First time in Mecca

Krain’s POV

“Krain?”

I rubbed my eyes when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I saw Tera smiling at me so I get up.

“It’s the first snow fall!” She said, jumping her way out of the room.

I followed her shortly. They are in front of the house. I remained standing in the door as I watch the three of them catching the snowflakes. Their laughs make me smile.

“Krain!” Chiena called. “This is my first-time seeing snow! It never snowed in Epiliar.”

My smile dropped with Chiena’s remarks. I subconsciously look at the sky where the snow is coming from.

It has been what? Half a year, I guess. We are staying here in Meriandin for that long and until now, Miss Xhora is not asking us back. We have no news from Epiliar.

“Let’s make a snowman once the snow becomes thicker,” Tera suggested, receiving a nod from Chiena.

I stared at Tera who is happily dancing in the middle of the snow. She looks so carefree as if..

My gaze transferred to Chiena. She’s laughing while watching Tera. What if she remembers the memories that Tera erased? Will she forgive us?

“When will you stop overthinking?”

I sighed. “Maybe never?” I answered. “What about you, aren’t you worried? What will happen next? What happened? We’ve stayed here for months and you know a lot of things could happen in that span of time.”

What if… we didn’t receive any message the states the request of our return in Epiliar because they are in a serious situation and they can’t call us back.

“What if.. Quintessence is at the verge of being into ashes?” I faced Krace. “What if a war broke out already? What about our people, Krace?”

What if lives of our people were sacrificed? What if they killed the people of Epiliar in the process of looking for me?

He stared at me for some seconds before sighing.

“Let’s give it a year,” he answered. “Whether we receive an order or not, we are going back to Epiliar.”

I agreed with his suggestion. I wish by then, we’ll arrive in a peaceful Epiliar.

After making sure that Tera and Chiena are asleep, I went to the library. Upon seeing me, Krace rotate one of the book shelf and a board with information is shown. These are the data that we’ve written since we arrived here.

“I really have this feeling that Queen Nathalie was killed by a Guerrerian,” he started. “She suddenly died at that young age, some time after she finished her book. And the cause of her death was never disclosed.”

Why would anyone kill her? Because she shared the information about what will happen in the future?

“Someone is trying to keep the future happenings to themselves and use it to their advantage,” I whispered. “Why would they do that? They are not capable of changing the future anyway.”

What are they up to?

“Or.. things will go according to their plan. They are so eager to get rid of you because you could change the future. You’re a threat to their plan.”

I am a threat.

‘We’ll all die in the future. But when you were born, the future keeps changing. You are the only one who have the ability to change the future, Krain.’

I can change the future.

So if we are meant to be defeated by Guerrerians, I could change that.

“That’s the real reason why they are trying to kill me.” I looked at Krace. “That’s why your mom sent us here.”

I stood up and took the marker from him. I wrote on the board and faced him.

“Guerreier. They’re the enemy.”

I wrote several names in an organizational chart style.

“The King is leading his people. Under him is the next in throne.” I pointed at Snashi’s name. “We can’t mention her name since she has the ability to appear anywhere as long as her name is mentioned.”

“We have to be careful with her, then.”

I nodded. “But the last time I saw her, she saved my life.” I frowned. “But she didn’t know I am a Dauthinian. She may have left me to die in the forest if she knew who I really was.”

And to think that she scared the hell out of me during our first encounter. She even barged into my room.

“And next in line is Nashin. We already know that he serves as a spy in Quintessence,” Krace said.

I am sure that he is looking for me. He must be the one appointed to bring mr to Guerreier. He made me believe that I could trust him. But he betrayed Quintessence for Guerreier.

“Ashinaida—”

“She knows nothing about it. Let’s exclude her from our identified enemies.” He gave me a questioning look. “You need to trust me in this, Krace. I know her and she’ll never side with Guerreier, especially once she find out what her district is up to.”

“And if she turns out to be one of them?”

It is not impossible to happen. She’s still a Guerrerian after all.

“Then we’ll see her as an enemy too,” I concluded.

We continued planning on the possible response if ever a war broke out.

“We have to gather the council to report this. But they wouldn’t believe us, would they?”

“If they would believe it, Miss Xhora should have informed them already. But she didn’t, so we could say that the council will turn a blind eye in this matter. It is possible that some of them are aware but are already on a chokehold of Guerreier.”

“Our second option would be talking to them, which is nearly impossible to happen. We won’t risk it.”

“Maybe we could propose a truce between Guerrerian and Dauthinian?” I suggested.

He shook his head. “Not that I’m judging them, but knowing Guerreier, they are greedy than we think. They obviously wanted to rule the whole continent and have all districts under their control. You know they think that they are the strongest, Krain.”

As of now, they are.

I straightened my back. “Then we’ll get the other districts to be on our side. We could overpower them if we could lead Gelare, Kauma, Hatian, Liht, Bizzaro, and Heilsen. We just have to convince them to join us.”

