ATTENTION!! JUST LIKE CHAPTER 40, THIS CHAPTER 42 IS ALSO VERY LONG, SO PLEASE STROLL DOWN FOR PART ONE!!!

Chapter 42: Fortunate And Unfortunate [Part Two]
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“No! How many times must I tell you?! One per day! Tiadora’s instructions, and if you drink them all now, you won’t last till the end of summer.”

“You’re one annoying woman.”

Unlike Jason, Kiara would rather just book for a royal class, lean back and relax in a normal plane. She knew her dad would flip, if she were to ever ask for a plane of her own. They weren’t as wealthy as the Kingstons. It had been a silent trip so far actually. The television in fornt of her displayed that she had been sleeping for the past three hours, and that it was nearing dinnertime. When the dishes arrived, David grumbled quietly beside her and didn’t even touch his food until…

“Hey Kiara, can I have a blood bag now?”

The day before, Tiadora had packed a hundred small bags of blood just for David. And the instruction was that he was to take one per day, at noon. Of course, they couldn’t exactly put all of the bags in a bigger bag and put it through the airport security scans before lift-off. Kiara had found out that Mokona’s stomach was practically another universe itself. It seems that the sacred animal was able to suck all the hundred bags of ‘preserved’ blood into its stomach. When asked for an explanation, Tiadora just shrugged, and said that when Kiara commands it, Mokona will spit one bag out.

And now, the human vampire was leaning very close to her asking for one when he already had it four hours ago. ”If I’m annoying, then you’re one very persistent man,” Kiara tapped on his tray of untouched food. “You know, the food ain’t going to eat themselves.”

“Alright,” David threw his arms up in defeat. “Fine. I’ll eat this…this…sheesh! What is this?”

“This is --” a sudden jerk stopped her words as the plane lurched forward forcefully. There was a sudden shudder and the whole aeroplane shook, shaking as if it was unstable. Kiara gripped tightly on the seat rest as the jerking continued.

“Attention all passengers, this is your pilot speaking. We are currently experiencing some minor turbulence and a bad storm. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain --” static sizzled through the speaker instead.

Another push from the back threw Kiara off her seat. David reached out, and was able to grab her hand in time. Kiara struggled to get up, but it was difficult. The aeroplane was now jerking uncontrollably. Passengers were just screaming their lungs off. “Mokona!” David pulled the white puff-ball from his haversack. “Tell me this isn’t a Xana attack.”

“It’s not,” Mokona was able to speak through the loud shouts. “Kiara, you will have to repair this mess.”

“Me?!” Kiara gasped, before the plane lurched a drastic angle forward then back to its horizontal form again. “I didn’t do anything!”

David placed his hand on the wall of the plane and closed his eyes. A moment later, he grunted and placed his palms on the floor instead, as if waiting for something. Soon, he narrowed his brows and stared at Kiara. “I can’t seem to balance the plane,” David realized after he tried. “My powers don’t seem to respond to the plane.”

“We are too far from the ground,” Mokona said, and tried to stare out of the window. The plane was still shaking! “We are flying above sea though. If the plane can’t control itself soon, we will crash.”

The sacred animal turned back to the guardian of Water. “You will have to take the spotlight.”

Kiara gasped but quickly composed herself. She knew that she wasn’t so involved in all their trainings, and that she was the most reluctant one in the group. And she didn’t think that she would have to lead like this. Plans were normally hatched by Jason, not her. Kiara felt herself shiver. What plan can I think of?!

Just then, the plane halted abruptly, causing the impact to throw everyone forward. Kiara thought that the trauma was finally over, until the plane tilted at a steep angle slowly. Suddenly, the plane gathered speed, aiming downwards till Kiara was practically sitting on her television screen upright. The plane was going to crash!

“Mokona! Lend me your wings!” Kiara started shouting as the plane started to fall. She grabbed onto the sacred animal and tucked it under her arm. “David, phase us out of the plane. Mokona, transform once we’re in the sky.”

