"You forgot this."
Andrius points his finger behind Akalea who turns around at the same time after hearing his voice. Akalea turns to see the baby dragon flapping its wings, flying towards Akalea with her jacket in his mouth. Now, that the baby dragon was outside, out of the darkness of the end of the stables, the sunlight hitting the baby dragon's body, his colored skin a mixture of white and black, one side white and the other side black. Like a ying and yang. Akalea thinks to herself as she marveled at the baby dragon who is still flying towards her with grace and power. "Oh, wow. You look fantastic." Akalea compliments as the dragon shies away as he gave the jacket back to Akalea, who receives it.
"You.... should take responsibility." The dragon shyly whispers telepathically and Akalea couldn't help but smile. "What did you say? I couldn't quite hear it." Akalea teases the dragon which it shies away more. "I said, you should take responsibility." The dragon says it more clearly and Akalea tilts her head. "What do you mean by that?" Akalea teases some more and the dragon couldn't help but turn around, its back facing Akalea out of shyness. "I meant for you to take me and take care of me as my master." The dragon says and meant it after much thinking. "Oh, look! Even this baby dragon doesn't want to be her beast. It has it's back on her. How about it? Want to be mine?" The female, enemy of Clara, says and asks the dragon even though everyone but Akalea and Andrius don't know what the dragon or the beasts are saying.
The dragon looks at the female who said that and sneered at the female which radiated power, indicating a threat to the female, who staggers back in fright. "Ha!" Clara bites back and snickers at her enemy as the enemy's plan to embarrass Akalea backfired. The dragon turns back towards Akalea, still sneering at the female, hating that she insulted Akalea. Akalea smiles at the dragon and puts her palm on his head, warmth radiating from her palm to the dragon's head as he snaps his head towards Akalea with eyes filled with expectation.
"Do you accept, Akalea Abernathy Knight, the protector of this world, as your master?" A voice was suddenly heard between Akalea and the dragon. The dragon's eyes went wide from hearing her full name and her title but wasted no time in answering as he will just ask her later. "I accept." The dragon says and looks at Akalea expectantly.
"No, this can't be. She's not worth to be your master! I am!" Steffan yells and storms towards Akalea and the dragon, her hand in front of her to pull Akalea's palm away. "Take one more step and I'll slice your arm off myself." Andrius' voice booms throughout the space they're in which stopped Steffan in her tracks, glaring at Andrius but was trembling in fear and anger. "Why does the dragon have to choose her?! She's a nobody!" Steffan yells again, completely denying and forgetting what happened in the classes before where Akalea was so much better than her at. "Need I remind you, that once a beast chooses it's master, nothing nor anyone will ever change that. If you try to interrupt their contract from forming, it'll damage the beast and master internally and externally." The beasts, with or without the contract, walk towards Akalea and the dragon, surrounding them as to protect them from attacks. Everyone was surprised that their beasts and the rest of the beast left their spots and went to the two forming a contract.
"Never have I seen this happening before." Luke who suddenly appeared behind the instructors, who jumped in fright from the sudden appearance of the headmaster. "Same here, headmaster." Newt says and the rest of the three instructors nod their heads, calming down as they continue to watch the scene unfold. Andrius could see his son, Jero, walking towards him, glaring at Steffan as he does so. Jero arrives and stood beside his father, arms crossed and angry. "What foolishness." Jero says and sneered at Steffan who tried to interrupt the contract from forming. This was the first time Lisa saw Jero that mad and became happy knowing Jero was protecting her friend as well as being the kind and protective person he is to beasts. Andrius steps toward Steffan, towering her by a foot, staring her down with his icy glare. "If you interrupt their contract from forming, we will do everything in our power to destroy you and your family. I don't care which family it is. Never, and I mean never, try to interrupt a contract between a beast and it's chosen master from forming." Andrius' voice booms everywhere, inciting the words clear to everyone watching.
Andrius and Jero being so loving to the beasts as if they were their family as well that they would offer their life to protect like they do to their human family. "This is a warning to everyone." Andrius adds as him and Jero leave Steffan, who looks terrified and dumbfounded, and went in front of Akalea and the dragon, together with the beasts surrounding them in order to protect them. Everyone from that day, never had the thought of trying to interrupt a contract from forming ever again, including Steffan, who stumbles her way back to her friend group and also her beast which wanted to go towards where the other beasts were at but couldn't. The beast regretting choosing Steffan but couldn't say anything about it as their contract was already formed years ago. Everyone then continues to see the forming of the contract between Akalea and the dragon.
