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“Oh my God, it’s freezing!”
I rubbed my upper arms, and chatted my teeth furiously. The strangely cool summer air blew around me, and I couldn’t help but curse the weatherman with every inch of my freezing butt. He said it was supposed to be eighty degrees where I lived! And judging from the goose bumps on my arms, it is nowhere near eighty degrees at all!
“Stupid weather man and his stupid false predictions,” I said, shaking, “I just had to wear a tank top on the coldest summer day ever.”
The wind whipped past me, sending my hair all over the place. It was like it was trying to grab me!
The boy beside me sighed, and rolled off his worn orange jacket and placed it onto my shoulders. I blinked and touched the jacket curiously. He grinned at me, and said casually, “You looked cold wearing just that tank top, Lyn.”
“Oh, thanks, Rye,” I gave him a small smile, but frowned after. “Won’t you get cold?”
Riley didn’t looked at me when he replied absent-mindedly, “I’ll be fine.” His eyes suddenly looked at me. “Hey, what’s going on with you and Trevor?”
I scoffed. “That ape? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“Really.”
He did not believe me. The nerve!
“Yes!”
“Did he make fun of your eyes again?”
I groaned. “No, he did not make fun of my eyes, Riley. You know I’d punch him square in the face if he ever did again.”
Yeah. Again. It happened once before when we were in third grade - he insulted my eye color, I punched him in the face, and got a three-day suspension. It wasn’t fun, but no one ever made fun of my orange eyes again. (They’re a soft spot in my self-esteem.) Ever since then, we’ve been rivals and constant entertainment for our circle of friends. Arguments, competitions, grades, anything he and I were in together, one of us had to win… and it varies whose winning in winning, depending on who you ask.
But it’s obvious he still wants to tease me about these stupid orange eyes-
“Your eyes are not orange, Lyn. They’re just light brown.”
“Stop reading my mind! And yes they are,” I pouted. “And it’s nothing. You know we randomly glare at one another.”
“You two were glaring daggers at one another across the mall. That‘s over two hundred yards away.”
“Hm! He’s just mad I got out of detention, and he didn’t! Not my fault he threw a paper airplane into my ear for me rubbing the fact I got a better grade than him on the history final!” I crossed my arms, snuggling into the jacket some more.
“And Gray noticed, so he was curious.”
“Oh?”
“Oh.”
I deflated.
Well, that’s just great. Now he probably thinks I have some sort of anger problem. For once, I start liking a great guy, and he thinks I’m a freak, and he won’t like me back, and there goes my chance of getting a boyfriend, and-
I can sense someone watching me for some reason?
I turned sharply, and I didn’t realize I was looking for someone until Riley grasped my shoulder tightly. He was a little close for comfort.
“Lyn…?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry Rye. You were saying?”
“Yeah, I was saying you should be careful whenever you’re alone. I heard that something is coming, and they’re aiming for girls like you.”
I waved him off. “Oh, Riley, I’ll be fine. That’s why I have you, right?”
He gives me one of those smiles: the one where his eyes glow, his hair lifts a bit, and when I just wanna pet him like a puppy because it’s so cute.
But this smile seemed to do more than just make him glow. I felt his hand trail across my back, and onto my other shoulder. He brought me closer to him, and I went a little red.
“Rye, I’m warm enough without your bear hug - hey!” after I tried to lift his hand off of my person, he moved his arm so that it grabbed my waist. He brought me into a hug. He laughed out loud. “Let me go! Quit it!”
“NEVER.”
“HEY!” I banged on his chest until I struggled free, and run off. “HA! There!”
“Get back here Lyn!”
“Make me!”
“LYN!”
Suddenly, there was a stabbing pain in the back of my eyes. The pain intensified around my pupil, and I screamed.
It felt like someone just stabbed me in the eye with a pair of needles!
I fell to my knees, shaking, I felt a dense liquid come out of my eye sockets - blood. My breathing frayed at the sight of red on my fingertips, and I was losing consciousness.
I heard Riley cry my name. “Octoberlyn! Octoberlyn, hang in there!”
“I’m fine, Rye, this… is nothing-” I yelped in agony before my vision blacked out.
A flash of brown, and a scream of, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” were the last things I saw and heard before I slipped away.
Chapter One
What happened? I asked myself softly as my mind stirred.
"...we agreed we would raise her first."
Riley? I thought. Raise who? What‘s going on?
