Gryffin rubbed his arms to fight against the cold of the A.C. In actuality, he just needed something to keep his hands occupied. His foot tapped anxiously while the end of his tail swished back and forth as the seconds ticked by. Kymera slouched in her seat with an irritated pout, both arms folded across her chest, her fingers impatiently tapping over her forearm.
After what felt like a century, Sebastian stepped out of Principal Vista’s office, sneering at the twins as he walked past. His frustrated curses pierced through the door, making even the secretary flinch. She and Kymera shook heads in disapproval. Principal Vista invited the twins into his office.
When they sat down, Gryffin’s eyes shifted back and fourth between the principal and his tapping foot, trying in vain to command it to stop. Before the principal opened his mouth, Kymera spoke up first.
“Señor, we didn’t do anything wrong! Sebastian was—”
“I know, I know. Believe me, I know.” The Principal Vista rubbed his forehead, right above his single eye. “But, that’s actually not why I called you in here.”
“So, we’re not in trouble on our last day?” Gryffin asked. He was so sure everyone else may have felt his small earthquake.
Principal Vista kindly shook his head with a smile. “No, no.” He opened his desk cabinet and pulled out an envelop, handing it over to Gryffin. “I just wanted to personally hand you the copies to your last report cards.”
The twins exhaled in relief.
“I also wanted to say that having you both here at Florencia has been quite the adventure.”
Kymera and Griffin shared awkward laughs. “I’ll bet.” Kymera said, hoping he wouldn’t bring up the time when she gave the Ulama Ball captain a black eye for flirting with her in front of his girlfriend. Or when Gryffin accidentally made those rocks tear up Sebastian’s pants, exposing his dolphin underpants. Thankfully, he only focused on the good parts.
“You two have also gotten some of the best grades in your classes, perfect attendance, and your participation in keeping the annual book fair going did not go unnoticed. With all of that said, I just wanted to say that, despite the ups and downs you have had over your time here, you will be missed.”
“Gracias, Señor Vista.” Kymera said, blushing as she placed her hand over her heart. “We were just doing our part and hope to continue that at our new schools.”
“You’re not going to the same school?” asked Principal Vista.
“Um, no.” Gryffin scratched his neck. “Kymera is going to Seelie Academy and I’ll be studying under our Uncle William at the Emrys Institute.”
“Well, that’s wonderful. I wish you both the best of luck.”
* * *
Kymera practically flew out of their last classroom once the bell rang. They walked past Sebastian and Kiara, both glaring at them from the archway entrance. A prickly vine sprouted from the grass around Kiara’s ankles as a threat. Kymera huffed, rolled her eyes, and looked away. Kiara lifted her chin and smiled, reveling in that she will never see them again.
“The goodie-two-wings are gone!” She declared, and her cronies all cheered, spilling their nectar all over the place and on their uniforms.
“You’re finally on top again, baby!” Said one of her followers.
“About time.” Kiara said smugly, pulling Sebastian in for a victory kiss.
Kymera fought the fierce sting forming behind her eyes. Some days she hated that she was born with keen hearing. But she refused to give that selfish brat and her son-of-an-echidna boyfriend the satisfaction of seeing her cry on their watch.
Gryffin pulled his sister into a hug, kissing her head. “Relax. While you’re out there saving lives they’ll be on parole again.” He said. Kymera managed to smile a bit at that.
The twins stood at the edge of the road, waiting for their grandfather to pick them up, anxiously tapping their toes to a nonexistent rhythm. Finally, they spotted their abuelo’s old olive-green car pulling up. Raul wore his cleanest cotton shirt with the outline of a horse stitched on the right of his chest, a pair of black jeans, brown leather laced shoes, and his signature dark blue cap. They detected the familiar aroma of his signature cologne: Juniper Firebird. He only wore it when he had errands to run, since Elseleyda never allowed him to leave the house until he was cleanly dressed.
“How’d it go?” Raul asked.
“Aced our book report.” Kymera said, but Raul caught her lukewarm smile from the review mirror.
“You don’t look too happy about it.”
“It’s fine. Kiara opened her big mouth again.”
“Ah. I see. Well, I need to run a few errands before we get home.”
“Okay.”
“In San Perla.”
The twins sat upright in surprise. “San Perla?!”
* * *
To the rest of the world, Guanina was as close to paradise as one could get. A humble island settlement in the southeast part of the Andromeda sea, known for its friendly locals, white sandy beaches, mouthwatering cuisine, and colorful wildlife. From the musically gifted Coquis who’s melody was carried in the wind while their luminescent bodies lit up the nighttime rainforest, to the elusive, yet cuddly, Chupacabras, whose eggs were a local delicacy.
