Novus Vita - Chapter 3

I must have been prodding the 'scales' for a while and I must have been focused on them a lot because Will arrived home without me noticing and now I heard the front door open again so I assumed that my mom was home now as well. I lowered my shirt and went out to greet my mom. "Hey," I said while closing the bedroom door behind me.

"Yeah, hey James," she replied. She looked as though, again, she had another rough day. Funny how I don't really know what she does for a job. Must be tough because she's always like this when she gets home. I also noticed that Will has sitting on the living room couch watching TV. He was watching Ben 10. Typical. "How was your day?" asked Mom.

"Okay," I lied. I didn't really want to tell her that I almost starved to death and threw up today. That seemed kind of harsh. I didn't want to make her day any worse. "How was yours?"

"...okay," she replied. She was obviously lying, like me. I suddenly remembered the blue patch and was going to tell her. However I decided not to. It wasn't the best thing to say at the time. I mean, here is my mom back from a hard day at work and I'm going to tell her that 'hey, there's a patch of blue scales growing on my side.'

I sighed quietly and replied, "that's good," before retreating back into my room. Now's not the time to tell her. I should just monitor the patch and hope that it doesn't get worse. If it does I'll tell her and I'll go see a doctor. I can't feel it or anything but I'm still worried.

I turned on my computer unpacked my textbooks and stared at them yet again. I sighed and thought to myself, I really should begin to study, the first exam is next Tuesday which is exactly a week from now. I wandered over to the books and picked a random one up. It was an English book. I groaned and sat by my desk where the computer was booting up. I opened the textbook to the first page and almost gave up trying but something came over me and I suddenly felt motivated to study. Odd, I thought, I've never felt this focused before.

It must have been a while before I took a break. I counted the pages I looked over and wrote notes of and found out that I went through fifty pages. That's a new record for me. Usually I only make it through two pages before something distracts me and I lose focus. Plus that's in class where I'm supposed to pay attention. I didn't just break my record, I shattered it. I looked up at my computer's clock where it said that three hours had passed. Oh wow. I guess it's time for a break then, I thought feeling very relieved.

I was about to go on the computer and play a bit of TF2 but I noticed the amulet that I placed next to the monitor this morning. There was something familiar about the blue gem in the centre. I reached over and grabbed the silver chain and inspected the amulet. The colour. Suddenly I figured out why it was familiar. I lifted up my shirt to reveal the blue patch of scales again and compared the colours of the gem in the amulet and the scales. They matched. Maybe this amulet has something to do with this, I thought as I rotated the amulet in my hands to see if there's anything else I can learn from it.

As I began to look at the underside of the amulet I noticed small markings engraved onto it. They looked kind of like words. I peered closer into it and tried to read what it said. "Novus Vita," it said. Huh, I thought, I wonder what that means. I put the amulet down and went on the computer for the rest of the day.

Night finally came as I closed out of the game. I was feeling tired. Not tired like last night where I collapsed onto my bed without thinking but tired because I've had a long day. I was getting ready to go to bed when I was suddenly struck with a realisation with the strange words that were on the back of the amulet. I think it's Latin for something, I thought as I picked the amulet back up and read the words again. "Novus Vita," I read out aloud. Seems Latin. I went back onto my computer and searched on the internet for a free online Latin translator. I found one and typed in the amulet's words. In English they translated into, "Novel Life". Great, I thought, that doesn't even make any sense, these free online translators aren't very good. Maybe one of the language teachers at the school knows what it really translates to? I wrote down the words on a scrap piece of paper and packed it into my bag. I then hopped into my bed and fell asleep.

The next thing I knew I was standing in a wide open plain. It was kind of barren as there wasn't much there; just some grass and wind. It was also quiet and tranquil. It was kinda nice. I didn't have much time to admire it though because something suddenly happened. The ground began to shake and break apart. Cracks formed in the earth as the earthquake intensified. I cowered as pieces of the ground seemed to fall into a dark abyss. The ground was disappearing. I tried to move but, for some reason, my legs weren't responding and I was left standing there as the world crumbled around me. The solid piece of land quickly gave out and I was left falling into the abyss.

At that point I found myself in my room, sweating, with daylight breaking through my window. It was a dream. A very vivid dream but a dream nevertheless. I stayed in my bed for a few more minutes trying to recollect myself afterward. I've never usually had dreams that strange. In fact, I don't usually have any dreams at all.

I finally worked up the strength to pull myself out of bed and got dressed for today. I repacked my textbooks into my bag and threw it over my shoulders and left my room. This time I was smarter about packing lunch and grabbed a small packet of chips and a fruit drink and put them in my bag. I made toast again, holding off on the peanut butter, even though I thought that it wasn't to blame for the 'accident' yesterday. I then said goodbye to Dad again who didn't really reply, again, and to go to school, with the Latin words in my bag.

The warmth from before hadn't really gone away. If anything, it intensified. I suppose it makes sense if it's getting closer to Summer. I arrived at the school and walked right in. I was on time this time so there were lots of other students shuffling around the corridor. I decided that now would be a good time to talk to a language teacher about the Latin words.

I took a few lefts and rights before I arrived at Mrs Keyes', the school's only language teacher who teaches a variety of languages, office. I knocked on the door and went inside. She was sitting behind a desk with a mountain of paperwork, or, to be more accurate, unmarked tests, working through them. "Yes?" she asked.

"Umm, I've got something that I should show you," I replied while opening my bag to fetch the little piece of paper inside. I grabbed it out and handed it to her. "I was hoping you could tell me what it meant."

Her first reaction was, "Well, this is Latin, for starters."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that."

"Why do you want to know what it means?"

"Umm," I stuttered as I thought of an answer. The truthful answer is that I wanted to know if the writing had anything to do with the blue scales that have been forming on my side. Instead of speaking the complete truth I decided to say, "I was just curious."

"Did you try translating online? There are a number of free..."

"Yeah, I did," I interrupted, "But the translation didn't make any sense."

"What did it say?" she asked as she handed the piece of paper back to me.

"Umm, let me think," I started as I tried to remember what it said. "Novel life, or something."

"Novel life?" she questioned.

"Yeah, doesn't make much sense, does it?"

"Well, not really but maybe it didn't translate correctly. Some of the automatic translating problems have problems when differentiating between synonyms."

"Meaning?" I asked puzzled. I hated the word synonym. Reminded me of the English exams next week.

"Maybe one of the words got muddled in the translation. I suggest grabbing a thesaurus and figuring out different words for 'novel life'," she suggested just as the bell rang for roll call.

I put the piece of paper in my pocket and said "thanks" before leaving to go to my first class.

After roll call, I had a study period so I walked down to the library where they would have a thesaurus I can use. I entered the library and wandered over to the reference section where they would have at least one thesaurus. Instead of finding one, however, I found an entire row of them. Huh, maybe this is where the school budget goes, making pointless purchases such as an abundance of thesauruses, I mused. I grabbed one, sat down at a table and opened it up.

The first word I tried to translate was 'novel'. I skimmed over to the 'n' section of the book and found the word 'novel'. There were multiple ways to say the word 'book' at the start of the little section but the next meaning to the word 'novel' seemed more promising. Another word for 'novel' can be...

"New," I said quietly, "Not novel life, but new life." 'Novus Vita' translates directly to 'New Life.' That made more sense.