Chronicles of the Kiridians
Chapter 3

For it is written in the Chronicles of the Kiridians:

Often times, one will replace themselves in difficult times

But I tell you this, be humble, be strong, and be courageous.

Love passionately and without fear, and remember,

There is no greater love than one that lays their life down for a friend

The men stand in my doorway stare ominously at the inside of my house through the window at the top of our front door. Their facial expressions are difficult to read. A pair of sunglasses rest on each of their faces hiding their eyes. I’ve never trusted someone who can’t look you in the eye. There’s something about the eyes that lets you know everything you need to know about someone. Sadly, I don’t need to see these men’s eyes to know that they have sinister intent.

“Do not trust them, my child. Danger. Save the princess,” the voice says again.

They ring the doorbell again, and then start to knock aggressively on the front door. “Sorry! No one is home!” I scream through the door. I begin to run throughout the house towards the stairs when I hear a loud sound coming from the entry room of the house that sounds like wood breaking. The men’s voices erupt throughout the living room as I run upstairs to warn Raina.

“Find the princess!” they scream.

When I get to the top of the stairs I throw myself at the guest room door to see Raina typing on the holographic keyboard from her necklace. She is under the blanket and surrounded with fluffy pillows. I close the door behind me and lock it quickly and she jumps upon seeing me.

“Hasn’t anyone told you of knocking?!” she asks

“No time,” I say. “Up now!”

I run to the window and have to climb on top of the dresser to get it open. I hear the footsteps of the men as they run around the house. There’s lots of glass breaking as they move throughout the house in search of Raina.

“You need to climb out this window now!” I say with urgency in my voice. She doesn’t question me as she jumps up from the bed and climbs on top of the dresser to get to the window. By the time she gets out, and I begin to climb through the two men are in the room. I feel a hand grab onto my foot as I’m climbing out of the window, and the man snickers.

“You’re not going anywhere, Sweetheart.”

With my free foot, I kick back into his face. The man screams in pain as I scramble free. He only staggers for a moment, however, and quickly begins to climb on top of the dresser to wiggle out of the window. When he places his hands out of the window I slam the window pane down on his fingers causing him to scream in pain. His partner pulls the gun out of his holster and fires directly at me. I jump out of the way just in time to miss a green burst of light.

“That’s a Kiridian firearm,” says Raina in shock

“Yeah, well I don’t know about you, but here when people fire guns you run! They’re firing one, so now is the time to go,” I say as I run to the garden ladder that I’ve climbed down so many times to get away from my parents. I move out of the way to let Raina climb down first and wait until she is about halfway down to start climbing myself.

When I place my foot on the ladder the wall of the guest room window blows open, and both of the men step out onto the roof in a hurry. They run towards me, and I’m sure something bad is about to happen when a bright light appears and they fall over. I hang onto the ladder frozen when I hear the same voice that spoke to me when I opened the door for them.

“Run now, child,” it says urgently. “I can’t hold them off for much longer,”

I climb down the ladder and meet Raina down on the ground. She is looking at me confused as I grab her by the hand and run away from the side of my house and towards the back patio where my parents are talking.

“What is going on?” asks dad with a concerned smile. “What’s the rush?”

“Mom! Dad!” I say breathing heavy. “There are men with guns chasing us. We have to run now!” I take off running, but I realize that it’s surprisingly quiet. I turn around and there are no signs of the men at all. Looking around Raina pouts.

“I was awoken from my nap for this?!” she says stomping her foot. She begins to rub her temples. “No offense but Earth is not my favorite destination at the moment,”

“You weren’t even sleeping!” I say to her in amazement. “You saw them!”

“Yeah, I saw them, but they aren’t here anymore,” she says stubbornly. “The one chance I had at getting home, and they’ve gone and left because you made me run. I thought there was an actual threat!” She walks over to the patio table my mom and dad are sitting out and pulls a chair out slamming herself down into it. “And I still haven’t gotten to take a nap!”

