I let out a loud shout as I sat up in a panicked daze. “Stop it!” I yelled at nobody, my vision still a blur as odd black lines and shapes filled my vision. In a flash summoned my netrix weapon, a single edged saber that had a curved handle. I had modeled it after a lightsaber I saw on television once, I had taken what was a fake fighting style and modeled my own movement out of it. A moment passed as my vision adjusted to the light and I found myself being stared at by an odd mix of beings. Olivia’s animal spirit Victoria, a very annoying but playful monkey spirit, she had an odd interest in human clothes and her physical form modeled it as she wore dark pants and a lighter brown vest over her frame. Honestly for a moment I thought she was a child when I first saw her from far away. Resting in a pot of all things with one large eyes resting on me was Xavier’s animal spirit, the reincarnation of the kraken. Though he was in a much smaller form than when I first met him on the ocean side a week ago.
Last but not least immediately climbing onto my bed was a dark red nine tailed fox spirit. Or as I knew him, my brother Flame. “Are you okay?” He asked, pushing past my outstretched saber and pressing his head against my chest. “Relax, Daniel, you aren’t there, you are here with hopefully new friends.” His voice was light mine but softer like a gentle breeze, he was my better half after all.
It took a moment for me to truly snap out of my head and unsummoned my blade. I took a few deep breaths to remember that we were no longer on a plane. I had fallen asleep in the car on the way here, I had barely slept on the plane.
I barely slept at all.
“Sorry,” I said, running my hands on Flame’s dark red coat. I took a look around what I was assuming was our hotel room for our stay in the city of Sparta, Laconia Greece. I looked around at the other two animal spirits. “Sorry,” I whispered as I pulled my still sleeping legs off the side of the bed to rest on the floor. Feeling the soft carpet in my toes for a moment before standing up on shaky legs. This was a pretty nice room, it had two beds, three if you counted the pull out couch. We had a television that was showing some movie I didn’t recognize. We had a small kitchen that I was hoping either Olivia or Xaiver knew how to use. I was no chef, unless you counted microwave meals.
“You okay?” Victoria asked, poking her head out from under the blanket she had been using. She kept looking from side to side as if she was expecting someone to come and get her. I then remembered that she was probably in trouble for the stupid prank she pulled on one of the flight attendants. “You looked like you were having a bad dream.”
“I am okay,” I said, forcing a smile to not worry the small monkey spirit. A smile that only lasted a second before my face went back to its usual blank expression. I finally found the strength to stand up and I opened the blinds to our room. We were in a small city, I had looked online and this city only held about 17 thousand people. Though it probably held more people back when it was one of the strongest reigns on the planet. Those days had long since passed, and the sparta of old was gone. I walked over to the door and slipped back on my shoes and a jacket. “Flame, let's go, I need some air.”
I made it a few feet before two long tendrils wrapped around me in a gentle embrace. “Where are you going?” Oscar spoke out, how his tendrils could go from a few inches long to as nearly seven feet was a question that I was hoping to get an answer to one day. “My brother made it clear that I am in charge, so how about instead of wandering the streets alone. We wait here and watch a movie. Olivia and Xavier will be back in an hour or so, they have a meeting with a certain doctor that can help us.”
I turned my head around to gaze at the small squid spirit. “I want to go for a walk, and last time I checked your brother is not my keeper, so either A let me go or B I break free.”
The dark blue squid spirit narrowed its one eye at me and its grip grew a bit stronger. “I would love to see you try. I’m not a pushover like my brother, so I am not afraid to put your rude ass in place.”
I only smirked as I watched Flame lift a pot lid up from behind this squid spirit and in a flash he slammed the lid on top of the squid severing two of his arms in the process. The once connected limbs faded away into smoke finally letting me go. However, our victory was very short lived as Oscar very quickly recovered and took on a much larger form with six of his legs coming at me with blinding speed! I barely had time to move out of the door and slam it behind me. I took off running down the hallway, looking behind me once to see Flame coming behind me. “I think we pissed him off.”
