Niah and the Pheonix (Watty's 2024!)

Chapter VIII: Lani

Lani was running through a tunnel of ashes, houses burned to the ground. She searched around every corner and looked in every battle field. She was looking for her dad. Every time she thought about him, her eyes stung from the thought of crying. 

She found a house mostly burned down and looked through a window. She saw nothing, just a rocking chair in the corner of a room. No table in the kitchen, no pictures hung on the wall, nothing. 

She walked away from the house and decided to continue searching for her dad. She couldn't just accept the fact that her dad was dead, so she had to at least live in peace and burry him. She could never live with the gilt of knowing that she could've buried him but didn't. It just seemed like it was the civil thing to do to her.

She found an empty field with nothing but frosty grass and fire. She saw a figure laying down in the center of it. She walked towards it, not knowing what to expect. Then she looked closely, and noticed it wasn't her dad at all. It was something far worse then she could ever imagine.

"Step mom? But, I thought you were gone!" Lani exclaimed as she saw the face.

"Gone? Oh, of course not. I've been here the whole time!" Her step mom replied.

A few years ago, her step mom had committed treason to the North side. She had paired along with a few other people, which only a certain few were actually found. A couple of the people were unidentified and no one could tell exactly who they were. But one of the people were Ami, Lani's step mom. 

She had been kicked out of the North and forced to have to live in the wild. There were only two other options, but she luckily just excepted her feat. One was to either try and gain the trust of another side of the isle and let them take you in, but that could result in death if they felt threatened. The second option was that she could fight against the court of law and try to gain her freedom, but that could also result in her digging her hole deeper, and she could be punished to death.

She was officially declared as banished a few days later, but as she walked away, she looked back at Lani. She stared deep into her eyes, almost as though she was grabbing on to her soul. Although she could withstand freezing cold temperatures, Lani had felt a shiver go down her spine. She didn't know what to think, but her dad just pulled her close to his waste and Yoshi on the other side. Lani and Yoshi were too young at the time to even understand what was going on. Why she was walking away from them and staring at them with a stare that said 'I want you dead'? Why was she walking away from them into the lands that their parents had warned them about when they were younger? Why was there dad looking so sad?

It didn't make since to them at the time, but Lani eventually found out what had happened. Yoshi still doesn't know exactly what had happened that day, but Lani didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. He had always said that she would be back soon, but he hadn't said that in a while, so he's probably slowly realizing what had happened that day. Every time Lani thought about how he would react if her dad or she told him why she had left, she always got sad imagining how he could react.

Lani had never really liked her that much anyway, because she had always got weird vibes from her. The day she and her dad got married, Lani had an eye on her. 

Every time Lani had entered a room with her in it, she jumped up like she was trying to hide something. She would also say something like "don't you know how to knock?" Or "don't you have something better to do then sneaking up on your mother like that?" Which just made Lani more suspicious. And a little bit mad, to be honest. 

Her saying mother just made her more mad then she already was, them getting married and all. She felt like her dad was forgetting all about her actual mom. The way they laughed together, the way they talked, it just made her mad.

Then one day, Lani heard her talking in a room. She put her ear up to the door out of curiosity and tried to listen to what she was saying. It was hard for her to hear, but she thought she was talking to her dad. So she ran downstairs to grab a cup from a drawer. When she was down there, though, she was shocked. She saw her dad walking up to the house with a handful of groceries. 

Wait, but if he's not up there, then who is? She thought. Who is she talking to?

So she ran upstairs in a flash, almost forgetting the cup and having to run back for it.

She put the cup up to the door, expecting her to be talking to Yoshi,  trying to put him down for a nap. Instead, it was a man who she had never heard before. 

So, tomorrow after sundown? Does that work, or should we do it a bit later? Maybe prepare at sundown and go from there? The man said. She  had no idea what exactly they were talking about, so she decided to open up the door. She saw her step-mom talking to a large man, probably a foot taller then her. They both stopped talking and looked at her. 

"Oh, Lani. Um, have you met my therapist, Greg yet?" She said.

"Therapist? I've never heard of a Greg before. Since when do you do therapy, and what were you guys talking about sundown for?" Lani asked them, instantly bombarding them with questions from left to right. 

"Well, I've been doing it for some time now, and we were talking about when the next time I could do therapy could be. The sooner the better, you know!" She replied.

Lani knew she had backed her up into a wall and could crack her soon. What was she actually hiding? No way they would be having a therapy session at dark. Her story had many loose pages.

"What about-" Her dad cut her off as he walked in the room.

"Hey, Caley! Who's this?" He asked as he saw the tall, buff man.

"Oh, he's Fred. He's my therapist! We were just finishing up my session and were talking about what time would work for the next session."

"Fred? I thought you said his name was Greg?" Lani asked, knowing that she had just done nothing but dig her hole deeper then it already was.

"Oh, silly me! Yes, I meant Greg. I sometimes just slur my words." She replied.

The man, Greg, Fred or whatever his name was, just stood there listening to the whole conversation. He stared at Lani though, and she could sense his bitter expression towards her.

Long story short, what they were actually doing was planning to over throw the king. They would have succeeded, too, but they didn't know that he had recently opened a new position for a guard which would stand in front of his bedroom door each night. The king felt that some of his citizens disagreed with him on some things, so he decided to not take any chances. Boy, did he not regret his decision.

Since they didn't injure anyone though, they only got punished to be banished. At the time, Lani had no idea what was happening. But now she knew.

"How are you here? I thought you were gone. You ARE gone." Lani said.

"Are you sure, my child? Well, I guess only time will tell, But I came here to help you. You and your friends have been poisoned by a vine which makes you have hallucinations, usually of your greatest fear. It picks out of something inhumane usually, so something in your dreams. For you though, it picked me. I'm not real, but I can help you. It's on your leg, look," She said as she pointed to Lani's leg, "Take it off, and this will all stop. Go help your friends."

Lani took of the vine and looked up to thank her. 

"Thanks," She said as she looked up. But she was gone, just as she said would happen.