Ungora/Indigo #7

Avanna's birth parents were human, but her adopted parents, whom she met at age seven (the year she arrived in our community), were a scholar fairy and a wood nymph.
Nobody in our community really had parents, though. Yes, there were the cabins they slept in and the people they called mom and dad, but they learned about life from the abundant forest, learned social skills in the rough center of our community with the other kids. We had a very literal meaning of "a village to raise a child"-no kid was out of sight for long, and if one looked about to cry, any number of people would give them a hug. Everyone knew everyone, and nobody was antagonized unless they did something absolutely horrible.
Avanna was waiting for me by the usual not-exactly-an-entrance that I normally used to enter the community on the way back from the woods. This was unusual-I was usually the one to find her.
"You're late," she pouted. She was good at getting her way-like the princess, she was blond, pale-skinned, and blue-eyed, but Avanna still had a bit of the youthful innocence around her, probably because she was barely taller than five feet and her eyes could get huge and innocent when she wanted them to, successfully making any stranger think she was an adorable eight-year-old instead of a fifteen-year old trying to get her way or wanted you to forget she had done something wrong. She kind of looked like the princesses in the fairy tales your mom told you. This only worked on strangers, though, or those who didn't know her well. If it was someone who actually knew her and was used to what I call her "pretty glare," she wouldn't get out of any misdeed and she wouldn't get what she wanted. It took people a little while to get used to the pretty glare, as I had learned the hard way-we were always partners in crime, and so she'd always blame it on me and give them a pretty glare and I'd have to go clean the potty holes or something gross like that.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I had a run-in with an annoying royal," I told her as we walked into the not-exactly-center of the community. We didn't actually have anything like a town square or Main Street or anything like they did in the towns and cities like Jannask or Ganda, firstly because we made everything ourselves so there was no need for shops, and secondly because it would be too dangerous to make an official network between the houses, because it would be easier for us to be tracked.
"You didn't SAY that she was annoying, did you?"
"No, of COURSE I didn't. But Princess Cacyta of Bayast doesn't seem to like people like us."
"You met the PRINCESS?"
"Yeah."
"You weren't horribly rude or anything, were you?"
"Well, I didn't know she was the princess until halfway through the conversation-"
"So you were rude?" she interrupted, slightly awed and fearful at the same time.
"I didn't say that," I said indignantly.
"But you said-" she began to protest.
"I SAID that I didn't know she was princess until-"
"Well, did she seem mad?"
"Sort of," I admitted. "But that was probably because she didn't feel she deserved to be out in the wild with mud on her boots and an arrow pointing at her nose."
"You pulled an arrow on her?" Avanna cried hysterically. She was almost like my mom sometimes. It was rather annoying.
"She was following me."
"But she was the PRINCESS!"
"I didn't KNOW she was the princess when I pulled the arrow on her-"
"But WHY did you pull the arrow on her?"
"Because she was following me! What would you have done if someone was creepily stalking you?"
"Catch them by surprise and then negotiate strenuously, of course."
"'Negotiate strenuously' here meaning 'glare prettily and hope they'll leave?'"
"Yeah."
"So why did you come find me?" I wondered as we entered the central whatever-it-was of our community. " You usually sleep in."
"There's news," she said, suddenly scared. "There's a new guy."
New guys, or rather, strangers in general, always made Avanna nervous (she was awesome once you got to know her, but before you were formally introduced and had at least two conversations she wouldn't say anything), but she hadn't got THIS nervous since she first arrived in the woods.
"Well, is he evil or gorgeous?"
"No. Well, yes. Well, I don't know. He says he's on our side, but he also said he's from Ungora's court. He wants to talk to you and Layla."
"Why me?"
"I don't know. He was scary when he got here, he was panicking so much, but Layla calmed him down. They're at your place."
"I'm going to see what they want." I darted across the clearing and ran silently through the forest.
"Be careful!" Avanna called after me, but I barely heard. I was already deep in the forest. Layla and I lived in a tree house on the farthest reaches of the community's borders. Most of us live in trees, but Layla was more reclusive than most, and she claimed that she needed the exercise involved in walking to the main part of the area. By the time I got to the right tree, I was out of breath. I sprouted wings and got u without the ladder and retracted the wings as soon as I was inside the house. It wasn't very large on the outside, but my mom was part witch, so she had done some sort of spell to make it bigger inside without making any sort of difference on the outside.