AN: Enjoy :)
Hazel could not believe what she was seeing. Onyx, her supposedly dead brother was right here, two feet in front of her.
"Is...is it really you?" she squeaked.
"You...remember me," the teen whispered as he continued to stare at her. Hazel seemed paralyzed with shock and so was Arthur, but for a different reason. Something about this Scottish boy made him feel a bit uneasy. What only compounded that thought was when the teen raced past him to envelope Hazel in a hug and pick her up off the ground. "Oh Gwenny!" he exclaimed in a muffled voice as he squeezed his sister tighter. "I missed you so much!" Geeze, you'd think she would break if she touched the floor the way her brother was holding her. The unnamed woman also joined in the embrace for a bit. Arthur did not know how to feel about this. Hazel's arms were pinned to her side and she could not move them. Seeing her be clutched by a teenage male who was a foot taller and much bigger than her made him feel a bit uncomfortable. But who was he to speak? He knew nothing about older brother-younger sister relationships and hardly anything about male-female relationships in general, Hazel reminded him of that. The redhead was barely able to squirm her way out of the teen's grasp and land on the floor. Her brother and the stranger still stared lovingly at her, however she did not seem to feel the same way about them. No, the minute she plotted on the floor she got up and scurried away from them. Arthur knew he should've been questionable about her attitude but he found himself being a bit relieved as she practically hid behind him. "Gwenny what's wrong?" Hazel peeked her head out from behind the blonde.
"Well to be honest Onyx, I have a teeny question to ask you: YOU'RE ALIVE!?" she shouted. The teen sighed.
"Yes."
"But...how...didn't you ...well...I don't know.. die!?" Hazel asked while she twirled her hand and then quickly froze it.
"It's complicated." the teen breathed.
"Oh you're telling me! Now how are you here? A-live!?"
"I was able to make it out. I escaped the execution." he admitted.
"Oh really?" Hazel said, extremely unconvinced. "Ok then. Where is Timothy? Where is Massimo? Where is Alexander? Did they 'escape' too?" the Leodegrance son sighed at the very thought of his three deceased brothers.
"No. Cameron got to them before I could save them. I was the only survivor."
"That's quite convenient, don't you think?" Hazel said as she crossed her arms.
"Gwenny...you see I...," Onyx was at loss for words as Hazel gave him an odd glare. He sighed, dropping his arms and his hands slapped his thighs. He then stared her dead in the eye. "You don't believe me?" he finally asked.
"No." Hazel said plainly.
"Why though!?" he whined.
"Well your royal high knee," Hazel mocked. "For about seven years I've seen and believed many things that are out of the ordinary. However it turns out that there's a certain line of ridiculous that even I won't cross, and you Sir, have just drawn it. My brother was murdered seven years ago and I won't believe you until you you-"
"Prove it?" the teen interrupted. "You're my sister Gwenny, I know everything about you."
"I used to be a princess. I think everybody in Scotland knows quite a bit about me." Onyx sighed before he went quiet for a moment. He looked as if he wanted to say something but not with company present. Like a secret.
"You have the key." he murmured very quietly. Hazel's eyes widened.
"What did you say?" she asked for real this time.
"You have the key to the Eye of-."
"Alright I believe you!" she hissed. "But I have a few favors to ask of you."
"Like what?"
"Stop calling me Gwenny! Call me Guinevere at the least, even though that isn't my real name."
"Alright then what is your name?"
"Hazel." she said proudly. Onyx scoffed.
"Since when!?" he exclaimed quite irritated.
"I don't know since a while ago!" Hazel shrilled. "Just in case you didn't know, something quite bad will happen to me if people found out my real name. It's called being executed."
"That does seem like a reasonable thing to be afraid of Onyx." the strange woman whispered to the boy.
"Look, I really missed you Gwenny. I thought I'd never see you again. I knew you were here in England. I've been living in Lothian with her ever since." he said as he pointed to the nameless woman next to him.
"And she is….." Hazel questioned as she twirled her hand which was pointed at the strange woman.
"Mother's sister Astella."
"Astella!?" Arthur exclaimed, remembering the same mysterious name on the letter.
"Why yes. I should've said this sooner but I am Astella O'Broin, Duchess and matriarch of Lothian Palace. Do you know me or something my boy?"
"Well, not exactly, I-."
"I don't remember having an aunt." Hazel interrupted, crossing her arms.
"I imagine you wouldn't Guinevere. You never got a proper chance to meet me before well…well before it happened."
"I see. Then how was he able to live with you after 'it happened'? How did Cameron not catch you?"
"Your brother came to me and asked me to shelter him under a fake identity. In Lothian he is known as Grand Duke Keelan Galloway, my younger cousin. And I must do the same for you little Gwen for your own safety. So you must come back with us."
"Go back with you!?" the blonde exclaimed wide eyed. "Hazel you can't go back."
"He's right, Onyx. I can't go back there and I have no desire to do so."
"What do you mean?"
"How many times must I tell you?" Hazel huffed. "He'll kill me if he finds out."
"He won't find out." Onyx said calmly.
