Fierce Of Flames (Wrath Of Gods Precursor 3)

Seven: Can You Like, Buy Me One Of Pandora's Boxes On Amazon Or Etsy?

PANDORA:
I watched as she surged through the grass, her long hair waving about as she hurried into the glade. I turned as I closed the door, seeing that on this side, it was a slab of bark that fit perfectly into a big thick tree, the door itself glowing with it's own inner light. The girl rolled through the grass, her face alive as she sniffed the knee-high blades of grass and the thick flowers that rose all around her. She looked up at the trees, her face momentarily loosing the sad look and gaining a bright happy expression. "Oh my gosh yesss, grass grass grass, fresh new grass. I never thought I'd want this so much, Qass you have to—" that's when her face fell, her deep blue eyes shadowing. "Qass." She murmured, her hands fisting grass. I inched closer, looking around at the trees. This wasn't my room, and I was half, no, was majorly tempted to leave and run to the receptionist desk and cuss someone out for this joke. I hadn't left my room only to come back to a whole new world. This was disorienting and beyond what I really didn't fucking want.
As she sat there, I moved discretely away, exploring the new terrain. There were halls, if you could call them that, leading through the trees. Grassy paths that wove in and out. I heard trickling water and made my way toward it. Rounding a corner, I could see a pool area, if a pool had hot steamy water trickling into it from a small waterfall. A wooden sink sat baring all the things I had left on it before I left. And, another sink stood by it, with new toiletries on it. A blank space stood by the sink and I reached toward it, feeling, not the undergrowth the sight depicted, but beads and realized it was a camouflage beaded curtain, hiding the toilet behind it. I frowned as I moved out of the bathroom, if you could call it that, and back toward the main, glade? Area? Whatever it was. I almost got lost looking for it, but I found it, and the girl still sitting there.
The last thing I wanted to do was approach her, talk to her. I didn't know this, person. Didn't even know what she was. I had never seen her kind before, fuck I had never seen my kind before so, fuck it if I've seen her's. Plus I did want to go exploring the rest of the, forest, house, apartment, whatever this was. Besides, the girl might just be as antisocial as I was, might just wanna be alone. Fuck she might just hate me for getting the boy who had to be her twin brother, killed. "What's your name?" I asked, did my voice sound reluctant? I honestly couldn't tell. "Qassianne, but don't call me that. Just, Qassie." Her voice was barely audible, barely above a whisper. I was ready to deem my work here done. I got her here, I saved her life at least. I had done the mission. I'd acted like my brother, naturally at that. I had commanded Wenzi and Azule without hesitation. And, I would love to get back to my life of being in the shadows.
"Well Qassie, let's get you cleaned up." Mutely, she let me walk over to her, take her hands, and help her to her feet. Without a word, without sound, she let me guide her to the bathroom-slash-pool area. Wordlessly, she stripped out of her dirty clothing and let it fall to the pebbled ground. I stripped myself, suddenly feeling self-conscious being naked with another girl. Slowly, I lead her into the water, and with telekinesis, brought my shampoo, body wash, and comb over, bringing the brush as a last thought. I guided Qassie through the rib high water toward the waterfall. It stood now just above head hight, making washing her hair a lot easier.
"What are you doing Pandora, taking care of this girl as if she was a newborn, or your child, or your sister. SHe's nothing to you but a member of your race. SHe's not your sister, nothing, why are you doing this?" Being with the indigo, one of the many things I had learned was that it was more than ok to talk to yourself and to outwardly seem like you were doing it. Mostly because any halfway good indigo could read your mind, so might as well give them something good to listen to. But here I was, slowly detangling the girl's hair, working through it methodically. I've had years of practice with Asia's and Miria's hair, even Troy's when he started growing it out. Though on him the half wild look was actually more appealing. Qassie kept mute the entire time, only the sound of the rushing steamy water kept us any vocal company. I didn't mind it though, I wanted to relish in the silence. I could treat this as no different than Miria or Asia, though Asia would've talked my ear off. After finishing washing her hair, I looked at her body next.
