Of Fire and Ice

C.78

I stared at the couple Harley claimed to be our parents. "Harley... Henley. Our beautiful girls." My mother sighed.

I could help but blink my eyes rapidly to clear the tears that kept coming. "But... you're dead." Harley said in confusion. "Yes, we are." Dad nodded.

"Wow. You two are beautiful." I sighed, that being the only thing I said. They both smiled at each other. "Our daughters turned out more beautiful." Dad said and mom stepped towards me.

"What happened to your eyes? I remember them being lilac, like mine and Harley's." She said. "Oh, one of mine was stabbed. Completely destroyed. It was replaced by the red one." I said and her hands, cold, dead hands, found their way to the sides of my face. "Well, you're still a beautiful girl." She smiled and tears leaked out of my eyes.

"Now, how old are you girls?" She asked and dad stepped up to join her. Harley remained quiet, so I answered. "I'm nineteen. Harley's twenty six." I said and their faces fell into confusion. "No, that can't be right. Unless..." They both looked at Harley. "She doesn't know." Harley said softly and now it was my turn to look confused.

"Ah, well, looks like it's time for you to know." Mom said, clasping her hands together. "First of all, you're not nineteen, Henley." Mom said. "How old am I?" I asked. "Try for about four hundred and nineteen." Dad said and my eyes widened. "Um?" I had no clue how to respond.

"You know your story as we were in the Dark guild Shadow Flame. I became pregnant with you, and we left because I didn't want you to grow up in that bad of an enviroment." Mom said and I nodded. "That's half true." She said and I stared down at the ground.

"Four hundred and about twenty years ago, I found out I was pregnant with you. Harley was seven at the time, and she was a wicked, wicked girl. There was a powerful wizard named Zeref, and he was opening a sort of portal to save his brother, who was dead at the time. He was going to send the eight dragon slayers of the world along with him. We convinced him to let us bring Harley along, though she isn't a dragon slayer." Mom said.

"We also brought along Cornelia, who just laid Ariadne. At the other end was a beautiful, nice lady with blonde hair and sweet, caring brown eyes. Her name was Layla, I think. She pointed us in the right direction of a secluded cabin. A few months later, you were brought into the world, and Ari hatched on the same day. We left with Harley, and we promised we'd come back when you were old enough to learn the truth." Dad said.

"But what we didn't know is that the Shadow Flame guild has been hunting for four centuries, and they found us at last." Mom sighed. "We told Harley to run and hide, and we made her swear not to tell you anything until you were old enough." Dad said.

My head was pounding and there was a pool of tears in my eyes and on my face. "Who else?" I managed to get out. "Honey?" Mom asked. "Who were the other dragon slayers?" I asked.

"Let's see if I remember the names. Natsu Dragneel, Gajeel Redfox, Wendy Marvell, Rogue Cheney, and Sting Eucliffe." Mom nodded. I turned and looked to the other two dragon slayers.

"Told you we were secret geezers." I said and they looked flabbergasted, as did everyone else.

"Anything else you'd like to reveal?" I turned back to my parents. Mom came over and kneeled beside me and moved to whisper in my ear.

"Embrace the darkness inside you."

Then she and dad turned back into light and went into my ring.