Chapter 8

Orchid hung upside-down in mid air, watching the sunrise, it would be her last one in South Village because in less than an hour, she would begin her journey as a Hero.

"Aish, what a drag." She muttered to herself, her transparent wings caught the first rays and reflected them beautifully like a rainbow.

"You should pack up, Orchid." A giant spider said to her, it was sitting on a branch above where she hung from.

"Mama already did, like a week ago." Orchid replied with a drawl, her hanging wings were as vibrant as an iridiscent display of colors but she was dressed in black, from her ripped, cropped shirt to her ripped leathers, a big metal buckle hung from her hip and even her nails were painted black.

"She's excited for you." The spider speaks again, it does this without opening it's mouth so it's a little eerie.

"Mira, you and I know she just wants me out of the house." Orchid mumbled, closing her eyes against the morning sun.

The spider called Mira waved her two front arms around a bit like she was weaving. "And you haven't given her any reason to?" She asked drily, one of her compound eyes swivelling to look in Orchid's direction.

"I'm not going to be another Oak girl." She muttered tightly, not flinching when the web attached to her boots to make her look like she was hanging upside down in mid air started to pull her up.

"Nobody is trying to make you into one." Mira replied, effortlessly spinning her web to bring up Orchid.

"You used to be a better liar, we're all identical quintuplets. Do you have any idea how easy it is to lose yourself in the midst of four other identical clones?" She asked when she got up to the branch, sitting astride on it.

"Don't call your sisters clones." Mira scolded.

"They act like it so I'll call them that, we're all supposed to dress alike and talk alike, how isn't that cloning."

"Well you got what you wanted, if you didn't tell someone they would have no idea that you are one of the Oak girls." Mira made a movement like she was shrugging. "But did you have to go the extra mile and bond with an Arachnid? We're barely tolerated but the Fauna Hero bonding with one of us is forbidden."

"Exactly why I did it." Orchid smirked, swinging off the branch to a lower one so that she could easily hop to the ground below. "One would think that would make you excited, your kind has been prejudiced for so long."

Mira sighed. "I would have been if you were doing this right but you aren't Orchid, you're doing this for all the wrong reasons." The spider started to scramble off the tree, she was easily three times the size of the Fairy.

"The end justifies the means doesn't it?" Orchid grunts, landing fluidly on the grassy ground.

"You're a hopeless case."

"I'm actually really simple, I hate taking others and authority irritates me so if they want me to do something they would simply have to order me to do the direct opposite." She shrugged, "Easy."

Mira lightly drops on the ground, skittering in Orchid's direction with her eight feet. "Of course." She mumbled with heavy doses of sarcasm, crouching low on her slender black legs. "Hop on then." She offered, "Let's hope I don't get murdered for this."

Orchid crouched to give herself a little boost then she jumped onto Mira's abdomen, settling comfortably on the red hourglass tattoo on her bulbous body.

"I'll kill anyone that touches you." Orchid threatened in a dark voice, her red eyes narrowing.

"Good to know." Mira said cheerfully, running in the direction of the Village, although she had an intimidating size, she could move lightly and very fast. "Do you ever miss your seashell blue eyes?"

"I never had them, can't miss what you don't have."

She was referring to the fact that whatever animal a Fauna Fairy owned and bonded with would share characteristics with them, all of Orchid's sisters had tiny blue seashell colored butterflies that were small enough to hang off their blonde curls.

So henceforth, they all had seashell blue eyes, well all of them except Orchid.

Orchid remembered that day, they were just four and they were lined out of the house in matching blue dresses and little white petticoats, she remembered because that was the last day she dressed like an Oak clone.

She was the last and the prized child of her parents as the Hero and while she wasn't maltreated there were penalties for not keeping to their code of perfection, Orchid hated it, hated that she was slowly losing herself to what other people wanted her to be.

Then she saw Mira at the 'Helper' shop and they just hit it off, it also helped that then, the black widow spider could fit in her chubby palms.

Her brown eyes had reddened and her light brown hair darkened, effectively breaking the emotionless chain that tied her to her sisters that were nothing like her.

They had all chosen butterflies, the tame ones that never grew beyond the width of your palm. As a Hero, she was expected to bond with a butterfly as a 'Helper' and Orchid had never been prouder of any decision as she was of Mira.

The delicate butterflies had turned her plain and boring looking siblings into blond haired, blue eyed girls, the peak of beauty in South Village.

Orchid didn't care that her choice of a 'Helper' had taken her the furthest away from the signature of beauty but she preferred it that way.

"Orchid?" One of her sisters, Orange called out to her. "Didn't you see Olive in the woods? She went looking for you almost half an hour ago." 

Orchid hopped off Mira and strutted towards her sister, all the metal on her body glinting off the sunlight. "Why?" She spoke up with the one worded replies she found herself giving her siblings.

"The carriage is here." Orange pouted, obviously unhappy that she had to dusty her delicate shoes by walking the couple steps to Orchid, her glitter covered wings fluttered behind her, like it was impatient to start working again.

Orchid just nodded, her hair was cut very short, accentuating it's darkness and the stud in her left ear. She just walked straight there, motioning Mira to come behind her, her sisters never walked anywhere and naturally Orchid did the opposite.

The carriage was as glamorous as she had expected and she nearly decided to sit it out and ride on Mira but the journey to the West Village was ridiculously long and she couldn't strain her 'Helper' like that.

There was transportation arranged for Mira and Orchid didn't like the metal cage one bit but Mira had assured her.

She wasn't worried much though, Mira could easily snap the metal bats with her legs but she also didn't want the spider to get hurt.

She got on the carriage, unsurprised to see every of what little possession she had sitting inside, almost like her family had hoped she wouldn't ever come back, well they didn't need to worry about that because Orchid didn't plan on coming back.

The carriage started it's procession and Orchid found an almost morbid satisfaction in the fact that the streets remained empty, even her family hadn't come out to see her off. Leaning back on the soft seats of the Wasp-drawn carriage, she closed her eyes and promptly fell asleep.