Hali exhaled and sat upright and responded, “As I said, I came here to look for you because your mother gave me coordinates to where you were. She said go find my daughter. She never told me which one of you four and it was just so vague. The coordinates that I was given sent me to Pitt Meadows, where you were living at the time. At Creaturae, as I said I’m one of the four generals that protect the kingdom. We all live in different parts of the kingdom protecting it. The city is divided up into five areas, the Lacus tribe located in the south, the Eurus tribe located in the east, the Ignis tribe located in the north, the Orbis tribe located in the west and lastly where if you were still living there the kingdom aka regnum of Creaturae is located in the center. I came from the Lacus tribe. Anyone who is born from the pure blood of the tribe is part of the Lacus family who rules over the tribe. Our responsibility as leaders and generals is to protect our area and the citizens who live in it. My ancestors have sworn to protect the kingdom, so every one of my family members has to learn to fight and controlling our magic. Part of our training also is to learn from the land of continents, which is where we are right now. We do this so we can learn ways to not always rely on our power in the kingdom while also using medicine and science but only to benefit to Cultor Nemorum, not to pollute it.”
I glanced at her shotgun, which explains it. How she would know how to use a phone and drive a car. The image I imagined in the world up there probably don’t need to use cars since I can see Hali just gliding around in ice all day. I thought up my next question carefully. “You said before you were a general or something how is that so? How does that force you to protect me and my mother?” Hali sat there wide-eyed and remarked, “Shit girl, you have a lot of questions.” I grimaced.
“Okay, okay. Each tribe has a chief or leader that speaks directly to the emperor and empress. I am the leader of the Lacus tribe. My uncle was the leader before me, but he died fighting in the war. I was the next in line because I was strongest after him. Well technically, right now my cousin is in charge because he is after me since I left Creaturae to come to look for you. Any other questions?” she explained.
“How did you know Uncle Earl was related to me? And who is Caedenbitus? How did you know where I was when the magma lady attacked?” I continued interrogating. Hali crossed her legs and looked at me. Groaning this time.
“When I arrived at Pitt Meadows”, she began stating, “I’ve never been there so I wandered around a lot. I happen to walk into a pub and I met Earl. He was friendly and we spoke for a little bit when suddenly I saw Earl’s eyes flared white. He suddenly just fled the scene and then suddenly I sensed power coming from your school and ran towards it. By the time I ran out of the pub after him, he was nowhere in sight. Like he disappeared. I didn’t know he was running towards there either. It took a while to get there since I didn’t know where I was running and I couldn’t use my powers in the open since there would too many spectators. I would have been all over the news. Gliding around like that. When I arrived all I saw was you passed out and Earl clinging to you like you was dead. To be honest, I don’t even know who this guy is. He feels like he has powers, but he doesn’t sometimes. I’ve never seen him in Creaturae, so I’m not sure. The old fart is like fifty-something so I’m not too worried about him. It looks like he did a good job raising you. It’s interesting though, watching you. I couldn’t even control that much power at your age. The whirlpool and stuff and when Earl told me what happened. He told me you turned the raindrops around you into ice to attack the lady. Most people would just go berserk and their powers cause them to force explosions hurting the ones around them. Or they would run. It almost seems like you were trained before…” she cocked her head to the side as she stared at me.
“Uncle Earl and I used to meditate together. I used to get out of control when I was scared, surprised or angry but the meditation training we did together helped me to get where I am now.” I answered. I sat there in silence, gripping on to my shorts. I shook my head, “ Other than that he never taught me anything to control my powers, just how to calm down. I learned on my own when I practiced in the bathtub.” I added
. Hali shrugged her shoulders. Suddenly, the door slammed shut, Uncle Earl stepped into the room holding multiple bags in each hand. “You girls, I kept calling you guys but none of you answered your phone.” Uncle Earl grunted. He placed the bags on the table and began to pull items out to sort it. “I got food, clothes for all of us, shampoo, soap, just enough to last maybe a couple of days?” he explained.
The smell of spiced cumin and coriander tingle my nose, “You got tacos?” I salivated. My stomach began to grumble furiously from the smell. Uncle Earl opened the box. Hot steam came out causing the whole area to smell like meat and spices aromatics. “I got burritos too. I went to that fast food taco place where those hipsters hang out in. It was the only one still open around this area. I think they were a twenty-four hours restaurant or something. Anyways, ladies... Food is getting cold so why don’t we dig in?” he gestured.
I took a seat down and opened ripped off the top half of the lid from one of the boxes to use as a plate. I was so hungry, so I wanted to go big to start. Eyeing at the burrito, I picked up carefully with both hands to not unravel it. I pulled off the aluminum foil and took a bite at the top of the wrap. The tortilla and ingredients unfurled in my mouth, spices, rice, sauces, and cilantro welcomed my taste buds. Each bite I took had a different textured and flavour entered my mouth. Some were softer, some more sauce, some more rice, and meat. Without noticing, I had eaten the whole burrito. My body felt warm from the food. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until Uncle Earl brought the food in.
