January 2nd
Lenore has the distinct feeling of deja vue when her entrance into the little tea shop sets the bell at the top of the door ringing to sound her presence. Andrew is already seated at the same table they had sat at the first time they met. A coffee cup in front of him and a small, more fragile looking teacup settled across from him in front of an open seat. The mid-afternoon sun bounces off the snowdrifts outside sending it streaming into the shop and reflecting off his white blonde hair. He looks so harmless, glowing and distracted with his pointed nose aimed down at the sleek black tablet he manages to hold in one massive palm.
He doesn?t look up from his tablet but she knows he?s aware of her presence. If not because of the bell then it would have been because of her scent. She can always smell him when he?s nearby. Not just the usual aromas of soap, wool, and leather but he had the underlying scent of a Shape-shifter that she could always pick out but never properly put into words except in her head. Like warm feathers fallen from freshly beaten wings, fur soaked in sunshine, dirt clinging to weathered paws, humid reptilian scales, endless possibilities. Animalistic but in a gentle balance not overpowering or favoring one over the other.
Near silent bootsteps carry her across the small distance of the teashop and she lowers herself into the waiting seat. He still hasn?t looked up but Lenore is alright with that, if he?s occupied with what?s in front of him so be it. She busies herself with leaning forward to inhale the waiting tea deeply. Vanilla and almond.
?I didn?t spike it if that?s what you?re checking for.? His smile appears, hazel eyes lifting to her face even if his head doesn?t move. ?But I can if you?re in need.?
?That all depends on how well you behave yourself.? She tries to mimic the tone he always used on her, playful if just a little distant.
?Behave?? He chews on the word like nails and it prompts him to set his tablet down on the table in exchange for his coffee. ?What has given you the idea I don?t know how to behave myself, Lenore? You are tossing around some lofty accusations without so much as a proper hello.?
?Hello, Andrew. How are you today? I hope you are well.? She manages to sound as polite as ever even if her smile is somewhat tight.
?Oh, Lenore! So glad to see you. I am doing very well, thank you for asking.? Playing his role in the put on conversation perfectly. ?I was thrilled when you called. You got your hands on a cellphone, I see.?
?It?s Cris?. He allowed me to use his so we could get in touch without me having to track down another payphone.?
?Thank you for clearing that up so I can promptly lose that number.?
?Why are you being like that?? Pointing across at him as if his actions were a plume of shadows making their presence known. ?Cris told me that you approached him two nights ago and had less than kind words for him. What has he done to earn such displeasure from you??
?Lenore?? Hands lifts and his tone goes smooth, soothing. ?Isn?t it common for someone to be somewhat skeptical of the boy their cousin is spending so much time with, living with to be exact? I only want the best for you.?
?But that?s not fair.? She realizes that the words sound like that of a petulant child but she can?t bring herself to stop them. ?You?ve come along out of nowhere and all I hear about is you telling me or the person I care about how my life isn?t good enough. I can appreciate that you have spent the last year trying to find me, Andrew, but? your presence would have been better suited when I was still in The States, before I came to RhyDin.?
His expression loses any signs of friendliness and looks completely stoic, his voice low with a sharp edge. ?We were under the assumption that you wanted nothing to do with us just like your parents. After our Grandmother died, that?s when your Father left Trumball and exiled himself across the state to start a family of his own. He wanted nothing to do with my Father or my Grandfather and once his Mother passed, kind as she was but still nothing aside from a human, he had nothing else to keep him there. We figured that it was the same for you.?
?I still don?t understand how your family was aware I was a Shape-shifter? or even born? if my Father never kept up contact with your family.?
Andrew?s lips thin and he looks aside at the busy bodies outside passing along the sidewalk just outside the shop window. ?My Father explained when I visited. He said a while after you were born, when Shape-shifting abilities usually display themselves, you had shown none so your Father called to rub it in his face. His perfectly normal daughter with golden hair and no abilities.?
?How could he have known I had no abilities that early on??
His lips twist into a smirk. ?Abilities present themselves very early in shape-shifters. Considering you didn?t show any signs of them until eight, well, you were an extremely late bloomer.? He makes no effort to hide his chuckle.
Lenore?s eyes roll but with this new information emerging she can?t bring herself to tell him to put a sock in it. ?So then what? You all thought I was human but you said at some point your Father became aware of my abilities.?
