One night when the full moon appeared, several owls sounded to one another. At the same time, a young man was kneeling one-legged while bowing his head. In a large room, the young man was waiting for an order from his master.
"From now on, you don't have a name. You are the Umbra who will protect Katalina until she returns. Kill anyone who knows her identity. And kill anyone who is made an enemy by her."
Umbra answered with bowing his head while closing his eyes. Then a woman approached him holding a red hair baby girl. Umbra got up and accepted the baby from her arms.
"I leave my daughter in your protection. Go to America to meet the Morse family. They know what they have to do."
Umbra nodded his head and quickly moved from the room. As soon as he opened the door, Umbra heard a force had broken into this house.
Having no other choice, Umbra tied the baby with a cloth behind his back. Then he walked to the balcony of the room and climbed up to the roof. Next, he jumped off the roof to another until he disappeared after entering the foggy forest area.
Not long after, someone came through the door of the room, followed by troops armed with long swords who surrounded those who were still left in the place earlier.
"Where is the baby?" asked the person who was leading the bodyguard.
"You will never find her." answered the mother straightening her body unafraid of the threat posed by troop leaders.
The guards immediately inspected the entire room while the woman only closed her eyes, hoping that her daughter could get out of this country without a hitch.
***
Six years later, in Louisiana, America...
Somewhere in a forest on the outskirts of the city, two humans were standing near the river while putting on different expressions.
A little girl put on a frown face and a man who was standing casually watching her.
The girl threw stones into the river with lazy movements, then glances at the man.
The man shook his head, making the child jerked one foot with annoyance.
"I'm serious, Kei. If you can't throw the stone to the other side, you can't play. Now, try throwing it more seriously. You know you're only wasting your time playing here if you're not serious about training." he said while giving another stone to the little girl in front of him.
Kei took the stone and prepared to throw it for the nth time.
She closed her eyes while taking a deep breath and swung her wrist several times before throwing the stone in the direction of the river.
Two pairs of eyes witnessed the rock bouncing on the water three times before finally sinking.
Kei's eyes lit up as she saw her progress. Although the stone could not reach across, at least it rebounded three times. All this time, she could only bounce the rock off the water once. No. She often didn't cause any rebound. The stones she threw only fell and sank just like that.
Because of that, seeing her throwing stone caused three bounce made her proud of herself.
"Look, I can rebound the stones three times over the water. Which means I can play, right? You can't say no. What do you expect from me? I'm only six years old. Six years old! And I need to play with friends more often. My friend! " Kei protested with a pout face.
The mentor just rolled his eyes lazily to hear his pupil begin to fuss again. Well, at least Kei did show progress, because of that...
"Fine, you may go. "
Kei immediately moved from her place and ran towards the playground.
"That must have been just a coincidence." the coach exclaimed loudly.
Kei was annoyed with his remark and stuck out her tongue mockingly at him before continuing.
"You're so annoying, Umbra!"
Fortunately, the feeling of annoyance did not last long. Once Kei arrived at the playground with a vast expanse of grass, her mood instantly turned cheerful.
"Captain Kei is here and ready to lead the army. Hahahaha." Kei exclaimed in a loud voice.
"Yipieee ... The captain is here."
"How come the captain is late?"
"Because it's late, Kei will be the ghost. Hohoho."
"WHAT?!" Kei glared, trying to protest the raid of her friends.
Haish! This is all Umbra's fault. Kei grumbled to herself.
In the end, Kei faced the tree while closing her eyes with her two hands. She started counting while her friends hid.
Once the count reached fifty, Kei opened her eyes and began searching for her quarry.
Kei looked for her friends eagerly while giggling. She could already see the footprints and guess where her friends were hiding.
It was an easy peasy cake!!
>>>>> From author
Welcome new readers, feel free to check this prequel novel called
Don't worry if you read it out of order as each book can be read as stand alone
Enjoy reading and I hope you will like this story till the end ๐๐