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Now was it very naughty to disobey big sister Emily’s one rule for me? Yes it was. However, technically big sister Emily was not here right now and big sister Unique was in charge. So by that logic, me sneaking out of the window and flying around the city was not breaking Emily’s rules. She had told me that I could not go outside flying, however big sister Unique never made that rule. See when we landed in the city that never slept. The first thing I wanted to do was go flying at night, I wanted to see the city from the sky. It looked so pretty when we landed in our plane that I wanted to see it with my own eyes, flying with my own wings. Now I know she trusted me to watch Unique because she was not feeling that well, however, Unique looked fine now. She had regained her color, so she was gonna be okay.
“You are gonna get in trouble.” I looked over at Bonnie, the best animal spirit in the entire world. Okay maybe that was being a bit biased but it was true, she was super smart, she could fly in the air, she could run fast on the ground, she had the best qualities of a lion and an eagle. Plus she made me really smart, so that was the best gift she could give me.
“Why would I get in trouble, my logic makes sense.”
“You're still breaking rules, so when Emma finds out she is gonna be cross with you. Or maybe when big sister Unique finds out she is gonna get mad at you for leaving.” Bonnie flew closer to me so that we were soaring together as one.
I flipped over to look at the bright and shiny city of New York. THis place made any Christmas tree back home look so plain in comparison. It made the stars back on Tarun look dull and boring. I suppose that was a good thing since I could barely see the stars even from this height. This city's natural light seemed to cloud the stars from view. My eyes narrowed a bit as I began to dive towards the large park in the center of the city. Our flight attendant had told us to take a trip to Central Park if we missed being around Natural energy or jepei. The city was great but the terribly low amount of jepei running through it made me feel sluggish and tired. My excitement levels were barely enough to keep me going and once that ran out. I probably was gonna be very cranky, and when I got cranky, I got naughty, and when I got naughty I would be in trouble.
“I am gonna be fine,” I said once I had safely landed on the grass. This part of the park had a large pond that from my research was called turtle pond. I hoped that I could find some turtles tonight, I had never seen a living turtle before. Plenty of animal spirit turtles but not a living one, and maybe if I brought it back to the hotel. Unique and Emily would be too distracted with our new pet to be cross with me. “Now we need to find a turtle.” I crossed over the dimly lit pond and carefully placed my hands into the chilly water. It was so different from the warm water back home. As I dug around to find anything that resembled a shell, my hands stopped for a moment. “Do you think, I can send a turtle to Xavier?” I asked, unable to hide the sadness from my voice.
I know that we all agreed that this was the best thing for us to do was to separate into two teams, but now that it had happened. I didn’t like it that much anymore. The last time I had been away from Xavier, was because of really bad people. We didn’t see each other for nearly three years after that, and only happened to run into each other on the first day of school. I stilled remembered that day, he had grown taller and looked more athletic, but I would never forget his soft face and dark blue eyes. I could never forget his dark blue jepei aura that flowed off his shoulders liked a warm blanket, my blanket. I screamed his name as loud as I could and pushed through anyone in my way until I was safe inside of his arms. He squeezed me so hard that I was sure I was gonna pop like a grape, but I didn’t care.
I had my big brother back, and we were never gonna lose each other again.
That is why it is so hard now to be away from him. Separated by hundreds of miles, he was in Sparta Greece and I was gonna be in Brazil soon. We were supposed to travel together, part of me wished that I had been smarter and said no. We could have done both locations together as one big family instead of splitting up. “G-Go away,” I whimpered, shaking my head a few times. Like grasping hands that wanted to pull me down, bad thoughts began to fill my head. The worst case scenarios that could happen, things that could not happen cause I trusted Olive and Daniel to protect him. Even then those thoughts came at me like vines trying to wrap around and drag me into the mud, drag me deeper into my head.
I was already broken, I didn’t want to be broken anymore.
I jumped as something brushed against my fingers and I carefully lifted up a small turtle. My joy came onto me like a warm sun, it melted away all of those bad thoughts and replaced them with the best things that could happen. Xavier would be fine, he would come back to me, after all he promised that he would be okay, and he never breaks his promises. Right now I was here to help my team get this job done, to find out where this tower of babel was. Or at least find proof of its existence, I didn’t know why the mommies and daddies on the council wanted this found so bad. However, I think it had something to do with the gemstone that Lady Hearthstone had found. If that piece could be found there, then the tower might have more clues on where the rest of the behemoth shattered gemstone was.
