Next contestant (open)

Titania grins back. ''Sounds like a pretty good plan! Aly...When you go home to your uncle, are you happy or are you still depressed?'' She asks, curious looking at her hands.

"Depends" said Alyrin.

"Sometimes, I'm okay. Sometimes, I'm really depressed..."

Titania frowns. ''Owl me when you are depressed. I'll talk to you then. I'll even find you if i need to.'' She says, a promise in her tone. She never leaves someone behind.

Alyrin hugs her.

"Thanks" he said again.

Titania hugs back, tight. ''It's kay...I just don't like people being alone like i am.'' She says softly.

Alyrin smiles

"I suppose so..." he says

Titania sighs. ''Never want a person to have the same fate or life as mine.'' She shrugs, smiling.

"What kind of life did you have?" asks Alyrin

Titania sighed. ''I was born on the coldest day of winter. My father told me that when i was born, my eyes were as black as night and my mother called me the Devil's child. She told me i was not her child but then...my magic came through. I set things on fire with a simple glance and i almost killed my mother. Or so they say. They became distant when i was simply five years old. I needed my mother and father,'' She pauses for a bit. ''They began to ignore me at seven...i heard my mother cry every night and my father had enough. He ripped me from my bed in the middle of the night and like the old story of Hansel and Gretel, put me in the middle of the forest. I thought he was going to come back but he didn't. I don't know how long i stayed in the forest but they never came back to get me. I was a stubborn, ignorant child but that quickly changed. I found a way of living. There was a cave and right next to it was a lake. I remembered watching my father hunt but he did it with weapons. I didn't have anything...i was hungry so i wandered around. I didn't eat the berries as i did not know if they were poison or not. That's when i met them. The Centaurs. They were confused about why a seven year old girl was in the forest, muddy with her clothes torn. I told them about what happened in my few words as I didn't know how to react about them. Books had told me about them but still...seeing them face to face was dis-alarming.'' 

She runs a hand through her hair with a loud sigh. She never told anyone this but it felt good to get it off her shoulders. ''They gave me food, new clothes and helped me get home. We appeared in the garden and my mother was smiling  brightly as my father held her close. That's when i saw it...the bump. She was pregnant. I was gone for a very, very long time it seemed. I was on the Centaurs back due to my aching feet and he called out. His name was Bane. I miss him terribly actually...My parents looked up shocked to see a herd of Centaurs in their garden and that's when i peaked over Bane's shoulder, staring at them with my bright green doe like eyes. That's how Bane described them...Mother staggered back and my father grabbed his gun. Telling us to leave but Bane wouldn't have it. I yearned to protest. To stay with my new family, the Centaurs but my life was not with them. It was with the people that hated me. I got off Bane and walked closer to my parents. T-they backed away from me...I shouted at them. I screamed. Shouted. Cried but they wouldn't have it. Bane told them to take me back or hell would break loose. So they did with great reluctance. The Centaurs left and I cracked and broke without the comfort of my new family. Darkness consumed me like the light consumed everyone else around me. You know when the light of dawn slips through your window? It was like that...but darkness. I began speaking to myself in the room i was locked in. Titan was created. She begged me to kill them but we came up with a deal. That if i see a centaur from my bedroom window, i'd do it and rush to my real family.'' She paused letting Alyrin take it all in.

