Second Sword Fighting Lesson and Realization is the sixth chapter of Zak Saturday's Immortal Love Life. It was first published on January 6, 2016.
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Chapter I woke up at about 8:30am. I got out of bed, got dressed, grabbed my sword in its scabbard and buckled it around my waist. Then I grabbed the claw, hung it on my belt, and I left my room to go eat breakfast. After breakfast, I went outside to find Sarah. But when I got to the spot where she and I were going to have our lesson, she wasn't there. So I waited for her. She came out of the house ten minutes later, followed by her mom, brother, and pets. Sarah was wearing a pink outfit today. Raylee and Zack, just casual. "Hey, Zak," Sarah said. "Sorry I'm a little late. I was just deciding what to teach you today." "That's ok," I said. "I'm pretty sure whatever your going to teach me, I can do." Sarah smirked. "We'll see about that." I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean?" "Well, even though this is only our second lesson, I decided that since you're pretty good at figuring out problems by yourself, that for today you teach yourself on how to use a sword." "I don't understand." "Well . . ." Sarah unsheathed her sword really quick and faced me. "I thought that you could learn more with your sword yourself by fighting me." She held up her sword in a challenging way. "Wait," I said. "You want me to fight you? But I barely know how to use my sword." "You learn by doing. Then you can come up with your own moves instead of moves your teacher tells you." "Ok. But are you going to go easy on me?" "Of course not," Sarah replied. "How are you going to learn if I go easy on you?" I sighed. "Fine." I unsheathed my sword. "Are there any rules?" "Nope. Just do your best. My mom and twin brother are here so that they can heal any injuries we get when we're done. Or they'll just be healing your wounds." "You're going to actually hurt me?" I asked. She nodded. "Yep. I'm going to swing and stab you whenever I get the chance. You can do it, too, because that's what you do with a sword." "I'm not going to do that." "You're gonna to have to. Are you ready to start?" I lifted my sword in reply. She nodded, lifting her sword. Then, without warning, she charged. I barely had enough time to deflect her sword before she could slice my head off. The blow was so hard that I fell to the ground, landing on my butt. Sarah swung at me again, and I held it with my sword. She pushed down into me, getting heavier, and my sword was get closer and closer to my chest. I had to think on how I was going to get out of this fast. I pushed up just enough to roll to the left, and got out from having two swords cut my chest open. I got up on my knees, and for some reason, I swung my sword to my left. Sarah screamed in pain. I looked at her and noticed that her leg was bleeding. She clutched one of her hands on the cut. Why did I do that? Sarah looked at me and noticed my confusion. "Your instincts kicked in and you swung at me, Zak," she explained. "Sometimes you do stuff without even thinking." "Oh," I said. "Are you ok?" Bad idea. She slashed at me, and I ducked my head without even thinking again. "You see what I mean?" Sarah asked. "You didn't even realize what you just did until after you did it, right?" I nodded. "But I understand instincts. I'm instinctive. I just didn't think that it would happen with something I barely know how to use." She swung at me again, but this time, I didn't dodge it, and she made a big cut on my left arm. It began to bleed. I screamed in pain and clutched my arm. "You didn't see that one coming, did you?" Sarah said. "Does it look like I did?" I replied. She laughed, then stood up from the ground and pointed her sword at me. "It's ok. Your instincts don't always work. But we're still not done." I rolled to the side quickly before she could cut me again. I stood up, held up my sword, and charged. I slashed at her, but she side-stepped and tried to swing at me, but I deflected it. She kept hacking and slashing, and I kept deflecting one after the other. Sarah was breathing heavily and so was I. She tried a swing at my head, but I side-stepped and swung at her side. She didn't move fast enough, so it made a pretty deep cut and started to bleed. Sarah was sweating, but she wasn't giving up. She swung over and over again, but she kept missing. I swung and never missed. She tried once more by swinging at my legs, and I deflected. But what I did next I wish I never did. I remembered what Sarah taught me the other day by cutting that net while holding my sword with either one or two hands. Well, this time, Sarah was the net. I held my sword with two hands, so when I deflected her sword, I did it sideways, the same way I did with the net. Then I did a spin, held my sword high, and swung straight down on Sarah. Luckily, it was between her shoulder and her neck. Unluckily, the blade