Jillia's Childhood

[Fuscontidox]

Okay! Hey! So this is technically a thread for my stories I've written for a plumerian I am in love with and I have been working to try and win her!

So it's technically tryout story art stuff 0-0

If you really want to read them regardless fine ^^ however please message me if you have something to discuss do not post on this topic

[Fuscontidox]

Jillia and Jackdaw

The empty halls echoed with the sound of bristles against stone tile work. Jillia worked aggressively, scrubbing away at the pace of her rising annoyance.

"Of all reasons, of all things we have possibly done and could do." Jillia kept her voice low, barely breaking the words through the part of her lips. Jackdaw didn't say anything, he was so quiet, it honestly scared her. He was always so loud and rambunctious, that's what got them partially into this mess, and now they were missing the first game of their middle school season.

"You should have just left it where you found it..." The hall remained silent, there wasn't anything more than the rough screaming of the bristles on the tile bouncing around the hall.

Jillia's anger and frustration was getting the best of her at this point, and she ignored the hot feeling in her cheeks, "Say something back you numbskull!" She stood up, watching his back as he simply scrubbed the floors with utmost calm and precise movements. Her fists clenched, and the bristles bit into the tender skin of her palm, "Why don't you just say something!" She lifted her brush and loosened her grip as her arm swung down. A resounding clank echoed as the brush slammed to the ground and skittered over the soaped floor, a chip was set in it from the impact, and silence fell completely. There wasn't a single movement, not from Jackdaw, not from Jillia, and not from echoing of the empty hallways.

Hot steamy tears fell from her burning eyes, her jaw and hands quivered, she almost hit him, she almost just threw that at his head on purpose... She was angry and ashamed, at her lack of self control, and the sudden stillness and whitened knuckles of her friend.

He turned his head slowly, not a tear was in his eye, not a flash of red crossed him in anger or a twitch in his expression. "Jillia, I know it looks bad right now, but I need you to keep cleaning."

"Why? What good will it do?! Don't you get it!! Neither of us did anything wrong! In fact, I know I bombed that test even without that zero set straight on it!"

"Jillia-"

"You didn't even look at the answer sheet Jackdaw!"

"Jillia just-"

"They are blaming us! We didn't do anything! It's not anyone's fault you have a knack for that class! And now you're getting the blunt of it!"

"Jillia stop it!" A flash of stern disagreement crossed his gaze, she had seen it before, but something new stared back at her, it wasn't like any of the looks she had seen from him. It was one she had gotten from....

An adult....

Jillia stopped talking, but tears kept falling, and she wiped them away with her forearm to not sting her eyes with her soap smothered hands.

"I know the truth, you know the truth, isn't that good enough?"

"Not when it costs us our first game..." She murmured with her gaze on the floor.

"They weren't going to believe us, Jillia. You of all people should know that. We have done too much for them to believe us."

"Not something like this. We are sincere even during the times when we get out of hand. They should have known you are forgetful, and they should have known you've always been good in that class!"

"Jillia, the fact that I pulled the answer sheet out of my bag at the last minute right before a test--no matter the reason--should be a tell tale sign that something isn't right."

"It fell out of his bag sometime the day before and you picked it up and kindly returned it. You didn't look at it, you didn't even so much as look past the words "Answer key" and the teacher took it to the principal!"

"Jillia, you shouldn't have said anything this time! The team needs you, and you threw away your chances when you spoke up. The reasons for why we are both here is different, but you shouldn't be here at all."

"I wasn't about to leave you behind! That's like purposefully leaving someone with a curable disease to suffer when they don't need to!"

"Enough with the arguing, Jillia. I'm not even all that great at soccer, and wouldn't have made a difference if I was there or not. No one was going to believe that double trouble had found the test answer sheet in the hallway and couldn't find the teacher. No one would ever believe that forgot I had it in my bag and handed it back at the last minute without having even looked at it." A pause fell over them, "It doesn't make a difference when it comes to the double trouble. Even now, if we chose to not scrub the floors and throw a fit instead, what would that get us? Detention? In school suspension? Certainly not play time in the first game of the season, it's already half way through by now there's no way we could make it in time, we can't get back what we've already lost."

"So you're saying to keep scrubbing the floors because..."

"We won't go home any sooner today if we don't, Jillia."

Jillia looked at the brush across the floor, her tears had stopped for the most part, and she wiped away the remaining stragglers with her sleeve. She made her way to the scrubber, and bend down to begin cleaning again, not feeling any better about the day as she did from the start.

[Fuscontidox]

(Please keep in mind in this story, Jillia is maybe five years of age, and her sister and her don't share the same friends for the most part, her sister is not home)

Heaven and Jillia

Freedom, it was gone, the door was shut and freedom left with it. She felt the click of the front door in the base of her heart reverberating in her mind. She only looked forward, towards that grand oak and heard the last click of that one high lock she couldn't yet reach. Heaven stood there like a gate keeper.

