How to Deal with Magical Relatives

Chapter 1
Backstories and Family

Chapter Description: Most of it is just back story, no AR yet, but AP mentioned at the end, this part is mostly for myself. Please tell me what you think though

In a household in a small town, a teen age girl sat down with her mother, step-father, and baby brother at the breakfast table, dreading the event that was soon to come: a family reunion. Although, the girl, the mother, and step-father for different reasons...

The step-father, Dill Craine, always had the oddest feeling from the women in his wife’s family, not just the usual disapproval that came with the territory and title of "husband", but a sense of foreboding beyond that. They were strange people, coming and going at all hours of the night, carrying around the weirdest of trinkets he had ever seen, and keeping company of people that spoke only in hush whispers, teeny notes, and scribbled runes.

The mother, Stephanie Craine, dreaded the reunion because her mother and sister were apart of a coven of witches, and would finally reveal their secrets to Stephanie’s daughter, pressuring both Stephanie and her child into joining the coven. Her greatest fear was that her daughter would gleefully accept their offer and run off with them, unbeknownst to her, the kid had already been dealing in the ancient arts far earlier than she could ever imagine.

Wendy Valorcraft has lived a life shrouded in secrecy since her very conception, her true father, Harold Valorcraft, was a chieftain of a warrior clan of spellcaster, to whom found nothing more splendid of activity than hunting down magical creatures and draining them of all of their magical essence, the greatest of which were found in none other but the coven of witches that Stephanie’s family belonged to. That chief, however, saw something else besides prey the day he first met sights with the witch Stephanie Moloft.

He claimed it love first sight and instantly set himself into courting her. His clanmates assumed it was part of one of his grand games that he was infamous for at the time, not suspecting that he actually cared deeply for the girl. That is, until the day he proposed to Stephanie Moloft, whom was soon Stephanie Valorcraft.

Upon the day she changed her name, Harold changed families. His clan disowned him, which he would have been fine with if they hadn’t found out about the child... A week after Stephanie announced the wonderful news that she was pregnant was also the day that Harold received the first threat: Allow that child to live, and you will all die. Fearing that Stephanie would leave him if he revealed his secret this late into their marriage, he kept the threat hidden, and for eight months, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, telling his wife he was like a lion to her antelope, or risking the life of his child.

On the day Wendy Valorcraft was first brought to light of this world, Harold received the next threat: the wife or the child. Even after this, he did not show Stephanie (who had abandoned her coven in hopes of a normal life for her child) his past, believing that if his former clan were to come after his young family he could easily dispatch any of the members. And so, on the anniversary of Wendy’s birth, the Valorcraft family tried to assassinate both Stephanie and her child, until her third birthday, when the clan of spellcasters accepted the fact that no one in the family could defeat Harold, and decided to go with drastic measures. Harold’s long time magical rival outside of his clan: the mercenary Joshua Walfeheart.

Walfeheart, a man who had fought with Harold since the day they had met as children, knew every single weakness, advantage, trick, and strategy Harold had up his sleeves, and he also knew that Harold wouldn’t have had time to master any abilities while he was busy fending off the other Valorcrafts and hiding his skeletons in the closet from his wife, Walfeheart hadn’t encountered before, while he had had the time to gain new skills during his own time.

So, on a day that snowed lightly, driving down the road was an anxious Harold and a sleeping Wendy, his wife had told him to keep their child busy while she set up a surprise party for her, despite Harold’s futile objections, a deer ran across the road, making Harold swerve into a ditch. The first thing he did was look over his shoulder, to see his child still sleeping soundly. He got out of the car to assess the damage to the car, and that was when he saw him, Joshua Walfeheart walking across a snowy field to met out Harold’s destiny.

What followed was one of the most difficult battles in either’s lives. Walfeheart had preparation, rest, and cunning to fall back on, while Valorcraft had only the love of his daughter to fight with, and for a long while, that seemed to be enough. Harold’s first and last mistake was turning his shoulder at a sound...his daughter dazed and confused, wondering where her father was. In the split second it took to turn his head, it was already too late, a bloody blade had already entered one side of his chest and reemerged out the other end.

