.oOo.
No more fireworks sounded that morning, and Diana assumed they had been merely tests for that evening when the celebrations would be in full swing. She had a small inkling of how Americans celebrated the anniversary of their independence, and she knew they were known for going over the top to show their patriotism; the city would surely be overflowing with star and stripes on every available surface once they headed to her godmother's the next day.
Diana only hoped that they were far away enough from the city that the noise wouldn't disturb her precious sleep. She didn't care for the federal holiday, the only thing of significance on that day for her was her brother's and Steve Rogers' birthday.
Soon after breakfast, Felix and Alice scattered away to make use of the boy's present, breaking into an argument over who would bat or throw first. Felix won in the end, bat resting victoriously over his shoulder, having played the birthday card shamelessly; he had simply countered every single one of Alice's statements with, "…but I'm baby."
Diana returned to their side shortly after putting away her book and thanking her parents for cleaning up after them – they responded with something along the lines of, "As if we're not used to it by now," to tease and lowkey guilt-trip her. Diana knew them too well to argue or let herself be too affected.
Watching Alice's and Felix's attempts was boring.
Alice threw the ball either too high or too low, or sometimes with just enough force that it fell short halfway down its intended path, and Felix missed it with every eager swing. Their knowledge of the game was based on the internet and TV, so their nonexistent skills made for a really dull spectacle.
Because of that – and not feeling like burying her nose back in her book on such a sunny and warm day – Diana told her parents that she was going for a walk.
The path she took was a familiar one. She had walked it almost every day for the past two weeks, when it was her turn to fetch water from the stream that it led to, or when she and her siblings went to play around in the water or refresh themselves in the heat of the more humid days.
The trail was narrow but well beaten and visible, and despite her awful sense of orientation, it didn't take a genius to not get lost out there. So, Diana felt confident enough to stroll while letting her eyes wander to the never-ending shadow play projected on her surroundings thanks to the tree canopies, clearly lost in thought.
She thought back to her parent's conversation at breakfast, about Aunt Elena and abuela. She couldn't imagine how awkward the next morning would be, and if there were any way she'd get away with waiting in their rental, she would.
So many hurtful things had been said; past mistakes and spats all uprooted and thrown in each other's faces. Irene had cried in the jeep all the way to the nearest Target's parking lot.
Diana had always joked that there was enough drama in her family to keep telenovelas on air for years; one of the byproducts of a big-ass Afro-Latino family. It was great if you liked juicy gossip, which Diana usually did unless it directly involved the five of them.
A strange sound made her stop in her tracks, pulling her back to reality. It was very faint, almost overwhelmed by the birdsong echoing all around her and the burbling of the stream down the trail, but distinct enough that Diana could pinpoint it.
It came from her left, off her intended path, and Diana had an internal struggle over whether she should follow her gut and check it out or listen to the more rational part of her that told her she was looking to get murdered.
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and almost bounced on the balls of her feet, looking back to where the camp lied, then forward where the stream awaited her, then, finally, to her left.
In the end, she threw caution to the wind and stepped off the beaten path, accepting her fate, even if it meant her grisly death.
She really hoped curiosity wouldn't kill this cat, not when she was so close to going home. She'd be pretty pissed if she met her end on a camping trip; lame as fuck.
Diana threw glances over her shoulder every two seconds, just to make sure the trail stayed put while taking hesitant steps in the general direction of the sound. It, luckily, became more discernable with each step.
At first, a constant buzz that had Diana looking around at tree trunks for a beehive or a nest of nasty wasps, but then it changed.
The buzzing became more refined, almost melodic. It changed from soft highs to gently swooping lows in a delightful siren song. Diana had never heard anything like it, not natural and certainly not manmade.
She followed blindly, her feet no longer hesitating but sure and true, stepping on twigs and crunchy leaves as the dewy ferns she navigated through left wet tracks on her calves. No backward glances as her heart beat up a storm in her ribcage.
The sound beckoned to her, and Diana obeyed.
It became even more hauntingly beautiful the deeper Diana walked into the forest, until it was all she could hear, not even her own ragged breathing, not even her feet on the ground. It resonated inside her head.
She stopped at the edge of a small glade of wildflowers amid the trees. The sun showered its light down on the blood-red, cornflower-blue, and pure-white flowers as they swayed in a breeze Diana couldn't hear nor feel. Her hands trembled as she stepped into the hidden garden, feeling like a trespasser.
