Chapter 5: Chapter 3-2
Hearing the question, Jared's hair spikes up and makes him jump slightly, "Oh, that's right! Be right back!" He yelled as he hastily runs out of the mansion, leaving Anna, Reginald, and Holley behind confused and clueless. After a few minutes, Jared comes back, but not alone; he was holding a woman's hand as they walk up the stairs to the door, a woman with autumn red hair and eyes donned with brown that squinted at Jared; she had a normal stature, except for an unusually large bump on her stomach, which the woman kept a hand below. Holley gazed at the woman and saw her arguing about something with Jared as they walked, but Holley was distracted by the woman's ears, which were elongated and sharp, "She's an elf!" Holley thought as the woman's hair brushes away, revealing her ears.
"But what if he gets lost in the valley?!" argued the woman.
"Don't worry dear, he is a strong boy; he already saw the mansion, so he knows where to go if he gets bored out there," said Jared.
The woman looks away and sighs, but ultimately smiles and looks back at Jared, "Fine, but if he doesn't come back for an hour, you will go and find him; understood?"
"Yes, my dearest," said Jared with a wide smile.
As Jared and the woman enter the room, Anna greets them with a wide smile and a sparkling welcome, "Welcome, to Gracewood Valley! Alaysha."'
"Thank you, Anna." The woman lets go of her huge bump and hugs Anna, "Thank you so much for inviting us!"
"Oh, please Alaysha, you and your family are always welcome here," said Anna with a warm smile as she lets go, "Holley! Come and meet your Aunt,"
Holley quickly walked towards Anna and the woman when he heard his name; he stood tall and nervous as he stares at the woman, particularly at her long sharp ears. Before Holley could speak, the woman squeaked and suddenly pinches Holley's cheeks.
"Aw! You're so small and adorable! Just like your mother." She kept pinching his cheeks until she lets go and extend her hand to Holley, "I apologize for my behavior Holley; my name is Alaysha Vivienne, I'm your beautiful auntie hehe".
"N-nice to meet you too, my name is Holley, but I guess my mother told you about me already," said Holley.
"Yes, of course, she did indeed! I heard so much about you, and I can't wait for you to meet my children!"
"Childr-"
"Mom! We can't find him anywhere!" shouted one little girl walking in from the outside, "Yeah! And most of the trees around here match his hair color; he's basically invisible!" said another girl walking with the former.
Holley tilts his head to the side slightly to see the two girls walking towards them; He looks and sees that they too have long sharp ears like Alaysha, but there was something unusual about the two girls, or so Holley thought. The two girls somewhat looked similar: the same color of hair, which was sky blue, although the other one had much shorter hair than the other; they had the same eye color, Blue like their hair; and slightly tanned skin that resembled Alaysha.
"Alisa, Mia; come meet your cousin, Holley," said Alaysha to the girls.
"But what about big bro? Are we just going to leave him out there?!" said one of the girls angrily.
"Yeah mother, I wanted big bro to explore with us!" said the other girl more angrily.
Alaysha turns her head and shoots a piercing look towards the girls, looking at them while she smiles in silence, but the girls knew what was in store for them if they don't listen, "Girls…would you kindly…behave, if you don't mind" said Alaysha softly with a hidden meaning towards them. Both of them quickly jumps on their toes and walked quickly to Holley, each of them grabbing one of Holley's hands.
"U-um hello cousin, my name is Alisa, nice to meet you!" said the girl with the short hair, "And, I'm Mia!" said the girl with the long hair.
"And we are twins!" said both of the girls in unison.
"A-and my name is Holley, nice to meet the two of you," said Holley somewhat confusingly.
Alaysha claps and holds her hands together as she smiles at the sight, "Now that's more like it my dears." As the girls let go of Holley's hands, they both share a relieving sigh as their mother calms down.
"Since all of you are now acquainted with Holley, let us go to the dining room and feast!" announced Anna as she lifts her arms above.
All of them cheers as Anna shows them the way to the dining room, with Jared following first, "I've been dying to taste your cooking again Anna, it has been so long!" said Jared with excitement as he licks his lips to the smell of perfectly prepared solapigs, cooked from the top of its yellow nose with three nostrils, to its three small spiral tails.
