Jana
"You are going to love it in Arendelle!" Anna squealed, the dreamy look overtaking her eyes. "It is so beautiful and Elsa can help you with your magic and-"
"Anna" Elsa said firmly, but her sister paid her no mind.
"Omg she can help you build a snowman and Olaf can have a friend-"
"Anna," she tried again, exasperation sliding into her town.
"Elsa's magic is so beautiful and i'm sure with training,-"
"Anna, stop talking," Elsa finally snapped, drawing the attention of her younger sister.
The girl wilted under her sister's firm tone, bowing her head submissively. She had just wanted to make Jana feel at home with them, what was wrong with that? She took her role as the girls guardian very seriously, and she thought Elsa did too. Annoyance flayed her mind as she considered her sister;s words. Maybe this was a mistake? Maybe the girl would divide them again? Oh no she couldn't have that, she'd follow her sister through fire if she had too, she couldn't get their ward separate them like the gates did Arendelle from the outside!
"I'm sorry about Anna, she is one of the kindest people I know and she gets a bit ahead of herself," Elsa said, drawing Anna's attention, the worry melting off her when she saw the fond expression on her sister's face.
"It's fine," Jana replied disinterestedly, staring out the window and watching the countryside whiz by.
The two sisters exchanged an uneasy look, both trying to figure out how they would relate to the surly teenager. If she couldn't handle Anna, she would be hopeless with Olaf. The snowman was a sweetheart but he did tend to talk a lot and it could grate on people's nerves. Deciding there wasn't much more they could do, the two sisters let the limo fall into a tense silence, hoping that space would help make their guest more comfortable.
Evie
Ella hadn't had much interaction with familiars or witches in general. She found it slightly bizarre but intriguing and kept looking at the three of them like she would puzzle, trying to figure out what pieces slot where so she could comprehend. She knew her husband was aware, the man knew of her penchant for the unknown, but he left his wife to her analysing, and just settled back into the seat, knowing they would be arriving at the palace at any second, and he needed to be calm.
Evie kept her faux disinterested expression on her face staring resolutely ahead. Tynan could sense through the bond her longing to look ousted,but the stubbornness stampeded over the longing, standing over it like a villain from the fairytales. Using their bond, Tynan pushed the images he saw into his master's mind, making her send him a flux of loving emotions in response. Pride flooded his system, truly happy that he could make his mistress happy, even if it was by doing such a small thing for her.
Ella let out the breath she hadn't realised she had been holding when the limo came to a halt outside the palace. Henry reached out and threaded their fingers together giving her a teadying grin, which she returned with a slightly weaker version of her own. Her eyes moved to Evie, the girl sitting with ramrod straight, with better poster than even herself, her hand absentmindedly stroking the feathers and fur of her familiars. Ignoring the fizzing nerves in her stomach, Ella cleared her throat, being rewarded with the girl's attention.
"We are here, I hope the journey was okay for you and once we get inside we will show you to your wing.".
Evie blinked, an incredulous expression morphing over the blank one. Ella bit her lip as her mind flew into a rapid spin, trying to figure out what she had said that had garnered such a reaction. "Did I say something wrong?" Ella asked, putting as much compassion into her tone as possible.
"You said wing?" Evie asked, sounding like she was trying to work out the world's most complex mathematical equation, not asking a simple question.
"Well yes, this will be your home and you are welcome here whenever you would like, so we thought it be best if you have your own wing," Henry added, his voice firm but still soft, a fond smile on his face as her reaction reminded him of Ella's when she first moved in.
"We haven't decorated it yet, but if you were up for it I thought that we could design it today, go into the town and get what we need?" Ella added, the tension seeping from her body as she recognised what the girl was feeling. She had been there herself.
For a moment, Ella could see the real Evie. behind the makeup, behind the bravado she saw the nervous, insecure young woman, who was fighting her own thoughts to try make sense of everything. She felt unworthy, and was trying to make sense of the new spin her life had taken. With the light vulnerability brimming in her eyes, she became infinitely more beautiful, some of the harsh edge softening and a familiar sparkle setting her eyes aglow. If she didn;t know any better, she'd almost think she was sitting with Snow herself.
Evie quickly put herself back together, the wall was erected and the light dimmed, leaving her as beautiful, but as unfeeling as ice. "That sounds good, I appreciate it," she said, deliberately refraining from saying the words that these people handed out like insults on the Isle.
With a nod, the group clambered out from the Limo. The butlers ran and grabbed the bags, and Ella felt a pang in her chest when she saw the shoddy condition of the cases. Wiping away the feeling, knowing the girl would not want her to feel pity for her, she elad the girl into her castle, mentally promising herself to not only give the girl the best experience possible but to help her see her with, with or without the makeup.
Carlos
As soon as the last limo disappeared from sight, Carlos felt his heart sink to his feet. It didn't matter that he didn't particularly like them, except for Evie, the memories of her giving him a pillow were still bright in his mind. They were his only allies here, the only people that could possibly understand him. They were, while they were here, a hodgepodge team, and to be serrated made him feel exposed and vulnerable, emotions he hated to feel.
His mind blanked and his entire body flinched when he felt a heavy hand be draped upon him. He darted out of reach, getting into a defensive stance. Ben looked at him, recoiling from the abject fear that was pouring out of the boy's expression. He glanced back at his parents, hoping for guidance on how to make this better, though his dad looked as clueless as he did.
"Carlos?" Queen Belle coaxed, leaving her husband's side.
"Get away from me!" he screamed, his eyes shifting all around him, as his chest rose and fell in rapid succession.
