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Pic of the River

Eros p.o.v.

"You have a what," Diana screams as I started to get ready for my claiming ceremony. I just told Diana about my new brother.

"That kid in the picture is my big brother who is younger than me," I say simply. I finish putting on my castor uniform which is a grey sleeveless robe, black silk pants and a plain dark grey shirt.

"Wow. Why did they never tell you?"

"Well one reason was because they were scared of how we would react. Luckily though we all took it well. We just need to adapt to it now," I say.

That's when Nick walked into my room. Diana wanted to hang out before the ceremony, but she had to babysit, so she brought him over. I am going to introduce him to Kai when he comes over from the store with my mom.

"Diana, why were you screaming," he asks.

"Oh, nothing. I was just excited for today. Today is Eros's birthday," she says.

"Really? Why didn't you tell me E," he asks.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot," I apologize.

"It's okay E. Are you going to have a party," he asks excitedly.

"Yeah, a little one at the palace after the ceremony." Usual claiming ceremonies can be done anywhere and usually there's a party afterwards to celebrate it. The Selene though insisted we have the ceremony at the clan palace. Large clans like ours have palaces. Most Helios and Selenes live there, but our don't because it's too far away from the clan people and they love to socialize.

"When can we go," he asks. I'm about to answer when I see Kai walk into the room. He looks at Nick confused and Nick starts to grin.

"Kaiy," Nick screams and hugs Kai.

"Nicky? What are you doing here?" So they know each other. From where though?

"I'm here to see E. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here because Eros said he had a friend for me to play with," my brother answers. Nick then glares at me and crosses his arm. "Who is this kid you want my Kai to play with," he ask angrily. Is he jealous? I chuckle a little

"You," I say. He stops glaring and looks surprised. Then he gets excited and turns to Kai. "What should we play first?" They both run out of the room probably to play in the living room.

"Aww. He was so cute," Diana squeal.

"Yeah," I smile.

"So how do you feel about today," she aks.

"Nervous. I hate crowds and being the center of attention, which is what's going to happen. Plus I'm finding out what element I am and getting meeting my spirit animal. The nerve wracking," I say truthfully. I can feel myself shake a little. I needed to relax.

"Hey calm down. It's not a big deal. Just breath," she says calmly. I nod my head and take a deep breath and try to relax. "We have a couple hours till the ceremony, so how about you go for a walk or something to calm yourself. I can look after the children."

"I can't ask you to do that."

She waves it off and says, "It's no big deal. Plus Nick owes me a rematch of go fish." I smile and give in. I know exactly where I'm going, but I need to grab something first. I go into my closet and take out my necklace.

The necklace is a blue oval ball gemstone with a metal griffin that wraps around it.

"What is that you have there," Diana asks. I turn around and showed her. She gasps and looks at it. "Eros that's beautiful," she comments.

"Yeah, I know," I say.

"Where did you get it? I think I've see on like it before," she says.

"That's impossible. There are only two in the world. This one and another one that's a dragon instead of a griffin and--," she cuts me off.

"A red gemstone instead of a blue one." I look at her confused. How does she know?

"Damien has the other one. My father inherited it from his uncle when he died and he gave it to Damien when he turned 13." she explains.

"I got mine from my grandmother."

"The cool thing is that his magical aura matches the gemstone," she tells me. Magical auras are a color magic release when we use magic. You can see it sometimes when somebody casts a spell or somebody releases a lot of energy.

"It's not just a necklace though. It's also a portal key," I tell her.

"I know. Wait are you going to use it," she asks surprised. Portals are hard to create and not many people know how to create it.

"Yeah."

"Could you teach me? I always wanted to learn."

"Later. First I need to get to the Garrett shrine. It's the nearest anchor," I say. She looks confused. "I thought you just needed to be in range of an anchor to create a portal. There are like hundreds of anchors you're in range of."

"Yeah, but it's better to be close to an anchor. It makes it easier to create the portal and if I were to create a portal in my room the council will come into my room to investigate," I explain. She nods her head.