"Do you accept Peace Dragonshire, the one of the 3 last descendants of the Royal and Ancient Dragons from centuries ago, as your beast?" The voice asks Akalea as Akalea's eyes widen in shock as well from his name and his title, but this made her excited as she already expected that Peace is a powerful dragon the moment she saw him. "I accept." Akalea replies with a smile and Peace, smiles at Akalea with his eyes, contented and happy. "The moment the contract is completed, only you and your beast can talk to each other telepathically, share each others' powers, feelings and thoughts. If one's hurt, the other one can feel it as well and if one's in danger, the other one will feel it. If the master is dead or killed, the contract will be nullified and the beast will lose its master, finding another master to serve. If the beast is dead or killed, the same goes with the master, finding another beast to care for. Now, let the contract be completed." The voice says and ended with the contract completing, light illuminating between the palm and the head which meant the contract has completed.
Akalea caresses Peace's head lovingly, having a smile on her face and Peace leans in to her touch. "Congratulations!" Voices from the beasts congratulating the two were heard to Akalea, Jero and Andrius, who were the only three who could understand and hear them. "Thank you." Akalea smiles and begins to pet the beasts, at least trying to pet all of them but there were too many. "Congratulations, Ms. Akalea. I have never imagined for Peace to find a master and I see that his severe wound has healed. Must be thanks to you." Andrius says to Akalea, who rubs her neck as she chuckles nervously while Jero was nodding his head, agreeing with his father. "Okay, everyone disperse. We'll be leaving to the training area now." Andrius says to the beasts who were sad to go but nonetheless, listened to their caretaker. I should say that every beast here are ranging from 1ft tall to 20ft tall or even larger but thanks to the warped space here, everything is large for the beasts to stay in.
The beasts with masters went back to their masters while the beasts without masters went back to whatever they were doing. "Let's head out to the training area." Andrius says after giving Akalea a smile and leads everyone to follow him, Jero beside him with his beast. Students with their beasts and instructors with theirs as well as Colton without one. He said he already has one but will take a while for his beast to come to him. Following behind everyone else was Akalea with Peace. "Magnificent." A voice from beside Akalea brought Akalea and Peace shock as they jump in fright from the sudden appearance of the headmaster, who was busy looking at Peace. Peace ignores Luke as his attention was on Akalea, Peace being on Akalea's head, resting on her. Come to think of it, Peace was like 3ft tall when she met him and now he's 1ft tall that makes him rest on top of my head. He must have adjusted his size. Can he grow big, then? Akalea was caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Luke calling her name.
"Akalea." Another call of Luke, snapped Akalea out of her thoughts as she turns to face him. "Sorry, Luke. I was caught up in my thoughts." Akalea apologizes as she sheepishly smiles at him. "It's okay. There must be a lot on your mind right now, I understand." Luke says, understanding Akalea's circumstances. "Its just amazing that I could finally see another dragon, besides the dragons being owned by Akane and Kalid. They were lucky enough to stumble upon twin dragons just like them. Dragons are so rare that from investigations and from the records dating back centuries ago, only 4 dragons have been seen for the last century, including Akane's and Kalid's. I guess yours was hiding for the last century." Luke says to Akalea as they walk side by side. Someone's eyes were particularly on Akalea and the dragon for a bit before they look away and follow behind Andrius, hiding within the students.
"Do you happen to know what had happened to the dragons that made them almost go extinct?" Akalea asks Luke as they arrived in front of the training area which is also in a warped space. "I'll tell you after you're done with everything you need to do, okay? Come to the office whenever you're ready. Liliana and I will be waiting." Luke says as he parts ways with Akalea, waving goodbye as he makes his way back to the academy while Akalea makes her way to Lisa and Clara who were waving at her to catch up with their beasts beside them. Once Akalea catches up to them, she could see everyone with theirs being lined up with Andrius' orders. "One side for all the 4th year students and the other side for the seniors. Then give each other space since your beast will be standing by your side." Andrius instructs as the students and their beasts follow. Akalea takes her place lining up with the Rankers who were in front of the line in a horizontal way. Akalea couldn't help but be pushed towards the front by Lisa who was beside her along with Dawn on the other side with his beast.