“Raina they were an actual threat! They shot at you!” I say. Surely she can’t be this dense.

“No they shot at you," she says with a huff.

My parents just stare at us as my Dad clears his throat to interrupt our fight. There is a worried expression on his face as he looks at us back and forth and before he can say anything my mom chips in. “What do you mean they shot at you?! There are people in my house? Kyle! Go!” says Mom ushering my Dad.

“Mom! No! We need to call someone!” I say

“Relax,” says Dad. “I’ll be fine,”

“I see men are the same here as in Kiridia,” says Raina as my dad walks up to the backdoor to go into the house. “Good to know some things are universal,”

Mom ushers me to the patio furniture as Raina crosses her legs with a huffy sigh. She bounces her legs up and down as she waits for Dad to re-emerge from the house. I pause, and reflect on what the voice said. I want to tell Raina about it, but I can’t exactly tell her in front of my mom. She’s already going to have to deal with two men destroying her house, I can’t imagine adding the stress of having an insane daughter.

“Mom, I’m telling you. It’s not safe there. We need to call the police right away-”

“Everything is clear,” says Dad as he walks out the backdoor of the house interrupting me. “Though there were people in our house. The front door is off the hinges, and the upstairs has a window, er, well, honey. There’s a hole in the guest bedroom,” he says with a shaky voice.

“What?!” screams mom. “How big?!”

“Half the wall,” says dad nervously.

“It was a Kiridian firearm,” says Raina.

“What kind of slang is that?” asks Mom. “Oh, I’m Phoebe,” she says. “Nice to have you here. Sorry, it’s under these circumstances,”

“Raina,” she says quickly tipping her head. “And it’s not slang. It’s my home planet. The people that came here are part of my Father’s elite secret service. Their sole duty is to serve the royal family. When they saw Kara at the house they must have thought I was in danger. But since you rudely kicked him in the face,” she says glaring at me. “Rather than calmly explaining the situation, they must have gotten a bit showy,”

“Well, our house is trashed,” says Dad

“I’ll gladly pay for the repairs, Mr. Kyle,” she says with a smile. It’s the least I can do after everything your family has done for me.” she says scooting her chair out from beneath the table. “Now if you don’t mind I’m going back to my room,”

“What room?” whispers my dad.

She stands up quickly and walks through the back door into the kitchen. Mom and Dad look at her and then Mom slumps back into her chair. “I must say, she’s completely crazy, but she does have a certain regality about her that makes her story almost believable,” says mom. “How are we going to pay for this though, Kyle?”

“Let’s hope that Raina actually is a princess and feels generous upon returning to her family,” says my dad with a snort. He walks over to my mom and gives her a kiss on the head, and I instantly start to see her relax. “We will be okay, Pheebs,” he says to her. “We always are,”

“I know,” she says as she leans her head into his stomach.“I’m going to call the police,” she says as she gets up from the table and gives my father a peck on the lips.

“I’m going to my room,” I say getting up and going inside.

I cautiously make my way through the kitchen and up the stairs. I know that Dad said everything was clear, but I’ve seen Raina do some crazy things, what’s to say there’s not more that these people can do that she isn’t telling me?

When I arrive upstairs I immediately knock on Raina’s door. It takes her a minute, and I hear her groan as she gets up from the bed and opens the door. The hole in the wall let’s a warm breeze and she is already showing signs of sweating from the humidity of a Texas summer.

“Oh look,” she says. “You do have manners.”

“You’re explaining some stuff to me,” I say. “You keep mentioning your siblings. Where are they?”

She frowns as she steps aside and lets me in the room. I come into the room and sit in an armchair that’s in the corner next to the closet. She throws herself back onto the bed and then glances over at me. “This corset is killing me. Do you have peasant clothes I can wear like yours?”