"I shall not devote to temptation" she said, her face was sullen, emotionless, lifeless.

"Now that that's over with, would you like me to remove the child safety harness?"

"I should have never been placed in it to begin with." She replied, staring at nothing in particular.

"Alright, you have to promise you won't do anything when I take it off." She knew he was referring to possibly damage she could deal to the new harness, but she wanted to be a pill today, because she knew she wouldn't be allowed outside.

She nodded her head rigidly, and heard the click and felt the release of the tight harness like a girth from her chest. How she hated Mr. Snufflez. When the teddy bear faced, harness was gone from her possession, she fell to the floor, relaxing in the coolness of the wood like a rag doll. She was bored, a distressed child wishing to be outside playing among the trees and the fields.

"What are you doing child?" Heaven had returned, looking down at her abstractly laid figure on the floor of the front hallway.

"Calling for my soul to come back to my body."
A soft laugh was hidden in Heaven's sigh, he shook his head gently and sat down in a nearby doorway.

"I brought the pillows you asked for." He replied, "I figured you'd be up for making a fort in the living room again."
Jillia turned her head over to look up at him in her awkward position, a dullness glazed over the usual honey of her eyes.

"I want to play in the tree fort." She replied, "The outdoors is my friend, my friends are outdoors."

"Yes, well you can't open the lock, and the lock can't open for you, so..."

"You're a mean butt face."

"You're mom won't be happy to hear that comment."

"I think you're just more offended."

"I'm going to build a fort, you're either for me, or against me."

"Need you say such a thing when you already know what the reply will be?" She was being tough today, no giving in! Heaven rolled his eyes, and dragged the front paws of the new floor rug and set it in the living room despite there already being carpeting.

She did absolutely nothing but complain, she didn't look at the pillow fort, or ask for a snack, she didn't move for anything unless she was moved by an outside source; she became and inanimate object that thrived off the theory of force and motion.

"Do you know why you're not allowed outside?"

"Because you're a psychopath who locks his prey in the house? If you wanna play beauty and the beast or princess in the tower, you've got the wrong twin."

"Try again."

"Because you're a hermit with social problems?"

"Jillia." He warned, this child always said the most insensitive things.
There was a long pause, Jillia knew the answer, but she didn't want to say it, such a childish thing for a child to do.

"Don't wanna..."

A heavy sigh came from Heaven, and he sat next to her, "If you weren't so messy and always finding dirt and trouble then there wouldn't be a problem with you going outside."

"I don't find dirt or trouble." She said grumpily, pouting her lower lip and giving a glower up towards his direction.

"Oh really now?"

"Yeah, they always find me first." She said, after a long while, Heaven ignored her and watched her from the fort with the TV running. Her parents arrived home just before dinner time.

"Thank God." She mumbled to herself, she got up and walked away towards her parents. Somehow leaving a trail of half dry mud behind her.

[Fuscontidox]

Jillia & Xenon

One last time, she just wanted to spend one last long moment with wonderful nature. Her big game was coming up, and it would be her first time leaving home for so long. A whole month! Just for soccer in a stadium, it was like a dream, but she would be playing on fake turf, and she wished she could be outside just like this.

She shook away the sudden drops of water falling now and again, looked up and watched the dreary overcast roll in, knowing it was raining for sure now. She sighed and turned around to head back,

The trees and land marks she past were not the same, she hadn't gone in a circle, she knew that for sure, but it was diffidently not the way back. Curious of the situation, she kept walking, jumping at the deep, hardy rumble of thunder, and the bright flash of lightning. She squealed and made a run for it, already soaked as it was with rain drops that fell through the tree canopy.

After a time, she slowed down and looked around, even more lost than she had been, she observed the scenery around her. Oddly enough it was familiar, and she focused on what memory might be linked to her current situation.

She tripped, and caught herself, splashing a large amount of mud over a good portion of her left side. A thought flashed through her mind, she had been soaked head to toe in mud once.

What had happened that day?

She kept going, stumbling on a path, her paws some how lead her where she couldn't recall, weaving through trees and path forks. It took her deeper into the forest, showing her the way to a moderately sized tree, tall and lean, a ladder was pegged into it, and a fort rested among its high branches. The memory of this very fort was so strongly present in her mind, but she had not thought to ever stumble upon it once more. It had been here that she had been opened to notice her surroundings more.

