Rated 12+ for fantasy and violence.
Missed Part 1?
Anna took a moment to reminisce on her early childhood. It was so perfect, it seemed. Robert was an amazing man, with his wildly dark hair and dark eyes, his beautiful smile, and just his wonderful personality. Though he had the shortest temper in the world, he was a genius and a hunter. He knew the answer to everything, so the five year old Anna thought, and he was always right, always strong, and always brave, even when he wasn’t. Anna’s father had never been much of a real father, and so she always thought that Robert was the example of what a father was supposed to be, and loved him with everything she had.
Eliott was like his brother but a lot shier, a lot calmer. He had light strawberry blonde hair, stolen from a father Anna never knew, and blue eyes which didn’t attract attention. He was always quiet but helpful. He was patient even though his head was always in a book. He didn’t care about much but his books and his drawings. Anna learned everything she knew about drawing from him, and for that she would forever be grateful.
Celine was a perfectionist. Everything had to be perfect all the time. Not only that, but she was strict on rules—you musn’t say that, it’s improper—you musn’t be late, it’s rude—you musn’t talk back, it’s disrespectful—you musn’t wear that, it looks absurd. Celine and Anna didn’t really converse much when she was little. Celine wanted Anna to have her happy little fairytale childhood, and did not bother her too much with rules, because when Anna was little, she was good about following them. They all lived in a rather happy harmony all the time.
From each sibling, Anna took a piece. From Robert she took the temper and the bravery. From Eliott she took the drawing skills and the only antidote to her anger. From Celine she took her hard work, her smoothing things over and making it beautiful. Though none were biologically connected except through their mother, they each were so close in personalities.
Robert, Eliott, Celine, and Anna. All each other’s best friends. Until that one day, that one dark day in her memories of sun. The day her father ruined her life. The day he ruined everything. Her blood ran suddenly cold. With this thought, she turned away from Cyladminnie and couldn’t look back.
She noticed it, suddenly, as easily as she always noticed that sort of thing. There were eyes on her, and she could feel them narrowing, sizing her up. She turned her head slowly, her face a mixture between anger and confusion, and met Brassin’s with their fixed gaze on her. Even when she glared at him, he didn’t look away.
Anna sought out the challenge and, almost too eagerly, accepted it. Sitting up a little straighter, she kept her eyes locked with Brassin, a cocky smile on her face as she took note of the slight shock on his at the fact that she had enough gall to look back.
The two of them sat like that for a while, staring at each other, tension growing tighter by the second in the air. Anna could feel it, as if all the anger was suppressing her. She knew what would happen the moment it broke, and drew in a deep breath—she wasn’t sure if she was up for that today.
Just as the tension reached its breaking point, she saw it. Brassin hardly moved, just a small twitch of the leg, and she knew exactly what was going to happen, why, how, and when. Without even much of a thought or care, she jumped up at exactly the right time, very easily dodging Brassin’s pounce. He landed on the spot where Anna had just a moment ago been sitting, and turned to face her as she rolled away from the area. Quickly standing up, she gave him a look nearly beckoning him to do it again, but he did not. His face, rather than as tensed and angered as it had been a moment ago, was incredulous, and his mouth almost hung open. Anna’s expression loosened as well, and she looked at him in question.
“How did you do that?”
It was the first time Brassin had ever spoken to her, so it caught her a bit off guard. His voice was just as intense and savage as Sympa’s was, but it held none of the courtesy his mate’s had.
When Anna did find her voice, she mumbled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, how did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Avoid me.”
Anna immediately found her character again. “I know you’re new to this, but it’s called moving. Perhaps you’d like to try it some time.”
It had gone completely silent by now. Anna hadn’t noticed that Lynaira and Astorial weren’t speaking still until that very moment. Brassin narrowed his eyes and took a step forward and then, as if he had though thought better of it, stepped back.
“How did you move that quickly?”
Anna was sharp as a thorn, but decided just only to test his patience. Acting her very best, she said sincerely, “What do you mean, move quickly?”
It was working. His body tensed by the second. “You moved very quickly away from me. Sharp reflexes, I guess.”
“I guess.” Pause. Then, rudely, “Well, if you already knew the answer to your question, why’d you ask?”
His eyes were sharp, but there was naught a response. Rather than replying to her insolent question, he slowly and carefully moved away from Anna. He kept his eyes on her for a while like any king would, watching his subjects under a careful eye to make sure they didn’t fall out of line. With a final sniff in the air to tell her their exchange was over, he turned his back to her and laid down in a huge lump. She stared at him for a bit before looking away, feeling rather awkward after their short and heated discussion.
I just got the king of the jungle mad at me. Anna wasn’t exactly sure why she was grinning at that thought.
‘I don’t think that’s a very good place to stand,’ Magic interrupted, as she so annoyingly did at the worst times. Anna’s smile fell and was replaced with a scowl.
Shut up.
Out of the corner of her eye, Anna caught Astorial and Lynaira, tentatively approaching her. With a bit of a sigh, she slowly turned to meet them, and noticed that their eyes were wide in shock. “He didn’t kill you,” whispered Astorial in bemusement. “He didn’t even scratch you!”
“Daddy must really like you,” murmured Lynaira, looking at her in the way a child might look at a character from their favorite book if they ever were to meet.
Anna nodded at them slowly. Again Magic spoke to her, in such a random time, 'It’s good to know the kind of animals you’re dealing with, their personalities. It’s good to know what they’re like from every point of view.’
