Monsters

Surprise

After yesterday, I feel so drained. Uncle Tamar did not even push me to come down for dinner. But I forced myself. I needed to eat to keep the cravings away. I needed to keep up my strength for when we start training. I will be strong. I keep telling myself.

As I walk down stairs, the next morning, I hear him talking with a female voice. “She is still upstairs. I already made her breakfast. No need to worry about that. Please start on the house cleaning and the laundry. I will be in the training hall at back. When she comes down, let her eat. Tell her I want her to go for a run, if she is up for it and meet me in the hall when she is ready, please.” He instructs her. Before he could leave I walk in.

“No need for that uncle. Could I run before I eat?” I ask him

“That would be better. How did you sleep Tatania?” he asks

“Well thanks. Good morning Tiala.” I greet my hand maiden. She has light brown hair. Big brown eyes. She is average built. Always kind and always smiles. She is my favourite just because she is always herself. Some of the others try so hard to be something that you would notice but is a world away from who they really are.

“Good morning Princess. What would you like to eat this evening?” she asks

“Please make anything that you and uncle would like but, please make sure there is enough rare-cooked meat for about 3 people. The rest I really do not care. I am off on my run. Please put my food away for now. I will eat when I return. I will see you in about two hour’s uncle. I have my phone with me.” I say as I wave to them while I walk out the front door. They wave back and I thought I saw my uncle smiling.

The further I run the better I feel. The music doing its work on my system. It has always been like this. Whenever I feel down I run and listen. When I am done I feel like me again. As the sea breeze blows through my hair, a pair of grey eye flashes through my mind.

I come to a stop. Look around. I could have sworn someone was watching me. I shake off the weird feeling and turn to head back.

After I eat and shower, I go see Uncle Tamar.

As I walk into the training hall he is meditating. I walk in softly and sit down a little away from him. I get my pose ready, steady my breathing and start my own meditation. After a good thirty minutes I finish my session and open my eyes. Only to find the pair of grey eyes from my run across me. Staring at me with a crooked smile.

“Amir!” I yell and jump up to hug him. Not even thinking about the awkwardness that was supposed to be there between us from the years spent apart.

“Well this in not the greeting I was expecting from our royal princess.” He says but puts his arms around my waist to hugs me back.

I could feel his heartbeat against my chest. His scent filled my nose and his heat radiated around me. How is this possible? He has just awoken my snake. She is a beautiful bright orange with small horns on her head. She looks at me in my mind. We are in agreement. We very much like and approve of Amir. My animal instinct tells me that he also feels the same. s**t! It has never been like this between us. I feel him move to bend down to nuzzle his face in my hair. I can feel his chest rise when he takes a deep breath inhaling my scent. My heart starts to beat faster and my head is going fuzzy. Is this what arousal feels like? A sound vibrates up my throat that I have never heard before. It almost sounds like a purr but not like a cat’s. I was never near many boys my age. Of course I have hormones and all the things that come with puberty. I am just lucky to have skipped the weird things. But this, I have never felt before. I feel him move again. His left hand moves up my back lightly and into my long blonde hair. He uses his right hand to pull me to him tighter. I wrap my arms around his neck. All of a sudden I feel my skin tingle. I open my eyes, which I did not even remember closing. On both my arms I could see bright orange scales and the room around me does not look exactly right. I feel Amir lift his face from my hair. I want to protest him moving his body away from mine. But as I look at his face his eyes have changed to his snake eyes, which are a very pale yellow, and he also has grey scales similar to mine on his fore arms and his cheeks.

“Do I look like you?” I ask with a shaking voice.

“Beautiful.” Is all I hear him whisper.

  “I could leave and give you guys the room. Would that be acceptable princess?” Uncle Tamar asks as he leans against the left wall with a smirk on his face.

I jump away from Amir. “No Uncle. I apologise. I don’t know what happened.” I say very shyly as I bow.

“I know exactly what happened. It is what I wanted to happen. Your snake responded to his.” He explained.

“You planned this Uncle?” I ask as I look up at him. Amir moves to stand beside me. I feel his fingers reach for my hand. Forgetting that I was speaking with my uncle, I look up at him. He is about a head and a half taller than me. I open my hand and feel him slip his fingers between mine. It feels so warm and so right.

“Yes I did. That is also the reason I did not tell you when he was to be expected back. What do the rest of you think?” I hear him ask. I turn my head in his direction to find a few other people standing there. “Tatania these are going to be your teachers. For each animal you will need a new teacher.” He says as he extends his arms towards the other people standing with him.

“This is Rhyszandt. He will be teaching you about your leopard.” He points to a young man with very dark brown hair they are almost black. I cannot see his eyes past his sunglasses. He is about half a head taller than me.

