A Dragon Among The Stars

The old man placed his face close to Kiel"s face, he stretched his arms, genlty caressing his face, carefully checking his features with wide eyes.

"You look very much like your father, I"m sure he would have been happy if he looked at you, all grown up." The old man sighed as he took back his hands.

"My father? You knew him? Wait, I don"t even know your name, yet I feel close to you." Kiel asked, his face painted with the thick puzzlement. He had a lot of questions ever since he arrived, he felt that this old man in front of him would clear all of his doubts.

The old man slapped his thigh and said. "Oh! Right! How forgetful of me, My name is Arnold Molino, you might not remember me, in the past I used to work for you father, we were close back then." reminiscing as he sipped his tea.

"Arnold… Arnold… you… were the head guard!" Kiel exclaimed.

"That"s right! You remember me!?" Arnold said excitedly as he held Kiel"s shoulders.

"I remember that name… from a nightmare… Leo… Lara… I remember those names" Clutching his head from the pain, he tried recalling those names, and who they were.

"that"s right! Leo! Your father"s name was Leo! While Lara was your mother" Arnold"s hands started shivering from overly excited. Izakel called out "Teacher don"t get too overly excited!"

Arnold let out a long breath, calming his rapid beating heart. He waved his hands "I"m okay, I"m okay…" he took his attention back to Kiel and continued. "do you remember the name Izakel?"

In a daze, he said in shaky voice "Izakel… mother was also holding a baby, who father called Izakel" he dazely at Kiel at Izakel. "same name as you…"

Izakle nodded and in a soft voice "h.e.l.lo brother" he had a strange face. Having complex emotions, seeing his brother who only just met in person.

"he"s your brother Kiel, Izakel, back then he was just a new born when that incident happened" Arnold said, pointing at Izakel.

"that nightmare… all of those were real" Kiel said, obviously agitated, he continued "all them real… how come…"

"they weren"t just some nightmare your brain made up, it was the trauma you had from the inident years years ago. they were memories surfacing from your unconscious mind. " Arnold explained.

"I also had the feeling that they were real, so I tried searching for some clues. I tried hiring a lot of investigators just to find answers, but all them couldn"t find anything , and I only known their first name which made it more harder" Kiel reasoned. The nightmare felt so real that made Kiel feel that they were real. All of his efforts were all naught and could only give up since he couldn"t get any information, like they didn"t exist at all, which made him give up and think of it as something his brain came up with.

"of course they wouldn"t find anything. That incident was tightly gaurded, only a handful of people knew of it. Especially with the Stanford"s influence which only made it difficult." Arnold didn"t found it surprsing, he knew of the Stanfords capabilities, there were a lot of people they could use with their influence. . He was a believer of the phrase; "know thy enemy, and know yourself and you"ll win all of your battles" he"s one of the people who knew the almost everything about the Stanfords.

"Stanfords!? You mean that Stanfords!?" Astounded, Kiel exclaimed.

"Is there any other Stanfords? Of course I"m talking about them, the family behind the company your working for!" Arnold said in anger. The incident has always been fresh in his mind, he never forgot what those d.a.m.nable Stanfords had done to him and his master.

Everything came crashing down onto Kiel, knowing that his biological parent"s death were at the hands of the people he worked for, he felt like idiot, a fool! His breath stareted to get ragged as he digested his knew found infromation

"no wonder... no wonder I didn"t find any information about them, if its the Stanford we"re talking about, its highly possible" Kiel consulted help from a lot of dream experts, and all of them pointed to the possiblity of being a memory hidden deep inside his unconcious mind due to a self mechanism to relief him of his trauma.

This possiblity fueled Kiel to find about the whereabout of his real biological parents, he tried hiring tons of tons of private investigators in bright hopes, but everything was all for nothing, the investigators either cancelled the work or they couldn"t find anything, it was like they didn"t exist, over the years Kiel stopped finding them anymore and a.s.sumed that they were just his mind made up.

"So all this time… all this time.. all those years I"ve beem working for them…to think they were actually reason why my family was scattered, my parents dead… all of this for what?!!!" Kiel said with bloodshot eyes, he waas seething in anger.

"all of it for that necklace you have in your chest" Arnold said as he pointed to Kiel"s chest.

Kiel pulled out his necklace, the same necklace he saw in his nightmares, the roaring lion head jade pendant. He asked astounded "all this for a pendant… for a f*cking pendant!!!"

