Chapter 4

“Wait, you’re Frost?!” I couldn’t help but ask the bartender. Although, now that I thought about it, there were clues regarding his identity all along. The snowflake tattoo, the snow-based powers, and his general appearance. Even the extensive knowledge he had about the various fundamentals of the untethered should have been a clue. It left me feeling a bit stupid after finding out his identity.

It was Frank who answered my question though. “He didn’t tell you that he was Frost. Typical!” All of this was said with a fond grin as if he had come to expect this behaviour from him.

The Cheshire grin was still present on Frost’s face as he replied, “I’ve got to admit that it was a nice change of pace. Everyone always treats me with such respect that it becomes boring to talk to everyone. ‘Mr. Frost!’ or ‘Frost sir’. No matter how much I tell everybody to just call me Frost. It was nice to speak to someone who didn’t care about my identity and just asked whatever was on his mind.”

I was still trying to get over the fact that this unassuming man was the venerable leader of the Untethered in this city.

Ignoring my momentary dumbfounded state, Frank and Frost proceeded to have a conversation of their own.

“So, Frank, how did you come across this one?”, Frost asked.

“David here is my childhood friend, actually. He didn’t even give any indication that he was a potential Untethered though. The illness afflicting us before our untethering affected him before I could prepare him for it. He had already been ill a few weeks before I could give him the pill.”

Frost gained a look of understanding on his face as he said, “Ah, So, this was who you asked the pill for. I was worried when you came for the pill in such a hurry.”

Frank said, “Yeah, the transition was really taking a toll on him. I only got the opportunity to give him the pill today. After the transition, I explained a few things to him before I brought him here. I figured he would be better served asking his questions here as I didn’t want to confuse him or provide him with wrong information.”

I found this a good time to jump into the conversation. “Hey, speaking of you breaking into my house this evening and scaring the life out of me, I am curious about the pink fire you showed me at my house. You a fire magician or something?”

Frank just gave an amused snort before replying, “No, nothing so common for me. My ability is emotional manipulation and control. Basically, I can absorb emotions from people in my surroundings and convert them into energy. That pink fire, as you so eloquently put it, was your own anxiety that I converted into heat energy, which you perceived as fire.”

I was still puzzled about the colour though. “Why was it pink though? Shouldn’t energy still manifest as a normal coloured fire?”

Frank was quick to reply to clear up my misunderstanding. “The energy takes on the colour of the emotion I absorb. Anxiety is pink; hence the fire was pink. And before you ask, no, envy is not green.”

I had always been fascinated with emotions given colours in phrases. To think Frank had a power like that was fascinating and frankly, very exciting for me personally. I was sure my glee could be seen on my face as both the guys had grins on their faces.

I was eager to know more about my friend’s abilities though. “Hey, how many slots do you have? And can I see your tattoo?”

Frank looked guarded for a minute before looking at Frost and back to me. He stared at me for a few seconds before finally coming to a decision. Looking up at me, he said, “First of all, mate, don’t ask anyone about their tattoo. Slots are considered okay. But tattoos are considered a huge violation of privacy, as they represent the innermost self of an individual. Also, never show anyone your tattoo unless you absolutely trust them. A person can find out a lot about you just by looking at your tattoo. Your powers, your motivations, sometimes even your weaknesses.”

I solemnly nodded at him before he continued, “But you are my close friend and I trust you; I am gonna show you my tattoo. Just don’t tell anyone, alright?”

I nodded eagerly at him before he gained a fond look on his face. Looking around to make sure no one was looking in my direction, he quickly rolled up his jeans. There, on his right calf, was a tattoo of a two-coloured heart. One half was coloured the standard red, while the other half was aqua blue. He had it exposed for only a few moments before quickly rolling down his jeans.

He said with a hint of pride in his voice, “I am two-slotted. Although, I have unlocked only one of my powers. Other than me, I know only Frost here who has two slots.”

Frost interrupted our conversation by saying, “Careful there Frank, lest you get a big head.” Although he said it with a hint of amusement in his voice, hinting at the fact that he wasn’t serious. From what I had seen of their interaction, Frost seemed genuinely fond of Frank. And the feeling was duly reciprocated. Frank wasn’t kidding when he said that Frost was his mentor. Frost certainly was treating Frank as if he was his protégé.

Frost broke me out of my reverie by saying, “Let’s go, guys. Let David have his first experience of a patrol and learn about some of the unpleasant elements of ‘Dimension’.”

Frank just looked at him with a sceptical look on his face and said, “Are you sure about this, Frost? I mean, he just became an untethered today. Wouldn’t it to be soon for him to go out like this, without any training or combat experience?”

Frost still had a cool air about him, as if me having no combat experience or abilities was a triviality. He continued going about his task and putting away everything before saying, “Frank, trust me on this. Today is a good day for his first day of patrol. He wouldn’t even have to do anything. He could just watch us in action for now. We will just let him take on the weakest of whatever we find out there. Do you really want him to skip today? Think what day it is today.”

