War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (28 page)

"We both know that I'm not a traitor," she
agreed. "But the rest of Orion will never agree. I was sent here as
a traitor, time won't change their perception of me."

"What if we traveled with you, back to Orion
and protected you from any threats?"

"Then I would be glad to go back," Jahdiel
forced a smile.

"Is that your final decision? Are you ready
to go back to Orion?"

"After all these years, I think that I'm
finally ready," Jahdiel replied. "Let's go back to Orion together.
A wrongly outcast human and Crodillians."

"That is just what I wanted to hear," He
grabbed her shoulders and smiled. "We will do great things, you and
I."

Anlon rose from bed after getting very little
rest due to his run-in with Kanti the previous night. Getting
caught and the fact that Kanti now wanted to come along with him on
his mission to find the Deimos Brotherhood had nagged at him all
night. He knew there was really no stopping her from coming, and he
actually wanted her to come along, but he wasn't sure if he was
ready to face something happening to her. Anlon cleared the
thoughts from his mind and focused on his new mission at hand:
finding the clue the Queen had asked him to retrieve.

He quickly dressed and grabbed his usual
toaster-tarts to eat on the go as he got in his truck and entered
301 Burklebee Street in the mapping system. The directions led him
to a high class neighborhood, lined with enormous and luxurious
homes that all had luscious green lawns.

Once he arrived at the address, he pulled the
truck to the side and shut off the engine. There were no cars or
cruisers parked in the driveway, so he figured the home was empty
and took a shovel off of the rack in the bed. A large tree was in
the middle of the yard with a small garden surrounding it and Anlon
knew at once that's where he was going to find the clue. He began
for the tree and picked a spot to begin.

After a couple minutes of digging, he hit
something hard and grasped his hands around the object after wiping
dirt off. He got a good grasp of it and pulled out a heavy metal
container covered in rust. The container wasn't very large and he
was able to put it under his arm as he picked up the shovel and
left the mess he had just made. Anlon tossed the shovel in the back
of the truck and hopped in the driver seat to get home.

After the short drive, he ran up to his dad's
office and tossed the box on the desk while searching the drawer
for something to pry it open. A screwdriver was buried under some
pens and he took it, prying open the rusted box. Anlon started
going through papers inside and saw that some of them had Armino's
name on them, but nothing about the Queen's missing daughter. He
kept digging through, hoping that something would tell him where
the Queen's daughter was located and was awarded after several
minutes of rummaging. A small hand written note was at the very
bottom of the container, perfectly preserved:

Your most prized possession is in the safe
protection of the Waldmunt's on Demeter.

It was signed with Armino's signature, but it
wasn't specifically addressed to anyone, though Anlon had no doubt
who it was intended for. It was so vague, that if someone had come
across it without knowing what he knew, they wouldn't have known
what it meant and surely would've thrown it out.

Anlon walked out of the house and saw Kanti
waiting by his truck. "What are you doing here Kanti?"

She opened his passenger door. "If you're
taking me with you, I need some training too. You obviously didn't
do any training yet today since you dug up that box."

"I
can't
bring you to training. I
haven't even told Moran what happened at the District prison
yet."

"You can and you
will
," She shot him a
smile. "You can tell Moran all about what happened with me standing
right next to you. I'm sure he'll be thrilled that you got caught
red handed."

"Moran isn't going to like this," He muttered
as he got in the truck. "Isn't Giustino going to be mad that you're
with me?"

"Let him be mad," she shrugged. "I'm leaving
Gaea with you soon anyway. What does it matter if he's mad at me
and tries to punish me?"

"Moran will be the one he determines if you
get to leave Gaea."

"It doesn't matter what Moran says. He can't
force you to not bring me along, it's ultimately your choice. I can
help you, this isn't something that you'll be able to do on your
own, and you have to know that by now."

"Do you really think that it's safe for you
to come with me? I mean, these are dangerous races. It's their job
to hunt and kill."

