The Price of Feathers

Fuzzy purple chair and pheonix poop

Amara rushed upstairs through the door that her father had placed in the demi-dimension so that only they could access it to speak directly to him. He used to be very involved in everything that happened in the arena, but over the years, he has become less involved in the game and it's players and more reclusive to focus on his pets. That's something that he liked to keep away from the games. He really only appeared when there was a need for his specific brand of theatrics.

"Artemis? I need to speak to you!" Amara called out for her father with a frustrated voice. She raked her fingers through her hair. She pulled out a strand of her hair that had fallen out. This has been happening more often since she started this round. It was just too stressful.

She lugged up the stairs and when she finally reached the top of the staircase, she found her father spinning around in his plush purple spinning chair that resembled a high-backed throne with curved armrests. He was lying with his back on the seat of the chair and his bare feet dangling in the air with his legs handing over the back of the chair. He had a baby chick in his hands, and he was throwing it up into the air and then catching the tiny red bird. Amara instantly recognised the animal Frosty the Phoenix.

"Artemis? Artemis?" Amara called out, but her father continued to play with the bird. She rubbed the ridge of her eyebrows and signed out in frustration before calling out again, "Dad!"

Immediately, the man reached out for a stick on the ground and used it to spin him around in the furry purple chair to face his daughter.

"I'm glad to see you're smiling again," he said, giggling at his daughter's scowling face. He turned his body around in the chair so that he was right side up, and his bare feet were stretched out and placed firmly on the ground. He beamed at her, but then his smile dimmed, "Ah, now my little girl is frowning. I think I liked it better the other way," he muttered to himself and moved to turn around. again, but Amara sprinted over to him and stopped him from returning to his previously unique position.

"We don't have time for that, father," she said, but the older man pouted so she corrected herself once again, "We don't have time for this ... dad."

Once again, he beamed, "My dear... we have nothing but time." He laughed and stood up, walking over to the green metal cage and playing his pet phoenix. He cooed while scratching his bird's head.

"You look pale, princess. I thought you would be happy now that you're getting your turn with the dragoness. Is she not making happy anymore, dear?" he asked and started to brew some Arabian coffee. He usually preferred a rich Kenyan coffee bean, but that was all he drank for the last twenty-eight years so he was trying to shake things up. It was aftercall a good thing to try new things once in a while and the older Kitsune remembered how the gorgeous people in a Moroccan village had gone wild for his special coffee liquor back in the 18th century and he'd used Arabic beans for that one so he knew this particular brew would be a banger to say the least. Not to mention both of his daughters were caffeine addicts so this would do the trick to resolve whatever ailed his daughter and cast a dark shadow over her otherwise lovely self.

"Come, sit, drink," he instructed, patting the fluffy purple chair for his purpled-eyed daughter to sit in.

He took a moment to look at this stoic daughter whose dark brown hair was thinning out and there were bags under her closed eyes that looked dark and sunken. Her skin was pale and her skin was breaking out. That only happened when she was stressed and dehydrated.

Amara was always the more serious of the twins. Lucy could take a joke, but not Amara. She was always a sour puss who scowled and sulked in the corner away from the other children during their travels. All he'd ever wanted was for his girls to be happy. He hadn't seen Amara smile until she was playing along the coast. More like Lucy was running along the coast with a few of the friends she'd made that day. They were fully grown by then and Artemis decided that he missed the blue coasts of Durban. They were in Country for a few years, lounging around and hopping from city to the next until they eventually reached the Cape of Good Hope. It was a sinfully beautiful city with so many dark corner and broken hearts nestled in between wonders comparable to the most beautiful anywhere else on the planet.

One night in particular stood out. They had been outside a house, passing by really and saw a child run out of a burning house. Her parents were still inside and burning alive while the girl sat with her knees tucked into her chest while crying. Amara immediately stopped the car. Lucy was sitting beside her while Artemis sat at the back of the Beetle with a giant tortoise beside him. He and the tortoise almost flew forward but the dark haired kitsune clung to the tortoise to keep it's safe.

"What the hell, Mara!" Lucy shouted, glaring at her twin who caused her to fuck up her mascara. Amara climbed out of the car and rushed towards the little girl. She knelt down next to the crying girl and wrapped her arms around her. Raven didn't even think before she turned around and clung to Amara. Raven sobbed into her neck.

Amara didn't bother asking the child and instead she picked her up and placed her in the car, next to her father and his stressed-out tortoise. Raven was still silently crying until she realised that she couldn't smell burnt flesh and the charred wood. She looked up, Amara saw her bright hazel eyes roam around the car curiously until she inevitably found the tortoise next to her. Amara wondered if the giant animal would scare the little girl but instead of a shrinking away, she leaned forwards and stroked the wrinkled head with the tip of her fingers. Artemis was instantly enamoured with the child, and he tried to entertain her with funny faces, but it didn't work properly because every few seconds her eyes would glaze over and a tear or two would escape. He looked up and both of his daughter were in their own zone. Lucy was trying to fix her makeup and while Amara drove. Artemis caught Amara's eye in the front mirror. She would switch between watching the road and checking on the girl.

By the time they reached their manor for the night, Lucy finally realised that they had a new person in their company, but she became exceptionally uninterested as soon as she realised that the new person was a child. Raven was asleep by then, secure in Amara's arm. Her twin left Amara and her father in the lounge on their green leather couches and golden framed pictures of proteas. Raven was still sleeping in the purple-eyed angel's arms.

"What's your plan, princess?" he asked. They both knew what caused the fire. It was the only way to explain how a girl who escaped a burning building with clothing burnt and broken could do so without sustaining a single burn wound.

"she's like us," she smiled up at her father.

"Um, I don't know about you, but I can't remember the last time I walked through fire." Artemis said. He was puffing on a hookah pipe while they spoke. He made sure to always keep a prepped shisha pipe next to his favourite seat in any room.

"I think we should keep her," Amara smiled up at her father. There was something about the child that she wanted to keep close and protect. She'd been in a similar as the child, albeit a less fiery version of the situation than the little girl had survived.

"We're nomads, princess. We ebb and flow with the cosmos and none of that ebbing and flowing involves kidnap," he said and released a giant smoke circle in the air that pop right above his daughter's head.

Amara frowned and looked down at the girl in her arms.

"you found us and took us," she countered to the man she called her father. She was refereeing to when he'd found her and Angelica in ancient Gaul territory after they lost their own family. In her eyes, this was fate. This little girl was destined to be with them.

"That was different. I was lonely back then... reckless. I know better now," her father spoke slowly, coughing slightly as he drew in the smoke too deeply. Amara glared at him and then looked down, her eyes softening.

"Fine... but I'm not letting her out of my sight," she said and looked up at him with a fierce look in her eyes.