Chapter Two

I'm Alive

Temple blinked out of his slumber into blinding light forcing him to shut his eyes. Through the rain, he vaguely made out his father's voice.

“Temple let’s go. We need to go now, son.”

Clung to his mother's body, large hands scooped Temple from behind, passing him to a medic inside a hovering medical ship.

“Wrap him up! Wrap him up tight!” His father's cracked.

Temple couldn't move in the blanket. Then everything became a blur. He shook uncontrollably for a moment then stopped, continuing to breathing heavy. Once his vision cleared somewhat, he could see out of the ship, flying high above the forest. The entire landscape illuminated before his eyes; rich green hue of countless leaves glowed between the treacherous mountainside. His father strapped him down tighter to the medicboard.

Laying there Temple caught sight of another ship approaching fast. A man sat next to his mother, as his father did next to him, holding her body, strapped to a medical board. Temple could feel the weight of his father's hand on his chest. Everything went black.

Temple came too and pulled the sheet off of his face, his whole body ached, especially, his bandaged left hand. Looking around in hopes of seeing his father or anyone after a moment of sitting there by himself, Temple, began to wonder if he had been mistaken for dead. Then a shadow across the room caught his attention. His father stood right through the small window of glass in his door.

“Daddy, I’m alive. I’m in here. Is mommy OK?”

His father’s voice boomed through the crack around the door. “It doesn't matter what you think! I know my kid, and that's impossible. He's can't even move a baseball let alone a person!”

Temple listened carefully, his heart thumped faster than normal.

“Just look at the facts,” an unfamiliar man's voice said. “Maybe it's hard to accept, but what else could of happened Captain? I don't think there's any hiding from this one, Sir,”

“If that's the case, doctor, he killed her. And, I don't think that's what happened,” his father said. “it would mean that he can never follow in my footsteps.”

“He'll never want too if it’s true. It will be easier than you think. Focus your attention on Tar, he's a much more promising student already.” the doctor said.

“Take him to Veins," Temple's father turned his head from Temple and walked out. “She will have to raise him now.”

Temple's blood ran cold and his father's last words echoed in in ears.