No! "He will not leave his home!" The words came harshly from Kofi's mouth.
Maji sighed and stood firm, "But it's not your decision my scaun."
"He does not need anything in that cursed world Maji," Kofi replied, wearing a grim expresión. "There is nothing but pain and war there. Is that what you want for him and the twins?"
"Of course not," Maji responded. "But they will not be children forever, they will be curious of the planes beyond, especially Guacar since he'll soon be of age."
Maji took Kofi's hand in hers and said "Do not let the weight of this burden pass to our children."
Kofi sighed and squeezed her hand, putting her hand to his head for comfort, "When should I tell him?" he asked.
"Guacar will have 14 years in 4 days, that is when you will tell him and the twins," said Maji.
Kofi nods and they both leave the dinner table.
There, hidden in a corner, Guacar is processing this information.
What Guacar had just heard, is that his parents, the people he trusted most in his world, had been lying to him.
"What if I said it was an accident that I overheard, and that I didn't understand what they were talking about?" Thought Guacar.
For the first time in his life Guacar felt that he couldn't trust his parents.
As quietly as possible Guacar removed himself from the small space where he hid and quickly went into his room where he slumped into his hamaca. Resting his head sleep did not come to him easily as his mind still had many questions on repeat.
Since he was younger, Guacar had known that his dad was secretive, but not to this extent. He had to know what his parents meant. As the night dragged on he finally figured out where to look for answers.
His dads hunting shed where he put all his belongings including those that weren't safe was forbidden to him and his siblings. If there was any place with information, it would be there.
"But how would I get in?" he thought to himself. "I don't have the key and dad wears it all the time…"
Guacar thought about it until it dawned on him, "Not all the time. Not when he's hunting!"
Guacar made a plan, the best one he could make within such a short time. He would wake up early to do his harvest and take the key from his parents room since his father would be hunting all day, and his mother would attend her shaman classes with the twins.
Finally, with a plan set, Guacar went to sleep determined for answers.
------------------
He woke up his younger siblings early in the morning and convinced them to keep their mother out of the house for as long as possible.
"Fake being ill if it keeps her out of the house just a bit longer." Guacar said in a hushed tone.
The twins nodded and saluted as they went back to sleep and his plan went into motion.
As promised he tended to the crops as soon as possible and saw when his mother and father left to do their tasks.Thanks to the high vantage point where they lived he also saw the moment they separated.
As soon as his parents were out of sight Guacar bolted to find the key. Normally it was kept on the shelf where Guacar and the twins couldn't reach. Thinking quickly Guacar took out his weapon his dad gifted him on his last birthday, a slingshot and shot it as hard as he could.
He missed at first, but after multiple tries he finally made the keys fall. They hit the ground with a surprisingly heavy thud.
As Guacar picked the keys up with his right hand, he was surprised by two things about them, there was a strange violet light that he'd never seen before emanating from them, and they were extremely heavy which made it alarmingly difficult to walk, as if gravity was forcing him down more and more with every step he took.
Guacar struggled to make it outside but he pushed forward thinking about what he might find. The feeling of anger he had for his father also helped push him to make it to his father's hut.
The weight of the keys was almost unbearable now, but as he got closer to the keyhole of the hut door, he used his left hand to support his right right hand jamming the key into it.
A feeling of not being able to breathe suddenly hit Guacar, but with all of his remaining strength he clicked the door open and passed out, falling to the ground.
...
As Guacar's eyes began to stir open, he slowly moved from his position, his body was covered in sweat, and he felt like he'd been hunting for ten days straight.
The light of the sky that made his sling warm was now almost setting. He knew he needed to hurry up now.
As he got up, Guacar noticed that he was shaking but tried to ignore it, focusing on the door to the shed.
The door to the shed was slightly open with a bit of light coming from inside it. He reaches his hand towards it but stopped himself just for a moment before breathing and exhaling deeply and turns the handle moving the door wide open.
Looking inside, Guacar was outstanded by what he saw!
The hut was much bigger on the inside than he thought. The room is adorned wall to wall with various pelts, bones, ceramics, and weapons that he'd never seen before. To the right his eye caught the skull of the fallen fish his father killed, already having skinned all of the flesh and organs.
He smiled, proud that his kind father was that strong.
Guacar shook his head knowing he must focus. Any other time he would've stayed there until the next day exploring this place but he had to hurry.
He looked everywhere in the room. The multiple shelves were all adorned with various biles and potions. The bizarre desks that seemed oddly warm to him as daylight was fleeing, having at least two pairs of pelts of every dangerous animal in the island.
Guacar began to worry that he would not find what he was looking for until he saw the smallest hint of a mistake. On the hide that covered part of the floor was a tear.
Using all the strength he had, Guacar pulled on it revealing a shiny trap door.
Something told him not to open it. Most likely it was the feeling of fear in his mind telling him that he would get hurt again, but he came so far, he wasn't going to give up now. The door opened almost by itself, taking a rock from his slingshot, Guacar threw it inside the metal maw. After only a few seconds he heard the faint sound of a rock hitting the floor.
After taking a deep breath, he jumped in.
At first, Guacar thought he hit water as his body was floating. His attention quickly shifted when another unexpected light filled the room.
Surrounding Guacar was a room full of blinking lights and metal orbs that seemed to him to be humming with light. Liquid gold which moved and changed into different patterns adorned each wall of the room.
The surprises were not over, as he finally looked at himself he noticed he was hovering a few meters above the floor.
"I'm Flying?!" Guacar though. "No, not flying, more like floating since I can't seem to control myself."
As pondered how the hell he would get on the ground, the same kind of force he felt when holding the keys pulled him into the middle of the room, then a fuzzy male voice was heard everywhere.
"Inquiry, you are not my assigned user, code name: GERADO." said the voice.
"Please identify yourself, or face incineration via my integrated flamethrower module. Coverage extends to my entire complex. You have 20 seconds to comply." the voice warned.
The room began to become warmer each passing second.
"Master, you mean my dad?!" Guacar said desperately.
"Designation: Unknown spawn…Confirm Origin. Failure to comply will initiate purge protocol." the voice responded.
"How can I do that!?" Guacar thought to himself. "My blood! Check my blood!" he said fearfully.
A mechanical arm sprung forth from the room, pricking Guacar's finger faster than he could react.
"Blood sample verified! Greetings Guacar, eldest offspring of the Santiago family, please state your request." The voice says in a softer tone than before.
Guacar could only think of one thing. "Who are you, and who's my Baba?"