Rolling my eyes, I get up from the chair and walk across the hall and grab a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. She smiles as I throw it at her upon coming back into the guest room and I turn around and face the wall. “Kara, I can’t change in here with a big gaping hole in the wall,” she says annoyed. “I’m a princess after all,”

“Oh, right,” I say walking towards the door and letting her go into my room to change. She takes a few minutes to get undressed and get into my “peasant clothes” but soon she’s opening up my room door and stepping to the side.

“I think I’ll stay in here with you if that’s okay. It’s terribly warm in the other room,”

“I guess that’s fine, but you haven’t answered my question,” I say to her.

“Remind me to do patience exercises with you, Kara,” she says rolling her eyes. “As for my siblings, I was going to locate them when you woke me up in the cave. The pods have a GPS tracker for cases when someone stupid, like Edwin, decides to mess up and leave us stranded in different areas of the world. My necklace could have helped replace them,” she says as I turn and sit down on the chair again.

“And did you replace them?” I ask her

“Well, I didn’t really have a lot of time with you and John rushing me,” she says with a certain snark in her voice. “But, I don’t think it’s going to work anyways. Edwin would have been smart enough to block the signals so Dad wouldn’t be able to replace them. I just want to know they’re okay,”

“I thought you hated them?”

“Oh,” she says chuckling “I do. I can’t wait to ring their necks...but they’re my siblings. And I know deep down, under all of the idiocy that they exhibited, it was from a place of love. Regardless of what I believe to be going on back in Kiridia, they truly are all I have in this world,” she says with a soft smile on her face. “However, they can literally grovel at my feet when they are found because I’m right about all of this,”

We sit in silence for a long time. I just met this girl, but we’ve been thrust into a situation where we are forced to trust each other. I know she’s mad at me because I made her run from the two men, but I just couldn’t shake the voice.

“Look,” I say. “I know you’re mad at me about making you run...I just, something told me I couldn’t trust them.”

“I’ve no interest in your gut feelings, Kara.”

“No, like a voice that spoke to me,” I say. “I can’t explain it. I can’t explain any of what has happened today. From replaceing you in the cave to hearing that voice tell me to protect you and not let you go with those men. It was adamant though. It was female, and she called me child,” I say, “The voice was accompanied with a certain sense of urgency, and I knew that I had to do what she was telling me to do,”

“So you’re crazy. That’s great to know-” she says grabbing her necklace and twisting at the top of it. A holographic screen opens it up and she begins to frantically type into the keyboard that’s appeared in front of her face.

“It’s not that I’m crazy, Raina. This voice is powerful. Like it sounds like it can do a lot. The only reason I got down that ladder was that it...it did something? I don’t know how to explain it. I was sure they were going to grab me when a bright light shone down from the sky and they fell over. I don’t know who it is, but they’re very insistent that you stay safe,” I say and then focus on the keyboard she’s typing on. “Seriously, what is that?” I say pointing at the necklace.

“You sound ridiculous right now, Kara,” she says ignoring my question about the necklace.

“You speak of ancient legends, and believe you’re a princess, and have a necklace that has a holographic keyboard that pops out from it. In my world, that is ridiculous. In my world people aren’t found in weird machines at the bottom of a cave. In my world, people don’t knock on each other’s doors and shoot holes in people’s walls. In my world, before you came, things made sense. So, no, I don’t think it’s ridiculous, Raina,” I say shaking my head angrily. “And you still haven’t answered my question,”

“Oh my gosh, Kara,” says Raina getting flustered. “This is a LOTUS. It’s a state of the art Kiridian technology that pretty much helps me do whatever I need. It’s how I got out of the police car. It’s how I do research to try and search flight trajectories for my siblings,” she says as she touches the screen and zooms into what she’s reading. It’s in a different language that I can’t understand. “And it’s how I’m doing research on this mystery voice that you’re talking about,”

“Wait, what?” I ask her confused. “You have real-life alien technology in my house?”