I kept my eyes shut, hoping to ease the pain and soreness in my head. But I found the best cure was to listen to the voices and keep my mind busy.
"I know, but we can't leave her alone anymore," another person replied. His voice was calm and soft; I recognized it from somewhere, but something about it was off. "Someone knows who she is. The moment we look away from her, she'll be killed."
I can tell Riley made a face. I could imagine his facial expression without much difficulty. “We can't do this to her. I mean, she's been through enough as it is, and she deserves a proper human childhood, at least until she graduates," Riley said somewhat angrily. "She'll never get the chance afterwards."
Now I was curious: who were they talking about?
A stray lock of hair fell onto my face and I mentally squirmed. I always hated it when my hair was on my face! It tickled!
The other person scoffed. "If you keep talking like that, I'll start to think you've grown attached to her like a human would be."
Whoa, what? Riley likes someone? This ought to be good…
Despite being in a very comfy and very warm bed, and with a migraine like you wouldn’t believe, I’m still very interested in my best friend’s love life. And this other guy is starting to sound really familiar, with that snide human comment. (Of course Rye’s human! What else would he be, a vampire?)
…
(I doubt it. He’s too cute - not enough cool and sexy in him to even be vampire-ish.)
"You should talk. I've seen you staring at Lyn before - you look at her like she's a piece of candy, and you're a kid with a major sweet tooth," Riley retorted before adding, "Trevor."
At that, I silently choke on my spit, and wordlessly say, “Ow.”
So they were talking about me. (Unless there is someone else they know nicknamed Lyn, and I highly doubt that.) And other guy is Trevor? And what in the world are they talking about? They’re both attracted to me?
Uh, no. Impossible, I thought. It couldn’t be possible.
I tried to convince myself they knew another Lyn in our small town, and they were talking about her, but a part of me had to ask for myself.
Despite the pain, I tried to move around in order to catch their attention. But they continued to talk and I gave up. And-
Gah! That infernal hair is bugging the hell out of me!
Unfortunately, the hair didn’t budge an inch. So I sighed, accepted that it was going to be a bother, and moved on… reluctantly.
I easily envisioned Trevor's screaming red hair as he replied coolly, "And you don't?"
Before Riley could respond, I heard the door open and close. The sound of a tray sliding across a surface came from beside me, and another familiar voice hums gently, "So she's not awake yet."
Gray? What’s he doing here? …wherever here is.
"Gray. Yeah, she's not." Riley’s scratched the back of his head. (A nervous habit of his.) “Why, did you get the feeling she would?"
"Yes... I brought some water just in case she was already up."
And that’s why I like him so much. Gray’s so considerate and kind; he’s a little creepy at times though. Weirdly enough, whenever I needed him, Gray was always around. Like, to the point he could read my mind. I shook the thought off.
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my forehead. The thumb brushed the stray hair away from my nose, and I was instantly relieved.
It was probably Riley who did it - Trevor would also be a possibility, but why would my rival want to remove something that was bothering me? - but a part of me hoped it was Gray.
As the palm left, my body chased after the warmth it gave. I whimpered a bit, and it took me a moment to realize that my body didn‘t feel any pain. Under the covers, I opened and closed my hand.
Sweet! Now to get up-
But before I could, Trevor entered another strange topic. “What, did you get the feeling she would need the pain killers?” Trevor asked.
“Yes,” Gray replied, “And when it comes to our Lady, I’m rarely wrong. I am her health supervisor, after all.”
And dear God, I hope he’s referring to me when he says Lady. I really, really hope so.
"As a matter of fact," Gray continued, "I believe she thinks that we don't know she's awake."
At the comment, I stiffened, and whispered, "Damn."
Slowly, I forced myself up. I looked at all three of the boys, wondering how they knew. But instead of asking, I blinked, and rubbed my eyes. What the heck? They looked different somehow… what was it? I frowned, wondering why the three boys looked different, when they physically looked exactly the same when I last saw them.
I shoved my thoughts aside again, and asked, “How did you know I was up?”
And weirdly enough, all three of them answered simultaneously. When I asked them to go one at a time, they just stared at me like I was insane.
“Uh, guys? An answer, please?”
Trevor and Riley looked at one another. The brunette lowered his eyes. Trevor did the same when he looked at Gray. Gray, though, simply answered.
