Sorry for the long wait. I've decided on a schedule for my stories.

Starting May 2nd:

First Weekend of the Month: Entei's Nightingale

2nd Weekend: Dream vs Reality

3rd Weekend: Falling in Love With an Oracle

4th Weekend: update if something came up and I missed one of the above.

Anything else will still be randomly updated.

Back to the story. I still don't own Magi.

Chapter 7 New: Funerals

"Hey, did you see her corpse?"

"Yeah, what was that?" The Sindrian soldier grew quiet when he met Eleanor's glare. He and his friend walked away, probably to finish their conversation elsewhere. She sighed before turning her attention back to the platform in front of her.

She stood silently beside Alibaba and the rest of his gang as they solemnly watched smoke rising into the air, coming from the burning coffin standing in the center of the platform. From the corner of her eye, she saw Alibaba's hands clutch in an attempt to hold in his grief. She knew from reading the manga that he was comparing the corpse in the coffin to his dead friend. Both had turned into what looked like coal due to strange magic.

Aladdin wasn't doing much better. His hands openly shook as he had a vice grip on his wooden staff. She remembered that he had become close friends with the now deceased ex-princess. Eleanor almost felt responsible for the girl's death. She didn't even remember the girl's name, but she had known it was coming and did nothing. No, she kept reminding herself, there was nothing I could have done to stop it.

Eleanor watched the flames blankly. She felt no grief, no anger… just emptiness. As time passed, she no longer saw the flaming coffin. Instead, she saw the white walls and stained glass windows of a nameless church. A younger version of herself walked up a few steps toward a long black box in the front. No! She wanted to cry out. Don't look. But the girl didn't hear, curiosity driving her forward. She had been brought to the church by her father, who had told her to wear a black dress that he had bought for her. No one had yet explained to her why her mother hadn't come home for the past week. Eleanor still didn't understand why she hadn't figured it out sooner.

As she drew closer, she noticed that the lid to the coffin was off to the side and decided to come closer to get a better look of who it was.

"Mom?" she called in surprise. "Mom, why are you in there?" No response. Panic bubbled in her gut, but she didn't want to believe it. "Hey, mom!" She reached in to shake her mother awake only for someone to grab her hand. She looked up at her father. "Dad? Why is Mom in the coffin?"

He looked away, unable to tell his daughter that her mother was dead. No, instead he led her away. "Wait," she exclaimed. "What about Mom? We need to wake her up before we go home." She could hear whispers beginning from the people attending the funeral.

"The poor girl," an elderly woman said, pity evident in her eyes.

"-so young."

"Left behind a family-"

Her mind was racing. Why were they talking about? Why were they looking at her like that? She pulled away from her father, running back toward the coffin. She heard her father call her name, a hint of anger in his voice but she ignored him. "Mom, come on!" She grabbed her mother's shoulder, gasping at the feeling of the cold skin. Now that she thought about it, her skin looked paler than normal too.

She felt a warm hand grab her own shoulder and pull her back. Her father spun her around and spoke. "Eleanor. She's dead."

Harsh words, but it got the message across. She froze up, staring at her father with wide eyes.

"Ele. Hey, Eleanor!"

Eleanor flinched as she felt a warm finger slide over her cheek. She blinked and looked into Sharrkan's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Sharrkan asked her in a calm, quiet voice. He was leaning in rather close to her, she noticed.

She looked past him at the still burning coffin. Most of the people had already left, it seemed. Aladdin had gone closer, Alibaba following him. Morgiana and Hakuryuu had disappeared. She returned her attention to Sharrkan and gave him a forced smile. "Yep. Why do you ask?"

He stared at her for a while before sighing and straightening up. "You were crying, you know."

Eleanor frowned, rubbing her eyes with a hand. "It's the smoke," she huffed.

He watched her a little longer. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive Sharrkan. It's not like I knew her very well. I don't even know her name." Eleanor glared at the ground, guilt building up again.