The one place many agreed best exemplified their island’s vibrant culture was the capital of San Perla; a seaside town that intermixed both the people’s ancient history with their modern sensibilities. The town was the cultural hot spot for artists and musicians. Brightly colored murals with abstract imagery populated almost every block, and houses came in every color of the rainbow. Locals sold a variety of handcrafted items like bags, jewelry, porcelain dolls, hats, paintings, even rocks that had beautiful landscapes painted on their surface.
Musicians came together to form parrandas at any hour of the day, completely out of the blue and for literally any reason they could think of. They’d play their guitars, shake their maracas and tambourines, tap on a pair of wooden sticks, and scratch on their güiros along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound.
San Perla was also the best place to taste the local cuisine, from restaurants to street-side kiosks serving portions of crispy garlic fried plantains, slow-roasted succulent pork, savory rice-and-beans, and Chupacabra eggs, sprinkled with salt and pepper, with a side of garlic bread, and melted cheese on top, and arepas con queso.
The beach was packed with faeries swimming, sunbathing, building sandcastles, to riding water bikes, and inflatable canoes. Merfolk, siyokoy and undines sat upon rocks taking pictures with their geodes while sipping nectar or piña coladas.
A group of centaurs galloped along the boardwalk with headphones plugged into their ears, passing a satyr selling coconut and mango ice cream to a group of kids. A couple of Tatzelwurms slithered onto an empty beach table and fought over the last fish stick, and a trio of teenage elves zoomed by on their boards, hovering four feet in the air thanks to the levitating crystals implanted onto the wheels.
Gryffin tapped the back of Raul’s seat with a look of confusion. “Abuelito, isn’t the pottery store on the other side of the street?” He asked. Raul was meant to pick up a vase Elseleyda pre-ordered months ago.
“Si, but it’s going to take a while, and I’m already craving something. Would you kids mind grabbing your Abuelo some empanadas de pizza to go?” He gave them a wink.
Kymera kissed his cheek. “Sure thing.”
Raul dropped the twins off near the beach, just by the kiosks. “And don’t forget the nectar!” He shouted.
“Wouldn’t dream of it!” The twins shouted back, giving him a thumbs up.
Kymera ordered three empanadas and three cans of nectar. They sat by a marble table decorated with colorful broken glass on its surface organized to form take the form of gemstone dolphins splashing over the waves to wait for their order.
Kymera signed as she gazed out at the ocean. The foam sparkling like strings of pearls. “Of all the places on this island, this is the one I’ll miss the most.”
“Same here.” Gryffin agreed, watching a group of undines creating waves to surf on, since today the waters were very still. “The same beach Mami brought us to almost every year on our birthday.”
“And where Abuelito first taught us how to surf.” Kymera then giggled, “Remember the near heart attack Abuelita had?”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Gryffin threw his head back in laughter, “She ran up to the lifeguard and screamed, Turn off the water!”
The twins laughed and Kymera’s geode went off again. She half expected it to come from their abuelo, only to find that the message came from her ChatRune app. She quickly responded and Gryffin noticed a tiny smile blossoming across her face.
“Talking to your boyfriend again?”
Kymera rolled her eyes. “Real mature. It’s actually from JeweLotus. She just sent me the link to a new pair of boots she’ll be selling at the festival.” She showed him the image of a pair of magenta boots with sapphire rhinestones.
Gryffin wasn’t exactly mr. fashion expert—after all, his wardrobe mainly consisted of twenty versions of the same shirts but in different colors—but even he wasn’t so dense as to not see an exquisite pair of boots when it was staring at him in the face. He nearly chocked on his drink, recalling something his sister had mentioned to him about this JeweLotus person a while back.
“She made those?”
“She makes almost everything on here. Shoes, bags, bangles, brooches. Her family runs one of the hottest stores in Alibah.”
“And, you’re sure they’re not stringing you along?”
Kymera fought the urge to roll her eyes again, scrolling through her messages, all of which came from the same four people: JeweLotus, ObscureTruths, GreenKnight and HeartPaws.
“I run all of their texts through Oracle-Lie*Tector. They’re 100% legit. Besides, I’ve shown you HeartPaws video vlogs before. Her family runs the Heartland Wildlife Preservation. Which, I also ran through the app.”
She was about to search for the vlog, but Gryffin held up his hands. “Okay, okay. You’ve made your point.”
Oracle, one of the biggest app stores on the RealmNet, was famous for its state of the art apps from video editors, coding softwares, and digital art appliances, which Kymera used for nearly all of her artworks. The site came highly recommended from a number of big-named mobile designers across the realms. Oracle* was the first to develop an A.I. lie-detector that scanned any form of text to decipher wether the writer was genuine or not.
