All-day, my grandma had not said a word. All three of us sat in the living room, quietly. The giant digital clock mimicking the sounds of the classic could be heard across the room, second only to the nervous beating of my heart.
It was kinda awkward and nerve-wrecking but I really didn't blame her. Her own grandson had become the very thing she'd feared & hated for years. In her eyes, my life was over. I didn't know what to make of this. I'd become an NCG user, a being blessed with the gift of nature creation, one of the 1,440,000 in existence. I nervously awaited to see what my grandma was going to do with two NCG users among her midst. While awaiting her response, I learned something about being an NCG user.
As it turns out, I can partially sense the life-force of other lifeforms. There was a distinct difference between those of a normal human, animals, and those of an NCG. It's like an aura has engulfed the person's whole body. My grandma's aura seemed plain and transparent, meanwhile, Subira's aura is much stronger & flaring around all over the place. I'm not sure what it all means. Could it be just a side effect of receiving the gift? I'd ask Subira if she's feeling the same thing but she's been purposely avoiding eye contact with everyone. I guess being yelled at by Grandma must have taken a toll on her. I decided to ask Grandma some questions,
"Are you gonna tell Mom and Dad?"
She ignored me.
Then I asked, "Will I still have to go to school?".
She continued to ignore me.
I finally then asked the one question I was dreading the most,
"Are you gonna sell us away?"
That question caught Subira's attention. My grandma continued to ignore me and that made me even more nervous. I almost felt like crying, the thought of her selling us away started creeping more and more into my mind. Then finally, she looked up directly at me and asked a question I wasn't expecting,
"Tell me Negusa, can you see it?"
"See what?" I responded back, finally happy that she said something.
"I don't know, but I've heard that people like you can see energy or something around people" she continued, "can you see something?"
"Yes, it's weird but I see something, like an aura around you and Subira but both of yours look different,"
"I see it too," Subira finally chimes in, albeit quietly.
This made Grandma worry even more and she then got up and walked away, leaving both myself and Subira to our own. I had no idea what she was planning but I didn't move from my spot and neither did Subira. She then promptly came back and instructed us to gather our things, that we're leaving. Confused, I ask her,
"Leaving? Why are we leaving? You're not selling us, are you?"
"Oh, hush boy" she retorts, "I'm not selling anyone. We need to go before they show up looking for Subira" as she sweeps the entire house for all the important belongings.
"Who's looking for her?" I panicky asked. It took a minute but then I realized why Grandma had said what she said. And also why she asked me if I could see it. Subira's father likely could have already made contact with a member of the Cult, and if that's true, they would be able to sense our presence. Our way of life is over! Our best bet now is to leave Axum and make for New Iden. I won't be able to see Liya and Kamal again. This is all too sudden.
My grandma then kneels before Subira, who's clearly still frightened by her.
"My child, I'm sorry for yelling at you before," she continues "but you'll need to come with us if you want to live."
Looking down at her feet, Subira doesn't respond. I walked over to her and reassured her that everything will be fine,
"It's gonna be OK Subira! My mom and dad are astronauts, they'll get us outta here and into New Iden"
"Ok," she responds, knowing that this is for the best.
My grandma was the only one who didn't seem so sure by my words. We spent the next few hours grabbing all the important things that we need and got into my Grandma's old truck that she uses to pick up groceries from the city. I didn't realize it had already gotten that late in the afternoon.
As she drove out into the dusty road, I turned around to catch the last glimpse of my home I grew up in. That was probably the last time I'll live in that house as a child. Out of the glove compartment, my grandma pulled out a device I had never seen before. It looked like a phone, but it only had one button. At the time I didn't know what it was but it was a communication device my father had given to my grandma to contact him, should the day ever come that I awakened the gift. It was a fail-safe.
She hit the button but nothing happened. About five minutes went by and suddenly a voice echoed from the device.
"Mazaa Nagast?" said the mysterious voice.
"Yes, that's me" my grandma responded.
"Has the child awakened?" asked the mysterious voice.
My grandma then begins sobbing, reluctantly responding,
"...Yes"!
I had no idea what was going on. Who was that man? And why did he sound Russian of all things? The voice then gave Grandma coordinates for where she should meet him. It was about an hour drive to a secluded place off the road and away from civilization. I was really nervous. This really sounded like a trade-off to me. Subira was surprisingly calm, perhaps she was unaware of what's going on.