"it"s just not a pendant boy… remember it was your father who gave it you, do you remember his words back then?" Arnold said as he tried to pacify Kiel"s anger.

"That"s right!!! I remember… he said that all of my question will be answered with this pendant" enlightened, he held the pendant tightly, checking it for any clues.

" I remember your father said it back then, that all your questions would be answered by that pendant of yours" Arnold said, clarifying.

"this pendant… from the looks of it, its just a normal pendant made out of jade. Nothing sepcial about it." Kiel said confused as he carressed it.

"well, that"s all we know, since your father never elaborated more, I"m lost as you are!" Arnold said helplessly, Kiel"s father never said anything more about the pendant his been wearing ever since he had knew him. "Ones thing for sure is that pendant in hands is a disaster, but don"t be feel downcast, as they say; disaster come hand to hand with fortune."

Arnold held his chin continuing "especially when it was said that pendants of yours came from the relic site"

"Site!? You meant that relic site, the reason why I sent here, how is that possible!? They said that it was just recently discovered and this was given to me 43 years ago, unless... they lied, everything was made up!!" Kiel said with wide eyes and mouth opened.

Arnold nodded his head, he explained "that"s right, the truth is that the site was discovered long ago"

"Long ago!? how long ago?" Astounded, Kiel asked.

"It was said in the records of your family, that it was discovered in the 17th century, during one of your ancestor"s voyages." Arnold explained.

"My ancestor?" Kiel was srprised hearing this, he never knew anything about the family he came from.

"yes, you, Izakel , Leo were all of from bloodline of tthe Agore family" Arnold said as he shakily pointed his fingers toward Kiel and Izakel, before continuing his explanation. "it was one of the remaining acient families of Europe. Your Agore family once had close ties with the Stanfords family, both being family of merchants."

"your ancestor found that necklace your wearing inside the site" he said while staring deeply at the pendant hanging from Kiel"s neck.

"This necklace!?" Kiel looked at his pendant, waves crashing into his heart, he never would have known that this necklace of his was actualle came from there. "how was this possible? especially since there was barely technology back then, if this really came from there, then it means that the found the answer to get inside the site" he thought astounded by his ancestor"s luck.

"and it was also the reason why the incident 43 years ago occured, the Stanfords somehow learned of this family secret, The lure of the site had aroused the Stanford"s greediness gave the reason for both parties to split apart, becoming bitter enemies." Arnold said with a sigh, he could only blame the greediness of a man"s heart.

Kiel in a daze stared at the necklace in his hands, he muttered "this necklace..... all of this... unbelievable"

"Jake, escort Kiel to his room. Have some rest Kiel, take time to digest everything." Arnold said in a ligh sigh.

Jake walked towards to Kiel and patted his back, he softly said "Bro, come lets go so you can get some rest"

Kiel sighed as he followed Jake to his room, he turned his head back for a moment , rays of various emotion pa.s.sing through his eyes, thinking things through, before he continued following Jake.

Seeing the figure of Kiel vanish from their view, Izakel asked Arnold beside him in a concerned voice "Teacher, wasn"t all of this a bit too fast?"

Arnold became silent for a moment before sighing, he replied in worried voice "I know, I thought that, but time is of the essence, if my predictions are right, the day after tomorrow will decide everything."

Izakel didn"t said anything anymore while the old man Arnold fell in into his reverie, continuing to enjoy his tea, the sounds of water falling was the only sound that was heard.

A soldier hurriedly came in and stood upright in front of the two he said in clear voice, his face serious "Reporting Sir! we have manage to retrieve information from the captured chief, we have found out that the Stanfords did indeed finally made a way inside the relic site, and will be initiating the expedition in three days time. awaiting for your orders!"

Arnold sternly said "have our men prepare, and that chief… dispose of him, he has no more use for us!" Send his head to the Stanfords as a gift for tomorrow blood"s fest!" he waved his hands dismissing the soldier.

He said in a laughing tone "made a way eh? haha, So those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds finally got impatient and forcefully made their way through, anyway my predictions were almost on point" grinning as he looked at Izakel.

Izakel seeing the grin on his face bitterly smiled and said"alright, you won the bet. but this good news, we"ll strike as we planned, two days before they could fully finsh their preparations"

"tomorrow... will be the day that marks the Stanford"s fall" Izakel said in a cold voice, dropping the cave"s temperature into freezing coldness.