Catch Up

I earned by place among the Legendaries who are legendary heroes that protect people of the country. They are only brought out when a problem arises and are trained to their full extent to unlock many powers that the average person has not come across. The problem that has aroused is a war between the Dark and Light. It is destroying the lived of millions that live between the two groups. There are different tribes that exist between the two groups and are separated by their types. Each type earns one spot in the group of legends; fire, water, grass, electricity, and earth.
The way people of this country fight are by changing to their energe form, which is based off of type, personality, ancestors and many other factors. They can evolve as time progresses to much powerful beings.
I represent the water tribe in the Legendaries. We have not yet been able to work as a team but have surpassed a few problems that have come our way. Due to our first failed mission we have lost one of our prized members and also our leader who left us.

Saviour

Neel saved us from the ropes with a simple spell and brought us back home. After our loss on our first mission Aalok has been missing. That made me leader until he comes back. We looked around for many days but were unable to find him. Eventually, we decided that soon he would join us once again. We trained for many years under secrecy since we did not want the Dark Lord to find us. At the moment the Light Lord does not know if we will help him and does not want to attack us and get more enemies.
Since that mission, we as a team have dedicated our time and energy to fully training and learning theory. For many months we went without a day of practise to becoming stronger. We did succeed in our mission to becoming stronger. We began to trust each other more. Although, I knew it was not enough for when we battle, but it would mean we were that much closer as a team.
Shaurya and Vivaan had grown even closer than before. They had become like brothers. It also showed in their fighting techniques. They could fight in a synchronized style which helped support one another. At times, I get worried that they will begin to rely too much on each other and not be able to fight by themselves, so I make them fight separately once in a while.
Avni and I also had grown very close. She seemed to understand me more than the rest of the group. I had only seen her energe form during our training periods. She was a griffin. Since she was also a creature with wings I helped her learn how to fight in the air. She had not practised much in her energe form and felt comfortable in her normal form. We did learn a few combinations that would help us if we needed it.
Neel had also taught us a lot about the past and history of the Legendaries. We also learned about other countries that I had not heard of. I also felt that when we asked questions he always neglected a few to hide some information from us. This happened for almost a year. It was constant training and learning.
One day Neel called all of us into the mediation room. It was the other side of the building from the training room. By the time I got there, everyone was already seated in a circle around Neel. I quietly sat down beside Avni and Vivaan. “Now that everyone is here I would like to begin our conversation. I know that everyone has a drive and many secrets that they would like to hide from the rest of the group. There are personal secrets that others should not know about but by since you have joined the Legendaries you must all learn to become one person. You must all understand one another to be able to predict their actions. I have taken the time to research about each of your pasts. I know that there are many tragic events that took place in your lives so I think it is time to tell everyone about them. There are certain things that are hidden from you because of the perspective you experienced them in so I think it is time to learn about the truth of each of your stories. You must choose among each other for who will go first. Just know that eventually all of the stories will come out.”
I had a queasy feeling in my stomach. I did not want everyone to know about my secrets and my drives. It is what makes it mine and I could not give them up that easily. But then again it may increase our ability to believe in each other as a team.
“I will go first.” said Avni. I did not expect anyone to voluntarily go first. It did begin to get the gears in my brain turning. What secrets was everyone else hiding? Did Avni have a tragic past? I had a million other questions in my brain and tried so hard not to blurt them out.
“I have nothing to hide and am proud of my past.” said Avni. She was so confident and so brave. She has changed much since I first met her. I supposed everyone has changed over the course of many months of training.
“First you tell your side of the story but use your memories from in your head to show us the past. This way there will be nothing hiding from the story and everyone will be able to feel your emotions.
“Okay. I will try my best.” said Avni. With that our minds communicated with telepathy and we were sucked into Avni’s mind.

A Beautiful Lie

I looked up at a person who gave me a warm feeling inside. He wore a sweater and there was something funny about him. This was probably someone close to Avni. I was in one of Avni’s memories. The person picked up young Avni and spun her around. It felt as if he was doing it to me because I was looking at him from her eyes. I could hear laughter coming from a small child. This person was very close to her. Then I heard a voice in my head. This is my father. He is mentally handicapped.I was the world to him and he was the world to me. He did everything in his life to support my well-being. Even though he was mentally handicapped, he always thought about me and did stuff for me. He was so caring and so innocent.

Then we were transferred into another memory. This memory was with young Avni and her father walking through the fields. He worked on the farm. He did not make much and was helped by the neighbours to tend to them. They would guide him to doing the tasks and he would complete them to the best of his ability.

Avni spoke in our head again. He also told me the most hilarious explanations to my questions since he was not the brightest. We can hear young Avni and her father talking. “Dad, why are the trees so big?” said Avni. “Because the . . . their parents are big.” replied her father thinking about the answer. We were so close. Almost, inseparable. He could not stand leaving me at school and staying home.