“We will deal with that later.”
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Once I had made it outside, I kept running until I reached the edge of this town, and after making sure that the coast was clear. I climbed onto the back of Flame and took off through the grass. To anyone with no ability to see animal spirits, it would look like a boy was hovering a few feet off the ground and flying through the grassy fields. I had Flame keep going until we found ourselves in an empty field. We were on a hillside that overlooked what seemed to be the remains of some old temple. A very quick google search helped me figure out what this place was. The remains of an old theater that had long since fallen. I could only imagine what it looked like back in the day, now it was nothing more than rubble. I could see the city from this distance, and I finally relaxed a bit as I climbed off Flame’s back and sat with my legs resting off the side of this hill. It was a small drop down to the ground below but it was nice to have my legs hanging freely.
“Do you wanna talk about your nightmare?” Flame asked sitting beside me, his head coming to rest against my side.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I rested a hand against his head.
“I think your aunt said that if you talk about nightmares that you can’t have them again or something like that.”
“It’s more like you can’t have the same nightmare twice in a row.” I corrected it. “Though you and I both know that is a lie, you and I both know what it was about.” My face slowly grew into a dark frown as I just stared at this former theater. “It’s the only dream I have,” I whispered. My hand fell on the ground and my fingers came to rest on a very sharp stone.
There was a reason why I chose to barely sleep at night. Every time I tried to get a good night's sleep, I had the same dream over and over. I kept seeing the same day over and over again, the same images over and over again. The day my parents were taken from me.
It was a normal day, the sun was shining, people were smiling and laughing. I was being swung from my parent’s arms, my hand resting in one of them. My mother was a tall woman, with long black hair, she was the most beautiful woman alive, a soft and loving face, soft creamy skin and she always smelled like roses she loved to plant. My father was a few inches taller than my mother, a strong man, my hero and savior. We had come to the port so I could watch the boats heading out to sea. I had begged them to take me today, I wanted to come so bad. I nearly threw a tantrum when I was told not today, but I cheered louder than any kid in the world when they said yes.
Why couldn’t I just accept a simple no!
We had just reached the beach when we heard the screaming. My father’s head spun around and for the first time I heard him swear. Everything moved in slow motion as he pushed me away from him and he summoned his famed greatsword. I turned to see what was happening and I saw people in white or black masks coming out of the water. Hundreds of them, and they were just attacking people, blood was spilling across the sand. It didn’t matter who, men, women or children. They just were attacking to attack. They caught us off guard.
The Dark Order had come to attack.
My mother lifted me in her arms and ran towards a series of buildings. I watched as my father was attacked by seven people, like fresh meat through to the wolves. I saw his grizzly bear spirit take form and start to battle against animal spirits covered in scars. I heard him roar, I heard my father scream.
And that was the last time I had seen him alive.
When we made it to the port city. I could see more people in black and white masks. This was not sparring, this was a true fight, and if I hadn’t asked them to take me here then this wouldn’t happen. My mother moved me to her other hand and grabbed another child that was staring blankly at the bleeding figure of what I assumed was her older sister. SHe kept running, I grew dizzy from her zigzag pattern. She was dodging a sea of arrows that were spilling from the sky. She threw this child into a nearby building.
“Don’t worry,” she whispered to me, kissing my forehead. “I am gonna go help your father, I will be back, just stay here.” That was the last time I saw her bright gemstone, as she ducked out of the room.
I found out two days later that they had died
It was my fault!
My fault!
My fault!
My fault!
MY FAULT!”
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“Daniel!” My eyes snapped open as a firm grip slammed onto my wrist and pulled it away from my other hand. It took me a moment to feel blood racing down my wrist, to feel my head spinning once more. I looked up to see a dark skinned boy standing above me with fear and worry. I looked down at my wrist, I didn’t even notice that I had been running this stone over my wrist. Just enough to draw blood. I winced as Xaiver forced the stone from my other hand and kicked it off the cliff. “What the fuck are you doing?!”
