FicWad

Six months had passed since Scalabur’s departure, and those six months had brought more than a few hardships to Anyaseta’s world. As a queen, Anyaseta was a member of a powerful alliance. Scalabur, who was a king, was also a member of that alliance. Scalabur’s leave had put a strain on the alliance and started fights among its members, and as always Anyaseta was forced to play referee. Then of course there was the issue of who would be ruling Scalabur’s country in his absence. There were four contenders; Lady Azaclia, Lord Brunover, Master Koolnico and of course Princess Amber, Scalabur’s sister. While Amber was the apparent choice, Lady Azaclia was desperate for power and started spreading tales that Amber was mentally ill, allowing the three other contestants to have a shot, until Anyaseta stepped in and said that there was absolutely no truth to Amber’s supposed mental illness. Of course, now Amber’s health was failing because she refused to take of herself, which was causing Anyaseta’s health to fail because she no longer had time to take of herself as she was taking care of Amber. And the worst part was Scalabur was dead.
After a month of checking in on time, he had disappeared mysteriously, no longer checking in. they searched for a month and there was no sign of him. He was declared dead shortly after that. So now Anyaseta was forced to rule two countries, mourn over the loss of her best friend, try to keep a friend who was like a sister from destroying herself, and hold together an alliance that was crumbling apart and no matter how hard she tried, it just kept slipping through her fingers.
Anyaseta was falling apart, and nothing but the return of Scalabur could save her, but she had made a vow that would stop even that from helping her easily. Anyaseta had vowed that if Scalabur ever returned, she would not welcome him back warmly; instead she would shield him out of her life. She was so afraid of getting hurt by people she cared about again that she decided it would be better to hurt them, and herself. Scalabur had destroyed everything by leaving.
So now Anyaseta sat staring blankly out her bedroom window at the palace gardens as the rain poured out of the sky, soaking the palace grounds and casting a shadow over the kingdom. Just as she was about to turn away from the window, something caught her eye. She opened her window and leaned out, not believing her eyes. Scalabur couldn’t be standing in the palace gardens, he was dead! As rain soaked her head she had trouble seeing and she pulled back into her room, closing the window as she did so.
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Anyaseta ran out of her room, her wet hair dripping through the halls as she sprinted towards the gardens, floors below her. Her bare feet began to cramp up from the cold floor, but she ignored the pain and kept running, occasionally tripping over her floor length gown. She burst through the French doors leading to the gardens and was instantly soaked as she headed towards the spot where she had seen Scalabur.
When she got there, no one was there and she laughed at her own foolishness as she sank onto the nearest bench.
“Looking for me?” a voice asked softly from behind her.
Anyaseta stood up and whirled around coming face to face with an older version of the boy who she had watched leave all those months ago. They stared at each other for a few seconds before she spoke.
“You are dead. You disappeared after a month. This is not real.” She whispered, trying to convince herself of a reality she had never really believed.
“Do I look dead? I feel real.” He responded gently, confused by what Anyaseta was saying.
Anyaseta backed away from Scalabur slowly, her face hardening as she did so. He had left her alone to deal with her own worst nightmare, and she had vowed not to let him hurt her again.
“You left me here to try and hold everything together and now you come back and act like nothing happened? How dare you? You hurt me and you hurt Amber! Do you really expect me to let you back into my life as if nothing happened? Even you are not that stupid. I don’t want to see your face right now. I’m so angry at you!” Anyaseta breathed, moving farther away from him and closer to the palace.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. You hurt me too much. Go away now, go back to your sister or back to whatever hole you crawled out of to hurt me again. Don’t come near me. I don’t want to see you. Leave now.”
She turned her back to him and started walking back to her palace, her soaked dress clinging to her as forced herself to not run back into his arms. Just as she was about to step through the doors that led to the safety of her palace, Scalabur grabbed Anyaseta’s arm and whirled her around to face him.
“Why are you acting like this? What changed?” He asked, angered by her behavior.
“Why?! Because you left! You abandoned me and you insulted me! It’s your own fault that all this is happening! You left your sister to fend for herself against the sharks that you let stay in your kingdom! You nearly killed her! That’s why, that’s what changed! You destroyed the life I had managed to rebuild for Amber and me, and now you just come waltzing back acting like you’re some kind of hero! But in this story, you’re not the hero, you’re the villain!” She shouted, wrenching herself free of his grasp.
She bolted through the doors and slammed them behind her, leaving Scalabur hurting behind her. She soon reached her room and she found it hard to think straight with all the thoughts, worries, and concerns racing through her head.
This can’t be happening! It’s not possible, it doesn’t make sense! Why does this always happen to me?! Anyaseta’s mind screamed as she slammed her bedroom door behind her.
She walked into her bathroom and grabbed a towel, wiping off as much rain as she could before changing into shorts and a tank top so she could curl up and disappear for the afternoon. She through the towel on the floor of her bathroom and walked out of her bathroom, ringing the remaining water from her hair.
