Unknown Life (1) (Editing in Progress)

Emily and I entered the dinner hall. She had been silent the remainder of the walk. I wasn’t sure why but it may have been her way of letting me process this life or what was to come.

When I brought my attention back to the dining hall. I had to take a moment as it was bigger than I imagined and realized that it was decorated lavishly. Large paintings hung from the walls, interspersed with clear glass windows that wrapped around the room and showed the hall with the brilliance of late afternoon light filtering through the clouds. There were no drapes on these windows, and the flooring had been made with flat polished stones that looked like they have been shined every day. One painting stood out to me. It was a woman who had light purple skin and a long wispy black dress. Her eyes were like the moons of silver that matched the crown she wore on top of her head that was black hair. I was going to gaze at her longer till Emily interrupted my analysis.

“Would you like to eat, or you too busy staring at the room?” she asked, with a hint of humour. Teasing me, I assumed.

I looked back at her, startled but saw she had an amused face as it was entertaining watching me.

“Uh…yeah,” I stammered.

“Cool, this way” she pointed to a round table and gestured for me to sit, and I did. “Don’t worry, there has been a special request that we are served,” Emily assured me as I gave a motion that indicated why we sat down with no food. A lady in plain clothes, mostly whites and greys, came up to us with a food tray and placed it in front of us. I looked down and looked and smelled the amazing aroma. It made me realized how ravished I was. Emily was already digging into her food, chowing down; she must have been hungry as I well. I looked at mine again, and after some mental preparation, I took my first bite and almost moaned from it. The pleasing flavour lavishes my mouth, probably reminding me I hadn’t eaten in a while. Within moments later, I scarfed down my food, eating like I would never have food again.

As we were finishing up, Emily spoke again.

“You seemed to have calmed down. Is there anything you want to know? Or anything else?” She asked.

I swallowed the last bit of my food and stared at her for a moment.

“I am not sure what you can answer…for some reason, I felt that this world I may belong to, but yet again, it may all just be a dream.” I joked.

Emily laughed along with me, but I could hear a hint of a nervous laughter.

“You still think that this is a dream?” she countered and rested her elbows on the table, leaning towards me.

“Well yeah, are you telling that this world really is parallel to human, and no one knows till they turn?”

“Well yes, actually” she nodded her head, she looked behind her towards the doors that led back out in the hallway.

“I just believe it is a dream for some reason. It’s an only logical sense right now” I voice my thoughts to her as she returned her gaze to me.

She only gave a shy smile, “Okay, well, I am ready to be your guide and help you around.”

“Okay, what do I need to know about this so-called new life?” I asked, masking my doubts with a humour tone of voice.

Emily laughed and finished it with a smile, “Well, first off, what would you like to know?” she asked politely, inviting me in.

“Well, we are roommates? Obviously knowing that, but why did that Brock guy call you, your highness?” I asked as the curiosity was now triggering me.

Emily laughed. That made me look at her with confusion, what was it? What was so funny to her? Some inside joke? She realized I wasn’t laughing with her, and soon she stopped.

“Sorry, I have grown up in this world where everyone knows who I am…it completely flew over my head that you don’t know”, she apologized. She repositioned herself in the chair, stiff back head held high up.

“Hello, my full name, along with the title, is Princess Emily Equitem-Draco. I am from the third royal ranking royal family. My family is quite big because of the many siblings I have. Which are 16 brothers and 16 sisters. But if it to helps you in this situation I am the youngest,” Emily stated all her life facts at me.

Now I was stunned. I gaped at her trying to understand what she just told me obviously, now this was not real.

I just kept gazing at her in disbelief, unsure of how to feel. It is not every day someone tells you that they are a royal and act like it is no big deal. I was still staring at her and then realized my mouth was still hanging open. So, I slowly closed it and tried to regain my composure.

“Excuse me?” I managed the words as I was still struggling to function my mind knowing words were stumbling onto each other in my head. I was trying to comprehend it all. She looked at me with such an innocent face and gently smiled.

“Yes, I know it is a lot to take in, especially since you have never grown up in the same world as I,” she replied, laughing, “But I assure you this is considered normal.”

I felt like Emily was pulling my leg. Was this a joke, or was I missing something I didn’t want to listen to?

“What?” I replied.

“It’s okay”, she assured me again. “It will take you time to process. I understand that.”

I blinked at her and slouched in my chair, trying to create an idea in my head of making sense of this, “So you really mean to tell me you have that many siblings and you, in fact, are a princess?”

Nodding her head to my conclusion, “Yes, that is me”, she replied.

