Searching for the Lost (Cian)

Emery walked quickly out of the castle into the courtyard in a slight panic. How could I lose it? I just had it! She took a quick glance around and, when she didn't see what she sought right away, she started looking closer. "Where could it be?" she asked to herself.

Cian was leaning against the wall of the courtyard looking out over the grounds. Even though it wasn't WolfClaw, it was pleasant. He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath of the fresh air and let it out opening his brown eyes. He heard a murmuring and looked to his left spotting the blonde girl who bumped into him at their Welcoming Feast at WolfClaw. Emery Larken... He smiled at the thought of finally getting a chance to talk to the girl. He turned around, leaned against the wall, and crossed his arms across his chest, waiting for her to notice him. She was, really, very pretty...

Emery slowly made her way along the wall of the courtyard still searching as bet she could in the grass. She wasn't paying attention and bumped into someone. She lost her balance and fell backwards landing on her back. When she looked up, she spotted the boy that she bumped into at WolfClaw's feast: Cian Dawson. She looked away, blushing red, "I'm so sorry. I really need to start watching where I'm going. This is twice now that I've run into you," Emery said, embarrassed.

Cian didn't stop Emery bumping into him...again. He simply stood there and let her. When she tipped over, his crooked grin started to spread across his face. For a moment, he got a glimpse of her face before she looked away, blushing brightly. As she apologized for running into him yet again, Cian knelt down on one knee, placed a hand under her chin, and gently raised her head so he could see her face. "It's quite alright, Miss Larken," Cian said gently. He stroked his thumb across her soft cheek before dropping his hand, crossing his arms on his bent knee. "Did you lose something?" he asked with a smile.

Emery felt a hand gently lift her chin up, and she meet brown eyes and a gentle face saying that it was alright that she bumped into him. She felt her heart flutter a little at his touch against her cheek. She watched as he crossed his arms on his knee and then looked back at him. When he asked if she lost something, she looked away and nodded. "It's my onyx and moonstone necklace. Mother gave it to me when I received my acceptance letter to WolfClaw," she said sadly. "I had it when we got here, and now I can't find it anywhere," she added, a single tear running down her cheek.

Cian offered the girl a soft smile and reached out his hand, wiping the tear from her cheek. "Don't cry, Emery. Come on, let me help you look for it," he said, standing and offering his hand to help her up. "Can't be having a pretty thing like you so upset. More eyes will make the search easier," he added with a wink, his crooked smile growing wider.

Emery smiled slightly at Cian's touch as he wiped her tear away. She nodded at the boy's offer to help her look, and then took his hand to pull herself up. At his comment about her being pretty and upset, she blushed a rosey pink. "You're right, Cian. Thank you," she said shyly, looking into his brown eyes.

Cian held Emery's hands in his as he simply looked at her. She was very pretty, he hadn't lied with his comment about her being upset. He didn't like to see girls upset or crying, but this one... This one he wanted to make happy. He WANTED her to be happy, and he would do anything in his power to make it so. Cian locked his brown eyes with her lighter brown eyes. He lost himself slightly for a moment before bringing one of her hands to his lips and kissing the back of it. "Come, Emery. Let's look for your necklace..." he said motioning for her to lead the way.

Emery felt her blush deepen as Cian's lips touched the back of her hand. She smiled shyly as she let go of his hand as he motioned for her to lead the way on the search for her necklace. "Thanks for helping me find it, Cian. It means a lot to me," she said lightly as she started looking around her again. "I think it might be around this area someplace," she said.

Cian began looking around as Emery had mentioned. As he looked, he kept looking over at the girl. "So, Emery, what's so special about this necklace of yours? Well, besides your mother giving it to you when you got your letter," he asked. He figured he would make some conversation while they looked.

Emery didn't need to think long about the answer to Cian's question. She smiled at the memory... She had received her letter of acceptance to WolfClaw a day or two earlier, when her mother came in and sat next to her as she sat at their kitchen table reading her letter for the hundredth time. Her mother slid a velveteen box towards her and inside was the onyx and moonstone necklace. Emery hadn't understood as it wasn't a holiday or her birthday and her family wasn't one to just give gifts for no reason. It was then her mother told her the answer to Cian's question...

"My mother told me, when she gave it to me, that it was tradition in our family that when you received your letter of acceptance to WoldClaw, you also received something as a 'rite of passage' sort of. My older brother got a silver pocket-watch adorned with lapis lazuli stones. My older sister got an amethyst and opal necklace. Well, mine was an onyx and moonstone necklace," she said looking at Cian. "Mother said that since I'm so much younger than the other two, I'm special; different. So, she wanted me to have something different. That's why the gems on my necklace are less flashy than by brother's watch or my sister's necklace," Emery said going back to looking. "Guess it reminds me that it's alright to be unique..." she added.