went farther down than I intended it to. Sarah screamed in pain and fell to the ground, a lot of blood pouring out of her. I stood frozen. After a few more seconds of watching Sarah practically bleed to death, I dropped my sword, went to her side, and fell to my knees. She started to look pale. "Zak," she said, her voice barely a whisper. I put my hand on top of hers. "I'm here." "You're forgetting something." "What?" "Come closer." I did what she said, and my face was only inches from hers. Then I felt a sharp pain in my gut. I didn't realize she still had her sword in her hand. "Don't ever let your guard down," she said. She pulled her sword out of my stomach and passed out from the blood loss. I took my hand off hers and laid it on my stomach. My shirt was drenched with my blood. I was breathing hard and was starting to feel queasy. I collapsed right next to Sarah. My eyelids were starting to close, but I tried to keep them open. I was afraid that if my eyes closed, they would never open again. I had to keep fighting, but I just couldn't take the pain any longer. I slipped into unconsciousness. I woke up breathing hard. I looked around at my surroundings and realized I was in the infirmary. I was wearing a pair of fresh clothes, and there were bandages on my left arm and around my stomach. "Hey," Sarah said. I didn't notice she was sitting on the infirmary bed next to mine, so I was a little startled. "Sarah." I jumped off the bed, ignoring the pain, went to her, sat down next to her, and checked her shoulder. It was wrapped in bandages and some other spots on her body were wrapped as well. I touched her shoulder, and she winced. "Sorry," I said. "Are you ok?" "I'm fine," she said. "Are you?" I nodded. "Yeah. But why did you stab me in the stomach? Was it payback for, accidentally, slicing you in the shoulder?" "Yes. But I also did it because you let your guard down. You can't do that." "Why not?" "Because that will happen." She gestured to my stomach. "Or worse. That's another thing I was trying to teach you, Zak. If you let your guard down on your enemies, they will hurt you whenever they get the chance to. And they might even kill you. Never get that close to your enemy, even if he's been hurt. You don't know if he can still fight or not, and you don't want to find out by getting close to him if he still has a weapon in his hand or lying next to him. I practically learned that the same way you did." "Wait. So I'm just suppose to leave him there to bleed to death?" I asked. "No," Sarah replied. "If you can get the weapon out of his hand or out of his reach, then you can help him, ok?" "Ok. Did you learn that from your mom?" "Sort of. My mom did tell me that, but I forgot it and I ended up getting really hurt by my evil clone, Danielle, for trying to help her. And I've met your enemies. They will do just that to you when they get the chance. Maybe even worse." "Yeah," I agreed. "They have tried before, and you saved me from them doing so." Sarah smiled. "That's what I do. But can I ask you a question?" "Sure. What is it?" "After you cut my shoulder, why did you look so scared? You looked like you were gonna cry." "I did?" I asked. She nodded. "Yeah. Why was that?" "Well, I've never done something like that before. After I did that to you, it hurt me." "It hurt you?" "Yeah. But I'm not sure why it hurt me. Did it hurt you the very first time you did it?" "Well, to be honest, you're the first person I've actually been able to do that to," Sarah admitted. "Really?" "Yeah. I've never been able to do something that fatal to my twin brother, or Danielle either. They're just too fast for me. And when I did that to you, it didn't really hurt me at all." "How come?" "Because it was a survival test for both of us, and we have to prove that we're not afraid to do that to someone if it means we die if we don't do it." "So, are you saying that I failed the test?" I asked. "It was your first time," Sarah said. "You did better than I expected, and you didn't show that you were scared until after you did that. So, I wouldn't say you failed. I would say you did well." "Umm, thanks? But can we not do something like that again?" "You need to practice on how to fight with your sword, Zak. But I can promise you that we don't have to hurt each other like that again. Deal?" "Deal." Sarah laid her head on my shoulder. It felt nice. We were quiet for a while. The silence was broken a few minutes later when the door to the infirmary opened, and me and Sarah moved away from each other quickly. My parents entered the room. "Zak, you're alright," Mom said. She embraced me in a hug. "Of course I'm alright," I said. "We saw what happened," Dad said. "You were watching us?" I asked, a little scared. He nodded. "Yes. We were watching through the window. After you two passed out, we ran outside and took you both here to the infirmary. Raylee bandaged your wounds with special healing cloths." "We were really