*For you Buttercup. I don't think it's what you wanted but after our Isabelle discussion and rereading Sanctuary this is what came to me.*
Sometimes Ugly Ducklings become Swans
The last few stars were fading from the sky, the dew still heavy on the thick jungle grass when her mother woke her. Using only hand signals, they communicated in the early morning dawn. Stepping outside, Isabelle waited for her daughter to dress. Royce smiled from the shadows. A sickly baby they didn't think would survive her first day, his youngest was the most like her mother. Thin and willowy, deadly silent when she wanted to be and an aim like he'd never seen. Had they been on Earth he had no doubt she would have followed in their footsteps, a killer of man instead of beast. Checking in on his other two children, he shuffled back to bed determined to get a few more hours sleep.
Arianna appeared silently beside her mother in the morning mist, rifle slung over her shoulder. Isabelle smiled with a nod and they headed out into the jungle. "Why are we hunting?"
"Destiny's birthday is next week. We'll need the extra meat." Her mother answered quietly. Arianna nodded in understanding. The first baby born in Sanctuary, Destiny's birthday was always a monstrous overkill in Arianna's opinion. You'd think she'd been the only one born on this backwoods planet. It was a huge family reunion held at either Aunt Carolyn's house or theirs, the two being more centrally located to all her Aunts and Uncles. At least she wouldn't be expected to babysit this year. Uncle Jason and Aunt Nicki's youngest had turned 5 just a few weeks ago. Old enough to start weapons training.
They walked in silence for a while before Isabelle looked over at her. "So, wanna tell me what happened last night?"
"What do you mean?" Arianna asked looking at her mother with her most doe eyed expression.
"Cut the crap," Isabelle demanded of her youngest daughter whose mouth quirked up at the corner.
"It all depends on how much you saw or heard." Arianna answered watching her mother's face closely.
"You and Marcus were getting awfully chummy. A little to handsie for your dad."
Arianna gasped. "You were watching us?"
"We might have been watching out the kitchen window."
Red made its way up Arianna's chest to her cheeks. "We?" she managed to choke out.
"Um hm." Isabelle hummed watching as her youngest tilted her head back blowing out a breath. Isabelle attempted to hide her smile as her daughter composed herself. She admired the passion in which Arianna felt everything. It had taken Isabelle coming to a planet and being hunted to finally let down her guard and let her emotions come out and she had become a better person for it. But however passionate her youngest was, she wasn't nearly confident enough in herself. Isabelle knew the other children teased her about her tiny stature and assumed because she was a sickly baby that she had become a sickly teenager which simply wasn't the case. And as much as she loved them, growing up with Zoey Riddick and having Carrie for a sister were not points in Ari's favor. She had always compared herself to someone else instead of recognizing her own talents.
"So, you were saying?" Isabelle prompted her youngest again.
"Big Ramona's a bitch." Ari said bluntly causing her mother's mouth to fall open.
"Arianna Nicole Royce!" her mother chastised in her accented speech. "Language!"
She watched as her daughter's forehead wrinkled and her mouth took on a frown. "She was badmouthing the Riddick kids."
Isabelle rolled her eyes. "And this is new?"
Ari had to restrain herself from stomping her foot like a child. "It was just mean! And Carrie barely tried to take up for them. She knows that Marcus likes her."
Ahh. Isabelle wondered when they'd get to the heart of it. "And does she like Marcus?"
"Don't know," Ari shrugged avoiding an especially poisonous plant as they continued to walk. "But she says he scares her and I don't get it, Mom. Marcus is so kind. He'd never hurt any of us."
Isabelle's heart fractured just a tiny bit listening to the emotion in her daughter's voice. She would tow a heavy load if that was the road she chose to travel. She had watched Carolyn travel down the same one.
"Marcus is very kind and caring," she agreed wondering how she was going to explain this to Royce. "You two were looking pretty chummy when you came in without your sister. Anything I need to know about?"
"There was a fence stalker out last night. Pretty sure he was after more than livestock. Broke some of the lights and killed Varro's cat. Had his lights on me at one point."
"Dios maldito hijo de puta" came flying out of her mother's mouth as she rounded on Ari.
"That's why he was all over me. He was making himself the target."
"But that's not all is it?" her mother asked smoothing a lank piece of her hair behind her ear.
Ari clenched her jaw trying not to cry from the remembered humiliation of it all. "No. I found out that he heard me telling Big Ramona off and I kinda went off on him."
"Well," her mother sighed, "If his actions the rest of the night are any indication, he got over it pretty fast."
Ari leaned into her mother's hand. "Yeah, he did, didn't he?" she replied with shy smile.
"Why don't we talk to Aunt Carrie about making you a new dress for the party? And maybe we can figure out something to do with this hair."
This is why Arianna loved her mother. "Thanks, Mom."
Arianna sighted in her rifle and slowed down her breathing, her finger resting gently on the trigger. Her Mother was laying silently in the brush beside her. They had been tracking a herd of deer like creatures for a few hours and finally had them in their sights. Using a series of hand gestures, a shorthand the adults in her life had developed long before she was born, the two women determined which animal she would single out. Pulling the trigger she kept her eye on her target until she saw the animal fall, frightening the rest of the herd into bolting.
"Buena niña empleo," Isabelle said getting to her feet. "You're getting better and better. Already better than your Dad."
Arianna laughed. "Don't let him hear you say that."
Isabelle ruffled her daughter's hair as they walked down to her kill.
The sound of clicking mandibles made the hair on Isabelle's neck prickle as she brought her rifle up, handing Ari a hand gun. Standing back to back they made a tight circle, Isabelle cursing a blue streak as Bob appeared in front of them.
"Good shot, better than your mother," the beady eyed creäture said through the use of his recordings. Ari snorted as she handed the gun back to her mother and dropped to her knees digging her knife into the animals neck as Isabelle continued to rail at Bob for nearly giving her a heart attack, the predators mandibles clicking menacingly in return as she used her more colorful language.
"I carry," he told the women pointing at the animal carcass laying on the ground.
"Thank you, Bob," Ari said as she touched his arm, causing him to bend his head and purr. While there was no mistaking that Zoey was his favorite, both Royce girls had spent their fair share of time being cared for by the beast.
By the time they made it back to the main road the sun was high overhead and Ari's stomach was growling. "Think Aunt Carrie has any left-over noodles?"
"Maybe. We can stop on our way home."
Marcus was in the yard chopping firewood for his mother's stove when he saw them coming down the road. Slipping his shirt back on, he met them at the gate, holding it open for them. "Nice kill." He told Isabelle as he inspected the animal thrown over Bob's shoulder.
"Not mine," she smiled as she patted Arianna on the back, before heading towards the house, the sound of Carolyn's off-key singing drifting out through the windows.
"Very nice!" he said wrapping an arm around her neck as he drug her towards the house. "How about after lunch we get it strung up and I'll teach you how to butcher it?"
Ari smiled. Someone like Carrie or Big Ramona would be outraged at the offer considering it an insult, but after spending the morning with her mother, she recognized it for the opportunity that it was.
"That would be great," she said as he let her enter the house ahead of him.