Heritage
Aura

I heard Zack calling the police andcalling private investigators to investigate my whereabouts from my place inthe attic. I could just see him pacingaround the office through the floorboards, tapping his pen and running hisfingers through his hair, looking rather stressed. I jumped when the phone abruptly rang andZack snatched it up. He kept his voicelow so I couldn’t hear him clearly. Buthe did grab his jacket and walk out of his office. I jumped back up and looked out of the window,watching the car drive out of the garden. I turned and jumped when I saw the spirit woman behind me.

“Don’t do that, you scared me,” Iwhispered and pressed a hand to my heart.

“Ifyou meditated more, you’ll learn not to get jump scared so much,” the woman said indignantly and folded her arms. I took a deep breath and looked up at her.

“I need to contact Dune,” I told her“I…I want to make sure Vincent’s alright.”

“Thereseems to be something else on your mind, Zelda.” Isighed and hunched my shoulders.

“I saw a boy,” I muttered “I want to tryand replace him, see if he’s alright.”

“Aboy? Why do you want to replace this boy?”

“…I don’t know.” Was it really just a crush that Dunementioned? But I felt a connection whenI saw those beautiful bright pink eyes. I had the urge to comfort the poor boy. The woman gave me a wary look and I shrugged. “He’s this street beggar that I saw and Ijust want to see him again.” The womanfolded her arms.

“Why? Why must you see this street beggar again?”

“Because…I felt this connection,” Iexplained and looked down “It’s hard to explain but I felt the urge to justprotect the boy.” The woman’s faceseemed to soften.

“Whatkind of connection?” she asked.

“Like I…like I want to protect him, likeI said,” I tried to explain, it just felt like an instinct of sorts “I want tohelp him. He’s poor, he’s alone and hehas to suffer cold nights outside, vulnerable and exposed to all sorts ofdanger. And what if he’s a supernatural? They’ll arrest him and he’ll be sohelpless…” A warm smile appeared on thewoman’s face and she disappeared. I randownstairs when I heard the burglar alarm being turned off and rushed to thephone, looking up the head of security’s phone number and dialling thenumber. I pressed the sleeve of the skyblue kimono against the mouthpiece in case I had to disguise my voice.

“Hello?”Dune’s voice came out and I sighed,pulling the sleeve away from the mouthpiece.

“Dune, it’s me,” I said.

“Zelda…!” Dunepaused for a moment and then began whispering “Is everything alright? Everyone’s been saying you’ve disappeared.”

“I’ve been hiding from Zack,” I saidback “I just can’t face him, imagine what he might do to me after I revealedthe fact that I’m an elf! I’ve ruinedhis reputation and frankly, I feel pretty good about it.” Dune chuckled.

“Yeah,well Vincent’s fine, he’s so dashing in his new clothes!” Iwinced at the squeal from the gay vampire. I rubbed my ear tenderly before pressing it back to the earpiece.

“Dune, I hope you’re making him feelcomfortable.”

“Ohdon’t worry, he’s got his own room next to me and I’m not putting any moves onhim. Yet.”

“Dune, I need your help.”

I scowled as I fidgeted in the casualclothes Dune had put me in for my disguise. The jeans felt a bit tight and scratchy while the hoodie felt baggy andI felt a bit too warm in it. But when weslipped by a couple of policemen who alerted us that I was missing, I feltrelief wash over me when they didn’t see through the disguise. The spirit woman’s kimono was folded upneatly on the back seat of the car as I pulled the silk scarf closer to my faceto conceal it. We stopped at theshopping mall and I ran one of my thumbs over the biggest diamond of the chokerI held in my hands. I held tightly ontoDune’s hand as we walked through the bustling crowds. After selling the necklace, which cost twohundred gold coins, we found the poor boy in the spot where I first sawhim. He wasn’t alone.

“Come now, beautiful,” a man in abusiness suit crooned “I could give you a home, food and comfort. Just come with me.” The boy stayed silent and shook hishead. His dirty bare foot nudged thelittle cup forward a bit, silently asking the man to either give him some moneyor just leave him alone. My whole bodyshook in anger when the man grabbed the boy by his dirty beige clothes but Duneplaced a hand on my shoulder and strolled forward. No-one would recognize him, he wasn’t wearinghis wig but he did have his contact lenses in to avoid suspicion of being avampire.