He had been broken and shattered, he was probably little and afraid.
He was probably like me.
So I was gonna help fix this and solve this, and then things would be better. As I lifted this turtle up into my arms, I smiled at his cute little face. “I am gonna name you Sheldon and we are gonna be friends, and you are gonna be friends with Xaiver. I know he is gonna like you very much.”
That was when I heard a loud crash of thunder and the air grew warm like lightning had struck nearby. I spun around and my jaw dropped and I ended up dropping Sheldon back into the water. “Hello Sarah,” Big sister Unique said with a firm glare on her face as she walked towards me with her arms crossed.
Oh no.
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Thank Goodness that Big sis Unique had no experience with my famed puppy dog eyes. They used to be able to get me out of trouble with my mommy and daddy. However, the more I used them the more it stopped working. However, Unique was not used to them, so I was able to get her to not tell Emily about this little adventure I had. As well as get her to take me on a lap of the city, before we headed back home for the night. I went to the bathroom and immediately got dressed into a pair of pajama shorts and a light pink t-shirt covered in stars. I climbed onto Unique’s bed and held up a comb and a brush. “Can you do my hair like yours?”
Unique looked surprised for a moment but then lifted me up and sat me forward so my back was against her chest. “Sure why not,” I started to relax as she began to run a brush through my messy hair. “Why do you want your hair like my little one?”
“Because it looks cool.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” She set the remote down on my lap allowing me to pick whatever movie or show I wanted. “Sarah, can I ask you a question?”
“As long as it is not a rude one, then yes, my momma says I don’t have to answer rude questions.”
I heard her laugh a bit before asking. “What in your mind qualifies as a rude question?”
I crossed my arms across my chest and began to think for a moment. “Asking how old I really am is a rude question, questions about what makes me so weird, anything about my past cause I wanna keep it there.”
“Fair enough,” she seemed to think for a moment. “What do you think about our mission?”
“I think it is gonna be really fun, we get to go anywhere we want. We get as much funds as we want to do it, we get to find information that could tie to our special people and bring it home. It’s like being a superhero for our home. Heroes of knowledge.”
Unique once again went quiet. “But do you think it is fair to keep whatever we find buried under the ground in that library? Shouldn’t information be for everyone, everyone should be allowed to see what we find, not just grandmaster, a few scholars and the council.”
“Why would it be wrong?” I asked, tilting my head up so I could see Unique’s face.
My new big sister had a very confusing look on her face. Like one that came when I was conflicted about doing the right thing or being a bit naughty. “I don’t know, I just think that everyone should be allowed to see what we find. Not for our own glory, but so they can know more about our people and their impact on history. It just feels a bit wrong to me right now, I will get over it at some point. I am probably just overreacting.”
“Overreacting is better than not reacting at all.” I said, reaching up with one of my long arms and flicking Unique on her forehead. “I used to overreact to a lot of things but my momma said that is good, cause before I didn’t react to anything.”
“Why didn’t you?”
As I opened my mouth to speak.
The room seemed to change around me in an instant, it was dirty, filled with cold gray stones and mice that ran across the floor. Dark bars stood in front of me, I felt chains around my arms and legs. I remembered this room, I remembered this cell, I remember. I had one rule in this cell, do not speak or show pain. They like it when we cry.
I want to forget!
“Sarah!” I blinked once and the bright calm colors of our hotel room returned to me. The television was being really loud for some reason, and I found that Unique had finally taken the remote from my hand and started to quickly lower the volume. She spun me around to face her and she was blurry for some reason, like she was underneath the water. “Y-Your crying?” I reached up and placed my hands under my eyes, and sure enough tears were flowing down my cheeks like endless rivers. “What is wrong?”
I let out a few sniffles as I leaned forward and rested my head against her chest. “I-I’m sorry,” I said, gripping her shirt tight in my hands. “I don’t wanna talk about it… don’t make me remember it. I’ll do anything.”
Unique gently shushed me as she lifted me up into a comfy position on her lap. “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.” She squeezed me tight against her chest. “Just know that whatever happened is not going to happen, you are safe here.”
As she said that I found myself looking over her shoulder. Laying on the ground was a girl around eight years old covered in scars and bruises, her once beautiful gold and green hair missing in certain parts and covered in mud. “Thank you,” I whispered to Unique as I forced myself to look away at the older minded me.
