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 Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:00 am
Backdated to October. Took forever to finish 'cause of having Baby. “We should go back and wait for Mom,” Henry said, even as he kept pace with his sister.
They’d slipped away from school. The carpool line had been less populated than usual, and dozens of kids lingered long after their pickup time, which probably meant there was some issue elsewhere preventing parents from picking up their kids in a timely manner. It happened sometimes. An accident might hold up traffic, or an event occuring nearby might accomplish the same.
Henry wasn’t worried yet. It wasn’t the first time Mom had been late. Initially, he hadn’t objected to the idea of sneaking off to the park, but the further they went from school, the worse it seemed. What if they didn’t get back before Mom got there? What if they got their teachers in trouble?
Henry glanced warily over his shoulder, gripping the straps of his school bag.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:01 am
“It’ll be fine,” Abby insisted, skipping as she led the way towards the park. “Mom is usually at the very front of the line. I bet she had to wait to take our cake out of the oven or something.”
It was their birthday after all. Or maybe she had to pick up their present from the store. Whatever it was, she didn’t mind a chance to run over to the park for a little while.
“We’re seven now, Henry. We’re practically adults.” Okay, well, maybe not adults, but they could do plenty of things on their own without needing their parents to make sure they stayed out of trouble.
“Come on, I’ll race you to the swings. And we can see the cars coming up that street, so we’ll see her when she gets here! It’ll be fine,” she repeated. “And if we get in trouble, I’ll say I made you follow me.” Because Henry didn’t deserve to get in trouble for something she wanted to do.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:04 am
Henry made a face. He didn’t think a cake or presents would make Mom late. Besides, he was pretty sure Mom already made their cake last night. Abby was making up reasons and excuses out of whatever sounded reasonable.
Even so, he followed along. If he put up enough of a fuss about it, Abby would probably relent, but she was right about one thing, at least: they’d be able to see Mom’s car coming.
“Okay,” Henry agreed. “Last one to the swings has to do both our homework.”
He took off before Abby could say anything else. He didn’t think Mom or Dad would let them get away with passing their homework off on each other, but he ran as fast as he could anyway, dropping his school bag under the shade of a tree once they got to the park. Free of its weight, he sped toward the swings, his laughter ringing through the air.
The park itself was strangely empty, but Henry barely noticed. It meant the swings were free and they didn’t have to wait their turn.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:15 am
Abby gasped at Henry’s challenge, and it took her a second to process what he was saying before she was running after him.
“Hey, not fair, you got a head start!” she called after him, but she was laughing too. Because he cheated, she didn’t make it to the swings before him, but she dove onto her swing stomach first so she could drape herself over it as she kicked off the ground.
It wasn’t an effective swinging method, but it stopped her from running so fast.
“Fine! I’ll do both our homework, but I’ll make sure to do yours really bad. All of your macaroni will be glued in weird piles instead of nice shapes,” she huffed, but was still giggling.
And if it hadn’t been for jumping onto the swing as she had, she might have missed the strange creature that seemed to be hiding in the bushes.
“Woah, did you see that?” she hissed at Henry, immediately planting her feet on the ground so she could stare at the bushes more closely, holding onto the swing under her arms.
“Is that a uh… what are those wild pigs called?” she whispered, not wanting to startle it. “Maybe it’s someone’s pet?”
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 5:43 pm
Henry sat on his swing properly, gripping onto the suspending chains as he kicked himself into motion. He smiled like he was pleased to have won, even if he wasn’t actually going to make Abby do his homework.
Abby’s question had his attention turning more than the rustling in the bushes did. It could’ve been the wind; there was a light, cool breeze today. He looked over his shoulder to see what Abby was talking about, only to slow his swinging until he came to a stop — not worried, exactly, but a little cautious.
“It’s just called a wild pig,” he explained, though he had no idea if that’s what it was. He couldn’t see it well through the foliage. “Or a wild boar. I don’t know if people can have them as pets. It could’ve come down from the mountains. Maybe…”
Did wild pigs even live in the mountains? They weren’t an animal Henry had studied very well.
Regardless, he knew better than to get too close.
