Original Stories Fan Fiction / Realism Fan Fiction ❯ Aqua ❯ Reunions ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter Seventeen

Reunions

 

 

When Aqua next awoke, she was laying in the middle of a familiar part of the forest, feeling better than she ever had. She rolled onto her side and heard the crinkling of paper and reached under her side and brought out a slightly crumpled piece of paper that read:

 

Aqua,

 

You're back in your own time now. You survived the Soul Sickness and slept for about a day, waking only once so that you could eat something, though I doubt you remember it.

 

We have our own way of knowing future events and we saw something dark coming towards you, so we decided to return you to your own place.

 

Be safe now and come visit when you get a chance,

 

Auntie, Cora, Cota

 

Aqua raised an eyebrow at their words, but decided to push them to the back of her mind for later evaluation after she found Darain. She got to her feet and slipped the paper into her pocket before she set off in the direction she knew led to the lake.

 

A twig snapped behind her, making her freeze and listen intently for another noise. Footsteps shuffled behind her, making her look over her shoulder.

 

* * *

 

A scream erupted through the forest, waking Darain from a restless sleep. He listened for another scream, but when none came, he got to his feet and went to the window of the run down wooden house that Aqua had shown him four and a half months before.

 

Outside, the air was dead when it should have been full of squirrels chittering back and forth, bird's singing, foxes chasing rabbits, woodpeckers pecking at trees, and so forth. He squinted down at the water of the lake, but he couldn't make out any of the fish that Aqua had once pointed out to him. All the animals were hiding.

 

* * *

 

“Amber?” Aqua asked suspiciously. “What are you doing out here?”

 

Amber tucked a stray lock of her wood brown hair behind her ear as she said, “I could ask you the same thing, Aqua. Didn't you know all the teachers have been looking for you for the last four days since you broke Marin's jaw clean in two? They've even gone so far as to file a report with the police on your disappearance.”

 

Aqua snorted. “They've never cared what happened to me before, so why should I care if they're looking for me now. The only reason they're probably even searching for me at all is to make themselves look good.” She began to step away from the other girl, something about her wasn't right.

 

“Aqua…” the other girl began, only to drop her gaze and stop. Aqua stopped and looked at her, surprised at her tone.

 

“I'm sorry,” Amber said quickly, “I had to tell them about him. No matter what happens, know that I didn't want you to become involved in this.”

 

“Who are you talking about, Amber?” Aqua coldly asked.

 

Amber looked up at her as she said, “Darain, Prince of the Night-n-Gales. His blood enemies are the Letrangra and he had a sister once, one that was captured and tormented to death by them. They're hunting for him as we speak. If you wish to save him, get him to leave this planet, once and for all.” Then she walked past the frozen Aqua, intent on leaving the forest.

 

Aqua grabbed her upper arm as she walked by, her green eyes sparkling coldly. “What are you? Letrangra or Night-n-Gale?” she asked, her voice colder than ice. Amber shivered at the tone, never in the entire time she had known Aqua had she ever used a cold voice with her.

 

“Neither,” she answered truthfully.

 

Aqua believed her and so released her grip. “Then I suggest you tell of our meeting to no one,” she said in a mild tone before she walked towards the lake, and Darain.

 

Amber watched the other girl's retreating form, surprised that she had let her go. “She's changed,” she murmured to the empty air.

 

* * *

 

Darain stepped out into the forest, senses alert and ready for any sign of danger. His ears went straighter than normal when his sensitive hearing picked up quiet footsteps entering the forest from the direction of the building that Aqua had called “school.”

 

“Jidara,” he whispered and sent water from the lake in the direction of the footsteps. He waited a few moments before starting after the liquid and found, much to his amusement, Fay, his caretaker from several years previous.

 

“Good to see you too, Prince Darain,” Fay muttered, running her hands around the liquid that held her captive. “You've gotten stronger since you came to this planet, my prince.”

