Fire Meets Water - A Kotlc Marellinh Fan Fiction

Chapter 14 - Marella

Atlanta, Georgia. Marella racked her brain for something about this place. Sophie had said it was a pretty big human town....it got hot?
A delirious laugh escaped Marella's lips. A human town. Of course. It was all she could do to keep from rolling her eyes. She knew she should be feeling despair or hopelessness but the Neverseen had already used all of that up.
All she felt was how absurdly terrible their luck was. As soon as she thought they were done and safe there was yet another cruel twist of fate. Her mother starts feeling better....Marella manifests as a Pyrokinetic. She starts falling for Linh....they get kidnapped by the Neverseen. Escape from the Neverseen....end up in some human town.
Marella almost considered throwing her hands in the air and shouting at the sky about what an unfair world it was but she was pretty sure that wouldn't win her any points with the humans.
"So...I guess we go in," Marella said, turning toward Linh and reaching for her hand. Linh grasped it.
They walked past lots of tiny houses crammed into one-what a human would call large-building. By reading the signs, Marella gathered that these were called "Apartments". Humans were weird. Who would want to cram into such a small space with all these other people breathing down your neck?
Marella wasn't really sure where they were going or what they were looking for. Maybe a new outfit? They were getting some strange looks, but thankfully, most people moved on from them quickly. She got the feeling that oddly dressed people weren't too uncommon in this "Georgia" place.
There were a disturbing amount of people sleeping on the ground or asking Linh and Marella if they had spare change. With each of these people she saw, Marella felt her gut twist even farther. The humans really didn't know how to manage their rapidly growing populations. Marella knew that human-elf contact had been prohibited for "the good of both kinds" but she couldn't help thinking about how many lives they could improve with just the wag of a finger. Human lives were what must be unbearably short, but ninety years (Marella was pretty sure that was what Sophie had said was the average human lifespan) is still quite a long time to suffer. She couldn't even begin to imagine it.
There were some good things too. Families having fun. Children playing with each other. Marella and Linh passed the "Mercedes-Benz Stadium" or so the sign said. There were falcons all over the stadium but there was loud music coming from it and when they passed by Marella caught a glimpse of a blonde woman on a stage surrounded by a sea of thousands of people.
"..ain't for the best, my reputations' never been worse so...you must like me for me. Yeah I want you.."
Marella almost tripped over herself hearing these words. Suddenly she yearned for another peek at the blonde woman. Was she just like Marella? Did people not like her for who she was? Did she just want to be accepted? Marella had never known how you could bond with this human music so much. If she ever got back to the Lost Cities, she would steal Sophie's iPod at first chance.
"...cool that I said all that? Is it chill that you're in my head? Cause I know that it's delicate.."
Marella forced herself to keep walking. Away from the music. Away from maybe the only person who could understand her. Or at least comfort Marella with her voice.
"You good?" Marella started. She had totally forgotten Linh was there. "You look kinda pale and..." Linh held up her hand to show how Marella had clenched her hand around Linh's.
"Y-yeah. Sorry," Marella loosened her grip on Linh's hand but didn't let go. She didn't plan on letting go anytime soon.
The two kept walking. At one point, Linh spotted a green piece of paper that said $5 on it. Linh said that the humans used it as money. With it they bought two human delicacies known as ice cream. It wasn't nearly as good as some elven desserts like ripplefluffs or mallowmelt but it was still quite good and left Marella wanting more.
The sun started dropping toward the horizon, painting the sky shades of pink and orange. It really was quite gorgeous. As the temperature started dropping, Marella realized they would need to find a place to stay for the night.
That's when she spotted them.
Well, she really heard them first. One person said something and they all burst out laughing. Linh and Marella turned and saw three people - they seemed to be a family - the mother with curly brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, the father with lighter brown hair cut close to his head and was wearing khaki shorts and a t-shirt with the name of some human band. Their daughter was almost a mirror image of her mother with the curly brown hair, but hers was closely cut on one side while on the other her hair went down to her chin.
The girl glanced at them while looking both ways before crossing the street and did a double take.
It wasn't until she looked their way that recognition crashed over Marella like a title wave.
Amy Foster
Judging by the look on Amy's face, she recognized them too. She let go of her parent's hands, said something to them and started toward Linh and Marella.
"What the freaking heck are you doing here?" Amy exclaimed. "Something tells me your not here to admire the view,"
"Amy-" Linh started.
"Actually, it's Hazel now. Please say that in front of my parents. I've avoided them remembering anything for this long, I won't have it start now," Amy said. She had gotten taller since Marella had seen her last.
"Okay, Hazel, it's a long story so-" Marella tried, but then saw Amy's parents headed toward them.
"You guys are friends of mine from the drama summer camp I went to three weeks ago okay?" Amy said quickly, then turned to her approaching parents, "This is Linh and Marella from camp,"
"Hi, Marella and Linh," The woman said, "We're Hazel's parents, I'm Mia and this is Everett."
"Hello," Linh replied. She was better at the talking stuff, so Marella let her do most of the social interactions. "Nice to meet you,"
"Remember when I told you guys I could show you my room? You were really into it," Amy said in the I-know-this-didn't-actually-happen-but-you-better-go-along- with-it-or-else voice.
"Uh-yeah! It sounded so cool, like my dream room," Marella said, hoping she didn't completely ruin the charade.
"Mom, dad, can they come over for just a bit?" Amy asked, giving her parents that look that she knew they couldn't refuse, "Pwese?" she added with a puppy-dog voice.
"Okay, fine." Everett said. "We live just five blocks away, so you can walk with Hazel. Mia and I will walk a little behind so we can give you three some time," he winked and Amy's turned ever so slightly red.
"Yep," Mia agreed but asked, "why are you dressed like that?"
"Oh-uh its- um," Marella sputtered, trying to think of something normal that the humans would buy.
"Comic Con," Amy said simply.
"Ahh I see," Mia said and fell back to hold her husband's hand as they all walked down the sidewalk.
Once Amy, Linh and Marella were out of earshot, Amy once again asked: "What are you elves doing here in Georgia?"
"Well, I was training with Fintan..." Marella explained all of it from training with Fintan to getting kidnapped to escaping to a seemingly endless meadow to ending up in this huge human town. Amy interjected with questions and Linh helped Marella fill in the parts she didn't know. By the end, they were almost at the house and Amy looked slightly shaken.
"I....was not expecting that. You two have really been through a lot in the past few weeks haven't you." Amy said.
"You could say that," Linh answered with a smile.
Everett unlocked the front door of their house and they all shuffled in. Amy sneaked two granola bars for Marella and Linh (they hadn't eaten in quite some time) and they walked up one flight of stairs to Amy's room.
It was quite small by human standards but was cozy. She had a few strings of fairy lights strung above her bed with pictures clipped onto them. A desk was adjacent to the bed and a small armchair by a bookshelf next to that.
Amy rushed over to the desk and over the bottom drawer. She shoved her hand all the way to the back and pulled out a small sliver square.
An imparter.
Amy turned to look at Linh and Marella. "I'm going to get you home," she said before pressing a button on her imparter and saying.
"Get me Sophie Foster,"

Word count: 1.5k
Art Credits: imaramennoodle

A/N: Sorry this took so long to post, I may have completly forgot about this for a while heh heh heh..