The Phases: After Dark

Everything was back to how it should be. Or, at least, as how it should be when a teenage girl is given the gift to turn into a marsh harrier at will and has to try and explain this to her parents. And a woman who can turn into an eagle comes back nearly a month after she went missing, leaving a hastily scribbled note to her 'aunt and uncle'. Deada had been really worried that the other Phases would reject them, but she'd been wrong: when the group consisting of Deada, Emarai and Tom were found by a Phase search party they were welcomed back with open arms. Emarai and Tom's parents were brought to the RR HQ a little more roughly than they would've liked but the important thing was that they were safe and with their children. They were still a little confused as to what was going on and totally unable to accept that Maria a.k.a Emarai could turn into a marsh harrier but other than that they were perfectly fine. Emarai was sitting on her bed in her little room, her bad arm in a sling and now long hair tied back in a pony tail when she heard a knock on her door. She looked up from her reminiscing as the door to her room opened and Tom came in. They smiled at each other and Emarai gestured with her good arm for him to come and sit next to him.
'Hey,' Tom said, sitting down on Emarai's bed. 'How are you? How's your arm?' Emarai smiled at Tom. Despite all that had happened, Tom was still such a big brother to her.
'Mending well, thanks to the healers.' Mending her arm had been quite easy, and the humans hadn't done anything wrong, but she now only had red-ish marks on her arm where the bullets had punctured her skin, and humans couldn't get something to heal that  fast. 'But how about you?' She asked Tom 'how are mum and dad?'
'I'm fine. Really, you people know how to make guests feel at home! Mum and dad still don't believe. I think the only way is to have you show them yourself. Deada's great, before you ask. And the Elder's have agreed to let her do the ceremony thing, even though she isn't a born Phase. They say shes 'shown courage and intelligence worthy of any Elder.' Or something like that.'
'And, Tom,' Emarai lowered her eyes as she said it. 'There's still one more thing. Have you decided to--'
'No,' he cut across her ' Not now. Not yet. Maybe in the future, when I'm older, but at the moment I just feel that there's so mush more I can get out of being human. Perhaps, if I want to, I will. But not today.' Tom looked Emarai straight in the eyes as he said it, and by his look Emarai knew he wasn't going to budge. Part of her, however, was glad that Tom wouldn't become a Phase. So much had changed, so she was glad that he would stay human, at least. She and Tom leaned together and half hugged each other. Emarai stared at the wall, thinking about all that had happened... and all that would be. At that moment she felt as if she was staring into the future. Her arm would heal, and she'd go back to her duty's, but when she came back, her mum and dad would greet her, and she and Tom would hang out with the other teenage Phases. Deada would become a new Elder, and have new power and authority and would be trusted by all. Deada wouldn't be the only made Elder, either. Hey, maybe in 186 years Emarai would be made one too. And Devic, why Devic, would graduate for the second time and hopefully behave more like the Elder he was.

The End.