Our ship rocked with each gentle wave that slammed into the side of it. A gentle motion that reminded me of being rocked in my father’s arms when I was first adopted by him. I was and, (still am) scared of storms, terrified of the sharp flashes of lightning and the pounding thunder that rocked the air with each pulse. I smiled as I recalled how the second my dad found out about my fear of storms, he had taken me into his lap one night, and held me close. His goatee scratched the scalp of my head as he pressed it onto me. He always said that he didn’t have a good singing voice but that tenor voice of his would have gotten him a music career somewhere. He got his favorite rocking chair in motion as we sat in front of the large living room window, with him the thunder sounded weak like a lion cub's desperate attempts at a roar. The lightning became less powerful with each amazing streak that lit up the sky. He had sung his favorite, and my favorite, psalm, psalm ninety one.
A psalm that I kept humming to myself as we came back to the surface after what might be the 2nd best day of my life, or at least would be added to my top ten.
I still couldn’t believe to matter how hard I thought about it. “We had found it, truly found it.” I told myself over and over again. A tower that many saw as a myth, a tower that many Jews and Christians alike thought was destroyed beyond recognition and discovery. However, there it was, resting on the bottom of Brazil’s waters. Sitting there silently, having been recently uncovered by what Mr. Mason assumes it was a storm so powerful that it affected the sand underneath. The place had been completely covered with dark brown jepei aura, these were truly the waters where that Behemoth’s gemstone was found. Or at least that one shard was found and now it is safe on the island, away from the prying hands of the dark order who were also in the area.
My smile dampened as I thought about that man I had met the previous night. My hands clenched into fists as I naturally turned to stare at the shore and towards the south-west. He was somewhere over there still in the city, perhaps they had come here to find this and were probably too late.
Or maybe they had something else, they had stolen that ancient slab that we now assume was written by a grandfather. We come here based on the writings of a father that I had found in the underground library of Tarun’s, and now thanks to little Sarah. We were gonna head deeper into Brazil, into the Amazon rainforest, to maybe uncover another piece of this tower, using a bit of information we learned from a boy probably much younger than Sarah was physically but mentally maybe around the same age.
I forced myself to look away from where I last saw that man, even though we were so far away I still had an idea where he was. I always knew where an excuse to fight was at. However, it still concerns me that I didn’t find the original source of the aura I was searching for. Yet I was still glad, because two excuses not to turn the other cheek were better than one.
I shook my head a few times and dropped down to one knee. “I am sorry, I shouldn’t be trying to find excuses to disobey you. Forgive me, Abba.” I let out a breath, and then stood up once more, once I felt like he allowed me too. If he hadn’t I would have stayed there on one knee until he let me. I was good at doing things he asked me to do, whether it was show kindness, help others, talk with people about the glory of his kingdom, and the sacrifice his son made. Other things… well rather one thing I fought against with so much strength, and he let me fight him on that.
He let me fight him on not fighting people in general.
It was an addiction that I had, and I didn’t know why. I couldn’t pinpoint when I got that love for fighting, the way my aura flowed through me like a burning lake. My knuckles tearing on impact, the taste of blood in my mouth. I loved it more than anything. I almost loved it more than I loved him and that was not a good thing. “Love your Lord, with all your heart, all your soul and all you mind.” That was the most important rule of this faith, and one thing was truly keeping me from having true faith, faith as large as a mustard seed as he once said.
“I am sorry.”
I moved down the railing of this ship, enjoying this cool night air running across my body. We were gonna spend tonight on this ship and then head back to shore. I was wearing cozy and snug fitting pajama pants, blue with stars running across every part of these pants. I wore a long blue shirt that did little in protecting me from this chilly wind. My long white hair bew freely in the wind. I walked through a nearby door that took me into a more cozy space. I found Unique laying on this soft carpet, her head resting on a pillow and her body covered with two blanket’s. Her breathing soft, her snores nonexistent, I was happy to see that she could sleep peacefully at night. I know it was hard for her to even be in this county, she was being more brave than she knew. I doubt she needed or wanted to hear me say how brave she was. She could be so childish sometimes but also was more grown up than she should be. I tucked a bit of hair behind her ear and patted her fondly on her cheek. “Sleep well.”