We got to the rendezvous point and just waited. Silence filled the car as we awaited the arrival of this mysterious Russian sounding man. Unable to contain my anxiety, I asked my Grandma who that man on the phone was,
"Who was that on the phone?"
She turned around to answer my question, but before she could open her mouth, she stopped and just smiled. She smiled for a whole ten seconds, fixing my hair before answering,
"Everything's going to be all right Negusa," she pauses before continuing on, "Once that man shows up, he'll explain everything". Her answer wasn't reassuring but it did put me a bit at ease for the moment. After a few more minutes of waiting, a really nice, sporty black car finally pulls up close to us, its headlight nearly blinding me. The car then stops, and from it, a rather tall man steps out of the car and makes his way to converse with Grandma. There was another one, a lady in the car but she didn't get out.
They talked for about 5 minutes, going back and forth about something. He kept looking over at Subira for some reason, almost as if he's annoyed by something. Subira and I were still in the car as Grandma instructed us to stay there, so it was hard to hear what they were talking about.
"What do you think they're talking about?" I asked Subira, still locking my eyes at them.
"I dunno," she responds "but that man looks scary."
"Yeah" I answered back.
For a tall man, he had a menacing look on his face. The stern facial structure with a full beard. Kinda like a tall Santa Claus, I thought. They finally concluded with their conversation and as they got closer to us, I heard Grandma saying thank you to the man. The man reached for the door on my side and flung it open, and looked straight at us. He's even scarier in person.
"Get out of the car" he commanded, "you'll be traveling with me now".
"What?" I blurted out. That seemed to have infuriated the man as he leaned extremely close to us!
"Listen, boy, when you speak to me, you will address me as Sir," he got angrier as he spoke, " DO. NOT. MAKE. ME. REPEAT. MYSELF! UNDERSTAND?"
I completely froze. As soon as I got out of the car, I ran straight to Grandma to hide behind her legs. Subira followed suit. The man looked over to us, sighed, and rolled his eyes before slamming the truck's door. He then proceeded to approach us, and as he did, I squeezed Grandma's leg out of fear. He stopped and then took a knee, beckoning for me to come closer.
Like heck I will, I thought to myself as I remained at Grandma's side. Just then, Grandma looked down at me and said
"It's OK child, go to him"
"No," I snapped back,
"I'm right here," she tries to assure me as she begins to loosen my grip on her leg.
I was reluctant at first but I gave in and slowly approached the man, still on one knee and with that scary look on his face. I got just close enough so that I could hear him out. Subira remained at Grandma's side. The man sighed once again, looked at me, and proceeded to talk.
"Listen to me boy, and listen well because I'm only going to say this once, understand?"
I nodded back to him and just stood there. He proceeded,
"My name is Adrik and from here on out, I'll be taking you under my wings to help train and master your NCG."
"How are you going to do that?" I asked.
Just then his face looked annoyed and I remembered what he had said to me prior.
"...Sir?" I hastily added to my question.
He continued, "I'm also a freak, just like you".
That revelation shocked me, and I proceeded to check for his aura. However, I couldn't sense anything. In fact, it was because I couldn't at first that led me to believe he was just an average man with a Russian accent. He continued with his explanation,
"I was hired by your father to bring you and your grandma to New Iden should the day ever come that you awaken. However, that little girl was not part of the deal, so your grandma will have to stay back".
I stopped listening to him after that and ran to my Grandma, asking him what he had meant by that. As it turned out, Adrik, along with his wife Almasi are Gift-Smugglers or G-Smugs for short, who are hired by those in need to smuggle people, primarily kids, into New Iden.
The way G-Smugs do it is by participating in one of the underground tournaments hosted by New Iden and winning a visa spot for their clients. The problem, however, is that they only get paid for winning, and they use the visa spots provided to gauge their price, so their prices are ridiculously high. They get 25% upfront and the rest when they win. They could run away with that 25%, but G-Smugs rely on their reputation to reel in the big money so it's in their best interest to stay faithful to the task.
Dad apparently only managed to pay for two people. Adrik was unwilling to take Subira on board so Grandma had swapped her place to allow her to go. I started crying. Not only had I lost my home, now I'm losing Grandma too. I wept in her torso as she tried to comfort me. Subira stood there, unable to say anything. She understood what had happened. Grandma pulled me back and looked me in the eye.
"Negusa, since when are you such a crybaby huh?", trying to poke fun at the situation. "You could fill a lake with those tears of yours!"
"I don't wanna go, I don't want you to leave me with him" I cried out.