“Could you please take off your glasses? I would like to see your eyes.” I ask as I feel Amir move behind me and wrap his arm around my waist.

“Sure.” He says in a deep masculine voice that sends shivers down my spine. He takes off his glasses and I find myself lost in the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. They surpass even my fathers. I feel Amir step away from me as Rhyszandt takes a step forwards. I want to protest but I am still lost in his eyes. A different heat washes over me. It smells like the first rain of the season. I close my eyes and through my head back as the heat pushes against my skin. I feel fingers trail along my arms and I reach forward with my other hand to do the same. I am met with a leather jacket. It snaps me back to reality and I take a step back. I notice my skin is slightly spotted all over my arms. Rhyszandt clears his throat and bows.

“I apologise my Princess.” He says still bowing

“Thank you for sharing you leopard with me.” I say as I smile at him. “She likes you.” I say. I wink at him as I walk past him.

“Interesting. Next we have Collen. He will be your lion teacher.” Uncle Tamar says as the young man with deep blue hair and even deeper blue eyes walks up to me.

By this time I know what to expect at least.  I spot a pair of sun glasses in his right hand, while his left hand is out stretched towards me. The moment I place my hand in his, I loose myself again. This time the heat smells like a warm sunny day. My lioness rises in my mind. We like the smell of Collen. He does not let go when I start to show symptoms of my lion coming out.

“Collen that is enough. Give the others a chance as well. You will do well to remember your place.” Uncle Tamar pulls him away from me. I had to fight not to pull Collen to me and growl at my uncle. Collen does not apologize like Rhyszandt did. Instead he just goes to stand by Amir and Rhyszandt. When I look down at myself. My arms are a brown nude colour and I spot my reflection in the one window. My eyes are still normal but I have whiskers and my nose resembles that of a lion.

“Clohen, you are up next.” I hear my uncle talking again.

A young girl walks up to me. She is slightly shorter than me. She has long red hair and bright green eyes. She looks like a normal girl. But her confidence tells me something different. She stops about one step away from me.

“Tiger.” That was all my uncle had to say. Clohen stretched out her arm, reaching for my hand. Before she could take my hand in hers. My tiger roars at her. She bowed to show she means me no harm. The moment I saw her bowing to me. I realised my tiger was trying out her dominance. I took the one step so that our bodies were touching slightly. I started purring. Clohen kept her head bowed but reached to take my hand in hers. And I could hear her also purring. Our tigers were in agreement. We would let her help us throughout tiger training. We like her. She will be one of our friends.

“Thank you, my princess.” She said as she bowed once more and went to go stand by the other boys.

“Alick. If you would.” My uncle instructs the last person standing with him.

From behind Uncle Tamar steps a lean guy. He has dirty blonde hair and light green eyes. Clohen has the darkest green eyes and Alick has the lightest. He also stops one step away from me. It almost feels like they all planned this. The heat that pushes at my skin is like none of the others. The others had a smell of nature, but not him. He smelled like heat. I imagine it is what the sun might smell like. I hear someone growl. And I look around to see who it was. But when I look back al Alick I notice it was him. And that small growl sent Goosebumps all over my skin. Why does this keep happening? What is this? Is all I could think before he had my hand in his. The heat roles over me and my skin tingles again. As I look down he is bowed at my feet with his hand raised to hold mine. My arms are covered in black scales and smoke is coming out of the corners of my mouth. My dragon nods her head in my mind.

“Thank you, your highness.” He says as he goes to stand with the others.

“That was amazing uncle. I just have one question. I only counted four teachers. I still need a snake and wolf teacher.” I say as my uncle walks towards me.

“Then you are very bad at math my dear.” He mocks me and takes my hand and bows before me. The heat that hits me smells like forest. I look down at him and notice that my skin changed again. Grey sports are all over my arms. I make a low growl noise.

“I apologize for the math comment my dear. It was just a joke.” My uncle says. “I will be your wolf teacher if you will have me.” He says trying to make things right. My wolf smells the air and agrees with me that he will be our teacher.

“Thank you my dear.” My uncle says as he steps away from me. “You already met your snake teacher. He was the first one you met.” As I took in my uncle’s words, I spun around to face Amir.

“Really? Amir, you mastered your snake?” I asked very surprised.

“Yes. I mastered it last year.” He said very proudly.

“That is so cool.” I say to him.

“Father could I take her out for lunch, we have some catching up to do?” he asks Uncle Tamar while he looks at me.

“That’s fine son. Just be back before it gets too dark.” He says. “Everyone else, please follow me so we can discuss living arrangements and everything else.” He points to the back of the training hall.

