A Welcoming Reward: Chapter 5

Those who looked down at the boy, gave him looks of fear, hatred, now looked at him with honor, respect and kindness. Although there were some that didn't see that he is unlike the other Akai. The base is cleaned up, dead soldiers being put to rest, the injured going to Nora. Nora then leaves, going to Tatiana and the boy. Tatiana looks up from her bed with a smile hugging the boy. The boy hesitates a bit before hugging her back hesitantly and pulling away. Nora looks at the boy. "Ready to start?" The boy nods and sits on the bed examining all the books, puzzles, and other things that will help him in his studies. Improving greatly the boy learns the alphabet, a few phrases, hand movements, the basics, "hello" "please" "thank you" "you're welcome" "goodbye" "yes" "no" etc. While doing that the boy also teaches Damien advanced hand to hand combat, with a bit of broken English, the two manage to work together. Doing his part, Damien teaches the boy how to use guns.

"Alright kid." Damien grabs a pistol showing it to the boy. He disassembles it in front of the boy laying the pieces down in front of him. The boy speaks back to him still in his native language then points to the pieces. Nora looks at Damien. "He asked if you wanted him to assemble the gun." "Yes. Also I'm gonna make some flash cards for him of the parts of the guns for him to study and how to put it together. Then a final test is him putting them together in a certain amount of time." Nora translates what Damien told her to the boy. The boy nods his head and looks down at the pieces putting the gun together quickly then loads it and aims it. Damien's eyes widen as he laughs and claps putting the gun down. "I love this kid." "But whenever you're handing it off to a comrade, safety on" he points and flips the safety on handing it back to him correctly then points to a target board putting on soundproof headphones. The boy tilts his head and looks at Nora. "What is that?" "It's something to block the loud sound from the gun. Might want to put them on" the boy nods, putting headphones on along with Nora. Damien helps the boy aim. The boy aims at the target and shoots, jumping a bit from the recoil. Damien pats his back, the boy looks up, Damien nods at him. "You're doing well" "G-good? I good?" The boy asks. Damien nods. The boy looks back at the target board and keeps shooting, hitting the head down to the middle each time. Damien smirks and nods his head. The boy reloads the gun and shoots more until all the magazines are gone. "Good?" He looks up at Damien and Nora. "Perfect kid" Damien pats his shoulders. The boy smiles a bit. "T- thank y-ou hm.. thank you." He says clearly with a silly smile Tatiana taught him. Damien laughs "Gotta work on your smiles kid. You're doing great though." The boy nods, setting the gun down.

Months go by, the boys training goes fast. His intelligence, already being as strong as it is, grows stronger and stronger each lesson. Although he still lacks in some areas, he follows through with everything.

"Ready for your test?" Tatiana looks and rubs the boy's head. The boy nods "I am ready." "After you get a reward too" the boy's head peeks up, his ears flicking. Tatiana laughs and bends down to him holding his shoulders. "You've got this buddy" she holds her fist out. He gives her a fist bump and smiles. She smiles back. "Go on Damien is waiting for you" "Okay, see you later Tat" the boy runs off to the training room. The people living there waved at him, giving him fist bumps and messing with his hair. The boy smiles through everything feeling better about himself being there and being welcome. The boy walks inside seeing Damien waiting for him with a vest on. "What's up kid, ready for today?" "Yes but why the body armor?" "Well, I thought since you never really had fun I spice things up. We will be playing a series of games that have to do with guns. First is laser tag, then we take a break from that and do some regular hunting but it's fake, uhhhh a Terminator game ``''Terminator?" "Oh yeah, gotta show you some of the latest movies and shows. Anyway after that is the real test. Paintball. It's a shooting game with bullets only it's paint. Still hurts though. You will be on your own against my team. Win that and my sister will give you your reward. Trust me you'll love it." "Ok, let's go", Damien claps his hands and chuckles. "Let's go." He leads the boy into a room with guns on the wall, and a body vest. "You get hit, it lights up and buzzes. Game goes to 21. If you get hit that many times then you have another chance so don't beat yourself up cool?" The boy nods, giving him a fist bump. Damien smirks and leaves. The boy gets ready as the lights go off. Tatiana and the other military squad viewing him from a tv. "You got this buddy". The boy focuses and listens to everyone's footsteps. He looks to the right and sees a gun aiming at him then dodges to the left getting into cover. "He's using his hearing, good". The boy turns and rolls, shooting someone while buzzing making a loud noise. The boy gets back into cover and starts to crawl. "Twenty more". The boy gets surrounded by three of the players, he runs and slides in shooting one on the left, the one to the right shoots, the boy pushes himself up into the air dodging and pressing a pressure point in their leg making them drop "Oooh that was good kid" she laughs, the last one shoots him in the back the buzzing scaring him a bit. The boy flees and jumps up to a high vantage point examining the area. "Hmm... I can't see Damien." Damien smirks and sits back waiting for the right time. Time goes by, the boy is owning the rest of the squad 19-2. The rest step down leaving only Damien and the boy.

