Ten minutes, all I had was 20 minutes. What does that number mean? It is the amount of time I have before we are overwhelmed. In 20 minutes, exactly at 20 minutes, I would be force down on the ground as little me fought for control of our big body. She refused to acknowledge the truth and I refused to accept that what happened to us happened. I had 19 minutes to find what I could not find being so little and cute, I had 19 minutes to act my age, and in that age unlocked a brain that is five years older.
My hands flew across the five notebooks that were surrounding me. My eyes glowing one bright green and the other gold as I tapped into her gift of our griffin spirit. To read, write and speak any language on earth. My eyes scanned over the countless notes that we had gathered from our dive underwater. There was something there that even she could not figure out, cause little me was nearly as smart as big me. She saw the world in different ways, all I saw was just pain, but she saw joy. I was not sure what we were looking at as my eyes scanned across these pictures of the drawing we had taken from the last piece of the tower of babel that seemed to have been turned into a home for a king. It was there that we found these older paintings on the wall.
They had been there and then they left.
From what I had gathered so far was that this original site of the tower had been used as a place of rest. They had turned it into a large village as when the world was split and God scattered the nations across his earth. No one had a leader, but this grandfather as we called him took that mantle. He had been chosen as one of the behemoth’s chosen people. The trinity of great beasts were much different than any other spirit animal. As they were split down the middle, and their gemstones shattered into three pieces and their spirit scattered into two people instead of just one. It was rumored that the chosen of these three great beasts needed at least one piece of their netrix gemstone to truly even activate the spirit of one of the great beasts. It was God’s way to keep those spirit animals in check because of their power.
A power that could destroy the world.
16 minutes left. I had to hurry, cause in a minute the first bad thing would happen to me. So I kept my hand moving like a blur as I went through all three of the stories we had so far. The story of a father found by Emily in the library, the story of the grandfather that some odd woman of the dark order stole but little me had seen the picture they had of it and transcribed it, still missing the last third of it. Now we were using the son’s writings of what was happening. And these cave paintings helped us very much in learning that these people had left for a reason.
There was a large storm that increased the waters once more, to send these people back to the shore. To keep them from their lives of living in this part of the tower, they followed the amazon river to a new-
I let out a groan and collapsed onto my side, nearly falling off the table that had been my chair for nearly an hour as the first memory slipped through my mental defense. Brief flickers of a war that had separated me from Xaiver. I had wandered off I think and war started, I was hurt and a woman grabbed me. She took me somewhere, kept me in a room, forced me to learn. “I want my brother!” I shouted at her.
Growling, pain.
“Stop it!” I snapped at myself and forced those memories back and sat back up. Something was dripping out my nose, I took a tissue and stuffed it inside. I had no time to worry about blood, or the darkness that creeped across my vision ever so slowly. My eyes locked onto my note books again and went back to writing as quickly as I could. 14 minutes left, four minutes before the next reminder of the past came in.
“Please stop,” I heard Bonnie speak to me. My little griffen spirit was looking my way with dark green eyes. “No more,” I knew my memories weren’t hurting her but seeing me like that caused more pain than she could imagine.
“Not yet,” I gave her a weak smile. “A little more.”
So I kept going, taking the memories that pounded against my head. Not letting them knock me over again, seconds passed, minutes came. I was running out of time as I cracked a code. I knew where they had gone, the story on the walls told where they were going. I didn’t know what that odd hammer was yet, but I just needed more time. I waved my hand towards Emily Walker as she came in, she was our work momma or big sister or something I don’t know. I didn’t care. She was in the way.
I didn’t look up as she called me again, demanding to know what I had just said to her. “I said I am busy, now go away!”I didn’t care how mean or rude this was. I was running out of time. “Go and read your bible or something!”
My entire body was swaying, my eyes burned and my nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. I was almost there. I almost. “What are you doing!” Emily Walker had taken my hand, her hands callous but also softer than snow. Warm to the touch, peace coming from her aura. “I just told you to let me-” Than I felt it, as pain exploded across my hindquarters, only five but five was enough as I slipped back into her mind.
The rest is up to you.
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A gasp escaped my lips as my vision came back to me. It took me a moment to realize that I was still on the boat, my head really hurt. My nose felt funny and was runny as if I had a cold. My eyes went wide as I remember letting big me come and play cause I needed her help. I think she had been rude to big sister Emily. Which suddenly explained why my bottom stung like crazy and as that pain set in. So did the tears, as I opened my mouth and began to cry. “I’m sorry,” I heard Emily say, her voice as peaceful as always. She wrapped her longer arms around me and brought me close to her chest to hold me. I pressed my head against her bust as I closed my eyes and returned her hug with one arm and the other trying to rub this new found sting away. It wasn’t as bad as my big brother could do, but it still hurt! “You were being really dangerous,” Emily explained. “And your big brother told me that this was the best way to get you to stop.”
