Linh
Leila groaned and flopped on their bed. "Ugh. I'm exhausted!"
Linh smiled from where she was sitting at their shared desk. "That's because you're pushing yourself too hard in your training. You should take a break sometime."
Leila groaned again. "But training is fun." Leila had been learning combat training with Ro for the past few weeks they'd been in Ravagog.
"Then why do you complain about it so much?" Linh asked. She and Leila had grown extremely close, practically sisters. Not that she didn't still think about Tam, of course.
"I don't." Leila replied, polishing one of her many daggers. Ro had given her a whole set when she started training.
"You totally do." Linh examined her sketch carefully. It was a drawing of Leila holding one of her daggers, smirking. Linh was planning on giving it to her when she was done.
"I do not."
"Mhm." Linh frowned. She just couldn't get her eyes right… They didn't have the same gleam as Leila's real ones did.
"What are you doing?" Leila got up and tried to peek at Linh's work.
Linh pulled her sketchbook protectively to her chest. "Nothing," she said, lying.
"If you say so." Leila plopped back on the bed and grabbed another dagger to clean. Linh tried not to think about what she got on them.
The two worked in silence for a few minutes, each completely focused on their tasks.
"Are you still worried about Tam?" Leila asked.
"Of course I am. I don't know if he's alive or not." Linh worried about Tam everyday. She worried about him as she tried to control her abilities, as she ate, as she slept.
"I know how you feel." Leila said, thinking about Kai. "But I'm sure that they're fine. They can take care of themselves." They had had this conversation multiple times in the past few weeks.
"I guess." Linh glanced back down at her drawing. The eyes still weren't quite right. "Hmmm." Linh frowned again. Maybe it's the eyebrows? She looked at Leila, then back at her drawing.
Leila didn't notice, too focused on her dagger. Her eyebrows were furrowed slightly, which Linh knew meant she was paying attention.
Linh sighed and set down her sketchbook. It was after dinner, probably around eight. I still have plenty of time to read. Linh walked out of their room and into the dining room.
Lady Cadence was nowhere to be found. Linh assumed she was in her lab, working on some crazy experiment.
Linh walked into the dining room/living room, and up to the giant bookshelves. What should I read tonight?
Leila typically read the action/adventure books, but she'd recently branched out to mystery. Lady Cadence had a bunch of them that she never read, because they were too violent for her. Lady Cadence normally read either science or romance books. Linh had read some romance books, but Leila flat out refused too. Linh had mostly been reading the history and realistic books.
Linh grabbed one of the books off the shelf that caught her attention. The Foxfire Chronicles. Linh skimmed through the description. It was about a group of teens trying to fit into Foxfire.
Linh had read a few books similar to that, trying to imagine what Foxfire was like, since she was never going there.
But one thing that caught her eyes was when she opened the book. On the first page there was a stamp that read BANNED in big black letters, covering the title page.
That's strange. I've never seen a book like that before. Linh ran back into their bedroom to show Leila.
"That's weird." Leila remarked after Linh showed it to her. "I've never seen a book with that stamp before. It doesn't even look that inappropriate."
"That's what I thought." Linh agreed.
Leila turned the book over in her hands. "It's written by an elf, look." She pointed to the author biography in the back.
"That means that it isn't super violent, so why was it banned?" Linh frowned, puzzled.
Leila squinted at the book, and then began to reread the description. "I don't know. I say we ask Lady Cadence about it."
"Ask Lady Cadence about what?" Lady Cadence asked from the doorway.
Leila got up and showed her the book. "Do you know why it was banned?"
Lady Cadence frowned. "No. You should read it. If any elf is able to read it, it would be you." She handed the book back.
Leila nodded.
"Tell me about it, will you?" Linh asked.
"Of course." Leila sat down on the bed and opened to the first page, her daggers forgotten.
Linh got up to go get a different book, but she still wondered about The Foxfire Chronicles.
Tam
Marella and Tam, Tam and Marella. That's what it sure felt like these days. Not that Tam minded that, he just wished it was Tam and Marella and Linh.
Marella groaned. "Ugh, are we there yet?"
They were walking around in the woods behind Marella's house, looking for Linh, like they'd done everyday since Tam had met Marella. "No."
Marella groaned again, although she actually enjoyed exploring with Tam. Each day they went out farther and farther, and they had discovered some pretty awesome places.
