Shifted

As the bus pulled into the Scarborough town centre, Keon heard the sound of clapping hands, and smiled, as a drum beat he knew came along with it. A recent musical addition to his MP3, this particular track was the full hour and a half performance by the Dropkick Murphys at the Area Four festival. As he stepped off the coach bus, and moved to the cargo compartment, he started singing along, drawing many stares. He didn't care however, since he was almost oblivious to what was going on around him.

"Hang 'em high. Hang 'em high. Hang 'em high. Hang 'em high, yeah!!!" he sang, winking at the bus driver who was looking at him oddly.

He moved into the small structure, and up the stairs into the actual town center itself. The whole thing was designed rather like a maze, in Keon's opinion. He smiled however, reminding himself that he was from a small town, and this was the biggest city in Ontario. His smile dimmed slightly at that thought, as he checked his trio of knives. He could probably get arrested if a cop ever searched him, but his paranoia demanded he be armed, especially in such crowded places. He had his Gerber work knife, of course. But to go with it, he had, hidden in his pocket, a legitimate throwing knife, as well as his new Mossy Oak orange handled knife belted to his hip. The blade of that one was about three and a quarter inches of black carbonized steel, single edged, rather well designed for cutting. The bright orange handle, was of course hidden under the bottom edge of his shirt.

Keon moved through the town center, stopping to grab a slice of pizza. He sat down to eat, and as he did so, he first pulled out his phone to check the time. When he opened it, he saw he had a new text message from his Aunt Christina. He quickly scanned it, and smiled. She was going to be a little late, she probably wouldn't get there until about half past noon. Keon quickly told her it was all good, and checked the time. The bus had made better time than normal, it was only about fifteen minutes to noon. Keon closed his phone, and settled his mind on the next item of things to do whilst he ate.

He pulled the folded paper carefully out of his pocket, giving it a proper look over whilst he ate. The wax seal truly caught his eye, for no one Keon was friends with knew that symbol or how to do such a thing in wax. It could only be done with a ring, one of probably a couple hundred in the world. It was a perfect fit to everything Keon knew of the legitimate symbol. Of course knockoffs existed, but the real one was easy to tell if you knew how it was supposed to look. This one checked out, everything from the number of leaves, to the number of dead branches, even to the orientation. So if it wasn't one of the legitimate rings made almost two hundred years ago, then it was the best impression he'd ever seen in his life. Keon took a deep breath, another bite of pizza, and chewed thoughtfully.

He'd never actually met someone with one of the druid rings, although he knew from the internet that as of last year, there were about sixteen of them in Canada, owned by various people whose names he hadn't known or recognized. He was willing to bet his life that none of them would have had any inkling who he was, or much less be trying to talk to him in any way. As he chewed thoughtfully, after a few moments contemplation, Keon came to a sudden conclusion. He quickly, in public, drawing quite a few stares, pulled his orange handled knife, and peeled the wax seal off. He sheathed it, and opened the piece of paper.

Keon smiled as he did so, because he quickly glanced around and saw no sign of anyone over reacting and contacting the police, although some were looking at him oddly. He simply smiled disarmingly and winked, mouthing the words, "Just my letter opener, don't worry" to them. He finished unfolding the piece of paper and laid it in front of him. It was a little larger then a simply 8x11 sheet, and was a slight brownish-yellow, almost like old parchment-paper. He smelled it, and a thick scent of pine woods and fire roasted meat attacked his senses. He thought that odd, and looked at it closely, reading it.

"What if I told you, my smart young friend, that what you write about is real? If Tariek wasn't just a place you made up, but a real place that I take you to so you can dream, can be inspired? What if I told you I, your Mother, your Goddess, was real? What if I told you that you can have your adventure, in a different culture, a different time, a different world even? What if I told you that I've found the four who would go with you? And what if I told you five that you can have your epic tale, your amazing adventure, and be back on this world the same day? You can live decades, centuries even, as someone else in a different world, and have that life of adventure, without the full risk. If you were to die, you'd just return here.