I feel Amir take my hand, but this time he is keeping his snake in check, so none of the magical stuff happens again. I am a little disappointed. But then again that was kind of embarrassing.

We drive into town with my car. He asked if he could take it for a spin. As we drove in we passed a guy on a black bike driving out of town at an amazing speed.

We sit in a booth at the coffee shop in town. It is really quite cute. Very chill.

“So how is your home schooling going?” Amir asks me as he stares at his menu.

“Good thank you. But I would like to know about you. How have you been? How has you training gone? All that.” I ask trying to catch his eye.

“Before all that. I got you something, and I cannot keep it in the box much longer.” He says still not meeting my eyes. He bends down and gets a small box from his sling bag. The small box fits in my hand. The box it not wrapped and has no bow on it or anything. It is just a plain small brown box.

“What is it.” I ask him with the box in my hand. “And you did not have to get me anything.”

“It is just something to watch out for you and to keep you company.” He states plainly while staring at the small box in my hand. “Please open it fast, it does not want to be in there much longer.”

“Wwwhat do mean? You are scaring me.” I say as I put the box down on the table. All of a sudden before he can explain any more the lid of the small box falls off and a small pixie flies out of the box.

“You got me a pixie?” I did not expect you to try and give me a person!” I yell at him very angry.

“I am not giving you a person. She was sent from the pixie court to be a link between the fairies and the pixies. I believe you know about the wars.”

“Yes I know.” Is all I can say.

“She was sent to us since they know you will be staying here for some time. It was her idea to do the whole gift box thing.” He explains.

I look at the small pixie as she sits on Amir’s head and smiles at me. “What is your name small one?”

It is customary to address pixies as small one until they give you their name. They know they are small and they like it.

“Your highness, my name is Akemi. And I will serve you as you see fit.” She says as she stands on Amir’s head and does a small bow.

I hold my hand out. “Please.” Is all I say. She takes off from Amir’s head and lands on my hand.

“As you wish my princess.” She says just as she lands on my hand.

“I do not want you to serve me. I do not want you to address me as princess or highness. I want you to use my name. And just be my friend please.” I say to her not looking at Amir.

As she processes what I just said she starts to glow as pixies do when they get very emotional.

“Really?” she asks shyly.

“Yes. Please.” I ask again.

She bows again. “Thank you, Tatania.”

“Thank you too, Akemi. Where is your favourite sitting places?” I ask her.

“May I sit on your shoulder? I do not want to mess up you hair.” she asks politely.

“Please do.” I say. She flies from my hand and snuggles between my hair and neck. It feels strangely comforting to have her so close. As she settles I am faced with Amir. I totally forgot I yelled at him.

“I am so sorry Amir.” I say as I reach for his hand. “I jumped. You know me well enough to know I do that without listening. Please forgive me.” I try to make things better between us again.

“It’s cool.” Was all he said as he looked at our hands. At that moment our food got served.

After we ate we went for ice cream. Akemi even asked shyly if she could taste some of mine after she had finished hers.

Tuesday I went to lunch with Uncle Tamar. Alone. I thought it was going to be very strange, but we had so much to talk about and he was so open and kind. He was even in on the gift box plan. He also informed me that I would have to spend some time with all my teachers this week. Some of them only came for the first meeting and will go back to their home towns until it is their turn to train me. It is not use to have more than six people living with us, and only one can train me at a time. I agreed. I know it can be hard to be away from your family. Just because I am suffering does not mean everyone else should as well.

Wednesday Rhyszandt took me to the beach for a pick nick. He is so calm and very funny. I would never have guessed. He treats me like a normal girl. He makes me feel special and like he wants to know me for who I am. Not because I am his student or the princess. Just me.

Thursday Collen took me for a run. Just as we left the house I came to the conclusion he was either testing me or wanted to proof something. Every time I tried to run next to him he would speed up and run ahead. My temper and competitive side got the better of me. I slowed my run and put my earphones in, put my running playlist on, and just ran like I always do. The poor lamb could not keep up. He was lagging behind so far, that at our half way point I had to wait for almost four minutes for him to get there. When he stopped I took out me earphones and asked, “Are we going to run together now or do I need to make my point again?” 

He bowed and apologised. We ran back talking about all sorts of things. The next morning he came to say his goodbyes. He told me he would be back when it is time for my lion.

Friday night I had a fun girl’s sleepover with Clohen. We pained nails. Did facials. And just had a good laugh about all the boys. She also left the next morning. We both cried.

Saturday Alic took me to dinner at the best restaurant in this small town. Told me I had to get all dressed up and everything. It was so romantic and we had so much fun. He was shy at first until I made a joke that I might have to do all the talking. He has such a beautiful laugh.