''They never came like my father didn't come to get me that day he left me in the forest alone so we changed the deal. Kill the baby so we...did. I got let out my room once a day just to get some food and i saw my mother on the top of the cellar stairs. I stared at the jug of water in her hands and it shattered. She screamed and fell. Down those little stairs. I rushed up to my room acting as if i didn't know what happened and i heard my father shout my name hours later, i walked down and saw my mother crying touching her stomach. She said the words me and Titan wanted to hear. 'The baby is gone. I know it was you, Titania. LEAVE THIS HOUSE NOW.' So i did. I ran into the forest and found Bane after a day's travel. He noted my change and looked after me until my 11th birthday. My letter came and was forced to leave...He shouted at me. Telling me i am not his child and was never like it. I didn't know what i did wrong so i left, my heart was shattered. I had and still have nothing. I never had christmas. My birthday's were celebrated. I came here...Every holiday i stayed here. I never went back home. No letters...except one. That they had a child before me. A brother. I don't even know his name...He's here apparently and i don't even know who he is and he doesn't even know who i am...I cut myself...I cry myself to sleep but the next day i act as if nothing happened. I sit in the shadows, every where i go because it seems easier. Better. No one can hurt me then...'' She explains her life to a boy she recently met and she didn't mind. She just hoped he didn't think she was weird and leave. She stared at the floor, stroking the scars on her wrists, thinking of the brother she never knew.

Alyrin hugged her tightly

"If it helps, I had a pretty hard time of it too in my childhood" he sighed

"I was told that my mother died in childbirth and my father was killed whilst I was kidnapped by unknown kidnappers by my uncle. But all I knew from my childhood was that I was on the streets, from before I could remember"

"I had to beg for food and water from as far as I could remember, or I had to steal it. Life wasn't easy when I was young. There were all kinds of dangerous people on the streets. Mostly I used my latent magic just to hide from them. Just to make it safely. There were bad people there sometimes, who wanted to do... all kinds of things. Once there was a guy who grabbed me, and he wasn't about to ask for directions. I grabbed his knife and stuck it in him, I'm not sure if he lived or not, I didn't check..."

A lone tear slips down Alyrin's cheek as he retells the story of his early years

Titania hugs back with a sigh. She listens to his story and wipes the tear from his cheek, softly kissing where it was. ''It seems everyone in this school has.'' She mused with a sigh.

Alyrin sighs, his shoulders slumping

"Yeah..."

Titania looks at him in the eyes. ''Cheer up, Aly? We're in this together now...'' She whispers to him.

Alyrin smiles a little

"Yeah, I suppose so.."

Titania suddenly wraps her arms around Alyrin and holds him close. ''No supposing. You're stuck with me, Aly.'' She grins, it felt odd but a good odd. She had a friend.

Alyrin hugs her back tightly

"You're also stuck with me, remember?" he jokes "You'll have to put up with my mood swings and sudden moments of depression"

Titania nods. ''Yeah i remember.'' She sticks out her tongue and smiles. ''You'll have to put up with changes between me and Titan, random moments of me wanting to kill people. Oh and my fighting.'' She smiles brighter.

Alyrin grins

"I could easily put up with your fighting" he grins

Titania smirks. ''Oh really?'' As she says this, she tackles him and does a fake evil laugh.

Alyrin falls to the ground as she tackles him, struggling to get up

"Y...yes..." he gasps "I..rather like it..actually..."

Titania straddles him and laughs. She then tilts her head. ''I wonder if you're ticklish.'' She says thoughtfully. She smiles brightly. ''Now why on earth would you like that?'' She says whilst laughing.

"I'm not ticklish" Alyrin lied, trying to press his arms closer together under her

"And..I wish I could explain why..." he said.

Titania smirks. ''You're lying!'' She grins, laughing and tickles him. ''Why can't you explain?'' She asks with a tilt of her head.

Alyrin squeals with laughter, squirming as she tickles him

"I....I'm...not sure...why..." he giggles in helpless laughter.

Titania laughs as he does and falls next to him, still laughing. She pokes him in the chest and grins. ''So you can't explain why you like the fact i tackled you? you're weird.'' She says thoughtfully. She moves and puts her head on his stomach, laying on her side, staring at him.

"Yep" agreed Alyrin "I am weird..."

Alyrin stroked her hair a little.

Titania smiled as he stroked her hair, it comforted her. It was like someone was taking care of her and she missed that. ''We all are. It ain't a bad thing. If you ever get the reason, just tell me, Aly.'' She says, laughing.