Mission Planning

As the train reaches the train station in a city in the Sand Sea, Sonotona, I get off the train and notice Nyla. “Hey Nyla, are you ready to go?” She refuses to look at me and just scoffs. “Are you sure you're ready?” I reassure her I’m fine and she just walks away. Before she got too far I reached for her arm. “Actually, if I’m being honest, I’m not fine at all, it’s like you said earlier, I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, forgetting that weight will lead to me getting crushed, so starting right here, right now, I will make sure to be completely transparent, to everyone in the Desert Guardians, and I’m sorry that I tried to hide this pain” Nyla stared at me and started crying again. “Thank you Malik, now let's get back home now, we gotta start planning the mission and you gotta go see your little girlfriend” She snickers and walks away. I start getting flustered and blush and start chasing her “It’s not like that! We're just friends!” She stops in her tracks. “Are you sure that's what you think it is, or are you afraid that's what she sees you as.”

As we get back home, Yasmin is outside sunbathing. “Oh finally you too got back, Kael and Aria got back like 4 hours ago, c’mon dinners ready.” Nyla rushes inside and as I’m heading in I look to my left to see some smoky black thing burning on the ground, as I approach I see that it's a crumpled piece of paper that was on. I pick up the crumpled ball and as I open it up, I see a poster in the same writing as Jaden’s dad but instead of missing posters, it's wanted posters for me being responsible for the death of Jaden and Amara. I crumpled up the paper again and throw it as far as I could.

Once I enter I smell a scent I haven’t smelled in awhile. “Pizza!” I see Zain run from across the living room to the dining room, hurdling over a couch and falling in the process. “Oww, oh Malik! Welcome back!” As I greet Zain I head to the dining room for pizza and everyone else is already seated, once I sit with them we begin to dig in. “So Malik, Kael already told us about what went down with the apartment and the dad, hope you’re doing well mentally kid. Don’t want you to be down.” Raza reassuring me helped but it's going to take awhile to recover entirely, but it still is eating at me, I can’t take my head off of it, what is Salazor planning and how should we take action, and will we be able to protect everyone, will I be able to protect my team if it comes to that?

“Hey Malik, are you okay, you seem distressed” I look to my left to see Aria holding my hand. I got flustered at first glance but I soon calmed down and her presence just washed away all fears I had. “Yeah Aria, I’m okay, I just have a lot on my mind. Thank you.” She smiles and holds my hand tighter. “I’m glad, I hope you know you can talk to me whenever you have something on your mind, I care for you, and everyone else in the Desert Guardians, we are a team.” I smile at Aria and we stare at each other for a good 10 seconds until interrupted. “Ooh! I didn’t know we had two tomatoes here!” Yasmin giggling and snorting after making the joke. “Oh come on, don’t be so harsh, they just had some spicy pizza” “Yeah sure Zain, some spicy is there alright but I don’t think it was pizza” As everyone erupted into laughter I couldn’t help but just be grateful for where I am. Even though everything that is on my mind is going on, It's nice to be with everyone and just fit right in and goof off, it's nice. With Raza and his drunken spirit and extreme extrovertedness when he is. Nyla and her cutesy and sweet humor. Yasmin with her witty and flirtatious personality. Zain with his fiery spirit and determination. Azura with her arms head down and arms covering her bottom half of her face and her eyes peeking but you can see her eyes squint a little when she's smiling. Amina with her head in the clouds. Kael with his energetic spirit and very punny humor. And then there’s Aria, everything about her is amazing, her smile, her interests are just like mine, we love cheesy romance movies, playing video games, we have the same type of stupid humor. She's just like me.

At that moment I remembered what Nyla said when I said we were friends. “Are you sure that's what you think it is, or are you afraid that's what she sees you as.” Do I really see her as just a friend? She makes my heart flutter when I see her, she always knows what I’m feeling, she has my back when I need her, even after only one night at a bar. She’s amazing, and I think I’m slowly falling for her, but does she feel the same? It's terrifying, because I'm experiencing all these feelings but to her, she probably sees me as a friend, god this feels so weird to think about.

When I lose my train of thought I realize everyone left already and I was just sitting here thinking to myself, well me and Amina, she's still lost in thought. I noticed it was late and decided to go to bed but once I got to my room I noticed a note on my door. I pick it up and it says “Meet me on the roof.” My heart drops for a second, what could this be about? Is everyone there? Is it Aria? Or is it a prank? I guess I gotta go see for myself. As I get to the roof, I see someone sitting there, staring at the stars, it looked like Captain Raza. “Hey Malik, c’mere.” My heart sank when I heard him because he sounded serious. I sit down next to him and he glances at me. “Kid, Nyla told me what happened, don’t let that dirtbag father tell you anything that will let you down, you are strong, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We got your back, you're one of us Malik.” Captain Raza is always so inspirational with this type of stuff, it's nice. But something is itching at the back of my mind. “Why me? Why did you choose me to join your squad?” He looks at me and stares at the sky. “I think it's because you remind me of me pretty much, your envy for adventure, your passion for life, your sentimental self, and your story is like mine back when it started.” I was confused at first but I kept listening to hear what he had to say.

