by M.C. Moore
Chapter 12…
When the three siblings arrived home it was clear that Isabel had been at work. A large yoga looking mat was rolled up against one wall and there were several boxes scattered throughout the entryway. Meckenzie could only assume that these were the tools that Isabel intended to use to train them in combat and defensive skills. Kellan actually started to get excited as she inspected the boxes.
“This is all martial arts gear.” She said as she looked inside one of the boxes and pulled out what looked like a red breast plate made of foam. “I wonder when we get to start learning.”
Kellan’s excitement was not contagious, in fact Meckenzie felt slightly sick at her stomach. She had never been much of a fighter. She preferred to talk herself out of most fights. Or Meckenzie would just let the other person win and wait till the fight subsided. It was her opinion that there was nothing so important that violence would solve the problem. Meckenzie knew she would have to learn to defend herself, because she was now headed into a scenario where the person coming after her would want her dead, and not just humiliated.
As Kellan dug into the third box, Isabel came into the entry and smiled really big.
“Good your home, I could use some young folks to carry boxes downstairs.”
“I need to change clothes, but I think we should actually tell you about our day first.” Meckenzie said as Isabel eyed her curiously. “We had some excitement and I got asked out on a date.”
“What?” Both of her siblings and Isabel responded simultaneously.
“Oh yeah, with Kellan’s ‘the incredibly growing woman’ routine, I forgot to tell you that Ty found me in the library and asked me out. I told him that he would have to meet my father and that I couldn’t go out with him until he did.”
“Do you think that is a good idea? I mean this guy makes your head buzz like Kim Kardashin’s phone on vibrate. He may have plans if he is from the enemy.” Taggart was being his naturally protective self and trying to keep Meckenzie out of harm’s way.
“I thought it would be a good way to get some information. I was hoping that by bringing him by the house, Isabel might be able to scope him out and tell us what she thought. I didn’t know if there was a better way to have Isabel get a look at him. I know it could be dangerous if we actually went out, but I thought we would deal with that scenario when the time came.” Meckenzie felt a little defensive, she knew it wasn’t a well thought out plan, but it was a plan none the less.
“Well, it would be good to bring him by the house. I am not sure if I should actually meet him; he may recognize me or have some information that I am supposed to be here, protection you three. Maybe we can find a way for me to see him, without him seeing me.” Isabel said.
“I could set up some web cams around the house and we could run them to a computer that you could watch.” Taggart was actually getting excited at the prospect of getting to do some spy work. “I’m sure that we could get the stuff this evening and get it all set up before he came by tomorrow. I’ll go find a store nearby that I can get all the stuff. Maybe the security guy knows of a place, I think he is outside somewhere.”
Taggart headed out the front door to find the Jones. He was so excited that he completely forgot about helping get the sparring equipment downstairs.
“So what else happened at school today?” Isabel redirected the conversation back to the trip’s day.
Kellan looked a little worried about how Isabel would react to the next bit of news. She stepped away from the conversation to lean against the wall. Kellan seemed to be trying her best to blend in as a piece of furniture, but Isabel was all too aware of her trepidation.
“So what happened with Kellan?” Isabel astutely surmised.
“Well, she had a little growing spell in gym class.” Meckenzie tried to make this as easy as possible for Kellan to endure. “She got knocked around a bit by another girl on her basketball team. Her anger sparked a growing spurt, but she was able to make it to the equipment closet without anyone seeing what had happened. The coach had some students come find Taggart and myself. We were able after a couple of attempts to return her to normal size, though her workout clothes were not as lucky.”
Isabel was smiling, she seemed extremely pleased and not mad at all. She actually seemed to be laughing. Meckenzie thought maybe Isabel had not understood what she had just said. Either that or Isabel had finally lost it from having to deal with the three of them for all these years.
“I knew that there was always a possibility that Kellan’s little talent would erupt at an inopportune time. That is why I thought it important to work on Kellan’s patience. I would normally suggest a lot of meditation and yoga for you Kellan, but I know we really don’t have the time to get you in that state of mind. So I’m very pleased that the three of you were able to solve this problem without me. It also means that you guys picked up the spell pretty quickly.” Isabel was absolutely glowing with pride.
“Well,” Meckenzie began, “we actually didn’t remember the spell. We used ‘Be calm, be still.’ It didn’t work at first, so we hugged her and did it again. With the touching we were able to amplify the spell and make it work. At least that is what we assumed. We always had Taggart’s phone as a backup.”
“Backup?”
