Android Zeeth

A few days had passed since the meteor, everyone had rested up and tried fixing up the village. Through the search, they had found three dead villagers, killed the meteors that they couldn't prevent. Tatio gave them all a grand ceremony, thanking them for their years of dedication and service to the village. Zeeth had talked to Page about his strange legs and fingers and Page said, "I can finally tell you, you are an android. A human with robotic parts. I can't tell you how much of your body is robotic or how they work, you need to find that out yourself, but I can help you train with what you already know."

He had so many questions but Page didn't tell him anything more than he already knew. They were both scared for their lives and the angel had warned him very seriously not to tell too much.

Tatio brought the sticks and stones back to the village and hid them in his house. Loren and Leia had been restored, Alba and Tatio were arguing a lot, but he eventually apologized to them for forcefully taking their magic without their consent and to such dangerous levels.

Loren came up to Zeeth and said, "Thank you so much for helping us through the meteors. You helped us a lot despite being foreigners. Please, follow me to the Hidden Passage. My father, er-Tatio would like to thank you. We have treasures that we would like to gift you. There are numerous elven artifacts there and you guys get to pick one. I'm sorry we can't give you more, but these are secret treasures that would never go into the hands of foreigners. But rest assured, all of these are treasures that are no doubt incredible."

"Sounds cool. What kinda stuff you got?"

"Most of them are bows and arrows since we are elves, but we have a few words and other artifacts. Many of them have been blessed by Luik, the Goddess of luck. Her main weapon of choice is the bow, but she is proficient in the sword. She is our ideal goddess."

But as he walked he went through another flash of a memory. And he was a little boy back in the little space under his bed, holding a bloody knife having just stabbed a man. He was feeling just as nervous as when he left as if no time had passed. His heart was thumping like crazy and his mind going hazy from the blood on his hand and the yelling from the man. Another person ran over and stopped to look at the foot.

Before he could think or react, his hands flew up to stab the silhouette of the second man's foot. He heard another yelp and another drip of blood came down. He noticed that this was keeping him safe so he kept shoving the knife up the cracks wherever he saw a silhouette and kept stabbing until they rolled off the floor, leaving him with no one to stab. He knew he wasn't safe yet, but he could help but collapse to the floor, clutching the blade of the knife.

Suddenly, a quick jab of a much cleaner, much more detailed knife came from right beside him. The knife was quickly pulled up, trying to live the floorboard. The floorboard was a bit heavier than the man thought and the knife fell out as the floorboard was being pulled up but he heard some muttering about how this was the place and he needed just one more jab as the knife came in from the same direction and lifted the board. He sent another wild jab of the knife from his little hole and cut the palm of the man trying to lift the board.

He let go of the knife with a yelp and dropped the board again and yelled, "damn boy, when I get my hands on you, I will make you sorry for that! C'mere!"

He grabbed the knife again and lifted it. Zeeth sent out another jab, but the man was on the left, so he just swung at air and splattered blood on the ground. The man chuckled and lifted the rest of the floor, exposing Zeeth to the afternoon light. Zeeth took another swing of the knife at him, but he caught the knife within the ridges of his own, professional hunter's knife and tore it out of Zeeth hands. He grabbed Zeeth and shook him angrily, ready to stab him just as Zeeth let out a loud wail. His mom heard him crying and from the sounds of it, she was fighting off the other men to come to see him.

She popped out from the living room to the bedroom and someone holding her hands to her back had followed her in. even with the mask and dark clothing on, Zeeth recognized him. His strange face shape and frame as a bodybuilder, that was his uncle Ted. the very uncle that had come over for Christmas to give him a tiny case of crayons, the same uncle who came to eat at his house for thanksgiving. They had never been close, but he was still family.

His mother also recognized him but her shock kept her speechless, even he was having a hard time believing it. He really hoped this was just another bodybuilder, but his face was just too peculiar. What finally made him sure of it was his eye. His uncle had lost an eye in war and always had his left eye closed, this man fit that exact bill. His very own uncle had been colluding with his school dean and planned to rob him and his family.

Suddenly, he heard some very familiar footsteps. His dad's footsteps, the shoes he wore for work always made that exact clicky clacky sound. And he was right, his father walked into the room in his suit and tie and his shiny dress shoes. He was a skinny man, but not quite tall. He had begun to grow a bit of a pudgy stomach, just around the waist and his hair began receding, but you could still see a trace of the ruggedness from when he was young.

Zeeth was happy to see his dad, he thought he had already called the cops for them and that he was about to fight the man off of him, but he did nothing. He simply walked into the room, looked around, straightened his tie, and stopped.

"Theodore, help us! What are you doing, have you called the cops yet?" his mother yelled as his uncle was holding her arm back as her other arm reached for him.

"No. I haven't called any cops. I called these guys here. Merinda, before you say anything, let me talk. Just think about our living situation, aren't you tired of living like this? We're poor, no bank trusts us and we can't pay off our crazy mortgage like this. On top of that, we have to raise a child? It's just too hard, we will all crumble at this rate. If we kill this boy and play it off as an accident we can get a huge amount of money from his life insurance and we don't have to worry about that anymore. My sister said if we kill him and get this place robbed, she can get a really good deal with our insurance company and get reimbursed for nearly twice the amount as usual. She can make this happen, our lives can get so much better!"

As he talked he began walking closer to Merinda, in hopes of her calming down enough for them to hug and agree that this was the best choice. But she simply looked at him like he was insane and yelled, "HE'S OUR SON!! OUR SON, AND YOU WANT TO KILL HIM?!? How can you be so insane?!" she picked up one of her shoes and threw it at him, just missing his face, which angered her even more and annoyed him a little.

"OUR son? OUR boy?! Oh, Merinda, might I remind you, I had nothing to do with conceiving the boy! It was you who was a cheating whore! And I've put up with the boy for years now! he's not even mine! He's driving us insane!" he yelled, grabbing his head, "Listen. I love you, so I will give you one last chance. Join me in telling them he was murdered when thieves came to steal our things and we can go live richly for the rest of our lives. I'm only giving you this chance one last time."

"SHUT UP!!" she picked up her other shoe and chucked it straight at his face, hitting his nose. He bent down, clutching his nose as everyone else in the room watched.

"FINE!! You bastards, get her! If she dies, I just get more money!! See if I care, you whore!"

"He's not my child either!! I found him at our doorstep years ago with a note attached and I simply followed orders! It's your fault for marrying me and then going missing for a year without notice! Who told you to leave me like that, you missed all those big moments! You missed so many important times in our lives!"