Chronicles of the Kiridians

For it is written in the Chronicles of the Kiridians:

As many think your past so often defines you, they are inherently wrong

Your past is a piece of who you are, but oftentimes it’s not who you become.

So when facing a big choice, don’t let your past influence the future

Life is a gift, it’s why we call it the present.

“My child I didn’t pick anything. This was your fight since the beginning. You have a lot to learn about yourself, and a lot to remember.”

My eyes shoot open and I wake in a pool of sweat. Call me crazy, but just under a day ago I was a normal sixteen-year-old girl wanting to explore a cave on a class field trip. Now I’m a girl that’s hosting an alien princess and seeing an ancient alien warrior appear to her out of nowhere.

“Kara, I know we are supposed to be like a team now,” says Raina as I look over to my window sill and see her sitting in the window, “which is why I didn’t wake you. You’ve been tossing and turning all night, and at one point you kicked me so can we maybe talk about boundaries? It’s 3 in the morning,”

“Sure,” I say sarcastically. “New boundary. You sleep in your own room,” I say with an eye roll. “Oh wait, your dad’s nut job guards blew that up,”

Raina and I haven’t left each other’s side since Lena came to us earlier in the evening. We’ve been talking back and forth about the possible landing sites of her siblings, and how far we are potentially going to have to travel. We’ve been trying to come up with a plan to tell my parents all night long, but “hey I’m your sixteen year old teenage daughter, and I’m going to run off and explore the world with this alien princess and save her planet,” just doesn’t sound right to either of us.

Not to mention tomorrow is Sunday. The school opens up again on Monday. It was already going to be a task convincing my parents to let me go and try to find Raina’s siblings, but missing God knows how many days of school to do so? Yeah, that’s not in my parent’s vocabulary.

Raina doesn’t laugh at my joke, instead, she turns back to the window and looks out at the moon. The moon is full tonight, and it’s shining more light than normal. “In my planet, the moon was much bigger than it is here,” she says. “It was almost the equivalent of Earth if I’m remembering the studies correctly. It was bright pink. I loved looking at it, and my sister Anya had the best view in her room. She would let me sneak in when I should have been sleeping, and once a month she would get some, well the equivalent of Earth’s coffee I guess, and we would sit in a window sill a lot like this one and watch the moon and just talk.”

She looks back at me with her eyes watering up. “I just can’t help but think that if they hadn’t kidnapped me I would never get that chance again. I was so awful to them, and didn’t want to believe anything they were saying,” she says with actual tears falling down her face. “Why, Kara? Why doesn’t my dad love us?” She pulls her knees up to her chest and places her face in it and begins to silently sob.

I get up from the bed and walk over to the window sill. I wrap my arm around her and bring her in for a hug. She initially freezes, and there is an awkward feeling in this hug, but she eventually eases into it and allows some comfort. We sit that way for about thirty seconds before she pulls away and clears her throat.

“So what’s the plan tomorrow,” she asks me wiping her eyes.

“Well, Joey is coming over at 9-”

“Woah, we did not agree on your boyfriend coming with us, Kara,” says Raina with an annoyed look on her face. “Honestly, if anything that I’ve told you falls under a ‘need to know’ basis it’s definitely the fact that Lena came to you,”

“One, he’s not my boyfriend. Joey is my best friend. Two, he’s literally been there with me through everything, and if I’m honest you’re a little much to deal with. He’s coming. It’s the last I’m going to hear about it,” I say as I get up and walk back over to my bed.

Raina stares at me with her jaw open as I grab my computer from inside the drawer of my nightstand and begin to look up directions for the trip tomorrow. Mom and Dad allowed me to have the car for the day tomorrow, they just don’t know we are taking a two hour trip to a cave that we haven’t asked permission to come back to.

“Did you just sass me? I’m a freaking princess!” says Raina as she still hasn’t moved from the slack-jawed position on the window sill.

“Are we seriously still on this?” I ask her looking at the time on the screen. It’s 3:45 in the morning. Joey will be over in a few hours and then we will be able to head for the cave. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to get us past the fence and the built-in security?” I ask. “I’m not looking to go to jail for trespassing. Not to mention if my parents have to drive the two hours it takes to get to the caves they are not going to be happy,”

“If the back of a police car is one of your sure-fire security features and I got out of it, I think I can handle a barb wire fence and a potential camera,” says Raina. “And it’s really a two-hour journey?” she says pouting as she gets up and walks to the bed. “That’s going to be miserable,”

“That’s what it says online. We better go back to sleep for a couple of hours,” I say. “It’s going to be a long day, and it might be difficult to get into the cave and find your ship again,”

She nods and lays down on the bed as I lean over to my nightstand and put my computer back in the drawer. I get back under the comforter and I set my alarm for 5 hours from now, and try to get comfortable.

