Clara Braxton had always thought of her cousin as being a very frail and pathetic girl. When they were children, they used to run through the woods surrounding their family's estate, not caring if they slipped in mud or scraped their elbow. Now, she was fainting and scaring at anything that moved. How sad. It wasn't her fault, after all. Her parents were the simpletons. Always telling their daughter to stay away from the men, even her own brothers weren't allowed in a room alone with her! It was simply ridiculous.
Clara was glad she hadn't been raised by Auntie Hildie and Uncle Ulrik. They were such worrywarts, always keeping their daughter shielded. No, her parents had no problem exposing their only child to everything, and while knowing about their crimes hadn't necessarily made things easier, it had protected her from suffering their same fate.
After Amora fainted, Clara retreated to her chambers. She'd rather not be involved in the disaster that was the Delcrays. Well, most of them at least.
Clara's chambers were large and boring. Aunt Hildie never allowed her to do anything to them, not even change the bedsheets or purchase a new rug. The room was dreary and cold, with not a speck of personality in it. Clara sat down in front of her vanity and sighed, brushing out her long dark hair with a silver comb before tying it back with a ribbon. She needed a break desperately, and didn't care if her aunt or uncle caught her breaking curfew. Putting on some plain boots and a slightly lighter dress (it was April, why must she continue to wear these heavy clothes?), she shut her windows and opened her bedroom door only to find her lovely cousin Samuel Delcray standing just outside.
Surprised, Clara let out half a yelp before Samuel planted his hand over her mouth. She glared at him.
"Shhhhh! Do you want the whole damn house to hear you?" Samuel whispered.
Clara continued to glare at him angrily before he finally rolled his eyes and removed his hand from her mouth.
"You surprised me! What did you expect to come from lurking outside of a lady's doorway after dark?"
Samuel chuckled and smirked. "Sorry."
Clara rolled her eyes. She could swear Sammy felt absolutely no remorse what so ever. She didn't care, though, as he was probably the only person she considered a friend in the whole town they lived in. The only real person for miles. "So what's on the agenda for tonight? I was planning on going for a walk through the gardens to clear my head, but I'm going to assume you have something better in mind?"
Sammy never failed to come up with a great adventure every time they got together, which was surprisingly not very often, given that they lived in the same house and all. It likely had something to do with the fact that her aunt and uncle thought that girls should have no contact with boys, even those that were blood relatives. Madness, it was.
"You suppose correctly, my dear," Sammy said with a grand swoop of his arm, "We're going swimming!"
"Swimming?" Clara was confused. To most girls of her social standing, swimming with a boy would be an incredibly scandalous and adventurous activity. But to Clara, it was just another Wednesday night with Samuel. They did those kinds of things when they had nothing better to do. "Why swimming?"
Samuel shrugged, never loosing his ever-present smirk. "Well it won't just be us swimming," he said, his eyes sparkling with excitement, "It'll be you, me, and a hungry water dragon."
Clara laughed. That was perhaps the last thing she expected him to say. "A water dragon? You must be joking, Samuel. Everyone knows dragons aren't real."
While Lake Townye, a lake a mile or two away from the Delcray family's estate, had its fair share of local legends, she'd never heard of this "water dragon" that Sammy spoke of before. Surely if it was real the village children wouldn't be allowed to swim there like they did each summer.
"Well that's what you think, sure," Sammy said, stepping into the doorway of her room and placing his hands on her shoulders in a way that was meant to be convincing, "But I have my sources, Clara dearest, and I know there's a water dragon hiding somewhere in Lake Townye. You're welcome to ignore the clear call to adventure, but I'm going tonight whether you join me or not. So, are you going to come along or are you going to go for your dreary walk in the garden?"
Clara thought this over for a moment. She herself knew dragons weren't real, but also knew that Samuel had no concern for his own wellbeing. She didn't trust him to go alone, and feared what might happen if this "dragon" turned out to be something much more dangerous.
Deciding it was better to go along with his crazy little adventure than to let him go off alone and get hurt, she set her shoulders back and said bravely, "I'm in."