As she curled up on her couch, Anyaseta’s bright blue eyes welled with tears. She couldn’t believe how wrong everything had gone. Six months ago, she had had a nearly perfect life. Now look at her.
A soft knock at the door caused Anyaseta to jump and look up as a soft voice called in to her.
“Sei, it’s Amber, can I come in? Please?”
Anyaseta jumped up and unlocked her door letting a small girl into her room before closing her door and locking it.
Amber was a thin, shy twelve year old with large green eyes and soft, flowing hair the color of dark honey, with a tint of red. That’s how she had gotten her name. She sat down next to Anyaseta on the couch and curled up like a little kid as Anyaseta hugged her.
“What’s wrong sweetie? You can tell me.” Anyaseta, who was frequently called Sei or Seta by her closer friends, purred soothingly, stroking Amber’s hair.
“I had a dream that Scal suddenly returned and he caused all these problems in the alliance.” Amber choked.
Anyaseta breathed in sharply as she looked over at Amber. She knew she needed to tell Amber that her brother was back, but Sei had this overwhelming need to shield Amber from him. Unfortunately, she had to tell her.
“Amber, your brother did come back today. He showed up in the gardens a few minutes before you arrived.”
Amber looked at her in shock for a few seconds before regaining herself.
“You mean he’s not dead, he just neglected to check in? He just abandoned us?”
Anyaseta refused to look up as she nodded, not wanting to see the hurt look that would be on Amber’s sweet, innocent face. Amber sighed and Sei looked up, upset but unsurprised by the tears threatening to spill from Amber’s eyes.
“Why would he do this?” Amber asked with a trembling voice, “Why?”
Why did he have to do this to us? Anyaseta thought as she hugged Amber to her.
“I don’t know. I wish I did, but I don’t. We’ll work through this somehow, okay? We’ll find a way to make this work.” Sei reassured her, not really sure if her promise was empty or not.
“I know I just wish he hadn’t left in the first place! Why did no one stop him?” Amber cried angrily.
“I tried, I really did. Unfortunately I failed.” Sei sighed, remembering the day everything had changed.
“It’s not your fault Sei, he was so determined to leave. I don’t think he would’ve stayed if we had chained him to the palace walls.”
Sei nodded in agreement and glanced out the window. The downpour that had engulfed the palace for the past week was finally letting up, meaning she could visit other alliance members.
“I have an idea. Why don’t we get a little dressed up and go over to Chana’s kingdom. Michael will probably be there.” Sei suggested, to which Amber nodded.
Chanalena was a member of the alliance and a very close friend of Seta’s. Chana’s little brother Michael was Amber’s age and the two were very close. Seta’s large closet housed clothing belonging to every member of the alliance and when going to events in her kingdom, or Amber’s, they would all get ready at Sei’s palace. As Amber grabbed one of her plain dresses from the back of the walk in closet, Seta grabbed one of her own from the front. It was a floor length, crimson colored dress with long sleeves that flowed out past her hands. She slipped on the simple dress over her tank and shorts and waited for Amber to finish getting ready.
Soon they were ready and they took off running, Amber lagging slightly behind. You see, Amber and Anyaseta were both amnyoids, a unique kind of human. Amnyoids have almost superhuman abilities, at least when it comes to speed and strength. Their brains also develop at an abnormally fast rate, they can have almost fully developed brains at two year olds. Amnyoids all varied slightly in how powerful they were or if they had any other skills, but past that they were all just like regular humans.
Within minutes they had reached Chana’s kingdom, and entered the palace with no problem. Within the first five seconds of their entrance Chana bounced up to them, grabbing their arms and pulling them towards her room.
“Come on, you’re the last ones to arrive, we’re having a big meeting between all the girls.”
Anyaseta just laughed as she was dragged upstairs by the ever energetic Chana. Chana was tall, almost as tall as Seta, and had choppy brown hair that she occasionally put streaks of color through.
As they entered Chana’s room, a large cry of welcome rose up around them and the three girls were pulled down onto the floor of pillows that the rest of the female alliance was resting on. There was Baylanya, a mid-height, smiling, blonde haired girl of 15 who always knew what to say. Then there was Hanyaleia, a petite brunette who sometimes got a little wild. Next to her was Ranetta, who was of average height and had curly brown hair. The twins Jenatta and Denatta were sitting together on the other side of the cushion floor.
“Why are we having this meeting?” Amber asked, leaning back against the wall.
“Well, we need to figure out this year’s Halloween Ball.”
Anyaseta rolled her eyes. “That’s what your urgent message was about. I thought it would be something more important.”
“This is important!” Baylanya quipped.
Anyaseta and Amber shared a look before Anyaseta spoke up for them. “Fine, but first we need to tell you something.”
The room fell silent at the serious tone Anyaseta used and she had each of their attention. “Scalabur’s alive.”