“And that would be the hardest to do.”

I know. It is almost impossible to talk with the rulers of each district.

“But your mom could gather them.”

Miss Xhora is capable of doing that. We’ll make use of her authority to convince the leader of each district to join force with us. They have to, if they wanted to live in peace and away from any external control.

We continued exchanging ideas until the sun rays sneak through the window of the library. I walk towards the window and opened it.

“Another beginning starts,” I whispered. “Do you think they are doing well out there?”

I felt Krace walk beside me but I didn’t look at him.

“You mean the people in Epiliar.. or Nashin?”

My forehead creases as I look at him.

“Why is he even included?”

“I can read your thoughts every once in a while, Krain. Don’t even try to hide it from me.”

Yeah, right. There’s no point in denying that.

“Do you like him that much?”

“I never said that.”

“But you do like him,” he insisted.

“I can’t blame you for liking him. He’s a prince of Guerreier, he has the looks and all but.. you know he sees us as his enemy. His betrayal.. I hope you can put that into consideration.”

If I could only defend him.. but he already betrayed us.

He’s an enemy, Krain. An enemy.

P

“I probably like him,” I admitted. “But you know how much I care for all the people of Epiliar. My ancestors ruled the continent and took care of each one of them. And I have this sense of responsibility where I feel like I need to protect them at all cost. They are MY people.”

And my people comes first. I may be swayed by some circumstances, but my heart is committed to protect these people. I feel like I was born for this.

I used to see this as a responsibility to protect my sister and my family. Just that. But now, I wanted to protect everyone, if possible. I wanted to grow stronger and be able to protect them.

“And my people are more important than Nashin.”

He released a sigh of relief.

“Our people are more important, indeed. More important than the person who deceives you.”

That should be my mindset. A lot of people got hurt and died, trying to protect my life. So I should live and save more lives. Since I have the ability to change the future, I should do it right.

For months, we’ve scheduled a daily training together with Tera and Chiena. This is the only way to be productive while waiting for Miss Xhora to call us back to Quintessence.

“Do it again,” Krace ordered Chiena.

Chiena stood up in a fast manner. She took a very deep breath and released it in the direction of Krace. Krace raised his hand and put his palm in the direction of Chiena. The blow of the wind reversed and came back to Chiena.

“Chiena!” Tera called in concern. She stepped forward but I stopped her from going farther.

“We already agreed to this, Tera. She’s in the middle of her training, you can’t interfere.”

“But…” she looked at Chiena who stood up once again and faced Krace. “They’ve been doing the same thing. She’s hurting.”

It is part of the training. “She’ll get used to it. We can’t see the progress now but eventually, she’ll be able to stand against Krace’s attack.”

I hope she will. It is the least we can do for her. To prepare her for anything that we might face once we go back to Epiliar. She should be able to protect herself.

“Chiena,” Tera murmured when Chiena was blown away again. She coughed a few times until blood went out of her mouth. I run towards her. But before I could reach her spot, Krace appeared beside her and helped her get up.

“That’s it for today.”

Chiena smiled and nodded before she lost consciousness .

“Now, it’s our time to train,” Krace said. We followed him to Chiena’s room where he put her into her bed. “Remember the ones that we practiced?” Both Tera and I nodded.

Tera put her hand just above Chiena’s arm. It glowed and we can vividly see the tissues of the wound, closing.

“You’re good,” I complimented. She was catching her breath when her hands stopped to glow. She wiped her sweat in the forehead and smiled at me proudly.

“Let’s finish healing her,” Krace instructed.

I put my hand a few inches away from Chiena’s body. Krace did the same and our hands glowed at the same time. As seconds passed, I could feel my energy draining.

I guess this is what healing is. Like giving your energy to someone else so they could regain their health. A few more seconds and I am catching my breath, as if I run a marathon. My hands feel cold and the my eyelids became unusually heavy.

Am I doing too much?

I closed my eyes to focus more in healing the remaining wounds in Chiena’s body when a hand hold my arm gently. I looked at Krace.

My eyes went down to Chiena. There is still a small bruise in her left cheek so I transferred my hand in that area when Krace stopped me.

“We are not done yet. She’s not fully healed—”

“We don’t have to heal her completely.”

I know. This is just a practice anyway.

Krace put a blanket on Chiena before standing up. He held my shoulders and Tera hold his arm. Next thing I knew, we are already in my room.

“Wow! You’ve mastered the speed of Lihtians, Krace!” Tera exclaimed. “I wish I could do that too.”

“You know how to control lightning, like Krain, which is something I can’t do so…” he helped me to sit down on my bed. “It is fair.”

“You should rest. We agreed to stroll around Meriandin, didn’t we?”

Right. It is Tera’s birthday tomorrow so we agreed to go out and stroll around Meriandin. This will be the first time that we will go out so we need to rest well. We must prepare ourselves for something worst.

