Unfazed

Chapter Seven

"Umm yeah?", Noah replied in perplex.

"What are  you doing here? Why do you keep stalking me?", Catherine howled in anger.

"Stalking? Catherine I live next door.", Noah said calmly. He could see the rage in Catherine's eyes dwindling away.

"Ohhh", Catherine mumbled, coming back into senses.

They both realized everything looked different. There was suddenly light in the room, candles were burning on the study table placed right next to the fireplace. The room was bigger than what it seemed to be in the dark and a medium sized ancient chandelier was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. A giant book shelf made of light-brown furbished maple wood was placed on one end of the room. The room was full of books but couldn't be passed as a library. On the other end of the room was another door and on the corner of the room, a fairly large table was placed with books left open and a few maps pinned to the table.

"What just happened?", Noah exclaimed mystified.

"I don't know. It was an empty dark room when I was seeing it across the doorwa-", Catherine was gesturing towards the doorway through which they both had fallen, when she stopped mid-sentence.

Noah, confused, followed Catherine's gaze and his heart started pounding in his chest at the sight.  The doorway had vanished. There was no doorway from where they had entered the room, instead the wall was covered with paintings.

"What the fuck", Noah mumbled, his heart still pounding fast against his chest.

Noah and Catherine were astounded, they were looking at the wall where the doorway was supposed to be when the door at the end of the room opened and two people walked in while talking to each other.

One was a short Asian man almost bald and the other was a tall woman with blonde curly hair falling on her shoulder. She had tied up her hair in a small bun and the rest of her hairs were falling down. They both were wearing cloaks with similar pattern of petals and leaves made with golden thread on the hem and at the belt. The woman was holding a book open in both her hands and the short man was holding what looked like an old map of some kind.

"We will need more people for this, Grace", the short man said.

"I agree. Tell Ellis to spread the word. Tell her to get more Cautelas in the army.", the blonde woman instructed.

"I think we sho-", the short Asian man stopped mid sentence when he saw Noah and Catherine in the study room.

"Who are you?", asked the short man. The woman standing next to him looked up from the book.

"Hello, Sir. I live next door. I did not know Ms. Aritzvah had sold the place.", Noah said, feeling dumb the very second he finished his sentence. Clearly this wasn't Ms. Aritzvah's house. Noah would know, he had spend most of his childhood in that house. This looked nothing like he remembered.

"Don't lie to me young man. There is no house next door.", the short man said, his eyebrows furrowed and his sight pinned at Noah. A scowl made its way on the lips of a short man.

"Who are you and how did you get here?", the short man asked again. His voice deeper and stronger, it almost scared Noah.

"We came from the doorway", said Catherine pointing towards the wall with paintings.

"I said stop lying!", the man howled in anger.

"Lynn!", the blonde woman said loudly, as if admonishing the short man.

"There must be an explanation. Let me ask them", the blonde woman said looking at the short man.

"Do you know where are you?", the blonde woman asked Noah and Catherine.

"Virginia?", Catherine answered slowly, as if asking herself.

"Where?", the short man asked, bemused.

"Virginia. The United States?", Noah said stepping in the conversation.

The blonde woman glanced at the short man and nodded slightly."An anomaly", she said.

"Why are you sitting on the floor?", the blonde woman asked Catherine with concern.

"I think I twisted my ankle. It hurts. I can't stand up", Catherine replied.

"Lynn, take them to the guest room upstairs and call an Aduivas , ask them to tend to the girl here.", the woman said beckoning towards Catherine.

"Pardon me, what is your name?", the blonde woman asked.

"Catherine",she replied.

"And I am Noah. Pleased to make your acquaintance.", Noah said gesturing his hand forward in order to shake hand.

The blonde woman had now placed the book on the table at corner of the room. She turned to face Noah and Catherine, her head high and body straight. She held her hands together and gazed where Noah and Catherine were standing.

"Catherine. Noah. Welcome to Gryneff. ", she said.

Noah looked at the two people standing in front of him, he noticed their boots, velvet knee length boots were worn by them. The short man, Noah figured his name must be Lynn, had dirt on his boots as if he had jumped into a puddle. Lynn also had dirt on his sleeve and at the elbow of the cloak.

Weird, Noah thought.

From the moment Grace told them they were in Gryneff Noah wanted to laugh so hard. He knew this was a made up tale. There is no such place as Gryneff on this planet, Gryneff is the name of a kingdom from his favourite childhood tale, one which Ms. Aritzvah used to tell him. He used to listen to the same story over and over again. By the time he was eleven he remembered it verbatim, just like Ms. Aritzvah. Never once did he see her reading the tale from the book. Never. She would just sit on the sofa and Noah would place his head on her lap and she would start telling him the story.

Whoever these people are, they are lying. This much Noah knew. But he decided to tell this to Catherine when they are alone.

Even though, people often took Noah to be a nonchalant soul, he was never a distrait observer. Rather he was vigilant. He had seen the scabbard on the left side of the maps pinned on the large table. He figured these people have swords. So, he decided it's best to comply with their drama for the time being and once Catherine and him are alone, he would tell Catherine about their sick drama and they would elope.

Noah just needed a plan for their elopement.

A window would do. Or maybe a cellphone, he thought.

Noah just had to wait for the right moment now.