Finding the Lost Boy Page 6

  Chapter Five

  "Eathen!" Katelin called again reaching for him. He'd just shattered the glass he was holding and now he was glowing red. "Eathen!" she cried. She was scared and had no idea what was happening, but she still reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders with both hands. When she touched him the glow started to fade and his muscles started to relax. She blinked away the tears that had begun to cloud her eyes and when she looked back at Eathen she saw that he had tears flowing down his cheeks. "Eathen" she said, relieved to see that he was coming back. Slowly and gently she brought her hands down from his shoulders to his hand that had been clenched tightly since he shattered the glass. Gently she guided him into opening it. She was ready for the blood and to pull broken bits of glass out of his hand. Instead his hand was unmarked and clear sand fell from between his fingers. She looked back to his eyes and when she meant his gaze she saw pain and sorrow. It was the same pain that she knew too well, but had never seen in his eyes before this moment.

  Thinking back to the moment just before she lost him Katelin asked, "What happened?" Though in part she already knew the answer.

  Through tear filled eyes Eathen looked at Katelin and steadied his voice. "They killed my parents." he managed to say before he broke down again.

  Katelin held him close and let the boy cry on her shoulder. Unlike people falling from the sky, parents dying was something that Katelin knew too well. "Come on." she said softly, as she helped up. Making sure to steer him clear of the broken bits of glass that he hadn't crushed to sand, she lead him into her parents room. Though at this point she wasn't sure if it would even cut his bare feet or not This time, with his help, she got him into the bed. She sat down beside him and continued to hold him close while he wept.

  In between his broken sobs Eathen repeated over and over again, barely above a whisper. "They died because of me." and "I'll never even know their names."

  Katelin didn't bother asking what he meant or arguing with him. She didn't sit there and insist that everything would be okay. She knew that nothing she could say to him at this moment would help him feel better. So she did the only thing she could do for him. She held him in silence letting him know that he wasn't alone and they stayed this way until they both fell asleep.

  ---

  Katelin was the first to wake up later that day after the two of them had slept for a little over three hours. She moved gently as she got out of the bed trying not to wake up Eathen as she went. She went back into the kitchen, took one look at the sandwich that she'd only managed to take one bite out, and decided to make herself another one.

  Eathen woke up as Katelin first started to get out of bed, but didn't let her notice that he was awake. He had troubled her enough he thought and so when she was out of sight he sat up and began to contemplate his options, the few he had left at this point.

  Right after Katelin finished her sandwich she went to check on Eathen. She stood in the doorway and wasn't surprised to see him awake. He didn't strike her as a heavy sleeper and with the way that he seemed to have already known she was coming, even though she hadn't made a sound she knew that he'd been up. "Would you like me to go?" she asked softly.

  "No not at all." he said. "Thank you for earlier."

  Katelin sat down next to him. "It's no big deal." She began. But when she saw that he really meant it she added. "But I'm glad that I was able help." She smiled kindly and Eathen returned a much weaker one. "So you remember what happened?"

  Her smile was gone but Eathen saw a firm look of understanding in her eyes that he hadn't noticed before. "Some of it." he began. "Or rather enough of it to know what happened." he paused, trying to think of a way to tell her that would make sense.

  "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." she said, trying to be understanding of the fact that they'd just met.

  "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that." he paused not sure how to go on but the look in Katelin's eyes said that there wasn't a wrong way so he continued. "It's just that it's a long story and I'd have to start from the beginning for it to make any sense at all."

  She smiled and pointed to his leg. "You're going to have to stay off your feet for a while, and if you don't mind the company I'd really like to hear it." She started to blush and he looked at her slightly confused as to why. "You're a lost kid Eathen." she said, scratching her head. "The first thing I should've done, the first thing any sane person would've done, was call an ambulance or the police. But I didn't and I'm not sure why." She stood up and started pacing around the room. "It just didn't feel right, I don't know, you didn't feel right." She smiled and blushed. "Not like that, but I don't know how but I knew you were different from everything else, that somehow you were special." she paused for a moment and saw that he was both really touched and a little uncomfortable. "I know that we just met and I don't want to come off creepy or anything but it would be nice to get to know you."

  "I don't think you're creepy at all." Eathen said quickly, and Katelin sat down next to him. He had also felt something he couldn't explain from the first time they'd meant. "You've been really nice to me this whole time. I just had what you might call an unusual childhood to say the least."

  "Yeah most normal kids don't stumble around naked looking for swords with broken legs the morning after they fall from orbit." she said sarcastically. "So start at the beginning."

  "Well I suppose my earlier memories are of training with Master Jason." Eathen said.

  "What kind of training?" she asked.

  "Applied shockhaven combat training." he said.

  "Umm, I don't know anything about shockhaven really." she said.

  "Oh." Eathen said surprised. He'd always thought it was common knowledge, but he'd studied it so much that explaining it was easy. "Well, every person has a soul and your soul is contained in your body by a static electric field. This field is called your shockhaven. Some people are born with a better connection and natural ability to use their shockhaven than others, but the general idea is that anyone with the right amount of training can learn to manipulate and control their shockhaven. But," he began, adding the words of caution that everyone should be given. "The idea of using your shockhaven shouldn't be taken lightly. The time it takes to regenerate differs wildly from person to person along with how much shockhaven energy that they have to begin with. And when that energy runs out there's nothing left to bind your soul to your body and you die."

  "So I assume that if you're an immortal that you've got more shockhaven energy and that it regenerates faster than most mortals." Katelin said. This was all new to her and interested her very much. It was as if a whole new world had been open to her.

  "For the most part yes, but really it's more like a muscle. Even though everyone is born with different levels the more that a havenist uses their shockhaven the more energy they can maintain and the faster it recharges."

  "Okay, so was Master Jason an immortal like you?" she asked.

  "No." Eathen said, with a smile. "As far as their purity goes all of the Masters were mortals, but as far as their power went they were all probably the most powerful mortals in the known galaxy."

  "So why were they training you?" She asked. Katelin was trying to avoid asking him about his parents, not knowing if he was ready to think about them again.

  "Well they were hired by the Galaxy Police to train me. The GPF wanted me to become their next super weapon. The plan was for me to become skilled and strong enough to destroy rebel uprisings throughout the galaxy on my own." Eathen said, and as he did he seemed to age a great deal with worry and regret.

  "So tell me about training with Master Jason." Katelin said.