Heart of Gold

There is a crowd of cries and loss, the loss of loved ones, with only memories to keep them alight. The sun was fairly rising, and amid it all, there were leaves that softly landed on the ground as the wind was blowing in the air.

Amidst the crowd, there was an old man, looking for the leader and founder of the Rescuers, Roland McArthur. The man’s name was Aramis McKenzie. Bruises surrounded his hands—he had sadness dwelling deep inside. He walked closer and closer to the leader, his footsteps stepping louder and louder on the ground, begging to be able to reach him. McKenzie was a person who had anthrophobia, and in his mystery, he spoke through floating—flying dragons that carried people he wished he could be able to talk to. Now, they’re all gone. He caught his breath, mended his sigh, and hesitantly spoke, hoping to be heard,

“Excuse me?” 

But it didn’t reach the leader. He took a deep breath and spoke again,  

“Excuse me?”

He spoke these words but none of them reached the leader. Deep inside him, he felt like everybody else was doing their work, like a normal person with a purpose, doing the right thing. He just felt like a burden. His lungs felt like it was filled with stone, but nevertheless, he took another deep breath, and spoke again,

“Excuse me?”

McArthur delved deeper into the crowds, and McKenzie followed him, feeling more isolated. But the crowd slowly dissipated as healers sent them to their rooms and mended their injuries. He continually held on to the hope of being able to speak to the leader, and he walked faster, but his head began to fizz, and his sight turned dark. His mind faded into a deep abyss of loneliness, and with his last strength, in teary eyes, and desperately breathing, he muttered,

“Excuse me?... please.”

McArthur went out of sight, and he fell hard on the ground.

Elias was among the crowd on the side—lying down on a wooden bench, wounded with scars, scratches, bruises, and dust. He saw the old man fall down. He was crying, he had blurry vision because of his tears. His face turned red. His heart was so low and weak, and his heart was heavy… sad. His white robes were moist from the seawater and darkened from all the dust and ashes from the attack. He was very young, he was twelve years old. A little girl had passed by him—she had lost her way. She came upon him and asked, 

“May I sit with you?” 

Elias sat down on the bench and invited her to sit beside him. The little girl sat quietly and cried. In an effort to comfort her, he asked her, 

“What is your name?” 

The girl paused, looked at him, and said, 

“I am Moringa.” She paused again, then asked, 

“How about you?” 

“My name is Elias. Let’s be friends.” Elias replied to her,

Moringa gave her gratitude to him, saying, 

“Thank you.” 

The two little kids cried together. Among the crowd, they saw a Rescuer carrying a survivor to the healers, it was Torikou being carried by Hideki. Elias thought the two looked cute, while Moringa thought that they were captivating.

The winds were whooshing down with a screaming speed, and everyone in the area was safe. “Where am I now? Where is home?” In McKenzie’s heart, he asked these questions, yearning for a home that he had never felt in a long time–a home that is not a place, but a presence, a presence of care. There was light in front of his eyes. He squints, he tries to look at the place without hurting his eyes, which are filled with intense brightness. He felt his hands wrapped around a cloth of silk and lay in a bed soft like cotton. “But where am I again?” He asks himself, his memory begins to pass out the time before he loses consciousness. In little patches of pictures and colors unconnected like a puzzle, his life became a mystery to himself—like years of wasted time going in a direction he didn’t know where it would arrive. Then a sweet, young voice of a woman spoke,

“Hello?” 

That voice was as sweet as a daisy’s petals dancing in the air. Its sound shone familiarities like a sky and a cloud that always shares its life with someone else’s. In shock, the man hustled to face where the voice came from, like a newborn baby who listens to the voice of its mother and father. Then another voice, a voice of a man, which is similar to McKenzie’s voice himself, said,

“Hi there.”

McKenzie opened his eyes. To his eyes, are faces filled with millions of little memories. Recognizing the face of these two people, they looked much like him, both having blue-brownish, white hair and strong faces, and mysterious eyes. His memory connected, and he remembered they were his children. His son and his daughter. Their hearts beat quickly like a woodpecker pecking wood and light as an angel flying in Heaven. They shed tears of joy. In brightness, they looked at him with a smile. He hugged his children very tightly. They felt peace inside, like a light soul. He finally found his home.

Nighttime conquered the sky, and the memories of meeting his children played in his head the entirety of sleeping time—including his dreams. The next morning, it had drizzling rain with a small patch of sunlight in the window. There was a rainbow. Then he looked beside him, his daughter was there, reading a book beside him.

In the afternoon of the same day, with the help of McKenzie’s son, who goes by the name Aidan, wrote a request letter to talk to the leader of the organization. After a few weeks, it got approved due to the leader’s horrendously busy schedule. In another few weeks’ time, McKenzie got acquainted with his children and got better and healthier.

On the day of the meeting with the leader, McKenzie and his children met McArthur on the outdoor terrain of Cholidea facing the view of the plains down. McArthur was a large person with a muscular build–the one you get training super hard in the military, yes that one. He looked like he was in his 50s. He had a little white hair streaming down. You can tell by the expression on his face that he has gone through a lot of critical thinking and went through a lot of pain to gain his financial and leadership savviness. During the meeting, he had his assistants and bodyguards by his side. He took a breath and spoke, 

“What brings you to look for me, sir?” 