worried that you weren't going to make it after Sarah . . . umm, you know," Mom said. "Mom," I said. "She didn't do it on purpose." "Well, I kind of did," Sarah admitted. "I was just teaching him that if he let his guard down on his enemies like that, that they would do something like that to him whenever they get the chance to." "I understand that," Mom said. "But you didn't really have to do that. You could of just warned him." "I guess I did take it a little too far. But I probably also did it as payback for him making a gash in my shoulder." "I said I'm sorry," I argued. "Well, at least you both are alright," Mom said. "But can you two promise me that you won't do something like that again?" "We already made that promise with each other," I said. "Good. But Sarah, it's good that you taught Zak that. He's going to need to learn it." "I know," she said. "Well, we'll leave you two alone now," Mom said. "I'm sure you both want to be alone together." She smiled at the two of us, then she and Dad started to leave the room. I was confused by the way Mom said that last part, and I noticed Sarah was blushing. "Hey," I called. "What did you mean by that?" But she and Dad were already gone. I turned toward Sarah. "What did she mean by that?" "Umm, nothing," she replied. "Why did you look kind of scared when your parents told us that they saw what happened?" "Well, I thought they were going to say that I can't learn how to use a sword anymore if this was going to keep happening to me," I said. "Well, they didn't." "I know, and I'm glad." Sarah got off the bed and tried to stretch her arms, but she winced in pain, clutching her shoulder. I got up from the bed and went to her side. "Are you ok?" "Yeah," she said. "I just can't move my arm. It hurts too much." "How long do you think it will be until it fully heals?" "A few days at least. Same for yours." "A few days?" I asked in disbelief. "Yeah. Since our wounds are wrapped in healing cloths, there's healing power in them, obviously, and it will heal, like, a hundred times faster than in regular bandages." "That's cool." "Yeah. Well, I'm going to go and look for my mom." "Ok." "See you later. Bye." "Bye." Sarah started walking to the door. With every step she took away from me, I felt sadder and sadder. When she was gone, I felt really sad. I've been feeling that way for a while now, and I couldn't understand why. It had something to do with Sarah, but I didn't know what. I needed to talk to someone about it, but who? Maybe Fisk? No. I don't think he would know anything. I'm afraid to talk to my parents. Zack, maybe? Yeah. I'll go talk to him. Yeah. I'll go talk to him. I left the infirmary and went to look for him. I decided to check the room he was sleeping in, but he wasn't there. Then I went and checked the living room. Wasn't there. The kitchen? No. The family room? No. I decided to see if he was outside, and sure enough, he was. He was heading toward the woods, along with two cheetahs, one on either side of him. I think they were Toto and Chewie. I ran to catch up to them. "Zack, wait up!" I called. I stopped running once I was a couple feet from him. He stopped and turned around to face me. "Hey. Do you need something?" "Umm, kind of," I said. "I need to talk to you about something. It's about Sarah." Zack smirked. "Ok. Come on. We'll talk in the forest." He started walking toward the woods and I followed beside him. "Why are you smirking?" I asked him. "No reason," he replied. "So what about Sarah do you want to talk about?" "Well, its just, every time I'm around her, I feel . . . I feel . . ." I faltered. "You feel what?" Zack asked. I smiled. "Happy. But when I'm not around her, I feel sad, and I don't know why that is. Do you think you can tell me why I feel that way toward Sarah?" Zack smirked again. "Zak, don't you think it's obvious what you're feeling?" "Umm, no." "Think about it." I thought for a moment, but couldn't think of any reason. "I don't know." Zack sighed. "Ok. The reason you feel sad when you're not around Sarah is because you like her and you want to be with her." "I like her?" I asked, confused. "What do you mean by that?" "What do you think I mean?" "I don't know what you mean." He sighed again. "Ok. Umm, let's take your parents for instance. You like Sarah the way your parents like each other." "You mean love?" I asked. "Well, not love necessarily. In your case, anyway. I mean that you like her more than a friend. That you want to be more than her friend. You want to be her boyfriend." "Her boyfriend?" "Yeah," Zack said. "Because you like her. Or, in other words, you have a crush on her." Now I understood. "So you think that that's how I feel toward Sarah?" "It's gotta be the only explanation," Zack replied. "Yeah, I guess so. How do you know so much about that?" "Because 1.) I watch a lot of TV, and 2.) I dealt with that myself last year." "With who?" "Her name is Selena," Zack explained. "Me and Sarah have