Loyalties

Chapter 1

15 years ago

Ken's Pov

These veil breaches are getting a bit annoying. I thought to myself. Veil breaches have been getting more and more frequent within the last few weeks. The other masters are tired as well of these incidences, but they don't have families to get back to, even though we aren't supposed to have one. All of these occurrences bring up a pretty big question, though… Will Janet ask me to not leave as often to be with our child?

I shook my head hard as I rounded the corner. I needed to focus if I was going to find a creature I haven't seen before. Then, herd it back through the veil. Simple…

Suddenly, I heard a scream. Oh no. Someone must have run into the creature! I pulled on and activated my gauntlet. Making sure that no one else was around, I summoned my creature.

"Guardian Akhal-Teek!"I called.

Akhal ran through the veil and followed me to an abandoned alley way. I gasped at what I saw.

A young girl who couldn't be older than twelve was trying to fend off a rumbling terrasaur with a metal pipe. What stunned me even more was the fact that there was another alley way that was too small for the terrasaur to fit through right behind her.

"What are you doing? Run kid, run!" I yelled out to the girl, causing her to break her focus on the creature.

The terrasaur roared, and then, the girl made my heart stop. She swung the pipe and smacked the creature right in the nose. It stepped back, probably even more surprised than me that this petite child just struck it. She yelled something at the creature in a different language, causing it to tilt its head to the side. I think Akhal and I did the same. This little girl just made a creature probably thirty times her size step back.

I snapped out of my daze and sent my creature to stand in front of the girl. Only then did I realize why the girl didn't run away. She was standing in front of a little boy who was knocked out cold on the ground. I ran over to the two and gently picked up the boy.

"Who are you?" The girl asked, she had a heavy Russian accent, but despite her age, spoke English clearly and without hesitation.

"I'm a friend. Come on, let's get your little friend some help." I grabbed her arm and led her into the alley way, well out of danger. The boy was definitely in some trouble. He was covered in bruises, making me think he might have been run over by the creature, but I knew someone that could help.

"Humonculon the Blaster!"I called my small creature partner.

"What is it doing to my brother?!" The girl cried out as Humonculon began to wrap the boy with its webs.

"The webs will heal him. Wait here." I ran back to where Akhal and the terrasaur.

Terrasors have become routine veil breaches, so it didn't take long for me to guide it back through the veil and close the breach. I ran back to find that the little boy had woken up and started crying. He struggled against the webs, but he wasn't strong enough to break them. I wasn't sure what to do. I could wipe the boys mind now, but that might scare away the girl, and she would probably make a great acolyte. Luckily, I didn't have to do anything. The girl began to softly sing to her little brother. It was in Russian, but I knew it was something comforting. The boy calmed down and looked over at me.

"Who you?" He asked in broken English.

"My name is Ken Takahashi Okamoto. Do you two know what that was?" I gestured back to where the fight was.

"No. I have never seen anything like that in my life. What was it?" The girl surprised me. She should be traumatized, or at the very least frightened, but she wasn't. She seemed more curious than anything. I smiled at her.

"That was a Rumbling Terrasaur. A nature creature from the Kaiju realm." Their eyes widened in amazement, but then became disappointed when I didn't continue.

"What's the Kaiju realm?" The girl asked.

"I could tell you more, but you need to agree to take a test." The girl tilted her head. "By the way… what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. This is my little brother, Nico, and my name is Nadia Lobachevsky." The girl raised her hand and I shook it softly.

"Well, Nadia, would you like to learn how to do what I do?" I asked with a smile.