Xana jerked her head left and noticed a garden in the distance.
Xana eyed the rest of the group and asked, "Do you mind if I…"
"Sure go ahead," Rextanse interrupted, knowing what Xana was going to ask. "Just let me come with you." Xana, without hesitation, took off toward the garden in the distance.
"Yea Rex, we could use a little bit longer," Xowlin said, "I mean, we just escaped and now we are trying to find people. Lets break for a little. Charxai, Kaarix and myself will just chill here for a bit. Keep an eye on her will ya?"
"Of course man, that is why I am going," Rextanse smiled at Xowlin and then started walking toward the garden.
It would seem the garden only be a 2-minute walk or so, but sometimes your eyes make you see things differently, and for some reason, The World That Never Was made your depth perception funky. The garden was really there, just further away then what you would expect.
Xana, out of breath and her hands on her knees, finally reached the garden. In the garden there were flowers of all kinds. Red roses, blue violets, yellow dandelions, it was such a diverse group of flowers. Xana walked into the garden and then got down on her knees to look at the flowers. Then, she started asking questions.
"Why would a garden be here, in the middle of this…..place? Whatever this place is, it is no home for a garden."
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He darted through the building alleyways, like a cat. He couldn’t jump high or far, but he could do it quietly. He moved swiftly and quietly and not disturbing anything. Not the rats on the ground or birds on the fences stood a chance. Any spec of life, he would get rid of, he would just raise his hand, and poof, the plant or animal would die before your eyes. Why he did this was a mystery. A mystery that would soon unravel, and it starts with finding a garden.
As he appeared around a building corner, he noticed a garden. In the garden he noticed a figure wearing a cloak , on their knees looking at the flowers. The man, wearing a sleeveless black tee and camo pants, raised his hand. All the flowers in the garden shriveled up and died, just like that, in a span of 3 seconds. He did not want to kill a person, unless they got in his way. And the figure on the ground was not in his way.
"What?" Xana asked her self, "Hmm, these flowers just died, weird." Xana concentrated on the flowers only. She held her hands out, palms out, facing the flowers. There was no aura or barrier around the garden and flowers. Nor were there any type of shield or barricade around the garden and flowers. It was like magic just watching the garden come back to life. It was not the fact that they came back to life that was so interesting, it was the fact that each flower in the garden reversed its position back to the way each flower originally was. As the flowers came back to life, each one followed the same exact path that it took on its way to death, except reverse. It was as if the garden had gone back through time merely 10 seconds. What also was strange was that only the garden had appeared to gone back in time to its prior state. "There, that’s better," and Xana smiled.
Having witnessed this event, the man became confused. Thinking to himself, he wandered if this figure in the garden did this. He shook the thought off and held his hand out again. 3 seconds later, the flowers died, again.
"WHAT?!" Xana asked puzzled. Once again she held out her hand, and once again, the flowers in the garden seemed to reverse back to their original position.
The figure, now slightly frustrated, held up his hands again, and once again, after three seconds, death.
"What is going on?" Xana asked herself as she held out her hands again and watched the flowers all come back to life.
The figure decided to go approach this person in the garden.
Seeing the figure, Xana shrieked. Rextanse, still walking toward the garden saw Xana in the distance before hearing the shriek. He ran over toward her as quickly as quicksand. When Rextanse reached Xana, she was scooting backwards away from the figure that had approached her.
"Hey pal, back off!" Rextanse jumped in front of Xana, dropping into a fighting stance. "Get behind me Xana," and he motioned his one hand backwards. Xana quickly got up and scurried behind Rextanse, grabbing him from behind. "What do you want pal?" Rextanse said in a stern voice, shifting his feet in case a fight arose.
"Her, the girl," and the figure pointed toward Xana, "did she bring these flowers back to life?"
Xana remained quiet.
"Look pal, if you want to deal with her, your gonna have to go through me first."
"Do you really think I want to fight a kid like you. You must be mistaken. Put your guard down man. You are not worth a fight."
Rextanse looked over his shoulder to which Xana was perched. Her face just spelled ‘I’m scared’. "Just back off ok pal?"
"Don’t call me your pal. You don’t know me." The man walked closer to Rextanse and Xana, but Rextanse stood where he was, unmoving. The man did not slow, and eventually, was only a few inches away from Rextanse's face.