known her since she was born. She's the same age as us and is only two days younger. I don't remember exactly when I started having a crush on her, but I knew that I didn't want to just be her friend. I wanted to be more than that. I told Sarah that. I mean, since we're twins, we're like each other's best friend. But anyway, I told Sarah about it, and it turned out that Selena felt that way about me as well, and she told Sarah that, too. So one day she took me and Selena somewhere private, completely ambushed us by telling us that we both liked each other, and left us alone to talk. And that was the day our relationship began, and we're still together to this very day. Me and Selena can't thank Sarah enough for that, even if it was embarrassing and we both wanted to kill her, which also helped us talk." "Yeah," Chewie said. "But she regrets doing that." "What did you just say?" Zack asked him. "Nice going, Chewie," Toto said, whacking him in the head with his paw. "Sorry," he said, embarrassed. It's weird seeing that on a cheetah. "Did you guys just say that Sarah regrets helping me and Selena get together?" Zack asked them. "No," they both said in unison. "I just heard you say that." "Yeah, so did I," I said. "We were kidding," Chewie said. "Are you sure?" Zack asked. "Yes," they both said. Zack and I made eye contact, and we were both not convinced. But I knew that Chewie and Toto weren't going to admit it, so I decided to change the subject. "Anyway," I said. "So the reason I feel happy when I'm around Sarah, and feel sad when I'm not, is because I like her. Does she like me that way too?" "What makes you say that?" Zack replied with another question. "Well, I think she does." "Why do you think that?" "Because earlier in the infirmary, she laid her head on my shoulder. And when my parents were in there, my mom said that she was going to leave me and Sarah alone because she was pretty sure that me and her wanted to be alone together. Sarah obviously knew what she meant, because she started blushing. But I didn't know what my mom meant. Now I do." "That's a good reason for thinking that Sarah likes you," Zack admitted. "So, she does like me?" I asked. "I don't know." "Well, don't you think that since you told Sarah that you like Selena that she should tell you if she likes me or not?" "She doesn't have to tell me anything, Zak. I told Sarah that because I wanted to. She's the number one person I talk to about stuff. Well, at least, before me and Selena got together. Now she's the second person I would talk to about certain stuff. So I don't think she would tell me if she likes you or not. And even if I did know, it's not for me to say." "Ok," I said. "So she probably told the number one person that she would talk to about anything if she likes me or not. Who would that person be?" "Our mom," Zack said. "Sarah talks to her about everything. She's an easy person to talk to. But if you ask her if Sarah likes you, she's going to also tell you that it's not for her to say. You're gonna have to find out on your own." "How?" "By asking Sarah herself. Yes, it will be hard and awkward, but sometimes it's worth it." Great. I'm not even sure if I will have the courage to ask her, but I really want to know. Zack stopped walking and turned around, staring at the house. So did Toto and Chewie. "Sarah's calling you," Toto said. I wasn't sure who he was talking to, but Zack nodded. "I heard," he said. "I didn't hear her," I said. "Well, we have super hearing. We can hear from very far away, unlike mortals." I didn't like him calling me "mortal." "I guess I should go see what she wants," Zack said. "See you later, Zak." He and the cheetah brothers started toward my house. "Hey, Zack," I called. He stopped and turned to face me. "Yeah?" "Can you not tell Sarah what we just talked about?" "There's a good chance she already knows." "How would she know something about me if I just realized it myself?" "She deals with this kind of stuff a lot at school. So she wouldn't be surprised to find out that you like her." "Well, either way, can you not tell her?" "I'll talk to you later," was all he said. He turned away and ran toward my house with Toto and Chewie behind him. He didn't answer my question, which practically meant that he was going to tell Sarah about what we talked about. Great. Just great. Well, at least I found out why I've been feeling so weird around her for the past few days. Now I just wonder what she'll think about it. Well, I can't say that I didn't like the time in the infirmary with Zak, because I did. When I laid my head on his shoulder, it felt very comforting. And the concern in his face when he cut my shoulder showed that he really cares about me. It was so sweet. After the time with Zak in the infirmary, I went to talk to my mom and she told me that she thinks that he really cares about me, too. I decided to go looking for my twin brother. I asked Mom if she knew where he was, and