None hesitated. Kiara tried to stand up and leaned against the wall with Mokona under her arm. David did the same and placed his hands on the wall beside Kiara shoulders. He bent down closer to her face and for the first time, gave her a very sinister smile. “Hope you pass!”

“Wha--?!” Kiara wasn’t able to ask as her back no longer leaned on anything solid. She fell backwards letting the wind gently beat against her, as she caught her breath. What was I thinking?! Almost immediately, she felt herself falling faster, extending the distance between her and the plane, but when she thought everything went wrong, Kiara landed hard on soft ground.

At first she thought it was the grass as she saw that she landed on greens, but then as Kiara steadied herself, she realized that she was on the transformed Mokona. The Phoenix! Now that she looked closer, Mokona was incredibly huge. So much bigger than how Gaia had looked like. Maybe even bigger than the plane! “Kiara!” the phoenix’s head tilted behind to face her. “Orders.”

“Glide down to the sea and hurry,” Kiara shouted. In a flash, the phoenix tucked in its magnificent wings and swooped down towards the sea. When the distance felt right, Kiara halted the sacred animal. “It’s my turn,” Kiara outstretched her arms. It was just the wide endless sea. There weren’t any islands nearby either. She looked up to see the falling aeroplane closing in.

“What are you intending to do? And when?” Mokona asked as they levitated in the air.

Kiara opened her eyes and looked back into the surprisingly black Phoenix eyes, “For the first question, no idea. For the second question, now!!!”

Kiara concentrated on the silent waters, and soon, a column bursts out from the ocean and rise higher until the impact crashed into the aeroplane. Kiara clenched her hands harder. She could feel the aeroplane weight on her arms as if the water had some inter-connection with her. The plane was now balancing on that one thin water column, and it didn’t look like it would stay stable for long.

She concentrated again and let another burst of water push the plane from behind until it leveled. But then, as the metal surface of the aeroplane’s belly seem to slip; it started to tilt slowly to the unguarded side. Immediately, Kiara continued to form more water columns but this time, smaller than the previous, such that it formed like a slide for the plane. Then when it finally gave way, the plane leaned forward towards the water slide and in such a quick velocity, skidded across the water surface safely.

Kiara let herself faint back onto the Phoenix’s body, as all the energy seems to have left her own. Her arms felt sore, and it was red, as if she had scratched on them a lot. She wanted to scream out in ager of the flaws on her beautiful arm, when she realized that her plan had somewhat worked. Kiara bolted back up to reality to see that the plane was stationary and safe. People inside seems to be running around within the plane.

The disaster may have been over, but then chaos was still raging inside. What was going to happen now?

“Kiara!” the guardian of Water heard her name being called from the sky. But when she looked up into the dim evening sky, she saw David standing on top a floating rock, levitating towards them. Once he was close, David jumped from the rock, slide down Mokona’s neck and landed beside Kiara on his two feet. “Are you alright?”

“I think so,” Kiara pushed her fringe back and something struck her mind. “I thought your powers can’t reach the skies?”

“I lied,” David smiled strangely.

“What the--? Don’t you know that you could have –”

“Patience, Kiara,” Mokona voice echoed, as it tilted its head again. “I told him to, for a very good reason.”

“And that would be?” Kiara asked when suddenly a shadow cast over them as if something big was flying in the sky.

The flying being looked down and ‘ran’ against the winds before landing gracefully on the sea’s surface. Its fur was of pure white colour. Everything was gleaming with just whiteness except for its black eyes and blue gem on its forehead. Kiara didn’t really know what it was. She had heard of it, but she wasn’t sure if this was what a chimera look like.

The creature had the head of a dragon, but instead of scales, it was the white fur that crowned its majestic outlook. Unlike Gaia and Mokona, this one didn’t have wings at all. Its masculine body was like an enlarged fully white-coloured tiger body, with sharp claws at both the front and hind feet. No wonder t flew as if it was walking in the sky. The beast didn’t even have wings.

