A Shadowed Legacy

Chapter Six

"Okay, so I've invited a friend that has a gift for Arya over here, and I don't want you freak out," Kathrin spoke slowly to Holli, who stared at her in confusion. Arya raised an eyebrow at her mother for a moment before realizing who her mother was referencing and winced. Yeah, that could get interesting.

Holli tilted her head, eyeing her mother as she paced across the living room, "why would I freak about it...? Do I need to be concerned?" Lilla chirped at the younger dragon shifter questioningly, confused at her reaction.

The older dragon shifter ran her hands through her hair, voice pained, "I've talked to you about my friend before but I, uh, didn't exactly clarify about certain details you may have issue with...there wasn't the time or space to do so before. Please don't try to kill her when she gets here." Kathrin let out a sigh, then stepped into the kitchen, "I'll be back, I'm going to go grab some snacks. It's always a long journey for her."

Arya shook her head at her half-sister in amusement, "even if you did try to kill her, she'd be hard to track down. She's good at getting out of situations. Oh yeah, Nia also has an annoying habit of appearing behind others randomly, a lot like you."

Holli growled playfully at her in response, making Aaron jump from where he sat beside his daughter, "does she now? I'd like to see her try that."

"Greetings!" A voice spoke up as shadows slipped away from the figure now standing beside Holli, her dark blue eyes bright as she spoke with heavy accent in the basic tongue, "it has been way too long since-" Nia was abruptly cut off as the younger dragon shifter suddenly hissed viciously at her and lunged. The elemental squeaked in alarm and quickly teleported into the kitchen behind Kathrin, peering out at Holli, reverting back to mythical, "Kathrin, your daughter is scary-"

"Holli, what did I tell you?" Kathrin blocked her daughter's attempt to get to Nia, staring down at her in exasperation.

"She's an elemental. The ones that kicked us out of our home and caused most of our problems?" Holli stopped her approach to stare at her mother in shock before glaring balefully at Nia again.

Nia raised a hand warily, voice somewhat meek as she regarded Holli, still hiding behind Kathrin, "uh, actually, it was a few of the others that did that...we were your allies once, then they decided to punish us by banishing my people to the unknown regions for a while ..." She quietly edged away towards Arya, whispering to her, "sorry about that. I didn't expect anyone to attempt to attack me." Nia waved a hand, then a satchel appeared in her hand. She rummaged through the bag, eventually finding a sheathed dagger that she held carefully in one hand, still eyeing Holli. After that, she lightly hopped over the couch and plopped beside Arya, which only made Holli hiss at her again.

"How come I am the only one not in the loop here? I don't understand much of what she's saying," Aaron snorted, "I thought you'd already taught her most of our language, Kathrin."

"I've only had time to teach her the essentials since we last met, darling. The shapeshifters, our people, have been involved in a war for the last seven hundred years if you haven't forgotten. That does tend to keep one busy," Kathrin poked him as she passed a tray across the middle table towards Nia, "if she doesn't know the right word for something, I'll translate for her. Not to mention I've been teaching you my native tongue when I can, silly. You aren't completely out of the loop." Aaron snorted at her, then rolled his eyes and leaned back to wrap an arm over her shoulder.

Completely oblivious to Holli's simmering anger towards Nia, Lilla hopped over to sit in the elemental's lap, purring. Her eyes shone brightly as she greeted her with a bunt to her cheek, leaping up Nia's shoulder. She glanced over at her with a grin, then nodded towards Arya teasingly, "I see you made a new friend. Convinced she's your soul-bound yet?" Lilla just shrugged dismissively and leaped back over to a perplexed Arya, curling up into a ball of pale scales.