Cian smiled as Emery told the story of this all important necklace, "That's a nice tradition. I'm sure we will find it soon, Emery." He looked near a one of the benches as he said, "I think it's nice that you can be unique and you're not afraid to be so. There are so many who try to be as others wish them to be. That's when you lose sight of who you are. My father has instilled that in myself and my brothers." Cian smiled as he spotted something shiny in the grass under the bench he was searching around. "See, all three of us are different and my father and mother embrace that about us, no matter what it is. My family is also not set on we all need to be from a certain house," Cian said with a small laugh. "Mother thinks we are all going to be from different houses," he added, lightly.

"That would be very cool if that were true. Both my siblings were in Wolfen House. I think mother and father were a little surprised to not have me in there, too. But, then again, mother kind of expected that I might be in a different house," Emery said as she continued to look. She sat down a little flustered that still, with two sets of eyes, they hadn't found her necklace. She looked at Cian as he searched nearby, "When will your brothers come to WolfClaw, Cian?"

Cian took a seat on the bench he was searching next to and answered, "Let's see, there is me this year, in three years the next Dawson should get his letter, and then two years after that the youngest Dawson should receive his." He had thought that it would be rather interesting to have all three of them in school at the same time, but that wasn't to be. There would only ever be two Dawson's at WolfClaw together. "How much older are your siblings to you, Emery?" he asked.

Emery smiled as she heard about Cian's brothers. There were several sibling groups at WolfClaw, and soon Cian would also have a family member at school with him. "My brother is eight years older and my sister is seven years older than I am," she said, looking away to half search for her necklace and to try and hide the sorrow that she was sure was creeping into her eyes. She pulled her knees up and rested her cheek on them. "I guess, you could say that I wasn't planned. My mother says that I was a surprise instead of an oops," she said quietly.

When Cian saw Emery look away, he quickly reached down and picked up the object he had seen gleaming in the sun. He smiled crookedly as he looked at what it was: her necklace. Cian noticed the small change in Emery, even though it was hardly a change at all. He could imagine what it was like to be seen as something of a mistake by several people. "People are cruel to think that, Emery. Even if you are so much younger than the others, that doesn't mean you were a mistake," he said gently as he walked over to her and sat next to her on the ground. "It's just one more thing to make you unique. Your brother and sister went through school together, right? Well, you get to experience WolfClaw on your own," Cian commented softly, his accent coloring each word as he said them.

Emery looked back at Cian's words and smiled at his accent. "I like your accent, Cian. It makes all the kind things you say even nicer," she said. Her brown eyes glanced at all the features of his face. He really is very handsome... She colored slightly at her thought about him, as she looked at the ground between them. "Guess I never thought about it that way. It will be nice to not have to live in their shadows while I'm here. Well, directly in their shadows, anyways. Some of the professors do still remember them, but it seems like they treat each student as their own person instead of comparing all the siblings to each other," she said.

Cian's crooked smile spread across his face as Emery looked around her for her necklace. Very carefully, he unclasped the necklace and placed it around the girl's neck. He clasped it in place, and then collected her blonde hair in his hands to lift it from under the chain. Her hair is so soft... Cian let her hair fall gently from his hands and then wrapped his arms around his bend knees, linking his fingers. His brown eyes gleamed in the sun as he just sat, looking at Emery, waiting for her reaction.

"Even though I'm on my own at school, it would have still been nice to experience it with-" Emery started to say, but then stopped and froze as she felt something get placed around her neck. She reached up and touched whatever it was. Emery's brown eyes grew wide and began to brim with tears. When she felt Cian fix her hair so that the necklace was under her hair, she shivered with a slight chill. She turned to look at Cian and smiled, holding the stones on the chain, "You found it... Where?"

Cian leaned back on one hand and, extending his legs out, pointed with the other hand at the bench he had just moved from. "It was in the grass just there," he said. He bent one leg, planting his foot and resting his arm on his knee. "It must have fallen off while you were over there," he said with a smile.

Emery leaned forward to see where he had found her necklace. She nodded slightly, "I sat there before we headed into the castle our first night here. Thank you for finding it." When she leaned back on her hands, one happened to rest on top of Cian's. Quickly, she pulled her hand away and crossed her legs, wringing her fingers in her lap. "Sorry," she said, blushing pink.

Cian smiled at Emery's touch. When she pulled away and apologized, he reached out and placed his hand over her two hands. "It's alright," he said quietly. Then he took one of her hands and raised it to his lips, kissing the back of it lightly, "There is no need to be sorry for a touch." Her hand was warm and very soft; he liked holding it.

Emery just smiled. It was nice to be touched in a friendly way. She hadn't had much of that from others outside her family as she was constantly compared to her brother and sister. "Thank you for helping me find it, Cian. I owe you," she said sweetly. He was a nice boy. Kind of like a brother that she never had.

Cian shook his head, "You owe me nothing. But, if you insist on paying me back for helping you, then just smile. A smile fits you better than an unhappy face. That's all I ask..." He looked at her and smiled. She was a girl that he could date, but there was something about her. Something that made him want to look after her, but not like a lover. More like a protector, like a brother that she deserved to have, not the scum he had heard about from others who knew more about her than he did. "Just, be happy..." he said again, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.