Pending name...

Emilee

Time:
Afternoon, Saturday
One week till the start of it all...

Location:
The Stephen's Family Farm
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Emilee sighed as she slowly swept the barn. She was bored. It had been a week since Jer came home with that nasty injury. As expected Mom had been babying him telling him to take it easy, which resulted in Emilee taking up more chore work. She couldn't wait till Zack was old enough to do more around the farm. He normally helped out their mom with things around the house: cooking, cleaning, the works. Emilee cleaned the barn, made sure that the animals were well fed and clean, helped Dad whenever he needed it in the fields, the list continued on and on. Jer usually would help Dad with the field work and Emilee would care for the animals but this babying from Mom was not helping. Jer was probably on the couch taking a nap.

Emilee looked up into the well built barn. Dad built it himself. It didn't feel drafty, and had some light that poured in from the second floor window. Dad kept all of his equipment and the animals all on the main floor while upstairs became more of a storage for training equipment that Jer had gotten throughout the years. There was a comfortable mat to train on, training weapons, and a large bag that Jer filled with sand to punch whenever he wanted to let out some steam. It was his secret spot when the house got stuffy.

Emilee left the animals as they talked to each other and walked upstairs to the second floor. Since Jer had been hurt by the “pyrate” he hadn't been up in the training area ever since he left on the assignment. Emilee started to sweep the dirt off of the dirty mat wanting to wash it some day. She then stood in the center of the mat and stopped sweeping. She looked around quickly and tossed the broom high in the air. She grabbed it with her hand extending above her head. She waited for the imaginary applause and took the broom in both of her hands as if she was wielding a sword.

“You nasty Pyrate scum! Come at me!” She swung the bristled part of the broom around pretending to fight off an army.

Her technique was sloppy but the imaginary audience didn't care. She was killing off the monsters. Her long messy pony tail flapped in her face as she buzzed around to kill the ambushing Pyrate behind her. She spun around on the mat artistically using the broom to her advantage. She did a forward roll across the mat and then gave a battle yell and swung in front of her.

Suddenly she heard a crash. She opened her eyes realizing that she was by a desk. The desk was nicely placed by a small window near the mat. You had to be blind, or enjoying an imaginary audience so much to miss it. The once nice desk that had a perfect jar full of pencils and several other things were now on the floor. Emilee dropped to the floor throwing the broom away from her to pick up the items that were on the ground. The jar was slightly chipped but she doubted that Jer would have noticed. She nicely placed everything back on the desk when she realized a small picture on the ground.

She slowly picked it up feeling the texture of the photograph. It was black and white and a little blurry but she knew what the picture was. She thought that Dad had gotten rid of every single picture like this, but Jer saved one. A young Mom and Dad posing happily with their family portrait. Little baby Zack, only one at the time, was in Mom's lap. Jer was a young teenager in his “I hate my family” phase and was in front of Dad wearing a tie. Emilee was on the ground at Mom's feet wrapping her arms around a young boy who was pulling on her pigtail braids looking out to the camera with a mischievous smile.

Emilee's eyes lowered as she looked at the little boy.

“Dorian...”

“Who's Dorian?” Zack's small voice called behind Emilee.

She looked up to see Zack walking up the last step to the floor of the barn. It wasn't that cold out but Mom made him wear a jacket while Emilee was still wearing a short sleeved shirt. He probably heard the crash outside when he was raking leaves and wanted to see what was up. Emilee shuffled the picture in her hands as she tucked it under the papers she placed on the desk.

“Ah... no one. Just someone I knew when I was little-” Emilee stood up trying to quickly change the subject.

Zack's eyebrows squinted together and shrugged. He then asked if Emilee could toss him in the leaves that he raked. She placed her hands on her hips and waved her finger in his face telling him that he'll just have to clean it up again. He moaned and stuck out his tongue.
“Fine, I'll just get Jer to do it!”

Emilee rolled her eyes and turned back to the desk. She fixed the pencils and started to walk back towards the stairs. She picked up her broom on the way back and left the barn...

