6:30 am

Bethyinine woke up the next morning to the sound of thunder. She felt the rain pour down on her scales and smiled before looking at Jame’s makeshift grave. The rain began to fall harder and harder as the ocean started to rise. Bethyinine walked over to the sea and drove down into the depths. She looked at the hundreds of fish swimming around her. There were hundreds, possibly even thousands of them, here.

“This isn’t right, there’s too many of you here. I take it that all of you know what must be done then?” Bethyinine said, staring at the over-abundance of fish around her.

Bethyinine thought of how she would go about managing the fish population. She eventually came up with an answer and began to sing. Immediately, the fish began to swarm her, Bethyinine smiled and continued to sing. She closed her eyes and stopped singing, the fish immediately ceased their movements. Bethyinine opened her eyes and looked at the three hundred or so fish that were now in front of her. She smiled and gestured for them to form a single file line behind her. She closed her eyes and began to sing again. The fish began to move again, only this time there was a pause between each movement. Bethyinine could feel the fish’s movements, she could sense their numbers dwindling, it started slowly at first, but eventually it increased. Her tail started to sway a little bit as she began to fall asleep.

7:45 am

Bethyinine’s unconscious body floated up to the ocean’s surface. She opened her eyes a little bit and saw that the storm had stopped. Yet the rain continued to fall, despite this the water level refused to rise. She swam back to her island, sat on the shore and began to cry, letting her tears flow into the sea. The rain subsided as Bethyinine got up and walked over to her brother’s grave. She looked down at the sword, examining the intricate carvings on the blade. Why did he give her a sword as a wedding gift? She was perfectly capable of defending herself. Bethyinine pondered the reason as to why she was given the blade, only for the answer to pierce her mind.

“You gave me this so that one day we may be together again. Reunited in death, you and I.” Bethyinine said

She wanted to grieve again, and yet that would be pointless. She wanted to see her brother again, so Bethyinine reached out to grab the sword. Yet when she grasped the blade, her hand began to burn. She hissed in pain and looked at the blade once again. It was made of Aunix, a substance formed from the coalescence of the departed. It was poison to her, one wound from a weapon like that and she would be gone. Her body will end up turning to ash as her soul would enter the weapon, strengthening it. She sighed and looked towards the south, off in the distance she could faintly make out the shape of a volcano. Krakatoa to be precise, and that thing hadn’t erupted in 5 years. She stared at it for a moment, letting the rage inside her build to a boiling point. Then Bethyinine sat down, she had to resolve her situation somehow.

“Should I go see my sister? No, I don’t want to risk hurting her, and besides she won’t really help anyways. All Sierra will do is feed off of my negative emotions, leaving me to face my brothers loss alone.” Bethyinine told herself

”Well now what am I to do? How exactly am I going to deal with this mess now? Perhaps a little bit of catharsis would help with this. After all, that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the past two days now. But who exactly am I going to turn to for this endeavor?” Bethyinine asked herself

The answer to that question was simple, her niece Josephine, she could help with this. Catharsis was her particular coping mechanism after all. There was just one problem, she was all the way in a North American forest thousands of miles away. Bethyinine groaned, dove into the sea, and began the long journey to North America.

12:45 pm

Bethyinine swam to the surface of Lake Eerie and looked at her surroundings. There were trees as far as the eye could see. She exited the lake and began walking through the forest, a few deer sprinted away from her as she walked. She sprinted towards one of the deer, catching up to it in mere seconds. Bethyinine lunged towards the deer, pinning it to the floor. She smiled and began to rip the animal to shreds. Once that was done she continued walking north towards Josephine’s cottage. Lucky for her, she was only a few minutes away from the cottage. The house was a small oak log cabin with a rocking chair on the porch. Bethyinine smiled as she walked up and knocked on the door.

