened it as well, but again it was empty. Confused, he moved to the sink, grabbing his bags.

As he went to however, he realized two things at once. The first was that there was a small folded piece of paper on his backpack, sealed with a wax seal, green, with an imprint of the tree of life and death. Keon sucked in his breath a little, for that seal was a druidic symbol, and a very important one. The second thing he noticed was that he felt something in the left back pocket of his jeans.

He stared for a couple minutes, contemplating just pulling whatever was in his pocket out, and opening the note and trying to make sense of it all right then. But he decided against it, for he had a bus to catch. He quickly shoved the piece of paper in his pocket with his wallet, and looked around one last time. Then he left the restroom, and saw that outside, the Can-Ar had just pulled in. He opened the door of the lobby, ran outside and got onboard. He moved fast, and didn't notice the strange woman in the robe had been to his left in the hallway, by the stairwell leading to the second floor. She smiled, and whispered, "Now my child, if you remember, you're adventure can begin. The power is yours." She then just disappeared, without a trace.

Outside, Keon turned back again. He'd thought he'd heard a woman's voice, the same he'd heard in his dreams and this morning, both out loud and in his head. But the thrumming of the bus's large engine made him unable to sort out what he'd heard, if indeed he'd heard anything. For all he knew, he might just be going crazy. So he shook his head, and after tossing his large yellow laundry bag into the bus's cargo hold, he boarded the coach bus. As he did so, however, he patted his pocket, reminding himself of the paper, and also touched his back pocket, feeling what felt like a bag of four or five small round objects. It was a slight reminder that he wasn't going insane, necessarily. There was definitely something strange going on.

He took his seat, and waited for the drive to begin, resisting the urge to start trying to decipher whatever was in his pockets, because reading whilst travelling by car made him stomach sick. So he just put in both earbuds, and turned the music up to about half the max volume of the MP3 player, as the bus pulled out of the inn's parking lot and onto the road. As they got on the road, Keon chuckled at what started playing from his MP3, a wonderful song about friendship and family called 'The Gang's All Here' by the Dropkick Murphys. As the bus turned onto the road, he started humming along to the upbeat tune.

As the Lindsay Inn, and Lindsay itself started to disappear behind them, Keon relaxed and smiled, his mind going to the fun and excitement that would be the week and a half to come. Loads of fun with friends, family, and the people he loved. It was going to be a wonderful return home.