“What do you mean by third-ranking?”

She smiled and almost seemed excited to explain this, “Sure, my family is first off ancient, and to help you understand, we are a third-ranking. Which means that we are highest above other royal families. My family reign started when families needed leaders such as rulers. Apparently, it was chaos back then. My parents were the third to be picked and crowned by the gods to rule a country. They have been ruling since then, which has been thousands, years ago, I believe,” She said.

Well, that a lot to take in, I thought,” she then why so many siblings?”

Emily laughed inwardly to herself, “My parents love children. They always wanted a big family, so they kept popping out babies. Before I was born, thirtieth child, my older brother, who is now one hundred and six years old. For some reason, it helps them to feel like young adults again…though I don’t understand that logic,” she murmured the last bit.

I leaned forward, now intrigued, “is it nice having a big family, I suppose?”

“Yeah, I guess you can say that,” she said in deep thought as she was thinking about the answer. So, I continued.

“So then, what does that mean for the crown? Assuming you would be in a competition for a crown?”

“Oh yeah, that…” she snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at me, “It was a competition when my first four siblings were born. Back then, my parents set up competitions, things to do for them, they could determine who would have the crown next…even though it supposed to go to the firstborn….” She trailed her words as if she wasn’t sure that she was allowed to tell me this information. But brought herself back quickly, “but it turned into fun games, so they make it an annual thing for us siblings to do. It is even entertainment on screens. Invented as an annual game show…but we find more of it a bonding thing for us…besides, my family enjoys watching us getting along with one another,” Emily finished off.

I nodded at the information she gave me and breathed a sigh. I guess it made sense better for siblings to work together than have a blood bath from what I assume is over a piece of jewellery.

This was still weird, but I figured I could always learn more about her and learn how to not piss her off.

“So, now that you know about me what about you? What are you like? Do you remember any original family?” she asked, obviously being polite.

A realization came over me since I felt somehow I belonged to this world. That is something I should’ve questioned.

“Right, family…sorry so much in so little time has happened that I completely forgot about it,” I confessed while at the same time trying to think. Yet, it was not coming to me, as if they actually never existed.

“That’s okay. I know this can be so much for you”, she replied.

But I looked at her, “I don’t think I have a family either that or some reason they never actually existed, yet I feel I have a family.”

Emily tilted her head in curious thought, “Don’t worry about it too much. You may hurt yourself, usually, memory or way of thinking changes a lot when you are transitioning into a new immortal life. Things get foggy, or perhaps they actually never existed,” she assured me again.

From that, we didn’t say much. Still, we prepared to leave and set out through the school ground, where Emily started giving me pointers of where some things are as we walked a little alleyway that opened to a beautiful courtyard. I could see students minding their own business and passing by us as well, just hanging around. Emily pointed to where the popular places were.

I was about to ask a question when a tall, pale man with jet black hair and deep red eyes. Came by but made it very obvious he kept his distance from Emily as if there was a secret they didn’t want others to know about. From what I could see, they had strong chemistry, but they were hiding something.

His face was a little scruffy with his dusted beard. I was analyzing him when Emily again interrupted my thoughts.

“Asema, this is Damon, someone who is close to me”, she said. Somehow Emily made it obvious she was careful with her words, “Also Damon, she is new here, a transitioning immortal.”

“Hi Damon,” I spoke, and he gestured his hand towards me for a handshake.

“Hello, so Emily been showing you around, uh? She is a good guide or bad one,” he joked.

Emily playfully punched him, and he laughed more, something definitely going on with them.

“Come, let’s continue walking,” Emily insisted, and Damon joined us though he stayed on her side.

Damon smiled at her, and we continued forward and came to an opening where an area was open with chatting students. The place looked as if it could be a little town itself.

I started off the conversation as if I felt I needed to fill some silence.

“How long have you two been friends with each other” emphasizing I knew something but wanted it to be subtle.

“Two years”, they both said.

“Mhmm, how has it been with your friendship” I emphasized that word, letting them know they could trust me.

They both laughed.

“It’s been good, I suppose”, Damon replied, “Even though sometimes she annoys me, but hey, not all friendship are perfect and happy”, he stated.

“Are you also a royal?” I asked, “Just curious.”

We exited the courtyard and were coming to some open grass area where I saw men dressed like Brock, just more men.

“No, I am what you consider in this world, middle class”, Damon corrected and gestured us to sit by a picnic table. I sat comfortably while the two sat on opposite ends.

“I have another question” I broke the silence. Emily and Damon both perked their attention to me, “Who is this woman that I see everywhere? She has purple skin or something.”

