‘I will follow you till the ends of the earth.’
Emma didn’t know how much she had needed her sister on this with her, until Amelia had said it.
There was a brief silence during which she had just stared at her sister, during which she had ruminated on the statement that threatened to break the confines where her tears were kept. It threatened and then it won.
“Emma…” She heard Amelia call softly, and knew that the tears were now cascading down her cheeks. She sniffed, and tried to shift from Amelia, but the latter was fast enough to get her back to her side, and hug her very tightly, so that Emma almost had difficulty breathing.
“You didn’t think I would choose anyone over you now, did you? You are my only family, Emma. Always will be.”
Emma wanted to tell Amelia to stop talking, to stop punching holes in her emotional armor, but she remained quiet and let the armor get broken, the armor that had strengthened in steel when Derek had betrayed him, the armor that had strengthened with a thicker steel when she had seen Amelia step into the cabin’s interiors as a jaguar.
“Thank you…” she muttered, then chanted it as a song as she threw her hands around Amelia completing the hug.
But Amelia shook her head. “You shouldn’t thank me, Emma. We are family. We are sisters, even though not by blood. And this is what sisters do for each other.”
“Don’t say that again. Please don’t say that again. Don’t say that we are not related by blood. You are my sister, now and evermore.”
I am not alone here. Emma smiled through her tears. She had Amelia, and her sister knew everything, or at least the basics of what she was.
Now, she could say everything without minding that the latter’s mind would be too fogged with incredulity to help her. Now, Amelia was with her on this journey. Emma felt relieved, and then like she could conquer the whole world.
“Am I permitted to interrupt this union, or is it a reunion?”
Emma broke away from Amelia as soon as she heard Prescott’s voice.
“Prescott!” She screamed, causing Amelia to jerk away and cover her ears.
Why the tempo? Amelia wondered, turning aside to see a squirrel standing on its twos, the other limbs were crossed at its chest. Amelia’s face became a board swamped with confusion, especially as Emma rushed to the squirrel and fell to the ground, as if wanting to be on the same height level with the small animal. Was this a pet? But how did it come in?
“What took you so long?”‘ Emma asked, disentangling Prescott’s hands from each other, and placing him on her laps, her eyes shining with mock anger and curiosity, and then happiness.
Prescott pouted his lips.
“You are sulking now? Who should be sulking, between the both of us?”
Prescott gave no reply, instead he glanced at Amelia who had been watching the exchange with only confusion, nothing else.
“Who is she?” Prescott finally spoke, shifting so that he could be in a better position.
Emma snorted in amusement. “She is my sister, Amelia.”
Prescott cocked an eyebrow up. “Does she know what is going on? Or were you giving her the last hugs before disappearing on her?”
But before Emma could answer that question, Amelia left the couch and sauntered toward them. She sat on the floor, opposite Emma, and giving a satisfied look at the squirrel, ruffled his head. “Your pet is fine for a squirrel. When did you start liking animals though? I think I still remembered your aversion to anything with furs.”
Emma laughed, at the irony of the aversion. She was probably a being with furs, she was mated to a being with furs, she was from a people with furs. Where had the aversion even come from? Probably the neighbor’s dog that should be in a mental hospital. Her attention was grabbed by Prescott’s release of insane curse words. Emma laughed again.
“Forgive her, Prescott. I don’t think she can hear you. And by the way, you should cut her some slack, she hasn’t been filled in on what is happening.”
Prescott glared at her, and folded his arms across his chest, to the amusement of Amelia who was finding the whole exchange funny, yet interesting. She was curious though about what Emma was talking about.
“You want to fill her in on what is happening? Isn’t she human?”
Emma shook her head. “She is from the jaguar clan.”
Prescott turned to look at Amelia again, this time around, with a renewed interest that wasn’t oblivious to Amelia.
Really? The squirrel could understand Emma! Amelia couldn’t believe it.
“Could you make her hear you, Prescott?”
There was a slight pause.
“I’m not sure. I can attempt the exchange, seeing that she has an animal form, but I am not sure it will work. But can you trust her?”
Emma nodded. “I trust her with my life. Attempt the connection and exchange.”
***
“You know, I didn’t think you would want to talk to me after what had happened, after what I had confessed back at the house, not to mention entrusting anything in my hand, any mission at all. And you had chosen to let me search out Emma.” Margo started, after Keturah had told her about the plan to search for Emma before the others.
They were just a few feet from the house of Lekan and his family. After checking out Esther and not finding her daughter at their residence, she had followed the next trail to the mansion residing in the location reserved for some kind of shifters.
“I didn’t want to. But then, everyone deserves a second chance. I’m sure Tempest would have said the same thing if she was here, that is apart from cursing Malone to hell.”
The two women chuckled, annulling the tension that had been circling over them since they had left Keturah’s house.
Keturah didn’t add though that Tempest was actually alive, and that the latter might not be so forgiving.
When they had walked out of the house, in the company of Zipfarah, just before the Queen had taken the route back to the community, Ketura could have sworn that Tempest had been there a mere minutes ago, but there had no sign other than the new scent, and she had found herself hoping that her friend hadn’t heard them, that the scent was just the one that had been when she had left the first time.