“Excuse me,” he purred and the manturned to him “But can I help?”

“Shove off, this one’s mine,” hesnarled. But with a flash of his fangsand a snarl which threatened to spill blood, Dune was scaring away the man backinto the crowds. I shot forward as theboy fell to his knees. I gave a pointedlook to Dune, silently telling him off that he would get arrested if that manreported him.

“It’s alright,” I soothed as the poorboy recoiled to my touch “I won’t hurt you.” He crawled away as I sat down by his blanket. I offered the sack of coins to him and hestared at me when I placed it down because of how heavy it was. We sat in silence for a while and I carefullypulled the hair back that covered my ears. The boy’s eyes widened slightly and I looked at him. “I know you’re not human,” I said “It’salright, I won’t turn you in, I’m a supernatural too. We’re here to help.”

“I…I…” I never expected him to push back the golden hair to show his pointedelven ears. I thought he may have been akind of hybrid, perhaps a vampire like Dune. But no, he was an elf. Likeme. We stared at each other for a while,only breaking eye contact when a passer-by threw a couple of bronze coins intothe cup, telling us to get a room. Ifelt a light blush crawling onto my cheeks and cleared my throat.

“So my name is Zelda,” I muttered.

“Aura…” the poor boy whispered andcoughed. I hesitated and looked to Dune,tossing a gold coin to him. Dune raisedan eyebrow and pouted.

“What am I, your servant?” he said.

“Just get some water, please,” I saidand rubbed Aura’s back. A bottle ofwater later and I somehow found myself holding hands with him. I gave him a warm smile. “How long have you been like this?” I asked.

“A…long time,” he whispered “I…my familywas attacked. I remember, our house…wasburned away…”

“Burned?” Images of being in a house that was on fireflashed in my mind and I retracted my hand with a wince. Aura tilted his head at me and I smiled. “Well, we sold one of my necklaces to getsome money to give you,” I said and nodded to Dune “We could replace a smallapartment for you to rent out perhaps?” Aura’s beautiful pink eyes widened.

“You would do that for me?” he whisperedand I nodded.

“I could fund you for as long as Ipossibly can,” I said as I stood up with the bag of coins “You might even haveenough to get some new clothes.”

“We’d better get going quickly,” Dunecut in as he stepped forward “I don’t think that perv will keep his mouth shutfor long.”

“Wait, I need to go and get Bell,” Aurastood up, picking up his cup and other things.

“Bell?” Dune tilted his head to theside. Aura nodded shyly as he looked atme, avoiding Dune’s gaze. I couldn’tblame him, Dune had a sort of allure to his gaze which made me draw toward himbut feel afraid at the same time. I heldAura’s gaze with a friendly smile.

“Who’s Bell?” I asked.

I can’t believe it. I’m holding a baby Nekarose. She was so small in my hand and she looked sosweet as she slept in my palm. Dunedrove us through the streets as Aura and I sat in the back. I ran a finger along the spine of the blackkitten as the rest of the litter with their mother rested on Aura’s lap. I carefully placed the kitten next to hermother and looked up at Aura.

“They’re adorable,” I said. So Aura wasn’t so alone. He had a family of Nekaroses to keep himcompany. They slept in a park near themall at night time. Imagine, having tosleep on an uncomfortable, cold, wooden bench with nothing but dirty linencloth to keep you warm. After collectingthe small family of Nekaroses, we bought a cat basket to carry them in withsome feeding bowls, a litter box and cat food. Aura smiled softly as the car stopped.

“Right, this is the closest we can getto the border of Aurallion,” Dune sighed “One of those apartments should haveyour name on it somewhere, Aura.”

“My name on it?” Aura frowned curiously.

“It’s a phrase,” I said and opened thedoor “Come on, let’s see if they have a free apartment.” Aura carefully cradled the cat basket as wewaited outside while Dune went in to check for any spare apartments. I couldn’t help but coo and adore the littlekittens as they moved around their mother. The mother Nekarose, Bell, looked up at me with her magenta eyes andmewed. The adorable sound made my heartswell.