Sharrkan just shook his head. "You weren't thinking about her. You had a far away look in your eyes."

Eleanor's hands balled into fists. Why wouldn't he just drop it? Didn't he understand that she didn't want to share? "Because you're such an expert at reading me, right?" she growled in anger. She turned sharply on her heels and stalked off.

"Ele!" Sharrkan's voice followed her but she didn't dare turn around; instead her pace increased. She could already feel tears running down her cheeks again.

She had to get away. Away from Sharrkan, away from her friends, away from the coffin, away from her past.

"Damn it," Eleanor growled to herself as she pushed herself into a sitting position. She glared at her scraped-up hands and knees. It had been a few days since the funeral and Eleanor had been trying to evade Sharrkan. Everytime he was nearby, she felt weird. She didn't like it.

Today, in a panic and with no other ideas, she had run into the forest when she had seen Sharrkan turning the corner. Unfortunately, she had learned that she wasn't very good at directions, and been lost for the past hour.

She looked back at the upturned root of a tree that had tripped her "Freaking nature!" she yelled, kicking it with everything she had only to squeak in pain, jumping on her uninjured foot as she fought back tears. "Ffffffffffff!" She just barely kept herself from cursing her frustration into the sky.

As she jumped, she felt something snag the back of her foot making her fall on her butt. At this point she just gave up and sat there with a sigh. She glared at the tree root before her. "What did I ever do to you? Did I use your mother for firewood or something?" There was no response, making Eleanor feel rather odd for expecting one. "Come on, I'm in a magical world! I'm sure a tree can talk. Talk already!"

A sudden shadow fell over Eleanor, and she looked up, gasping in surprise. A huge wave a billion times the size of the palace was heading toward the island. For a moment, she panicked. Then she felt the wind pick up and saw a figure floating about the island.

The battle between Sinbad and Koukou, she thought in awe. Damn it! I missed the fun stuff. She shot a glare at the root accusingly. The winds tore through the wave with such force that the water seemed to disappear for a moment.

Drop…... drop… drop. Dropdropdrop.

Eleanor cursed under her breath as she felt a cold rain drop hit her cheek. Then another. In the next moment, she was drenched to the bone. I must have pissed off the ocean too, she thought gloomily as she pushed drenched strands of hair out of her face.

A high-pitched sound reverberated through the air. Eleanor froze, her eyes widening. The fight, you idiot! Sinbad's crazy sleep screech! Why aren't you paying attention? She tried to cover her ears as quickly as she could but it was too late. Her vision blurred and the world tipped. Today's just not my day… "Damn it."

Why was she swaying back and forth, and why was she so freaking cold? Eleanor tried to open her eyes but they felt heavy. In an attempt to stop the swaying she gripped onto something.

"Oi!" Sharrkan's voice exclaimed in shock. The swaying stopped. "Don't just pull my chain. You do realize it's attached to my ear? That freaking hurts."

Eleanor's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at a surprisingly close Sharrkan. Bu-dump. Then she looked down at her hands, her fingers curled around the golden chain hanging from his neck. "Sorry…" she murmured before taking in their surroundings. Sharrkan was holding her, one hand around her shoulders, another under her knees. Bu-dump. They were still somewhere in the forest but the sky had darkened significantly. She shivered, her still soggy clothing sticking to her skin uncomfortably, made even colder by the breeze blowing in from the sea.

Sharrkan sighed, letting Eleanor back down on her feet. Eleanor took a tentative step only to find that her legs felt like jelly. She grabbed onto the first thing she saw before she fell, which happened to be Sharrkan's chain. They both tumbled down.

"Damn it! I said not the chain!" Sharrkan hissed, sitting back up and rubbing his neck.

Bu-dump. "Sorry…" Eleanor repeated, sitting up slowly as well. "Why are you here, anyways?" she asked him.

