Chapter Four: Forgotten and Found
"Hey! Old man!"
"I'm NOT old!"
"Shut up and look at this!"
"Where did you find this?"
"Hod's repica. You know something about this?"
"Of course! This is me and my sister… right before Hod was destroyed…"
"Does this picture belong to you then?"
"Yeah. Emperor Peony gave it to me before we had left to stop Tear's brother, Van. I lost it when we were going through the place."
"How come the bottom's torn off?"
"I don't know, he gave it to me like this. He said he didn't know what happened to the other half."
"Really now? I'm kind of curious. I don't think it was torn off accidentally. It looks like someone had done that himself."
"Well I'm just happy I got this back."
"Hey, was there a fireplace in your old home?"
"In Hod? There was… I hid in it for some time. Until the room was invaded… why do you ask?"
"Well, when I fell into the hole and found that picture, there was a fireplace next to me. It felt sort of nostalgic… god! All this stuff is getting to me!" Kyle scratched his hair and turned away, walking out of the room.
"Hey! Thanks, kid." Guy called out from behind.
"Whatever!" Kyle waved without turning and made his way to his room.
"Could he be him?" Jade was leaning on a column near Guy's and Luke's bedroom door. This could get interesting. The ends of his mouth curved and he walked off in search of his old friend, Peony.
"Jade! Good timing! Can you help me tuck in my rappigs? They get cold during the night time!" Peony was fluffing out a large blanket and placed it over the rappigs that were lined up side by side.
"As long as you can answer my question." Jade pushed his glasses back in place.
"Sure, what is it, Jade?" Peony patted one of his rappig's head and turned to face Jade across the room.
"What did you do with bottom part of the picture of Guy, his sister… and his baby brother?" Jade's eyes were solid and looked into Peony's with out hesitation.
"Oh… that…" Peony turned away and continued to tuck in his pets. "I have it in that drawer. Do you want to see it?" He pointed to a drawer in a wooden desk under the window.
"Yes. I would." Jade fetched the key from Peony, and inserted it into the lock. After opening the drawer, he took out the thin piece of the picture and examined it closely. "Just as I thought. They look somewhat similar… Emperor Peony, you knew about this all along, didn't you?"
Peony laughed and called out in defeat, "Looks like you got me! I received that picture when I visited Hod for the last time. I had also met the King and Queen's newborn baby. That small baby boy had been Kyle. After the place was destroyed, I had kept the picture with me and never looked at it, until I met Gailardia once again. Face to face. I had then decided that I should return the picture to him in memory of his lost sister. But he had not known of his baby brother, and he had never regained any memory of Kyle. There, I decided that I should not tell him at that time. So, I tore off the bottom picture containing Kyle. This though, wasn't only for Guy's sake, but for Kyle's sake also. When he came here under Ion's letter, he was very paranoid. He spent his life stealing, working, and foraging all on his own. He never had a family or a permanent home. He wouldn't be able to handle suddenly having a family. Even now, Kyle is still hiding his feelings from me. He's working hard to find his reason for living, and I think we still should wait."
"Not ready to hand him over?" Jade teased.
"Haha! I guess I'm a little selfish myself!" He plunked into a blue velvet chair and placed his hand on his forehead.
"Were you also the one to introduce him to machinery and such?"
"He was good to begin with! He had once asked my for a load of machine parts, and after a month or so, he was able to create that gun he uses!"
"So it was a specialized gun. That's simply amazing. I guess the love for machinery runs in their family blood."
"So it seems."