"Writer's block is when your imaginary friends won't talk to you." – (I'm not sure who it was a meme I saw)
Apologies for lack of update! I fought through my block and here is the new biggest chapter of You Can't Forgive Evil to date, (and all my other stories).
This chapter is for SilverG64, for a story favourite, reviewing and being the 30th reviewer!
SilverG64-I won't stop, just might take a while for these to get out. You'll see what happens, trust me. Tiny plot bunnies are abounding right now.
Reyanna Pov
I stayed in the baobab tree for a while, but eventually I returned to Amber's house. I needed sleep anyway.
It was quite dark out, but I just hurried along using my flying ring because my leg was still healing-It hasn't even been a week, but felt like it was taking forever to heal-and set down on the little porch of sorts. Out of habit, I just went in. Amber wouldn't mind.
Amber herself, a brunette with unusual, almost golden eyes-hence her name- was dusting the line of glass sculptures on the shelf above the pantry when I came in. She put down the duster and turned around.
"Reyanna! You've had me worried!" She exclaimed, though not very loudly. It was late, after all.
"Sorry, Amber. You know how it is…" I respond, a bit awkward at being here again. I honestly thought I'd never return to the village again, but here we are. I am. Whatever.
"Of course. I'm so glad to see you found Rythian again! And Zoeya's a wonderful young woman. Do you two get along well?" She wrapped me in a hug. Despite myself, I smile a bit.
"Of course we do, Amber." I say. She releases me from the hug.
"And how are you? The others talked about your adventures, and Rythian told me a little bit about life at… Blackrock, isn't it? But how are you? What have you learned? Who are your best friends? Maybe even a boy?" She grins.
"Amber!" I blush despite myself, and it must have been pretty good if it came over the top of my mask so she could see it. She laughs. "No, there's not a boy. I learned a lot- Rythian's amazing at alchemy."
"And friends?" She asks again.
I shrug. "We all get along pretty well, for the most part." Just saying that makes me feel horrible again. I'm not a big fan of lying. I wonder how many of them still consider me their friend after what happened earlier…
"Sweetie, you need to be more social,-"
"-You can't go down the path of life alone. You've told me a million times, Amber. I know. But we don't exactly live a party life."
Amber just sighs. "I made your bed for you. I hope you don't mind having... oh, short, dark hair- Kim, I think- sharing your room?"
"I don't mind. Kim's cool." I say, even if my thoughts were more along the lines of Thank Notch, someone else could have been a lot worse.
"Alright. Some of your friends are in the living room still, some of them are out on the balcony, and some have retired to their rooms already. No staying up too late, okay?"
"I won't, trust me. I'm pretty tired already." I say.
"Good."
I walk past the living room doorway almost immediately- because of how the two houses are connected, they share a large living room by the front doors. I can't help but glance in as I walk past.
Xephos is sitting on the couch at one end, Lomadia so close to him that she's almost sitting on his lap. It looks like it was never awkward between them at all, and Lomadia's resting her head on his chest as her fiancé plays with her messy blonde hair. Nilesy sits in a chair not far away, reading a book as his glasses slip down his nose. Near the door, Sjin and Minty are playing against Martyn and Toby in cards. No one else is in the room.
I continue down the hall, wishing I hadn't snapped at Martyn earlier, and then Sips and Rythian. Then it wouldn't be so awkward. Surely I could have convinced him calmly to not go out into the storm!
I pass the large magic room, again a room shared between the two homes, because my mother and Amber were-No, Mom had been- some of the town's potion makers. Inside, Rythian is showing Zoeya around as the redhead makes jokes. They're both laughing.
Up the stairs, past the glass doors to the balcony. Ridge is standing out there, but I slip past unnoticed. I pass a few spare rooms before entering my own, which has the door slightly open. Kim's already asleep on the bottom bunk- the first time I've actually seen someone sleep on it. I used to just pile books onto the mattress.
I don't bother to change. I just remove my ponytail, cape, rings and boots before I climb up onto the top bunk. Kim turns over in her sleep and mutters something about a cricket name Jiminy or something.
I crawl under the covers and pass out even before my head is within a foot of my pillow.
I wake up clawing at the blankets wrapped around my legs and shaking.
I don't know why. I'd guess I had another bad dream, but normally I remember my dreams. Maybe it was just stress messing with my head. Wouldn't be surprised if it was, at any rate.
My window still has the blind drawn, so I'm unsure of the time. I might regret this later, but right now I know I won't be able to go back to sleep, so I get ready for the day-getting changed, fighting my hair, etc.
I'm in the kitchen before I bother to check a clock. It's 5:32 in the morning, exactly.
