Chapter 9

Aalen walked a few feet from where Alegis and Jack were talking.
Taking a deep breath he disappeared.


Kalen was painting again: It was a picture of Nomen. The low-cut boots and the gray pantaloons had come out fine, the green jacket and white shirt were decent, but putting the black hair on the head was proving difficult. Kalen looked over his work again. The face looked pretty good except, it didn’t have eyes. Kalen started on the eyes and noticed something: the picture had moved.
Not the paper but the picture, the subject.
Shaking his head Kalen began on the eyes again.
Green eyes. Kalen felt as if they were boring into his skull.
Perfect.
“Yep,” said Aalen. “You’re good.”
“Where did you come from?”
“Absolutely nowhere.”
Kalen stopped “oh no, we are not doing that again...”
Aalen laughed
“Sorry, it's just so fun to jump across a world.”
Kalen nodded “Yeah. That’s your power I guess.”
“Yes it is, among others.”
“But what’s mine? I don’t seem to have any powers,” Kalen asked. “And please make it good.”
“You have two,” said Aalen “But you’ll have to figure them out on your own.”
Nomen walked into camp. “Hey Kalen, Hi Aalen."
Kalen held out his hand “Let’s see what you found.”
“How did you know? Here, it’s a pen. You-”
“Dropped it when I fell, right?”
Nomen scowled at Aalen. “Did you give him mind reading?”
Aalen chuckled “No, only you have that. I don’t need it and he isn’t reading your mind. Kalen is sort of predicting the immediate future.”
Kalen frowned “What’s the difference? And more importantly, how is that going to help?”
“Watch” said Aalen. Stooping down, Aalen grabbed something.
Kalen dodged the flying rock with ease. “Work on your aim Aalen.”
Aalen grinned “My aim was perfect, you just knew where the rock was going to be, and stepped out of the way.”
Kalen stepped back. An arrow was stuck in the ground where he had been standing.