Shizuku's POV
I jumped up from my seat and rushed outside.
I stumbled, cursing at the stupid ground.
Water, I thought. The lake.
I took a turn and ran towards the lake.
Usually, the lake was a beautiful crystal blue. But today, it was a horrifying shade or dark red.
"Fish sticks," I mumbled, diving into the lake and squinted, looking around.
Strength had surged through my body when I submerged myself into the lake, but the blood made everything murky and hard to see.
I closed my eyes and focused on the the current. Usually the lake wouldn't have a current, not a powerful one at least.
But this time, there was a strong current coming from the west side.
I turned towards the source of the current.
Using the water, I pushed the current back, slowing whatever was there.
I saw a smaller figure jump out of the water as something charged at me.
A Drowned, I realized. These aquatic zombies were despised from where I was from.
And of course this one was a mutant.
I summoned whirlpool, sucking the Drowned in, before launching it into the sky.
I leapt up out of the water and used a fishing rod to reel it on the land.
The mutant fell on top of me and I swore under my breath. Of course, I should've expected that.
When the mutant got up to attack, I rolled away and threw a diamond sword at it's arm.
As it staggered back, I took that opportunity, as I grabbed an arrow that must've missed it's target.
I jumped up and landed on the Drowned's back, plunging the arrow in it's head as I held on.
The Drowned swung his arm at me, or at least... tried to, revealing the diamond sword I had plunged into it.
I grabbed the blade and yanked it out of his arm before taking a page out of Rain, Ceris and Zeg, Naeus, and Abigail's book (because clearly a lot of people love to perform public execution).
I tilted my sword just right and sliced the Drowned's head off.
The Drowned fell over and died.
With that, I took the trident and put it on my back, before bowing to the dead corpse of a dead Drowned that had already died before when it drowned as a zombie, but it had died before it was a Drowned because it was a zombie, and so that would mean that the zombie used to be a human who died so they became a zombie, who turned into a Drowned when they died.
"SHIZUKU!" I heard someone yell and saw Sheila glaring at me.
Fudge monkey.
Sheila looked positively pissed off.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" She asked. "DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO STAY OUT OF THE FIGHT?!"
"I had to!" I replied. "Cari could've died! She was in danger and I was the only one available!"
"THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!" Sheila yelled.
"You mean... Cari's life doesn't mean anything?" I whispered.
Sheila froze and looked at Cari, who was back in her human form. Cari's right side was soaked in blood and she was gasping heavily as Kaylee ran out to treat her.
For a moment, my older sister's eyes softened with a hint of guilt at them, before turning to me with cold eyes.
"You should've gotten someone responsible," she said.
"Sister! The water is my domain!" I argued. "I can breathe underwater naturally and I can use a weapon! Cari can fight underwater but she's unable to use any weapons when she's in her seal form!"
"Well I can breathe underwater too when I have a water breathing potion!" Sheila snapped. You're not special, okay?!"
"I KNOW I'M NOT!" I yelled.
"YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED OUT OF THE FIGHT!"
"I DON'T WANT TO BE THE PRINCESS THAT HIDES BEHIND MILLIONS OF SOLDIERS WHO WILL JUST DIE!" I yelled. "I WANT TO DO SOMETHING!"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE MOON-"
"KEEP MOON OUT OF THIS OKAY?" I snapped.
"Shizuku..." my sister said. "You are far too young to fight! You should've stayed where it was safe and not fight."
"Why! Give me a reason please!"
"BECAUSE IT'S NOT SAFE! YOU'RE TOO YOUNG AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE AND NOBODY SHOULD BE FIGHTING AT YOUR AGE AND YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE SNUCK BEHIND MY BACK BECAUSE THAT IS WRONG AND DECEPTIVE AND IT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO TRUST YOU!"
"Our brother trained you in secret since you were about nine," I reminded her. "That's five years younger than I am right now. And you did that behind your father's back. So don't give me a high and mighty speech of why I shouldn't do that when you did it yourself."
Sheila looked shocked.
"Sheila, you lied too, you know," I said coldly. "So I'm tired of this hypocritical lecture when I know you still do things behind other peoples' backs." I locked eyes with her. "And believe me, I've seen you and Alex in that room, and you're lucky I haven't ratted you out because you're way too young to be doing that."
Sheila now looked horrified, as she realized what I was saying. Then she got mad.
No, pissed off.
No, even that wasn't the right word.
"WELL, AT LEAST I'M NOT YOU!" She screamed at me. "AT LEAST I WASN'T THROWN AWAY! AT LEAST I HAD SOMEBODY WHO WANTED ME!"
At that moment, I wished the Drowned had killed me.
Kaylee looked up and gave me a sympathetic look, as she continued to tend Cari's wounds.
I stared at my "sister", and refused to let the tears fall.
I'm not giving you the satisfaction.
I glared at Sheila and turned around and left, not once looking back.
I don't need to belong in your family.
FAMILY DRAMA
I updated chapter 22 on Skyfires as I realized that all of Arc 1's main protagonists appeared in the first book (some only by a flashback), except for Sheila. Which, I found a little unfair so I added her into Razer's flashback.
The only reason Andrew isn't in the book is because he's a main protagonist, but didn't become one until Arc 2.