"Where else am I going to go Anlon?" She
turned to him. "I have no family, I live alone, and the only person
I've become friends with is about to leave Gaea to go on a mission
for the Queen. I want to go with you and do something important
with my life, not work in an office here on Gaea for the rest of my
life," she told him. "If I die, so be it. At least I'll die doing
something that means something."

"Okay, fine. You can come with me, but don't
say I didn't warn you about the danger."

"You were actually thinking about leaving
me?" She hit him on the shoulder.

"No, I wouldn't leave you behind. I just
don't think there's any chance that Moran will approve of it."

"Yeah. Sure," Kanti rolled her eyes. "So, why
exactly does Moran live in that beat up apartment complex
anyway?"

"He doesn't want people to find him."

"But in that apartment? I'm sure he could
find a better place that's still hidden from the general public.
It's not like the Queen wouldn't get it for him if he requested
it."

Anlon laughed. "Who would expect anyone to
actually live there?"

"I guess you're right. I sure wouldn't expect
to find someone working for the Queen there. I'd think they'd live
someplace a little more appealing to the eyes and not in such plain
sight."

Anlon parked the truck outside of the
apartment complex and took off his seatbelt. "Why don't you let me
go in first and try to explain why you're..."

It was too late. Kanti was already halfway to
the building before he had the chance to open his door. He hopped
out of the truck and ran to catch up to her.

"Where do you train here?" She asked, looking
at the building. "I really don't trust this place at all."

"Follow me," Anlon motioned to the elevator.
"Moran has a whole room designated for training."

Kanti followed him on and he entered the code
22812B on the pad. The elevator made a noise and then lurched
down.

"Whoa! There's stuff underneath this
building?" Kanti asked.

"You wouldn't believe the stuff that's under
this building."

The door slid open and Anlon walked out into
the training room. Ferris and Emer were already waiting for him
with everything set up for the day.

"He came back for more!" Ferris shouted. "I
was starting to think we saw the last of you yesterday."

"You didn't think I was going to quit on you
two, now did you?" Anlon joked.

"We didn't know what to expect kid," Ferris
replied. "After yesterday, we were both prepared for anything."

"Who's the girl in the elevator?" Emer asked,
motioning her head to Kanti.

"I'm Kanti," She introduced herself. "I'm one
of Anlon's friends."

"Why did you bring her here?" Ferris looked
at him. "You're supposed to be doing this alone."

"Uhhh," he started. "I kind of ran in to her
last night and she asked if she could help me on my mission. I
figured I'd bring her along for some training if she was going to
come along."

"You told her about what you're doing?" Emer
exclaimed. "Are you insane?"

"Yes. He told me," Kanti answered. "I think I
can help Anlon on his mission."

"I'm going to guess you haven't told Moran
any of this because he hasn't mentioned a word of this to either
one of us!" Ferris chuckled.

"This isn't funny, Ferris!" Emer snapped.
"Why would you do this Anlon? The Queen trusted you to keep this
discreet. You can't just go bringing along whoever you want, that's
dangerous."

"I really think she can help," He replied,
unsure if he believed the answer himself. "The Queen said I had to
do it without her help. She never said I couldn't bring a
trustworthy friend along with me."

"She can't just leave Gaea, Anlon." Emer
glared. "It'll raise questions and could tip off the wrong
individuals that you're up to something."

"Actually, I can," Kanti smiled. "I have no
family, my only friend is Anlon, and I was about to leave anyway.
No one is going to care that I leave."

"I don't like it, but I guess we can train
you," Emer studied her. "It's too late to kick you out now that you
know as much as you do. There's more chance of you doing harm than
good if we do that."

"You'll train with me first today," Ferris
motioned to them. "Today we're going to go over long blades and
knives."

"Awesome," Anlon smiled.

Kanti rolled her eyes at him. I thought you
were serious about this stuff."

"What? You don't think I'm taking this
seriously?"