Eventually I had to go to school. I learned a lot from my favourite math teacher Mrs. Green.

An image flashed in my head. She had similar hair and lips as Avni. She was much taller and looked very intelligent with her glasses. I excelled in her classes and she gave me extra help when I needed it. We became very close. One day there was a ceremony with all of the students who excelled in class. I was invited because I had one of the top marks. I invited my dad to come see me while I get the trophy. I was so proud of myself for achieving this.

We were transported to a memory with Avni walking on the stage and receiving a medal from an old man. She wore a huge grim on her smile.
This is when everything went wrong. We were still in the same memory. I saw her dad sitting in the first row and was clapping while moving his body in different ways. Suddenly, Mrs. Green ran up to Avni’s father and hit him in the gut. Avni’s father went flying back and whore a surprised expression on his face. I could see the hit ripple along his body. It was a solid blow. It was not like a normal person could hit that easily. She must have been trained in a few forms of martial arts.
Small Avni ran to her father and tried to cover her with her body while yelling stop to her teacher. There were tears pouring down her face. The people around did not do anything to try to help. Instead, they stood in a circle around the situation and were watching. With one more hit Avni’s father blacked out. He lied there motionless. Mrs. Green took Avni and forced her to follow her. Avni screamed and trashed but it was not use, Mrs. Green was too strong.
I do not know why but Mrs. Green made me stay at her house. I was not allowed to leave and my dad was unable to see me. I was very young and did not understand what was going on. For many months I was trapped in Mrs. Green’s house. She was nice to me but never allowed me to leave the house. She tried to be as nice as possible but I hated her for separating me from my father. Sometimes I would look outside and see him trying to peek through the window from across the street.

We were sent to another memory where we could see Avni peering through the window to see her dad standing on a lamp post attempting to look through. Avni would not get too much of her body past the window except the top of her face and her hands waving at him. He would get very excited and wave back. I could feel her emotions. There was a strong connection between her dad and herself. I could feel her sadness in wanting to stay in his arms forever.
Everyday he would come but everyday Mrs. Green’s guards would come beat him to stay away from the property.

We were still in the last memory where Avni was waving happily to her father. A group of big men walked close to her father from behind him. They had longer had and differently designed facial hair. They were intimidating people. They were probably a foot bigger than the average person. He could not see them and was too busy waving happily to Avni. Avni tried to warn him by pointing in that direction but he did not understand the clues. The men took wooden sticks and metal bars from behind their backs and began hitting her father. First they hit him on his head. Then he turned around and another guy hit him across the cheek. Blood came splattering out of his mouth. He fell on his knees and hands. Then another man kicked him in to the ground and he clenched up into a ball on the floor. I was looking through Avni’s eyes and she turned away so I could not see the rest. I could feel her emotions overwhelm me. I felt like crying for this man would I have not even met. Tears rolled down Avni’s cheeks as she screamed to let her father alone. I had never felt so sad in my life and I felt sadness creeping on me because of a man I never knew was getting beat. This happened for many weeks. He would come and they would beat him.
After a couple months I was taken to Light High Court which is the only court in our district. It is in the Light tribe area and makes unfair decisions that only help their tribe. There was a huge argument going on and at the time I did not understand it. There was an old many with a long white robe sitting and asking my father questions. He was making my father look dumb and retarded. He was asking stuff that my father had not realized. “How is Avni going to get a future staying with you? How will you help her studying when you yourself have the mental capacity of a first grader?” asked the lawyer.

We were in a memory in the courtroom now. There was a lot of commotion and huge argument arising about the custody of Avni. She was probably too young to understand the concept of custody and just wanted to be with her father. I could feel her confused feelings. It was near the end of the court session. The other lawyer was giving his last remarks about the case. I noticed Avni giving actions to her father. She was asking him about how he was and if he ate properly. The judge had also noticed it and was not listening to the lawyer. Avni’s father also replied with a series of hand movements showing that he was fine. The conversation continued and the lawyer noticed that no one was listening to him. He turned around to see what everyone was looking at to see Avni and her father’s conversation. They looked like children and did not care about what was going around them. The lawyer quietly turned around and sat down.
The lawyer had surrendered the case which meant my father had won the case. I went back to my father. I thought that things would go back to normal but I was wrong. I woke up the next day in Mrs. Green’s house. She said my father had left my there and left. I looked for him for months and years and could not find him. It was as if he had disappeared off the face of the earth. Some days I would escape and look for my dad at our old house but there was no one. That was when I decided I would become one of the Legendaries, to find my father.

