'Arena, dear. I love you, so much but please...arghhh. Arena! Arena! Help me! Arenaaaaa!'
'(GASP)Mother! (hic)Mother...', Arena screamed with tears on her face as she woke up from her nightmare.
'Lady Arena. My lady. Are you ok.', the female asked from the other side of the door.
Calming down as much as she could she spoke with a slight tremble in her voice,' I'm fine.'
'Ok then I'll take my leave.', the maid said before leaving.
Walking to the bathroom, she washed her face and stared at the mirror, images of her mother flashed in her mind making the tears she held in her eyes escape.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she got dressed in her school uniform. Her buttons buttoned correctly, her tie neatly placed with her shirt tucked in her skirt and black stockings that matched the pin she used to pin her hair in a bun.
Looking in the mirror she sighed at her eyes that were red and the redness under her eyes and used her magic to remove them.
'Heal.', she whispered and the red that stained her eyes had been removed and the redness under her eyes was gone.
Walking down the stairs, she saw her father woke up from his seat and hugged her, and greeted her 'Good morning, dear.'
'Good morning father.', she greeted and sat down as she ate breakfast properly while her father tried to talk to her.
After she finished eating, she hugged her father and called out to her one-year-old brother who ran to her giggling.
Putting on her mask she smiled and bent down, picking him up. Tapping his nose she kissed his cheek and said goodbye.
Walking to her father she smiled and hugged him,' I'm sorry.', she whispered to her father whose eyes widened but hugged tighter,' No I am sorry, child.', he whispered back.
Saying their goodbyes, Arena walked out to the front of her house.
Holding the letter in front of her she read:
'Student: Arena Hart no. 15279.'
A shadow appeared on the floor and from the shadow emerged a woman.
She was tall, had beautiful black hair that was tied in a ponytail and had a warm skin tone that complimented her chocolate brown, almond-shaped eyes, with thick eyelashes and a beautiful mask made with gold and black beads that covered everything beneath her nose, only revealing her eyes.
Looking at Arena she spoke, 'Hello. My name is Sayah. I am here to escort you.'
'Hello, mam. I am Arena.', Arena said.
'Mam? Call me Sayah, kid. So you ready to go.', Sayah said as she was about to pick up her mask.
'Um Sayah why are you picking up your mask.', Arena asked.
'Hmmm to take us back.', she lied.
'But when you came here your mask was down and aren't those magic control beads.', she said pointing to the mask.
Smiling Sayah replied,' Why yes they are. My magic likes to rampage so to avoid disaster I use a mask made of beads.'
'Why a mask? Wouldn't a ring or necklace work better.', she asked.
'Curious are we, well I use a mask...-', she paused,'- because it's a family heirloom, you see the women in my family had immense magic that was hard to control, so it is passed down from generation to generation.', she answered.
'I see, ok, let us go.', Arena spoke.
'She passed the intelligence test at least. The last kid was clueless. He was almost sucked into the shadow labyrinth I had created.', Sayah thought.
Whispering the words 'Shadow Vortex.' and a shadow whirlpool appeared on the ground.
'Close your eyes and jump in.', Sayah instructed her.
Looking back she waved to her brother and father.
Turning forward she jumped in without hesitation.
Smiling Sayah chuckled, jumping in as well.
Feeling the ground beneath her Arena opened her eyes and was surrounded by colors of bright green and blue.
It was hot enough but the sun made it worse and the stockings she was wearing made her feel hotter.
Looking around she counted 15 people and looked at Sayah.
'There's only 15.', Arena said.
'Yea when he told me there were very few students I didn't believe him.'. Sayah replied.
'He?', Arena asked confused.
'Oh, this is my first year teaching. My brother An-', she spoke but was stopped by a scream.
'Sayah! You're back!', a man ran to them waving.
Huffing, he spoke again,' Sayah you won't believe it there's actually 15 here!'
'Yes, dear brother, I can see that. I didn't think that 15 was a lot but you did tell me numbers were short-', she stopped as she looked at Arena who stared at Sayah's brothers,'- oh this is Arena. Arena my older brother, Anwar.', she introduced.
'What's up kid. I'm Anwar, nice meet you.', he flashed a smile and Arena looked at him.
He was as beautiful as Sayah, he had warm ivory skin too with brown eyes and black hair that added to his charm. He was taller than Sayah and more expressive. His face always had a smile and he had a bubbly personality unlike Sayah who was quiet and mysterious, her expression was hard to read and she was less enthusiastic as compared to her brother.
'Hello. I am Arena Hart.', she replied.
'Hope you enjoy it here. Anyways Sayah how's your first day. ', he asked eagerly.
' It was good, brother but this one kid... I rather not talk about it. ', she sighed.
'That bad. Well anyways forget it, Arena you can explore and mingle, for now, the orientation starts at 12.', he told her as she nodded and said goodbye to them.
Watching them walk away she saw how close they were, just like her brother and her. She smiled thinking about her little brother.
