72 Scary Encounter

On the journey home everyone was exhausted, almost everyone there hasn't had an experience with the military before, especially one with the military trying to shoot them out of the sky. Some people were frightened, others were sad that the military wouldn't accept them.

Lachlan and Simon were still resting, the beasts were also fairly tired but not enough to stop functioning.

Everyone else stared around themselves and to the ground, they found it both beautiful and scary, some people were terrified of heights and held onto someone else's back or the beasts for dear life.

As they finally reached Mildura after a long 3-hour flight, everyone's arse was hurting. When they reached the ground they could barely feel their legs. Some people jumped off immediately and hugged the ground.

Lachlan and Simon were finally awake, but barely. Their bodies felt sore right down to the bone, they walked down the wing ramp and walked towards the house.

Some people burst through the front door, speeding straight towards them. A small figure jumped up and slammed right into Lachlan causing him to fall down. On top of his stomach was Sarah, who had a smile going across her face.

"Lachlan you're back!" She shouted while tightening the hug she was giving.

Lachlan smiled and pet Sarah on the head, causing her to smile more. He then picked himself off the ground, with Sarah still hanging from his stomach. Dylan saw Lachlan was exhausted and came over to help out.

"Welcome back Lachlan," Dylan said as he wrapped his arm around Lachlan shoulders to support him.

Maddie was already by Simon's side, helping him walk towards their house. Tyler came over and helped out, speeding up the process by a bit.

The rest of the group slowly emerged from the house with a bit of shock written across their face, none of them expected the first operation to be so successful. There were at least 30 adults with their children in their arms or by their legs.

Lachlan and Dylan walked past into the house, as the walked past Chloe told him, "You did a great job, let the rest of us take care of it now".

Dylan walked Lachlan up the stairs and towards his bed, he then lifted Lachlan up and laid him down. Sarah never let go and was still hugging Lachlan's stomach, never letting go. Lachlan and Sarah both fell asleep.

Chloe and Flynn were outside in front of the crowd, their daughter by their side, as a way to give the parents some form of comfort trusting them.

"Alright! These houses all have 3 – 5 bedrooms, get into groups and go to whatever house you want, you will need to clean your houses, they've been untouched for two years and have a layer of dust covering them!" Flynn shouted towards the crowd.

"Everyone meets up at this house at 6:00 pm, that will be dinner time. You may hunt your own food, but if you aren't experienced then I suggest not doing that," Chloe said.

Then they both walked back into the house, followed by the rest of the group that just observed the crowd.

The crowd, on the other hand, began to talk to each other. Fortunately, even before they were brought here they all knew each other, as such it was a bit easier for them to group up. After that, they went up and down the street, search for a house that best fit them.

Some groups immediately went for the larger houses, the ones that were connected to the offshoot lake. There were others that wanted a medium sized house, one that's more compact and feels cosy, they think that large houses usually feel empty.

After a while, everyone had settled down and begun cleaning their houses. For a few hours if you stared down the street you could see puffs of dust coming out the door and shadow figures rushing around through the curtains.

Lachlan and Simon slept the rest of the day, everyone respected that and left them alone to recover. Chloe and Georgia already went out to go hunting, although they had plenty of meat they quickly realised how delicious beast meat was.

They wanted to try more, all sorts of varieties. What they came home with this time was a large bird, although Lachlan and Simon could have tamed it, this bird was rather weak, so they didn't think they would want it. As for the meat, they weren't sure how tasty it was, but they knew exactly how they were going to cook it. Fried.

Fortunately, there was a bottle of vegetable oil in the fridge, due to it being unopened it had yet to go bad. They were going to use that to fry up a large amount of chicken. In the drawers, there were packets of different flavours one could add to their fried bird.

They decided it would be best to make three types, no spice, mildly spicy, and really spicy for those that can stomach it.

Fortunately, no one that came from Adelaide had any dietary requirements, well there was a few lactose intolerant people, but they could still eat the fried bird.

It was 5:00 pm when Lachlan finally woke up, still sore but at least no exhausted. He felt rather hungry as he could hear his stomach growl at him, but first, he needs to do something else.

He ran to the bathroom and shut the door, he was really busting and needed to go immediately.

