Disclaimed
Author's Note: I apologize beforehand if this chapter skips around, I had the first majority of it done in an hour of posting my last chapter, then I just sort of lost the flow. Anyway, I couldn't help it; I put in a reference to what I think is the funniest scene in all the books. **grins evilly** So read and enjoy, and don't forget to REVIEW!!! I mean, come on people, on more review would have put me at 30!! Do you know what this means to me? **sniffles** I feel just so flattered…there's nothing wrong with 29, it's more than I've ever had before, but quitting at 29… that's just cruel. That little nine is taunting me, you know. You don't have to say much (although Ria Dolores' reviews always make me feel warm and fuzzy, lol) I just want to know that people are reading this. So anyway, now that I've attempted to guilt trip you into REVIEWing, read the chapter! This is the last one when Aravian is eleven; I'm thinking the next one she'll be fifteen, so enjoy it!
Thank-yous are at the end.
This is a repost, turns out I made a **cough** little mistake about Bran. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALANNA ROSEGUARD FOR TELLING ME!! I thought Aaron and Sabrina sounded wrong…but like I said, a friend has my copy of QotD, so I couldn't check. Oops.
*~~ Chapter 6: The End of Summer Feast~~*
"Luthar, I will not go down without him!" Aravian's lower lip jutted out dangerously.
"Aravian, come on, he's probably already down there!" Luthar tried in vain to convince his friend to go to the Feast without Avaesel.
"No!"
"Arav-"
"Try to contact him on one of the spear threads, please?" She turned large blue eyes on her friend.
He looked at her uneasily. "I think that would be violating some sort of code."
She stomped her foot, starting to puff out like she herself was a cat. She screeched at him. "What kind of 'code' could inhabit-"
"Do you mean 'inhibit?'" he asked too helpfully.
"Shut up! What kind of code could inhibit you from talking to my Familiar, as close to me as you, for me?"
He shifted on his feet, prepared to get away if she tried to kill him. Of course, out of the two of them she was the real warrior, he much preferred other things to fighting. "Um, I think it would break a male code along the lines of 'you will not rope in other males using a spear thread for a witch's purpose?'" He finished so tentatively that the statement became a question.
Surprisingly, Aravian didn't attempt --or succeed-- to bash his brains in. What he didn't realize was unfortunately, she became very, very calm.
"I see. Well, of course you can't break such a noble code."
He smiled in relief--how naïve he was.
"After all," she nearly purred, "It's not your fault that I can't seem to contact Avaesel." Why was she looking at him like that? Luthar took a step back; he was starting to realize that maybe 'calm' wasn't necessarily a good thing. "Now," she suddenly grabbed him by the collar and shook him, ungently, "IF YOU DON'T CONTACT AVAESEL THIS MINUTE I WILL PERSONALLY BEAT THE SNOT OUT OF YOU AND THEN I'LL TELL DAEMONAR ABOUT-"
"Okay okay! Hold on one sec just stop shaking me! No need to tell him anything!"
"Good."
Ten minutes later, the trio was heading down a staircase that would take them to the great hall, the boys warily behind the young, volatile witch.
Halfway down the steps a larger, also winged form joined them.
"Hello, kiddies."
Luthar glared at his brother in response and grunted something along the lines of 'Hi.' Avaesel, being feline and above such petty matters, did not acknowledge the Eyrian's presence. Aravian chirped, "Hello!" earning a glare from Luthar.
Daemonar fell into step beside Aravian, slinging a companionable arm around her shoulders… sort of, considering the height difference. "So, Aravian, what was it you were yelling you would tell me about?"
"Nothing!" Luthar exclaimed at the same moment that Aravian said, "Oh, you could here that?"
He grinned, "Well, barely. I don't think they could hear you down there." He pointed down the staircase.
"Oh good. I don't think anyone would be too happy with me if they knew I was thrashing Luthar again already." She turned and threw a wicked smile at Luthar.
Daemonar laughed, "It's good for him, keeps him in line."
Luthar muttered something unpleasant.
A moment later all of them were in the dining room, and Daemonar smiled companionably at them and went to join his group of friends: himself, Nickolaes, Arianna, Bran and Calida. Arianna and Bran were Aaron and Kalush's two oldest children, and Calida the eldest daughter of Morghann and Khardeen. The five friends always spent their time together, being close in age and all eldest siblings.
Aravian surveyed the room from the doorway, Luthar sullenly standing with her, and Avaesel slinking off, headed somewhat conspicuously for the table that had the hors d'oeuvres. She looked for her mother, wanting to show off her new and ingenious clothing.
She didn't spot her, but she did see Lucivia beckoning them from across the room. Lucivia was Daemon and Jaenelle's youngest, their only daughter. Aravian adored the red jeweled Black Widow and Healer; she was more like an older sister than a friend.
Aravian tugged Luthar across the room. Lucivia was with all the other children of the First Circle-- well, not all. Some of the non-human members didn't come every summer, like the satyrs. Teele, Gabrielle and Chaosti's daughter, and Lijah, Morghann and Khardeen's youngest daughter, stood on either side of her. All three were Black Widows, Healers, and Queens. The adults called them the Young Triangle.
Enettei, Lucivia's Familiar, a falcon, landed on the older girl's shoulder just as the two of them reached the group. She had a delicate pastry in one claw, and she ate it with surprisingly few crumbs getting on her Intimate's dress. Probably using Craft, Aravian thought.
