Skul-FanFic - One. (For now, I'll just call it 'Deadbolt')

Just across the darkness, Darren Karl heard a lock click shut.

It wasn't an ordinary cylinder lock, nor was it a lever lock. It wasn't even digitally locked, and Darren had known this from the start. No, Darren’s escape was held from him not by any ordinary lock and key. It was held from him by an intricate series of complex magical systems, which Darren had been studying closely by ear and by sense as the weeks passed beside him.

Every time the cell was opened to deliver food and drink, for his captors would not have him starve, Darren would listen intently to every click and snap in the system, while retaining the apathetic expression on his face, so as not to give away his actions. Though they probably knew he was working on escape. All the more reason to work quickly, he thought to himself.

And when the cell remained locked, he would sit around the door and let his mind reach out to the systems, studying each imaginary spring, shaft and tumbler, slowly picking apart the code that confined him. Now, finally, Darren understood exactly how the lock systems work, and while such a structure shouldn't be caved in without the same specialist adept ability that set them, he also knew that the boundaries of magic can be stretched, and his ability lay just on the borderline. All he had to do was push.

Through the darkness, another click struck.

Darren’s breath caught.

He pushed again.

Click.

Whether it was his imagination or not, he wasn't certain, but Darren thought he could see the dark lift just a little with each level he reached, as the scarf of locks unravelled before him.

Thunk.

Darren’s heart hammered against his ribcage. He set his palm on the door handle, twisted and glanced around, though he knew he didn't need to. The guard would be halfway down the next corridor by now, as far away as his patrol led, and none of the other captives could see him through their cells.

The passage was empty. 

Darren kicked off from the concrete, and ran.

Chapter 4.

I apologise in advance if Valkyrie's character isn't quite up to scratch, nearer the beginning of the chapter. You'll just have to accept that fights leave her in a good mood. P:

4.

Dead Man Walking.

The detectives simultaneously clicked their fingers, and angry balls of flames appeared, flickering in the palm of their hands for a second, before being hurled at the opponent and being replaced with another fireball.

The muscular men facing the detectives were doing their best to dodge the fireballs that were flying towards them, smothering the fire that did hit them, and putting out the flames before they had the chance to spread.

Suddenly, she became aware of the shadows in the alley, they seeming to be shifting, stretching, and rushing towards Valkyrie’s feet. Valkyrie was no longer throwing fire. The shadows continued, crawling up her arm, lingering at her fingertips. She drew back her arm, before throwing it in front of her, a whip of darkness bowling her enemy off his feet. Another tendril of shadows shot forwards and pinned him there, and she took a step towards him, intending to end their battle.

The thin man was back to physical contact now, hurling punches and kicks, before catching his foe in a chokehold. And then it was over.

Seven powerfully built men now lay, limp and unresponsive, on cracked concrete. Valkyrie turned, catching sight of Taia. “Skulduggery,” She called, not moving her gaze from Taia, “Somebody may need to have a word with Geoffrey.”

Taia gasped as the thin man, Skulduggery, turned to face her. Valkyrie clamped a hand over her mouth. Skulduggery frowned. Or at least, he would have frowned, were his face not hanging by a thread, torn diagonally between his eyes.

Valkyrie exploded into laughter, Skulduggery looked at her, bemused, and Taia stared, fish-eyed, at the torn wax skin that bordered an immaculately clean, white, human skull.

“Don’t worry,” The man called Skulduggery gestured to Valkyrie, who lay curled up on the floor, still laughing. “She’ll be back to her annoying self in no time.”

Time passed. The laughter, however, did not.

“Okay, I have one girl unable to breathe, and another unable to take her eyes off me.” He paused, “The second one can be justified. My looks are undeniably amazing.”

Between gales of laughter, Valkyrie managed to force out some words. “Skulduggery, I... I don’t think you... realise...” Another wave of laughter flooded over her. “She’s definitely looking at your face... but not... not why you’d think...”

“What’s wrong with my face?” He asked, confused.

Valkyrie tossed her mobile phone to him, and he peered at the reflection of himself.

“Ah.” He paused, “This could take some explaining.”

Valkyrie managed to stop laughing, caught her breath and stood up. “You think Geoffrey Scrutinous would explain it well?”

“Hmm? Oh, maybe.”

“What?”

“What what?”

