My uncle Kodyack told me that story. I always asked him who Shirak was although he never told me. He always said that I was too young to know. He is kind of right. I was only 6 after all.
My alarm went off at 6am.
“Skylar Ridian Crop, get down here or you’ll be late for school!”
I jumped out of bed and got into my uniform. I grabbed my backpack and raced outside as I raced downstairs. He looked at me .
“Go get in the truck, I’m taking you to school today.”
I ran outside and got in the truck. He walked outside as walked up to the truck and got in.. He started it as he looked at me.
“Please don’t tell anyone about your dad.”
“Uncle Kody, what do you mean?”
“I mean, don’t tell them that he’s the famous singer, Alex Crop.”
“Why?”
“Just don’t.”
“Why?”
“Don’t argue. You’ll already enough of a freak because of your height.”
“I’m not that tall.”
“I’m not arguing with you.”
We pulled up onto the highway as Kodyack turned on the radio.
“Bloodbringer Brian Henderson started his second term 4 years ago. He keeps going on and on about people called Cithians.”
“Uncle, what’s a cithian?”
“Don’t you remember the story I told you?”
“Yes. They’re the people who were banished by the english.”
“Good. You pay attention. But I have more to tell you.”
“You come from a whole line of cithians even though you are a mix between a Hiton and A cithian because your dad fell in love with an alien.”
“So I’m a mixed cithian then?”
“Yes. One of the first in fact. So you have a lot to prove. But, keep listening to the radio.”
The speaker on the radio paused for a second
“Who are these cithians he’s talking about? Not one Hiton knows what he’s talking about.”
I looked at my uncle.
“Why doesn’t anyone know about the cithians?”
“Because their memories were wiped by the Sayis Council.”
“Who are they?”
“That’s why you’re going to Haystead Academy for the mixed and unmixed cithians. You’ll learn all you need to know about the Sayis’ and their history on Earth which we call Cither there.”
“We pulled up to the school. We got out of the truck and walked in. Unkie Kody looked at me.
“Hold my hand,Skylar.”
I grasped his hand and we walked into the Headmaster’s office.”
I saw a woman in a purple dress with roses on it as she looked at me.
“This must be the boy you were talking about, Mister Blues.”
“He is. His name is Skylar.”
“Well he sure is tall for his age.”
“Well, sit down and we’ll go over his enrollment then.”
“Can we do this in private? He’s special needs.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s on the spectrum.”
“You mean he’s autistic?’
“Yes.”
“Oh. Sure, just let him into the playroom and we’ll do it in private then.”
I walked into the playroom and saw a little brunette girl.
“Are you Alex Crop’s son?”
“Why’d you say that?”
“You just look a lot like him”
“Yes I am.”
“But, please don’t tell anyone my Unkie told me not to say.”
“You sure are talkative for being autistic.”
“Wait, you know?”
“Yes. I have ears. I overheard them talking about you before.”
I rolled my eyes and stared at her,
“My name is Skyrid. Yours?”
“Rachael Bell and I thought you were Skylar.”
“I call myself Skyrid. It’s a mix of my first and middle names.”
“Okay. Your first name is Skylar right?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s your middle name?”
“Ridian.”
“Hmm. That’s unique.”
“Thank you?”
She laughed.
“You smile all the time don’t you?”
I blushed.
“Yes. My dad can’t frown and neither can I.”
“Seriously? Show me.”
I looked and tried to frown but all that happened was a blank stare and then I smiled with my teeth showing.
“Oh. I guess you’re right.”
“Yep. I inherited my dad’s gene to not frown because I don’t have the muscles.”
“He said the name at least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“Where from, Rachael?”
“Magazines?”
“Wait, you can read?”
“Yes. My mom says I'm bright.”
“You definitely are.”
My uncle opened the door and walked in. The headmistress was standing beside him.
“Skyrid, take my hand and we’ll take you to your class. I grasped my uncle’s hand.
We walked until we came upon a door. He opened the door and a lady with brown hair walked up to me.
