Hopeless Love

10-Ari is a Juggernaut

      Ari slept peacefully for half of the night. At midnight, when the moon was highest in the sky, he suddenly sat straight up. I woke up at his movement. I had hardly been asleep from worrying about him. His eyes were open, but he wasn't seeing anything. He clutched my arm in his hands. He was crazy strong. He was mumbling.
     "Give her back. Giver her back to me or I will tear you into shreds and feed you to your dragon. Give my sister BACK," he said, his words getting louder towards the end. I froze. Who was he talking to? I had never heard him talk this way. Even as a child he was very kind to everyone. I was scared for whoever he was speaking to. This was absolutely terrifying.
     "Ari. Ari, I am here. I am okay. I am right next to you. You don't need to search anymore. I am safe. Please, let go and go back to sleep. Please," I said to him. My arm was starting to go to sleep. He closed his eyes. A happy smile was on his face as he laid back down. He let go of my arm and snuggled me into him. I settled back into sleep as he put his arms around me.
     When I woke up again, Ari was still asleep. I gently moved his arms and went out to get some breakfast after getting my bag of cockle shells and a waterproof bag for the food. I know the mermaids ate wild fish they caught. I went over to the river pool. I didn't come over here very often, but that didn't stop me from noticing a mermaid who hadn't been here a few days ago. It was a Goliath Tiger Fish. I just shrugged and dove into the water, surfacing in my beastia. I used my tiny paws to push myself over to the island in the middle. I circled the island looking for the food stand. When I found it I dove under and bought two trout, some seasoning, and some seaweed milk. I put it in the bag as quickly as possible; luckily the salesfish put her wares in air bubbles. I nodded at her and resurfaced. I climbed onto shore and shifted after placing my things on the ground. I shivered in the wind that chilled all the water I was drenched in.
     I hurried back to my tent and started a small fire in front of it. I pulled the food out of the bag. I rubbed the seasonings onto the trout and put it on a little metal rack I had to cook food with. I waited until it was just right before putting it on a smooth wooden plate. I poured the seaweed milk into little wooden cups and woke Ari up. I almost got punched.
     "Geez. I guess you don't want breakfast then. I suppose I will sinply have to eat it all by myself," I said to him. I pouted and backed out of the tent. I smiled as I heard him scrambling around inside and jumped as he nearly ran me over on his way out. He sat in front of me, patiently waiting for me to allow him to eat my food. I sighed at his pathetic, pleading eyes and moved the plate in front of him. I set a cup next to each side of the plate. I nodded at the food as I noticed he hadn't started eating yet. He smiled wide and grabbed a fish, eating it with delight plain on his face. He had eaten the whole fish before I even had half of mine finished. He always had been a fast eater. He warily sniffed the seaweed milk before shrugging and downing it. He waited for me to finish before helping me with dishes. We washed off the plate and cups in a little side river that moved very quickly. Little minnows ate the left over food flakes as they swirled down river. I smiled and we walked back to my tent.
     I sat looking at him, feeling the breeze on my skin. It was pleasant now that I was no longer wet. He sighed after a while and started talking.
     "So. My story. Well, after you left, everyone in Grimalkin kept saying how it was good that a disgrace like you had left. Even now I can't understand how they could say that. You were only five. Everyone expected you to die quickly and kept saying so. We moved about a year after you left. Mom couldn't stand it. She loved mermaids like you, but she hid it to keep us safe. But you would never have hidden it, which is why she made you leave before everyone got really mad about you. We moved to a city far away. It was a werewolf dominant town, but they let us stay. I learned how to defend myself there. When I was ten, I went into training to defend the town. There were a lot of zombies near that place. That fungus...lets just say I never again ate  mushrooms. Anyways, I never forgot about you. As years went by, my memories got more and more blurred. I felt like I was gonna forget you completely soon, so I decided to search for you. I was thirteen when I left, and I wasn't going to go back until I found you. For the first year, I wandered about. I asked in towns whether they had seen someone like you. Everyone said no, so I went farther east. The farther I went, the more I heard about this strange, tiny sphinx that hung around mermaid pods all over the place. I think you must have been to every pod in the area before coming here. A few months ago, I came across