I guess food has always been my comfort. Since I was young Uncle Earl would show me dishes in our homey kitchen. As I got older, I ended making meals. I loved cooking. It reminded me of the care and passion Uncle Earl expressed to me over the years. Mountain Dew was dripping with sweat in the corner of the table. Pulling the tab on top of the can, the tab pushed the circumference lining to open causing a clinking sound. The carbonated drink fizzed. I took my lips onto the green can and gulp down the beverage. Fizziness sparkled in my mouth following with a wistful sweetness. I opened my eyes and it caught glances with Glass still lying unconscious on the floor.
I peeped over at Hali who is shoving the last of her taco in her mouth. She glimpsed over at me and asked, “What’s up?” Turning my gaze back to Glass I said to her, “Maybe we should save some for him. What are we going to do when he gets up?”
The table filled with silence, hands stop moving, and mouths stopped chewing. Hali wiped her mouth with a napkin and placed her right elbow on the table. “I guess. That’s up to him. If he wants to join us that’s up to him Hali, we can’t force him.” She suggested. Uncle Earl stood up and bantered, “Wait, you can’t be serious right?”
“Well, what else are we going to do? Did you get any good fucking ideas? Old man! You guys don’t want to kill him. I know I don’t at least. We can’t just release him because he’s just going to run back like a bitch and tell them where we are. Especially now that he knows I’m working with you guys. He knows what we look like and who we are. Wouldn’t it be better if he just joined us.” She yelled back.
Uncle Earl shut his mouth and looked away. Scratching my head I answered, “I guess we just got to wait till this guy wakes up. Tying him up is no use because he won’t talk. To be honest guys, I don’t think he was the same guy who hurt me at the motel.”
I walked over to the boy and dragged his dead weight body towards the couch area. Propping pillow underneath his head, I ran to a nearby apartment room to find blankets. Some were lying in the closet. With both my hands I pulled it down from the top of the closet and carried it back to Glass. Glass was still sleeping when I arrived. I tossed the blanket in the air for it to spread as I held on the edges with my two hands. Gently it fell on top of Glass covering him. After I walked back to the table and took my seat again. Curious to try what flavours the taco would taste like, I grabbed one and began eating again.
Hali smiled then focused back to the food. “Somebody needs to keep an eye on him tonight. If he walks up while we are asleep, even though his powers are dormant at the moment he can still kill us while we are sleeping. Earl, we should switch tonight. Juvia should get some rest since she looks the most exhausted out of the three of us. In the day time, Juvia you keep an eye on him. Got it?” she ordered. We both nodded. Uncle Earl didn’t look approved the fact that we were going to keep him.
After eating, the three of us cleaned up the table together. Hali went off for a shower and Uncle Earl began to keep an eye on Glass. He sat in the chair facing Glass’s7 sleeping face while holding Hali’s shotgun pointed at him. I was really tired, but I wanted to talk with Hali some more before she went to bed. So, I sneaked into the apartment room she was showering in and waited on the bed. We were really lucky that there were some bedding and other things left in this apartment building. The lights didn’t work though, luckily the plugs on the wall nearby did. I charged my phone in the corner and waited silently in the dark.
Staring at the moon and stars that were probably satellites, I thought that this day would never end. So much had happened. The first day I met Hali I was attacked by a mysterious lady. Later, I found out that the group called Caedenbitus was after me and that my mother is still alive. I also kept having dreams about her, well, I’m guessing it’s her since in my dreams there was a man and woman in weird robes protecting babies. Maybe they were my parents that Hali was talking about.
After I found all that out from Hali, we had our first training in the morning and learned how to control my powers for the first time. Then, I went to school and the police were questioning each student and teacher associate. As a result, I figured that they were part of the terrorist…or whatever group they are and I escaped with Hali as they pursued us. Then, we thought nobody was coming anymore and we decided to go to Vancouver since Hali’s friend was there to help us. But after a couple of pit stops, Glass found us and tortured me while Hali was planning another escape.
Wait. Was Hali scared of this group? I’ve never really seen her fight them. Every time we had contact with that group we ended up running. Then what about Uncle Earl? He also seemed way to calm with this whole situation. Hali did say earlier that he disappeared right when I was attacked. How did he know I was being attacked? I was in school and I never messaged him about anything.
The shower sounds in the background halted. Hali walked out naked and wet as she rubbed her platinum blonde hair with the towel. She didn’t notice me and tried to turn on the light but there were no light bulbs in the room to turn on. Sighing, she finally turned around and saw me in the shadows. She yelped in surprise, “Shit, Juvia. You almost gave me a heart attack.” I patted the bed area beside and me and answered, “Hali…I think we need to talk…about Uncle Earl.”
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