I didn't think we'd traveled far enough to have time zones messing us up. I guess it was just me, because no one else was up. I decided to go outside for lack of better things to do.
I step out onto the porch, which is bathed in red light from the rising sun. The warmth feels great on my skin, soothing my sore muscles, so I rest on the railing and try to enjoy as much of it as I can.
By the time the sun's reaching over the valley edge I've heard people in the kitchen. I figure I might as well go inside.
"Oh, I didn't know you were up!" Lomadia exclaims.
"I've been up for a while." I say.
We're both quiet for a minute. Lomadia is looking around the kitchen for things, and then disappears upstairs, only to return with Minty in tow.
"Your mom won't mind if we use the kitchen, right? We'll clean up after." Minty says.
"She's not my mom," I say automatically, "But no, Amber won't mind."
"Oh. Sorry." Minty says sheepishly. That tension is there again.
"It's alright." I say, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "As long as you don't accidentally call her Mrs. Enderborn, I think you're really not too far off."
"She told us to call her Amber anyways." Lomadia said, attempting to turn on the stove. "How does this thing work?"
"Just tell it what you want it to preheat to."
"That's some fancy stuff." Minty said.
"It's actually just a simple enchantment." I say. "Most of the stuff here in the village, except the basic stuff like plumbing, is science-free. It's old-fashioned here."
"No science at all? No wonder you wanted to learn some." Lomadia says carefully, like she's afraid I'll get upset at being reminded of my failed apprenticeship to Lalna.
"It was more so my mom's stories of machines and things from when she was adventuring around Tekkit-Topia, actually. Even the magic here isn't very advanced."
"Cool. What should we cook?" Minty says.
"I brought lots of chicken eggs. We could make a big egg breakfast for everyone." Lomadia said.
"You never struck as an egg-eater, Lom." Minty joked.
"I tried not eating the eggs for a month once because Mr. Owl was a bit uncomfortable with it." The owl lover said. "The resulting overpopulation inspired the first Chickcident."
"Wait." I said. "So, there was a Chickcident at Owl Island, then at the Crooked Caber, then at Mahogany Meadows, and then in Kim's house just outside of Mahogany Meadows?"
"Yep." Minty said with a laugh.
"Alright, eggs it is. What should we do with them?" Asked Lomadia.
"I can only really do scrambled eggs, no matter how hard Zoeya's tried to teach me to cook." I say.
"What about me?" asked a sleepy voice coming down the stairs. Zoeya appeared a moment later, red hair neatly in her custom ponytail.
"That you've tried to teach me cooking." I say.
"Yeah, that's true. Sadly my awesomeness at cooking could not rub off on you." The redhead said, stifling a yawn.
"I'll make sunny-side up." Minty said.
"Zoeya, do you know how to poach eggs?" Lomadia asked.
"Lom, just because its six in the morning does not mean you can forget that I'm a vegetarian. I'll make tofu eggs." The mushroom girl complained.
"Oops, sorry. I'll make omelets then, I guess."
We just kind of set to cooking eggs for a while. We ended up trading stories about stupid stuff, like someone's great fail or bad joke.
"So, one time Xephos tried to cook me dinner for our anniversary…" Lomadia said with a giggle. "But he didn't know that I'd bought cake to celebrate. He tried making a whole meal, but the only salvageable stuff was the pie he made for desert. So we ended up just having cake and pie for supper. It was awesome-except for when he almost set the pie on fire while lighting candles."
"Lighting candles?" I asked.
"I know! Who puts candles on an anniversary cake?" Lomadia said.
"Whoa, why wasn't I invited to the girl's party?" Kim asked, coming down the stairs.
"You snooze, you lose." Minty joked. "But you can help set the table."
Pretty soon, we'd gotten all of breakfast ready.
"They sleep like logs, those guys." Kim said. "Seriously, the snoring is horrible."
"I hope I didn't snore." Amber announced, coming in through the hall.
"No, I'm pretty sure you didn't." Kim said. "You can hear it upstairs. Seriously, it's pretty loud."
"I think I'll pass." Minty said.
"You don't snore unless you have a cold, Amber." I remind her.
"You sure?" Amber teases me.
"I've slept in the room above you for ten years, Amber, I know when you snore." I reply, faking a Don't-you-sass-me tone. We all laugh.
"Let's eat. They snooze, they lose. We'll leave them some though." Kim said with a laugh.