“Don’t go near it,” he warned his twin, climbing up to stand on his swing in case it decided to come toward them. He looked up, but knew he wouldn’t be able to reach the beam their swings were suspended from, even if he jumped.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 5:45 pm
“What animal was I thinking about then?” she squinted at the bushes when Henry told her there wasn’t another name. But she agreed that she didn’t want to go near it.
“Yeah, it might have rabies,” she suggested, even though she had no idea if pigs could get rabies.
Except it didn’t sound like a pig. A low growl emitted from the bush, and before Abby could follow Henry’s lead by climbing up onto her swing, something with hooved feet and a round body but sharp teeth and tusks came barreling out from the treeline headed straight for them.
“Climb, Henry!” she squeaked out in distress, quickly sliding the backpack from her shoulders, glad she hadn’t abandoned hers under the tree like Henry had, and swung it at the creature. Not so much to knock it down, because it was big, but to use the momentum to push herself out of the way.
She collapsed onto her butt in the mulch of the playground, but quickly scrambled back to her feet and looked to make sure Henry was okay. “Get to the slide!” she yelled at him. “What animal is that??”
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:36 am
Henry didn’t climb far. He got up onto one of the suspending chains, hands gripping tight, legs circled around it, but he was too distracted by the look of the animal and his sister’s close proximity to it to put his best effort into climbing higher.
“I don’t know!” he said.
His heart was racing. He almost swallowed his tongue trying to get any words out. Did wild pigs really look like that? There was something sort of off about this one. Something unnatural, almost monstrous.
Henry jumped down as soon as Abby was back on her feet. He pushed her ahead of him, encouraging her toward the slide, running after her. The monster pig was hot on their heels. It snapped its sharp teeth at them like it was hungry. When it got too close, Henry turned and kicked it in the face as hard as he could.
It caught his foot between its teeth. Thinking fast, Henry yanked his foot out of his shoe and kept running. The pig bit down seconds after and demolished his shoe with almost no effort, spitting it aside as tattered shreds.
“Up, up, up!” Henry shouted as soon as they were within reach of the slide.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:39 am
“Henry!” she shrieked in distress when the creature chomped down at Henry’s foot, stumbling as she tried turning around to make sure her brother was getting to safety with her. Thankfully he was smart and could think under pressure. She probably would have just panicked!
But as soon as he was free she took off to the slide once more and pulled herself up the ladder quicker than she ever had before, only so she could turn around and reach out her hand to try and yank Henry up with her.
“Go away!” she screamed at the pig thing, and since Henry had already lost one of his shoes, she took off one of hers and hurled it at the creature as it snarled and tried following them up the ladder.
It had probably been a horrible decision to take off her shoe, because as soon as she took a step back on the landing to make sure Henry had enough room to get away from it, her now socked foot slipped and she shrieked as she began to slide down, and probably right into the horrible nasty teeth of that pig thing.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:40 am
The monster pig snarled at the ladder, snapping its vicious teeth. Its tusks seemed to gleam in the afternoon sun. It stomped its hooves, kicking up mulch, then barreled into the ladder. If Abby hadn’t already slipped, she probably would have fallen anyway from the resulting jolt. Henry barely hung on to one of the walls which framed the landing. He had to scrabble for Abby’s hand, but caught her at the last second.
“Hold on!” he said.
There was more fear in his voice than he wanted. Henry wanted to be brave, but the pig was terrifying. Fear made his hands slick with sweat. He almost lost his grip, almost slid down after Abby. Henry braced himself on the landing and put all of his strength into keeping them both up as high as possible.
The wild pig threw itself at the ladder again. When that didn’t accomplish what it wanted, it circled around to the end of the slide, huffing and heaving as it clambered onto the cool plastic. It climbed higher, slid down, then climbed again, snapping at Abby’s shoeless foot.
Before Henry could wonder if this was an appropriate situation to shout one of the swear words their parents cautioned them not to use, a bright beam of light shot at the pig from the direction of the monkey bars. It struck the pig’s flank, sending it crashing into the mulch, where it howled in fury.------------ Wending her way through playground equipment, Lucasta skidded to a stop by the slide, amber eyes locked onto the form of the youma. She bared her teeth, taking up a defensive position, low to the ground with her tail fluffed up behind her.
The golden star on her forehead seemed to sing with energy. The beam had been enough to knock the youma away from its targets, but the creature didn’t burst into dust. It was stronger than she’d hoped, then. She may be able to hold it off long enough for the children to escape, but there was no guarantee.
