The Stormsender’s Daughter | Chapter XXIII - The Real World?
Chapter XXII | Chapter XXIII
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 1,412
Rise and shine, Malgrease, breakfast is ready…
Galahd’s eye twitched slightly.
Eyes fluttering open, flooded with color.
Vivid and vibrant.
The reflection of sunlight through a window blinding her.
Against familiar trinkets, their shadows passing over her face...the familiarity exhibited a warmth.
Birds chirped beyond the pane. Singing loudly and cheerfully.
A sense of relief.
Like she had been somewhere else for so long...
...and the whole time, just wanting to be home.
“Geez, you’re not up yet?”
A low gruff voice, seemingly annoyed, rung in her head, but the light shove against her back is what startled her to the real world.
“C’mon, you’re killin’ me here”. A light scoff and a chuckle followed.
Galahd turned over to view her addresser.
Her vision adjusting against the light to a familiar set of grey crystal eyes.
Her eyes...but someone else’s.
“Oh...it’s you...”.
The girl muttered annoyance in her disoriented state.
“Well, look who’s not dead. Ain’t that a shame?”
The hint of sarcasm filling her with a familiar frustration. Which was enough to get her to lift herself from her pillow.
“Now wouldja hurry up? I’m not gonna keep it warm for you all day”, the young man retorted as he made his way back to the kitchen.
“Some people have more important things to do around here. Move it or lose it, Malgrease”.
She watched as he disappeared from sight, her nose lightly scrunched at that obnoxiously familiar nickname.
With a sigh, she twisted herself off the side of her bed, bare feet against the cool wood floors.
Stretching her limbs with a yawn, she stood from her bed to make her way to breakfast.
Abruptly halting in her tracks.
A pause before taking a few steps back.
Her gaze meeting her own in the reflection of her mirror.
Grey crystal.
Like his...like they always had been...
...weren’t they?
“You’ve got 5 seconds before I eat the rest of this bacon!”
Her gaze abstracted by an eye roll.
“I’m freakin’ coming!”
She belted as she stomped out of her room.
“Sheesh!”
“Well, it’s about time”, the man smirked at the girl as she grabbed a plate. “You almost didn’t eat”.
“Well, by law you have to feed me or it’s considered child neglect”, she retorted.
Making her way to the hot food on the stove to fix her breakfast.
“Oh, so you’re a child now, huh?”, the man chuckled, mouth partially full of food. “Weren’t you the one bitching at me yesterday about being too old for a curfew?”
The girl’s cheeks lightly puffed as she glared at her sibling.
“You shouldn’t talk with your mouth full or you’ll choke”.
“Hm”, the young man smirked, “yeah, you’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“No”, Galahd admitted with a sigh as she sat across from her brother at the table, “there wouldn’t be any food. I’d have to start asking Libertus to cook for me”.
“Libertus is literally a chef at the bar”.
Nyx rose an eyebrow at the jab presented to his closest friend.
“Yeah, and he should be fired. That spaghetti nearly killed me”, the girl nit-picked as she aggressively stabbed her eggs onto her fork, “and you let him serve that to me. How could you? Your own flesh and blood!”
“Oooh, okay, here we go”, Nyx chuckled with a shake of his head, trying to enjoy his breakfast.
“What? You think this is funny?!”, the girl dramatically snapped. “Who lets their best friend serve their little sister rotten spaghetti?! That HAS to be illegal!”
“It wasn’t rotten”.
“Uh, YEAH-HUH IT WAS! I don’t know what rock YOU were born under, but on this planet, spaghetti isn’t supposed to be GREEN”.
“It was pesto”.
“It was DEE-SCUS-TING”.
“Maybe if you hadn’t let it get cold-“.
“Oh, gimme a break!”, the girl rolled her eyes at her brother’s rebuttal. “I’ve had cold spaghetti before and it was still passible for decent”.
“Maybe you just don’t like pesto”.
“MAYBE…he should just make better spaghetti”.
Nyx merely chuckled as he took a sip of his coffee.
“Well, you’re gonna have to tell him that yourself”.
The girl halted, her glare at her brother menacing.
“AH YOO EN-SAYN?!”, she shouted clearly offended by her brother’s suggestion, face full of pipping hot eggs and grits. “HY DO I ‘AVE TO-“, her angry retort halted as her food was sent flying down her windpipe.
