Mal paced around the room, feeling like a caged lion longing for release. Or maybe a caged dragon would be a more fitting description. It had been a couple of months since Uma's escape from the Isle and Mal had gotten no closer to mastering shifting into her dragon form.
She had only managed it twice in her training. It seemed as though it only wanted to work when she was feeling protective of Ben, something Steph and Lenora had been quick to notice.
Lenora was interesting; as a Protector Fairy she had the typical brown wings of the Fae but with red feathers along the inner wing. Her hair mimicked her wings as it was dark brown with red undertones. Her eyes were green like Mal's but while Mal's were more of a jade green Lenora's were more emerald, standing out against her fair skin.
Clearly fair skin is more of a Fae thing than an Isle thing, Mal thought. Despite her time off the Isle, Mal was still fairly pale. She had earned a wicked sunburn at her and Ben's joint birthday party, thank the Gods for Aloe Vera and a faster healing time. Fire may not burn a dragon but the sun sure could! Not to mention Mal wasn't a dragon at that time—she was in her human form.
Mal had to say, of all the 'helpers' she'd received since arriving in Auradon, Lenora was the best; working with Steph rather than against her like Natalie probably would have and not spending time in the training sessions arguing about whether a power was more 'Godly' or 'Fae-like' in nature.
Such as Mal's dragon ability.
One might say it fell under shape-shifting which everyone knew was a Godly ability. Zeus had once transformed into a swan after all while the other Gods and Goddesses transformed people into spiders and even a mint plant. However, the Fae were no slouches when it came to shape-shifting either.
Before she was put on the Isle, Maleficent had turned her raven into a human to keep her powers strong—though he was more useful to her as a raven, being able to spy on others unnoticed.
"Mal, focus," Lenora said, pulling Mal out of her thoughts and directing her attention towards the Fae. "You're not always going to be feeling protective of King Ben. You're going to have to make the transformation second nature."
"I know," Mal sighed. Persephone, unfortunately, was back on the Isle so there was no tag team this time. Of course it might have been a good idea to have a back up for the six months Persephone was off the Isle but that would require Zeus to stop dragging his feet on this.
No, Mal certainly wasn't bitter toward her uncle at all. It wasn't like he would know Hades' powers as well as Persephone or anything, being his brother!
Gods, if he hadn't dragged his feet on this I'd be further along in my training, Mal thought, not noticing the faint wisps of purple smoke surrounding her as she continued to rant about her uncle in her head. Soon the wisps got thicker and Mal's eyes glowed green as the smoke enveloped Mal just as it did at the viewing.
When the smoke cleared, a medium sized dragon was sitting in front of Lenora.
"You know, I'm never going to get used to that," Macaria's amused voice broke through the silence and both dragon and Fae turned to look at her.
"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt," Macaria said, noticing the attention. "I just...Grandfather said that Mal was here on Olympus this weekend and I wanted to say hi."
Lenora chuckled softly. "It's alright. Mal, change back and you can have a break. Just focus on anything other than what you were thinking about to turn into your dragon form."
Mal nodded and tried to think of something other than her irritation toward Zeus.
What was Ben talking about the other day? Oh yeah, one of the books he got at the birthday party. Something about Narnia and a wardrobe? And there's a lion and a witch who fight each other? Personally I'll stick to Tolkien—yeah he's got evil magic users too but he's also got good ones. Plus he's got dragons...granted the dragons are bad but they still are in the story.
Mal was so deep in thought she didn't notice the purple smoke enveloping her once more and when it faded, she was back to her human self.
"What'd you think about?" Macaria asked as Lenora walked off, presumably to give them some privacy. That was another thing Mal liked about her—unlike Natalie who always seemed to be in the background over her shoulder, Lenora knew when to back off.
"Ben got some books at our joint birthday party, he was telling me about one of them the other day," Mal told her.
"Ah. Sorry we weren't there by the way. Dad...dad didn't know if you'd want him there," Macaria said. "Um, we did get you something. Just you though, though the family does wish King Ben a happy birthday."
Mal shook her head in amusement. "Macaria, I'm not going to get offended on Ben's behalf. You're my cousin, it's understandable you'd get me a gift."
"Funny you should mention relations," Macaria said with a small chuckle as she pulled out a card out of her pocket. "Dad worked with Grandfather all week to get this done by your birthday. Unfortunately, it seems with any council, even the most expedited thing still moves at a snail's pace."
