The Hamato Lily

Dragon fire

Lily felt the illusion gliding across her skin, her eyes shut. Her brothers were out doing something, so she had the lair to herself, apart from Dad, but he was fast asleep. The tingling that was flowing from her head to toes slowed down to a near standstill. Opening her eyes, Lily looked in her mirror, and almost didn't recognize who she saw. Her skin was still the same gray blue it was since she was a kid, and she was in the same outfit, but the rest of her appearance was completely different. Her hair was a deep forest green, her pupils had taken the shape of a cat's, and they were sitting in pools of amber that shimmered and flickered beneath the fairy lights lining her walls. A long tail dragged on the floor, but the most jarring thing was the gaint, scaly wings that sprung from her back. The scales were a blooded red, and there were veins of gold and silver weaving through.
"Oh my," Lily whispered in shock, reaching behind her to make contact with the wing to her left, and gasped when her hand was stopped by it, "Okay, so these are apparently real. Great," She was mostly speaking to herself as she held and fidgeted the thick membrane between the bones of the wing.
Whenever she did this before, the illusion broke the second her hand passed through. For ten minutes, Lily was silently panicking and trying to figure out how she was going to explain it to her brothers. Each breath she took as she tried to calm herself felt louder than the last. The tingling returned, and after a moment that felt like eternity to Lily, it stopped like a cool breeze passing over her. Looking into the mirror, she saw that she was back to normal. Calming down, she headed to the kitchen and grabbed one of the last boxes of leftover pizza bake. Starting the microwave, Lily grabbed a spoon. Before the timer went off, her brothers announced their presence very loudly. The boys were loud by nature, but today, their yelling felt like torture to her ears. It wasn't helped by the oddly loud microwave going off. The noise was too much, and Lily just curled into a ball to try and hide, it wasn't very effective, but she wasn't thinking clearly at the moment. There was a clicking sound that came from behind her, and the light in the room became blinding. After that, Lily kind of just shut down, so she didn't really understand or remember how she ended up back in her room, with the heavy-duty noise canceling headphones on her head. The only thing she knew for sure as she sat up was that she had a killer headache.
"Owwwww," Lily groaned, pressing her hand to her temple, "What the heck happened?"
"No clue," Leo whispered, "We came back, you were nowhere to be found, then I heard the microwave go off, and thought 'Hey, she's in the kitchen' and for some reason, the lights were off, so I turned them on and saw you curled up in a ball on the floor. You flinched at every tiny sound."
Lily simply whined in response.
"Donnie has about a million questions to ask you, and you're probably gonna get a lecture from big bro," Leo continued.
"Great," Lily groaned.
About a week later, Lily slinked around the alleyways of New York city, the physical illusion giving her some extra confidence. As she reached fourth street, she saw something that made her blood boil. There were two people, a mother and a daughter. The mother had a whip-thin belt in her fist, and was using it on her child. The little girl cried out in pain every time the belt made contact. Pulling the mask she had over her mouth, Lily decided to inspect. The mother was yelling and berating her daughter in between bouts of hitting her with the belt. Lily couldn't let that go on, and summoned the same intimidation she used on the annoying teens. Coming closer, Lily released the hot air through her nose, and tried not to gasp as red flames flickered beneath her nostrils. The fire certainly caught the mother's attention.
"Who are you?" The woman yelled, clearly drunk.
"Who I am is not important," Lily said, her voice taking the same gravely, almost demonic tone as before, "What should be is how you are treating your child."
"Stop over reacting, she's fine," The woman said, speech slurring.
Lily didn't say anything to that, she just grabbed the woman's wrist and called the NYPD. She told the operator that there was a very drunk woman on fourth street and that she was likely a harm to herself or others. The operator told her to stay there and keep an eye on the woman while someone was sent over. While she waited, Lily heard the little girl start to cry. Kneeling down, she faced the child. The girl stepped back, afraid. Wanting to calm the girl, Lily summoned one of her ribbons and had it gently wrap around the girl's cheek. She smiled at the surprised expression the girl had before she rubbed her face against the pink fabric. Summoning more ribbon, Lily tied the drunk woman to a nearby pole to hold her in place. Feeling a tug on her leg, she looked down and saw the girl looking up at her with wide eyes.
"More," The little girl said with hushed wonder.
"More? More what?" Lily asked.
The girl said in barely a whisper, "Magic."
"Alright," Lily said, pulling pit her sketchbook and flipping to a page. Pressing a finger to the drawing, Lily pulled out a tiny swan. Once it was freed from the paper, the little bird looked around before fluttering onto the little girl's head.
About ten minutes had passed when Lily heard the police car drive up. The officer that entered the alleyway looked at the woman tied to the pole and tried to untie the knots.
"What kind of knot is this?" The officer asked Lily as they struggled, "I've never seen a knot that I can't untie."
Lily shrugged and placed her hand on the knot, which melted away under her touch.
"Wow," The officer said, "Now I've seen everything."
"I don't think you have," Lily responded, picking up the tiny swan and letting it sink into her skin, shocking the officer. She though this might just be an illusion I'll use often.