Until Daybreak

The Beginning of Family

(This chapter is going to jump ahead in time quite a few times, and is just set up for our two girls' stories to intertwine. It is based around three months before Rise of the POTA.) 

I had grown up in a small American town, but I always knew that my heart belonged in the jungle. My parents had always been over protective of me, so convincing them to take me with them on their trip back to Africa was hard. It took days for them to even consider it, they thought about leaving me with someone I would much rather not be around. I had wanted to go back since we settled in the United States, but they insisted that I should finish school here. Even though they had been homeschooling me since I was born. For most of this to make sense, I should probably explain what my parents do for a living. 

 My fathers family had been explorers since the beginning of time. My fathers father and his father before him had been traveling the world in search of fortunes, which they had found and passed down the line. My father tells me his fortune was my mother and that the family inheritance allowed for her to be his only fortune. My father was the first in his line to actually use the money built up over years to do some good. He had trained to become a veterinarian and met up with my mother at the school. 

My parents used their knowledge and wealth to help animals across the globe, spending time on every continent before they had me. I was born in Africa, where I was raised in a small village for 11 years.  There I had made friends and helped with smaller wild animals, the ones that couldn't really do all that damage. That is until the village began to fall apart and my parents wanted to raise me in a more stable place. They took me to America and home-schooled me until I had finally convinced them to let me go into normal schooling. There I had faced the roughest social year of my life. I had been ruthlessly bullied until my parents had enough of it and pulled me out, then it was back to homeschooling.

That's when my parents met the last person on earth I want to be around me. His name was Markus Ramsus, my next door neighbor who wormed his way into my parents good side. I was 13 when I first met him and at first it was only a little creepy. He was around 18 and had looked at me in a way that he shouldn't have. Then he agreed to watch me for my parents, they were leaving on a month long trip. He abused me until my parents came back and I was too scared to tell my parents about it. He's been manipulating me to this day, even forcing me into a relationship that my parents are convinced is great. If I don't go to Africa with my parents I will be stuck in a house with him.

So this is how I'm currently sitting at the kitchen table with my parents at 5 in the morning, arguing about the trip. "Mother, I've been wanting to go back since our first plane to America! I miss the people and the landscapes. I'm 18 now, I can handle what ever it is we have to do over there!" I whine to my dearest Mother.

"Sweetheart, things are getting bad over there with all the poachers that are coming through. We are going to help for a month and then we are coming home. You can stay with Markus until we come back." She tells me, holding her cup of tea closer. I frown a little as I'm still afraid to tell her why I don't want to be around Markus. Just the thought of being alone with him for another month makes my skin crawl.

"I really want to go though! Please, I haven't been in 7 years and I want to visit the village. I've already packed and everything! I even found my passport! I just want to travel out of this freaking country." I beg her more.

"Okay, fine. I'll tell your father to get the plane ready for one more. Going to have to call James and warn him your coming." My mother gives. I knew she eventually would because she can never really say no to me. I quietly celebrate winning this one. My father hired a private pilot just in case they have to bring any animals back, which does happen sometimes.