Zera_Dawn Of The Redborn

by Lorenzo Lionheart

  “Where will you be taking him?” Axyl asked.

  “He will be fine! Don’t worry about it.”

  Axyl just rolled his eyes as he walked away. “Fine, but hurry back.”

  “Where are you going? Who’s going to carry him back?”

  “You made him go to sleep, your problem.” Axyl began sprinting back to the cave.

  “Men…. right, Avi?” AiLeen said as she summoned a spell to lift Bakari off the ground and help carry him back to the cave.

  Arriving back at the cave, Avi took her normal position in the corner of the cave next to Axyl’s pod. AiLeen walked the floating Bakari over to his pod and released her spell, allowing Bakari to rest peacefully.

  “You say I'm hard on him, but what have you noticed about him in the last few minutes?” Axyl asked.

  AiLeen looked him over before she answered, then it came to her. He was still in his Vakin form, even as he was sleeping. This was the longest he had ever held this form.

  A few moments later, he finally changed back into his normal self in his sleep.

  “Hmm, I think this could have been achieved in a multitude of different ways, rather than mentally and physically abusing him.”

  “I understand that, but this is the only way I know how to do it with the time that we have before we get found out here. Droga will eventually find us and, when he does, we need to be as ready as we can be.” Axyl said, walking up to his pod and laying down. “I only want the best for him, and sometimes the best will require me to do things that he or you may think is harsh, but it will be necessary. As long as he gets stronger and is able to control his abilities, I will have done my job.”

  “You don’t have to explain that to me, Axyl. I know you mean well. Just remember, he is new to all of this, and it's not like he had a real choice from the beginning on whether or not he wanted to be king.”

  “I know. I will keep that in mind, but now I'm going to get some sleep.”

  Axyl turned away from AiLeen, not wanting to look at her. She was right, but Axyl didn’t know what else to do to let Bakari know that the threat was real and dangerous. He kept thinking maybe he did go overboard and maybe AiLeen taking him out tomorrow would actually be good for him. He couldn’t harp on it now. It had already happened. He decided not to let it bother him, took a deep breath and let sleep find him.

  AiLeen stayed up a bit to get some practice in on her magick while the men were asleep. She worked on meditating and trying to increase her mana pool so that she wouldn’t always cough up blood when she used powerful spells. After a bit of practice she finally decided to call it quits.

  “That's enough for today,” she said out loud to no one as she walked to her pod, placing her floating staff next to her.

  As AiLeen was about to lay down when she overheard Bakari mumbling stuff in his sleep. She decided to walk over and listen to what he was saying.

  “I will protect you. I’m sorry i couldn’t live up to him…” he mumbled

  This made AiLeen think maybe they shouldn’t compare him to his father who he didn’t even know. They didn’t know that it would have had such a negative impact on Bakari. Being an all out thinker, maybe he over thought things and it was now become a burden.

  “A change of scenery will definitely relax his mind a bit.” AiLeen mumbled to herself as she walked back over to her pod to lay down.

  Bakari woke up feeling very sore from the day before. Every time he moved even an inch he could feel soreness throughout his body.

  “It feels like I've been hit by a semi-truck” he mumbled to himself.

  Axyl heard what he said.

  “Good morning, Bakari… I just wanted to walk over here and apologize for what happened yesterday. I may have gone a little bit overboard, but my intentions were pure.”

  “You’re fine, I lost my temper, and let pure instinct take over, and that was wrong on my behalf. I understand that you have to be tough on me so I can learn. I would say cut back on the injuries a little bit, if you could?” Bakari asked in a joking manner.

  “Have you noticed anything different since our encounter last night?” Axyl asked.

  “Hmm…. I’m sore, that's about it.”

  “No blood, no visible scars… I think you can figure out the rest from here.” Axyl smiled and walked away.

