She nodded absentmindedly, distracted by the picture in front of her. Where was she?
“Alex, focus,” Bear said firmly, turning her to face them.
Seeing their serious expressions, she hesitantly said, “Okay, I’m listening.”
They led her over to a fallen tree and made her sit down while they spent the next few minutes describing an impossible reality. When they were finished, she looked at them apprehensively, torn between laughter and tears.
“Let me get this straight,” she said. “According to you, I’m from another world, a world that was once identical to your own—this ‘Medora’ place—but over time the two places changed and became… different places?”
Yeah, that was really articulate. But they nodded, so she continued, “And people from my Earth—sorry, ‘Freya’—don’t know about Medora or how to get here?”
When they nodded again, she asked, “Then how do you explain me?”
“No idea,” Jordan said, grinning widely. “But I reckon we’ll have fun trying to figure that out.”
Alex looked from him to Bear and asked, “Are you aliens?” When both boys burst out laughing, she frowned at them. “Different worlds? Hel-lo! It’s not that strange a question, especially considering I feel like I’m the leading character in some kind of alternate reality movie. And you’ve just told me that there are all kinds of different beings in your world, not just humans. Give a girl a break, would you?”
“Sorry, Alex,” Bear said, still chuckling. “Rest assured, we’re as human as you are.”
Alex let that settle before her brain skipped a million miles ahead. “If I’m in another world, how can I understand you, and vice versa? How do you know English if there’s no England here?”
Even Alex had to admit that she was beginning to sound a little hysterical, but it was still a valid question, and one of many that were swirling around her head. Perhaps she should have asked something more pressing, though. Like, if she truly was in a different world, how was she going to get home again? Especially since she didn’t even know why—or how—she’d arrived to begin with! And her parents… Well, at least there was something good to be said about their inability to be contacted, since they would totally freak out if they learned she was missing. Alex shuddered just thinking about their reactions—or perhaps she shuddered because she was beginning to understand the gravity of her situation.
“English, England… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jordan said. “We’re speaking Medoran, or the common tongue, and since you seem to understand it just fine, then I guess we can presume there’s some kind of cross-world comparison. Let’s just be thankful that we don’t have to mime this entire conversation to each other, and leave it at that.”
Alex figured she couldn’t expect much more of an explanation, so she decided to move on. “Let’s talk about this school of yours,” she said, thinking over everything they’d told her in their ‘welcome to our world’ speech. “You mentioned something about Akarnae being a school for the gifted. What does that mean?”
Bear motioned for her to look at Jordan, so she turned to the blond boy. He smirked at her… and then disappeared into thin air. He literally vanished.
She gaped at the empty spot in front of her. “How—?”
“It’s my gift,” Jordan said, reappearing again and laughing loudly at the gobsmacked expression on her face.
“Your gift?”
“Transcendence,” he said. “I can transcend—meaning I can disappear from sight and move through solid objects while invisible.”
“That is…” Alex was lost for words, so she settled on, “very cool.”
Jordan chuckled and squeezed her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’ll get used to it here. Everyone at Akarnae has a gift. Bear’s is pretty handy too, especially when we want to get out of detention.”
“What can you do, Bear?” Alex asked, even if in the back of her mind she was totally flipping out.
“I’m a charmer,” he said with a wink.
She felt her lips twitch. “I bet you say that to all the new girls.”
He laughed at that before explaining, “I can use my speech to convince people to do things. I literally charm them into action.”
“That sounds kind of dangerous,” Alex said. If what he said was true, then he had a gift that could cause a lot of damage in the wrong hands.
“It might seem that way, but it’s really not,” Bear said. “My charms are more like suggestions, you can either act upon or dismiss them depending on how much you like or don’t like the idea.”
Alex thought about that and said, “Can you show me?”
Bear shared a sneaky glance with Jordan before turning back to her and saying, “You must be hungry, Alex. I doubt you’ve eaten for hours, right?”
His voice sounded the same, but there was an almost hypnotic quality to his tone. Before she even realised what she was doing, Alex nodded in agreement.
“You’re probably so hungry that you would eat anything just to feel relief.”
Alex’s stomach clenched painfully. She was starving. What had she last eaten? A piece of toast for breakfast? She couldn’t even remember what it had tasted like, it seemed so long ago.
“I wonder if there’s anything around here that we can give you to eat?” Bear continued in that same mesmerising tone.
“Please,” Alex said, her own voice sounding strained. “I’ll eat anything.”
“Here, this will help.” Bear scooped up a handful of dirt and handed it to her. “It’s just like chocolate. It’ll taste delicious and you’ll feel so good afterwards.”
Alex reached her hand out and Bear passed the dirt over. Part of her was desperate to pour the chocolate-like goodness straight into her mouth, but another part of her was beginning to scream from deep within her subconscious mind. She paused in the act of moving her hand towards her mouth, her thoughts warring with each other.
It’s dirt, Alex thought to herself. Why would I ever eat dirt? Gross!
She threw the handful of earth to the ground and then turned to glare at Bear. “What did you just do to me?”
He and Jordan burst out laughing.
“You should see your expression right now!” Jordan gasped between guffaws.
She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes further.
“Oh, come on Alex,” Jordan said once he’d calmed somewhat. “Admit it, that was funny!”
She tapped her foot impatiently and asked Bear again, “What did you do?”
“You asked me to charm you, so I did,” he said. “I wanted you to see how it feels when it works, but also how when I press too far, your natural reasoning comes back into play.”
“So, you managed to convince me I was starving, even though I’m actually not?”
He nodded and continued for her, “But when I tried to get you to eat dirt, the suggestion was too different from anything you would normally agree to, so you snapped out of my influence.”
She shook her head in amazement. “That’s… Yeah, I have no words for what that is.”