She was broken and far away, and she only came out to play when we were learning. I was what remained, now and forever. The future me stays in the past, because if I grow up into a world of pain.
Then I would rather stay young forever.
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“Hurry up already!” I called over my shoulder as I raced down the pathway in front of me. Today we were taking a group trip to central park to do some morning running and training. Big sister Emily was walking beside Unique and they seemed to be having a talk. A grown talk by how serious Unique looked, and I knew the rules about grown up talks. I was supposed to go and play while they were having them. So I looked down at Bonnie and our new best friend Esther, Emily spirit animal. She could take on two forms, one was a normal white wolf and the other was a lean werewolf form. “Come on,” I said with a wave of my hand as I began to run down the trail in front of me. “I will race you to that tree!” I said pointing at a larger tree that was about 50 yards from us. We had come here to absorb a lot of the nature energy or jepei as we needed before our next plane ride. We were leaving New York tomorrow morning so we could head to Brazil.
Maybe that is what they were talking about. I thought as I looked over my shoulder one more time at Unique and Emily. They were probably planning our next steps. So it was best to let them do it, I was here to help them but I was not good at planning, best leave that to the big kids.
I let out a small cry of frustration as Esther sped past me at the last second beating me to this tree with Bonnie close behind her. “That is not fair!” I said with a sour pout on my face. “You have four legs, and you are too fast.” I pointed from Bonnie to Esther.
“Don’t be mad at me cause you are slow,” Esther said as she looked over my shoulder. “Playground!” She shouted before racing past me.
“Wait up!” I shouted as I followed the two legged wolf towards what looked like a fun looking playground that had a few small children running around it. It was pretty big looking with a large sand lot for running around, it had a few large maple trees surrounding the playground and a few picnic tables. The climbing structure and bridges were a mix of wooden and metal. I wasted little time in running over and sitting down in the sand. It was nice to be on sand again, although I missed the bright blue waters that usually stretch out alongside it. I took my shoes off and began to go to work with Esther and Bonnie making a sand castle.
About halfway through construction someone placed a hand on my shoulder making me jump a tiny bit. I turned around to see an elderly looking woman with dark brown skin, her face had soft wrinkles covering it and her eyes were a bit sunken in, however they were filled with love. Before I could properly greet her, she whispered to me. “I would be careful little one.” She nodded towards the sandcastle that Bonnie and Esther had been working on. “Those without our gift might question how that beautiful castle is being made.” My cheeks took on an embarrassed flushed as I completely forgot about that. Normal people could not see my animal spirits but could see objects that were being moved by them. Including living nature.
“S-Sorry.” She only smiled at me and now I could see the gemstone around her neck. A netrix gemstone of rhino spirit. “I kinda forgot that I am not home right now.”
“You are from Tarun then?”
“Yes ma’am,” I said with a smile. “I am away on a special mission, but I can’t really tell what it is right now.”
“I am sure that if it is such a special mission it would be rude for me to ask what it was.” She lowered herself slightly into the sand. She looked around for a moment. “Where is your momma or papa?” She asked with a hint of concern. “Or did you run off from them in your excitement.”
“I’m not here with my momma or papa.” I explained looking up into her cherry shaded eyes. “I am here with my teammates, Big sister Emily and big sister Unique.” I looked over her shoulder and in the distance I could see Unique and Emily walking towards the park. Emily had a hand on her chest as she let out a sigh of relief. “Though maybe the first part was right about running off in excitement.” The woman followed my gaze and chuckled to herself. “Are you here by yourself?”
My question was answered when a small boy came running over, his brown eyes open wide as he looked at what I was assuming was his grandmother. “I am not, this is my grandson, Mica.” The little boy hid behind his grandmother and gave me a shy wave. He had a lot of hair on his small head, almost looking like a microphone. “I am assuming only one of these two beautiful spirit animals belong to you.”
I nodded my head. “This is Bonnie,” I said, pushing the griffin spirit forward. “And this is Esther, she belongs to Big sister Emily.”
“You two are beautiful so rare to our people.” She stated. “My name is Row Carter, but you can just call me Mama Row, everyone does.”
“Okay, Mama Row.”
We talked for a few more moments before Emily came over and kneeled down in front of me. “Sarah,” she began in a firm voice. “I told you to stay within my eyesight.” She then turned her head towards her animal spirit who was attempting to creep away from us. “And I told you to stay within my eyesight as well, Esther.”