"And Alaysha dear, I prepared many vegetables and apples from my garden for you to enjoy," said Anna excitingly.
"Thank you, Anna; I'm glad that you remembered," said Alaysha as she catches the aroma of the fresh vegetables and fruits laid down on the dinner table.
"Me, Holley, and Reginald have already eaten before you arrived, so enjoy all the food you want; they are all yours to eat everyone".
The twins gaze at the amount of food prepared at the table, making their eyes sparkle and project an image of the first food they want to take in their eyes; Mia looked at the fresh yellow apples along with her mother, while Alisa was drooling over the massive cooked solapig on the table with her father.
"Wow, this looks delicious; thank you Aunt Anna!" said the twins excitingly in unison.
Anna giggles and smiles at them, admiring their cute tone and adorable gesture, "Your welcome dears, eat as much as you like"
"Knowing their family, the table will be empty within minutes," said Reginald.
Holley walks up to Reginald, standing beside him to look up, "What about your family, Grandpa? Are they going to come?" asked Holley.
"Oh u-um, they are quite busy unlike your Uncle Jared's family," said Reginald somewhat disturbingly.
"Oh, Okay." Holley looks at Reginald as his face changes after he asked, seeing his face frowning and in deep thought; Holley thought to himself that maybe there was something going on with his Grandpa's family; maybe they were busy with something important, or is there something else going about, but either way, Holley decided to ignore it.
"Oh no! I almost forgot, Holley dear can you go to the garden and get some sweet nectar for your aunt; I forgot the spice that elves enjoy when they eat their meals".
"Sure thing, Mother; I'll be right back." Holley walks out of the dining room and towards the backdoor where the garden was on the other side.
"Be sure to use the rope dear, I don't want you climbing the sunflower!" shouted Anna from the dining room.
"Yes, Mother!".
He opens the door and steps foot on the green grass of their backyard where their magnificent garden resided in. He walks down the path where the giant sunflowers gave shade; he walks towards one of the large plants and sees a rope connected to the flower, he jumps and grabs the rope then pulls it down gently. After he pulls it down to reach the petals, he grabs a jar beside him and opens it; then he points the opening towards the middle of the flower, whispering a word as he closes his eyes, "Gentes." A stream of yellow nectar seeps from the sunflower, slowing moving towards the inside of the jar. After it was filled, Holley moves the rope down enough for his foot to keep it down, and although he heard some crackling sounds, he decided to ignore it and continue. He then uses both of his hands to close the jar tightly so no speck of nectar can get out of it.
But before he could leave, he noticed something in the jar: the nectar was staying on the side where his hand is holding it, "Huh…Strange," he said to himself.
He slowly raises his other hand to hover over the jar, and as he moves his hand from side to side, he saw the nectar moving alongside it. He moves his hand faster and then slower, back and then forth — the nectar moved alongside all the movements; he was having a swell time with just a jar full of nectar.
"I can't wait to tell Mother about this!" he said to himself happily.
But as he was about to move, "Snap!" the rope breaks and the sunflower slings Holley to the air without warning, making him and the jar fly up towards the sky.
"AHHHHH!" Holley screams as his feet leave the ground and reach towards the clouds, he tries desperately to grab the jar before it moves away, but they start to fall down towards the brown trees, falling on branches until Holley lands on a pile of dead leaves.
Breathing heavily from the impact and trying to collect himself, Holley slowly moves his head and body up, rubbing his forehead and then his hair for any debris that is stuck onto his head. He rubs his eyes and looks up to see the large trees hovering over his head, seeing sunlight through the gaps of the leaves. For a moment he looked still until he gasps and shouted, "The Nectar!" He scours the leaves he sat upon to see if the jar of nectar was lying with him, only to find out that it was not. He gets up and scours the surrounding ground and bushes for the jar, and again it was nowhere to be found. Holley drops and sits down on the ground, sighing as he looks down at his feet, curling it up as his eyes start filling. Winds blew through the air towards Holley's direction, giving him a slight breeze as he sheds a tear, then he heard a rustle, but not from the wind. Holley slowly looks towards the sound of the rustle, seeing a bush rustling frantically.
