ISLAND
"Calvin, come on, we have to find food."
Even before Calvin can open his eyes, he could already sense the bright glaring sunlight. He needed to squint before he could open his eyes. That's why it hadn't dawned in him immediately what was wrong. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked the man who had just woke him up.
"What are you talking about Calvin? It's me Henry." Calvin's face soured. The guy calling himself Henry looked nothing like the angelic face of Lazzi. He was kinda good-looking too but at the same time nondescript, which Calvin couldn't understand.
"Where's Lazzi?" he asked. "And how did you know my name?"
Henry's eyebrows furrowed. "Lazzi? Who's he?"
"He's Shijian, the Obelisk of Time."
"But I'm Shi...oh, you're not from around here, aren't you?"
"What?" Calvin looked around and confirmed what he thought last night. They were on an island, hopefully a habited one but from the signs of it that might be wrong. "Of course not!" he answered sharply. "I'm not Tarzan,"
"No, I mean, you're not from this reality."
"Wait what?"
"Wake up Calvin," Henry said before his vision got dark once again. And a few moments later, the light from the sun licked his eyelids open once again. "Calvin, you awake? Come on we have to find some water."
"Lazzi!" Calvin sat right up from his sandy bed. "What the fuck is happening?"
"Why? What's wrong?"
"There was this boy! He said he's Henry and he said he's Shijian and uh—"
"Shhh, hey it's okay," Lazzi sandwiched Calvin's perplexed face with his hands. "You must have jumped from a different reality. You can do that, remember?"
"That was fucking trippy man!"
"It's cool though, right? You must have jumped from a reality where I wasn't the one who won the title of the Inheritor."
"Yeah..." Calvin replied, but his mind was now focused on the calloused hands of Lazzi, fingers pressed slightly but with firmness on the edge of his jaw. He had no choice but to shove it away.
"Your Obelisk is getting more active. That's a good sign."
"What if I got stuck there though?" Calvin's thought swirled. "Or what if this isn't the reality I should be. How could I know?"
Lazzi furrowed his thick eyebrows and reoriented his hand now on his chin, massaging it firmly, which reminded Calvin of classic detective movies he had watched before. "I don't think you'll be stuck in a different reality. I read before that you need to bridge the four Obelisks together to live in an alternate reality permanently."
"That doesn't make me feel any better, what if I wake up with a similar looking Lazzi and it turns out it wasn't my reality?"
"I guess you'll have to figure that on your own. Come on, we have to find water. And then hopefully we can build a place we can sleep for the next night."
Calvin scratched his head. "Wait, we're staying here? We don't even know where we are. Ophelia might be in danger."
"We have to. Ophelia gave us time to recover and prepare for Ortus. And she'll be fine. She can teleport easily to escape, remember?" Lazzi began to walk away, his hand supporting the aching side of his stomach.
"How can you tell that?" he asked. "If she can escape, why hasn't she come to us?"
"I don't know. But I do know, Ortus wouldn't kill her yet. She wouldn't kill any of us not until we gave our Obelisk to her."
"Lazzi wait!"
"What?"
"Ophelia forgot to transport my crutches...again." he said in a tiny squeak.
Lazzi stared at him for a second waiting for it to be a joke but it wasn't. He sighed as he dragged his feet back to where Calvin was and offered his hand.
"Come, I'll just carry you around."
"Can't I just stay—hey what are you doing?" before Calvin could finish protesting Lazzi was already grabbing his underarm like a baby. Lazzi pulled him up but halfway his abdomen flashed with pain and the two fell back to the soft and warm sand. "Oh fuck! Get off me you big—" Calvin pushed Lazzi's chest off his face.
"Sorry I didn't mean to! Wow, you're heavier than you look."
"No man, you just need to lift more weights."
"Hey, I'm injured. Wait till I recover, I'll flip you over like a pancake."
Calvin rolled his eyes. "How are we gonna survive in this place if we're both like this? Can't Ophelia transport us somewhere there's available food?"
"Come on this is nothing. Back when I was training to be the next Obelisk, we were left to survive in a forest for a month."
Calvin scoffed. "Sure, you did!"
"What does that mean?"
"I mean, you don't have to show-off right now."
Lazzi pouted. "But I'm not showing off. I'm just sharing it to you."
"Well sharing that doesn't help."
"Why are you so cranky?"
Calvin sighed. "Yeah, I'm sorry. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed with all of this shit. I mean, I couldn't walk. And my dad is just gone. And we're here in the middle of fucking nowhere. And I don't even know if we will survive."
"We'll survive, alright? We'll be okay, after all we're the Obelisks of this Universe." Lazzi assured him. He looked at him and he saw what was rare for most people in his life: compassion. Calvin might have thought wrong about him. "Come on, let's find some water." Lazzi stooped down and let Calvin wrap his arm on his shoulder. Then he placed his right hand back at Calvin's underarm for support. "Alright, on the count of three, one...two...three!" Lazzi pressed his feet on the sand, pulling Calvin along him.
"You know what. I could use some smoke right now?" Calvin said as he and Lazzi began to hobble away.
"You smoke?"
"Yeah, but I haven't for quite a long time now. Is smoking still a thing in the future?"
"Oh yeah. They even made it more addictive but less harmful."
"Fucking future, am I—wait!"
"What?"
"Stop! I felt something on the sand."
Lazzi paused on his track which proceeded by Calvin brushing the sand with his semi-limp legs. After a few kicks, a bright shiny object surfaced.
"What is that?" Lazzi asked.
"I don't know. Take it."
Lazzi leaned over while still supporting Calvin, and pulled out the shiny object. It was a small aluminum box. He opened it with his thumb and popped came sticks of cigarettes.
Lazzi and Calvin looked at each other in surprise. The realization made Calvin's lips shift into a catty grin. "Okay, I'm sold." He snatched the box from Lazzi and instinctively twirled a stick between his middle and index finger. It was surprisingly dry and not wrinkled. "Shit, I'm really lucky! Thank you, Obelisk!" Calvin raised the metal box in the air like a trophy but it suddenly disappeared, rather it was swiftly taken away from his hand.
"Wait-what?" he asked in confusion.
"Smoking is bad for you." Lazzi preached. "You need to have good lungs especially when running away from Ortus."
"What the fuck? When did you take it? Give it back man! You're such a buzzkill!"
"I threw it at the sea."
"Oh no you don't. Fuck you man! I just got those..." Calvin sounded like a kid.
Lazzi shook his head with dismay. "Why didn't you wish for water? Or anything essential?"
"Hey, I didn't even think that'll work."
"When did you activate your Obelisk? Your eyes didn't glow at all."
"I don't know. It just worked. Why? Is there something wrong?"
Lazzi shook his head and they began to walk again. "Nothing. I'm assuming you're not in full control over it yet that's why it sorta spills from time to time. Or...."
"Or what?"
"Or you have mastery over it that you don't need to activate it at all."
Calvin snickered. "You mean I'm better at you already at using Obelisk?"
Lazzi squinted. "What? No way!". "Might I remind you that just a few minutes ago you were crying that you might be stuck in a different reality."
"No, I wasn't!"
"Then prove it to me." Lazzi turned his head at the edge of the forest in front of them. He grabbed Calvin's arm and pulled him closer. "How about you use your Obelisk to find us potable water? Find us a river or something."
"Is that a challenge Shijian? Because prepare for your ass to get whooped."