The Weaponsmaster

Chapter 47

After a few days, everything was in order. Drea would be going back to her hometown within the day. Over that time, any time Drea walked through town, she was greeted with tons of “thank you’s” along with laughing and smiling faces. It was almost unrealistic.

Before she left, she met up with Jen and her mother Cara. The two of them seemed to be doing much better since Corey died, and they were nothing but smiles as they spoke to Drea. Jen couldn’t believe she actually knew the Weaponsmaster.

Drea also went and met up with Luke’s family. He had a wife, Gena, and a fifteen year old son, Dave. She thought the two of them would be devastated over Luke’s death, and they were, but they seemed almost happy for him too. Gena explained how Luke had been tormented by his weakness, and they knew he was finally happy to have fulfilled his role.

They weren’t angry at Drea either; they understood what she’d done and what Luke had wanted. Drea just made sure that Luke got his amount of the credit too. When she left them, she felt like she’d done what she’d set out to do, like she’d tied up all the loose ends. It was time for her to go back.

Wren spoke with her before she left also. She’d be departing from the throne room. It was agreed that Danny, Shena, John, and Toni would be coming along too, while Mike started up Kaienshi-Lori relations.

Danny and Wren had spoken about visiting her earlier and came to the conclusion that as long as Danny had time, he’d be allowed to visit whenever he wished. Drea could tell that he’d been seriously thinking about staying on earth with her though. She hoped it’d happen, but didn’t get her hopes up too high. She just didn’t want to age while Danny remained almost ageless.

We’ll see what happens, she thought. Wren thanked her for what she’d done, asking her to come back sometime. Drea agreed of course and was given some sort of device.

“It’ll help you communicate with us when you’re in your world. Put it in your ear and you can spread your mind here to find us, but don’t use it too much because it does drain your strength. If it blinks, that means one of us is looking for you,” said Wren as she handed Drea the Bluetooth-looking device.

“We all have one too,” said Toni as she held hers up with a smile.

Drea felt overcome. “And you’re letting me have one of these? Aren’t you afraid I’ll break it or something?”

“Yes and yes,” said Shena, “but we don’t want to forget you completely.”

Drea smiled and rolled her eyes. She put it in her ear so she wouldn’t forget it. “Andrea,” said Danny. She turned and looked at him with a smile, but she couldn’t help but feel longing in her heart. No matter how much she wanted to return home, it saddened her to leave her new friends. “We should change our clothing to look like your world. We don’t want to stand out more than we already do.”

She laughed and nodded. He looked puzzled, but didn’t ask her about it. When she stopped laughing, Drea became serious. She asked quickly, “How long have I been gone from my world?” That was the one thing that still concerned her.

The four of them looked around. Danny spoke next in a much more hesitant tone, “Well you’ve been here for about two months, so that’s…”

“Three months in your world,” answered Wren.

Drea’s mouth dropped open and her chest constricted. She knew all the color had drained from her face. “T-three months? Oh my god, oh my god…” She couldn’t even speak. Her family probably thought she was dead.

Toni came up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don’t worry Andrea, several Kaienshi, including myself, have been working on sending you back. We can fix the time problem to send you back to your world two weeks after you were taken. I guess it’s like going back in time by opening a special type of portal. That’s the best we can do though…”

Drea took a breath. “Ok. I can deal with two weeks.” She smiled and swallowed. “Thanks Toni.”

Toni smiled and released Drea.

“Alright,” Drea said as she regained her composure, “Let’s get going.” Danny and the others were still looking at her with concern, but she ignored them. She waved her hand over her head and changed her clothing to be her old school uniform. Danny and the others changed their clothes to be in t-shirts with jeans or skirts.

Drea looked ahead as Wren shook her hand goodbye and stood in front of her throne. She gave Mike one last hug before she put her hand out and opened the portal with the mark engraved on her hand. Drea looked down to see the scar where she had cut her own hand to escape the Lori before she came to Koracan.

It all made her feel very nostalgic. The portal opened to expose a green light. “It’ll open to the park where the Lori kidnapped you from,” said Wren. “Be safe Andrea.”

She nodded as Wren stepped aside. She was ready to go back home. The five of them stepped through the portal. Drea felt herself being carried through space as she made her way back home.

                        *          *          *          *          *

            Jackie sat in a bench in the park. It had been two weeks since Drea had been missing and she was worried she’d never see her sister again. Her parents had thought someone kidnapped her, and they were kind of right, but Jackie knew what really happened. Those wolf monsters were the ones who took her, maybe even killed her, and she knew she couldn’t even tell anyone what happened. Karen and Jackie had debated whether to tell anyone for some time, but they knew everyone would think they were crazy if they said anything.

Karen had been such a good friend to Jackie with Drea gone too. She’d always been nice to her, and now she felt like a second sister. Karen would come over to comfort their parents or to just hang out with her from time to time. She always knew the right things to say, but Jackie could tell she was hurting just as much as they were.

All Jackie could think about when she thought of Drea was the fact that this was what Drea must’ve felt like whenever she thought about Kevin. Jackie hadn’t known her brother well before he died, but now she knew how much pain Drea must’ve been in for all those years.

“Jackie!” She looked up to see Karen coming towards her. Karen was a cheerful person, but there were red circles around her eyes. She’d been crying too. Drea had been her best friend.

Karen sat next to Jackie on the bench and they sat in silence for a moment. Karen said quietly as she looked over to Jackie with sad eyes, “How you doing Jackie?”

She shrugged. “Not any better.”

Karen sighed. They were both in the same type of pain, meaning that it was hard for them to cheer each other up when neither of them felt too cheery.

Jackie looked over and noticed that Karen was looking at something, perplexed. Her eyebrows were knitted in confusion.

“What?” she asked Karen.

“N-nothing,” she stammered. “I just thought I saw something…” her voice trailed off as something opened in the sky.

It looked kind of like the thing that took Drea two weeks ago. It got bigger by the second, extending its green light over the trees. “Um, what do you think that is?” asked Jackie.

Karen just shook her head. “I have no idea.”

They stared up at it for another minute before they saw five people shoot out of the sky. Karen and Jackie looked at each other momentarily and looked back at the five of them. They really had no idea what to say; all they could think was that they actually had gone crazy.

None of the five had especially graceful landings. They all lay there, groaning a little before one of them got up, laughing.

She sat up and looked at the others as they slowly rose. They all began to smile. The girl looked at the guy who landed next to her. Jackie couldn’t see her face, but she could tell the girl was fond of the guy based on the way she was angled towards him. Her laughter was like music, only stopping for a few seconds when she leaned in to give the guy a quick kiss.

The girl was wearing a school uniform, the kind that the high school kids wore. It struck Jackie as strange, especially since the girl looked familiar from the back, but Jackie didn’t understand why until she turned her head.

When she turned her head, Jackie and Karen saw her face. It was Drea.