a giant herd of zombies. I knew they ould only harm people, so I decided to get rid of as many as possible. Believe it or not, I ended up killing every one of them. But I kinda got...messed up in the process. The worst injury I got came from an absolutely feral mountain lion that decided to join the fight. Caught me by surprise and almost killed me. That's were I got this beauty from," he said, touching the scar on his left cheek briefly before continuing. "Anyways, I was insanely lucky after that. Someone walking outside had heard the fighting and come to see what was happening. She found me lying in the middle of a ring of dead animals that extended so far she thought she would never find the one who killed all of them. When she finally did find me, she thought I was dead. She took me to Halvana so I could be healed by the mermaids there. They weren't the best, obviously, but they still saved my life. I woke up the day before yesterday. They told me a sphinx had come into town with a mermaid and sold a bunch of stuff before leaving. They said it was a really short sphinx, like way below average, and she had really pretty green eyes and black hair so long it was like she had never had it cut. When I asked where you had gone, the guards said you went into the sea and shifted into a tiny black lion before swimming away. So I packed my things and followed the sea to where it met a river opening. I followed the river and finally arrived here. How...how did you learn to swim by the way," he finished with the question. I just gaped at him. His story astonished me. We had been so close to each other, and recently. And all those zombies he killed...my brother was a juggernaut.
     I took a deep breath. "You tell a story like that, and what you want to know is where I learned to swim. Really? No do you think I'm a murderer. No who is the mermaid you were with. Instead...swimming," I sighed and shook my head. "If you really want to know, I learned to swim from Sebastian, the mermaid I was with in Halvana. He is really cool. Hmm...what about you and the lady who save you? Is she pretty? Are you gonna marry her? Are ya," I asked, starting to swarm him with questions. He just blushed and nodded. I gasped with mock surprise and I put my hands on my cheeks. Then I took my hands away from my face and hugged him tight. The wind swirled my now short hair around us.
    "Thank you for doing all of that for me," I whispered. He just nodded and hugged me back for a few seconds before pulling away and whispering back, "Now take me to meet this Sebastian." I nodded and stood up.
     Sebastian? Where are you? My brother wants to meet you, I said to him through the pack bond. I looked over at Ari. His golden eyes were fixed on the horizon and his hair was blown gently by the wind. His tail was relaxed and hanging down. He turned into a lion like me. Like our mother and father. A lot of sphinxes in our family had lion beastias.
     I was jolted out of my thoughts and into my beastia once again as I was surprise attacked by someone's hand on my shoulder. I knew who had attacked me before I was even caught by the main suspect. I glared at Sebastian. He smiled widely. I sighed deeply and shifted. I sadly didn't catch him by surprise. It disappointed me that he had done this enough to become used to it. Sebastian set me down, laughing the whole time.
     "Ari, this is Sebastian. Sebastian, this is my little brother Ari. Please shake hands," I said. They nodded and said hi to each other.
     "So Ari, how long are you gonna stay here," Sebastian asked.
     "Well...not too long. I have some...stuff...I need to do back in Halvana. It is really important to me. But if I can, I will visit often," he said. I was shocked. I hadn't even thought about him leaving.
     "So, if Jet has a lion for her beastia, what do you have," Sebastian wondered.
     Ari answered by shifting. He took a lot longer to shift than I did. I only took about half a second because my beastia was so small. Ari took about three. When he was fully shifted, he stood higher than my head at the shoulder. He was gorgeous, with his big golden eyes and tawny gold fur. He shook his mane and roared. I laughed and shifted too, jumping onto his back and roaring with him. My roar was a bit higher but just as loud. We ran around and played all day long, running around camp and jumping over the rivers. We chased butterflies and birds and tried to tag Sebastian as he swam underwater. I collapsed into sleep inside my tent, Ari sleeping outside. We were too exhausted to shift back so we slept in our beastias. I dreamed all night of a swirling pool of gold and black.

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Hey guys! Hope you liked it. What do you think of his past? He sure went through a lot for his sister. Who is this mystery girl that saved him? She will be introduced later! Promise! Love you all my land sharks. See you next week. No school rules! 0)