“Hi, I’m your teacher, my name is Ms. Meghan. You must be a new student. Introduce yourself to the class.”
My uncle shook his head and looked at her.
“He’s autistic. He’s not comfortable in crowds.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
I looked at him in a blank stare. He crouched down to my level.
“I know you don’t like this but you have to go to school. It’s time for me to go. So try and have a nice time, okay?’
I nodded and sat down at my desk as my classmates laughed at me. Then at that moment Rachael Bell walked in with the principal. The teacher got up.
“Another new student ?”
“Yes. This is my daughter, Rachael.”
I walked over to Rachael after I dropped my jaw.
“You’re the principal’s daughter?!”
“Yes. And your dad is Alex Crop.”
“Don’t tell anyone. My unkie told me not to.”
“Don’t worry. Your secret's safe with me.”
Rachael’s mom left the classroom as Ms.Meghan walked to the front of the board.
“My name is Miss Meghan. Welcome to Haystead Academy. This school is made up of many cithians. So here you will learn our history and what caused the Sayis Council to have to erase people’s memories of our existence. Today, we will review the history of our people when we were on Earth which we called Cither. Students, please turn to chapter 1 of our sacred text which we call The Secret Book Of Aliens.”
We all got out the sacred text and turned to chapter 1. The teacher grabbed a dry erase marker..
“Who would like to recite the first paragraph?”
Rachael raised her hand.
“Our people come from a civilization that was driven into hiding by the people of England back in the 1300s. Our people were brought up in a time of betrayal. In 1305, Andrew Markson who was said to be the first human embodiment of Shirak. Shirak was a demon who lived in the bodies of many of our past leaders. Andrew was the first but the weird thing is he was the son of the head of The Grey Diamond Warriors which were the first council that semi-mirrored what we call the Sayis Council today. His name was Richard. Richard and the other two members of this great council were the people who opposed King Andrew. Many townsfolk were unsure of whether they could trust Andrew because of this.
One day the servant of the King, Harris Longer announced a new and confusing law. He announced that evil is good and good is evil. Because of this new law, thieves were allowed to run amuck without punishment. Killers and Kidnappers were treated the same. This meant that the kingdom of Paquet was totally without law. So went Richard Markson was reported to be doing good by buying food from a merchant named Keshira instead of stealing it he was brought before the King who was his son, Andrew. This was the start of the Markson War.
This war started with Richard being imprisoned by his son, King Andrew. Almost immediately people opposed Richard’s imprisonment and these people which called themselves Richardians and the people in favor of Andrew's decision were called the Andrewdians. The leader of the Richardians was Alexander Yandle and the Andrewdians’ leader was King Andrew’s most trusted priest. Priest Gadira. Alexander Yandle was just a town patriot for the people who stood against the lawless objective of King Andrew; they were the townsfolk who stood for the way it was before Andrew’s new ruling. Since Andrew’s ruling, Thieves, killers, rapists, kidnappers were allowed to run amuck unpunished for their misdeeds. Priest Gadira was Andrew's most trusted ally. Although he was against Andrew’s new ruling and his son, Harris Longer was caught in the middle of all this anarchy. He wanted to protect his son but he couldn’t risk losing his position. What put the Andrewdians apart from the Richardians was the Andrewdians were also led by the people who opposed The Grey Diamond Warriors who called themselves the Black Dragons. They semi-mirrored the people who today call themselves Bloodshed. The leader of the Black Dragons was Comsit Woolsley who ruled alongside his wife Jagon.
Alexander Yandle was contacted by the other two members of the Grey Diamond Warriors, Shack Minessely and Shlaya Jenkins. Alexander stood in front of Shack and Shlaya.
“Mr. Yandle we’ve called you here because our leader Richard Markson is a martyr in your opinion and you stand for all the people who are against King Andrew’s ruling.”
Rachael put her book down.
“I have a question. Why are we learning about The Markson War?”
“Rachael, you have to understand that our people come from people who have been betrayed by people who are close to them. You might not know this But King Andrew was also part of the Black Dragons and as you have read, King Andrew was Richard’s son.”