"It will be OK, everything will be OK," she responded. As she did so, she too began to cry and that made it even worse . "I need you to be strong for me Negusa. I need you to be strong and look after yourself and Subira. You made the choice to save her, so now live up to that decision and continue to protect her."
I nodded and responded, "I'll come back for you, I promise. I'll find a way so don't worry".
Grandma had a weak smile on her face. She knew that deep down that this was likely the last time she'd see me again. We embraced one last time, both of us still crying as she prayed for my safety before Adrik chimed in.
"We got to go, child, get in the car. You too little girl."
Subira was hesitant but before she went, she gave Grandma a goodbye hug and left for the car. I was very hesitant too and frankly did not move until Grandma urged me to go. As I proceeded to go, she followed along with both our bags at hand. Adrik popped the trunk open and she placed them inside. Inside the car, Adrik's wife Almasi was trying to comfort us as we sat in the back seat. She was a very beautiful Kenyan woman with long curly hair and a warm smile. Before Adrik got into the car, he went over to Grandma to finalize the deal, and then got into the car.
I put my hand on the window and she reciprocated. As the car drove off, I watched from the back window as my Grandma got smaller and smaller and soon, out of sight. That experience was heart-wrenching. As I turned around and looked blankly to the ground, Subira tried to comfort me. She placed her hand on my back but I shoved it aside. I didn't say it, but I blamed her for it. I knew it wasn't her fault, that she couldn't have possibly have known how everything would have turned out but I still blamed her. My rage and sorrow were misplaced, but I didn't care at the time.
As we were driving to God knows where Adrik started explaining the plan. He explained that while we wait for the next tournament to emerge, they'll begin to guide us on how to use our NCG. They weren't just our smugglers, but also our teachers. Apparently, some G-smugglers also act as tutors of a sort, for the right price. Almasi was the one tasked to take care and guide us. Despite the fact that we already understood the premise of how these gifts worked, we still had a lot to learn. We needed to know the route we'd take with our NCG, as in, which nature element we wanted to fully grasp. Subira and I were seven years old, but now we're learning techniques to stay alive.
When an NCG user first gains their gift, the knowledge on how to use it is installed into them. However, it's not that simple. Just like how any human knows how to climb a cliff, swim or ride a bike, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be good at it. Training is necessary to master the gift. We are given the basics, as in, we know how to channel the gift to manipulate nature, or in simpler terms, how to turn it on but that's about it. The complex stuff is learned through experience and guidance. We learned that the hard way.
"So that's the gist of it," concluded Almasi. "Don't worry, we're not scary people and we won't bite! If you have questions don't hesitate to ask us."
"HER!" Adrik cuts in, "Don't hesitate to ask HER. I won't be answering any questions!"
"Sigh, would it kill you to be nicer? They're just kids after all!" Almasi says as she nags her husband!
"We're paid to do a job, not to act as therapists! You're the one that agreed to train them, I only wanted to escort them and be done with it" complained Adrik.
"Don't you remember the last client we had? Because we didn't help them, they weren't able to control their gift and die...." Almasi suddenly stops talking and peeks through the front mirror to see us listening in, "anyways, we're not doing that again! Besides, it's good pay so I don't know why your grumpy butt is complaining in the first place!" Almasi then turns as Adrik groans and tells us to try and get some sleep, it's going to be a long drive!
"Your last client died didn't they" I asked, putting the pieces together! "Kid, you're going to learn that there's a lot of fucked up shit in this life once you become a freak" Adrik responds.
"ADRIK" shouts Almasi annoyingly.
"What? Better he knows now than later! It's unavoidable! LOOK, once we find a spot, my wife will teach you guys how to dial down that damm aura of yours. Geez, it's like you want them to find us. Now, SLEEP and no more questions" he concluded.
"Easy for him to say," I thought as I tried to fall asleep! My whole life just got turned upside down, so I don't know which of us should be angry right now. As my mind started to drift away, I recalled what Adrik had said.
The most important lesson that any new NCG user is to learn is how to suppress their life-force or aura to mimic those of a regular person. It is crucial, as right now, myself and Subira are walking beacons to every NCG user within our radius. Which is why Adrik is taking us to a secluded area to train. He thinks that we'll be safe there until the next tournament springs up. Little did he know that danger was already seeking us out. The Cult had been made aware of Subira's existence through her father and had dispatched an order to search for us. It was only a matter of time before we'd clash.