Chapter 2
The town where his mom's grandmother lived was days away from their home and very remote. Simon held in a groan when their cart driven by donkeys no less, went straight into a pothole on the dirt road jarring his entire body. He wished that he had a hover car to ride in but his mother refused to ride in one once they got to the town and hired a donkey cart instead.
His mother didn't respond verbally when Simon complained about it, but he shut up when Regan sent him a look. It was the same look that River and Kaylee gave him when he was being a idiot. He guessed there was a reason why his mother ordered a donkey cart of all animals.
"Here you go." The old man stopped the cart, throwing Simon forward, when his mother motioned for the cart to stop in the middle of nowhere, fields on one side, the overgrown forest on the other. When the cart left, Simon followed his mother down almost hidden weed filled path that made him realize why his mother insisted on practical clothes and shoes. Fashionable, but still usable.
His mother walked briskly to the cabin cottage in the middle of the clearing that opened up twenty miles from the road. Simon started to follow her, glad to be off the small trail that wasn't even a path. Not a proper one anyway. His feet were aching.
But instead he paused two steps into the clearing, which unlike the forest was completely different, more rocky, red and yellow sand, trees twisted together to form groves in the twenty some acres, spots of tall lime colored grass that had a hint of golden yellow waving in the suddenly cool breeze.
Simon felt his body unwind, relaxing in a way he haven't felt since he was with Kaylee or spending some quiet time with River as she draw and he read. It felt like home, which was strange, because it was clearly not home.
Simon jumped as thunder echoed across the clearing, and warm rain started to heavily fall. He dashed to the cottage cabin door, sliding the last few feet, tripped through the suddenly opened wooden door and was braced by a strong arm as his mother shut the door against the raging weather.
"So you are my granddaughter son." The woman was tiny, about the size of River. In fact if it wasn't for her pure white hair done in a tight braid he would of swore it was River, but her eyes were a lighter brown and her clothes were leather and comfortably worn.
She guided him to a wooden bench after asking him to take off his shoes. His mother sat next to him as their host, moved gracefully around her home gather tea items. As the kettle boiled above her fire in her fireplace she set out honey on the side table next to her chair, in which she sat.
"Granddaughter why are you here with your son Simon not your daughter? River is almost 19 correct?" Diona as she called herself, went to the kettle when it whistle for attention.
Diona was in the middle of pouring the tea for Simon when his mother who still haven't taken a sip of her tea, said, "The Academy that we sent River to when she was 14 awoken her before her time. They caused some changes that isn't good."
Simon almost got burned but Diona quickly set down her kettle by her mug and turned her full attention to Regan, not caring that the hot kettle was burning the wooden side table. "Explain exactly what happened to River."
"Simon?" Regan asked as she finally sipped her tea after putting some honey in it.
Simon again explained everything to Diona who sat calm and collected, the tightening of her hands on her clay glazed mug the only sign of her distress.
Once he was done, Diona spoke. "Regan does the sayings behind you still echo in your daughter? Or is all lost?"
Simon twisted around to see two well crafted plaque with the words etched on them.
'Noli foras ire, in teipsum reddi; in interiore homine habitat veritas'
(Don't lose yourself, return to you, inside of you lives the truth. – Augustine)
'Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim'
(Be strong and endure, someday this pain will be useful to you. – Ovid)
"I want to say yes, but Simon would know more since he spend that first year when she was lost. Simon?" Regan took another slow slip of her tea.
Simon wondered if his mother was going to just let him take all the hard questions. "From what I've seen of River, she's still River, but more. She's hard to explain. As she explained it to me once, the Academy took her apart but kept the core of herself intact and remade her into a sharp blade, sharping her sight and senses into a predator. The ultimate one. I believe that they just wanted someone to stand against the Reavers. The Academy's pain they put her through served her well when she stood against the Reavers for us."
Diona laughed softly. "Those fools, those weak minded fools. They made their biggest mistake and then in their hush rush to get rid of it they awakened something they will never understand. Tell me what color is River's eyes? Or should I say any colors been added?"
Regan and Simon frown. "I don't understand. What do you mean about her eyes?" Regan asked, tea drunk. Simon just shook his head.
Diona sighed. "Please follow me." Regan and her son followed her down into her cellar wondering why she shut the door behind them. When she turned around they both gasped because Diona's eyes had the lightest shimmer of silver, like a moon sliver on a dark lake.
"Bring River here. For this clearing is a replica of our ancestors island which has been lost to the ages. The Furyan blood is barely in our bloodstream anymore, but from what I heard about River, she is the strongest one I have known of for centuries. Bring her here. She needs to learn."
**
The beast lifted his head and sniffled the air, a sweet scent filled the air. It was a faint, faint, faint scent, but it made the man and the beast hunger to know to learn what the scent was. The man stirred for once, not exactly caring, more curious then anything. But he was content to let the beast take control. He was done with humanity.
River was amused at her father and humored him as he took the skimmer hover boat to the island that they owned. She saw the beast in her father's mind and wondered why he thought the 'beast' would be a good companion protector for her. She had fought and won against the darkness, the Reavers. She didn't need a protector. A dog might be interesting though.
Then she laid her eyes on the beast and something inside her that was awakened in the academy slowed and almost paused in peace. This was no dog. The beast was like her, but not. More fuller and intact.
**
Gabriel was beyond nervous and anxious as his precious daughter and the beast who had come out of the trees near the uninhabitable lands circled around each other, each one's eyes sharpening and accessing each other, like a cat before it ponced on a unexpected prey.
He held in a gasp as the beast nuzzled River like a cat. She settled her hands on the beast's head and spoke gazing intently into the beasts eyes that had a faint shine of silver that he knew would blossom into the stars of the sky at night.
"You are not beast. You are the Riddle King. The one that rules over a lost land. You sing in me and I sing in you, fainter perhaps but still sings. I am called River of the Tam family. I will flow with you if you let me."
River took off at a run, one that Gabriel hadn't seen since her childhood. The one that made them enroll River in dance. For she was a river that must run where it wants. The beast snorted and ran in a different direction from her.