I looked up at Xavier. He was very tall and well built, that shirt he was wearing seemed a bit too tight on his frame. His long dreads spilled over his head like hundreds of serpents. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as I lowered my head. “I forgot where I was for a moment.”
I let out a loud sigh as I collapsed into his broad chest. I looked down my wrist and took a breath focusing my jepei aura like a needle and thread. What was once bleeding, slowly began to heal until it was just another scar. I was good at using amplification to speed up my healing.
That was the only reason why no one had found out about the real reason I had so many scars. It wasn’t just from training with my curved hilted sword, one of the hardest of the other nine handles I had in my arsenal.
I didn’t want to die, but I sometimes needed to feel pain. They had gone through worse, protecting the son that brought them to the beach where they died.
I’m sorry.
I deserved this.
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A day had passed since my “incident” and I had finished completely healing the wound that night. I had allowed Xavier to carry me back, he didn’t ask me why I had been doing that to my wrist or how long I had been running that rock against it. He just carried me back to our hotel and after that said nothing, but he stayed a good distance from me. Not enough to make me feel alone, but just enough to remind me he was right there. The meal he and Olivia had gotten me for my lunch/dinner was extremely good. I hadn’t eaten that well since the party I had with Unique a week ago. Flame later informed me that he couldn’t get me to stop, his voice couldn’t reach my head for some reason. It wasn’t the first time that Flame had caught me doing that, after all he felt my pain just like how I felt his. That night as I mostly pretended to be asleep, Xavier had sat on the edge of my bed. I heard him whisper under his breath. “I may not know why you did that, but I won’t allow it to happen again. I refuse.”
The next morning once Xavier and Olivia had woken up. I used half of my jepei aura to give my body the boast it needed to last the entire day. Now you were not supposed to use jepei in this way, it was dangerous and left me low on aura which would be important if we somehow ended up in a fight. However, I would rather have half my aura and be awake, rather than have all of it and be sleepy. I was here cause they needed me, and I was here cause my people choose me and Flame for the job. The least I could do was give it my all.
We had gotten in our large suv that Olivia had rented. (Now why she was fine with renting a large escalade and not getting us a large hotel room I had no idea) We went to a restaurant to meet up with the professor that they had met the previous day. He was around the same height as Olivia who stood at six feet tall or higher. He had a strong frame and tanned skin, a neatly trimmed goatee and dark green hair that was starting to grow lighter as it grayed at the edges. Standing off to the side of him was a girl that thankfully was my age, Xavier and Olivia seemed so mature sometimes that it was like being with two adults rather than two 17 year olds. Especially since Olivia’s animal spirit was more like a daughter to her than a sister. This girl had dark green hair like the older man, bright eyes and a friendly smile. She was wearing a dark brown pair of pants, hiking boots and a lighter long sleeved shirt.
“It is a pleasure to see you all again,” the taller man greeted in a thick greek accent. His dark green jepei aura spilled off him like a gentle fire that had just been lit. After not being around other jepei users for a while, this sent waves of both familiarity and peace running through my otherwise cold body. He went down the line shaking our hands. I winced a bit at his strong grip, my small hands not being used to such a strong grip. “And I am assuming you are, Daniel.”
“Yes sir,” I greeted, shaking my hand out a bit to get the sting away. “I look forward to working with you, sir.”
We took a seat helping ourselves to the large bowl of salad while we waited for our entries to be made. I mostly let Xaiver and Olivia handle this conversation. What we had learned is that this Adonis man had been labeled as a traitor by the spartans after the battle of the hot gates. He was sentenced to death but in his last days he wrote down all of his information and gave it to his daughter. He then fought for days until finally he died and was buried outside of the city. His daughter tried to escape on a boat but one way or another it sank. One of the scrolls that his granddaughter, who I now knew was named Thalia. Had attempted a dive down to the wreckage they found but something odd is keeping people from it. It is affecting devices needed to get down to the wreckage. So it sounded like a job for Xaiver to go and check out. From the half of the scroll they found inside a sealed pot, Adonis found something that resembled the tower of babel or at least part of it somewhere in the heart of Africa. He found this out from other research down in what is now modern day Israel.
