8 Chapter 8

-UNEDITED-

As Ember closed the door, she turned her back as she heard the sounds of bones cracking fill her ears as she shuddered. She hated this, how could have she never noticed before or suspected? It was so obvious when she thought about, which she would rather not think about. Just the idea of this male, who she really hadn't gotten to know, seeing her near naked on multiple occasions. She turned around and looked at the half naked male, ignoring the growing blush on her cheeks.

"Alright, explain yourself, but let me have a seat first before I faint from the idea that my puppy was a teenage man." She growled and plopped down on the fluffy bed, making her want to melt right into its softness.

"I didn't want to keep it a secret but it was better if you didn't know. The fact that a shifter, as she called me, left his tribe was enough to make anyone faint from shock. Just imagine if you had found out at 11 years old that you had found a puppy that turned out to be a male, you would have thrown me out immediately or have been sent to a mental instatution." Atherton attempted to explain, running his hands through his hair with paranoia.

"Okay, nice excuse, but you've seen me practically naked, many times! How am I supposed to feel about that?" Ember asked, shinking back as her voice got softer, feeling embarssed that someone had seen her near naked.

"Okay, that is a legit excuse but what was I supposed to do? Leave the room, if you couldn't tell, I am short and had no thumbs to use. So, ha...." He trailed off.

"Its not excuse, you could have gone anywhere besides just staring at my body." She snapped, pushing her hair out of the way, finally noticing that it was down.

"You're right, its not an excuse, but you can't blame a guy. No matter how much you hate to admit it Em' you have a nice body." He said and Ember stood up and slapped him. His ears went down as well as his tail as a whimper escaped him.

"Don't think I'll stand there and just let you use excuses on the simple fact that you should just lay down; you were rude and uncaring of my thoughts." Ember growled and he opened his mouth before Ember held a finger up to his lips and hushed him, "I don't want to hear any more out of you. You keep quiet about my body, it is not your job to comment on it, and if I find you in here tomorrow when I'm getting dressed, I'm going to throw you out the window." She snapped as he looked over to the window a gulped, that was a 30 foot drop.

He nodded vigrously as he wanted to avoid the wrath of the person he had grown to know, and with that knowledge, he knew she was not a person of empty threats. Thats the thing that made her truly scary, she will not make threats, she makes promises. He recalled the time she had chased someone down after they had stolen a piece of meat from her. She proceeded to kick him into the lake without remorse.

She was scary when she wanted to be, which makes her even more intimatding despite her short stature. Ember looked at him, "Transform back into your puppy form and keep quiet, you can leave it when I'm not here, but right now, I don't even want to look at your face." She muttered as she crawled into her bed. She hated that all the nights Rosco had comforted her was really a man, maybe a year or so older then herself.

She curled into a ball as she felt violated, even if he hadn't really touched her inapproately as it was mostly her holding him to her chest, she felt like a piece of her had been taken by the stranger. He wasn't the puppy she had grown to love, but a complete stranger. She closed her eyes as she felt tears fall down her cheeks. She sniffled and forced herself to sleep.

Ember felt her body falling down the black area, the wind blowing in her brown hair, she held herself close. She was unaffected by the nightmare that would terrify most. She hit the ground with a loud thud and when she sat up she saw people surronding her.

Her mother stood, hair wetted down and her dress soaking with water dripping off it. Atherton transformed between his dog and human form, but got stuck in the middle, appearing as a horrible mixture between. Ember opened her mouth to scream in horror but her attention was pulled towards her weeping father, still in the same postion she had last seen him in. Ember felt tears welling up in her eyes. She looked over the Queen who looked even more skinny and hallowed and when she opened her mouth a loud screech came and she covered her ears as she felt them ringing and she looked over to Wilbur who had a swollen lip and a brusied cheek. Pele and Hestia stood side by side, wounds covering their bodies as their skin looked paler then before.

"You did this to me." Her mother shouted, her words gurgling on the water came out of her mouth

"You can't chose who you see anymore!" Atherton screamed and howled in pain.

"You left me behind." Her father accused through his tears, his eyes red and puffy.

"You refuse to accept your fate." The queen screeched.

"You can't own up to your problem." Wilbur growled.

"You're willing to let us die so you can live normally!" Pele and Hestia yelled together as everyone else began to yell as well, their words becoming back ground noise as she noticed a man in the shadows.

"Hello?" She stammered and he lifted up his head and he opened his mouth. "Huh, could you say that louder?" Ember stammered.

"Wake up!" He yelled, his brown eyes becoming apparent as a pair of hands reached to grab her.

Ember woke with a start, feeling tears welling up in her eyes before she was blinded by the light of the sun as it filled the room. She sat up and looked around the room, the pieces of the restraints that held her down late last down were still on her bed or on the floor as Altherton was sleeping in the corner fartherest from the window. She flopped onto the bed with a groan, maybe she had been to harsh the guy. If anyone in Magdion had knew, if her father had known. She shuddered, the guy would have been hanged for many reasons.

She pulled herself up and got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and locking it. She looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes were puffy, she had deep bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess and that was being polite on the state of her hair. She had seen rat nests that looked better then her hair did at the moment.

Ember's mind wandered back to the nightmare and one thing puzzled her about, who was that man. She had never seen him before in her life. Ember grabbed the brush, pushing the wandering thought out of her mind as she brought the brush up to her hair and began to pull at the knots with the brush. She felt like her hair was being ripped out of her head but she kept on her assulat on her rat nests. She finally made it through and decided to just light brush the knots out to keep her hair.

After finally brushing out the last knot out of her hair she moved onto her ears and tail. She sighed and grabbed the other brush and began to brush out the little knots in her fur that the big brush wouldn't have been able to get.

Ember sat down the edge of the tub and set her head into her hands, she felt a yell building up in her throat as she screamed into her hands from frustration. How was she supposed to feel about this? She couldn't wrap her mind around it all so quickly after being practically slapped in the face with knowledge.

She let her tears of frustration fall down her face as she felt her anger and confusion overflow from her emotion pot. She had accepted the fact that her life would never be as normal as others would get it, but now she was more confused then ever. She hated all of this, the lie and the truth, the prophecy and the life it had led her to. Anyone would jump at the idea of living the palace but it felt empty of emotions and happiness. She felt like it all had been sucked out of here.

She looked up from her hands when she heard a knock on the door.