Untangling Aella

Chapter Twenty One

Yikes! I've been away for about 2 months and I'm sooo sorry for my absence!! My day job as a teacher has kept me extremely preoccupied and yesterday, the 21st of feb, I took a stand. I need to set time aside for things that matter and this story does, so I've written another chapter!! I turned a quarter of a century on the 21st and I felt that I needed to get this out as a gift for you all.

I would like to thank those who have and are currently reading and I especially want to thank @Mzjesiica, @DancingMascot and @Twinkle_Gogri for voting for this story. This is dedicated to you super, mega, awesome people :)

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Chapter Twenty One

I sat down in the servant's kitchen dining area with Aegeus and Ari. I had been craving olives of late and better still, feta stuffed olives. To complete it, cured spicy meats and pickled relish to go with it. 

I decided to build a tower of saltiness with the ingredients at my disposal. I was eyeing it up and took a big bite out of it and sighed aloud. 

I savoured the bite before looking at Aegeus and Ari who had identical cringes on their faces. 

"Waaaah?" I managed to get out, hoping the food didn't fly out of my mouth as I said so. 

"Yuck!" Ari said, "Sis, that's totally disgusting!" He shuddered and began to gag. 

"I agree, grandson," said Aegeus, who looked kind of green, "but her grandmother was the same. It's what expecting women do."

I just grinned at them and ate more, this time explicitly describing how salty to was. 

"By the way, do you have any anchovies?" Which only resulted in more groans and gags. "What?" Knowing all too well why they would be so disgusted. Sounded relish to me. 

They let me eat in peace, Ari with his eyes clenched, but patient nevertheless. When I had finished licking the residual salt on my fingers, I drank a tall glass of water and prepared myself for the revelation. 

"So, I guess it's my turn to provide some truth, huh?" I smiled a little, trying to ease into it. "I grew up largely by myself. Mom travelled a lot for "business" so I was none the wiser. After a while, I became involved with one a boy from my grade. We fell in love, deliriously so. I became an emancipated minor and lived in an apartment near my college with Chase, my boyfriend. We both worked to make ends meet and one day I had discovered I was pregnant. I was ecstatic, so happy. Turns out he wasn't, denying the baby and left."

I had to pause. Tears started to trickle down my cheeks with the pain that felt so fresh. I stroked my stomach in comfort and reassurance. 

"So, I confronted him over it at his dad's house, where I'm not welcome at all. So soon after our breakup, he had moved on. What I started to notice though, through my haze of anger, was that I had incredible strength. Things started to get weird. I also had more energy, I could bend objects quite easily and I was freaking out. It was only after seeing my Doctor, who I later learnt was my aunt, and she conveyed to me that it was my Amazonian powers manifesting. Turns out Hippolyte wasn't too sure if I would show traits of his powers or hers. So she left me alone most of my life."

I noticed Ari’s jaw was clenched tightly and Aegeus’s eyes were filled with sympathy, so I continued on.

"I'd left my home and my life behind in order to learn more about being an Amazon, so I stayed on Themiscyra until the games. And I was recruited to be their champion but I was hopeless so they put me behind the scenes as none of you would have recognised me. What-what I did in getting closer to you was not a part of the plan. I didn’t do it deliberately, it just kind of happened. I got close to the Delta’s in my time on Themiscyra, but being around the both of you made me feel like I had a real family. As selfish as I was, I’m happy that we got to know each other.”