“Yeah, if we couldn’t get it to work we were going to call you to get help.”
“I’m glad you guys tried it on your own first. It shows great ingenuity and power that you were able to get Kellan changed back without the proper words to the spell.” Isabel seemed to be very pleased with the whole situation. “Kellan, I think you had real peace of mind to run for the equipment closet. It isn’t your fault that you changed. Your powers are very much tied into your emotions and until we can get you guys trained in how to focus your emotions, it is quite possible that you might have this problem from time to time.”
Kellan looked relieved and frustrated at the same time. Her face seem to be contorting every second into a new emotion. “I don’t know if I can handle this.” She said looking dejected. “I cannot live with this being an everyday occurrence. I can’t handle changing every time I stub my toe or get knocked down in gym class. I just want to be normal.” Kellan began crying. She crumbled against the wall, unable to hold the weight of the emotions that had been buried within her throughout this whole ordeal.
“Kellan,” Meckenzie reached out to her sister hoping to help her work through this emotion. “I am sorry you have to go through this. I know how you feel.”
“You don’t know how I feel. Your powers don’t turn you into a monster. Your powers are hidden. They aren’t out there for the whole world to see. It’s not like your head swells up when you are talking with us mentally. None of you understand. I am a freak.” Kellan pulled herself up and pushed through Isabel and Meckenzie. “Just leave me alone. You have no idea what it feels like to be the she-hulk, and don’t pretend you do. I just want to be normal.” Kellan ran up the stairs to her room. Meckenzie’s heart was breaking with the pain that Kellan was experiencing. She knew that she didn’t know what Kellan felt like. She would have given anything to be able to take away Kellan’s pain or to make her feel normal. Meckenzie also knew that there was no possibility of their lives being normal again.
Just then Taggart stepped in the door smiling from ear to ear.
“The security guy is going to take care of everything. Jones made a call to one of his pals who does survellience and he is going to bring a basic system over in an hour and set it up. I figure we can get dad on board since it is basically just extra security. He is going to bring over a DVR, some cameras and a viewing monitor. Jones can set the whole system up this evening. Then we can talk to Dad about upgrading the cameras or whatever.” Just then Taggart noticed the dejected look on Meckenzie’s face. He realized that Kellan was missing from the room and knew that something must be up. “What happened?”
Isabel quickly stepped in to avoid having Meckenzie have to relive the whole situation. “Meckenzie why don’t you go up and change, we should start some defense training before I have to prepare dinner.”
Meckenzie turned to head up the stairs and heard Isabel begin to talk to Taggart about Kellan. Meckenzie really didn’t want to relive Kellan’s outburst, but she knew she would have to at some point. It was important that she mend Kellan’s feelings.
Though Meckenzie didn’t have the same problems as Kellan, she knew what Kellan was feeling. She knew that every moment was a possible time bomb of emotions that could explode Kellan’s body into a gigantic state. She knew that Kellan lived very much by her emotions. Kellan being the youngest had always been slightly more emotionally charged than her siblings. Meckenzie had always been the sympathetic one, Taggart the level headed one, and Kellan the emotional dynamo.
As Meckenzie came up the stairs to her floor, she could hear Kellan throwing stuff around in her room. Meckenzie was going to check on her, but it seemed that it might be best to leave her alone for now. So Meckenzie quickly changed and headed back down stairs.
When she got back to the entry way to help move the boxes, Taggart had already loaded most of them onto the elevator.
“So, what are we going to do about Kellan?” Taggart said without making eye contact with Meckenzie.
“I don’t know, I don’t think I can do anything. She seems to be maddest at me. It’s like Kellan blames me for everything that is going on.”
“I think it’s because you look the most like Mom. It’s easy to blame you, because she wants to blame Mom.” Taggart sat the last box into the elevator and hit the button to send it down stairs leaving Meckenzie standing alone on the ground floor.
Meckenzie wasn’t exactly sure what to make of Taggart’s statement that she looked the most like Mom and therefore Kellan was blaming her for everything. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him dropping that bomb on her and then heading off in the elevator without giving her the opportunity for rebuttal.
Meckenzie headed to the kitchen to grab some bottles of water. Maybe Taggart was trying to give her some time to think over what he had said. She had always been told that she looked like her mother. For the most part she considered it a compliment because her mother was very beautiful. The resemblance to her mother would become a problem though if other Fae spotted her in public. Meckenzie didn’t want to be the easiest target because of her looks. Taggart hadn’t meant it as an insult; he had simply been stating his theory to the Kellan dilemma.