In the final breaths, Harold uttered a request to his proudest enemy, "It doesn’t matter what you do...Just please, protect my wife and child..." And then he passed on. Walfeheart, inspired by the words of a man he had always took as selfish and devilish, took a vow to help Stephanie and Wendy Valorcraft no matter what happened. The first thing he did was disguise himself as Harold and live as him for the next four months, protecting the unknowing widow and her child from every assault the Valorcraft could throw at them, and when the Valorcraft, few in number, had no choice but to reluctantly give up their grudge against the deceased Harold, Walfeheart gave the appearance of Harold abandoning Stephanie and Wendy.

Though devastated, Stephanie still had her child to look after, and moved on with her life, still holding on to the hope that her daughter could live a normal life, beyond the borders of the night and ancient, not even aware of the existence of Joshua Walfeheart. Four years after the battle of the snowy field, he approached a young Wendy Valorcraft, and offered her magic lessons, deciding that if her mother wasn’t willing or able to teach her, then Wendy would be defenseless against the inevitable revenge of the Valorcraft. Being brought up on stories of the secret lives of witches (using assumed names of Stephanie’s former coven mates) Wendy gleefully accepted after promising to never utter a word to her mother, not even realizing she had been bound by a spell that would last until she was mature enough to know the truth of her family.

Walfeheart decided that day had happened on her eleventh birthday, after years of him training her in the magical arts, along side his own son, Mickey, she learned from the mercenary who killed her father from the most practical abilities he knew, to the silliest pranks he could pull with a few ancient words, to the most macabre skills only someone who had studied the arts from childhood would have heard a mention of. On the day of her eleventh birthday, Wendy Valorcraft learned everything about who she was, and was offered a second decision given to her by Joshua Walfeheart in her life, to live and let live and hope that the Valorcraft clan would ignore her continued existence, or learn how to fight, just as her father had, and her father’s father, and her father’s father’s father. Wendy Valorcraft chose the later.

That day was also the day when Stephanie Valorcraft announced to her daughter that Dill Craine had offered to her his hand in marriage, and she had accepted. Six months later, Stephanie Valorcraft was officially Stephanie Craine, and five years later, they had their first child together, Kyle Craine. Now a full family reunion was right around the corner, one to which Wendy had been warned about by her Master. With so many magical entities around, the Valorcraft were bound to come-a-calling. And that was all she could think of as she stared at her baby brother across the table, face messy with food, having fun only a baby could have without some kind of shame. A small smile was worn on his big sister’s face, even though that was just a mask to the worry she really felt.

Stephanie noticed the small smile on her daughter’s face and said, “You seem to be in a better mood then yesterday, wanna talk about it now, then?” Wendy’s thoughts instantly went to her screaming at her mother when she got the news that the family reunion would be held at their house.

Wendy thought about what she could say. She could explain to her how she was worried that a whole coven of witches would probably attract a bunch of predators that were related to her and wanted to ring her neck for just being born, but decided that was too upfront. She could lie and say she was just worried about how they might all react to everything, cousins, aunts, and her grandmother all seemed to want something out of her and the very thought of that really stressed her out, but decided that really didn’t fit her personality and would probably lead to more questions than the preferred silence. Finally, she just muttered, “No,” and reached across the table to gently wipe Kyle’s face off.

“Well, umm, Steph, Wendy, the big reunion is coming up...” Dill started to say.

“No duh Sherlock, it’s only what we’ve all been thinking since mom sprang it up on everyone.” A sudden snap came from Wendy.

Stephanie’s smile vanished from her face. “Wendy Valorcraft Craine...”

“Will you stop calling me ?Craine’ already?! I didn’t take his God-damn name, get over it!” She launched out of her chair and went charging out of the room.

