The Forgotten Sibling

Chapter 19

Riley heard the explosion before she saw it.

She was organizing the swords and javelins in the weapons room of the palace before the entire house rocked. She gasped and held on to some bookshelves for support.

She heard footsteps come running and Nova skid to a stop, her white hair disheveled and messy and her eyes filled with panic. "What's going on?"

She let Nova catch her breath before she talked. "Neb and me were flying in the sky, scouting for any unusual signs that popped up. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until a massive hole suddenly appeared before the explosion. Thousands of Khrillin were swarming out of it, their wings spread and carrying swords that looked deadly."

She felt a chill up her spine. Skrill was taking action just like he promised in her dream. They needed to strike before it was too late.

The war was even worse than before. Signs that Star Tail was arriving popped up more and more frequently. The most significant ones were spheres of dark fire that rocketed down to the Earth, leaving devastating pits behind.

She immediately rushed to her bedroom window and looked out of it. Below the clouds, on the ground was a large, gaping hole that took up the majority of the clearing. Swarming out of it were thousands of Khrillin, all of them carrying large, sharp swords.

"We better get going," Nova urged. "They'll arrive here soon if we don't hurry."

Riley wasn't sure what to do, but the desperation in Nova's eyes made her come to the decision of sending down her Skelri to maintain the Khrillin. "Fine. Go gather Neb and the rest and I'll prepare everything else."

Nova took her hands. "Please be careful," she begged. "I don't want you dying."

"I won't," she promised. Nova flew away, leaving Riley standing there in the palace main hallway. She went to the plan room and started to prepare the weapons, ready to defend her Skelri and end this war once and for all.

Carlos didn't want to make Riley distraught, but he had to tell her about his plan. If he doesn't, Riley's never going to know what happened to her best friend. After waking up that morning with the sounds of explosions happening everywhere around him, Carlos knew that the time was almost here.

He teleported to the palace as soon as he could, nearly getting trampled by Skelri stampeding out of the palace and taking off into the air. He picked out Nova from the crowd and asked her, "Where's Riley?"

"She's in the planning room!" she yelled over her shoulder. He immediately went there and found her sharpening a sword, her back turned to him. Her light brown hair looked red in the rising sun.

When she heard him coming, she turned to him and smiled. "I'm glad you're here," she said. "We need as many people as we can get to take down these Khrillin."

Carlos rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah... about the battle, I'm not participating in any of this."

She frowned. "But why not? We need you, Carlos. Your intelligence is going to be useful!"

He sighed and made her sit down. "You're scaring me, Carlos. What's going on?"

This was the part where he struggled. He couldn't tell her his plan without breaking down crying, and he didn't want Riley to see him losing control of his emotions.

He took a deep breath and spilled out his plan. Every single step was going to be important, and if he messed up the world might as well be more doomed than it was supposed to be. Star Tail needed to be defeated, and not in the way his friends thought. He needed to be defeated by the two most unlikely people that rose up.