--Rhian Monk and the Call of the Dragon--
-Deception-

"Why didn't you tell me before?" the woman hissed softly, her eyes showing far more anger than the level of her voice revealed. The baby in her arms had just fallen asleep and she wasn't going to spend another couple of hours trying to lull her back again if she woke up. Enough had been lost on his account. A newborn baby needn't be sleep-deprived as well. "Will she end up like one of you, too? I want my child to live a normal life. And what you just did was definitely not normal..."

He knew telling her what he was this abruptly was a mistake he'd regret, and yet it was somewhat a relief to have the secret of five years off his chest. A marriage filled with secrets would go no where. Eventually the other would guess their spouse was hiding something from them, whether it be identity, relationship, they would question the love they'd sworn to on the happiest day of their life. Perhaps it had been a mistake for Calder to marry a Muggle in the first place, and even more of one to show her magic on the very day he told her he was a Wizard, and to tell her the day their first child was born... well, others had timed it better. But his job being what it was, and now with two people he loved more than anything in the world, his wife had to be warned. The story would be spilled in eleven years any way. "Look, Gwen, I'm not saying it isn't possible. That's why I thought I'd tell you today. There is a slight chance Rhi might become a witch and have to go to a different school than the one you send her to..." He didn't mention that there was even a smaller chance their daughter wouldn't be accepted into Hogwarts. "But honey, you must understand, wizardry is being used for good all over the globe. It is an honor to become one of the magical world."

"I want you to swear to me," Gwendolyn said, "that you won't ever tell her of this... magic... not until she's ready to hear. Or she gets accepted to this - this school for wizardry or whatever. Please? And don't make objects fly around a room with her in it." This last sentence was followed by an apprehensive glance to her baby's pacifier on the ground which had, moments ago, hovered a few feet in the air. "And don't take that stick -- er, wand -- out when she's around."

Calder knew it was not a good idea to leave knowledge of magical powers to a later date than necessary, but... "I promise."

"Good," Gwendolyn said, as if such a promise prevented her daughter from ever becoming different from others. There was no way she could go to Head -- no, Hogwarts if she knew nothing about it! The tired mother sank down into a chair, her mind exhausted from the day's events.

Little did she know a quill was scurrying across a piece of parchment, writing one name down after another without stopping. Had someone been standing there watching it they could have deciphered these words just before the page turned of its own accord: Rhiannon Kabira Monk -- March 13, 1990.

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"Mummy, where we going?" Rhian asked for the fiftieth time that day. She still hadn't gotten a straight answer that she could understand. She didn't know why her mother was packing so quickly when she should be at work. She didn't know why her father wasn't there as well. She didn't know why she and her brother were being packed into a car with a bunch of suitcases. And she didn't know why she couldn't take her hamster who she had recently renamed Queen for its odd change of color. Why had her mother laid a note on Queen's cage and left it on the kitchen table, when she had so many times scolded Rhian for putting her animal where the family ate? No matter how many questions the five year old asked in their many variations her mum would just say "Because," or, "We're going to meet some relatives." But even a child as young as she could recognize deceit when she met with it. All Rhian knew was that she'd been awoken by yelling again last night, and then she heard Patch crying before everything quieted down again. And yesterday was the day she'd made Queen change colors. Was that the reason for all the strangeness today?

Rhian didn't see what the big deal was. She'd made her hamster change different colors before, but none as vibrant as the poor creature's most recent change in image. It was amazing to her, being able to make her pet a little more interesting by will. Of course, it wasn't entirely by will. There was one thing she always had to have for any of these changes to work: the stick her father always carried around. It had become steadily harder to use the stick ever sense the girl had noticed it poking out of her father's back pocket when she could just barely talk. She'd asked him what it was for and he had hastily put it out of sight. He said never to ask about it when her mother was around... that was another thing she didn't understand. Maybe her parents thought her too simple minded and young to let answers bother her. Maybe they wanted her to imagine their answers and broaden her creative side. But Rhian longed facts and gobbled up any bit of information she could get her hands on to be remembered at a later date when something important crept up. Now was a time she desperately wished for knowledge of the situation and she was denied it.

"Why isn't daddy coming with us?" Again her question was ignored. Her stupid brother wouldn't even back her up... Patch was sound asleep in his car seat, dreams taking him far from his worries and questions. Why was it always so difficult for him to stay awake during daylight hours?

"Hon, don't worry about anything. I brought you a bag full of your favorite books. Can you please just be quiet and let me drive? I'll explain everything when we get there," Gwen said as they exited their driveway. That was a slightly more satisfactory answer for Rhian, so she settled down in her seat and found the bag her mother had mentioned. Disappointingly, it held kid's books, things that would interest her two year old brother, but none of her current favorites which were longer than these and had fewer pictures. Had her mother forgotten she'd moved on to chapter books the previous month?

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"Where are you going, mummy?" Rhian asked worriedly. What was this place? Why were they here? Why had it taken so long to get here? Why was their mother leaving them?

They had arrived at an old apartment complex made up of large, dingy, brick-walled buildings that had anything but a friendly air about them. A large factory in the distance created a light smog that obscured the setting sun, making it look more like a monster than the beautiful thing it was. The little grass that wasn't eaten away by the vast parking lot was brown and dry and felt like needles sticking into your skin if you walked on it barefoot. Rhian, used to fresh green vegetation surrounding her, was a bit downhearted to find this nature just... well... wrong. What should be green shouldn't be brown. It wasn't right! She became even more frightened of this new place when they walked into a small, bare room with undecorated cement walls and it was so freezing Rhian almost turned around to go back to the heat of her mother's car. But Gwendolyn Monk had other plans. She put her and her children's' luggage in this room and left them with a kindly lady across the hall.

"I'm just going out for a bit," the fair-haired woman said. "I need to pick some... ah... papers up for daddy."

"If that's all you were going to do why did we have to go so far away?" A flustered Rhian asked. But her mother was already briskly heading towards the stairs and didn't seem to hear. Yet even though very few of her questions had been answered, Rhian knew with the intuitiveness only a child could muster that she wasn't going to see her father again for a very, very, very long time.

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Sorry this chapter is a bit action-less, but it's basically just introducing the main character's history and the special situation she's been brought up in. Her father was a wizard, if you didn't get that, and her mother doesn't exactly love the thought of being married to someone who she thinks could destroy her, but she didn't want to live alone with a little baby either. She doesn't think her daughter will be magical until Rhian used her father's wand and turned her hamster the colors and pattern of the British flag. Rhian's mother then leaves her father, taking five- year-old Rhian and her two-year-old brother Patch (nickname for Peter) to their new home while she files for divorce. Quite a tragic thing to happen so young in life, really... Well stick with me! The other chapters are much more interesting, believe me.