Growing Up

We all knew it would come, that we couldn't stay together forever. The things we wanted to do with our lives were just too different, but knowing that didn't make it any easier. I swear, leaving them was the hardest thing I ever did. Harder then fighting the dynasty, harder the defeating Talpa, because for all those hardships, they were with me. We always knew that if we slipped up there would be someone to catch us. That wasn't going to change, but given the distances we were about to put between each other, we were going to fall a lot farther before we could catch one another.

We were sitting in a circle on the floor of Mia's living room, just talking, making sure everything we wanted to say got said. We had already said goodbye to Yuli and Mia. The next day we would all leave, going our own ways. We had planned it that way so we would only have to say goodbye once.

I finally voiced the fear that had burnt itself into my mind and heart. I told them I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave them, and I started to cry, which was bound to happen eventually anyway.

Sage put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, telling me if I could handle Talpa and evil warlords, I could certainly handle us going to college. Rowen and Kento echoed the sentiment, and it helped some, but I knew they were just as afraid as I was. I was ready to call the whole thing off. We would think of something else; there had to be a way for us to stay together.

It was Cye who gave us the strength to leave, to live our own lives. He always seems to know how to bring out the strength in us that we never knew we had. He told us to hold out our left hands and held out his own.

"The bond we have is stronger than any blood bond," he took his pocketknife and made a cut on the edge of each of our palms.

"But just in case you forget that," he reached across the circle and pressed his palm against mine, locking our fingers together. "Remember that the blood of four other people runs through your veins, and any time you need their strength it will be there."

I smiled for the first time in almost a week. He was right; Cye usually is. He let go of my hand to take Kento's, and Sage pressed his palm against mine, squeezing hard.

The next morning we left. Sage and Kento both went home, Sage to help with the dojo, and Kento to help with the restaurant. Sage is going to a local university majoring in pre-med, and Kento is doing the same, majoring in business and minoring in geology. Cye is attending the University of Hawaii majoring in marine biology, and Rowen is even farther away, at Harvard majoring in astro-physics.

And me, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I defiantly had a place to go. I had been accepted into a college near Tokyo as a pre-major. Right now forestry is looking pretty good.

It isn't always easy, but every time I think I can't do it, every time I miss them too much, I look at the little scar on my palm, and I remember that the blood of four other people runs through my veins, and my blood runs through theirs, that their strength is my strength and my strength is theirs. And every time I remember that, I know there isn't anything I can't do.