The Twilights: The Basics of Secrets

Chapter 15

Azura

Am I a kid? Being sixteen is qualified as being a teenager and I've had to raise myself on my own like an adult. But was I still a kid? Was I actually a kid, but where I'm from, people viewed me as an adult because they saw how strong and independent I was? Or did they too also see me as a kid?

I think back to a time I had an encounter with one of the first gangs I met on Sugloria. It was about two years after my parents were gone and I was still figuring out how to be on my own. I had stolen something from one of the guys and the group didn't take too kindly to thieves. How could they hurt me, a simple ten-year-old? But they did. It wasn't bad; just some punches and kicks to the stomach to make me give up what I'd taken. Before they left, the leader told me a serious lesson: "If you gonna play big, be prepared to hurt big. You ain't gonna be a kid forever, so don't run around like one."

Maybe that's why I am like I am? I've tried to view myself and carry myself like a grown up on Sugloria so that I would be taken seriously and to survive. No time for kid games, only time for scavenging and hunting. But no one else in the galaxy knows that. They just see a kid afraid of the big bad world. Well, I am afraid of it. But like Jem said; I just need to find my place.

Jem also said that I should bring home with me instead if looking for a new one. Home was the forests. The hard bark of trees, the muddy ground after a hard night of rain. The cold of the water on Hegaro reminded me the bitterness of the lakes on Sugloria. It's all water, just from different planets. Cold water was home, and I can control it.

The dam exploded before all the villagers were safe. Jay and I were still out in the open. I dismissed his direction to follow Russ to The Glory and now I knew I was right. I needed to be here. Out in the open, ready to face the wave.

I am not a kid. I am not an adult. I've got a lot of growing up to do, but I'm stronger than a kid. I have great power, I know that. I've used what I can do to selfishly save myself for years on end, and now in this moment, I can save others too. I want to help others and to prove that I'm more than just a kid.

Jay was yelling at me to come back to the ship. My feet kept ushering me forward. The water wasn't upon us yet, but in my veins, I could feel the threads of water filling me up. My soul becomes one with the water and I can move it without needing to touch it. Now the wave was shattering through the village, tearing apart everything in its way. Behind me, innocent lives were standing in its path, but I won't let them get torn away. Feet before it collided, I spread my arms out as far as I could and in front of me, the water parted ways.

I stood in its way, but it wasn't coming anywhere near me.

The wave also went around The Spirit. We were directly in the middle of the water, and around us the water was at least twenty feet tall. The sky was still visible. The water made walls on either side of my arms. Splashes came off and sprayed at my body, cooling down the heat within. I wasn't forcing this power; it was just coming out of me. The water inside me was flowing faster and faster, but not in a painful way. I couldn't hear anything because of the water, but I didn't mind it. I was lost in my own serenity as what was building up in me had broken free.

The small amount of sun that came through the top of the walls became dimmer as The Spirit journeyed into the air. It hadn't occurred to me how I was going to get out of here without letting go of the water. I couldn't swim to the surface and the Spirit couldn't wait for me. Somberness took over my heart at the idea of being left behind again to die, but this time, it was my choice. I wanted the villagers to live, and if my death made that happened, then rest in peace to me.

My arms became tired and my head forming a numbing pain. The water around me began to weaken, but the ground beneath my feet literally lifted into the air. The small circle I had managed to spare from the flood was now lifting into the air. I turned my head and still with me was Jay. He was on his knees, hands firmly flat on the ground and his eyes closed. He was transporting our bit of land outside the water.

With Jay's life still on the line, adrenaline refilled my body and my arms regained consciousness. I needed to help him, so I opened the hole at the top wider for us to rise up. Jay was also raising The Glory on the bit of land, making his job all the harder.

Eventually, we broke the surface. I was totally shaking now, but once we had cleared, I let out a giant moan and the water filled in the space I had made. "Get The Glory going," Jay muttered, still concentrating on the floating ground mass.

I used the last bit of strength to run with the wind and get to The Glory started. If Jay lost his grip on this floating land, we'll plummet to the water, and that'll be the end. I knew nothing about ships so I just hit random buttons until the ship woke up. I tried the steering gears and luckily it started to hover in the air slightly. "Come on!" I yelled for Jay.

He rose to his feet and slowly took baby steps to the ship. Each time his foot left a place, the rocks behind it fell into the rushing water. He leaped into The Glory and now it was just barely hovering over the water. I tried to fly it higher, but like I said, never flown a ship before. It slanted sideways and lurched forward. Jay closed the back hatch and took over controls. He pushed a button and now the ship would fly into the sky.

The tank on the ridge fired at us from the planet, but Jay was too far gone for us to be hit. He flew all the way up until we left the planet entirely. I watched as the black and stars overtook the ship. But then they also took over my vision and then all I could see was pitch black.