The senior 'kids' greeted her, either as 'Ara' or as Nickolaes had fondly dubbed her, 'Pest.' Being the youngest of all the First Circle's offspring everyone regarded her as a younger sister, even Sadira, who was Grezande and Elan's daughter from Tigrelan.
Lucivia smiled at her. "Hello, Ara." She surveyed Aravian's outfit. Her sapphire blue eyes, obviously gotten from her mother, were unnerving in her dark golden skin and deep black hair. "Where did you get those clothes? They're very nice, but I've never seen a shirt quite like that before."
The other girls looked interested, the boyos looked bored, and Aravian smiled proudly while Luthar rolled his eyes, shifting his wings. She told them how she'd taken some of Luthar's clothes and made what she wore now; it made her feel quite grown up to be discussing clothes with these girls who were anywhere from ten (Lucivia) years older than her to 150 years older (Sadira).
The boys were saved when Beale announced that dinner was ready. Aravian was finally able to show her outfit off to her parents, as she sat next to her mother and across from her father. Next to Falonar sat Lucivar, and next to her mother was Daemon. Jaenelle was at the head of the table, much to the woman's annoyance. Everyone was wearing their Jewels tonight, Daemon with his Black and Red and Falonar in his Green, Surreal even was wearing her Gray in it's gold Dea al Mon setting. Aravian herself had her Sapphire earrings and a necklace, the Sapphire jewels in it's own Dea al Mon setting, except silver. Aravian's eye was caught, as it was every year, by Jaenelle's beautifully unique jewel, Twilight's Dawn. She watched the myriad colors, noticing that if you watched long enough they seemed to swirl and move within the Jewel.
She was drawn back to the present by Lucivar, asking her in a decidedly evil voice, "Aravian, want to hear a story?"
Aravian's interest was piqued. Story? Whenever an adult offered to tell a story in that tone, you knew it would be something terribly embarrassing for another adult. "Yes," she replied in a half cautious tone.
Jaenelle shook her head. "Lucivar, she doesn't even remember it, can't you stop drudging it back up?"
Lucivar grinned, but it was Daemon who replied. "Sweetheart, it's just so terribly amusing… It would be a crime to deny it to the next generation." Jaenelle grumbled something, which Lucivar took as agreement.
And he told her a story.
*~~~*~~~*
A short while later, Wilhelmina was interrupted from her conversation with Kalush and Marian farther down the table by a pale hand tugging on her sleeve. She looked over to see Aravian standing next to her. Wilhelmina glanced to the head of the table to see Lucivar, Surreal and Daemon all with their mouths in compressed lines, as if a smile might release a great burst of laughter, decidedly facing straight ahead and not looking at her. Jaenelle looked apologetic.
Returning her attention to Aravian she asked with a feeling of foreboding, "Yes, Ara?"
The girl asked with large solemn eyes, "Did you really offer to brush Uncle Lucivar?"
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
A/N: Mwuhahahahahaha. I love that scene. Wilhelmina drunk… woohoo. You know my original idea for this fic sprung up around a desire to have someone from the 2nd gen. ask her if she really offered to brush Lucivar. Then this whole thing formed… and around chapter 3 I got an idea for a plot. But she has to be older for the plot, so I had to wrap this up. But not without asking Wilhelmina about that. So there you are. The one line is the whole reason for the past five chapters. Aren't I pathetic? Does anyone read these author note things???
Chibi Vampire: Lol. Thanks a lot for the review, I'm really flattered. Here's chapter six, and as something of a vampire fanatic, I love the name!
IceQueen: Thanks! Here it is… or there it was…I've confused myself now…
Skie: So is the Luthar interesting good or interesting bad? OK, the whole Duinderlion thing is kind of a long story, but I'll try to explain it in the shortest and least strange terms possible. Remember, you asked. A Duinderlion is sort of like a dandelion. I came up with them during the last week of school during seventh grade, while I was sitting outside during the last two periods with my friends. We were doing absolutely nothing in those periods the last week, being PE and art for us all, so we were sitting on the lawn in the front of the building, just sort of being lazy in the sun. They got into a dandelion fight, and for some reason in the midst of this I pointed to my friend Jane and yelled in an odd voice "DUINDERLION MURDERER!!!" Everyone stopped chucking dandelions at me to look at me funny. I must have been very punchy because I went into this long litany about myself now being the queen of the Duinderlions because they had just killed my mother, one of the dandelions that had just been thrown at me, and my father being a blade of grass. I spent the entire period going on about Duinderlions, and by the end of it we were all cracking up. The joke stuck, and now, in high school, we'll sometimes be passing in the halls and one of us will just point and yell "Duinderlion Murderer!!!" We get some very odd looks. It's a good thing we go to a large school, because otherwise I'm sure we'd be known as something like "Those Scary Girls." But anyway, I am the undisputed Queen of the Duinderlions, and to fully understand this whole thing you kind of had to be there, but this is really the best I can explain it. We have spent hours trying to explain this to some of our other friends, and they still only half get it.
Riadolores: Hello again, favorite person J Aravian was smiling all evil-like. That's why he doesn't want her smiling like that. I always loved dressing up, but it doesn't seem that Aravian would so… and also it was an opportunity for some humor and exhibiting that she is resourceful. But I'm glad that readers can relate to her. I don't mind people being nit-picky, I'm surprisingly so myself. My friends get a little frustrated with me **cough** I'm so nit-picky. Thanks, as always, for the fantastic review!
linnet_jo: Thanks! It makes me so happy when people tell me they like what I write. J