  Bakari thought about what Axyl had just said to him. He looked over his body and realized that he was only sore from recovering. This meant he was getting more in tune with with his Vakin side. This made him happy. Maybe getting beat up by Axyl wasn’t all that bad after all.

  “You prepared to go, Bakari?” AiLeen said as she walked in wearing something other than her robe. She looked like she was ready to be a tourist somewhere.

  “What are you wearing?” Bakari asked AiLeen, very confused and curious at the same time.

  “Don’t I just look wonderful?” She asked, doing a random pose and waving her hands in the air. She had on a blue shirt which hung off her shoulder, black jeans, a scarf that hung down to her waist, and a very big hat. She walked over and grabbed a baf that was in the corner. “Shall we go?”

  “Don’t you need your staff? Are you just going to leave it?” Bakari asked, curiously, still trying to figure out how her powers work.

  “I don’t need it entirely. It only acts as a conductor for me to better control my powers but, of course, I’d never purposely leave without it.” She took an umbrella from her bag. “ I can change its form to a host of things. It’s simple magick.” She swung the umbrella around in circles then placed it over her shoulder.

  “I don’t really have anything to wear. I haven’t been home in days.” Bakari hunched his shoulders at the thought of it.

  “Not a problem.” AiLeen waved her umbrella, lifting Bakari off the ground and making clothes appear from thin air.

  “You could have gotten me clothes this whole time, AiLeen?” Bakari asked.

  “Well, yes I could have. I didn’t know you wanted me to change your clothes, or at least you didn’t ask.”

  Bakari just placed his head in his hands and didn’t respond as he took in deep breaths. She’s going to be the real death of me.

  “Well, quit your bickering and let’s gooo.” AiLeen said dramatically as she began walking towards the exit of the cave.

  Bakari just followed as slowly as he could, preparing himself mentally to be on a trip with AiLeen alone.

  She walked down the mountain as Bakari followed her until they made a left down the mountain and it came to a dead end. Bakari looked at her, confused “Did we make a wrong turn?” Bakari was already thinking this is was a terrible idea.

  “Hmm.” AiLeen placed her hand on her chin. “Is this not where I left the portal? I could have sworn it was here.” She walked back and forth. “Well give me a second… Looks like I have to bring it to this side of the mountain.” She started staring at the mountain, not paying Bakari any attention.

  She then changed her umbrella back into her staff and began mumbling, summoning her magick again. The mountains felt like they were shaking as she was waving her staff at it. Right in the middle of the dead end, a portal began to appear. “Ah, I FOUND IT!” AiLeen shouted obnoxiously. “I think I'm starting to become a little forgetful about where I place things. I’m a bit rusty, but I did summon it here! The future king has the right to go first.” She looked at Bakari, bowing.

  Bakari took a deep breath as his heart started beating very fast. He didn’t know why he was scared. It was AiLeen after all. He walked through, not knowing what to expect from the other side.

  Stepping out, Bakari had no idea where he was. There were huts, very green grass, and a group of people around a fire laughing and conversing, not paying him any mind.

  “IS IT SAFE?” AiLeen yelled through the portal.

  “Um, you sent me here and you don’t know if it’s safe?” Bakari asked through the portal as AiLeen stuck her head through it.

  “Ahhh, okay, it’s the right place. Had me sc
ared there for a bit.”

  Bakari put his head down, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. AiLeen walked through the portal and yelled, “Where's my babies?!”, interrupting their laughter and conversation. People turned around, bright eyed and bushy tailed, running towards her in happy spirits.

  “Hey AiLeen!” Some kids screamed as they ran up, hugging her. They were a variety of colors, some had horns, others spots, and three eyes. They were different.

  “How have my babies been?” She asked the lot of them.

  “We have been all right.” One of the kids answered.

  “Well that's good,” she replied, playing with the kids. “What have you all been up to?”

  “We have just been hanging around, not doing much.” Another kid answered. “But we have missed you!”

  “Well I'm here now, and now we can play!”