I say bye to her and the little kids and walk out of the dorm room and to the shrine.

Okay so let me explain teleportation and portals. Teleportation takes a lot of energy and power to do, so not many people use it unless they want to teleport a couple of feet. Then there are portals which are harder to do, but don't waste a lot of magic. For portals you need a portal key and 2 anchors. Anchors are objects that have been made to create portals. They are really hard to make so you can't own them. Portal keys are also rare, so not many people have them. Learning how to creat a portal is also difficult, but I luckily learned from my parents.

Most people don't want to bother with learning how to create portals so they take the easy way. The ruby teleportation system. It's a machine with a magical ruby that attaches to it that allows you to teleport yourself from one place to another. The flaw is that you can only teleport to another ruby machine, so if a city doesn't have one then you're screwed, and the machine only allows one at a time.

Anchors have long range and they're everywhere in the world, so you don't need to worry about not being able to go somewhere.

I reach the shrine which is hidden in the forest. It's a stone statue of the founder of the school. It's like a couple hundred years old. In front of the statue there is a white stone podium with a glass on top of it. What's in the podium is a pocket watch, which is also a portal key. The glass on the podium makes sure nobody can steal it.

I could have used this portal key to create a portal, but they could track me easily with it and I don't want that.

I start to create the portal with my necklace and I see the statue glow. The statue then starts to break into little pieces and they swirl starting to create a blue and purple portal. I hold up my now glowing necklace and tell it the coordinates and start the incantation.

Key aperta potam

Porta aedificabo pons

Praegero me trans pontem

De terra in terram

Adducam mihi inlic

When I finish the incantation a swirling blue and purple portal is in front of me. I check the time and see I have about 2 hours. I have all my things packed and in my parents car, so I will probably just create a portal and go to the palace when I'm done. I already texted my parents to go without me and I will find my own ride.

I walk into the portal and into my favorite place.

Damien p.o.v.

Have you ever woken up in the woods. No? Well I have and it sucks. There is dirt everywhere on you and you don't know where you are.

Okay so let me explain. I was in my room legit studying, when I started to hear music downstairs. Then I started to hear people. Eventually I went downstairs and realized the whole 8th floor was having a floor party. Floor party is basically a party in all the dorms in that floor and anybody is invited. Well anyways I met this hot werewolf and she liked having sex in the wilderness. I followed her to whatever forest and we banged. Then she stupidly took off while I was sleeping forgetting that I don't know where I am.

After finding a river and cleaning myself I started looking around. I could transform into my dragon, but he was mad at me and would try to take control. I still have no idea why he's mad that I slept with her. He doesn't usually complain.

I hear some sort of chanting coming from somewhere. I walk over to it as quietly as I could. When I get there I see Eros standing next to a portal. I wonder where he's going, so I start to run to the portal when he walks into it. I need to hurry before it closes.

I jump into the portal and then feel a little weird before I land on the ground. I look up and see Eros a couple of yards away from me. Luckily he doesn't see me.

I get up slowly and sneak around following him. He doesn't walk far and we end up in a beautiful river and a greek column thing near it. I behind the trees, so he doesn't see me.

Eros walks over to the river and moves a rock and grabs something. He takes out guitar and a package. He smiles and looks over at the river. He starts to play the guitar and it's actually pretty good. How can he be good at so many thing?

I think the universe is on my side

Heaven and Earth have finally aligned

Days are good and that's the way it should be

Damn he sounds like an angel. I've heard many amazing singers, but none even come close to him. Ryder had a band, so why didn't he join them. With him as the lead singer they could have become popular.

You sprinkle star dust on my pillow case

It's like a moonbeam brushed across my face

Nights are good and that's the way it should be

You make me sing oh, la, la, La

You make a guy go oh oh

I'm in love, love

Did you see that shooting star tonight?

Were you dazzled by the same constellation?