“You’re thinking.” She tilted her head. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking, she reminds me of you, when I first broke down the door of your late uncle’s house.”

Valkyrie glared at him.

“And if she is anything like you, she won’t just let this go.”

“Not even if she talks to Scrutinous?” Valkyrie asked hopefully.

“Would you have given up?”

“No, but... But she’s not me.”

Taia sighed. “Look, would you just tell me what’s going on?”

“Ah,” Skulduggery hesitated. “This isn’t my real face.”

“Yeah, I got that.” She said, blankly. “I was thinking of the fire. The fire and the shadows.”

“Ah.” Skulduggery cocked his head, thinking. “We’re just figments of your imagination?”

A groan sounded at Taia’s feet and she slammed her boot into the offender’s head, sending the hefty man back to sleep. “As is he, I suppose.”

Skulduggery sighed and turned to Valkyrie “See, just like you. Doesn’t believe a word I say.”

Shrugging, Valkyrie responded. “Get better at lying then.”

“I’m a great liar” Skulduggery retorted.

“And get rid of the façade, it’s not exactly useful anymore.”

“Right.” Skulduggery tapped his collar bones and the tattered remains of his face subsided, before disappearing completely, leaving only a skull, with a black hat settled at the top, like icing on a cake.

Taia blinked. “You’re a skeleton.”

“Yes, I am.” Skulduggery replied, crouching down to shackle one of six unconscious men.

“And you can talk.”

“Again, yes.

“That’s pretty remarkable.”

“I am, rather, aren’t I?”

“It’s also pretty impossible.”

“Well, you’d think so, wouldn’t you?”

“So, how does it work?”

Skulduggery was now shackling the fourth man. “Magic.” He said, blankly.

“No,” Taia shook her head, “Seriously, how does it work?”

“Can you think of any other reasonable explanation?”

She hesitated. “Fine. And the shadows and fire, they’re magic too?”

“Correct.”

“So, are you alive?”

“Not really.”

“You’re dead, then?”

He hesitated. “Not exactly...”

“So, you’re more, kind of, undead.”

“Well, yes but–”

“You’re a Zombie.”

“No, I’m not a–”

“He’s a magical detective.” Valkyrie muttered. “No more, no less.”

“Then what are you?” Taia asked, ignoring Valkyrie completely.

“I’m a skeleton.”

“We’ve been through this part already.”

“Ah, yes.” Skulduggery said, before pausing. “Valkyrie, I appear to be out of shackles.”

She shrugged. “You’ve used mine already.”

Skulduggery cocked his head.

“One hand each?” Taia suggested

“Sorry?”

“One hand each. That way they won’t be fully bound, but they’ll all be partially held back, so you can take them down again easily enough.”

Skulduggery nodded. “Good idea. And as a bonus, it will still keep them bound from using magic.” He looked at her, and Taia guessed that if he had a face, he might be smiling. “Maybe you’re not so much like Valkyrie, after all.”

His companion scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, unlike you were, she is still thinking straight.” He told her, removing the shackles from one man’s left hand, and putting it around another’s right hand. “And she hasn’t fainted yet,” He added.

Valkyrie scowled even more, and more still when Taia began to laugh.

“You fainted?” She asked.

“I was attacked by a man who had jumped through the window, saved by a man who blasted down the door, and abruptly threw fire at the first man, who turned into a human fireball before being shot by the fire-throwing man who turned out to be a skeleton.”

“So you were attacked by a man, and then witnessed magic used by a man who turned out to be a skeleton.”

“Yes.”

“Sounds very similar to what happened here; except that I was attacked by three men, witnessed two people throw fireballs, and one person flinging shadows. And someone turned out to be a skeleton.”

“She has a point.” Skulduggery chimed in.

Valkyrie scowled again.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Skulduggery asked, gesturing to Taia’s arm.

Until then, she’d forgotten all about it. “No.” She replied. “Wait, yes. Yes it does.”

Chapter 3.

3.

Surprises.

The thin man turned to the girl, still crouched on the floor, and gestured for her to come over. The girl walked past, not giving Taia so much as another look, and stood beside the man, head tilted slightly.

 “Our thirteen year old is obviously tougher than she looks.” He began, in that velvet smooth voice, “I can’t find a pulse”

The girl frowned. “He’s not dead.” She told him, “The ring isn’t cold.”