  They began taking AiLeen away to go play with her while everyone was greeting her and telling her that they missed her.

  Bakari just stayed back in the distance where the portal once stood before it had closed. One of the children walked up to him. “Hey mister, do you want to play too?” The kid asked, yanking on Bakari's shirt.

  “Sure, I’ll play with you! What do you want to do?” Bakari asked.

  “Do you want to play hide and seek?” The little green eyed, spotted creature asked.

  “Sure we can play. Do you want me to hide or do you want to hide?” Bakari asked.

  “I hide!” The creature shouted. “EVERYONE, HIDE AND SEEK TIME!” He yelled to the other kids that were playing with AiLeen.

  “Wait, huh?” Bakari asked as the kid ran away to go hide. I didn’t mean to play hide and seek with all of you.

  “Oh, you’re definitely going to have your work cut out for you. I almost never catch them all when they play hide and seek.” AiLeen said, putting her finger on her chin as if she was thinking about something. “Well, at least not fairly, now that I think about it.” She giggled.

  “Well, guess I better get started seeking.” Bakari said as he walked away.

  She was already absentmindedly doing something else, not paying attention to anything Bakari said as he walked away from her. Bakari walked in the wonders of this strange land, not knowing the first place to look. Walking past rocks, trees, crooks, and nooks, he didn’t see any of the children. He couldn’t hear any noises or any movement that would give them away. How the hell am I supposed to catch them? He thought to himself. Then he thought back to what AiLeen said: ‘You might have to sniff them out’. With that in mind, he stood there in the middle of the field, his eyes closed, thinking about his inner form. He opened his eyes and did his usual look at his right palm and left leg to see if he was morphed into his inner form. He was.

  Now lets see how well you guys hide now that I can smell you he said to himself. As he walked around, nothing had changed. He still couldn’t smell the kids and he still had no idea of where they were.

  “Come out, come out wherever you are!” He decided to shout to see if he could hear them move or giggle, but still nothing.

  As he continued walking, he tripped over a rock that was camouflaged with the grass. As he fell he heard a slight giggle.He immediately caught himself and began running in that direction. Now he was just running blindly in the direction where he had initially heard a laugh, still not picking up a smell or another noise. He stopped again and purposely fell to see if he could get another response. He heard another giggle and saw movement this time. He could pinpoint where it was coming from.

  When he looked in that direction, he could see one of the kid’s pointy horns sticking out from behind a tree. As soon as Bakari ran in that direction, the kid took off in a full sprint, not turning to look at Bakari. Bakari tried to catch him but the kid seemed to be three times faster than him. Without breaking a sweat, the kid effortlessly jumped through the trees, giggling the whole way. This went on for minutes. Bakari was so focused on catching the kid that he wasn’t thinking about keeping his inner form. As he was running, he didn’t notice that he was switching back and forth from Vakin to human.

  More time went by and as he was running, he started smelling things and could almost pinpoint every kid’s location. Now leaping from trees instead of running through them, he was now having fun. He was gaining more control of his Vakin form through fun without him even noticing it. His sense of smell was increasing and his ability to hold the form was as well.

  Finally he grabbed the one running from him.

  “I got ya! Now you’re out.” He said, picking him up and sniffing out the next one. Sprinting fully, he could hear another one laughing with someone, and increased his speed to the fastest he could go. He got there in an instant and surprised the kids. “Gotcha!” he yelled as he reached to grab them, but he only caught one while the other jumped in the air. This went on for hours as he tried to chase down and catch all twelve kids. Finally he got all of them. They all walked back to the village, cracking jokes, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. They came back to camp to find AiLeen and the village chiefs talking and laughing around the fire. AiLeen noticed them and offered for the kids to join them.

  “How was hide and seek? You have fun?” AiLeen asked Bakari, who was still in his inner form.

  “I caught them all!” He was still happy.

  “It only took you a few hours! I thought I was going to have to come get you all.” she said, throwing her hand on her head.

