Rosegarden and the Scorpion King

1. New house and the house elf Barney

Rosetta wasn't exactly thrilled when she entered her new room in that two-story house. At least this time she had a proper bed and a wardrobe. Even if the bed was pretty barren, at least she had a pillow and a blanket. She sighed to herself heavily and walked to the wardrobe, placing her wandcase, the winter coat she got from Elena and the hoodie she got as a gift from Shoutmon.

Once she put them away, the door opened and she flinched towards her father who had a cold look on his face. "Downstairs, now", he said only and walked to the hallway and his steps faded away down the hall. Rosetta shivered from fear and gulped before walking out of her bedroom and followed her father downstairs to the living room. 

Once she entered the living room, she saw her mother and Roxanne sitting on the couch with her mother having the same cold look in her eyes like her father had earilier. She gulped silently as she walked to the middle of the room. 

And as soon as she turned around, her father slapped her hard, making her fall to the floor. 

Her mother just watched as her father started beating her up while Roxanne had a sly smile on her face. She found this scene very amusing since she thought her sister was acting a little cocky now that she had friends who helped her find her smile. Roxanne wanted to make sure that her sister would never forget that she belonged to them, not as a daughter, but as a slave. 

"I think that's enough, dear" their mother said as she stood up. Their father threw Rosetta to the floor, taking a step back and then disappearing to the kitchen to wash his hands from the blood on his knuckles. Rosetta shivered from pain and stared at the floor with a dull look on her face. "For the entire summer, you will be doing chores, including your sister's homework. You had your fun at the Academy for one year, now it's time to face the reality", she heard her mother say and looked up at her, seeing the cold glare in her eyes. 

"We will be leaving the house to go out shopping. When we return, I expect that this house is clean and that there is dinner on the table. I also expect you inside your room and inside this cage when we come home", she said and gestured towards a cage meant for dogs with a nod. Rosetta looked at it, her eyes becoming dead immediately. Roxanne laughed a little at the look before she got up and walked up to her sister.

"Oh, and.. I'll be taking that hoodie you got from Shoutmon. After all, he's only nice to you because he feels sorry for you. But after he sees me in his clothing, he won't care about you anymore", she said in a quiet voice before following her parents out of the house.

Rosetta was alone in the house, shivering from both pain and fear. Of course she had known that her parents wouldn't let her escape the cage she had been born into. Slowly, she stood up and headed for the closet under the stairs, grabbing all the cleaning equipment and then starting to clean around the house. 

Even though the place seemed extremely clean already, she didn't want to know what would happen if she disobeyed her mother. She was more than angry with her as it is. 

For hours, she cleaned the windows, sweeped and mopped the floors, vacuumed all the floor mats and even washed the dishes. While drying the dishes, she let her tears fall down without noticing as her thoughts began to wander around. 

She had flashbacks about her first year in the Academy and it made her wonder if she was allowed to go next year too. The only reason she wanted to go back was to see her familiars, Cereza and Ajax again. It was too bad that the students weren't allowed to take their familiars home with them. Otherwise she could have endured all the punishments that her family was giving her. 

Scarlet and the other three girls - Christie, Elena and Michelle - did cross her mind briefly, but she wondered how long would it take for the four girls to notice that it wasn't worth it to befriend someone like her. 

She sobbed softly as she finished her chores and looked around the living room, not seeing any traces of blood on the mats or on the floor. The dinner was on the table, just like her mother wanted, nice and hot. She knew to only put out three plates, knowing all too well that her  didn't want her to enjoy that dinner with them.

With that, she glanced at the dog cage sitting at the corner and sighed to herself, walking to it and grabbing it, starting to carry it towards her bedroom. 

It was a struggle to carry such a large object, but she made it back to her bedroom and placed the cage into the corner, taking a step back and staring at it for a moment. Sighing to herself, she dropped down on her hands and knees, crawling inside the cage and just sat there in silence, looking around her bedroom. Her wardrobe had been rummaged through which meant that Roxanne had really come to the room and taken Shoutmon's old hoodie. 

She gripped her arms tight, sobbing again. How much she wished that she had her familiars to talk to!

She kept sobbing to herself, not noticing a shadow peeking inside her room, its eyes full of curiousity.

--

Rosetta hadn't even noticed that she had fallen asleep inside the metal crate. She opened her eyes and saw that it was morning. She sat up inside the crate and sighed to herself.

It was a peaceful morning, first morning of the summer vacation and she could hear Roxanne's excited chatter from downstairs. She didn't bother getting out of the cage, knowing she wasn't going to get any breakfast anyway. Her body was aching from the yesterday's beating anyway, plus cleaning the whole house and making dinner. 

But then suddenly, her door was slammed open and her father rushed in, tearing the cage door open and pulling her out from the cage. "Now you've done it, you pathetic eyesore!" he yelled, dragging Rosetta down the stairs to the kitchen and threw her to the floor, letting her mother start beating her with an empty glass bottle. "You stupid little girl! How dare you disobey me?!" she roared while Rosetta protected her head from the hits. She had no idea why she was punished so early in the morning. 

Then her father kicked her against the counter hard, making her cough audibly. Roxanne looked really pissed off as she sat on the breakfast table with her arms crossed and her left leg crossing over her right. "I can't believe you would do such a thing, sister.. How dare you take my favorite T-shirt!" she said.

Rosetta glanced at her from the corner of her eye, now understanding why her family was angry with her. But she hadn't gone anywhere near Roxanne's bedroom nor did she even have her shirt in the first place.

Roxanne got up and walked to her, her own hand turned into a fist. "Where is it? Where is that T-shirt? Speak, or else..", she said menacingly, but Rosetta only shook her head, saying that she had no idea. Roxanne bit her teeth together. "You think I'm a fool?! You were the only one in this house! And you were always jealous of me because I have better clothes than you do! Now where is my T-shirt?!?" she asked enraged and raised her hand to punch Rosetta in the face, making the other female dragon shut her eyes close tightly, bracing herself for the impact.

"Wait!! She is innocent! I have the shirt!!".

Roxanne froze at the voice of a young male and all four turned their head to see an unusual creature standing in the doorway. Roxanne's eyes widened from shock and horror as she let out a scream, like she had seen a mouse. 

"Aah! What is that?! Why is it wearing my shirt?!?" she asked as she stood next to her mother who seemed surprised seeing the creature. "Wh-who are you?!" her father asked. Rosetta turned her head weakly to see the creature better.

It was about the size of a child, with big ears and it was wearing Roxanne's T-shirt. The cloth was a little worn out and it already had some stains on it. 

The creature gave them a little bow.

"Greetings, My name is Barney and I am your house elf."

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