Hiee my lovely readers! 

I am very happy to announce that the sequel to 'A Larvikite for a Soul' is ready to be out! It would be the second instalment in the trilogy series - An Atomic Attraction. You can expect the first update in a few weeks tops. But I am here with something else for you - A sneak peek into the second book - 'Rewinding the Clock'. It can't be read as a stand-alone and continues with the story of Anana and Callan! That is enough for the day. Read on, to the first chapter!

|REWINDING THE CLOCK|
|CHAPTER 1|
|OUR NEW DWELLING|

I closed the book and kept it back in its place. Picking the cup of coffee, I went out and threw all of the contents into the plants. The drink was just too hot for my liking. And when you can have your Dynol all to yourself for the next three days, you live their life your way.

Flipping the eighth hook on my belt, I was immediately transported to my home which was none other than the camp established by me four months ago.

Yes, four months have passed since my adventures in Theodora's body and in these four months, my life has taken a complete turn. To be honest, at first, both Callan and I were afraid to take on the responsibility but then Zubene convinced us by becoming a true leader and a mentor for us all.

I don't even know where the camp is. With the help of Zubene, Callan had done some work on a system which allowed all of us to get magically transported to the place whenever we flip the eighth hook of our chain belt. The 'place' has an orange-yellow glow in the sky which makes us think it is the realm between the lives. But this place is very different from that realm. For starters, this place has land, which isn't present in that realm. Also, in this place, we appear in a very solid form within the body of our host, contradictory to the spirit form we attain in the between life realm.

The land in this place has no end but the camp does have a self-allocated boundary. Being square-shaped, the camp has a pile of rocks in the north and a single huge building towards the south. The fields in between stretch infinitely in both the remaining directions. However, as an unsaid rule, no one goes far away from the building. At least I don't. And if I don't break a rule, you can be sure that it is still unbroken.

As usual, I appeared near the rocks and began my journey toward the building. The three-winged single storey building looked more like a castle in progress than a camp. The middle wing held the only entrance which opened up into a huge foyer. Towards the back was Zubene's house while the west and east wing were the other names of the training and recreation centres respectively.

Since Zubene is the only one who actually lives here, he is the only one with a house of his own. Though he has given everyone strict instructions to enter his house only in case of emergencies, Callan and I have thoroughly explored it.

Initially, we both had planned to keep our promise. But then Callan saw Zubene arranging some gadgets in his house. Our curiosity won and we managed to take a quick glimpse of the place. His house had one bedroom for him and four other rooms which no one apart from him was supposed to enter. Out of the four rooms, three of them were filled with gadgets of all kinds. The fourth one was locked, but we had a very clear idea that the fourth one would be very similar to the other three. None of the room made any sense to me but Callan being Callan fell in love with them.

He wanted to explore each instrument in every room and he wanted my help as a lookout. At first, I helped him only for the craze of breaking the rules, but now, I was his certified partner in crime. Many of the things that Callan did and explained to me went above my head but he always managed to describe to me the use of everything in common terms, and I am bound to say that this technology was awesome. Callan was always ready to explore more but we have to take care to not be caught by Zubene. Till now we have a clean record and I intend to keep it that way.

Entering the place, I realized how much I had missed it in the past two days I had been unable to visit. I had a class planned for the day, so without further delay, I made my way directly toward the west wing. While planning the interior of this place, Zubene had taken special care to make it as simple as possible. The west wing and the east wing were made exactly similar but for entirely different purposes. Each wing had a foyer opening into five different rooms. In the west wing, the five rooms were - an archery arena, a sword-fighting arena, an armoury, a shooting range and a classroom for Zubene. The east wing was completely similar in layout but different in purpose.

I saw a few people on my way but didn't stop to greet them. It was only when I reached the west foyer that I heard two very familiar sounds.

"I understand, Callan. I do. But I have a class too and I know Anana. She will be here any moment." A girl's voice was heard very loudly. I immediately recognized it as Rachel's.

Smiling to myself, I made my way toward them, cutting their conversation in between.
"Someone talked about me?" I asked loudly causing both of them to turn towards me.

"Oh look!" Callan exclaimed. "Who has decided to grace us with our presence after two whole days?"

"Hello to you too Cal. Hello Rachel." I greeted cheerfully despite their sour mood. Looks like something is off.

"Don't 'Hello' us. Where have you been for the past two days?" Callan snapped at me, waving away my greetings.

"My Dynol had been busy," I said with a shrug. Surely, I must have told them before going.

"And you didn't think it was important to mention that to us." Guess I didn't. "Your students just started coming and we had no idea what to tell them." Rachel scolded me with her hands on her hips.

Quite frankly, I think she didn't need that stance to prove her point. Out of all my friends here, I find Rachel most intimidating. A mafia loving person, she was really strict and getting on her bad side wasn't the first thing I planned to do on returning.

"I did." I told them both, "I told Cal before going. He must have forgotten."

