14
When Ruva woke up the next morning, Arra was sitting on the end of her bed. She looked tired, but she looked almost relieved now that Ruva was awake.
"You've got some explaining to do, Angel. Do you really have two gifts, or are you just playing some cruel joke on me?" Arra stared at Ruva, her eyes accusing.
Ruva sighed and sat up, they had a long talk ahead of them. "I do have two gifts, but I don't really know how."
Arra arched an eyebrow, clearly not believing what she said. "Prove it."
Ruva exhaled. "One of my gifts is ribbon-seeing, I can see the ribbons that connect anything to everything." Arra didn't respond, her silence speaking volumes. Ruva sighed, the only way Arra would believe her is if she saw proof.
"I can show you, but not for too long. It takes a lot of energy." Ruva closed her eyes and reached for her second gift. When she opened her eyes, she took a second to admire the myriad of ribbons around her. These were the things that held the world together – literally and figuratively.
Ruva reached for her lime-green gift ribbon, grabbing it and placing it on Arra's forehead. Arra rubbed her eyes and gasped, seeing the array of ribbons that were as familiar as home to Ruva. She immediately felt the extra strain of supporting two people. Ruva kept her gift on both of them for a minute, before she lost control and her gift deactivated.
"Okay, so you showed me your ribbon-seeing gift, but I've still got no proof of any other ones. You'd better not be lying to me, Angel."
"My other gift is animal speaking, I can understand and speak the language of any animal I hear."
Arra still looked unsure. "Do a dog."
Ruva barked, the sound reminding her deeply of Basil, who she hadn't seen since she rode to Akarnae on Moonrunner.
"Now do a cat."
Ruva meowed, remembering the first cat she spoke to. It was a gold tabby that lived in the kitchens, who spent her day lying on the windowsill waiting for her next feed.
"Those ones are too easy; you could just be mimicking their noises," said Arra.
This time it was Ruva who raised an eyebrow, knowing her noises were identical to the real thing.
"Do something hard, like a… like a Hyroa!"
Ruva gulped, she didn't want to scare Arra. "Are these walls soundproof?" Ruva asked. Arra nodded. Ruva walked over and shut the window, it was still early, but she didn't want to scare anyone who happened to be outside.
"Okay, I'll do it now. Just… just don't get scared." With that, Ruva roared. The sound that came from her was blood-curdling, despite her effort to choose a subtle roar. Arra jumped, turning into metal in mid-air, and landed on the bed with a thump. Ruva stopped her roar.
Arra was still metal, so Ruva walked over to her.
"Um, Arra?" Ruva reached a tentative hand towards Arra's metallic shoulder. Ruva shuddered when she realised it was cold, as if her friend had been whisked off and replaced with a carved statue. Ruva's wooden bed began to creak, groaning under the weight of its metal occupant. Ruva stepped back, right as she heard the tell-tale crack as the bed collapsed in on itself. Ruva stood there, shocked.
A few seconds later, Arra un-metallised herself, if that was the right word for it. Arra looked at her position, right in the centre of the snapped bed. "Um… oops?" she said.
Ruva helped pull her up from the shattered bed.
She looked very worried, and Ruva felt a surge of guilt for scaring her friend. She started to tremor as she thought of the consequences her roommate would face for breaking her bed – let alone doing it on her first ever day of classes.
"I'm sorry," blurted Ruva, when Arra continued to stare at her, "I didn't mean to scare you or for you to break the bed."
Arra blinked, then blinked again. Then her dark-amber eyes lit up with understanding. "I don't care about the bed, all I want to know is how the hell do you have two gifts?"
Ruva's eyes dropped to the floor, her hands on her necklace.
But Arra was unrelenting. "Well? Tell me!"
Ruva sighed. "When I was little, I only have one gift. But after my parents died, I had two." She could tell just from Arra's gaze that she wanted more, but there wasn't much else she could tell. She shrugged, saying, "That's all I know."
Arra continued to stare at her, but her expression was softer, more open. "How old were you when your parents died?"
Ruva looked at the ground once more. "I was nine."
