Quiet. An all too quietness had swept over the forest. Birds stopped singing. Animals hunkered down out of sight. The world around them had seized to be alive. As if the forest had died years ago.
Carla's blood had soaked the grass beneath her, watering the earth with the thick red liquid pouring from the blade in her chest. Her chest had stopped going up and down several minutes ago. She had stopped heaving for air that she so desperately needed.
Her best friend was having a panic attack beside his dying friend. He watched her almost die multiple times and yet now was different. She had stopped breathing.
Her adopted daughter was about to lose her second mother in seven years.
Her best friend gently lifted her off the blood soaked ground ran her to the castle. A trip that would make him look at Carla a lot more differently.
Kaida, while all this was going on, chose to shift once more. She grabbed Alpha Jason's body in her front paws and flew him over to the castle. She knew people would assume that this random person she'd never met, killed their Hena. When in fact he was trying to save her.
Kaida knew not of this man's name, or anything about him. Just that he knew her mother well. Being seven, and knowing how life and death works, Kaida assumed it was Matthew, her uncle.
He carried Carla up to the castle doors and kicked them in. He yelled with all his might, "I need Joey! Where's Joey!"
Charlotte rounded the corner with so much force that she almost tripped. It was true, the person she thought it was, he was holding her almost dead mother.
"Carter?!" Charlotte exclaimed in confusion, "Oh my gosh is that mom?"
She scrambled to Carter to check the dying Carla's pulse.
"It's weak," Charlotte mumbled.
"Where is Joey?" Carter frantically asked, tears streaming down his face.
A steady pause from Charlotte alerted Carter of the worst.
"He's dead," Charlotte finally answered.
"Then find a doctor!" Carter screamed hastily, he was worried about how much longer Carla had.
Liam and Nathan sprinted around the corner in a rush after hearing Carter's angry orders. They froze in terror as they saw their friend, their brother, drenched in the blood of their friend.
Cachions began to crowd outside the castle, they were worried about their Hena's life. Men, women, and children began to sway outside the doors, praying for Carla to be alright. Many who weren't Christians were copying the Christians; their last Hena's life on the line had many atheist Cachions trying everything.
If Carla dies then the kingdom falls. She wasn't just the last Hena, but the last heir to the throne. Jason had killed all the Alphas from this kingdom. Carter killed Jason. Nobody was there to govern these people. They would starve. They would become like the towns that Carla used to hunt for. Fighting for any scraps while just a few miles away, people are thriving. Other than Matthew's kingdom, there were no more kingdoms in the northern hemisphere. Jason's kingdom now belonged to Carla since he forfeited by running.
A shaken Carter, placed his dying friend onto the dinner table. It was a flat surface where a potential doctor could work on her.
Hannah, Charlotte, Liam, Nathan, Kathy, Carter, and Madelyn all stood just a few feet from Carla's almost dead body.
Charlotte, having been apprenticed by Joey while Carla was off being an assassin. Looked over Carla's condition.
"Where's the doctor?" Carter yelled as he frantically looked from Carla to the doorway.
Nathan and Liam walked in with tears running down their faces. They knew the inevitable. Shaking their heads they simultaneously said, "They don't have a doctor."
Nathan spoke up, "But Carter you need to see what's going on outside. I've never seen so many people doing this for one person."
Carter followed Nathan out of the cafeteria and into the main hallway. Beside the large castle doors were two slender, tall windows. Carter walked over and peered out one.
"What are they doing?" Carter asked, not being able to hear what they were saying.
"They're praying," Nathan answered quietly, "They're praying for Carla. They're calling her Hena."
Carter shook his head and walked back to the cafeteria.
"Have you no faith?" Nathan asked slightly angered.
"I do, but if she's having her last breaths I don't want to be out here looking at her followers, I don't want the last thing she sees be an empty room."
And just like that the brothers walked back into the cafeteria. Not even a minute later the sound of a window shattering sounded throughout the castle. Everyone jumped and looked at the doorway. Nathan had locked it when they came through.
And just like the window, the door flew open. An angered seven year old growled as she ran to her mother's side.
"Get out," Charlotte said, "you dont want to see this."
"I am Hena Kaida, daughter of Hena Atarah Ariella, the last heir to the throne. You are not in charge," Kaida demanded. She carried the same strength as Carla. She told it as it was, not caring about what Charlotte was saying because she knew she was right. And at that exact point, Liam and Carter got a feeling in their stomach. They both simultaneously avoided eye contact and felt the same feeling around her as they had with Carla. The feeling like they've known this child their entire life. Accompanied by an unexplainable feeling like they needed to be around her all the time to protect her.
