Chapter 44: Silent Prayer [Part 1]
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When Kiara finally felt the nerves in her fingers activate, she clenched onto a hand. It was big and rather cold, as if this hand was frozen solid. But as soon as her fingers traced that hand's wrist and touched the familiar silver band of a guardian, Kiara knew it was David. Her eyes flush opened to see a beautifully decorated ceiling, full of tiny fairies and creatures playing about. It triggered her memory, but she couldn't remember what about.

"You're finally awake," Kiara heard David's voice as she hover her eyes to her right to see the guardian of Earth and Mokona beside her. "How do you feel?"

"Fine, I think," Kiara spoke in a surprisingly un-glam hoarse voice, remembering the vision she had. "I don't feel the effects of the vision anymore. Where are we?"

"Some five-star hotel whose name I usually don't recognise," David smiled with relief. "The casino is downstairs too."

"So we're finally in Las Vegas," Kiara sighed as she looked around at her surroundings. "What happened to the passengers of the plane?"

"After you fainted, I 'fixed' the plane," David recalled the incident. "Though after that, Mokona had to give it a jump start so that they can take off easily. We arrived four days ago."

"I was asleep for four days?!" Kiara gasped at the thought.

“Yes.” David nodded and looked worried. That was strange, Kiara thought. David never shows his expressions and moods to others. “The doctor who attended to you, said that you had probably hit your head during the fall and needed lots of rest. But Mokona said that the vision was so traumatizing that it sent you into a state of shock.”

Kiara made a sarcastic laugh. “Oh wow, it guessed it right.”

“Kiara,” David’s tone was now serious as he clutched her hand tighter. “What vision did you have this time?”

The guardian of water plonged back on her bed, and curled up the thick silk blanket over her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Kiara…” David pleaded. “C’mon. How can we help you if you don’t even --”

“I SAID THAT I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT! SO LEAVE ME ALONE!” Kiara shouted under her blanket.

David could then hear her cries from under the cloth. The vision must have really hurt her for her to be like this, David thought. He wanted to know her vision. Tiadora said that Kiara would normally have visions about the guardians, but they had all been horrible visions; nothing happy. He still remembered Kiara’s first vision, where she said that she saw someone going to stab her.

I’m going to prevent that vision from happening! If the stab blow is really meant for her, I’ll take it.

Without any further reply from Kiara, David stood up and left the hotel room with Mokona tagging along behind him. He felt his sacred animal’s small paw pulling at his trousers, normally an indication that it was to be ferried instead, but this time as David let Mokona sit on his shoulder, it hugged David’s head. “It is okay,” Mokona comforted him. “Things like these do happen. All guardians suffer a terrible sad past or fate. Even Sir Arthur, Kiara’s ancestor, couldn’t bear with some of the visions.”

“Did he tell the other guardians about the visions?”

Mokona shook his head. “There was a minority of visions which he didn’t tell. When I asked Excalibur why, he said that it was because he didn’t want the guardians to be thinking twice unnecessarily,” Mokona explained, but when it saw David’s confused expression, it elaborated. “If I were to tell you that you’ll die tomorrow, you’ll make full use of today, right?”

“I guess I would.”

“Exactly. In every vision, Excalibur told me, Sir Arthur always tried to identify whose shoes he was in. On most occasions, he can. If you tell someone about the future, that someone would carefully plan to either avoid it or change it,” Mokona emphasized the last part. “If it is meant for that person, it is then for that person. The visions don’t change, David.”

The guardian of Earth sighed, approaching his room which wasn’t far away from Kiara’s. He was about to unlock his door when he sensed the big footsteps of Kiara father’s walking before the corridor bent to where he was. He fished out the envelope in his jacket, expecting the man’s arrival when they had arrived here in Las Vegas, and his father needed to convey a message.

The thin man with big feet finally made the bent, and quickly recognized David from afar. As Kiara’s flat face father walked closer, he began speaking to David, “Your father was supposed to make the transaction last week, boy.”

David didn’t answer, and just passed Mr. Sanders the envelope. He opened it, and after a few moments reading it, Kiara’s father, manager of one of the top modeling industries, ripped the letter into pieces. David had already expected this reaction though; he braced himself for impact. “What insufficient timing?!” Mr. Sanders boomed his voice that made a distasteful echo in the halls. “What does this mean?! He can only pay half even though I gave him the extension! Your father is certainly one ungrateful man, boy!!!”

“Do not forget who paying for your school fees, boy!” he shouted even though David was right in front of him. “I thought your father was a worthy man. But he became useless and pathetic right after that incident!”

“Yes, sir,” David responded in a monotone voice, while Mokona had dropped down to the floor and hid behind his legs. “He still blames me for where he stands now.”

Mr. Sanders bellowed in laughter. “Of course! If it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t need to worry about paying me back the school fees!”

“Yes, sir.”

“How’s my daughter, boy? Has she awoken from her slumber?”

David considered this for a moment. Kiara wouldn’t want anyone around her with that trauma still in her mind. If she didn’t want to talk to David then her father would be much of a worst choice. David breathed in and answered back, “She is still asleep, sir.”

“Well then, once my little dove wakes up, tell her this,” Mr. Sanders handed David a stack of papers. “The first modeling atmosphere scheme would be at Phoenix Academy next week. Tell her that the theme is school days. You can at least do that, boy?”

“Yes, sir.”

