Esther7

The next day, I woke up and got ready for school. While eating breakfast, Jodie brought up something about a party. "Hey Esther, are you going to the party on Saturday?" She asked me. "What party?" I asked, not having a clue what she was talking about. "Angie's party! Esther, don't tell me you forgot. She's having a party with all her old friends from boarding school. You knew about it two weeks ago." Suddenly I remembered. "Oh yeah! Um, I think I'll be there. Why? Are you coming?" "Of course! She invited me." "But aren't you a little young for those type of things?" "No! I'm 10 years old! That's in the double digits. I'm definitely old enough." "Fine with me. Just remind me on Saturday morning so I don't forget, okay?" "Yeah." And with that, we got up and left for school. Angie had gone to a school almost half way around Antar when she was 13 years old. . She was too advanced for our tutors here, and this school she went to could accommodate all her needs. So she went. She came back a year ago. She'd grown up a lot since she'd left. And, she also found a guy for herself. His name was Jay. He was really nice and I got along with him great. They were such a cute couple together.
Saturday evening came and I showed up at Angie's place, along with Jodie, Josh, and Kenton. "Hey you guys! I'm glad you came. Come on in and make your selves at home." She motioned us inside. We walked into the room where a mass of people was dancing to some music. Jodie and I sat down on the couch and started talking about how cute the guys were. "Oh look at that guy over there," Jodie pointed to a tall, handsome guy "He's hot!" "Totally! I dare you to go ask him to dance." I said. "No! He's too tall for me. I'd never be able to reach my hands behind his neck. Pick someone else." Jodie said seriously. "Okay......how bout that one. He's good looking." I pointed out a guy with short, dark hair. "Perfect. I'll take him." Jodie said as she got up. I thought she was crazy, going up to ask a guy twice her age to dance with her. I never figured out which side of mom and dad she got her spontainianity from.
Half an hour passed and I was still sitting on the couch. I was bored out of my mind as I watched Jodie dancing, switching from guy to guy. I could barely hear her speaking to one guy. "So, do you dance a lot?" Jodie asked the guy. "Yeah. My sister loves to dance and always gets me to dance with her. You don't seem to be that inexperienced yourself." He responded. "Oh yeah. I love dancing. Um...I'm a little thirsty. You wanna get some punch?" "Sure." And they walked off to the punch bowl.
"Anyone sitting here?" Some one said to me, waking me from my daydream. "Oh, uh, no. Go right ahead." I said. I looked at the guy as he sat down. He looked so familiar, yet I couldn't put my finger on where I'd seen him before. He looked at me and smiled. "So you're alone?" He asked me. "Yeah, basically. I have my two brothers and sister here. You?" "Yup. Angelica's the only person I know here. But, as you can see, she's busy talking to other people." He said. We sat there for a few seconds with a weird awkward feeling like we knew each other. I couldn't stand it any longer and piped up the question. "Excuse me, but have I met you before? I mean, I have this weird feeling like I've talked to you before." "I don't know. I live on Rameth, and I haven't been to Antar in 10 years. Do you live around here?" He said. "Yeah, I live out on the Royal Isle. My father is the King." I told him. "What?!? Esther? Esther, is that you?" His eyes widened as he figured out who I was. Suddenly, I saw him. The boy who had saved me that day at the river delta. "Talar? No. Really? Talar?!!" I almost shouted as the music got louder. He nodded his head. "Oh my goodness! It's you! I've always wanted to see you again!" I said as we leaped up and gave each other a big hug. It had been so long.