However, they'd yet to make it out of the vast woods, no matter how many shortcuts they used.
Each morning, they ate breakfast, packed lunch, and went out into the woods. When it started to get dark, Marella would leap them home using her home crystal.
Tam scrambled over a fallen tree trunk, and Marella leapt over it in a graceful move. She had told Tam when they first went looking for Linh that she spent a lot of time in the woods, so she'd have experience.
And she really did. She could climb the tallest trees, leap over the highest rocks, and she had incredible stamina. She just liked complaining about something.
"Right or left?" Marella asked, since they'd come to a fork in the path. Not that they ever really stayed on the path.
Tam exclaimed the two paths carefully. "Left." He decided, since Linh was left handed and had slept on the left side of their old room.
"Left it is." Marella declared, assuming that he had a better reason for choosing the path.
They veered left, and continued walking in silence. Tam glanced up at the sky. The sun was high in the sky. "We should probably stop and eat soon."
Marella nodded. "Let's go a little bit further until we find somewhere to sit."
Later
Tam and Marella hadn't found Linh that day, or the next day, or the next day. And honestly, Tam wasn't even surprised anymore. Call it twintuition, call it whatever you want, Tam knew she was still alive. If only his twintuition could be a little more helpful and tell him where exactly she was.
Tam groaned, and banged his head against the wall of his room. He was staying in one of the Redek's guest rooms, just down the hall from Marella's room.
The room was huge, bigger than the room he and Linh had shared back when they lived with their parents. It had a giant round bed in the center, and a desk off to the side. There was a walk-in closet, and an incredibly fancy bathroom. The whole room glittered and sparkled with expensive jewels and crystals.
Tam couldn't help comparing it with the small room he had spent the night in at the Smith's house. That room had had a cozy, homey feel. This room was cold and meticulous, almost too fancy to sleep in.
Linh would love it here, she had always admired fancy things. Taam wished more than anything that he could see Linh again soon, and that she was alive and well.
Linh
Leila had spent the past few days engaged in The Foxfire Chronicles, but she hadn't told Linh a single detail about it! Not even a clue as to why it was Banished, she just kept reading it silently.
Linh was prepared to beg, to threaten, even to torture. But Leila didn't say a thing about it, not even to Lady Cadence.
Leila spent all the time that she wasn't training with Ro or working with Lady Cadence reading. She was a pretty fast reader, but didn't have much free time.
Linh was drawing and Leila was reading on the bed. "Linh? Is there a second one of these?"
Linh paused. "I don't know. I didn't see one." She glanced at Leila. "Why? Are you done?"
Leila nodded. "Yeah."
"And? Why was it banned?" Linh couldn't contain her curiosity.
Leila flipped through the pages. "It's really gory and bloody. Not at all like the description. The plot is basically these bloodthirsty trolls break into Foxfire and kill nearly everyone. Good story, though."
"Okay, first of all… how is that even remotely close to a good story?"
Leila shrugged. "Then the trolls infect everyone that's left with a terrible disease that makes all the elves try to murder each other, but the outside world doesn't know anything about it, and they just think that everything is fine and normal at Foxfire."
Linh just stared at her.
"It ends on a cliffhanger, too. The few students that survive head back out into the elven world, and then it ends. And by the way, they still have the desire to murder every elf they see, including each other." Leila smiles at the book, her eyes almost glazing over as she got lost in the world of The Foxfire Chronicles.
"And, second of all, how could an elf write something so violent?"
"Maybe they're like me. Or maybe an elf didn't write it at all." Leila suggested.
"Maybe…" Linh's voice trailed off. "Do you want to come with me and see if there's a second book?"
Leila grinned. "Sure. Let's go."
The two girls walked over and began scanning Lady Cadence's bookshelves. After a few minutes, Leila said, "I don't see it."
"Me neither." Linh added. "Maybe the author never got around to writing the next book? Or maybe the Council didn't let them publish the second book?"
Leila continued checking the shelves, looking behind books. "Maybe… Oh!" Her eyes lit up and she ran over to a small cabinet with a gold lock on it.
Leila bent over the lock, and pulled a hairpin out of her hair. She began fidgeting with the lock for several minutes before it clicked loudly.
Linh gasped. "Leila…." She didn't know how to finish her sentence, since Leila had already opened the door and pulled out a box, which she immediately opened.