"REX!" Xana cried.
"You think I am afraid of you?" Rextanse shouted confidently, staring into the eyes of this man. Undeterred, the man shoved both Rextanse and Xana to the side, and continued his walk forward. "I have no time for this. I need to find someone. So unless you are that person I am looking for, don’t bother.
"I am." Rextanse said affirmatively.
"What are you doing, Rex? We have nothing to do with this guy." Xana whispered.
The man stopped in his tracks and turned back around.
"Now I got your attention," Rextanse said with a half-ass sarcastic smile.
Ruxel did one of those quick walks back toward Rextanse and Xana, summoning his 2 long swords. Xana ran behind a building, fearful of her life. "You must really love jokes, huh kid," The man said with a stern look, on his face, staring into the unfearful eyes of Rextanse, with their foreheads touching.
"The truth is," Rextanse started, taking a step back from the man so their foreheads were no longer touching, "Xana and I, we are kind of looking for someone too. Well, not someone, more like something, an identity or so to speak."
The man turned back around, "If you are asking me to walk along beside you forget about it. I’m 35 years……Look, I don’t need to hang on around a kid like you and your girlfriend." The man started walking away again.
"You’re just like us, I can sense it."
The man stopped again and turned back around, "What are you talking about kid?"
"You paused, when you were saying your age."
"I’m getting old, my memory ain't what it used to be."
"35 ain't old."
"Last chance kid, what do you want?"
"You are a nobody, just like us. A group of us"
"A nobody," the man started smiling, " a nobody? You have got to be kidding me." He started chuckling.
"Crazy? Yes. But I think you can help us. In return, we will help you find whoever you are looking for. I trust you." Rextanse extended his arm and held out his hand, and waited.
The man started thinking to himself. "Perfect. I can use these kids to get whatever I want. I am older than him and stronger than him and his little pow wow of buddies. I’ll just wait till I find Him, and then break off, leave em all in the dust."
"Ruxel. I’m Ruxel," and he walked back toward Rextanse and shook his hand.
"Rextanse. Glad to meet ya." Rextanse turned his head and shouted, "Hey Xana?! Get out here, it's ok. Xana appeared from behind the building corner and slowly walked toward the two men.
"Xana, this is Ruxel."
"Hi," she said quietly and just kind of raised her hand quickly and put it back down.
Ruxel just watched her for a couple a seconds, for what seemed to be waiting for a hand to shake.
"She looks familiar. But where? Maybe it is me just getting old."
"So you guys ready to go?" Rextanse blurred out breaking the awkward silence.
"Yea, I am just about ready to get outta here," and Ruxel broke from his fixated stare.
"Let me introduce you to the rest of the crew." Rextanse said. The 3 of them started walking back down the way Rextanse and Xana had already come down.
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Hate. One of the worst words you can think of. It's enough to say you dislike someone, but to hate someone is much worse. You need to feel pure anger toward someone to hate them. Even then, hate still might not be the correct word to use. But hate is what I felt toward Hiroshi Corina.
Hiroshi was no cliché bully. He beat me up left and right up until the day of the attack. When the bad guys came, I was fighting to protect myself and my father. What did he fight for? He fought to impress. He wanted to be the hero of the town. He wanted everyone to look up to him as strongest in all the land. During the attack, I fought throughout the town, chasing enemies around. Soon enough, I ended up right next to Hiroshi, fighting just like he was. Out of nowhere, he lifted his leg and kicked my back. I flew forward into a pile of heartless, and he ran off.
I managed to kill that pile of heartless, but it was a struggle. The bastard tried to kill me! I was on his side this time but he still tried to kill me! The attack waged on and I kept fighting. Eventually, I saw Hiroshi again. He saw me from a distance and took off running. I followed pursuit. I was going to kill him if it was the last thing I did before I died.....
The idea of hate was eminent now. The war was over now, my father was dead. I had to go find his killer. I hated everyone and everything now. Hiroshi and whoever attacked the town. I had to use any resource I had to get to the bottom of the attack. I also needed to find Hiroshi. My mind was spinning with two conflicting ideas of hate. What do I do now? All I could manage to do was walk.