I'm looking for a beta reader. now this is the first fanfic I've ever done on here and i have no idea how this process works exactly and i tried to find one on the beta thing but I didn't know who would be the best since almost everyone has different weaknesses and I wouldn't know who to pick. i have a lot of problems with grammar and the like and i didn't think it was that much of a problem but someone pointed it out and i don't want anyone to loose interest in the story because of something like that. to warn you I do write chapters fast so you might have to do two chapters in a week or more if i'm really in my game. um i guess that's it so private message me if you think you might want to and you may have to explain to me how things work sorry for that in advance.
Chapter 6
"Έτσι νομίζετε ότι είναι ξωτικό τσαντισμένος αρκετά ή πρέπει να μιλήσω για τη μητέρα του?" So you think that elf is pissed off enough or should I talk about his mother?
"Θα κάθονται εκεί Άρτι" They are sitting right there, Artie. They no longer trusted us to be by ourselves so we are all in the same room and you could cut the tension with a knife. And us talking in our own language didn't make things better especially when she gave them looks like she wanted to gut them alive. She was currently in a staring contest with Prince Nuada and both seemed evenly matched.
"Και το πρόβλημα είναι?Δεν μπορούν να καταλάβουν μια λέξη λέμε πόσο μάλλον να κάνει κάτι γι 'αυτό." And the problem is?They can't understand a word we say let alone do anything about it. She turned from the Prince and looked at me,"Έχετε κάποιο τρόπο την επίτευξη κανέναν είμαι άχρηστος χωρίς δύναμη μου στο εν λόγω διαμέρισμα." Do you have any way of reaching anyone I'm useless without my power in that department.
"Ίσως όμως θα έπρεπε να σώσει μια πολλή ενέργεια για να το κάνετε και από τη στιγμή που θα είχα αρκετά θα ήθελα να είναι πολύ αργά και θα πρέπει να ψάχνουν ήδη για μας." Maybe but I'd have to save up a lot of energy to do it and by the time I'd have enough it'd be too late and they would already be looking for us.
"Καλά υποθέτω ότι η καλύτερη επιλογή. Παίρνουμε σωθεί πεθαίνουν στα χέρια του ό, τι από τα ξαδέρφια μας, αποφασίζουν να στείλουν. Μπορεί επίσης να χαλαρώσουν λίγο, ενώ είμαστε εδώ." Well I guess that's the best option. We get saved they die at the hands of whichever of our cousins they decide to send. Might as well relax a bit while we're here. She picked up one of the magazines on the counter and started flipping through it.
"Oh Kim couldn't last a year with him could you?" I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about and didn't particularly care in the least. The bald man named Manning was calling someplace name 'Washington' to find out how to deal with us.
"Πόσο καιρό είναι αυτό πρόκειται να πάρει?" How long is this going to take? Artie was getting very impatient. I just shrugged and grabbed myself a magazine and smiled when I saw it was about music.
"Quiet you two." The agent named Hellboy said and Artie just glared at him and raised her middle finger. The meaning of the strange gesture was lost to me but it seemed to make him a little annoyed whatever it meant. At that point I just started to read my magazine, I finished it an two others before Manning came back.
"Ok due to certain circumstances we can't let you go." He said.
"Would one of those circumstances be that you're to stupid figure out we're a threat." Artie said and I kicked her under the table. He thankfully ignored the comment and continued.
"We here at the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense would like to extend invitations for you to join the team-" He was cut off my a collective 'What!' from the agents. This was followed by a very loud very long argument about why we should and should not be let in and how the 'guys up stairs' didn't give a 'flying fuck' what the agents wanted they wanted us alive and under control for the time being. In short I gathered we were going to be here for a while.
"Aren't they going to get a surprise." Artie didn't bother with our language since they couldn't hear us over the din."I swear you try to warn mortals about something and they do the exact opposite of what you tell them to do." After they finished we were taken to our new rooms by the Librarian from before.
"And these are your rooms. If you need something like special food or anything else tell an agent and he or she will tell me what to get you or you can ask me directly. I'm usually in the library if you ever need to find me."I thanked him and he left to do whatever it is that he does.
"I like him." I said,"He's very kind."