“I’m sorry,” I wailed as I pressed deeper into her, her presence much warmer than I could have imagined. I don’t know how she did it but Emily always felt so calm and gentle, so soft and kind. She felt more and acted more like a mommy than she did a big sister. “I just wanted to help.” I tried to explain. “I didn’t know.” I truly didn’t know but I knew big me knew, and she was probably the reason I had gotten in trouble.
“I know,” Emily said as she pulled me away from her chest for a moment to give me the softest and lightest of kisses across my forehead. She carefully tucked a bit of hair behind my ear and looked down at me with a proud smile. “But don’t hurt yourself over using your gift because you wanna help, you already did so much for us today, and I am proud of you for that.”
Even though I was still a bit upset, her words still made me smile. “Thank you,” I said but that joy was quick lived as I then added. “I’m sorry, I’m really, really sowwy.” I didn’t want her to be mad at me anymore.
“Come here,” she said, pulling me back into her arms and lifting me off my feet. I was glad that I was still pretty small regardless of if I was big or little. Cause no matter what it always made it easy for people to hold and cuddle me. Emily rested me on one of her arms, and began to sway with the rhythm of the ship. Her humming a soothing noise that filled my ears and worked through my slight stubbornness to stay away. Her humming turned to light singing as I kept my head rested against her shoulder, my eyes growing weaker. I didn’t really know the song that she was singing, but it was about the man she loved more than anything in the world.
I could only wonder which one of me this Jesus guy loved. The real me or the fake me, but which was the real me and which was the fake me.
I was far too tired to even try to figure that out right now.
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“Can I help with that?” I asked Ms. Silva as she began assembling one of our two large tents that we were gonna be using for our trip. We were in a nice clearing in not the heart, but only a few miles passed the entrance of the amazon rainforest. If I thought there was so much jepei inside of the waters, there was so much more trapped inside of the hundreds if not thousands, no millions of trees that surrounded us. I could hear animals rustling in the trees above us, different kinds of birds I had never seen before flying around us. It was almost like being back on the island but even then back home still held the most jepei from hundreds of years of our people living and dying on it.
Ms. Silva smiled at me as she reached out and rubbed my head a bit. “I would love a hand, Sarah.” She said as together we had made short work of this large tent. I wanted to be very helpful after, an incident that shall never be spoken of again. I knew that Emily only did it because I was being really dangerous but still. Maybe if I was the most helpful little girl in the entire world, she would never even think of doing it again.
Once we had finished our tent, I went over to Unique and Emily who had finished setting up the other tent. I was gonna be spending the night camping with Dr. Silva and Emily and Unique would be sharing a tent with each other. I am not sure why those two looked so relieved when Ms. Silva had suggested that. It’s not like I kicked, that bad in my sleep. “Do you need any help?” I offered once I was within speaking distance.
Emily placed a hand on her chin, her bright white hair swaying in the breeze as she did. “Not that I can think of Sarah, but thank you for the offer. Unless you want to help Dr. Silva get our dinner ready, I am all out of tasks for the day.”
“Aren’t you gonna ask me if I need some help?” Unique spoke up, her light brown face starting to lift up in a teasing smirk that was starting to get really, really, annoying. She had not stopped teasing me about an incident that shall never be named again, since she found out. If I was teeny bit stronger, I might attempt to wipe the smirk off her face if I could.
“Enough, Unique,” Emily said firmly. “What happened is done and over with, and it is not fair to keep teasing her over something that is done and over with.” Emily kneeled down in front of me and placed her hands on my shoulders and patted them twice.
I stuck my tongue out at Unique who responded with a kinda rude gesture back at me but judging from her smile I think that it was more playful than mean. In the week that I had been with these two, I had learned what is mean from Unique and what is kind. I think she felt more comfortable with me, I still remember her coming to my house all those weeks ago so I could help with the item around her neck. Maybe we would find the last string we needed at the site we were going to. I did just one more thing so I could fully understand it. I doubted that we would find it but I still had hope.
My frown faded a bit at that thought. I know it wasn’t true but sometimes I felt that people only put up with me because of how smart I really was. Maybe that is why in some of my more not nice moments with Unique she never really did anything to me. However, as quickly as that thought came I did what my big brother always told me to do and shake it away. I was starting to miss Xaiver much more with each passing day. I knew he was okay but after learning they had fought members of the dark order. Emily had asked me and Unique if we wanted to leave and go join up with our friends to back them up.
I was surprised that I had said no.
I wanted to keep going, because I was having so much fun so far. I have learned so much more in the last few days. We had gone scuba diving and helped make a discovery of the first people that came to this country after the fall of the tower. We had found the tower, and by following the map I had put together. We might be able to find one more piece of it. The last piece we need to understand, what this long dead family was given to protect. All they said was that it could build and destroy.
So as night began to fall across us and the moon took its place in the sky. The air smelled good as Ms. Silva got a pot of stew ready for us, made of tender steak and a series of veggies. Now normally I was not a fan of veggies, I think people pretend to like them, but how she cooked them in this stew it tasted amazing. “Judging from where we are.” Ms. Silva explained as she compared the map that big me had made to a regular map of the area. “We are about a two day journey from this location, if it is still there.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked.
