Beast Tamer

XVIII

Fauna walked around the tree and examined it closely. A blue jacaranda tree. It was beautiful the shade of purple and how the light coming through was also tainted in the same colour.

She stared in awe and scanned from the top to the bottom and paused as she saw a picture.

It was a girl, deep purple hair like the tree and she looked... natural, apart from her hair of course. She didn't even have whitened teeth let alone any makeup.

She also seemed to like the colour purple a lot Fauna deduced; her hair, her shirt and the candles, the flowers laid around the tree and the cards - wait, what?

She stared at it, was this... was this a shrine.

"Nice of you to finally show up Fauna," a sharp voice cut her from her thoughts.

She spun around and drew her sword as Nico stepped up next to her with his own sword.

"Typical," the woman scoffed. "Put your stupid sword away before I make you."

The woman had flowing red hair that went down to her tailbone and cold slate grey eyes. She cradled her round stomach, annoyingly heavy after getting pregnant - again.

"You're not meant to exert yourself, Honey," a masculine voice called as Fauna put her sword away, pushing Nico's arm down as he wasn't so compliant with leaving them both vulnerable.

A man walked through the door leading into the house. "Honestly Penelope, you really don't learn do you, I mean the doctor said-"

He froze as he saw Fauna and Nico their, one of them getting into a defensive position as causally as he could while the others eyes darted around.

Fauna glanced at the man an Penelope. The man had brown hair and blue eyes. He walked over to Penelope and wrapped an arm around his wife.

"Who are you?" He asked cautiously.

Two kids show up in your backyard and that's what you ask? 

"Trouble," Penelope spat and scowled at Fauna. "Nothing but trouble."

The man nodded before smiling at Fauna while she tried to understand what was going on. "Hi Trouble - or Nothing But Trouble, either one - nice to meet you. Robert."

Penelope pinched her nose bridge. "Really?"

"What?" He asked jokingly and she quickly hit his arm before turning back to the two of them.

"Get out." Her voice was so calm that it was so much scarier than shouting for Fauna.

"Now come on Penelope, they're just a couple of-"

"No." She cut him off sharply and glanced past Fauna to the photo under the tree. "And that's final."

She turned around and penguin walked away.

"Tell me."

Fauna didn't even realise she'd said anything until Penelope paused and the entire world seemed to go silent as she glared at her, as if imagining the most painful way to kill her.

"Excuse me." She said in nothing but a deadly sharp tone.

"Tell me," Fauna breathed, "what I did."

All calmness left her face as her face erupted an unattractive red. "What you did!" She shrieked. "You left her for dead! You left Alison for dead!" She crumpled to the floor, as if someone had cut the string keeping her upright, when she sobbed. "You left my wife for dead!"

Fauna froze and she wasn't entirely sure if Nico was breathing behind her. She glanced at the picture of the girl, she looked quite young with the smile and the hair but- she was actually quite young.

"What did I do?" She whispered and Penelope glared at her while Robert held her, whispering something to her but she was ignoring him.

"What did you do! She helped you! She helped you and when she needed you- you-" she cut off and her voice broke. "You abandoned her."

Robert swept his wife into his arms as she cried into his chest. He looked up at them. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

∞

Fauna held her cup and carefully sipped, it was hot. She wasn't good with hot.

Orion and Sage played with Penelope and Robert's daughter, Rachel, she had her father's blue eyes but her mother's flaming red hair. She was about five years old maybe younger or older.

There was an awkward silence in the room.

"I'msorrybutIdon'tremeberyoubecauseIlostmymemoriesI'msorry," Fauna blurted out so quickly that nobody understood.

Penelope raised an eyebrow as she sipped her tea, having regained her composure.

"Would you mind repeating that, coherently maybe," Penelope said pointedly. Sage growled but she remained unfazed.

Fauna sucked in a deep breath. "Three years ago I lost my memories-" Nico coughed loudly and she turned to him. "Yes, Nico, would you like to contribute to this conversation?"

"Stolen," Nico replied. "Your memories were stolen."

She waved her hand idly. "Semantics," she replied before turning back to Penelope. "As far as I was concerned I was just... normal, and I've lived that lie for - what? - three years."

Penelope sighed and glanced down at her daughter. "That explains a lot. She said she needed to leave and she kept contacting you, trying to get you to take us away, but you never answered."

"Was she..." Fauna trailed off, not quite knowing the correct word. "My... asset?"

Penelope nodded and Robert, sensing the tense atmosphere, quickly got up and told Rachel, the little girl, that they should go the park. She enthusiastically agreed.

Penelope waited until her husband and daughter was gone, leaving Fauna on the edge of her seat - damn it, just tell us why and how and when and what and we'll be done - while Nico sat casually but he was tense behind Fauna, she knew that.

"She has this circle in the back garden, you probably didn't see it but it's there, she would set a fire inside of it and drop a piece of paper into the fire. The circle's still there and it's made of some strange black stone."

Fauna watched as Penelope got up and gestured for them to follow. They did. All the way to the garden where there was indeed a circle formed of black stones.

"Take a look around," Penelope glanced at the tree hanging over them and pulled a purple blossom off before tucking it into her hair.

She walked away.

"Link Stone," Nico blurted out as soon as Penelope was gone.

Fauna turned to him since she had been previously examining the shimmering, black stone. "What?"

"It's Link Stone; incredibly rare but you make a blood connection through the stone with two drops of blood each, you can then use it to contact each other."

She nodded carefully touched one of the stones. She jumped back and landed on her ass as the stone flashed red.

"What was that?" She squeaked.

"I think... I think these are messages. The messages she sent you."