Sophie grew tired of the constant Neverseen attacks that were terrorizing the Elven population, along with her friends and family. After regaining contact with the Black Swan, Sophie and her friends begin to fight back. But after learning the heartb...
Sophie watched her singed hair fall to the ground, feeling her built-up stress and trauma melt away from her soul along with the hair. Sophie stared at her new short hair with a blank face, not knowing how to feel. Sophie felt everything and nothing at the same time. Her blond hair now was jaggedly cut right below her chin, barely brushing against her shoulders.
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(K this is the cut but Sophie's hair cut is a tad bit more blonde and less brown at the roots)
Sophie walked into the bathroom and started the bath. She watched the hot water fill as she thought back to the private bathhouse her family had in Inalia. Sophie loved getting into the luscious tubs when she was little, watching all the steam vent out the top of the room. Sophie scrubbed her hair and skin, feeling everything both her grime and emptiness melt away. Sophie just wanted to scrub away at herself to see what lay inside her soul.
Sophie stepped out of the bath and wrapped the rugged towel around her raw body. Sophie remembered another thing from Inalian culture, one of the ways to pay respects to the dead. You take a cord or ribbon the color of their eyes and weave it around your arm or your hair. After Sophie got into her clean training outfit, she glanced over to the sheer curtains over her window. The curtains were a deep bronze color and easy to tear. Sophie decided they were close enough to her father's eyes and ripped off a piece from the bottom. She pulled and yanked at the fabric, creating a long six-inch strand, which she ripped into two three-inch strands. Sophie pulled two strands of hair before securing her hair into a half updo. She took those two extra strands and braided in the brown fabric. Sophie then pinned the braided twists back into her half updo. She saw her aunt Maria wear a similar style when she cut her hair long ago. Sophie walked back to the mirror and stared. Sophie saw herself smiling back, her body and hair gleaming. As Sophie stared into that mirror, smiling at the image, she realized that she genuinely felt like herself. Sophie felt like Amalia. She was wearing a traditional hairstyle of her people; she knew her Vatarian name. She was learning about her past.
Amalia was thriving whenever Sophie looked at herself.
Sophie was proud to wear both names; she was proud to be a Vatarian. Sophie wiped at her wet eyes and squared her shoulders. She strode out the door and down into the girl's commons. Biana, Linh, and a couple of other random female Black Swan members were talking. Sophie walked down and was about to open her mouth to say hi but was cut off by Biana's screeching.
"HOLY SHIT! YOUR HAIR!" Biana shrieked, jumping up from her seat. Every snapped her their heads to Sophie, whose mouth was still open and her eyes were wide in shock. Biana's peacock leopard was relaxing by the fire and purring, not enjoying Biana's sudden shrieking.
"Yeah, it got damaged by the lightning, and I just compromised." Sophie nervously chuckled. Linh and Biana rushed over to Sophie and just stared at it.
"Bia? Linh?" Sophie asked nervously. Biana grabbed Sophie by her shoulders, staring her dead into her eyes.
"I. Love. It." Biana whispered, her eyes sparkling. Linh admired Sophie's braids, still holding her bird bunny.
"Where did you get the idea?" Linh asked. Sophie was planning on telling her friends about Inalia and Vatarians after she figured out what happened after she started training with her father.
"Something I saw in a book a while back." Sophie lied. Biana pointed to her leopard, which came padding over and started to nuzzle Biana's leg.
"Please meet Petra." Biana chuckled at Sophie, petting the needy cat. When Bian sat down, Sophie realized just how big Petra was. She was just as big, maybe even bigger than Biana when she Biana sat down. Linh went over to the window sill and grabbed her bird bunny.
"This is Bella!" Linh exclaimed, handing Sophie her cream and green colored bunny. Bella's fur was unexplainably soft, and Sophie could spend the rest of the day just petting her feathery green ears. Biana and Linh continued to fuss over her hair until every member of the Black Swan was summoned down to the great hall for a mandatory meeting.
"Do we have to go?" Sophie whined slowly trudging down the stairs.
"It's mandatory..." Linh trailed off.
"Hey, you guys? Do you mind if we?" Biana pointed to her temple, indicating to enter a mind space. Sophie nodded and enter Biana's mind, including Linh into it.
"What happened with all that lightning? Keefe said that you were a charger, we have figured that out by now, but why were you freaking out? We were all running from the Carvo birds, but you just stopped dead and started screaming. Fitz was about to go running in to get you, but you fried every single bird before he could grab you. But then when you passed out, he swears for a second he saw your eyes turn gold. What happened?" Biana asked in the mind space. Sophie's mind churned and scattered, looking for an answer. She has been procrastinating telling everyone this for far too long.
"Meet me in the dungeons tonight. I'll fill everyone in then. Tell Fitz to tell the boys about the meeting as well." Sophie decided. Biana and Linh nodded as they turned into the great hall. The girls pushed their way through the crowd and to where the boys were waiting. They all did a double-take after seeing Sophie's new hair. Sophie smiled and felt Biana pointing to her new hairdo behind her back. The boys all complimented her new do, Fitz especially.
"It looks amazing on you Soph," Fitz whispered as the collective walked to the front of the great hall, his voice a flustered whisper. Sophie smiled and turned to the collective to hide her burning cheeks.
"As you all know, yesterday our taming initiative was attacked by a flock of Carvo birds. The birds were subdued quickly and efficiently by our own Moonlark." Blur announced loudly, gesturing to Sophie. Sophie's eyes widened as everyone turned to her, everyone clapping and congratulating her on pretty much just having a sparkly hissy fit, where the Carvo birds just happened to be her victims. Leto was up in the collective as Forkle, and he nearly went teary-eyed when he saw Sophie's new hairdo. A traditional hairstyle of their people, but only the two Vatarians knew that among the crowd.
"Nice hair Ms. Ruewen." Forkle cooly complimented, smiling at the brown copper strands braided into her hair.
"Thanks, Forkle," Sophie said with a smirk growing on her cheeks.
"Carvo birds is a popular technique used among the Neverseen to flush out and terrify their enemies. Now, the neverseen is aware that our base is in the area near Lumangwe falls. But they are not aware that our base IS the Lumangwe waterfall. They released the birds to try to flush us out." Blur continued.
"Sophie did save all of our lives. But it may have also revealed our position. We want all of you on patrol to be extra vigilant. But there is another thing we have to address." Blur finished. The collective glanced nervously at one another before addressing the worried crowd of Black Swan members.
"The Neverseen have waged an official war against the Elves," Forkle announced, his voice steely and his shoulders squared. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oof.
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