I ended up having a mix of everything, but not much. Half an omelette, some tofu eggs, some scrambled eggs, and I split a sunny-side up with Kim, who's trying to fit it all into a giant Denver-style sandwich. Minty and Zoeya eat sunny-side up and tofu, respectively. Lomadia and Amber have some of everything, too, and make small talk. I sip orange juice and listen.
"I've never come very close to an owl, but I used to see them as a child in the village." Amber told Lomadia, who gasped a bit.
"I've always been around owls, wherever I live. Though nowadays they tend to follow me where I go." The owl lover admitted.
"You never talk of anything other than owls, Lomadia." Complained someone upstairs, coming down. A head of messy brown hair appeared.
"Wow, Toby, you are the last person I expected to be up this early." Minty laughed. "Is that why you didn't do anything with your hair?"
"Shut up, Minty. I only do my hair because Kaeyi bugs Martyn to make sure it doesn't grow its own intelligence up there before she gets back." Toby says.
"I miss Kaeyi. Do you know when she's coming by again?" Zoeya asks.
"Hopefully sometime this coming fall. We saw her at Christmas, but she wasn't around for long, just dropping in to say hi. Or suck Martyn's face. I'm still not quite sure."
"Shut up, Toby." Said aforementioned Sapling Prince, coming down the stairs. "And what did I tell you about combing your hair?"
"That I shouldn't, because it'll get messed up anyways?" Toby said 'Innocently'.
Martyn glared at Toby, then when the younger boy just continued to grin as sweetly as he could, and grabbed him and proceeded to give him a noogie by rubbing his knuckles on Toby's head. I roll my eyes.
"Stop it, bro!" The darker-haired one protested.
"Now it's messed up, so you can go comb it."
"Boys!" Minty says sharply. "I don't know when Ridge wants us to leave, so hurry up and eat."
"The others aren't up yet, though." Toby protested. Martyn went to the sink to wash his hands.
"Well they will be soon, because if not, then their food will be cold."
"Some of them were eating in the other house's kitchen." Martyn said. "Ridge, Honeydew, Lalna, Rythian, Teep."
That was when it hit me. Of course Rythian's eating in the other house.
Suddenly I was glad I'd already eaten, because otherwise I'd have to lie about why I suddenly didn't have an appetite.
"I think I'll take a quick walk around town, stretch my legs a bit before we leave." I say out loud.
"No, oh great scrambled egg maker, stay with us!" Zoeya jokes dramatically.
"I will be back." I say, attempting and probably failing at a melodramatic accent.
"Okay, but come back soon because I need to check on your leg and if it has opened up you'll regret it." The redhead adds more seriously.
"I checked it this morning, but sure." I head out the door quickly, trying to ignore the quizzical looks I'm getting as to why I'm leaving.
Note to self; Work on lying.
I end up just wandering about town, strictly avoiding the rose fields and places where I knew I wouldn't be wanted. To my surprise, they'd renovated the little elementary school to be bigger and have an actual little grassy field for sports. I ended up in the market, where little stalls where being opened up- meaning it must be Sunday, even if I hadn't been paying attention to days of the week.
"Look who came back to the village with her tail between her legs." A male voice behind me said. I took a second to place it.
"Linden." I say as calmly as I can, even if a small part of me still cringes inwardly.
Okay, a large part.
"What are you doing back, witch?" He asks with a cocky grin.
"I don't know if you noticed last night, but I'm with the group of heroes. You know, the Yogs? I'm part of it now."
"You haven't even been initiated into the League of Heroes yet. I doubt you will, if you act like you did to the blonde yesterday evening." He shoots back. I hesitate; that's a low blow. But walking away now would be weak. Reyanna, you don't argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!
"For someone who acts like you know everything about the League of Heroes, you should at least know his name."
"C'mon, dude, leave Reyanna alone!" A voice said. I jumped.
To my surprise, it was Toby and Kim. Apparently Toby was a fast eater.
Linden took one look at the angry faces- Toby, who was about half an inch shorter than me (Sometimes I hate just how freakishly tall I am!) with all his adventuring gear, sapphire sword at his side, and Kim, all five feet of ruby weapons and badass armour that was looking pretty darn pissed-and was gone like a shot.
"Thanks, guys." I say. "He's always been a real pain in the butt."
"No problem." Toby said.
"Except his. What is with him, anyway? Jerk." Kim said.
"Long story. Shouldn't waste my breath on him." I lie. They shrug.
"Ridge sent us to find you; we have to leave pretty soon. Have you got all your stuff?" Toby says.
"Actually, I left some stuff back at the house."
"Alright, well, we're all gathering back at the far end of the valley, past the fields. The walls are less steep there." Kim tells me.
Past the fields. Crap. Come on, you can do this. Don't freak, don't pay attention.
