"Happy Birthday," screamed my family, bursting into my room making me fall off my bed."Good Morning," I groaned still not ready to wake up yet.
"We got you presents, open mine first," squealed Luisa thrusting her present in my stomach.
"No I think she would prefer opening mine first," said grandma firmly. She was right I did want to open hers first.
Smiling, I ripped off the gift wrapper curious to know what she came up with this year. One glorious thing about my grandma is she is exceptionally skillful at giving gifts.
"What"s this?" not quite understanding why I would need a framed picture of a king and queen carrying a baby.
"It"s a picture of you and your parents taken six days after you were born."
"Mum!""shouted my uncle, raged with fury.
"She needed to know, she"s sixteen."
"I don"t understand, what do I need to know?" I commented looking as confused as I felt.
"Have you ever wondered why the hybrids want you dead?" my aunt asked quizzically.
"Yes, always."
"Well, that"s because you are different. You, my dear, are one of the Starhians. As a matter of fact, you are not just any normal Starhian, you are the heir to the throne. You see the Starhisns are a group of people who unlike other people have special gifts."
"So like superpowers," I cut in.
"No, not quite, superheroes have superpowers like super strength, flexibility and super speed. This group of people have gifts like shape-shifting, ability to control people"s mind, ability to create believable illusions, ability to borrow or copy other people"s powers, ability to heal, ability to see the past, present or future, ability to read people minds, ability to see what others have seen or done by just looking at them and lots of other peculiar gifts."
"How come I don"t have a gift, I mean to be one of them, especially their princess, you"ve got to have a gift right."
"You do, have you ever noticed that the weather seems to reflect your emotions, for example, has it ever rained when you"re crying or was it ever cloudy when you are upset?"
"Yeah but that"s just a coincidence."
"It"s not, and that"s because you"re a Natural," Luisa commented.
"Naturals are people with the gift to control anything natural, that means things that are not man-made. For example, the weather, the sea, nature, even powers. This means you can control other people"s powers. You can control everything except people and anything made by people," Ara added.
"And that"s why it"s important you are told this, you see, a Starhian"s powers gets stronger and more out of control when they"re sixteen. You being the first natural in years makes it dangerous because we don"t really know how stronger or how out of control it will get. It"s bad enough you can control everything natural, right now your power will be so much stronger and that"s not even your full potential."
"What do you mean it"s not my full potential?"
"Your grandma means that"s only half of your powers, you can unlock your full potential anytime which is why from now on you will spend your day learning more about your powers and how to control it. We can help you learn to control it but it"s your job to learn what you can actually do," added uncle Eduardo.
"Now in the few months you will get mood swings, so don"t be shocked if you are upset or angry for no particular reasons."
"Wait due to her being a natural, does that mean we will get a lot of bad weather conditions?" questioned Luisa looking very gravely.
"Yeah, I actually didn"t think of that. That"s means instead of a little rain when she"s sad it will be very heavy rain maybe a thunder storm and there will be hurricanes when she"s angry," added my uncle.
"She needs to learn how to control her powers and fast," my worried aunt commented.
"But how do we know how to control her abilities if we have no clue all she can do? Uncle Eduardo asked, looking as if it is the end of the world.
"Eduardo, we can"t just sit and watch."
"What are your gifts?" I interrupted.
"Well the thing is we are from mom"s side of the family and your mum is the first "gifted" in our entire family tree. Your dad, however, is from a generation of "gifteds". Your dad was the prince of the "gifteds" when he met your mum, they fell in love and married a few years later."
"Oh, how did they... you know... die?"
"The hybrids are a group of people who are aware of Starhians and want to wipe out their entire species. They decided to start with the royal family and work their way down. They killed your parents on their way back from taking pictures for the newspapers and having a portrait done after your birth, but somehow you and your personal nurse survived. You were given to me, one of your only relatives left, and you"ve been with me ever since," grandma said wiping her tears with the hem of her skirt.
"However, the hybrids couldn"t kill the other Starhians until they finished their task which was killing the entire royal family as the royal family will always be there to protect their kind. And that"s why you are their main focus. Of course, after hearing the king and queen were dead, all Starhians went into hiding and they will continue to hide until the hybrids are all killed."
"So you"re saying my people are out there living in fear for their lives," I paused waiting to see my aunt nod.
"Well, we can"t have that, so one way or the other we need to wipe out the hybrids," I said with great confidence.
As if we"ve planned the great timing, a loud bang is heard informing us we were under attack. With instincts my companions grabbed some weapons, tossing one to me. Fortunately, we"ve all been trained to use these weapons even my old grandma. It"s each man for his own self just like it is every other day of my life.
***
The once peaceful forest had been turned into a bloodsucking battlefield. People running here and there; attacking and defending. The rustling of trees that once filled the air had been drowned out with forceful grunts and deafening slashes.
The echos lint shots, the best weapon apart from the linear swords (or lint swords as we call them), bounced from surface to surface; burning through the skin, causing organs to dissolve in minutes. Melted skin, dissolved organs, and blood are really not what you would like to see on your birthday. I certainly didn"t get my birthday wish, that"s for sure.
I wish the same thing every year and sometimes I do get the wish, other times I don"t. Birthdays are meant to be the happiest day of each year apart from Christmas but for me, they"re just like every other typical day in my life.
Due to my perfect aiming, a hybrid fell to the ground before dying in minutes. I"m not really sure why he died. One problem with the weapon is that its hard to tell if the victim died due to loss of so much blood or the person losing an important organ they can"t live without. For example, the heart.
I despise watching my victims die knowing I"m the cause of their death but I am left with no other choice. Right this moment, it"s all about life or death. Nothing more.