“We know that the well-being of our entire planet and our people is at stake because of the conquering presence of Histeria. I know that your team is figuring out a place to house our growing population of rescuees who have lost their homes. As the day goes by, the land Histeria takes is getting bigger and bigger—with greater masses of innocent lives on the line. They are destroying this planet’s biodiversity, thinking that they could live by machines, alone.” McKenzie explains.

“Go on,” McArthur replied.

McKenzie steps back from McArthur and builds from nowhere with his hands, a metal ore. He makes fires and stones. McArthur’s bodyguards defend him, but he blocks them because he wants to see what McKenzie makes with his hands.

“There are seven cores on this planet… I am the first core. I behold the power of magma.” He says.

McKenzie creates a greater magma block but stumbles. He tries to create more and more but his hands shiver and roar in pain. He could only create a small, fragile piece. McArthur sighs.

“Ever since Histeria attacked us, Ocean Moon, my powers have weakened. I made the mistake to entrust most of my power to those dragons simply because I found it too overwhelming. I entrusted it, especially to a dragon named Peter, who I know has died in the attack.” 

“Why did you come to me to talk? What is the news?” McArthur is in shock but asks this question. He wants to go straight to the point.

“I have shown proof to you that I am the beholder of the Magma Core and I believe that you are convinced of my position. I’m afraid that the news I’m gonna tell you is gonna be depressing, but I’ll continue.” McKenzie replied. 

“The Rescuers always deal with depressing news, sir,” McArthur said.

“Now that the core of the Aramis Village has been destroyed, the rest of its villages around the whole ocean will die too, and I may die along with them. Since I bear the deepest and strongest core, the rest of the six cores get a portion of their power from me, and they will weaken because I am weakened.

Now I ask you, you need to find another planet to live on. Histeria is just too strong, I’m sorry. We may fight them and hold them off temporarily, but they will eventually get us. How do I know? I can feel intuition that two of our precious cores have been held captive already, the Fauna and Flora Core. Once they capture our Cores, they will use them against us. Please, find the other cores and get them before Histeria does. As much as possible, please Rescue the Flora and Fauna Core as well! Here’s the thing, you can find a planet in space, and we, cores will muster all our might to gather our strength to be able to revive and rehabilitate that planet to be just like Eorthe once was. We cannot do that here. Please find a way to send masses of people there with us.” Aramis explained.   

McArthur exhaled and grabbed a cigarette. He loosened his posture and stared at the horizon below. The sun was setting. McArthur kept quiet.

“Lord, when will these end?” He spoke.

The meeting went silent again. McArthur’s assistants and bodyguards and McKenzie’s children kept standing quietly, staring at each other.

“Okay. How can you regain your powers?” McArthur asked.

“I just don’t know. I may have to rest myself and practice my magma-creation skills. I will try to reach out to the Aramisian survivors and explore if they have skills I can retain. I’m really sorry sir.” McKenzie replied.

“Mr. McKenzie, we will join you in our headquarters. You will help us in our research and planning. We will need you. I have a lot of questions to ask that I don’t know yet. You will be a valuable asset to us. For now, your first assignment is to find a way to regain your powers.” McArthur spoke.

Aidan and his sister, Alice looked at each other. They gave an expression of mild excitement—like something hopeful is going to happen.

After another lengthy conversation, McArthur and McKenzie gave a handshake. McKenzie and his children headed back to their rooms and packed Aramis’ belongings. He moved to the headquarters building where he will stay and attempt to regain his powers. The rest headed back to where they belonged.

After the next two months, the radio alerted all rescuers, soldiers, and pilots to go to the Rescuer Military Base for a meeting. The meeting place looked like a large, closed, colosseum for technical meetings. Roland McArthur along with Aramis McKenzie gave the plan for the Rescuean servants. He speaks,

“We will be divided into groups by role and geographical location of the mission. After learning the news from Aramis McKenzie, the Magma Core who is here with us today, we decided our plan is to rescue as many people as we can in the untaken Cores of this planet and lead them to a secret island called The Lost Gate of Illnoia, located hidden in the ocean of Aurorae, where the rarest Ocean Moon villages used to be—none of you know exactly where this is yet. When Histeria takes an interest in us and engages us in battle, our Rescuean soldiers and pilots will fight them off so they won’t take our land and people.”

McArthur continues his explanation,

“We all know that this planet is led by seven major Cores, the natural powers of this planet given and entrusted to chosen people, who hold and harmonize the power of nature. There is the Magma, Stone, Ocean, Arctic, Wind, Flora, and Fauna. Histeria has taken over Flora and Fauna. That is dangerous news, meaning they have the power to use these Cores against us, so we are left with the five Cores.” The facilitator speaks.

“Aside from bringing people to safety in Illnoia, we have another two important missions to do. One, we have to find a way to bring us all into space and into another planet. Two, we have to rescue all the Cores and get them to ally with us. If this works, with all of the Cores with us—they will revive that planet for us. Hopefully, this era of violence will end.”