Three sisters

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar knew the time had come to tell her sisters the things she had been keeping secret form them for a while. she was pretty sure that they had figured some of it out already, but she wanted to tell them for sure. she knew that she needed both of her sisters and her brother. this scared her slightly as she wasn't a big fan of being dependent on people. but she knew that Madlyn, Aspen and Minoas would be there or her, and she would try and be there for her when they needed her. which seemed to be a lot less than the former. today she had asked madlyn to meet her in the clearing in the forest that they had first met. sure this was an odd place for the head girl to arrange to meet with someone but Briar wasn't any ordinary head girl, her childhood being raised by centaurs had made sure of that. and that was the other reason that she had to meet her in the forest. she wanted her other sister Aspen to be there to, and as she was a centaur and now an adult one she wasn't allowed to leave the forest so she had to go there. the third reason that she had decided on the forest was that after she most recent issue of the gossip magazine when something Minoas had said to her in privet had been quotes she had decided that here would be the place least likely for eves droppers.
Briar made herway out of the castle and went across the grounds slipping into the forest behind the greenhouses where less people would be watching. then she started running. running through trees was always the most exhilarating as it want just speed but also agility and skill. after a couple of minutes she was funning down the embankment by the clearing trying not to fall on her bum over the slippy autumn leaves. glad to see that she seemed to be the first one there. looking round she made her way to the fallen tree that she remembered watching the eleven year old Madlyn bring down. smiling at this memory, and how she hadn't expected it to turn into such a strong friendship she sat on the now rotting trunk bulling dome of the wood off it as she waited for hr sisters to arrive.

 

[Aspen]

Aspen had not had much chance to talk to either of her sisters or her brother since the start of summer. Briar had told her ages ago that she may not be able to be in the forest much as she was head girl and meant to be a good role model for the other students and spending most of her free time in the Forbiden Forest wasn't a good choice. however she still often accompanied her for runs in the morning. a few days ago She had been asked to meet up with her and Madlyn in the forest. Aspen was at the clearing early as she didn't have to worry about the professors or students seeing her. she had decided to sit in the small amounts of sun that made it through the trees at the edge of the clearing. she had sat there for a while, letting the warmth drift her into a near sleepy state. at the sound of heavy footprints on the other side of the clearing she opened her eyes and saw Rowan break through the trees and make her way towards her assuming she would jump over a fallen tree that looked like it hadn't been alive for about 5 or 6 years. however a few moments later she realised that rowan mustn't have seen her. "Rowan. Has your live in the castle made you blind" she called before getting up and leaving her warm spot in the sun to make her way over to her sister. who, sitting on a rather raised branch on the fallen tree probably was around the same height as her. "Long time no see sister. Are you enjoying your final time at the castle." she asked. despite the lack of talking recently she could tell that her sister was acting more like her old self and was glad. she had seemed so sad, and slow before, not at all like the Rowan she was used to.

 

[Madlyn Ateara]

Madlyn was probably the last one to arrive there. Figures she would be since she had been busy sorting through her trunk in her dorm room. She saw Briar and then Aspen, Madlyn seemed quite distant between the pair. Madlyn walked over to them, she leaned against a tree. For a while the part-giant stood there quiet. In her larger form though that was hard to manage to be unnoticed, she smiled somewhat. "So what are we here for exactly and what did you want to talk about?" Madlyn asked the pair at once. She was still feeling odd here, her dad did died here, its like every time she was here it made her she didn't know how to describe it. She just stood there, it must be important. "You okay Briar?" she asked her sister.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar heard her sisters voice behind her before hooves moved across the ground towards her. she turned around. "Aspen, I am glad you came. Sorry I didn't see you. you may be right" she said nodding at her she climbed a little higher on the fallen tree so that she was the same height as her sister now sitting about six foot off the ground so her head was about eight foot heigh. "Yep this term is going a hell of a lot better than the last" she said as she saw Madlyn heading over. and lean against a tree. It was surprising how similar madlyn and Aspen were height-wise. Briar although not small by normal standard was certainly the midget of the sisters. "Madlyn. Nice to see you back here, It seems somewhat familiar." she said. their first meeting was in this very clearing and there was a centaur there too. "I am good now. which is what I want to talk to you about" she said moving to a more comfortable position on the branch. "I want to apologise for and explain what happened last term" she said. looking down, she felt ashamed for what she had done and her sisters deserved to know why. "You both probably know I wasn't very well at the end of last term. I think it it time for me to explain why." she said waiting to see how her sisters would respond, as she didn't know how to go from there. how to explain everything that she had done since october.

