Magician's Melody: Hymn of the Fallen

Part 12

Morning Light greeted me, and I almost panicked forgetting where I was. Cam? Hannah?

POOF. A little person jumped on top of me, instinctively I laughed and gave them a big hug. Cam. I thought to myself.

"I'm not Cam! I'm Bella! You're squishing me, Nikki!!" A little girl's voice yelled from the blankets. 

"Oops! Sorry," the little empath girl popped back up with a bright smile and began a valiant effort to get me out of bed.

"C'mon- Ms.- Nikki!" She grunted as she yanked at the bedsheets I was laying on, I laughed and picked her up like how I picked up Cam.

"Now, what are we in such a rush for?" I asked the little girl. Bella didn't resist and hugged my neck as I picked her up.

"Breakfast is about to start! And I want to hang out before you have to go home tomorrow." She said with a sad smile. A small wave of relief and sadness came over me. Home, I miss my family. But I'm going to miss this place just as much, it's so confusing yet so beautiful.

"Are you happy you're going home?" Bella asked. It wasn't so much a question, it was more of an observation by the little girl. 

"Well, I'm sad to go but also happy to go home." Bella made a hrmph sound and flopped her head sideways on my shoulder.

"I don't like when people have opposites. It makes my head hurt." Bella mumbled into my shoulder as I slowly walked around the room comforting her. 

"You don't like when people have a bunch of different emotions at once?" She nodded.

"It's like hearing a bunch of people talk at once. Like my noisy brothers," she giggled at her own joke. "Everyone thinks like that all the time." She complained letting out an exhausted groan. We sat down on the bed as the 8-year-old vented as she played with my shirt.

"I hear it some of the time in your head. I hear it all the time in my big brother Axell's head when he's at a council meeting. I hear the same kind of noise in Dad's head when he thinks about my brothers."

She paused and had a realization. "And Iris and Cornelius both have a lot of it when they're around you. It's like they're thinking the same thing but in different ways! Normally Cornelius is quiet and Iris noisy but it-" She continued on with her rambling, but my mind was stuck on Iris and Cornelius.

They're thinking the same things? Around me? I bit my lip thinking about the possibilities of what that meant. Cornelius just asked me out. And Iris... Iris has JJ. It couldn't be because of that feeling. It wouldn't make sense. Maybe they both were really worried about me? Iris did seem awfully worried and...

"HEY!" Bella yelled, slightly unladylike I might add. "What did I say about noisy?" She scolded me like a child and I laughed, shaking it off.

"Sorry, Princess Bella. It just happens sometimes." 

"Well make it not happen." she pouted. Bella looked really mad at me. Can't imagine how much of an issue a power like that would be in her teen years.

"I'm going to get changed and get ready for breakfast. You should probably check in with your mother before she starts to worry," I add just in case. The little Princess was very important to the Queen in many ways, didn't want anyone getting all worried because she was visiting me.

"It's okay! She sent me up here to make sure you were awake. And to tell you to give me lots more hugs!" I chuckled as I sifted through drawers of clothes. I settled on some black slacks and a dark green t-shirt. I turned to pick up Bella off the bed for another bear hug.