Flocking Normies!

Zini knew that she had to be careful of whom she trusted. The "entity" known as Star believed any stalker should be given that chance. Conflicting with her own thoughts, Zini couldn't deny that there was something about this human. There was something about him that Zini saw and felt that made her believe he could be trusted. She knew that she could get in serious trouble for what she knew from his mind. Her home in the woods did not seem to be a hundred percent safe or secure either but with the thoughts she had now about him, she let the unsafe feeling go. He was the one she felt unsafe about. Yet she could feel that he had no ill intention about her. At that feeling, Zini felt herself relax.

Inviting him into her log cabin, Zini felt that this human had something on his mind. Apart from the ragged and guarded look he had on his face, his head was heavy with something that deeply troubled him. She would have easily found out what was on his mind, but she was distracted by what her eyes saw. His guarded look remained on his face even though Zini had tried to be as calm as she could to keep him at the same level. She had just tried to strangle him—actually, her other half tried to, but she did settle that and make sure he didn't feel like he was going to be strangled again. As he sat down on a chair beside the table and focused on what he saw around him, Zini stared at his features and studied them. His eyes were the sharpest hazel and his skin, although dirty, was a rich light olive. His head was covered with a thick mat of brown hair that hung limply over his forehead. As Zini stared at him, she realized he still looked around the cabin guardedly. Zini shook her head out of her reverie.

She asked him if there was anything wrong and his answer was a look at her with his piercing gaze, which scrutinized her. He had heard of the Stardust Dragon. He already knew what to expect when he stalked her but what he couldn't understand was the lack of scales and the brunette hair. This was part of the reason he looked around guardedly.

He didn't see what he expected to see. She didn't look like a dragon lady. She looked...normal.

Zini, on the other hand, got lost again. While he stared at her, thinking to himself about why she seemed to be the dragon lady but didn't look like it, she caught sight of his sharp jaw and his toned shoulders. His lips were plump but taut and when he breathed out of his mouth, she caught little glimpses of his teeth that peeked out when he did. When he opened his mouth to speak to her, she snapped out of staring at him and focused on his words. He introduced himself as Glen and told an intriguing story that captured Zini's attention.

He spoke of how he heard about the arrival of the Stardust Dragon and how he begun to look for her everywhere, believing that she only could help him. He explained how he escaped from a camp, far off the island, and through the wilderness that Zini once lived in. According to him, he needed help to free the rest of the people trapped and enslaved in that camp and he thought, after he escaped, the news about the Stardust Dragon could be of use to him. He thought that no one else had the power to help him apart from this dragon lady. He heard of this girl through her exploits before he was even kidnapped and enslaved a few years ago. How she seemingly decimated Anomaly forces with ease impressed him.

Specifically, he went on to tell Zini about the main reason why he needed her help. He had a friend, Mackie, who had a little sister named Kita. They were all captured by Anomalies around the same time. He went on to say that they were still there and that he had promised to come back for them after his escape. When Glen finally found out about Zini's whereabouts in the wilderness, he proceeded to follow her and study her from afar. From what he told her, Glen stayed away because of the fear he had in him when he tried to reveal himself. He was even afraid as he stayed away because he didn't know what she would do to him if she found out that he'd been following her for so long. When he noticed she moved from the wilderness, he traveled with her through it, away from the isles, and made her way to the island on which they were.

For weeks, he was careful and lived away from the sight of her and noted that people barely came there because of the strange things they saw on the island. How weird that they wouldn't go on the island when there was a human being like them living with the weird thing on it. Glen explained further that he needed Zini's help to free Mackie and Kita and the rest of the enslaved humans in the Anomaly prison camp. Zini was now aware of the matter at hand and how dire it was.

Anomalies? She thought to herself that she didn't want to have anything to do with them. She had already found her haven here on Mamnue and she did not want to leave. She made that clear to Glen and kept away from him. She let him stay in her home for a few days while she went on with her life, trying not to think of the danger she could avoid and the help she could render by using her powers. Although she thought about it repeatedly, the most prevalent reason for not going through with this idea was the fact that the captors were Anomalies. She had no idea of why they would do that to humans who had no power against them.

What was she thinking about?

She knew exactly how those humans felt.

Throughout the few days that Glen stayed with her for shelter, her mind felt heavy. Just as Glen's. He always thought about his people in the camp that he talked about and so when she read his thoughts, she mirrored his emotions and deeply felt for him, but she also didn't want to have to do anything with the Anomalies. Yes, she knew exactly how those humans felt. It's been years since she last felt so helpless like Glen did every day now. She was a victim of Anomalies too, yet the details were a bit hazy. She knew the missing details were a result of her mother's mind-wiping. She banished her to this part of the planet but in truth, Zini didn't really belong there. In this case, just like her, the humans were also being tortured. Humans who didn't have any powers like her or any superior abilities to defend themselves against the Anomalies. Zini hated this thought and found herself in a dilemma in saving her own life and staying away from trouble or...fulfilling her destiny.

She was startled at this thought. Her destiny? How could that be her destiny? Where could that thought have possibly come from? 

Star. Did she think she was...they were destined for this? For saving the humans? Or did Star believe this would work out in her favor, slaying Anomalies just for the heck of it? All in the name of revenge?

Following that thought path, the next two days were tumultuous for Zini. She didn't think about any other thing anymore. And all through those days, Star was silent. She was going to find this out for herself. Zini came to her decision when she decided to take a walk outside her cabin one night. Glen was nowhere near or inside the house, but Zini didn't worry. He stalked her on an island everyone knew was forbidden. He should know his way around. She walked through the trees, a long way away from her cabin and down to the shore. A forty-minute trek from her home. As she stared at the vast ocean, her gaze directed away from the direction of the Isle coast, she wondered just what was happening back home in Caprice. Sad thing was, she only knew the name of her birthplace, not its location.

Zini thought about her mother. Maybe she could still be the kind of nagger to her father about Zini's banishment and would be willing to show mercy to her daughter for trying to assassinate the King. For once, Zini thought of the opposite. For many years, she had always felt she knew exactly what her parents were doing at any point in time but at this moment, Zini dared to think that they could be doing just the opposite of what she had always thought they were doing. She dared to think that her mother was searching for her after mistakenly throwing her into another part of the world and was going out of her mind with no success. She imagined her mother crying every day at the mistake she made by banishing her daughter and had maybe, shouted at her father regularly for behaving so cruelly to their daughter. Zini dared to imagine her father as silent as ever and depressed and so full of guilt at the way he treated his daughter. She dared to imagine her father sending out men after men day after day searching for her. She imagined her parents deteriorating out of grief and pain of letting their daughter go. She dared to imagine her parents regretting the ways they have treated her in front of her future subjects. She dared to imagine her people having gloomy days because the only heir was nowhere to be found.

Somehow, these imaginations, as Zini believed they would forever be, brought a sense of calm to her mind. She kept on thinking of impossible things that her parents and her people could be doing instead of thinking cruelly of her.