I moved down a hallway back to what Dr. Silva had called the war room. We had spent hours going through footage on our debrief from our dive. They saved files onto computers and flash drives, sent them to other officials so they could do more dives, as promised we helped where we could, as she had helped us. The monitors and computers we had used were put back and stacked neatly in black boxes, alongside them were the trucks that held all the scuba gear. Two large boxes were on the table that held not only our snacks but the snacks that Dr. Silva had brought a few, now half empty bottles of juice and a case of water.
However, what should not be there was the pile of bloody tissues. As Sarah was sitting on the table cross legged, her eyes focused on the laptop in front of her, as well as a few printed out papers of what we had found. She pulled out a tissue from her nose and set it onto the pillow before putting another into it. I had been warned that if she overused her amazing gift in reading any language this was a side effect.
“Sarah?” I called out.
“What?!” I raised a bit of an eyebrow at her rude tone, her eyes were glowing bright but dimly like she was running out of power. Her warm and carefree jepei aura was different as it swirled around her like a vortex of green and gold. “I’m busy, go away.”
“Excuse me?” I said, summoning a bit of the firmness I had been using since we started this trip together. “What did you say to me?”
“I said I am busy, now go away.” She repeated, just as rude and just as firm. She didn’t look up at me as she picked up a paper that had handwriting so small that even with my good eye sight it was hard to read. “Just go and read your bible or something.” Even her voice sounded a bit older and I felt something pull at my pants leg.
I looked down and I saw Bonnie looking up at me with sad eyes. “Please stop her, big Sarah is not as nice as small Sarah. She is gonna hurt herself.”
I looked back at the busy girl who seemed ready to collapse at any moment. “So this is who Sarah should be?” I thought as I watched the older acting girl work. I had only seen this once on the island when she was going through a heavy amount of information in the library. I had tried to get her to stop as she seemed dehydrated but she had been just as rude as before. However, I did remember what Xavier had done to get her back to normal. As well as his light baritone voice telling me. “If you need to stop her when she is like that, you can do this…”
So I took a breath and summoned on courage I needed to be much more stern than I liked. I wished Alona was here, she was more of the firm one when we used to babysit together, I was the understanding and kind one.
However, I needed to be firm.
“What are you doing!” Sarah demanded furiously as I took her by the hand and off the table. “I just told you to let me- ow!”
I did what Xaiver had done that day, and gave her five firm swats to her backside. Very quick and very sharp and then I knelt down and looked firmly at the stunned girl. “Sarah, stop it, now!” Her eyes widened and then I saw that older glimmer in her eyes fade away, the cheerful and younger Sarah had returned. Her wide eyes then started to fill with tears, and suddenly I regretted giving her a few warning spanks as I had been told to do if this happened.
She opened her mouth as a mix of a wail and a scream came out. Her tears poured down her rounded cheeks, a soft blush appearing on her creamy skin. “I’m sorry,” I said as I carefully wrapped my arms around the girl and held her close. She buried her head against my bosom as I carefully rubbed up and down her back. “You were being really dangerous, and that is what your big brother told me to do if I needed to.”
“I-I’m sorry,” whimpered as she held onto me a bit more. I was sure her long white nightgown was not the best protection from a few spanks. “I didn’t know. Wanted to help.”
“I know,” I pulled her away from my chest and kissed her on her forehead, and tucking a bit of hair behind her ear. “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.”
“Thank you,” she said softly, though her tears didn’t stop. “I’m sorry, I’m really really sowwy.”
“Come here,” I whispered as I lifted her up and began to sway back and forth. She was light sometimes, so small, and somehow so young yet could be older. Her sobbing slowed down, her whimpers dying out as she just stayed near to me, my humming turning into soft singing. I don’t know why but one of my favorite nursery songs, one that I remember from the very little of my past before coming to the island, was just blasting in my head. “Jesus, strong and kind.” By the time I was finished, Sarah was sleeping soundly. I smiled as I patted her back before carrying her back to the room with Unique. She fussed a bit in my arms as we went, trying to find a more comfy place to lay her head.
“Thank you,” Bonnie replied as she, and Esther had gotten Sarah’s sleeping bag out and a pillow and blanket ready for her.
“I am just glad I came when I did.” I said as I laid Sarah down and tucked her in. My hands pushed her curly blond hair back behind her head. I lifted up Bonnie next and took a seat on the couch that overlooked my two sleeping friends. Esther let out a small whine making me chuckle as I made room for my little wolf on my lap. I used one hand to rub behind Esther’s ears and the other to hold Bonnie to my chest. “What was that from her?”
