When the Lion Roars [House of Anubis]

six. Firestone

Patricia, Joy and Arabella were sat in the living room downstairs and had been talking to each other about what they had done in their gap years. They had talked about Joy spending hers at home, enjoying a life with her family without school, but still finding her own job in retail. They had also just finished talking about how Patricia had spent most of her time in America, with Eddie.

"So, Arabella," Joy continued their conversation, and, resting her head on the arm of the chair she was sat on so she was facing Arabella, spoke the words, "What did you do?"

"Oh, um..." She hesitated, all eyes on her, "I, uh, went...t-travelling"

"Are you sure?" Patricia joked, noticing how Arabella had stuttered slightly.

"Yes," she stressed, almost too quickly.

"Okay," Joy uttered quietly. She shared a quick glance with Patricia before continuing, louder this time, "Where did you go?"

"Oh, you know, the places people normally travel around," again, she didn't seem completely confident in her answers, "Africa, mainly"

"That sounds cool, what kind o-" Joy was cut off by the sound of the back door to the house opening, and all three of the girls turned their heads towards the kitchen to see who it was. At this moment in time, Trudy walked through from the laundry room and spoke to them.

"Hello lovelies, I'm just here to do the dinner"

"What are we having tonight?" Joy asked her.

"Well, I thought, just as a treat because it's your first day back here, we could order a Chinese take away for you all to eat!" The girls seemed happy when she said this, but they weren't so enthusiastic that they started jumping up and down everywhere, "Would one of you like to go through the house and ask everyone what they want to order?"

"I will!" Arabella stood up instantly as she volunteered, eager to get away from any further interrogation from Patricia and Joy (mostly from Joy).

"Brace yourself for when you go to Alfie's room, there'll be a lot to write down," Joy informed her.

Arabella just smiled sweetly at her as a reply and left the room leaving Patricia and Joy to their own conversation.

"Well she seems nice," Patricia said to Joy, who just shrugged in response.

*~*~*~*

After collecting everyone's orders for dinner and giving them to Trudy, Arabella had returned to her room. She had been sitting on the floor of the bedroom, which seemed too small now that there were three of them sleeping in there, and getting all of her possessions out of one of the boxes she brought with her. Most of the things in the box that she was now going through were jewellery or fragile keepsakes and souvenirs.

She pulled out a smaller box, one which looked as though it would contain a necklace or bracelet, and it did. She opened the box and took out a silver chain necklace with a small silver deer, which looked as though it was prancing through the woods, attached to it. Her grandmother had given her this necklace not long before her death. It was cheap, from a market stall out on her local high street, and she hadn't put much thought into the gift. Even though Arabella knew this, she treasured it and, after she had opened the box and observed the necklace for a few moments, she put it around her neck and did up the delicate clasp around her neck.

The next thing that she took out of the box was a box that a ring would be held in. It was a velvet box with a red colour to it. On the underside of the box read the words:

الصحوة يجب أن تبدأ، يجب على الأسد هدير

She opened the box up and lying in it was a ring made of gold with a large amber-coloured gem decorating it (a firestone) in the shape of an oval. The fact that the gold part -the ring itself- had tarnished and lost its lustre made it look very old, as though it had been around for centuries, however the gem looked like it could have been brand new, making you wonder which of the two it could be. She pulled the ring out of the box and held it close to her chest tightly with both hands and it looked like she could never let go.

She shut her eyes tightly as she whispered, "I promise"

Just then, the door burst wide open and Patricia appeared, leaning against the side of the door frame. Arabella did her best to make sure that Patricia didn't see the ring by quickly throwing it back in its box, not bothering to put it properly in its place even though she did worry that she could have damaged it.

"You ok?" Patricia asked.

"Yeah," Arabella replied, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, the food's here if you want to come downstairs"

"Ok, I'll be down in a minute," She said finally. The whole of the conversation had been quite awkward and quiet, even if it was a short one.

Patricia left the room without saying anything else.

Arabella quickly opened the box back up as soon as she was sure Patricia was gone and not coming back anytime soon to make sure that the ring was alright and, much to her relief, no harm had come to it. She carefully put the ring back in its place lodged inside the box and slipped it inside one of the drawers on her bedside cabinet, making sure to cover it with random pieces of paper and paperback books that she had unpacked earlier.

*~*~*~*

Sorry it's been a very long time since I last updated, I haven't really known what day it is recently due to it being the holidays. Updates should be more frequent when school starts again because I'll know what's happening.

Happy New Year, because I missed that.

Anyway, time for questions:

~ Do you think Arabella actually went travelling? Why was she nervous when she was talking to Patricia and Joy?

~ What do you think the words on the bottom of the ring were? (Any comments which have clearly just been on google translate or something similar will be deleted so there aren't any spoilers for other readers)

~ Why did Arabella not want anyone to see the ring? And why hide it instead of putting it with the rest of her jewellery?

That will be all from me today but stay tuned for the next chapter! Goodbye!
Sibuna ✋🏻