Walking into the forest nearby she could sense the other 15 children by their magic, they were powerful but 3 stood out to her.
Walking even further she was greeted by 5 girls.
'Hello there.'
'Greetings, you must be Lady Arena from the Hart family.'
'Do you remember me? I'm Amber. You attended a party at my house once.'
'And I'm Christine from the Tallon family.', they bombarded her with questions as she stepped back.
Smiling she answered, ' Hello ladies, I am Arena Hart. It's a pleasure to meet you. Yes, I remember you Miss Amber, Miss Christine, and the rest of you. It's a pleasure to meet all of you once again.'
'No, the pleasure is ours. My father was asking about you and your family. He wanted to pay a visit too but with the war going on, he was too busy.', the girl chirped.
'I see.', she said.
'Since you're here how about joining us.', one asked.
'I'm sorry but I have to decline your offer, I'm looking for my teacher. I wanted to ask her something.', she said politely.
'I see well next time then.', the girl replied.
Walking away Arena could hear snickers and faint laughter as the girls mocked her.
'The know it all.'
'Adult wannabe.'
'Goody two shoes.' and the worst of all.
'Wolfdog.'
The girls would call her these names behind her back, names she heard, and names that didn't bother her except the last one.
'Wolfdog.' the name that held more malice than anything.
An innocent name that held a repulsive meaning.
Being born mixed blood, instead of being called directly mixed breed, she was called wolfdog.
Having a mother who was a human and a father who was a magic-user. Her father representing a sheepdog and her mother a wolf.
Them being together created her brother and herself. The so-called, 'wolfdogs'.
Humans and magic users having relationships were looked down upon and some people were even killed for it. Some say humans corrupt the magic flow and some say humans take advantage of a magic user and corrupt them.
A lot of things weren't accepted, like a marriage between different supernaturals, magic users, and humans. Homosexuality wasn't accepted either. Luckily the new queen had changed all this.
Making marriage legal for everyone, your gender, sexuality, and whether you were a supernatural, magic-user or human didn't matter.
This law was made 5 years ago and now the people couldn't be happier.
Thinking about this Arena walked further and saw a tree with some shade.
Looking at her watch she saw there was still time left for the orientation and decided to sleep for a while.
Sitting near the tree, sleep took over. Her mind wandered and visions of her mother's warm embrace and shining smile filled her mind but soon that image morphed into something more terrifying.
Her mother was on the bed, she was pale, the wound on her stomach refusing to heal. The knife sticking out and her mother's mouth opening as she tried to speak.
The memories made her groan and made her feel uncomfortable and restless.
Feeling someone near her woke her up from her sleep and she opened her eyes.
A dark-skinned girl with eyes that enchanted her, was in front of her. Her hair was big and looked very soft, to Arena it looked like a cloud.
Hearing a noise in the bush she lunged forward pinning the girl to the floor.
'Excu-', the girl tried to speak when the Arena put her finger to the girl's lip and whispered 'Ssshhh.'
Nodding, the girl listened and Arena smiled at her.
Arena's heartbeat increased as the rustling in the bush got louder.
Feeling the girl's heart speed up, Arena held her hand to comfort and calm her down. Smiling at the girl she got up and picked the girl up.
The noise getting louder made her remove the pin in her hair to use as a weapon, allowing her blonde hair to fall.
Walking closer to the bush, Arena stopped and looked at the girl who nodded at her as if to move forward.
Walking even closer the thing in the bush jumped out making her scream and run into the arms of the girl who didn't even flinch.
'She's warm and... comforting.', Arena thought as she latched onto the girl.
The girl hugged Arena back and patted her back whispering,' It's ok. It was just a squirrel.'
'I know but... the noise.', Arena said as she spoke with a soft voice.
As if sensing her fear the girl said some comforting words.
'Hey, it's ok. A squirrel ain't gonna do anything.', the girl reassured her.
'If you say so-', Arena said finally looking up, looking at the girl in front of her she saw the sparkle in the girl's beady eyes and how tall she was. 'Sorry miss but what's your name?', Arena asked politely leaving the girl's embrace, the warmth she felt disappearing slowly.
'Pretty...', the girl whispered.
'Pretty? Your name is Pretty.', Arena asked curiously and also amused as she saw the blush that was covering the girl's cheeks.
'N.. no, I mean your pretty. I mean uh I'm Alex and you.', she stuttered.
'Cute.', Arena thought as she saw the taller girl fiddle with her hands and a red face.
Breaking from her distracted state, she finally answered, 'Oh, I am Arena. Nice to meet you Alex.', Arena offered her hand to greet which Alex took.
'And thank you. You are beautiful yourself.', Arena complimented her back making Alex blush and leaving a sparkle in her eye's that Arena noticed and smiled.
Walking away the only thing that stuck in her mind was that that the girl's eyes were one of the most beautiful things she ever saw.
And unaware of it, she would one day realize that she would want to follow those eyes wherever they went.
Arena END
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS CHAPTER _LUNA💙