She turns to me and looks insulted as she drops her jaw. “I am not an alien, Kara. I’m a princess from a different planet,” she says correcting me as if there is an obvious difference. She turns back to her screen and squints and tilts her head. Her jaw drops as she zooms in on the text again and reads whatever is written with anxious eyes. “Wait,” she says looking shocked. She then immediately shakes her head. “No, it can’t be. They wouldn’t reveal themselves to someone from the earth. I’m reaching at this point,” she says reassuring herself.

“What can’t be?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says. “It’s not what that is,.”

“Try me,”

She rolls her eyes but turns begins to tell me what she’s thinking. “In the legends of the Kiridians, it speaks of a protector that goes against the ultimate evil. This protector is a heroine by the name of Lena. Life expectancy on my planet is a lot higher than on yours, given we don’t kill ourselves with grease and pollutants, but it is still not as high as what Lena’s predicted age is. Many have claimed to see her, but few have actually been able to prove they have. She’s known for revealing herself to great potential heroes in need of guidance and help them overcome their obstacles,” she says. “But Kara, you’re not a Kiridian. It wouldn’t make sense for her to reveal herself to you,”

“It is a female voice I’m hearing though,” I say. “And if there’s even the possibility that this Lena could be the voice I’m hearing, I want to talk to her and figure out what it is I’m supposed to do,”

“Kara, I don’t think there is anything that you should be doing,” says Raina as she gets up and begins to move towards the door. “I’m beginning to feel like this is all some prank on me-”

“Raina,” I say grabbing onto her arm. She stops moving and looks at me surprised. I take my hand off her arm and motion for her to sit back down on the bed. She hesitates but ultimately sits on the very edge of my mattress. “My whole life I’ve felt out of place. Sanora is not the placae that I want to end up. I’ve always known that I was made for something more,” I tell her. I’ve never been this vulnerable with someone before. “If this is what I’m supposed to do, you have to help me achieve this. I refuse to believe all of this is coincidental,”

“Kara, I get it,” she says sympathetically. “I really do, but I just don’t see how you can hear from Lena and be of Earth. People on Kiridia have barely any documentation of her anywhere. It’s just hard to believe-”

My body freezes as I feel a strong presence enter my bedroom. I look at Raina and see that she is still talking, but I’m unable to hear the words that are coming out of her mouth. “Raina?” I say, but she doesn’t notice and is still talking.

The room begins to turn black and white dots begin to appear throughout the blackness. Dark purple pillars sprout from the blackness and my room begins to transform into a lavish throne room. At the far side of the throne room sits a woman in a leather warrior outfit. Her black hair falls in waves far below her chest, and her caramel skin is the clearest I’ve ever seen. She has sharp cheekbones. So sharp I think I could cut something on them if I wanted to, and her eyes pierce through you as she gazes your way. She smiles and ushers for me to come toward her, and I begin to move.

“Kara, hello.”

I can’t speak. I’m awestruck at the person standing before me. I’ve never seen someone so beautiful yet strong before. Her smile radiates the room as she chuckles and waves her hand. “You’re allowed to speak, Kara,” she says to me. “I won’t bite,”

“A-are you Lena?” I ask her stuttering on my words like an idiot. She nods her head and my eyes go wide as she stands up and walks toward me. She sticks her hand out so I can shake it, but I can’t bring myself to raise my arm. She grabs ahold of my hand and shakes it, and then walks back to her chair.

“Please, have a seat,” she says waving her hand. A chair appears in front of her chair, and I slowly walk over to a seat. “You’ll have to forgive me for projecting you without warning. You see, I was hoping it wasn’t going to have to come to this. When the men came searching for the princess, however, they left very little choice,”

“So you are the one that talked to me,” I say replaceing my voice again.

“I am,” she says. “Actually, it’s probably better if the princess is here for this conversation,”

She waves her hand and Raina suddenly appears and begins to freak out. When she sees me in the room she gives me a curious look, and then turns around and sees Lena sitting in the chair. “Oh my gosh, Kara. That’s Lena,” she walks over to Lena with confidence and sticks her hand out to shake her hand. “I can’t believe this,” she says. “Kara you were right,”

“Hello, Raina,” says Lena with a warm smile as she shakes her hand. “I’m sure you’re familiar with Astro projection. I brought you in because I thought it might be beneficial for you to hear what I need to talk to Kara about,”

“Wait, what?” says Raina disappointed “You aren’t going to take me home?”

