Family Gathering
Family Gathering
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I am the Sidhe-blooded named Ash, elder daughter of the half-Sidhe half Human Star-child and the half-Goblin half-Human Fanged-doll. I am the elder sister to the Sidhe-blooded Cinder, and niece to the Goblin-blooded Anansi, Sidhe Lord by marriage. My Sidhe grandmother is Lady Solianna, a Sidhe in the power of the stars while my Goblin grandmother is Duchess The Great Eight Soul Eater, a Spider Goblin of Fire with the power of eight of her half-Sidhe daughter whom she devoured.
My sister Cinder is all Sidhe color with milk pale skin, copper red hair, and eyes of burning neon. She is Goblin power with skin like shark hide, hair like wire, eight eyes, six fangs with acidic poison, and black talons. She welds fire magic like she was born of the celestial flame. She is physically stronger than most Goblins and all Sidhe. I am Goblin color with ink black hair, blue-gray skin, black nails with retractable talons, two fangs with neurotoxin venom, and whiteless eyes with vertical pupils. I am Sidhe power with velvet skin, silky hair, and regal features. I weld Sidhe magic like I was born of the most powerful mages.
Cinder was raised by the most powerful of the Fey, the Slaugh, she grew up under the dear watch of the most dangerous creatures in the faerie world. Most Sidhe-blooded children sent to the Slaugh are devoured by something in their darkness long before adulthood. Something about Cinder made the Slaugh teach and respect her. Most believe that when something did try to eat Cinder but she used her venom to render it into a soup which she fed upon. I personally believe that Cinder’s flames were just too powerful for the Slaugh to want anything to do with.
I was raised by the most powerful non-Sidhe magicians in the Sidhe court, the satyr Puck and the Goblin Anansi. Puck had fooled the King into giving him lordship and kept his throne by marrying one foolish Sidhe woman after another, each one falling for his spells and illusions. Anansi fooled a Sidhe Lady into marrying him and refused to null the marriage because if he ever left the Sidhe Court he would be sent to the Goblin Court where his mother, The Great Eight Soul Eater, was just waiting to devour him and steal his magical power.
My family has few chances to get together, we avoid the Goblin Court completely due to the fact The Great Eight Soul Eater would like to devour my father, uncle, sister, and me. Solianna loves us, she accepted my father long ago and ever adopted Anansi since the Spider Goblin is quite personable. The Sidhe King long ago ordered that my mother and father were to have little time to breed due to the potent combination they achieved with Cinder and me. My parents are ambassadors to the human world for the Sidhe and Goblins since they are both more human in nature and appearance than most Sidhe and Goblins. Rarely my family get’s together and tonight was one of those nights.
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I walked in the large garden of my grandmother’s estate. I gently stroked a night-blossom, inhaling the sweet scent before moving on towards where the family would gather for the celestial celebration. I was passing under a great tree when I noticed the glow. I smirked as I moved away from the tree but the gentle glow from above seemed to follow me. I stretched before moving into the deeper shadows of a pine.
I slipped behind the trunk, pressing my body against it and closing my eyes. I could feel the glow above me and I heard the tell tale signs of something moving through the branches. There was a creak of wood above me and I struck. I saw the luminescent flesh and my hand quickly wrapped around the ankle above me. With a little of my Goblin strength I ripped Cinder from the tree above me, throwing her across the footpath.
“Naughty, naughty younger kin!” I called as I peered at her from behind the tree. Cinder’s milky skin glowed with celestial light. Her body like a mini-moon on earth. She glared at me with the neon blue we shared in our eyes.
“Thou cheat!” she grumbled as she stood up. She wore her page outfit, the King of the Slaugh had taken to using Cinder as a page, she must have come to our grandmother’s home straight from the Slaugh Court.
“Those are dire words, younger sister. How do I cheat?” I asked with a grin, keeping the majority of my body behind the tree.
“You closed your eyes!” she shouted and I smiled, my Goblin blood hid me in the darkness save for the neon glow of my eyes.
“You are simply jealous, younger kin, that my body does not give away my position on the New Moon’s night,” I grinned. Solianna and all her kin save for me glowed with celestial light on the nights when the moon’s face was shrouded in darkness. Cinder pouted around her long fangs before smirking and nodding.
“Too true elder kin, tomorrow we both with be given away by our eyes,” she said and I offered my hand to my younger sister. I helped her up and I smiled at her.
“You are growing out your hair,” I stated, the last time I had seen Cinder was at her fourteenth birthday celebration, her hair had been cropped short, it was now to her shoulders in ringlets of metallic orange-red.