Did you and Jupiter conspire to get me?

I think you and the Moon and Neptune got it right

'Cause now I'm shining bright, so bright

Bright, so bright

And I see colors in a different way

You make what doesn't matter fade to grey

Life is good and that's the way it should be

You make me sing oh, la, la, la

You make a guy go oh oh

I'm in love, love

Did you see that shooting star tonight?

Were you dazzled by the same constellation?

Did you and Jupiter conspire to get me?

I think you and the Moon and Neptune got it right

'Cause now I'm shining bright (oh) so bright

And I get lost (oh) in your eyes

Did you see that shooting star tonight?

Were you dazzled by the same constellation?

Did you and Jupiter conspire to get me?

I think you and the Moon and Neptune got it right

I think you and the Moon and Neptune got it right

I think you and the Moon and Neptune got it right*

'Cause now I'm shining bright, so bright

Bright, so bright

Bright, so bright

And I get lost in your eyes tonight

When he finishes he looks really happy and no longer looks nervous. He breathes in a little. I decide to show myself, but as soon as I move away I slip on rock fall down the little hill I'm on. As I roll down Eros sees me and looks shock.

After I'm done rolling down I groan. This is not how I pictured my morning going. Is it even morning anymore?

"Oh my God, are you okay," Eros asked worriedly and gets down in front of me.

"Yeah. Just a few bruises," I say. He starts to check my injuries. They don't feel that bad I don't get why he's worrying so much.

"Just a few bruises huh? You have a couple of scratches."

"I'm a big boy. I can handle a couple of scratches."

Eros then moves his hand over my forehead where I can feel a scratch. I see a yellow light come from his hand and I feel warmth. It feels really good, it's like being outside when it's cold and you feel a warmth of the sun on your face. When he's done with that scratch he starts to move all over my body healing my bruises and scratches. Even the ones I didn't get from the falls.

"So you know how to heal people," I comment when he's done. He's on his knees with my head on his lap.

"Only simple injuries. Gaby is actually a wiz at healing with water."

"You're being modest again."

"What do you mean," he asks and tilts his head like a dog. He looks really cute.

"You always undervalue yourself. You don't boast about anything. Not many normal people know how to heal, and instead of being in the spotlight you always shift it to somebody else. Why is that?"

"Well I guess because my siblings and parents gave me so much attention that I hate it," he says and puts some hair behind his ear looking nervous.

"You're lying," I say. I don't know how, but I know when he's lying.

"How would you know that?"

"Because I'm just that awesome. Please tell me the truth," I ask. He doesn't fight me this time he actually complies and tells me. What's the different this time? 'You're asking not commanding dumbass' my dragon answers. Before I can say anything Eros talks.

"When I was 12 years old I had a crush on a 15 year old future Helio named Jarreck. I usually hated Helio, but Jarreck was different. Other Helio kids would always bully me, so I got a bad taste for them. I would always retaliate of course, but the words still hurt.

Well anyways Jarreck started to be nice to me a lot. It was the first time a cute boy payed attention to me, so I was happy. He then started to say things like 'I was beautiful' or 'you have a lovely voice' or 'I like your smile'" I saw he had tears in his eyes.

"Eros you don't have to tell me," I say. If it's too hard I don't want him to tell me.

"No, it's okay. It's in the past. Well anyways I started to say sweeter things back too. I would also give him love notes and pictures that I would waste hours making. Then one day we were by the bleachers and I stupidly confessed my love to him thinking he would love me back. He just said okay.

A couple days later we had an assembly with the whole middle school. Scarlett and Ryder were gone the whole week on some school event. In the assembly he basically showed the school everything private I gave him. The love letters, my pictures, even a video of me confessing my love. He made fun of me for all of it and said "how easy it was to get a fag to fall in love with him. All it took was a couple compliments." He then said, "how could I love a fag." I wanted to leave, but his friends wouldn't let me. I had to stay there and watch everything. That's why I hate attention. I'm scared of being humiliated and being played."

