Honeycomb Hearts

Secrets of the Heart

The trail that the mysterious woman left was pretty easy for Yang to follow, the grass on the ground having been well worn down by what Yang could only assume were the woman's footsteps. Still, Yang wondered how deep into the trees she would go. Just as she thought of turning around, she found herself in front of a small lake, which was reflecting the sunset so it hit Yang directly in the eyes, the amber glow nearly blinding her.

               "Yeesh, wish I'd brought my shades." Yang muttered, cupping her hands above her eyes. With the newfound lack of sun in her eyes, she noticed that the woman was sitting by the side of the lake in what little grass there was between that and the forest. What Yang also noticed is that the woman was looking directly at her.

               "The lake is beautiful at this time of day, huh?" The woman asked, and for the first time, Yang got a good look at her. She had pale skin with hair just as black as Kali and Ghira's, and if that didn't give it away that she was their daughter, she had another pair of cat ears on top of her head. "Well? Are you going to respond, or just stand there all creepy?"

               Yang was taken aback, stammering. "Uh, sorry about that." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, it's pretty cool looking when it's not blinding me."

               The woman chuckled, her voice sounding smooth as silk. "Yep, this is definitely the Belladonna's daughter." Yang thought. "Mind if I sit here a while? Name's Yang by the way, my step-sister and I just moved into the old farmhouse."

               The woman nodded, "Of course not. I'm Blake, I think you've already met my parents though." She set a book down between them as Yang took her seat a comfortable distance from Blake. "How much have they told you about me already?"

               "Well, lemme think." Yang replied, tilting her head. "Not too much, other than your mom saying you're 'perfectly average height for a woman' in defense of her own height." She couldn't help but chuckle, remembering how Ruby had tripped coming out of the moving van.

               "Well she isn't wrong." Blake turned to look at Yang, "Nothing wrong with being short, of course. Or tall for that matter." Blake began to talk a bit about the town, but all Yang could comprehend is that Blake's eyes had the same amber glow as the lake. It seemed oddly poetic to her. "So yeah, my mom always loves to brag about me. I'm sure the whole town knows everything about me at this point."

               Yang suddenly snapped back to attention. "Yeah, sounds a bit overbearing," She replied, "But at least it's out of love right?"

               "Yeah, but I get people I rarely talk to asking about the novel I'm writing, despite my wishes to keep it secretive." Blake sighed, but followed it up with a smile. "She doesn't know everything about me, though."

               "Oh? Just when I thought you couldn't get more mysterious than walking randomly into the trees after seemingly spying on me, you have my attention yet again." Yang made a show of leaning in, looking Blake right in the eyes. "My step-sis told me once that the best way to make friends is to share a secret on your first meeting."

               "Well some secrets aren't meant to be shared." Yang could tell Blake meant that as plainly as she put it. "Like if you were to pull a prank on somebody, and it went south, you wouldn't want to come out and say it was you."

               "Not gonna lie, I thought you were gonna confess to murder after the first half of that sentence." Yang burst out into laughter, "You sounded so serious and dark!"

               "Oh no, no way I could murder someone. I have anxiety enough as is." Blake laughed, but that specific laugh was familiar to her, the one where you reveal something about yourself but want to play it off as a joke.