“Ah, well then, we have a problem.”

“We usually get one of those.”

“Hmm, I’ve noticed that too.”

“So, how do we solve this problem?”

“The same way we solve every other problem”

“Kicking people very hard in the face?”

“Possibly. But first we need to ask questions”

The girl sagged, “But kicking is more fun,”

“Questions first, then kicking.” He looked up at her, “I promise,”

The girl didn’t reply.

 “Extra kicking then. And you can throw a few punches too, if you like.”

“Fine,” she sighed, “Who do we talk to?”

“Our first source, would be the bad guy, but he’s not alive. So–”

“He’s not dead either.” The girl pointed out.

“Correct. So we talk to the next best person. The one who killed him. Or didn’t kill him.”

“Would she fall under that category?” The girl suggested, tilting her head towards Taia.

“Yes.” The man got to his feet, “She certainly would.”

Taia stood, somewhat amused by the conversation, as the pair approached her.

“What did you do to him?” The man asked.

“Nothing. I just hit him a few times.” She paused, before correcting herself, “Many times.”

“Yet we find ourselves in this perplexing situation. It’d save a lot of time if you told us why this is.” The man’s voice was suggestive, yet firm. He knew what he was talking about. “You can get to work building a house from cardboard boxes, and we can get to work kicking people very hard in the face.”

“The quicker you tell us, the quicker we get to kick people. And the kicking is fun.” The girl added.

“I’m not sure you’re interrogating the right person here, Sherlock,” Taia’s gaze was locked onto the man’s imperfect eyes. Her gaze travelled down, just a little, and she noticed that his skin didn’t look right, either. It had a slightly waxy appearance.

“Then who should I be interrogating?” He asked blankly.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “But my first guess would be them”.

The detectives turned simultaneously, and froze, as three muscular men leapt from the rooftops. They were hooded, but Taia could tell from their postures that they weren’t happy. They stepped forward silently, eyes somewhere between the ground and the three people looking back them.

“Now can we kick people?” The girl asked her companion, her voice poisoned with sarcasm.

“Yes, Valkyrie, now we kick people.”

Two men leaped at the detectives, who immediately began throwing punches and kicks, while the third went for Taia. He swung his right arm at her face but she was prepared and ducked beneath it, only to crash into the left, which had been hiding in ambush. Grunting, she pushed her own fist into his gut, another racing to his face as he doubled over.  

She aimed another set of knuckles at his nose, but it was stopped short of its target by a rock solid shape that closed around her wrist and twisted until a crack was heard. The man withdrew his hand, before sending it to her face as she clutched her injured arm.

More fists flew at her face and she pulled up her hand to block her face, biting back the agonizing pain that was writhing up her left arm. It became clear that her hands were not enough when she found herself on the floor, the man looming above her, sending his feet full speed at her useless body.

From the corner of her eye, Taia could just about make out the fights of the detectives. She could have sworn she saw the red-orange glow of fire, but dismissed it as pain impeding her vision, as the man’s feet stopped and he leaned down, reaching to pin her to the floor. Taking a deep breath, putting the pain to the back of her mind, and mustering up all of her negative emotions, from the day she last saw her father, to the happenings just seconds ago, she converted it to anger, which flooded her mind, pushing energy through her veins, giving her a fresh rush of power, which accompanied her blood as it surged through her body.

She lashed out, fists, knees, elbows, and feet attacking the man until he fell. She threw punch after punch to his chin, each blow throwing his chin back a little further than the previous one. Eventually, the man fell.

She was still pinned to the ground, but at least now the man keeping her there was unconscious. All she had to do was get free. She pushed, kicked and rolled, but he was too heavy. The man wasn’t budging. She looked around, desperately, and caught sight of her jacket, which was still laid on the floor, where her first opponent had left it. It wasn’t far from her, and if she could just reach it she would definitely have the help that she needed.

She reached out with one arm, attempting to shuffle a little closer to the jacket. Her outstretched arm wasn’t far from the jacket now, just a little farther. Heavy footsteps echoed around her and she looked up to see another man, sprinting towards the detectives. He didn’t even seem to notice Taia or the unconscious man pinning her to the ground, until he was falling, balance upset by the bodies that had tripped him up.

