Chapter 13

-UNEDITED-

Ember continued to walk down the hallway and as soon as she was out of sight from Pele, she felt tears welling up in her eyes as she lifted up her sleeve and looked at the faded scar on her right arm. As tears began to roll down her cheeks she quickly wiped them away as soon as they came rolling down. She leaned against the wall and slid down it. She held her tail as she pet it. She hated that memory, what she couldn't understand was why it just popped up all of a sudden. The panic attack in the memory wasn't even that big of one, nothing compared to the one she had earlier.

She felt like was suffocating in that room and even now she felt like there were eyes on the walls watching her every move. She felt like she couldn't relax, not even for a moment here. Which wasn't doing her any good, she admitted that. She hadn't been able to properly bathe herself in a couple in of days and she smelled. Like, really smelled. Even she could barely stand her stench anymore.

Ember got up and lightly brushed off her pants as she began to walk back to her room. She would have to kick out Atherton, for the sake of her own paranoia, but she had to bathe. Even if she didn't really have the time, Wilbur could go kiss her ass if he complained about. She walked down the hallway as she watched Pele's black hair turn around the corner, heading proabably to her room.

Ember walked in and saw Atherton and pointed towards the door, "Out, I'm going to bathe and I don't want you in the room outside of the bathroom as I do so." She said and Atherton nodded silently, not wishing to be thrown out the window, as he walked past her, he was really glad she was going to clean herself.

Ember locked the door behind him and walked into the bathroom, locking it behind her as well. She stripped from her clothing and happily drew the water, letting the mirror steam up as she watched the bath filled up with nice hot water. As it filled up she stepped in, ignoring the burning senesation, she felt the need to be clean, so hot water would practically burn off anything.

As she sunk into the water, she felt her skin burn at the pure heat trapped in the water. She reached over and grabbed the shampoo then poured it into her hand as she got her hair wet. She shuddered as she felt water enter her ears and she began to rub in the shampoo, humming to herself. She practically scratched it into her scalpe and dunked her head right back under the water. It was at this moment she thought about having a bath, doesn't it just make you more dirty? Or at the very least, cleaner for a shorter amount of time? Ember shook her head as she rinsed her hair of the shampoo, grim, and dirt.

She brought her head above water as she gasped for air as she felt air finally enter her lungs as she rinsed out the rest of her hair. She ran her fingers through her wet hair and grabbed the body wash and poured it out onto a rag. She began to wash herself off, she continued her little humming tune.

She washed herself off and put some conditior in her hair, she ran her fingers through her hair throughly as she made sure her hair was thourgly clean. She stood up from the water and then realized, she didn't have a towel. She frantically looked around for a good replacement before her eyes landed on a towel that had already been put there. She face palmed and wrapped the towel around her body. She unlocked the door as the steam left the room, she walked over to her bed, only covered in a towel and laid down. She yawned, she felt so tired. Granted, she hadn't exactly slept well for the past two days she had been in this damned palace. She felt too paranoid, even if the beds were nice and soft and the clothing wasn't itchy like everything else she had owned before hand.

She sighed softly as she relaxed on her bed, she closed her eyes as she felt herself slip into a sleep.

As the light shined through the window into the living room, Ember looked around, the smell of her favourite soup came wafted through the house as her father sat to the right of her bandaging up her right arm as she wiped away her tears, "I'm sorry daddy, I should have gotten home faster."

"Ember, don't blame yourself for something you can't control. You are nine years old, going up against a fully grown man. The only thing you could have done was yell out, which you did. You did all you could have cupcake." Her father assured, "So stop blaming yourself." He said as he finished up the bandaging.

"Okay... thank you daddy." Ember said with an attempt at smiling.

"You're welcome baby girl," he said as he kissed the bandage, "Just be safe next time coming home? It really scared me and your mother."

"Will the bad man be punished for his bad deeds?" Ember asked.

"I don't think so, to humans, we are nothing but a mistake, but don't let them tell you otherwise. You are so much more then just a Neko. You'll do great things one day." Her father said but suddenly everything around her got blurry as her mother walked in.

"You have so many great things to offer..." Her voice faded away as the room turned to solid black.

"You have so much more to offer this world, but you need to wake up." A familiar voice called out.

"Who are you?" Ember asked.

"Its not important right now, what matters is that you need to wake up!" The man screamed and suddenly the black void turned into a burning house as she saw a pair of hands grab her from the fire.

Ember woke up with a start, breathing heavily she heard knocking on the door, "Ember! Ember! Are you okay?" She heard Atherton shouting as the banging only got louder.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine Atherton, just let me get dressed you idiot." Ember said as she put on a new pair of clothes and unlocked the door and Atherton looked relieved to see her. "Whats with that face? I wasn't dead you know." Ember pointed out.

"I just hadn't heard anything from you, I was worried. Is a friend not allowed to worry about their friend's safety, espically if they hadn't come out of the room or unlocked it for a good 2 hours. Pele and Hestia were worried and some guy came around looking for you, claiming you still had training to do." Atherton informed.

"Ugh, I can't believe I fell asleep, well, if that guy is still looking for me, tell him to screw off." Ember snapped, "I don't want to train right now." She huffed and crossed her arms.

"Well, I don't think you have much of a choice." Atherton said.

"How so?" Ember asked.

"Well, considering you have a good 20 minutes before you have to go to the throne room for the deciding moment. Will you own up or let someone else die for you?" Atherton said and tossed her the outfit, "Get dressed, the poor maid sat here for a good hour waiting for you to get up you absoulate moron." Atherton said.

"Opps sorry, I was kind of very tired." Ember said.

"That was a weak excuse, get dressed." Atherton said once more and closed the door. Ember sighed softly to herself and dropped the towel. She put on the clothing and looked at herself in the mirror in front of her. She shuddered, it was a drastic change from her loose shirt and pants. It was shiny like a forest canpy, its color made her earthly brown eyes pop and her chestnut brown hair look more alive. She smiled softly to herself as she looked down at the ribbon that was laying on her dresser.

She grabbed the ribbon and put it around her hair. She tied it into a simple little bow and slipped on her shoes as she walked out the door towards the throne room. She felt like her heart was about to jump out of her throat from her nervousness. She walked into the throne room with barely two minutes to spare.

The Queen looked at Ember with a smirk, "Oh look, she actually made it on time." She quipped.

Ember ignored her as she looked at the other two girls, Pele was wearing a black dress with white sparkles that sparkled like the night sky, her hair was done up in a beatufil curlly fashion. Hestia was wearing a dark blue dress with her hair blonde hair down and a little bow tying it all together. Her outfit was almost a mixture of the two, just minus the beautiful curly hair.

Ember looked at the Queen with a 'so why were we dragged here?' look.

"I suppose its about time I explain to you whats happening, as your maids should have already told you or at least dropped a hint about it, I'm finally deciding which one of you is the chosen one." The Queen said with a big grin as if it was some kind of big celebration.

"Okay, so who is it?" Pele asked, completely unfazed.

"Its Ember." The Queen said and clapped happily, "You have been given a great honor today Ember, to serve Fuftholion. Bring in the feast!" She cheered.

Pele and Hestia looked at each other, Ember could see their want to hug each other and celebrate but they also held a remorse and saddness for Ember.

Ember felt tears welling up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. She wasn't sure on how she felt, did she feel fear or happiness? She wasn't sure at this moment, but she knew she would never get back the life she had so desperately begged for.