“Get back here right now...!” Stephanie began calling, but Kyle, riled up by Wendy started balling his eyes out, and Stephanie decided that he was the easiest baby to quite down. She looked at her husband’s face while rocking the slowly quieting child, only to see the usual crushed look. She shook her head and looked upstairs.

In her bedroom, Wendy had already dialed the number of her teacher. “Hello?” A voice answered from the other end.

“Mr. Walfeheart?”

“No, this is Mickey, who can I say is calling?”

“Mickey, who else would have this number, now stop screwing around and hand your father the phone.” Wendy said, already settling down from the storm off.

“Oh come on, this is the first time I’ve heard your voice in weeks...”

“And it’ll be even longer if I can’t get some sort of meeting together with your father today.”

“Well...I guess if it’s TODAY, then he could...”

“Hello Wendy.” A cold voice the girl knew quite well said from behind the receiver.

Wendy said, “Hey, Mr. Walfeheart, it’s about the family reunion, I want to know more about my mom’s side of the family before they start pilling into the house.”

“That is fine, come over to my house within the hour...” A click was heard, and then dead air.

“Tsk, tsk, Master Walfeheart, why can’t you ever say an honest to goodness goodbye?” Wendy whispered to the air. She only called Walfeheart “Master” when she was positive no one could here her. She learned a long time ago that it could get awkward when she tried to explain her magic world things. She put on a light coat and started to head outside when she was stopped by her mother.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Stephanie asked while blocking the door.

“To Mickey’s,” was Wendy’s simple answer.

“Hmph!” She grumbled crossing her arms, “Not without apologizing to your father.”

“Step-father,” Wendy corrected her mother, “and for what?”

“For being so rude to him and making him regret the decision to ever join his family. Aren’t you ever happy that he came around? He’s the only father you have.”

“Decision? Where was my decision to ever let him join this family? Huh?” Wendy countered.

Her mother shook her head. “God, Wendy, it was so much easier dealing with you when you were like Kyle.” Wendy rolled her eyes and stomped out the door, slamming it as hard as she could, which she instantly regretted when she heard Kyle wailing from inside. She sighed and began walking the lonely alleyways that led to the current long line of Walfeheart residence.

After about fifteen minutes of stepping through puddles of things Wendy really had no interest of knowing, odors she wished she knew the origins of so she could throw the carcass away into some place far away, and creepy crawly things that tickled her skin as it laid eggs into her. She sighed when she reach a worn down building with a dog head on the door and a rolling tongue protruding from the mouth as the knocker. She knocked just once before the door opened into a hallway lit by a single dim bulb hanging by just a thin wire.

“Mickey?” She called out, closing the door behind herself, “Master Walfeheart?” She began walking down the hallway, staring at the odd portrait of things on her way to the end.

The door opened from the ceiling, leading to the attic, the usual destination for the group when they just wanted to talk. “Hey Master, hey Mick,” Wendy called out while climbing the small flight of steps.

A hand came down to help Wendy up the last few steps, and she was easily pulled up by Mickey Walfeheart with one hand. She grinned and kicked him in the shin. “Show-off,” The girl called him.

“Hey, hey, hey, the only reason I can do things like that is because you never eat!” Mickey claimed.

“Enough!” Joshua Walfeheart appeared from the shadows as he usually does, a long black over coat with one hand in his pockets. “What do you need to know, Wendy?”

“Well, first of all, what’s the Coven’s reason for coming here?” Wendy rarely stopped herself from directly asking Walfeheart her questions, otherwise, she ended up with riddles on top of riddles with no idea what he meant.

The Master sighed and sat down on top of a lone wouldn’t crate. “Usually when they come together during times like this is because they’ve chosen a head of the new coven, and will soon be bringing him forth.”

“Coven Head? Great, that’s exactly what I need, who is it?”

“From the information I’ve gathered, it’s your brother Kyle.”

“WHAT?! He’s just a baby though! What are they going to do, make him baby talk spells?”

“No, of course not, that would just be gibberish. They will most likely turn him into an adult, at a price of one of the other coven witches.”