Mal chuckled and took the card from Macaria. Quickly opening it, she stared in confusion as it turned out to not be a card but a piece of parchment that'd been folded multiple times. Unfolding it, Mal would be the first to admit that she was shocked to see the Gods' family tree—with her name next to her brother's.
"You should have been on there since birth," Macaria stated, "but since Grandfather didn't know you were born, it...it wasn't possible. Now, however, if you or King Ben need to call on Olympus for anything it'll be provided. Be it aid, shelter, or anything else."
"Macaria...". Mal said faintly. Jerkules...he'd done this for her? Even when all she'd been was snarky to him at best and maybe downright cruel to him at worst, thinking back to their singular interaction in the first viewing.
Huh, maybe I should start referring to him as 'Hercules' instead of Jerkules or Wonderboy, Mal thought with a wry smile.
"He didn't have to do that," she told Macaria, folding the parchment back up.
"Yes he did," Macaria told her. "We're family, it's time you were acknowledged by Olympus as such."
"So...not to sound ungrateful but why now? Why not after the first viewing?"
Macaria shrugged. "I...I think it's because dad thought it might have been too soon. We'd just found out and he didn't want to rush you into accepting Olympus if you didn't want to. Plus you were still getting used to dating King Ben and the royal life that came with that."
Mal couldn't help but smile slightly as she pocketed the folded parchment, grabbing the water bottle that was nearby to take a drink. Transforming into her dragon form still took a lot out to her so the water helped. Plus Steph would probably come after her if she found out Mal wasn't hydrating properly.
Gods, Steph's more of a mom than Maleficent ever was. Well, if you compare Maleficent to like Belle or Cinderella. You compare Maleficent to Cruella and Maleficent wins Mother of the Year.
"Um...so...not to change the subject or anything but have...have you heard from Gil?" Macaria asked and Mal coughed, spluttering out the sip of water she'd taken and drenching the front of her shirt. It was safe to say she had not been expecting that question.
"Gil?"
"Yeah. Have you heard from him? Is...is he back on the Isle?"
Mal couldn't help but shake her head, brushing back some of her hair that had gotten wet from the spluttering. "Macaria, I haven't talked to Gil since I was about nine. Never mind keeping in contact with him since I moved to Auradon. He's in Uma's crew anyway. Even if I wanted to get in contact with him, I doubt I could."
"Oh," Macaria said softly and Mal sighed. Gods how was it Macaria was her age and yet reminded Mal so much of her brother? Must be the Olympus connection.
"He's probably fine. Gil never really let things bother him when we were kids and he's strong enough that other kids on the Isle can't hurt him. Jay and Harry are probably two of the few who could," Mal told her cousin, not wanting to add that the other few kids who could hurt Gil if they wanted included Gil's brothers.
"I...I just...he seemed nice at the viewing," Macaria said softly. "I didn't want him to go back to the Isle so I wanted to see if you might have known where the Blue Fairy..."
"It's more than likely the Blue Fairy put Gil back on the Isle," Mal told her. After all, that's where she put Uma, Mal thought but didn't say anything. Ben was going to give an announcement later that day since none of the scouts they had sent had any sign of Uma.
Gods, the logical side of her knew that she couldn't hold Uma responsible for what happened in the viewing. It wasn't fair to anyone, especially since that was in the future that would never happen.
But every time she tried to be logical, she just thought about Ben's face from the viewing in the future that would never happen...the look of apprehension he had when Evie began to suggest that Dizzy come from the Isle just because he didn't know who Evie was going to recommend.
"Can he come?"
"Pardon?"
"From the Isle?" Macaria elaborated. "Can you invite Gil?"
Mal sighed. "I can propose it to Ben," she told her cousin. "But Gil's only ever known the Isle and he is fond of his family or at least his mother. At least from what I remember from when I was a kid. Not to mention that for all his faults, he is loyal to Uma. He may not accept an invite with...without her."
Gods I need to get back to work. That was the second time in this conversation that I almost spilled the beans, Mal thought.
What beans?
Mal jumped and looked at Macaria. "Why was your voice in my head?"
"It's a power all Olympians have," Macaria said. "It's a mind link. I'm not surprised you're only just experiencing it now, since Grandfather only just officially recognized you as family."
"So you have to be recognized as an Olympian for it to work?"
"Yeah. I don't really understand it," Macaria said with a small shrug. "So for instance, Uma. Since she doesn't know you're an Olympian since she wasn't at the first viewing, she wouldn't be able to use the mind link with you."
