First Language Problems
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Location; ???

POV; Grian

A bright light in my eyes wakes me up from my sleep.

The thing I'm laying on is soft and cushiony. I have a blanket over me as well.

I stare up at the ceiling, trying to get my bearings. I remember a crystal, then an explosion. I remember freezing cold, and then buring heat.

I remember feeling like a million tiny knives were stabing me. And then when it got to the worst point, I remember it all fading away.

I sit up in bed and lift the blanket off. I hang my feet over the edge of the bed and take a look at my surroundings.

I'm in a decently sized bedroom that has a door that looks to open to a bathroom.

The room has a window along one of the walls, and a desk on other side.

There is a large bookcase as well, filled with all sorts of books.

I make a move to stand up but freeze.

'Something is wrong, shouldn't the bed's mattress make a noise?'

I frown and look down at the bed.

'Wait, why can't I hear the bed make any noise?'

I shuffle some of the blankets on the bed, but still I hear nothing.

I start to panic. 'Where is the sound!? Have I gone deaf?! How have I gone deaf?!'

I stand up fully, and take a few steps further away from the bed.

'Maybe it's just a passing thing.' I tell myself.

I walk over to the window and look out it. All I can see is darkness, 'Like staring deep into the void, or the End.' I realize.

I turn away from the window and walk over to the small desk by the bookcase.

On the desk is a book about galactic and how to follow Watcher rules.

'Yay, so exciting.' I think sarcastically.

I turn my attention to the bookcase, inside is many different books, however one of the books catches my eye.

I open the bookcase expecting a small squeak or sound, but I hear nothing.

I sigh and grab the book off of the shelf it was on.

It is a book about Watchers that have turned rebel or gone missing. 'This looks interesting.' I think as turn it over.

I open the book and start to look through the contents.

"What do you think you're doing?" A voice says from the doorway behind me.

I startle, and drop the book to the ground. The book falls to the ground, but it didn't make a sound.

I turn around sharply and look at the Watcher with a shocked expression.

I hadn't been able to hear anything since I woke up. Now, this Watcher comes in and says something and I hear it perfectly.

"Yes, you can hear galactic now that you're a Watcher." Zayne says while rolling his eyes.

"You kids, always so surprised about that." He mutters to himself.

Zayne then walks over to me and pulls out a potion. He places the potion in my hands.

I look down at the potion from Zayne and study its appearance.

The potion is black and it has swirls of gray around it. The bottle feels cold in my hands, like its contents were made of melted ice.

Personally, I don't think it could have looked more ominous.

Zayne waves at me to get my attention,  and gestures for me to drink the potion.

I think for a moment, 'I don't really have anything to lose and I don't think I'm going to be able to get out of drinking it.'

'Well, hear goes nothing.' I think while popping the lid off. I lift the bottle to my mouth and drink it down in one go.

The potion is chunky and cold at first, I start to slowly taste it though.

The potion tasted like curdled milk mixed with sour berries.

I gagged afterward, almost losing what I just drank.

"I know, it doesn't taste good. It's the only thing that works against the effects of having Watcher magic though." Zayne says, sighing.

I look back up at him scowling.

He opens his mouth to say something more, but I interrupt him before he can speak.

"Well, I don't remember asking for any of this." I say to him while glaring.

Zayne takes a step back and looks at me with a shocked expression.

"What?" I ask irritated.

"H-how did you do that?" He says, taking another step back.

"Do what?" I ask, now genuinely frustrated.

He takes another step back and reaches into his cloak pocket and pulls out a device of some kind.

He presses a button on the device and a beep is heard.

"What is going on!" I nearly shout at him.

Then, two heavily armed guards came bursting through the door behind Zayne.

"What do you need Master Zayne?" One of them asks Zayne.

"The Admin is a code red threat." He nearly shouts at the guards.

"Freeze, you're coming with us." One of the Watcher guards says. He lifts his spear and points it at my chest.

"What for? What did I do?" I ask raising my hands.

The other guard that didn't raise the spear, walks over behind me, grabs my hands and ties them behind my back.

The cord they used was a magic draining rope, and I could feel it block away magic that I had never even used before, nor did I even realize I had.

"Thank you, you can bring him to my office now. I am to inform Aiden of this at once."

"Yes sir." The Wather with the spear said.

I was then prodded in the back by the other guard to move forward, which I did.

I was led out of my room and followed both Zayne and the first guard to through a hallway to supposedly Zayne's office.

》~~~\['●']/~~~《

When we arrived at the door to Zayne's office, the guards led me in and forced me onto one of the chairs in the room.

They both then nodded at Zayne and walked out, leaving me and Zayne in his office.

"Please, just tell me what's going on." I beg him.

"I will when Aiden gets here." He says. He the turns away and walks over to his desk at the back of the room and shuffles through some of the papers.

The door to the room suddenly opens, and Aiden walks through.

He looks like he was just told a bomb was in this room however, and he was the only one who could diffuse it.

He looks at Zayne and then at me, a curious look on his face.

He walks over to a chair across from mine and sits down in it.

"Is it true, can you really already understand and speak galactic?" He asks me.

'What, understand and speak galactic? No, I can't do that. But then why does it sound so familiar?' I ask myself.

I rub my hand against my forehead, a headache forming as I try to think why it sounds so familiar.

"Well, answer me boy, can you or can you not?" Aiden asks again.

"I believe I can." I say, albeit a little hesitantly.

"Well well well, what do you know. An Admin whose first language is galactic." Aiden says, leaning back in his chair and stroking his chin.

I can feel my face go pale. 'Galactic as my first language? Who taught it to me?' I searched my memories for who had taught me galactic but found nothing.

