LRAB Chapter 4 Traveling Through the Flume (1)
Chapter 4 Traveling Through the Flume (1)
After a short time and many instances of the Flume opening and closing, it was finally time for the Lad's Class to step forward and begin their new lives as Travelers. Although the Lad was good at hiding it externally, internally, he was a mixed bag of emotions.
Not only was he anxious and scared, but also excited beyond belief.
This was a moment he had been looking forward to from the time he could form coherent thoughts.
Travelers were everything in this modern era: actors, celebrities, politicians, businessmen, heroes, you name it, and they were all some form of Traveler, and the lifestyle alone was looked up to and thought to be the pinnacle of society.
Mind you, that really only applied to those strong individuals who had gotten powerful Attributes or had high potential and, as such, were able to make a name for themselves, but still, IT WAS POSSIBLE.
Standing on the precipice of a whole new life, one of opportunity, danger, excitement, and potential fortune, who wouldn't be scared shitless? The only thing that set the Lad apart from the majority of the other new Travelers was how perfectly he was able to mask his insecurity and anxiety.
In a sense, a lot of that has to do with how he's always acted around his classmates. Growing up in a low-income family and wearing only hand-me-down clothing put a target on the Ash-Blond Lad's back from a young age, and he had been the victim of bullying for the majority of his fundamental years.
Thus, to steer clear of trouble and all that, he became adept at blending in with his surroundings, almost seeming invisible to his classmates and even many of the teachers.
Tack on his keen observation skills, and he was completely unnoticed in most cases, allowing him to blend into any social setting like a ghost.
'Stay in the background, and you won't be picked on; that's what I knew and had lived by, but I had long since made a solemn vow that once I stepped foot into the Flume for the first time, I would become a new me.' The Lad thought to himself while continuing to shuffle forward toward the first of two checkpoints leading to the mouth of the large stone artifact called a Flume; one by one, the names of each student were called until finally...
One by one, each of them walked up to the empty, circular stone archway and was whisked away into the unknown. While Aoni had seen Travelers enter the flume hundreds of times on TV and even had one back at home, this time was different.
He was finally going to get a turn.
"Next, Traveler Thurston, step forward and enter the Flume."
While Aoni was lost in thought, the Principal called out his name several times, only to get ignored by the Ash-Blond Lad, who was envisioning his future, causing the man to huff before sternly shouting...
"AONI THURSTON GET UP HERE!"
"Ah, right away, Principal Gavver," Startled by someone suddenly yelling at him, Aoni hopped forward a bit too fast and stumbled, nearly biting the dust in the process, but was caught by the Principal, who used little to no effort at all in stopping him from falling embarrassingly.
In Aoni's defense, he still wasn't used to being called with a title or by his last name, so it didn't register in his brain that it was HIS name being called.
"Calm down, Traveler Thurston, this is the fun part, I promise," the Principal said while giving Aoni a reassuring pat on the shoulder and pushing him forward so that he ended up standing directly in front of the eight-by-eight-foot stone ring sitting on a metal platform.
Funny enough, as Aoni stood before the Flume, his brain kind of shifted gears as all those lessons from elementary school to high school kicked in, and in an instant, he knew what to do, and now it was time to put that training into action.
Crossing that final threshold between Terra and the Flume, Aoni glanced directly into its empty center and could see the other side of the Gym. After a second or two, he felt a slight tug on his mind, signaling that a connection had been made, and with that, he followed his years of schooling.
'My Territory,' issuing the mental command, Aoni watched in amazement as the stone ring instantly came to life.@@@@