“I am Sidhe-blooded and Sidhe are known for long flowing hair,” she stated giving my knee-length hair an appreciative look. I nodded as we looked up the path where two small, glowing, forms were fluttering from night-blossom to night-blossom. “Tch, what are those two doing here?”
“While Solarium is long since dead before our birth, his children are still our mother’s cousins and thus our kin,” I stated.
“The Slaugh eat fairies,” Cinder grumbled and I smirked as we approached the two glowing figures.
“Oh look, Selene, two monsters have arrived!” London cried as he fluttered with his glossy dragonfly wings.
“Oh be kind, London, one glows with the power of our blood,” Selene giggled as she fluttered with her lovely white butterfly wings. Selene and London saw me far more often than Cinder and while Cinder felt more like a Goblin, save for her eyes, claws and fangs, she was more Sidhe in appearance than I was. London and Selene had harassed me for as long as I could remember.
“Out of our way, insects,” Cinder growled. I simply looked at the two. When they didn’t glow with white celestial light, London and Selene had the same golden skin with bright, white-blond hair, and pure gold eyes.
“Oh this one may have our power, Selene, but she is still a stinking Goblin,” London taunted.
“True, but she stinks of the Slaugh,” Selene giggled and I quickly plucked the two out of the air. It’s not easy to best a fairy in speed but I had been harassed by the two for as long as I could remember.
“Now Cinder, do you remember what sweet Uncle Anansi told us about fairy blood?” I asked my sister as London and Selene struggled, but I held their arms pinned to their sides, their wings franticly brushing my hands as their little feet tried to kick my wrists.
“Let us go!” London shouted as he glared at me.
“Wicked Cinderella!” Selene howled and Cinder blinked.
“Cinderella?” she growled and I smirked at my sister.
“They call me Cinderella since my skin is as if I’ve been sleeping beside a hearth. It is a pun on my name not yours,” I explained and Cinder snorted as she looked at the two.
“Would Grandmother mind if we ate them?” she asked and I shrugged.
“I have often wondered,” I commented as I continued walking.
“Let us go foul mixed-breed!” London cried and Cinder snickered at the irony. London and Selene were half-Sidhe and half-Fairy. I ignored him as we entered the pavilion, Solianna sat at the head seat, glowing like a star fallen to earth. Our mother sat beside her, our father beside her, their hands clasped and my father’s four arachnid limbs wrapped around her as if her were afraid at any moment someone would steal her away from his side. Anansi was beside our father, obviously bored since only two of his many eyes were glowing.
“Great Matriarch, we the daughters of your daughter come baring the children of your brother,” I said with a gentle curtsy. Solianna blinked as she looked at us before noticing her niece and nephew.
“Powerful Granddaughters, please release my niece and nephew,” she said and I opened my hands quickly shielding Cinder and myself. As I expected London attempted to kick me in the face. He howled in pain as his foot hit my shield and Cinder chuckled. Cinder and I moved to sit upon the ground in front of our parents, I let Cinder pick her spot first. I got to see our parents more often since I spent most of my lessons in our grandmother’s garden. Cinder was quick to press where our mother and father’s legs were touching. One of our father’s arachnid limbs moved to caress Cinder’s hair. I moved to sit next to Cinder, between our father and uncle, another of my father’s limbs moved to caress my hair.
“Grandmother you should punish those two, they harassed us!” Selene demanded and Solianna gave her a look.
“Are you sure my dear granddaughters were the instigators, I noted your glow in my garden long before you came to see me,” Solianna commented and the two half-Fairies balked. Most thought that Solianna was only a pretty face but the truth was as a Matriarch of her clan she could feel the power of all her kin. I knew that while I held celestial star power in my body I would never be a matriarch like Solianna and as she began to scold and discipline London and Selene I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of my mother and sister as they shared a white glow. I wore the dark skin of the Goblin blood in my body and I rested back against my father’s leg and uncle’s abdomen. My mother and father kissed, their lips pressing gently together, white glowing light and solid darkness. We truly didn’t get many moments like this but each of them was priceless.
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Author's Note: This prompt really set me up, I had this one story all set up but every time I started it I didn't like it and after the third attempt I told my muse "Fine, what do YOU want me to write" and Ash stepped up to the plate. I know many of you are aware of Ash, Cinder, Solianna, Anansi, Fanged-doll, and Star-child several of you have made comments about how I don't need to introduce them each time but hey, we get new members all the time and if this is their first time reading about my characters...well damn it, I'm going to give them an idea about them. Also if you're reading this for the first time, if you hit the Ash tag on this piece it will give you the collection of stories I have so far. This one is occuring before The Conquerors and after Her Fuel...I'm not sure where Of Mixed Blood falls, it was the first Ash story I put up and I'm not too happy with it since the story has developed. But for newbies to Ash there you go