The wildflowers and grass were impossibly tall, reaching her waist, and Diana raised her hands to graze them over the colorful petals. The melody continued playing in her head, rising and falling with the beat of her heart.
And it stopped abruptly once Diana felt something solid underneath her foot, leaving her dazed and on the verge of despair. She bent down, then, carefully sweeping the greenery with her arm until she could see what she had stepped on.
Her fingers wrapped carefully around the object, and a soft thrum played against her skin. It ran inside her digits and along the length of her arm – raising goosebumps as it spread – settling in her chest like a warm caress, filling her with a wide range of emotions all at once, leaving her breathless and on the verge of tears. In the end, an overwhelming sense of belonging prevailed, and a tear rolled down Diana's cheek.
She sniffed back the rest, confused and a little rattled, and finally looked, really looked at the object in her hand, which continued its song against her skin. It looked like it belonged in a museum, safe inside a glass case, or hanging above a millionaire's fireplace; it was that exquisite.
The recurve bow was roughly twice the length of Diana's arm, of a matte golden color all throughout. The curved grip had some texture to it, and her left hand molded right into it as if those were the imprints of her own fingers. The limbs were polished and flawless, no indentation or scratch besides a small symbol on the upper end. The string ran white and with threads of silver woven into it.
It was, honestly, something out of a dream. If not a dream, then a movie or a video game or a magical girl anime. Just anything but reality. And despite its immaculate condition, it felt ancient.
Diana didn't know what to think. Had someone lost it? Had it been here, untouched by civilization, throughout the ages? How come it had sung in her head, calling her to its location? And why only now? How was it that it fit perfectly in her hand and made her heart soar? What would happen if she kept it? What would happen if she pulled the string?
The bow's song intensified as if pleased by that idea, and Diana had to remind herself that it was an inanimate object, it couldn't read her mind nor react to anything. But then again… she was clueless.
She became the picture of nonchalance as she shrugged those thoughts away and raised the bow in – what she was sure – was a very inaccurate archer's stance. With three fingers on the silvery string, Diana drew it up to her cheek, only to squeak in surprise and let the bow fall back amid the flowers while taking a couple of staggered steps back.
Her eyes were wide as she stared down at the impossible object while her heart beat like a drum inside her chest and her breathing came out shallow. Adrenaline fired back and forth between her synapses, begging her to run, to leave that thing behind and never look back.
Yet her feet remained rooted.
The humming started once more, in the air around her, inside her head, soft and sad; rejection. Diana didn't care if the bow wasn't sentient, she still felt sorry for it, for its song. She recalled the warmth in her chest, the acceptance she'd felt.
She didn't understand any of this. She almost couldn't believe any of it had actually happened. Maybe she was still dreaming; maybe she was in a coma; maybe she'd been insane all along, and her entire life was a hallucination of which this was the culmination.
Diana didn't like not having answers to her questions. But she would have even more unanswered questions if she made the wrong choice now.
So, what will it be? Take it or leave it?
.oOo.
"Hey yo, look what I found!" Diana called and held the bow above her head, bringing her family's attention to her from their places of leisure. Her parents had been conversing next to their rental, having already started packing up, while her siblings had still been miserably trying to play some ball.
Felix approached her first – long legs and curiosity – bat slung fashionably over his shoulder as if she hadn't been a first-hand witness to his ineptitude with it. "The hell's that?"
"Wow, you need glasses as well as a brain?" Alice smirked, poking the leather glove to Felix's temple, which he slapped away with an irritated groan and a scrunch of his nose.
Sam grabbed them both by the ear and twisted until they were on the tips of their toes. "You start fucking bickering again, and I'll give you the goddamn punishment of a lifetime."
Felix turned to him with a brow raised in indignation and a whiny quality to his voice, his hand nursing his reddened ear. "I didn't even do anything!"
"But you were going to," Sam countered and raised an eyebrow at his son, daring him to say otherwise.
Diana shook her head disbelievingly and said, "Uh hello? I got possibly the coolest find of the century right here, people. Pay attention to me." The bow sang into her hand, as if on cue, and Diana looked from it to her family with watchful eyes. They had to have heard that.
Irene had simply ignored her family's antics and furrowed her brow at the beautiful object in Diana's hold. Had she heard it? "That's nice, hija, but where did you find it? Sam, look." She tapped her husband on the arm.
He turned from lecturing at his wife's command. "What am I looking at?"