It was sad for Meckenzie to think of her sister as a dilemma; that seemed so cold and heartless to her. Meckenzie loved Kellan and she only wanted the best for her. She wanted her to be happy. The only problem was there were extenuating circumstances that were going to make it difficult for Kellan to be happy. So now Meckenzie had to figure out how to get Kellan to deal with those circumstances and do what was best for everyone, not what was best for Kellan necessarily.
As she headed downstairs, Meckenzie still didn’t feel like she had any real idea how to make this better. She was sure that Taggart was probably right though. Kellan probably did blame Mom for all of this. And if it was true that Meckenzie reminded Kellan of their mother, then Meckenzie couldn’t make this better for Kellan. She would just have to stand back and let the others work it out. Maybe it was time for Meckenzie to stop trying to make Kellan’s life easy. Maybe it was time that Meckenzie focus on herself for a change. There were so many things going on in their lives that Meckenzie hadn’t been really focusing on how this would affect her. She had been worried too much about how it would affect everyone else instead.
If she were meant to rule Aquanis someday, she would have to always take into consideration what was best for everyone around her. So why not take some time to focus on her for a while. Meckenzie needed to start acting like the queen she would someday have to be. She would have to take control with confidence and leadership, Meckenzie would have to make decisions.
She reached the gym with a new attitude. She would focus on making herself the best she could be with her new powers. The best she could be with defending herself, the best queen she could be. Then maybe she would try to help Kellan with her problems.
Taggart was already unloading boxes. Isabel had cleared a corner of the gym where all of the self-defense equipment was being unloaded. Meckenzie grabbed a box out of the elevator and headed that direction. With her new attitude she was really looking forward to learning some self-defense moves. Meckenzie was never much for physical activity other than running. She enjoyed a good muscle burning, heart pounding run, but really never got into any other sport.
“So what kind of moves are you going to teach us Isabel?” Meckenzie asked.
“I thought we would start with some basic self-defense. It’s going to be beneficial to you to know how to fend off a physical attack, as a lot of the Fae don’t have powers still. It will only be your generation that has their powers back. With the three of you, there is less than a hundred Fae with powers that we know of.” Isabel began to unroll the mat as she dropped that last little tidbit of knowledge.
“Really, one hundred of us. I thought the number would be much lower.” Taggart questioned.
“It would be if the fairies hadn’t started breeding. Several families aware that the binding of powers would be over with this generation, began having multiple children. We as a species are not one for huge families. We tend to live a long time, so usually a couple will only have one child, unless there are multiple births such as you three. But in the last 20 years, people have been having two or three children.”
Meckenzie’s curiosity was peaked. “Are there often multiple births among the fairy people?”
“It does happen, there are many sets of twins and triplets in your family tree. It seems that some families, such as in humans, are more prone to multiple births. The closer you are to royalty in our world, the better chance of a multiple birth. They are considered the highest blessing given by the Morrigan.”
“Morrigan, like King Arthur?” Taggart asked.
“Actually, that is a more recent fictional literary reference. The Morrigan is the embodiment of the goddess of the Fae. She blesses one family with the birth of a triplet set of female children who are the chosen ones to lead the religious temples. Every generation has a Morrigan. They, much like you three, are blessed with a three-fold power structure; that of the mind, body and soul. They are renamed upon their sixteenth birthday to reflect their powers. Dian, the sister of soul, is our goddess of healing. Brigid, the sister of body, is our goddess of battle. Morgan, the sister of mind, is our goddess of peace. They have been without powers for many years, but still function as our Morrigan. From my understanding, the new Morrigan is taking power right now and should be ruling the temple when you return to Aquanis.”
“What have they been doing all these years without powers? Wouldn’t their powers be the way that they are named?” Taggart’s curiosity had been peeked and he was very interested in learning as much as he could about this particular part of his ancestry.
“The Morrigan have another way that their powers manifest themselves. It is another way we know that they are the Morrigan. They each have a different hair color. It is an oddity that triplet sisters would be born with each a unique hair color. Dian’s hair is blond, Brigid’s hair is red, and Morgan’s hair is black. Some of the earlier human legends are born because one of the Morrigan, Morgan, crossed into the human world during the time of the Celts and visited one of their tribes. They wrote her into their legends.”
“Will we meet them? Where do they live? How many have there been?” Taggart’s mind was in overdrive. He wanted to know everything there was to know about the Morrigan.