  “How did you find them?” Bakari was curious as he turned his wolf-like face at an angle.

  AiLeen didn’t want to tell him that he was holding his inner form because he might overthink it and revert back to normal. She wanted to see if he could hold it all the way until they got back to the cave.

  “Well, it's gotten late. Let's head out, Bakari. Axyl is probably worried sick thinking about us.” She joked as she ignored his question.

  “Awe, Fine.” Bakari didn’t want to leave the kids. They all waved bye as he and AiLeen walked through the portal.

  Walking back through the portal, Avi and Axyl were both waiting on the other side for them.

  “Well, welcome back.” Axyl said leaning up against the mountain.

  “Did you miss us?” AiLeen asked dramatically.

  Axyl just looked at Bakari. “How long this time?” He asked curiously.

  AiLeen just gave him an awkward look, trying to give him a hint to not say anything about it. He didn’t take it so well because he just squinted back at her and turned his head to the side.

  “What?” Bakari turned his head to the side, looking at them both.

  They both just walked away without responding and while walking away, they whispered about how Bakari kept his form the majority of the time they were gone because he was playing with the kids. He slowly followed behind as he picked up on what they were discussing. He then looked down at his hands and noticed he really was in his Vakin form. Oh wait… how long have I been like this? He got curious and began overthinking it again and reverted back to his normal self. Damn… They turned around as he reverted back.

  “Thanks for the help, AiLeen. I think I got it now,” he said as he thought about the reason he was able to hold his form for so long.

  10

  Bakari woke up thinking about his friends. He hadn’t spoken to them since the Redborn tried to kill him and he escaped to the mountain. He waited for AiLeen to slide out of her pod at her usual time so he could ask her if there was any way that she could connect him to his friends.

  “Ahhhhh!” She yawned when she awoke. Thump! She fell off her pod when she noticed Bakari in his Vakin form staring at her.

  “What?” He asked as she was recovering from the fall.

  “You don’t just sit in front of people looking like that when they’re just waking up.”

  “I need a favor. Just a quick one.”

  “What is it?”

  “I want to contact my friends Kas and Nova to see if they’re all right.”

/>   “I don’t think that's a good idea. The more you stay away, the safer they will be.”

  “Please? I know they are worried and wondering where I'm at.”

  “How can I say no to a face like that? I’m sure I can come up with something to connect you to them.” She walked over to her staff.

  “Lets see here…” she drifted off. “The safest route to do this is probably hollows. We can send shells of ourselves to your city without bringing harm to either of us. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

  “Now!” He was excited.

  “Well, I don’t think going like that would be a good idea.”

  “What?” He looked down at himself, realizing he wasn't his normal self. “Ah, I forgot” he said, reverting back to his human form. “Okay ready”

  “Axyl is going to be highly upset about this.” She said bending down to Bakari’s level.

  “It will be quick and you said it was safe.”

  AiLeen began contemplating telling Axyl or not. “Well, just real quick okay?”

  “Okay to my dorm room!” Bakari said. “I’m sure I only have two days left before I have to move.”

  “Sit down and stay still.” She said, sitting down next to him as he sat down. “Now imagine you’re dorm room, as a whole, and its location.” She continued.

  Bakari sat down, trying to imagine his dorm room. “Okay, I got it.” He finally said.

  AiLeen tapped her staff on the ground three times with the third tap being the hardest. It knocked both her and Bakari out and sent shells to his dorm room.

  “Whoa, we’re here.” Bakari sounded excited.

  “Just be sure to limit physical activities. Or it could get bad fast.” She said with a smile on her face. “Nothing too major worry about though.”

  Bakari didn’t want to think about anything else but seeing his friends. Although Kas wasn’t in the room, he was pretty sure he would be able to find him. Changing into some different clothes, Bakari finally walked into the hallway with AiLeen humming behind him. Walking out into the brisk weather, his first thought was to check the cafe where him and Nova spent a lot of their time.