Chapter Fifteen – Not As Planned (Friday, January 20, 1995)
I’m fifteen now and with everything that has been going on in my life, I feel much older than that. I didn’t do much for my birthday since it was during Christmas break, just some cake with friends. I’ve also been busy with midterms, the holidays and everything in between that I haven’t had the chance to talk to Kyle about what I had read back in November. I know I should just let it go, but my curiosity is getting the best of me, as always. I showed the books to Celestria who thought the same thing I did about Dryden and Kyle but doesn’t remember much from her own past life, save that she was a high cleric.
The construction on the castle is almost complete and we’ve been told to keep our sparring matches far, far away, which we’ve done today. This is so we don’t cause any damages to the castle and we might have to keep our distance from here on out. Joe and the other villagers from Dorter have put so much time and effort to get the castle back to the way it was.
I scream out in pain as Kyle’s sword presses into my skin right below my right shoulder.
“I wonder if I can add a rune to my sword,” he says. “There’s a mage in town that specializes in magical runes.”
I stumble back as his sword pulls out of my skin, blooding staining my white shirt. “You stab me and all of a sudden you think about runes?”
“Funny how that works, huh?”
“Listen, I have a deal for you,” I say, slightly out of breath and changing the subject.
We’ve been sparring for close to twenty minutes now, with Kyle clearly winning this match.
“Go on…”
“If I pin you down, you have to answer a question.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yep”
“You’re bleeding and I’ve had the edge since we started.”
“So why are you worried?” I grin, despite the pain and soreness that I am feeling.
Kyle shrugs, “Alright, if you want to play like that, we’ll play.”
He shoves his sword into the ground and raises his hands to the sky. I can hear a rumble as lightning bolts begin to rain from the sky. I teleport in and out to avoid them as only a couple come into contact with my skin as I slide into the dirt and knock Kyle to the ground, causing the spell to be broken. I quickly stand and reach for his sword, but Kyle kicks my arm away and jumps up from the ground. His palm lights up with pure energy and I do the same with fire and with our palms facing each other, our spells collided in the middle, a bit dangerous being in close range of each other.
“I can stand here all day,” he mocks.
Even with my teleportation, Kyle has always been slightly faster than I and frankly, it’s starting to bother me. Teleportation is supposed to be faster than flight. I know he’s been working on his technique, that’s the only answer and reason that I can come up with. I know eventually I’ll be faster than him but for right now I need to be smarter. What would he think I would do next? I can feel my right knee about to give out as my leg shakes. I notice his eyes looking down at my knee briefly and I realize that my opportunity to strike is now. My left hand lights up as I pull my arm back, making it seem that I might try for a double fire spell, but instead, I spin around, close my right palm and as if throwing a baseball, I hurl a fire spell from my left hand towards Kyle, who dodges to the side to avoid the attack as I rushed towards his sword, grab the hilt and with my last bit of energy I swing the sword to strike and as Kyle tries to dodge again, he slips on a root that’s sticking up from the ground which causes his leg to give out under him and he falls to the ground, and at my momentum and speed I fall on top oh him.
I shake my head as it pounds straight into my ears and eyes as I sit up, still on top of Kyle.
“See, told you I could…” I stop to notice that Kyle hasn’t said a word. I look down to see his eyes closed and he’s not moving. “Ummm, are you okay?”
We’ve had some intense battles before but none that caused any blackouts.
I quickly reach back and pull out a healing potion. Kyle might just be knocked out but I don’t want it to be something worse and the longer I wait, the harder it will be to heal him.
I open his mouth with my left hand and pour the potion with my right hand, pulling the cork out with my teeth. I then use my left hand to hold his head up, hoping that we won’t chock on the liquid.
I toss the empty bottle to the side and wait for Kyle to wake up. It shouldn’t take long before he’s back to normal as the potions are fast acting.
I then realize that my fingers on my left hand are sticky and it can only be Kyle’s blood. This injury might be worse than I originally thought.
With my right hand, I push aside the rock that his head had hit once he fell. We’re supposed to have thicker skin but if we can get knocked out by large rocks, what chance do we have if someone pulls a gun out?
I then rest Kyle’s head on the grass to inspect my hand, which is caked in blood. I then look back down at Kyle, who still hasn’t woken up yet. Should I have used a phoenix potion and not a healing one? What if he doesn’t wake up?
I lean closer to his face to see if he’s still breathing and before I can react his lips are against mine. It’s a few seconds before I back away, standing, I say, “What was that about?”
Kyle sits up and rubs the back of his head, “What was what? I was trying to get up and your face was in front of mine.”
“I was checking to make sure you were breathing,” I cross my arms.
“Ever heard of a pulse?” he mocks.
“Just so that I’m clear, there is nothing between us,” I stammer. “I don’t even know who you really are.”
Kyle sits up and says, “So ask. That’s what you were hinting at and since you did pin me down…”
“Wait, what?”
“Oh so now you’re going to chicken out?”
Am I hearing this right? Kyle is willing to tell me more about him? I have to wonder why the change all of a sudden. Unless this is some sort of trick.
“Fine,” I say, sitting down crossed legged on the ground. “What’s your story?”
“That’s a bit of a broad question, don’t you think?” Kyle sits up and I can tell he’s trying to find a place to start. “I was born in Florida and you already know that Ozma killed my parents because she was hunting me for the information that I know. I was on the run and hiding out until I ran into you and Miles.”
“Yea, but how did you know? What made you come to my middle school? You could have just kept yourself hidden,” I ask, hoping that he’s not going to hold me to one question.
He sighs, “I’ve had this crystal, rune, whatever you want to call it, ever since I was a baby. It was given to me by a friend of the family but I never saw the man again. I’ve kept it with me ever since and it’s only glowed twice since I’ve had it. Once was back in kindergarten and the second time was when I was at a park in March of last year.”
