• 9 • help •
➪Tiara.
My sister.
I regained consciousness. I'm somewhere comforting, yet unfamiliar. Laying on a warm, soft couch with a large brown towel under me. Taking a look at my surroundings, finding myself in a cozy living space with two other couches and a wooden table in the center. Wooden floors with a floral carpet on top.
It's a nice, small house.
I sit up from the couch, not feeling any of the unbearable pain from earlier and look into the kitchen. The house is quiet. I try to listen out for someone, nothing but silence.
I don't know where I am. As nice and cozy this house is, I don't know the people and I don't know if they're a threat. Even if their not dangerous people, I'm a threat and I don't want what happened to my home happen to theirs.
I need to find Tiara, she's most likely somewhere safe now and the mind control worn off.
She probably has no idea what happened.
So I get up from the couch deciding to quickly leave before someone comes.
I take a look at my bandaged legs. No dry blood, my arms and legs are bandaged and cleaned. I'm still wearing the same gray shirt and navy blue shorts as before.
I walk around the table and towards the door but someone opens it from the outside before I do.
A tall, dark skinned guy walks through holding market bags. He looks around my age, maybe a little older. He's wearing a tan, v-line shirt with a green jacket, khaki pants and brown boots.
I take a look at his face, he stares back at me with hypnotic golden eyes.
His ears... They're pointy. This cottage, his appearance-
He's an elf.
"Your awake." He says with a calming voice.
I take a step back from him as he cautiously closes the front door and walks towards the kitchen counter. He cocks his head towards the kitchen, indicating me to follow him.
I don't follow him all the way but I slowly walk towards him, keeping distance. The floor creaks and I look down at my bare feet hitting the dark wooden floor.
"Are you okay? How are you feeling?" He ask, taking out the contents of the bag with telekenetic abilities. Each item floating into a different kitchen cabinet and drawer at the same time.
"I'm fine." Although I want to bolt through the front door, the calm aura of this home kept me here. Also, I wanted to know how I got here. "Who are you?"
"Lunelle... Pratt." He casually replies.
"Why am I here? Where am I? Did you... What happened? I-"
"Calm down." He reassures me. "I found you last night in the middle of the forest-"
"What were you doing in the middle of the forest?" I quickly cut him off.
"Collecting fire wood." He responds just as fast and signals to the fireplace "You were unconscious on the ground. You had cuts and bruises all over and were bleeding. Dirty, bruises and bloody. You needed help so I brought you here."
I being to wonder, does he know who I am?
"And, don't worry. I wiped away the blood with a rag. I didn't- didn't undress you."
I started to think everyone in the city, was terrified of me, wanted to take me away or gone. I looked down again at the bandages and knew he wasn't lying.
He did help me."You can take those off."
"Huh?"
"The bandages." He folds the bags and shoves them into a cabinet under the sink. "You should be healed by now."
I look at him in confusion. Healed?
"I had some remedies from a healer and used them on you, so you should be fine now."
I do feel fine. More than fine. My body doesn't ache like before. To get such "remedy" from a healer isn't cheap. A stranger really did this for some helpless girl in the forest. I barley knew him but already had so much gratitude towards him and felt like I owed him.
"Thank you." Was all I could manage. "I don't... have anything but how can I-?" I was going to ask him how I could repay him but he cut me off again.
"Don't worry about it, here, take a seat." He points his open hand to the table between a couch and the counter. "I'll make some brunch for you. You hungry?"
"Um..." I didn't want to bother this guy or involve him in my current situation. "No thank you, I should go but where-" I begin to step back.
"It's fine."
"No, no I-"
"I'm well aware of who you are Athena." He says softly.
The moment he says that I feel a ping at my chest.
Before I would've felt differently about the name. I loved hearing people chant it. Talk greatly about Athena. I loved seeing the representation and the support; but now everything is different.
I didn't know what to say, but the memory of my house being destroyed was implanted in my brain and flashed back. I didn't want it to happen to this generous man.
Before either of us could say something, a dark skinned girl emerges from the back. She has the same flawless smooth skin, pointy ears, and gold eyes as the boy. Her curly hair was tied back and she wore an oversized leather jacket with dark, baggy, ripped jeans and boots.
"Oh, uh, this is my twin sister Leia." Lunelle introduces.
I smile awkwardly.
"You're Athena." She bluntly says.
Lunelle gives her a mean glare as she stares at me in shock. "And she can't be here." She quietly tells her brother as if I wasn't in front of them.
"Why not? She-"
"The royal guards came back from the city and are scaping this town for her." She talks fast, clenching her jaw.
"Wait wait, what?" I ask. "Where am I?"
They both look at me at the same time. "Your in Argento." Leia says.
"Argento as in, where The Spades Stadium is?"
"Yes and-" someone knocks on the front door before she can continue. I look at both of them and their shocked expressions, realising whoever is knocking is an unexpected guest.
This moment right here was what I was preventing. Someone coming to there home in search for me. Putting them in harms way. Part of me hoped it was maybe a neighbor, but after Leia mentioned the royal guards searching the kingdom for me, that hope shriveled.
They knocked again, more aggressively this time.
"Hide her." Leia whispers. Lunelle runs down the hall and I follow him towards the back of the cabin into a bedroom.
"You can turn invisible." He reminds me. I nod my head yes and turn invisible. "But we don't know if they have a scanner, fuck, hide under the bed." He whispers and pushed me down.
I laid under the large bed and watched as his feet calmly walks out the room, closing the door behind him.
Please don't hurt them.
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