“And even if they weren’t honest, I’d sooner have Kiara do my math homework before I let anyone play me like a güiro.” Kymera raised an eyebrow, daring her brother to say another word.
“Hey, I’m just looking out for my little sister. That includes making sure her RealmNet friends are safe before you officially meet them.”
Kymera leaned back against her chair, typing a ‘thank you’ to JeweLotus before leaving the app. The wind picked up, making her sideways bangs brush against her cheek.
“I know, and don’t think that I don’t appreciate it. Plus, it’ll be nice to meet my future classmates before school starts. Make the transition a lot smoother. Who knows, some of them might even be my future roommates.”
Gryffin stared at his drink, the wind making the straw turn sideways. “You’ve always been good at making friends, Kymerita.” He said reassuringly. “Before you know it, you’ll be the most popular faerie at the academy.”
Without me holding you back, he thought, bitting his tounge to keep the words from escaping.
“Three pizza empanadas with three nectars.” The cashier called.
Kymera gave her thanks and levitated the bag towards them, only for someone to walk by and the bag to smack them in the face.
“Oops! Sorry!”
“No worries, love.” The stranger waved and walked around the floating bag. His Atlantean accent did not go unnoticed. He certainly looked the part of a tourist; a tacky cap with the words ‘I heart Guanina’, a pair of overly large sunglasses with palm tree stickers on the sides, and a worn out looking backpack.
When the tourist walked by the twins, Gryffin stiffened. His ears twitched at the sound of vibrations colliding inside an enclosed space.
“Gryff, you okay?” Kymera asked.
Gryffin got up from his chair and grabbed the tourist’s shoulder. “Hey! There a problem, Mate?”
Gryffin was so focused on the vibrating music that he wasn’t aware of his impulsive reaction towards the stranger. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “I—I’m sorry. I just…I thought you were someone else.”
The lie seemed to work. The Atlantean shrugged, adjusting his tacky palm tree glasses. “It’s the specks, right? Been mistaken for a celebrity all day.”
Kymera caught up with Gryffin. “Everything okay, Hermano?” She asked. Every time Gryff got like this, it meant something was amiss. She eyed the tourist, trying to decipher what it was that made her brother react like that.
The Atlantean grinned, studying Kymera from head to toe. “That’s quite the trinket.”
Kymera jerked back. “Excuse me?!” She clenched her fists, ready to pummel his specks into his skull.
“I meant your necklace.” He clarified, pointing at said jewelry. “In tact firebird feathers are hard to come by.”
Kymera raised a skeptic eyebrow with one hand reaching for her necklace, practically shielding it from the tourists’s view.
“Well, this has been a lovely chat, but I best be off. Places to go, faeries to meet. Cheerio!” The Atlantean managed to take only three steps before he suddenly stopped when he felt something burning inside his fingernails. He winced in pain when specks of gemstone dust sprouted out and spun in the air, now hovering above Gryffin’s palm. He sniffed the dust and his irises flickered silver.
“What the puck?!” The Atlantean shook off his hand. The removal of the specks of dust left his fingers bleeding a bit. “What was that about?”
“Sunstone dust.” Griffin said ominously.
“Beg pardon?”
“Sunstone dust.” Gryffin repeated, this time with a firmer grip on his voice that made the tourists quiver.
Kymera’s eyes widened and then narrowed as she stared down at the Atlantean. “Funny. The nearest Energy Crystal Warehouse is two hours away.”
“Yeah, It’s my day off.” The Atlantean said casually. “Guess I didn’t clean my hands well enough.” He levitated some water from the nearby fountain to rinse his nails.
Water magic, Kymera realized. “If you work there, I’m sure you have an employers ID card, right?”
“Of course.” He said, occupied with removing the last bit of blood.
“Mind if we see it?” Griffin requested, his ominous tone still active.
The Atlantean laughed. “What are you, cops?”
“No.” Kymera shook her head. “But our Abuela is a retired policewoman, so we got connections.”
The Atlantean’s relaxed composure cracked.“Listen, I didn’t exactly bring my wallet. If you’d give me like thirty minutes to head to my car and—”
Rather than wait, Kymera’s eyes turned bright gold, channeling her elven telekinesis, she engulfed the Atlantean in a golden aura. She tightened her grip by forcing his hands and ankles together. He hovered above the ground.
“Whoa! Slow down there, Sheila! At least buy me dinner first.” He smirked and then his eyes started to glow blue.
A nearby water fountain burst, sending a powerful gusher of water directly at Kymera. She was too late to summon a force field and she fell back against the now wet sand, allowing the Atlantean to escape.