Behind her, she felt the call of a starseed — a bright, pure light just waiting to burst free.
“Your mother won’t be pleased about this,” Lucasta chided the children. “You think you could sneak off without being noticed?”
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:41 am
“I knew she can talk!” was clearly more important than the fact that a scary pig monster was blasted with some kind of energy. Magic? It must have been magic if Lucasta could talk.
She could remember when she was younger, thinking that their cat could talk -- but that was silly to think that cats could talk. Until now.
“We were fine until that thing attacked us. It’s not a normal animal is it??” she chirped, although less distressed now that they had a magical talking cat. But also Henry was being super brave and helpful and she reached down to quickly tug off her sock so she could get some better grip on the cold plastic slide and pulled herself back up to the landing with Henry’s help.
Abby gave him a quick hug and grabbed hold of his hand once more as she eyed the creature anxiously.
“Wait, you’re not going to tell mommy are you?” she gasped. That wasn’t fair! It was their birthday! “Wait… does she know you can talk?” Had their parents been gaslighting them this whole time??
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:42 am
“Of course I can talk,” Lucasta said, as if this were a matter of course and should come as no surprise.
Keeping her silence around them, meowing and mewling like some common house cat, had not been easy over the years, but Paris insisted and Lucasta understood the necessity. Children could not always be trusted to keep secrets.
Somehow, they would have to keep it now.
“Not telling your mother is hardly an option,” Lucasta replied. “She’ll never forgive me for this as it is.”
Momentarily stunned, the youma nonetheless began to heave, hooves scrambling in the mulch as it attempted to right itself. Lucasta made a noise of discontent. The radiant call of an unawakened starseed was like a beacon. The youma craved it, and would stop at nothing to get it.
Later, Lucasta would insist she had no choice, and, even if she did, she would’ve done the same regardless. The children were safer with power at their disposal than they were without it.
“Abigail.” She flung a pen up the slide — mint green and sparkling. It landed with a clatter at Abby’s feet. “Use that to unlock your power. There’s no need for an incantation. You need only accept it and draw it forward.”
The name nudged at the edge of her memory, familiar, like something long forgotten.
“Eupheme.”------------ Henry stared with wide eyes.
Lucasta could talk. A part of him thought, yes, that makes sense. He had flashes of memory from early childhood, when he was two, or three, before he was old enough to question the oddity of things — memories of a voice that sounded like hers, talking to Mom in the yard. Sometimes, Henry dreamed of a different place, a faraway home, where the broad, cloudy face of another world hung in the blue sky instead of the sun.
He looked down at the pen Lucasta threw at Abby’s feet. He bent to pick it up for her, looking it over for any explanation for what its power was. He felt nothing, sensed nothing. It was just a pen with a strange symbol.
Wonderstruck, Henry passed it to his sister.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:43 am
Abby stared in surprise when Lucasta somehow had a strange looking pen with her. Where was she carrying it? But what she was saying was even stranger. What power? She didn’t need an incantation? What was Eupheme?
When Henry picked it up, she continued to hold onto his hand, but he didn’t seem as though he thought it was dangerous, so when he passed it over, she took it --
And then she could feel it. Like a pulse inside of her. Something was there… She was Eupheme.
Suddenly, she wasn’t wearing her school outfit anymore. Instead she was wearing mint green and some mulberry pink and. Oh. She felt the power too.
“Wait here,” she said to her brother and jumped down from the top of the slide. Somehow she knew she would have been able to land without hurting herself. She also knew that the weird pig creature would keep trying to hurt them if she did nothing to stop it.
Instinctively, she drew out whatever magic she had and when she was close enough, she kicked the pig like it was a soccer ball, sending it flying into the trees.
“Where’s Henry’s magic pen?” she asked breathlessly, excitedly. She absolutely wanted to run around with her brother and learn all about magic.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:46 am
Lucasta had every intention of teaching Eupheme all about magic — just as soon as the youma was dealt with. Eupheme’s well placed kick might have sent it crashing into the trees, but after rolling about and roaring its discontent, it was righting itself again.
“There is no pen for Henry,” Lucasta said. “His starseed isn’t on the verge of awakening.”