Ferris chuckled. "Looks like you just brought
along another girl that's going to kick your butt," He grabbed two
long blades off of the table and tossed one to each Anlon and
Kanti. "You'll copy what I do to start."

He picked up his own blade off of the table
and started swinging it in different ways. Some were high swings
while others were low swings. They started off very simple, then
Ferris started adding twists and other tricks that were much harder
for Anlon and Kanti to copy. Practice lasted for an hour before
Ferris called it quits.

"Now you two can practice fighting each
other," Ferris grinned. "Let's see if you can beat him too
sweetheart, Emer was beating up on him all day yesterday."

Kanti and Anlon faced each other and Anlon
couldn't help but smile, knowing he would easily beat Kanti. After
all, it was her first day and she'd never seen any of this stuff,
whereas his father had showed him bits of it every now and
then.

"What's so funny Anlon?" Kanti asked. "Is it
because I'm a girl?"

Before he could answer, she came swinging at
him. He blocked the swing, but she was immediately on him again,
striking low this time and knocking him completely off balance.
Panic washed over him as she continued coming in a fury of blows,
strike after strike with precision and ease that she hadn't
demonstrated while practicing. Their dull blades came crashing
together and her eyes looked into his before a grin crossed her
face. Her blade dropped to the floor and she rolled away from him,
pulling out a small blade.

"I don't think you were quite ready for
this," she panted. "I may have forgot to tell you I had some prior
experience in knives. It didn't cross my mind to tell you
earlier."

"Great," Anlon steadied his blade and inched
towards her. "Still doesn't mean that you'll beat me."

"You still think you're going to beat me
because I'm a girl?" A smile crossed her face as she circled around
him. "Wouldn't be the first time someone thought that."

He swung at her, missing completely. "No. I
don't think I'll win just because you're a girl. I think I'll win
because I have more experience."

"An hour?" She charged him, causing him to
back up, and she threw her short blade in order to grab the long
blade again. "I've had years of it."

Once again, relentless blows followed, this
time with grace and finesse. The blade twirled in the air as Anlon
awkwardly blocked the blows any way that he could, stumbling on his
feet in the process. As she lifted her blade over her head, he went
for the kill strike, only to hit air as she let go of her blade and
dropped to the floor. The blade landed in her hand and she jabbed
his wrists causing him to instinctively drop his own blade. Kanti
picked it up and spun both of them before placing them on his
neck.

"Still think girls are inferior?"

Anlon pursed his lips. "I never said that
they were."

"You were thinking it," She dropped the
blades.

Ferris came over clapping. "Good job, Kanti.
That was by far some of the best fighting I've ever witnessed. The
ease you showed in swinging that blade, I'm at a loss for words,"
He turned to Anlon. "You'll get there someday. Until then, keep
practicing and maybe she'll let you win every once and awhile to
boost your confidence."

"I almost beat her," He let out a deep
breath. "She was just a little better than me."

Kanti smiled and shook her head. "You have
quite a way to go until you master the blade like me. How do you
think I spent all me free time on Demeter?"

"Enough of the fighting, Kanti won fair and
square. And it wasn't even close," He led them over to the table
again. "Now for some knife training. Not too much to train you on
here, except how to hold the blade," he demonstrated. "You jab like
this and that's about it. Everything else is just instinctual, and
if you're fighting for your life, you'll know what to do," Ferris
nudged Anlon. "You may want to take some queue from your
girlfriend, she'll be able to help you."

"That's knife training?" Anlon raised up his
hands. "I thought you were going to teach us stuff."

"What do you want me to do?" Ferris asked.
"Show you how to stab someone? That's pretty simple to do and it
seems Kanti already has all the basics down. If you do get in a
fight, I suggest you hide behind her," he winked.

"That's not funny!" Anlon crossed his
arms.

Kanti laughed. "I'll teach you what I know.
He's not lying when he says it's easy to learn the basics."

"I'll teach you some important stuff," Emer
said from behind them. "Follow me."