“S-Sorry,” I mumbled, avoiding her eyesight. Emily was really nice but when she seemed stern she could be really scary looking when she tried. “I just assumed that you and Unique were having a grown up talk and my momma always said that when the grown ups are talking I am to go play out of hearing range.”
Emily’s face brightened a bit as she began to ruffle my hair a bit. “I will let it slide this time but remember to stay close, I don’t want you getting lost.” She then turned to Mama Row. “I am sorry if Sarah caused you any trouble. Do you want me to help you stand up, madam.”
“It was no problem at all,” Mama Row rose to her feet and dusted off a bit of sand from her dress. She was the same height as Emily just gave off a stronger aura of warmth and love than Emily. “I was just seeing if this little one had family or friends nearby, I was gonna help her find you if she needed it.” She stretched her hand out towards Emily. “My name is Row Carter.”
“But you can call her Mama Row, everyone does it.” I finished making the old woman chuckle a bit. I then pointed towards Mica. “And this is her grandson, Mica he is really shy.” He helped prove my statement by getting up from the sand and hiding behind his Grandma’s dress.
“It is a pleasure to meet you both,” Emily said before placing a hand on Unique’s shoulder. “This is Unique, is the last member of our little group out here.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you all,” Mama Row said. “It is a blessing to see more of our people here. Most of my family share the gift of jepei but it is nice to see more of you in the city. How long do you plan to stay?”
“Another night before our flight tomorrow morning at ten,” Emily explained. “We came today to take in as much natural jepei as we can before getting on another flight to brazil. We are on a research mission for Tarun about a new discovery in that part of the amazon.” I looked up at Emily a bit worried that maybe she had said too much but she simply placed a finger on her lips and gave me a look that told me to trust her. I then realized that Emily didn’t technically lie, we were on a research mission, and we were to discover a new place in the amazon.
She was much better at telling half truths than she was at telling full lies.
A skill that I found that Emily used a lot more than I ever truly realized before.
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Once we had finished our fun morning in central park. We had stopped at a large shopping mall, one that put our mall at home to shame with the size of it. The entrance alone was huge with a few tall palm trees standing in front of a circular sitting area. It was kinda like an outdoor theater that gave us a good view of the entrance. The ceiling stretched high into the sky. It had a curved ceiling with large panels of glass that let in the sunlight and showed off the blue sky. It was beautiful. There were two different entrances that led to the main mall, so far the inside was beautifully made.
And I was in trouble.
Or I was gonna be in trouble once Emily found me, Esther and Bonnie.
We were lost.
I let out a long sigh as I took a seat in the back of this circular area near the entrance. I sat off on the tallest part and held my knees against my chest. After being lost in the mall for nearly 35 minutes, Esther had told me she had gotten a mental message from her momma. “Go back to the entrance and sit there until we come and get you.” It was the last words that escaped her muzzle that made us all feel much smaller than ever before. “I am disappointed in all of you.”
I reached out and rubbed Esther on her head. She had shrunk down to the size of a small puppy and she could not stop whining no matter how hard she tried. “She isn’t gonna be really mad at us right?” I asked, using one hand to rub Esther and the other to rub Bonnie. \
“She is really mad,” Esther said in a soft voice. “I didn’t want to tell you the last part, but she said that we can’t get ice cream today either.” I let out a whine of my own at that statement. Emily said that if we were good we could go to get ice cream after lunch.
“It’s my fault.” I whispered. “I wandered off and you all followed me.”
“I helped,” said Bonnie.
“And I didn’t help matters that much,” Esther added. “So it’s not your fault, it's everyone's fault.”
As I let out another sad sigh. I felt Esther tense up and her sadness suddenly turned into a low growl. I looked up to see a woman walking up towards us, she had pretty blond hair and a matching pair of yellow eyes. She was holding a few bags of her own in one hand. She was pretty tall, with a lovely figure and much like her hair and eye color. She was letting off a sharp yellow aura that crackled like a fire. “We meet again, little Esther.” She said in a soft but sharp voice like lightning. “Where is your momma?”
“No where,” Esther said as another growl escaped her lips.
Her eyes traveled from Esther over to me and Bonnie and there was something about them that made me squirm a little. “And who is this little one? Did you find a lost child and are protecting her?”
“I’m the reason we are lost.” I hesitantly offered a hand to this woman. “My name is Sally Springchaser. What is yours?”