No you can't.
SHUT UP.
You're mean.
You're the evil one here.
Actually, we both are.
Shut the F*** up and get out. I have better things to do than argue with the likes of you.
You're right, because we're at the fields already.
I don't tell you how much I despise you enough.
My Enderside finally shuts up, so I follow Kim and Toby into the fields.
"You okay, Rey? You were pretty quiet for a minute there." The latter asks.
Of course I'm not, but you don't know that.
"Don't call me Rey. And yes, I'm fine. Just trying to remember something, but it wasn't very important."
"Okay."
I focus on the ground ahead of us, kicking a small rock out of the way.
Don't look at the field, don't look at the field, focus on something else.
"Reyanna, are you going to go to the high school this fall?" Kim asks me, saving me. I glance upwards at her, though it isn't much of an 'up'.
"I think so, but Rythian and I still need to figure some stuff out." I say, mentally grateful for the distraction.
"Cool. What options are you thinking of?" Toby asks.
"I haven't even looked at the list yet." I admit.
"Well, you're my age, so there's nature, advanced magic, advanced science, coding, advanced redstone, drama, music, and a few others. You pick one for the whole year and the others you only have for a term each." Toby said, listing them off his fingers.
"You forgot culture and cooking." Kim said.
"Kim, aren't you older than us?" I ask, confused.
"Options are split into two for our school, because it's so small. Grades nine and ten are one group, eleven and twelve in the other. So we could end up in the same options." The raven head explained.
"Okay, I think I get it. So what are you two picking?" I ask as we step in the front door of Amber's house.
"Reyanna, your things are on the table in the living room." Amber called out from the magic room.
"Thanks, Amber!" I call back.
"No problem." She calls back as I put it all into my bag and go back outside.
"She doesn't look like you." Kim says. Toby sends her what almost looks like a glare.
"She's not, that's why." I reply, but choosing to ignore both Toby's sudden sourness after Kim stated the obvious fact and Kim's somewhat confused look.
"So what were you picking again?" I asked them.
"Well, I picked culture year-round, nature and cooking last year, but this year I think I'm going for advanced science and maybe music or some of the ones from last year for the split." Kim said.
"I'm going for year-round nature, because Martyn would kill me otherwise and it's easy when you have a nature spirit to help with your homework if you're stuck. Maybe advanced science, coding or music for the split. I haven't decided yet." Toby announced with a smile, sour mood gone.
"Definitely advanced magic if it's any good. How hard is it?" I ask.
"I think it's pretty tough, actually. Complex enchanting, like stuff other than weapons, tools, books and armour, and actual spells." Kim said dubiously.
"It'll be like what I was starting when I left this place, then." I shrug. "I'll probably take that year-round then."
"That sounds like you." Toby chuckled as we found the others.
"Good, you're here." Xephos said. "Just waiting for Martyn, then."
"Where'd he go?" Toby inquired.
"Said he had to ask someone something in the village." Ridge told us.
"Do you think he was going to find that lady from last night? Who lost her son?" Kim asked the slightly younger but much taller boy.
"I doubt it." Toby said. "He probably wanted to ask questions about the desert roses that grow here."
"That makes sense." I say with a small sigh. I'm not even sure what the sigh was for, but it slipped out anyway. Toby gives me an odd look but says nothing.
"So, while we wait." Kim says. "Shall we continue our talk of high school, so Reyanna here can have nightmares of it until September comes?"
No, I've got enough nightmares for now, thank you very much.
"Sure." Toby and I say at the same time.
**IMPORTANT STORY NEWS****PLEASE READ**
I'll keep this as short as possible.
1-This series now has a name, to make more sense for new and/or confused readers for the order- Reyanna's Battles. (Does this sound tacky?)
2-You've heard the talk of high school in this chapter- You Can't Forgive Evil is drawing to a close. The third installment of Reyanna's Battles will come very soon after this story is declared complete.
3- Not only will the next story come out after this is finished, but I will also be starting a collection of one-shots, drabbles, etc. that go with the story-and I will be taking requests. I have one set up already, more will come.
4-High school. There will be new relationships coming. There will be more OCs. And there will be drama. I have gotten NO hate so far, and I hope it will stay that way, though constructive criticism is always appreciated.
5-Finally, I want your input. I have all main OCs already for the next story, but if you want me to make a cameo of one of your own characters, I'll find it a place somewhere. And the requests for the one-shots- start sending them in NOW! A ship, an event (holiday, engagement and/or wedding already mentioned), I'll take just about anything. PM or review, doesn't matter.
Thank you! –Spirit