OW: SHD 103 - Valentine's Fight

For her Shadowmancy assignment, Merrillana knew exactly who she was going to give the card to. Mostly because he was her friend, but also because she knew that when he was alone he was sad, so she decided to brighten up his day by giving him the Valentine’s Day card.

The only problem was that she couldn’t read nor write. So she couldn’t fill out the card as desired. She was sure a big heart and a crude drawing of Virgil where his name would be would suffice… But she wanted to write something. It was a Valentine’s Day card, not an assignment. You don’t give crude drawings for Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day was special!
She could always go to someone and ask them to write it for her, but it wouldn’t be as special then either.

Merrillana could make the Valentine’s Day card, but she couldn’t write on it. That’s what was frustrating the light dragon. Little bits of pink paper was strewn around the ground around her, as well as several sticks of glue, pieces of bright red paper, crepe paper, and several other types of paper and decorative materials. Even a roll of streamers and empty bottles of glitter.

A completely black dog rubbed up against Merrillana’s arm, its whine making its way to her ears. It was what was made of the shadow tear for her Shadowmancy assignment last year. She hadn’t handed it in purely because it was so cute. Fierce when threatened or in a fight, but cute and adorable any other time~.

“Do you know how to write?” Merrillana’s glowing yellow eyes turned to the Shadow Border Collie, to which it sat down, dropping a tennis ball next to her. Its black tongue hung out of its mouth as it awaited its owner’s movement so play could be initiated. The tennis ball hadn’t been in the room the other day, so she supposed that her shadow dog must have stolen it.
“Masar. I don’t want to play.” The shadow dog, whom Merrillana had partially named after her deceased sister, bent down and nudged the ball closer with its nose before straightening up again, continuing to pant innocently. “Oh fine.” Her hand promptly grasped the ball and threw it across the room, hearing the sound as it hit the headboard of the bed, to which the shadow dog went running after it.  

Merrillana’s eyes travelled back to the glittery card in front of her, and that’s when she got an idea. Where her name would normally be, Merrillana put small beads of light in a face that would smile up at Virgil. Where Virgil’s name would probably be she drew a checked top hat and a violin. It was then that someone knocked on her door. That was unusual, no one normally knocked on her door. Just in case it was Virgil, Merrillana hid the card within shadow and started to rise off of the floor so she could answer the door.

A cold chill spread throughout Merrillana’s chest as she opened the door, her warm hand grasping the cool doorknob. A familiar halo of flaxen hair was the first thing her glowing eyes noticed, the second thing was the glowing eyes that were so similar to hers. Their glow was duller than hers, and a frown adorned their features, the dull glow of their eyes cast downwards.

Red blood coated the girl’s arms, the substance coated over her muted mustard yellow and white dress. Not a trace of glowing blood was seen, so she hadn’t been hurt. “I-I’m sorry to bother you…” She was quite soft spoken and shy a stutter evident in her voice. “I-I think…I’ve…I’ve d-done something w-wrong…”

That was an understatement. There was no way the blood would have come from the girl standing in front of Merrillana. After all, it was herself that was standing in front of her. “I’ve heard of reflections roaming around. Are you mine?” Worry as well as a childish intrigue laced its way through the light dragon’s voice as she continued to stare at her reflection, who was obviously becoming more uncomfortable by the minute.

“C-an I pl-please come i-in?” Not caring about the red that would stain her hand, Merrillana grasped her reflection’s arm and tugged her into the room, closing the door behind her.

“Why do you have blood on you? Are you hurt? If you’re hurt does that mean I’m hurt?” The rapid fire questions started to make MMerrillana shrink away from her counterpart, as she was becoming increasingly loud and, what she considered, too close for comfort. She was so close it almost seemed aggressive.

“G-get back. I-I don’t wa-want to hu-hurt you.”

“Why would you hurt me? I’m not doing anything wrong, and you’re me after all! Why would you want to hurt yourself?” The shadow dog, which was now lying on Merrillana’s bed, suddenly got up, standing on top of Merrillana’s bed in an aggressive stance, growling at Merrillana’s reflection, soon starting to bark furiously.

“Masar! Stop it! She hasn’t done anything wrong. And you’re frightening he-“ MMerrillana snapped back at the dog, getting aggressively close to its face. Glowing, shimmery scales appeared on her skin, and Merrillana’s shadow dog instantly backed off in fear.

“Hey! Don’t you hurt Masar! He didn’t do anything wrong!” With an iron grip the light dragon grasped her reflection’s arm, to which her reflection turned to her and tackled her to the floor on top of bits of paper, glue, glitter and almost on top of a pair of scissors. They wrestled with each other until Merrillana head butted her reflection, causing her to spring away, holding her nose, a glowing substance coming out of it.

“S-Sorry…” MMerrillana backed away from her counterpart until she was at the door, feebly grasping the knob with her free hand. “I- I think I-I’ll leave n-now.” And with that she was gone. The faint growling coming from Masar had stopped, and the Border collie made its way over to Merrillana, nuzzling her hand to check if she was okay.

A day later, Merrillana met up with Virgil, who thanked her for the card that she had never given him, and how she had made quite the show of it, even though she had been unusually shy. “The way it just appeared out of shadow was just marvellous! Though I have to admit, the glowing smile on the inside was too bright for me to look at.”