CHAPTER 3

Meet Your Kindred

PRESENT MOMENT….

“We are here,” Vyker spoke, turning to face Chryder as they arrived in front of a large library building.

Chryder returned back to reality after a trip memory-lane on how he first came to know Vyker. It had only been three months since that day but his memory of that violent scorching night of gore was so crystal clear, it was if it had just happened the previous night. Speaking of which, the previous night was the night he had received his new powers and orders; powers that were forcibly removed from their previous host.

They entered into a large library complex full of 3-metre tall shelves of books stacked in parallel rows upon rows upon rows. They walked toward the Librarian’s table and stopped in front of her desk.

“Yes, what book can I help you with?” asked a brunette middle-aged woman who wore glasses and had her hair tied into a bun. Her eyes shifted from the computer screen to Vyker and Chryder, smiling at both of them.

“Prymers,”Vyker replied kindly as he returned a smile of his own. The lady’s eyes widened as her gaze shifted from Vyker to Chryder who got startled by the lady’s stare, wondering what that meant.

“So you found yourself a more competent candidate,” spoke the lady as her gaze shifted back to Vyker.

“Possibly…the schedule is tight, can we hurry?” Vyker replied, not wanting to further the dialogue.

“Yes, of course, its A-3-13” spoke the Librarian gesturing her hand, pointing to the row of shelves behind her circular counter. Vyker and Chryder walked around past the circular counter and proceeded to the corridor between shelves behind it.

“Where are we going?” Chryder asked again in disbelief in where they were going. This place did not look like it was housing any beings with special traits. It looked more like a paradise for bookworms but an old and boring place to be for those with superhuman abilities.

“Didn’t I tell you?... we are going to meet your new friends ….it seems to me that you don’t believe this place can house beings like your current self…you are a Prymer now, I expect you to get acquainted with your kind,” Vyker replied as he turned his head halfway looking at Chryder from the corner of his eyes.

They came to a halt halfway across the corridor of shelves. Vyker approached the shelf to his left and scanned through the books while muttering to himself.

“A …..3…..13”

And grabbed one of the books in the shelf and pulled it slightly out. There was a small concrete rumbling sound in front of them as a rectangular piece of the floor slopped down and segmented and cascaded itself into a staircase, creating a staircase downwards into what looked like an elevator under the library corridor floor.

“Shall we?” Vyker gestured at the staircase. The two got into the elevator and descended underground.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two before the elevator door slid open, revealing a long corridor with multiple doors on either side of it and a double door at the far end. Chryder followed Vyker straight towards the double door, entering into a large dome shaped chamber about the size of an airplane hangar. Multiple light sources illuminated the entire chamber from the dome shaped ceiling. Chryder found it hard to believe that such a large area existed underneath a library.

“This is where you will be spending most of your spare time. It’s our headquarters,” Vyker spoke.

“Isn’t this place a little ‘empty’? What use could such a huge space be?” Chryder asked.

“This is a training room, you’ll be honing your abilities here, I’ll show you to your room afterwards,”Vyker replied.

The entrance double door to the dome chamber opened revealing two women and one man walking towards them.

“Aah, here they are,” Vyker spoke, smiling as he gestured his hand towards the 3 approaching prymers.

“Comrades, meet Chryder, your newest sibling, bearer of the scorching sight,” Vyker introduced Chryder to the 3 prymers.

“Chryder, this is MELDANA, bearer of the ‘shape-shifting touch’” Vyker gestured his hand pointing towards the girl with bright brown long hair that went down her shoulders and blue eyes and pale skin. She was slightly shorter than Chryder, slim build with appealing curves, she was in her mid-20s. She was dressed in black skin-tight pants that revealed the silhouette of her thighs down to her knees, black leather knee-high boots, a purple V-shaped corset that went three quarters up her breasts, revealing her breast cleavage and a light unbuttoned black jacket with long sleeves down to her wrists on top of the Corset. She wore a silver pendant whose crown jewel nested between her breasts. She reached forth and extended her hand for a handshake with Chryder, smiling slightly.

“Bearer of the ‘shape-shifting touch’? Am I supposed to understand that?” Chryder asked in a confused tone as he reciprocated Meldana’s hand shake gesture while turning to look at Vyker with a ‘what’s-that-supposed-to-mean’ look on his face.

“Meldana?” Vyker spoke as he jerked his head and signalled to her.

Suddenly the ground beneath Chryder’s feet sinked into two holes without breaking, sinking him down the floor to his crotch.

“WHAT THE HELL MAAAN?!” Chryder shouted in shock. A piece of the floor bubbled up in front of him, oozed out and stretched forth towards him, elongating along the way, changing into the shape of a hand complete with fingers which sealed Chryder’s wide agape mouth shut, gripping tightly around his jaw, effectively preventing him from shouting any further.

