The Dark Castle

Chapter IV

Flora sat quietly on the couch, staring at the wall. Thomas and Lailos were both sleeping, Thomas curled up as a wolf in front of the fireplace, in front of Lailos, who had turned into a bear to sleep. She had tried sleeping, but she couldn't. She kept thinking of the story Thomas had told.

She looked at him now, seeing his green aura float like smoke around him. It was darker as it got closer to him, becoming almost murky. It confused her slightly, she'd never seen any aura quite like that one before. Lailos' aura was a burnt orange glow, Epnosis' was a green smoke, like Thomas' was, but it was brighter, and it didn't change colors. Fauna's had been a warm chocolate brown glow, always faint, but still there. Her mother's....wait. Her mother's had been similar to Thomas'. It was a deep violet glow close to her body, but as it spread outwards, it faded into gold. She had always found her mother's aura pretty, she'd spent hours just watching it float around their house.

Victoria's not your biological mother....

Thomas' words echoed in her head, making her shiver. Her mother wasn't actually her mother....well, it at least explained why she didn't have obvious powers, like all of her siblings. She'd never understood why before. Her mother had told her that some powers took a while to show up, or only came out when they had no other choice, but she still hadn't understood. All of her siblings had obvious powers, so why hadn't she? Now it made more sense.

She took a deep breath and stood up, going to quietly explore the cave. She found a plate of cookies in the kitchen and snagged a couple, smiling as she nibbled on them and walked through the cave. The room that the other two were in seemed to be the room Thomas used the most. The kitchen was the second room, with the third and fourth rooms almost seeming to belong to someone else. Everything in them was purple, as opposed to the green that Thomas seemed to favor. One of them was completely full of books, with a window in the corner that was surrounded by cushions, with a notebook lying in the middle of the room, a pencil discarded beside it. The other was a bedroom, that looked like it hadn't been touched for years.

Flora walked curiously into the room filled with books, looking at the notebook on the ground. She carefully picked it up and sat down, opening it quietly to see what was inside. The words inside were scribbled on the page, almost illegible, and in more languages than Flora could count. There were small pictures drawn in the margins, with lines criss-crossing the page to connect words to one another. Flora blinked a couple of times, sitting down on the floor and starting to slowly flip through the book.

It looked like the writings of a madwoman. Flora couldn't understand much of the writing, and the bits that she could understand absolutely terrified her.

The Eye of the Future is the easiest to corrupt.

The daughter of the Future will bring it all back to Life.

Four children shall bring about the end.

One wolf heads it all, coming to collect his wife.

Flora took a deep breath, shaking slightly as she shut the book carefully, lying it down back where she'd found it. She quickly returned to the couch, relieved to see that the boys were still asleep. She didn't think she was supposed to have seen those rooms.

A few hours later, Thomas woke up with a yawn, shifting back to a human and rubbing his eyes. "Morning," Flora murmured softly.

"Mmmorning...." Thomas mumbled. "Did you sleep?"

"Couldn't," Flora sighed softly. "Brain wouldn't stop."

"Ah...." Thomas sighed softly, stretching as he stood up. Flora's stomach growled audibly, and Thomas chuckled sleepily, going to the kitchen to make breakfast.