“That was the real Sarah, the one that rarely comes out. Her true self.” Bonnie's eyes softened and saddened and she seemed to shiver. “It’s hard… we are small but when we focus we are big, but don’t like being big because it means we have to accept pain.” The small griffen spirit looked back at Sarah. “Don’t wanna be hurt in the present so will be small in past.” That was all she said before she faded away into smoke and back into Sarah’s griffin shaped gemstone.
I lifted up Esther into my arms and closed my eyes. “Father my God… how do I help her, how do I help in this. How can I help her accept who she is right now…” I lowered my head in shame as I stared into a mirror that hung on the wall. “How can I take the splinter from her eyes when I can’t even take the wood from mine?” As staring in that mirror back at me, was a girl with darker gray hair, violet gray aura and a lust for battle.
How can I help her, if I can’t even help myself?
“Go away, Winter.”
Hypocrite!
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My lungs filled with each deep breath I took. I tightened my fists to the point that my nails felt ready to pierce my palms but then relaxed as I let this endless amount of jepei run through my body. I did this over and over, until finally I felt it start surging within me. I could feel my hair starting to stand on edge more, as a powerful vortex of my white jepei started to swirl around me. My eyes snapped open and I flipped up to my feet and summoning my prized saber, my doubled sided blade with the guard of a wolf head and the bottom of the handle having a wolf paw on it. I twirled around, cutting and slashing around me with a speed that I had missed. I had been in so many cities that I felt much weaker than I normally would be, we were in the water and I felt better but now we were back in my element where I felt rested the most jepei in the world. I practiced the solid and steady footwork that I had thought I had forgotten from days of no true combat. I kept my blade spinning around me like a dangerous looking buzzsaw. I kept this going until I finally unsummoned my blade and kneeled back down. I heard numerous thumping sounds as low hanging branches fell from the trees and landed around me. I held my hand out as some kind of fruit landed in it and I took a bite of it. It tasted delicious, tarty and sweet, two rivers of juice ran down the corners of my lips as I opened my eyes once more.
All around us was an endless amount of trees that stood like an army. Each one having to be so old and with that older age corrected more jepei and an endless amount of it for us to absorb. We had just arrived at what Dr. Silva called her paradise. A small groove just a few miles away from the city of Manaus, or what many called the gateway to the Amazon Rainforest. We had come here as our first stop and a day of rest before we headed deeper into the rainforest, to find and follow anything we could to find one last piece of the tower of babel. While I was still a bit upset with Sarah for over using her ability, she did find something with her research. So now we were gonna follow her findings deeper into the rain-forest, using the mighty amazon river as our guide for the first few miles.
I stood up and walked about ten minutes until I was back on Dr. Silva’s property. A cozy looking wooden cabin rested another 40 feet from me. This small clearing of hers was in a perfect circle, with one large trail for us to use a jeep to get in, and three smaller trails, one heading east, the other north and the last towards the river. It was only one floor, with two bedrooms, one a master bedroom and the other a guest room. The living room was filled with more research tools and a smaller television that didn’t really work out here but got a few channels. The fireplace was roaring last night.
I could see Sarah fluttering around the sky with Bonnie beside her. Since we were in more private lands I had lifted the no flying room on my two friends. I assumed that this was their way of getting back the jepei that we had all lost from being in the cities for so long. It probably felt amazing for them to spread their wings and fly. Sarah giggled as she chased after Unique, her wings much smaller than the older girls, chasing after her in what to me as a game a tag. Unique had a gentle smile on her face as she twisted and ducked out of the attack. Oftentimes closing her wings to drop like a stone before opening them and one flap would send her shooting the other way. She had much more control than Sarah did with her’s.
Sarah eventually stopped chasing Unique once she had seen me, and flew over. I opened my arms as she slammed into me, her momentum spinning us a bit as I settled the girl into the crook of my arm in the process. I pressed my cheek to her nuzzling her’s and making her bright giggles even brighter, a true music to my ears. She had been on her best behavior since we had gotten back to shore, being very helpful in unpacking and filing things. I had only spanked her as a last resort, a way to get little Sarah back instead of big Sarah. However, maybe she thought that was gonna be a new punishment from now on. I usually only saved that for another more cheeky little wolf cub of mine when she tested my patience a bit more than she should.
