Event Horizon

[Alex Eidolon]

The air was still warm outside for the early time of the year. Alex stepped out of his parent's car with a short sleeved shirt and jeans. After closing the door, he turned to wave to his father, who gestured to his wristwatch by tapping it a few times in the window, reminding his son to be at that same location in the parking lot of the strip mall in a few hours for pick-up. Alex nodded in understanding and then took off towards the group of friends. He wanted to tell them everything he had learned the day before, about him being a wizard, but his father made it explicitly clear, followed up with his mother's own stern warning, that the normal people, or "muggles" as he learned they were called, were not to know of it. It was absolutely forbidden to reveal magic to non-wizards, and there were harsh punishments for doing so.

Reminding himself to act casual, as if nothing had happened, Alex forced himself to wear a neutral, uncaring expression on his face; even it if felt unnatural. The strip mall was relatively busy today, he noticed. Among his own friends he saw familiar faces from around the neighborhood, even a few he didn't recognize. One of the strangers on the lot was a stunningly pretty girl about his age with long blonde hair. She wasn't apart of his group of friends, but he sure wished she was.

"Got your eyes on somethin' there, Alex?" Kaiden, his best friend, asked while nudging him in the arm.

Alex felt the blush on his cheeks and instantly looked in another direction. "Uhm, no. Why d'you ask?"

"Roigh'..." Kaiden mused, rolling his eyes.

 

[Ariel Blade]

Ariel walkesd throguh the dusty streets of New Zealand, as she had on so many occasions before. She knew the place as well as she tended to know her own house and she wasn't going to go around forgetting about it anytime soon. She was looking forward for the later portion of this year to come though, when she would be able to finally begin her attendance at Hogwarts New Zealand. This was definitely something that she would be looking forward to, and she just wished that it wouldn't be taking as long as it was. Hogwarts had only recently started it's second semester, so by now they should be into the second week of classes. Ariel had only recently began to accept who she was, and the very family that she had been born into.

Ariel was a Blade, and that was something that she accepted now. She couldn't change who she was, and she wouldn't try and change who she was. She knew that her oldest brother was in Azkaban as a convicted felon, something to do with attempted murder. Clearly Chase hadn't understood the concept of 'not getting caught', otherwise she would be able to look up to her little brother as someone who would be able to help her in the world, and not somebody who was locked away for years to come. Ariel didn't understand why the Ministress had only given him a seven year sentence, after all it was something that shouldn't have been handled so mercillesly, he had tried to kill a person, he should have been given Azkaban for life, and as a Death Eater that gave irreputable evidence to back that statement up.

Ariel noticed a pair of boys inside of the strip mall that she was currently residing inside and she wondered if they would be interested in keeping her company for the day at all, she had nobody else around to talk to, and by the looks of things they only had each other and possibly a lot of time to kill. Approaching them, she put on a smile and cleared her throat. "Hey there you two, what brings you guys here?" Ariel asked, smiling softly.

 

[Alex Eidolon]

A breezed picked up slightly from nowhere and the group of friends crossed their arms with their hands protecting what was exposed from an unnaturally cool temperature. Alex began to look around, trying to identify with the atmosphere and the sky; but nothing was out of the ordinary as far as he could tell. Where the wind was coming from, and the oddity of the abnormal drop in temperature, was completely random and out of the ordinary. Strange, he thought. The group had been discussing what they were wanting to do that night for the few hours their parents had allowed them out on the town. This particular part of the urbanized island was relatively safe, secured by a well-funded police force and noble citizenry. Many parents had no problem dropping their eleven year-old child off at the strip mall and returning later to pick them up. Several kids in Alex's public school often chose this place as a meeting spot to plan afternoon events. So far, the group had decided on walking down to the theatre to watch a new action film.

An unfamiliar voice had interrupted their conversation. "Hey there you two, what brings you guys here?"

Alex felt the need to faint when the pretty girl he had his eye on only seconds ago had suddenly approached the group. He could sense the subtle, delicate interest in companionship within the her query, and he immediately wanted say the word yes! aloud as if she was proposing. Rattling his mind and reattempting to phrase a proper response, Alex took a deep, but disguised breath and said, "Uhm, hi. We're about to go see a movie at the theatre down the block."

"We would ask if you'd like to join us," Kaiden suddenly said, a snobby inflection in his tone, "but this is a boys only group."

Annoyed by his friend's eleven year-old sexism, Alex slugged Kaiden in the shoulder and gave him a threatening scowl. "Don't mind him, of course you can hang with us," he said to the girl. "Kaiden, here, still believes in cooties-"

"-I do not!"

Rolling his eyes, and feeling his own shyness conquered by Kaiden's opportune moment of embarrassment, Alex extended his hand to the stranger and said, "My name's Alex. What's yours?"

 

[Ariel Blade]

Ariel didn't know what to think of the two people who were in front of her now. One was rude, very rude, and that just wasn't nice in the least way. She hadn't walked over to them in order to get yelled at, she had done it to be nice because they had looked like they had needed a little female company. Ariel turned to the rude boy, Kaiden his name was, "I'm sorry, but I don't take very nicely to sexism. And just for the record, this girl could beat your ass so hard that you'd be running in the opposite direction before I'd even taken one step towards you." Ariel said, an icy cold tone to her voice, and a fiery look in her eyes. She wasn't going to let him get away with what he had just said to her without a piece of her mind. Ariel wasn't going to accept sexism from anyway, and after being raised the way she had been raised, she wouldn't let anyone get away with handing it to her on a silver platter.

Turning back to the other boy, Alex was his name, the nicer boy, but the one with a staring problem. She didn't really like that either. "It's rude to stare." Ariel said, sighing. She didn't know why she kept on having that problem. She wouldn't do the same thing she had done to Kaiden to him, but she wouldn't be forgiving and forgetting so soon. She would wait for him to apologise, and if Kaiden didn't apologise to him she'd sock him in the face. She would teach him that it wasn't wise to mess with a member of the Blade family. And boy would he learn that lesson the hard way. Ariel turned back to Alex. "I'm Ariel. Ariel Blade. It's nice to meet you, and I think I might accompany you to that movie. But if you stare at me another time I'll sock you as hard as I will Kaiden if he opens his mouth to say another sexist comment." Ariel said, not sweet little miss any more. She had a temper, and it seemed that Kaiden had set it off. She felt sorry for Alex.