Chapter 6 : Who am I? ('ho am im?)

Diana stood still as a statue, her eyes resting on the freshly turned plot of dirt by the vegetable patch. Rain poured in torrents around her turning the plot muddy; the howling wind ensured that she was drenched despite her umbrella. It didn't affect her.

Diana had hated the funeral. Adults were such an insensitive class of humanity. Many of them had patted her on the shoulder and offered to bring her a new puppy, smiling broadly, as though they were offering her the treat of a lifetime. As though Alex was merely an object to be replaced. Diana wondered if her father had died instead of Alex, whether they would've offered to replace him too. To prevent herself from punching them in the face, she spent most of the funeral with the K-9 unit that had trained Alex. When Alex was lowered into the grave, the dogs bowed to their fallen soldier and howled to the heavens. Diana had felt as if her heart would burst with emotion as the K-9 unit bid farewell to their comrade.

The white headstone carried only four words apart from Alexander's name.

So long, old friend.

"Diana! Please come into the house. You'll catch a cold in this weather," Grace hollered from the kitchen window. Diana turned to the sound and caught sight of a man in a black three piece suit, hat and sunglasses staring at her from outside the wall.

She blinked. There was no one.

Grace called again and Diana hurried into the house feeling paranoid.

R................

She stopped in the doorway.

"What is it Diana?" Grace stuck her head out of the kitchen.

"Someone's calling out to me," Diana whispered, her face pale.

Grace clucked sympathetically. "My dear, no one's calling you."

Diana was still listening intently.

"I didn't hear your name." Grace spoke very gently.

"It's not my name..... but I know it's me...."

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Night fell and the rain let up. The house became unusually quiet. Grace had gone home for the night. There was no patter of feet running down the staircase. No thud of bounding paws. The silence was deafening. Just as it had been for the past three days.

Diana stared out her window, her eyes unfocused. Grief had become so unbearable that her mind had numbed itself into emptiness. It was only after the shadow under the lamppost morphed into its owner that she came to her senses. The figure turned to look at the house and she bit back a scream.

Grotesque!

The hooded creature had the teeth of a sabre-toothed tiger, curling menacingly out of a hardened, wrinkled dung-coloured face. Its eyes were deep-set and barely visible from her current vantage point. Diana carefully picked up her cell-phone and dialed her father's number.

"Hello Diana. Why're you calling me on the phone?" Mr. Drew was puzzled by her bizarre choice.

"Dad.... Please l-look out to the backyard wall and t-tell me what you s-see." Her voice was shaking like a leaf. So was the hand holding the phone.

"Umm ... there's a man ......looking at our house."

"A man! You see-"

And then the creature snapped his fingers.

All the lights on their street went out in an instant.

Diana decided it was time to run. As she bounded out of her bed, her foot squelched on something that felt horribly like a fleshy human hand and she fell forward with a scream. She instinctively reached to the bottom of her dresser, ripped a gun out from under it and turned over with the gun pointing forwards. With all the weird things that had happened, she almost expected to see just a hand crawl out from under her bed. But the hand was attached to an arm and the arm was attached to the three piece suited man in the sunglasses. He crawled out, stood up and dusted the hat on his head.

"Oh the underside of your bed is so cramped, only a pixie could fit in. Ugh!"

When Diana could find her voice, she asked, "Who are you?"

"Ah yes, Herdir Broge of Realta Ban, at your service." He took a silver sword-hilt out of his breast pocket and bowed. A silver blade sprouted out of the hilt.

Crack!

The gun was silenced so the sound wasn't as loud as it should be. Mr. Drew was now at the doorway, witness to the bizarre scene in his daughter's bedroom. The sword-wielding man in the suit kneeled as the bullet wound on his shin poured blood. Diana was lying on the ground, gun pointed towards the strange man.

"This is no way to treat your new teacher, young lady!" The man groaned in pain and hovered his hand on the wound. "Sana", he muttered and the bullet pulled itself out of his flesh and fell into his palm. The wound closed up behind it. Even the rip in his pant repaired itself. The gun fell slack in Diana's hand.

