"AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!"
Elevyn swung Sous around the house in Faelock with her three kids standing to the side with sweat drops by their heads along with Atreus and Kara.
"You were going to send them to Hacate when you have their grandma and great grandfather right here," Elevyn pointed at the fairy.
Sous coward in a corner with a black eye and busted lip, and wavy blue tears with white squishy eyes. "I don't know. I-I didn't think."
"NO, YOU WEREN'T THINKING!" Sous' mom yelled.
Kara stepped forward with her arms out as if to calm the matriarch down. She smiled at her mother in law. "We don't know how long we will be gone," the Omega said.
Elevyn turned to look at Kara. "You don't even know if you'll come back alive," she said, the tone and atmosphere turning dark, and stark.
Atreus felt awkward standing there as Sous' mother cleaned up her daughter's wounds. Sous laid limp against the wall. Elevyn turned and walked into the kitchen without saying another word.
She grabbed pots and pans and slammed them onto the stove. Kara moved to help but Elevyn glared at her. "Sit," she hissed. Kara froze in place then slowly backed away to sit next to Atreus on the worn wooden bench.
The kids shuffled over to join them, avoiding Sous' pitiful form in the corner. Elevyn pulled vegetables from the icebox and chopped them with loud, sharp thuds against the cutting board. Steam rose from boiling water filling the small kitchen with the scent of onions and thyme.
Sweat drops on everyone's head but for th matriarch. Steam coiled upwards, carrying the rich scent of thyme and roasted garlic into the tense silence.
Five spoons scraped against ceramic in unison, the only sound beyond crackling hearth embers was the family eating
Later that night, Kara and Sous stood outside standing outside the house. They thanked Artreus and Elevyn and teleported to the Island of Dimona. They landed into the chamber that Sous was staying in. She looked at Kara.
Kara shook her head smiling. "Your mom sure is a character," she said taking off her shoes. Sous sat down next to her also taking off her shoes. They were quiet, allowing it to all settle in.
Kara scanned the chamber, cracks spiderwebbed across stone walls, faint moonlight filtering through the open window.
Her gaze lingered on a charred patch near the hearth where Sous had botched a spell weeks prior. The lingering scent of burnt pine resin mixed with sea salt drifting through an open window.
"What now?" Kara asked, her first time being in Dimona.
"Tomorrow morning, we have a meeting with the queen," Sous confirmed. "Apparently there are, um, ghettos. You know, the vampires, fairies, pixies, elves, goblins...places where they're mixed." She sighed and looked at Kara. "I will become the Alpha of Apex, I will give all the land back, and we will go back to Red Woods but tomorrow at the meeting, Imma bring up one thing."
"What's that?"
"We gotta get Pamoen back and...Xeno."
Pamoen woke up one late evening around midnight. She looked to make sure her training mates were asleep. And they were.
She threw her sheets away from her, and got out of bed. She packed a few things in a little backpack and left out the door.
The stillness of the dark city was unsettling. Pamoen walked into the city, her footsteps muffled by the thick layer of ash that coated every surface. She moved like a shadow through the narrow alleys, past crumbling buildings where jagged silhouettes clawed at the moonless sky.
Her breath came out in visible puffs, disappearing almost instantly into the oppressive gloom.
There's a ghetto here, cut off from rest of the city and she wanted to see it. She heard it was at the very back so that was where she headed.
The ash deepened as she turned down an alley choked with debris, swallowing her boot prints as soon as they formed. Broken glass crunched faintly beneath the grime, an anomaly in the muffled world.
Her fingers brushed the damp, cold stone of a wall slick with mildew and something darker.
Ahead, the alley widened slightly, revealing the hulking silhouette of an iron gate blocking the passage. Rust streaked its thick bars in deep crimson veins, contrasting sharply with the soot-black metal beneath.
The little Omega placed her small hands on the gate; of course, unable to open it. There were also guards on the other side, human guards with weapons. She attempted to find another way in, wanting to see this 'ghetto'
She stayed along the rim and eventually came to an area with soft soil, a hole, like it had been dug.
She crouched low, knees sinking into the ash. Fingers buried deep into the cold, wet earth, clawing through roots and broken stone. Each handful thrown aside made no sound in the muffled world. Her palms scraped raw against hidden shards.
She came out on the other side and appeared in a room, a room with several mattresses on the ground. No one was in the room though. She went to the hall and saw she was in some sort of apartment complex.
She walked down the hall to a spiral staircase and went down, deeper into the complex. Upon exiting the building she saw the skyline of the ghetto. Taller buildings that looked like they hadn't been maintained in years.
She walked down the street and saw groups of fairies, vampires, pixies, elves and goblins standing outside buildings talking. They all froze at the sight of her. She froze too.
They stared at each other until a vampire stepped forward. Pamoen wondered if she was going to get attacked.
"A wolf?" The vampire said.
"A child wolf too," a fairy said. She flew up to Pamoen and looked over the little wolf. "You're not all wolf are you?"
Pamoen shook her head. "My sire is mixed with fairy, human, wolf, witch, and vampire."
"But you don't have any magic?" Another fairy said.
Pamoen responded back. "No," she shrugged. "I don't think any of my siblings can do magic." They walked up to Pameon, feeling safe with this one.