She still missed her parents, Edward and Jacinta Springden. But now, it was an old ache, a pain that she had handled for the last five years. But Ruva still felt weight lift off her shoulders, the same feeling she had when she told Corbin and Sela about them.
Arra's stomach rumbled, breaking the moment between them. "Should we…" she started, the words strained. "Head down to the food court?"
She knew Arra was trying to keep things normal, and Ruva was grateful for her effort. Her friend's world had just exploded, and she was trying to comprehend how having two gifts was possible, when her whole life she was told the opposite.
"Thank you for…" Ruva paused thinking for the right thing to say. "Understanding. But I need to keep this secret, okay?"
Arra snorted. "I'm not stupid. Everyone would be in uproar if they found out about it."
Ruva smiled, "Thanks, Arra."
…
Ten minutes later, they were both eating in the food court. They were sitting at a table with Leo and his dark-haired roommate, Harry.
Harry soon had them roaring with laughter, telling them all a hilarious story about the time he somehow ended up in the parade.
"…and then, I was in the middle of a group of cheerleaders! Two of them threw me into the air, not realising I wasn't part of their group. I went up about two metres, screaming all the way, and when I came down they made me do the splits when I landed!" Harry chuckled with everyone, his almond-shaped eyes creased with laughter.
"I swear I heard something rip, but I couldn't check in the middle of the parade! It wasn't until I got home an hour later I realised my bright-red undies were showing. No wonder everyone was laughing so much when I tried to blend in with the clowns!"
Everyone cracked up laughing, the magic of Harry's storytelling too good to resist. Ruva's eyes fell on Leo, and she watched him laughing. He had a broad smile on his face, but no sound came out of his mouth when he laughed. It was fascinating, and Ruva wondered what had happened to leave her without a voice.
Leo sent her a questioning look, and Ruva belatedly realised she was staring. She dropped her gaze to her half-eaten breakfast, her fingers reaching to her necklace. Everyone continued talking, but Ruva couldn't bring herself to look up.
Finally, the gong rang, and Ruva scurried off to her first class.
….
In the final lesson of the day, Ruva had Equestrian Skills. She arrived early at the stable, she wasn't the only one there. Princess Delucia stood there, her expression as shocked as Ruva's own.
"Are you… Are you in this class?" Delucia stuttered. Ruva nodded, deeply distracted by the princess' lack of composure. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Delucia gave a breathless laugh.
"What was I thinking? Of course you'd be in this class, Ruva. You're one of the best riders I know."
Ruva blushed and fingered her necklace. "Thank you, Your Highness."
Delucia's eyes darted around quickly. "Please don't call me that. At Akarnae no one knows I'm the princess. Here I'm just a normal girl, not Your Highness or Princess Delucia. I'm known as D.C., and you can treat me as someone you've never met before."
Ruva smiled, thinking of how fun it would be to secretly be the princess. You'd almost have two separate lives, one as a royal monarch, and the other as an ordinary schoolgirl.
Ruva looked to Delucia. She was expecting to find a similar smile on the princess' face, but no smile was found. Delucia looked downcast, she was frowning a little, and she didn't attempt to move the hair that had fallen onto her face. Ruva recognised that look. She'd seen it on many of Sela's patients. It was a look that said 'how did I end up in this mess?'
How could she make the princess of Medora feel better? If she said the wrong thing, D.C. would judge her for it. Ruva realised the silence between them was getting long, so she scrambled her mind for anything she could possibly say.
"I-um, err…" stuttered Ruva, hoping to find anything, anything in the entire world that would make her feel less awkward. And then, an idea hit her.
"Which horse do you ride for ES?" she asked.
D.C. visibly brightened. "I ride a bay gelding called Monarch, in this stall here," Delucia opened the stall door closest to her, revealing the horse within.
Ruva stepped forward, saying to the horse, "My name is Ruva Equine Speaker, and my gift is animal speaking. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Monarch's ears flickered when she heard Ruva's name, and she lowered her head in respect. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Ruva Equine Speaker," said Monarch. "My name is Monarch Human Steed, and I remember you, even when you were just a foal."
Ruva beamed, her first day at Akarnae just became a thousand times better.