Chapter 31

The First Encounter

Part 5A

It was not just an explosion that I heard; at the same time, I felt the ground shaking, it was much more like vibrating than shaking. Here, the ominous feeling took me over, and a feeling of fear emerged once more and took me all over once more. I know I am a scary cat, and I was that way all my life, so it was nothing new to me, but apparently it was not the same for the others. The first thing that came to mind was to keep the children calm, so as much as I could, I reached out to them and held both of them in my arms. Although size-wise, there was not much difference between us, age-wise, that was a deterrent. The vibration on the ground was making it difficult to walk the normal way that you would, it was neither that intense nor mild, and it lasted less than one minute and a half, approximately.

Not a second passed since the tremor passed and the mother and the emperor came ruining into the tent. The kids jumped immediately into their mothers embrace and began crying. The emperor looked at them and asked me, “Are you okay?” I nodded with my head as usual. I guess at this moment they all must have thought that I am mute and that I don’t really mind a bit; that is the way I used to be, and it is not something that I can change in a blink of an eye, “We are going to eat all of us out side; come and join us,” he said to me while he was still looking at me. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I had a feeling that he was thinking something concerning me. What is it? I didn’t know, and there was no way for me to figure it out. Not only that, but I can't figure out much of what is going on around me at all. Even if I kept asking myself all day long, I stood up trying to follow them while I was feeling dizzy and unable to move normally, but the hunger was actually a drive enough to make me move forcefully.

….……………………….

Out of the tent, Emperor Haider looked behind him one more time, once more to the young boy, who was barely able to walk. The circumstances that led to their meetings could be said to be coincidence, chance, or even pre-planned. Who knows, but for sure there is not just a similarity; the boy's features are exactly the same as he remembered, he still does remember the man called Jack like it was yesterday, although it was more than fifteen years ago, and he does remember that his wife was pregnant at that time, so technically if they had a son, he would be the exact same age as this boy, so the age is the same and the look is actually a copy, then what else is there to doubt?. That is actually only one thing out of what is going on here, along with this boy who claims to have come from thousands of miles by himself in the middle of nowhere. Another group appears from another few thousand miles and from another continent, and all of them appear at the same time here.

Again, he looked to the other group of people in front of him and started thinking about the captain from Thames Kingdom and the man he was guarding. He indicated it’s a national secret, but he is willing to share it with him when the time is right. The four that claimed they were from Arumina, apparently two, are from there, specifically from the blessed village, since they dressed the same, but nothing could skip the expert eye of the emperor, and he could tell that two were from that village, but the other two, however they were disguised, were not from there.

What kind of coincidence can bring all of these people together in one place at the same time? Is it fate, destiny, or something pre planned by someone or something? The other similarity with what happened fourteen years ago and during Jack’s incident is the skill the boy used; the way he appeared in front of him took him by surprise, although it didn’t show in his face for more than one second, but he recognized it immediately. As the lost art is an ancient technology that could be applied to multiple ways of life, which has been erased from all databases and lost almost a century ago, how on earth does everyone know this unknown boy, who is more than a decade old, is able to learn and use it?. I guess this is another mystery I need to solve, so I have to keep this group close to my sight.

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As long as this boy has the knowledge, or even a fraction of it, there is a possibility of reviving it. So I have to take as much care of him as I can, considering this difficult situation I am in at the moment. Although I do believe it will survive by any means, I don’t feel the way I was feeling this morning when I was leaving my home or hours ago under fire with my family alone. Now I have a company that I never expected waiting to eat food in the middle of the most dangerous forest in this world, and most strangely, I feel safe and I am not totally worried. While still thinking loudly without anybody being able to hear him, he got closer to where food was being distributed while still observing everybody and looking at every individual for a few seconds without being noticed.

Emperor Haider was the ruler of the Manuhuter Empire, an empire with a population of over one hundred million people and a land area of more than three thousand square miles. It is considered and probably one of the richest, biggest, and strongest empires on the continent of Tamiya, and just to clarify something in this continent that is called "Kyriagi,” specifically on the three continents that’s populated with sentient beings, humanoids, androids, and those beings with animal characteristics. All those different spices were living together and beside each other peacefully and without any major conflicts; that don’t mean there wasn't any small fragment or disagreement between neighbors, and it was devoid of any kind of clash at all, but nothing worth mentioning for the last couple of hundred years.

There were no wars worth mentioning or major enmity between them, may have been a few clashes here and there, but nothing salvageable anyway; there was no dispute over resources, land, or borders, no religious conflicts. When it came to religion, the whole continent believed in one religion worshiping one god; each country was minding its own affairs, not bothering with what was happening in the next country. Of course, there were the wealthy and the poor countries. Like any other world, the good and the corrupt government, the crimes committed by the nature of the beings, it was not by any means paradise.

One of the things that happened to him, the military rebellion, was not a common thing that happens usually in this plant; also, in the written history, it didn’t happen in the last hundred years. Apparently, this is the second thing that repeated itself a hundred years ago. In a whisper that no one except him could hear, he said, “I hope whatever is coming is something we can handle, with fewer casualties than what we have read in the history books." With heavy steps and a busy mind, he moved to where the food was being prepared and distributed. The only figure that didn’t leave his mid was Jack, and the first day he saw him and his wife, Jackline, fifteen years ago in a situation that never happened before, that made us upside down for a few weeks, then suddenly disappeared without a trace. The same way he appeared out of thin air, so does his pregnant wife, and by the way, if she had a boy, he would have been the same age as this boy for sure.

Back in his tent with his wife and kids, Emperor Haider, with a plate in his hand, without even looking at what is inside it or what kind of food it is, absent minded he took the spoon to his mouth and started chewing whatever it was he was eating without even testing it, never even thinking about where the spoon or plate came from or who had it. What was occupying his mind more than anything was the young boy sitting in front of the tent, eating by himself, sitting cross-legged. The way he is sitting and eating, he is a split image of that man. There is no doubt in his mind now that this boy is Jack’s son.

I couldn’t tell the time; my personal AI was not working for the first time ever, for an unknown reason, but apparently it was late afternoon. Even a while back, I thought it was going to be evening soon. The time we spent here and how the time moves don’t match, but I can't judge since I don’t know anything about this place. I was thinking about this while still looking at the boy when he suddenly jumped, dropping the plate on the floor. I also had to jump out of the tent thinking he saw some enemy attacking us, but when I came outside, everybody else was eating in front of their tent, and there was nothing coming from anywhere that I could see. Also, Luke and the captain were on guard, so there was nothing much to worry about. Still, I came beside him and asked him, “What happened? What have you seen?” He looked at me, although he was looking straight at me. I was sure he couldn’t see me for some reason when he said, “We need to move from here; the monsters are coming; he is coming, he is coming; and we are all going to be dead."