"Oh and how do you know that?" Onyx felt his face grow warm at his sister's stumping words.
"I…I.."
"You don't!" she said sharply. "I am not going back there, Onyx."
"Gwen, you can't make it by yourself all alone. You have nobody to take care of you."
"Take care of me? What are you, nuts? I had to survive on my own. You knew I was missing and you did nothing! I had to take care of myself! I don't need you Onyx, you have made that quite clear to me. And just now you come to me? What was it? Were you lonely or something?"
"Of course not! You are my sister and I love you."
"Well you sure have a funny way of showing it!" Hazel shot back.
"Come now Gwenny. You're a Gaelic Duchess living with the King of England. They don't like anyone from the northern Empire and if you stay here you won't have to worry about Cameron killing you because they'll have done the job themselves!" the teenager argued as he looked down at his sister.
"Well Guinevere is a Welsh name is it not? And besides, I would gladly die here than over there with you. You abandoned me brother. It was cold, it was scary and you had the potential chance to help me but you didn't! Why don't you just go back to the 'glorious kingdom' and continue to live your fake life. Forget about me Onyx…it's what you do best." The teen felt like he had been kicked in the stomach at his sister's stinging words. But she was right. He had left his poor sister to live on the streets by herself and constantly be around dangerous people. He tried his best to ignore her hurtful words and bent down to Arthur.
"You're highness, I really appreciate you taking her in but she cannot stay here."
"But why not though? She's perfectly safe here, I promise. We wouldn't let anything happen to her."
"I greatly respect that but she is property of the Pictish Empire."
"Property?" Hazel snapped. "What do I look like to you? A field inn!?" she shouted. "I don't care whether or not you know about the key! You have no physical proof that you are my brother and you have no reason why I should believe you!" Hazel turned around and stood behind the shaggy blonde to be out of her brother's view.
"They wouldn't have wanted this Gwenny. They would want us to be together." Only Hazel seemed to know whom he was talking about when he said 'they'. It was a mystery to everybody else, even Astella seemed quite confuzed.
"Well they are not here anymore. They left me just like how you did."
"They who Haze–er uh Guinevere?"
"Nobody important, Arthur. Just a couple of people I think of the same way he thinks of me," she said as she pointed to her brother. "Which is not at all."
"Gwenny that's not true! You have to come back to Scotland with us sooner or later!"
"How about later?" Hazel sneered. "I'm not going back."
"Guinevere Elizabeth Leogegrance!" he exclaimed as he grabbed his sister's wrist.
"Oh yeah, call pull the ol' middle name, as if that's gonna mean something to me!"
"Hey cut it out will ya!?" Arthur said as he interfered with the two fighting siblings, making Onyx let go of Hazel. "It's gonna get dark outside soon and the snow is only gonna build up. Why don't you both just stay here as guests until you can come to a conclusion?" Astella smiled.
"Wonderful idea! How 'bout it Onnie?" she said as she turned to her nephew.
"I suppose there's no harm in staying for a day…...one day." he said, closing his eyes. Arthur could now start to see the family resemblance in their attitudes.
"Great. Follow me."
"So you invited her family to stay here now did you?" Merlin asked his pupil. The evening had arrived and the two new visitors were in their room resting after getting settled. Hazel had dissapeared to somewhere to avoid her so called brother and aunt.
"Yeah. I didn't know what else to do."
"You talk as if I said there was something wrong with it."
"Oh…well….sorry. But anyways, what do I do about this?"
"I don't really know if you can do anything about it. Unfortunately, from what I hear Onyx is quite determined to take his sister back."
"But he just can't though. Hazel doesn't even think he's her real brother so why should I? And she said it herself she doesn't want to leave. So she belongs to me until he can prove otherwise."
"And here we go. First sign of development: the rebellious/romance/impulsive/pain in my side phase. I've dreaded this day for a long time." Merlin uttered.
"What?"
"Nothing. The point is that if you want her to stay you have to say something about it. Sometimes you have to be the change you want to see. But speaking of the redhead, where is she?"
"Probably hiding."
"I should've known. She does seem to be quite distressed about this too."
"So what do we do? For the last three nights I hear her screaming and crying but I don't know what she' saying."
"Well I do have an idea but I know you're not gonna want to hear it."
"I'll do anything to snap her out of this."
"Very well then. The solution to this problem is easy: all you have to do is talk to her."
"How do you know that's gonna do anything?"
"Talking is how the soul is eased. And being listened to is some of the best help one can have. Nearly all her life this girl has needed help. But on any other basis than today, she is stubborn, she has refused help. Now, I think, is the only time she will open up to someone. And that someone is you….I sure believe it is. She's just as alone and afraid as you, no matter how much you can't see it. Feelings are natural things that need to be expressed. But many young girls, especially nobles, are demanded to hide them. And I think, no, I know this one has some for you."
"I guess you're right. When you put it that way, ok, I'll go."
"That's more like it. But before you do, I have something for you to take with you."
To Be Continued...
AN: Hope You Enjoyed. Review if you can. :)
