The Final Storm (Part 3)

In Which Arianna Hitches a Ride

Arianna woke up with the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach. She moaned, rolling over, feeling her hair automatically so she didn’t crush Drake. But Drake wasn’t there… She patted her hair some more before shrugging. He’d probably gone to go catch some bugs or something. Yawning, she crawled out of bed, aimlessly reaching for some clothes before finding that Sarah had left her a plain, but thankfully clean dress out for her. Sighing, she put it on along with her trusty deerskin boots and shuffled out of her room. She had had the strangest dream. In it, Drake was fighting alongside her against the cats. When suddenly one of the cats started singing, a freaky but beautiful song that killed Drake! She shook her head, shaking off the dastardly dream.

            “Good morning,” A mane of bushy black hair popped up from behind the counter, making Arianna jump. Sarah looked horrible. Tear streaks revealed how dirty her face was, her eyes were bloodshot and her smile strained.

            “Good morning Sarah. Are you okay?” Arianna asked, plopping herself down on a stool and leaning forward.

            Sarah rolled her eyes. “I’m doing great, just great.” She was filling a cup with milk and didn’t seem to notice as it overflowed.

            Something pulled on her dress and Arianna looked down to find little Tess, her large green eyes wondering as she gazed up at her, her thumb firmly in her mouth. Arianna smiled at her, gathering her up in her arms and pulling her into her lap before addressing Sarah. “What’s wrong?”

            Sarah looked down, realizing she had spilled the milk and cursed under her breath. Ignoring it, she turned around to fiddle with the oatmeal that was cooking in the fireplace. “It’s the stress! I can’t take any more or I’ll crack!” Sarah exclaimed, whirling around with her wooden spoon in hand, oatmeal flying. ”Taylor’s off to war, Aren is off doing his mad schemes, and Ralem- he’s off with his angel twin doing who-knows-what!”

            “I’m sorry- wait WHAT?”

            “You didn’t hear it? You must be a good sleeper. I woke up to singing… like there was angels around our house, and I look outside to find… Ralem and his angel double, who was singing. He made quite a racket, with the thunder and all. And then whoosh they were gone. Didn’t even say goodbye.” Sarah wiped her face with the back of her hand.

            Arianna balled up her fist. “You know what?” she declared to the world. “You know the first thing I’m going to do when I marry that oaf?”

            “What?” Tess asked, her green eyes big.

            Arianna looked down at her, for a second getting lost in the pure thought of marriage. She could just imagine the day when they’d be having like black haired, light eyed beauties like these running around.

            “What?” Sarah asked finally, awakening Arianna to the fact that she’d been just staring at Tess stupidly.

            She remembered that she was mad at Ralem and cleared her throat. “I’m going to teach him that you don’t just run off and leave your wife everywhere! I mean, seriously, I can handle myself! In fact, I saved his sorry little-“ Arianna realized that she probably shouldn’t say the next few words around Tess and stumbled on, “uh- behind several times! And what does he do? Drop me off every chance he gets! It’s driving me insane! How am I supposed to marry some guy who’s always off chasing butterflies with his atrociously arrogant dragon?” She gently pushed off Tess and got to her feet, taking on her Princess stance of authority, which clashed with her threadbare peasant clothing. “I can take war!”