 

[Madlyn Ateara]

Madlyn nodded to Aspen and Briar, "It's okay I guess.." she looked down the fallen tree. Madlyn remember when she hit it and the tree fell. To Briar it seemed important to Madlyn she didn't care really, she just hated being in the forest. She decided for a while that she would stay away from the forest, but since she was here for Briar, she forced herself to come back here. "Sorry what?" Madlyn snapped out of her daze. To be honest she hardly realize anything anymore. If Briar was acting weird and strange she had paid little attention. She felt bad because it took Briar for her to noticed her weird behavior. "I thought it was just the whole werewolf thing" she shrugged, "If you need to talk about it, I'm all ears either way" Madlyn moved to the ground, she sat down and waited to hear what Briar had to say. Now she was most curious about what she had to say and why it took her long to drag it out of herself. Madlyn closed her eyes and listen, it's the best way she could focus on Briar and give her every bit of attention she hasn't been giving to her as of late.

 

[Aspen]

Aspen herd Rowans response and laughed. "well you had better spend more time out here or you may end up confusing belladonna for blueberries, or lupinus for wolfsbane" she quipped before turning to see Madlyn making her way over. she didn't seem like she was in the happiest places and she thought that she knew why. "Rowan, maybe we should make a move. go somewhere nearer the edge of the trees" she said. she suggested. When Rowan said that she was going to explain why she had been acting odd last term she smiled. "I thought that you were busy i the castle and just didn't want to see me, but when you did come out you did look pretty pale" she said. she had guessed the cause of her problem as she had met someone who was like that once before on her journey over from europe, they had spent a few days traveling together. However the centaur didn't want to ask in case she was wrong, as it was a pretty bad thing to think it it was, and she didn't want to upset or anger her sister who she knew could be a little impulsive at times.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

"Belladonna is the one I can eat right" Briar teased back winking. the light conversation was easy, and took her mind off the one she was about to have but once Madlyn arrived she focussed back on the matter at hand.
Sometimes the head girl was a little slow to pick up on other peoples feelings. It wasn't intentional she just sometimes got caught up in the heat of things that she sometimes forgot that other people weren't as comfortable in some situations as her. however she figured something was wrong with madlyn even before Aspens prompt however it was only afterwards that she realised why. "I think you are right" she said jumping down from the tree. there were more than just trees that had fallen in the forrest, and one person in particular had shaken both of the girls life. she slipped off the branch and gave madlyn a quick hug. "Are you okay?" she asked, it wasn't just now but over all she wanted to be sure Madlyn was happy. s the giant sat down she followed. "well It wasn't just the whole werewolf thing. Remember what I told you in October about Dee breaking up with me? well that hurt me, a lot. and I may have sort of unintentionally accidentally stopped taking wolfsbane" she said. pausing to see her sisters reactions. She knew now what a stupid Idea It had been but back then I had been easy. the first month had been an accident, then she had realised that wolf brain was easier to live with than her own and had done it intentionally she looked at her sisters before quickly adding "don't worry I have been taking it since January" she said hoping to avoid the lecture that she was sure she could feel coming otherwise.

 

[Madlyn Ateara]

Madlyn felt out of the loop between Aspen and Briar's conversation. They both spoke of names or something, she wasn't really listening then, except when she snapped out of her daze like looked and had her attention all on Briar now. "I'm alright...you know me" she said with a shrugged, she accepted the hug, smiling somewhat but the smile faded quickly. She was serious about wanting to hear what Briar had to say. Madlyn frowned, she quickly went from being sad to being disappointed in Briar. "It's bad enough you are a werewolf, and me a part - giant Briar but that was extremely stupid and careless of you" the everyday prejudice they had to deal with was enough, Briar not taking her potion was indeed reckless of her. Madlyn had half the mind to pick her up from her feet and hang over a tree. "So your first boyfriend broke you're heart and you decided that because you were heart broken not to take the potion?" Madlyn question the girl. Dederick who bit her, Dederick who played many head games, Dederick the mind fawk of all mind fawk. Madlyn was pissed.