 

“Why are you here of all places, Fay? I thought Lackardel sent you on another mission,” Darain asked, frowning. It wasn't every day that one found out that one of their trusted friends lied to them.

 

Fay frowned right back at him in confusion, thinking that he had been told differently. “I was, and then I finished it and he sent me on a different one. He intercepted me on my way back and sent me here to watch for Letrangra activity since this planet is supposed to be under your father's rule in the first place. Tell me, why didn't you say anything to me when Aqua and Marin were fighting?” she asked.

 

Darain shrugged and released the spell so that she could walk with him. “You were obviously undercover, so I didn't want to blow that cover by speaking to you,” he said placidly, then quickly added, “Have you found Aqua yet?”

 

Fay looked at her prince for a moment, trying to discern his relationship with the girl before sighing. “You love her, don't you?” She watched him for his reaction and was surprised when he showed none as he said, “She is Letrangra and our races hate each other, end of story. Now, did you find her or not?”

 

“No,” was the simple reply.

 

“Oh,” was all he could manage to say. For a few moments all that could be heard was the deafening silence of the forest around them. “How did you manage to hide your ears and fit in with these to try and break his disappointment at her answer to his question.

 

“Simple cloaking spell combined with an illusionary one was enough to hide my ears and give me human looking ones, but to make them feel real I had to use a solidifying spell. An age reduction spell was all I needed to look like one of their young,” she carefully explained.

 

While they had talked, they had reached the clearing where the lake resided. Both stopped dead at what they saw on the other side of the lake, staring back at them.

 

“Aqua?” Darain breathed, confused by the sight of her sudden appearance.

 

Aqua slowly made her way around the perimeter of the lake towards the pair, not sure what to make of Fay's presence. She seemed to know Darain and wasn't the least bit phased by his white, cat-like ears.

 

One of Darain's ears went back as he tried to sort through his emotions at seeing her again: anger at her for being Letrangra, relief for her being alive, worry that something had happened to her in her absence, and another emotion that he couldn't identify with. He knew the unnamed emotion wasn't hate or fear, he could never imagine fearing or hating the girl that had saved his life and spent time with him.

 

Fay took in all his reactions at seeing Aqua again. “If she's Letrangra, then why doesn't she smell like one?” she asked him quietly.

 

“You almost smell human after spending three years among this race and she's spent almost her entire life among them. The human scent has rubbed off on her is all,” he replied just as quietly.

 

Aqua stopped halfway towards them and stopped, suddenly more uncertain than she had ever been in her entire life. Her green eyes met and held Darain's hazel ones. She could make emotion out from what she saw.

 

Fay waited for the moment that they would face each other and speak for the first time in over a week. She was disappointed when Aqua turned her eyes away first. The time she had spent away from East High had helped to change her, and maybe even helped her to discover something profound about herself.

 

Aqua continued walking towards them, but when she was level with them, she paused only long enough to say, “You changed me, Darain, and I'm glad for it, though I'm not sure I'm even human anymore. If Fay is one of yours, then I suggest you two leave this planet and never return. Letrangra are looking for you, Darain, they're here and looking for you.” Then she continued on her way to the school, once again adopting her cold, distant exterior.

 

Darain was shocked by her words. She was Letrangra and yet she warned him of their arrival, betraying them in favor of him. While she had been away, he had assumed that she had been meeting with her superiors, but now…now he wasn't so sure.

 

He looked at Fay and asked, “Is what she says true?”

 

Fay nervously ran a hand through her hair as she said, “I didn't know that they had a base so close to Earth. I had wanted to wait for Captain Lackardel before I told you anything, but I never got a hold of him and I've been trying to reach him for the last couple days.”

 

“So there's a chance that we may have to face the entire Letrangra army on our own,” Darain said, resisting the urge to scream the last of his words. “And they probably have Lackardel by now, too, or they killed him in battle. Either way, we're screwed, there's no way we're getting out of this alive.”

 

“There may be a way we can get out of this without confronting any Letrangra,” Fay ventured. She was relieved when his ears flicked in her direction, indicating that he was listening.