After he finished he washed his hands and stared at himself in the mirror, he stared closer and noticed something different, his eyes, they looked unusual. There was a black line that went straight across it from left to right. It wasn't a large line, still relatively thin, but he didn't know what it meant.

He continued to stare until his reflection talked back.

"Why hello there," It's deep voice resounded throughout Lachlan's very soul, it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Who, no. What are you?" Lachlan asked, with a confident voice. But behind that confidence was a terror, fear of the unknown, he needed to know what it was.

"Can't you see, I'm you, the other half of you anyway," It spoke back.

"Other half?" Lachlan questioned it in confusion.

"Yes, the other half that you still can't analyse," It replied.

"Then tell me what you are!" Lachlan shouted at it.

"Oh no, that would ruin the surprise, we can't be doing that, you'll know when you're strong enough," It spoke before fading out. Lachlan's reflection returned to normal, his eyes still the same. He hairs were still standing after that encounter, his body slightly shaking.

"Analyse"

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Name: Lachlan Wilson (Half-Human, Half-???)

Age: 13 (Teenager)

Soul Contracts: 2/5

Compatibility: Winged Beasts (Perfect)

Level: 53

STR: 422(+507), AGI: 421(+521), VIT: 50(+546)

INT: 52(+155), PER: 114(+244), WIL: 227(+184)

Weakness: Almost no combat experience, immature, easily distracted, short limbs

Strengths: Absolute Control over water, fire and wind, lightning speeds and an absolute crushing grip

Descript: A unique being birth between a human and ???, due to the ??? bloodline getting contaminated with a weaker bloodline it caused some malfunctions. However, due to the ??? bloodline, the body is still stronger than a normal

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"Tsk," Lachlan hated that whatever that was, the information it gave him was right. He was still too weak, he needed to get stronger and the only way to increase his eyes strength is to tame more beasts. That's what he's noticed anyway.

'Huh, when did my intelligence increase' Lachlan thought long and hard to when his intelligence could have increased but came up the same solution every time. The constant use of elemental powers may increase intelligence.

'And what does it mean I'm immature, I don't get distracted that easily either, and hey, don't make fun of my small body' Lachlan got annoyed at his stats screen, he could understand the combat experience, he is young and was never apart of fights before. But he didn't like that stats screen telling the obvious parts, of course he had short limbs, he was still only 11 years old.

"Lachlan! Are you alright?" Chloe shouted from the other side of the door. She began to worry when she heard Lachlan shouting in the bathroom, she thought there might be an intruder or beast.

"Yeah, I'm alright! Don't worry about it, you still need to finish cook those fried bird wings," Lachlan said as he opened the door.

"Alright, as long as you're okay," Chloe said as she walked off.

Lachlan suddenly felt something wrap around his waist, looking down he noticed Sarah hugging him with a tear streaming down her cheek.

"What's wrong Sarah?" Lachlan asked.

"Lachlan scared me, you started shouting in the bathroom and it scared me," Sarah explained.

Lachlan squatted down and wrapped his arms around Sarah, "It's okay, Lachlan's fine, see?" Lachlan stood back up and gave a twirl.

Sarah laughed and wiped the tears from her face.

"Let's go down and get ready for dinner, okay?" Lachlan asked.

Sarah nodded, and they walked downstairs.

Everyone was sitting outside, either playing around with their children or just keeping an eye on them. In the kitchen, besides Chloe there were a few other helpers, 5 of them, 3 girls and 2 boys. They were preparing the bird to be fried.

Lachlan went outside and chatted with some others, they were all thankful that Lachlan and Simon saved them. Lachlan just nodded and said it was no problem. He looked around and noticed Simon relaxing with his fiancé, he didn't want to go over and disturb him so he chatted with Flynn.

That night was wonderful, the friend bird was delicious. It overflowed with juices, and the spiciness was just right. Lachlan had the mildly spicy chicken, he loved it.

After the food was finished everyone went back to their houses and went to sleep. Due to all the sleeping Lachlan did he wasn't too tired. So he laid on the roof, staring at a clear sky filled with stars. Relaxed as he could ever be.

Due to that relaxation, he slowly drifted to sleep, his eyelids getting heavier, his breathing slowing down. It was one of the first times in a while that Lachlan fell asleep without much to worry about. There was obviously the encounter he had with that so called "Other half".

But he couldn't do anything about it so he threw it to the back of his mind.