Isabel laughed. “Yes you will meet them. They will perform your coronation. I have a book about them. I’ll loan it
to you, it has their history and some stories about certain Morrigan from the past. Now, we have enough equipment unloaded to start some basic sparring. I think we should start on the defensive training. Meckenzie, try calling out to Kellan and ask her to join us.”
Meckenzie was not excited about the prospect of her first conversation with Kellan being a mental one. She had hoped that she would have time later to sit down with Kellan and just have a sisterly conversation, no talk of powers, no talk of ruling a kingdom, just some nice sisterly conversation.
“Kellan, Isabel would like for you to join us and learn some defense moves. You might get a chance to hit me. We are in the gym.” Meckenzie didn’t wait for a response; she didn’t necessarily want to hear what Kellan had to say.
Isabel threw some sparring pads at Taggart and what looked like unfinished boxing gloves to Meckenzie.
“What are these for?” Meckenzie wasn’t sure she could hit anyone, let alone Taggart, but she had an inkling that Isabel was expecting her to do just that.
“You put them on your hands. They allow you to hit without hurting your knuckles but still have the flexibility to use your hands to deflect as you might have to in hand to hand combat.” Taggart answered with far more awareness than Meckenzie expected.
“How do you know all this?”
“I am not just a pretty face.” Taggart smiled back at Meckenzie as he strapped on the defensive pads.
“Okay we are going to try some light combat, no actual punch throwing. Though we will simulate in slow motion the proper way to throw a punch. Here, both of you need to put in mouthpieces just in case something goes wrong, I don’t want either of you losing a tooth.” Isabel seemed amused at her last comment, but Meckenzie was more racked with fear than she had expected.
Meckenzie slid the mouthpiece into her mouth. This is really not what she expected. She had been expecting self-defense classes like she had seen on TV where the women learned to step on their attackers toes and knee them in the groin. Meckenzie had not expected to be throwing actual punches. She was not in any way a violent person. Meckenzie had never thrown a punch in all of her life. In all the fights she had ever been in, and all of them had been with Kellan, she had always run away, hid, or taken a defensive position. Taking the punches was never her first choice, but she didn’t fight back so sometimes it was the necessary one.
As Meckenzie and Taggart were taking their positions opposite each other, Kellan came down the stairs to join them. Isabel didn’t skip a beat with her instruction; she simply nodded towards the equipment and Kellan. They began their training learning the proper way to throw a body punch. With Kellan and Meckenzie standing on either side of Taggart, they slowly began punching him in his abdominal pads as he circled between them. Isabel would bring Meckenzie’s elbow in when she would begin to let her arms get to loose. Kellan had a real talent for picking up the basics of fighting. She had always been better at physical activity than her siblings. Soon, Isabel was instructing Kellan on how to throw different punches and asking Taggart to try to maneuver out of Kellan’s way. Meckenzie stepped back and watched as Kellan mastered punch after punch. Taggart had begun to breathe heavily and was looking worse for the wear, as Kellan’s punches began falling with more and more strength.
Just as Isabel had shouted out new instructions for Kellan’s punch combination, their father descended the stairs calling out their names. This momentary distraction caused Taggart to drop his arms just as Kellan connected with his lower jaw. The force of her punch spun him around. With a thud, Taggart hit the mat, his mouth piece landing a few feet away.
“Taggart!” Meckenzie screamed and ran to his motionless body on the mat. As she looked up at Kellan, a slight smile of satisfaction faded from Kellan’s face and morphed into a look of horror.
“Taggart can you hear me.” Meckenzie dropped to her knees and tried to roll Taggart’s lifeless body over. Isabel knelt down on his other side and helped Meckenzie roll him face up.
Their father rushed across the gym. “What were you thinking Isabel? Kellan could have killed him.” As he felt Taggart’s pulse, he knew that Taggart was only unconscious. “You said that Kellan was getting stronger and faster than the Meckenzie and Taggart, she should not be fighting with them.
“We were doing fine till you distracted him. He’ll be fine, he just got his bell rung.” Just as Isabel finished her sentence, Taggart began to open his eyes.
Unexpectedly, he smiled. “Next time I get the gloves and Kellan gets the pads.”
Kellan let out a snort, “See he’s fine. No harm no foul.”
“I’m fine, let me sit up.” Taggart pushed himself up on his elbows and reached out a hand in Kellan’s direction. Kellan held out her hand and pulled Taggart up in one smooth pull. Kellan seemed to be without emotion regarding the entire situation. She simply stepped back and started taking off her gloves.