"Ya to bad as soon as I get my powers back I'm ripping off his head and displaying it on a spike in my front yard." I sighed and didn't bother commenting. I opened the doors to reveal a large sitting room with two doors going off into what I assumed were bedrooms. The enitre room was done in white...it was kind of disturbing. The only color came from the large floor to ceiling windows which gave us a lovely view of the lake.
"You know maybe this isn't so bad." I said while Artie jumped onto one of the couches,"This is a pretty place with a lake and its not that far from the city. I'm sure we could go out if we asked nicely."
"Oh ya right in between the experiments where they draw blood and harvest our organs."
"Don't you think you're over reacting a little bit?"
"No. No I don't." I sensed a long day and a headache in my future.
"Ok I know this isn't the most ideal situation but we'll all have to work with them." Manning was trying to calm everyone down after the girls left with John and by the looks of my brother and Red it wasn't working in the slightest.
"They'll slit our throats while we sleep. If they're to stay here we should lock them up, not allow them to walk freely through the base." Nuada said.
"This is the one time I agree with something he says." Red said while he smoked one of his cigars. It'd been going on like this for a while and it appeared to me that we'd never reach a conclusion. I had stayed quiet for most of the conversation only speaking to calm my brother a few times. Liz came to sit by me and Abe.
"Well isn't this a big mess." She said,"What do you think we should do?"
"I don't know. They don't seem to present any danger but they could be buying their time until the braclets become ineffective or these other family members start to show up." Abe grabbed my hand and continued,"In any case if we see any of them coming we should run. If those two aren't as strong as the others of their kind I shudder to think what they could do." I felt his anxiety and tried to calm him with but I felt the same way so it didn't work well but he smiled at my efforts.
"I think this could be a good thing. If we can get them to join use we'll have two more strong members and with all the attacks lately that's a good thing." Manning said.
"Oh yes two strong members that wish us dead." Nuada said to him with a scowl.
"Not necessarily." I had almost forgotten about Kraus until he spoke,"It'd be a simple matter to befriend them."
"Did you not hear the stuff they said to us while they were locked up?" Red said,"They're very creative with their ways of killing us."
"Yes I did hear those threats but they were only from one of them, Arianna or Artie which is probably her real name. The other one however didn't really say anything." Kraus said,"She is the one we need to focus on most of all."
"And then you think the other one will follow her lead?" I aksed.
"Well maybe not but she will at least be forced to be around us more. The main thing here is to be considerate of their condition. Act like you, care be kind. Nuada be kind." He said while looking at my brother.
"And why should I? They're a threat to us and we should be gathering information on whose coming to get them."
"Well I think you should at least try. I mean it should be easy since the one I'm asking you to be nice to saved you life." This silenced him but he was still angry.
"Now I think we need someone to break the ice. I was thinking maybe you two." He pointed to me and Liz.
"No way am I letting Liz anywhere near that psychopath and I doubt Nuada will let his sister go either." Red said and Nuada nodded.
"Look I know you may have reservation about this but the best possible way to gain their trust is most likely a little girl talk."
"They can go as long as we're there to protect them." Hellboy said.
"No they need to go by themselves."
"Come on Red I can handle myself and Nuala."Liz said,"And if worse come to worse you can watch on the monitors." Everyone looked a little unease but eventually we were allowed to go with the cameras watching us and my bond with Nuada to alert them if there is any trouble. We took some food with us and made our way to their rooms. The rooms were guarded by several agents with tranquilizer guns and the doors were locked from the outside. An agent unlocked the doors and wished us luck. As I stepped through the door I prepared myself for one of them to come at me but they were both sitting on the couch pointily ignoring our existance.
"Hello sorry about keeping you here-" Liz was cut off by Artie.
"Bullshit you're sorry."
"But we have food for you and we thought you'd appreciate a little company." Liz said ignoring her comment. They looked at each other and conversed in their strange language. Penelope seemed to be trying to reason with her and I think she won because Artie rolled her eyes and did a gesture that seemed to be a 'do whatever you want'.
"Put it on the table and make your interrogation quick I haven't sleep all night." She said. We set the plates on the table and sat on the couch opposite of them. There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Well?" She said. I fumbled in my mind for something to say and came up with nothing and by Liz's silence I don't think she could think of anything either. The fact Artie was staring at us like she wanted to cut us open didn't help much.
"Uh what is this?" Penelope saved us from more silence. She was looking at her plate with confusion and poking at the waffle on it.
"What's what?" Liz asked. She just pointed at it again.