Anna caught on. Yes. Right. Of course. She nudged her head a bit to the right, and the children and she walked a bit away from Brassin, far enough so that he couldn’t hear them but he wouldn’t think they were trying not to be heard. After Anna made sure Brassin was surely not moving towards them, she questioned as quietly as she could, “What’s he like, usually?”
“I dunno,” said Lynaira softly, resting her head on Anna’s dirty, bare feet.
“He’s usually sleeping,” Astorial added at her surprised look. “Mam does most the hunting and what-not, though he tells her not to.”
Anna’s look was that of bemusement. “Why would he tell her not to hunt? Does he want you kids to starve?”
Completely out of no where, Lynaira began to laugh hysterically. Anna stared down at her for a moment, and Lynaira’s laughter awkwardly died down as she realized nobody else found that humorous.
“She said . . . ‘kids,’” murmured Lynaira at her brother’s look. He rolled her eyes so she sourly trotted away to Cyldaminnie.
“Uh, no, he’s just upset that she’ll become more powerful than him,” said Astorial, watching Lynaira approach and talk to Cyldaminnie. The youngest cub was speaking, but from the look on Lynaira’s face, whatever she was saying wasn’t making much sense.
“I’d bet she’s already more powerful than him,” replied Anna. At this point, she sat down next to Astorial so the height difference wouldn’t hinder the conversation.
“I’d say.” Even as he spoke, he kept his eyes so locked on Lynaira, that Anna was forced to follow his gaze straight to the little cub.
She paused for a second, looking from Astorial’s transfixed face to his sister’s slim figure. Without noticing or realizing, she chuckled.
Astorial glared as sharp as she would. “What?”
“Nothing.” The humor had left as Anna realized he had a temper quite similar to hers.
“No, tell me.” His look was wild, angered, but Anna easily matched it. They kept their eyes locked for a second, but Anna’s look won over his, and he turned back reluctantly to staring at his sisters.
“Tell me anyway,” he replied, simply meaning, “Even though I lost, I still want to know.”
“Well . . . Let’s just say that if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you liked Lynaira.”
His body tensed at the mere thought. “She’s my best friend.”
“What about Cyldaminnie?”
“She’s a bit . . . off.”
“What do you mean?” Once again, Anna was interested, and looked at the young lion sitting beside her.
“There’s things about Cyldaminnie that are just weird. The things she says and does are just . . . weird.”
“What does she say or do?”
Astorial’s eyes immediately darted away from his siblings and into Anna’s. Fear had since entertained his eyes, and though he was trying to hide it, there was an inevitable trace still lingering there.
“I’ve said too much. I’m sorry.”
“Astorial, tell me.”
“No, really, it’s not right.” He stood up, stepping backwards as if he had made a big mistake and was trying to get out of it.
There were so many times in Anna’s life when people tried to back out of something they said or did because of fear. Since it happened so often, Anna knew exactly how to deal with it. To completely switch gears. Turn the tables. Exchange the narrator. Magic seemed to automatically know what Anna was about to say, and screamed, ’Anna, don’t do it!’
But Anna had already made up her mind.
“Astorial, can you keep a secret?”
He lingered. “What kind of secret?”
“A secret that nobody else can ever know. Just you and me. And in exchange, you have to tell me a secret. Deal?”
Astorial scrunched up his nose. “What kind of secret do you want me to tell?”
“Whatever I need to know. But, I promise, my secret will be a lot bigger than yours. And just you and me would know.” And then, giving him a childish and innocent smile, “And we’ll be really close friends because of it.”
Anna didn’t know Astorial that well. They had only met the previous day. But it seemed whatever she had said was perfectly right. His eyes lit up at the word ‘friends’ and he began to walk towards her again.
“Friends? Like, forever?”
Anna almost smiled. “Sure. Forever.”
Astorial nearly jumped into Anna’s lap and looked up at her with big, sparkling eyes. Anna took a deep breath and opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly found no words in it. In all this bargaining, she had almost forgotten the simple fact that in order to get Astorial to tell her what she wanted to know, she’d actually have to give up a secret. She decided she didn’t want to tell him her big secret about being a magical, but realized any other thing she had to tell him would probably end up in being unsatisfactory in his eyes, and thus, he would refuse to tell her anything she wanted to know. She realized, with quite a heavy heart, she’d have to tell him about her very newly found powers. She’d have to tell Astorial the truth.
She hated giving up secrets, especially new ones. She loved brewing her new secrets, dodging bullets as people tried and almost succeeded in finding out the truth. How could she so willingly give it up? She was in too deep now to back out. If she looked at the lion cub and said, “Nevermind,” he’d certainly be hurt, and he wouldn’t ever tell her anything she needed to know. Out of the entire family she had met, Astorial seemed to be the most open.
But wouldn’t Lynaira tell her what she needed to know? After all, the young cub adored her. No--after Astorial went crying to her, saying how the human girl was rude to him, that young girl would never give her a second glance. And who knew about Cyldaminnie? Who knew if she could even piece sentences together right in the first place?
Anna knew right then and there what she was saying was a mistake, but she could see no way out of it. Ignoring Magic’s begging and screaming, she said simply to the young cub with his big and begging eyes, “I’m a Magical.”
Well, I mean, it already is, but the main conflict is still yet to come, yes? I haven't read the other parts as I've been trying to get through this massive pile of homework. HOWEVER, I will and I'll be able to search for plotholes and what not. But from what I read last, and up to now, everything seems to be running quite smoothly.