Now that Akalea can see the Rankers, she could also see what kind of beasts they have been taking care of. Dawn with his green phoenix towering at 9ft tall along with Shawn with his red phoenix towering at the same height. Lisa with her hieracosphinx(hawk x sphinx) towering at 7ft tall. Troy with his hippogriff(griffin x mare) towering at 8ft tall, Marcus' grey wolf towering at 7ft tall, Dean's Pegasus towering at 6 1/2ft tall, Amy's chimera(lion head and body x snake tail) towering at 7ft, Alice's fairy towering at less than 1ft tall as its flying, Zachary's griffin towering at 8ft tall, Eve's snow white bird towering at 6ft tall and Bach's thunderbird towering at 3ft tall as it stands on Bach's shoulder. Already knew of Zoey and Zeke's twin panthers, Frey and Era, and also Corey's Cerberus, Cer, Ber and Us. Akalea finding them looking powerful and awesome looking. Akalea also realized that most of the beasts height ranging from 6-9ft while some are either taller or smaller than that.
Akalea looks at Peace who was resting on her head and sees Peace looking down at her as well. Akalea smiles at Peace and Peace looks away, shy. "What we're going to do here in this warped space is to, of course, train with the beasts and also to find that balance when fighting together with your beast as a partner. You and your beast are crucial in fights and or battles. What we'll do now is to be in sync with your beast." Andrius says and continues in teaching Akalea and the students on what to do and how to do it as well as giving reasons as to why it should be done. Training with the beasts lasted the whole morning wherein both the masters and the beasts are exhausted from the training. "Training's done. See you all next Sunday." Andrius says as he leads everyone back to the stables to let the beasts rest and eat their lunch. As the beasts say goodbye to their masters and going back to the stables, Andrius walks to Akalea and Peace.
"Ms. Akalea, beasts aren't supposed to be together with their masters outside stables, well, since they're mostly large and might cause some ruckus but in your situation, I'll give you permission to take Peace with you. I know Peace is a smart dragon and he won't make a ruckus, plus he can adjust his size unlike the rest of the beasts. Take care of yourselves, especially you, Peace." Andrius tells Akalea who nods her head while smiling since she was given permission to bring Peace with her which was what she was going to ask Andrius about. "Thank you, I will take care of Peace. You take care too, Mr. Andrius. See you next week." Akalea says and bids Andrius goodbye as she catches up with the students going back to the academy. Akalea catches up to them and stood beside Lisa and Clara who gasped to still see Peace with Akalea.
The gasps caught the attention to the students near them which were Corey, the Rankers, the siblings and the instructors. "I thought beasts aren't suppose to be with their masters outside the stables." Troy says as he looks at Peace then at Akalea, confused. "I was given permission by Mr. Andrius." Akalea replies and those around her nod their heads and realized that its also because their beasts were big and couldn't adjust their height like Peace can. Peace comfortably rests on top of Akalea's head. The students and the instructors arrived back at the academy and everyone parted ways except for Akalea, Lisa, Corey, Clara, the siblings, the Rankers, and the instructors as they walk together towards the cafeteria. Akalea and Peace were catching the attention of every student inside the cafeteria. Akalea and the others were getting their food and found a table to sit on. Akalea grabs extra meat for Peace to eat the moment they sat on the table, Peace flying and landing on the table carefully and begins to eat the meat given to him.
The students around were watching in awe and wonder at Peace, a baby dragon, since it was rare for a dragon to be seen or heard of. Akalea and the others begin to eat their food as they talk about the beast training, ignoring the whispers and gossip targeting Akalea who suddenly appeared with the dragon. Everyone was fascinated at Akalea with the dragon while some were filled with desire, spite, envy and jealousy, wanting to have the dragon to themselves, thinking they're more worthy than her. Akalea and the others were happily conversing while they ate until a voice spoke from behind Akalea. "Hey!" Akalea looks behind her as did the others to see who it was, the students seeing what the scene will become. "Is that a dragon? Or better yet, a baby one?" Akalea sees a guy behind her asking her this question.
