The next morning, Shade wasn’t back yet. She said that she might not be, but still, Aileen wondered what she was doing. Visiting an old family friend… Aileen thought that because she had lived so long, all her family was dead.
Aileen didn’t have time to ponder over it, however, for Hopper had found a stash of iced cinnamon buns in one of the kitchen cabinets and she, Sparky, Caffeinated Fish, and Squirtle (Aleen's turtle, who seemed to be Fish’s best friend) were pigging out over the sugary treats. Glaucous and Aileen tried to calm them down, but they already had so much sugar in their systems that there was no stopping them. So, Glaucous and Aileen let them outside to play, hoping they would burn off the sugar and carbs before they came back inside.
Glaucous and Aileen seemed to be a pretty good team, the two of them. Aileen stashed the cinnamon buns in a hidden compartment in Glaucous’s room while she cleaned up the crumbs. Aileen trusted that Glaucous wouldn’t be eating them in secret; she seemed much too innocent to do anything of the sort. They ate breakfast in silence. Glaucous had found Cheerios, so she had a bowl of those topped with frozen blueberries. The juice from the frozen berries turned the cereal milk a pleasant shade of smoky bluish-purple.
Soon it was noon, and Sparky, Hopper, Fish, and Squirtle staggered back inside, exhausted. Glaucous fed them some knotweed mash and milk so they would get some actual food in them to keep them going. Shade still wasn’t back, so Aileen wondered what was keeping her for so long.
As if Shade heard her thoughts (well, she might have), Shade touched down on the Twilight jet. Her cheeks were red like she had been sad about something (because Shade surely couldn’t cry without any eyes).
A girl stepped out behind Shade. She had short white hair, but she didn’t seem old, more like twenty-something. A thick, black veil covered her face, and she wore a maroon dress and matching pointed hat, like a witches’.
“Everyone, meet Ivory,” Shade announced. “She wishes to join the OctoFrog Cult. She is an Air Elemental.”
“Or rather, you told me to,” Ivory corrected.
“She just needs The Lord’s permission, of course,” Shade talked over Ivory.
“Okay, um…” Aileen said. “Er… do you accept this honor?”
“Yes. I won’t let you down,” Ivory said. “I’m very trustworthy.”
“Welcome to the Cult!” Sparky said.
“Sparky, take Ivory on a tour,” Aileen commanded. “She can have that bedroom next to Glaucous’s.”
Hopper pouted. “Why can’t I take her on the tour?”
“Because I said so!”
“Humph,” Hopper said, but she didn’t argue further. But she found something else to be mad about. “I want the bedroom next to Glaucous’s!”
“You do, silly,” Glaucous said. “Yours is on the other side.”
“Oh, yeah!” Hopper said, and became much happier.
Sparky led Ivory away. She seemed to be doing the “I-don’t-know-what-you-need-to-know,” tour, saying, “So there’s a leaf, ooh, there’s another leaf, those are the trees…”
She walked off.
“Sooooo!” Hopper yelled. “Where’d’ya put those cinnamon buns, huh!?”
“YOU BROKE INTO MY STASH OF CINNAMON BUNS!?” Shade yelled, furious.
“Oops,” Hopper said, and fled to her room, Shade hot on her heels. She was screaming, “YA BETTER NOT HAVE EATEN ALL OF THEM, YA LITTLE PUNK!”
Glaucous ran after Hopper and Shade, desperately trying to calm things down between them. She failed horribly.
Aileen laughed and went to my room, Squirtle following in his bubble of water. “I’m going to need to keep an extra close eye on you now if Caffeinated Fish is your new best friend,” She told him sternly, but she just couldn’t stay mad at the cute little guy. Her face broke out into a grin and she reached into the water bubble to pat Squirtle’s head. He chortled happily.
There was a knock on her door. With seven of them living there, you could never get much peace for long.
“Come in,” Aileen called.
Sparky poked her head into her room. “I’ve let Ivory get settled in!” She said brightly. “Hey, it’s coming up to dinnertime. How about I make some knotweed mash?”
“NO!” Aileen yelled, then covered it up by saying, “Um, I’m a little sick of knotweed mash. Maybe I could make something else?”
Aileen walked to the kitchen, Sparky trailing after her, promising she would help. It struck me with a sudden idea.
“Sparky, do you still have that sack of grapefruits?”
“Nope. I fed them to Caffeinated Fish, including the sack. Why?”
I stared at her. “You threw away the sack? We used that sack for years in the wild!”
“Well, we have a home now. We won’t need it.”
“You don’t know that!!”
Aileen took a deep breath, glaring at Sparky. She glowered back.
“Why do you care about that sack anyway? I made it and you never used it.”
“It was one of the few things we brought with us when we moved! It was special!”
“If it was so special, you should have told me.”
“I thought you cared about it too!!” Aileen took a step back, hoping to calm herself, but all of her anger came pouring out. “Do you care about anything? Why are you always so cold? Quite ironic for a Fire Elemental. All those long years in the wild, you always only cared about keeping yourself alive! In fact, I’m sure you only stuck with me because I can cook!”
“That’s not true!”
“It is, and you know it!”
Aileen stormed away, out into the meadow around the mountain base. The scent of bark and pine filled the air as she ventured closer to the thick trees. She faced the dusk without fear. She was used to being in the wilderness at night.
“Aileen, wait!” Sparky called after her.
Aileen stopped for a moment but didn’t look back. She doesn’t know who that is. Her name is The Lord.
Without another word, she strode into the deep forest.
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