"Hey! Don't lie. When did you tell me?" He retorted instantly.

"Didn't I drink your coffee the other day claiming that you can drink mine later since I won't be coming? I also told you about my class today for which I would be returning." I spoke confidently.

"You what?" He asked looking really confused. Rachel was looking between us both assessing us. I guess I was a better actor for my fake confidence won.

"Seriously Callan? And here you were wasting my time due to your mistake. I have more important work than these." Rachel muttered and before giving either of us a second thought, she scrambled away.

"Ana," Callan began but I cut through him.

"Meet you after the class. People are waiting." And I ran away.

When Zubene had told us about protection, he had two different approaches to achieve it.

The first one was knowledge. He had decided to give us classes about all the things we should know. Initially, he taught us the terminology for different things. We are called Plantos possessing Dynols. Dihiryn were the creatures of the dark and he called himself a henuriad. Later on, he started with lessons on different types of Dihiryns and how to defeat them. This was quite interesting and informative.

The second method of protection was self-defence. Zubene has given a free hand for every Plantos to select any weapon of their own choice, but it was compulsory to choose one. Archery was taught by me, sword-fighting by Callan and shooting by Rachel. Rachel was another Plantos just like us who excelled in shooting.

I entered my room to see five other plantos waiting for me. Isla, Isaac, Frederick, Robert and Zenith were all talking amongst themselves.

"You guys can start with practising even if I don't come," I told them all, breaking their conversation.

"Hey, Anana." Isla and Issac greeted me together. I just rolled my eyes at their greeting handing them their bows. These twins always spoke together to creep me out.

Yes, twins! Don't ask me how twins are even possible as Plantos. Both of them are known to possess only twins and hence the observation.

For the next hour, all of us practised rigorously. Usually, I didn't practice with my students but today I was keen to be back in my element.

An hour and a half later, I finally concluded.

"Good practice guys. You can pack up now. Meet me before going." I told them as I packed my equipment.

Fifteen minutes later, they all gathered around me expectantly.

"Who's the best performer for today?" Issac asked expectantly.

"Isla," I said without missing a beat. "Sorry, Issac." I then added with a smile.

Issac huffed and looked at his sister from up to down as Isla mock bowed him causing all of us, except the brother, to burst out laughing.

"Though I don't think I need to repeat my words," I spoke as the laughter settled down.

"No, you don't," Robert spoke up. "We all know we can do better, and precision and concentration are the keys." He said mocking my words.

"Hey!" I said faking hurt "I am the teacher. You don't mock my words in front of me."

"Okay, Ma'am." Robert again mocked earning a playful slap from my side. It was true that they were my students but there was never any scene of formality between any of us. They were more of my friends and I enjoyed this fact quite a lot.

Before I could say something, a knock on the door interrupted us. Frederick went to open the door to see Callan waiting on the other side.

"You done?" He asked loudly across the room.

"Yeah!" I shouted back "Come in."

His invitation was enough of a signal for my students to leave.

"Bye Anana." Issac and Isla waved together before leaving. Then reaching the door both of them stopped near Callan.

"Hey Callan, Bye Callan." Both of them sang together. He just smiled and, giving them a nod, increased his footsteps towards me.

His actions did not go unnoticed and as soon as the twins were out of hearing distance, I burst out laughing.

"What was that?" I asked between my laugh.

"They creep me. How can they say everything together?" He muttered pretending a fake shiver, causing me to laugh more.

"You are so stupid," I said matter of factly.

"Yeah. Stupid I can deal with. But I am sure I don't suffer from memory loss." He said immediately sobering the mood.

Jumping from my chair, I made my way toward the almirah and started placing all the equipment back in it.

"Ana..." He called from behind.

Oops, I guess.

"Yes, Cal..." I muttered slowly turning around.

"I have been thinking..." he began.

"Must have been difficult," I exclaimed cutting him out.

Callan scowled at my words. "It's not funny." But in his eyes, I saw a glint of humour and that was enough to make me smile foolishly.

"Ana!" He snapped unable to keep the mood serious.

"Shut it, Cal." I snapped back. " You want me to confess, I'll do it. I never told you about my leave."

"You..." he looked at me confused at my words.

"I just didn't want to hear Rachel's scolding. So I blamed it on you. And see it worked. No one got scolded." I explained to him coolly.

Callan looked at me in bewilderment for a second before shouting "Are you out of your mind?"

"No!" I snapped back " And don't shout at me. I know you have eaten all my food and drank my coffee for the past two days, so if anything I should be angry at you but it's okay. I forgive you." I told him.

"You forgive me?" He asked raising an eyebrow at me.

"Yep, I do," I spoke confidently causing a huge smile to appear on his face.

"What are you, Ana." He muttered shaking his head.

"Your best friend," I told him with a wink. Then linking my arm with his, I pulled him to walk with me. "Come on, let's go to the kitchen. I am hungry."

Callan complied and with two big smiles, we made our way out of the room.