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”Coming!” Josephine said

The door opened as Bethyinine stared down at Josephine. Her nieces silver scales reflected the light of the afternoon sun. Josephine smiled and beckoned her aunt inside. Bethyinine entered the cottage, glancing around at the furniture, a couch in particular caught her eye. It was four feet across, taking up a relatively small amount of space in the living room. A little farther into the house was the kitchen area, whose checkered floor somewhat clashed with the elm flooring that made up the rest of the house. Bethyinine looked at her niece and then at the kitchen again.

“So, why did you come all the way out here to see me?” Josephine asked

“Counseling.” Bethyinine muttered

“Counseling? Why do you need counseling, what happened?” Josephine inquired

“My brother is dead! James is dead! And I failed to protect him!” Bethyinine broke down into tears

Yes, she did fail to protect him, from himself. Jame had ripped out his own immortality, much to his sister’s dismay. She could remember pleading him to reconsider, begging him to stop. James however didn’t seem to hear her as his eyes went from emerald green to a pale white. She couldn’t stop him from taking his own life, she couldn’t stop him, no one could.

Josephine looked at her aunt in horror, she hadn’t seen her like this before. Josephine went over to comfort her, yet Bethyinine hissed at her and pushed her away. Josephine got up and went into the kitchen to make a salad. After fifteen minutes Bethyinine stopped crying and went into the kitchen. She smiled upon seeing Josephine, who was happily putting various vegetables into a bowl. Josephine finished preparing lunch and turned around.

”So, are you feeling good enough to have lunch?” Josephine asked

Bethyinine nodded and smiled, after this she would ask Josephine for some help. The two of them sat down on the couch with Josephine taking up half of the entire thing by herself. Bethyinine looked at her niece and began to laugh, Josephine looked back at her, smiling.

”Of all my relatives, you are probably one of my favorites.” Bethyinine said

”Really? Why exactly is that?” Josephine asked

“How many other people do I know take up half of an entire couch by themselves?” Bethyinine replied

Josephine laughed and went back and into the kitchen for a little while.

1:30 pm

Bethyinine sat there on the couch waiting for Josephine to return. She started to whistle her lullaby as Josephine left the kitchen and sat back on the couch again.

”So, you came here for counseling?” Josephine asked

“Yes, now what exactly did you have in mind?” Bethyinine responded

”Well, I might have some ideas in mind.” Josephine answered

Bethyinine smiled, putting her head on the arm of the couch, and took up whatever space was left. She yawned and looked at Josephine who just smiled at her. Bethyinine decided to rest for a bit and closed her eyes as she began to fall into unconsciousness. After a few minutes of rest she felt her body shift and jolted awake, her vision was completely dark. She chuckled and felt her surroundings, they were oddly smooth to the touch. Bethyinine looked around, but her surroundings didn’t change, everything was pitch black. She felt her surroundings again and smiled, not caring about what was possibly happening to her, for the most part.

“What exactly is going on here?” Bethyinine asked as her voice echoed all around her

“Catharsis, a taste of your own medicine if you will.” Josephine replied

“I know that much, but really what exactly is going on here?” Bethyinine asked again

“Well, I would like to ask you a question that I never asked you before.” Josephine answered

“And that is?” Bethyinine responded

“How would you like to become apart of something greater than yourself?” Josephine asked

Bethyinine smiled and nodded in response to her niece’s request. Josephine chuckled, she could vaguely hear her aunt’s voice answering her questions.

”This is honestly quite smooth!” Bethyinine said

Josephine smiled and blushed a little bit. She found this situation to be a tad bit amusing. Her aunt said nothing, she was presumably waiting for her to do something. Josephine looked out the window towards the forest and began to whistle. She noticed someone walking towards the house and quickly shut the blinds and locked the door. Bethyinine began to sing her lullaby as the heat and darkness overtook her. Josephine adjust her position on the couch, noticing that she now took up three fourths of the space on it. She could faintly hear her aunt singing, though it felt distant from her. She stretched, got up from the couch, and went to the bathroom to take a nice long bath.