The laughter fades, his features straightening themselves out. ?According to my Father it was some time after you displayed your abilities. Your Father called in some sort of drunken stupor cursing my Father, Cursing our Grandfather, cursing every Shape-shifter alive, dead, and yet to be born. The fact that his perfect child was now? not so perfect in his eyes did not sit well with him. My Father offered assistance in the matter to teach you about your abilities, even offering to let you come stay with us during the Summer so you could be around others like you. Your Father denied him and said he and Gail would handle it.?
?And yet no one did anything to stop him!?? Her hands came down sharply onto the table between them, rattling it and sending her tea sloshing over the rim of the cup threatening to soak his tablet. ?Idiots!? The word shrieks out of her before she can think to stop it.
?Excuse you? My Father assumed he meant he would teach you himself in his own way. He was around enough Shape-shifters to know the ins and outs of it no matter how hard he pretended he didn?t. My Father never would have assumed his brother would be capable of attempting to drown his own flesh and blood from a single drunken rant.? Andrew hisses and picks up the tablet to replace it with a stack of napkins. ?Don?t make a spectacle of yourself, Lenore.?
?My life was a spectacle! I was tortured! I was made to live in fear of what I was! I was punished for being different! They tried to cure me!?
Andrew sucked in sharply through his teeth. ?I should have dosed your tea with Jameson.?
That was all he had to say. These supposed saviors, Shape-shifters, her family, who had now found her and come to rescue her could have done so years ago with the ominous promise that she would be handled. ?To hell with your tea!? A hand swipes aside sending the teacup crashing into the wall across the way, the girl behind the counter shouting for someone to come handle the growing scene.
?Nothing about the situation at the time made my parents think you were in danger. It was not our place to interfere, Lenore.?
?But here you are now, doing your best to interfere with the life I have created for myself in RhyDin.? Her hand lifts to count off the points. ?I have a place to stay, with an actual bed. I have a job, where they pay me to play with animals. I have someone I care for deeply who makes me feel wanted, intelligent, beautiful, and strong, all the things I never felt before. I have a cat! His name is Nicholas and although he scratches me now and then he likes me. I have all of these things and now you want to rescue me from myself and my awful existence? Where were you when I was a dog sleeping in alleyways? Where were you when I was a rat in garbage cans? And a cat taking up residence with widowed women for a bit of affection??
?I apologize that we weren?t there for you previously but are you really going to allow that to get between us now? Considering your parents have done far worse by your own admissions and by your demands alone my hands are clean of their blood. They get a free pass but I don?t? My family doesn?t??
?My parents give me the courtesy of assuming I?m dead since I?m no good to them alive. All you have told me since meeting me is how I offer nothing but room for improvement.? Someone was slowly walking up behind Lenore and it?s with a squeal of her chair that it is pushed out from behind her so she may rise to stand. A golden glare is tossed back over her shoulder to a man who had to be in his mid-twenties, the cook turned bouncer of the teashop thanks to the pleading of the cashier. ?Allow me to finish and I will remove myself.? The words came out in a cool growl.
?Do you see though?? It was the most animated Andrew had ever sounded, laughter bubbling around his words. ?This is the Lenore that has so much potential. This is the Lenore that can be taught to harness her abilities and help prolong many great generations of Shape-shifters.? He was bleeding out joy and pride. ?This is you at your best and yet you can be so much better, above everyone.?
Her head snaps back to Andrew, lips peeling back to bare straight white teeth. ?This is the worst of me. You bring out the worst of me. My suggestion when you leave here, Andrew, is to think long and hard about what you know of me. Do not think of the Shape-shifter I could be someday. Think of who I am right now. Entertain the thought that nothing would ever change about me. If you can?t stomach that possibility then I suggest you leave RhyDin and the memory of me behind. Take a page from my parents? playbook and consider me a ghost. If I?m no good to you as I am now, do what everyone else does? consider me dead and we?ll both be better for it.?
Andrew?s expression had long become a mask, the only tell of his annoyance in the matter a slight narrowing of hazel eyes. The cook had been so confused by being put in his place by Lenore that he stood by silently, looking as awkward as ever and hoping this would all be done soon so he didn?t have to get between the pair.
Luckily for him it?s with a clatter that Lenore tips the chair out of her way and cuts a path towards the door. With the ball left soundly in Andrew?s court she shoulders the door open and silently makes her way out into the bustle of the street, just another face in the crowd.
