Xed

Chapter 2

The white ceiling with a fan appeared infront of Aemon's eyes as he opened them. He rubbed his eyes and got up lazily, stretching his arms high up in the air, yawning.

He heard the door knock 3 times in a distinct rhythm; one knock followed by two more in quick succession.

"Come in, Automatron." Aemon spoke, almost slurring his speech.

Automatron entered the room and flicked the switch beside the door, off, the ceiling fan hanging over Aemon's head stopped circulating the air in the room.

"Good morning, master Aemon." Automatron bowed infront of his master. "I wished to convey news regarding young master, Xed but since you were sleeping I thought it was best to not disturb you."

"You should have woken me up, man." Aemon sighed, "but you can't be blamed, you always try to take the best course of action based upon what's in my best interests according to you."

"I would like to apologize Master, for my incompetence has led to an inconvenient situation for you." Automatron bowed.

"Anyways, what news of Xed?" Aemon asked.

"Young Master Xed left the villa at 12:47 am. And finally exited the premises of the Dragon Valley at 1:59am " Automatron spoke expressionlessly.

"I trust you tracked his whereabouts?" Aemon said.

"Yes sir, as we speak he is 4 minutes and 32 seconds away from his house in the Nirome slums." Automatron spoke, his right eye color had briefly changed to green as he spoke.

"Ohh, he must have walked through the night to reach the other end of Norcon. But he took more than an hour to leave the valley, it takes at worst 45 minutes to leave through the Cave Rock He must have lost his way while trying to leave in the night." Aemon said while rubbing his hairless chin with his fingers as if he were a bearded man deep in thought.

Aemon got out of bed, Automatron, who was still bowing down leapt into action and got Aemon his clothes from the almirah. There was no time to freshen up, but Aemon was in no hurry.

He calmly walked into the bathroom attached to his bedroom and got ready. When he came back out Automatron was standing by the bed attentively, awaiting his next command.

"We are going to fetch Xed," Aemon declared. Clad in a black full sleeve tshirt and a pair of blue jeans, he spoke. He picked up a pair of shoes from his shoe rack and turned towards Automatron,"Let's begin, I will cast the ability, you'll pinpoint the Xed's location."

"As you command, master" Automatron said.

Having put on the shoes, Aemon stretched out his hand infront of him with his palm facing downwards and chanted, "Super Rare Ability; Teleport!" His palms glowed blue faintly for a moment before a magic circle with purple glowing runes appeared underneath their feet. A bright light covered his entire body and then Aemon and Automatron vanished from the room.

Xed's throat was parched, after a night of walking his hut was in sight. Nirome was a far cry from the peaceful and Serene Dragon Valley, broken pavement littered with potholes and and loose gravel were the norm here, houses were crudely erected using whatever wood happened to be nearby. A solution made of limestone and water was applied on the wooden walls of several huts, this was supposed to act as a make-shift paint since the residents of Nirome couldn't afford wallpaper or conventional wall paint to decorate their houses. Some houses had broken shards of mirrors and glass attached from the thatched roofs, dangling down from a string to further beautify their houses. Xed stood out like a sore thumb in the croud, his orange tshirt looked nothing like the torn rags and dusty clothes worn by most residents of Nirome. People stared at him as he made his way through the roads towards his house.