she said that he was outside, so I went looking for him. When I was about to walk through the front door, it all of a sudden opened automatically. I noticed it was Zack coming from the other side, and he was running, Toto and Chewie behind him. So, naturally, he ran right into me. Pretty hard too. We both fell to the ground with him on top of me. "Zack," I said. "Watch where you're going." "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to run into you." He got off of me and helped me up from the ground. "Why were you running?" I asked him. "I heard you were looking for me," he replied. "So I ran to see what you wanted." "Oh. Ok. Well, I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to have a sword fight before we go to bed." "Uh, are you sure you can?" He gestured to my bandaged shoulder. "It's on the left side. I fight with my right." "Yeah, no. You're going to let that heal completely first. Besides, I need to talk to you about Zak." "Umm, ok. Why?" "Let's go somewhere private." "Ok. How about my room?" "That's perfect." So we headed to my room, and Toto and Chewie followed us. Once we got there, I sat on my bed, Zack sat next to me, and Toto and Chewie laid between us. "So, what do you want to tell me about Zak?" I asked him. "Well, after you and him were in the infirmary, he came to talk to me about something." "Ok. What about?" "It was about you. He told me that every time he's around you, he feels happy. But when he's not, he feels sad, and he didn't understand why that was, so he asked me if I knew why." "Wow," I said. "Did you tell him why?" "Yes," he said. "But he didn't understand at first. So I had to explain it to him. He's not as smart as we think he is." "Well, Zack, Drew told me that you and I are the very first kids he's ever met. He's only been around adults his entire life. He does act like a kid, but he's more serious than a kid his age would be. He doesn't have brothers or sisters—" "Well, he considers Fiskerton and Komodo his brothers," Zack said. "Yeah, because they're his family," I said. "But they're not human. They're animals. Zak can't really talk to them about human life. He can only talk to his parents about it, and most kids are afraid or embarrassed to talk to their parents about what most people deal with in life. Even though they're probably the best people to talk to about it, you don't like it. But Zak has no choice but to talk to his parents, or he would have to figure out on his own because I'm pretty sure that Fiskerton or Komodo won't know. But now he has us to talk to. I mean, he can still talk to his parents if he wants, but like today, he wanted to talk to you about why he feels weird around me, right? Instead of his parents?" Zack nodded. "Yeah. My powers are telling me that he was afraid to talk to them." "Exactly. I feel kind of sorry for him, being around adults and always having to act mature." "I know. He's not that much, but he needs to be less serious and enjoy being a kid. He's not going to be one forever. When he's an adult, that's when he should start acting more serious. But not now. And we're gonna help him with that, right?" "Right. But, Sarah, you talk to Mom all the time about pretty much everything." "Well, that's because she is very easy to talk to," I said. "Especially about dating. I mean, she doesn't embarrass us like most parents do. And she watches and reads a lot of romance." "Yeah," Toto agreed. "And it took her a few years before she finally got the romance she wanted." "Yeah," Zack said. "But when did you talk to Drew?" "Last night," I said. "She overheard me talking to Selena, Jessica, and Demi on the phone about me liking Zak." "That couldn't have been good." "Well, it was better than I thought it would be." "What did she say about that?" Zack asked. "Well, she wasn't that surprised that I like him. She also thought that it was obvious he liked me too. And she said that if me and him do start a relationship together, that she will let us date each other as long as I promise to never hurt him." "I'm guessing you said that you wouldn't?" "Of course. But I did warn her that if he hurts me or my family first, I will hurt him back." "What did she say?" "That I would be right to do that," I said. "And she probably won't blame me for hurting him back. But he would also have the right to hurt me back if I hurt him first, and I wouldn't blame him." "Wow," Zack said. "I bet Zak would like that." "Yeah." "He actually asked me if you like him." "What did you say?" I asked, a little scared. "I asked him why he thought that, and he gave me a couple of good reasons. You laid your head on his shoulder in the infirmary?" "He told you that?" "Yeah. Why did you do that?" "I guess you could say I was kind of in the moment. Did he tell you if he liked it or not?" "No," Zack said. "But I read his mind, and he thought it felt nice." "Ok. But what did you say when he asked you if I liked him?" "I lied to him and said that