The Last Defender (FINISHED)

Out of Context AU #2: The Turtle And The Kitchen Sink

I woke up on what turned out to be one of the strangest days of my life (it certainly reached the top 10, like the time Dino and Racer got drunk, or the day I realized I was on a foreign planet), wondering what I was going to do. Racer was dead. Raleigh was dead. Skyal was dead. Latis was dead. Nobody has spoken to me in days, and to top it all off, Ayumi had gone missing several days earlier.
But instead of being a good cousin and searching for her, I locked myself in my room, deciding I'd had enough and feeling sorry for myself. I'd stayed there for four days and five nights by the time I finally left it, not stepping foot outside the door once.
Drowning in self-pity, I'd spent most of those days crying and dramatically staring out the window. I knew there was no use. I just didn't care.
However, it was on this fifth day I finally left my room again. But it wasn't because I'd decided I was done with the self-pitying, but because I thought I was going insane and wanted to convince myself I wasn't.
I had been hearing voices that morning. Or, more specifically, one voice. At first, it was only loud enough to barely penetrate my conscience. However, before long, it grew louder. "Stephanie!" The voice would say. "Steph!" It kept calling me. It was an annoying voice- it was high, and shrill, and it wouldn't stop calling my name. And the weirdest part, was that it seemed to be coming from my kitchen.
So after it had been calling me got about half an hour, I finally decided to check it out.
"Stephanie! Steph! Steeeeeeeeeeph! Stephanieeeee!"
I opened my bedroom door and walked, barefooted and in my five-day-old pajamas, to the kitchen.
"Steeeeeeeeeeph!"
When I saw what had been calling my name, I was sure I'd been drugged or something.
There was as a turtle.
In my sink.
Who could talk.
And more specifically, that had been calling my name for the last thirty minutes.
Holy shit. I really was going insane.
The scariest thing was probably that the turtle was glaring angrily at me.
"Finally. Took you half an hour to get to me huh?"
"You're a turtle. And you can talk."
"Yeah. No shit."
"Uhm, why are you here?"
"Because you're my cousin. Duh."
Wait, what.
"Excuse me," I said in the politest tone I could manage, "but I don't think I'm related to any turtles."
"Stephanie, it's me. Ayumi."
"Ayumi's not a turtle."
"I am now."
"If you're Ayumi, let me ask you a question. Ayumi and Racer are the only people I ever told about this, so if you're Ayumi, you know it."
The turtle who claimed to be my cousin sighed. "Fine."
"Okay. What's the name of Kim and Vince's sister who saved my life when I first came to Earth?"
"Alice, right?"
"Ayumi, tell me," I said, without hesitating any further. "Why are you a turtle?"
"It was Raleigh."
"Uhm... Raleigh's dead."
"He was a ghost."
"Okay, but..."
"Don't question it, Stephanie." The turtle tried to scramble up the side of the sink, but failed miserably. So miserably, that she ended up on her back in the bottom of the sink. "The point is," she said calmly, "THAT I AM A TURTLE AND I'M STUCK ON MY BACK IN YOUR KITCHEN SINK." She paused, wiggling her little turtle feet, then giving up. "Uhm, a little help here."
"Oh, right." I picked her up and turned her around so that she was right-side-up, and I held her in the air.
"Stephanie."
"What?"
Ayumi wiggled her little feet again. "PUT. ME. DOWN."
And then I giggled. It was the first sign of any form of happiness I'd shown in days, and I was relieved. Relieved that I wasn't going insane. Relieved that I wasn't gonna be stuck with Fidellis and Dino for the rest of my days but had Ayumi with me still. With that thought, I put her down on the counter top.
"Ayumi?" I asked.
"What?"
"How did you get into my kitchen sink?"
"Weeeeeeeell... you see, none of my powers currently work. I spent four days- FOUR DAYS -making my way here. It's a hard-knock life for a magicless turtle. Also, I live pretty far away from here. But anyway, oncd I got here, I had to find a way to get your attention. But it was the middle of the night, so I decided to wait. I chose to climb up here, because I know the first thing you do in the morning is go into the kitchen." While she'd been talking, she'd been pacing back and forth on the counter top. She made an adorable turtle.
"That still doesn't explain how you got into the sink."
"Yeah. Uhm. Well... it was dark. And I slipped. Into the sink. And I couldn't get out."
I laughed, walked to the other side of the sink and sat on top of it.
"Steph?"
"Yeah?"
"Could you... turn me back?"
"Oh. Right." So I turned Ayumi into her normal Aelen self, and now we were both sitting on the counter top.
"Ayumi, there's just one thing I'm wondering," I said.
"And that is?"
"Well, how did Raleigh turn you into a turtle if he's a ghost?"
"Stephanie." She looked me sternly in the eyes. "Don't question it. He's just that good."

Finished: 24th of March