“Unfortunately not, child,” says Lena with a soft smile. “You’re not safe on Kiridia. Those men that came today would have brought you into your father’s castle, and from there you’d be taken as a prisoner,” She gets up from her seat, and a screen appears at the far end of the star-filled room. “This isn’t going to be easy to hear, Raina, but I need you to believe me. Everything your siblings found was true. Your father is working to open the key to eternal life, and he needs all four of you to be able to achieve this dream,” the screen begins to show footage of who I assume to be Raina’s siblings replaceing the evidence of what their father is trying to do.

Raina’s face sinks in as she looks at the screen that Lena has produced on the wall. She puts her mouth and begins to sob as she watches the videos turn to images of her family. Her father, or at least I’m assuming is her father, looks to be a cold man. He has red hair and a long wirey beard that falls to his collarbone. His features are harsh as he stares at you through the painting. Her family all has similar features. They’re all striking. “You mean...you mean...” says Raina as she sinks to her knees looking at the screen. “I can’t belive this,” she whimpers as she begins to cry harder.

“Yes, Raina,” says Lena as she walks over and puts her hand on her shoulder. “Your siblings were right to take you away. I am so sorry that you’re going through this, and I’m so sorry that the person that is supposed to protect you is doing everything but,” she says as she wraps her arm around her and brings her in for a hug.

Raina continues to cry for a minute as Lena sits there and comforts her. It’s hard seeing Raina show this much emotion. She is normally so sure of her choices and actions. I’m sure being wrong is not something that she is used to.

Raina picks her head up from Lena’s chest and she wipes them away quickly as she clears her throat and stands back up. She sniffles as she flips her hair back behind her shoulders and gives Lena a stern look. “What is it you’ll have me do?” she asks her.

“Raina, it’s okay to be upset-” I begin to tell her but she holds up her hand and cuts me off.

“Kara, if my dad is as evil as my siblings have said he is, then these are my people that are in danger. I will not allow the people of Kiridia to suffer under a tyrant king,” she says giving me a fierce expression. “It’s time for me to step up and stop blindly following my father. A princess has to make touch choices. So what is it you’ll have me do?” she asks Lena again.

“Actually,” says Lena. “It’s not what I’ll have you do. It’s what I’ll have both of you do.”

Raina looks back at me and walks over. She links her arm in mine and nods with a reassuring expression. “We will do whatever it takes,” she assures Lena. “Just tell us where to start,”

“That’s part of the issue,” says Lena. “The first step in this is to replace your siblings, but in order to replace them, we need a GPS signal. I watched you try and use your LOTUS to connect with them several times, but your brother is smart and blocked that way of communication,”

“Smart is not the word that I would use for Edwin at the moment,” says Raina rolling her eyes.

“You need to replace something stronger. If you can replace a way to connect with them that has a stronger signal, I can work through here to make sure they connect,”

“Like my pod?” ask Raina.

“Precisely.” says Lena smiling.

“Kara,” she says looking at me. “You and Joey need to be ready to go. We have a lot to do and we must leave as soon as possible to get this done. My bet is that they’re trapped somewhere remote and weren’t lucky enough to have someone replace them or they surely would have looked for me already,” she says. “Lena, I will do what I have to. Send me back and I’ll start planning a way to get there,”

With a flick of Lena’s wrist, Raina is no longer in the room with us.

“Lena?” I ask her softly

“Yes, Kara?”

“Why did you pick me to be apart of this?”

She walks over to me and touches the top of my head. “My child,” she says. ” I didn’t pick anything. This was your fight from the beginning. You have a lot to learn about yourself, and a lot to remember,” She waved her hand and I’m back in my bedroom.

“Lena?!” I call out. “Remember what?!”