The Magician

J'baki found himself in a position where he had to asses the situation. He felt himself turned into a whirlpool that emptied out at the bank of a river. He looked up to find a bright ball of light hung in the sky illuminating all of his surroundings. When he turned he saw a building with a giant courtyard. He ran to one of the doors. Locked. He found no signs of anyone as he peered through the windows. He decided to walk back to the river, at least he found people there. When he spoke, no one understood him. And he didn't understand anyone, when they spoke back to him. He was utterly alone. When the giant ball in the sky went down, he found a bench along the river to sleep on.

When he woke up, there were tons of people walking by him.

He again tried to talk to people with no avail. His stomach started to turn into knots and he knew he had to eat something.

Wandering the streets, caught in the hustle and bustle of the city, finding a place with food was near impossible. Then he saw it, a man walking out of a building shoving some food in his mouth.

J'baki raced around the scattered groups of people and found himself in a small store with aisles covered with food. A mixture of his hunger and his nose led him to a griller with meat on it.

Although his stomach didn't thank him as he indulged himself, he was satisfied. As he walked out of the store he was stopped by a young man with green eyes and curly hair.

J'baki didn't understand a word the man was saying as he grabbed his arm and sat him behind the counter. J'baki didn't want to run.

He didn't care what happened. He wanted answers, and this was the first person to interact with him. Where else was he gonna get answers?

The man placed a device in his hands. They were playing videos he recognized as kids shows. He sat for hours until the man turned out the lights and locked up the store.

The man bent down and looked J'baki in the eyes. He spoke slowly.

"What is your name?"

"J'baki" he replied.

"J'baki. I'm Benji."

"Thank you, Benji."

"You're welcome J'baki!" Benji spoke with a smile.

"Stay" J'baki pointed to the river.

"You want to stay? If that's what you want to do." Benji seemed reluctant to leave J'baki. To make himself feel better, he made it his duty to make sure this kid was okay.

The two went their separate ways and every day Benji would bring J'baki food and teach him English. And every day J'baki would run all around the river making little stops to work out his body.  He learned that the river he runs along is called St. John's, and the city he's in is Jacksonville.

J'baki and Benji became close in this short time. Almost every night they would hang out by the river before Benji took his walk home. On this day, Benji gave J'baki his old phone because he just bought a new one.

"Benji! Thank you. Thank you thank you." J'baki bowed profusely

"Relax dude, it's not that big of a deal. I'm sure you'll need it." Benji laughed.

"Benji thank you for looking after me all this time."

"Oh J'baki, it's only been 6 months" Benji answered with a chuckle. "It's been no issue at all. You're like the brother I always wanted."

That struck a chord. What had he been doing? How was he going to get back, he'd been enjoying himself he'd forgotten all about his siblings. He shut down.

"Y-you okay J'baki?"

"I have a brother. And I forgot about him. How could I do that?" J'baki said coldly.

Benji was shocked at how the mood had changed. Since he made no assumptions about J'baki, hearing this caused a cascade of emotions to enter his brain.

"Oh, I wasn't trying to, like" he stuttered. "What happened to your brother?"

"I don't know. There was a flash and I ended up here. The same flash took my brother away and it's my fault. I can't even hear them anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"My people have gone silent. We usually can always hear each other, but not since I got sent here"

"I can't even imagine that. ." The two walked a little more in silence. "Where did the flash come from?"

"It's a long story...I don't even know where to start."

"Just start, I'm sure I can follow." Benji led J'baki to a nearby bench and sat with him.

"Well the tale starts when we were all at the Festival of Spores. It was a festival where we received spores from our god. We would be filled to the brim every year. There were games and rides everywhere."

"Sounds like a good time."

"And it was! It was amazing. The spores danced so beautifully, but, someone had to come and mess it up. Akachi, my brother, went to talk with one of his friends and left me and my sister alone. He said he'd be right back, but it felt like an eternity and I couldn't hear him in my head anymore, so I went to look for him."

J'baki was trying to remain calm while telling the story.

"And, you just left your sister?" Benji asked.

"Well of course not, even if I tried, she'd follow right behind me." J'baki answered. "I just walked until I heard his voice again, and we were able to find him. He was in some back room behind a stage, somewhere we would've never just stumbled upon. He was beaten pretty badly and hooked up to this machine. I don't know how he got there, but we tried to get him out but the machine was too hot."

"What did the machine look like."

"I... I can't remember. I just know he was strapped to a chair with a tube running from behind his ear.The guy I thought was his friend came in, took one look at us, and just charged at us. I remember waking up to find him standing with my sister, holding her by the neck. And I couldn't help wondering why he would take her and not me. I- didn't know what to do, my brother was attached to this machine, my sister held by this stranger. Who would you have picked?" J'baki turned to look Benji in the eyes.

"That's a tough one, but I'd ultimately go for my sister, I think my brother could have handled it," Benji replied after giving it some thought.

J'baki felt those words sting with regret.

"I wish I had thought of that. I was halfway to my brother before the tube pushed out of his neck and he freed himself from the restraints. We rushed over to Neyali to try and save her, but that guy whoever he was."

J'baki was speaking through his teeth.

"Reacted so fast and knocked us both back. He yelled out. 'this is who I need! Akachi, J'baki, you two are impure Diallo's the purest one is right here.' Before vanishing through a portal he opened up. We couldn't even react as the portal blinded us and we ended up separated."

Benji could feel the hurt coming from J'baki. He didn't like it at all.

"Benji, can you teach me how to be smarter with this stuff? I don't want to run into him again and not be able to help."

"So you're saying it's on sight?" Benji asked.

"Yea! It's on sight!" J'baki yelled. "Whatever that means."

"That means you're gonna beat his ass when you see him. Yea, I can help you with that."

Benji had a determined look in his eyes as he stood up, walked over to J'baki, and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"J'baki. Hearing you say that reminds me of something I have to do, family business that requires me to beat someone's ass too. I'm leaving in 5 years, so let's train our asses off until then, okay?"

J'baki couldn't help but agree. He trained everyday with Benji and as they grew stronger J'baki learned to keep the fire of his siblings in his head. He knew they say they'd be reunited was coming.