A felt a gust of wind hit my back as Unique dropped down beside us. Her winds snapping away in a snowfall of powder blue jepei. Her eyes gazed off to the left, and I could see her beautiful and large thunderbird spirit flying off to the east. One flap sent a thunderous blast through the air as she disappeared into the distance. “Where is she going?” I questioned as the girl came to walk beside us back to the cabin.
Unique smiled fondly at her spirit animal. “According to her, she wants to remind the animals and the other few natural spirit animals that their.” She lifted her hands up and made air quotes. “Queen has come back to her kingdom.”
“I suppose if she is the queen of this land, that would make you, as her mother, a dowager.”
“What is a dowager?” Sarah asked as she shook free of my arm and landed on her feet. Choosing to hold my hand as we walked back to the cabin.
“The mother of a queen.” Unique answered, “I just really hope she doesn’t somehow cause trouble. The more she grows, the bolder she becomes as her power increases. It’s scary to think that this isn’t even her full power.” It was interesting that the longer we were here, the more her Spanish Peru accent seemed to come out.
Sarah let go of my hand and held the door open for us as we reentered the cabin. I gave her head a soft rub as I passed. If I would have known something as simple as five mild spanks would get so well behaved. I might have done it before. I saw Unique hold a smirk behind her hand as once she found out what happened, her slight teasing had not ended just yet. Before I could ask her not to say anything else, Dr. Silva came walking out of her kitchen. A wood power stove had been cooking thick cut bacon and eggs for us, to join the already large stack of freshly made pancakes she had started to work on. She had instructed us not to help her as she wanted to truly thank us for our help in the short but fun few days we had known her.
“Thank you,” she said, as Sarah took one of the plates from her hand to carry it to her square shaped table in the back. Once everything was settled on the table, I humbly led us in grace. We began to dig into this wonderful spread of food, freshly made juice, pancakes, eggs and some of the best bacon I had had in a while.
“I wanted to say thank you once more,” Dr. Silva spoke after a while. “Because of you three we have been able to do a lot of things. The new findings that you all helped with have gotten us more funding to venture down there and do more research.” She held her glass up to us in a toast. “I look forward to what else we can find deep in the amazon rainforest.”
There were resounding cheers made before my phone started ringing. I had excused myself to step outside where I had a much better signal. “Emily speaking.”
“Emily,” I recognized Olivia’s voice as soon as she spoke, and I also noticed the hint of anger and worry in her voice. “We need to talk.”
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As soon as she finished telling me everything that happened. I stepped back into the room and told my friends. I kept the fact that Xaiver had been injured pretty badly from Sarah as Olive had instructed me. Our cheerful breakfast turned a bit sorrowful as both Unique and Sarah looked a bit worried for their friends that were on the other side of the world. “You brought that name up before very briefly.” Dr. Silva answered as she rubbed her round chin, a bit more interest appearing in her calm brown eyes. “What is this dark order?”
“The Dark Order,” I began. “Are a branch from us jepei users, back when we first founded Tarun Island, they were one of the first families. However, their ideas were more based on war rather than living our lives in peace. They saw the island as weak and wanting to hide, and rather than wanting to rule the earth as kings and queens. They believe we are above all living things, including humans, the true chosen race of God.” My grip on my glass tightened as I added. “They also serve a false savior, Lord Blackthorn the 15th. That woman that stole that slab from you in the first place was a member.”
“I see,” she answered. “Is this an issue?”
“For us if I am being honest, no.” I answered. “We think there is one more member with that woman… a taller man actually with a military cut and a strong build. However, I do not think they know about this and have no way to know about it unless they follow us, and it is kinda hard for other jepei users to follow each other. Especially members of the dark order, they like to project their presence more than anyone else. So we would know if they were nearby.”
“Okay then,” Dr. Silva sighed. “These are your friends so I would understand if you wanted to take the first plane to Greece to go and help them.”
“I don’t think we need to, or rather Olivia Hearthstone told me that it was not necessary. She wants us to go and find what is at this site in the amazon and hopefully we can get it before them.” However, I turned my gaze onto Sarah and Unique, both of whom were looking down. “However, unlike my friends here, they have much closer friends on the other team than me. I barely knew anyone here before I joined but they do. So if they say they want to go support them, then I am with them.”