Gryffin rushed after him, taking flight just as the Atlantean dove into the water, his lower half shifting into a shark’s tail and scales growing on his arms and face, his elven ears turning webbed, exposing him as a merman.
Gryffin followed the silhouette across the ocean until his vision started to change color. Gryffin stopped, his blood boiling and his head thumping. Seeing that the Atlantean was about to reach the protective reef he released a mighty roar which sent a ripple across the ocean’s surface, alerting the Trench Guard.
The Trench Guard were the underwater faeries that tended to coral gardens which released a magical barrier that kept large sea creatures like leviathans, sea dragons, and krakens of the Andromeda Sea from the shorelines of the island, but had no effect on common fish or sea mammals like dolphins.
At the sound of Gryffin’s roar, a siyokoy and centaur-merman hybrid rushed over when they spotted the Atlantean, quickly blocking his path with their tritons.
“Perdóname, Señor, we’re going to need to see some I.D.” One of the guards said.
“Oh, yeah, sure. Just give me a quick second.” the Atlantean pretended to reach for the pocket of his sleeveless beach vest and swayed his tail, pushing the guards away with a powerful ocean current.
The mermaid-centaur propelled himself at the Atlantean, who swam up, avoiding the attack. The siyokoy came at him, but the merman spiraled out of his way, grabbing the guard’s ankle and using his magic to command the waters to further push him upwards to the surface. The siyokoy screamed like a child while flailing his arms around trying to grab something in mid-air before falling back into the water.
Gryffin watched in annoyed astonishment as their island’s first line of defense got their flanks handed to them by a teenage finfolk.
“Seriously?”
More of the Trench Guard swam up to apprehend the merman, who then whistled so loud it summoned a swarm of silverfish that started attacking the guards, blinding them with their shimmering scales. The merman commanded the waters to give him a boost and he sped away into the deep darkness of the sea beyond.
Kymera, still drenched in water, reached her brother. “Gryff, did they get him?”
Gryffin regrettably shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kym.”
“That sardine smelling piece of styx!” Kymera shouted, then noticed the horrified look on Gryffin’s face. “What?”
Though Gryffin didn’t give an answer, Kymera somehow instinctively reached for her neck. She started to panic when she felt nothing but skin.
“No. No, no, no, no, no!” She searched frantically on the ocean’s surface then rushed back to where the merman had splashed her. She searched the sand like a maniac but sound nothing. Kymera sat dejected, her eyes staring out into nothing. Her wings dropping lifelessly behind her.
“He took it…” she said in barely a whisper, then screamed. “He took it!” She cried into Gryffin’s arms.
* * *
The beach was flooded with police officers, questioning Raul and the twins about what happened. A few faeries tried getting a closer look at the twins, but Gryffin hid behind his sister and abuelo.
“No pictures or videos, por favor.” Raul said. The police were kind enough to ask the people to respect their privacy.
“He got away before we could figure out where he hid the sunstones.” Kymera explained. “He couldn’t have gotten far.”
“No te preocupes.” One of the cops, a fellow seraphin, assured her. “We’ll send out out our troops across the shorelines. We will inform you of any updates.” The officer tipped his hat. “Tell your Abuela I said, hello.”
“Thank you, Edwin.” Gryffin said.
With the stones gathered, Raul led the twins back to the car. The ride back home was silent, with Kymera continuously reaching for her neck, hoping that somehow, someway, her necklace would magically materialize. The tears wouldn’t stop.
“I’m sorry, Mijita.” Raul said. “We can get you a new one.”
“It was Mami’s.” Kymera sobbed. “It will never be the same.”
From the review mirror, Raul saw Gryffin gesture to him to let him handle it. Raul nodded back. There was really nothing Gryffin could to make it better. That necklace was the very last gift their mother ever gave Kymera before she died of morbi when they were only twelve-years-old. Just like with his unciorn horn pendant—a gift their father left him and the only one he ever gave him having died when the twins were only six months old—it was irreplaceable.
Gryffin felt terrible. This was his fault. If he hadn’t chocked he might have managed to catch that no good sardine and spared his sister the heartache. His hand reached for his pendant. He unhooked the chain and placed it around his sister’s neck. Kymera shook her head.
“Gryff, no!”
“It’s okay. You can give it back anytime.”
“And if I loose this too?”
Gryffin scoffed. “Please. Even you’re not dumb enough to make the same mistake twice.” He bumped his shoulder with hers, and Kymera chocked on a sob mixed with a laugh. It wasn’t the same, but the gesture helped. Even if a little.
Raul observed the two from the review mirror and smiled.