We walked outside to get away from the loud music. We wanted to catch up on each other. He started by asking, "So, your dad went ahead with that war, huh? Did he go and fight?" "At first he didn't. But, when the war became too dangerous, he had to send my family into hiding up in a mountain and he went to fight. We stayed up in the mountain for two years. You said you live in Rameth? When did you move there?" "We moved there almost right after your dad dismissed my father from the army. My mom has family there and my dad had his reasons for not wanting to stay on Antar, so we moved to Rameth. I wanted to see you again, but my father wouldn't let me travel to Antar with out him." He said as I listened intently. "Did it have to do with my dad? Was he angry with him?" I asked. "I honestly don't know." "So tell me. Have you figured out where you got your powers from yet?" "Shhhh! Don't talk about that here. No one knows except you, and I intend to keep it that way." "But, Talar, don't you want to know where it's from? I mean, are your parents from the royal family or something?" "I asked them, but they said no. I did find out some thing that helps though. They said that they adopted me. I'm adopted." I gasped at the thought of what this could mean. "Do you know what this could mean? You could be some royal prince for all we know." "No! I don't want to think about that. I don't want to get my hopes up that I could be something." "Well, how old were you when they adopted you?" I asked. "I was about 3 years old. I don't remember anything before I was three. My dad says that my memory was probably wiped clear when I was taken away from my real parents. I don't know why anyone would do that to me. I mean, I have a perfect memory back until my fourth birthday. Everything before that is all white and blurry. It's there, just I can't make sense of it." "Doesn't that drive you crazy? That you can't remember your parents?" I asked. "Sometimes. But other times, I'm really thankful that I can't remember them because then I would just make me have remorse for them. I don't want that. I want to be glad that I'm safe and healthy. Who knows? For all we know, they could have been dirt poor and I could have grown up with no food and education. I try to think of how fortunate I am to have parents who love me." I listened to what he said with admiration. I don't know how I would be able to handle what he was going through. We had stopped and stood by a small water fountain. The moon shone down on the water, causing it to reflect the moon and glisten in the starlight. I turned my focus to him and looked him in the eyes. He had pain in his eyes. As I felt his cheek, I could feel the pain. He leaned in and kissed me. We stood there for a precious moment, locked in that moment. He was more than an adopted child. He was more than that. I knew he was. We were going to find out no matter what.

The next day, I went to talk to my grandmother. I walked into her room and she motioned me to sit down. "Well Esther, what would you like to talk about? It sounded urgent from your message." She said with a warm smile. "It's kind of urgent. You see, remember when right after we arrived on Antar, dad started meeting with that general named Samai?" I asked her. "Yes." She nodded. "I met Samai's son, Talar when dad had one of his meetings. The day we met, we went down to the river delta and went swimming. I got caught in an undertow and got sucked under. Talar pulled me out of the water and then waved his hand over my chest and brought out the water. With his hands!" I said excitedly when grandma inturrupted me, "What? No, he couldn't have. He's only the general's son. He's not capable of doing such things." "But grandma, he did. And, the second time we met, in Gollin, he showed me some more things. Like for example, he took a small twig and held it in his hands and burnt it, with no spark." Grandma looked at me, puzzled. "Well, who do you suppose he is?" She asked. "I have no idea. He says he was adopted when he was three years old. His parents said his memory was wiped clean when they found him. That means he could be anyone." I started getting more excited when I thought of who he could be. Grandma's eyes suddenly lit up. "Do you think? Could it be.....? No, not possibly." "What!?! Do you know who he could be?" I asked with anticipation. "Remember when your father was up against Kivar?" I nodded. "Well, Kivar was the son of King Darieth and Queen Lana. When Kivar was defeated, so was his entire planet, Nira. His planet was destroyed. Darieth and Lana had a younger son, Ker, who was only about three or four years old. We found the remains of Kivar, Darieth, and Lana, but not Ker. No one never found out what happened to him." "And you think Talar is Ker?" "I don't know. We could have your father look into his mind and see into his past." "Dad can do that? Even with his memory wiped out?" "Yes. Your father can look through many barriers, and Talar's barrier is probably not that big. I'm sure your father could get through to him." Grandma said, her eyes full of hope. She had been good friends with King Darieth and Queen Lana.