We were woken by Arriana’s screech.

  I was having a good dream where I was at the beach with a blonde woman and a grey-green-eyed girl. I was perhaps five and building a sandcastle and I was happy for once. No expectations of that man to consider. I was just a kid today, not the forsaken son. Beside me, Myra groaned and buried her face into my chest. I glared at Arriana.

  “How can you cuddle a human? It’s forbidden! You are Kin!” she screamed.

  “Excuse me but he’s lived on Earth for seven years as a human. Just because he’s suddenly another species doesn’t mean that he can unlearn seven years of Earth customs in a day,” said Myra wiping her eyes of sleep and running her fingers through her curly, frizzy hair. I could see how uncomfortable she was with it down.

  I touched my rubber band possibly the only one of its kind on this planet. I gazed at Myra who was smoothing her hair while Arriana ordered her around. Arriana stomped her foot and stalked off. Myra stopped fixing her hair with a grin and it was then that we realized what Arriana had been screeching about.

  She was practically over me again. Our legs were tangled and her hand was on my chest. We blushed and separated. I stared at the ground while she stared at the tent’s green walls.

  “Well, we got quite the wake-up call,” she muttered, running a hand through her hair again and petting it down her shoulders.

  “Yeah, my ears are still ringing,” I said, smirking and running a hand down her hair. She froze for a minute. I took my hand away and she shook her head and moved again.

  She stood and started to walk around me. I enveloped her in wind and lifted her to the other side, setting her down.

  “I wish you’d warn me when you’re going to pull that,” she sighed and walked towards the tent flap peering outside.

  “What, and miss your face every time I do it?” I said grinning.

  “I thought you weren’t going to antagonize me anymore?” she said, glancing back at me from her shoulder.

  “I’m not. This way was easier than going around, right?” I gestured to the path around me.

  “I guess. Warn me next time...ok?” she said, shrugging and walking out of the tent.

  “Alright,” I conceded and got up following her out of the tent. The camp was abuzz. Ruckus was packing the other tents away while Ilias was taking inventory.

  The others were running errands while Arriana kept shining her bow. Some leader. She was good at giving orders that all.

  She couldn’t reinforce them as was evident with Myra. The others followed, probably because of rank. She was higher on the totem pole than they.

  I shook my head.

  Sad.

  We had breakfast and then Myra helped clear the camp by rolling the sleeping bags and loading them into a strip of silk Niran held.

  I wondered how that worked. I helped Myra fold and roll the sleeping bags and protected her from the additional water whip targeted at her.

  I glared at Arriana and almost sent my own whip back. Really bad leader.

  Soon everyone was ready to go and we began to trek through the forest avoiding the shadows as much as we could. That meant we traveled in the sun.

  It was humid and hot. Myra had taken her hoodie off to bear a black flowy off-the-shoulder top that fit her quite well.

  I remember how dolled up she was at the party. She had come expecting someone and instead, she got...this. Being a slave to a couple of other beings and me. I was regretting something for once in my life. I wasn’t fast enough this time and a blast of water hit Myra, knocking her off her feet.

  Arriana smirked. “Hurry up slave. We won’t stop for you,” she said picking up the pace. The others shrugged and followed. I didn’t have to.

  She wasn’t my leader and I turned to Myra who was gasping and spluttering on the ground. Her shirt was soaked through, so were her jeans and her hair was dripping. She looked like she had gone swimming.

  “Here,” I said letting my wind blow dry her. It would be cold but it was the best I could do. I blinked as steam came and combined with my wind heating it up. What the! Where was the steam coming from?

  “Ok, I’m dry,” she said from the cyclone of wind. I calmed the wind to a breeze and tried not to laugh with no success.

  “Your hair,” I said. It was a big frizzy poof around her. As if she had stuck her hand in an electric socket with a fork. Trust me I’ve tried it and I should know.

  She scowled, running a hand through it trying to tame it. “I should have left it wet,” she muttered collecting it in a ponytail only to realize she had nothing to tie it with. She sighed and let it go. It went back to being a poofy cloud. She couldn’t face Arriana like that. I untied my hair and gave her the hairband.