Trying not to hack all her food on her plate, she hastily covered her mouth bringing her head down on the table, her body lightly shaking.
Nyx only gracing her with a casual smirk.
“Y’know”, he spoke up as he gently pushed a glass of orange juice toward his sister, “…you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full”.
A soft gulp followed by a heavy breath heard against the table.
“You could choke”.
Galahd lifted her watery glare to her brother whom was still enjoying his coffee with a smile, gesturing toward the glass of juice.
Her face flushed in embarrassment as she took hold of the beverage.
“Shut up”, the girl growled as she started to chug the juice for dear life, gulp after hefty gulp.
“Hey, hey, slow down, Malgrease, you’re gonna-“.
Her eyes darted open in a panic followed by a sharp hiccup and aggressive hacking.
“…choke”, Nyx finally finished his sentence before bursting into a fit of laughter at his sister’s whimpers as orange juice drooled from her mouth and spilled out of her nose.
“AUUUGGHHHH!!!!”, she groaned in agony holding onto her face and stomping her feet on the floor. “IT BURNS!!!” She shouted followed by a multitude of sneezes.
“What’s wrong with you?”, Nyx somehow was able to ask against his laughter.
“THERE’S PULP!!! IT’S IN MY NOSE!!!”, the girl screeched as she continued to sneeze. “IT TICKLES!!!”
Nyx nearly fell from his chair from how hard he was laughing.
“SHUT UP!!!”, the girl shouted as she hurled a syrup covered pancake at the man, hitting him in the face.
Growing more infuriated by how his laughter probed him not to care about sugary goo stuck in his stubble.
“WHY WOULD YOU GET THE KIND WITH PULP?!”, she angrily shouted, face still dripping with juice.
“Pulp is good for you”.
“I HATE PULP!!!”, the girl screamed, causing more coughs and sneezes.
Gaining some sort of composure, Nyx, finally attempting to be helpful stands to get her a glass of water.
“Alright, alright, just chill. I’ve got ya”.
“Asshole”, the girl mumbled as she attempted to blow all the pulp out of her nose.
“Here”, he genuinely replied as he held it in front of her, gesturing her to take a sip.
Only to be graced with red puffed cheeks.
“I’m not a baby. I can do it myself”.
“C’mon, you’ve already choked on two things already. Third time might actually kill you”, the man joked.
“Yeah, you’d like that wouldn’t you?”, the girl jokingly retorted.
“Nahh”, he replied with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t have anyone to cook for”.
The girl scrunched up her lips in an attempt to hide her smile.
“…Whatever”, she replied with a playful eyeroll as she sipped her water.
Her brother gently playing with her hair.
Grey eyes sincere.
Nurturing.
Growing red.
Like flames.
Cinders floating about the room.
Like fireflies.
The girl watched them pass between their gaze.
Watched as they floated about their home.
She reached.
Her fist clasped around it.
A flash. Like an explosion erupted in her head.
The sun was gone.
The sky black.
Engulfed in smoke.
She opened her fist to see nothing.
Her mind warped with confusion and fear.
“Nyx?”
She called to her brother…
…although there was no silence, he didn’t respond.
“Nyx?”
Turning around, she saw the flames.
Her home engulfed in red flames.
“Nyx?!”
The screams of people in her town.
The sounds and smells of lives being lost…destruction…fear…
Galahd burning.
Everything covered in red.
All she could see was red.
Red like the cinders that entered her grey eyes.
Tainting them with the red.
The flames and the pain that consumed her.
“NYYYYYYYYYX!!!!”
A sharp pain against her cheek startled the girl, whom was now coated in tears and sweat.
Hey...
Surrounded by a horrid heat.
Her eyes opened.
“WAKE UP, WILL’YA?!”
Still tainted in red, but a familiar voice, roaring with concern…a familiar signature of red.
One that in the midst of her sorrows, was full of light.
“…you?”
A sigh of relief.
“Well, look who’s not dead”, Muerlin briefly smiled, surrounded by raging flames. “Wouldn’t that be a shame?”
~
Tagging: @digitalkanvas @insomniasix @aquathemermaidstripper @glacian-apocalypse @melodiousjp