“I’ll sleep too,” Tera said. “Goodnight.”

She went out first so I was left alone with Krace.

“No one will recognize us, right?”

He sighed. “You’re overthinking, Krain. You should be excited to roam around Meriandin for the first time.”

Yes, I should be.

.

“Are you excited?” Krace asked Tera and Chiena.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Tera shouted excitedly.

She went out first so we followed her. We are wearing our white wrist band to conceal our presence. We have to hide the fact that we are Dauthinians, well, except for Chiena.

The four of us walked to the highway. We just followed the sound where the vehicles came from and finally end up in a road.

“There’s a bus!” Chiena said, pointing at the approaching bus. She raised her hand and jumped nonstop until the bus stopped. The door opened and the driver greeted us.

“Good morning! Going to Mecca?”

“Mecca? Do you know where’s that?”

Krace looked at me after hearing my voice.

“Do you really think I would know? We’re both new here.”

I saw the driver waiting for an answer so I smiled.

“Yes, Mecca,” I said as I get in the bus. They went after me and we took the seats on the last row.

“The bus smells good,” Chiena whispered.

“Since when have you been staying in this place? I haven’t seen you before,” the driver asked. Other passengers also looked at us. “Are you a newlywed?” He added.

Do we look like a couple? Don’t we look too young for that?

“We’ve been here for months. We stayed home all the time since my wife and I are trying to discipline her siblings that were entrusted to us by her parents,” Krace calmly answered as he put his hand on my shoulder.

My eyebrows formed a single line.

‘My wife and I? What the heck, Krace Chambers?!’

“That’s more like it. You two look good together!”

I could clearly hear the how the other passengers agreed to the driver’s remarks. They even talked about how our looks would match well which will — according to them— surely result to a good-looking child.

What the… What’s wrong with these people?

“I can’t agree more. Thank you, sir!”

I nudged him with a creased forehead. He smiled and held my hand so I decided to punch him but stopped halfway when he speaks though his mind.

‘We need to be on their good side or else they’ll find us weird and ask more questions. We don’t want to wake their curiosity, do we?’

But we are lying.

‘It is more safe if they’ll think that we are a cute couple.’

Tera tapped my shoulder twice, making me look at them.

“We also think that you two look good together,” she whispered while looking at me and Krace. Their eyes stopped at my hand that Krace is holding so I let go right away.

They teased us until we arrived at Mecca.

“Mecca, the center capital of Meriandin.”

Before going out of the bus, we stopped upon seeing a woman with an infant. She’s struggling with her three huge bags while holding her baby. Seeing that, I went back them to give her a hand.

“I’ll carry your bag,” I offered.

“Oh, thank you.”

She looked at her bag and handed one to Krace. She took another one but hesitated to give it to me.

“Would you mind if I’ll let you carry my baby instead? My bags are so heavy and I don’t want to burden you that much.”

“Oh sure!”

I moved closer to her and carefully took the baby from her arms. She smiled as her eyes sparkles in sadness.

Sadness.. why is she giving that look.

“His name is Shandy.”

“Hi, Shandy,” I whispered.

I walked out of the bus first. Shandy moved a little so I moved my body from side to side as I hum. We stopped a few meters away from the bus as we wait for the woman to move her things.

“He’s so cute. How old is he?” Tera asked the woman.

“He is two months old,” she answered and went back to the bus to retrieve her last bag. Krace stood beside me to look at Shandy.

“Hello, little one.”

“See? You looked good! A happy family!” The driver shouted when he saw us.

I laughed at his comment. Krace also laughed as he shook his head.

“Do you wanna see our little one?” I joked. The driver walked towards us, laughing too.

Our laughs were erased when the bus suddenly exploded.

“Tera! Chiena!” I called to which they reacted to quickly. In a span of second, the two of then are on my sides, holding my arms. I hugged the baby as I control the air around us using my eyes.

“Krace.”

“I know. Our only option is to use the air.”

I felt the change in my eye color as I succeeded in controlling the air. The impact of the explosion is too strong and it was followed by another explosion. I felt my feet being pushed away with the impact so I clenched my fist.

“Tera.”

Her grip on my arm tightened, followed by the thickening of the air that envelopes us.

“Krace…”

He is standing in front of the driver to protect him with the barrier that he made.

“Krace, the mother of the baby..”

He didn’t move. Instead, his barrier became thicker when another explosion happened.

He can’t hear me now.

“Chiena, I need you to create a barrier around the bus.”

She nodded and let go of me. She raised her hand to make a barrier around the bus when a heavy rain dropped, extinguishing the fire.

It’s over.

Krace imme

diately run into the remains of the bus. Some police men run after him and told him to get off since they’ll need to investigate.

“Is she—” he nodded and handed me a slightly burnt paper.

‘Please raise Shandy for me, Krainarie.’

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