new beginnings
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.
Chapter Four
After getting back to the pack house, Emma's wish had come true, as the wolves did in fact have lunch ready for them when they got back. Jake invited her to continue staying at the pack house 'as long as she wanted to.' Gia doesn't miss the sly smirk on Emma's face after that, or the snickering of the other wolves in the room. Ignoring the reactions of her new housemates, she takes Jake up on his offer. And she waits until he walks out of the dining room, to turn to everyone else.
"Why is everyone smiling?"
"Because, it's obvious Jake likes you." Emma says.
"I already told you I can't get into a relationship right now."
The smirk still doesn't leave Emma's face, as she stands up from the table with her now empty plate.
The next week flies by as she settles into life living with wolves. And before she knows it, her first meeting with the board has come around. Emma cooks her breakfast in the morning, which wasn't unusual. Emma did do most of the cooking in the house. But her pestering Gia about whether or not she was nervous was certainly unusual. And it only served to make her more nervous than she already was.
"Emma, this isn't helping."
"Sorry. But you know my mom can be a lot. She was always your dad's enabler. Which is why it was so surprising that she asked you to take his seat."
"Yeah I know. It was surprising for me too. But talking about it isn't going to help me."
Before Emma can say anything else, there's a knock at the front door. "I'll get it."
Gia gets up from her seat at the counter, going to answer the door. When she opens the door, she's taken aback at how cold it is. And Blair is wearing a coat and turtleneck. "You aren't dressed yet?"
"No… you said 9:00. It's only 6:00."
"Perhaps, I should have mentioned that Lucille Hill likes it when people are early. Really early."
"Perhaps you should have. Give me thirty minutes." She closes the door.
After getting dressed, Gia and Blair set off for the board's base. It was snowing outside now. The weather in the realm was always unpredictable. The human world could have entered into another ice age, but the realm could be having summer-like weather.
The double doors to the board's base are open, so they walk right in. The Hill's are sat at the round table, and Gia takes notice of the fact that Lucille had different hair than when she last saw her. Her hair color had gone from blonde to orange with purple highlights. Gia looks away, just as Lucille looks in her direction. "Great, you're both here. Now we're just waiting for Countess."
"Where is she? She's never late." Kenzie says.
"I'm right here." Countess says, walking through the double doors. She waves her hand, the doors closing themselves. She joins them all at the table. "Now, let's get started."
There's a silence as they all stare at Countess. "Stop staring at me. Let's get started already, we have a lot to cover."
Lucille sighs, rolling her eyes. "Fine. Let's start with the issue of this cold."
"Darius' spell has taken its toll on the fairies. And their sickness is affecting the weather in the realm, as evidenced by the cold." Blair gestures to the window, where it was seen that it was starting to snow.
"But we have no idea what spell he used." Kenzie says.
"I'll take care of it." Countess says emotionless.
"But-" Kenzie starts.
"I said I'll take care of it." Countess says through gritted teeth, which was one of the few times Gia had seen her show any emotion.
There's another long silence, until Lord says, "let's move on."
"We can't survive for much longer." He slowly stands up from the ground, balancing on a tree nearby.
"I know. But what else can we do?"
"Maybe we could talk to the board? Even if they have a tendency to be a little biased towards any species that is not their own, even they will have to do something about the realm freezing over!" He suggests, breathing heavily after raising his voice. The evil was getting stronger, and their people were getting weaker.
"What could they do? I doubt Darius told them the specifics of his spell. I'm not a witch and even I know it's hard to undo a spell when you don't even know what the spell is." She takes a deep breath, bending over to catch her breath. "And… this evil, what are they going to do about that?"
"I don't know. But what other choice do we have? If we die, the realm will-"
"Let's not think about that. We have… to hope that things will get better. We aren't all dead yet."
"Yet." He wheezes, before coughing violently. When he pulls his hand away, blood stains his palm.
"You should get out of the cold." She steers him inside.