divide & conquer - semi advanced discussion

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Ferryn was at peace. There was a gentle breeze caressing her face, the luxurious smell of dewy grass tickling her nose. It had been a better day than most - her and Lorrie had decided to escape real life for a little by taking a trip to the meadow in the Kingdom grounds. Fer wished more than anything that everyday was like this; just her and her sisters, the world, ready to be explored. It was a ridiculous notion, Fer knew, but she could always hope. It was this hope that drove her through the muddy twenty one years she's been alive. Without hope, Ferryn might as well be Zhura, her sister who can't go five minutes without drinking or screwing a stranger. She still loved her though, no matter how deep a pit Zhura digs herself.

Ferryn tossed her novel down next to her - at this point, she couldn't even remember why she was reading it anyway. It's boring. Instead, Ferryn laid her head back against the thick tree she was leaning against. An exasperated sigh escaped her lips; memories of the orphanage, or as Ferryn liked to call it, 'a flaming pit of hell' returned to her. When she was a prisoner, few moments like this was all she had. They were precious, but scarce. Now, her sisters and her were free - they could do this all day. Ferryn was still trying to find a job; she wasn't good enough at magic to work at the black market, but she was thinking of applying at the Black Pegasus - her social skills were pretty incredible, if Fer didn't say herself.

Lorrie flat on her back, looking up at the clear blue sky, whips of clouds passing overhead every once in a while. She thought about nothing and everything at the same time. Her life with her sisters, their constant fear that they would be discovered because of who their parents were. A prophesy spoken long ago. And a boy. One she had met in town. He'd gotten close to her despite her best attempts to stay away. Her lips twitched up in a smile as she pictured his face.

She brought out of her reverie by her sister's sigh. She turned on her side, propping up on one elbow to face her. "You alright, Fer?" she asked, keeping her voice quiet. She and Fer had had to sneak into the kingdom to have their moment of peace and she didn't want to ruin it by speaking too loudly.

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Ferryn's mahogany eyes flicked to her sister, lips tilting up at the corner. Sometimes she would ponder the ridiculousness of her and her sister's coloring; with Fer a brunette, Lorrie a redhead and Zhura a platinum blonde, it was more than a little funny.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about how I can make some money for us; I'm thinking about the Black Pegasus but it would be a pretty long commute." Ferryn definitely isn't the type to wake up early, especially to walk miles just to get to work. "What about you? I feel like we haven't talked like this in a long time." Fer flicked Lorrie's nose with her index finger, a display of affection that she had been doing since her and Lorraine were children. What can she say, old habits die hard.

Lorrie wrinkled her nose and rubbed it. "Really? Working at the Black Pegasus? But you hate waking up early, more than anything." She giggled. "I wasn't really thinking about much," she said, blushing furiously. "When do you supposed this prophesy things is supposed to happen, Fer? Are we supposed to wait our entire lives for the right time? Are we even the five mentioned in it?" She sighed heavily and laid back down in the grass.

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"I know, what was I thinking!" Fer chuckled, twisting a piece of her long hair around a finger. "Maybe I should pretend to be a human and work at the castle or something." Ferryn was only half joking - she wanted Lorrie and her sisters to be happy, and at the moment they weren't doing so well financially. When the blood rushed to Lorraine's cheeks, Fer knew something was up. She was smart, and she could certainly tell when her sister was hiding something from her.

"Lorraine Parati. There can only be a few reasons for your blushing, and I'm pretty sure it's the one that includes somebody of the opposite sex. What happened?" Ferryn sat up, grabbed her sister by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. Fer was going to make her spill the beans; one way or the other. At the mention of the prophesy, Ferryn's eyebrows furrowed. She tended not to think about the future too much, because then she couldn't focus on the present. The prophesy, in her opinion, was absolute bull. Her family was already messed up, she didn't think they were also expected to save the whole kingdom from war.

"Lorrie... we will worry about that when it comes. As of now, we are two normal girls sitting in a normal meadow discussing normal things... like boys." Fer said pointedly.

"Boys?" she said, blushing nearly as red as her hair. "I don't know any boys. What are you talking about, Fer? Do you know any boys?" She wanted to get the attention off of herself, but she hated concealing this small truth from her sister.

She was closer to Ferryn than any of her other sisters. Though only four years older than she was, she looked up to her as a mother figure, along with their eldest sister. But she'd never told her about the boy she'd been seeing in the village. A boy she was sure she was falling in love with but had no hopes of a future with him she thought. She was a half-breed, technically not supposed to exist and he was human.