“Oh. I see how it correlates now.”
“Any other questions?”
I raised my hand.
“I have a question. Have any other Sayis council members betrayed our people recently or in the past?”
“Yes I’m sorry, what’s your name?”
“Skyrid Crop.”
“Wait, is your dad, Alex Crop?”
“Maybe.”
Rachael smirked as everybody dropped their jaws.
“I just love his voice!” ‘
“Oh. I guess the cat’s out of the bag. But what’s your favorite song by my dad?”
“I have a lot of favorites.”
“What’s your top two then?”
“Walking around in darkness and Born to be.”
I smiled.
“Oh. Okay. My favorite is also born to be. But can we get back to my question?”
“Sure. What’s your question?”
“Did all the rulers of Paquet members come from either Bloodshed or The Sayis Council?”
“Yes. It shuffled back and forth but King Andrew was our first ruler after we went into hiding because of the death of King Knagstar’s wife.”
“But didn’t we come to Yakob after that?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“My Uncle Kodyack told me. But while we’re on the subject, who is Shirak?”
“Shirak is a servant of the devil who possesses people in order to do his master’s work.”
“Okay. So how many embodiments of Shirak have there been in the past?”
“”I can’t give you an exact number. All I know is that King Andrew was the first one to be possessed by Shirak in the origins of our people.”
“So you mean he has possibly been in more origin stories of other civilizations besides our own?”
“Exactly and that is why I can’t give you an exact number. Any other questions?”
No hands went up.
“Alright then let’s continue our discussion on the Markson War. Rachael, please continue.”
“Yes I believe that what has happened in our town of paquet is insane. I honestly believe this is the work of the devil and his servants.”
“We also believe that Mr. Yandle. Our main belief of the matter is that Satan is using his servant Shirak to further destroy our people. We believe that you should talk to Priest Gadira and see if has any idea on how to release his master, King Andrew from his possession of shirak.”
“You really think we can just unpossess King Andrew and be done with it?”
“Yes.”
“My supporters don’t believe that though.”
“Okay. What do they believe is going to solve this then?”
“Honestly, they believe that the king is fully aware of what is going on and should be brought up to your court on account of killing an amount of at least about 100 townsfolk so far.”
“What is happening to the townsfolk of Paquet we can not control. That is not our jurisdiction.”
“We have let your council have control over our people since before King Knagstar and if you let the King’s crimes go unpunished then more people will be killed and the people of Paquet will no longer let your council govern our people.”
“I’m sorry Mr. Yandle but the Markson Family is not just rooted in our council and this is why we cannot control what happens between the Marksons and the Woolsleys which have been the main two families ruling your people after Glenn Hatchett founded the cithians.”
“I get what you’re trying to say but why did you appoint Richard your leader if you knew it wouldn’t be good for the greater good?”
“Our original founder was Merlin around the time of King Arthur but the cithians weren’t even thought of around that time. Merlin set the rule for appointing our leader was that he would choose his most trusted ally to rule after he died so when he died Glenn Hatchett who was one of the Knights of the roundtable who later would found your people was appointed to lead us and when Glenn Hatchett did it was in his will that his friend Richard Markson should lead this council. But when Andrew was first ruling your people his priest Gadira was good at keeping him sane.”
“So what made Andrew switch sides and become possessed by Shirak?”
“Andrew asked to meet Gadira’s family because he wanted to appoint a new priest that he could trust and Gadira’s brother Adrian was a witch doctor who dabbled with the devil. So Andrew was given a reading by Adrian, his eyes turned red and the spirit of Shirak went into him.”
“So this all happened because of a voodoo man?”
“Sadly, yes. But it serves him right because Gadira warned Andrew that his family was bad news but Andrew kept begging and pleading and Gadira finally just gave in.”
“Oh. So I see how it’s not your fault but now with everything that has happened especially with the new law Andrew put into place what are you going to do to help the cithians?”
“What do you think we should do?”
“I think you should kill Andrew and just hope that Shirak doesn’t strike back.”