Suddenly, Taia was free, and the other man was lying unconscious beside her. She leapt up, just in time to see the man who had tripped return to his feet, too. She ducked beneath his punches, and past elbows, returning her own, having now found the energy that she needed. She found the rhythm of the man’s attacks and worked to intercept it. Thinking about it, this man fought in a way which was very similar, if not the same, to how the previous man had. Throw all of your weight into each punch, keep them fluent, stop for nothing. They both focused primarily on using fists and feet, showing a distinct lack of elbows and attempts at holds of any sort.

Once she’d figured this out, the fight became even easier, and the man was soon out cold, alongside his companion.

Taia stepped back and wiped the blood from her face. She remembered her jacket, still lying on the floor, and went to retrieve it. Pulling her arms through the sleeves she started towards the detectives, who were both still battling their own attackers. She began to run, not yet sure which man she’d help take down, but was stopped dead in her tracks when they changed their method of fighting. For it was no longer punches that they were throwing, but fire.

                          ҉                                                  ҉                                                     ҉

P.S. Sorry about the wait. But I have Chapter 4 written up, because originally, it was all one chapter. But I thought it was a  nice place to end, so meh. I'll have Chapter 4 up soon. :)

P.P.S. Thanks for reading. :D

Chapter 2.

*whispers* Sorry it's been a few months, but now, a second chapter is born. And posted. So, yeah, here it is.

2.

Mouldy Pastry and a Muscular Man.

Often, Taia would wake up early in the morning and groan, not wanting to get up. It wasn’t because she wanted to keep warm or because she wanted to sleep for longer like any normal teenager, but simply because she had no reason to get up, and nothing to look forward to. Yet, although she wasn’t entirely sure why, she didn’t think she’d like her life if it were any different. In a way, she rather enjoyed wandering around, fending for herself, eating and sleeping wherever and whenever she chose to, it seemed to give a certain twist to life that couldn’t be experienced through any other way. It wasn’t so good that it made her smile, but it was still a relatively nice sensation and that was enough for her. She didn’t wish for much in particular either, she made friends when she found them, but eventually she would lose them every time. Humans weren’t her only friends though, she’d met some surprisingly friendly animals - mainly rats - in her lifetime, the one she’d shared dinner with the previous night being one of them. Often, the rats were the better friends.

Which was why, when she was woken by the sound of gunshot and pounding footsteps, and when, a few moments later a tall, hefty man ran past, knocking over the bins and boxes that made up her home and scattering them along the alleyway and then planted his foot firmly in her rat-friend’s back, that she grew rather angry and decided to put up a fight.

The man continued running, as if nothing had happened, but Taia wasn’t going to let him get away.

“Hey!” She shouted, throwing a half-eaten sausage roll at him.

The man didn’t reply. He didn’t look back at her. He just continued to run.

“Hey!” Taia repeated, louder, “What are you playing at?”

Again, he ignored her. And Taia really disliked being ignored. She shook her head angrily before running after him, throwing more pieces of soggy pastry. She wasn’t the best runner in the world, she knew that, but when she had a good enough reason to do so, she could run. Kind of. Taia’s running consisted of the mad and very fast flailing of random limbs and hoping that’d be quicker that walking.

 Realising she wasn’t going to be fast enough, she stopped, sighing, and lobbed a large, and exceptionally mouldy piece of pastry at him, and then grinned as she saw it fall through the air, meeting his eye level right where their paths crossed and she tried hard not to laugh as face and pastry met. Snarling, he turned to her, and she had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing as she saw furry pieces of pastry falling from his face. But then her eyes saw more than just the pastry and her smile dropped, for she had realised for the first time just how muscular this guy was.

“Aw, hell...” She muttered.

The man leaped at her and took her to the floor, firing punches at her face. She needed him to stop or she’d be out before she’d even had the chance to strike, and she had a strange feeling that he wasn’t going to be happy just leaving her unconscious. She’d met people like this before - if she gave him the chance, he would kill her. She wriggled, trying to break free but he was too strong and his punches were still flying at her face. She began to flail desperately in an attempt to hit him. Eventually, her foot hit something other than floor and air, and the punches stopped momentarily. Taking her chance, Taia twisted, jabbing her elbow into his side and then bringing her legs up, kicking him in the groin.

The man doubled over, grunting, and Taia slammed her foot into his face. He staggered back, trying to regain his balance. She ran forward, jumped, flipped, and landed behind him. He turned, swinging his leg out, but it was too late and Taia leapt, slamming into him and sending him toppling backwards.

