Ocean of Zellaphin (The Chronicles of Mistar - Short Story)

Prett · · · 4

She wanted to kill him. Just as she had said, there were stalker Pent boys in the water. Prett didn't know if she wanted to come back tomorrow. Who is this kid to think he can barge up on my beach! And... I just want to kill him! her mind screamed.

Prett couldn't deny it though. He was handsome. A rugged handsome. She thought she saw a beard starting to grow on his chiseled chin. She could still see the small gray and bright yellow dots that spotted his cheeks. They looked like freckles but she could tell they weren't. Prett imagined herself running her fingers through his long curly hair. She wanted a piece to curl around her fingers as she looked into his intense blue eyes.

She became suddenly disgusted and pushed an imaginary Tollin away. Prett twisted her head back and forth trying to erase the image of him from her mind, but he wouldn't leave. In frustration, Prett stood and walked out of her tree. She stormed to the beach and kicked the sand and water, though it did nothing to help her anger and he could probably see her.

Prett didn't care.

Finally, though still angry, Prett fell to the sand. Cossandra came whimpering over to her, but Prett only pushed her away. She didn't want a hot, fluffy, shedding wolfa sticking to her. The baby did as she was told and made her way back to the shade of the tree where her father and mother laid still, sleeping. Prett envied them. She wanted to sleep. To go back home, see her sister, eat dinner, and fall on her bed, but the water now scared.

Curse him, Prett thought. With a fist full of sand, she chucked it into the ocean watching it fizzle and fade into the shifting water.

And what she was wearing. That wasn't for a boy's eyes. The white, kind of revealing, bathing suit was meant to be just for her and to impress her sister. Never, ever, would it be for that Tollin. Never. Ever.

Prett sat on the beach for a few more minutes. Her stomach rumbled and she knew it was time for her to take her leave, though she didn't too. She didn't want to Tollin to see her swim again and that only begged the question if she would return the next day. Prett didn't know and she didn't want to know. What she did know, she wanted food.

Prett walked into the water, it's ice cold feeling returning to her. She was used to it though as she dove through the water, pushing through the waves that threatened to keep stuck on the beach. The distance was short enough that it was an easy swim. Prett was relieved when it was over. When she was safe on her Castan land.

She looked back to the water, a shiver running up and down her spine. His face flashed across her face again and she pushed it away with the tilt of her head. The image didn't exactly leave her fully. It was still there, edging its way closer and closer into one of her forever memories.

Starting off into a sprint, Prett wished she still had her dress. It wasn't good for swimming but it definitely helped from getting grazed by the thorns and branches that covered her path. Once, she accidentally stepped on a small stick. After only a few more quick steps though, the pain that had seared through her foot was now gone. She could even see her wooden home in the distance.

Prett stopped in the clearing where her home stood. Next to the fire, her mother, Eena, was roasting a large chunk of tapees meat. Its antlers still hung above the front door of their home from when her father, Kar, shot it with his arrow two weeks earlier. Prett couldn't believe they had tons of its meat left. Especially since it was her favorite meal and never grew tired of the tapees' juicy meat.

Her sister, Meg, could have said differently.

Meg exited the small wooden house dressed in her finest clothes. Probably going out on the town after dinner. When Prett saw Meg, she instantly got jealous as she did every day when she saw her sister's beauty. Meg's skin was darker than hers, something Castan girls envied, with her dark black hair always perfectly pinned up. Prett ran her fingers through her own dark brown ends that were most likely fried and split from her time in the salt water and laying out in the heat of the day.

"Do I smell tapees?" Meg asked, her nose wiggling in disgust.

Their mother hummed next to the fire. "Yes, my lovely," Eena soothed.

"Why?" Meg moaned. She looked like she was about to kick the meat right out of the fire.

Without an answer from Eena, Meg looked up and saw Prett. Her sister smiled and wagged a finger at her white bathing suit. Prett now felt silly. She had only gotten it to impress her sister and maybe outshine her when Meg wore silver, as she did now, Prett knew that she was outmatched. It was no use.

"Don't you just look gorgeous!" Meg exclaimed as she ran over to her younger sister. Prett knew she meant it. Meg always meant it, but it never felt right.

"Do I?" Prett asked sheepishly. She felt like a child but when she was around her sister, she would always be the baby of the family.

"Ahuh," Meg replied. "I'm going out on the town tonight, after dinner. Wanna come?"

Prett shook her head and said politely, "No thanks, Meg. I'd rather not. I've had a long day. I kinda just wanna sleep."

Meg hummed and eyed her baby sister. "What made it so long? Will you tell us over dinner?"

Prett shook her head again. Whispering in Meg's ear, she said, "It's not something I want to tell mom and dad."

"Oh..." Meg replied, her eyebrows going up and down making Prett stifle a laugh. "I see. Was it a boy? Promise. That's my only question... for now."

Prett playfully pushed her sister's shoulder. "Yes..." she said hesitantly. "That's all you get. I'll see if I can update you later."

Putting an arm across Prett's shoulder, Meg said, "You sound like the drunk girls that stay out till like four in the morning. Does that mean you really like him?"

Wriggling herself free of Meg's grasp, Prett pouted. "You said you wouldn't have any questions till later!"

"I did now," Meg hummed. She liked to do that.

"You sound like him," Prett mumbled under her breath. She thought she had said it quiet it enough without Meg hearing, but she was clearly wrong.

Grabbing her shoulder as she jumped, Meg squealed, "What was that? Did I just hear?"

"Nothing," Prett snapped, her voice like a wolfa growl. Meg didn't care and still gripped her sister's shoulder when Prett tried to push her away.

Thankfully, their father's voice cut through the clearing like a knife, stopping everything in their tracks. It made Prett's stomach rumble even more as the smell of the finished tapees meat wafted up into her nose.

"Girls!" Kar called from inside the house. "Dinner's ready!"