Sunday morning I said goodbye to Alic. When I got to the kitchen Amir was there sulking to Rhyszandt about how daring mine and Alic’s date was.

I was slightly angry that they were talking about it like it was a date, but came to the same sudden conclusion. Alic knew he was last on the list and wanted to make a standing impression. Not just with me but with all the boys. I smile to myself. A man with a plan.

Then came the next information. Why was Rhyszandt still here?

I walked into the kitchen while they were still talking. “Good morning my good sirs.”

At the sound of me voice they both jumped and Uncle Tamar started laughing.

“What is the discussion this morning?” I asked as if I heard nothing. They looked at each other then at me.

“Well we were just discussing the dates you had with us.” Rhyszandt said shyly

“Oh? And what about my dates were you discussing?” I asked a little flirtatiously batting my eyes at him, and ignoring Amir on purpose.

“We were just wondering who’s was the best for you.” He says as I walk over to my seat.

“Stop playing with them. It is getting too funny.” Uncle Tamar says to me as I sit down between him and Rhyszandt. I just smile at him.

“Well I would have to say my date with Clohen was the best. I had so much fun and could just be myself. Who’s date did you guys think was it?” I ask finally looking at Amir.

“Well we thought it might have been Collen’s since you came back laughing and looking radiant.” Amir tried to cover up the truth.

“Nah he was just blabbing on about his weight lifting and stuff. I kind of enjoyed the run much more than his company. How about you Rhyszandt, who’s did you think it was?” I bat my eyes at him again. This time I know he is weaker to my charms the Amir is.

“I thought it was mine until you got back from Alic’s date.” He says looking disappointed.

“Well I was not expecting you to be the jealous type Rhyszandt. Could I call you Rhys?” I ask putting my hand on his forearm. Years of learning how to talk on TV and on the radio have taught me how to hold an audience and also how to turn people to my side.

“Yes, princess. You can call my anything you like really. Frog will do even. If it makes you happy.” He said and I could see a blush forming on this handsome face. This made him look so cute my heart could not take it.

“Well I would never all you frog. That is just rude. Now let’s think.” I say as I really think about it. “What about Rex? Would that be okay?” I ask very seriously. “Your name is really the only one that I really have to think about when I need to say it. It is a very beautiful name but very long.

“That is perfect, Princes. I know it is very long. I apologise.” He says as he bows to me

“There is no need for that Rex. It is not your fault your name is long.” I say smiling at him. “Now I have another question. Why are you still here? I had to say good bye to all the others but you.” Io say as I turn in my seat to face him.

“Well master Tamar said that since I am third in your training it might be pointless to send me home just to have to come back in a sort time again.” He explains and the blush on his cheeks flair up again.

“Yes that does make sense. Always thinking ahead Uncle.” I say getting to my breakfast.

“Uncle I need some things from the shops and my training starts tomorrow right. So could I please have the day to myself in town? I promise to be home before sundown, and I will have my phone with me the whole time” I ask my uncle with puppy dog eyes.

“You will also take Akemi with you. That is my only condition.” He says as he pretends to read the paper.

“That will not be a problem uncle. Thank you so much. Do I need to bring back anything for you?” I ask him.

“Not for me thank you. Tiala already went to do shopping for the house and I just sent her. I have to say it is a very nice change having you ladies in the house. It is almost like the house is brighter.” He says as he kind of trails off into a daydream.

“We feel very Welkom here Uncle. Thank you.” I say merely to be polite. “Do you two need anything?” I turn to the boys who have started whispering after uncle agreed to let me go to town.

“I will come with you.” Amir tries to work his way into my alone day.

“You misunderstood my question.” I stated plainly. “Do you need me to bring back anything for you?” I ask again. “No one except for Akemi is coming with me.” I say a little louder.

“Son she needs time alone. She can handle herself. It will be fine.” My uncle intervenes.

“Fine.” He answered me and his father. All the while Rex is just watching the conversation quietly from beside me.

“Do you need anything?” I ask Rex turning to him.

“What stores will you be shopping at?” he asks

“The grocery store, some clothes stores, the sweets store and the book store.” I answer him.

 “Now I wish I could go with. I really wanted to see the book store and the sweet store.” He answers kind of in a moan.

“Well if you don’t mind, I could drop you off there they are in the same street. Then when I am done I’ll pick you up.” I compromise since he was not asking and I didn’t know he liked books.

“You are too kind my Princess. I would like that. I do not want to waste your time looking for thing I want when you could be enjoying some personal time. Let me just get a jacket then I’ll be ready.” He says with a warm smile as he gets up to go to his room.

“That is how it’s done my son.” Uncle Tamar teases Amir when Rex is out of the room.

and there is chapter 3

please tell me what you think

Princess kisses

BB