 

* * *

 

Aqua stood at the edge of Hangman's Forest for a moment, watching all the activity as police officers and Social workers scurried here and there, questioning some of the students they happened across. It looked as though they had been there several days from the state of their uniforms; some were ruffled and in need of a good clean and press to bring them back to their previous glory.

 

She wanted nothing more than to withdraw back into the forest and disappear forever, but there was nothing for her back there. Darain and Fay would most likely be leaving in less time than it took her to get back to East High and receive her punishment for punching Marin and then disappearing for an extended amount of time.

 

Forcing her legs to move, she walked forward and out of the protection of the tall, old oak trees. Several of the older students stopped walking towards their next class and looked at her. She could have laughed when she realized what a mess she must look with her clothes torn from the time she had spent with Auntie, Cora, and Cota during the time that they had nursed her through the Sickness. The officials didn't seem to notice her as the other students did.

 

Aqua stuffed her hands in her pockets and glared back at all those who stared at her. It took all she had not to break down and run back into the forest as she made her way towards the school and what awaited her there.

 

Since meeting Darain, she had begun to experience things she had never thought she possible. For the first time in a long time, she had laughed and smiled and felt happy and to deny it now was like locking her emotions up again and throwing away the key.

 

Aqua hated the thought of losing everything she had gained with Darain, but without him, there really was no point to the emotions. They would just be a painful reminder of what might have been, of what was never hers to feel in the first place. She understood that now, and that understanding killed her. So, to save herself the pain, she locked herself, and the emotions she had gained, away again, in the deepest pit of her mind, as far away from her waking self as she could.

 

She walked in East High's front doors and found Mr. Kennedy and Mrs. Nattily, trying to talk an outraged man into being calm once more. “Why should I clam down when my daughter has gone missing from your school, Mr. Kennedy?” the black haired man roared. The principal and counselor tried in vain to make him see enough that all hope was not lost and that she would turn up in no time.

 

Even though it had been almost two years since she had seen him, there was no mistaking her father for anyone else. “I see you've at least sobered up some to come looking for me, father,” she said, spitting the last word out with intense distaste.

 

All three adults spun around to look at her. While relief shown in Mr. Kennedy's and Mrs. Nattily's eyes, something far worse and sinister gleamed enough in her father's eyes to make even her wary. “Aqua, I'm so glad to see that you're alright,” he said in his normal smooth, metallic voice. “You gave me quite a fright when I found out that you had gone missing.”

 

He walked towards her, arms open with the intention of hugging her. Aqua snarled at him and took a step back while saying, “Noke,” one of the spells that Darain had managed to teach her during the short time that they had had together. Silver power sparked around her and snapped at her father's hand.

 

He yelped with surprise and pain as he drew back. “Aqua-” he began, but she cut him off.

 

“Never touch me again, ever,” Aqua said in a strained voice. She never wanted him to leave another scar on her, to get the chance to inflict more pain.

 

His black eyes darkened even further as he said, “I see that that brat has caused your powers to develop far earlier than we intended and that he taught you some of his race's spells. Tell me, what did you think of being able to feel?” A cruel smile twisted at his lips as he waited for her to respond.

 

Aqua never looked away from him as she said, “Emotions are pointless. They do nothing, but get in the way of what has to be done. You're Letrangra, aren't you?” She wasn't the least bit surprised when he nodded.

 

“You're too late, he's already gone,” she said flatly, feeling nothing even as the words rang through to her very bones.

 

“Foolish child,” he said placidly, amusement lacing through his voice. “It was never the prince that we were truly after, it was you.” He laughed at the confusion that crossed her face at his words. “No need to explain now, plenty of time for that later. Now, we have a plane back home to catch, one that we cannot miss. Come, it is time to go, and this time, no one in the world will be able to take you from me, no one.”

