The Silver Fox

Chapter 6: Nathanial

I am sad to see her go, and I notice a faint purple glow trailing behind her. I must be hallucinating again.

"Jacklen"

"Yah?"

"Could you hand me some more of that medicine?"

She comes rushing in, with a grey aura around her.

Do I have a concussion? Seeing colors where there shouldn't be any can't be a good sign.

"Are you hurting, do you feel like you are going to black out, throw up...are you alright?"

She worriedly twists her hat in her hands, waiting for my response.

"I'm alright, just tired."

"Oh, well here you go honey, and holler if you need anything."

Her glow fades from gray to a calm blue and I wonder if this has any correlation with my old life. If only I could remember what that was...

All of a sudden, a surge of memories come forth. Hundreds of men and women in a hall, all with blue or purple auras around them as they feast and laugh. I glance down at myself and see the small pudgy hands of a child. I look over my shoulder to see a tall man looking proudly at his followers. This is King Harold, and that little girl playing next to me must be Annalisa. She runs around with a little toy airplane in her hand, her blond hair flying behind her. I sit down at the foot of the throne with her and play for a little while. We start to yawn and a woman in tattered grey clothing lifts me up and carries me off to bed.

I jolt out of the memory. We knew each other. Since the king was Harold and not Tuin and her hair was still blond, that means that she was not discovered to be a Beny. I remember that day, the feast after the end of the war. Anny had been helping the vet all day, and her parents were delighted in hearing that she had a gift with the creatures. They never would have thought that it was the first sign of her powers. We were best friends from birth, that's right, I was born almost a month after her. When her hair turned silver and her family ran into hiding, I was interrogated for information of where they might have been hiding. Nearly a month later, we left also... I am a Beny also! Emotions, those are the colors. Blue for calm, purple for relief, red for anger, grey for worry, green for sadness, and orange for excited.

I jolt up in bed and bruise my wrist pretty good. Have my roots started to show?! My stomach jolts,

"JACKLEN!"

"no need to holler, I'm right here"

I am too nervous to point out that she told me to holler. Sometimes she is really forgetful. She is just like how I imagine a mother would be like, if only I could remember who my own mom is. That gap between that one day twelve years ago and the day I woke up from the coma still needs to be filled.

I realize that I had been staring off into the distance while Jacklen waited patiently.

"oh, sorry, could you bring me a mirror?"

"Sure sugar, trying to remember again?"

"No, I remember a lot now! I need the mirror"

She rushes in excitedly with a bright orange aura.

"Here you go honey, what do you remember? Who are you, where do you come from...?"

I run my hand through my hair, brushing the matts out of the way.

"Are you good, a spy, are you a Rani-"

We both stare, open mouthed, at the vibrant navy blue hair growing out of my head.

"Dear, you are a Beny? Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I- I didn't know"

"I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

"I will let you know when you can report this. I need a little time to think things through. Oh, and could you bring me a mixture of 1/3 cup mud and 1/2 cup Ash-wood tree bark?"

She looks at me in confusion. I realize that I will have to explain to her since she already knows so much,

"It camoflages me, turns my hair brown."

Without another word, she shuffles off to the garden. I wonder who I am, and who the woman was who took me off to bed in that memory from 12 years ago.