“Because I know you, Octoberlyn. Always have.” His eyes beautiful eyes did their usual smolder, and I, like I usually did, melted into a puddle in the bed. I grabbed at the white blanket.
Trevor then came in. "Obviously because you weren't snoring like a bear in the middle of a cave with a microphone." He crossed his arms and looked away. “Hell, even I could sleep softer than you!”
I went red. “Yeah right! You were so loud, the teacher’s yelling didn’t wake you-”
Riley then poked me on the forehead. I looked up at him. He gave me a simple grin, and he sent shivers up my spine. My hand squeezed the blanket even harder.
"Because your breathing pattern wasn't steady, of course!"
Even my own best friend didn’t seem the same. They were acting strange, and they felt strange, but they looked exactly like the boys I’ve grown up with my entire life in my small town.
And their eyes as they looked at me were filled with something I couldn’t explain.
“I… see. Um, well, why didn’t you guys say so? I feel like an idiot now,” I laughed, trying to relieve the tension in the air.
Again, Gray went first. “Because you needed your rest,” he chuckled, “it’s rude to eavesdrop you know.”
Trevor second. “Ah, just suck it up. We didn’t feel like it.”
A tilted head. “Because you didn’t seem like you wanted to?” And Riley was last.
I gave each a suspicious look before looking around. Everything looked... English. As in from a royal palace in England.
“This isn’t my house… where are we?”
This time, Riley tried to answer before Gray did, thus resulting in a stare down.
“You know the proper order in which we must speak to royalty, Riley,” Gray said, sternly.
Riley scowled uncharacteristically. “She’s not royalty here, Gray, we can speak to her in any order we want.”
“But she is still royalty to us, and we are still her subjects! No matter where she is, she is the daughter of His Fury and Her Brightness-!”
Trevor groaned at the two, and looked at you. “You’re at Gray’s house.”
“W-What! But Gray, you live on the other side of town from me! Riley, my house was right there! Why didn’t you just take me inside?”
“Well, I was just walking by-”
“I wanted to, but your parents were out-”
Gray and Riley glared at each other again, and they brought Trevor into it.
“Rock, paper, scissors,” the three said. “Go!”
Trevor cursed. “Damn, I hate this game.” He faced me, and blurted, “We can’t take you home.”
“And why not…?”
I raised a brow at them, and the boys began to look nervous. Trevor slapped Gray on the side.
“Well? You said you were the one who wanted to tell her. Go ahead!”
Gray went red. “I-I’m not ready! I thought I had a few more months!”
I was getting sick of them arguing. I guess Riley saw this, and said quickly, “Because Lyn,” he kneeled at my bedside, “they won’t remember you.”
“What? So you guys kidnapped me?” I suddenly got the feeling that maybe they were playing with me, and playing jokes.
“No, we did not kidnap you! Never-!” Trevor got shy, then retracted back to himself. “Not you.”
“Then why? I want to go home!” I went to get up, but Gray gently touched my shoulders. He lightly pushed me back.
“Octoberlyn, let us explain something before we tell you why we can’t allow you leave this house.”
“Fine! Fine! Amuse me!” I demanded, throwing my hands up in the air.
And the moment the words left my lips, the three’s bodies were thrown into action. Riley began doing cartwheels in the small room, Trevor started juggling the fine-looking china vases found around us, and Gray’s hands wouldn’t stop making faces at me.
At first, I was shocked. “What are you guys doing?!”
Riley, who was looking real dizzy after his fourth cartwheel, cried, “Tell us to stop, Lyn!”
But I couldn’t help myself - they looked hilarious! They were doing things so out of character! I smiled, then giggled, then started to laugh.
“October! Hurry it up, I honestly don’t know how to juggle!” Trevor threw his comment in, as well as one of the vases. “Tell us to stop!”
“Please, Octoberlyn, hurry!” Gray said, his face turning red from the overstretching.
After a moment of panic, I said, “Stop?”
“No! You have to order us!” the three cried.
I looked at them, wondering why they needed me to order them to stop. This game was really weird… “I, um, stop!”
“More demanding!” Trevor growled.
“Confidence, Lyn, confidence!”
“Octoberlyn, please!”
“Well, excuse me! You guys are the ones playing this horrible game, not me!” I bit back. They didn’t stop twirling, pinching, or tossing. More irritated than ever, I snarled loudly without thinking, “All of you, just STOP!”
