Swan Song ✧ STEVE ROGERS [✓]

66 - Scars of Strength

"RAVE. HEY, RAVE. RAEVANNA, WAKE UP. ...RAEVANNA DARKSTAR!"

Raevanna jolted awake with a gasp, shooting upright at the sound of her sister's voice. Looking around, it took her a moment to get her bearings, and then her eyes landed on her sister, who was standing a few feet away, a knowing smile on her face. Sunlight was streaming through the opening of the cave, providing warmth and light and showing that the storm had passed.

"Come on, up you go," Erissa said. "The storm's over, we can get going now."

Raevanna got to her feet, nodding and stretching her arms over her head with a loud yawn. She still felt pretty tired, and she shook her head a few times to wake up her mind.

"Night owl," Erissa teased, reaching out and ruffling Raevanna's hair.

Raevanna huffed, playfully shoving her sister's hand away. "Don't fucking touch me."

Erissa simply laughed in response, shaking her head before gesturing for Raevanna to follow. "Come on. We should head out."

The two sisters left the cave and walked out into the now sunny forest. Warm golden rays streamed through the gaps in the trees, dappling on the bright green grass and illuminating the pollen that floated through the air.

"That thing you did back in the maze," Raevanna said after a moment. "With the walls. Have you always been able to do that?"

Erissa shook her head. "No. It was something I learned." When Raevanna frowned in confusion, Erissa explained, "Night fae are stronger than dark fae, and because of this, we think differently, we act differently, we use magic and we fight differently. Being able to move mass objects that exert incredible amounts of force with an equal amount of force from ourselves is something we all learn to do. It's one of the many things we're taught as children."

Raevanna was silent for a moment, going over her sister's words. Then, she looked up. "Can you teach me?"

Erissa stopped, facing Raevanna with a confused frown. "Teach you?"

"I'm a night fae," Raevanna said. "But for most of my life I've been taught to behave, think, and fight like a dark fae, and then like a human." She looked down for a moment, smiling softly. "Steve told me once that I needed to embrace who I was, rather than suppress it. And that includes how I fight. If I want to truly become a night fae, I think this is the best way to start. Don't you think?"

Erissa shook her head. "Rave, the training night fae receive is something we get since we can walk. And even though I was only nine when our parents died, the books I found on Levacon gave me the rest of the training I need. But this training... it's brutal. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not many of us were able to handle the full extent of it."

Raevanna frowned, and that was when she noticed the scars over her sister's arms and on her neck, and how one of her fingers was slightly bent at an odd angle, as well as the since-healed split on her left ear. Raevanna knew that they had to have come from the training, and she then realized just how brutal it actually had to be.

Still, Raevanna was determined to prove that she could handle it. So she smiled, shaking her head and pulling down the collar of her shirt to reveal the ugly burn scar on her shoulder. "See that?" she said. "I got that the day my adopted parents were killed. Orcs flung a fireball at me." She lifted up her shirt and showed her the two scars on her stomach, one crescent-shaped and one perfectly round. Pointing to the crescent-shaped scar, she told Erissa. "This one I got when I was stabbed by an orc." She tapped the perfectly round scar. "And this one I got when I was shot at close range by a human gun. I have two others just like it, one on my shoulder and one on my leg." Then, Raevanna swept her hair away from her eye, showing her sister the scar that ran across it. "And I got this when a man with metal claws scratched me." Letting her hair fall over her eye again, Raevanna went on, "I've been hit with a lot, Erissa. Several of these scars were from things that almost killed me. But I'm still standing, and I'm still willing to fight. So I think I can handle whatever it takes to fight like a night fae."