“Have you ever seen a Nekarose before?”Aura asked.

“I know of them, I’ve never been thisclose to one before,” I replied as I tickled Bell’s ears “I wish I could takeone of the kittens away with me but I highly doubt it will stay still at thehouse I’m hiding in.” Aura reached tostroke Bell too and our fingers brushed. I withdrew my hand and looked up at Aura to see his concerned look.

“Isn’t it a bit risky to hide in thevery house that your guardian lives in?” he asked and I nodded.

“It’s alright, I’m protected,” I assuredhim.

“By what?” I told him my story about the ghost woman wholived in the attic. I explained how shetaught me about various elf traditions and the culture itself. I also learnt about different races,different parts of the world and so many creatures that fascinated me. I even let him take a look at the fans I wasgiven. “Wow, Zelda,” he said as Dunecame out “I would like to learn about those traditions too. I was too young for any of that stuffbefore…well, you know.”

“Perhaps I could teach you sometime,” Ismiled.

“Got the keys,” Dune announced, making theboth of us jump “Wow, you two seem to be in your own little world when you’retogether. Do I detect a little romance?”

“Dune, where’s the apartment?” Iabruptly changed the subject. Dunesimpered and we followed him into the building and into the lift. Aura jumped when the metal doors slid shutand I placed a hand on his arm to reassure him. As we ascended, the kittens woke up and began mewing in surprise andDune chuckled.

“Aren’t they just so cute?” he simperedand reached out to tickle Bell but retracted his hand quickly as she took aswipe at him. Aura smiled.

“She’s a bit hostile,” he explained.

“She’s fine with Zelda!” Dune huffed andfolded his arms “You elves seems to get along with any kind of animal yet. I bet you could even convince a Careem wolfto roll over and play dead!”

“Maybe they know you’re a vampire andare afraid that you’ll suck the life out of them,” I said with a smirk as wereached the floor. Dune stuck his tongueout as the doors opened and led us out to one of the numbered doors. Aura seemed so awestruck when he entered theapartment and Bell jumped out of the basket almost immediately to explore. I stood by the entrance as Dune led himaround the apartment to show him the ropes of how to work the bathroom and howto make the bed, et cetera. Dunementioned the safe where he had placed the money, which still had a hefty onehundred and forty nine gold coins, thirty nine silver coins and twenty threebronze coins.

“We should get you some clothes,” Dunesaid after fifteen minutes of showing him around the apartment “I know thisfantastic tailor who will make you look like a prince.”

“Dune, we have a budget, the money wehave now will keep Aura in here for about two more months,” I said before hegot any more ideas.

“Well, we can work something out,” Duneshrugged.

“No, let’s go for some simple clothesfirst,” I said sternly. A brief argumentensued while Aura poured water and food into the bowls for Nekarose.

“Now, just be careful, spend the rest ofthe money wisely and please just be safe,” I said to Aura as we all stoodoutside the block of apartments, Dune next to the car. Aura gave a warm smile, holding the bags ofclothes that we bought for him. Therewas still enough money for him to stay in the apartment for about two months. I still couldn’t help but worry.

“Thank you for everything,” he said“What will happen if I run out of money?”

“You let me worry about that, I’ll replacesome more money somehow,” I assured him “Just…please be safe.” I couldn’t help but admire his pink eyesagain as he stared into my own violet ones. We jumped apart when Dune slammed his hand on his car horn.

“We’d better get a move on, Zelda!” hecalled. I blushed, smiled once more atAura before running down and jumping into the back of the car. Dune gave me a knowing wink as I got changedback into the spirit woman’s kimono when he drove us back into centralAurallion. “So, Zelda,” Dune hummed ashe drummed his fingers on the steering wheel “Feeling the love tonight?”

“I barely know him, leave me alone,” Iscowled and held the kimono close to me.

“I don’t know, you two seemed to bondpretty quickly,” Dune shrugged with a grin “I think the two of you are prettycute as a couple.” I felt my cheeks heatup and curled up on the seat.

“We both lost our families in the sameway,” I mentioned “But he remembers his family clearly whilst I only havefragments of a burning bedroom and shadow outlines of what could be myparents.” Dune regarded me in the rearview mirror and smiled sympathetically.

