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"Alright, are we all set then?" Ellena asked, clapping her hands together after she closed the trunk of her dark blue, 2003 Nissan Murano. "Go ahead and make sure that you have everything packed and haven't missed anything important. If you miss anything, you'll have to go cry about it to someone else cause this lady wont give a damn. If you have everything then get your ass in the Morona."
"Technically it's called a Mura-"
"Dont care, just move along or get inside," Ellena interjected as she kicked a passing Erik in the rear. "You have your medallion with you right?"
"Of course," Erik said, holding up the small bronze necklace. "It never leaves my neck. I even got tan lines because of it."
"That's fine, as long as you have it." The white haired woman waved as she went towards the driver side of the car. "Go and tell your sisters that I'll only wait for them for another 15 minutes. After that, if they haven't entered the confines of the vehicle, I'll be a single woman driving to New York with no kids to her name."
"Alright!!" Erik said loudly in order to be heard as Ellena started up the Nissan. "Just dont get the time mixed up."
"NO PROMISES!!"
Erik rolled his eyes as he began a light jog towards the back of the two story home. Around five hours had passed since the family had ceased their foolish back and forth wrestling and, within that time, the whole lot of them had switched from playful into full on work mode. There had been quite a few things to take care, none of which they could afford to skip out on, forcing them to get up and actually do something meaningful. Though they had already taken care of the more important things during the past few days, there were still tasks remaining that the lot of them had yet to accomplish, causing them to separate and hastily get them done. Erik himself had managed to finish his own objectives early, proceeding to then help his mother pack up the car in preparation for the long trip that the family was about to embark on.
All that was left was to check up on his sisters, of who had disappeared some half an hour prior to Erik helping out Ellena. Having a sort of idea as to where the twins had scurried off to, the white haired adolescent made his way towards the woods, making his way across the field to the same place Pagonia and Erik had been shooting arrows.
After around two minutes of jogging, the young man finally arrived at the spot where his sisters had been hiding, finding the two girls positioned high off the ground. Situated on a intricately built wooden pad of sorts that wrapped around the entire tree, the two girls were calmly chatting back and forth, legs dangling over the edge without a care in the world. Beside them, wooden planks were hammered into the trees trunk from the ground to the pad, of which served as a sort of ladder that allowed one to go up and down as they saw fit.
"Oi, what exactly are y'all doin up there?" Erik questioned, making sure he was loud enough to be heard as he made his way to the planks. "Don't you know we're about to leave?"
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"Hey Errie. Care to join us?" Chioni asked, waving towards the white haired youth as he rapidly climbed up towards them. The short haired twin didnt seem to care about a single word that Erik had uttered, neither her nor Pagonia bothering to move from their spots on the pad. "We're just doing some reminiscing about some of the better experiences we had here. We shouldn't be much longer."
"How much time did mom give us this time?" Pagonia inquired, her rust colored hues locking onto Erik as he pulled himself up onto the wooden platform.
"15 minutes," Erik replied. "Although we only have about 11 minutes left."
"15 huh? Guess she's feeling generous." Chioni fixed her black dress, pulling it down her thighs. "She usually only gives us 5."
"Still better then the time she gave us less then sixty seconds a year back," Pagonia pointed out.
"You referring to the time where we let out those kangaroos from the annual petting zoo and they proceeded to harass everyone, both animals and people?" Erik wondered aloud, swinging his dangling legs back and forth.
"Or that time where we went to Disney World and got into a fistfight with Mickey Mouse?" Chioni chimed in.
Pagonia shook her head. "I was actually referring to the time we took a trip to the Grand Canyon and thought it'd be a fun adventure."
"Oh yeah!! I remember that one. Although, to be fair, I think we deserved to have our faces kicked in after that particular adventure," Erik said, a smile spreading across his face. "We nearly fell to our deaths so its make sense that she'd be pissed off. Though it was mainly moms fault that we were there in the first place."
A year prior, Erik and his family had taken a trip to the Grand Canyon located in Arizona. It had been a part of a lesson regarding Egyptian mythology, a subject that Erik's mother possessed immense knowledge of, having studied up on quite a number of myths and legends throughout the entirety of her life. According to Ellena, as well as some articles Erik had perused online regarding the Grand Canyon, there were various connections to Egyptian mythology located amongst the endless amount of pathways and hidden caves. The validity of said articles was questionable, but Erik's mother had been hell bent on making the trip anyways, to show the young trio of adolescents exactly what she meant. Setting aside the cost for everything, of which the white haired youth was sure cost a pretty penny, Erik himself was pretty damned excited for the whole thing and even had a few sleepless nights a week before the outing was scheduled.
However, as much hype as the excursion got, nothing had gone as he had originally pictured.
For starters, Ellena had booked a tour a week prior to when a snowstorm had blown through, coating a solid portion of the Grand Canyon in a thick white blanket. While this wasn't entirely a bad thing, Erik's mother had made plans to ditch the group of tourists they would be walking with to go scouting on their own. Going exploring in a place where one could just as easily slip and fall off a cliff due to layers of snow was borderline stupid in Erik's opinion, though he admitted it would make for a good adventure. He had no complaints other then how abnormally cold it was on that particular day.
Unsurprisingly, during the escapade into the depths of the Grand Canyon, the trio of kids brushed with death numerous times. Each time the siblings came close to becoming piles of flesh on the rocky ground below, Ellena would simply tell them to shrug it off and keep pushing forward. In truth, it was a miracle that any of the children survived at all, the only reason they lived being, ironically, the snow itself.
"Did we even learn anything on that trip?" Chioni questioned aloud, her finger on her chin, cutting off Erik's train of thought. "The whole thing is kinda foggy. I only remember the key points of the journey."
"Come to think of it.....same over here." Pagonia muttered softly, her voice lowered. "I only remember bits and pieces of it. The more I try to recall, the less I'm able to pull up."
HONKKKkk!!!! HONKKKKK!!!!
Just as Erik was about to add his own two sense, the loud horn from Ellena's car interrupted him, startling the kids and nearly causing the lot of them to fall from the pad. It seemed that during the white haired youths reminiscing, his own sense of time had gotten skewed. After a quick glance towards the din though, he was quickly able to get back on track as he pushed himself onto his feet and ran towards the ladder.
"Last one to the car has to spar with mom," Erik shouted as he scurried down the wooden planks. "We have less then 2 minutes to make it to the car!!"