“Wait,” says Raina as she sits up.

She walks out of the room and down the stairs, having no understanding of how loud she’s stomping down them. She reemerges into my room holding three pillows from the couch and lays them down the middle of my queen-sized bed.

“Is this really needed?” I ask her as she tucks them into my side of the bed.

“I simply won’t be kicked again, Kara,” she says as she finishes the line of pillows. “The first couple of kicks were free, the next one you’re going to have to earn,” she says with a wink and smile and turns over to face the window.

“Goodnight, Raina,” I say to her.

“Goodnight, Kara,” she says as I close my eyes and begin to drift off to sleep.

When the alarm goes off Raina is already up, and I hear the shower running from the bathroom connected to my room. I stretch out on my bed and make sure to kick the pillows from the couch onto the floor and notice my phone is buzzing up a storm. Joey has been texting me since 6:30 this morning begging me not to make us go back to the cave alone.

It’s dangerous! He said in the latest one he sent about five minutes ago.

We don’t really have a choice. I’ll see you in a little bit. I respond locking my phone and then walk towards the door of my room. At this point, I’m used to Joey’s freak-outs and his long thread of fifty-seven text messages doesn’t bother me anymore.

When I walk down the stairs and enter the kitchen my parents are sitting around the dining room table drinking their morning coffee and talking about the day. When my mom sees me she smiles and ushers for me to come sit down.

“What was that noise last night?” she asks me. “I woke up at nearly four in the morning to stomping,”

“The princess said I kick in my sleep,” I say with an eyeroll.

“Well, we could have told you that,” says dad with a laugh. “We used to hate when we would hear your little feet running down the stairs at night when you were a toddler. We knew we would be sleeping on the couches the second you fell asleep-”

“What’s up?” I ask him trying to change the subject. “I assume you didn’t call me over here to talk about the good old days,”

“Well, your father received a call from the sheriff’s office this morning. Raina is going to be questioned tomorrow about what she was doing in the cave,”

“I don’t see that going very well,” I say, and now that I know exactly why she was in the cave I know that she can’t tell anyone else the reasons without ending up in an institution. Add this to the long list of things that I’m going to have to deal with after this cave situation.

“Well, she has to cooperate with law enforcement,” says dad. “It’s like one of the laws here,” he purses his lips and then opens up his mouth to talk again. “I guess that’s why we need to respect law enforcement. They are the law?”

“Don’t strain yourself, Kyle,” says mom chuckling.

“I just think that this could have been a pretty dramatic thing, and we need to give Raina some time to cool down before we go and grill her like it’s the last barbecue of the year,” I say looking at my parents. “I’m all for finding out answers too. I just don’t want to hurt her in the process. I understand they have a job to do, but she doesn’t seem to be all there. Maybe they can give her a few days to destress?”

I feel bad because I have never in my life lied to my parents. I have always been 100% honest with them because from a young age they’ve explained the importance of keeping our relationship as open as possible. I’ve never wanted to disappoint them with something as stupid as a lie, but with everything going on I don’t have the luxury of hoping they’ll let me do what needs to be done. I might know nothing of Kiridia or their ways, but I feel drawn to this. This has to come before everything now.

“Well, we can always talk about that later. What’s the plan for you and the car today?”

I pause and grab a piece of toast that my mom has laid out already made on the table. I pick it up and begin to butter it and she clears her throat. “Kara?” she asks me confused.

“Hm,” I say as I spread the butter around.

“What’s your plans for the car?”

“She’s going to take me around and show me this town,” says Raina as she walks down the stairs with a towel around her head and my bathroom tied snuggly around her. “I saw a few things I really wanted to check out on our brief ride to Joey’s and back yesterday. I thought Kara could show me all the works,” she says as she takes a seat in the chair across the table from me. “And Joey is coming for good measure,” she says with just the slightest sound of distaste in her voice.

“Okay.” says mom with a smile. “Have fun then, sweetheart.”

She and my dad get up and leave the table, and Raina gives me a look.

“Seriously?” she asks me stunned. “Lying is what you suck at? You could have sucked at anything else and getting out of uncomfortable situations is your freaking Achilles’ heel?”

