THE TRANSITION: The Lost Maximus

3. THE PROCESS

Daryl solemnly followed her back to their dorms. Several random thoughts raced through his mind. Why was he here in the first place? What were these people talking about? Something about abilities? Weird looking animals? Where on earth was he? How did he escape the weird looking animal he had encountered earlier? They really were weird people. After a series of corners, hallways and several domes, they were back to their dorm. Daryl was able to see the strawberry blonde girl again in the common area, but he didn't have time to approach her or say anything since Clara grabbed his hand and dragged him around looking for the so called Jay-den, who was no where in sight.

Finally they found him with a group of three guys and two other girls who had taken more of a Gothic style and look. The girls had purple hair and almost three to four ear rings on one ear. All of them donned necklaces that had an inverted number seven on them. Not forgetting their several tattoos and heavily donned makeup which made them look paler than a depressed ghost. Only Jay-den didn't have the make up on. Maybe he lost his kit, Daryl thought as Clara started talking in a commanding voice.

"Hey, we have work to do Jay, stop lazing around, you also need to learn," Clara said to him.

"Fine, just make it quick, I haven't got all night to trail around with a newbie, it's portrays me badly you know," he said with so much venom in his voice. Clara snarled at his response but didn't do anything about it.

She headed out once again whilst dragging him like a young girl's doll. Daryl simply followed obediently while Jay-den was behind them with a sneer on his face. After a few minutes of no one saying anything, they approached a large double door. This particular door had a big Latin curved letter 'S' with a crown engraved on it. Clara uttered something to it and it slowly creaked open. The room had a different aura to it, almost as if it were alive. Daryl felt a cold shiver ran down his spine as if someone was taking a long hard look at him from the shadows. the room itself was bright considering the fact that it was night time. It had no particular smell and had a large shimmering crystal bed, with a glowing large yellow orb floating mid-air on top of it, all situated in the middle of the room.

The orb felt alive to Daryl, as if it wanted to reach out and touch him. The opposite side of the room had some sort of aquarium, and it was very large. So large that he could enter and sit in it comfortably. It had a minuscule forest in it and a small pool of water at one end, which Daryl assumed represented a lake, ocean or sea. Outside on the walls of the aquarium were some small pebbles that formed a semi-circle. Other than that, the room was empty. It had no ceiling, one could look up at the night sky and the stars glowing above.

"So Daryl was it? This is quite easy, on your physical body, you'll fell no pain, but your brain will feel a lot of pain but it will subside really fast. I have to call Madam Sally to take you through this, though I am sure she won't be happy," Clara stated, "All you have to do is lie on the crystal bed and wait for the teacher to chant the required words then you say 'incipit', that is all for that process. Now Jay explain to him what is to happen in the Aquarium."

"Okay, look here buddy, you obviously aren't worth all this pain and time. You'll probably be a 22 or 24, so let's not waste time here, you get in that thing, this time say 'incipere' and you are done. Okay? Now Clara can we begin? I have a card game to catch," he stated arrogantly.

"Jay, have some patience! What's with the harshness, want some stable duties?"

Jay-den shrugged and apologized with such a low tone, Daryl could almost not hear it. Clara looked menacingly at him, turned around and left announcing that she was going to look for Madam Sally. Jay-den sat on the floor and started humming leaving Daryl to himself. He decided to go look at the aquarium and at least have an idea of what its purpose was.

The aquarium looked plain from afar apart from the pebbles on its walls, but closer, it had some Latin engravings, he could only make out the words show and reveal otherwise he really was blank and didn't have any clue as to what it said. The forest and water in it seemed quite real, but there was no way he could tell since it was too high for him to actually put his hand in and touch them.

As he was studying it, something moved. Daryl moved closer to the spot he saw the movement and pressed his head against the glass. He saw nothing for a moment before he saw it again. There it was. A pair of cold, piercing light blue eyes staring at him, studying. Daryl couldn't tell if it was just a trick of some sorts, but it was there. He blinked once, then twice, but it was still there staring at him, calculating. He could make out some fur on it but other than that it was in the shadows and nothing else was visible.

At the same time, Clara burst in with a woman, she seemed quite young, was majestically tall, lean and had a smug look on her face, most probably due to the fact that she had to administer a test at night.

"Here he is Madam Sally, he's new, just got in yesterday at around 3pm, The Preceptor says we need to identify him and he expects a report by tomorrow morning," Jay-den jumped right into it, "I mean he doesn't look that much of anything, right?" he continued while completely ignoring his feelings.

"Shut up," Madam Sally curtly and moved towards Daryl.

She raised his chin, poked his cheeks, ruffled his hair, picked up a strand of his dark hair and pulled hard, much to Jay-den's amusement. This made Daryl let out a small yelp. When she was satisfied that he could indeed feel pain, she turned him around and unceremoniously pulled his shirt up. Daryl wasn't really happy with all the probing and investigation his tired body was going through. After a few moments she let out a sigh and turned him back around.

"No apparent scratches or claw marks, obviously he was from some place that wasn't prone to attacks or he's just lucky. Light blue eye color with white streaks, says a lot but definitely eliminates a 22, Verdure and a 24. Dark hair, could literally mean anything, my instincts tell me he is most probably a Flendes," she said.

"Shall we find out?"