“Hey Dad,” Taggart had decided a change of subject was the best solution for the situation, “I thought it might be a good idea to have some cameras installed around the house for security. I talked to Jones the security guy you hired, and he called one of his friends who sets up surveillance cameras for security companies. He is going to come by tonight and install some cameras and a recording system.”
“What happened to my family that we need security cameras and self-defense training?” Lawrence Desmond said to no one in particular.
“Well, for one, Meckenzie has a date.” Taggart threw Meckenzie under the bus on that one. He smiled at her and stepped off to the side to take off his pads, knowing that their father would not be particularly happy about the date.
“No!” Lawrence said to Meckenzie. “There is too much going on right now. Why would you want to date? Why is it that everytime I come down here someone is hurt or bleeding or unconscious?”
“Okay.” Meckenzie agreed. “There is really too much going on right now anyway. I just thought it would be nice to have some normal teenage activity in my life. I’ll call him and tell him that he doesn’t need to come by and meet you.”
Meckenzie looked at her siblings and silently sent them a message. “Don’t say a word about who he might be.”
Kellan didn’t even acknowledge the communication; she simply turned and headed up the stairs. Taggart still had his back to the group taking off his pads, but Meckenzie detected a slight raise in his shoulders indicating that he might be laughing. Isabel just stood and watched the exchange. Meckenzie could tell that she was interested in the outcome, but not willing to interject any of her concerns.
“Well, I guess if he came by to meet me I could consider letting you go out on a date. You would have to take the security guy with you. And I have final say as to whether you can go.” Lawrence Desmond simply wanted to have some control over his family again. He knew that there was little possibility of that happening, so he would take a little control over his daughter’s love life for now.
“Thank you Daddy.” Meckenzie stood up on her tip toes and kissed his cheek.
“What’s for dinner this evening?” It seemed the men in this family thought that a change of subject would be the best way to get life back to normal.
“I’ve prepared lasagna that just needs to be reheated. I’ll go do that now and prepare a salad.” Isabel headed upstairs with their father leaving Meckenzie and Taggart alone.
“Do you think she did it on purpose?” Taggart asked.
“I think she was mad enough. The look on her face after you went down was somewhat akin to satisfaction. I am not sure if she meant to do it, but I’m sure she enjoyed it.” Meckenzie hated thinking of her sister in this way. She knew that Kellan was mad and that when her temper got the best of her she could be cruel.
“How are we going to fix this?”
“I’m not sure we can.” Meckenzie responded knowing that Taggart wouldn’t like a problem that he couldn’t solve. Taggart h
ad always been the problem solver. Give him something that he could find the answer to and he was at his happiest.
“What do you think we should do?” He asked Meckenzie. This wasn’t really a situation that she was ready for. He tended to be the man with the plan. Meckenzie was always willing to go along as best as she could to help, but she was never one for devising the plans. She thought back to her knew attitude towards life, and decided it was time for her to start making the plans.
“Well, I think Kellan needs something to focus on. She seems to enjoy and excel at the self-defense and combat training. Maybe we just let her beat the crap out of us a few times. Maybe Isabel has some ideas of how to train her so that she can get some of this negative energy out.”
“I sure hope so. I don’t think I can take too many more of her uppercuts. I felt that one all the way down to my toes.” He was laughing as he rubbed his jaw, but there was a slight amount of concern in his eyes.
“Do you think she will do something desperate?” Meckenzie asked.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I just know that she is not thinking clearly right now and it could get her in trouble. I am afraid Kellan will go after someone. I mean I can just see her taking a swing at someone and with her new found strength, I’m not sure that it wouldn’t be fatal.”
“Well, we just need to not tick her off.”
“Easier said than done.” Meckenzie really felt a concern for Kellan. She was so angry that she wasn’t thinking clearly. Throughout their lives Kellan had not been very forgiving or very level headed. It seemed that she was somewhat like the Hulk.
“I’m going to go get a shower and get ready for dinner.” Taggart said as he headed for the stairs.
“Good idea.” Meckenzie followed him. As they reached the ground floor they overheard their father speaking with someone in the foyer.
“Must be the surveillance guy.” Taggart said and headed in that direction.
Meckenzie would let Taggart take care of the surveillance stuff, she had no clue as to what to expect or what to ask for in that department. Though she wouldn’t have minded getting another look at Jones, he seemed to sneak into her mind all day. She headed up to her room to get a shower and to think about what to do about Kellan. Meckenzie wasn’t sure there was any solution right now.