Our conversation ended with us agreeing to meet up with the man in a few days time for a dig at a site known as A-5 where they found other relics and items both from our scholar and from other spartan people that no one knew about. We would go there while we waited for him to get the proper paperwork done for us to head off the coast to this wreckage. Now that all of the boring stuff was done, I could mostly sit back and listen to Olivia and Xaiver pick this man's mind clean of all other information he might hold. We were still waiting for our actual meals to come but I took this as a team to head outside and just get some fresh air. I didn’t really like being stuck inside for a long period of time unless it was a room I felt safe in.
“Excuse me?” I looked up to see Dr. Drakos’s granddaughter was leaning out of the door to the restaurant we had chosen today. “Mind if I join you?”
“S-Sure?” I asked, now to be honest I would have rather been out here alone. I was horrible with small talk now, and without Flame (he had gone exploring the city with Victoria) or Unique to help with that. I knew this was just gonna be an awkward mess. “What was your name again?”
“Thalia Drakos,” she answered, moving beside me. The brief breeze was pushing the citrus smelling perfume she was wearing my way. “And your name? I didn’t really hear my grandfather say it.”
“Daniel Campbell,” I answered. “Were you born here or on the island?”
“I have never actually been to Tarun Island before,” she said, letting out a small sigh of content. “I am actually from Patras Greece, I am only here doing some work with my grandfather. We had a paper to write in my class and I chose to write about Sparta. Turns out I have been helping make discoveries by accident and now I am here full time.”
“What do you mean by making discoveries by accident?”
“Turns out a lot of the holes I had been digging to try and find more artifacts, just weren;t dug deep enough. So when someone would come with a shovel they would find what I had accidentally helped dig out. That is how we made the site A-5 and kinda how we found the wreckage where we found the first pot of Adonis.”
“I suppose the best things come from accidents.” I said with a small shrug.
“I suppose you are right.” She let out a light giggle at that. “So why are you hanging with those two teens?” She looked at me with a mix of interest and curiosity starting to spread across her face. “Or are they secretly your parents and just look really young?”
My face feel slightly at that. “They aren’t my parents, I lost them about two years ago.”
“I-I’m.”
I held up a hand to stop her. “It’s okay,” after what happened yesterday I was not in the mood to hear someone tell me how sorry they were. “As for why I am traveling with those two. They are working on some paper or something and brought me along to get me off the island for a few weeks.”
She gave me a sympathetic smile before going on. “Well if you ever want a better tour of this small city of ours, I would be happy to show you around. I know a few places that I doubt any online guide or living one would be willing to show you. Have you gone to the ruins of the theater yet?”
“Briefly,” my hand went to cover the new scar on my wrist. “I was a bit absentminded the last time I went there.”
“Well if you like stars, I think you should go there tonight. You will see the sky sparkle like you have never seen before.”
“Do you like stars?”
She raised her head up to look at the cloud filled blue sky. “I love the stars more than I like helping in digs. I think the stars hold secrets that kept so many ancient cities and civilizations going on. Before clocks and watches, all they had were the stars to tell what was gonna happen, and the moon to tell what part of the month it was. Astrology is the most interesting subject in the world to me.”
I looked at her for a moment, the wind blew a bit sending her long green hair flowing over her face a bit. She had lighter skin than her grandfather, she had a cute round face and soft skin, her eyes a light color than her dark. It also seemed that we shared a love for astrology, and that was one of my specialties when it came to history. A brief memory of sitting outside with my mother as she pointed out constellations that spread across the endless black sky filled my head. One that I quickly shook away from me. “Well if you ever want to talk about stars, maybe we could get together one night or something.”