"There's so many…" Leila was in shock, and she just kept staring at the pile of books. Linh leaned over to look. There were eight more books, making it a total of nine books in the series.
"Are you going to read them?" Linh asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Of course!" Leila grabbed the stack of books and set them on the table. Then she slid the box back into the cabinet. She carefully put the lock back on the door and relocked it.
"Leila, you just broke in!" Linh exclaimed, her brain finally catching up with what just happened.
Leila smirked. "On the first day we were here, I looked through all the cabinets and drawers, remember?" Linh nodded. "There wasn't a lock on this door then, which was strange, because all I remembered there being was just a box. So I figured that Lady Cadence put something in the box that was worth protecting."
"Wise deductioning, Leila."
Linh froze, and Leila spun around, facing Lady Cadence. "I swear, it isn't what it looks like!" Linh babbled.
"Relax, I've been here the whole time. And yes, I did hide those books from you, Leila."
"But why?" Leila asked, stepping away from the cabinet.
"Because I've read them, too. And I knew that you can't keep reading them. But since you found them, you should be able to read them. So, go ahead." Lady Cadence replied, gesturing towards the books with a faint smile.
Linh was very confused. "But… how could you read them?"
Lady Cadence frowned. "Leila, what did you tell her?"
What does that mean? Linh wondered.
"I told her the plot, and how violent it was." Leila replied.
"Ah, of course." Lady Cadence gives Leila a small wink.
What was that about?
Leila scoops the books off the table. "Well. I'll be reading if anyone needs me!"
Linh gave a faint wave.
A few days later, Linh was working on controlling her ability. She was outside by the river, as she had been every day since coming to Ravagog. Leila was in combat training with Ro, and Linh wasn't sure where Lady Cadence was.
"Okay, I got this." Linh muttered to herself as she focused on the water. She concentrated, and a few water drops flew up from the river and formed a small ball.
"Yes!" She cheered, but lost her focus, and the water fell back into the river. Linh groaned. She could control a lot of water at a time, like a wave, but she couldn't focus on a few water drops. She'd been training with her ability for over a month now, and had barely made any progress, while Leila was doing amazing in combat training.
Linh turned her attention back to the river, and moved her hands in motion, water drops forming and pulling closer to her. She formed them into a wobbly heart, floating in front of her.
Okay. Now I just have to… She pulled more water towards the heart, but overshot it and ended up drenching herself and ruining the watery heart.
Great. Linh sighed, and began again. Just as she almost had it, she heard footsteps behind her, and lost her concentration, splashing her bare feet.
"Sorry!" Leila yelped, looking embarrassed. "I didn't mean to surprise you."
"It's okay! I was just finishing up here anyway." Linh replied, just to make Leila feel better.
"Oh. I was just wondering if I could watch? I mean, since I have a break and I've been wondering how things have been going with your training and all." Leila's cheeks flushed a pretty pink, standing out against her black hair and dark blue eyes.
Linh hesitated. What if Leila thought that she wasn't good enough? "If you want to." Why, why had she said that?
"Okay." Leila shrugged and sat down in the grass next to Linh.
Linh turned her focus away from Leila and onto the river. She pulled the water towards her, a lot more than she was usually able to. The water wobbled and shook, but slowly formed into a heart.
Now for the hard part. Linh pulled more water into the heart. It didn't fall to the ground, instead it was steady and strong.
The heart stopped wobbling, and Linh added more water to it, just a tiny bit. However, the heart collapsed to the ground.
Leila began to applaud. "That's awesome!" And based on the smile in her eyes, Linh knew that Leila was telling the truth.
"Thanks." Linh replied bashfully. "That's the best I've done all day."
"Well, I'm sure it isn't easy." Leila said, smiling at Linh. "I should probably be getting back now."
"Bye!" Leila got up and started walking away, before she turned back to Linh.
"Don't give up." And with that, she was gone.
A/N
Sorry for not updating in a while! I've been kind of busy.
I'm not too sure that my description of hydrokinesis is all that accurate, but I tried.
Shoutout to Neverswan and Happyshadowthoughts on quotev, and Nightfallrain57 on Fanfiction for being so awesome!
Reviews:
Guest: I'm glad you like this story!
Nightfallrain57: Thank you so much! This chapter is for you!