But oh, was she fond of him.

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Musical laughter erupted from Fer's lips as color flooded into Lorrie's face. "You are the worst liar in the whole world, you know that right?" She shook her head. Men were, unfortunately, a subject that was pretty constantly in the front of her mind. At 21 years old, Ferryn had never kissed a boy. Never dated a boy. Well, holding hands with that one kid at the orphanage didn't count. Fer wondered if any guy would want her - the freakshow hybrid. At least if you were half human, half magic then you only had 2 races in you. Ferryn had three.

Fer shook her head, sending the pitiful thoughts scattering. She had Lorrie - she didn't need a man. Yet. Gripping Lorraine's hand with both of hers, Ferryn sat straight up and tried to appear as commanding as possible. "Lorrie, you know I would do anything for you. I promise I won't judge you or tease you - just tell me what's up!" Ferryn hated secrets. Secrets tore people apart, even tiny little ones like whatever her sister was hiding.

Lorraine bit her lip, looking upset at having been caught in her lie. "I-" She stopped and looked down, blushing even harder. "I met this boy. He's a baker in the castle. He's got these blue eyes, Fer..." Her eyes took on a far of gaze as she thought about Lyncoln and a smile crossed her face. "You should see his eyes..." She thought about the last time she had seen him and sighed. "Fer, he's like no one I've ever met before."

The ground before her danced and swerved as she stumbled, not entirely sure which foot she'd set before the other. Pausing a moment to gather herself to sober up enough to walk a little straighter, Zhura began her mental chant of leftrightleftrightleftright. It was a blessing she hadn't fallen down in the grass already. Looking up, she spotted two familiar bobs of hair, one brown and one red. There were only so many people she'd seen in the course of her life that she could identify by the shape of their head and their hair alone, and it would always have to be her sisters. A giddy smile spreading out of her lips, she haphazardly made her way over to them.

Close enough now to drop down and wiggle her way forward, Zhura cheerfully--and drunkenly--slurred out a greeting before resting her head in the grass.

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Ferryn did the most childish thing she could have possibly done in that situation; squealed profusely. The idea of her little sister having love... it made her so happy. "Lorrie! I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner! And the eyes? You must be in deep--" Fer was cut off mid sentence by the familiar sound of a drunken someone greeting them by collapsing on the ground.

Zhura looked like she just spent a night in the pub; Fer was kidding herself, of course her rambunctious sister had spent the night in the bar. It was always one or both - a man or many drinks for the second eldest Parati sister. Ferryn let out a long breath - she wouldn't get mad. It wouldn't do any of them good; with hundreds of lectures and thousands of interventions had come no change. Ferryn loved Zhura but her attitude towards life was more than depressing. With a little pat on her blonde head, Fer let the love encompass the frustration. It was her coping mechanism, however annoying others might find her optimism to be.

Lorrie looked around at her second eldest sister, the happiness she had felt about telling Ferryn about Lyncoln fading slightly. Her eyes were sad as she greeted Zhura, turning so that she could see both of them. "Are you alright, Zhura?" she asked, knowing what the answer would probably be. She hated seeing her so drunk all the time or under the influence of anything else. It made her sad to her like this. "You've been drinking again."

"And what if I have been drinking," Zhura snapped at Lorrie, regretting it a moment later. Why was she always the bad one? Why was she the one they had to pity? Closing her eyes, she turned over and away from her sisters, the considerably more stable ones. She, she fell on a spectrum of instability of her own. A prophecy looming over them, and she seemed to be the only breaking down, like she was weaker. "What have the two of you been up to," she asked, her back still to them. Being on the ground, on something solid and immobile felt nice. Even if it was the ground.

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In a miserable attempt to lighten the mood, Ferryn grinned. "I've been looking for some job opportunities - could you see me as a maid?" She fluttered a hand in front of her face as if to mimic a flustered housekeeper - it was lame, but it was something other than discussing the morbid topic of Zhura's dark habits.

Fer herself didn't particularly know what to think about the supposed prophecy. Most of the time, she'll simply dismiss it as a fairytale bred to keep rowdy halfbreeds from having kids with fullbreeds. Her and her sisters were a bit of an enigma; as much of the freaks of nature they are, Ferryn is determined to keep a perspective that excludes the prophecy crap from her already busy life.

