[Teal]

Ah, what the hey, I may as well post this, as I’ve got it. So what if no-one reads it, at least they’ll have the chance, as it’s here. ’Sides, those RPG-ers may be vaguely interested in Aura’s back-story… *shrugs*
Feel free to nitpixel. I know it’s kind of rushed, but my creative mind wasn’t entirely in gear last night… oh well.

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One

Aurora sighed. She lay on an old dead branch outside one of the windows of her home, trying to let the burning sun scald all the dismal thoughts out of her mind, but it wasn’t working, and now she just had a headache.
Everything had changed; everything. No-one in town was the same any more, not after… that happened… It wasn’t fair. All her friends, her family… she wanted to be able to get on with life again, but it simply wasn’t happening. Uncle Xar was still “asleep” – didn’t matter what the medical teams tried, he was still as deep in that coma as he had been since they found him like it. And Hak was still mute, his bad arm still paralysed, bandaged across his heavy chest… Not even magic had helped – Auntie Ish had tried everything she knew, and nothing had helped. Everyone that dark presence had hurt had stayed that way.
Of all the people that were gone, though, she missed Dren most; her little brother, with whom she used to fight like there was no tomorrow… Poor little Dren. He’d taken his own life at the end…
“Aurora… You should come in, you’ll get burnt.” A gentle voice intruded on her thoughts.
Aurora glanced up – it was her mother, Aalu. “I don’t care,” she said, softly, staring back out over the low roofs below.
“Now now,” Aalu chided. “Less of the silly talk. I need you to run an errand for me, anyway.”
Aurora pushed herself upright and sighed. “An errand?” she asked, uninterestedly, clambering in through the window and padding over.
“Yes – I just need you to go and get a few things for me…” her mother was jotting down what she needed on a scrap of paper, a stick of charcoal held lightly in her long pale hand.
Aurora leaned her chin on the low table while she waited. “It’s not fair.”
“What isn’t, Aura…?
“Oh, everything…” Aura sniffed. “When’s everyone going to get better?”
Aalu sighed and put the charcoal down, sadly. “I don’t know, Aura… Not until someone goes to get the Healing, that’s for sure…”
“What’s that?”
Aalu shook her head. “Just something Bea mentioned, before she died. The key to reversing the damage that creature did,” she tapped the paper, folded it neatly in two and handed it to Aura. “No-one seems to want to go and learn it, that’s the problem…” She sighed. “I don’t know, I suppose I’d go, but I’m needed here…”
“I’ll go.”
Aalu gave her a look. “You?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Aalu laughed, sadly. “Oh, Aura… you’re not even an adult, yet…”
“What does that matter? I want to go.”
“Please… if I lost you, Aura…” Aalu sat down next to her. “It was hard enough to lose your brother… You’d only go and get yourself killed, going off on your own like that to Odd only knows where…”
Aura sighed. “I guess…”

“You look fed up today, little miss.”
Aura glanced up at the speaker – Ray, a stocky, getting-on-a-bit mudokon – and just merited the comment with a sigh, at first, before remembering her manners. “It’s not fair, Ray,” she said, softly, chin on his counter, watching him find and collect together what Aalu had written down.
“What isn’t?” Ray scrutinised the paper and picked up a bag of something white and powdery.
“Oh, nothing,” Aura shook her head, managed an awkward shrug against the counter. “I just… nothing.”
“Sounds like an important nothing.”
Aura helped herself to one of the vine fruit on the counter and slithered to the floor with it. “I was going to go try get help, so we can get the sleepers to wake up.”
“And Mum won’t let you?”
“She’s scared about me going off on my own,” Aura sulkily rolled the egg-shaped purple fruit from hand to hand across the floor.
“Well… how about if you went with someone?”
Aura frowned, boosted herself back up to counter level. “What you mean?”
“Well, if she’s scared about you getting hurt… Just find someone to travel with,” Ray spread his hands. “While I think about it, Jan’s getting lazy, could do with getting out a bit more; maybe he’ll be willing to go with you…”
Jan, however, didn’t like his foster-father’s suggestion; he folded his arms and pouted. “I don’t see why I should go on some stupid fool’s errand with some stupid… slig,” he spat the last word as though it was poisonous.
Aura sighed and slumped back to the floor. “That’s my problem…” she said, sadly, turned to the door. “I’m the wrong species. Thanks anyway,” and trailed out.