"Inspiration for Floris above"
Did you like my cliff hanger? I thought it was kind of awesome. I mean, so suspenceful! Anyways, here's the next chapter. Hope ya enjoy! Plus, if you have read Lured, which you should, there's a character in here that you may recognize. ANOTHER PLUS! If you've read Lure, which you SHOULD the charaster that I just spoke of's past is in here! Vote and comment my little reapers!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Once again, I was woken up early by someone shaking me. Jack was smiling down at me and the sudden noise of my shocked gasp made Damian flinch in his comatose sleep and he kicked his leg out knocking me onto the floor. Jack laughed silently and pulled me to my feet. He placed Damian's leg back onto the bed and covered him back up.
"Good job." I said sarcastically. Jack smirked and handed me a blue jog suit with socks and tennis-shoes. I grabbed them from him and changed in the bathroom and pulled my hair into a ponytail only because it seemed fitting.
When I finished, I met Jack in the hallway. "So why am I dressed like I'm about to run a marathon?" Jack lifted the leg of his pants to show me a pair of matching shoes. "Mistress Rose insisted that I teach you a few things. Unless, of course, you would rather have Sebastian?"
I shook my head, "No, you're fine." He smiled and handed me a plate of bacon that he seemed to have pulled out of thin air. I took it happily, "Are you going to teach me how to pull bacon out of the air? Because that would be so cool."
He laughed, "No, I had the plate on the table right there, smarty." I ate a slice of bacon as we walked down the hallway. "So what's first?" He opened an oak door on the left side of the hall and revealed the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
Inside, was a field. Like, a literal field. Grass, trees, a pond, even the sky. My jaw dropped as I walked through the door, and Jack closed the door behind us with a smirk. "How?"
Jack came to stand beside me looking up at the sky. "Each door in the mansion leads to a different place in the world. Some leads to other dimensions, and some lead to alternate universes. AKA, this is a real place on Earth. Probably Michigan."
I walked over to the small pond and watched my reflection on the clear surface. As I watched, a head popped through the surface staring at me with a giant smile filled with sharp teeth. "Jack!"
Jack ran over and laughed when he saw the strange girl in the water. Her skin was a pale blue color and she had short, blond hair. Her pupils reminded me of a frog's, and her iris' were a darker blue.
The girl walked the rest of the way out of the water and to my surprise, she was completely dry. "Jacky! How are ya, dear?" She enveloped Jack in a hug filled with emotion. "I've been great, Floris." Floris released Jack and turned to me with her hands on her hips.
"And who do we have here? A newbie?" My mouth stayed open in shock and Jack popped his finger under my jaw to close my mouth. "Yep. This is Raven Mathews." We both continued to stare down each other, and by three minutes, she held her webbed hand out to me.
"I'm Floris Agate. Pleased to meet ya." I shook her hand with a small smile compared to her large one. "So...um...what are you?" Her smile didn't waver, "Why, I'm a water nymph, but most people find it easier to call me a frog girl or just frog for short. What are you?"
"I'm Damian's familiar." Wow. I never thought I would have to call myself that. It feels so wrong to say that I belonged to him. "Ah. Didn't think he could have another one of those. I could care less either way, so I guess I'll see ya later."
She took a few steps into the water before turning back to us, "Bye Jacky! Don't forget to drop something shiny in the water on occasion. You know I like shiny things." Something about that seemed like some kind of secret that only Jack knew. She looked over at me, "And you too. I really do like shiny things." She waved with a smile before she dove head first into the shallow pond that couldn't have been but three feet deep.
"Jacky, huh?" Jack nodded, "What can I say? I used to get around in my early years in the mansion. You'd be surprised who you'll meet." The way he said it seemed to hold pain and sadness as if there was something he wasn't saying, but I ignored it. "So, what are you going to teach me?"
Jack had a mischievous smile on his face, and I could tell that I wasn't going to like it. He held out his left wrist and motioned for me to come over. When I did, I saw a black skull tattooed on his pale skin. "You have a tattoo?" He nodded, "As do you. All familiars have this symbol on their left wrist. A Reaper has theirs on their neck."
I held out my wrist and held back the gasp as I saw the same mark on my own skin. "Okay, okay. I can handle that, what now?" He made me back away as he touched the tattoo with his index finger and my eyes bulged when the tattoo began to glow.
As it glowed, giant black scales began to form over his hand and it kept building and building until it formed a giant black claw. "This is called a Catalyst. With it, you can defend yourself from a Reaper's scythe, grab Strays and Terrors, and all together, protect your master."
He continued to watch me, and sweat began to form on the back of my neck. I carefully touched the tattoo, and a chill went through my whole body before circulating around the mark. Just as it had done for Jack, large plates began to form over my hand to become a black claw.
As I examined the Catalyst, movement caught my eye and when I looked up, Jack was coming at me with his Catalyst raised to strike. Right before he made contact, I raised my Catalyst and blocked his blow. We stayed locked that way for at least ten minutes before he finally backed down.
"What was that for?!" Jack smiled, "Teaching." He swung his Catalyst behind him and came running at me again. I raised mine above my head and ran towards him. As he went to swing, I ducked underneath his Catalyst and I kicked his legs to where he fell to the ground with a grunt. While he was down, I went to stand over him with my Catalyst to his throat.
Jack's eyes widened and a huge grin spread across his face. "At a girl! And Damian said you would probably leave here with broken bones! Lauren didn't even make her Catalyst her first try! Ray, you're a natural!" I held out my hand to Jack, and he took it allowing me to pull him from the ground.
"Hey, can you teach me that jump thing?" Jack raised his eyebrow and laughed, "You mean Jumping?" My face turned a shade of red, "I guess." He nodded, "Sure thing. By the way, not everything has a weird name." I tightened my ponytail out of habit and Jack continued to smile.
"What you do, is you feel for the energy inside your soul." My jaw dropped, "Are you serious?" Jack frowned, "Of course I'm serious. You and your master share a soul. Feel for that link and focus its energy to your leg and jump. it's that simple."
I closed my eyes and tried to "feel" for the said link. I imagined a string connecting myself to Damian, and felt what Jack was talking about. I could feel everything that Damian felt, which was pure anger towards someone. I blocked out that feeling and pushed the link to my left leg and pushed myself off the ground.
When I opened my eyes, I was hundreds of feet in the air coming back down towards the ground. "How do I land?!" Jack gave a worried look, "Land on the same leg you Jumped with!"
I put my leg out and closed my eyes when I closed in on the ground. I waited and waited for the splat, but it never came. I opened my eyes to a smiling Jack. "So?" I looked around and let out a sigh of relief when I saw that I was back on the ground and not dead...oh...yeah, let's just leave it at that. (I'm so hilarious)
After I Jumped four more times, I noticed Jack sitting on the ground playing with the grass. Oh. "How about we call it a day?" I asked. Jack jumped up from the ground, "Sounds great. I'll be in the kitchen making supper. How does Taco Saturday sound?" I smiled, "Sounds delish."
