Author's Note: If you have stuck around and read the story up until now, I want to thank you for your support. It means the world to me that you are enjoying the world of Keena as much as I am! From here on, unless something happens in my life, I will be posting an episode on every Tuesday and Friday of every week. I do ask for understanding if I am not able to post and I will make sure to explain why. Again, thank you all, and enjoy! End of Author's Note.
The King of Keena, Rain Nisho, succeeded in implementing the Royal Fighting Academy. There were thousands of academies constructed to foster and nurture the minds and the power of the next generation. They needed to become truly strong in the eyes of the first king. It almost seemed like an academy building became the center of cities with life grouping around them and creating a new type of day to day life for the people. All of the kids grew up dreaming about joining the academy and becoming something greater than the current king. It is even true in the modern day of thirty four hundred A.A.
For a young boy who lived in a small log cabin with his mom and dad, joining the academy was somewhat on his mind, but not as heavy as the other kids of the same age. This young boy had the strangest of looks. He had iridescent colored hair and eyes with an almost silver glow to them. Even though he was younger than every other kid when they got their abilities, Liam was much more special. Unfortunately, he had just witnessed the brutal murder of his mother and father at such a young age. Haunting him, the words of his father kept ringing in his head. Liam couldn't bring himself to comprehend that they were his dad's final words. He couldn't quite come to terms with the loss he just endured. It was like he was broken and didn't understand what to feel.
At the same time, across town in a red brick house with white shutters and black trimming, lived the Sanely family. They were the type of people that would give the clothes off of their backs to strangers if they needed it. In this way, they were extremely similar to the Gray family. The Sanely's were in full swing of day to day chores and activities. Brittany Sanely was washing the few dishes that had been left in the sink over breakfast. She scrubbed and scrubbed until she was just about done when, out of nowhere, a screaming cry suddenly broke out in their living room. It sounded painful. It sounded like someone drained all of the will to live from the person. Brittany quickly put down what was in her hands and ran into her living room. That's when she saw who it was. "Liam? What's going on baby, are you okay? Liam snap out of it please!" she asked, trying to get his attention anyway she could as she walked over to him. She couldn't help but think something had to have happened.
Brittany tried desperately to calm him down, but not a single thing got through to Liam. She hollered for her husband, "Travis!! Come quick!! It's Liam! Something is wrong! Travis!!" She then picked Liam up and placed him on the couch. As she was sitting him down, Travis Sanely made his way into the house from the back door that led directly into their living room as quickly as he could. He was out in their backyard working on a D I Y project of his in the shed when Brittany screamed for him.
When Travis made his way over to the two, he noticed the dazed and painful expression on the child's face. Travis spoke slow and calm, "Liam, I need you to take a breath. I don't know what's wrong, but we are here for you… we always have been… you know that. How did you get here? And where are your parents?" About ten minutes went by with Liam heaving in and out heavy breaths before he slowed down. All he could say with the little will power and energy he had left was, "Dead." After that singularly devastating word, Liam Gray passed out from emotional exhaustion right on their couch.
A moment later, another voice was heard, "Hey mom!! Hey dad!! Are you guys in the living room? I want to show you some…" the little girl stopped in her tracks as she came in and the view of Liam opened up to her. "What happened to him? What's going on? Is he okay?" Paisley was frantic and quite frankly, scared that something had happened to her best friend. She started tearing up before running to her dad. Liam and Paisley for their whole childhood were raised together almost like siblings. The relationship was even stronger since the two were the same age. Even though there was no blood relation, they saw each other as family. The same could be said for Brittany and Travis as Liam always called them aunt and uncle.
Travis gave Brittany a head nod signal and turned his attention to his daughter. "Sweet pea, listen, we don't really know yet, but what I want you to do is go with mommy and make some lunch for Liam. I think he might be a bit hungry when he wakes up, don't you think? I will look over him and make sure he is alright, and that's a promise!" With that being said, Paisley reluctantly forced herself to turn away from Liam and her dad. Brittany, trying to convince Paisley that everything would be okay and said, "My guess is that he will want chili and some of that sweet cornbread we made last time! What do you think?" Paisley took a second to think and shook her head in agreement. Her nerves were up and she couldn't stop worrying about Liam to the point that she didn't verbally respond to her mom for a while.
"Did he say, dead? I don't know what happened, but the both of you better be okay! You better be alive!" Travis thought to himself as he looked down at the young boy. He couldn't bring himself to accept what he heard from Liam, but he thought, "Why would he be here without them? How did he get here? And why can't I shake this feeling of dreading what Liam will say when he wakes up? Dammit!! Please don't be dead! You can't be, right?"
A few hours passed by and Liam finally produced some type of movement. He was tossing and turning on the couch from a nightmare he was having. "Ah!!!" Liam screamed as he jolted awake and placed his hands out in front of him and stared directly into his palms. He couldn't figure out how to look away from them until he heard his uncle Travis. "Hey buddy, you finally woke up. Listen, don't talk right now. I want you to just settle yourself down and rest for a few. We can catch up in a little bit, alright?"
Liam didn't know what to say at all, but he felt relieved that he didn't have to talk about anything that happened just yet. "Thank you Uncle T." A small tear was seen running down each cheek. After about ten minutes, Liam's tummy started grumbling and he placed his hands folded over it. Travis said, "Are you hungry? Auntie Brit and Paisley made some food especially for you if you want some." He put a smile on his face to try and make Liam feel comfortable. "Walk with me lil' man. We can go fill our tummies. Pay and Auntie B are out shopping right now so we have some free time, alright?" he winked at Liam like a cool uncle would.