Lenore has the distinct feeling of deja vue when her entrance into the little tea shop sets the bell at the top of the door ringing to sound her presence. Andrew is already seated at the same table they had sat at the first time they met. A coffee cup in front of him and a small, more fragile looking teacup settled across from him in front of an open seat. The mid-afternoon sun bounces off the snowdrifts outside sending it streaming into the shop and reflecting off his white blonde hair. He looks so harmless, glowing and distracted with his pointed nose aimed down at the sleek black tablet he manages to hold in one massive palm.
He doesn?t look up from his tablet but she knows he?s aware of her presence. If not because of the bell then it would have been because of her scent. She can always smell him when he?s nearby. Not just the usual aromas of soap, wool, and leather but he had the underlying scent of a Shape-shifter that she could always pick out but never properly put into words except in her head. Like warm feathers fallen from freshly beaten wings, fur soaked in sunshine, dirt clinging to weathered paws, humid reptilian scales, endless possibilities. Animalistic but in a gentle balance not overpowering or favoring one over the other.
Near silent bootsteps carry her across the small distance of the teashop and she lowers herself into the waiting seat. He still hasn?t looked up but Lenore is alright with that, if he?s occupied with what?s in front of him so be it. She busies herself with leaning forward to inhale the waiting tea deeply. Vanilla and almond.
?I didn?t spike it if that?s what you?re checking for.? His smile appears, hazel eyes lifting to her face even if his head doesn?t move. ?But I can if you?re in need.?
?That all depends on how well you behave yourself.? She tries to mimic the tone he always used on her, playful if just a little distant.
?Behave?? He chews on the word like nails and it prompts him to set his tablet down on the table in exchange for his coffee. ?What has given you the idea I don?t know how to behave myself, Lenore? You are tossing around some lofty accusations without so much as a proper hello.?
?Hello, Andrew. How are you today? I hope you are well.? She manages to sound as polite as ever even if her smile is somewhat tight.
?Oh, Lenore! So glad to see you. I am doing very well, thank you for asking.? Playing his role in the put on conversation perfectly. ?I was thrilled when you called. You got your hands on a cellphone, I see.?
?It?s Cris?. He allowed me to use his so we could get in touch without me having to track down another payphone.?
?Thank you for clearing that up so I can promptly lose that number.?
?Why are you being like that?? Pointing across at him as if his actions were a plume of shadows making their presence known. ?Cris told me that you approached him two nights ago and had less than kind words for him. What has he done to earn such displeasure from you??
?Lenore?? Hands lifts and his tone goes smooth, soothing. ?Isn?t it common for someone to be somewhat skeptical of the boy their cousin is spending so much time with, living with to be exact? I only want the best for you.?
?But that?s not fair.? She realizes that the words sound like that of a petulant child but she can?t bring herself to stop them. ?You?ve come along out of nowhere and all I hear about is you telling me or the person I care about how my life isn?t good enough. I can appreciate that you have spent the last year trying to find me, Andrew, but? your presence would have been better suited when I was still in The States, before I came to RhyDin.?
His expression loses any signs of friendliness and looks completely stoic, his voice low with a sharp edge. ?We were under the assumption that you wanted nothing to do with us just like your parents. After our Grandmother died, that?s when your Father left Trumball and exiled himself across the state to start a family of his own. He wanted nothing to do with my Father or my Grandfather and once his Mother passed, kind as she was but still nothing aside from a human, he had nothing else to keep him there. We figured that it was the same for you.?
?I still don?t understand how your family was aware I was a Shape-shifter? or even born? if my Father never kept up contact with your family.?
Andrew?s lips thin and he looks aside at the busy bodies outside passing along the sidewalk just outside the shop window. ?My Father explained when I visited. He said a while after you were born, when Shape-shifting abilities usually display themselves, you had shown none so your Father called to rub it in his face. His perfectly normal daughter with golden hair and no abilities.?
?How could he have known I had no abilities that early on??
His lips twist into a smirk. ?Abilities present themselves very early in shape-shifters. Considering you didn?t show any signs of them until eight, well, you were an extremely late bloomer.? He makes no effort to hide his chuckle.
Lenore?s eyes roll but with this new information emerging she can?t bring herself to tell him to put a sock in it. ?So then what? You all thought I was human but you said at some point your Father became aware of my abilities.?