Lorraine looked a little upset at her snapping, but smiled at Fer's attempt to act like a maid. "Fer, I don't think you have the patience to be a maid," she teased her sister. "They have even longer hours than working at the tavern and we already discussed your hatred of waking up early." She sighed and laid back on the ground. "We were just enjoying the peacefulness of the day, Zhura. Will you stay here and enjoy it with us?" As much as she disapproved of her sister's habits, Lorrie loved her.

Zhura chuckled--well, more like sputtered out a laugh--at the sight of Ferryn attempting to act as a maid. "I doubt that'd be a good choice for you," she slurred, rolling onto her back. Trying, trying; always trying. That was what her sisters did, even now. Trying to see past what she'd done to put a distance between them all. She wondered why they kept doing it, why they didn't just leave her behind like she thought they always did. Like she thought they should have done.

She shrugged in response to Lorraine's question. "I dunno," she drawled, "It depends on if I have another gentleman friend calling. But, I do doubt that I'll be moving from this spot any time soon." Spreading out her arms and stretching, she hummed a soft sound of delight. "It's much too comfy to move at the moment. Speaking of comfy, what exactly were you two getting all excited about before I arrived? I thought I heard squealing."

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The sun was caressing the edge of the mountainside, creating brilliant shades of orange and yellow that made Ferryn believe there was more out there for her and her sisters. Sunsets, rainbows, eclipses; all these little natural phenomenons made Ferryn happy. Shaken out of her reverie, Fer realized with a start that it was sundown, meaning her and her sisters should probably leave soon; they didn't want to still be in the mundane village after dark.

"Zhu, Lor - we should probably head out soon. Will you need some help getting to the forest Zhura?" The question was rhetorical - she knew her sister would probably get offended by the very idea of needing assistance and become determined to do it on her own. It was actually one of the things Fer admired most about her.

At Zhura's questions, Lorraine blushed again. "Nothing," she said quickly. "We weren't talking about anything. Especially boys." She gulped when she realized what she had just said. "I-I-" she stammered until she heard Ferryn say that they should leave. "Yes, we should go," she agreed, standing up and shaking out her skirts, her long red hair swinging about her waist. She hated putting it up, preferring to keep it long and down.

"I can walk just fine," Zhura retorted, standing to her feet as if to prove something. She didn't bother with shaking the grass from her skirts, sure the blades would shake off with her walking. "If this was meant to be an attempt to avoid the subject, it isn't going to work." At this, she lifted a finger to point in Lorraine's general direction. "I saw that blush; it was a boy. The question is which one?"

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Ferryn grinned at her sisters. "Yeah Lorraine, tell Zhura about the boy." She teased, knowing that once Lor was under the pressure of both sisters, she would have no choice but to spill the beans. Even her her tipsy state, Zhu was way too perceptive to miss Lorrie's giddiness. Fer stopped in her tracks, folded her arms and waited for Lorraine to talk about the baker from the castle, apparently such an amazing man that she would dare to hide it from her family.

sure thing!!

Lorraine stuttered and blushed furiously. "I-it's nothing," stammered, shuffling on her feet and tugging her hair. She could feel both of them staring at her, waiting for her to tell them. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and spoke in a burst of words. "His name is Lyncoln and he's a baker in the village. He's nineteen and has this white blonde hair and these blue eyes..." She faltered as she thought about him, a wistful look crossing her face. "I met him last year, after his father gave him control of his bakery. I really, really, really like him." She tugged on her hair, looking between them nervously. "I think I love him."

I'd be down with adding another sister to the mix

Zhura smiled smugly, glad that her powers of observations involving swooning girls was intact. Which meant that Ferryn would be off her case, because it also meant that she was sobering up some. Listening to her youngest sister gush about the boy that she very well sounded like she loved, Zhura felt just the smallest twinge of loneliness. However, she forced it quickly down to the recesses of her mind and continued to smile. Pinching Lorraine's cheek, she attempted to mimic one of the elderly ladies she often saw speaking to the younger children in town.

"My, my look at you," she cooed, "All grown up and falling in love! And I'd have to say you chose a fine boy to fall for."

Nasari drifted out to the meadow, biting her lip as she looked around while clutching a book close to her chest. She had seen one of her sisters, Zhura, stumble this way and she could only hope she'd find her over here. Pausing when she noticed all the other siblings gathered together, she looked down and brushed her dress, trying to clean it of the smears of dirt from when she'd been knocked over by some bullies. Giving up after a moment when she was only making it worse, she hoped they'd believe she tripped while reading and walking and fell over and approached them. Tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear she said softly, "H-hey e-e-everyone...." her voice was timid, as though she were approaching a group of strangers rather than her own family.