I was taken back to the present where everyone opened their eyes. The light was blinding but eventually my eyes adjusted to the light. Everyone had tears in their eyes, except Neel. It was as if Neel already knew the story and looked normal. Avni had cried the most and tears were flowing from her eyes. I had not realized that there were pasts to everyone, not just me. I did feel a stronger connection between the team. I trusted everyone a bit more; especially Avni. I did not hold as many barriers in my mind from Avni because, at the moment, I trusted her the most. I still did not feel comfortable sharing my secrets yet. I did not trust anyone in the team that much yet.

The Hard-Cold Truth

“Good job Avni, especially for your first time in expressing your memories through telepathy.” said Neel. It was almost as if he already knew about Avni’s past. Neel was acting differently today. He seemed too calm about the whole situation. “I hope you know that that is not the whole story to you past.” Everyone was very confused. You could tell by their expressions.
“How would you know about my past?” said Avni.
“I know more than you think.” said Neel. I could not tell whether he was deliberately trying to sound mysterious or if it was just the heat of the moment. “This is what actually happened.”
Suddenly we were sucked into Neel’s mind. There were many clouded memories that we could not see. Neel was obviously very experienced, he was able to select which memories to block and which to allow with ease. We were shown a memory with Avni’s dad. He looked a lot younger. The way he walked and acted seemed different than from Avni’s memories. I could see a woman in the memory too. “Avni”

said Neel “That was your mother.”

I could feel an overwhelming mixture amount of emotions explode from Avni. I could feel her presence trying to really absorb how her mother looked. She was talking to him about something that I could not understand. There was a conversation about escaping and hiding something.
A person walked into their conversation. It was a large man wearing a white robe. He look somewhat like a priest except gave a bad vibe. The woman turned around and saw the man. She lifted her arm and out came a burst of green light. The man reflected with an equal amount of white light. I saw people flooding in from the windows all wearing white. Avni’s dad was handling them. He would kick them out the window before the entered and blasted some of them with his green magic.
Avni’s mom was handling the priest-looking man. He obviously had the upper hand. When he attacked, it did not seem like he worked hard. Then the man stopped and started shooting random bolts of white light in random directions. They weren’t aimed at anyone, or anything. Then the bolts of white light switched course and began hitting Avni’s mom. They were hitting her from every direction and she could not block them in time.
Eventually Avni’s mom fell unconscious. Avni’s dad tried to run to her to help her but was held up by the men who had flooded through the window. “Grab him. I want him to see me kill his wife.” said the priest-looking guy. The priest-looking guy picked up a metal rod from in the room. The people who flooded in through the window held Avni’s father back but let him see what was happening. The priest-looking guy hit Avni’s mother hard. You could see blood trickle down from her head and the rest of her body. Avni’s father trashed a cried but could not budge from the grip of the people. There was a pool of blood on the floor by the time the man was done. She was definitely dead. There was just too much blood loss to survive.
The people let Avni’s father go. He grabbed Avni’s mother’s body and cried. Hi held Avni’s mother’s head in his lap and hugged her. There was blood staining his clothes. Some were his but most of it probably belonged to Avni’s mother. The priest-looking man stood there and laughed.
Avni’s father’s head twitched a little. His eye’s began to turn green. Not just his pupil but his whole eyeball was bright green. He got up and stood on his feet. His head faced upwards and he screamed. It was not a normal scream. There was something wrong with it. It made your made get goosebumps on it from just listening to it. The scream vibrated through the rooms and halls. It started to get windy in the room. The priest-looking man looked surprised. He had not expected that to happen. Leaves came rushing in through the window. The leaves sliced into people’s flesh. The priest was dodging the leaves somehow. Avni’s father took the time to run into one of the room’s, take out a baby girl (which was probably Avni) and jumped out the window. Then Neel kicked us out of the memory.
Everyone stood there mouths open. We had not expected that. It was cruel. I looked at Neel and asked “Why?” It was a question that everyone was probably wondering.
Neel looked at us. He looked like he had grown older all of a sudden. “I was told to give this memory to Avni when the time was right. We all looked at Avni. She was so lost she opened her mouth and closed it a couple times. Only air escaped her lips. Then she cleared her throat and tried again.
“Why did they kill her?” was the question Avni had. “Avni, your mom was also a Legendary.” replied Neel. “Each of the previous Legendary were captured and killed by the Dark and Light Lord. The man who killed your mother was the Light Lord. The Light and Dark Lord strived for power and knew that they could only achieve it once they defeat the Legendaries.”
It was obviously a lot for Avni to take in. She stared at the ground and her fingers were trembling. Then she released the same scream her father had once released. A green light surrounded her. She ran off to the woods. I stood up to go chase her but Neel held me back. “She must do what she must.”
After a couple hours she returned. She looked up at Neel and asked “How did my dad become mentally-handicapped?” Neel replied “He never was. He just pretended so that he could be with you and protect you from unnecessary information.”

Imprint

Publication Date: 05-23-2012

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
I dedicate this book to all of my friends who have helped me along the way.