Halo: Heroes Awakening

20. I Know Someone

Halo

Halo waited hours for Alan to return, pacing around his room like a mad man. He avoided Vaea at all costs, declining invitation to have lunch together and even a chance to meet the President and Prime Minister of one of the other islands.

His stomach wasn't up for it. He couldn't sit at a table listening to them talk politics when he knew nothing nor cared about what went on. All he could think of was Finn and the sinking feeling he had in his chest.

It felt like all Halo's fault. Maybe if he had woken up Finn and dragged him along to make him witness his pathetic attempts at getting Leilani back, he wouldn't be missing.

Halo eventually got sick of the walls in his room, feeling suffocated by them. So he went to his bunny farm for comfort.

The walk was quick. He bent down and picked two of them up, Muffin, the chocolate coloured bunny as well as a white one named Cotton. He set them on his lap as he took a seat down on the bench he and Finn shared that day.

He stroked their fur, trying to find comfort in the small animals. All this made him wonder if he was being haunted.

"Do you think I should go visit father, Muffin?" Halo asked softly. "Maybe that's where all this misfortune is coming from. It started with him anyway. I never did get closure."

The fateful day his father died was a terrible one. Yet Halo knew at that moment he was free. He screamed and cried along with Vaea when they found his father sprawled out on the throne room floor, frothing at the mouth with blood.

Then the next day, he was gone.

Halo knew what that day meant. It was awful to see his father go in that way. It had just solidified all his beliefs. That being King was not worth it. His father had just ended the twelve year war that plagued their nation and in return he was poisoned.

Halo thought he'd never come back that day. He thought of nothing else other than getting away. Vaea was crushed. He was as well, but he pushed aside the grieving and kept chasing freedom.

He had never really mourned his father. He had not been there for the funeral.

Like all Kings, King Makoa was buried atop Mount Taera. It was a volcano said to have been dormant since the Goddesses left the earthly plane to go to Heaven. Kukoan mythology always believed that once enough monarchs were buried on the mountain, the Goddesses would return again.

There was of course, a massive hike up the mountain that Halo would never risk. The urban legends that surrounded the mountain were worse than the actual mythology. Spirits were said to haunt the path up to deter anyone who wished to see the Kings and Queens.

Halo was rarely superstitious, but spending time with sailors who told every story imaginable, along with having a stepmother who loved tormenting him as a child turned him into a horrible combination of nerves whenever supernatural things were concerned.

Halo didn't know what was scarier, the world of unknown that could do anything imaginable to you, or real people who could do just as much damage. As he pondered on it and played with Cotton's ears, he saw someone running down the path.

Blue hair bounced as the skinny boy ran clumsily. "Your highness! Your highness! Your—"

Alan tripped over his own feet and fell right into the grass infront of Halo, making Cotton and Muffin nervously thump on his lap from the fright. Alan quickly bounced to his feet from embarrassment, gulping hard and kneeling in apology.

"Are you alright?" Halo asked him. The boy nodded furiously.

"Of course, your highness. I apologize for my tardiness. The harbor was so full—b-but I got what you asked for."