Filler chapter, rather boring. Not much, but I did have it ready to be updated, like, 2 days ago, but I was wondering if I should add more or what. I decided not to. The next 2 chapters should also be fillers. Then shit goes down. Get your tissue boxes. Also, dedicated to BeccaNialler since her story Better Than This was AMAZING! Go and read it if you haven't!
Lucy xox
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-Niall’s POV-
The weeks seemed to fly by when, soon enough, it was the week before Halloween (also a couple weeks until my heat wore off. Heat for merman usually lasted 2-3 months, its torture!), and to say May was freaking out, was an understatement.
“I mean, I love Halloween! Everything has to be perfect, and I’ve heard rumors- from Lee, so I’d bet they’re real- that the school is holding a costume ball, too.” She said one day during lunch. May had her lunch pushed off to the side, completely untouched, and her sketchpad in front of her. Zayn’s arm was draped over her chair, and he looked down at the drawing.
“The head’s slightly out of portion, Princess.” He advised and May gasped, turning quickly to kiss him cheek.
“You’re a genius, Charming!” She said, grinning before getting up and dashing over to another table, and pulling Lee away.
The five of us looked at her oddly, before Louis finally spoke. “At least I’m not that bad.”
We laughed lightly at that, and I moved to start talking to Harry about the football game last night. A few weeks ago, we found out that we had the same love for footie; after we both came down one morning, grumbling and just mad. Our team had lost another game.
“You got the game last night, yeah?” I asked, picking a bit of fish.
Harry nodded. “Yeah, well… The main bit of it. Missed the ending…” His eyes traveled over to Louis slightly, and a faint blush crossed his cheeks.
I raised an eyebrow. “Have you guys mated yet?”
He shook his head. “Nah, but I’m willing to wait forever, it’s that’s how long it’ll take.” Harry’s eyes slowly moved back to Louis, who was talking to Liam about something happily and a small smile formed over his lips. “Besides, wouldn’t you be able to tell that we’ve mated? Since you guys go into heat, usually when you find your mates, or are near them?”
I shrugged. “Not always, but, yeah, I’d probably notice something suspicious.”
Harry blushed lightly, “So, we won right?”
I frowned and shook my head. “Nah. Other team tied us up in the last seconds, went into overtime, and they scored.”
Harry swore. “Damn it.”
“Exactly what I was yelling.” I laughed slightly.
Just as Zayn was about to say something, May plopped back down beside him, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I’m a genius, I’m dating a genius.”
Zayn laughed. “Thanks Princess.”
“So, what’re the rest of you going as?” Even if there wasn’t a costume ball, every year, all of the students dressed up and went to their classes. Halloween was one of the most celebrated holidays at M.Y.T.H., not that it’s much of a surprise.
Liam shrugged. “Probably just a fireman or something like that.”
“Lame.” May decided, and turned to me. “Well?”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to be here. I’ve got to help my grandfather with stuff down in Atlantis. On the first, my aunts are coming, with their daughters… All the daughters…” I shuddered at the thought. I was the only boy in the family, other than my uncles and grandfather.
“It can’t be that bad. How many cousins you got?” Louis asked. I remembered him saying something about having 4 sisters, so he probably thought it couldn’t be that bad.
“Well, munising my Aunt Ariel, since she never really comes, though he daughter sometimes joins us. She’s not too bad. I have 6 aunts. So, 7 in total.”
Their jaws dropped. “I thought the whole Ariel thing was a Disney story!” Harry asked, scratching at his head.
I shook my head. “None of the mythical stuff, generally, are stories. One of the people who were on the team for Ariel must’ve known her story. Not that we really care, it makes people think we’re not really, which is good for us.”
“But… 7 aunts.” May said, unable to grasp the concept.
I nodded slowly. “I’ve got… Wait, let me think.” I counted off their daughters in my head. “34 cousins.”
“Jesus Christ!” May exclaimed. “How the hell do you remember all those names?”
I laughed. “Easily. Everyone- who follows the family tradition-, goes down the alphabet. All my aunts- not my mum, though- have names that start with A. So, all cousins from one aunt have names that start with B, then C, then D, etc. etc.”
“So what are all your cousins’ names?” Liam asked.
I glared slightly at him. “You’re a piece of shit. But, Bella, Bessie, Becca and Bianca. Then there’s Catherine, Cathy, Cathleen, Catrina, Coralline, Christy, Cristen and Crystal. Next is Darcy, Darlene and Delilah. For E, it’s Elizabeth, Eliza, Ellen, Elena and Estrada. F’s got Fiona, Fay, Fay-Lee, Faba, Farrah, Fern, and Ferella and last, for G, it’s Guinevere, Genevieve, Gwen, Ginny, Grace, and Gretchen. And Aunt Ariel’s daughter is Melody.” I paused for a moment. “I’ve got a lot of cousin, don’t I?”
“You don’t say.” Zayn muttered sarcastically as the rest just stared at me with wide eyes.
“I get bored during the summers.” I used as my explanation. They continued to stare at me. “What?”
