Beyond

Skylar

Raven was a small girl. Only 5'4" ish like her mother with high cheekbones and a narrow waist. There is nothing too extraordinary about her from first impressions. Brown deep-set eyes with hair just past her shoulders. Actually, that was the only thing that stuck out about her. Her hair seemed to be an aqua blue color but her eyebrows tell otherwise. 

"Raven!" Red yells to a blur of a bird as it speeds out of the house.

"She was a shifter and you didn't tell me?- I mean you had a daughter and didn't tell...us...?" Apollo spilled.

"You knew?!" My mom jumped to her feet.

"Don't get mad at him." Red started. "I'll explain."

"Kids outside please," Dad told us but I wouldn't move. "You too Skylar."

"I am not a kid anymore I have the right to know about my family." I didn't have to be told that the first-gen saw Red as a sister and thus I will too and her daughter my cousin.

"She's right." Uncle Jake backed me up. "She is of age. However, those of you 14 and younger should leave if you please." 

With Jake to back up my dad, my little siblings along with Amethyst walked outside without a fight. When the front door was closed again we all turned our heads back to Red.

"16 years ago when I found out I was pregnant I went to call Jake and tell him the news but before I could Amber called me. She was over the moon about her first baby and was so excited to hold her little girl." Red looked at me knowing that the baby she was talking about was me. "I realized that life back here had continued without me and everyone was doing amazing. I knew that if I told Jake and Amber they would convince me to come home. But I wasn't done. I wasn't done finding people and helping them accept who they were. Who we are. So I didn't tell anyone. Until a week before my due date. At that point, I was going over legal stuff when I realized that if anything were to happen to me I would want my daughter to go to the family. People who knew me when I was a teenager. People who I could trust to take care of her.

At this point, I knew that I couldn't go to Jake because I still wasn't done in England. So knowing I could trust him with anything and making him promise to me he wouldn't tell anyone. I didn't share any details. Just that if anything were to happen I would trust him with my kid. Then a week and 15 hours of labor later I had a little girl and I knew as soon as I saw her what her name was. I will admit that I didn't think about the fact that she could have been named Raven and then be able to shift into like a snake or something..." At this point me and my mom looked at each other and stifled a laugh. "Honestly I didn't think that she would be a shifter at all cause her father wasn't but I guess I am a purebred as it were so it makes sense she is one." 

"So wait," Apollo said when Red finally stopped. "Are you saying she is named after my shift?"

Red nodded to him and Apollo wrapped her in his arms.

"Wait, Red? Why did you come back now?" Aunt Saundra asked her.

Red looked at the ground and I saw her wet her lips with her tongue and then swallow. When she looked up she didn't have to say it before I knew why she came back. "We've been found."

(10/23/18)