Disclaimer: Again I do NOT own anything Twilight or Harry Potter unless you count the fact that I have a copy of each book. LOL. We only own the Guardians, birds, and Bridget Evans, Abigail Evans, Mara Potter, Melissa Swan, Kathleen Evans, Cindy Hale, and Tonya Lupin.
Ch. 2-Arrival
Alice's P.O.V.
It was morning on the day of everyone's arrival and the whole household was buzzing with excitement. All of our visitors would be arriving after lunch in the royal couches we had sent to the dock with a picnic lunch to feed them. Mother had told us a week ago and Edward and I had been counting the seconds to when they would all arrive. I had helped our housekeeper, Caroline, put the finishing touches on all the girls' rooms that were on the side of the third floor hall mine was on and Edward was making sure the training grounds were in good order after checking the boys' rooms that were across the hall.
Now, Mom and I were in my room getting ready. I had already helped Mom into a forest green dress that had gold cording at the neck and waist and gold ivy designs on the hem, it also had a scooped neckline and gold cording at the elbows where the cotton material ended and the same green in a silk material with ivy designs embroidered like the ones on the hem started and belled out around her hands. She had slipped on gold silk slippers and was now sitting at my vanity while I was finishing up her hair which I had done starting in two princess braids then meeting and becoming one thick braid all the way to her waist.
"There," I said with a flourish having finished wrapping the end in a gold ribbon but leaving a tail a few inches long.
"I look beautiful, dear. Thank you." Mom replied giving me a kiss on the cheek before grabbing my hand and leading me to my bed where my own dress was laid out.
"Now to get you ready," she said while helping me unfasten the back of the cotton dress I had put on to help Caroline.
She unfastened the back of the dress and gently eased it to the floor so I could step out of it, then she got the other dress and slipped it over my head and after my arms slipped into the tight black velvet sleeves she let the skirt fall gracefully to the floor. She quickly fastened the back and tied the corset while I lifted the skirts to slip my purple silk slippers onto my tiny, pale feet. Mother then lead me to the vanity and sat me down before pulling my long, raven black colored hair into a braid that started at the nape of my neck and ended at my waist wrapped with a purple ribbon. I stood up and headed towards my mirror while carefully flipping my braid so it fell down my front instead of trailing down my back. My dress was of a thin black velvet that had long tight, sleeves that ended in points at the base of my middle fingers where they were attached to two silver bands one for each hand. It had a square neckline and under the lacing of the fake corset there was purple silk with silver ivy designs that matched the fabric that started at a point under two folds of velvet at my waist and flared until it hit the floor and covered the whole width of the front, it was lined with silver cording like that of Mother's gold.
"Beautiful," Mother said from behind me as she rested her hands on the shoulders of my five foot, pale, slender frame.
"Thank-,"I started but was interrupted by my brother's signature three sharp knocks.
"Come in!" I said and in stepped Edward with a huge smile.
All he said was, "There happens to be three carriages charging down the drive," before all three of us tore out of my room and down the stairs, Mother and I both squealing like over-excited school girls.
Father met us down stairs with a grin and one of the guards opened the door to let us walk outside just as the first carriage stopped and the driver jumped down to open the door. Out stepped all of Mother's school friends whom she greeted with warm hugs. The other two carriages had arrived and the one containing the luggage was starting up the drive. The doors were opened and all the guys stepped out of the second carriage wearing brown or black breeches with black boots and loose white shirts similar to what Edward and Father were wearing. All the girls then stepped out with the help of their brothers except for the last three who received no help so I assumed they were the Irish sisters who hardly ever traveled out of their native country.
The first one stepped out wearing a green dress, she had fiery red hair and sparkling emerald green eyes and was followed by a very large lion, the second quickly followed in a light purple dress this one had blue-green eyes and hair a color red so light you would think she was a strawberry blonde, she was followed by a bobcat the size of her sisters lion, but it was the last sister that caught everyone's attention. Her mountain lion stepped out first and then she lithely leaped out ignoring the steps all together, to land gracefully in a crouch by her Guardian's head, she had auburn colored hair and dark forest green eyes, she was wearing black leggings under knee high polished black leather boots, as she stood up the sunlight caught on something at her waist; a silver sword in a black leather sheath that hung on the side of her right leg and was attached to a low slung black leather belt, and from the gasps from all the girls except her sisters I assumed they had no idea she had it with her. But what caught my attention was her top I had never seen the likes before. It had a neckline cut a little lower that a turtle neck and had a Chinese styled buttons at the neck and two other leading to her left side, it had tight long sleeves, the main color was crimson with silver cording on the hems and ivy designs in silver threading, I also noticed cording on the side and when she turned to her Guardian I noticed why. The dress had slits all the way up to her waist and you could see her leggings as well as a dagger at least five inches long strapped to her left side. By this time the carriage full of luggage was here.