"I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm sorry Ben invaded your personal space, I promise we won't do that again," she cooed, making herself as non threatening as possible, and giving the boy plenty of room.
"You won't" the way his voice cracked shattered Belle's heart, and she had to take a steadying breath to prevent the tears from raining down her cheeks.
"I promise, now why don't you come inside and I can show you to your room?" she said softly, making sure the boy knew that he was incontrol here.
"Will you make sure they stay away from me?" he asked, his voice quivering as he pointed a shaky hand towards Ben and King Adam.
"I promise they will stay away from you until you are ready to speak to them, okay?" she compromised, using all her regal training to not fall apart in front of this poor boy.
"Okay, I'll come inside," he whispered, loosening his stance.
"Would you prefer we go in before or after you?" she asked, giving him a gentle smile.
"Um, if it's okay could I go in with you? You seem nice," he said, his body still shaking.
It took everything in Belle not to scoop him into her arms and never let him go. Embers of anger flared in her stomach, as her mind wondered who could have reduced this poor boy into this state? Didn't Cruella love him? Sure she was a villain but even villains must love their kids, and as far as villains went she was more reasonable, she had even tried to purchase the puppies before the kidnapping, not that she condoned her objective with them.
"Of course I can, darling, let's get you inside. Would you like a hot cocoa?" she asked, Carlos screwed up his face with a clear question in his eyes.
He didn't even know what hot Cocoa is? She was certainly going to fix that. She gently led the boy up the grand staircase, and into the castle, taking him directly to his suite. She didn't miss his awestruck expression as he looked around, clearly overwhelmed by the sheer finery around them.
She had supported Ben's proposal from day one, but seeing the fearful reaction of this poor boy made the pride she felt for her son swell. This proclamation couldn't have come soon enough.
As soon as they got to the suite, Carlos shut the door on Belle. She stood their gaping at the door, trying to make heads or tails of the situation. Despite her mind annoyance, she pushed it aside, instead returning to her husband a child to have a chat.
Meanwhile, Carlos let himself slide down the wall, internally cursing himself. How could he have been so stupid? Now they know his weakness. He should have just cut her hand off instead, that would've been better than letting them see how weak he was. Knowing he couldn't do anything to change it now, he got up and walked to the mirror, remembering the weird tingling he felt on his chest when they crossed the barrier.
He promptly stripped himself of his jacket and lifted up his tattered shirt, almost dropping it in the process. There on his chest, in blank cursive, was the word HEIDI, complete with a wolf stretched out and hugging the inside of the curve of the D, coloured a vibrant red. He just touched it, his mouth slack. What on earth is this? He never had a tattoo. Sure he considered it but due to the lack of sterility on the Isle he had always discounted it. But this, this was a work of art.
Letting his shirt fall back down Carlos made a couple of promises to himself. First, he would find out what this mark meant, second he would never show weakness to the enemy against, and thirdly, he would do whatever it takes to get Heidi out, and would sacrifice anything or anyone to do it.
Mal
Mal sauntered around the palace, a pensive expression on her face. The white-hot fury she had felt upon seeing this place had mellowed into resentment, the feeling magnifying the more she explored. Everything was dripping with gold and splendor, practically neon flags at their wealth. It sickened her that these so called 'heroes' got to practically bathed in gold whereas on the Isle they were lucky if they even found a rotting apple to fill the gaping whole in their stomachs. It was the height of unfairness, and made her empathise with her mother. If this is the kind of pomp her mother had to deal with in her day, she perfectly understood her mother's reaction. It wasn't just the christening that had infuriated her, that was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
"God I can't wait to destroy everything they hold dear," she muttered under her breath, ensuring that even the keenest ears wouldn't be able to hear her.
"Aah Mal there you are, how do you like it here? I hope the suite was to your liking," Snow asked, her syrupy sweet voice grating on her ears.
No wonder EQ tried to have her heart carved out, at least then she'd stop talking, she thought, internally rolling her eyes at this stupid woman. "It was fine," she said, not bothering to elaborate and her tone brokering no room for conversation.
She saw the vibrancy of the woman's smie dim slightly at her bluntness, but it returned soon enough. "I was about to have tea with the birds, and Florian of course, would you like to join us?" she asked, a dainty smile on her face.
Mal scoffed, not even bothering to keep it internal. Did she really look like the kind of girl who wanted to have tea with birds? No, she did not, and if anyone argued differently she would cut out their tongues so they could never argue again. She gave Snow her bitchiest expression, using the anger she felt at the fact that thes epoeple had extra food and could go on these stupid picnic to fuel her. They could do that, while she sometimes had to wait for days to get anything to eat? God she hated these people, she really did.
"I'm good," she said, rolling her eyes and turning on her heel, not even bothering to wait for the other girl's reply.
Hello! So I was fully planning on having them all in one chapter, but instead these ones take place at the start of the week and the next chapter will focus on Gil, Harry, Uma and Jay at the latter part of the week, and will likely also cover them all leaving.
Mal is very angry at the moment, she had seen so much suffering on the Isle so to see these people use gold to decorate drives her banana's. I felt so bad for Carlos, the poor guy, but he won't be as soft later on, he was just on hyper alert after the stress of the day. Evie didn't want them to see how excited she was to be at the palace, so Tynan, bless him, helped her still experience it without showing her weakness and Jana, she just can't deal with Anna lol.
Anyway, thank you again Descendantslover and Darkandtwistedmind2.0 for your review. They mean the world to me and it is such a great feeling to know that you guys are liking my story!
Until next time!
TBP