𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. II pt. II

.oOo.

"Hey yo, look what I found!" Diana called and held the bow above her head, bringing her family's attention to her from their places of leisure. Her parents had been conversing next to their rental, having already started packing up, while her siblings had still been miserably trying to play some ball.

Felix approached her first – long legs and curiosity – bat slung fashionably over his shoulder as if she hadn't been a first-hand witness to his ineptitude with it. "The hell's that?"

"Wow, you need glasses as well as a brain?" Alice smirked, poking the leather glove to Felix's temple, which he slapped away with an irritated groan and a scrunch of his nose.

Sam grabbed them both by the ear and twisted until they were on the tips of their toes. "You start fucking bickering again, and I'll give you the goddamn punishment of a lifetime."

Felix turned to him with a brow raised in indignation and a whiny quality to his voice, his hand nursing his reddened ear. "I didn't even do anything!"

"But you were going to," Sam countered and raised an eyebrow at his son, daring him to say otherwise.

Diana shook her head disbelievingly and said, "Uh hello? I got possibly the coolest find of the century right here, people. Pay attention to me." The bow sang into her hand, as if on cue, and Diana looked from it to her family with watchful eyes. They had to have heard that.

Irene had simply ignored her family's antics and furrowed her brow at the beautiful object in Diana's hold. Had she heard it? "That's nice, hija, but where did you find it? Sam, look." She tapped her husband on the arm.

He turned from lecturing at his wife's command. "What am I looking at?"

Diana nodded once all four pairs of eyes were on her and began answering her mom's question. "So... I was heading to the stream when I heard this weird buzzing coming from the woods, so followed it-"

Irene interrupted with an incredulous tone of voice, "O quê? I'm sorry, you telling me you followed a random sound into a potential trap?"

Alice saw the opportunity to take a dig at her sister, "Why is that a surprise, we all know she's hella dumb."

"Yeah, mami, 'cause I ran out of brain cells," Diana deadpanned while giving her fist-bumping siblings the stink-eye, "We've been staying here for two weeks, if there were something out there to get any of us, it would've already." She would ignore the fact that she'd had the same thought process as her mom for the sake of her argument.

Irene rolled her eyes but complied with a tilt of her head.

"So, can I finish my story or what?"

"Quick before I lose my patience," her dad joked with a straight face and a stern voice. He was joking. If you knew him, you could tell the difference.

Diana related the events to the four of them, describing the melody in her head, the rush of emotion when she'd touched the bow, and finally, the arrow that had materialized out of thin air when she'd pulled the bowstring.

The silence and disbelieving stares at the end of her rant didn't inspire a lot of confidence in her. Instead, they made her want to tuck her tail between her legs and retreat to the safety of her tent with her mood soured for the rest of the day.

Then Alice started laughing loud guffaws to mock her, and Felix followed suit. Irene swatted at their arms to shut them up, but the damage had been done.

"Hija, don't be silly, things like that aren't real. Why are you making things up?" Irene's patronizing words hurt even more.

Diana knew how it sounded; she knew. But why did her mom assume she wasn't telling the truth? How would Diana stand to profit from such an eccentric lie? She wasn't particularly fond of being ridiculed, did her mom think she would actively seek out to be humiliated?