“Would you like me to tell you how Ilost my family?” he offered. I looked upat him at his red eyes that were concealed by the blue contacts. I nodded and he grimaced. “I was about ten years old,” he explained “Myparents had lived in Aurallion for years, they had me and my brothers andsisters here. I don’t know who but theyall died at the hands of a vampire hunter that was paid to assassinatethem.” I saw tears brimming his eyes.

“You don’t have to say any more,” Ireached out and touched his shoulder.

“No, it’s fine,” Dune sniffed “It’sjust…I had a twin sister who died in that attack. And we…we had the most ridiculous argumentand I never got to say sorry to her.” Iwas surprised he wasn’t bursting out into tears and sobbing like a girl at thispoint. “I had stormed out of the houseand I took a walk around the area to clear my head. That’s how I survived. I came back and found them all with woodenstakes in their hearts!” He turned intothe nearest car park to stop and let his emotions out. He wiped his tears away from his face and Iclimbed into the front.

“It’s horrible that you must carry thosememories,” I said while placing a comforting hand on his arm. I gave him a comforting hug as he leanedtowards me. I felt the warm tears poolingon my shoulder and stroked his head comfortingly. We stayed like that for a while and when Dunefinally went out to clear his head with some fresh air, I quickly dashed out tograb ingredients for a simple calming perfume. It was pretty dark out so I went unseen, I hope. The perfume did its work as Dune calmed downmore when he came back and regained his composure.

“Zelda, Vincent’s family was killedtoo,” he said as we stayed silent for a while. I looked at him and he shrugged. “He found me with a photo of my sister and I told my story to him. He then told me his story.”

“Was his home burned down?” I guessedand Dune blinked in surprise.

“Yes, how did you know?” he asked and Ilaughed dryly.

“My home was burned down, Aura’s homewas burned down, Vincent is an elf so I guessed a pattern and I was right,” Isighed and ran my fingers along the small perfume bottle Dune had bought for meto mix the calming perfume in “How old was he when it happened?”

“It happened fairly recently actually,”Dune said as he ran his fingers along the steering wheel “He was sixteen. He went out to train with his katana, was outa bit later than usual and came back to see the whole house ablaze. He ran and escaped into the alleyways ofAurallion, survived off stealing food from the market and then got arrested.”

“He’s got a katana?” I wasintrigued. I had never seen a weaponother than my fans. I would like to seehow elves would wield such a beautiful, elegant weapon. But to my dismay, Dune shook his head.

“No, it was taken away from him when hewas arrested,” he sighed “I tried to get it back but my guardian justrefused.” He gave me a grimace. “It belonged to his father. He looked so angry when I explained that Ihad no power to get it back.”

“How dare they take away something ofsuch sentimental value from him!” I snarled which made Dune jump.

“It’s a weapon, any supernatural with aweapon will be arrested and have the weapon confiscated and sold off,” heexplained and I sighed in frustration, clenching my hands “I guess humans don’tcare so much even if it does have sentimental value.”

“Humans don’t seem to care aboutanything!” I snarled and glared at the dashboard in front of me. Dune winced and placed a hand on my wrist.

“Zelda, don’t let hate consume you,” hesaid and I felt like I was talking to the spirit woman, which calmed me downalmost immediately “All humans are not the same. I bet there are humans in this city that areoutraged with the law to get rid of all supernaturals and they are out thereworking against Zack to bring it down.” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, getting calmer.

“Sorry, Dune, I just…why does Zack havesomething against us? Why did he adoptme and why did the humans who also hate supernaturals adopt you?” Dune shrugged and looked out of the window.

“I guess they thought they couldconvince us that we should live like humans,” he said “It didn’t work but weshouldn’t let them know that.”

“Zack knows,” I muttered and hunched myshoulders “And what about you? Don’tthey think it’s a bit suspicious that you go chasing after me and you bringback home an elf that you took off the street?” Dune grinned and folded his arms.

“All vampires have different abilities,”he said then jabbed a thumb into his shoulder “I can use my good looks andallure ability to coax my guardians into doing things I want. I can only use it to a certain extentotherwise I would gladly get myself out of the pressure of marrying some richwoman.”

