Amaranth

Lessons To Learn

Alice spent the whole day teasing Belle on how young she was and vulnerability. Belle had tried to ask the girl questions on her magic and sudden appearance, but Alice would just change the subject. Belle was getting frustrated, she wanted answers.

"Can I please ask my question now?" Belle asked angrily.

Alice raised her eyebrow and gave a sharp laugh. She flicked her finger down and Belle was suddenly sitting down on the river bank and seemed to be unable to get back up. Alice seemed to float as she walked around her and gave a Belle a look up and down. "You're pretty small aren't you?" She asked rhetorically.

Belle struggled to get up but she seemed to be glued to the ground. She gave a frustrated grunt and looked at Alice, eyes begging to be freed. Alice bent down and looked at Belle in the eyes. She reached over and played with Belle's hair. Then, she suddenly tugged it roughly, causing Belle to cry out.

"It would be so easy to kill you right now. One flick, that's all it takes. You are completely defenseless and under my control right now. I could kill you right now. So think twice before talking to me disrespectfully again." She snarled.

Belle's eyes began to water and she started regretting her decision to come at all. All she wanted was to get answers and now she was going to die. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she saw Alice roll her eyes and flick her fingers again. Belle flinched, waiting for impact.

"Oh please, I said I could kill you, not that I would. Stop crying, this is why I don't like kids."

The young girl scrambled to get as far as she possibly could from Alice but her legs kept giving up and couldn't do much but crawl away a few inches away. She watched Alice with suspicion as Alice came towards her once again. Alice folded her hands across her chest and frowned. "I barely touched you, you really need to toughen up if you expect me to teach you magic."

"What? Magic? You're going to teach me?" Belle blurted out.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Yea, I mean, if you have it, you might as well learn how to right?"

"How do you know I have magic?" She asked suspiciously.

"That's not really important. What's important is that you are late, most people start to learn magic when they are at least ten, but you are two years late." Alice explained.

Belle continued to look at Alice, still suspicious of her true intentions. Despite her instincts telling her not to trust the teenage girl, she decided to give in. Curiosity killed the cat. She slowly got up and walked slowly towards Alice. She put her hand out.

"I'm sorry, friends?" She offered.

Alice looked down at Belle's outreached hand and turned around, motioning Belle to follow her. "We'll see." She murmured.

"So what are you going to teach me first? Are you going to show me how to do that trick you did the other day? Will I learn how to fly? Can I read minds? Can you?" Belle shot out questions like bullet.

"Woah there. You are a weak little girl, literally. I can see your sick soul, so we need to first train your body so I can make sure you can handle it."

Belle pouted. "That sounds boring." She whined.

Alice rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, changing both her and Belle's clothes into athletic wear. Belle looked down at her outfit in awe and squealed happily. "What are we going to do?" She asked.

"You are going to run until I say stop, and then you run back here." Alice replied.

"That sounds so... mundane." Belle said disappointed.