"This thing with the squares on it." Liz and I looked at each other.
"That's a waffle Penelope, its food, eat it, and shut up." Artie said grabbing her own plate. She turned to us and said,"She's sheltered ignore what she says." Penelope just rolled her eyes and watched Artie to figure out how to eat it. I Looked at Liz and she just shrugged her shoulders.
"So you two haven't been in contact with humans for a long time?" Liz asked.
"Can't discuss that." Artie said around a mouthful of waffle.
"I haven't but she has." Penelope said earning a glare from her. She said something and Penelope just shrugged her shoulders. I felt like we weren't going to get anywhere anytime soon. They kept talking and glanceing at us every now and then and it appeared that Artie wanted to do something but was being talked out of it. I was tempted to contact Nuada when Liz's cellphone rang. It was some song I didn't know but it made Penelope nearly jump out of her skin. Liz answered it as Artie started laughing at Penelope.
"So is there anything we can help you with while we're here?" Liz said when she hung up.
"What's that thing?" Artie kicked her in the side.
"It's a cellphone you use it to contact people and text them."
"Text?"
"It like writing a message to someone." Liz went on explaining the concept of the phone to her and I was a little shocked about how little she knew. Even those fey folk who close themselves off from the human world have an idea of the technology there. I racked my brain for any species that would be that out of tune with the current world and couldn't think of any.
"It plays music?"
"Yes here you want to see my playlist?" Liz explained how to scan through and select certain songs. She seemed especially entranced by this feature flipping through songs completely at random. I saw an opportunity and took it.
"You know if you'd like I have several CDs you can borrow. They also play music." I said. She looked up a bit startled probably forgetting I was there.
"Uh yes I'd like that if its not a problem." I said it wasn't and nearly ran to the library to get them. As soon as I got there Johann literally threw a box full of Abe's CDs in my arms and kicked me out of the room much to the annoyance of both Nuada and Abe. I walked back to the room and set the box on the table.
"Ok here they are." I said. She took a few out and looked at them slightly confused and I guessed if she didn't know what a phone was she probably didn't know how to work these.
"Here let me teach you how to use those." Liz said and took her over to the CD player. As she was explaining the different buttons to push Artie came up to me.
"So that was pretty fast. Do you always store stuff in cardboard boxes?" A wave of panic flared up in me.
"We have a lot of them and have to store some this way and these were in the library. It's not that far away if you ever need a book." I lied quickly.
"Hmm really." Was all she said and I could tell she didn't believe me. Penelope played one of the CDs and Beethovens 9th symphony saved me from Arties next question.
"It so pretty." She said and earned a snort from her companion.
"Whatever like I said I haven't slept all night I'm going to bed." She went to the room on the right and closed the door behind her firmly signaling she didn't want company. Penelope looked at us apologeticaly.
"You'll have to excuse her she's not use to being caged up." She said,"She's just a little stir crazy."
"After one day?" Liz said. She got a shrug in reply and was ignored in favor of another classical CD this time Mozart. We left her with a promise of returning tomorrow and she seemed delighted about it.
"Well that was interesting. I saw Artie almost rip your throat out what was that about?"
"She was questioning how I got back so fast. She doesn't really trust us." I replied.
"I figured that much." She was silent for a while,"Something about Penelope is bugging me too."
"What is that?" I asked.
"I don't know but before we left I just got a wierd feeling and I don't know what it was about. She seems much nicer than Artie so I don't know what the problem is."
"Perhaps it's just her not knowing much of the world frankly that bothers me too."
"Exactly where has she been all these years not to know what a waffle is? Are there any magical beings that go into hibernation for long periods of time?"
"There are several but the length of time we're talking about is much longer than what they would usually sleep for."
"Well Artie did say she was 'sheltered' whatever that means." I just nodded and dove into my own thoughts. There was something wrong I just couldn't put my finger on it. One thing she said just kept fluttering around my mind.
She's not use to being caged up. The choice of words was interesting why wouldn't she have said some thing like 'forced to stay' or 'held against her will' even. But she said caged.
...not use to..Is she used to it?
I left that unsettling thought behind as we met with the others to discuss what had happened. But it was right there in the back of my mind the entire time. Those marks that kept them silent could that be a sign of any entrapment? No that wouldn't be it Artie didn't seem to have a problem with those.
...caged up.
the last part is my attempt at suspense...need to work on that