"I heard a scream ..." Mr Drew's voice was very faint.

"Ah you must be her guardian. I am Broge of Realta Ban." He bowed and turned to Diana. "Now child, there is a very dangerous ogradite about to break into your house and kill every living creature inside, which at present, would be us. So it would be best to travel to Vorantia right about now."

Diana and her father continued to stare open-mouthed at the man.

"Oh for the sake of Rowan and Snow, we need to go now!"

"Whoa back up mister! We are going nowhere till you tell me what's going on." Diana's chin was set. The gun pointed, unwavering, at Broge's torso this time.

"Why are you so surprised? You must've been waiting for ages for someone to take you home..... Unless......unless you don't know..." Broge's expression changed into confusion and he turned to Mr. Drew. "You didn't tell her?........... Ohhhhh you don't know either! Oh Terr'ane, help me!" He wiped his brow.

"First things first, you, child, put the lead weapon down."

Diana shook her head violently.

"All right. I will put my weapon down first." Broge placed the silver sword on the ground and Diana followed suit with the gun.

Mr. Drew spoke warily. "You're one of th-them? You know her-her mother?"

"I don't know her mother but I do know what she was."

"Excuse me! What do you mean by that?" exclaimed Diana

Mr. Drew's expression cleared. "Diana, tell him-tell him everything."

Diana hesitated, looking between her father and the strange man. She saw something in her father's expression and sighed in despair. "I guess it's time to come clean. I'm sorry, Dad. The things that happened around me all those years ago....... they didn't stop on their own. I-I got control over them. My...... powers." She opened the cabinet under her dresser and out poured an avalanche of papers. "I've been researching them for a while now but I haven't found anything conclusive. They're the reason I became so popular despite the incidents. I can........ influence people to see things my way. I can...... make things happen to them. I can........... hurt them..... I'm ......... something other....... something dangerous...." Diana's head was in her hands, her words barely above a whisper. "And the worst thing is that....... I don't falter, Dad..... the man with the gun... I didn't falter. I didn't hesitate.... I'm-I'm a murderer." She fell onto her knees sobbing quietly into her hands. It was as though a dam had burst.

Warm arms wrapped around her and she looked up at her father's tear-glazed eyes. "I'm sorry for keeping this secret. But I was sure you'd take me to an asylum if you knew... I was a danger to everyone..."

"Baby-girl.... You're not the only one guilty of keeping secrets." Mr. Drew walked over to the too-small chair and sank into it. He ran a hand through his hair and gray streaks shone in the semi-darkness. He looked like he'd aged several years in those few moments. "Your mother.... your biological mother had that ability... She arrived at my backyard eleven years ago with you. At first, I'd only seen her beauty but as her condition worsened, she couldn't sustain the charade. Her injuries......... She looked like she'd walked off a battlefield. She told me to keep you safe till the next day when she'd come to take you back. I always knew she wasn't....... of this world....... When she didn't turn up, I assumed the worst and had those adoption papers prepared....... You were two when the incidents started happening . I tried to find out about her... but there were no leads to follow. Nothing I could do. I was so happy when things started improving for you, Diana, that I never thought to bring it up again...... My dear, you have suffered so much..... "

"My mother........." Diana turned to Broge. "Who is she? Who am I? What am I? Why! Why do I have these powers?"

Broge looked gravely at the desperate face of the little girl. "Young one, you have powers because you are a fairy."

Diana's face went from incredulous to angry in seconds. "Do you think this is the time for joking?!"

"No." He paused. "I do not." And he took off his hat to reveal his ears........ pointed ears.

Diana's mouth fell open. "It seems that you are aware of how we're depicted in human texts."

"You're.....you're.... an elf?"

"Yes child. And now if you're done with the questions-"

"NO! Who is my mother? What happened to her? What about my father?"

Broge wiped his brow again. "I don't know. All I know for sure is that you are a fairy. You gave off an energy pulse three days ago. A transformational pulse, to be precise." Seeing Diana's puzzled expression, he elaborated. "It means that, for a few seconds, you transformed into your true form. I tracked the pulse and found you." Broge kneeled down to Diana's level. "The answers to your questions may be with Herdante Cironir, the Principal of Realta Ban in Vorantia. He is wise and honourable. I'm sure that he will help you."