The girl turned to Carlisle and held out a hand," My names Abigail and these are my sisters, Lily and Bridget," she introduced pointing to the red head, Lily, and the strawberry blonde, Bridget. "Would you mind if I went ahead and took my luggage to my room I need to unpack and make sure my horse, Aiden, has settled in okay?" She said turning back to Carlisle.
"That would be fine but we cold always have them brought up for you so you can go to your horse." Dad answered.
"Its fine I only have two large trunks and a smaller one full of my training gear and it would be faster if I took them up and unpacked them now," she said pausing.
"Whoa wait a minute! Did you just say you only brought two trunks of clothes?" I exclaimed shocked and I saw her mom and sisters nodding sheepishly while the other girls and I looked at her with dropped jaws.
"Yes I did. I have one full of traditional dresses and a ball gown my mom made me pack and another full of riding and training clothes, capes, and outfits like the one I'm wearing as well as shoes. The small trunk contains my archery equipment, broadsword, a sword like the one I'm wearing as well as a couple of throwing daggers and leather guards for when I practice hand-to-hand combat. Oh, and I brought a bag of books." She said confidently but her eyes darted nervously like she thought that was too much.
"Are you serious? For a trip like this I would have brought at least four trunks of clothing." I exclaimed still shocked.
"No, actually he's Sirius and I'm Abby." She said pointing to a tall, tan boy with long, black hair, and they both started laughing.
"Very funny Abby, very funny," he said.
She just laughed and went to grab the trunk full of weapons. Edward started to help her but she just shook her head. She took the trunk and Mom led her to her room. A few minutes later and everyone had been introduced and were chatting and then the guys grabbed one of their two trunks each, Edward grabbing one of Abigail's larger ones, and headed upstairs with them while servants took the girls' up to their rooms. When the boys came back down Abigail was with them and they were are all joking and laughing. They all grabbed the last of their trunks and Edward ended up carrying the bags full of books that each of the boys and Abigail had brought. I watched in amazement as Abigail grabbed her other trunk and even though it was as big as her she hefted the weight easily. After they went in we all followed and went into the sitting room while everyone else went upstairs.
Abigail's P.O.V.
After I had put all my trunks in my room, with a little help from Edward, and had the last one full of clothes almost all the way unpacked there was a knock on my door. I told whoever it was to come in and in stepped Emmett who was staying in the room across the hall from mine.
"Hey Abigail, all the guys are going to the training grounds want to come? We leave in fifteen minutes so you have time to change." He said, he had come from Scotland with his sister Bella who was a little clumsy and liked to go by Bella.
"Okay I really need to finish unpacking this and get my training stuff to the shed as well as letting Simmi, my bird, out to hunt. I'll also need to change into something more comfy for working on my hand-to-hand combat in." I replied while opening the trunk overflowing with gear for him to see.
"Okay. Well do you need help packing because I'm done as well as Remus, the blonde from Italy that came with Sirius, so we're kind of bored waiting for the others to finish and change. We could take your stuff to where ours is," he said looking hopeful to have something to do.
"Sure why not bring Remus in here and get started on the trunk, bring Edward too if he wants to come. I'm going to change after I hang this last dress up." I said holding up the slightly wrinkled silver ball gown.
When I turned around from hanging it in the wardrobe Emmett was gone so I took a set of training clothes out of the dresser I had put them in and grabbed a different, more scuffed up pair of boots from the bottom of the wardrobe. I turned back around to see Emmett was back with another boy who I assumed was Remus and Edward. Remus was quite tall about 6'2" and easily dwarfed my small 5'1" frame as did Edward who was around 6' tall, though as Edward had bronze hair Remus' was sandy blonde but both were equally messy yet somehow still looked good. Remus' clothes were loose but you could still see his well muscled athletic frame, Edward was built more like a runner and his clothes were also loose but a little less rumpled looking since he hadn't done any traveling in them. They were both dwarfed by Emmet though who stood at 6'5" and was very, very muscular but though his size might scare you he was a very sweet and gentle natured guy, almost like a teddy bear but he told far better jokes.
I grabbed my twin swords and put them on the bed where Nicias was lounging, along with their sheaths and I put my dagger on my night stand, "Guys I'm going to go change leave the stuff not in the trunk alone I'll deal with it when I'm done feel free to try any of the weapons you like when we get outside, also leave the leather guards and chain mail in there I packed them just in case but I'll keep them in here."
With that I turned and walked into my bathroom shutting and locking the door behind me. I had picked a loose fitting, billowy long sleeved red top that had ties at the elbows and the scooped neck, I had also grabbed tight black breeches, thigh high heeled black leather boots, and a mini corset that went around my waist and over my clothes like a belt. I changed then pulled my long auburn hair into a low ponytail so it trailed down to my waist. I unlocked the door and went into my room where the guys were chatting the other three guys had finished and they were also in my room.
