Dragon Bound

Chapter 47

Reunion Part 2

“Hello Father” Ryoka said casually as she walked calmly towards him, “It is really you isn’t it? Well my eyes cannot deceive me from knowing you, please can I see you in my quarters right now?” she requested and moved past him, heading to her room while still maintaining her calm demeanor, she walk gracefully out of sight to her quarters leaving everyone including her father baffled and surprised, they had expected a much more explosive reaction from her, after all it had been a long while since they were separated.

Dante followed his daughter regardless of the disappointing welcome, could being separated for more than three months have caused so much change in her as such? Well she is a leader of an elite elder race now, there was no telling what she might have gone through, besides, when he heard that they had just successfully pulled off a rescue mission for the dragon queen herself no less, and that it was led by her, he was just bursting with different emotions, including pride in her.

Dante closed the door behind him after entering her room as he turned back to face her, he was tackled with a strong and powerful hug that drove the wind out of him, he couldn’t believe it, but here she was actually squeezing the life out of him with her hug as she wept as well, she cried so hard that he couldn’t help but shed a few tears as well, he was still her daughter, she hadn’t changed, she had just grown some more.

“Why Dad, why did you leave me?... I’m sorry I know that’s not fair because you didn’t mean to and it wasn’t intentional, but I still blame you for it, I had to grow up so fast, I wasn’t prepared for that, I found myself in an unknown world where I had to start walking as soon as I was born into it, it’s not fair” Ryoka cried and whined into her father's chest while hitting him lightly on the chest with her fist as well.

“I really had to grow up, I trained and trained and grew, I was betrayed but I found friends I could love as family too, I found love and then I had to grow some more to lead a whole cause on a revolutionary quest, I have to pull up a brave and bole and unwavering face in front of them, I have to always portray strength and confidence even when I’m hurting, even when I just want to screw up my face and cry loudly at the stress and pressure of it all, well, what I’m actually trying to say is, I’ve missed you dad” she said and cried some more.

“I know baby girl, I know, and, I’m sorry, I really am, I’ve got nothing else to say but that, I’ve got no excuses and no explanations, I am sorry baby girl” Dante said and patted his daughter’s back as she cried and pulled her close to him in a hug.

“Uhm, I don’t think the people will like it very much that you’re calling their commander ‘baby girl' yunno, call me something more mature” Ryoka said with humor, she sniffed so that she could stop crying and chuckled at her own joke.

Dante laughed at her joke, a hearty laughter that he hasn’t laughed in so long, “Ok then, I’ll call you adult lady then, or better still old woman, how mature do you want me to go?” he said turning back the joke at her to which she also laughed well.

“After hearing the other options, I’m sticking with baby girl please, I’m still very young thank you” Ryoka replied her father, and at that moment they were having it was like everything was back to normal, even as if nothing the separation and all that came in between never happened, then they went into gist mode and talked and talked and talked.

Ryoka brought her father up to date about all that had happened to her all the while that they were separated, she started with meeting Damien after the hot pursuit from WIC agents, it shocked her father to hear that he had been with Damien but the actual shock came when she told him that she was trained by him, she skipped to the part where they finally got to know that Damien was with the WIC and how the realization hit her hard and had her unlocking parts of her that were locked in before.

Then she explained how she got to Adrian and how the planned to hit together and how she met his siblings and from there the plan of just hitting back developed into a full blown revolution, she explained how awesome each of them were and told him of each personality, she ended by saying she was glad that they hadn’t lost none of them all the while of the missions.

Dante just chuckled at that point and said “So I see you’ve met your cousins as well, those little buggers were so little last I saw them, I’m glad they grew to be spectacular individuals” he said to a shocked and wide eyed Ryoka.

“Wait what?!” she replied and it was her father’s turn to be shocked, “Whose cousins is who now?” she just had to ask as the new piece of information just couldn’t sit well and process right in her brain just yet, and for a lot of reasons, part of which Letty was the most paramount.

“Wait you didn’t know? I thought you were with Dai now” Dante replied again getting confused as the whole matter started to unravel in an unforeseen way.

“Dai? You mean your sister? Well no I’m not with her, and what does she have to do in this matter?” Ryoka asked still unavailable to fully comprehend or grasp what her father was saying to her.

“Well, I guess you don’t know, Dai is Adrian’s mother, which make her your Aunt naturally since she is my sister and it makes Adrian your cousin, the six siblings had been adopted by her before Adrian’s birth, and this was because we saved them from the WIC and there was no where else they could go, they were only but little kids at the time, barely four years old if I remember correctly at the time, so you say you’re not with Dai, so how come you’re with her children?” Dante asked her daughter.

“Whoa, well dad, before I rescued Adrian and we had the raid and went back to their house, his mother was missing after she had gone to help a colleague or something as confirmed by his siblings or wait was it you she came to help? Well this was one of the reasons for the revolution, we hoped to free you and Adrian’s mother eventually as well once we got to know where the WIC were keeping you both, so I’ve been with them, but not with my Aunt who I didn’t even know till this very moment” Ryoka said now having a whole lot of mixed emotions.

“Well, I did call to her for assistance, but it wasn’t to come to my aid, it was to come to your own aid, Damien wasn’t the one I sent to you as you’ve also discovered, it was Dai I sent to you” Ryoka’s father told her.

At that point a realization came over Ryoka and she was drenched in cold sweat as she remembered a particular scene of a particular day when Damien had been training her and she detected and intruder and was told to make a deadly attack by Damien, why had she thought that the lady looked familiar after she attacked her and saw her face? Was it because it was Dai her own Aunt?

*

“Hey, what’s wrong? You’ve called us all here and we are here now, why are you looking so scared and sad?” Adrian said to Ryoka, she had paused the conversation between her and her father and requested that Adrian and his siblings be called so they could all gather and talk, “You should be happy right about now, I mean, you just reunited with your dad, who happened to be our uncle, I mean, just how crazy is that?” he said to her casually in his goofy way.

When they came in, Letty had gone straight to hug Dante, she drew back and said “Thank you, for saving us back then” apparently she was the only one that still could recognize him, when the surprise and confusion only kept on moving around amongst the rest of them, Dante decided to shed light on the whole incidence and explained how the six siblings were discovered by him and saved by both him and Dai his sister, who adopted them and became their mother, shortly after, she discovered she was with child as well, and that was when she totally absconded from the WIC and went so far away to hide the whole family from them, while she was still supporting Dante secretly.

After the explanation, more hugs had circulated, but Ryoka wasn’t in the mood, she just had the scared expression on even though she was trying to hide it, but she wasn’t calm and neither was she happy as the rest were, she started to pace, even as the others were relating and asking her father questions like ; how did he break out of where he was being held prisoner by the WIC and how his and Dai's childhood was like, he wasn’t even given a chance to answer any before they asked other questions, it was then that Adrian noticed how Ryoka was.

She stopped pacing after Adrian spoke to her, all eyes were on her now, she looked at each of them in the eyes one after the other including her father, how was she to say it to them, how can she put it in a way that wouldn’t be so damning to her, how can she say it in a way that wouldn’t make them see her as a bad person or an evil person even, a killer.

“I think… I might have murdered my Aunt, your sister, your mother, Dai” she said to them looking at her father then at Adrian and his siblings, she decided to just come out and tell them before they find out in another way that would totally be demeaning to her and paint her as the evil person she’s trying to avoid being tagged as, their mouths dropped in shock as she said it, and she felt this weight of guilt bearing down on her.

“You did what?!” Adrian asked.