"Mom's going to be thrill when she hears this, are you going to tell her?" Madlyn kept questioning kept asking, anything for her not o lose her cool over this. Madlyn stood back up and walked around the tree, she stood opposite side and looked up. "Why would you hurt yourself over a guy? Why?" she added to the many questions, Madlyn sighed.

 

[Aspen]

Aspe chuckled when Rowan said that belladonna was the one you eat. It wasn't of course, but she knew her sister was joking. She was glad to see them starting to move as Madlyn didn't seem the happiest. however they didn't move far until they were siting down on the Aspen too knelt down besides them as she listened to what Briar had to say. she wasn't surprised by the news though she was surprised that briar had done that. it didn't seem like her at all "Rowan Twohoof. what made you think that you were better off as a full werewolf. you should have told us before. we would be able to sort it out. maybe you could have seen if I could have spent those nights in the cavern with you to take your mind off things instead." she said placing a hand on her sisters shoulder to comfort her before she got too worked up and did something rash. she wished she would have helped more. she listened to madlyns reaction glad that the other girl was asking her all the questions that were going through the centaurs mind so that she didn't have to. she didn't like being mad at her sister as in truth Rowan was the person that she had always looked up to the most. but she knew that someone needed to be angry at her to try and sop her doing it again.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar looked at madlyn even though she said that she was alright she was pretty sure somehing was wrong. "I know you well enough to know when you are not all right. though if you dont want t o say whats up that's fine. she said wondering what had gotten into her sister. she would try and find out but for now she let the girl keep her privacy.
As her sisters told her thas she had been stupid she bowed her head. "I'm sorry. I really am. I now know how stupid it was she said. She knew that now, she had already been lectured by nurse Aisling and healer Sunako. but she still deserved it, and It was a lot worse coming from her sisters, it felt a lot more real. "I don't know if the school will let you spend the full moons with me. I could try asking if you want but I only have a couple left here" she said. it was already april and she was leaving the school in june. she heard madlyn talking "It wasn't like that. It wasn't. I just forgot to take it with so much going on." she said though she knew tat it sounded like a weak excuse even to herself. and even though it may have been true for the first month it didn't explain the following two. She knew madlyn had never liked Dederick, and she knew she wasn't making things better. but she still had more to tell. though first she had to answer the remaining questions. "I hadn't thought about that to be honest. I guess I should but I don't know how to or when" she said, trying to come up with an idea but not being able to so instead she answered the next question. "I didn't do it to hurt myself. I did it to protect myself. you don't know that it is like in the cavern but you are alone for like 12 hours, and it is rare to sleep. so instead you are their with your thoughts and I knew where they were gong to go so I thought wolf brain would be better, but that didn't work and I did end up getting hurt" she said. pulling up her sleeve to show a roundish scat on her arm, the ointment the healer had used had healed the bite up but the skin still showed signs of scaring. "anyway In december the nurse found out. after that little accident. and she made me go and see a healer at st mungoes, which is one of the reasons why I had to stay here over the break" she said looking away again, only now realising how many lies and incomplete truths she had told her family and friends over the last two years. "the healer helped me a lot. and along with a couple of other... Experiences. managed to work a few things out." she said stopping to take a breath and see what her sisters would say about that. deciding to tell them everything. she just hoped that they wouldn't think bad of her.

 

[Madlyn Ateara]

Madlyn sighed once more, "That sounds all great but no, I'm not going to believe that load of crap Briar" she could hear the truth in her voice just in not what she was saying. "I may not be to experience with love or romance, but that's exactly what you did and it was plain stupid" she said her words with detest, arrogance and plain stupid. Why if she was head girl and she had to deal with so many sh!t you think she'd be fawking up? No, Madlyn would tried her best to do well, clearly that's not what Briar was doing. "I'm not mad though, I get it you like him and he was someone special.." she said almost quoting such words, "Scratched that you loved him and may still love this idiot, but what can I do?" she turned to her sister, she looked down at the red head, "Win him back if he was that important, yeah? And stop being reckless!" she turn to leave, but she couldn't move as much, she felt bad for shouting at her, but if everyone else was going to be nice to her, then what good use would she be to Briar? "Anyways, is that all?" she turned her gazed.