"Hey Abigail, we didn't know if there was anything else you wanted us to do so we just waited here plus your Guardian went to one of your sister's rooms and when we tried to walk out he growled at us so we just decided to stay here." Emmett said from the chair that was in the corner of my room near my bed.
"Guys first call me Abby, Abigail is too formal. Second Nicias probably went to check on the others real quick but he doesn't like to leave me alone when he leaves that's why he growled when you tried to leave. And third there is nothing else for you to take down but everyone have a seat it's going to be a minute." I said reaching for the swords on my bed.
"Okay, I call bed," Sirius said running and jumping to land on my bed lined up with my pillows, James and Remus soon joined him.
"Okay then," I said laughing and turned to see Nicias walking through the door.
I watched him walk over to my wardrobe while I strapped the swords in an 'x' on my back and walked over to my night stand to grab my dagger. Nicias had reached the wardrobe and was pulling one of the doors open my the iron ring with his mouth, I strapped the dagger to where it was hidden under the fold that was at the top of my boots, Nicias had found what he wanted and pulled it out of the wardrobe and brought it over to the trunk where I was headed. I knelt down in front of the trunk that used to house all my gear and reached into the hidden pocket at the top. The guys were laughing at something and I found out when I turned to look at what Nicias had brought me, a thin, long black, hooded cape.
"Someone's Guardian is a little over-protective," Emmett said while petting the head of his own Guardian, a Doberman I didn't know the name of.
"Oh would you hush. Nicias knows I get cold easily plus it helps hide more of the swords so I'm less likely to freak Mom, Brie, or Lily out, they hate it when I wear any kind of weapon in the house though I don't know why. Dad's gone a lot during the summer so someone has to protect them," I said finding what I wanted in the pocket and pulling it out," it definitely wouldn't be Brie she likes to make peace and talk things out and Lily does a little bit of both depending on what the fighting's about." I said while putting on the two black leather bracelets, I picked my throwing stars off the floor near my knee and slipped one in the fold of each bracelet.
"I'm done," I said standing up and putting the cape on.
"Let's get out of here then," said Edward leading the way out to the hallway and heading towards the stairs while everyone followed with their Guardians chatting.
We reached the area where the guys had dumped all their things and Nicias nudged Remus out of the way and grabbed my quiver which held two dozen red feathered arrows and my small bow while I grabbed my broad sword that was in it's sheath and put it around my waist buckling the belt it was attached to. I then grabbed my long bow and slung that over my shoulder before grabbing the quiver out of Nicias' mouth. I was done and the others finished quickly thereafter, we continued to head down the hallway and I tried to get my ponytail to come out from under the cape but it wouldn't.
"Can I help with that," Remus asked coming up behind and easily slipping my hair up before letting it fall down my back over the cape.
"Thank you," I said smiling appreciatively
We were about half way down the hallway when Nicias nudged me gently since he knew he could easily knock me over considering his shoulders came to a little above my waist. He made a slight motion with his tail that I recognized from when I would go hunting with him. He broke into a fast trot when I nodded my head; the guys were watching the exchange between us but had no idea what it meant. When he was a few yards ahead I burst into a sprint and leaped when I was about a foot behind him to land straddled on his back, we were still a few feet from the stairs. I folded my legs to follow the lines of his body and nudged him wrapping my arms around his neck so he knew I was secure. When we reached the stairs there was no hesitation as he leaped causing us to fly past the stairs and land on the next landing. The guys had started running as soon as he leaped and now looked down at us from the top of the stairs, I waved and then Nicias took off again the boys following close behind. Nicias got playful though and would wait on the next landing until Edward, who was ahead of the rest, reached the third step from the bottom and then he leaped to the next landing.
When we reached the ground floor Nicias tore off down the hallway at full speed racing towards the doors that led outside with me still safely on his back. He stopped at the door and laid down so I could get off and open the door. I swung my leg over his back then stood up, by this time the boys Guardians had reached us, I took a step towards the door and Nicias stood up. I hadn't taken more than one more step when I was picked up from behind and swung around.
I looked down to see two very muscular arms wrapped around my waist and knew who it was. "Emmett! Put me down!" when the spinning continued I screeched, "Emmett! Put! Me! Down!"
He finally put me on my own two feet but I swayed dizzy from all the spinning. Nicias was right next to me so I leaned on him then I realized all the guys were here and had seen that little scene which caused me to blush slightly. Oh, how I couldn't wait to get revenge on Emmett for this.
I hope you guys liked the chapter. I would love to hear from you guys or get a few reviews to tell me that some people appreciate the story. Thanks.