Liam sat down at the island in the middle of the kitchen with a shiny marble countertop. "Okay buddy, do you want a lot of food or just a little? Because I'm setting myself up to get a ginormous sized bowl ha ha." Liam seemed to grin slightly at the simple silliness of Travis, but it quickly went away. "I think I want a lot too." he said in a painfully sad tone. Travis kept a smile on his face, but he was hurting on the inside. All of Liam's actions brought Travis back to the one word that was spoken before Liam passed out. He thought, "Not yet. If something really happened, he needs to eat first before speaking on it."
After the food was heated up, they both dug in and it seemed like Liam's eyes were bigger than his stomach. He had only eaten about half of his food before sliding the bowl forward and stating that he was full. Around the same time, Travis was shoveling the last little bit into his mouth. "Was it good?" he asked Liam with enthusiasm in his voice. He nodded his head approvingly. "Good!" Travis said smiling, but now came the hard part. He said, "Look, um, I know what you said before you passed out… Let me ask you a few questions and I will only go one at a time. Alright Liam?" Liam responded, "Yes sir."
Travis almost couldn't bring himself to speak, but knew he needed to know. "Alright bud, what happened to your parents? Take all the time you need, okay?" Travis asked as he portrayed patience. "Well, me and dad were playing hide and seek and you know how I always beat him?" Travis nodded his head and smiled a little as memories replayed in his head of the two playing for hours. "I did that and went outside and I was out there for a long time… but then I heard something funny and just like how I went outside, I went back inside… but when I did my mom was just on the floor and there was red all around her." Travis walked over to Liam and placed his hand on his shoulder for comfort because he could see him starting to cry, but he still kept explaining, "Mommy wasn't moving and her eyes were open, but they didn't look the same. Then I turned around and a very big man was holding my daddy up and he did something with his hand and it looked like this." Liam then tried forming his hand in the shape of a gun, at least the best he could. "But my daddy told me some things and then told me to come to you and Paisley and then the big man killed my daddy! So I did the same thing I did when we played hide and seek and came here." Liam became hysterical after his last words.
Travis just could not understand. Things were going through his head like, "Oh my lord! This can't be real! Why would someone do that!? It's obviously not an accident so who the hell would murder them?!" He thought for a bit longer and asked, "Liam, did you get a good look at the big man? Would you be able to tell me kind of what he looked like?" Travis felt like he might have a theory. Liam nodded, "Yes sir, but only his clothes. He wasn't looking at me so I couldn't see his face. He had on a nice outfit and it had a lot of white but a little gold. Oh!! And he had on a blue drape." Travis questioned, "Do you mean cape?" Liam replied, "Yes sir I meant cape and it had a red dragon on it." That confirmed Travis's theory. To him it was no longer a theory and he became extremely worried. "Listen Liam, what has happened to your parents and to you is just awful and unforgivable. Let me be the one to tell Paisley okay? I know this is unfair, but do your best to not say anything to her about any of this okay?" Liam nodded and sniffled quite a few times.
Liam and Travis waited until the girls got home and Travis told Brittany everything away from the ears of Paisley. Brittany could be seen holding her hand up covering her mouth about half way through the explanation and tears were rolling by the end. Then she touched Travis's shoulder and walked away down the hallway to their bedroom. "Hey kids, I'll be right back okay? I'm gonna go speak with Brittany for a sec." Both of the children spoke at the same time, "Okay."
Paisley looked at Liam and asked, " Are you okay? I thought you were hurt. Why is everyone acting so weird?" Liam looked back at her and wondered if this would be going too far for Travis, "No, I'm not hurt on my body, but," Liam then placed his hand over his heart, "this is where I'm hurting a lot right now." Liam started tearing up again, but Paisley, without hesitation, walked up to him and hugged him with compassion. "I'm so sorry you're hurting little brother. I don't want you to hurt anymore." As she said this, Paisley started feeling tears well up in her own eyes and tried to not let them out.
After about fifteen minutes, the door down the hallway was heard creaking open. Brittany initially walked out and went to the living room where the kids were, but she just looked utterly defeated. Travis came out after and walked with a bit more purpose, but he had a little brown package in the shape of an envelope. When he got in the room with the others, he placed the package down on the coffee table with care. Travis spoke up, "Paisley, come with me for a second baby girl. We need to talk really quick." Paisley and her father went back into his room, but the door was left open. Brittany and Liam could hear that they were talking, but no words could be made out. They could have only been talking for about six minutes before they heard Paisley start to ball her eyes out. Brittany looked at the young man next to her and saw tears falling off of his face and onto his shirt. She thought, "I hate this!! Liam doesn't deserve this. Barry didn't deserve that. Neither did Monica!! I will do whatever it takes to make sure Liam is well taken care of."
Travis came back out of the room with Paisley in his arms with her head on his shoulder. "Liam, has your parents ever told you about the man who sent them a package that looks like that?" Travis pointed at the package on the table. "No sir they haven't. What man are you talking about?" Liam replied as he looked down at the package. He looked harder and saw that the person who sent it was someone who went by the name 'J K'. "No, I have never heard of this 'J K' man." Liam stated. Travis responded, "Well, you will know who he is after this and maybe things will make more sense."
End of Episode 8: Back to the Present
Author's Name
ClodiasManga