Would you do it? If you would, then simply open the small bag in your back pocket, and see which of your circle of family that just may be of like mind. The tokens and this paper are all you need. If you would leave this reality for a while, and learn and see that there is more than you ever thought there could be, then keep this paper until your Samhain celebration you have planned for the eve of the 23rd of this month. I know you cannot be with your family on the actual days of harvest celebration, of Samhain, so the eve of your chosen day will do. Its close enough to the night of power to make this work. The choice is yours, all that must be done is the five people named sign this paper in black ink, laced with monkshood root, to link the souls to this world properly, and insure they each have their corresponding token that night. You'll find a bottle and a quill of it in the small pouch of your travelling bag." Upon reading that, Keon wrenched his eyes off the flowery script quickly, and opened it up, peaking inside. His jaw dropped, for there was the bottle of black ink, and a large raven feather quill to boot.

He stared for a few moments, trying to absorb it all. His head spinning, he quickly closed his backpack, and continued reading. "Five signatures by midnight of your Samhain celebration, and then the way to your story, your epic fantasy, your honest adventure will be made clear. Much faith, and may you always find peace and serenity in the arms of the trees." He then read the signature, and had to read it almost five times before it sank in. "May the woods always welcome you home, young druid. Eternal Love, Mother"

Keon was dumbstruck, completely mind baffled, as he remembered the woman he'd seen. The voices he'd been hearing in his head. Everything seemed to be stacking up, but at the same time, it honestly seemed to unreasonably amazing to be true. Could he honestly be that lucky, could this truly be what it seemed? Keon re read the whole note again, then folded it carefully and put it back in his pocket. Hands shaking, he checked the time. It was ten after twelve, he hadn't realized how long he'd been staring at that note. He quickly shook himself and without allowing himself to think, he pulled out the small bag of round objects from his back pocket. He could see that they were indeed almost coins of some kind, they looked to be made of burnished steel. They were to large in diameter to be quarters, but slightly smaller than a loony as well. Also, they were almost half an inch thick, and completely smooth edged. He looked at the first one he picked up, and gasped at what he saw, dropping it in shock.

It almost bounced off the table, but Keon caught it, and as he did, sighed a deep sigh of relief. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once he'd calmed his excitement and confusion, he looked at the token, for that was what he guessed they were, again. On the side he was looking at was stamped a very detailed, and perfect likeness of his cousin Melissa's face. He flipped it, and saw her name was around the edge of the other side. In the middle, again the symbol of Keon's faith showed itself, the tree of life and death, it looked exactly like it did on the wax seal, down to a single leaf. Whoever had done the seal had obviously been involved in making these tokens.

Keon stared in amazement at the perfect likeness of his cousin's face, right down to her bright happy smile. It was quite an amazing thing, if not a little creepy. Keon honestly couldn't figure out who he knew that could have such an intimate knowledge of his belief system, and know in this much detail what his cousin looked like. Those two groups of people had yet to start meshing, after all, he and Melissa had only just started to reconnect over the past few months and between work and school, their only physical meeting had come in Toronto, surrounded by what Melissa knew and where Keon was a guest. None of Keon's family, nor indeed none of his 'family', had met his childhood best friend. That awesome party, for it would be a party since Melissa didn't really know how to let loose the way Keon did. He wanted to show his cousin how fun the laid back 'small town' mentality could be, but that needed a proper environment. But that awesome party wasn't for another three days, on the night of the twenty-third of October.

The more Keon thought about it, as he quickly checked the rest of the tokens, the more this seemed like it had to be legitimate. The other four were his fiancée, Katie, his older brother Theodore, or Ted as he preferred to be called, Ted's younger brother Ben, and of course, Keon himself. Surprisingly, as Keon inspected each one, he saw the expressions depicted invoked certain memories, each very personal and intimate on its own level.

Katie's face was a perfect image of the sexy, playfully bossy look she got all the time when she was about to pull him in by his shirt collar to kiss him. That look invoked many powerful feelings that Keon enjoyed, but at this moment would prove terribly distracting, so he looked at the next one quickly. The expression depicted on the likeness of Ted instantly brought Keon back to the darkest recesses of private discussions, talking about the truth of the world, the dark twisted undersides, and how such darkness could be used to create light and strength. It was Ted's look of contemplation, intense thought and scrutiny. Just looking at it, he could almost hear his big brother's brain working overtime on some topic. Keon again quickly looked to the next token. This one depicted Ben, and the look on his face was one Keon was all too familiar with.