"Vorantia ........" She unclasped the electric pink bracelet displaying the intricate white design that ringed around her wrist. "The pond....... was a portal..... The boy....... he's in Vorantia.....?"

Broge stared reverentially at the ringed mark. "Yes."

"All right... say I agree with-" Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Rhaich! Get away from the door!"

The ogradite had bounded up the stairs in three huge strides. It's massive frame broke the doorway as it charged in, brandishing an axe as large as Diana. Broge dived for his sword as Diana and Mr. Drew scrambled towards the back of the room. The creature swung his axe at Broge who ducked and parried with his sword. The blow cut the ogradite's arm and dark green blood spewed to the floor. Enraged, the creature swung again and again till Broge was pinned to the bed which buckled underneath him with a crunching sound. Mr. Drew hurried down the stairs with Diana in tow. They ducked as Broge was thrown downstairs with an enormous crash. The sword flew out of his hands and clattered towards the sofa. The creature crashed through the railing and landed before the front door bellowing at the top of its lungs. It thrust it's axe towards Broge who caught hold of the handle attempting to wrest it out of its grasp.

Diana searched wildly for something. Anything. The sword gleamed silver a few feet away from her.

The creature roared loudly and with one mighty push, threw Broge at the sofa. The sofa cracked. The ogradite screamed with fury, raised the axe and ran forward.

But the blow never fell.

Diana, her sword-weilding hands glowing like the sun, leaped onto the armrest of the broken sofa and cleaved the hand holding the axe. The creature's momentum propelled it to fall forward. Broge caught the falling axe and plunged it into the chest of the beast that fell and smothered him with an earth-shaking thud.

The glow on Diana's hands gradually faded and she dropped the sword which suddenly felt as heavy as lead. She collapsed on the corner of the sofa, exhausted.

"Uhmmm a little help here please!" came a muffled voice from under the enormous ogradite.

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"Mr. Drew, I have told you everything. But I think it best if Diana hears it from the Herdante himself."

Broge was sitting on a chair in the study, in front of a horrified Carson Drew. Diana had only been told that the ogradite was sent by the davizae, a specie at war with the elves and fairies. She'd agreed to stay at Vorantia till it was safe for her to come back home and was packing her bag upstairs. Broge took the opportunity to fill her father in about the Cosantora bond.

"Doesn't she have a choice in this?!"

"Of course, she does........ But they always make the same choice. The Zareh are born for this...... The decision on when to tell her lies with the Herdante and I would like your word that you will mention nothing to her for now. Your daughter is in grave danger as it is. The energy pulse has put a target on her back. And you can see how well the ogradites can conceal themselves."

Mr. Drew glanced back at the creature's body and shuddered. The effects of the concealing magic were wearing off and he could see its human face gradually fade into a green-skinned monstrous facade.

Mr. Drew laid his head back against the headrest of his chair. There were bags under his eyes and the lines on his forehead were too pronounced for his age. "All right.... I've hidden things from her long enough. She deserves the truth. Tell this Herdante to tell her everything. And when it is safe, promise me that you'll deliver her back here."

"Upon my word, Mr. Drew. You are the man who's raised our Zareh."

"She's my daughter first!" Mr. Drew's eyes flashed angrily. "And about this-this Zareh t-thing, I-I'm sure she will make the right decision."

"Yes.... But right for who?"

*****************************

"Bye Dad. I'll be back soon." Diana hugged her father who was at a loss for words. Pain and worry wringed his heart.

"All right, child. You just need to roll under the bed."

"Eh?"

They were in Diana's bedroom and Broge, with one large ogradite dead-body thrown over his shoulder, pulled the sheets up to show a circular sphere of pulsating light under her bed.

"Oh."

Nothing will surprise me now.

"Dad, I've got one last question for you." She pulled back from the hug. "Why'd you decide to keep me?"

Mr. Drew smiled sadly. "Because your mom would've done the same."