Unique was the one that spoke first. “I have faith that they will be okay in the long run. Olivia is really strong and has a good head on her shoulders. So she can keep Daniel in check, and Daniel.” Her light brown cheeks flushed a bit pink as she said his name. A look appeared in her eyes that told me that she probably was in love with the boy. “He is really really strong and is someone you want in your corner in a fight. So I think they will be fine, we need to find what is here first I think.”
I looked over at Sarah who seemed more interested in running a piece of pancake through syrup rather than talking about this. “I worry about my big brother, but I know he is gonna be really safe, but I do wanna see him again.” Sarah finally lifted her head and nodded firmly. “But we wanna stay here, we.” She stopped herself a bit and shook her head as if trying to shake something out of her head. “I wanna stay with you, besides I got to be a mermaid like Ariel, now I get to be like Tarzan.”
I looked at my two friends surprised with their confection. “Alright then,” I smiled at Dr. Silva. “Sorry but, you have to deal with three annoying girls for a bit longer.”
“It is my honor to have you, so how about we finish breakfast, and then we can get moving as soon as possible.”
I looked back as Sarah who begun to chat idly with Dr. Silva on what animals we might see in this forest. Also keeping one more piece of information hidden from the girl. “Keep your eyes on Sarah at all times, Emily. Someone is looking for her, someone that might have caused the little one to be the way she is now. A Greek woman named Helena Blackthorn.”
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I had just finished adding the last thing to my large travel backpack that we were gonna be using for our trip when Unique walked into the room. She was wearing high rise dark brown cargo shorts, and a matching vest, her black boots coming up a bit higher than my own hiking shoes. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Yes,” I said, turning to give her my full attention. “What is up?”
“How do you know what this dark order member looks like?” I paused for a moment as I never did tell them that I had gone looking for them the night before our dive.
I let a breath escape my noise and answered. “I had gone looking for them, I wanted to make sure we were okay. Maybe see if I fought them that they would leave I didn’t mean to keep it hidden from you but I felt that it was of no importance.”
“Did you learn something from this man?”
“No, he didn’t want to fight me. He told me to go home that this had nothing to do with us, and I left. I haven’t seen or heard from him since then.” I walked forward and placed my hands on the girl’s shoulders. She had removed her braid extensions last night, now rocking a curly mound of dark brown hair with a few blue streaks running through it. “I am sorry, I should have told you both what happened. I was being foolish and dangerous cause if something happened to me it would put you both at risk. So I am sorry for that.” She seemed to accept my apology and even let me give her a hug for free. I then whispered to her. “Keep your eyes on Sarah at all times.”
She pulled away from me. “How come?”
“I didn’t want to scare her with this information but, according to Olivia, some woman told Xaiver that she did not forget about Sarah. THey believe that this woman is responsible for the three years she had been separated from Xaiver. Also that she is the one that has caused Sarah to be so little instead of big. If the dark order is here, they cannot take Sarah away from us. So in case something does happen, we cannot let them know who Sarah is. Just to be safe.”
Unique looked a bit nervous but nodded her head. “They won’t touch her, not as long as I am standing.”
I nodded my head and as she left something felt wrong about how she looked. It was kinda like the way I saw some of the kids I babysat look when I would tell them not to do something.
And they had already done it.
I knelt down on the ground and closed my eyes to pray. However my hands were shaking as I felt that primal hunger for battle began to run through my veins. We were possibly gonna have to defend priceless information from the dark order, and they might be after Sarah. Had my father given me a new ram to sacrifice in order to disobey him? A new excuse, a new reason to fight, an excuse to taste blood, to bloody my knuckles, to swing my blade truly and freely.
Two knew rams for the slaughter!
I looked up towards the only mirror in this room and I saw that greedy, monster of a girl; staring back at me. “Get the fuck away from me!” I demanded glaring daggers at her, at my greatest sin. One that I just couldn’t let my father touch.
Cause if I let him touch it she would be gone and I would be free.
However…
Because part of me liked it, because part of me needed it, part of me loved it more than I loved him. I didn’t want to lose it yet.
Just saying that brought tears to my eyes. Cause I loved him but I also loved this one sin. “I’m sorry, my father.” I said softly as I felt more tears of frustration run down my face. I fell onto my face, my shoulders heaving with each sob that left my body.
“I am sorry for keeping this sin with me and not letting you touch it.”
Please forgive me.
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