We landed at the international airport in Rwanda. Jacob and my dad split up and went to go see if they could find anything east, as we went west. "So why is the groupie coming with us again?" Wes asked rudely about Matt.
Matthew turned around and stopped in front of Wes, startling him. "This 'groupie' has a friend here that can help us." he said. "So unless you like wandering blindly, you can follow me until we regroup with Sam's father."
"Wes rolled his eyes as he was silenced by Matt." I said aloud. Wes shot me a dirty look. "Sorry was I narrating out loud again" I added enjoying every moment of it.
We stopped outside of a house. It was the only one we'd seen for miles. Whoever lived here, liked isolation, which began to make me nervous.
Matt walked up and knocked on the door. A boy, no more than sixteen, answered. He looked Matt up and down, then spoke "What do you want?"
"Taio" Matt responded calmly. "Nice to see you too"
The boy smirked, "My father said not to speak to strangers."
"You know who I am" Matt said sounding irritated.
The boy laughed, "Yes but I don't know tweedle dee, or tweedle dum"
Wes immediately stepped up insulted. "Call me tweedle dum one more time, and ill show you exactly who I am"
"Im so threatened" the boy said with no tremble in his voice.
Matt interjected before it got out of hand. "Please, all we need is some shelter, and maybe some help"
He rolled his eyes, and opened the door, motioning for us to come inside. Quickly we piled in, thinking his courtesy wasn't going to last. As we all sat down a second man came in. He looked older. He must've been the owner of the house. "What are all these people doing in my living room?" He said in a thick accent.
"They said they needed help" the kid said pointing towards Matt.
Once he took one glimpse at Matt he laughed and said, "Get out."
Matt stood eager to debate his case. "Doctor, this is serious"
"Maybe, but so am I" he said.
"Theres a mad American scientist"
"What else is new?" He said.
Matt put his hand out at me, and said "the amulet" I handed it to him unsure of what was happening. "You recognize this" Matt asked shoving it in the mans face.
The man took the amulet and observed it. "The Crystals of Gesime"
"This is what we're dealing with"
The man looked up in worry, then back down as he said some words under his breath, and crushed the crystal with his bare hands. "What are you doing" I asked frantically.
"These amulets are unnatural, and unholy. They will be the death of us"
"That was our only chance against Schlein" I said.
"Not our only chance" Matt said looking towards the boy, Taio.
The man stepped up to Matt, and spoke one last time. "I will only say this one time" he said, "We will not help you"
Matt's head sunk in disappointment. "Fine" he said. "We'll go"
Before we all left, I turned and said one last thing to the guy. "You may not want to help us, but in the end, when you're alive. You'll know it was us who saved your life"
"Dont get too confident, boy. You can't even begin to comprehend the powers that are at work here" he responded. With that he shoved me out of the door quickly.
"Wait!" Taio yelled as he ran out of the door.
Matthew turned around confused. The boy's father came out angrily. "Taio go back inside!"
"I want to help" Taio said to him. "I need to help"
"I'd rather not deal with your angry father." Matthew spoke.
"You think you can save the world without me?" He asked. "Look at these weak half-wits you have on your team"
"That's it" Wes said rolling up his sleeves. He sure knew how to press his buttons.
"That summer, before you helped me control my abilities I wanted to die. I thought I was nothing but a dead weight. A ticking time bomb. All those people, dead because of me." He said.
"You need a better reason to come than redemption."
"I want to save people. The way you saved me" he clarified.
His father looked like there was a vein ready to bust on his forehead. "I wont let you corrupt his life with your problems."
The boy stepped up to his father, and they spoke quietly. I dont know what he said to him, but it worked. The father finally turned around and walked back into his house. "When do we leave?" the kid asked.
"Your only coming for your knowledge about the forests. Nothing else" Matthew clarified.
Taio smiled happily. "Great, more baggage" Wes said.
Taio lifted up his finger towards Wes "The halfwit." He said. "I can tell we're gonna have fun" I ignored their bickering as we pressed on.
Curious about Taio I asked Matt some questions. "so, who is this kid?"
Matt face grew serious, "They call him the savior." he began. "the boy who came from the gods."
"what can he do?"
"we don't know" he answered.
I arched my eyebrow curiously. "You don't know?"
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" He asked.
"Like being born again as a dog?"
"Rather that it is one soul that carries us through all of our journeys of life" he phrased more poetically.
"Ive never thought about it before"
"The village he's from believes that he is the living reincarnation of an ancient king who they viewed as a god."
"Is he actually though?" I asked doubtfully. Matt handed me a ten dollar bill, and pointed to the face on it. I held the dollar as I stared in awe at the uncanny resemblance between the boy and the king on the currency.
"All we know is when he gets angry, he blacks out and goes into a frenzy of rage."
"A frenzy of rage huh" I said, "Sounds like a normal teenager to me"
"Six years ago he suffered from severe seizures" he explained. "When these seizures occurred there would be earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and eruptions across the globe all simultaneously." I couldn't say I had a new level of fear for the kid. If he could do that to the world imagine what he could do to me.
"So, these eruptions...they wont occur when he's with us right?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders.
"His father who was a world renowned scientist has six PHds from nanobiology to nanotechnology, and he couldnt discover what was wrong with him." he explained. "When his father heard about my ability to absorb energy, he asked me to siphon it from his body."
"And it worked?" I asked.
"Yes" he said hesitantly.
"You don't sound too sure of yourself" i said.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure that it worked" he saiid looking down in thought.
"How come we've never heard of him before.. imagine how helpful he could've been to us" I said.
He chuckled hysterically, "His father worked very hard trying to make sure he was invisible to the world outside of the village" he said, "He wont risk the well being of his son for any circumstances" I hadn't know his father for long, but by how much I had seen him I could tell that he was very over protective.
"Well, lets hope that he can help us" I said hopefully.
"Only time will tell."