"I'll take a guess by the look on your face that you have no idea who taught you galactic." Zayne said, walking over to us and siting in a chair next to Aiden's.

"Well, you probably have a Watcher relative who taught you. It is easier to learn than English, so that explains why it's your first language." Aiden said, folding his hands in his lap.

I look down at my lap, thinking.

"There is a way to tell who it is." Aiden says hesitantly.

Zayne shoots him a look, but I'm unable to read it.

Zayne sighs, "Well, I suppose we could try." He says to Aiden.

"Great, go take him, and when you're done, go join back up with the others." Aiden says standing up.

"Yes sir." Zayne replies.

Aiden nods before standing up, and leaving the room.

I look up at Zayne wondering where I'm going this time.

"Come on, we are going to make a quick stop at the infirmary before we join up with the other Watcher cadets." He says, walking over to me and helping me up.

"Can you untie my hands now then?" I ask him.

"Hmm, yes I suppose I can." He said before walking behind me and pulling out a dagger to cut the binds around my wrists.

I feel him slice the cords before they fall to the ground.

I rub my wrists where the cord was while following Zayne out of the room into the hallway.

"Why are we going to the infirmary?" I ask Zayne.

"You'll see soon enough when we get there." He said looking at me over his shoulder.

We walk along the hallways for awhile till we come to a set of double doors.

"Here we are." Zayne says opening the doors and leading me in.

He walks over to one of the nurses, leaving me to look around.

The place has many beds, and shelves of lots of different bottles.

There are no windows in the room at all.

"You must be Grian, correct? I am Noelani, the nurse that Zayne has entrusted you with until he gets back." Noelani said, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Yes, I'm Grian. Where did Zayne go?" I ask her.

"Wow, you really can already speak galactic. How fascinating." She says to me.

"Oh, to answer your question, I'm not sure." She said.

I hummed in reply. 'Of course she wouldn't know.'

"Here, follow me." She says, leading me over to one of the beds.

I sit down on the bed and she opens the drawer of the cabinet beside it.

"This won't hurt to bad." She says before drawing some of my blood from my arm.

It hurts a little bit, but it was nothing compared to what I went through last night.

"There, all done." Noelani says cheerfully.

I look at her confused, 'Why did she do that?' But roll my eyes after. I've given up on trying to understand how the Watchers work.

I hop off the bed to stand next to her.

"Ok, now let's get you back to Zayne and the others. Oh, but before I forget, Zayne told me to tell you that your new Watcher name is Xelqua." She says, leading me out of the infirmary.

Ok, there was definitely something familiar about that name. I could bet that I've heard it before.

"Why do we need Watcher names, can't we just use our normal names?" I ask her, still walking down the hallways.

"We use different names because it signifies the change of becoming a Watcher." She says.

"I guess that makes sense." I say back.

"It makes lots of sense. Being a Watcher is a glorious thing that you are lucky to be blessed with." She says back.

I roll my eyes at her. 'How can someone be so blind, yet be called a Watcher? They killed a Prime Admin in cold blood, and this is what she thinks.'

Finally, we arrive at the same room from where I first woke up in the End.

"Ah, Xelqua, glad to see you could finally join us." Zayne says to me.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who hasn't arrived yet." I say back, looking at the small group of Watcher-turned-players.

Last I remember there was 30 of us, now there is only 10.

"Ah, yes, sadly only you all survived the process." Zayne said, waving it off like it was something he delt with daily.

"What!" I shout at him. 'How dare he act so calm to the fact that only one-third of us survived.'

"Would you mind speaking not in galactic, so the rest of us can understand you guys?" One of the Players/Watchers asked, annoyed.

'Huh, what did that player say?'

"Watch your tongue, Xelqua." Zayne sternly said back to me.

My eyes go wide, I couldn't understand what he just said.

"What, never been told to do something before? Makes since, I guess that's why you're late." One of the Players says to me again.

I look at Zayne then back at the Players, then back at Zayne.

Zayne's eyes go wide with realization and he puts a hand over his mouth to stop from laughing.

"You-you can't understand English anymore." Zayne laughs.

"What? You were speaking English. I can understand English though, I've spoke it all my life!" I say to Zayne.

I'm starting to get worried. 'Was I going  to have to relearn English?"

Zayne sighs and turns to the others. He says something in English to them then turns back to me.

"Well Xelqua, apparently you are going to be learning English here, while the others are going to be learning galactic."

~~~\{°_°}/~~~

Location; Watcher Academy

POV; Third-person

A Watcher dressed in a normal Watcher uniform but with a red cross on the sleeve runs along the hallway that leads to Prince Aiden's study.

"Hurry, don't want to make the Prince mad Noelani." She mutters to herself.

She arrives at his door and knocks.

"Come in."

Noelani opens the door and walks inside the room.

The Prince is behind his desk at the back of the room in front of a giant series of shelves containing many different books.

"What is it Noelani?" The Prince asks.

"The blood test your requested on Xelqua's blood is done." She said to him.

"Oh, begin your report on it then." He orders her.

"Yes your Highness, I compared Grians DNA with the Watcher's here, it doesn't match any of them sir." Noelani says.

"Interesting, thank you Noelani, you may leave now." The Prince says.

"Yes sir, good day sir." She says, before turning around and leaving the room, closing the door behind her.

Prince Aiden leans back in his chair.

"I will find out about what you're hiding Xelqua, you shouldn't have even tried."

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And that's the end of Chapter IV.

I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to ask questions, I'll try to answer them as soon as possible.

Stay safe, happy, and warm.

I'll see ya'll back, in chapter V of Hidden Within.

Word count; 2135

After editing; 2456

:)