May opened her mouth, and talked slowly. “In your free time…. During the summer… You spend memorize your 34 cousin’s names.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Then there’s Aunt Ariel, Aunt Adrina, Aunt Atina, Aunt Adella, Aunt Alana, Aunt Aquata and Aunt Arista.”
“Bloody hell…” Liam muttered surprised.
“That’s a mouthful.” Louis agreed.
Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, but May beat him to asking the question I really didn’t want to answer. “Can you order them from youngest to oldest? Also, which of you is getting the throne?”
I glared at her. “I hate you. I hate you with the fiery hate of hell.”
She smiled, feigning innocence. “So, can you?”
I took a deep breath. “Bella, Coralline, Melody, Bessie, Catherine, Elizabeth, Crystal and Cristen are twins, Darcy, Cathleen, Delilah, Fay and Fay-Lee are twins along with Fern and Ferella, Guinevere and Genevieve are twins, Cathy, Catrina, Becca, Eliza Elena and Ellen are triplets, Bianca, Faba, uh…” I paused, thinking. “Gwen Ginny and Grace are triplets. Then Darlene, Gretchen, Farrah, Estrada and I are all the same age. We’re the youngest.”
“Bloody hell. Again.” Liam said, “I’d never remember all those names.”
I shrugged. “It’s curtsey. Plus, I do nothing over the summer.”
“Well, I’m never coming to your court.” May said, just as the bell rung. “Whose class do we have?”
“May…” Liam said slowly, as if talking to a child (though, with May, you never really know which side of her you’re going to get), “We have our tests. In the woods. Please tell me you remembered to study.”
Her eyes widened. “Oops.”
“May!” He scolded. “This happens every year, 4 times a year!”
“I know, I know… I’ve just been…” May’s eyes flickered over to Zayn, and checked him out with a small smirk. “Distracted.”
Zayn gasped. “May-Eve! There is no way you’re throwing me under the bus, here!”
Liam pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s your marks May, even though you always seem to get by with the highest marks.”
She laughed, “I just apply myself very well. No book is going to really help you in the real world, LiLi, you need literal practice more.”
“And you need less literal practice, speaking of that.”
May pouted. “That was ages ago!” She whined, “Why won’t you let it go?”
Liam laughed, and reached across the table to pat her head. “There there.”
She hissed. “Don’t touch the hair boy.”
“I think May’s the only person who loves her hair more than Zayn loves his own.” Louis snorted, and Harry lightly hit him. “What?”
“I’m not saving you if the female specimen comes after you, boo.” He warned.
May glared. “I hate all of you. I’ll set Mortuus on you.”
I laughed. “I forgot about him. Where is he?”
“On my feet. And not so happy so happy about you forgetting about him.”
“Oops. Sorry Mortuus.”
May paused for a moment, and reached down under the tabled slightly. “I think he accepts you’re apology. That or he wants to jump on you. Which isn’t very nice. I accidently stepped through him once, and, well, if he wasn’t a ghost, I’d have claw marks all over my face.”
My eyes widened slightly, and I gulped as I pulled my legs up onto my seat. “I’d rather he not…”
She laughed. “Come on, we don’t want to be late for the testing. Boring as fuck that is.”
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May’s never allowed to call anything boring. Ever.
This testing stuff? It’s amazing.
It was simple-ish enough to understand. People were split up into three groups, and each group was doing 3 different things. The first group stood across from a partner, and it was a magic fight. All you could really see was bright colours, and the occasional odd Latin word being spewed (a lot of them were doing silent spells). The last group that was hand-to-hand combat, since a Wizard couldn’t always use his powers. After that one, was the healing group, where you were given someone who had gotten hurt in the first group (which there was a lot of them) and had to heal them. Liam was amazing at it, you could see his passion to help them, and, unlike everyone less, not a single shred of worry on his face. The last bit of their afternoon (a good 2 hours) was spent in probably the worst game of capture the flag. Ever.
They were given a flag of one colour, either black or green, and were divided depending on their specialities. It ended up being the Wizards of ‘black’ magic (though, it was necessarily bad, you just used different methods of rituals and such) against the Wizards of ‘white’ magic.
They were told to go to two different sides of the clearing we were at (the same one we went to for Louis’ first class), and they were off. The only things they had to protect themselves, other than magic, was a weapon of choice and a shield. No armour (apparently it blocks magic).
The four of us, along with all the others who had members of the group being tested, were told to stay in some pentagram, that reflects magic. You could go in and out easily enough, but magic bounced off of it, as if there was a wall there. Very useful if there was a rouge spell. Which happened a couple times.
There were a group of 7 people, I’m guessing they’re marking the students, and one man blew in his whistle about 5 minutes after the teams had dispatched. You could hear war cries from each side, and, in a matter of moments, people from each side burst out of the trees. All of the people studying black magic seemed to have transformed into these black assassins, all dressed completely in black, all of the girls hair pulled back, and they just looked dark. The people on the white side, however, looked like Gods. Literally, the guys seemed to only be wearing white shorts (not even shoes), well the girls had white Goddess dresses on. They looked so natural and pure.