“It’s not Shirak that we’re scared of, it's Adrian. He controls who Shirak fuses with to bring to pass the deeds of the Devil.”
“So if Adrian is the one to blame, why not kill him instead?”
“To tell you the truth we have tried to kill Adrian multiple times and haven’t succeeded.”
“So what has been preventing you from killing him?”
“Every time we would try one of our council members would strangely die out of nowhere. Our council had 8 members before we heard about Adrian and now we are down to the two of us and our leader, Richard. So we are just scared if we keep trying to kill Adrian that eventually our whole council will be gone.”
“So what’s your verdict then?”
“We don’t know what to do for you. But know that everything you do comes with a cost so whatever you choose to do.”
I raised my hand.
“My uncle told me that the Markson war ended in 1388 after Andrew and Alexander killed each other by slicing each other’s heads off at the same time.”
“Mr. Crop if you keep interrupting the lesson I will send you to the principal’s office!”
“Fine. I just wanted to get this lesson over with.”
“Okay. So what happens after the war ends Mr. know-it-all?”
“Richard was next in line for the throne and he bowed out and appointed Harris Longer as the next leader of the Cithians.”
“So do you know when Yakob’s name was changed to Hiton and why?”
“It was done in 1443 to commemorate our first year on a new planet and Hiton is just an abbreviation for This Is Our New Home and the letters are just switched around a bit.
When my uncle picked me up that day, I glared at him. “Don’t look at me that way!” “What way?” “Like I’m guilty of something.” “Oh but you are. You never told me that I would one day gain magical powers or that I’m going to go through six years of power malfunctions that can decide whether or not I’ll grow power rings when I’m 12. Plus I have to wear purple shirts to school every day that dye my armor malfunctions to the color of my skin. So yes I’m unhappy okay!” “Skylar, I understand your frustration. But, I never told because I didn’t think you would understand.” “Understand? Understand what? That I’m a freak?” “You’re not a freak.” “Then how come I had to be in a separate room when you were enrolling me?” “Sky, you don’t understand your disorder do you?” “So what if I’m autistic? I’m different, so what? Normal is overrated!” “Because of your disability the rules are different for you everywhere. You wouldn't believe how many hoops your father had to jump through
The next day I overslept. I basically slept past my alarm. My uncle also slept his alarm. My alarm was set for 6am. When I woke up though, it was 10 in the morning. I woke up to him being super mad at himself because he would be late for his college classes and I was way past the time school would start. My school starts at 8pm So I would be over two hours late depending on the traffic. My uncle was swearing all over the place. He walked into my room. He glared at me. “The head mistress called me.” “What did she say?” “She has to enroll you for your cithian power class. So you have 15 mins to get ready. I also need to get ready.” “Meet you downstairs then?” “Yes, Sky.” I got dressed in my purple shirt and blue jeans. I headed downstairs. Just like I thought, my uncle was not waiting for me and walked up the stairs and over to Uncle’s bedroom . I knocked on his door. “Unkie, are you comin’? We’re gonna be late!” “Go wait in the living room for me. I’ll be down in a minut
The next day was a weird one. I woke up in fear because of a nightmare. I’ve always had nightmares but this was a frightful one. I even woke up screaming. My uncle Kodyack was right there beside me when I woke up. “What did you see?” “I dreamt that I was in a field and a spacecraft appeared above me. A beam shot down from the ship and I saw an alien with big black eyes and he opened his mouth to speak to me and...” “So what did the alien say?” “I don’t know. I woke up before he could spat out the words.” “Well, you need to get ready for school.” “More like history about cithians academy!” “Stop mocking the school and just get ready!” “Fine! I will!” I got ready and headed downstairs with my backpack and we got my uncle’s truck. When I got to school I sat down as Miss Meghan stood at the blackboard. “Today our lesson will be on what made the Sayis Council wipe the Hiton’s memory of us. But before we do, let me welcome the fifth graders.” The fifth graders sat down.