And just as quickly as they started, they ceased to move. Trevor’s vases fell to the floor with a sharp shatter, and the fine white pieces scattered everywhere onto the dark hardwood floor. Riley’s loud grunt echoed as he tumbled to a stop against an open wall, and fell over. Gray put down one of his hands, and began to rub his sore, red cheeks.
“Ow…” Riley moaned.
Trevor gave a simple apology to Gray for the vases, and said person just shrugged and replied it wasn’t a big deal anymore.
After they all got up, they stood at my bedside like they had before. I gave them a weird look, and asked, “What was that?”
All three looked very uncomfortable.
Gray spoke out. “You ordered us to amuse you.”
“I ordered you-?” I froze, then slapped my forehead. “Guys, I was joking! Sarcasm? You know? The type of humor I use on a daily basis?”
“We know that,” Trevor barked lowly, “But our bodies don’t!”
“Trevor!”
The red-head looked at Gray, and shrugged. “What? It’s true! She’s going to learn anyway!”
“But you’re confusing her-”
“Guys, stop arguing, let’s just explain it calmly to her, she’ll understand-”
“Oh, shut it, Villager! Just because she calls you her best friend, you‘re getting above yourself!”
Riley got indignant all of a sudden. “I told you already, Lyn is not royalty here! We’re normal humans here too-”
“You idiot, stop saying that! We are not humans!”
“Would you guys stop arguing and tell me what the hell is going on?!” I yelled over them.
The boys looked at me, and then they returned to order. Before anyone of them could speak, I pointed to Gray, and said, “Explain what you were going to before I… ordered you to… ‘amuse’ me.”
Gray nodded, and proceeded to say, “Of course, my Lady,” I blushed. He actually called me a lady!
“Octoberlyn, what we wanted to say is that you are not human.”
I raised a brow. “Oh?” He was totally bull shitting me.
“Yes. You have never been human,” Gray answered.
Riley cut in. I was taken aback by his facial expression - it was so serious, and… not him. He only used it when things were serious. His eyes were sad as he said softly to me, “It’s true, Octoberlyn.” I breathed in quickly: Riley had used my full name, and he really wasn’t joking. “You’re really not human, and you can’t act like one anymore.”
"Then what am I, if I'm not human? Seriously, Rye, what are you guys talking about?"
“We’ll show you, Octoberlyn.” Riley's eyes clouded over as he looked at me in a longing way. But once he broke it, I was suddenly left breathless, and the air around me was getting tenser and tenser…
They gave each other a look, then they whispered something that I couldn’t quite make out. After, they lowered themselves to the floor. Each with a knee and a knuckle on the ground, and an arm on a bent knee, the threesome kneeled. In a creepy unison, they recited:
"We pledge on our life's water, to you,
daughter of the ever-rising Sun,
our Lady Autumn,
Princess Octoberlyn of the Warm Iroh.”
A quick burst of different colored lights went off underneath them, and an ominous feeling swelled up in my core, spreading slowly throughout my body.
A glow resonated from beneath them, glowing a warm golden shade. "R-Riley? G-Gray? Tr-Trevor?" Slowly, the glow sharpened into a circle, with strange markings and symbols.
The sensation persisted; it felt like something was being connected to me, even as I just sat there, idle. In a small amount of fear, I wanted to cringe away, but with an overwhelming sense of curiosity, I leaned forward to watch my closest friends use some type of special effect on me.
What’s going on?
"For proof of this promise,
A pact sealed in time’s embrace,
O Heavenly Ones, hear our cry!
Here, we have she - the one to protect,
to serve! o eternal Duet of Life and Death!
she is the one you do not deserve to see without sweet Life!
Death, it tis no longer your solemn call,
To take her without her Lights to lead!
Take us in her stead, from now,
until that sky shall crawl, our fallen Shine!
Our Words, Our Movement, Our Dreams,
Our Love! Our Light!
We dedicate the Sky of Our Heaven, to you.
Let Our Might and Our Divine Stars
be the Rock on the Ever-changing Horizon!
Princess Octoberlyn, the Lady Autumn, of the Warmth!
Until the moment that we lose the Fight,
Let us be by your side for all of time!
Forevermore!"
They then began speaking in… Latin maybe? It was graceful, elegant.
But I felt something inside my head cracking, breaking, being torn at their words; the pressure was making a strain. As the last words left their lips, I felt a sensation actually enter my body from my toes, and stop in my eyes, where it lingered and hummed. It was tightening, making some type of connection, and I finally fell away from them in the bed, frightened of this new power.