Mal nodded, trying to not show any reaction that the other girl had essentially read her mind. That would be a great way to track Uma. But if you had to recognize the other person as an Olympian, it wouldn't have worked.
"So what beans?" Macaria asked again.
"Ben will say it at a presser later today," Mal said. "I don't want it getting out before that."
"Ooh, did he propose?" Macaria asked with a grin. "Was that why it was a joint birthday party?"
Mal chuckled. "No, Ben did not propose. His friends planned the party, and honestly they're insane. That's the best reason I can come up with as to why it was a joint party."
"Oh. Think Ben'll ask Uncle Hades' permission before he proposes?"
"I don't need anyone's permission to do anything," Mal said. "But Ben is so pure hearted...he probably will."
Macaria grinned. "Oh to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."
"If Steph's there, she'd make sure nothing bad happened to Ben," Mal said and then paused as she remembered the one on one on one Hades, Ben and Persephone had had during the last viewing. "On second thought, Ben might be better off calling...wait he can't. The Isle doesn't have cell coverage."
"Well that's stupid."
"That was how Beast set it up," Mal shrugged. "We also didn't have wifi so make of that what you will."
"Oh, that's right. You mentioned that in the first viewing."
"Yep."
"Think that would be something that King Ben changes?" Macaria asked. "Because after watching Jafar try to use a video conferencing system, I'd love to see some of the villains on the Isle try to figure out wifi."
Mal snorted in amusement. "It would honestly be painful for you to watch. It was for us and we'd only been around the technology for about a month. Though it was probably worse for Carlos, as tech obsessed as he is."
"Yeah he certainly is. Hyllus and I have had to stop Herkie a couple of times from getting his phone upgraded by Carlos."
"Carlos doesn't mind doing that sort of thing. He does it for us all the time."
"We figured but since you all were getting used to Auradon and then Cotillion, we thought it'd be best if we didn't bother you."
Mal snorted in amusement before pausing. "Hey Macaria? Why do you call Ben 'king'? You didn't use to."
"I just...Hook had a point. At the viewing I mean, when he asked why we referred to King Beast and Queen Belle by their titles and not King Ben. I know he gave the proclamation for us not to but..."
"I get it," Mal said, biting back the utterance of shock that wanted to escape from her lips at the idea of Harry having a point.
Bad thoughts. He used to be your friend.
Yeah well so did Uma. They chose their paths and the viewing really didn't do much to change that.
Eight years apart is hard to break.
Mal bit back a sigh as she realized her inner debate had a point. Wait. That was her inner debate right?
"Hey Macaria? How do you know when your thoughts are just your thoughts and not the mind link?" Mal asked.
"Do you hear someone else's voice in your head?"
"No..."
"Then they're your thoughts," Macaria told her. "Most of us have our links muted throughout the day anyway, especially when we're in school. Though, and you never heard this from me, but sometimes I'll help Herkie out in Chemistry if Mr. Delay gives a pop quiz."
"What was it I was supposed to hear?" Mal asked and Macaria chuckled.
"Well I should let you get back to work. I just meant to say hi and give you your birthday present," Macaria said.
"If you want, you can stay," Mal told her. "I don't know how interesting it'll be but you can certainly stay."
Macaria smiled. "Thanks Mal. But I've got homework I need to finish up anyway."
"Do it in here," Mal shrugged. "Like I said though, up to you. You outrank me here anyway so it's not like I could order you."
Macaria tilted her head in thought. "Hmm, that's an interesting thought. Does the daughter of Hades not outrank the granddaughter of Zeus?"
"I'm pretty sure that's the case," Mal shrugged. "Your grandfather's the King of the Gods after all. Then again I didn't really pay that close attention when Natalie used to go in on her lectures."
Macaria snorted in amusement as Lenora walked back in. "Are we ready to continue?"
"Sure am," Mal nodded.
"I'll go get my books and I'll be right back," Macaria said as she walked out.
"I told her she could stay if she wanted," Mal shrugged as Lenora gave her a questioning glance. "I figured since Steph wasn't here, it might be a good idea to have another Goddess. Even if it's one who's not as familiar with the shapeshifting powers as Steph."
"Certainly can't hurt," Lenora nodded and the two of them got back to work, Macaria slipping in quietly after a few minutes and started working on her studies. Mal gritted her teeth and resumed her focus. If they couldn't find Uma by searching on the sea....maybe they'd find her by searching on the air.
But for that to work, Mal would need to master her dragon form.
Ben was counting on her. Auradon was counting on her.
And she wouldn't let them down.