Sakura's Journey Chapter 25 Fade in The Wind
I woke-up with my dad still lying down next to me and holding me close to him. It looked like he had cried in the night. He awoke slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and blinking a few times, seemingly trying to remember where he was. He then smiled brightly and looked down to me. After we both got up, him leaving to make breakfast and me feeding Squible, making sure to check out his new little house dad had given him, I headed down stairs. No sooner did I set foot on the ground floor that my mom hugged me again. "Kura, I missed you so much!" "I missed you too mom." I got to have a massive breakfast for the first time in forever in my mind. Bacon, sausage, pancakes...it was all there. I was starving. My dad was chuckling slightly as he watched me eat. "It does something to go two weeks without a decent supply of meat, doesn't it?" I looked back up to him, absent mindedly picking at some food that got stuck between my abnormally sharp teeth. I had indeed seen myself in the mirror upstairs and I wondered how long it would take for me to regain the weight I had lost. I was horribly thin and pale and the bruise on my side hadn't gotten any better. Speaking of which... My mom spoke. "Kura, I noticed you have a pretty big bruise on your side. What happened?"
I looked to her, unsure of what to say. "I...I fought a bear." Both of them looked bewildered. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "It's a long story..." So after letting out most of what happened in the time we were lost, excluding the skull and the fact me and Daemon kissed, I was finally taken to a hair salon. I'm not kidding when I'll say that three different women were working on my hair alone. We all got a good laugh when they pulled a few acorns out of there. My hair was literally a squirrel's nest. Finally, I felt the curls flow back in their well kept texture. It was so much lighter than the mass I had had on my head for the past week and more, but heavier and warmer than the void I felt when I was a slender.
Dill and Fred had taken in Juan for now. The poor kid had nowhere to go...
I had to deal with the news people. They were kind of annoying. My mom had invented a cover story thankfully, so nobody would know about my supernatural origins. Once I was back alone in my room, I felt a sudden drop in temperature as my dad slenderwalked in. He sat down on the bed next to me. I looked up to his blank face. "Is Daemon really going to have a little sister?" The tall man smirked and pushed a strand of hair out of my face. "Yep. It'll be like a little sister to you too!" I blushed slightly and looked down. "Uhm...yeah...sisters...cuz me and Daemon are like...totally like brother and sister yeah..." I felt an odd aura that seemed full of mockery from my dad, but not negative. When I looked back up to him, I blushed even more as I noticed his smirk was now devious. "Johnny and I are close friends, you know. And we spoke to each other about all that happened, from his point of view." My eyes widened and I thought I was about to faint from sheer embarassment. He simply chuckled and stroked my hair gently again.
"Anyway, I'd say you're more than ready to learn the last thing you need to learn before I can call you an actual full fledged slender!" My embarassment was suddently gone and I looked back to where his eyes would be in wonder. "You mean it?" He stood up, smiling again. "Yup. Come on." I willed myself to change to my other form. I smiled in pride when I looked in the mirror at how similar the two of us were. I did notice though, that my dad's eyes were still lingering over the scarf that was wrapped around my neck. Slowly, he smiled and began to speak to me. "Look around your room. Capture every detail of it. Remember where everything is and how it makes you feel to be here." I did as I was told, looking around with my blurred vision, letting it unfocus briefly to get a sense of the place's aura. Soon, he took my hand and began to drag me out the hallway. We crossed paths with my mom on the way down stairs and she raised a brow. "What are you two doing?" My dad kept a stone cold serious expression on his blank face. "Not now, silly human. I am teaching!" Me and my mom both giggled and I turned to wave to her as she still stood in the stairs. We went out into the backyard.
Now my dad looked at me, puzzled. He stroked his white chin carefully in a thoughtful way. "Kura, to be honest with you, I have no idea what the heck I'm supposed to do to teach you this, but I'll give it my best shot." I laughed again. "You really are the best dad ever." He smiled again, but his smile fadded. When he next spoke, his voice was shaky with emotion. "If I really was the best dad ever, I'd have made sure you wouldn't be kidnapped." I didn't like it when my dad was sad. It stressed me. His natural aura was so strong and my sensitivity to people's feelings made for pretty bad vibes. I pushed him playfully, hoping to change the mood. "Just teach me to teleport already." He chuckled again and released his tendrills, coiling a few around my arms. "I'll do it first. Try to get a sense of the feeling you get as we slenderwalk." I did as I was told. It was only a split second before I was in my room, but there was a destinctive static-y wooshing feeling to it. It numbed me slightly. My dad brought us back to the yard. He looked to me again. "Now you try." I thought and focused hard, but I wasn't able to. I stood there for a good five minutes. Finally, I dropped to my knees. "I...I can't."
My dad sighed and looked to me again. I'm not sure how I knew when he gave me his attention seeing as he had no eyes. I didn't either at the moment though, so I don't feel I have a right to question that logic right now. He also seemed lost in thought for a bit before his tendrills twitched, indicating that he had an idea. "Use your tendrills." I looked up to him, confused. "What?" "I remember. I remember how my dad thought me." I did as I was told. He extended one of his tendrills towards me and I intertwined one of my own with his. At my questioning expression, he explained. "I'm not sure how it works, but it just helps to do this. Now try again." I focused again, until my vision started to fade. Quickly though, I felt an odd numbing and cold sensation and when I looked down to myself, I had this strange semi-transparent look to me. I panicked. We were back to square one. My dad didn't look upset, he was actually smiling brightly. "You're almost there!" I tried again. This time, I didn't flinch from the static and numbness. My mass fadded to nothing and we now both stood in my room. I let my mouth hang agape. My dad was also in silence. Then, we slowly turned to each other and smiled widely. I hugged him and he stroked the top of my bare head.
"You're a full slender now. I don't have anything else to teach you." I sensed the slightest hint of sadness in his voice mixed in with all the pride. I looked to him again. "You're my dad. You'll always have something new to teach me." He seemed taken aback by my statement and slowly smiled again. I then brought a hand back up to my neck, unwinding the scarf from there. "I...it feels wrong for me to wear it. This is your's. It helped me get through the forest, but I don't feel like I should wear it for anything else." I dropped it in his hands and he contemplated it for a minute before he placed it around his neck. Kissing the top of my head gently, he whispered. "I may not have been the best dad in the world, but I know you are without a doubt the best daughter." I was so glad to be home... It was then that our combined devious and sneaky slender natures took over. What else would be the first use of your powers but a prank?
"Do you know the layout of the kitchen very well?" I looked back to my dad. "Why?..." He grinned evilly and replied. "I think your mother is there now. Why don't you give her a little surprise by showing her your new power?" Now it was my turn to smirk evilly. Three minutes later, a jumpscare and a wasted roasted chicken and we all had a good laugh. My mom hugged me close. "Aw my Sakura. You're so much like your dad. I'm not always sure if that's a good thing." My dad who stood in the doorway, the top of his head touching the wooden frame, twitched the ends of his tendrills slightly and pouted. Mom walked over to him and kissed him. I faked gagging and turned away, only to jolt straight when my dad's voice rose up behind me. "Remind me to do that same expression whenever I catch you and Daemon kissing." "Shut up!" I looked down in shame, but also feeling an odd joy. My white cheeks vered to pure red after the next thing my mom said though. "Huh. I knew those two would get together eventually." This day went from embarassment to pride to more embarassement.