The token depicted Ben has he had been, for a while ago he had shaved his head. His hair had been a light brown mess, very long, almost to the center of his back. The facial expression brought Keon back to all the debates and silly arguments he'd had with his little brother. It was a cocky half smile, confident to the point of excess. Keon shook his head, chuckling, because as the thought crossed his mind, he realized it may not have been an excessive amount of confidence at all. From all Keon's memories, he'd never seen Ben adopt that expression only to be proven wrong. So maybe that confidence in himself was well placed, for the only times he ever seemed to get that confident, it was undeniable he was right. That look was basically Ben's victory smile. The last one, his own, had his satisfied, almost lazy, expression of happiness, eyes half closed, a smile playing on his lips but not being quite there. This expression again was one that tried to take his mind to thoughts of Katie, private thoughts, memories which were intimate and the couple's alone. But again, those avenues of thinking would be more distracting then anything, so he simply flipped the token, and quickly pushed his mind onwards, locking off that path of thought.

Keon quickly flipped each of the tokens, and saw that the back of them were not all the same. Whilst each person's name was around the outside edge of the back, just like Melissa's, none of these four had the tree of life and death on the back. He looked at each closely, trying to see if he recognized any of them. Katie's he did not, but it was a simply a hand with fire coming off it. He stared at it for a minute or two, then shook his head, and put it back in the small bag with Melissa's. He then turned to Ted's. This symbol, though he didn't recognize, seemed obvious enough. It was simply a clenched fist, with some kind of what looked to be plates over the fingers. Keon thought about what he knew about Tariek, about this imaginary world he had created, and he couldn't honestly think of anything. If it was a real place and he was seeing glimpses of in his dreams, that was one symbol he didn't know yet. So he shrugged and replaced that token in the little bag as well.

He looked at Ben's, trying to figure out the symbol. It was four leaved clover, with a horseshoe inside it. Around the outside of the image were a trio of six sided dice, each showing the number seven. After a little bit of poking through his memories, he found it, and smiled. The symbol was of the halfling deity of luck, gambling, music, and thieves Reges Quickhand. When Keon thought about it, that definitely seemed a perfect fit for Ben, given the history he knew of him. Slightly satisfied with himself for solving at least one, he tossed Ben's token into the little sack with the rest, and glanced at his, not really intending to look to much at the symbol. But he stopped and did a double take, and gulped. His was a symbol he knew too well, for he'd designed it. A wolf's head, growling, with a liquid which Keon knew to be blood dripping from its fangs. The symbol of the hunter, Boran Bloodhound. More commonly known as the deity of vengeance or wrath, and justice. The deity of bounty hunters, of predators of men. Keon felt a chill of both excitement and fear tingle down his neck and spine.

Keon didn't know what to do with that, so he simply did his best to shake it off, and quickly put the token in with the rest. Keon felt his phone go off, and knew it would be his aunt without looking at the time. He quickly shook himself, clearing his mind, pushing all this startling information to his sub-conscious, and locking it in there for the time being. For the first time in a while, however, it took him more than one attempt to achieve this goal. When he managed to do, after almost three minutes of trying, he breathed a deep sigh of relief, and picked up his backpack, slinging it onto one shoulder. He pocketed the bag of tokens and the folded note, and quickly flicked open his phone. His aunt was waiting for him parked right beside the bridge by the small drill rig and site that was set up. He smiled, and quickly thanked her for parking near something so easy for him to find, and then closed his phone.

He moved fast, but as he went to walk out the door, quickly paused, for out of the corner of his eye he thought he'd seen....He shook his head violently again. "No, not right now, I'll deal with you later." he muttered as he moved through the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A woman in a brown robe, with intricately embroidered vines and leaves of a deep green and full vibrant silver, Hood up, she smiled, her green and blue eyes each twinkling mischievously. "All right young druid, take your time. But please try to remember you do have a deadline. Even deities don't have infinite time to wait." There was a slight whisper of a breeze, even though at that moment no doors were open, and then the woman was gone.