“Meldana can shapeshift things she is indirectly or directly in contact with; with or without breaking them. That is what it means to be the bearer of the ‘shape-shifting touch’,” Vyker replied to Chryder.

“Next I’ll introduce you to “WRYTH”, bearer of the space-time regression,” Vyker continued as he gestured his hand toward a tall 6ft man with jet black curly hair that went halfway down his neck, pale skin and brown eyes. He wore a red T-shirt with brown jeans, black leather timberland boots and a black sleeveless jacket over the red T-shirt. He was 27 years of age.

“Meldana? Can you put me back-?” Chryder asked casually as he started to feel uncomfortable partially submerged into the floor.

“uumm, right, I forgot,” Meldana replied as she waved her hand, causing the floor that sunk Chryder to retract back up, pushing him back to his feet.

Chryder took a step toward Wryth and offered his handshake.

“So let me guess, Wryth, space-time regression, so you..like…what? Stop time or something?” Chryder meant as a complementary joke which no one in the room seemed to reciprocate.

“Riiiiight, this is awkward, I’m guessing you don’t talk or something, silent type, huh,”Chryder continued. He was about to retract his handshake gesture when he realized that he could barely move. His entire body had frozen still.

“C’MOON GUYS! WHAT THE HELL?!” he shouted as he noticed the rest of them looking at him frozen still. Upon closer self-examination, it’s not that he couldn’t move, it was that his movements were, except for his mouth and his heartbeat and his eyes, his other bodily movements were slowed to a slow motion crawl while the rest of his environment moved at normal pace.

“Wryth does not stop time Chryder,” Vyker stated.

“He slows an object’s or living creature’s sense of space and time to a crawl, provided that he can hear them,” Vyker asserted as he gestured at Wryth to return Chryder to normal speed.

“And lastly we have KYMEI, bearer of natural selection and evolution. She has the ability to choose to assimilate any property of anything she has devoured into her and use that property as her own. Don’t mind her eating habits, she eats a lot although due her ability, she is unable to grow fat. Last I heard she ate…what was that?... antelope meat, was it?” Vyker asked as he looked at Kymei, a 25 year old Asian-looking woman with silver-dyed long hair that went halfway down her spine and partially covered her face to her left side. She had bright yellow eyes and pale yellow skin. She dressed in a white mini-skirt that clearly revealed her thighs, fishnet stockings, black knee-high boots, a black tank top and a white short-sleeved jacket with a furry black collar. The white jacket was purposefully over her size and went halfway down her thighs. The sleeves were purposefully cut short to end just after shoulder and trimmed to tightly grip her shoulders.

“Not antelope, lion” Kymei replied to Vyker.

“How did you get your hands on cooked Lion’s meat,” Chryder asked curiously. There was no exotic restaurant in the whole of Deilburg that served lion meat as far as he knew. It was illegal to serve lion meat, as it was considered poaching to kill lions. And there were no native lions in Deilburg. That meat had to be obtained illegally. Chryder thought this to himself.

Kymei began walking towards Chryder who immediately realized that he was about to be shown the Asian’s ability and he backed away.

“wai-wai-wai-wait, I-I-I-I think I don’t need to know how you got the meat, i-i-i-it’s nice to meet you Kym,” Chryder stammered as he took a few steps back.

Kymei took one step jump from where she was and landed right in front of Chryder, their torsos almost touching.

“You ask, how meat I got? Me find dead lion, poachers run, Me ask, why waste meat? Me eat it raw,” Kymei spoke.

“She is still learning English, give her like 1 more month and she will speak pretty good,” Wryth commented.

“Oh, I see,” Chryder replied.

“Don’t worry, you, me, comrade, human meat, no good taste,” Kymei said as she tapped Chryder’s left shoulder with her right hand and looked into his eyes.

“Wait, what? No good taste? You mean? You’ve eaten a human before?” Chryder asked in shock. The rest of the room went quiet and Kymei nodded silently.

“Oh, I-I-I s-see,” Chryder stammered, as he contemplated the bunch of crazies before him.

“I think you are….kinda…cute,” Chryder complemented as he looked at the Asian’s pretty face up close to his. She was the same height as him but slightly heavier boasting a curvy, busty body stature.

“You think me cute? Me thinks you tasty, me afraid maybe one day me eat you,” Kymei replied with a smile on her face as she blushed. The rest of the room laughed except for Chryder whose complexion paled in shock.

“Why you shocked? Me just joking, you comrade” Kymei casually laughed at Chryder’s shocked expression.