He was now crying, but as soon as I tried to wipe away a tear he changed. He wiped all the tears away and tried to look casual.

"It's okay though. I got himback for it," he chuckles. I sit up and looks at him.

"Eros, c'mon nothing you could do could match the pain you went through."

"Even setting him in fire," he asks.

"You set him on fire?"

"Yeah. I filled balloons with alcohol and gasoline and put in my locker. When him and his friend came there to bully me I open my locker and threw at them. They were confused for a sec and I took the opportunity and threw a lighted match at them."

I am gaping at him now. Eros is a very scary guy.

"And you didn't get in trouble," I ask.

"No, because after a couple of minutes I through enchanted water at them and they weren't burning anymore and their wounds were healed, but their clothes were burned off completely. The principal was going to expel me, but I got her fired before she did. I showed the school board the alcohol she had in her desk and how she allowed an assembling to humiliate a student. The incident wasn't recorded, so it was the students word against my own and they couldn't go to the authorities, because they didn't have any burns, so the only way to prove it was by exposing magic.

Then my family found out what happened and pissed off doesn't even close to how mad they were. I think they even caused a few earthquakes. My brothers beat up all the guys involved and my sisters did the same with the girls and a couple of the guys. My mom got them jail time for bullying and my dad talked to the Helio and he sided with me. The Helio punished them by binding their powers."

"Remind me never to mess with you or you family," I tell him. He laughs a little and I chuckle. I like his laugh, he should laugh more.

I stop laughing when I looked at his arm. There was a line scar on his wrist. Like he cut it. I grab his hand and looked at it better. It didn't look recent it looked like it's been there for a while.

"Did you...," I trail off not being able to finish the sentence.

"Cut. Yes. It was a nasty habit that I gave up. I could heal myself, so it would never leave scar and nobody knew. This is my last cut ever that I never healed. It's to remind me what I've been through and I can get over it" he says.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"For what? You didn't do anything," he says.

"I am exactly like them. I'm mean, rude, a jerk. Now I know why you hate me," I tell him. He laughs starts to laugh and I frown. Why is he laughing?

"You're nothing like them," he says. "You are a jerk, and inconsiderate, but you're not a bully. Diana says you have never bullied a kid and the closest you've come to bullying is teasing your friends. When you grow up you will regret not being nicer while they will regret hurting people and ruining lives. You are a jerk, but you're my jerk and I don't hate you. You just frustrate me," he says. When he said 'my jerk' my dragon got a little happy and excited.

We smile at each other and I notice a piece of hair on his cute face. I brush it back. He blushes and looks down.

"Can I hear you sing again," I ask.

He shakes his head. "No, I'm a lousy singer," he says. That's when I realize why he is modest about everything. He's insecure and scared people are just pretending and lying to make fun of him later. If I ever meet the Jarreck I will beat him to a pulp for hurting my Eros.

"Please. It can be my birthday present," I beg.

"Oh that reminds me," he says. He grabs something in his pocket and shows it to me. It looks like a big metal washer with a bunch of designs on it. There is a brown string wrapped around it to make it into a necklace.

"I was going to give it to you at the choosing ceremony, but since you're here, here take it," he says handing it to me.

"What is it," I ask as I take it.

"It's your birthday present. A unmate necklace. If you have it on you can't feel your mate or your mate can't feel you. I heard you were complaining about not being single anymore, so I got you this. Now you can fool around a little longer till you want to find your mate," he explains.

Yeah I have been complaining about my mate, but for some reason it doesn't seem that bad right now. I put on the necklace and thank him.

"So what are you doing here," I ask.

"It's the place I got blessed and feel the safest," he tells me. Being blessed is just a little ritual some castors do to try to get the baby good luck.

"Oh," I say.

Then I hear something moving. When I turn I see these weird vicious creatures staring at us. They have the top of a wolf, horns of a goat, bottom of snake, and wings of a bat.

Crap.

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