A teasing glimmer appeared in her eyes. “My my, we just met and you are already asking me on a date to view the stars, how romantic. Shall I bring the picnic basket or are you going too.” As my face heated up just a bit, a bit of addictive sounding laughter came from her mouth. One that caused my lips to curl up just slightly. “I look forward to working with you. I don’t have anyone to tease that is my age, and it gets boring talking to adults most of my days.”
“I-It will be nice to have someone my age here as well.” We both turned around as Olivia called us over, a few of our meals were starting to be brought. “It’s a pain to have to listen to these two just because they are older.”
“I know how you feel,” she said, heading back inside with me close on her heels. “Older people sometimes think they know what is best for us, but that isn’t always true. I think that it is up to us to find the right path to step on. If we fall then we fall, but it’s how we get back up that defines us.”
“It’s hard to stand up again, if you don’t want to.” I thought to myself as I dug my hands into my pocket.
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Thalia was right. The sky at the ruins of this once great theater was truly a marvel to behold. It was about a week from the last full moon but it still provided us with enough light to shine down on us like a spotlight. The stars looked much brighter from this position and ruins just added a bit more mystery to this area. I could only hope that all of the sites looked as good under a nice starry night. It was a view that I was silently grateful that I got to share with someone.
Not Thalia, turns out she couldn’t come tonight.
No, I was here with Olivia.
Now I was gonna fight Olivia.
I should probably explain.
After our meeting with Dr. Drakos. We had gone back to get another full day of rest, with plans to truly explore the city as one big happy family. That night we had watched movies and gotten another meal for dinner sent up to our room. I was sure Xaiver might have hated the horror movie I had picked, but that made it more fun for me. While they had gotten dressed for bed I had texted Thalia to meet up at the ruins of that theater. She could not come so I was gonna go back by myself. I didn’t really get a good look at it earlier that day, for obvious reasons, so I wanted a better look. Flame was resting beside Victoria who had been using him as a pillow (honestly it was adorable and I had plenty of pictures to embarrass my spirit animal with now). I was just about to head out of the door when Olivia woke up. She didn’t know what happened between me and Xaiver earlier that day, but she was smart enough to piece things together a bit. She was not gonna let me go alone so she came along with me.
We had taken a seat on the cliff that overlooked the area. At first she wanted to know what happened between Xaiver but I didn’t have to tell her, she pry any further. She then asked me what I thought about this entire team as a whole. “It is okay,” I answered with a shrug. “I miss Unique, but I am okay.” I then interrupted her as she started to ask the question I was growing sick of. “ARe you really okay?”
After that she had made an odd offer. She wanted to spar with me, she wanted to see what I could do. She had read that I am a good fighter and that is an understatement, I thought I was really good at combat. I had studied nine different fighting styles, one for each of Flame’s tails. I was undefeated when it came to sparring with people my age. I was often scouted for teams on campus, a few of our sports were honestly glorified sparring and combat training. SHe even made a bet with me.
If she won I would have to answer one question truthfully. I already had an idea what she was gonna ask me.
If I won, then she would let me have my first beer. So now I had something to actually try for.
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A moment passed as I settled into the first of my many fighting styles. This one was one of the most basic karate stances, the one you often saw on movies, but I held my hands with palms out and my fingers curved in like paws. Olivia took off her jacket and settled into a peek a boo style of boxing. She was much bigger than me, but she looked to be all muscle, honestly she scared me before when we first met at the meeting, but now that she was in a fighting stance. I was a bit worried. “Come on,” she said, advancing on me with speed that I didn’t know she was capable of.
I was quickly forced on the backfoot as she swung at me with a mix of jabs and crosses. Barely missing my head with each swing and her aim was getting better and better. She had a longer reach and large hands that could probably take my hand off if she connected. As she missed wildly with a cross, I lept up and caught her across the jaw with a sharp kick. Her head snapped sideways, but in a flash she grabbed my leg in a vice grab. I let out a loud cry as she lifted me over her head and threw me a few feet backwards. I dug my fingers and heels into the ground to stop myself and as I looked up. I barely had time to get my arms up as she came down on me with a powerful punch that probably would have made me lose my lunch. The power of her punch came into contact with the powerful shield I put up at the last moment, even then I could feel the waves of that power spread through my entire body. It was enough to knock me out of my guard and send me sliding backwards about five feet. My feet left marks in the grass exposing the dirt below.