“Well, that is our goddesses Kadea. She technically our ruler of this world along with her partner Aenar, but Kadea usually our main ruler for us.”

“Okay…” I whispered.

Damon chimed in, “She is our goddess and queen, known as the highest-ranking of all. She and her partner are the creators of good and evil gods for immortals and other creatures that we live amongst. You can if you want to read more about her in the library,” Damon replied with a smile, knowing I was having a hard time understanding.

We chatted some more when a group of guys who stood out from some students that I saw. They were not wearing suit jackets like the rest of the boy’s students, but instead, they were wearing grey shirts that showed off muscle on their arms.

The pants were not tight nor baggy but more like a soldier type of pants. Even more off-putting was that some had a belt that held swords while others had bows on their backs with arrows on their back. I wondered who these guys were.

“Who are they,” I asked Emily and Damon while pointing down the field of the men.

Both of them looked and brought their attention back to me.

“They are the warriors of Kadea”, Damon replied.

“They are basically security guards for our school in case something happens,” Emily finished.

I nodded and looked back at them; they were just mingling around in a circle but seemed like they were starting some target practice or wrestling with one another. While doing that, they were laughing and looking relaxed. Then a curious face popped out. He was definitely different compared to the other warriors. His skin was tanned, and it seemed from a distance that he had some sort of crown spiral tattoo on his forehead. That must have hurt, I thought inwardly. He didn’t have any weapons but was dressed similar to them.

“Who is that guy with the tattoo on his forehead?” I asked.

Emily looked then snorted almost as if it was amusement to even tell me this information.

“That is Wolf”, Damon replied.

I scrunched my eyebrows together, “I am sorry, did you say ‘Wolf’?” I asked to confirm I heard his words right, “that’s interesting for an immortal.”

They both laughed at me like I said something stupid.

“What?”

“Asema, he not an immortal…Wolf is a lycanthrope, a werewolf and the only Lycan here at this school” he paused a bit, waiting for me to respond, which I did.

“What type of werewolf—”

“They are better known as Lycans”, Emily corrected me midsentence.

“Okay, what type of Lycan parents name their child Wolf?” I asked.

Damon laughed, “You will have to ask him.”

Grunting at the response, I looked back at the warriors and then at Wolf, it looked like they knew each other quite well, almost as if he was one of them.

“Why is he the only Lycan here?” I asked, turning back to Emily and Damon.

“To be honest,” Emily started, “No one really knows. All we know is what Madam Mentor told the school. He is here for a project and was told to learn from the warriors on the school grounds. And at times attend classes with us. He doesn’t really hang out with students like he does hang out with warriors. He is quiet when it comes to classes…at times, and quite honestly, he doesn’t really say much.”

“Then what is with the spiral crown tattoo on his forehead?” I wanted more answers.

“The spiral things?” Damon questioned. “It is because—”

Emily cut in, “because he is a Lycan and all Lycan have tattoos somewhere on their body, mainly neck or cheek at the time the arms. Though Wolf tattoo shows that he is part of an alpha line. Meaning royalty in their culture.” Emily finished.

And Damon looked taken aback by how she interrupted him.

I looked back at the mingling circle and Wolf. I was intrigued with him and this background of lycanthropes and how he could live amongst immortals, which I am not figuring out now are vampires.

This would just get a little more interesting, but I still needed to adjust mainly for survival.

After moments pass, the air became different, and the warriors began to leave, and Wolf joined them. Though before they headed off somewhere else. He turned to look where we were sitting and almost as if he was searching for something.

It was till he bore his gaze into mine and electricity fixed to suddenly he broke his gaze and was gone.

Damon, Emily and I all looked at each other as if we thought the other person might know what happened. We were all silent and just looked at each other. Till awkward random conversation started to fill that void on what just happened. We talked till the sun was glowing orange and dark purple with hues of red through the scattered clouds. Casting a magical look onto the stone buildings that surround us.

Eventually, Emily gestured that we should head to our room for a goodnight sleep. We headed to the girls down the area where Damon left us in the opposite direction. Walking where the light was ceasing to exist, the building around us gave a sense of fantasy into another world. It felt as if magic ran through this place and was at the touch of your own fingertips.

Arriving at the girls’ dorm, we entered the building where the lounge was stationed. A couple of girls were already huddled around the fire and chatting away. Giving the feel of a common room. We went upstairs and into our room, and I laid down on my bed, feeling the extremely comfy mattress as if I was floating on clouds. Within a few seconds, I was out like a light.