Kiara’s sacred animal lowered its head and bowed down before the guardian of Water. “Descendant of Respected Sir Arthur, my name is Excalibur and I am a Chimera. My reason then and now is to serve the guardians of Anastasia regardless of where evil lies. I am an animal with one mighty soul to claw through the rest. And for that I have come as your humble servant,” the sacred animal spoke with a king’s voice.

For a moment, even though Kiara knew that her sacred animal was finally standing in front of her after times of waiting, there was a nagging feeling that ached in her back. If Excalibur was in the area, why didn’t it help in saving the plane? It did appear after the plane landed in the water, so it should have been nearby. “Mokona,” Kiara finally said, taking everyone aback as they had expected to address Excalibur instead. “Why did you tell David to not aid me in the plane-saving?”

Like Kiara had expected, Excalibur answered instead, “To test you. I have been observing you from a distance all these time, and I need to prove yourself worthy of my assistance. The disturbance of the plane was caused by me.”

Kiara balled her hands into fists and anger surged within her. “What the hell were you thinking?!” Kiara screamed at Excalibur, who was shocked by her sudden outburst. “How dare you involve other innocent people in this test?! Did you not consider for the fact if I wasn’t able to react appropriately?! What if, because of your intention, the whole aeroplane had really crashed in the ocean?!”

“I had only intended to --”

“To what?!” Kiara was really flared up. “You not only endangered the lives of every single living being in that plane, but you also threaten the lives of two guardians and Mokona! Did you not care?! You could have twisted your test without having to endanger other people’s lives! How dare you!! And you call yourself a Guardian’s sacred animal?!”

Excalibur became silent. It hadn’t expected it to turn out this way. It thought that the guardian would have been very happy to see that her sacred animal was finally here, and that it would have a firm strict attitude with the guardian of Water. Instead, she was the one with that grew angry at it, as if she didn’t want Excalibur as her sacred animal. It didn’t know how to respond. “Leave!” Kiara shouted back after a period of silence. “If this is how you view a situation, it would be no different once we enter a battlefield. You would simply not care!”

“Kiara,” Mokona looked at the guardian with mixed emotion. Apparently, no one had expected this. “All this was for good intentions. If it didn’t turn out, I would have --”

“No,” she rebutted the Phoenix’s words. “I wouldn’t want my comrades who live to help serve the people, to use them with the possibility of killing them. I abhor that attitude!”

David stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Consider it carefully, Kiara,” he spoke in a gentle tone, trying to calm her tense aura. “Excalibur might not come back, and you would need your sacred sword to help in fighting Xana. We would have less manpower without him.”

Kiara grunted and glared at Excalibur. When the sacred animal finally formed an answer, the guardian of Water declared, “Fine. I accept you as my sacred animal, but keep your fucking distance from me. Only come to me when I summon you.”

With that, Excalibur bowed its head again. It felt a rush of a surprising sorrow, and yet also a surge of confusion, but orders were orders. A bright glow radiated from the Chimera, and soon, it transformed into a falcon that flew into the sky and disappeared into the moonlight.

“Kiry,” David used Jason’s nickname for her, as he placed his other hand on her other shoulder, facing her. “Will you be alright?”

But the guardian of Water didn’t reply. She didn’t even nod or move or look at him. Her shoulders felt cold under his touch as he tried to shake her. “Kiara?” David’s voice grew more worried as she didn’t move an inch, as if frozen on the spot. “Kiara!”

“David,” Mokona looked questioningly, and, too, realized the fear. “Why is she--”

But the Phoenix’s words were broken with a piercing scream. Kiara suddenly clutched her neck tightly, eyes widened and started to cry, screaming in pain. She staggered back and fell onto the Phoenix’s back and started to shiver in agony. Her hands still around her neck, but she didn’t try to gasp for air. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Kiara yelled. Her shout scared David. He had never heard her in so much pain before. He tried to hold her down, but Kiara kept on shaking uncontrollably, shouting and screaming.

“Mokona!” David was now frightened for her. “What’s happening?!”

“It’s a vision,” the sacred animal spoke in a sad voice. “She must be having a horrible vision.”