Frank looked puzzled for a moment before a look on realisation passed over his face. He grinned before looking at me and saying, “Man, I can’t wait to see your reaction.”

I was quite irritated to be left out of the loop and before I could tell them where they could stuff it, they just made out of the building and motioned me to follow them. I quickly made my way out of the door and saw that they were there waiting for me. After making eye contact with me, Frank just quirked his eyebrows upward before looking towards the sky. Following his line of sight, I saw something that was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

It’s strange how a person never really looks at the sky unless they are actually looking at it, admiring the stars or the moon. At least, I don’t. I could never tell you if any night was a full moon or half-moon or no moon at all, without looking at the sky, that is. But even in my obliviousness regarding the night sky, I was positively sure that there weren’t supposed to be two moons in the sky. And there certainly shouldn’t be a red moon in the sky. And when I say red, I mean blood-red. It was beautiful, two moons within inches of each other but as different as they could be. At the same time, it was positively spooky. The scene invoked emotions in me that I didn’t recognise, that I wasn’t sure I was capable of. My emotions must have shown on my face as I could hear snickering coming from Frank’s direction. Looking down, I saw that even Frost was trying hard to keep from snickering himself. Frank, meanwhile, looked on the cusp of breaking down in full-blown laughter. But I was surprised to find out that, at that moment, I didn’t really care. I found myself looking up once more, morbidly curious to see if the red moon was still there. It was.

Frank interrupted my train of thoughts by saying, “Don’t worry. The moon isn’t always red.”

I quickly retorted, “Why are you acting as if the moon being red is the only problem here? It’s not even ‘the’ moon. It’s just a moon. One of two moons.”

Frank just proceeded to wave off my indignance, “Meh. You get used to it. Just accept it as one of the quirks of the dimension, if you will.”

That reply didn’t serve to alleviate my concerns even a single bit. But I realised I wouldn’t make much headway in this direction. So, I turned towards Frost and asked him, “Why is one of the moons red anyways?”

Frost replied with an air of nonchalance that was positively maddening. In fact, both of their cavalier attitudes regarding this matter made me want to tear my hair out. “Don’t worry, it’s only for today. And while there are two moons for the whole dimension on this planet, the red moon only appears in certain places. If the concentration of miasma is very high in a certain location of the world, the second moon, Luna, appears to be red to the people in that geographical location. It is us today, it could be literally anywhere else tomorrow. There are some ways to predict the concentration of miasma over a certain location in the future, but none of them is truly scientific or without its flaws.”

“How do you predict the concentration though?”, I enquired.

“That’s one of the things we’re going to show you tonight. Don’t worry, tonight will be a good experience for you.” Frost replied before leading us out of the alleyway into the main street.

We walked for a few minutes silently before I remembered something that had been bothering me. I turned to Frank and asked, “Hey, you guys keep talking about some kind of patrol. What is up with that?”

Frank and Frost just looked at each other before ignoring me altogether. I was flabbergasted at them but kept walking in order to keep up with them. I don’t know, a sinister-looking red moon hanging over your head leaves you reluctant to be out alone. We entered an alleyway and there I saw something that froze the blood in my veins. There was a creature there that I could only describe as a bull. With a few major differences. This bull had only one red eye with no pupil. And it was larger than any bull I had ever seen.

Frank then turned towards me and said in a grim tone, “And that, my friend, is why we need the patrol.”

I turned towards him with horror and confusion raging through my mind, desperate for some answers. But before I could get a word out, the bull let out a blood-curling bellow and charged us, specifically towards me.

I feel like there is no shame in admitting that I froze. Couldn’t move a muscle. The sudden onslaught by a creature whose appearance itself had shocked me into inaction was sure to lead to my demise. But in fear-induced paralysis, I couldn’t even close my eyes and was thus destined to see the monster strike the killing blow with my own eyes.

Or that is what would have happened had it suddenly not frozen over. It was literally encapsulated in a block of ice. One moment it was charging towards me, the next moment it was as frozen as me with no escape. Looking around in a haze, I saw Frost walking towards the bull with slow, measured steps, as if a bull hadn’t been about to end my life. That was when I realised who had frozen the bull just before it hit me. Frost made it to the bull and just pushed it. It fell and literally shattered and then dissipated into red smoke, leaving no trace behind of a monstrous bull or the ice that had encased it. I had great trouble in coming to terms with the fact that a creature out of the scariest horror stories out there had met its demise in such a tame manner.

“What the fuck was that?” That was all I had the sense to muster in the form of a question.

Frank replied, his tone a mixture of amusement and understanding, “That was a miasma-monster. Or at least a type of it. That miasma-monster is called a cyclops, the name derived from the Greek legends, of course. It was a specific type of cyclops too, a ‘Taurus’. One of the weaker ones out there, to be honest.”

“That was one of the weaker ones? You are fucking kidding me, right?”, I shouted in disbelief. That thing, which Frost had just called ‘one of the weaker ones’, had just scared me out of my pants. The nonchalance the two men in my company were displaying regarding the matter beggared belief.