 

Mr. Kennedy and Mrs. Nattily backed out of their way as they walked out the door. They had understood enough of the odd conversation to know that Aqua had been hiding someone and that they had been a fugitive prince that had helped Aqua to develop supposed powers before they should have been discovered and that they should stay away from the two of them.

 

Aqua had the sinking sensation that this was what was supposed to have happened all along and that Darain had only made the process worse by showing her how to feel again. Any thing that she might have felt for him was turned to ice as her soul regained the frozen winter that it had lost over the last almost five months.

 

She swept along after her father since she had nothing else, no one else. Aqua ignored the looks she received from her ex-classmates, though she turned her cold eyes to Marin one last time. Everything that the girl had done to her meant little; they had merely been little skirmishes with no meaning in life except to cause pain.

 

The only other person she looked at was Amber, who watched her with questioning eyes. After only a moment, the other girl was swept from view as police officers and Social workers pressed forward to make sure that everything was as it should be, to them at least.

 

Her father paused long enough to tell the policemen that Aqua had shown up and was just fine. He told the Social workers that a judge had granted him custody of his daughter once he had heard that she had possibly been kidnapped and that they were headed to the airport so that they could fly home and catch up on the two years that they had been apart.

 

As they passed Hangman's Forest, she deliberately looked away, knowing that if she looked at it, she would see Darain's shadow in every tree, waiting for her. Try as she might, she couldn't stop the glimmer of hate that blossomed in her heart at the fate she had been dealt. It truly was a day of reunions, both good and bad.

 

* * *

 

Darain watched from the edge of the forest as Aqua followed a black haired man from the school. He was slightly disappointed when she deliberately turned her head away from the forest that had sheltered them for almost five full months. She's reverted back to the way she was before I met her, he thought sadly, Oh well, it's probably for the best.

 

To Fay he asked, “Is that her father? The black haired one?”

 

Fay, having just appeared beside him, looked across the school lawns and saw Aqua and her father retreating in the distance. “Yah, he arrived with the other search teams a few days ago. He was pretty mad and was ragging about how poor a security team this school has, among other stuff.”

 

“Why is she going away with him if he's the one that beat her and left those scars on her?” he asked, staring after them even when he could no longer see them. As much as he wanted to deny it, he felt something more for the girl that had saved him than he should have. She was a rare jewel to be found in the middle of such an isolated planet, one that he was sure never to see again.

 

“Because she wouldn't say that it was him. Their officials were forced to let him go without her statement against him. He filed for custody of her again and was granted it when a judge heard that she might have been kidnapped. Personally, I think he either threatened or bribed said judge to get them to rule as quickly as they did,” Fay said, shaking her head and scowling. She had unknowingly echoed Aqua's words in a general sense from weeks ago.

 

“How long until the rest of the Letrangra fleet is here, or couldn't you tell?” he asked, randomly changing the subject.

 

Fay stole a side-glance at him and saw his ears laid flat and eyebrows knitted together in thought. He was up to something she decided as she said, “Another week or two, maybe less time than that. Why?”

 

“No reason, just in'erested is all,” was his simple reply. “How old is the barrier around this planet and who put it up?”

 

“Interestingly enough, it's almost eleven years old and the magical signature I could detect was almost the same as Aqua's,” Fay said, watching him closely. It was enough to make him look directly at her, eyes wide with interest. “That's not all; the magical signature contains human magic, meaning that whoever put it up was directly related to Aqua and human, meaning that she is at least half human.”

 

Darain's ears went flat as he snorted. “So what? That still means that she could be half Letrangra,” he said sullenly.

 

Fay smacked him upside the head and added, “I'll do that again if I have to. You should have learned by now that Letrangra pride themselves on being a pureblooded race. They kill any of their half bloods, it doesn't matter if that child is their king's, they're condemned to death for their bloodlines. Aqua wouldn't be alive today if she were half Letrangra.”

 

Darain's ears suddenly pricked up. The wind had changed from blowing gently on their backs to blowing on their faces, and with it came the scent of a Letrangra. The scent that accompanied it was Aqua's.