“The reason why the site underwater was still there was because it had been buried deep in the sands underwater. It had kept it hidden for much longer than it should have been hidden. However, people travel these forests every day, there are also still about 100 uncontacted tribes that call this place home. So if this place is still standing tall, then we might have to worry about running into one of those tribes.”
“Are they mean people?” Unique asked.
“Not to those that look like them,” Ms. Silva noted. “So me and Unique might be welcomed in with open arms. Emily and Sarah on the other hand.” She thought for a moment. “I am sure we will be fine but just in case, let me do the talking if that happens. Or rather.” Her warm eyes came to rest on me. “I might just let you do the talking. Cause if I am not mistaken, you told me that you can read, and speak every language on the planet?”
“As long as I have seen it and heard it.” I explained.
“How can you do that?”
I smiled as I cuddled Bonnie closer to my chest. “My animal spirit Bonnie let me do it, she is a griffin spirit and is very smart. So I get to be smart too.”
“Dr, Silva.” Emily spoke as she walked over to the woman. “I am sorry, I should have done this long since we met.” I knew what Emily was doing as she placed a hand on the woman’s head. There was a bright flash of white aura as Emily used her own jepei to open the doctor’s eyes. Jepei users could inject our own jepei into someone so they could see what we saw every single day.
Ms. Silva blinked a few times and then looked at the three of us in pure amazement. “Wow,” she whispered as she looked from the odd shade of light blue that came off Unique and her large thunderbird spirit that was standing nearby. To the bright white of Emily and Esther who had been in her wolf form for most of the day. To me the dark green and gold that made up my own jepei aura, and that decorated Bonnie with color. She let out a nervous chuckle. “I guess it is nice to meet all of you,” she said.
“Nice to meet you too,” Bonnie replied warmly.
“And your animal spirits can talk… Why am I not surprised.”
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“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Bonnie questioned as we flew through the dark forest of the amazon. My jepei aura being our only source of light. “Won’t Emily be mad at us if she wakes up and finds that we are not in camp anymore.”
“We are gonna be fine, Bonnie.” I answered as I came to rest on top of a large branch. My legs kicked freely as I looked down at the dark forest beneath me. I held my hand up and unrolled the map that big me had made the other day. “I am gonna chart a path for us, and then we are gonna lead everyone to this point.” I said tapping the map so Bonnie could see as well. “That way we can look really good in the process and they will all be so impressed with us.”
“Aren’t they already really impressed with you?” Bonnie asked.
A small frown began to form on my face. “I think they are more impressed with what you let me do than with me.”
“That isn’t true and you know it.” Bonnie declared with her very best stern voice.
“I know,” I answered as I helped my hand out. I let a very large spider began to crawl up my arm. Normally these ones would terrify anyone else but when you come from an island with people whose animal spirit makes even the largest animals look like ants. They were not that scary anymore. “It just feels that way sometimes.” I say before setting this spider back on its branch and standing up to my feet.
“They couldn’t do any of this without you.” Bonnie said.
“We don’t know that,” I said as we started to fly down this path once more. I crossed my arms as I looked back at Bonnie who was gliding just behind me. “We only got this far because Emily knew that language of tongues and I didn’t. Without her help I couldn’t have figured that out.”
“And without you, no one would even know what the other words meant.” Bonnie pointed out.
“I guess so.”
“You are starting to sound like our big brother.” That got a smile to form across my face just at the thought of Xaiver. “And we always tell him to not put himself down, so I am gonna do the same with you. No putting yourself-”
Before she could even finish that sentence. An explosion of pain filled my chest as I and Bonnie both screamed in pain! I felt Bonnie shatter as her physical form had been destroyed in a moment. THe pain was so great that I lost my wings for a moment and went falling ten feet out of the sky! I quickly summoned what remained of my jepei in the form of protection but even then more pain filled my stomach as I hit a low hanging branch, flipping a few times before landing harshly into the forest floor.
Tears began to fill my eyes as the darkness around me began to get even darker. Those scary looking swirls and shapes that came from the black void of unconsciousness began creeping around the edges of my vision and I heard footsteps coming near me. A moment later I heard a deep male’s voice call out. “We could have done that without letting her fall, nearly to her death.”
Another voice called out, this one female Egyption nature. “I will admit that was not my best idea, I didn’t think her spirit animal would shatter from just a weak attack from my wasp, but perhaps she has forgotten how to hold back.” I couldn’t even move as I was gently lifted up into someone’s arms. “However, I am sure we can get her to help us in our time of need.”
“We could have just asked.”
“Yeah, but I am sure if she realizes that we are friends with-” I didn’t hear the name she had spoken. Or rather something cut that name out from reaching my ears. I think the man might have covered my ears with his hands. However, the last thing I knew before I gave into the darkness surrounding me.
I was being taken away deep into the forest.
Away from my friends because I didn’t listen and stayed.
Not again, please not again!
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