“How long will these effects last do youreckon?” I asked, feeling a bit uneasy that he might coax me into doingsomething I might not be uncomfortable.

“Long enough to figure out how to getVincent out of Aurallion, I hope,” he sighed. We sat in silence as I circled the rim of the bottle thoughtfully withone of my fingers. “How are you going toget back? Zack’s probably at home rightnow, you could get caught if you went back. Maybe you should come back with me, I should be able to hide you for acouple of days.”

“No,” I shook my head “I’m sure I canmanage. I learnt something when I gotback the last time.”

“And that is?” I smiled at him warmly.

“I’ll try it now,” I said “I learnt anelven trick you see and I practiced for a while but I’m not sure if it’ll workwith this distance.”

“And if it doesn’t work, what do we do?”Dune asked as he tilted his head.

“We’ll worry about that later,” I saidand leaned over to hug him “Thanks for taking me out.”

“No problem I guess,” Dune hugged backand I withdrew, closing my eyes and lacing my fingers together. I focused on the attic and gasped when I felland landed on the cold wooden floor. Thousands and thousands of petals covered my body and I sat up, eyeswide when I saw I had covered the whole attic in light pink petals.

“Oops,” I said softly to myself.

“Mygoodness, what happened?! What’s goingon?!” Thespirit woman flew right across the room as the petals fluttered down and shelooked at me. We stared at each otherfor a while and I jumped when she began laughing. “Oh, mydear. Oh, you remind me so much of whenI was young like you.”

“I’m sorry,” I said and stood up, thepetals brushing off me and falling elegantly onto the floor “I didn’t mean to,I mean…how did this happen?”

“Howfar away were you?” the spirit womanasked as she circled around the room curiously, brushing some petals off theboxes.

“I’m not sure actually,” I grimaced “Iwasn’t sure on how to get back so I decided to try this technique to see if itworked.”

“Theteleportation isn’t the hard part,” shegave me a sympathetic smile and blew a pile of petals off one box and onto thefloor “Controlling the element thatteleports you however, is a different matter.” I felt my cheeks heat up as she simpered. “May Iask how your trip was?”

“Oh,” I looked up at her “He was an elfliving on the streets. No-one has knownthat he was an elf because he managed to hide his ears with his hair.”

“Isee, does this young boy have a name?”

“Aura.” Something flickered in her ghostly eyes as she mouthed the name toherself and floated closely.

“Didthis Aura give you a last name?” sheasked.

“He doesn’t remember a lot,” I shook myhead “His home was burnt down when he was a child and he fled here toAurallion. I sold one of my necklacesand we managed to put him into an apartment of his own.”

“Hm…” Thewoman paused for a moment before looking at me concerned. “I knowyou put your trust in that vampire, but I’m worried he may take advantage ofyour trust.”

“How so?” I frowned. Dune would never do such a thing.

“Vampiresmay be elegant beasts in human form and are supernatural but they can getvicious when they set their sights on a potential mate. You are very beautiful, Zelda and your bloodis pure. You are simply a gold mine in avampire’s eyes.”

“You have nothing to worry about,” Ismiled and she narrowed her eyes “Dune is gay. He doesn’t see me as a potential mate.” When I mentioned the word gay, her eyebrows shot up and I rememberedthat I had no idea what elves thought of homosexuality. But then she relaxed.

“Isuppose that is a good sign,” shesaid.

“What do elves think of homosexuality?”I asked carefully. She simpered lightlyand leaned in.

“It’svery common amongst elves,” shewhispered “I believe your father was gaybefore your mother met him.” Mycheeks burned and I blinked.

“You knew my parents?” I said but shewaved me off dismissively.

“I’lltell you more later,” she said “Have you eaten?” I nodded, I had a light dinner with Auraand Dune before we dropped Aura back at his apartment. “Good,then rest. I sense a disturbance withinthe balance on nature.” I didn’tquestion her words as I felt rather sleepy, my eyesight blurring and my jawstretching into a yawn. I made a littlebed out of the petals to lie on, they were much more comfortable than thewooden floor, and used the kimono as a blanket. As I drifted off to sleep, I pictured my father, just an older maleversion of me I would guess, wooing another man and snickered. I wonder how my mother turned him heterosexual.