In any other fight, the opponent would be on the floor and Taia would be kicking his head so hard it wouldn’t be far from flying off his body, but as it was, and Taia wasn’t sure how, but the man stayed standing. Taia jumped to the side as he charged towards her, but he twisted at the last second and made a grab for her neck. He missed, pulling off her jacket instead. Growling, he threw it away, and the jacket fell to the ground with a muffled clatter.

The man frowned, looking inquisitively at the coat on the floor, and a boot slammed into his side. He stumbled away, then turned suddenly, and grabbed at her, getting her into a chokehold. Taia squirmed, kicked, and twisted swiftly, and then he was falling, but she grabbed him, and now she had the chokehold. The man tried to break free, but she tightened the hold. He tried to gasp for air, but she made the hold tighter still, and he blacked out.  She let go and the man hit the ground with a thud.

She looked down at him, and slammed her foot into his chin a couple of times, knocking his head back, just for good measure. Then she stepped back, stamping on his toe, and looked down at him.

She heard more footsteps behind her, and she turned to see two figures running towards her.

The first was a tall, thin man, in a navy suit. His clothing seemed to hang shapelessly from his body, and his hat was tilted at an angle, casting shadow over his face.

The other was a girl, dressed completely in black, and even from the distance between them Taia could tell that this girl wasn’t much older than she was.

The girl, obviously noticing Taia, nudged the thin man who was running beside her, and he nodded, raised both hands and tapped his collar bones, before slipping one hand into a pocket and pulling out a gun. However, when they saw the man on the floor, they slowed and came to a halt in front of Taia.

The man stood still, both arms outstretched, hands holding the gun just a few feet away from her.

“Who are you?” He asked her sharply. His voice was solid, strong, yet silky, like velvet, at the same time. Taia frowned, wondering how that was possible.

“Who I am is none of your business.” Taia said, her voice just as firm as the man’s “What I would like to know, is who are you?”

“If your name is not my business, then why should my name be any of your business?” Taia might have thought he was joking, but he showed no humour in his voice, and the gun didn’t waver.

Taia shrugged. “You’re the one who suddenly barged into my home, and continued messing it up, after the last guy” She gestured to the cardboard boxes strewn about the alleyway.

The dark-haired girl raised an eyebrow, but remained silent. The man, however, remained unmoving, but not quiet.

“Last time I checked, this alleyway wasn’t owned by a 13 year old girl.”

“And when was that?”

“Never.”

“I’m struggling to see the logic in what you just said.”

“As am I. Now, I’m going to ask again, who are you?”

“I am me. And you are you.” Taia spoke steadily, looking straight into the man’s eyes. There was something odd about them. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but they definitely weren’t ordinary. “Now, I’m going to ask something. Why are you here?”

The thin man tilted his head slightly.

“We are here for him” he replied gesturing to the unconscious man on the floor.

“Well, it seems you’re a little late, does it not?”

“Not at all. It seems we got here just in time” He turned to his partner, but kept the gun in his hands “Shackles,”

The girl nodded and handed him some handcuffs. The man walked past Taia, knelt down beside the unconscious man, and put them around his wrists, before proceeding to inspect the injuries Taia had given him.

“What happened, then?” The girl said, a hint of confusion hanging in her voice.

“He hurt my friend, I hurt him.”

“Fair enough,” She nodded, “But, I don’t see anyone but you and him. Where’s your friend?”

Taia’s hands clenched into fists. “The word ‘friend’ doesn’t necessarily mean human, you know. It appears to be quite a common misconception.”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Did you say you were homeless? It’s just that your vocabulary is pretty good, for a kid living on the streets.”

“No, I didn’t say a word about homelessness. It’s true, but it looks like you worked that one out all by yourself.”

The dark-haired girl tilted her head. “You don’t like me, do you?”

“Wow. You worked that one out too.”

She nodded. “I do tend to pick up clues; after all, I am a detective.”

Thanks For Reading!:D 

Chapter 1.

1.

