Blood of Monsters

Adrian Rivera

Along the way there Cal seemed to have decided to explain their tradition of playing the one on one fighting games. How he and Amara would meet up with her brother Ryan and various other friends and near as he could tell fight until there was one victor. Apparently Amara had a history of cheating and Ryan had a history of accidentally scaring the other contestants mid-game, how remained shrouded in mystery. But honestly I was more focused on getting there and making certain my family didn't see me, that explanation would be difficult.

***

         Amara frowned looking at Adrian, "it might have been more entertaining if your parents had ran into you then, but I guess we wouldn't be here today," she decided.
         Adrian nodded his agreement, "besides you would hate it if I weren't here, Cal's too boring." At Cal's offended look Adrian just continued writing."

         He could see the conversation now. 'Why were you with the mayor's son and those Sithe kids,' they would ask and when he tried to answer they would interrupt, 'Adrian you know what they want, to destroy us all, to destroy us all and leave nothing behind.'
         Right now they didn't seem all that bad, a bit more carefree than they should be, unwary despite imminent danger and overall different from the spellborn who frankly were so nervous or aggressive that I often feared being around them.

***

        Cal grinned, "that's us carefree and not all that bad," he said sitting up proudly earning an eye roll from the other two.

***

        "We're here," Cal called out as he walked into one of the adjacent gaming centers choosing a room. As he walked in I became intensely aware of how many friends they had. Towards the corner was a pair of assumedly twins that belonged to the Sithe family, one with a snake hanging over his shoulder's and a raven that seemed to be focused on eating his hair meanwhile the other looked mostly normal for the family short black hair, large feathered wings, silver eyes. To the right sat a trio of girls who had apparently decided to wear matching red dresses, next to them sat a boy who seemed more focused on a book than the obvious flirting of the tallest of the three. More took up one of the three couches in front of the tv taking up the prime real-estate righting in front of the tv.
         Amara had seemed to have chosen to perch on the back of the couch ignoring when one of the kids kept trying to offer her his spot. As we entered she twisted to see us, "finally, I call first round," she called out as a simple double elimination bracket began to appear on the chalk board, then names already chosen for the first round, no doubt by Amara. "First up, me and Katharine," she said with a grin as a girl from the trio stood up. She grabbed a controller and then started the game.
         The pair that sat in the corner eventually left, the boy helping the girl up who walked with an obvious limp, "I'm Ryan," he said his sister answering before he had the chance to introduce her.
"I'm Myka," she said her voice quieter as she seemed to focus on the snake over her brother's shoulder. "This is Regal," she said pointing to it then barely reaching the raven, "and this is Amphithere."
"Adrian," I said uncertainly looking at her.
          "Adrian Rivera, a spel-," before she finished she stopped herself, in that moment I chose to search their aura's, the two radiated magic, that much quickly became clear, their sister gave off quite a bit too but this was different, her's was a capability for magic but theirs was specified. Myka was mostly a telepath or maybe clairvoyant with a tint of knowledge attainment while Ryan had nature around him, probably why the snake and raven liked him so much. I turned to Cal for a moment who just gave me a sorry expression.
          "I admit you are not what I expected from the feared Sithe family," I said a smile coming to my face as I held out my hand.
"Our family isn't that awful," Myka said flicking her wings back, it became clear that she was pretty naive for her power in that moment, her eyes flickered to Ryan and Amara. "You've met us, are we really that scary?"
"No," I finally told her. I wasn't exactly certain having only met them a few seconds ago.
"See," she said with a smile folding her wings to her sides nervously.
Cal eventually wrapped an arm around the two assumedly noticing her nervousness, "I almost forgot, I got you two books," he said holding out a small pile of books bringing a smile to the duos' faces. Slowly as they left I turned to the couch and sat down on the empty one waving to those that I saw not wanting to seem awkward.

***

         "You really weren't certain the moment you met those two, they aren't exactly scary," Amara pointed out.
         "They could be tricking me," Adrian pointed out receiving a laugh from the others.
         "If Ryan ever tricks anyone, I'll... give you a hundred platinum bits," Cal said. "He just isn't that kind of person," he added handing Amara the book.