The Masked Stranger

Chapter 15

Jade’s P.O.V

It’s been a week since I met my father, and honestly I can say that I absolutely love it here. It's quite peaceful, at least compared to when I was living on earth. I’ve been training with Apollo all week long, and I gotta admit, he’s a really tough trainer.

“Again,”

“Huh, you want me to do that again?” I ask Apollo. He just nods his head. I take the sword in my hand and keep swinging at the thick wooden dummy. On the post.

“Ugh, you're swinging all wrong, you need to have a good technique when you swing, it gives more power to your blows, and weakens the opponent, like this,” He drew his sword from his sheath, and relaxed his body, before pushing the blade clear though the wooden dummy.“Like that,” Apollo says before walking back to the bench to watch.

“You’re doing it wrong, it’s like that,” I mock him. I relax my body, feeling my tense muscles relax I feel the cold air blow. I lift the sword so that my hand is touching the flat part of the blade. I release a breath. Before I open my eyes and slice the dummy’s head off.

“Good, now try it without the attitude,”He tells me.

“Oh, yeah that’s a problem, you said for me to do it without attitude, well that’s a problem, that’s against my moral code, I always have attitude, it’s part of my charm,” I tell him.

“Charm ha you can’t even cast a charm,” He says as he rolls his eyes.

“Hey, you said I should ask my father what he is, so what exactly is he?” I ask out of breath.

“As I said, I don’t know how exactly I should explain it without you freaking out, it’s not exactly my secret to share, although considering you’re half of what he is you should probably know. I just think you should ask him about it, not me. And for goodness sake fix your posture, what are you a shrimp” He says. I glared at him and then straightened my back and shoulders a little bit.

“Okay, so where is he usually at around this time?” I ask as I put my sword in the sheath, and take off the belt and give it to Apollo.

“Hmm, he’s usually in the gardens right about now,” He answers my question.

“Okay great, bye,” I yell before I run off towards where the gardens are.

“Jade, w...wait,” I hear him yell, but he doesn’t follow me, he just groans really loudly.

“If you fall I’m going to laugh.” He yells to me,

“Good thing I won’t fall,” I yell back to him.

I spoke too soon, next thing I know I’m on the ground, because like the i***t I am. I just had to run backwards. I’m too stupid for my own good. I quickly stand up and continue to make my way to the gardens a bit more gracefully. Once I see my father I stop.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hello,” he says before standing up.

“Umm, I have a question for you,”

“Okay, what is it?” He asks.

“Apollo said that I should ask you what you are. He said considering it’s half of what I am, he said I should know.” I sigh.

“I guess I just wanna know what I am, so what are you?” I ask.

“I figured eventually you’d ask me that.” He says before sitting back down on the bench motioning for me to sit beside him.

“Jade, your mother was a witch, but me, I’m a Kova, and so are you.” He tells me.

“What’s a Kova?”

“It’s complicated, the best way I can describe it is a vampire, just different from vampire everywhere else because we were the first vampires ever created so we are very different in fact the word vampire is derived from humans not we Kova but we are essentially vampires we drink human blood I think that’s enough to qualify.”

“Wait, what do you mean? I thought I’m a witch.” I ask obviously confused.

“Oh, now, sorry, no you're still a witch, it’s just you're also a vampire. You're a halfling, part witch, part vampire. Half of each and if you had a third part in there then you’d classify as a hybrid.” He explains.

“Oh, I think I get it. It’s like how dog breeds can mix, right?” I ask.

“Sort of, but let’s not go into details,” he mentions.

“But, wait, if I’m a vampire, how come I’ve never had to drink blood to survive?” I ask him.

“See, when the witches bound your powers, they also bound your vampire side, that’s why you’ve never had a lust for blood.” he explains.

“Wait, does that mean that once I turn eighteen I’ll be a-” He cuts me off.

“Yes, you’ll be a fledgling vampire, but you won’t be a fledgling for long. Because you will have to drink human blood,” he tells me.

“Wait, what day is it, not here, but in the world I grew up in?” I ask.

“Umm it’s June 19th,” he says.

“Wait, my birthday is tomorrow, I was born on the 20th,” I told him.

“Worry not you weren’t born on the 20th on this planet you were born on the fifth of Fabara the season of summer here on Dorvale you see we have four months one for each season. Abrana being the first, Ab meaning green and Rana meaning leaves it represents spring. Fabara represents summer, Fab meaning dead and Ara meaning hot. Murana, Mu means red, it represents autumn. Lastly we have Sabrana representing winter Sab meaning white. Each month has ninety-two days in it for a total of 368 days a year. As Apollo might have mentioned, time works completely differently here. For the record the current day here is the 87th of Abrana so you are in the clear for now you should be transforming sometime within the next couple of weeks though. You could transform before, after, or the day of your eighteenth birthday.” He says after telling me all about how the calendar on this planet works.

“Wait so no leap year?” I ask him.

“What’s a leap year?” He questions telling me all I need to know.

“Nevermind, forget that I asked.” I told him.