"Let's goo!!"
The sun had began to sink it's head below the horizon and the part of it that still stuck out illuminate the land in a cast of its bright yellow hue over all of Dolrea and wide.
Away from campus premises and walking through the streets of Arlow, a section in Dolrea; "Keep it down man…" Kiriku hinted, sounding tired. "How can you even have the energy?"
"It's typical of him." Mira responded.
The Mischievous Duo, Lilith, The Lui Brothers, Mira, Ingrid and Kiriku giggled in response.
"You guys gonna be there? At Hoffers Mansion." Kiriku's tired voice replied.
"Of course, it's our last day together as students, I wouldn't miss it for anything." Khay replied.
"Alright then." They paused at a junction.
"Alright" Mira yawned. "This is where we part-ways." She said. "You guys better be at tonight's event."
"Haha, we will." Trilith replied.
"Well." Han cried out. "We be going home too."
"Now?" Khay asked.
"Yeah, we've gotta help grandpa with some stuff around the house and get prepared for tonight's event. Not all of us have house helps."
"Oh not this again!" Lilith sighed.
"Spoiled brats" Han teased as he giggled as he left with his brother. A little bit further away from them, he paused and turned around, looking at them.
"You guys really better not be late to this thing." He screamed at them from a distance.
Khay laughed in response and said; "We won't."
"See you at the party then."
"And then there were three." Trilith said.
"Would you just can it??" the voice resounded and reached the trio.
"This voice…" Khay wondered and instinctively; the trio rushed to it, stealthily making their way to where the voice came from to see what it was all about. And when they had gotten close, they stuck close to the walls that bled into the section of the neighborhood that bore the drama. And they stuck their heads out, as little as they could to avoid getting detected.
A guy in the prescribed Dolrea student wear was hanging in the air, he wore a dark crimson trouser over his light blue Dolrea stylized top.
"I was right. It's Kaina." Khay whispered to other two.
"Kai… I remember telling you…" His grip around his neck could be heard tightening. "Not to talk about it."
"Kaina." One of his friends called out to him. "He was just trying to help. We all can tell how angry you are and as our leader, it's only right he would try to talk to you about it."
"Those trashy bunch, who would have imagined they would disgrace us, Blue Peacocks." One of them remarked from the back.
Kaina, still holding his friend up in the air by the throat, glared behind at the rest of them. He could tell he was not the only that one displeased with the outcome of events, but he just couldn't accept that reality in any way.
Kaina let him go and he came landing on his feet, bending and coughing.
"All of you… just leave." He said to them as he walked past him.
"Kaina… We're friends before anything."
"Friends? Yegan… Just…" he strained, the subtle sound of embers resounding in the air.
"Kaina..." Yegan groaned.
"Leave!" a fire enveloped him and roared at his friends. They could only look as the defeat registered in their eyes, but there was one, who was seemingly pleased with the turn of events, more so, Kaina's reaction to the turn of events, and he smiled with a proud sinister look in his eyes. But for the rest, there was little they could do. Yegan stared at the pillar of fire seemingly indifferent. He had gotten used to Kaina's outburst. And as the second in command; he turned to the others and said;
"Come on, Kaina needs some time to cool off." He helped Kai off the ground and was leaving with the others and the one that stood in the back looked as if he did not follow others from Yegan or anyone for that matter. He stared ahead at Kaina, with a fire in his eyes and a proud grin.
"That means you too Yousef." Yegan nonchalantly ordered as he passed by him.
"I mean it."
Yousef could only scoff in response as the proud grin vanished from his face and just like that, they were gone like the wind.
Now it was just him, alone, and he stood there, the ground beneath him - charred by the outburst of flame that shot out from him in response to his anger. He turned around and placed his hand on his face and began to sob silently.
"You know…" a voice said. "It really doesn't help when you treat your friends like that, Kaina."
His eyes widened in shock and bubbling anger. "Mischievous trash." He responded.
"Haha, you got that right. This trash here has something to tell you."
"Save it, I don't need your pity." He said, softly.
"Pity? I don't have that towards you. And I think we all have a lot to say to you. Don't we, guys?" He giggled.
"We do?" Trilith drew a blank, clueless.
Night had fallen, and it was the second watch of the night; 3 hours and a little after evening.
The Hoffers mansion; a grand icy blue building with 3 floors and balcony. The mansion sat in the middle of a large compound and was now filled with students dressed in their best of attires and in all blends of colors. They had gathered in a very large hall about 15 meters wide and 17 meters from the roof to the ground, cylindrical pillars hoisted the balconies at the upper corners of the hall and a large chandelier hung in the middle, illuminating the room. On ground, tables had been set all around and garnished with delicacies of all sorts. The students had heeded to their Principals words and had filled the whole hall, walking up and about, those that stood or sat around, did so with glasses of fruit drinks, chocolates and yoghurt. Among those that stood around were Khay, Lilith and Trilith.