But all around the mall, no one had noticed her sudden disappearance. Indeed, no one had seemed to notice her at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Keon moved through the parking lot, he quickly scanned around, looking for the drill his Aunt Christina had been talking about. After a couple looks around, he caught site of it. He quickly made a beeline towards it. He looked at the rig, and realized it was a horizontal directional rig. Keon was curious exactly what they were installing, but it was his time off, so he had better things to do then go and find out. He moved into that parking lot, and very soon saw his Aunt Christina's van. He was very excited, as he saw his aunt looking around. "Aunt Christina! Hey, I'm here!" he yelled, smiling, as he moved quickly to the side of the van.

His aunt was a little shorter then he was, and Keon found himself reminded that he was indeed oddly tall for his hometown. He had forgotten since going to college, because in his program, Keon was actually a little below average height. His aunt was in her late thirties, or early forties. Keon's memory with ages, along with most things, was fucking terrible, so he couldn't remember a number. She was still in her Canada Post uniform, obviously having just go off work. She had blond-brown hair, and hazel eyes, with a slightly deep complexion. She smiled as she saw her nephew. He came up to the side of the van, dropping his yellow laundry bag, and gave his aunt a big hug. "How are you Aunt Christina?" Keon asked, "How was work?"

Christina smiled, "I'm doing pretty good, work was alright, but it's nice to be done. It's good to see you again, and was good to hear you managed to get through midterms so well. I hope your trip here went smoothly."

Keon smiled, and without batting an eyelash, straight faced lied to his aunt. "Yeah it was pretty much uneventful, a simple bus ride." As he said that, he inconspicuously let his hands touch his pockets where he had the letter and the tokens. He looked at his aunt, and gestured to the van. "Well, is there someone else we're waiting for?"

Christina looked at Keon and smiled. "Nope, put your bags in the back, and we can get going."

Keon nodded, and quickly opened the sliding door. He tossed his laundry bag nonchalantly in the back, and then much more carefully placed his backpack inside as well. He closed the door and moved around the front of the van to the passenger side, hopping into the seat beside his aunt.

As they pulled out, Keon thought about the letter. It had been rather specific in what needed to be done, and he intended to do it. The more he thought about it, about the whole thing, the more he realized that there was no reason not to give it a shot. After all the worst that would happen was that the whole situation would just prove to be a big waste of time. As they drove along the streets, towards Aunt Christina's house, Keon silently decided he'd would do as the letter said. There was no point in not trying, and every reason to try, after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A woman smiled, as she sensed the young man's thoughts, her green and blue eyes twinkling under the hood of her brown cloak, her black hair moving slowly in the soft breeze. "That's good, my young druid. Take a chance, after all, you've nothing to lose and a chance for an epic adventure to gain." She disappeared from the parking lot, with not a sound, nor a trace. Except that where she had stood, in the middle of a sidewalk, there was now strange flower growing up between two sections of the sidewalk. It had twelve petals, six a bright, vibrant green, the other six a deeper vibrant blue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keon smiled as they pulled into the driveway of his Aunt's home. He got out of the car, and moved to the back. He grabbed his yellow laundry bag, and slung it over his shoulder, as his Aunt Christina moved to unlock the front door of the house. She opened the door, and Keon moved inside, taking his shoes off. He turned to his aunt. "So no one is here yet?"

Christina nodded, "That's right, you just get your stuff put in Melissa's room, I'm going to go pick up Jayson from his grandparents, I'll be back in few minutes. Kyle will be home from school at about four or so, and Melissa's probably told you when she'll be here."

Keon nodded, and smiled. "Yeah, she has. Thanks Aunt Christina."