"Oh boy." Her body was covered in scratches and scrapes, nothing huge, but still, and her eyes kept that haunted dark look. I looked her up and down, feeling very, very, very, VERY, self-conscious. I mean, it's not every day you have someone new, someone who lost everything, and their in your bath tub, and you suddenly realize you just might have to wash their entire body, rather than just her hair. I looked at her again, her nippled were hardened by the water and air, my stomach jolted as I, continued, to, stare. Shaking myself, I reached for the body wash, feeling resigned. Cursing the whole of the indigo, I began to wash Qassie's body.
After I was done washing her, I washed myself and pulled us both out of the water. Qassie jerked suddenly, shivering as if she stepped from a hot flame into the icy winds of the South Pole. Shaking my head at the analogy I'd made, I quickly grabbed her a towel and dried her off as best as I could. Then I looked at the many many scrapes and scratches along her body. I placed a hand on her shoulder, and concentrated. After a few heartbeats, her little wounds began to heal. Mentally sighing in relief, I helped her to where I thought the closet would be. After getting us both dressed, we stood in the main, glade-thingy, and I cast around frantically for, something, anything. I mean, what could I do, I wanted to just leave her here and go about my business. I couldn't do anything anyway, even if I had wanted to. I wasn't a leader, my word wasn't law here. Qassie sat in the same spot she had before i had bathed her, still shivering slightly. There was a knock on my door and I reacted in udder relief.
    Opening it, I saw Asia standing there, a tray of food in her hands. "Wenzi said that you'd both be hungry." She set the tray on a table, that, I, hadn't, noticed, before. She whispered, "So, is that the girl that has everyone going crazy?" "What?" Asia frowned. Since you got back, everyone's been talking about the fox-girl with eyes of embers. She looked over my shoulder. "I don't see eyes of embers, or fox ears." She sounded severely disappointed. "She is, but, she shifted back to her human body when we moved through the portal and arrived here." "Aww, how sad, I'd liked to have seen that." Asia frowned. "Why is she just sitting there?" "She's been through a lot." "And I don't know how the hell to help her." I didn't say it, but Asia read it in my gaze. She shrugged without any remorse and said, "I don't envy you at all. Have fun." With that, she turned and closed my door. "Asshole." I murmured. Sighing darkly, I turned, and very nearly jumped out of my clean clothes.
    Qassie stood only a few feet away, her eyes on me, sad and empty and a bit reproachful. "Well done Pandora, well fucking done. You just kicked an already downed puppy, or is it fox cub?" She stared at me, and I mustered the guts to say, "You heard huh?" She nodded. "Every word." "I'm sorry." I said, reaching out toward her. "I just, this isn't me, I've never, I—I'm sorry." She shook her head, turning away. Scrambling I turned to the tray and opened it. Carrying it, I sat with her by a smaller table, one I also hadn't noticed. She let me sit a bowl of stew in front of her. I set the cup of icy water beside it and a few biscuits. She ate robotically, her eyes still shadowed, reproach still in them. I found my mouth opening, and my voice coming out.
"My name is Pandora, like the app you know, though I wasn't named after it. I was named after the box, Pandora's box, because my mother thought that hope should be in everyone, no matter what terrors are around them." I looked down at my hands as she lifted a piece of bread, studying it. "She always told me you'd become someone's hope one day Pandora, that you'd live up to your name in more ways than one." The girl didn't say anything. "When my brother and his friends came into their powers, they thought they were the only ones. Thought they could be the heroes of the world. Our mom never knew, we never told her." I frowned. My mind racing as I thought of it. "And now, I wish I had. She could've told us so much if only we'd trusted her with the truth. Told her about all this. After a long while, I wondered if she was truly our mother, if she was, we just, well, or if we were orphans she found and took care of." My voice cracked as I continued. "We—we had an encounter with a criminal, a few of them. We weren't sure what they were doing, but we knew from the visions Troy's girlfriend had, that we had to do something." Tears burned the back of my eyelids as I kept going.