-------

“Maybe you can help me!”

“Excuse me?”

Emilee smiled splashing her legs in the pond water. Her shoes were thrown off at the side and her pants were rolled up high so they wouldn't get wet in the pond. She was deep in the woods outside her home at a special pond. Jer had his secret spot, this was her's. Emilee's family never tried to find the place, she guessed that they believed it was just an imaginary spot. Emilee wondered that over the years too, but her friend has grown with her. It felt real anyway.

Emilee saw hair slowly float towards her knees in the water. She looked up to see half of the face of her “imaginary” mer-friend. His long white hair floated in the pond water like seaweed. A fish didn't need to breathe air, so he was perfectly fine bobbing in the cold water. Emilee could see the shadow of his scaly fish tail under the slightly green colored pond water.

“You're smart, Gabriel. How could I convince Jer to take me on his next mission?”

Even though Jer was suspended for two weeks, the heads had gotten word that the neighbors in Brookend had a Pyrate problem. At the end of the week they were all to meet up and leave on the mission so Jer was slowly getting his things together despite all of the families pleas against it. However, all that Emilee could think about was how to convince them to take her along with them. It was only a day's travel down the mountains to Brookend. That's it! She's taken the trip down to Brookend before with her mom to see family before so she knew how to get there.

His head rose slightly so that he could talk. His pail skin, white hair and aqua eyes made him look as if he was a doll instead of a fish. Besides Pyrates, the monsters of our world, Mermaids were the only other races Emilee knew existed. Jer told her once that there are so many more wonderful things in this world than the farming community, but their mom keeps trying to keep Emilee at home. Emilee's one true dream was to see the world. All of it. Get off this continent and see the rest of the world and who lives in it. She wanted adventures of her own where she had a team, went on dangerous missions, and save the day.

“Why on earth would they let you on a mission like that?”

“Oh, come on, whose side are you on?” Emilee frowned.

“Em, I hate to be the realist but you still haven't gone through the classes. In their eyes you're not ready even if it is only a good day away.”

“You just don't want to see me hurt...”

“Of course!” his expression softened as his tail flapped in the water.

He floated over to Emilee pushing himself out of the water to sit next to her on land. Gabriel always needed to be wet for him to breathe properly, but that didn't stop him. His wet hair stuck to his body as he wrapped his pail arms around Emilee giving her a tight side hug.

“If you were gone I would lose my best friend.”

He rested his wet head on Emilee's shoulder. He turned slightly just about to kiss her on the cheek when her eyes suddenly grew wide and she jumped to her feet.

“Best friend! That's it!” She grabbed her shoes and ran off back through the woods, “thanks Gabe!”

“You're... welcome...” he sighed looking a little down.

-------

“Oh, sweetie what's with the down look?” Mom said as Emilee came home just in time for dinner.

She was sulking and dropped her shoes by the door. She ran all the way to town running through all what she was going to say to Griffin when she saw him. He had finally got the clearance to go back to work and was doing some paperwork for the school as they all got ready for their trip to Brookend.

“Buzz off,” was the only thing that Griffin said to her when she saw him.

She nearly cried on the way back. He usually wasn't so cruel, but with the paper work and pressure he had he didn't want to talk to his friend's younger sister. He probably also could sense that she was going to ask him about tagging along. Emilee stumbled into her room noticing a nice red brown hat resting on the foot board of her bed. It was a year old but looked the same as the day she bought it. Jer always told her to start thinking of her Pyrate hunting outfit early. It was their key item of survival in this world and also keeps them unique.

So far she only had a wide rimmed adventurer hat. She still needed many more things to complete her outfit but she didn't have the money or the knowledge on how to pick out the right clothes. Jer keeps pushing everything off saying that she'll learn it next year in Pyrate Hunting School, if she got in. But a year was so far away. She wanted to learn things now. It may have been a selfish thought but living sixteen years in the same safe normal town with the same normal people bore her. Emilee's eyes narrowed as she looked up to the window. No matter what, she was going to try to convince Jer to take her.