Hollonent: The Gathering

Chapter 5

The softness of the mattress under me lures me in a deep sleep. However, I force myself to keep my eyes open. My whirlpooling thoughts resist sleep.

My eyes dart through the room. From the windows and the curtains to the other bed in which my dad will sleep in. My eyes fall on my backpack, giving me the idea of keeping myself busy with whatever my bag could offer me. There's not much in it which I brought with me from home. A wallet, an extra set of clothes and my phone. I didn't want to carry too many useless things. Then, I see it. The leather book that was given to me by Abel. Without thinking twice, I grab it. I flip through the pages, scanning all the titles and the few drawings. Whoever drew these things must be quite the artist.

I open the rough-to-touch book on the page with a world map. Seven circles. Seven Hollonents. Firox, somewhere under Argentina, and Uduxis, somewhere under Brazil. I study the map more and learn the other names of the other Hollonents. Galamox. The Hollonent under the United States. Subixe is located under Greenland. Driaxos is covered by the Eurasia landmass, located near the Caspian sea. Somewhere south of Japan, under the sea, is Quinixi. The last one, Natrixos, is under the west coast of Australia.

I flip the page, and a small text pops out. A text about the Hollonents and their alliances. Relief shoots through my nerves when I read that Firox is allied with Quinixi and Natrixos. However, Uduxis works together with Galamox and Subixe. Driaxos is the only Hollonent that remained neutral. As a matter of fact, Driaxos is also the biggest Hollonent, being almost three times as large as the others.

As I'm skipping more pictures and drawings, I end up at a part of the book called 'History". These pages are more filled with white blocks than text. Do we really know that little about the past? All that is written here is that the war started a hundred years ago and some dates about different Hollonents forming alliances. That's it. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

The door unlocks and dad strolls in the room with the sound of his shuffling footsteps filling the room. He was downstairs with the other parents. He groans as he sits on his bed and he's caught off guard by the softness of the mattress. As if he's double taking the mattress for its soft fabric.

"How did it go?" I ask without meeting his eyes. Dad just sighs. "You know, just a generic conversation between businesspeople, nationalistic nitwits, and an old pessimist."

I sigh through my teeth. "Are Chloe's parents that bad."

"No, not bad. Just fully grasped in the "Firoxian glory"," he says, making quotations marks, "Just like their daughter."

"Wait, she is?" I ask with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, didn't you notice it yet?"

I remain silent as I realize my unawareness. "I guess," answering dad's last question, "Not that I mind."

"Oh no. Never said they were bad."

"Why that emphasis?" I ask with a chuckle. Dad looks up to me with tired eyes. "Abel and Freya." He says like that was obvious.

"Are they really that bad? I mean, No one can outdo Gina in that."

"Trust me. They are."

This catches me off guard, making me sit straight. "How?" I ask.

Dad massages the sides of his head before he speaks. "Gina's still young. She's just a spoiled brat with immense arrogance, right? Well, her parents, on the other hand, willingly play with human lives to earn money."

I blink a few times, I ask: "What kind of business did they have in Firox again?"

"A business that traded metal and weapon parts. Remember that Abel said they were acquaintances with Kleignarf?"