VROOOM
The long school bus moved at a leisurely pace, the wide expanse of trees disappearing at both sides as a cool and refreshing late evening breeze blew.
Within, students of various ages were seated, or at least were supposed to, the serene atmosphere outside didn't affect those inside as the students bubbled about in groups creating a chaotic but weirdly harmonic scene.
Thus no matter how many times the petite and delicate looking teacher scolded them it only bought her a few seconds of respite before the noisy and rowdy students triumphed again.
"Kids will still be kids...", she sighed helplessly.
But she couldn't really blame them, they were finally going on an excursion, it had been delayed two times already since the new term began and it was now finally approved.
The whole school had been buzzing with excitement as the students discussed the promising sights they would view.
"What a bunch of trouble makers," she rebuked, but she still couldn't stop the warm smile that bloomed on her face as she observed the rowdy bunch.
Somewhere in the middle rows of the bus two similar-looking kids who aged somewhere between 14 and 15 were arguing loudly and notably fiercely, a carefully wrapped sausage being drawn back and forth in their naughty hands, or rather previously carefully wrapped, as the sausage had become an irrecognible mass of bread, ketchup and some other things which were now unrecognizable.
"Let go! It's mine!" The boy yelled, his glasses bounced on the bridge of his nose as his young face scrunched up in anger.
"No way, I'm hungry!" The similar-looking girl retorted, despair settling in as she realized she was loosing her grip.
"But you already had yours!"
"I don't care! I'm hungry!"
"Why should I care?"
"Let go!"
"No you let go!"
The struggle and yells continued for a while, then the both of them paused and suddenly looked towards their left simultaneously, and then yelled.
"Big brother!"
Leaning against the window was an 18ish looking boy, like both of the kids beside him he had a head full of raven black hair, but unlike their brown eyes his were blue, a colour that should have shone brightly but was dimmed by the lazy and tired look on his delicate face.
The troublesome duo looked too much alike and although he shared most of those features there was still a few discernible features between them.
On hearing them a frown appeared on his face, but even that did little to taint it's perfection.
"Can either of you remind me why you are on this bus?" The frown never left, but like a certain teacher he felt a great sense of helplessness about to overwhelm him.
"Dean, it's Shea's fault," the boy yelled and his glasses bounced on the bridge of his nose, his handsome features flushed with anger. "She's had hers and now she won't let me have mine".
Dean massaged his brows tiredly, this much could be expected, he was wondering how their mother had talked him into bringing them along.
But then again, she probably knew that if he didn't they would have destroyed the whole house in their revolt.
He sighed.
"Shea...?"
"Hmph!"
After loosing her grip on the sausage, she crossed her arms and settled into her chair, but with the way her eyes were on that sausage it was obvious she wasn't letting it get into any mouth that wasn't hers.
They were just halfway through the trip and Dean already felt exhausted.
'How am I going to make it through a week of this?'
"Can't you just share Jus?" he asked hopefully.
"No way!" Justin reacted violently. "Mum packed us one each, but she went ahead and ate hers early on... even when I told her not to!"
"It's all your fault," Shea pouted.
"Me?" Justin was incensed. "What did I do?"
"You ordered me".
"What?"
"You said I shouldn't eat it, which meant I definitely had to eat it," she replied confidently. "I probably won't have eaten it if you hadn't gone and opened that your big mouth. So...your fault".
Justin, "..."
Dean, "..."
Beside him Justin turned red, he was so angry an artery popped up on his head. He looked set to tear her apart.
"You... you..."
Sensing an impending apocalypse, Dean stretched his hand between them.
"Hey, wait a sec," he looked at his raging little brother, his big brother instinct flaring up. "Give me that".
"What..."
He reached forward and snatched what was left of the sausage from him... then gave it to Shea.
"Huh...?" Justin blanked out for a moment.
"Hehe," Shea sent him a victory smirk.
In the next moment Justin trembled as he gnashed his teeth in a fit of rage, his head was so red he looked like he was about to explode, but just before he did, Dean presented him a freshly packed sausage.
"You can have mine instead".
Justin didn't wait to be told twice, he settled back and began eating it with a smile etched on his face.
Shea instead paused, her smirk slowly disappearing.
She looked between her sausage and his.
One was in one piece and neatly packaged, the other was in tatters and had already lost half its total mass.
"I want that one!" she demanded.
"Over my dead body," Justin retorted.
It looked like he was expecting her to throw a tantrum but he was well prepared now, he turned towards her fiercely.
Dean could sense another fight beginning but he didn't bother, he knew it was impossible for her to collect it from Justin anyway.
"You must... what's that?" her original words stopped and her gaze were fixed on something outside the opposite window, somewhere behind Justin.
"You honestly believe I'll fall for that?"
"No I'm serious," her voice suddenly trembled. "Some... Something is coming".
Dean lazily looked over, but the instant he did he sprung up, because from somewhere in between those trees on the other side a yellow light was approaching them, and it was approaching them fast.
Too fast even.
When he had first glanced over the light still seemed to be somewhere deep inside and only its radiance could be made out, but now that glowing radiance had spilled out to the edge of the clearing already encroaching on the main road, all of a suddenly it took up his whole vision and the only thing he could make out was a formless ball of yellow light.
Apprehension gripped his heart, his mind went blank and in those moments he was horribly terrified.
His body moved on instinct.
"Everybody get down!" he yelled.
Then he grabbed both his siblings and pressed them onto the floor beneath him before throwing himself atop them.
The next moment he felt the impact, which was followed by a period of weightlessness, he thought he heard someone scream, but that was the last he perceived as after that everything went black.
From somewhere far and unfathomable a low voice sounded, it seemed more like an echo, a silent whisper carried over from across billions of miles, across distance so great any form of measurement seemed to have lost all significance.
"... welcome... children of Ithis...".