Her Hena pheromone finally kicked in. It took seven years and the potential death of two parent figures to bring it out, while Carla's came out as she was arguing with the Commander so many years ago. Kaida's came out in a time where she so desperately needed a spine; for her mother's sake.
Charlotte looked shocked and angry that this child was trying to tell her what to do. "Open the doors," Carla weakly ordered, "please."
"What?" Nathan was confused by her request.
"Our people need to see her like this, open the doors," Kaida explained. She knew exactly what to do. She had prayed over and over for her Hena powers, feeling she did not amount to anything because of her lack of power. And at this point, she remembered Carla telling her that God will give it to her when he feels it is an important time.
God was behind her, helping her make decisions, and right now; right now the people needed to see God's healing.
Upon the opening of the doors, a rush of people came in, flooding the cafeteria, the hall, and the front steps. A couple hundred bodies crowded around, arms on each other's shoulders, arms, just touching one another. Nathan, Charlotte, Carter, Liam, Kaida, and Hannah had their hands on Carla.
Carter led the prayer.
Kaida started shaking.
Everyone was crying.
Hannah started bawling, speaking a language that Kathy wouldn't even been able to understand.
An eruption of words came from the mouths of the hundreds. Some were English, some were Hebrew, some couldn't be understood.
Kaida hit the ground a few minutes later.
Nathan tried to wake her but she continued to shake, her eyes open and her lips speaking the language of God.
Nathan, in realization, looked up to the ceiling, no, past the ceiling. He had read about this happening in the bible. The gathering of this many devoted people had the holy spirit lingering in the very air they breathed.
People who had never even prayed to God before were speaking the language of God and falling out in the spirit.
People who believed in a different God were realizing what the true God was capable of.
She sat up as if she wasn't in her own skin. Something shifted, her aura was different. What happened to her? Instead of power it was peace, as if she didn't want to hurt anyone or anything. It was something she had practiced over the years that Carter, Liam, Nathan, and Hannah hadn't seen in years.
Blood dripped. Steadily. Landing in the lap of Carla. Soaking her black jeans.
The murmuring of the crowd began again. It caused Carter to look down at the table.
The clattering of metal landing on wood sounded from the table.
Almost dead eyes landed on Kaida. She stood up and wrapped her arms tightly around her mother in a hug. Crying into her mother's shoulder.
The clatter had been the knife hitting the table.
The murmuring was caused by the action of Carla sitting up.
Carla pulled her daughter on top of her, tightening her hug on the adopted girl.
And like instinct, everyone started shouting. Praising their God for healing their leader. Those who weren't Christian, now questioned why they weren't.
Carter, Liam, Nathan, and Hannah rushed to hug Carla. All four were clutching onto their friend like they only had these few seconds left.
Praising died down. Many people left. Their Hena was alive and safe, that was what mattered to them. They saw what God could do and that was enough.
When the room cleared, the group disbanded their hug and all smiled at eachother.
Charlotte, just as shocked as the other four, smiled at her mother with a gentle, caring, happy grin.
"How did you survive that?" Nathan asked Carla with a slight confusion. He was obviously happy that she had survived, he just wanted to know how.
"What happened to your healing?" Carter asked.
Carla, not having an answer for Nathan, chose to answer Carter's question instead.
"I gave it to Kaida before the fight," Carla spoke gently, "To protect her."
Everyone's heads looked to Kaida, everyone thought the same thing.
"But I'm okay and that's what matters," Carla explained with a forced smile. She pulled her shirt down slightly to show the scar of where the knife sat in her chest.
"We have a lot to talk about," Carla explained with a smile as she looked at the group.
"We have a few questions ourselves," Hannah answered.
"I'm going to show you your rooms first," Carla told them as she scooted off the table and let them out of the room.
Kaida and Carter made up the back. He gently clutched her upper arm to catch her attention. The little princess turned her head to look at the tall speedster that had stopped her in her tracks.
"Kaida?" Carter asked lightly as he crouched.
She smiled and gave him a confused look as if she was waiting for him to finish his sentence.
"How did you know how to give her the power back?" Carter asked.
Kaida's face lightened, she looked no longer confused but merely wondering.
She grabbed her knife and drove it through her arm, pulling it out immediately. She put it away and lifted her arm towards Carter. He watched the skin form back together as if there wasn't just a knife in her arm.
"I wasn't even near her when she healed."