“Not bad,” Olivia said as she stood up running a hand over her jaw. “You have quick reflexes and can go from attack to defense much faster than I thought.”
“Thank you,” I said, already feeling winded from that one exchange. I could not afford to take another hit from this girl. “You are a lot quicker than you look.”
“I get that one a lot.” She smiled at me for a moment, as she ran towards me and threw one more punch. However, now I was ready. I weaved out of her range and began to use the clouds that flew above us as cover. Each one that blocked the moon turned our light, giving me brief moments to leave her eyesight. To rush in from behind using amplification not my attacks but to make my legs move faster. The world became a blur as I moved back and forth, left and right, at odd angles. Leaping around like a fox catching her on the back with punches, catching her arms and legs with kicks, having just enough to let back out of her range. I kept this going for a good minute smirking to myself and swung at where I used to be and made wild guesses of where I would come next.
Things were going just as I hoped they would, until I played my hand too soon. After piercing through her thin layer of protection coating one to many times. She finally caught on that I was hitting the same spot over and over again. So when I ducked in to hit her once more. She spun around and caught me across the jaw with a punch so hard that I think I was knocked out for a few moments.
“Oh shit!” I heard her curse as I trembled down into the grass. The entire world becoming a blur of dark colors again. “Daniel, I am so sorry!” She said in a panic.
“I-It’s okay,” I whispered as I lay on the grass. “I deserved that…”
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When I woke up again, I found myself for the 2nd time that day riding on someone’s back. However, I had to admit that Olivia’s back was much more comfy than Xaiver. Whatever lotion she had was like a soothing blanket, normally I fought off the waves of sleep that would slam into me like waves on the coast. However, this time something was different, I was not afraid to sleep. I had fun sparring with her even if it was just brief. “Sorry about that again.” In our small bit of moonlight I could see her blush a tiny bit.
“It’s okay, I deserved that.” A small groan escaped my lips. It hurts to talk right now.
“Tell you what,” she said. “We will compromise, I will let you have a single beer tonight, and you answer one of my questions. You are a very talented young man, a fighter that your parents are proud of.” I turned away from her to hopefully hide the small smile that spread across my lips.
“Ask away,” I said, remembering the terms of our bet. I was prepared for her to ask the question asked earlier, are you really okay? However she surprised me as she asked, what got you into history?
I went silent for a long while, as I tried to find the words that would best explain my love for the subject. “History was the only thing I was really interested in, I liked learning about the way the world used to be. I loved studying warfare and different fighting styles of old. Learning about the past helped me get better in the future.” My face felt slightly as I added in a softer tone of voice. “Looking at the past helped me forget about things that happened in the present. So I am glad to be on this team, cause I was starting to run out of things to distract me.”
Olivia’s reply was very simple. “Distracting yourself from pain isn’t the best way to make it go away. It is still there and when you get bored that is the first thing that comes back to mind. Trust me, it’s not safe to do that stuff, or you end up building up an addiction that could ruin you one day. You're a bright young man, so don’t do anything that could put that fire out.”
“I know, I’ve heard it all before, but don’t worry that won’t come. I still have one thing to keep liv-” I stopped myself short. I didn’t want to say too much, I liked this older girl, but I didn’t was to let her to far in. “To keep fighting for, and as long as her light doesn’t go out than I am gonna be fine.”
She nodded her head and didn’t say anything on the subject. Just adjusted me a bit more so I was more comfy on her back. I couldn’t remember the last time this happened, but I fell asleep peacefully. Allowing the world to grow black
And when I woke up that next morning.
I had no nightmares.
“Maybe this team is a good idea.”
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