The Hunt for Aquatenite

Chapter - 4 Liza

Lucy woke me up with her loud screaming. I shook her awake. She gave me a good response with 'Liza, stop it!'. That's what I would always get from my sister even if I helped her.

There was a knock on the door. I thought it would be a complaint from one of our neighboring havens for loud noises but it was just Olivia.

"Sword class." She said with a poker face and no emotion in her voice.

"Are you okay?" We asked.

"I am your instructor for sword fighting."

She clearly wasn't in the mood for chatting.

"I think we slept in our school uniform. Let us just change," Lucy said.

I looked down to see I was wearing the haven uniform. "We are wearing haven clothes."

Lucy's eyes widened, not from amazement but panic. "What did you do with our school uniform? We don't have much money to buy more!"

Olivia chuckled which was a first. "This is your school uniform. You will not see it as it is on Aresten but in your world, it will be the same old one. And it's Wesen, not haven clothes." She rolled her eyes. Again.

At that moment, Lucy's silver-blue eyes gave a faint flicker of glow. Olivia saw it too. She was looking so hard at Lucy that I was worried her eyes wouldn't pop out. The sound of a water droplet falling in a pond fell into my ears. Lucy collapsed on the floor.

I rushed to her side. She looked just fine. "What happened to her? Why did she collapse?"

Olivia called for Tyrek through one of the havens around. He took her to the infirmary. I insisted he took me with him but apparently, sword fighting was more important than taking care of my sister.

Olivia had taken me to a practice ground for beginners. Little kids were also present there learning from their parents. I wasn't too bad at sword fighting. At first, Olivia taught me how to swing a sword. I had cut off a tree...Um...I didn't say I was perfect. She was giving me a lot of orders- Swing the sword diagonally, keep your back straight, hold the leather grip firmly, don't drink too much water, don't worry about your sister.

I was so frustrated I kept thinking about my sister and lost focus on my training...I see the last one was very important. When I mastered the art of holding a sword and ignoring little children who laughed at me, Olivia dismissed the class and took me to the infirmary.

In a little while, Lucy came out enjoying a piggyback ride (Centaury Back ride) on Tyrek and was yelling 'Here comes your queen Lucy'. She was enjoying it a lot. If this isn't weird enough then she was playing with a balloon.

"What did you do to my baby sister?" I asked.

"Turned her into a real baby," Olivia muttered under her breath which I wasn't supposed to hear.

Tyrek scratched his head and let out a nervous laugh, "Who's ready to babysit Lucy?"

* * *

"Are you my sis?" This was the third time Lucy was confirming it in her best baby voice.

"How many times should I tell you yes?" I was sitting in a playroom with my hands on my chin. Lucy had many more little friends to play with and I had even more kids to entertain.

My first golden opportunity to take care of children. I was clearly waiting for the day to take care of my sister. She should have gotten the Best Teen Baby award.

I played with dolls the whole day. I didn't really hate the day. It was nice to spend time with her. The only problem was that if I scolded her she would start to cry. Experienced it a lot. She needed to owe me big time.

* * *

At night, we ate dinner with Olivia. We had to force the food into Lucy's mouth after which she slept soundly.

Halfway through the dinner, I hit a conversation with Olivia.

"So," I started. "What exactly happened to Lucy?"

Olivia seemed to have a debate with herself about whether or not to tell me about it. Finally, she decided to tell me. "Lucy has some kind of energy in her. We aren't able to figure it out. But we suspect you have this energy too."

"I do?"

She nodded. "You both might be havens but you possess some powers that we don't. This energy is one." She paused. "Liza, we're gonna break out the news about you two tomorrow. The havens need to know that we have found you."

She made the wrong choice of words. "You make it sound like you've been searching for us for a long time."

She bit her lower lip, "Your parents ran away, I believe you know. We tried tracking them but had no luck. We've been trying to get to you somehow and now they've sent you to us on their own."

"You only care about us because you think we can find our parents," I concluded.

"No, that's not true-"

I stood up. "You're trying to use us. I knew we couldn't trust you!" I practically yelled and pushed her out of the cabin.

"What's happening?" Lucy questioned in her normal voice. She was back.

I explained to her what Olivia said and why we should find a way to get out of here.

"Liza, you didn't need to yell at her!" Lucy said. "Maybe she is using us. But there are high chances she is not. Do you remember the message? She had said that we were mentioned in it. I think she needs our help for whatever is written in the message."

I couldn't believe it. She was taking their side. After annoying me the whole day with her whines. This is how she repays me? But a small part of me still said she was right. Maybe I had overreacted.

I just stomped my feet and made my way to my bed. After a few seconds, Lucy spoke again.

"Hey, we're gonna play treasure hunt tomorrow." She said.

I sat up on my bed. 'What?"

She waved a piece of paper in my face. "Tyrek sent this. It's a traditional game played once a month. There are two teams. Some members from each team find three hidden pearls and the others fight the opposite team to buy some time. It says it helps us to learn combat and use our brain when needed."

"Great! Torture techniques. Here they come. I don't know how to fight!" I yelled once more. How worse could it get?