Diana nodded once all four pairs of eyes were on her and began answering her mom's question. "So… I was heading to the stream when I heard this weird buzzing coming from the woods, so followed it-"
Irene interrupted with an incredulous tone of voice, "O quê? I'm sorry, you telling me you followed a random sound into a potential trap?"
Alice saw the opportunity to take a dig at her sister, "Why is that a surprise, we all know she's hella dumb."
"Yeah, mami, 'cause I ran out of brain cells," Diana deadpanned while giving her fist-bumping siblings the stink-eye, "We've been staying here for two weeks, if there were something out there to get any of us, it would've already." She would ignore the fact that she'd had the same thought process as her mom for the sake of her argument.
Irene rolled her eyes but complied with a tilt of her head.
"So, can I finish my story or what?"
"Quick before I lose my patience," her dad joked with a straight face and a stern voice. He was joking. If you knew him, you could tell the difference.
Diana related the events to the four of them, describing the melody in her head, the rush of emotion when she'd touched the bow, and finally, the arrow that had materialized out of thin air when she'd pulled the bowstring.
The silence and disbelieving stares at the end of her rant didn't inspire a lot of confidence in her. Instead, they made her want to tuck her tail between her legs and retreat to the safety of her tent with her mood soured for the rest of the day.
Then Alice started laughing loud guffaws to mock her, and Felix followed suit. Irene swatted at their arms to shut them up, but the damage had been done.
"Hija, don't be silly, things like that aren't real. Why are you making things up?" Irene's patronizing words hurt even more.
Diana knew how it sounded; she knew. But why did her mom assume she wasn't telling the truth? How would Diana stand to profit from such an eccentric lie? She wasn't particularly fond of being ridiculed, did her mom think she would actively seek out to be humiliated?
She could feel the shame and defeat being replaced with anger and the urge to make them eat their words… and their laughter?
She felt the corners of her lips curl downward as her brow furrowed, and she imitated her earlier stance, bow tight in her grip. She took aim at her sister, who looked on in smug amusement, and drew.
And there it was.
And how the bow sang.
To Diana, it looked like a swirl of light and smoke coming together to take the apparent shape of a metal arrow the same color as the bow. Upon closer inspection – since she had been distracted last time – Diana could now discern the three-bladed arrowhead and aimed away from her sister. They may bicker sometimes, but she still loved her too much to accidentally shoot her.
Her arm was getting tired and shaky from holding the arrow for so long, so, with one last glance to make sure they had all seen it, she released it. The projectile whizzed through the air in a flash of gold until it lost momentum and fell headfirst into the ground, embedding itself there before disappearing right before their eyes.
Diana blinked at that, not having expected it, and then grimaced at her poor archery skills. She'd been way better at it in Wii Sports Resort.
The stunned silence was broken by Sam's, "Filho da puta… I-" he trailed off, shrugging forlornly and turning to his wife to maybe help him understand.
Irene's eyebrows were almost touching her hairline as she looked from the bow to her daughter and then back. "Oh…"
"Alright, wait a fucking second," Alice said, taking advantage of their parents' bewilderment to cuss at will. "What the hell's happening? Are we all high? This like a mass hallucination or something? Did someone poison the water, was it you, Felix?" She put a hand on his shoulder. "Spit it out, we won't get mad."
Felix's answer was a side-eye as he used his bat to push Alice's gloved hand off his shoulder.
Diana couldn't help being the smug one, now. The smirk on her lips was accompanied by a lilting tune being hummed against her palms and climbing up her forearms. She meant to ask if the others had heard that, but judging by their lack of reaction, they hadn't.
Odd.
Irene gave her husband a wide-eyed, puckered-forehead look, to which he shook his head and crossed his arms in defeat. "Jesus Christ," she sighed, almost breathlessly, "…and- and you say you found it just like that, just- just lying there? Maybe you should've let it be, who knows who it belongs to."
"Finders keepers," Felix added matter-of-factly, lifting one shoulder.
"And it called to me," Diana said, as hopeful as ever, "I think I'm meant to keep it, mami."
"So, what we thinking here? Magical girl anime protagonist, really?" Alice's tone was slightly sarcastic, as a teasing eyebrow rose on her forehead. "Someone's feeling ambitious, yo. Where's the pink hair at, though, huh?"
Diana snickered, despite herself, because she knew how delusional it sounded. What else was she to say? Or do, for that matter? It wasn't like there was a guidebook for this kind of situation.
And even though she had hesitated before, one thing became clearer and clearer as the reality of the situation sank in. How many times had she waited for something fantastical to happen to her while growing up?
