° 𝘉𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳 (𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘦!) °

Quiet Corner

Arya walked out of the room and went to her bedroom. 

She sat in a corner of her room, with a blanket over her had and cried.

She cried about everything under the surface, from her special gift to her family.

She still had no idea where her brother was-

And her mother. No one spoke about her mother at all, and whenever she asked, they deflected the question. She didn't want to know why they wouldn't talk about her mother, because she knew what had probably happened.

She couldn't accept the truth, though. What if they both were-

If their father knew about the centaurs and this whole forest, why couldn't the centaurs send some kind of signal to their father? 

Or maybe they did already-

She wanted to leave this forest so badly, she just wished that someone would come to safe her. She didn't want a special gift, she wanted her family.

Just then Grensa popped into the room and walked up to her. 

She sat next to Arya for a while until she started speaking.

"Arya... it's ok. I know you are going through so much- and I should have told you earlier. Your father- he used to be best friends with the joker."

Arya looked at Grensa with a scared look.

"The joker was a good man at the time, and they controlled the entire- well almost the entire world together in peace. Your father controlled everything on earth, and the Joker controlled the sky.

"The oceans... well, I was put in charge of them, something that none of the centaurs ever knew about me. The centaurs thought I was just put in charge of watching over you, which I am now, but long ago, when everything was at peace, I was in charge. I was a widow, as my husband, a beautiful young man... or water snake, I guess, had died fighting alongside me in the great ocean battle, which meant I had to rule the oceans alone, a job which I was unprepared to do at the age of 29." 

Arya wondered how she had went from a ruler of the ocean to a house maid.

"I am currently 3,061 years old, slightly older than your father, who is 3,057, which I am assuming you didn't know yet. When I was born, I had two gifts, but those gifts were weaker than your father's- my gifts were the ability to read minds, and super strength. They take a lot of energy to perfect. His power is the ability to transform, for he is originally a centaur crossed with a Lesporand, which is a cross between a leopard and a swan."

Arya almost threw up. Her father was over 3000 years old- and he wasn't even a human?

"Extremely confusing, right? He's one of a kind." 

How have I never known anything about this? thought Arya.

"Anyway, your father would always transform into random objects, or even people, which made it literally impossible to find him in hide and seek as a child. He wasn't able to transform into every creature, though, humans were his specialty. He was still jealous of the powers that his best friend had Matthew, aka The Joker, had. The ability to kill anything instantly if it attacked them."

Arya realised that his gift was very similar to what she had in the forest...

"Matthew used this power to protect the earth for a long, long time... until he met the real joker, who no one knows anything about. This- thing... according to prophecies, convinced Matthew to steal his best friend, your father's power to transform, and keep the powers for himself so that he would have all the power in the world. The- real joker- gave Matthew it's gift- the ability to take a fragment someone's power, and told Matthew to use it to steal your father's powers. But when combined with Matthew's power, it had enough power to steal someone's gifts entirely."

Arya knew what was coming next. 

"And he did. Which meant your dad was stuck in human form. Forever."

That was the most disappointing, sad story she ever heard, except it was real.

"The reason your dad never spoke of it is because he still felt very betrayed. But what is even worse is that the prophecies say that Matthew became so greedy that he didn't even notice that his powers were all being taken away. By the real joker. By the time he noticed, he had already lost his original gift- and he died that day, leaving the joker with a very powerful gift. No one knows how he died, because the joker would have kept him alive until he gained all of Matthew's powers."

Grensa had a sad look on her face.

"Ever since then, the ocean has become unsafe for mythical beings like me, and we have been contained to this forest. The joker has been getting closer and closer to ending the entire world, which is why Colden was sent on a mission to bring you here- but the message must not have been sent by your father-"

"Then who was it sent by? said Arya.

"I don't know- but I think it wasn't meant for you-... You are here now, anyway."

"Who do you think it was for?"

Grensa paused for a second, trying to think.

"I don't know for sure, but it was most likely- your mother."