I will say that I didn’t expect what happened surrounding meeting my childhood nemesis. It was definitely not a normal day. When I got to school that day, I heard this on the radio: “Bloodbringer Gunderson has become even more crazy. He is now predicting that in 2050 the cithians will definitely invade Siraka and start the next war against them. Some people say he’s going beyond crazy. The war of 2024 was what started this whole thing some experts say because that was the last time Cithians were talked about and eventually outlawed. Ever since then it's like our minds have been erased of memory of all cithians and terror that surround them.” “Uncle, how come Bloodbringer Gunderson still remembers our people?” “It is said that he is not truly a hiton so the rule does not apply to him.” “What do you mean? Is there something you aren’t telling me?” “It is said that after the hitons' minds were erased, The human embodiment of Shirak made Bloodbringer Gunderson touch the Maroon He
My uncle opened my bedroom door. “Skylar get your ass out of bed! It’s your birthday! Time for birthday breakfast!” “Uncle, just let me sleep! It’s the weekend after all!” “Skylar, get up we’re going to go to Quffle cookery for your birthday breakfast!” “Oh, yeah I forgot!” I got up and out of bed and got dressed. I raced downstairs and my uncle followed me outside. My uncle turned on the radio and smiled. “Today isn’t just your birthday! Today is our 2 year anniversary of you living with me!” “Oh, you’re right! Two holidays at once!” The radio buzzed and we heard Bloodbringer Gunderson speak. “As you all know this has been my 21st year of serving this great country of Jasper. But it has also been the weirdest! People have been saying that I'm going crazy because i’m talking about the cithians all the time and no even remembers their existence!” My uncle chuckled “Of course they don’t remember us! The Sayis Council wiped their memories! Remember what I told you about
I awoke from a weird dream. In the dream, I was standing in front of a Shadow. The Shadow was standing in a beam of light. It looked at me. “Skylar Ridian Crop, it is the day of your awakening...” was what I heard from the shadow before I woke up. I knew what this meant. Today is the day I might get my powers. We talked about this day all the time in my warrior powers class at Haystead Academy. Miss Bloom was always the teacher who talked about it. She always talked about how it will be different for everyone. She said if we weren’t supposed to get our powers that we would get our power rings taken away from our bodies in a way that would be a different experience for everyone. But if we were supposed to get our powers, then something spectacular and special would happen to us. For me at least, I also hoped that it would be something special and spectacular and not the other one. It was also my twelfth birthday. I will admit that I didn’t think that both my awakening and my bir
I was enjoying a nice day outside with my class for class out on the lawn. We were rushed inside as sirens went off continuously. Ms.Bloom turned on the tv as we all sat down. She turned the channel to the local news. The newswoman was standing in front of a skyscraper. Behind her a portal opened and out stepped a man with a blue face. Two families screamed as their cars crashed into the skyscraper. One family was in a mustang. The other was in a Prius. The blue-faced man shot beams of darkness at the skyscraper as it fell to the ground in rubble. Another portal opened beside him. A man in armor stepped out of it. Kandriths were seen shouting praises to the devil and his servant Shirak. Ganthiras were out protesting the event. Rangrates joined them. My nemesis Jaren rolled his eyes. “It seems that the Strikers' memories have been returned to them and the Kandriths are all to blame!” Yellow orbs went into my wrists as he stood up and threw his desk at the wall. I got up from m
The strikers’ truck arrived in front of a white dome. They dragged me inside as a woman with black hair walked up to us. “You must be the person to thank.” “For what?” “For giving us our memories back.” “Why is that a good thing?” “Because your kind don’t deserve to live. Plus, I have a job again now.” “That may be good for you but, it means my kind is no longer safe from harm.” “True. But I'm just glad that no one can say that the Bloodbringer is crazy anymore.” “True. But I can’t ever guess what you people plan to do with me.” “Oh believe me you’ll find out soon.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” The lady whistled loudly as two strikers appeared. “Men take him to the initiation room.” The strikers dragged me to a small tent. They locked me down to a chair as an old tv was put in front of me. I looked at and a small black man appeared on the screen. “My name is General Ellison. All cithians are jerks and assholes. They say their lives are hard from the minute t