So many years waiting for her Hogwarts acceptance letter even though she grew up in Portugal; so many attempts at bending an element like Avatar Aang only to look like an untalented mime; so many stray animals she had chased hoping one of them was a talking mascot that would take her to a world full of magic and wonder.
And now, this: every child-at-heart adult's dream come true. She would be doing all of them a disservice if she didn't accept it. She didn't know exactly what she was supposed to do with the bow yet… but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.
"For real, bitch, just gimme a side braid and call me Katniss," Diana retorted, to which Alice nodded knowingly. "Wanna try?"
Alice didn't need to be told twice, and she snatched the bow from her sister's hands like it was the last Kit-Kat bar in the world. Her stance wasn't any better than Diana's, and she cleared her throat with a cheeky smile before pulling the string with her thumb.
The air of anticipation was popped like a balloon, and confusion reigned when no projectile appeared. Alice pointed an accusing finger at her sister, to which Diana put her hands up in innocence.
Felix wanted to try his luck next, but the result was the same.
Diana gestured at her parents to give it a try, but they refused. She let her siblings continue to examine the weapon, both of them fighting quietly among themselves to hold it.
Irene took the cue and ran with it, "Alright, enough playing around. Go put that back, Diana Letícia. The owner will come looking for it."
Diana swallowed hard at the mention of her second name, but persisted. "Mami, you really think someone would leave something as valuable as this out there unattended if they intended to come back for it?" Her logic made sense, right? "Where anyone – such as moi – could just stumble upon it and think 'oh, that looks nice, I'mma take that to go, please and thank you'. Why go through that risk?"
"It doesn't feel right." Irene's face contorted with the words. "It's not… as if it's not of this world. I don't like it."
"Mom, you believe in ghosts," Alice interjected, gesturing with her hands while taking her turn with the bow, "- and you've never even seen one. But you've seen this and what it does – or did, I guess."
"It's different, I understand the concept of ghosts and spirits, they have a rhyme and reason. This is… something else." Irene massaged her temple lightly. "I- honestly, I can't really wrap my mind around it."
Diana digested her mom's words silently, then looked to her siblings for help. Alice shrugged, but Felix seemed to be concentrated, unfocused gaze staring into the distance.
He jolted out of his trance and said, "Maybe it's new technology. Something advanced, maybe military grade or some kinda secret project?" Straight from the mind of a gamer.
Diana pondered how feasible his idea was when Sam interrupted with a shake of his head and a firm, "No." When Diana asked why, he answered, "Armed forces aren't allowed to do weapon trials so close to civilians, could turn into a fucking liability. And they'd never retreat one goddamn weapon down; another potential liability."
Alice looked at each of them expectantly. "So, our options are… what?" She returned the bow to Diana's hands, and its song resumed, lively and upbeat as if amused.
Diana couldn't help but wonder if it was merely her imagination attributing those emotions to the variations in the weapon's humming, or if there was really a chance that it was – to some level – a conscious thing.
Then she also noticed how neither Felix nor Alice had mentioned the buzzing when holding it and speculated that maybe – like the melody – it only affected her.
Odd shit x 2.
"Magic?" Alice suggested, laughing at their mom's exasperated eyeroll. "I was gonna say we can't completely rule out cutting edge technology, but no science experiment would ever look like this. So, I dunno what's left."
"Well, magic's just science we don't understand yet, right?" Diana added, suddenly remembering the quote from having watched Thor a couple hundred times. Her siblings seemed to have understood the reference.
"It doesn't make a difference," Irene interrupted, stepping forward. "I know you, my bullheaded children, it doesn't matter what it is or what I say; your mind is set, and I don't have enough arguments to contradict you." She sighed deeply and flattened the crease on her brow with massaging fingertips.
Diana grinned at the admission and faced Alice and Felix with a triumphant glint in her eye.
"Teamwork makes the dream work, bitches," Alice celebrated and raised her hands to slap against both her siblings', then pointed an accusing finger at each of them. "I still hate you for interrupting my sleep and you for hogging the bat."
please don't forget to leave a comment. i'd love to hear what you think and i greatly appreciate feedback :)
EDITED: 20. JULY 2019
fun facts:
- alice is ambidextrous but has a preference for her right hand when writing and drawing, mostly cuz it's less messy
- diana was named after a dream irene had but she pretends it was after diana prince a.k.a. wonder woman
- felix owns over two thousand unique pokémon cards and keeps them all organized in binders