Making her way towards the ladder, most of the mud had washed off, and the remaining amount was woven in her fur and paw creases. The creaking of the old wood drifted with the sounds of the pouring rain and heart beat of the storm. She reached the last rung and lifted herself to the porch. The roof extended overhead, and she felt dry and mildly safe. The ground was a good death away, depending how she fell if she ever did, she could get away with all legs broken, maybe a shattered rib change, but that would cause internal bleeding, and she knew it would be wise to keep her distance from the edge. She wondered over the old floors, they didn't feel as secure as she last remembered.

She looked to the left, walking inside the makeshift building, there was a gap in the floor near the corner, 'Keep walking that careless, I'd like to see you survive that fall.' The room was dull in light from the overcast, and she had to watch where she stepped.

'Hey, magician kid!'

Why had she called him that? "Hah... Magician kid... That was such a stupid thing to call a demon." She knew she had been too small to understand though, she couldn't possibly blame herself for only those simple words could she?

"I quite agree." She turned her head, catching sight of his red gaze.

Blinking once, then twice, her nose flared and she tried to keep down a smile from crinkling across her muzzle. She leaned forward and started laughing with a held back snort.

"You're just as small as I remember you." She laughed and looked back at him, he was just as dull gazed as she remembered too, and she knew he wasn't amused.

"What do you think you're doing coming to these parts? If you remember me, surely you remember the trouble you caused last time."

She sighed and sat down, "Actually, I don't know how I ended up here, I was wandering about and ended up lost. I am mostly shocked that you remember me really."

"I wouldn't have if you had not mentioned calling me 'magician kid' after all, you showed up here covered in a layer of mud thicker than the worst of demon auras." He picked off a leaf from his shoulder, without a hint of paying much attention aside from his monotone reply, but he did give sign of irritation at the very mention of "magician kid" after all, he had made it clear to her that he had no interest in being known by such a petty title.

"I almost forgot that you were a demon killing demon." She looked to the roof as if she could see her brain, and itched at her mud caked arm.

Xenon rolled his eyes and checked himself once more over for anything he might have left behind on him.

"Are you still battling demons in this area? I thought you were doing that five years ago?"

"Well you see, I don't kill demons, I exercise them, and some of them are still wandering about this area."

"So you've been here for five years to train demons?"

"No you nitwit." He snarled, scrunching his face and glaring as if she had a horrible stench. "I came back because my brother and I are taking on big case to get rid of them, to train such horrible and pitiful beasts is like asking for a death wish. Do you not know a thing about all that is around you?"

"Well considering I called you a magician..."

"If you're going to wander these parts you should be careful and aware so a mere child as yourself doesn't get possessed."

"Mere child? I question that statement." She eyed over his small stature and imagined the grown height difference between them, it had been years, but he hadn't grown an inch. Was he really a kid forever?

"Childishness is not a depiction of age or height, it is a depiction of maturity, innocence, and knowledge. Even in comparison of age, if I recall correctly, you were only eight when you showed up here last."

"So? You seemed not too much older."

"I am sorry to burst your bubble," he said with the lack of emotion, "however I was sixteen during that year, you are eight years younger, and do not belong in the realm of demons."

It took longer than needed for Jillia to finally allow what he said to sink in. 'If I am thirteen now...' She thought, 'He was sixteen at that time, five years have past...'

She gasped aloud and snapped her head in his direction, "Are you seriously twenty-one?!"

Xenon's laugh was wry, "It took you that long and you had to count your toes, I am not so sure you are ready to drop the title of child..." He looked out the door way, "the sky has cleared up, I might as well escort you back the way you came, lost one."

"Please do." She gave a bright smile and walked in the direction of the ladder.

The two of them journeyed for a while, and Jillia giggled now and again to herself as she counted how many steps Xenon had to take per each one she took.

"It seems I should have a living, walking, breathing GPS when I go places." He gave no reply to her comment, "you look like a perfect purse-strap size, do you think you could pass as a shrinky-dink?"

"Just because I do not grow does not mean I possess the ability to shrink."

"Hey, hey now, I never said anything about that, you're half and half right? Doesn't that mean to could still grow more? I heard guys don't stop growing until they hit age twenty-oh never-mind..."

Xenon hrmphed and turned back around, "Keep walking forward, you will find the end of the tree line soon enough so long as you know the difference between a straight line and a circle."

"But where are you going?"

"Back to my job, demons have not gotten this close to the tree line that I know of, you should be safe from getting possessed, if I am wrong, turn around and call for Novak." The name did not ring a bell with Jillia, and though she was tempted to try it out or prepare to use his advice if something went wrong, her conscience told her not to.

It wasn't much longer before Jillia reached the end of the tree line, she thanked the miniature demon in her mind and walked out to meet her worried friends and family. Receiving many questions, and ultimately left them with the satisfactory knowledge that she was safe and had found shelter in the tree cover. Not even a thought of the "magician kid" came from her lips, it was just something she knew wouldn't be easy to explain to those who haven't experienced it themselves.