Stealth, Martial Arts, and Discarded Pizza

For most of her life, Taia had lived on the streets, but although she’d had no real education, her range of vocabulary was astounding, as was her knowledge on some areas of Biology, physics, and various different languages. She knew a fair amount of history, from many different viewpoints, and could point out countries on a globe or a map, if she had a map or a globe to look at. And she wasn’t too bad at maths either, provided the problem didn’t involve multiplication or division, that is. But on the whole, she was pretty clever, for a homeless 13 year old girl, and could probably just about pass as a normal teenage girl, as long as she wasn’t asked to spell anything, of course. But her real skills lay far beyond the national curriculum. Because she had been wandering around the streets since she was five, she had picked up a lot of tips and tricks about how to survive. These tips included various different forms of stealth, self-defence, martial arts, and other ways to beat people senseless, but her favourite was one that she hadn’t learnt from some random person she met on the street who had agreed to teach her (though she didn’t usually leave them much choice) and then added her one twist to it, but one that she had taught herself over many, many years. And on this particular form of aggression, some may even consider her to be a master, but she liked to keep it hidden well, only use it if it was needed. And this time, it most certainly wasn’t.

The man, a scrawny chap, with ragged clothing and an unseemly smirk, posed little threat to a girl of her proficiency. She knew how innocuous she could seem at times – people didn’t tend to expect a thirteen year old to be much of a hazard, after all. And it was obvious that this man was no different to many others – completely unaware of her strength. Taia didn’t like to underestimate her opponents but this time, there was no doubting how easy this was going to be.

She let him take the first strike, flinging an aimless punch at her. She ducked, dropping to the ground, sliding forward and kicking him hard in the shins. He howled and lashed out with his feet, but she dodged expertly and flipped over on to her feet beside him. A fist slammed into his face and he was on the ground before he had even registered his feet being swept from under him.

The man groaned. Taia looked down at him pitifully and found herself feeling sorry for him. It wasn’t his fault, he hadn’t realised what that pendant meant to her, and obviously he needed money just as much as she did. But he had still tried to take it from her, which was something she couldn’t allow. She opened her mouth to mutter something along the lines of an apology, but decided against it, turning and walking away instead.

It wasn’t that she enjoyed beating the living daylights out of people, she actually rather disliked the idea when put in that context, but even she had to admit, she was good at it. Sighing, she sat on an old cardboard box and looked down at the pendant hanging from her neck on a thin, but strangely strong silver chain. Her father had given it to her when she was four, and she hadn’t removed it from her neck since. And, though she didn’t remember it ever being too big, she knew it must have been once. After all, necklaces don’t grow, do they?

She’d watched this memory so many times before, but it never grew old. It was the first and the last memory she had of her father, and she treasured it as dearly as the pedant he had given her. She heard a rustling below her, and looked down to see an inquisitive face looking up at her. The face belonged to a hungry-looking rat, and she smiled and rummaged around the boxes and bins where she was sitting until she found a stash of old snacks, specially selected scraps that she had found lying around.

Putting her memories aside for the night, Taia sat on her cardboard shelter and shared a dinner of discarded pizza with the company of a quiet rat. It wasn’t particularly hygienic, but people like her didn’t have the luxury of cleanliness.

*cough*ThanksForReading:)*cough*

The Return of the FanFiction.

I have been bad.Very bad indeed. And I am truly sorry for that, but now I can redeem myself, by fixing what I have done wrong.

For I am starting again, in... The Return Of The FanFiction. (cue the random evil laugh)

Any way, I have written the beginning and it shall be posted... very soon. Very soon indeed...

Taia's fanfic. Remio Sound. Chapter 2

Taia's Fanfic,  Remio Sound.

Hey everybody!!  Just want to say 'Hey', and umm... yeah, that's kind of it actually....  so, here's the story...  
This Chapter is dedicated to the cute little pixie that lives in the upstairs shower and steals the oranges from the fruit bowl when no one's looking...


Chapter 2
                 Taia DeMars

The DeMars family was nothing particularly special.  Just Mark and May, and their son, Jordan.  And then there was Taia.
Taia wasn't really a member of the DeMars family, but she'd lived with them as for long as she could remember.  May and Mark were her foster parents, but they treated her as if she was part of the family, because she was - sort of...  Taia treated them as family in return, although she didn't get on too well with Jordan any more.
Jordan was 2 years older than Taia, and pleased about it. Because of this, Taia had grown up liking most of the things her brother liked. She'd never liked Barbies, or Polly-Pockets, she preferred Lego, Harry Potter, and Star Wars.   Well, not Star Wars, She'd never liked Star Wars....