Christina nodded, and moved off out the door, closing it. Keon quickly moved into his cousins room, tossing his bags over out of the way in the corner. It hadn't changed very much since he'd been there in August, still very much your average nineteen year old girl's room. Lots of pictures of her friends, lots of colorful drawings and posters of random famous people that Keon had no idea who they were. It was almost absurd as far as Keon was concerned, but he was a darker soul, not into pictures or 'normal' music and idols for his generation. Keon once again reached into his pocket and pulled out the note. He took his token out of the bag, and just made a decision. He went over to his backpack, and pulled out the quill and strange ink. He carefully laid it out on his cousin's dresser, and signed it. As he finished, at the top of the letter, a five pointed star, the pentagram as most called it, appeared, along with simple instructions "Fall asleep on the eve of the given day, with token in hand, and the adventure will begin". "Simple enough." Keon whispered smiling.

He turned his attention to the pentagram. It wasn't a symbol of evil, far from it. It was a symbol for the five parts of a whole. Although there were seven base elements, Druidic belief placed five of them as the parts of a being, whilst the other two were outer parts, of what made up our life. The points represented Nature, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Keon's name appeared at the point for Nature. He knew from old stories of adventuring heroes and lost treasures, that a companionship of true adventurers was normally five pieces, each embodying part of this whole. He smiled, for Nature was indeed where he would have guessed he belonged. He felt more at home away from cities, away from civilization, in the forests, in the bush. He was a tracker, and had been taught to hunt and move through without disrupting anything. As an adventurer, it would make him a wilderness survivalist, and that very much fit with what he was comfortable with. Keon chuckled, and whispered "Mother, you know me too well."

Keon quickly folded the paper up, and placed it back in his pocket, and placed the ink back in his backpack. However, he didn't place his token with the others. Instead, although he didn't know why, he placed it in his wallet. Then he moved out into the living room to wait for his aunt.

As he waited, he tried to decide where his other friends would most likely fall in the pentagram. Ted would seem the obvious one for Earth, for he was like a mountain, reasonable, strong, very much dependable. Ben however was more like the Air. More lackadaisical, very much forgetful, yet in a pinch you could always depend on him. He was also very much like that in his attitude, very much about the making of luck, the anticipation of all around you, and responding before things happen. Not so much foresight as an innate ability to understand how things would react. Katie would seem to fit Fire, for she was passionate, in many numerous fashions, and she could admittedly be rather stubborn, and somewhat hot headed. But she could think fast under pressure, when the right motivation was presented, and was very easy going in stressful situations such as exams or important presentations. Melissa, well from what Keon knew of his cousin now, she could very well fit Water. She liked to follow a certain path, a certain flow, and was very much a helpful person, to the point of maybe even being somewhat empathic. She liked to help people to make them feel better. Hell she was trying to become a child services worker to help children in need. So she very much fit that archetype. Seemingly that would make sense, but Keon knew that some of them, especially Ben and Ted, could fit almost all the archetypes. It was just their personalities.

Keon was going to continue contemplating this, and sorting it out, but he decided against it. All would be shown in due time. "If I'm going to do this, I may as well just give in and roll with it. I'm sure all will be explained soon enough." He quickly rose and shook his mind out of contemplation as he heard a car pull into the driveway. He heard the door open and heard a small voice he recognized all too well. "Who's dat?" said the little three year old Jayson.

He wasn't looking at Keon yet, he was pointing to Keon's shoes. Keon smiled and spoke up before Aunt Christina could answer. "Hey little man! I heard you turned three last week, so I guess I can't call you little anymore!"

Jayson turned, and the little guy looked at Keon. "Key?" He was up a little past Keon's knee, and had short light hair, and was wearing a Cars the movie t-shirt and little blue pants. He smiled, and his eyes lit up.

Keon smiled, and nodded, as he stepped forward. "Yeah little buddy it's me. Happy birthday, sorry I missed it! But surprise, I'm here now!"

Jayson ran at him, and grabbed his arm. "Come see come see!" he said.

Aunt Christina smiled, and looked at Keon. "You're in for it now, he absolutely must show you all the cool stuff he got for his birthday."

