Oh, You Again

The next morning Avanth bounced out of bed happy as can be. The smell of freshly baked buns filled the air, the boy darted into his sister's room and jumped onto her.

"Wake up Larc! Mom made buns and kinirian, your favourite!"

Larc carefully sat up gripping her side. "I'm awake, I'm awake. You head down, I'll be right there."

Avanth leaped off Larcs bed and made his way up the basement stairs. Letting the delicious smell fill his nose, Avanth entered the kitchen to see the dining table set. This was unusual since the Vexx family hadn't eaten at the dining table in over 3 years. The last time they had was Larcs 13th birthday, the last one they got to spend with their grandma.

"Mom? Why's the table set?"

Avanth grew worried when his mother didn't respond, he shouted for her a few more times before walking into the kitchen. Within was a slender figure, they were tall and seemed to be limping from one side of the room to the other, preparing food.

"Hello? Who are you?"

The figure turned to face Avanth, revealing who he was. "Prince Riverty?" Avanth quickly fell to his knees, bowing to Lucas.

"Hey, there's no need for that. I'm just a kid like you. Is your sister home?"

"Yeah, I'll, um, I-I'll go get her"

Lucas slouched down to help the boy up from the floor, holding his hand out. Avanth gripped the counter behind him denying the help he was offered. Still concerned as to why the prince was there, Avanth called for his sister as he left the prince alone in the kitchen again

The stairs creaked as Larc slumped up the stairs, still tired from being woken up so early by her brother. The siblings met just before the entrance to the dining room. Avanth had fear plastered all over his face, something was wrong and it only took Larc one look at her brother to figure that out. She made sure her brother got down to his room safely before walking through the dining room to the kitchen.

Entering the kitchen Larc expected the entire royal guard waiting to take her away, yet she walked in on the prince spreading kinirian on a fresh bun.

"Morning love, how's it going"

"Little shit. How'd you get out?"

"You know it was tricky, but in the end, your little curse thing didn't hold all night."

Larc stared blankly at Lucas, lost in thought, her world became a blur. Now that he was free the likelihood of him going home to his father was high. Of course, the one time she needed her magic to work it didn't. Why this time, why did her magic have to fail.

Seconds later Larc was brought back to the kitchen with Lucas down beside her waving his hand near her face.

"You alright? You sorta zoned out."

"I'm fine" Larc scrambled to her feet, with the prince following behind her. "You going home?"

Lucas walked back to the food he was preparing, turning away from Larc. Doing this made her realize that Lucas and his father were alike. They tried avoiding things that were difficult, instead of facing them. The two distracted themselves with pointless activities so as to not show weakness when given hard decisions and questions.

"Your highness?"

"Probably not, father will be, well, you'd say pissed, right?"

"Pissed? He's worried about you. He came by yesterday asking for you." Lucas was now the one with the blank expression. He froze for a moment, staring out the window in front of him. Turning to look at Larc his expression quickly changed to fear.

"We need to leave. Now."

"You can't leave till you're fully healed, remember?"

Lucas dropped the knife he was using to spread the kinirian on the buns and rushed to Larcs side.

"Can you please trust me for like thirty minutes?"

"You tried to kill me, what do you think?"

"I think you're in a lot of danger, and you don't realize it. I'll tell you everything about Lacuna about me, whatever. But you and your brother need to come with me now."

At this point, Larc was concerned. She was given an impossible choice. Stay and face whatever danger Lucas was talking about or leave and face the possibility of walking right into a trap. Larc searched for answers, staring at Lucas. He really seemed scared, reluctantly she nodded her head as Lucas grabbed her hand pulling her towards the back door and shouting for Avanth.

Avanth scrambled up the steep stairs, skipping a few and almost falling at the top. The kids made their way to the dock at the rear of the house. Out of breath, Lucas called for help untying the boat as Avanth jumped in full of confusion and fear. Pushing themselves out into the water they began paddling.

Before long the group was in the middle of nowhere. Lucas had claimed he knew where they were when in truth he wasn't exactly sure if the direction they were going was right. The kids sat in silence most of the way, speaking every now and then to make sure they were on course for wherever it was they were going. Avanth in the end was the one to break the silence.

"Larc, how do you know the prince?"

"It's a long story, bud." Larc looked down at her brother, praying he wouldn't ask again. Her past would be revealed, her abilities, everything. She'd turned into her mom, lying to Avanth so often. She thought she'd be able to keep her life a secret from him for a long time. But of course the second the prince arrived everything got a whole lot harder.

"You dragged me out onto a boat that hasn't been used in years with the prince of Kand running from… well I don't know what, cause I haven't been clued in. I have questions sister, ones the two of you need to answer."

At this point, Larc knew what she had to do. Though she was missing pieces of the story herself she told what she could. Fifteen minutes of Larc telling Avanth she wasn't who he thought she was seemed to pass slowly. Meanwhile, Lucas listened in while watching the trees constantly. Larc didn't see his eyes leave the treeline once until Larc stopped speaking and Avanth started.

"So you can do magic?"

"Yeah, I can make these things that are kind of like forcefields, I can make light come out of my hand, I can heal people. Pretty cool, hey?"

"No, you've lied since I was little. About sneaking out and other stupid stuff, which was fine. But, this is different, you lied to me about who you are. I don't even know you anymore."

Avanth turned away from his sister to not show her the tears beginning to stream down his face. He wiped them away and shuffled to the front of the boat, away from the monster he thought Larc was.