CHAPTER FIVE: A CIRCLE MADE ANEW
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Snippet Six (2): The Tears of a Lifetime
The light slowly pierces the window of her small apartment, Tânia stretches and pulls the covers off her. She does her regular workout routine and then showers in the tiny bathroom. She rushes to get dried off as well as get dressed for work. Tânia quickly walks out of the room, before pausing a looking at a small painting of two young identical twins. "I'm sorry, Gabby, and I still miss you." She says while touching the left twin’s face and checking on the ever-bright candle. She then rushes to the kitchen to make a quick meal of cinnamon-coated fruit salad before bringing out her silver and white feathers and flying to Little Wanderer's Home to guard the most vulnerable.
Tânia greets her fellow Joker with a whistle and a "Good morning Tomás, how are they this morning?" A tanned male Gheyo approaches her.
"Good Mornin', 'Nia. Two more months until the hunt. Were you planning on going this year?" He shakes his hair out of his eyes and laughs when 'Nia gestures something less than polite. "I'll take that as a no. At any rate, I've done the first scope and it looks clear. It seems that Fate's fortune is ours with another good day. Let's just make sure to keep it that way." He bolts away as Tânia starts to chase him around the outside of the orphanage.
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After a playful jaunt in the air, they both go and sit in front of the gate to relieve the previous shift of guards. They both nod to the previous two Gheyos as one comes to tell them what has happened during that night's shift. "Nothing happened last night, 'Nia. We didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. Me and Bernardo will go fill in today's volunteer shift lead. Uh, I think it's Florin again. But, Rhasien and Maider are after you, make sure to call them if anything happens. 'Night." The two fly away as Tânia and Tomás sit in their normal positions.
The two pass time telling gossip about all the volunteers and assistants that deal with the orphanage. And then Tânia starts to feel something strange in her chest. As she looks down, she starts rubbing her chest where her heart is. "'Nia?? Are you alright?" Tomás cries as he realizes that she is in pain. He begins to stand up before Tânia makes two quick gestures with her fingers: Soul & Scream. And then with a bolt of lightning, Tânia is pulled away from the building. "Well FUCK!" Tomás shouts, "What the fuck am I supposed to do now?" and begins to send a message to Florin.
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Not too far from the orphanage, Tânia gets dropped into a scene familiar to her...too familiar. A feminine form shrieking as if their soul is coming out. Tânia quickly pulls out her longsword, pulls out her feathers, and embraces the female. "Shh, little one," 'Nia says before continuing with "I won't let this soul scream end in what the last one did. And I really hope you pull some more Gheyos to you, my little riptide." As more get 'ported in, Tânia keeps an eye out for someone who is able to protect her back. She stares at a tanned female Gheyo Joker until their seafoam eyes look at Tânia; Tânia makes a motion and the dragel comes while putting their half-black and half-white scales to her feathers. Now one to protect her front. She looks around until she sees a pure-white-skinned Gheyo or Pareya and gestures at them to guard her front. He comes over and pulls out a long machete that seems to be dripping with a green sheen. Great. The poisoner. She internally sighs and reminds herself it is for her new Submissive.
After everyone has ported in and a few dragels get brutally murdered, the chaos is all done. Tânia croons at her submissive who has finally finished screaming and slightly flutters her feathers to get her Submissive's attention. And it works wonderfully as she spins around with her teeth bared and the Pheolix braces herself for a bite. Tânia chirps at her new Submissive and she slowly relaxes; the Submissive touches a feather, Gabby's favorite silver feather that is tipped with white, before touching a few more feathers and saying "Oh, hello." in a breathy voice before passing out in the arms of her new protector.
A dark olive-skinned dragel rushes up and Tânia loudly rasps in warning as a Merrow Healer runs to the Merrow that the Submissive was just screaming over. "If you try to take her from my arms, you'll have to feather and tar me first." She growls out.
The Gheyo Joker at my back tosses a "That was some bad timing of going through this alleyway," to some of the non-called Merrow Gheyo nearby. "This is a known abduction site for beautiful Submissives and you were lucky she wasn't taken. I would have your head had she been taken!"
The dark olive-skinned dragel assures Monika with a "Calm down, I know this is post-fight Joker, but it'll end in more bloodshed if you get worked up." He continues to walk closer to them and continues to speak. "My name is Leonard Zharim, and I AM the Alpha. I want to know who here has a purchased house big enough for..."