"I still can't get my head around this, you know when you said we have a lot to say, I didn't expect you to go with all of that." He folded his arms, black suit over black trousers and black shirt.
"Well, I figured since our school days are over, better iron some things out and he looked like he needed ironing." He giggled, swirling around the drink in the glass. He had on a dark silver suit and trouser over a white shirt.
"You surprise even me sometimes Khay Barmeda Chislon." Lilith smiled as she sipped on the straw in the glass, hair all made up than usual, she wore a light blue silky straight dress that complimented her nature green eyes and light brown complexion.
"Hmph. What can I say? It was sorta the right thing to do?"
"But still." Trilith uttered. "That was quite something. Wasn't it?" He wondered to himself, grabbing his chin as he recalled the events.
"Kaina." Khay called out to him. "This may come as a surprise to you… but I've never considered you an enemy. Though it might not feel like it to you, I consider you my friend. All these years, with your failed attempts to bully us; when I sit down and think back on all of it, it really just made our stay in the school survivable. I think, having been kept here so long, anyone with grand ambitions would probably lose it. We all coped one way or another. And I don't think I'd to say, that was your way of coping. So as messed up as it may sound, thank you, Kaina, for making our stay at the academy bearable."
"Come to think of it, there is some truth to all of that." Trilith got one in.
"In the end that's what you wanted to say huh?" Lilith sighed. "Thinking back, Kaina, you really haven't been kind to us or anyone you don't remotely consider close to your level." Her gaze fell towards the ground.
"That part too is also true." Trilith commented.
"You don't have to keep yourself in that cage anymore, the school has set us free, you can spread your wings and fly. It's either that or its just one painful journey ahead of you. Starting with losing those you've considered friends. So instead of doing that, how about, you keep those you have and make new friends."
His expression weakened. And he couldn't help but avert his gaze as he looked down. He had caused a lot of discomfort to the students, him and his Blue Peacocks.
"I wanted to." He spoke. "At first it started out as just a prank on people, then it just got worse. And before I could see clearly…" He closed his eyes in pain, remembering all the people he'd inconvenienced and hurt. "It had gone too far. I don't know how to let go of the hurt I've caused… this pride…" he stared at his hands.
Lilith, Khay and Trilith stared on at him in shock, of all the things they expected to have heard Kaina say, that was the last thing anyone would dream off.
"I guess…" Lilith began walking towards him. "There is some humanity under all that high and mighty skin of yours."
"Lilly…" Khay softly called out to her as she walked past him. "I knew this wasn't going to be easy for her…" He thought to himself. "All the times that Trilith and I got bullied, she got angered more and more. She got angry for us and anyone that suffered under Kaina's whims." "Is she going to let him have it?" he thought. That would be a perfectly normal response.
"Oi Khay" Trilith drew close to him. "You don't think she'd…" Trilith shared the same thought with Khay.
"Kaina…" Lilith called out to him.
She stood in front of him, took a deep breath and heaved a heavy sigh. "I forgive you."
"Ohhhh…" Trilith and Khay exclaimed.
"You…what…?"
"I said… I forgive you. You really got on my nerves you know. These two never did anything bad to you. What happened to the Kaina we knew when we were kids? You suddenly just became mean to everyone and forgot about your friends."
"Lilith..." Khay softly cried out.
"She never really could let that go huh… I guess that's what makes her my sister."
"I…" Kaina's expression softened more and more, his eyes, watery. "I'm sorry." He softly cried out.
"Eh…" Trilith shot out. "Did he just…"
"Yes he did."
"See, now that wasn't so hard." Khay said, standing with Lilith.
"I know things haven't been exactly easy for any of us." Khay said. "You may not believe it, but we tend to see more than people think." He drew in close to Kaina and whispered.
"You're probably thinking, 'Now what?' "What does the Blue Peacock that have done nothing but inconvenienced the life of people do now?'" He thought out loud.
"I think" Trilith joined them. "I think that's something Kaina has to figure out for himself."
"Right on the money partner. What I can say is, don't worry about what those guys may say. An annoying bunch they may be, but…" He paused and took a deep sigh. "They did what they did because they were following you."
"Yegan…" Kaina softly let out.
"Yeah Yegan, that guy has been your leading reasonable voice. I can't count the number of times he's come to talk to us concerning your behavior. He's the only one with a brain in the Blue Peacock. The rest just follow" Trilith snuck in.
"Tril, that was supposed to be a secret, remember?" Lilith sharply questioned.
"Ah… Haha… I'm sure it's okay now. Kaina seems like he needed the support."
"What do I do with you?"
"Why do you guys care so much?" Kaina softly asked.
"A couple of reasons." Khay wondered to himself. "Because it's the right thing to do."
"Because… You were once our friend." Lilith added.
"And still are." Trilith followed.
"And I don't think any of us would like to see you explode like you did earlier, you know. We saw the flames." Khay added.
"He's not saying anything."
"He should be. Tsk."
"I'm…"