There was a somewhat familiar face in the front lines of the white side, when I realised it was someone Liam had pointed out to me, when we first arrived (“That’s Colin. He’s got this crazy thing for storms. We joke around and call him Zeus, though. He’s pretty good at all this storm and lightening crap.”). The sky turned from its lovely blue, all but above us (I’m guessing the pentagram went all the way up), and into a stormy grey. It began raining and throwing lightening onto the black side, just as someone very familiar came up. Lee.
She was on a horse, one that had bits missing, and there was a pack of dogs around her. They didn’t look exactly friendly.
“Bloody hell, they’re going to kill each other.” Louis muttered eyes wide.
I nodded slowly, unable to take my eyes off the scene. I couldn’t see Liam or May, for that matter, on either side, since the Black and White sides were mixing now, and slowly people dropping out of the battle. I remembered one of the guys saying that if they were to get hit in a vital part, that they were considered ‘dead’ and were to drop out. First team to get the flag wins 500 points, and for each person standing, they got another 100 points.
Slowly, emerging from the black side, with a pack of dogs and May hot on his heels, was Liam, grinning like a madman with the flag in his hands. He had to get back onto his side safely for his team to win.
“RUN!” I heard someone yell loudly, and the lightening and rain picked up, everywhere around Liam. People were having more trouble dodging it (though I saw from someone getting hit, it just gave them a bit of a shock) and were focusing more on that then Liam.
Liam finally made it onto his own side, collapsing slightly, but I could hear his laugh over here. “I told you I would beat you this time May!” He yelled breathlessly, and she wacked him over the head.
“You totally cheated.”
He smirked. “Did not. Just because I wore a glamour that made me look like Zayn to distract you, and then stole the flag when Lila dropped it, isn’t cheating.”
May wacked him again, as a tiny looking girl stumbled out of the forest. “May! You’re not ever nice.”
“Lila.” May actually squeaked, looking at the small girl in what might as well been terror. “It-it was only a game, y’know…”
Lila held her ground for a few moments, hands on her hips, before a giggled tumbled over her lips. “I-I’m sorry… You’re face… Too good!”
May’s glare was back. “You better run girly.”
Lila laughed, and took off behind Colin. “Save me Colly!”
May ran after her as Liam jogged over here, and I came out to meet him in a tight hug. “Hey… You were amazing.”
I could feel his muscles through my thin top, and, damn, he’s fit. “Thanks.” Liam muttered into my hair as I snuggled in closer to him. I could half feel May’s slight glare on me, and I guess she still hasn’t forgotten about what I did. About the May-and-Zayn problem. Mine and Liam’s staged fight. She had seriously thought it was real, and didn’t like that I’d ‘hurt’ Liam, even though I told her I’d never dream of hurting him. Ever. I’d rather die, honestly. “What’s got you thinking so hard?”
“Mm, you…” I said softly, pulling back slightly and kissing him quickly, just as May came close. “Interesting tactics, May.”
She half snorted. “Do you even know about war and strategies?” May took that stuff beyond serious. Well she looked all innocent and fragile; she wanted to be a soldier. People of magic still had wars to fight, and she wanted to be in the front lines, helping people.
I laughed, “I know a bit. I’ve help my grandfather before with some training stuff. He’s a genius when it comes to that stuff, you’d really enjoy talking to him.”
Her eyes widened. “Do you think I could? I mean…” May blushed slightly, something that she didn’t do easily (unless you were Zayn. Then she’s blushing constantly).
I nodded. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. It wouldn’t be for awhile, though. Not until after the 1rst.”
May grinned, and hugged me quickly. “Thanks!”
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It was after dinner, and Cleo and I were hanging out in the field where I made my first storm. I had made other, smaller ones after that, but never one that big. It took a lot out of you as a person. Cleo was picking at some flowers, making a crown. Who do you think will take the throne when your grandfather passes it up? Cleo asked.
I thought about it for a moment. I have no idea. Usually it goes to the oldest male, which would be me- it skips a generation or two- but I don’t want it. I might try and get him to give it to Bella.
Cleo nodded. Everyone knew of the giant (and I mean giant. There’s a shit load of us) royal family, so she knew who Bella was. She seems nice, from what I see politically.
Do you wanna come with me to the dinner? Usually, Grandfather Triton allows us to bring someone with us, typically our date, but I figured Liam wouldn’t want to come since he’s a land dweller.
Cleo smiled, before it dropped in a groan. I can’t. Asiling is demanding I stay with her. She’s trying to find me a ‘suitable’ guy to marry.
That sucks. Everyone’s expecting me to bring some girl, but I have Liam. I wanted to bring you, as a friend. I said, playing with a piece of grass as Cleo finished making her crown.
She laughed slightly as she placed it on my head. There you go a proper crown. And, just ask Liam to come with you. Who cares about the rest of them?
I looked at Cleo for a moment. You’re a genius.
I know. She laughed again, and flipped her hair over her shoulder. Only, it ended up in her face, since doing that in water, doesn’t work so well.
You’re a dork.