"I sort of lost someone if you were wondering, by the way" she added with a head tilt. "He was my friend, Aiden Springfield, he died couple months back, I wanted to tell you but I know you're busy and seventh year a b!tch" she added with a shrug. He was special or had been special, a friend close to a romantic interest, but now he was gone and she was here. She thought of him some days, she was use to the lost feeling so the healing process was going along fine. She cried at night, that made her feel better, loads better. Then she would read and send letters back home to her mom, she was going along well, she just wished she could have said goodbye to Aiden. Felt like he went away and didn't even care. Madlyn looked down, "Anyways, I met a new friend and he's nice, quite lovely, we send owls. Guess he made it all better, he's a part - giant too and I think I might have feelings for him" so she understood, she understood well why Briar did the things she did.

 

[Aspen]

Aspen wasn’t really surprised by what rowan said. She had run with her enough to know when she was upset or anything out of the normal. The scars on her arm also didn’t surprise her as she had seen her sister running in shoer sleeves before has subsequently seen it, and it didn’t take much to recognise a bite mark and work out what it was from, either herself during transformation or a random dog and as she had not seen a dog in the rounds the former seemed more likely.
She however did jump when she heard her part giant sister speak. It wasn’t what she expected her to say at all. Or the tone she had expected either. But looking over at rowan she saw that she was smiling. She let the other girl talk before making her own comment. ”well as long as you are on the potion now and know the effects of not being on it before you are somewhere you can hurt people then I guess it isn’t too bad” she said before looking at madlyn as she spoke again.
It was sad news. The girl always seemed to be in the most unfortunate of situations. The first time that they had met was when she was looking for her dads body, and now it was also a friend who she had lost too. ”Madlyn if you ever need to talk bout anything you know where t find me, I am never too far away. And if you send me an owl or something beforehand it will try and get as close to the edge of the trees as I can.” she said. She knew that she was not allowed to leave the forest but she could get as close to the edge as she could maybe even standing at the first line of trees, a literal no mans land. ”and I won’t tell rowan over there if you don’t want me to” she said gesturing her head to the red headed girl beside her.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar was glad that someone was reacting badly at the news sometimes it didn’t matter how many people were good about it, telling her that it would be okay so long as she took the potion but Madlyn was one of the few people she would litereally do anything never to let down. if necessary she would take avards kadavera for her. so to hear the disappointment and anger in the girls voice wa more of a wake up call than her talk with the nurse and meetings with the healers combined. She was howeer surprised that madyn got to the same conclusion as her a lot quicker than she did, and didn’t need to end up kissing someone else to realise it. ”you got exactly what I was about to say right. I did ove him and think I still do. there is nothing that you can do, and nothing that I can do, I just wanted to let you know what has been going on” she said bowing her head in shame. Maybe this hadn’t been a smart plan of hers. Maybe she was better off not telling people.
She was surprised when madlyn spoke again her tone much softer. Looking up she saw a much more tender expression on her sisters face. ”Oh, madln you should have told me. No I should have figured out something was wrong sooner, oh, I really am a rubbish sister” she said putting her arm around her sister and giving her a hug. ”Are you okay?” she asked knowing that she probably wasn’t but not sure what else she should say. She had heard her sister mention Aiden a few times and she could tell that she had liked the boy, so she guessed that it had been a bit of a shock when she had found out. But the news that she had met someone else was a good sign so long as it was a real meeting someone else, not just a rebound meeting like her meeting with Samuel had been. But the fact that he was a part giant made her smile. She knew that madlyn was a little self conscious about that aspect of her and had asked her wo she thought woud fall in love with a part giant. Well now there was an answer, another part giant of course. ”what is he like this mysterious owl sending part giant?” she asked