"You're doing good kid!", the boy listens to his voice and footsteps. Damien turns the corner shooting at the boy who ducks and shoots Damien in the chest. "Gah!" He laughs. The boy smirks and runs away "Too slow!" "Oooh!" Damien says laughing "Oooh now that you can talk you're going against me huh" he laughs running towards the boy. The boy flips over him, Damien slides aiming his gun and shooting the boy in his back. "Whoo!." The boy turns a corner and rests for a minute. "Tired kid?" "Nope" he rolls out and shoots Damien. "21". The boy says. Damien nods and claps, Tatiana claps as well, cheering like a mother proud of her child graduating. "Ok now for a little break, cmon." The boy follows Damien to a game room. The two play shooting games having more fun than the two had playing laser tag. Having this much for the first time, the boy felt like a normal kid. Not as tense as he used to be. Everything was different now that he had a new home and people that care about him. Sure they needed his help but it's as if they had completely forgotten about it, treating him like a normal kid.

Finally was the last test. A game of Paintball only he had a team this time. They entered a safe area of the woods not far from the base. Same score, same rule. The boy was paired with Helena a 25 year old with brown hair cargo pants and a painted face mask. Jorge a 32 year old who wore army clothing and a durag over his mouth and head. Henry a 28 year old with a sweatshirt on and cargo pants, and Gianna. The game starts and the boy looks at Gianna. "I can smell and hear where they are coming from. I know all of your scents so it won't be hard to tell you apart." Gianna nods. "Lead the way kid" "North is where Damien is, to the West, Carver is there and the twins Ava and Eve are there. One of them is on their way now." He looks around for hiding spots confirming with everyone else. The boy jumps into a tree and hides as the shooting begins. One of Damien's teammates getting hit first. The boy aims at Damien shooting him in his chest then jumps from tree to tree landing on the ground hiding near a stream. Gianna looks around keeping her gun aimed and rolls dodging a shot, shooting back at one of the enemies. The twins surround her, the boy lands above them aiming at one of the twins. He shoot one of them as the other shoots at Gianna, he jumps down getting shot instead grunting a bit. Gianna shoots Ava, the twins fleeing. "You didn't have to do that boy" "I felt I needed to." She smiles a bit patting his back "Hurts doesn't it?" "A little." "Don't worry, you're a strong boy". Damien runs by shooting at them both, Jorge pulls them away shooting back at Damien who gets into cover. "I'm glad you too are bonding buuuuut we still have a game to win" he chuckles. Gianna nods chuckling. The game goes well leaving the two teams tied 20-20 in the end, Damien and the boy being the last ones again. The boy sits in a tree waiting for Damien to arrive. Damien walks underneath him his gun aimed ahead of him. The boy aims, Damien turning quickly aiming at him and shooting, the paintball almost brushes past his face, the boy shooting him back and missing. "No.." Damien shoots, the boy flips off the tree getting shot in the leg. "Awwww" Tatiana says, a pout appearing on her face.

The boy looks down. Damien tilts his head. "What's wrong kid?" He rubs his shoulder. "I lost... again. Damien chuckles, shaking his head. "Kid, you did win. Not in the way you think but, you did a phenomenal job. Laser tag you planned everything out using your senses. You had fun at the game room, and here you helped your squad out even sacrificed yourself for a teammate. That's what counts." Tatiana walks into the room as the lights come on. "Nowww for your reward". She hands him a medal with a name that reads "Denali". "W-wh- what's this....?" His eyes start tearing up. "It's your name," she smiles. "Denali" translated means "Great one" and I think it suits you well because you are something great". Denali hugs her tightly immediately crying into her shoulder. She smiles, hugging him tightly, rubbing his back. "I'm so proud of you." Damien smiles. "Told you it was a special reward" Denali detaches from Tatiana and hugs him as well "Thank you... thank you.." Damien hugs him, rubbing his back. "Of course buddy." "Ooh there's also something else cmon" Tatiana holds her hand out. Denali takes her hand and leaves with her. He wipes his eyes following her. Tatiana takes him inside and shows him a door with his name on it then opens it up showing a nicely decorated room, the wallpaper of a forest, a good sized bed against the wall, awards from his achievements on the wall, a desk with a chair, a television on his dresser, a workout corner and a bathroom to the left. "Getting older so I thought you'd like your own room. Denali hugs her again. Tatiana kisses his head. Nora walks in and smiles. "How do you like Denali?" "It's amazing... I'm grateful..." "Well you deserve it hon." "Tomorrow and the day after you can have the days off, enjoy your new room." He nods and hugs her. "Thank you Ms. Nora". She smiles rubbing his head. "Of course sweetie." She leaves. Tatiana smiles at him. "If anything I'm next door hon". "Okay." He smiles at her, Tatiana leaves, leaving Denali alone. Denali looks around his room enjoying everything feeling more welcome than ever.