The sun beat down from a cloudless, brilliantly blue sky and warmed the dirt between Zanna's fingers. She sang softly to herself as she worked, her ruffled skirt spread out around her and her hair in her eyes. Laughter floated along the path on the breeze that surrounded their cottage on the hill and she smiled, putting down her gardening tools. She ran her fingers through her hair to set it back in its place so that she could see clearly when she lifted her head. She stood up and brushed off her hands just as two small children ran over the hill's crest. She waved to them, still smiling.
"Zanna! Zanna!" The younger of the two ran over and threw her arms around Zanna's legs. "Hi Zanna! We're home!"
"Hey there, Zhia. How was school?" Zanna bent to hug the six-year-old. She picked her up and set her on her hip.
"It was good. We played outside and I won a game of tag and we got fruit for snack time and I got all the answers on our math test right!"
Zanna's other sister, only a couple of years older than Zhia, cut in, "And she didn't cry at all or get dirty for once."
"Ivy, be nice. She's allowed to get dirty," Zanna chided gently. "How were classes for you?"
"They were okay. We're starting a new unit in History," Ivy shrugged. She toed the dirt, not looking at her big sister.
"On what?"
Ignoring the conversation, Zhia twirled a piece of her sister's wavy hair that mostly matched her own. After a moment, she reached toward Zanna's neck to toy with the small locket hanging there.
"Domino and the Frozen Time; how it affected other planets."
Bored by the conversation and her playthings, Zanna's hair and necklace, she wiggled for her sister to let her down, which Zanna did. Zhia promptly sat down in the grass and started pulling out individual blades of the abundant plant.
"Oh well it's a very interesting time period. I'm sure you'll like the unit." Zanna smiled and ruffled her sister's hair before turning back to Zhia, "Is that one of my bows I see on your head?"
Zhia looked up, startled from her little kid thoughts and her tanned faced gained a hint of red, "It was really pretty and I wanted something for luck and you're so smart, sissy... I'm sorry!" She started to whimper, her eyes glistening with tears.
"Zhia dear, I'm not mad at you at all. I was just saying I noticed." Zanna kneeled down next to her sister and reached to fix the now off kilter bow, "You look very cute with it; it matches your outfit perfectly." She caught Ivy nodding in agreement out of the corner of her eye.
Zhia sniffled, "You think so? 'Cause it helped me a lot. I feeled like you was right there with me."
Ivy nodded, "You look great, Zhia. I'm sure all the other little girls were jealous of your hair bow." She tugged at it lightly. "Even if it isn't yours."
Zanna grinned, full of love for her sisters. "Well I'm very glad that it helped you. Now run inside and clean up. Braydon and Rose should be home soon. When they get here, we'll start supper."
Zhia nodded and bounced up, her brown curls bouncing around her now grinning face, "Okay! Are you going to stay out here?"
"Yes, I just have a tad more weeding to do. It's been awhile since I've been here to tend to it," Zanna answered. She received another hug then watched Zhia scamper up the stone path and into the house.
Once Zhia disappeared inside Ivy turned to Zanna, biting her lip. "Zanna?"
Zanna returned to sitting on her legs and took hold of a weed in one of her multiple flower beds, "Yes?"
"We're reading legends and myths about the Great Dragon in Language class and there's one about Hedera..."
"The one about the Dragon coming to visit and blessing the planet with good fortune?" Zanna yanked the weed out, and then moved onto the next.
"Yeah, that one. Do you think it could be true?" Ivy stood beside her sister, toying with a wilted flower she had picked.
"Not really. Papa always said it was false anyway. If we were really blessed with good fortune, we wouldn't be at war. Plus, our land would be the most fertile in the dimension. We wouldn't need to tend to it." Zanna shook her head and yanked out another weed, "But we are at war and our land is no more fertile than it was when the dimension was created. We do very well with what we have as a planet, and as a family. Our king will end the war soon, with no help from good fortune. We need none of that, just each other."
"But the Dragon gave us our magic," Ivy pointed out quietly.
"Yes but he's also gone now. No one's seen him in years," Zanna shrugged and tossed the pulled weeds into a pile. "I guess that means we don't need him anymore. Like I said, we have each other. That's all we need."
"Maybe he's just sad that his people forgot about him and all he did," Ivy pulled off one petal, then another. "Maybe he just wants us to remember him again before he comes back."
Zanna could hear voices nearing and she looked behind them, towards the edge of the hill. "Your brother and sister are home. You should go clean up and check on Zhia. Who knows what kind of trouble she's getting into in there alone."
Ivy nodded and turned to go to the house. She sullenly looked down at the flower, rubbing a petal between two fingers. There wasn't many petals left.
"And Ivy?"
"Yes?" She kept her eyes on the petal between her fingers before dropping it into the grass at her feet.
"Don't mention these myths in front of Papa. Please."