She gave my hand a soft shake in return. “Whitney Dawnbreaker, I am guessing that you are one of the people traveling with Emily Walker.”
“Yes ma’am.”
She smoothed out her white dress before sitting down on the step below me. “Do you mind if I sit with you? I will keep you company until Emily returns.”
“T-Thank you,” I said with a small smile but it quickly turned into a frown. “Though I don’t think Emily is gonna be happy to see anyone right now. I was supposed to stay by her side but I ended up wandering off.”
“And she should be a tiny bit upset with you for that.” I let out another whine and buried my head into my knees. I just wanted to be a ball right now. “Though she might be a bit upset, that isn’t gonna stop her from being your guardian while away from your home, nor is it gonna stop her from liking you.”
“How do you know?”
“I am a mommy, dear, and sometimes I need to be firm with my own children. Remind them to mind my rules when I give them, but even when I have to be firm. It doesn’t take away the love I have for them. If all it took was them being naughty for me to stop loving them, then I would not be a good mommy, my love would have to be earned and that is someone no one should need to earn. Especially from a mother.” I felt her pat my knee a few times and I lifted my head a bit to see her smiling at me, a warm motherly smile. “Just remember to mind your big sister in the future to avoid this all together.”
“I can try.”
“So if what your friend says is correct, you are all heading to Brazil to look into this tower of babel. Are you excited to go exploring?” I cheered up a bit at that and nodded my head. “I can imagine, traveling and doing research with friends is much better than doing it alone. Though I am surprised to see that such a young lady is gonna be on this mission.”
“I am 11 years old,” I defended with a pout.
“Still a young lady,” she countered. “Though I suppose if you are going you might be the brightest mind on the team.”
“Yes ma’am, or at least people tell me that I am.”
“How so? What makes you so bright?”
“I can read a lot of languages and speak them too.” I opened my mouth for a moment before saying in latin. “Can you understand me?”
She surprised me as she answered back. “Impressive, speaking a dead language.” I narrowed my eyes a tiny bit and I tried three more languages to try and stump her. I finally got her when I began to speak in Yoruba. “You’ve got me,” she said with a laugh. “Though I only know five languages including English, you are brighter than me in that.”
“Thank you,”
“So what are you gonna do with the knowledge you find?” She asked me, resting her pointed chin onto her hand. “If you are truly looking into that ancient tower with connections to the behemoth I would love to read the report made by Emily Walker and her friends.”
“It’s a secret.” I said, holding a finger up to my lips.
“Well then I will let you keep your little secret, but you have curiosity little one.”
“My momma said that curiosity will kill the cat.”
Miss Dawnbreaker gave me a smile that sent chills running down my spine. “That is true, but curiosity makes the bird stronger, and danger is nothing when you can fly over it.” She looked away from me, as I followed her gaze my stomach sunk a bit in my chest. I could see Emily had just come out of a nearby entrance, with a slightly smirking Unique. As she saw us, she quickly bonded up the stairs towards us.
“Well it seems that your guardian is here,” Ms. Dawnbreaker spoke as she stood up. “So I suppose that I will see you around, little Sarah.” She stepped in front of Emily and I couldn’t help but notice that Emily’s entire mood shifted. So far I had only seen her soft smile, even when she was being firm with me she still smiled. However, now she showed signs of annoyance and even anger. “I hope you don’t mind me keeping your charge company while she waits for what I hope isn’t a firm hand.”
“Nothing that she cannot handle,” Emily said. “Thank you again for your help last night.”
“It was a pleasure to serve you, just remember that all information has a price so I hope you can pay it back one day.” She patted Emily on the shoulder and stepped around her, taking her bags with her. She also shook Unique’s hand and whispered something to her.
“Are you okay?” Emily asked as she sat down beside me. “She didn’t hurt you did she?”
“No,” I answered, glad to see the gentle Emily had returned very quickly. “She just kept me company while we waited for you.”
“And you didn’t say anything you shouldn’t have said?” I thought for a few moments but slowly shook my head. She let out a small sigh of relief. “That is good, if I learned something from that woman, it is that she can speak really well. So good that she can disguise her true motives with very kind words.” She smiled at me before wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Now I suppose we should be heading back to the hotel. Cause I have three corners that could use some company for an hour or two.”
A unison cry of dismay escaped our mouths “An hour!”
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