Taia had dark hair, parted on the right-hand side, which she desperately wanted to dye red. She had hazel eyes and a good sense of humour - most of the time.  She was 13 years old, and a good swimmer. She enjoyed swimming, reading, and gymnastics, but not at the same time.

They lived in North Wales, in a little village, called Glyn Lemwn, which translated from Welsh, means Lemon Valley, which was quite odd, because they definitely weren't in a valley. They did have lemons though...

Taia went to Coed Cyll, the local high school, and was in year 8, she couldn't wait for the holidays to start. She didn't really get on well with the other girls at school, she did have friends, she just wasn't as 'girly' as they were.

Taia was in her room, listening to 'Lead the way'  by The Trail  when there was a knock on the door, and Jordan burst into the room.
"That's poo music!"
She paused the song. "What do you want?"
"Where's the TV remote?"
"I don't know? In the living room?"
"Just tell me where it is..."
"I don't know"
"Taia"
"Look Jordan, I don't have it, what use would it be to me, in here?"
"You stole it to annoy me..." he began to play with the little china ornaments on the shelf by the door.
"What? Jordan that's ridicu- Put that back Jordan"
He'd picked up one of the ornaments, a rare one apparently. She didn't know where they came from, someone just sent them to her in the post every few months. They never left an address, or a name, just the little ornaments, and a letter, that just seemed to be a load of nonsense, with 'From your true and loving Auguinii' signed at the bottom. Taia often dreamed of Auguinii, of meeting her and going on adventures, filled with riddles and mysteries, in search of her real family. These dreams, beautiful as they were, were often the things that tortured her the most during the day. Just the thought of her family made her queasy, and however real the dream would seem, however much fun she was having, and however close she got to finding them, her heart would always be broken again by morning. She would never find her family in the end, and finding that it was just a dream when she woke up, just made everything so much worse.

"Jordan, put it down, now!" Taia demanded
"No, not until you give me the remote!"
"I don't have it, numskull"
"yeah you do, and don't call me that, your a bigger one"
"Get out of my room Jordan!"
"Fine" he slammed the door and ran off with the ornament
"Jordan!" she yelled as she ran downstairs after him, then decided it wasn't worth it, and went back to her room. All the china ornaments were gone.

She sighed and ran into Jordan's room. She didn't particularly enjoy going in there - it was dark, dingy and it smelled weird, like mouldy pasta.
"Give them back Jordan"
"No!"
"Aargh, you're such an idiot!"
"No I'm not, your just jealous of me, because you have no friends and I do! And at least I have a family!"
"That's not true Jordan, you don't know anything!!"
She lunged at him, was just fixing her hands around his throat, when May shouted from downstairs
"Taia, stop shouting at Jordan! Jordan, leave Taia alone!"
"But I-"
"Taia, just go to your room please"

Taia went back to her room, slamming the door behind her. She waited, not quite sure what to do now. She looked out of the window, at the clear, blue sky, littered with smears of Cotton cloud, that blew across the sky in the cool spring breeze, that made the trees sway in time with each other, following a strangely hypnotic beat. She opened the window and looked down. Definitely too far to jump. She used to climb down the tall, green tree in the front garden - she didn't know what sort it was, but it was gone now, it had gone rotten, and would have fallen if they hadn't cut it down.
She crept into the bathroom and looked around. She spotted the big window, that led to the low, sloping roof outside. It was the emergency fire exit upstairs, that was a safety regulation now, all houses had to have one.
She twisted the handle, and pushed open the window, then hauled herself up, and out of the window, carefully pushing it shut behind her. Then, she slowly slid down the roof, and edged along the edge, to the very end. at the back of the house, knocking several tiles down as she went. She was hoping to jump across, to the high wall at the top of the drive, and climb down from there. Slowly, carefully, she stood up and prepared to jump. She took one step back, onto a loose tile, and slipped. She fell, just managing to grab the gutter with one hand, and hung there, watching two more tiles fall down and shatter on the concrete floor. One false move and that would be her head.
She swung her other hand up, and grabbed the gutter, grunting slightly as she pulled herself up. She steadied herself, and jumped, just managing to grab the top of the wall, which she hauled herself over, and climbed down the other side. She sneaked around the side of the house and ran off, down the road to the woods at the end of the village.