"Okay." Ivy moved up the path, continuing her destruction of the half dead flower. She left a trail of petals behind her.
The wind was rougher on the cliff, pushing Anila back. She fought the wind until she was at the top, looking over the small town that she lived in. She could see her grandmother's house at the bottom of the cliffs, tucked into the rock.
By now her grandmother would be back from shopping, her arms laden with multiple overflowing bags. She'd insist that Anila go with friends and that she didn't need help. She'd tell Anila to "go play" like she was once again twelve years old.
Anila sighed. She wished her grandmother would let her help out, especially after everything that she had done to raise Anila when she was orphaned. But Meridah believed she should spend her time back home with her friends, catching up and going "out on the town".
Except Anila didn't have many friends. Actually, she had none on Everis. Back at Alfea, she had a couple but they weren't super close.
All these years later and Anila still trusted no one except her grandmother.
She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sighed. She tilted her head back and held her arms out, feeling the wind beat around her. It yanked at her short hair and clothes but she felt no danger of falling. As the fairy of winds she felt one with the air, even in the angriest storm.
And Everis had some angry wind storms.
She loved all the scents that the wind around her village carried- the lake, the budding flowers, the animals, rain from over the hills, and the smell of the earth. Being surrounded by these scents of her home, above all her problems, Anila felt the safest. Sometimes, even with the protection of powerful charms and barriers, Anila would check over her shoulder when she was out and about at Alfea.
She returned to gazing over the village, trying to find the few people she did talk to from afar. There was little Azir, the local smith's little boy. He was a genius little prankster and Anila enjoyed hearing of the trouble he caused while she was away. Then there was Suzi, a classmate of Anila's who Anila had often found herself battling with top academic honors. Suzi and Anila respected each other's intelligence and every so often would simply have a conversation about some new discovery made in the dimension.
Anila searched for the strange black hair of an old acquaintance that had joined her in her runs some mornings, Vic. She had seen him at Alfea- Redfountain events but had never talked to him. Then again, she had rarely talked to him before then as well. She didn't do much talking with anyone; this was especially true when it came to males.
"Stop those thoughts. They are most unnecessary, Anila. You know that he is no friend. He has not even partaken in any type of conversation with you," Anila scolded herself as she turned away from the edge of the cliff. "Get your mind in a sensible state. You are resuming school soon."
On that note she made her way down the steep slope of the cliff, moving slowly until the angle flattened out enough for a safe running pace. Once she hit her stride, she thought about the texts at home that she had brought from Alfea. She mentally noted what she needed to study before she went back to school in two days. There was much to do!
She wondered about Meridah and what she would say about Anila being home and not doing anything but reading books. She'd probably tsk-tsk and suggest Anila walk over to Suzi's but Anila was not in the mood for Suzi's boasting and lists of all that she had achieved in the past few months. Suzi went to Beta Academy, so Anila had to listen to all the great things Beta did that Alfea didn't, at least not in Suzi's mind.
Anila walked back to her house, picking up on the cheery humming escaping from an open window on the breeze that blew past her. She allowed herself to smile a bit, the familiar musical sound of her grandmother welcoming her home. She went in through the screen door to the kitchen, catching a glimpse of a shorter, plump old woman shuffling around in the pantry.
Meridah had gathered her hair into a tight bun high on her head and had donned her frilly lilac apron, signifying that she planned on cooking- and cooking a lot. Her humming changed tunes smoothly as she filled her arms with boxes and jars.
Anila knocked gently on the doorframe to alert her grandmother to her presence, "I'm home, Grandmother."
Meridah broke from her reverie and grinned warmly at her granddaughter, the skin around her eyes crinkling in a way that made one's attention go to her brightly colored lilac-blue eyes. "Good to see you, Ani dear. But don't you have friends to go see?"
"No, Grandmother. I don't have many friends and they're all busy anyway. I want to help you with supper, or whatever it is you're planning on doing," Anila laughed a bit and moved back into the kitchen to put away the grocery bags that Meridah used.
"I was planning on making a big meal for you and your friends. I ran into Vic while I was shopping and he asked about you and when Alfea went back. Turns out you both go back in a couple days, logical I imagine since the schools are so closely knit, so I thought it'd be a lovely idea to throw a little get together before you went back." Meridah dumped her ingredients on the scarred kitchen table and turned back to Anila, "Is Suzi still home? Why don't you go invite her? And little Azir, he's always so much fun to have in the house."
Anila sighed, "Okay Grandmother. Are you sure you don't need help?"
Meridah made a shooing motion at the teen before pulling casserole dishes out of a cupboard, "Go now, Ani. Invite some friends over for supper. I'm making enough for an army." She plopped the dishes in a row and then pulled bowls from another cupboard, effectively showing Anila that there would be no argument.
Anila shook her head and left the house silently. Her grandmother was a force to be reckoned with, like the storms of their home planet, and one day Anila wanted to be like her.