"...You're not my actual mother...?" the young girl whispered incredulously, eyes going wide. Panic suddenly flashed in those sky blue eyes.
It was silent for a few seconds before she threw her hands into the air dramatically. "How is that even possible-?!" she screeched, tearing at her long hair.
A kick to her head silenced her as she toppled into the floor rather pitifully. Steam seemed to sizzle from the head wound. In front of her, another girl seemingly aged no older than twenty, was smiling rather irritably.
"Adoption, brat. The answer's adoption." she answered smoothly, fishing out a cigarette and lighting it before placing it on her cherry red lips.
The named brat suddenly crawled to her knees, eye twitching, "I was adopted?!" she hissed. A tick appeared by the older girl's eye before she stomped her foot into her daughter's thick skull.
"Yes, any more stupid questions?" she muttered, taking out her cigarette and breathing out a puff of smoke.
"Well actually-" the younger girl started, raising a finger.
"Nope." Another kick sent her daughter flying towards a wall. She smiled as she clapped her hands, and decided it was a job well done. People clearly didn't know how to 'break the news' properly if they thought this shit was hard.
A groan sounded from the opposite side of the room. "T-then, who's my actual parents...?" a weak voice called out.
The blonde girl crossed her arms as she attempted to breathe calmly, "And how the hell am I supposed to know that?" she scowled.
"You're my mother?" the raven head answered sheepishly, dusting the debris from her clothes from when she flew into the wall.
The blonde beauty smirked, "Not anymore, brat. You're free to go." she answered without missing a beat.
It was silent for about three seconds, which the young mother savored, before her ex-daughter started screaming again.
"Now you're disowning me?!" she whined loudly, looking paler than normal.
The blonde held in a laugh as she nodded, "Look at you, you're learning." she smiled, shaking her head.
This time, the fifteen year old girl really did faint, her soul seemingly seeping out of her body. Her body crashed into the ground in a big heap, long raven hair spilling around her.
"Ardelle! Aria!" a muffled voice called out from behind the door.
Ardelle groaned and massaged her forehead as she tried to ignore the old voice. She had enough problems to deal with at the moment, besides her airhead daughter. A slightly twisted smirk appeared on her lips. Well, ex-daughter she supposed.
"Ardelle! You better not be abusing your daughter again!" the old voice continued to rant, knocking harshly at the door.
Ardelle rolled her eyes before strolling to the door and opening it, stepping to the side to allow the elderly man to fall to the ground after he lost his balance.
"What is it, old man? I ain't got all day." she muttered, grimacing when she reached into her pocket and felt nothing. "Shit, I'm out."
The old man glared at her and tried to look down at her, which was rather difficult when you were less than five feet. "This is child abuse Ardelle! I never treated you this way-!" he hissed.
Ardelle shoved a gentle hand to the old man's face to keep him from throwing his fists at her, "Yes, yes, you don't need to remind me every hour. I'm not abusing her, it's training. And," she answered, jerking her thumb at Aria. "She looks rather peaceful right now, doesn't she?"
The old man openly gaped at her, "You killed her?!" he screamed shrilly.
Ardelle resisted the urge to bang her head into the nearest wall, as that would no doubt ruin her makeup. "Look at her, old man. She's alive and disowned." she muttered.
The elderly man finally seemed to be satisfied, nodding slightly. "Oh. Alive and..." he mumbled quietly to himself, and in the time he was still processing Ardelle's words, the ex-mother had sneakily escaped through the nearest window.
Something seemed to snap in the elderly man's head. "Disowned?!" he screamed loudly enough to rattle the house.
Aria snapped awake at the loud voice, immediately sitting up. "Ma'am, yes ma'am!" she robotically forced out, saluting stiffly.
The old man and Aria connected eyes for a moment before he sighed, "You poor, poor child." he mumbled, shaking his head.
Aria smiled sheepishly, "Hey grandpa." she greeted, waving a hand.
The short man continued to shake his head, "-you poor, poor child-" he continued mumbling.
"Grandpa?" Aria tried again.
"-told Ardelle she was too young, wouldn't listen-" he muttered, seemingly in his own little world.
"Have you gone senile?" Aria asked innocently.
"-running off like a, like a-"
"Grandpa, I'm still here." the young girl waved a hand directly in front of the old man's face.
"-should've stopped her, this is as much as her failure as is mine-" he sighed sagely.
Aria slowly tiptoed closer to the door backwards, "Yeah, I'm just going to...y'know..." she laughed gently, before quickly slamming the door after her and running down the trail.
Aria shook her head, "Senile, I knew it." she muttered, running off towards the marketplace.
The disowned girl examined herself. Beli in bra, check. Bandages covering right forearm for reasons unknown to her, check. Favorite black, hooded cloak and combat boots equipped, check and check.
"Aria! Have you seen Ardelle? She owes me money!" a grouchy voice called out to her.
Aria smiled bemusedly as she turned to face the man standing in front of his weaponry store. He was a tall fellow, with fierce looking dark eyes and an equally fierce glare.
"Nah sorry, just got disowned. I have no idea where she went." Aria answered with a small shrug.
The man loosened up slightly, "So, she's finally done the deed, eh? You're taking this rather calmly, aren't you now?" he smirked.
Aria laughed nervously as she waved a hand, "I got kicked three times for being surprised. I don't think I'll take any more chances." she answered seriously.
The man looked genuinely surprised as he stared at Aria, "She kicked you three times?" he whistled. Aria nodded in affirmative. He chortled, "Funny, I would've expected at least six kicks and a roundhouse to go along with it."
Aria shivered at the thought, "I'm still healing from my last injuries, Curse." Aria winced.
Curse chuckled, "From Ardelle or those pirates that tried to raid us last week?"
Aria gave him an unamused look. "From the pirates, obviously. I wouldn't be alive if I suffered two beatings from Ardelle in the same week. In fact, don't even talk about such a thing." she shivered, hugging herself as if the thought hurt.
The older man scoffed, "C'mon, man up Aria. Now that you're not Ardelle's apprentice anymore, you gotta show what you learned these past fifteen years."
Aria pouted childishly, "Curse, I just got told I was adopted and disowned in the same five minutes. I don't even have my katanas back yet." she accused, pointing a finger at the blacksmith.
Curse winked, "Now you do!" he answered, tossing two long objects at Aria at alarmingly potentially dangerous speeds.
Aria grinned as she caught the katanas, "My babies, I missed you so." she hugged them, after having tossed a bag of beli to Curse.
Curse grimaced, "I work with weapons 24/7 and even I don't love weapons that much."
The swordsman stuck her tongue at him as she weaved the katanas into her belt. "I spent my life savings on these, they deserve a little love..." she muttered,
"It was just 70,000 beli and you bought it from a creepy travelling merchant." he pointed out, shivering at the mere mention of the merchant. Those eerie green eyes continued to haunt even him, one of the 'toughest' men in the town.
Aria waved her hand, "Small facts, but the big picture is that they're the best swords you've ever handled before." she smugly pointed out.
Curse couldn't deny that, including the time he was a blacksmith on some of the bigger islands. The quality was impeccable, although its origins were questionable.
"-anyway, I'm off now!" Aria cheered, pulling a packed backpack out of seemingly nowhere.
Curse was pulled out of his thoughts when Aria started charging towards the dock, "W-Wait, Aria! Where are you going?!" he yelled.
Aria didn't turn around to face him, ferry ticket in hand. "I'm off to find my real parents!"