“25 years ago, I had just turned 20 and my parents kicked me out of the house because I refused to get a job. I scoured the entirety of my hometown for odd jobs for even pocket change, and occasionally have to be a thief but only when it was absolutely necessary. However, that all changed when I met this girl at a food market stand, she was so pretty, I fell in love right there and then, however, she ignored me because who wouldn’t, I was a mess. Ha. But right then and there, I decided to put my foot down and get a job and one day we met outside of work where she mentioned that she was impressed by my change in lifestyle. She gave me a chance, we explored outside the city, far outside the city, she fell in love with me as much if not more than me, we got married, bought a big home where we were planning to have a big family, we had Nyla after a year or so and then one day, she disappeared. I don't know where but her stuff was still here so I'm not sure what happened, but that didn't stop me, I got inspired to form a team of others that weren't given god’s graceful hand in life, and give them a chance that they can make their choice in. I still look for her everyday, I miss her, Azalea.” A tear rolls down Captain Raza’s cheek. “It's okay Captain Raza, I assure you, I will help you find her again, even if it takes the entirety of my willpower.” He grabbed my shoulder and gave me a big bear hug. “Ha Ha Ha, I knew you were a good kid Malik. Thank you, I needed that, nobody else knows this story, and it feels so great to finally tell someone.”

We chatter for a bit more as the night goes on. “So what's up with you and Aria huh? You two dating yet or ya just waiting for the long game? C’mon I mean, it's obvious she likes you ya dummy, I mean she couldn't stop talking and gushing about you for days and even saved you in her Spirit Link, if that doesn't mean anything, then love is dead.” I got flustered after he said all that. “I-I mean, I’m not sure what to do if I'm being honest, she's amazing, spectacular, she's perfect for me, but I’m not sure if it is the right time you know? With everything that's going on I doubt Aria would want another thing to worry abou-” “Malik.” Captain Raza grows stern and interrupts me. “If she's perfect for you, go tell her, nobody is promised tomorrow, for all we know, either you or Aria could die tomorrow and then your hope of telling her how you feel could be gone, and you're stuck with more guilt that you never told her. So I suggest telling her sooner rather than later, and that's an order. Now go to sleep, we got mission planning tomorrow.”

I go back to my room and prepare to go to sleep when I see a plate of cake on my nightstand with note saying, “You were so lost in thought I thought to save you some and give it to you, but you weren't here, so enjoy and let me know what you think -Amina” yeah sure, I’m the one who was lost in thought, I appreciate it though, thank you Amina.

The next day comes and I prepare to go down to the dining room to plan the upcoming mission with everyone and I see a barrage of breakfast meals, pancakes, eggs, waffles, bacon, the whole shabang. “What's going on here, are the world leaders here today.” Raza stands up and chuckles. “No no no, no world leaders here today, however, we have a big day of planning today, so I asked Azura and Yasmin to cook up breakfast, and if we're still here, lunch, and then dinner, and maybe even breakfast again!” Welp, that surely is something, we sit down and I see everyone here except for Aria, I wonder if she is okay. “Okay is everyone? I’m only counting 7 of yall. Oh wait Aria isn’t here, Malik go wake her up.” Everyone starts staring at me with smirks on their face. As I get up I grow concerned with what's happening and hope she's okay. “Go lady killer!” “Sweep her off her feet” “Go Romeo” I begin to get very flustered with all this teasing.

As I approach her room, I knock a few times and wait before announcing that I’m going in. I open the door to see Aria sleeping hard in her bed. She has a queen bed with a bunch of plushies covering over a fourth of the bed. I see a camera on her desk with a bunch of photos on her wall of everyone. I get closer to her bed to wake her up. “Aria, wake up sleepy head, it's mission planning time.” Before I know it, she grabs me and pulls me into her bed, hugging me hard, like I'm a pillow. “Mr. Beary, there you are” Her voice is barely legible and I'm almost entirely sure she is sleep talking and sleep grabbing. I don't know what I should do now because this situation is not at all easy to explain to anyone, but on the other hand, it feels nice being here, but this is wrong. I should wake her up. “Wake up Aria, I’m not a fluffy teddy bear, it's me Malik!” Aria slowly opens her eyes to realize it's me she's been grabbing for the past minute or so. After she realizes this she turns bright red and jumps and runs out of the room out of embarrassment.

As I walk back to the dining room, Captain Raza continues the group meeting by discussing our plans for the mission with breakfast. “Nyla’s already caught me up on what she and Malik found out after they followed Eira the other day. Turns out Salazor is planning to find the 4 gods of Alagard and steal their cores to harness their powers and become the ultimate being. So what we gotta do is find the 4 gods and protect them.” Seems easier said than done. “Seems easier said than done, you're all thinking that probably, which to that you’re entirely right, no public records have mentioned any news on any of the four gods for centuries. They could all be dead for all we know and their cores are just up for the taking, but we need to hope that they are alive and find some clues that can bring us closer to finding them. I don't have a clue where to go after that but we will figure it out as we go!” Kael’s eyes glow with excitement as we plan out our next adventure. “How are we going to determine where to visit first if we have no clue? We can’t just all go searching every country one by one, that would be insane especially because that raises the risk of being found by Salazor or the nine if we are caught snooping.” Captain Raza laughs. “Kael, that's exactly what we will be doing.” Everybody including me looks at Captain Raza like he's crazy, is he for real? If we search every corner of Alagard one by one, we will probably be wasting a bunch of time. For all we know, Salazor or the nine have some super sense that can attract them to the cores. Raza begins to have a more serious face as he stares at us. “I get this plan is insane, but we have to hope it works, so we will have to split into squads to find clues. So Nyla, Yasmin, and Aria, you three will stay in the Sand Sea searching nearby towns and cities looking for information there. Azura and Amina, you two will search Clober for information there. For Zain, I want you to search Kaz. And finally, for Malik and Kael, you two will be going with me, to the snowy tundras of Arcturia.”