"Yeah, what of it?" Akalea says and asks the guy who was now walking towards her, smirking. "Where'd you get it? I heard they were extinct since they weren't heard or seen of anymore. Did you happen to come by it or maybe, stole it?" The guy stood close to Akalea, looking down at her and looks at Peace, who was ignoring him and happily eating his meat. Akalea almost strained her neck cause she was sitting and he was standing, so she stood as she rubs her neck. When she stood, her body pushed the guy away to give some space since he was uncomfortably close. "Ha." The guy smirks at Akalea and looks at her, his eyes filled with envy yet also lust. "What's it to you where and how I got him? Also, the dragon is a him, not a it. Get that right next time now that you know." Akalea says in a matter of telling him facts. "Don't tell me you just found him and he made you his master? 'He' didn't make you his master yet, right? If so, I'll buy him from you. How mu-" The guy blabbers and begins to grab the pouch from behind him, looking at Akalea expectantly, thinking that money can buy everything as he is the only son of a powerful and rich family and also a 4th year, who skipped the whole beast training this morning so he didn't know what happened earlier.
Akalea puts up a hand to cut him off which stops the guy from speaking. "You think I want money? You better get your head fixed. I won't give you nor let you buy my dragon from me. I'm his master so go away." Akalea says and shoos the guy away, flicking her wrist and begins to sit back down. Everyone around watching the scene, Lisa, Corey, Clara, the Rankers, the siblings and the instructors watching as well and gets ready to step in, in case the guy might try something. The guy was furious at what Akalea did, being a spoiled rich kid he is and stomps his way, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back up. Everyone in the table stood up, ready to step in when they saw Akalea holding out her hand, telling them to wait. "Tell me how much. I'm rich, okay? I'll give you however much you want in exchange for the dragon. No one can resist money neither can you since you just came in last Monday, you must be in need of money. I don't care if you're a quadruple categorized student. You must need money to be able to live a life of luxury here." The guy says and smirks with his eyes looking at her with rage and also lust, making his grip on her wrist stronger almost breaking it, wanting her to give in.
Akalea didn't wince at the pain on her wrist nor did she flinch because of the guy, staring and talking to her. "Let me tell you this. I don't need money. I'm already living my life in luxury with just simple things and with my friends. Even if you're the freaking king of this kingdom, I'll never give you nor let anyone buy my dragon. He's mine and mine alone." Akalea says, her voice clear, firm and strong to the ears of everyone watching. Her eyes looking straight into the guy's eyes as if to shoot lasers. "Also, do you plan on breaking my wrist? Cause if you do, I'll break your legs." Akalea says, looking at her wrist and back to his eyes, looking serious. The guy staggers back, feeling intimidated by Akalea with just those words alone and he doesn't know why he is. The guy lets go of Akalea's wrist slowly to which she pulls her wrist away.
Peace just minding his own business as he eats but knew what was happening yet he decided to step in only if things get ugly. "Thank you. Now, get your rich, egotistical and small dick ass away from my face." Akalea says, spitting her words at the guy who was enraged yet again by her words. "How dare you?!" The guy yells, his hatred evident in his eyes as he moves to strike at Akalea for her words. Before he could strike, everyone on the table also moves to stop him but someone beats them to it. "Where and who do you think you're going to put your hand on, huh?" Two voices in unison booms through the entire cafeteria, screaming authority and coldness towards the guy who stood still in his place, suddenly feeling terrified as if death was waiting behind him if he continues to strike at Akalea. Everyone turns to look where the voice came from, gasps in shock, whispers and gossip begins to form once they saw who it was. Akalea leans to the side to see who it was since the guy in front of her was blocking the way.
Akalea and Corey smile, seeing who it was or better yet, who they were. The guy turns around to see the King, Kalid and his brother, Akane together with Luke and Liliana behind them along with two Royal Knights behind Luke and Liliana. "We were just planning to roam around the academy like the old times and found this horrendous boy about to strike a lady." King Kalid stride towards the guy along with Akane by his side, their stride powerful and full of heaviness. The guy felt like he had shrunk and was buried in a hole the moment the King and his brother were in front of him, towering him by a foot, their stare strong and looking to kill. "What is the reason for you wanting to strike this beautiful lady? Are you even a man?" Akane asks since the guy who stayed silent and scared, not daring to look at the two. Everyone else had their eyes down on the floor and bowing their heads, scared and intimidated by the two's presence, except for Akalea and Corey. They were waving at their fathers like children would as the fathers look at their child, trying to stop themselves from smiling at their own cute child.