The laughter fades, his features straightening themselves out. ?According to my Father it was some time after you displayed your abilities. Your Father called in some sort of drunken stupor cursing my Father, Cursing our Grandfather, cursing every Shape-shifter alive, dead, and yet to be born. The fact that his perfect child was now? not so perfect in his eyes did not sit well with him. My Father offered assistance in the matter to teach you about your abilities, even offering to let you come stay with us during the Summer so you could be around others like you. Your Father denied him and said he and Gail would handle it.?
?And yet no one did anything to stop him!?? Her hands came down sharply onto the table between them, rattling it and sending her tea sloshing over the rim of the cup threatening to soak his tablet. ?Idiots!? The word shrieks out of her before she can think to stop it.
?Excuse you? My Father assumed he meant he would teach you himself in his own way. He was around enough Shape-shifters to know the ins and outs of it no matter how hard he pretended he didn?t. My Father never would have assumed his brother would be capable of attempting to drown his own flesh and blood from a single drunken rant.? Andrew hisses and picks up the tablet to replace it with a stack of napkins. ?Don?t make a spectacle of yourself, Lenore.?
?My life was a spectacle! I was tortured! I was made to live in fear of what I was! I was punished for being different! They tried to cure me!?
Andrew sucked in sharply through his teeth. ?I should have dosed your tea with Jameson.?
That was all he had to say. These supposed saviors, Shape-shifters, her family, who had now found her and come to rescue her could have done so years ago with the ominous promise that she would be handled. ?To hell with your tea!? A hand swipes aside sending the teacup crashing into the wall across the way, the girl behind the counter shouting for someone to come handle the growing scene.
?Nothing about the situation at the time made my parents think you were in danger. It was not our place to interfere, Lenore.?
?But here you are now, doing your best to interfere with the life I have created for myself in RhyDin.? Her hand lifts to count off the points. ?I have a place to stay, with an actual bed. I have a job, where they pay me to play with animals. I have someone I care for deeply who makes me feel wanted, intelligent, beautiful, and strong, all the things I never felt before. I have a cat! His name is Nicholas and although he scratches me now and then he likes me. I have all of these things and now you want to rescue me from myself and my awful existence? Where were you when I was a dog sleeping in alleyways? Where were you when I was a rat in garbage cans? And a cat taking up residence with widowed women for a bit of affection??
?I apologize that we weren?t there for you previously but are you really going to allow that to get between us now? Considering your parents have done far worse by your own admissions and by your demands alone my hands are clean of their blood. They get a free pass but I don?t? My family doesn?t??
?My parents give me the courtesy of assuming I?m dead since I?m no good to them alive. All you have told me since meeting me is how I offer nothing but room for improvement.? Someone was slowly walking up behind Lenore and it?s with a squeal of her chair that it is pushed out from behind her so she may rise to stand. A golden glare is tossed back over her shoulder to a man who had to be in his mid-twenties, the cook turned bouncer of the teashop thanks to the pleading of the cashier. ?Allow me to finish and I will remove myself.? The words came out in a cool growl.
?Do you see though?? It was the most animated Andrew had ever sounded, laughter bubbling around his words. ?This is the Lenore that has so much potential. This is the Lenore that can be taught to harness her abilities and help prolong many great generations of Shape-shifters.? He was bleeding out joy and pride. ?This is you at your best and yet you can be so much better, above everyone.?
Her head snaps back to Andrew, lips peeling back to bare straight white teeth. ?This is the worst of me. You bring out the worst of me. My suggestion when you leave here, Andrew, is to think long and hard about what you know of me. Do not think of the Shape-shifter I could be someday. Think of who I am right now. Entertain the thought that nothing would ever change about me. If you can?t stomach that possibility then I suggest you leave RhyDin and the memory of me behind. Take a page from my parents? playbook and consider me a ghost. If I?m no good to you as I am now, do what everyone else does? consider me dead and we?ll both be better for it.?
Andrew?s expression had long become a mask, the only tell of his annoyance in the matter a slight narrowing of hazel eyes. The cook had been so confused by being put in his place by Lenore that he stood by silently, looking as awkward as ever and hoping this would all be done soon so he didn?t have to get between the pair.
Luckily for him it?s with a clatter that Lenore tips the chair out of her way and cuts a path towards the door. With the ball left soundly in Andrew?s court she shoulders the door open and silently makes her way out into the bustle of the street, just another face in the crowd.