  “Here, use it. You need it more than me right now,” I said.

  Her eyes widened and she took the rubber band. “ Thanks, Jonah,” she said tying her hair up.

  I grinned and took her hand. “Come on. We’re behind,” I said as we ran to keep up with the others. We came to a fork in the trail and stopped.

  “Now what?” Myra said pointing to the divide.

  I didn’t know but my ears did. I could hear them on the right side. I listened to Ruckus’s booming tone.

  He was whining about going back for me.

  I smirked. “They went right but we don’t have to worry, Myra. They’re coming after me,” I said watching the right trail, arms crossed.

  Sure enough, Arriana’s bright hair was seen coming through the foliage on the right side.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “How did you know,” asked Myra.

  “I could hear them,” I replied.

  Myra’s eyebrows rose to the hairline. “That’s some hearing Kin’s have. I wonder if you could hear a dog whistle?”

  “Is that for me or Arriana,” I asked.

  “Both,” she replied smirking.

  I shrugged. “I do deserve it.”

  “You do,” she said smiling and her eyes were doing that fireworks thing again.

  I lean in. “I’m sorr…”

  “There you are! Why did you stay back?” Arriana asked and I glared. That was the perfect moment to apologize and she ruined it!

  “I wasn’t about to leave Myra behind,” I replied.

  “You weren’t?” Two voices answer.

  I turn to Myra. “No. We’re in this together. We’re getting home together.”

  “This is your home now! And she’s just a slave! I doubt the council will let you leave,” Arriana said smirking.

  “Then we’ll find some other way of leaving,” said Myra.

  “We don’t belong here. I’m sure we’re probably shifting the balance of the universe somewhere,” I muttered. It caught Smiley’s attention and she scowled her hand twitching.

  No way was I letting her anywhere near me! Myra, I wouldn’t mind and she’s probably touched me more than she’ll ever admit when I was sick, but not Arriana.

  She kissed me! That was as close as we were ever going to get. An unconscious kiss that probably tasted like fresh vomit.

  Eww!

  I can understand why Myra didn’t want to do it I definitely wouldn’t, especially with someone else so desperate to in the first place.

  Hehe, Myra may not know it but she pulled a “me” when she let Arriana kiss me.

  We walked on through the day. Myra walked next to Niran and asked him all sorts of questions. I listened in case we could find a way home through them.

  “So this Saphron runs in all Kin?”

  “Yep! It’s our bond to our elemental magic. It ties us to the world around us,” Niran said.

  “Is there magic that doesn’t need Saphron,” Asked Myra as she dodged a water whip. She was getting faster. I bet when we got back to Earth, she was going to be deadly in dodgeball.

  “Yes, but humans aren’t supposed to know it,” Niran said exasperating Myra.

  I walked over. “Tell me then,” I said, smirking as I shooed Myra who glared but went to talk to Atesh. I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like Atesh. He was too...friendly.

  “We have a runes system. It’s how we packed the duffles in a piece of silk. We activate them with a Saphron amulet because none of us is a master.”

  “So what do you do with these runes?” I asked.

  “Basically you learn to write the alphabet of five hundred runes and learn the chants. Then as a beginner, you make an amulet of Saphron. After it's just practicing until you can write them with the air itself or whatever element you are master of. Mediums like cloth, skin, and steel are preferred but if you can’t remember the chants, then for most runic work they won’t work.”

  “And anyone can do it?”

  “Yes, it’s why we can’t tell humans. The council has forbidden the slaves from learning the system.”

  “Does the council rule everything?” I asked.

  “As far as the Kin are concerned. That includes the slaves both humans and Hybrids.”

  “Hybrids?”

  “Sometimes a Kin with double elements is born. Instead of being revered they are detested and put into slavery. Their Saphron is mutated and they can become a danger to themselves and others if left free.”

  “Damien wants his son enslaved. It is the law.”