I didn't know if you liked him or not. But if I did, which I do, it's not for me to say and he would have to ask you himself if you like him or not." "That was a good response." "Thank you. But he thought that you should tell me if you like him since I told you that I liked Selena." "You told him about that?" I asked. "Yeah. I also told him that you helped us get together." "And you're welcome for that." "Yeah. And speaking about that, do you regret helping me and Selena get together?" Oh, God. "Umm, what makes you say that?" I asked carefully. "Well, Toto and Chewie said that you do regret doing that," Zack said. I sent them a death glare. "Zack, we were kidding about that," Toto assured him. "You didn't sound like you were kidding." "Well, we were," Chewie said. "Me and Zak were not convinced," he said. I'm going to kill Toto and Chewie when I'm done talking to Zack, and they can tell I'm going to by the looks on their faces. "Zack, I don't regret helping you and Selena get together," I lied. "You two are perfect for each other." "Well, then, why did Toto and Chewie say you did?" Zack asked. "I don't know. I guess they meant it as a joke." "Well, it's not funny." "No," I agreed. "But anyway, Zak asked me not to tell you about that." "And you lied to him, saying that you wouldn't?" "No. I just said that you probably already know that he likes you. And I didn't want to lie to him, so I just said that I'll talk to him later. And I went to go look for you." "So he knew you were going to tell me." "Yeah, pretty much." "And he doesn't like it." "Nope." "Well, do you think he'll talk to me about it?" "Maybe," Zack said. "But probably not for a while. He needs time to process that." "Yeah," I agreed. "So do you want to have a sword fight before we go to bed?" "Sarah, I know you won't be able to use your sword since Zak injured you pretty bad, and I know your shoulder hurts when you move your arm." "Ok. So I won't be able to do that for a couple days. But what did you think about that sword fight between me and Zak?" "I thought it was more gruesome than it is with you and me," he said. "Yeah, I guess it was," I admitted. "But Zak did great, don't you think?" "Yeah." "So, I guess I'll see you in the morning, then?" "Ok. Good night." "Good night." He started walking toward the door, and I noticed Toto and Chewie were getting up to follow him, but I pointed my finger down at them and mouthed Stay. The door opened, and Zack was about to walk out when he noticed Toto and Chewie weren't following. "Are you guys coming?" he asked them. "We'll be there in a minute," Chewie said nervously. "Ok." He left the room and the door closed behind him. I turned to the cheetah brothers. "Why the hell did you guys tell him that I regret helping him and Selena get together?" "Well, you do," Chewie said. "I know I do, but not as much as I use to. You didn't need to tell him that. You could've really messed things up between me and Zack." "We're sorry," Toto said. "But why don't you talk to him about it? Your mom thinks you should." "Because, guys, I knew something like this was going to happen between us someday, and I have to get used to it whether I like it or not. I can't change it." "You can try to." "Well, I'm not going to." "Whatever. Can we go now?" "Yes. Just don't let that happen again." "We won't," they both said in unison. They got off the bed and left the room without another word. I guess I should explain. Well, me and Zack use to hang out with each other a lot like we were true best friends, but when he and Selena started dating, they would spend everyday together, which meant that me and Zack would spend less time together. And I guess, you could say, I hated Selena at first for taking my brother, my twin brother, and best friend away from me, and I regretted helping them get together. But I eventually realized that I shouldn't hate Selena because of that. It's not her fault. When me and Zack were little, we both knew that, someday, there would be someone or something that would separate us every once in a while, and that day came for me last year. And that someone was Selena. I felt lonely for a long time because Selena was also my best friend. She's a better friend than Jessica and Demi are, no offense to them. So I kind of lost two best friends last year. I'm hoping that, if me and Zak are going to date, that it starts soon, then maybe I wouldn't feel that way anymore. I hoped you guys liked this chapter. Yeah, the sword fight between Sarah and Zak was probably overdramatic, but I wanted it to be that way. As for their sword lessons, this is actually the last one they have because they're getting more occupied with what's happening in their lives right now. I'll update again tomorrow. Please review here. |
Character Appearances[]
Main Characters[]
Minor Characters[]
- Selena (mentioned)
Pets[]
- Fiskerton Saturday (mentioned)
- Komodo Saturday (mentioned)
- Chewie Hollinger
- Toto Hollinger