"I.. I was just-" The guy stammers in his words and Akane interrupts him. "If you don't have an explanation, better scram." Akane says to the guy and points his thumb behind him, meaning to beat it(go away). The guy quickly bows and runs away. Akane and Kalid both winked at Akalea and Corey as if they were telling them to be proud and think of them as cool fathers. Just then, Peace stretches his wings and flew to rest on top of Akalea's head since he was done eating. "Oh, look who we have here. What a surprise." Kalid says as he and Akane had their eyes wide to see a baby dragon, resting on Akalea's head like it has nothing to worry at all. "I knew I shouldn't worry about you. You remember what I told you before right? It's okay to reveal yourself but only if you want to, that is. I'm alright with it since I know you can handle yourself. I taught you myself, didn't I?" Akane whispers to Akalea's ear and Akalea smiles at her father warmly as she nods her head once her father pulls away and stood back in front of her beside Kalid. Seeing that his daughter was nodding in confirmation, he smiles at his daughter and turns around.
"Let's go, brother." Akane says as Kalid nods at him. Kalid and Akane glances at their own child one more time and with a nod towards them, they both left with Luke, Liliana and the two Royal Knights trailing behind them. Everything coming back to normal as their presence left, the students and instructors in the cafeteria lift their heads and sighed in relief. The Rankers, the siblings, the instructors, Clara and Lisa all sat back down as they sighed in relief, the heaviness and power of their presence leaving. Akalea and Corey see them sighing, they started to wonder why since they didn't feel anything earlier.
"Why are you all sighing? They're not scary." Akalea says innocently as she and Corey sat back down as well. Everyone in the table snaps their heads towards the two as if they each grew two heads. "Are you kidding? Their presence itself are terrifying as it is, let alone them two together." Marcus says as she shivered. "I heard that the King never leaves his office, which is scary already, but leaves the office if something important comes up and that Lord Akane left the kingdom 20 or so years ago due to committing a crime or something." Dean says as he begins to eat again. Akalea nods at the first sentence but shakes her head no at the second. "That's not true." Akalea utters out and everyone in the table looks at her. Akalea became flustered after she uttered her words out and tries to find the reason. "I mean Kings are always busy so that's a fact but the Lord Akane committing a crime thing isn't true." Akalea says as the others nod their heads at the first one but looks at Akalea for her to explain the second one. "I meant, Lord Akane wouldn't do or commit a crime and flee. I think Lord Akane left for another reason and we shouldn't just assume things." Akalea says as she takes a bite of her food as everyone looks at her, their eyes squinting.
"He's my master after all. The one I came with the moment we arrived here." Akalea reasons out again and they nod their heads, remembering Lord Akane is her master. "Wait, what?!" Everyone on the table snap their heads at Akalea, not realizing that her master is in fact Lord Akane. "He's the one I came with when I arrived here. I thought you guys knew. I mean the timing of us two coming here wasn't a coincidence." Akalea says, taking another spoonful of food in her mouth as she looks at them, their eyes wide. "We didn't know." One by one, these words came out of their mouths as they look at Akalea, dumbfounded. "Man, I feel stupid for not noticing." Marcus says, dumbfounded until Dean smacks his head. "You are stupid." Dean jokes and everyone in the table laughs while Marcus glares at Dean playfully, didn't mind the joke.
Once everyone was done with their food, they stayed for a bit to discuss what they wanted to do later. Everyone was giving in their opinions and suggestions while Akalea was listening to each of them, smiling. "What about you, Aka? What do you want to do?" Shawn asks which made everyone in the table turn to look at her, waiting. Akalea became flustered and didn't know what to say at first till an idea popped up. "Uhm, I don't really know. I haven't been out much since we lived in a forest and just went out for necessities." Akalea says truthfully which made them nod their heads, understanding. "It's decided. We'll go sightseeing." Dawn says as he stands up abruptly, alarming everyone on the table, not used to see Dawn like that.
Dawn looks at everyone then at Akalea who was looking at him, too. He blushed and tried to find a reason to justify his actions. "I mean, it would be nice to get out of this academy once in a while." Dawn saves himself as he coldly says and begins to walk away, blushing as he does so. Everyone were confused at first but the thought of Dawn becoming soft ever since Akalea arrived here came to the minds of everyone but Akalea who was oblivious. Everyone and Akalea quickly stood up and catches up to Dawn. Shawn putting his arm around Dawn's shoulder as he laughs at him, although his heart ached knowing his brother likes Akalea, too.
