Beast Tamer

XI

Fauna followed Nico up the stairs to Mat's house, probably at a much slower pace than Nico would've liked but Fauna wasn't fit enough for this.

Sure, she's gotten fitter over the past week after being forced to walk up massive flights of stairs over and over again but that still didn't make her even nearly physically equipped enough for all these stairs.

She hissed and clutched her side. "Stitch," she groaned as Nico looked at her questioningly.

He wasn't as pale as he was before, in fact his skin had easily tanned from the time they'd spent outside training, he actually fed himself properly too so he wasn't as unhealthily skinny.

He'd been sleeping easier too and slept in Fauna's house just to ease his mind as sometimes he would wake up and forget he found her at all.

But here she was.

He looked worried. "Mat said to be there at ten exactly."

He ran down the few stairs that separated them before placing a hand behind her knees. He quickly picked her up, bridal style, before carrying the rest of the way - two flights of stairs.

When he set her down she smiled before opening the door to Mats house.

"Hi," she greeted as she entered and saw Mat sifting through some old looking papers.

He muttered a quick hello before vaguely gesturing to come in and have a seat.

Nico closed the door behind them as they sat down, Orion and Sage sitting like guard dogs at their feet.

"What do you think this is about?" Fauna asked Orion.

"That's your handwriting Fauna, those are old letters you used to send him whenever you were on missions."

"What mission?" She had refrained from asking before because her brain wouldn't have been able to take anymore information but now that Orion mentioned it.

"Mat can explain better than I can."

"But what was I-"

"Now," Mat began and Fauna jolted slightly. "I'm sure you've become quite accustomed to this world now and I really wouldn't want you to do this but you kind of have to."

Accustomed to this world? She almost snorted. She could barely hold a sword for the duration of a fight, she had zero experience with the outside world. Accustomed? You could say that.

Still she asked. "What?"

Mat took in a deep breath and was about to tell her something when Nico interrupted.

"You had a sister!"

Mat glared at Nico but he shrugged. She gaped. "I had a sister!"

"Half," Mat answered quickly before Nico could. "And a half-brother."

"What happened to them?" She asked as she sat forward in her chair.

"Well," Nico dragged out as he thought about how to eloquently out the facts. "Venus didn't exactly... like you."

She furrowed her eyebrows, she didn't like the thought of her sister not liking her but...

"Did she really hate me or was it just sibling hate?" She asked because there are lots of times when you hate your siblings but you really love them deep down - really deep down.

"No," Mat shook his head. "She really hated you with a passion."

"Why?" She asked. "Did I do something to her?"

"No, of course not," Nico answered.

"It's just that, for some people it's hard to live in another person's shadow, especially if that person is their younger sibling," Mat said gently with his usual smile. 

"So what happened to Venus?" Fauna asked firmly.

"She ran away a year after you arrived," Mat explained.

"Where is she now?" She asked as she ran her hand down Orion's dark fur.

Nico rolled his shoulders awkwardly. "Well, we think that she had something to do with your disappearance."

She raised an eyebrow. "Evidence."

"Well your sister appeared a few months ago and said that she thinks she'd found you-" Mat said before Nico cut him off.

"I had left five minutes ago to search for you myself," Nico said through a clenched jaw.

"And?" She asked, she felt like a little girl who wanted to know the end of a fairytale but at this point she couldn't care less.

"Glenn, your half-brother, went with her to find you but he disappeared, Venus never came back," Nico explained.

She turned to Mat. "And? Why am I here? Why are you telling me?"

"We need you to go find Venus," Mat said. "In the letters you sent me you told us that you found something life changing but, something you had to tell me face to face, but..."

"But I never returned," she finished. Nico and Mat nodded.  "So, I disappeared and three years later Nico finds me in a little town in the middle of nowhere."

"Basically."

"But what happened to my memories?" Fauna asked.

"We believe that Venus found someone to take them away."

"So what do you want me to do?" She asked. But she already knew what Mat wanted her to do.

He took in a deep breath. "I need you to go reclaim your memories."