“Wait, are you saying that the school that you were picked on was my elementary school?” I ask, shocked.
“Yes.”
“I never noticed…”
“No one did, don’t worry about it,” he says, looking off.
“But the park…”
“My apartment is ten minutes away from it and I wanted to go for a walk. I had no real reason to go there and it was just random but when I was walking on the path you were walking in the opposite direction.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Yep, you had your headphones on and walked right passed me. By then I had the crystal crafted into a necklace and I noticed it was glowing, again.”
“But you don’t wear…”
Kyle then pulls out a necklace that is attached to a black chain. The rune itself is the body of a phoenix, with its winds stretched out and then curved to the top of the rune. In the middle is a purple crystal. I can feel my face blush as it appears that I don’t pay attention to the people around me. Unless he was keeping it hidden, how did I not notice that he was wearing a necklace? Then again, why would I notice?
I walk over to inspect the rune, holding it my hands while sitting up on my knees. “So you spied on me?” I slowly ask, sitting back down but not before noticing that Kyle has very nice and deep brown eyes.
“I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the crystal glowed again so I found out which school you went to and decided to get myself in so I could figure out why the crystal glowed again. I started to figure out that Ozma wasn’t after me but after the crystal which she could use to find you.”
This means that the reason why Ozma had Kyle’s parents killed was because of a crystal that could be used to find me. My heart sinks as I realize that I’m the reason why they’re dead and maybe Kyle didn’t want me to know more was because of what had happened.
“That’s pretty much it. I was a kid who lost his parents and was on the run ever since. Only difference is that there’s magic involved,” he stands. “Oh and I like video games, football and walks on the beach.”
I didn’t want to press anything else and I now regret even asking him the silly question. Maybe he would have just told me when he was ready. “Wow, I’m sorry,” is all I can think of.
“Not your fault and you need to remember that, it was Ozma’s,” he tells me.
I stand, still unconvinced and I turn around and notice my bag on the ground, several feet from my current location. Kyle walks past and turns around to say, “So does this mean we just had our first date?” Kyle takes note that I’m just standing there, looking at me bag. “Are you okay?”
“My bag is over there.”
“Yea, so…”
“Wait, first date? “
“Maybe you had it in your back pocket,” he suggests.
He picks up my bag and tosses it to me, “Since you know me a bit more now…”
“Wait, what?” Did he really think that, I swear, Kyle can be very hard headed at times. I did say that there’s nothing between us, right?
He just looks at me and smiles. I can’t tell if he’s serious or not and that drives me a bit nuts. “Are you ready?”
Unsure about what Kyle is talking about, I say, “Not yet, I’m just going to stick around here for a while.”
He shrugs, takes out a portion and is shortly gone. Why can’t one thing happen on one day and not a multitude of things at once? I sigh and attempt to take in what happened today. This might be one of those nights that I need to get out. My bag wasn’t on my back so where did the potion come from?
After about two hours of trying to figure out what went down, I decide to visit the pub in Dorter. As I walk in, I immediately notice Tom at the bar top at the back of the pub.
“Hey there,” I say, sitting on a stool next to Tom.
“Heya Anya, great news, the castle should be done in a week. I know Celestria is tired of all the hammering,” he laughs.
The bartender slides over a mug filled with orange juice and I take a long drink, “I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that.” I turn to see Tom facing out into the pub, his gaze on a blond waitress that I remember seeing back at the celebration last year. “Have you talked to her yet?”
“Just short conversations here and there, what about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You and Kyle.”
“I’m not the relationship type. Besides, there’s just so much going on,” I answer. “I asked him about his past today, didn’t get the answers that I thought I would.”
“What does it matter, Anya? I wouldn’t worry too much on what happened in a past life and focus more on this one.”
The doors open and enter Kyle and Celestria who take a table to the left of the pub.
“I might go Earth side if the construction isn’t done by Monday,” Celestria says to Kyle.
“I still can’t believe you can hear it in the catacombs. Isn’t most of it done anyway? Why do you still stay down there?” Kyle asks.
“It’s louder in the main part of the castle.”
I spin on my chair to face their table and say, “Don’t worry, Tom says it should be finished soon.”
“He’s been saying soon for weeks now,” Celestria moans.
“It’s a castle,” Tom replies. “It takes a little longer to put together than a pub. Do you want it to fall apart?”
The front doors open and a group of shady men enter. I can hear the bartender mutter something under his breath. Tom rolls his eyes and says, “Not these guys again.”
“You know them?” I ask.
“Just a bunch of thugs from another town that arrived by ship a week ago. They’ve been causing trouble since they got here.” Tom stands and walks towards the small group of five. “I thought I told you to leave.”
“Shut up, kid,” one says, clearly drunk.
I jump from my stool and light up my fists as Kyle does the same from his seat, electricity emitting from his body. We stand side by side, facing the group, with Tom a few feet in front of us.
“Heh, you can’t hide behind your magic forever,” the man says, waving his comrades out.
“You see,” Tom says, turning around. “You two have cool visuals to go with your magic and thanks. From what I heard, their ship manifesto mentioned that they should be leaving tomorrow. Just your average drunks who can’t hold their own.”
“Sounds like he’s not a fan of magic,” I say, looking back at the door.
“Some people don’t believe in it, especially those not from this area. I guess that’s why we keep to ourselves here. Even those with magical abilities don’t let on that they do,” Tom tells me as we join Celestria at the table.
“Thanks for helping us out, Tom,” Stacie says, walking over to our table and placing four drinks on it, her blond curls bouncing as she does so.
“Don’t mention it,” he says.
For the rest of the night the four of us sit and just talk. It was a nice change and a chance to just talk about random things and events that are going on in our lives.