  “Damien can go screw himself! He never cared for Jonah! Now he wants to exercise his will upon him to enslave him? I won’t have it!”

  I stop moving trying and failing to recall that memory to me. Why did that man, Damien want me enslaved? Who was Damien?

  “Do you know of anyone named Damien?” I asked.

  “The last king was named Damien Amhram. His brother Gale Amhram rules now. Why?”

  “I…”

  “You can’t have him! Anyone but him!” she cried.

  “Momma,” I cried burying myself in her arms. I was scared and trembling.

  “Damien wants his son enslaved. It is the law.”

  “Damien can go screw himself! He never cared for Jonah! Now he wants to exercise his will upon him to enslave him? I won’t have it!”

  “He is the king.”

  “I am the queen!”

  Damn! I’m royalty? If anyone figures it out I’m stuck here! I turn to Niran smirking.

  “I was curious where Arriana comes from?”

  “She is the daughter of a council member so that makes her a princess.”

  How the hell does being a council’s brat make one royalty? I smelled corruption here. Myra’s laugh broke through to me and my eyes narrowed. Atesh was frozen and gazing at Myra.

  Her eyes were probably doing that spark thing. Oh no! It was bad enough that I had an admirer we didn’t need two! Atesh was definitely becoming an admirer.

  “Myra, watch what you’re doing,” I muttered shielding her from a water bomb.

  She peered over at me, grateful, her eyes still doing that fireworks thing, and I could see how Atesh might become attached. Still, we didn’t need hangers-on if we were going to go home. I shook my head and turned back to Niran.

  “Who would be the one to ask for answers other than the council in this place?”

  “Hmm, an oracle would do but you would need to visit a real one not a phony, and those like to hide as normal Kin on Sapherine. You’d have to travel far for a real oracle. Then you’d have to ask the right question.”

  “The right question?”

  “Yes. If you ask any question then you’ll get any answer.”

  “So like a puzzle?”

  “Yes.”

  I was bad at puzzles really bad. I hoped that Myra was better at it. Speaking of Myra I needed to save her before Atesh embarrassed both of them.

  He could not stop blushing around Myra. As if seeing her eyes explode was some sort of courtship dance or something...crap it probably was to a fire elemental at least a real seduction technique with how he was acting! I had to rescue Myra now!

  “Thanks, Niran, I appreciate the info… if you’d excuse me I have a damsel to rescue,” I muttered walking away and stalking up to Myra who was explaining a camera to Atesh.

  “And then you take a snapshot of what you’re looking at and preserve it on a micro SD card that can hold tons of pics.”

  Atesh looked confused and I chuckled.

  “I don’t think he gets the concept of a photograph, Myra,” I said.

  “How can I explain it better?” she asked.

  I sighed. “It’s a box with a crystal that takes in sunlight and reveals an image. How’s that?”

  “Oh, now I see! Marvelous invention. I wonder if it can be replicated?” asked Atesh.

  “With your magic system, I bet it could be,” I said wrapping an arm around Myra’s waist.

  “I need to talk with you,” I whispered.

  She nodded and slowed her pace til we were the last ones again. “Yes? What did you have to tell me?”

  I told her about the runes, the council, my possible heritage, and lastly the oracles. When I finished talking it was darker. The sun was in the same spot but the sky was darker. There was a black dot in the distance growing and a chill went down my spine.

  “So you might be royalty and these oracles might have our way home?”

  I turned to her and nodded.

  “Well, the royalty bit sounds full of BS but the oracles do sound legit,” she said. I was too busy watching the little dot become bigger. I pointed at it and yelled: “Is that normal?”

  The others looked at the sky and noticed the dot. Niran swallowed. Atesh lost control of the flame he was playing with. Pallas floated from the sky only to kneel and begin praying. Boulder and Ruckus shared steely glares and Ilias exhaled loudly. Arriana trembled.

  Get ready for a Hunter’s Night,” said Nero the silent one.

  The chill burst into shivers and I discerned the acrid sour taste of fear on my tongue.