He stood, offering a hand to Eleanor, which she took. With a quick pull they were both on their feet again. "After you disappeared into the woods, no one had seen you so I got worried." He had been worried about her? Bu-dump. "Alibaba kept asking me where you went. He was going to go search for you but I told him to stay with the princess."

"Princess…" Eleanor mumbled to herself. "Ah, you mean Koukou being asleep. God damn Zepar. I wasn't prepared for it."

Sharrkan nodded, not bothering to ask her how she knew at this point. "I thought maybe that was what had happened so I went looking for you." He sat down on a convenient boulder nearby. "Why are you avoiding me? And why were you in the god forsaken forest? It took forever to find you."

She looked at the boulder for a moment. It would definitely be cold… but she felt so tired. Rest and be colder, or stand and still be cold… She sighed and sat down beside him, glaring at her scraped up hands in front of her. "I'm not avoiding you. I just wanted to take a walk, and the forest looked nice." Turns out the forest wasn't so nice, who knew.

Sharrkan scoffed. "Bullshit. You've been acting odd since the funeral."

Eleanor frowned and looked away. "I was just… thinking."

Sharrkan was silent, though she could feel his gaze on her.

I'm so not telling him that he makes me feel weird. What's option two? She had never told anyone about her mother's funeral. Just the thought of it made her too close to tears. But… it was better than option one, and maybe it would be good if she talked about it. She'd heard that that normally helped people with traumas. It worked, right?

Eleanor took a deep breath, bit her lip, and breathed out through her nose. "I don't know where to start," she admitted. That phrase felt so cliche, even worse when it came from her mouth.

Silence followed her words before she felt Sharrkan shift slightly beside her. "Start with whatever you feel like sharing. I'll listen. We're the only ones here." Bu-dump.

Eleanor nodded. "At the funeral… thing. Now that I think about it, what do you call those funerals were you set the coffin on fire?"

"Pyre," Sharrkan supplied, not pushing her to continue. He didn't even mention that she had changed the subject, even though it was obvious. She appreciated it.

Eleanor nodded. "The pyre. It reminded me about my mom's funeral. I mean, its not like we sent her off in a blaze of flaming glory. It was just the whole sad atmosphere. I've stayed away from funerals since then so…" Silence followed.

"Your mom?"

Eleanor nodded, her fingers rubbing the snake earring, the last present from her mom. "I was 12. My dad took me to a funeral. I had no idea it was my mom's. When I saw her in that coffin… she looked like she was sleeping. I thought maybe she was playing a joke on me."

Eleanor jumped when Sharrkan's hand rested on top of her balled-up fists. Bu-dump. "You're hurting yourself," he murmured, taking her hands and uncurling them. His hand was warm against her frigid skin. She blinked at the sight of crescent shaped indents formed on top of her recent scrapes in the skin of her only recently healed palms.

"Where did you get all these new scratches?" he asked her gently.

Eleanor frowned. "I learned that the forest hates me." She answered without actually answering.

Without thinking, Eleanor grabbed Sharrkan's hand as it began to withdraw. Bu-dump. Bu-dump. Everything around them was silent, making her beating heart and the blood rushing through her ears seem loud. Too loud. She was afraid Sharrkan would hear it too.

When she realized she was still holding his hand, she wasn't sure what to do and slowly released him. "Um… thanks. For listening." She stood. "I better go see if Koukou's okay."

Without looking back she ran away from Sharrkan… again. Her heart was racing, and her face burned hot even as she shivered in the cold night.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions for Serpentes' power. I've decided on what he can do. Would you all like me to tell you or keep it a secret?

As for reviews:

SoulXHunter: Thanks so much for the compliments. I hope I didn't deprive you too long. It takes a while to make the chapters good enough to post, and then there are those times where I'm either too lazy or to busy to even look at it.

Evalyd Yamazaki: My thoughts exactly. there need to be more SharrkanxOC's out there. Its the whole reason I made this.