They got out of the academy after gaining permission from Luke, Liliana and from Kalid and Akane. Those who came were the Rankers except Emily -who obviously isn't around that much, the siblings, Corey, Clara, Lisa, the four instructors, Peace and Akalea. Josh, Newt and Kint came with them as protectors since they're still students even if Colton is with them and even if they were Rankers and good fighters. As they tread towards the town where they'll start the sightseeing first, they used the road leading to the town which takes an hour on foot and 30 minutes on horses. They chose to walk so they can tell Akalea all about the town's highlights and what's good about it and also the bad things about it, too. "Besides the Academy which is humongous, lies the Abernathy Town, a humongous town, home to the Abernathians." Shawn says as an introduction.
"The town is to be the home for everyone where everyone is equal. The King even made a law to made sure that everyone treats everyone equally, even the nobles have to as it is against the law to treat anyone as if they're below you." Dawn continues as Lisa cuts in. "But there are still cases of people who do the opposite and don't listen to the law. Some nobles and some commoners." Lisa finishes as she looks ahead as Akalea listens. "But don't be discouraged, the King has already assigned qualified knights, warriors, and healers to do surveillance around the town to see if anyone went against the law. So, we'll be alright." Dawn adds as he quickly glances at Akalea who was innocently nodding her head. Cute. Dawn thinks to himself as he lets out a little smile. Everyone witnessed what happened since the two were in front and can be clearly seen.
Shawn's, Newt's, Josh's and even Peace's, who was just resting on top of Akalea's head, heart ached as they witness it. Peace was just confused as to why his heart ached when she's his master and that's all there is to it. Or is it? Peace thinks to himself as he continues to rest, erasing that thought quickly as she's his master he's talking about. As they continue to walk towards the town while telling Akalea all the things in the town, out of nowhere a group of bandits came out and ambushes them. The bandits surrounding them, armed with weapons and had greedy smiles while everyone else were in their combat stance, prepared to fight. The leader walks forward to take a closer look at who they're about to rob and his eyes squinted with greed seeing the soon to be victims with nothing but rings on them, so he thought those rings were worth money, not knowing what they're for. But what caught his eye was the baby dragon nestling on Akalea's head which immediately became money/gold sign to him.
"Well, well, well. Look who we have here.... We are the Treasure Bandits and we nicely want you to give everything you have plus the baby dragon as toll fee and we'll let you go." The leader, big and bulky with a big ass claymore sword in his hand, to intimidate the victims but to his dismay, he didn't know who they were. "Uhm.... No, thank you." Dean says which made everyone but the bandits snicker among themselves and this made the leader and his companions mad. "We were being nice but you didn't appreciate it. Now, we'll do the hard way-" Before the leader could even finish, Akalea and her companions attacks the bandits, catching them off guard, succeeding in beating them. The leader who wasn't attacked by them, watches clearly as his men have been taken down by just the fists of their supposed to be victims.
The leader begins to become pale and bullets of sweat came running down his face, seeing that he's the only one standing while his 'victims' were in front of him, ready to beat him up, too. "So, are we allowed to continue on or do we-" Dawn didn't finish when the leader, supposedly strong and intimidating, quickly went to the side and motions them to continue on, giving out his best smile towards them. "I'll just see to it that I never saw you guys and will never do this again. I'll start a new life." The leader says, scared for his life, vowing that he'll start anew. Akalea looks at the leader pitifully, the leader supposedly strong and intimidating is easily brought down by fear and is timid, bringing his true self out. Akalea brought all the amount of gold she had(I forgot the amount she had gotten for the last week so let's just say she has 40 gold), which is supposed to be used to buy stuff while they're sightseeing in the town, walk towards the leader and gave the pouch to him. "I think you need it more than I do so you can start anew. I don't know if this is enough but I hope it is so your buddies can start anew, too." Akalea says after putting the pouch of gold in the leader's hand and gave him a smile.