The man, without bothering to take a look at his daughter in the room not far away, turned around and walked back to where he came from. Mokona climbed up David’s pants and reached into his pocket for the card. David couldn’t help but give a small smile when Mokona tried to reach the beeper from the ground. It wasn’t too tall enough. “Damn! And I can’t even transform now,” Mokona cursed.

David chuckled and lifted Mokona until it was on equal level with the beeper. Once it tapped on the metal bar and turned bright red in colour, David entered his room.

It wasn’t as colourful or fanciful as Kiara’s, but he didn’t mind, as long as there was a bed and a toilet. He dropped himself on the bed and sighed, recalling back how Kiara had pushed him away so forcefully. In the train of thoughts, he didn’t even hear Mokona’s question. “David!!!!”

“Huh?” he opened his eyes and looked at Mokona beside him. “What?”

“I asked…” Mokona smiled, making its face look puffier than it already is. “…what was the incident that Kiara’s dad talked about?”

David caught his breath, and in that split second had a small flashback about the incident. Sir Arthur told Excalibur his visions, but that doesn’t mean that he could have kept from the sacred animal other secrets. David looked away from Mokona and gazed at his plain ceiling before answering, “I used to be just like Kiara, Jason and Cornelia…I came from a wealthy family.”

“My family had ties with the Kingstons and Kiara’s family. When I was young, I was very close to Kiara because my mother always brought me to their house for tea,” David refolds his past. “I met Cornelia much later, but I first met Jason when I came to Kadic. Apparently, the Kingstons prefer to always bring out Cornelia rather than Jason.”

“My dad was so-called brought into the family;” David spotted a squirrel at his window, trying to come in. “He came from an average family while my mum came from a royal bloodline. I would say, we live very happily and I was quite pleased with the wonderful childhood I had in my first ten years. And then, when I was in fourth grade…my mother died.”

David stood up from his bed, approached his window and opened for the brown squirrel to come in. The little animal nudged at his hand as he stroked its fur, indicating that it was thankful. Below the cabinet of the television, David fished out the familiar silver tin, and gave the squirrel one ‘heart’ biscuit. “HEY!!!!” David heard Mokona’s scream behind him. He knew his sacred animal will get worked up if he were to ever give away its favourite snack to others. “That’s MY heart biscuit!!!!”

“After my mother passed away,” David smiled at the squirrel when it nibbled ferociously at the biscuit. “Nothing was ever the same again.”

Mokona suddenly stopped its whining, and looked as if it was the verge on tears. David gave a sad smile and passed Mokona a heart biscuit too. “At first, I couldn’t get into Kadic. There wasn’t enough money. But Kiara was a big help. She begged for her father to pay for my school fees monthly. My dad will still have to pay him back though. The problem is, he can never always pay in full every month. So I’m forced to join the modeling industry to at least, help earn some.”

“Is that why you are not going to visit your father this summer?” Mokona asked in between its chewing.

David sat back on his bed and sighed again, “It is not that I do not want to visit him, Mokona. It’s more like…he doesn’t even want anything to do with me.”

“Why?” David could already see the tiny water tears forming at the side of Mokona’s shut eyes when his sacred animal asked. “Why is your father so mean?”

“Because he blames me, Mokona…” David plunged into his pillows and tried to sleep as he ended his story about his past. “He sees me as a jinx, a bad luck charm. He blames me for the incident.”
★

When Ulrich said that they were going to see the trademark of history for Australia the next day, Cornelia was confused to why they had arrived at a carnival which was a two-hour drive away from their hotel.

There was a little pinch of irony in it too. The family had dressed casually for event and looked so happy and excited when they reached here. Cornelia couldn’t imagine her father even jumping for joy at a carnival. It was so strange to Cornelia to see the family in such high spirits. Even Ulrich was enthusiastic about it. “Here you go,” Ulrich lifted Cornelia’s right wrist, and slid in a tied string, an access pass through the entrance, around her guardian’s silver metallic band. “Excited?”

“Not really,” Cornelia said it in an uninterested manner. “I don’t understand why we have to come to a carnival.”

“It’s the end of school, Cornelia,” Ulrich gave an encouraging smile. “You’re supposed to have fun before studying the historical sites of Australia. Let’s have some fun together.”

Cornelia sighed, but smiled at the different way of thinking that Ulrich had. “You’re like the exact opposite of Jason,” Cornelia mentioned as they separated from Ulrich’s parents and Luke. “He finds fun from the historical sites itself.”

“I’m sure his metabolisms are much slower than mine…” Ulrich exclaimed, making Cornelia laugh. “But you’re with me now, so you will have to do it my way, one way or another.”

“Fine then,” Cornelia put her arm around his as he offered and walked.

But it was only after a few steps later, that Cornelia heard a little girl screaming at her mother, “Mummy, why does that guy have a big scar across his face?”

Hearing that, Cornelia turned around, and several metres away, she saw him. Artemis was leaning against a stall pillar, munching onto a green apple. Once they made eye contact, he gave a sly smile. Cornelia scoffed, and walked faster with Ulrich beside her.

“Woah, somebody is eager to get to the roller coasters,” Ulrich teased.

When they arrived at the ride, there was a long queue in line. Cornelia at first didn’t mind waiting in the queue, but when she turned back to look at the direction in where they came from, she saw Artemis walking towards them! She grumbled and pulled Ulrich through the line. Then she thought again, that the people would be complaining and shouting, but as Cornelia walked up the staircase towards the stand, she closed her eyes, and imagined of a thick mist blocking their vision.

=== Proceed down for part 2!! ===