"She—she, our mother, was killed. We thought if we went to the bank to try to stop them, it would end, but they were more trouble than we thought initially, and found our house and threatened to kill our mother. I, saw her die, saw it, saw the woman stab her in the throat, then chest." Tears fell as I stopped needing to take that brief breath. "It was the first time my, my true power came out. The fire, the pain and joy, it was a song in my blood." "A song of ice and fire." She murmured, barely above a whisper. I wasn't sure what it meant, but I kept going. After awhile, we went into hiding, and, they turned from doing good in our city, to just, doing. No one accepted us, no one wanted to know about us. And, I never got over my mother's murder. I think, I think Troy used it, let it fuel him to do the right thing, then, to just do. But, I never got over it, and still, I haven't." I shoved away the food, knowing I couldn't eat. "I still haven't even grieved for her, isn't that sad? Actually literally sad? Even after all these years, you'd think I'd have grieved for her, at least a little. I mean, the woman who was everything to my brother and myself. But nope, I haven't and it hurts, it hurts so much."
"Did you want to come help us?" She asked, her voice quiet. "Honestly, no, I didn't. But it wasn't just because of you, I didn't know you and that was the whole point. When the indigo first found us, they have this thing called an oracle, someone who can tell the future. She gave me some amorphous message that wasn't even prophetic. And I don't even remember most of it, all I remember was something to do with phoenixes and my kin." I looked at her, her eyes weren't shadowed, they looked solemn. "I didn't want any of this. Because, it caused us too much pain before, loosing our mother, there's no telling if any of our other friends' families are even alive because of it, of our choices. Trying to become heroes and save the world like they do in the books and movies."
"I was wrong, so very wrong, and, don't want this, still don't want any of this." I waved at the surrounding symbol. "I don't want to learn how to fight with fire, learn how to defend myself, learn about my histories, the histories of others. It caused us nothing but trouble, why start now." "I'm sorry." She said. "When I came here, when I overheard what you said, I was prepared to hate you, to leave this place, and find my own way." She reached out a hand. "Even after you saved my life, I wanted to hate you because my brother died, he died, and he was always the stronger of us." Her voice cracked, and tears fell. "He was always the stronger of us. He knew how to listen, how to follow rules, how to remain invisible. I caused so much shit between us, every time, every fucking time." SHe trembled, and I caught the scent of fire in the air. My heart raced and I leaned toward her. I reached out and grasped her hand. She looked up, her eyes flickering from deep bright blue to burning ember. "I caused everything, every bad thing between us, and he had every right to blame me. I did stupid stunts fucked up shit, for no reason, just because I wanted to. I NEARLY GOT MYSELF KILLED." She shouted, tears stil falling even as her gaze shifted from blue to ember and back. "I did it, I dove into the road just to see what he'd do, to see if I could truly dodge the speeding truck, to see if they'd stop in time. I'd nearly gotten killed because of it and Qass never forgave me for it, and the worst part is, I can't even blame him."
She rocked slightly, and I moved on my knees around the little table and sat by her, a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Qassian, I'm so sorry Qass. Please, I'm sorry. I wanted to get us here so badly, and you aren't even here to enjoy this place with me." I ran my fingers through her hair, seeing her ears shift as her eyes did, normal human ears, to fox ears that poked through her hair on top of her head. I frowned, trying to remember something. "I only wish Father was killed, wish he'd burned in the fire I made. Wish that thing stole his life too. He deserved it, deserves, all that pain and agony Qass felt. I felt when I saw it." "Your father, is that the man we brought back with us?" "I don't know, probably." She mumbled. She didn't seem to be paying attention, only hearing her own voice. "And all that shit he told me, about how Qass never truly mattered, how he was second best compared to me. Oh Qassie girl you were the one I wanted all along, I did so much to ensure you were born by some Japanese creature." My mind raced as she kept talking. "Japanese creature, Fox Girl, fox ears, ember eyes." One of the many tails I had read in the library. And, "Souls of fire at the top of the hour."
"I want him dead, I want to be the one to kill him, to burn him alive. I want revenge for my brother." I wrapped my arms around the girl and held her close. "No," I said in her hair, just as her ears appeared. "That's not the kind of justice you want. It'll taint you, maybe not now, maybe not later, but soon enough, it'll catch up to you, and you'll regret it, or, it'll turn you darker—"I DON'T CARE." Shouted Qassie. "It's because of him I have no brother, it's because of him I have no mother, it's because of him I don't even know who I am." She sobbed into my shoulder. "I have nothing left, nothing left now." "No," I said, rubbing her back. "You have hope, you'll always have hope. You have Pandora's box."