"I'm also sorry we had beaten up your buddies." Akalea also apologizes even though the bandits were in the wrong but still, they weren't injured and the bandits were. The leader was flabbergasted by what Akalea just did and couldn't say a word, speechless. Akalea got the idea to just leave as if nothing happened. Akalea knew that when the leader said the words he said, she knew he was saying the truth since she saw the realization in his eyes. "I wish you and your buddies luck! Let's go guys!" Akalea wishes the leader luck and calls out to her companions so they could leave. Akalea continues to walk with Peace and since her companions were also surprised by her actions, caught up to her a little late as they were trying to figure out what just happened. After her companions caught up to her, the leader could see their silhouette fading as they slowly disappear out of his sight. The leader fell on his knees, the pouch of gold clutched in his hand as he looks at his men. The leader realized again that this bandit thing isn't going to work. Right then and there, he swore to himself to live a new life and thanks to her, he swore to repay her back with his men after seeing that the gold in his hand were sufficient enough for them to live for 3 or so years since gold is really precious and worth a lot for them.
Akalea and everyone else were talking about what had happened and Akalea just told them that she could see when someone's lying through their eyes and explained why she did what she did for the leader, even giving up the only money she had with her. Everyone understood her actions and didn't ask again. The thought of Akalea being so kind yet also strict always on their minds, making them like her more and more although she still didn't tell them much about herself yet through her actions, is enough for them. After walking the rest of the way to the town, they start to see the town's gates and walls, surrounding the town to secure and protect it. Akalea smiles at the sight of the town, happy that she could go sightsee to her heart's content without thinking about buying only the necessities like she used to do. Everyone could see her child-like smile which made them smile as well. The town was coming into sight and Akalea was thinking that the townspeople would freak out if they see Peace.
"Hey, Peace." Akalea calls out telepathically. "Yes, master?" Peace says and Akalea didn't like the word 'master' since she's a person who likes freedom. "Just call me, Akalea or Aka. I don't want to be called master anymore okay, Peace?" Akalea says and Peace hesitated but couldn't disobey. "Okay, ma- Aka." Peace corrects himself and Akalea smiles at that. "What do you need, Aka?" Peace asks as he looks down at his master. "Can you conceal yourself or something? We're almost near the town and I don't want to cause panic or trouble to the townspeople plus you might still bear hatred towards my kind so maybe it would be best if they don't see you or detect you." Akalea says and Peace nods, understanding. At that moment, Peace conceals himself to everyone but those who already saw him.
With that, they comfortably head to the town. The moment they were near the gates of the town, they were greeted by the knights guarding it, their weapons out in case of a fight. "What might be the reason of your visit?" One of the knights asks the group of people, his eyes scanning to see if he sees someone familiar. "It's alright, sir Kyle. The students are here to go sightsee in the town. We're here to guard them." Josh walks towards the knight and smiles at him, holding his hand up for a high five. "Oh, it's good to see you, sir Josh!" The knight's voice became a bit higher as he greets his friend with a high five. "Since you say so, then you may go in." The knight says, pushing up his helmet to smile at Josh. "Thanks. But what's with the tight security? Did something happen?" Josh asks and Kyle was reluctant to share the information but when he looks at his other knight companions, they were nodding their heads, indicating to let him tell Josh the situation. "There were children disappearing that keeps happening for 2 weeks now." The knight, Kyle, says as he sighs at the situation. Everyone who heard were shocked as they yell in unison, "What?!" Newt walks towards Kyle and looks at him.
"Why wasn't the King nor us notified about this? We could've done something sooner!" Newt yells at Kyle who was shaking in fear of Newt's yelling. "That's enough, sir Newt." Akalea walks towards Newt and grabs hold of his arm, to calm him down which really did help Newt to calm down. "You didn't tell the King nor them because you guys thought you can handle it, right?" Akalea looks at Kyle who shyly nods at the beautiful woman who suddenly stepped up to help him. "We shouldn't blame them as they didn't know it would be this bad. Let's help." Akalea says and this shocked the knights guarding the gates. "No, we couldn-" The knights wanted to rebut but Akalea looks at them and shakes her head. "Once I decide to do something, I see to it until the end. Don't try to stop me." Akalea says as she smiles at them. "I guess we can't go sightsee for now." Akalea says as she looks at her companions, apologetically. "It's alright. We can go sightsee next time." Shawn says and the rest of them nod their heads.