Keon laughed and played along. "Alright little guy, what you want to show me?" It was going to be a silly few hours, Keon knew, but honestly it was going to be fun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melissa pulled into the driveway, got out of the car. Keon smiled, and moved to the blind side of the doorway, and signalled to everyone to just play along. Jayson was asleep, thankfully, he'd run out of energy at about three-thirty or so. The door opened, and Melissa stepped in, not noticing Keon. She took her shoes off, and stepped in. As she did, Aunt Christina spoke up. "Hey Melissa, how was your day?"

Melissa responded, or started to, but Keon stepped out from the blind spot, and his arms quickly wrapped around his cousin's waist, and to her complete surprise, he picked her up. As he did, over her reactive surprise scream, Keon laughed and yelled, "Surprise cousin, I'm here!!" He put her down. She turned on heel and playfully hit him in the shoulder.

"What's your problem, Keon!" but the smile on her face told him all he needed to know. He simply shrugged, and gave her a big hug and shook his head. She couldn't even pretend she was angry so she hugged him back and laughed. She shook her head at him. "You said you were annoying, but I am impressed you managed to annoy me already."

Keon shrugged, that lazy half smile on his face, and took his cousin in. She was undeniably attractive. In fact, if Keon was completely honest with himself, she was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever met. His childhood best friend had grown up extremely well. She was almost the same height as Keon, honestly he couldn't tell if she was shorter or taller than him, it was that close. She had long, thick blonde hair, and it complimented her green eyes beautifully. She had what almost could be described as a baby face, but not quite. It was more of just being baby faced enough to be extremely cute.

She was wearing a grey hoodie of some name brand Keon didn't know, and a pair of black tights. Honestly, she was attractive, physically yes. She was very beautiful, had a great body, the whole deal. But the thing that Keon noticed more was that she had a look about her, a fun, playful personality, obviously stubborn, but funny, and despite being an adult, obviously with a childish side. You could see it in how she held herself, very much the confident smile, almost looking like she didn't care what anyone thought. Keon thought that was awesome, because that meant she was a fun person to just hang with, or make an ass of yourself with.

Keon chuckled to himself, as he thought about how some people would react to such a view on family. He obviously wasn't attracted to his cousin, but he'd been raised to be honest. Honesty dictated, that yes she was attractive, but as far as he was concerned she was family and his best friend. Keon shook his head out of such thoughts, and he replied, "What can I say, it's a talent I seem to have. A gift, you could say." As they hugged, he kissed her on the cheek, and then the whispered into her ear, "I've got a surprise for you, but it's kind of strange and requires a long explanation, so maybe we can chat later?"

Melissa nodded, a little confused. She was going to ask what was up, but he moved off, winking at her. Melissa moved into the living room, and the first thing that hit her was a little light brown haired three year old. She swooped him up, and gave him a big hug. "Jayson! How's my amazing baby brother?" as she finished she kissed him like four times really fast, much to his giggling delight.

Jayson squealed in delight and pointed at Keon. "It's Key, it's Key!"

Melissa smiled, and hugged Jayson again. "Yes it is, I bet you're excited to see him again!" Jayson nodded and Melissa put him down. She moved off to take a shower, nodding to her mom, brother and grandparents. Keon came back into the living room, and was now in a white zip up hoodie along with his jeans and Maiden t-shirt.

He winked at Melissa and quickly moved, picking up Jayson. "Up up and away little man!" Jayson laughed as Keon spun around a bit, and then put him down. He moved over to the table on the far end of the living room, and opened his laptop, which was sitting there from earlier, and reading, as Aunt Christina and her parents started making dinner. What he was reading up on, however, was of no interest to anyone else, since it was all fantasy stuff, Dungeons and Dragons, and other such material. But such knowledge, if it was actually correct, could prove very useful soon enough.

He touched his back pocket, feeling again the bag of tokens, reminding himself why knowing such things may prove helpful, if not crucial, very soon. He smiled at that thought, however, because it sounded so absurd in his mind. "If this is real," he muttered to himself, "Then I embrace it willingly. Adventure, glory, friendship, what more could I want from such an ideal." He smiled as he thought about it, and touched his chest, whispering, "So please Mother, bring me that horizon."