Drawing
Ben, Gwen, Senri, and Andy were sitting at the end of a dock while Husky and Amaya were deep below the water's surface and Cooro, Nana, and Sally were flying around over their heads.
"What do you think we should do with them?" Gwen said to Ben.
"What do you mean?" Ben said.
"Well, what if they can't stay with us?" Gwen explained.
"We can't just leave them here. I'm sure that we'll figure something out." Ben told her as he turned to see that she was staring at him wide eyed, "What?"
"It's just, I never expected to hear you say anything mature." Gwen said.
"Whatever." Ben said as he turned away from Gwen and noticed that Andy scribbling on an odd looking notepad, he leaned in to get a closer look, "What're you doing?"
She looked at him and smiled, she then allowed him to look at what she had been working on, "Ben and Gwen." She said.
He looked to see that she was drawing him and his cousin, "Wow, that's cool!"
"What's cool?" Sally said as she gently landed behind Ben.
"Andy drew a picture with me and Gwen in it!" Ben said as Gwen leaned in looking at the picture.
"Really? That was fast." Husky said as he got himself partly up onto the dock and rested his chin onto his crossed arms.
"What are you talking about?" Gwen said confused.
"Well, Andy only draws pictures of people that she feels she can trust and wants to remember." Sally said.
"And it usually takes at least three days for her to fully trust someone." Husky said.
"So, other than you guys, who does she trust?" Gwen said.
"Mainly other +anima, but, she trusts very few people that are not +anima." Sally said as she sat down next to Ben.
"She must see something in you two." Amaya said breaking to the surface, "It must be—"
"Guys! Someone's coming!" Nana said as she and Cooro flew down to the dock.
"It's probably our Grandfather." Gwen said.
"Grandfather? You mean you guys aren't here by yourselves?" Amaya said confused.
"I could have told ya that there was another one here." Andy said.
Ben and Gwen stared at her, "You talk?"
"Why didn't you say anything about that before?" Nana asked Andy.
"You didn't ask." Andy said simply.
Then, Grandpa Max appeared from the woods carrying an axe in one hand and firewood in the other. Nana was about to let out a supersonic screech when Cooro and Amaya covered her mouth. Andy herself looked like she wanted to rip Ben and Gwen's Grandfather to shreds, but she managed to keep herself controlled enough to not do so.
"Ben, Gwen I'm back." He said when he suddenly noticed the seven extra kids with his grandchildren.
"Hey Grandpa." Ben said, "You won't believe what happened."
Everyone was sitting at the picnic table, except for Andy and Senri who were sitting on the ground both dozing off in their own little world. Both Ben and Gwen did their best to explain to their Grandfather how the +anima came there.
"So, there was this odd anomaly that appeared and these kids were thrown from it?" Max asked Ben and Gwen.
"Yeah, that about sums it up." Gwen said, "But we still have no idea where they came from."
"We already told you, we are from Astaria." Husky said stubbornly.
"…I know I suck at geography, but I don't think Astaria exists…..does it?" Ben said looking at his cousin for clarity.
"Not that I know of." Gwen said.
"Well, it doesn't seem like they're from another dimension, so I'm thinking that they're from another time period." Max said.
"That makes sense…sort of." Ben grumbled.
"But, which time period did they come from?" Gwen said.
"Why do you care?" Amaya said sourly, "It won't make any difference whether you know or not."
"What's your problem?" Gwen said.
Amaya got up and hovered over Gwen, "My problem is that I've been it way too many situations where people ask me too many frickin' questions and I end up being a damn lab rat! In fact, I've spent too much of my childhood in research faculties with scientists all saying they just want to help but they really just want to—"
"Stop it, Amaya!" Nana yelled at her sister.
Amaya looked expressionlessly at Nana before walking off into the woods.
"Sorry about her, we'll be right back." Nana said grabbing Cooro and heading off after Amaya.
"Geez, what was that about?" Ben said.
"You have to understand that, where we came from, people treated +anima very cruelly. Some are treated kindly, like slaves, or, in Amaya's case, like science experiments." Sally said starting to look sad, "Being a +anima is a gift, but others can see it as a curse."
"We all have had some things that messed us up pretty badly, but Amaya got the worst of it." Husky said.
"What happened to her?" Gwen asked.
"I'm afraid that's something that you'll have to ask her about." Sally said.
Amaya stormed off deep into the woods with her siblings trying to catch up to her.
"Amaya, please stop!" Cooro said.
"Please just talk to us!" Nana said.
She finally listened to her brother and sister and stopped. Once they caught up to her, she turned to face them.
"What is it?" Amaya said in her usual monotone voice.
"Why did you freak out like that?" Nana said concerned for her oldest sibling.
Amaya shrugged, "Guess old habits die hard."
"But that doesn't explain why you yelled at Gwen. I thought you only did that to adults?" Cooro said.
"I don't know. She just sounded so much like them." Amaya said placing a hand on her forehead.
"Amaya, you know you don't have to worry about them anymore. You have us." Nana said as she walked up closer to Amaya.
"That's right, you have nothing to fear anymore as long as we're together." Cooro said doing the same thing Nana did.
Amaya gave them a small smile as she pulled them into her embrace.
"Aww, isn't that sweet!" said a sudden female voice said as she flew down towards the three.
To be continued…
Just so you know, so far, the only characters I own are Amaya, Andy, and Sally. And yes, I went so far as to make Cooro and Nana half-siblings! Sorry Nana/Cooro fans, this is my fic and they're related!
3 RayWolf;P