"Please, tell us the situation, sir Kyle." Akalea requests and Kyle couldn't help but tell them about it. After a while of explaining, everyone got the gist of the situation. "So you're saying children at the age of 2-11 have been slowly kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night with no traces at all?" Akalea asks and Kyle along with his companions nod their heads. "For now, we'll try to scout out in the town to see if anything suspicious is happening. After that, we'll meet up back here to plan on what to do next, okay?" Akalea decides and tells everyone there, including the knights. They all nod their heads at Akalea, agreeing to her words. The knights were a bit confused because they suddenly and quickly agreed to what Akalea said when they just met.
"Let's go. There's no time to waste. Don't look suspicious either and act natural as possible." Akalea says as they quickly went separate ways since the town is so big, they had to while he knights staying behind to keep watch on the entrance of the town. Everyone was keeping their eye on their surroundings, trying to act natural as possible. As Akalea and Peace, roams the town, they see the beauty of the town, colorful and full but there were also things that she didn't like to see. The two roams around and sees children with their parents out, bonding with each other. This made Akalea smile thinking that her and her father would be like that in the future if they get the chance to. After seeing the children with their parents, she also sees something that churned her stomach.
The two also sees poor people begging on the streets and children trying to sell their stuff to earn money to buy food for themselves or for their family. "So this is how humans have evolved in these last centuries." Peace says telepathically as he looks around, concealed. As they roam around more, they could see a lot of them on the sides, looking so sad and pitiful. I should talk to uncle Kalid and father about this. Akalea thinks to herself as she looks at them, thin and bones. Akalea looks away before she could let her emotions get the best of her and stopped herself from crying. It's inevitable that there would always be poor people in a big town like this. Akalea thinks to herself again as she continues the search. As she rounds up a corner, she found someone giving apples to children, regardless if they're rich, in the middle or poor.
Akalea thought of it as nothing at first since it was a good act of kindness but the more she thinks about it and the place it was being given to, she thought otherwise. The person, covered up in a cloak with a basket of red and healthy looking apples, giving out apples in the middle of the street. Where there were many people and children alike walking through, as if the person in the cloak purposely did that to garner more children to him. The knights might not have thought that this was weird if they came across this person giving out apples to only children. "I feel something ominous from that person." Peace says telepathically, him seeing the dark red aura around the person in cloak which Akalea couldn't see it, yet. Akalea kept his words in mind, while watching as she pretends to look around the food stands near there, talking to the vendors as well. The two then begins to hear the person in the cloak speak to the children. "I ran out, kids. There will be more, tomorrow." The person's voice sounded like a woman, sultry and potent. The children nod their heads, smiling as they eat the apples given to them. The children disperse to where they head to go while the person in cloak turns to face where Akalea and Peace were at. Akalea quickly and smoothly snaps her head to the vendor to talk about the food he had in his stand.
The woman in the cloak walks her way, a dark red aura surrounding her as she got closer to Akalea. "I don't know how you can see me nor see what happened but please forget about it or I'll kill you." The woman's sultry and potent voice was heard beside Akalea's ear when in fact she was far away from Akalea earlier. Akalea felt an urge to forget about what happened as the woman begins walking away at the same time. Akalea pretended to forget as she continues to talk to the vendor as if nothing happened to trick the woman in the cloak. Just as the woman turns to a corner, Akalea took a quick glance and saw the woman's dark red aura before the woman disappeared. Akalea waited it out until she felt it was time to leave and go to the meet up place. Peace was silent and angry at what the person did as Akalea starts to walk, heading to the meet up place as she says this.
"Let me see you try."
.
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Hey guys! How's the chapter going? Would like to hear your thoughts about it hehe. Stay safe and always look on the bright side! Help someone when they need help but don't be abused by them because of your kindness, okay? Be strong and keep moving forward!
Btw, I'll probably not publish a chapter in this book next week because I'm too busy with my school works huhu. I'll try to publish one next next week (but then again maybe I can find time and I could finish it by next week so I can publish it next week instead of next next week so I'll try my best) because this chapter is the last one that's completed in making which means I'm still making the next chapter. I'm trying to finish the next chapter but my school works keep piling up that I couldn't finish nor make it in time. I apologize and I hope all your considerate hearts can forgive me. Wish me luck, guys!
See you in the next chapter! Love ya'll!
-Aki