"H-h-hello?" said Holley shaking as he stands up while looking staring at the bush.
He slowly moves towards it, his heart beating like the rustle of the bush; every step he takes drops a sweat down his face. Slowly and slowly he moves, extending his arm to reach the bush. One last step and he stopped, now slowly reaching to touch it as his chest turns into drums and his shirt slowly getting wet from the sweat that dropped. One more thrust to touch it; he breaths one deep inhale, then he quickly grabs it only to see.
"BOO!".
Holley backs away and trips from a small rock, breathing heavily from the scare. He holds his head to stop his vision from spinning. After he regained his composure, he rubs his hair and pluck the leaves that were stuck.
"Oh sorry! I thought you were an animal" said someone emerging from the bush.
Holley moves his head up to see a boy the same height as him, but with autumn-colored hair and eyes and long sharp ears similar to his Aunt and Cousins.
"I-its fine, I just wasn't expecting somebody jumping out of the bush," said Holley as he stands up, dusting off the leaves and dirt from his white shirt and pants.
"Hmmm, who are you by the way?" asks the boy.
"Oh, I'm Holle-"
"Wait! Let me guess. Um, are you an explorer here to travel in the valley in search for treasure?! Or are you a son of someone from the third sphere and you are here to live your life free from the Seraphim?! Or are you just here trespassing on my Aunt's place?" squabbled the boy.
Holley raises his eyebrows at the boy's notion, surprised, and tried to explain to the boy that he is neither of those things.
"U-um no, my name is Hol-"
"Well, you pick the wrong time and place to trespass here! My father is a Throne and both my mom and aunt are very strong; also, one of the archs is here! And my sisters are also here, they might be cute and cuddly, but when they get angry; they can be scary… and you don't want them to be scary!" said the boy as he continued to talk Holley's ear off.
"I'm not trespassing!" shouted Holley with his arms beside his body as he clenches his hands and grit his teeth.
The boy seemed stooped by Holley's sudden outburst, but to Holley's surprise, he just went with it and asked as nothing happened.
"Oh well, who are you then?" asked the boy.
Holley takes one deep breath to calm down, then began to give his answer, "I'm…my name is Holley".
A sudden silence entered their ears, with only the breeze of the wind sounding as it rustles the leaves. Holley looks at the boy as he shyly rubs his neck, seeing him raise his eyebrows from the mention of his name.
"Hmmm, Holley…Holley… Hmmm" muttered the boy as she holds his chin up like his eyebrows, then suddenly, "Holley!!", The boy donned a wide smile and immediately jumps at Holley, squishing him tightly.
"Cousin!" yelled the boy in excitement as he hugs Holley more tightly, making him slightly suffocate from the pressure.
Holley's hands stuck onto his sides as the boy kept hugging, gasping for air as it runs out of his lungs; he repeatedly taps the boy's back in desperation for him to let go, and luckily, the boy looks up as he hugged and saw Holley's face becoming redder every second he does so. Almost instantly after he saw Holley's face, the boy lets go and bows his head as he starts apologizing to Holley.
"Oh! I'm really sorry cousin! I got excited — I mean, I've been waiting to meet you ever since Aunt Anna first spoke about you — I'm really sorry for mistaking you as a trespasser in your own home! Haha" said the boy as he rubbed the back of his hair awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Holley bows his head and holds his knees as he breathes heavily to gain the air he lost, huffing and puffing repeatedly as he looks down.
"Are you ok?" asked the boy worryingly.
Holley finally caught his breath and lifts his head up high to let out one last exhale before looking at the boy with squinted eyes, "I'm fine, thank you very much…" said Holley sarcastically.
"Your welcome!" gasped the boy as he smiled wide.
Holley tries to give him a slight scowl, but he hesitated due to his tiredness and kept on catching his composure.
"Now, for the real question: What are you doing out here?!" shouted the boy.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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