“I’ve never had to before!” I say. “I’m sorry the art of deception is lost on me,”

Raina rolls her eyes and we begin small talk about the day and the plans for when we arrive at the cave. She plans to just “look for a giant hole in the ground” which would probably be effective if we weren’t going to a cave.

“Do you remember how dark it was down there?” I ask her.

“Uh, no, my ship gave off a lot of light,” says Raina. “They have those ugly helmet things that we can wear though, right?”

“This is going to be a long day,” I say closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

I finish eating and head up to take a quick shower and throw some clothes on before Joey gets here. Once I finish with the shower I head back to my room and throw on a pair of jeans a t-shirt. Raina is at the vanity putting on makeup as I stare at her confused.

“You know we’re going to a cave? Like we’re going to be climbing, sweating, and-”

“Kara, a lady never leaves the house unprepared. Alpha forbid it, but what if I run into the man I’m supposed to be with forever?” she says as she does a quick shudder. “Gosh, I hope I’m not supposed to bond with an earthling. Can you imagine how dumb our kids would be?”

“Something tells me that with that attitude you won’t have a lot to worry about,” I say with a chuckle as my bedroom door gets one knock, and suddenly Joey is barging through the door.

“Joseph! What if I had been changing!” screams Raina. “You earth boys are so disrespectful! Get out!”

“Wait, what?” he says confused

“OUT!” screams Raina as she shoves him back into the hallway and slams the door in his face. She turns her back and leans against the door and points at a pair of jeans and a pink v-neck on the corner of my bed. “Quick! Throw that to me!”

I toss the clothes to her and she begins to slide out of her pajamas I let her borrow into more clothes of mine that I let her borrow. When she finishes changing she turns back to the door and screams so Joey can hear. “Now knock!” she says. I laugh because I can already see Joey’s confused face as he lifts his hand to the door and knocks twice on the door. Raina smiles but doesn’t move from her position on the door. “One minute!” she says as she just sits there and taps her foot. About thirty seconds pass and she finally opens the door. “Oh, Joseph!” she says with a smile. “So nice to see you!”

“It’s actually just Joey,” he says

“Whatever,” says Raina with a smile. “Remember to knock next time. Now, are we ready to head out to the cave?” Joey looks at my stunned as he looks to me for help. I just shake my head and chuckle.

“Today please, Kara,” says Raina as she begins to walk out of the room. Joey and I both nod, and I get up from the bed. We walk out of the room and down the stairs. We take a right turn and when we reach the kitchen I see through the window above the sink that Mom is in the garden planting. I walk over to the backdoor and crack it open.

“Mom, Joey and I are taking Raina now.”

“Okay, honey!” says mom with a smile as she looks up from her intense planting. “Have fun! Let me know if you’ll be home for dinner!”

My heart hurts as I close the backdoor and turn to Joey and Raina. “I feel awful,” I say leaning against the back door and sinking down to the ground. “I’m the worst daughter there ever was,”

“That’s more of a reason to not do this!” says Joey jumping in on the opportunity to squash this plan before it actually happens. “This is not something that we should be doing. This is the epitome of dangerous. Not to mention if we fall and die in the cave no one will ever know where we are-”

“Joseph,” says Raina covering his mouth with her hand. “You listen here. I’ve been tasked by one of the highest authorities to find my missing siblings and save them from my tyrant father. If you don’t want to participate in this once in a life time opportunity than there is the door,” she says. “Otherwise, you’re going to be quiet and you’re going to get the job done. I will not listen to this pointless chatter another second longer. Are we understood?”

“Y-yes,” says Joey surprised by Raina’s sudden outburst.

“Good, now grab the car and let’s go,” says Raina as she walks out of the kitchen and toward the front door.

“You ready?” I ask him.

“I guess as ready as I’ll ever be,” he responds.

“Then let’s go save a royal family,” I say grabbing the keys from the counter and walking toward the front door where Raina is already standing by the truck. I unlock it and Joey gets into the back while Raina and I sit in the front.

“So tell me more about this Lena,” says Joey.

“Honestly, Kara?!” says Raina looking at me with an annoyed glare. “Is anything a secret?”

“Lena is some warrior goddess thing from Kiridia, Joey. She’s apparently only appeared to people who are about to go on a big adventure which is why I feel the need to take care of this,” I say turning the key in the ignition. “What Raina really is wanting to say to you though is thank you for coming along, right Raina?”

“Yes,” she says bitterly as she sits back in her seat and crosses her arms. “Thank you very much, Joseph,” she says with venom dripping off each word as I back out of our driveway and begin to the long drive back to the cave where we found Raina.