As far as she could tell, Henry was a normal boy. Coming from his family, one might expect that there would be power in him, but if there was, Lucasta couldn’t sense it yet.
She could, however, sense that this fact displeased the children.
“There’s no time. We can discuss that later,” Lucasta continued. “That creature is a youma. It craves starseeds, the source of life. It will continue to attack until it has weakened and turned to dust.”
The youma charged at them, its furious screech echoing through the autumn air. Lucasta dodged a swipe of its tusks and came at it from the side, dragging her claws through its flesh.------------ Up on the slide, Henry watched his sister become magic. He watched her jump from the slide and kick the monster pig. He watched the pig smack into a tree, then get up for another charge.
He heard Lucasta’s brief explanation — monsters and magical seeds — but the only part of it he could focus on was that he was not magic. He couldn’t protect his sister. He couldn’t even protect himself, really. Not from a pig that wasn’t even a pig at all. There was no sparkling pen for him. No power. If not for the fact that he was there with Abby, he had a feeling he never would have known about this at all.
He hadn’t missed that Lucasta hadn’t answered one of Abby’s questions. Does mommy know you can talk?
Lucasta didn’t answer because the answer was yes. Mom knew about Lucasta. Mom knew about magic. Mom knew about everything, and she hadn’t told them.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:46 am
That answer was unacceptable.
“Why not??” she gasped in disbelief and stomped her foot on the ground to announce her displeasure with the answer. “He’s amazing. You know we both practice really hard -- is this why mommy and daddy made us take martial arts? Because they knew about all this?”
A glance over to where Henry was pretty much answered her question. She could see the sunken expression and disappointment in his eyes and knew that they’d been left in the dark on all of this.
It wasn’t fair. Why was she magical and Henry wasn’t? Why couldn’t he also have a pretty outfit and magic?
Tears filled her eyes as she turned to face the youma again, but not in enough time to get away from it completely. While Lucasta dragged her claws across it, it reared back and squealed in rage, tossing its head from side to side in pain.
One of its tusks caught Eupheme’s ankle and she cried out in pain as she toppled backwards over one of the balance beams in her attempt to back away.
“Henry!” she cried in distress as she held tightly to her ankle and tried to push herself away, scared of this creature and upset with their parents.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:48 am
“Eupheme!”
This was why, despite the fact that she thought it necessary for their own protection, Lucasta didn’t exactly enjoy awakening children. They were emotional, and too easily distracted. War wasn’t really the place for them, but with a starseed that bright, what other choice did she have?
She put herself between Eupheme and the youma, cutting off its next charge with a snap of her teeth at one of its ankles. It howled again and thrashed violently, tossing her several feet into the air. Lucasta landed in the mulch — on her feet, but disoriented, and too far away to stop the youma’s next approach.------------ “Abby!”
Henry didn’t care that she was magic. He didn’t care that Lucasta called her something different. She was Abby, his sister, and she was hurt. That vicious, ugly pig was going to gouge her with its tusks or toss her to the side like it did to Lucasta, only Abby wasn’t a magic cat and might not land on her feet. She was already hurt. Henry was pretty sure he saw blood.
He lurched down the slide without thinking. His feet struck the pig at the end of it, sending it skidding away — but not far. Henry had only just crouched beside Abby when it returned, snarling at them.
Lucasta shouted again. Henry saw her scampering back over, but she was too far away. The pig was practically on top of them. It was going to bite them, or take Abby’s magic seed, or drag them away, never to be seen again.------------ From the direction of the trees, Eupheme and Lucasta would sense a sudden burst of power — larger and brighter than anything else they could sense in the area. In comparison, the youma’s dark, sickly aura would seem feeble.
Then, a disk of light, soaring through the air from the same direction. It struck the youma with both surety and finality. The youma screamed in pain, then burst unceremoniously into dust. A cool breeze carried it away, leaving the park almost silent, except for a sniffle from Henry and Lucasta’s rapid approach through the mulch.
A figure stepped out from the tree line — dressed all in white at first, then, with a flash of light and a shrinking aura, her white gown was replaced by an outfit of red with black ruffles.
Ganymede wasted no time making her way to the children. She dropped to her knees in front of them, eyes full of terror, anger, and sadness.
“It’s okay,” she said. “The youma’s gone. You’re safe.”
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