I blinked, tears running down my face. I touched the wetness, and screamed.
“My tears are yellow!”
It took a moment for them to respond - the glowing circle died away, somehow releasing them from a type of trance. Gray leaned over the bed to reach me, trying to gather me into his arms for a hug that I felt wasn’t necessary.
“Octoberlyn, our Lady, calm down, that’s normal!”
I glared at Gray desperately. “Normal?! How is this normal?! I‘m crying urine!”
Trevor and Riley burst out laughing.
“That’s not pee, Lyn, you’re just shedding the magic making you human-looking,” Riley said between laughs. “Urine? God, how would that even work?”
“I knew you were slow, but not this bad!” Trevor stopped laughing long before Riley, and gave me an endearing smirk. He grabbed the box of tissue to my left, and dabbed the tears away at my cheeks. “Look, no wetness.”
I took the tissue from him, and felt the cloth. It wasn’t wet at all. I looked at my hand, and I realized the yellow tears had evaporated from my hand. When I fingered my face again, there were no tears. I looked back at Trevor in amazement. His smirk turned into a smile at my dumbfounded look.
“It was just simple illusion magic, Lyn. Now that it’s no longer needed, the magic returned to whomever casted it.”
Gray held up a mirror. “Take a look.”
Giving the mirror a glance, I almost fainted right there.
My eyes were orange. Not light brown-orange, but just flat-out orange, orange! I looked like a freak!
“Lyn, calm down! It’s normal! You’ll get your original eye color as soon as we get to the palace!”
I completely ignored the palace part of his sentence. “So my eyes will go back to brown?”
“Um… no. They’ll turn gold, more-than-likely.”
My eyes rolled back into my head for a second before I slapped myself, and cried, “Yellow?! What type of person has yellow eyes?! Quit shitting me, why are my eyes orange?!”
“We’re not shitting you. The only people who are even allowed to have golden eyes, and pitch black hair are-”
“You, Octoberlyn. Your eyes should be enough proof that you‘re not human,” Gray got to his knees once more, and took a hold of my hand.
I was dressed in some type of frilly nightgown that fit with the room’s decorations, and with Gray’s matching white shirt and pants, I began to go bright red.
My head went elsewhere as Gray said, “You are our Lady, our Princess of the Land of Light. Don’t give me that face, my Lady, we’ll explain.”
-
Octoberlyn Ross is a seventeen year old girl living in a small town. She social life isn't spectacular - she has a grand total of one best friend, one friend/one-sided crush, and a rival/guy she could become friends with if it wasn't for their pride. She's not very popular with girls, though, despite being one herself and friendly by all means. Why? Because she has the three most attractive (cough, HOT) guys practically in the palm of her hand. And to make it worse, she doesn't even know!
But that's the least of Octoberlyn's trouble. The list starts off as this:
1) ...her eyes are orange. (OMGWTFBBQ) They were just a freaky color of amber before, and that pisses Lyn off more than anyone could imagine,
2) ... now she's being caught up in the middle a war that has been raging for eons between the forces of Light and the forces of Dark, both of whom have contrasing color tastes, because apparently she's the only heir to the throne,
3) ... in which said throne just so happens to be located on the freaking SUN (Sailor Moon, anyone?) which just so happens to be warm and pleasant year round, one ought to come and visit - wait second, this is not the time to be discussing vacation destination, because the worst thing is-
4) ... her beloved boys that were previously mentioned are actually from the Sun, and they actually don't get along all too well because of the Sun's Social Hierarchy. With Gray (the crush) suddenly acting like an overly-righteous prince, Trevor (the rival) becoming more open with how he feels and less of an a$$, and Riley (the best friend) more dependable yet distant, how is a girl supposed to feel? And lastly,
5) ... her best friend, her crush, her rival, and this perverted Nomadic guy are her Guardians. And from the moment they were born, they were chosen by fate to love her, their flabbin' princess, and only her, unconditionally. Forever. For as long as she lived.
Riley represents the Brown Villages. Trevor stands for the Red Towns. Gray represents the City of Gold. The mysterious pervert comes from the Purple Tribe. And Octoberlyn, their future queen, will lead them and all her subjects into a final battle that could change both the Sun and the Earth for good.
 Ukeire · Thu Jun 30, 2011 @ 03:25am · 0 Comments |
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